1 # Why vi Rocks
2 
3 **[vi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi)** is the _de facto_ standard
4 Unix editor, you find it in every *NIX derived OS.
5 
6 Here you will find a collection of commands, command sequences in
7 [vi(1)](https://man.openbsd.org/vi.1)/[ex(1)](https://man.openbsd.org/ex.1)
8 or with 3rd party unitilities which make
9 **[vi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi)** rock \m/. These all work
10 with at least [nvi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvi) 1.79 and
11 2.1.3 (unicode).
12 
13 We are always looking for [suggestions](/suggest.html) that go beyond the basics.<br />
14 For the latest additions check the [git repo](https://git.high5.nl/why-vi.rocks).
15 
16 Helpful documents:
17 
18 - [Roman Zolotarev: Edit text with vi(1)](https://rgz.ee/vi.html)<br />
19 - [Hugo Daniel: vi is not vim](https://hugodaniel.pt/posts/vi-is-not-vim/)<br />
20 - [Jeff W: vi help](http://www.jeffw.com/vi/vi_help.txt) / [Maarten Litmaath: vi reference](http://www.ungerhu.com/jxh/vi.html)<br />
21 - [alphanrrrd: extremely concise cheatsheet](http://www.alphanrrrd.org/vi.html) / [ViEmu: Graphical vi cheatsheet](http://www.viemu.com/a_vi_vim_graphical_cheat_sheet_tutorial.html)<br />
22 - [The vi archive and FAQ (mirror)](http://git.larryhynes.net/vi/)
23 
24 #### Yank / delete an arbitrary number of lines
25 
26 	1) mark the first line: mk
27 	2) move to last line
28 	3a) yank: y'k
29 	3b) delete: d'k
30 	4) move to destination line
31 	5) put with P or p
32 
33 #### Apply regex to an arbitrary number of lines
34 
35 	1) mark the first line: mk
36 	2) mark the last line: ml
37 	:'k,'ls/regex/power/g
38 
39 #### Add # to block of text
40 
41 	:'k,'ls/^/#/
42 
43 #### Remove trailing whitespace of block of text
44 
45 	:'k,'ls/\ *$//
46 
47 #### Remove the first N (5) characters from every line
48 
49 	:%s/^.\{0,5\}//
50 
51 #### Delete all lines N (10) characters long
52 
53 	:g/^.\{10\}$/d
54 
55 #### Delete all lines _except_ N (10) characters long
56 
57 	:g!/^.\{10\}$/d
58 
59 #### Search and replace PATHs, using different delimiter
60 
61 	:%s#/usr/local/log#/var/log#g
62 
63 #### Write file as root
64 
65 	:w !doas tee %
66 
67 #### Diff the file on disk with the file in the buffer
68 
69 	:w !diff -u % -
70 
71 #### Make a backup of the file on disk
72 
73 	:!cp % %.bak
74 
75 #### Sort all lines
76 
77 	:%!sort
78 
79 #### Sort paragraph
80 
81 	!}sort
82 
83 <sub><sup>} won't be shown in the command.</sup></sub>
84 
85 #### Sort from current line to EOF
86 
87 	!Gsort
88 
89 <sub><sup>G won't be shown in the command.</sup></sub>
90 
91 #### Uniq all lines
92 
93 	:%!uniq
94 
95 #### Uniq paragraph
96 
97 	!}uniq
98 
99 <sub><sup>} won't be shown in the command.</sup></sub>
100 
101 #### Uniq from current line to EOF
102 
103 	!Guniq
104 
105 <sub><sup>G won't be shown in the command.</sup></sub>
106 
107 #### Underline all lines starting with CHAPTER
108 
109 	:g/^CHAPTER /t.|s/./=/g
110 
111 #### Search for "pattern", print the containing function (start with def) and line number
112 
113 	:g/pattern/?^ *def ?#
114 
115 #### Add # to paragraph containing "pattern"
116 
117 	:g/pattern/?^$?+,//-s/^/#
118 
119 #### Sort content of multiline CSS blocks
120 
121 	:g/{$/+,/^}/-!sort
122 
123 #### Sort content of multiline CSS blocks (media queries)
124 
125 	:g/^[^@].*{$/+,/}/-!sort
126 
127 #### Reformat HTML paragraphs to a fixed width (40)
128 
129 	:g/<p>/+,/<\/p>/-!fmt -40
130 
131 #### Invert the order of all lines, move (m) all lines to 0
132 
133 	:g/1*/m0
134 
135 #### Swap "Lastname, Firstname" to "Firstname, Lastname"
136 
137 	:%s/\(.*\), \(.*\)/\2 \1/
138 
139 #### Change all text to lowercase 
140 
141 	 :%s/.*/\L&/
142 
143 #### Join all lines
144 
145 	:%j
146 
147 #### Copy (t) or move (m) lines containing "pattern"
148 
149 	:g/pattern/t$
150 	:g/pattern/m$
151 
152 #### Select a column (3rd) from formated text seperated by ':' 
153 
154 	:%!awk -F':' '{print $3}' 
155 
156 #### Insert the sum of a list of numbers after an arbitrary number of lines
157 
158 	1) mark the first line: mk
159 	2) mark the last line: ml
160 	:'k,'l!awk 'END{print "Total:", i}{i+=$1; print}'
161 
162 	More compact version:
163 	:'k,'l!awk 'END{print "Total:", i} ++i || 1'
164 
165 #### Email the current paragraph
166 
167 	:?^$?+,//-w !mail -s "<subject>" email@example.com
168 
169 #### Enable and use ex history
170 
171 	1) Set ESC key to enable history, or add to .exrc:
172 	:set cedit=<CTRL-V><ESC>
173 
174 	2) Use it with:	
175 	:<ESC>