Master Vim: Essential Commands, Tips, and Configuration for Efficient Coding

First clarify the difference between an editor , a compiler and a debugger .

vim: an editor that only writes code, similar to Windows Notepad.

gcc: a compiler that only translates programs.

gdb: a debugger that only debugs programs.

When using Visual Studio to write C code, all these functions are integrated into the VS compiler because VS is an integrated development environment.

1. Vim usage learning

1.1 Vim introduction

Vim is a powerful multi‑mode editor, the most common text editor on Linux/UNIX, used to create, edit, and display text files. Vim has no menus, only commands.

Command mode (default): any input is treated as a command.

Insert mode.

Low‑line mode.

Summary: any mode can be switched back to command mode by pressing Esc .

1.2 Common commands in command mode

🥅 Insert commands

For lowercase aio : a inserts after the cursor, i inserts before the cursor, o inserts on a new line below. For uppercase AIO : A appends at the end of the current line, I inserts at the beginning of the line, O inserts on a new line above.

🥅 Navigation commands

Press Shift + : enter low‑line mode, then set nu to show line numbers, set nonu to hide them. GG jumps to the beginning of the last line; gg jumps to the beginning of the first line.

Jump to a specific line with nG or :n. $ moves to the end of the current line; 0 moves to the beginning.

Supplement: b searches backward, w searches forward, each skipping one word.

Supplement: hjkl correspond to left, down, up, right movements; arrow keys work as well.

Supplement: L moves to the last line of the screen.

🥅 Delete commands

x

deletes the character under the cursor. nx deletes n characters after the cursor; nX deletes n characters before the cursor. dd deletes the current line. D deletes from the cursor to the end of the line. ndd deletes n lines starting from the current line. dG deletes from the cursor to the end of the file. :n1,n2d deletes a specified range of lines. u undoes the last operation (similar to Ctrl+Z).

Supplement: Shift + ~ toggles case.

🥅 Copy and paste

yy copies the current line; nyy copies n lines downward. p pastes after the cursor, P before.

dd cuts the current line; ndd cuts n lines downward. p and P paste similarly.

🥅 Search and replace commands

:%s/old/new

replaces old with new in the whole file. :n1,n2s/old/new/g replaces in a range; g replaces without prompting, c prompts. r replaces the character under the cursor. R replaces characters from the cursor to the end of the line. u cancels the previous operation.

🥅 Save and quit commands

:w!

save changes. :q! quit without saving. :wq! or x! save and quit (also Esc + Shift + ZZ). :w filename writes the buffer to filename (useful for backup).

2. Vim usage tips

2.1 Simple tips

🥅 Import command output to file: :r !command

Example: instead of leaving Vim, running date in the terminal, copying the result, and pasting it back, you can simply execute :r!date to insert the current time at the cursor.

🥅 Comment multiple lines

:n1,n2s/^/#/g

adds # at the start of each line from n1 to n2.

Explanation: ^ moves to the beginning of a line, # is the comment character, g applies globally without prompting.

:n1,n2s/^#//g

removes the leading # from the specified range.

Explanation: replaces the leading # with nothing.

2.2 Define shortcuts

🥅 Define shortcut with :map

Example: :map ^P I# maps Ctrl+P to insert # at the beginning of the line.

:map ^B 0x

maps Ctrl+B to move to the start of the line and delete the first character.

🥅 Replace shortcut with :ab

Example: :ab mymail [email protected] lets you type mymail and press Enter to expand to the full email address.

Note: These shortcuts are temporary; to make them permanent, add them to .vimrc .

For the root user, write them to /root/.vimrc ; for normal users, write to /home/username/.vimrc .

3. Simple Vim configuration (key points)

All basic configurations are written into .vimrc. For a quick setup you can use an existing configuration:

curl -sLf https://gitee.com/HGtz2222/VimForCpp/raw/master/install.sh -o ./install.sh && bash ./install.sh

After downloading, run source ~/.bashrc to apply the configuration.

To uninstall, run bash ~/.VimForCpp/uninstall.sh .

Recommended automatic configuration: https://github.com/askunix/VimForCpp . After installation, Vim feels as smooth as an IDE.