Mastering Vim Quickly

#books/tech

book's website

[TOC]

open file at a specific line

# open file.txt at line 34
vim +34 file.txt

insert content from a file or command

" You can use :read or :r

:r file.txt  " insert file's contents below the cursor

:r!command   " insert command's output below cursor

:0r file.txt " insert before first line

open files and follow links

• gf go to file
• gx go to linx

save file with another name, and keep the new name

:save newFileName.txt
" from now on :w saves the buffer in newFileName.txt

navigating

the main takeaway here was

• ctrl+d to page (half) down
• ctrl+u to page (half) up

searching current word

Useful info about searching with * and #.

• * searches forward for the exact same word in the cursor
• # same as above, but backward
• g* and g# - same as described above, but substring allowed.

File Manager (netrw) in Vim

editing files via SSH

vim scp://user@myserver[:port]//path/to/file.txt

For more info: :help scp

Undo / Redo beyond the u/ctrl+r

" examples of :earlier and :later
:earlier 2d   " undo changes in last 2 days
:earlier 3h   " ... last 3 hours
:earlier 1m   " ... last 1 minute
:earlier 3f   " undo last three file states (buffer writes)

:later 5m     " redo all changes in last 5 minutes
:later 15s    " ... last 15 seconds

Undo branches

I didn't get used to these undo techniques, but I found it interesting...

Example:

1. open a new file, write Hello. Press esc.
2. hit o to go the line below in Insert mode, write world. Press esc
3. hit u to undo and remove the world.
4. hit o to go the line below in Insert mode, write everyone. Press esc
5. hit u to undo and remove the everyone.

If you hit u again you remove the Hello, but never get the word world again.

after you complete step 4 - and you want to get back world again - you need to run command g-.

Basically, Vim creates an undo branch every time you hit u. The branch represents the state of the file before you executed undo. So you can use g- command to move backward or g+ command to move forward between these branches.

Take a few minutes to experiment with u, ctrl+r g- and g+ and you'll quickly understand how this works.

speak the Vim language

• this video is cool

verbs -> modifiers -> nouns

verbs

Note: these commands are also known as operator commands or simply operators.

• single char verbs
  • x - delete
  • r - replace
  • s - delete and go to insert mode
• verbs for text-objects
  • y - yank (copy)
  • c - change
  • d - delete
  • v - visually select

modifiers

• NUMBER - yeah, literally a number like 1, 2 or 42
• t - search until
• f - find
• / - find a regular expression
• i - inner
• a - around

Note: i and a are used to create text-objects

nouns

See also vim text-object cheatsheet.

The nouns can be a text-object or a text-movement

• text-objects (must be prefixed with i or a - see :help Q_to)

  • w - word
  • W - WORD
  • s - sentence
  • p - paragraph
  • explicitly say the block delimiter
    • (, [, {, <
  • t - xml-like block - from <tag> to </tag>
  • quoted strings
    • ', ", `

• movements (see :help Q_tm)

  • w, W - start of next word
  • e, E - end of word
  • b, B - start of previous word
  • ge, gE - end of previous word
  • ( - sentence forward
  • ) - sentence backward
  • $ - end of line
  • 0 - start of line
  • ^ - start of line ignoring indentation

search through multiple files

Search for a PATTERN in all markdown files:

:vimgrep PATTERN *.md

And then use:

• :cn - jump to next match
• :cN - previous match
• :clist - view all the files that contain the matched string
• :cc NUMBER jump to specific match number you get from :clist

the power of the global command

The :g[lobal] command is very useful. The syntax is like this:

:[range]g/pattern/cmd

• pattern - is the what we're looking to match in the file
• cmd - is the Ex command to be executed for each line matching the pattern

examples of the global command

Use :help 10.4 for more info

# delete all lines containing a 'error'
:g/error/d

# delete all lines not containing 'important'
:g!/important/d

# NOTE: deletion sends data to the unnamed register!
# Avoid it sending to the "blackhole" register '_'
:g!/important/d_

# delete all blank lines
:g/^\s*$/d

# execute macro '@a' in normal mode
:g/pattern/normal @a

# for every line containing "good" replace "bad" with "ugly"
:g/good/s/bad/ugly/g

# reverse all the lines - ':help 12.4'
# (':m0' moves a line to the top of the file)
:g/^/m0

Registers

There are 9 types of registers:

1. unnamed: "
2. numbered (10): "0 - "9
3. small delete: "-
4. named (26): "a - "z or "A - "Z (capital letters append contents)
5. read-only: ":, "., "% and "#
6. expression: "=
7. selection and drop: "*, "+ and "~
8. blackhole: "_
9. last search pattern: "/

using named registers

Example:

# copy current line to "a register
"ayy

# append current line to the "a register
"Ayy

# paste content from "a register
"ap

# get a preview of your registers
:registers

Buffers

Main concepts:

• buffer: in-memory text of a file
• window: viewport on a buffer
• tab: collection of windows

folding