Learning the vi and Vim Editors, 7th Edition

Review of vi Buffer and Marking Commands

Table 4-2 summarizes the command-line options common to all versions of vi. Tables 4-3 and 4-4 summarize the buffer and marking commands.

Table 4-2. Command-line options

Option	Meaning
+ n file	Open file at line number n.
+ file	Open file at last line.
+/ pattern file	Open file at first occurrence of pattern (traditional version of POSIX -c).
-c command file	Run command after opening file; usually a line number or search (POSIX version of +).
-R	Operate in read-only mode (same as using view instead of vi).
-r	Recover files after a crash.

Table 4-3. Buffer names

Buffer names	Buffer use
1–9	The last nine deletions, from most to least recent.
a–z	Named buffers for you to use as needed. Uppercase letters append to the buffer.

Table 4-4. Buffer and marking commands

Command	Meaning
" b command	Do command with buffer b.
m x	Mark current position with x.
' x	Move cursor to first character of line marked by x.
` x	Move cursor to character marked by x.
``	Return to exact position of previous mark or context.
''	Return to beginning of the line of previous mark or context.