Vim

Vim is a modal text editor, an evolved version of the classic vi: available in practically every Unix system, it never asks your hands for the mouse and, once mastered, noticeably speeds up editing code and configs.

Modes#

The whole point of Vim is in modes: the same key means different things depending on which mode you are in.

• Normal — navigation and commands; Vim always starts here
• Insert — typing text (enter: i / a / o, exit: Esc)
• Visual — selecting text (enter: v / V / Ctrl+v)
• Command-line — colon commands (:w, :q, :%s/…/…/)

Navigation#

Editing#

i   — insert before the cursor        a — insert after the cursor
I   — insert at the start of a line   A — insert at the end of a line
o   — a new line below                O — a new line above
x   — delete a character              r — replace one character
dd  — delete a line                   dw — delete a word
yy  — copy (yank) a line              yw — copy a word
p   — paste after the cursor          P — paste before the cursor
u   — undo                            Ctrl+r — redo
ci" — change inside the quotes        ci( — inside the parentheses
      (the important «operator + object» pattern)

The "operator + text object" combination works with other operators too: di( — delete the contents of parentheses, daw — delete a word together with the space around it, dd — the delete operator for a whole line.

Visual mode#

Select, then apply an operator — that is how bulk edits work:

v   — character-wise selection       V — line-wise selection
Ctrl+v — block selection (a column)
y   — copy the selection             d — cut
> / < — shift the selection right / left
u / U — selection to lower / upper case

The classic block-selection trick: Ctrl+v, walk the cursor down the column, I — type the text, Esc — the text appears on every line of the selection.

Search and replace#

/pattern    — search forward (n — next match, N — previous)
?pattern    — search backward
:s/old/new/    — replace the first match in the line
:s/old/new/g   — replace in the current line (all matches)
:%s/old/new/g  — replace in the whole file
:%s/old/new/gc — the same, confirming each match

Save and exit#

Opened a file without sudo and it won't save? From inside Vim: :w !sudo tee % — the file will be rewritten with root rights.

Configuration: ~/.vimrc#

" Line numbering
set number

" Syntax highlighting
syntax on

" Auto-indentation
set autoindent
set smartindent

" Tabs and spaces
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab

" Search: case-insensitive, but case-sensitive if the query has capitals
set ignorecase
set smartcase

" Highlight search matches
set hlsearch

Plugins (vim-plug)#

The plugin manager is a single autoload file:

curl -fLo ~/.vim/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs \
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim

The plugin list goes into ~/.vimrc:

call plug#begin('~/.vim/plugged')
Plug 'tpope/vim-fugitive'    " Git inside Vim
Plug 'airblade/vim-gitgutter' " Marks for changed lines
Plug 'vim-airline/vim-airline' " Status line
call plug#end()

Installation — from inside the editor after a restart: :PlugInstall.

Neovim is the modern fork with the same editing model; its config lives in ~/.config/nvim/init.vim, and many of the plugins listed work in both editors unchanged.