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. These all work
10 with at least [nvi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvi) 1.79 and
11 2.1.3 (unicode).
12 
13 Helpful documents:<br />
14 - [Roman Zolotarev: Edit text with vi(1)](https://rgz.ee/vi.html)<br />
15 - [Jeff W: vi help](http://www.jeffw.com/vi/vi_help.txt)<br />
16 - [Maarten Litmaath: vi reference](http://www.ungerhu.com/jxh/vi.html)<br />
17 - [alphanrrrd: extremely concise cheatsheet](http://www.alphanrrrd.org/vi.html)<br />
18 - [ViEmu: Graphical vi cheatsheet](http://www.viemu.com/a_vi_vim_graphical_cheat_sheet_tutorial.html)
19 
20 #### Yank / delete an arbitrary number of lines
21 
22 	1) mark the first line: mk
23 	2) move to last line
24 	3a) yank: y'k
25 	3b) delete: d'k
26 	4) move to destination line
27 	5) put with P or p
28 
29 #### Apply regex to an arbitrary number of lines
30 
31 	1) mark the first line: mk
32 	2) mark the last line: ml
33 	:'k,'ls/regex/power/g
34 
35 #### Add # to block of text
36 
37 	:'k,'ls/.*/#&/
38 
39 #### Remove trailing whitespace of block of text
40 
41 	:'k,'ls/\ *$//
42 
43 #### Write file as root
44 
45 	:w !doas tee %
46 
47 #### Diff the file on disk with the file in the buffer
48 
49 	:w !diff -u % -
50 
51 #### Make a backup of the file on disk
52 
53 	:!cp % %.bak
54 
55 #### Sort all lines
56 
57 	:%!sort
58 
59 #### Sort paragraph
60 
61 	!}sort
62 
63 <sub><sup>} won't be shown in the command.</sup></sub>
64 
65 #### Sort from current line to EOF
66 
67 	!Gsort
68 
69 <sub><sup>G won't be shown in the command.</sup></sub>
70 
71 #### Uniq all lines
72 
73 	:%!uniq
74 
75 #### Uniq paragraph
76 
77 	!}uniq
78 
79 <sub><sup>} won't be shown in the command.</sup></sub>
80 
81 #### Uniq from current line to EOF
82 
83 	!Guniq
84 
85 <sub><sup>G won't be shown in the command.</sup></sub>
86 
87 #### Join all lines
88 
89 	:%j
90 
91 #### Select a column (3rd) from formated text seperated by ':' 
92 
93 	:%!awk -F':' '{print $3}' 
94 
95