VIM file editing shortcuts and tips

VIM commands short-cuts and usefull tips  (RPM based Linux)

     VIM is a popular open source text editing tool in Unix like operating systems. Vim can be used to edit all the configuration files in linux.  

Syntax to edit a text file with vim tool: vim<space><filename>

Eg: [root@server ~#]vim /tmp/logfile.txt

#Verify VIM package installed in your machine
[root@server ~#]rpm -q vim-enhanced
#Command to Install the vim package from yum
[root@server ~#]yum -y install vim-enhanced


VIM COMMANDs AND SHORTKEYS (Quick reference)

	Command/ key.	Action
	SAVING AND EXITING
1	:x	Save with all changes made and exit
2	:wq	Save with all changes made and exit
3	:q!	Exit without saving changes.
4	:w	Save the changes made so far and continue editing
5	:q	Quit the editer if no changes made
	CURSER MOVEMENTS
6	w	Jump to first letter of next word
7	W	Jump to first letter of next coma separated word
8	e	Jump to last letter of next word
9	E	Jump to last letter of next coma separated word
10	b	Jump to first letter of previous word
11	B	Jump to first letter of previous coma separated word
12	0	Go to the starting point of current line
13	$	Go to the ending point of current line
14	G	Go to the last line of the file
15	L	Go to the last line in the screen
16	H	Go to the first line in the screen
17	:se nu	Set numbers for each lines in the file
18	:n	Go the n'th line ( to go to 200th line type :200)
	EDITING
19	i or I or a or        "Insert key"	Go to insert mode (for editing)
20	O	Open a blank line above the current line
21	"Esc" (key)	Exit from insert mode
22	dd	Delete the current line
23	X or "Delete key"	Delete the letter BEFORE the curser
24	yy	Copy the current line
25	nyy   (n = number)	Copy the n line.   eg:  7yy for copying 7 lines (from the current line to downwards)
26	p	Paste the copied text
27	u	Undo
28	Ctr+r	Redo
	ENCRYPTION
29	:X	Encrypt the file with a key
	SEARCHING
30	/<keyword>	Search the keyword in the file
31	#	Search the current word under curser
32	N	To display next searched keyword upwards
33	n	To display next searched keyword downwards
	Replacing words
	Switches	Purpose
34	c	Confirm each action
35	i	Ignore case sensitivity
36	%	Consider the whole file
37	n	Consider the n'th line only
	Examples
38	:%s/Jan/new/g	Replace every word  "Jan" with "new" in the whole file
39	:11s/Jan/new/g	Replace every  word  "Jan"  with  "new"  in the 11th line of the file
40	:%s/Jan/new/gi	Same as above but not case sensitive
41	:s/Jan/new/g	Replace every  word  "Jan"  with  "new" only in the current line
42	:%s/Jan/new/gc	Replace every  word  "Jan"  with  "new"  in the whole file with confirmation before replacing.

LABELS: CentOS, extra-tips, Fedora, linux, Linux Commands, Redhat, VIM