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Vim

Written: 2026-08-23

Overview

Vim — the ubiquitous modal text editor. Available on virtually every Unix system, designed for speed through modal editing and composable commands.

Aspect Detail
Config ~/.vimrc
Plugin managers vim-plug, Vundle, pathogen
Philosophy "Edit at the speed of thought"
Modes Normal, Insert, Visual, Command-line
Mode Enter Purpose
Normal Esc Navigate, compose commands
Insert i, a, o, I, A, O Type text
Visual v, V, Ctrl-v Select text (char, line, block)
Command-line : Ex commands, search, substitution
Replace R Overwrite characters

Motion Commands

Character & Word

Motion Movement
h / j / k / l Left / down / up / right
w / W Next word start (word / WORD)
b / B Previous word start
e / E End of word
0 / ^ / $ Line start / first non-blank / line end
f{c} / F{c} Find char forward / backward
t{c} / T{c} Till (before) char forward / backward
; / , Repeat last f/F/t/T forward / backward

Line & Screen

Motion Movement
gg / G File start / file end
{n}G or :{n} Go to line n
H / M / L Screen top / middle / bottom
Ctrl-d / Ctrl-u Half-page down / up
Ctrl-f / Ctrl-b Full page down / up
% Matching bracket
{ / } Previous / next paragraph

Operators (Verb + Motion = Action)

Operators: d(elete), c(hange), y(ank), v(isual select), > (indent), < (dedent), g~(toggle case)

Operator + Motion:
    dw   → delete word
    d$   → delete to end of line
    ci"  → change inside quotes
    yap  → yank a paragraph
    >}   → indent to next paragraph
    gUiw → uppercase inner word

Operator + Text Object:
    diw  → delete inner word
    da{  → delete around braces (including braces)
    ci(  → change inside parentheses
    yit  → yank inner HTML tag

Text Objects

Object Inner (i) Around (a)
w word word + surrounding space
s sentence sentence + space
p paragraph paragraph + blank lines
" ' ` inside quotes quotes + quotes themselves
( ) b inside parens parens included
{ } B inside braces braces included
[ ] inside brackets brackets included
t inside HTML tag tag included

Registers

Register Purpose
"" Default (last delete/yank)
"0 Last yank (not affected by delete)
"a-"z Named registers
"A-"Z Append to named register
"+ System clipboard
"* Primary selection (X11)
"/ Last search pattern
". Last inserted text
": Last command
"_ Black hole (discard)

Usage: "ayy (yank line into register a), "ap (paste from register a)

Macros

Record: q{register}  →  perform actions  →  q (stop recording)
Play:   @{register}
Repeat: @@  or  {n}@{register}

Example — add semicolons to multiple lines:
    qa        → start recording into register a
    A;        → append semicolon at end
    j         → move down
    q         → stop recording
    10@a      → replay 10 times

Search & Substitute

/pattern          → search forward
?pattern          → search backward
n / N             → next / previous match
*                 → search word under cursor forward
#                 → search word under cursor backward

:s/old/new/       → substitute first on current line
:s/old/new/g      → substitute all on current line
:%s/old/new/g     → substitute all in file
:%s/old/new/gc    → substitute with confirmation
:'<,'>s/old/new/g → substitute in visual selection

Essential .vimrc

" ~/.vimrc — Modern Vim configuration

set nocompatible
filetype plugin indent on
syntax on

" UI
set number relativenumber
set cursorline
set signcolumn=yes
set termguicolors
set scrolloff=8
set sidescrolloff=8

" Indentation
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab
set smartindent
set autoindent

" Search
set ignorecase
set smartcase
set incsearch
set hlsearch

" Performance
set lazyredraw
set updatetime=300
set timeoutlen=500

" Files
set nobackup
set noswapfile
set undofile
set undodir=~/.vim/undodir

" Splits
set splitbelow
set splitright

" Leader key
let mapleader = " "

" Quality of life
nnoremap <leader>w :w<CR>
nnoremap <leader>q :q<CR>
nnoremap <Esc> :noh<CR>
nnoremap <leader>v :vsplit<CR>
nnoremap <C-h> <C-w>h
nnoremap <C-j> <C-w>j
nnoremap <C-k> <C-w>k
nnoremap <C-l> <C-w>l

" Clipboard
set clipboard=unnamedplus

Plugin Management (vim-plug)

" Install vim-plug
" curl -fLo ~/.vim/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs \
"   https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim

call plug#begin('~/.vim/plugged')

Plug 'tpope/vim-fugitive'        " Git
Plug 'tpope/vim-surround'        " Surround text objects
Plug 'tpope/vim-commentary'      " Comment with gc
Plug 'junegunn/fzf.vim'          " Fuzzy finder
Plug 'preservim/nerdtree'        " File tree
Plug 'airblade/vim-gitgutter'    " Git diff in gutter
Plug 'dense-analysis/ale'        " Linting
Plug 'morhetz/gruvbox'           " Colorscheme

call plug#end()

colorscheme gruvbox
set background=dark

Vim Tips

Tip Command
Repeat last change .
Increment/decrement number Ctrl-a / Ctrl-x
Auto-indent file gg=G
Sort lines :sort
Remove trailing whitespace :%s/\s\+$//e
Open terminal :terminal
Record to register q{a-z}...q then @{a-z}
Column editing Ctrl-v → select → I → type → Esc
Spell check :set spell then ]s/[s/z=