Command Center

• rpm -ivh vim-common-...rpm vim-minimal-...rpm vim-enhanced-...rpm vim-X11-...rpm
• yum install vim-common vim-minimal vim-enhanced vim-X11

• apt-get install vim vim-common vim-gnome vim-gui-common vim-runtime

• Download vim source from http://vim.org
• tar xzf vim-7.0.tar.gz
• cd vim70
• ./configure --prefix=/opt --enable-cscope
• make
• make install

1. Command mode: letters or sequence of letters interactively command vi. Commands are case sensitive. The ESC key can end a command.
2. Insert mode: Text is inserted. The ESC key ends insert mode and returns you to command mode. One can enter insert mode with the "i" (insert), "a" (insert after), "A" (insert at end of line), "o" (open new line after current line) or "O" (Open line above current line) commands.
3. Command line mode: One enters this mode by typing ":" which puts the command line entry at the foot of the screen.

Cursor movement:

Keystrokes	Action
h/j/k/l	Move cursor left/down/up/right
spacebar	Move cursor right one space
-/+	Move cursor down/up in first column
ctrl-d	Scroll down one half of a page
ctrl-u	Scroll up one half of a page
ctrl-f	Scroll forward one page
ctrl-b	Scroll back one page
M (shift-h)	Move cursor to middle of page
H	Move cursor to top of page
L	Move cursor to bottom of page
W w 5w	Move cursor a word at a time Move cursor ahead 5 words
B b 5b	Move cursor back a word at a time Move cursor back a word at a time Move cursor back 5 words
e 5e	Move cursor to end of word Move cursor ahead to the end of the 5th word
0 (zero)	Move cursor to beginning of line
$	Move cursor to end of line
)	Move cursor to beginning of next sentence
(	Move cursor to beginning of current sentence
G	Move cursor to end of file
%	Move cursor to the matching bracket. Place cursor on {}[]() and type "%". Use the matchit or xmledit plug-in to extend this capability to XML/XHTML tags.
'.	Move cursor to previously modified line.
'a	Move cursor to line mark "a" generated by marking with keystroke "ma"
'A	Move cursor to line mark "a" (global between buffers) generated by marking with keystroke "mA"
]'	Move cursor to next lower case mark.
['	Move cursor to previous lower case mark.

Editing commands:

Keystrokes	Action
i	Insert at cursor
a	Append after cursor
A	Append at end of line
ESC	Terminate insert mode
u	Undo last change
U	Undo all changes to entire line
o	Open a new line
dd 3dd	Delete line Delete 3 lines.
D	Delete contents of line after cursor
C	Delete contents of line after cursor and insert new text. Press esc key to end insertion.
dw 4dw	Delete word Delete 4 words
cw	Change word
x	Delete character at cursor
r	Replace character
R	Overwrite characters from cursor onward
s	Substitute one character under cursor continue to insert
S	Substitute entire line and begin to insert at beginning of line
~	Change case of individual character
ctrl-a ctrl-x	Increment number under the cursor. Decrement number under the cursor.
/search_string{CR}	Search for search_string
?search_string{CR}	Search backwards (up in file) for search_string
/\<search_string\>{CR}	Search for search_word Ex: /\ Search for variable "s" but ignore declaration "string" or words containing "s". This will find "string s;", "s = fn(x);", "x = fn(s);", etc
n	Find next occurrence of search_word
N	Find previous occurrence of search_word
.	repeat last command action.

• Use command: ZZ
  Save changes and quit.
• Use command line: ":wq"
  Save (write) changes and quit.
• Use command line: ":w"
  Save (write) changes without quitting.
• Use command line: ":q!"
  Ignore changes and quit. No changes from last write will be saved.
• Use command line: ":qa"
  Quit all files opened.

Interactive Commands:

• Marking a line:
  

  Any line can be "Book Marked" for a quick cursor return.

  • Type the letter "m" and any other letter to identify the line.
  • This "marked" line can be referenced by the keystroke sequence "'" and the identifying letter.
    Example: "mt" will mark a line by the identifier "t".
    "'t" will return the cursor to this line at any time.
    A block of text may be referred to by its marked lines. i.e.'t,'b



• vi line buffers:
  

  To capture lines into the buffer:

  • Single line: "yy" - yanks a single line (defined by current cursor position) into the buffer
  • Multiple lines: "y't" - yanks from current cursor position to the line marked "t"
  • Multiple lines: "3yy" - yank 3 lines. Current line and two lines below it.

  Copy from buffer to editing session:

  • "p" - place contents of buffer after current line defined by current cursor position.



• vim: Shift a block of code left or right:
  • Enter into visual mode by typing the letter "v" at the top (or bottom) of the block of text to be shifted.
  • Move the cursor to the bottom (or top) of the block of text using "j", "k" or the arrow keys.
    Tip: Select from the first collumn of the top line and the last character of the line on the bottom line.
    Zero ("0") will move the cursor to the first character of a line and "$" will move the cursor to the last character of the line.
  • Type >> to shift the block to the right.
    Type << to shift the block to the left.
  Note: The number of characters shifted is controlled by the "shift width" setting. i.e. 4: ":set sw=4"
  This can be placed in your $HOME/.vimrc file.

Command Line:

• command options:
  

  The vi command line interface is available by typing ":". Terminate with a carriage return. Example commands:

  • :help topic
    If the exact name is unknown, TAB completion will cycle through the various options given the first few letters. Ctrl-d will print the complete list of possibilites.
  • :set all - display all settings of your session.
  • :set ic - Change default to ignore case for text searches
    Default is changed from noignorecase to ignorecase. (ic is a short form otherwise type set ignorecase)
  • Common options to set:
    

    Full "set" Command	Short form	Description
    autoindent/noautoindent	ai/noai	{CR} returns to indent of previous line
    autowrite/noautowrite	aw/noaw	See tags
    errorbells/noerrorbells	eb/noeb	Silence error beep
    flash/noflash	fl/nofl	Screen flashes upon error (for deaf people or when noerrorbells is set)
    tabstop=8	ts	Tab key displays 8 spaces
    ignorecase/noignorecase	ic/noic	Case sensitive searches
    number/nonumber	nu/nonu	Display line numbers
    showmatch/noshowmatch	no abbreviations	Cursor shows matching ")" and "}"
    showmode/noshowmode	no abbreviations	Editor mode is displayed on bottom of screen
    taglength	tl	Default=0. Set significant characters
    closepunct='".,;)]}		% key shows matching symbol. Also see showmatch
    linelimit=1048560		Maximum file size to edit
    wrapscan/nowrapscan	ws/nows	Breaks line if too long
    wrapmargin=0/nowrapmargin	wm/nowm	Define right margin for line wrapping.
    list/nolist		Display all Tabs/Ends of lines.
    bg=dark bg=light		VIM: choose color scheme for "dark" or "light" console background.

  
  


• Executing Unix commands in vi:
  

  Any UNIX command can be executed from the vi command line by typing an "!" before the UNIX command. Examples:

  • ":!pwd" - shows your current working directory.
  • ":r !date" - reads the results from the date command into a new line following the cursor.
  • ":r !ls -1" - Place after the cursor, the current directory listing displayed as a single column.



• Line numbers:
  

  Lines may be referenced by their line numbers. The last line in the file can be referenced by the "$" sign. The entire file may be referenced by the block "1,$" or "%" The current line is referred to as "." A block of text may be referred to by its marked lines. i.e. 5,38 or 't,'b



• Find/Replace:
  

  Example:

  • :%s/fff/rrrrr/ - For all lines in a file, find string "fff" and replace with string "rrrrr" for the first instance on a line.
  • :%s/fff/rrrrr/g - For all lines in a file, find string "fff" and replace with string "rrrrr" for each instance on a line.
  • :%s/fff/rrrrr/gc - For all lines in a file, find string "fff" and replace with string "rrrrr" for each instance on a line. Ask for confirmation
  • :%s/fff/rrrrr/gi - For all lines in a file, find string "fff" and replace with string "rrrrr" for each instance on a line. Case insensitive.
  • :'a,'bs/fff/rrrrr/gi - For all lines between line marked "a" (ma) and line marked "b" (mb), find string "fff" and replace with string "rrrrr" for each instance on a line. Case insensitive.
  • :%s/*$/ - For all lines in a file, delete blank spaces at end of line.
  • :%s/\(.*\):\(.*\)/\2:\1/g - For all lines in a file, move last field delimited by ":" to the first field. Swap fields if only two.

  For more info type:

  • :help substitute
  • :help pattern
  • :help gdefault
  • :help cmdline-ranges



• Sorting:
  

  Example:

  • Mark a block of text at the top line and bottom line of the block of text. i.e. "mt" and "mb" on two separate lines. This text block is then referenced as "'t,'b.
  • :'t,'b !sort

  
  


• Moving columns, manipulating fields and awk:
  

  :'t,. !awk '{print $3 " " $2 " " $1}' - This will reverse the order of the columns in the block of text. The block of text is defined here as from the line marked with the keystroke "bt" and the current line ("."). This text block is referenced as "'t,."

  aaa bbb ccc              ccc bbb aaa
                xxx yyy zzz   becomes->  zzz yyy xxx
                111 222 333              333 222 111



• Source Code Formatting: C++/Java
  

  • Use vim visual text selection to mark the lines to format (beautify):
    • eg. Whole file:
      • Go to first line in file: shift-v
      • Go to last line in file: shift-g
      • Select the key equals: =
    This will align all braces and indentations. For the equivalent in emacs see the YoLinux emacs tutorial.



• Text Formatting:
  

  • Mark a block of text at the top line and bottom line of the block. i.e. "mt" and "mb" on two separate lines.
  • Example: ":'t,'b !nroff"
  • You can insert nroff commands i.e.:
    

    .ce 3	Center the next three lines
    .fi	Fill text - left and right justify (default)
    .nf	No Fill
    .ls 2	Double line spacing
    .sp	Single line space
    .sv 1.0i	Vertical space at top of page space
    .ns	Turn off spacing mode
    .rs	Restore spacing mode
    .ll 6.0i	Line length = 6 inches
    .in 1.0i	Indent one inch
    .ti 1.0i	Temporarily one time only indent one inch
    .pl 8.0i	Page length = 8 inches
    .bp	Page break

    Example:

    .fi .pl 2i .in 1.0i .ll 6.0i .ce Title to be centered .sp The following text bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla

    Becomes:
    

    Title to be centered The following text bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla

  
  



• Spell Checking:
  

  • Mark a block of text by marking the top line and bottom line of the block. i.e. "mt" and "mb" on two separate lines.
  • :'t,'b !spell will cause the block to be replaced with misspelled words.
  • Press "u" to undo.
  • Proceed to correct words misspelled.



• Macros:
  

  :map letter commands_strung_together :map - lists current key mappings Example - :map g n cwNEW_WORD{ctrl-v}{esc}i{ctrl-v}{CR} This example would find the next search occurrence, change the word and insert a line feed after the word. The macro is invoked by typing the letter "g".

  • Control/Escape/Carriage control characters must be prefixed with ctrl-V.
  • Choose a letter which is not used or important. (i.e. a poor choice would be "i" as this is used for insert)



• Double spacing:
  • :%s/$/{ctrl-V}{CR}/g
    This command applies an extra carriage return at the end of all lines


• Strip blanks at end of line:
  • :%s/{TAB}*$//


• Delete all lines beginning with or matching a pattern:
  • :1,$ /^#/d
    Delete all (first to last line: 1,$ or g) comments lines in file. Delete all lines beginning (^) with "#" (specify text pattern).
  • :g/#/d
    Delete all lines (g) containing comments (comments follow "#") in file. Delete all lines containing "#".
  • :g!/^#/d
    Delete all lines except (g! or v) comment lines beginning (^) with "#".


• Strip DOS ctrl-M's:
  • :1,$ s/{ctrl-V}{ctrl-M}//
  
  Note: In order to enter a control character, one muust first enter ctrl-v. This is true throughout vi. For example, if searching for a control character (i.e. ctrl-m): /ctrl-v ctrl-M If generating a macro and you need to enter esc without exiting the vi command line the esc must be prefixed with a ctrl-v: ctrl-v esc.


• Editing multiple files:
  • vi file1 file2 file3
  • :n Edit next file (file2)
  • :n Edit next file (file3)
  • :rew Rewind to the first file (file1)


• Line folding: Many times one may encounter a file with folded lines or may wish to fold lines. The following image is of a file with folded lines where each "+" represents a set of lines not viewed but a marker line prefixed with a "+" is shown stating how many lines have been folded and out of view. Folding helps manage large files which are more easily managed when text lines are grouped into "folds".
  Example: vim /usr/share/vim/vim63/plugin/netrw.vim
  

  

  Keystrokes:
  

  Keystroke	Description
  zR	Unfold all folded lines in file.
  za	Open/close (toggle) a folded group of lines.
  zA	Open a closed fold or close an open fold recursively.
  zc	Close a folded group of lines.
  zC	Close all folded lines recursively.
  zd	Delete a folded line.
  zD	Delete all folded lines recursively.
  zE	Eliminate all folded lines in file.
  zF	Create "N" folded lines.



• Hyper-Linking to include files:
  • Place cursor over the file name (i.e. #include "fileABC.h")
  • Enter the letter combination: gf
    (go to file)
  This will load file fileABC.h into vim. Use the following entry in your ~/.vimrc file to define file paths. Change path to something appropriate if necessary.
  

  "Recursively set the path of the project. set path=$PWD/**



• Batch execution of vi from a command file:
  Command file to change HTML file to lower case and XHTML compliance:
  

  :1,$ s///g :1,$ s/<\/HTML>/<\/html>/g :1,$ s///g :1,$ s/<\/HEAD>/<\/head>/g :1,$ s/ :1,$ s/<\/TITLE>/<\/title>/g :1,$ s/ :1,$ s/<\/BODY/<\/body/g :1,$ s/ / /g :1,$ s/<\/UL>/<\/ul>/g ... .. . :1,$ s/ :1,$ s/ :1,$ s/<\/A>/<\/a>/g :1,$ s// /g :1,$ s///g :1,$ s/<\/B>/<\/b>/g :1,$ s///g :1,$ s/<\/I>/<\/i>/g :wq

  Execute: vi -e file-name.html < ViCommands-HtmlUpdate.txt [Potential Pitfall]: This must be performed while vim has none of the files open which are to be affected. If it does, vim will error due to conflicts with the vim swap file.
  

• ctags *.h *.c This creates a file names "tags".

• Unix command line: vi -t   subroutine_name This will find the correct file to edit.
  OR
• Vi command line: :tag subroutine_name This will jump from your current file to the file containing the subroutine. (short form :ta subroutine_name )
  OR
• By cursor position: ctrl-] Place cursor on the first character of the subroutine name and press ctrl-] This will jump to the file containing the subroutine.
  Note: The key combination ctrl-] is also the default telnet connection interrupt. To avoid this problem when using telnet block this telnet escape key by specifying NULL or a new escape key:
  • telnet -E file-name
  • telnet -e "" file-name

• A project may have a tags file which can be added and referred to by: :set tags=tags\ /ad/src/project1.tags
  A "\" must separate the file names.
• :set autowrite will automatically save changes when jumping from file to file, otherwise you need to use the :w command.

:set tags=./tags,./subdir/tags

• Vim docs - ctags
• vim/tag search
• ctags framework

• ctags version 5.5.4:

  ctags *.cpp ../inc/*.h
  
                

• ctags version 5.0.1:

  ctags --lang=c++ --c-types=+Ccdefgmnpstuvx *.cpp ../inc/*.h
  

• ~/.vimrc
• ~/.gvimrc
• ~/.vim/ (directory of vim config files.)

Example:

set autoindent set wrapmargin=0 map g hjlhjlhjlhlhjl " " S = save current vi buffer contents and run spell on it, " putting list of misspelled words at the end of the vi buffer. map S G:w!^M:r!spell %^M colorscheme desert "Specify that a dark terminal background is being used. set bg=dark

• Look in /usr/share/vim/vim61/colors/ for available colorschemes.
  (I also like "colorscheme desert")
• Alternate use of autoindent: set ai sw=3

Compiling Vim from source:

• Download vim source from http://vim.org
• tar xzf vim-7.0.tar.gz
• cd vim70
• ./configure --prefix=/opt --enable-cscope
• make
• make install

Using Cscope with vim:

Search Type	Type short form	Description
symbol	s	Find all references to a symbol
global	g	Find global definition
calls	c	Find calls of this function
called	d	Find functions that the specified function calls
text	t	Find specified text string
file	f	Open file
include	i	Find files that "#include" the specified file

• To jump to a result type the results number (+ enter)
• Use tags commands to return after a jump to a result: ctrl-t
  To return to same spot as departure, use ctrl-o
• To use "tags" navigation to search for words under the cursor (ctrl-\ or ctrl-]) instead of using the vim command line ":cscope" (and "ctrl-spaceBar" instead of ":scscope"), use the vim plugin, cscope_maps.vim [cache]
  When using this plugin, overlapping ctags navigation will not be available. This should not be a problem since cscope plugin navigation is the same but with superior indexing and cross referenceing.
  Place this plugin in your directory "$HOME/.vim/plugin"
  Plugin required for vim 5 and 6. This feature is compiled in with vim 7.0 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and CentOS 5 and newer Linux OS's. Attempts to use the plugin when not required will result in the following error:
  

  E568: duplicate cscope database not added



• Cycle through results:
  • Next result: :tnext
  • Previous result: :tprevious


• Create a split screen for Cscope results: :scscope find search-type search-string
  (Short form: :scs f search-type search-string)


• Use command line argument ":cscope -R": Scan subdirectories recursively


• Use Cscope ncurses based GUI without vim: cscope
  • ctrl-d: Exit Cscope GUI

Cscope command line arguments:

Argument	Description
-R	Scan subdirectories recursively
-b	Build the cross-reference only.
-C	Ignore letter case when searching.
-fFileName	Specify Cscope database file name instead of default "cscope.out".
-Iinclude-directories	Look in "include-directories" for any #include files whose names do not begin with "/".
-iFiles	Scan specified files listed in "Files". File names are separated by linefeed. Cscope uses the default file name "cscope.files".
-k	Kernel mode ignores /usr/include. Typical: cscope -b -q -k
-q	create inverted index database for quick search for large projects.
-sDirectoryName	Use specified directory for source code. Ignored if specified by "-i".
-u	Unconditionally build a new cross-reference file..
-v	Verbose mode.
file1 file2 ...	List files to cross reference on the command line.

Cscope environment variable:

Environment Variable	Description
CSCOPE_EDITOR	Editor to use: /usr/bin/vim
EDITOR	Default: /usr/bin/vim
INCLUDEDIRS	Colon-separated list of directories to search for #include files.
SOURCEDIRS	Colon-separated list of directories to search for additional source files.
VPATH	Colon-separated list of directories to search. If not set, cscope searches only in the current directory.

File: $HOME/bin/gen_cscope or /opt/bin/gen_cscope

#!/bin/bash find ./ -name "*.[ch]pp" -print > cscope.files cscope -b -q -k

Generates cscope.files of ".cpp" and ".hpp" source files for a C++ project. Note that this generates CScope files in the current working directory. The CScope files are only usefull if you begin the vim session in the same directory. Thus if you have a heirarchy of directories, perform this in the top directory and reference the files to be edited on the command line with the relative path from the same directory in which the CScope files were generated.

• cscope man page
• cscope home page
• Using cscope with Linux kernel source code

• Red Hat / CentOS / Fedora:
  • RHEL4/5: /usr/share/vim/vim70/autoload/
  • Fedora 3:/usr/share/vim/vim63/plugin/
• Ubuntu / Debian:
  • Ubuntu 6.06: /usr/share/vim/vim64/plugin/

• Vim.org: List of all plugins

File Explorer / List Files: explorer.vim

Command	Description
:Explore	List files in your current directory
:Explore directory-name	List files in specified directory
:Vexplore	Split with a new vertical window and then list files in your current directory
:Sexplore	Split with a new horizontal window and then list files in your current directory

CScope: cscope_maps.vim

Tabbed pages: minibufexpl.vim

Keystroke	Description
:bn	New buffer
:bd	Buffer delete
:b3	Go to buffer number 3
ctrl-w followed by "k"	New buffer. Puts curson in upper tabbed portion of window. Navigate with arrow keys or "h"/"l".
:qa	Quit vim out of all buffers
tab	The "tab" key jumps between tabbed buffers.

"Hide abandon buffers in order to not lose undo history. set hid

This vim directive will allow undo history to remain when switching buffers.

• minibufexpl plugin home page

Alternate between the commensurate include and source file: a.vim

Command	Description
:A	switches to the header file corresponding to the current file being edited (or vise versa)
:AS	splits and switches
:AV	vertical splits and switches
:AT	new tab and switches
:AN	cycles through matches
:IH	switches to file under cursor
:IHS	splits and switches
:IHV	vertical splits and switches
:IHT	new tab and switches
:IHN	cycles through matches

If you are editing fileX.c and you enter ":A" in vim, you will be switched to the file fileX.h

• a.vim plugin home page

Plug-in Installation:

• mkdir -p ~/.vim/plugin
• cd ~/.vim/plugin
• wget -O a.vim http://www.vim.org/scripts/download_script.php?src_id=7218
• wget -O minibufexpl.vim http://www.vim.org/scripts/download_script.php?src_id=3640

XTerm*VT100.Translations: #override \n\ : string("0x9b") string("[64~") \n\ : string("0x9b") string("[65~")

• The vim home page
• Interview with Bill Joy and the history of VI
• Vi/Ex Editor tutorial
• Fast vi tutorial
• Troubleshooters.com: VI and VIM
• Vim as an XML/XHTML editor
• http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialAdvanced_vi.html