Learning the vi Editor, Sixth Edition

2.6. Review of Basic vi Commands

Table 2.1 presents a few of the commands you can perform by combining the commands c, d, and y with various text objects. The last two rows show additional commands for editing. Table 2.2 and Table 2.3 list some other basic commands. Table 2.4 summarizes the rest of the commands described in this chapter.

Table 2.1. Edit Commands

Text Object	Change	Delete	Copy
1 word	cw	dw	yw
2 words, not counting punctuation	2cW or c2W	2dW or d2W	2yW or y2W
3 words back	3cb or c3b	3db or d3b	3yb or y3b
1 line	cc	dd	yy or Y
To end of line	c$ or C	d$ or D	y$
To beginning of line	c0	d0	y0
Single character	r	x or X	yl or yh
Five characters	5s	5x	5yl

Table 2.2. Movement

Movement	Commands
,,,	h, j, k, l
To first character of next line	+
To first character of previous line	-
To end of word	e or E
Forward by word	w or W
Backward by word	b or B
To end of line	$
To beginning of line	0

Table 2.3. Other Operations

Operations	Commands
Place text from buffer	P or p
Start vi, open file if specified	vi file
Save edits, quit file	ZZ
No saving of edits, quit file	:q!

Table 2.4. Text Creation and Manipulation Commands

Editing Action	Command