wiki/structured/editor.vim.org

Vim

• The keybindings of Vim
• Tips and tricks

Every sysadmin's favorite default text editor. Is being familiar to Vim a path to productivity? No. But being good at it can make for a difference in the day-to-day life of a sysadmin for there are advanced capabilities of this editor.

The keybindings of Vim

One of the things that make Vim popular is the keybindings.

Keybinding	Description
[m	Go to the previous method.
g~w	Toggle letter casing.
2guW	Convert two words into lowercase.
10d)	Delete 10 sentences.
39zz	Place the cursor in the middle in line 39.
3d10w	Delete 10 words and repeat 3 times.

Most of the time, Vim keybindings is made of mainly two things:

• The operators denoting an action.
• The motions describing the scope of the action.

There's a certain pattern to it when you use it, too.

[count][operator][motion]

Tips and tricks

• :h is the help system of Vim. It contains all of the documentation of the editor and the installed plugins. I recommend to start with the default help page (e.g., :h).

  • You can get the meaning of the keybinding with the help section — e.g., :h gg, :h G.

• Vim has fine-grained control motions.

  • ( and ) for sentences.
  • { and } for paragraphs.
  • [ and ] for sections.

• There are many advanced navigation features in Vim.

  • gf will go to the file at point.
  • K goes to the definition of the keyword at point.
  • Ctrl+O will jump back at a previous jump point.
  • gd go the local definition of the keyword at point.
  • H, M, and L places the cursor in higher, middle, and lower part in the current screen, respectively.
  • zt, zz, and zb displays the current line in the top, middle, and bottom part of the screen, respectively.