Master Essential Vim Commands for Efficient CLI Editing

Opening a file

Start Vim from the command line with the file name: vim myfilename Vim starts in Command mode , where all editing commands are issued. To insert text, switch to Insert mode by pressing i. Return to Command mode with the Esc key.

Basic navigation

0

– move cursor to the beginning of the current line $ – move cursor to the end of the current line H – move cursor to the top of the screen M – move cursor to the middle of the screen L – move cursor to the bottom of the screen

File operations

:e filename

– open another file :w – write (save) the current file :w filename – write to a new file ("save as") :wq – write and quit Vim :q! – quit without saving changes

Editing commands

u

– undo the last change Ctrl+r – redo an undone change yy – yank (copy) the entire current line yw – yank a single word p – paste the most recently yanked text dd – delete the entire current line dw – delete a word starting at the cursor

Search and replace

/keyword

– search forward for keyword n – repeat the last search in the same direction :%s/find/replace/g – replace every occurrence of find with replace in the whole file (global flag g)

Help

Use :help [keyword] to open Vim's built‑in documentation for a specific topic.