Unix in a Nutshell, 4th Edition

History Modifiers

Command and word substitutions can be modified by one or more of the following modifiers.

Printing, substitution, and quoting

Modifier	Description
:p	Display command, but don’t execute.
:s/ old / new	Substitute string new for old, first instance only.
:gs/ old / new	Substitute string new for old, all instances.
:&	Repeat previous substitution (:s or ^ command), first instance only.
:g&	Repeat previous substitution, all instances.
:q	Quote a word list.
:x	Quote separate words.

Truncation

Modifier	Description
:r	Extract the first available pathname root (the portion before the last period).
:gr	Extract all pathname roots.
:e	Extract the first available pathname extension (the portion after the last period).
:ge	Extract all pathname extensions.
:h	Extract the first available pathname header (the portion before the last slash).
:gh	Extract all pathname headers.
:t	Extract the first available pathname tail (the portion after the last slash).
:gt	Extract all pathname tails.
:u	Make first lowercase letter uppercase.
:l	Make first uppercase letter lowercase.
:a	Apply modifier(s) following a as many times as possible to a word. If used with g, a is applied to all words.