Learning the vi and Vim Editors: Power and Agility Beyond Just Text Editing, 8th Edition

http://jannaorganic.co.uk/blog/2025/04/03/q430wca9fvt Preface Scope of This Book How the Material Is Presented Discussion of vi Commands Conventions Keystrokes Cautions, Notes, and Tips Problem Checklists What You Need to Know Before Starting Using Code Examples O’Reilly Online Learning How to Contact Us About the Previous Editions About the Eighth Edition What’s New Versions Acknowledgments from the Sixth Edition Acknowledgments from the Seventh Edition Acknowledgments for the Eighth Edition I. vi and Vim Fundamentals 1. Introducing vi and Vim Text Editors and Text Editing Text Editors Text Editing A Brief Historical Perspective Opening and Closing Files Opening a File from the Command Line Opening a File from the GUI Problems Opening Files Modus Operandi Saving and Quitting a File Quitting Without Saving Edits Problems Saving Files Exercises 2. Simple Editing vi Commands Moving the Cursor in Command Mode Single Movements Numeric Arguments Movement Within a Line Movement by Text Blocks Simple Edits Inserting New Text Appending Text Changing Text Changing Case Deleting Text Moving Text Copying Text Repeating or Undoing Your Last Command More Ways to Insert Text Numeric Arguments for Insert Commands Joining Two Lines with J Problems with vi Commands Mode Indicators Review of Basic vi Commands 3. Moving Around in a Hurry Movement by Screens Scrolling the Screen Repositioning the Screen with z Redrawing the Screen Movement Within a Screen Movement by Line Movement by Text Blocks Movement by Searches Repeating Searches Current Line Searches Movement by Line Number The G (Go To) Command Review of vi Motion Commands 4. Beyond the Basics More Command Combinations Options When Starting vi and Vim Advancing to a Specific Place Read-Only Mode Recovering a Buffer Making Use of Registers Recovering Deletions Yanking to Named Registers Marking Your Place Other Advanced Edits Review of Register and Marking Commands 5. Introducing the ex Editor ex Commands Exercise: The ex Editor Problem Getting to Visual Mode Editing with ex Line Addresses Defining a Range of Lines Line-Addressing Symbols Search Patterns Redefining the Current Line Position Global Searches Combining ex Commands Saving and Exiting Files Renaming the Buffer Saving Part of a File Appending to a Saved File Copying a File into Another File Editing Multiple Files Invoking Vim on Multiple Files Using the Argument List Calling in New Files Filename Shortcuts Switching Files from Command Mode Edits Between Files ex Command Summaries 6. Global Replacement The Substitute Command Confirming Substitutions Doing Things Globally Across the File Context-Sensitive Replacement Pattern-Matching Rules Metacharacters Used in Search Patterns POSIX Bracket Expressions Metacharacters Used in Replacement Strings More Substitution Tricks Pattern-Matching Examples Search for General Class of Words Block Move by Patterns More Examples A Final Look at Pattern Matching Deleting an Unknown Block of Text Switching Items in a Textual Database Using :g to Repeat a Command Collecting Lines 7. Advanced Editing Customizing vi and Vim The :set Command The .exrc File Alternate Environments Some Useful Options Executing Unix Commands Filtering Text Through a Command Saving Commands Word Abbreviation Using the map Command Mapping with a Leader Protecting Keys from Interpretation by ex A Complex Mapping Example More Examples of Mapping Keys Mapping Keys for Insert Mode Mapping Function Keys Mapping Other Special Keys Mapping Multiple Input Keys @-Functions Executing Registers from ex Using ex Scripts Looping in a Shell Script Here Documents Sorting Text Blocks: A Sample ex Script Comments in ex Scripts Beyond ex Editing Program Source Code Indentation Control A Special Search Command Using Tags Enhanced Tags II. Vim 8. Vim (vi Improved): Overview and Improvements over vi About Vim Overview Author and History Why Vim? Compare and Contrast with vi Categories of Features Philosophy Aids and Easy Modes for New Users Built-In Help Startup and Initialization Options Command-Line Options Behaviors Associated to Command Name System and User Configuration Files Environment Variables New Motion Commands Visual Mode Motion Extended Regular Expressions Extended Undo Incremental Searching Left-Right Scrolling Summary 9. Graphical Vim (gvim) General Introduction to gvim Starting gvim Using the Mouse Useful Menus Customizing Scrollbars, Menus, and Toolbars Scrollbars Menus Toolbars Tooltips gvim in Microsoft Windows gvim in the X Window System Running gvim in Microsoft Windows WSL Installing gvim in WSL 2 Installing an X Server for Windows Configuring the X Server for Windows GUI Options and Command Synopsis 10. Multiple Windows in Vim Initiating Multiwindow Editing Multiwindow Initiation from the Command Line Multiwindow Editing Inside Vim Opening Windows New Windows Options During Splits Conditional Split Commands Window Command Summary Moving Around Windows (Getting Your Cursor from Here to There) Moving Windows Around Moving Windows (Rotate or Exchange) Moving Windows and Changing Their Layout Window Move Commands: Synopsis Resizing Windows Window Resize Commands Window Sizing Options Resizing Command Synopsis Buffers and Their Interaction with Windows Vim’s Special Buffers Hidden Buffers Buffer Commands Buffer Command Synopsis Playing Tag with Windows Tabbed Editing Closing and Quitting Windows Summary 11. Vim Enhancements for Programmers Folding and Outlining (Outline Mode) The Fold Commands Manual Folding Outlining A Few Words About the Other Fold Methods Auto and Smart Indenting Vim autoindent Extensions to vi’s autoindent smartindent cindent indentexpr A Final Word on Indentation Keyword and Dictionary Word Completion Insertion Completion Commands Some Final Comments on Vim Autocompletion Tag Stacking Syntax Highlighting Getting Started Customization Rolling Your Own Compiling and Checking Errors with Vim More Uses for the Quickfix List Window Some Final Thoughts on Vim for Writing Programs 12. Vim Scripts What’s Your Favorite Color (Scheme)? Conditional Execution Variables The execute Command Defining Functions A Nice Vim Piggybacking Trick Tuning a Vim Script with Global Variables Arrays Dynamic File Type Configuration Through Scripting Autocommands Checking Options Buffer Variables The exists() Function Autocommands and Groups Deleting Autocommands Some Additional Thoughts About Vim Scripting A Useful Vim Script Example More About Variables Expressions Extensions A Few More Comments About autocmd Internal Functions Resources 13. Other Cool Stuff in Vim Spell It! (i-t) For a Different Take on Words, Try Thesaurus Editing Binary Files Digraphs: Non-ASCII Characters Editing Files in Other Places Navigating and Changing Directories Backups with Vim HTML Your Text What’s the Difference? viminfo: Now, Where Was I? The viminfo Option The mksession Command What’s My Line (Size)? Abbreviations of Vim Commands and Options A Few Quickies (Not Necessarily Vim-Specific) More Resources 14. Some Vim Power Techniques Several Convenience Maps Exiting Vim Simplified Resize Your Window Double Your Fun Moving into the Fast Lane Finding a Hard-to-Remember Command Analyzing a Famous Speech Some More Use Cases Hitting the Speed Limit Enhancing the Status Line Summary III. Vim in the Larger Milieu 15. Vim as IDE: Some Assembly Required Plug-In Managers Finding Just the Right Plug-In Why Do We Want an IDE? Doing It Yourself EditorConfig: Consistent Text Editing Setup NERDTree: File Tree Traversal Within Vim nerdtree-git-plug-in: NERDTree with Git Status Indicators Fugitive: Running Git from Within Vim Completion Termdebug: Use GDB Directly Within Vim All-in-One IDEs Coding Is Great, but What If I’m a Writer? Conclusion 16. vi Is Everywhere Introduction Improving the Command-Line Experience Sharing Multiple Shells The readline Library The Bash Shell Other Programs The .inputrc File Other Unix Shells The Z Shell (zsh) Keep As Much History As You Can Command-Line Editing: Some Closing Thoughts Windows PowerShell Developer Tools The Clewn GDB Driver CGDB: Curses GDB Vim Inside Visual Studio Vim for Visual Studio Code Unix Utilities More or Less? screen And …, Browsers! Wasavi Vim + Chromium = Vimium vi for MS Word and Outlook Honorable Mention: Tools with Some vi Features Google Mail Microsoft PowerToys Summary 17. Epilogue IV. Appendixes A. The vi, ex, and Vim Editors Command-Line Syntax Command-Line Options Review of vi Operations Command Mode Insert Mode Syntax of vi Commands Status-Line Commands vi Commands Movement Commands Insert Commands Edit Commands Saving and Exiting Accessing Multiple Files Window Commands (Vim) Interacting with the System Macros Miscellaneous Commands vi Configuration The :set Command Example .exrc File ex Basics Syntax of ex Commands Addresses Address Symbols Options Alphabetical Summary of ex Commands B. Setting Options Heirloom and Solaris vi Options Vim 8.2 Options C. The Lighter Side of vi Accessing the Files Example Files Source for clewn Online vi Tutorial vi Powered! vi for Java Lovers The Vim Clutch Amaze Your Friends! The Vi Lovers Home Page A Different vi Clone Tastes Great, Less Filling vi Quotes D. vi and Vim: Source Code and Building Nothing Like the Original Where to Get Vim Getting Vim for Unix and GNU/Linux Getting Vim for Windows Environments Getting Vim for the Macintosh Environment Other Operating Systems Index About the Authors