Ask HN: What is one Vim trick most people don't know?

If you forgot to sudo vi, you&#x27;ve already edited the file, saving the file as root without first saving it as your own and then having to move it:<p>&lt;ESC&gt;:w !sudo tee %<p>Pipes the content of the file to a tee process as root and lets tee save it under the current file name. Vim will tell you the file has changed on disk and ask if it should reload it afterwards.

Not really a trick of Vim itself, but when using Vim from the terminal I find ctrl-z very useful to background Vim, type in a few shell commands for git or whatever and then use &quot;fg&quot; to hop back into Vim.

Many of the things here, as of writing, are quite elementary Vim tips. A lesser known trick that I learnt quite recently and have found very useful is `gn`, which visually selects the next search hit (similarly `gN` for the previous hit). That&#x27;s not so useful in itself, but it can be combined with an operation, such as `c` or `y`, etc., which can then be repeated using the `.`.

Macros, Macros, Macros. These are a game changer when editing large files. Use the `q` key and followed by any letter you like, I default to `a`. Perform some action, like deleting a line, appending to the start of a line, or searching for a word then deleting it. Press `esc`, then type in the number of times you want to repeat the action, followed by `@` and the letter you chose. I.E `10@a` and it will perform that action 10 times.

`Ctrl + v` to visually select one character at a time (instead of say `Shift + v` that selects a whole line) and then use the movement keys to select a block of characters horizontally as well as vertically. Imagine several well indented HTML &lt;li class=&quot;something&quot;&gt; elements, you could for instance delete&#x2F;modify all the class attributes on all lines visually in one go (to insert text use `Shift + i`, type, then Esc).

:norm(al) command Allows you to do some of the vim magic also on remote systems where you don&#x27;t have all your plugins.<p>Example:<p>(1) Select block with `C-v`<p>(2) Hit colon `:`<p>(3) Write norm and enter any sequence as you would be in normal mode: `norm I# ` (prepend selection with a comment sign)<p>(4) Admire the result.

Quick renaming of variables: what to type&quot;explanation<p><pre><code> gd&quot; go to definition of variable :%s&#x2F;&quot; beginning of a replace... Ctrl-r &#x2F;&quot; inserts the last word searched into the command, so what &quot;gd&quot; found &#x2F;newname&#x2F;gc&quot; finish the replace command, g=global replace, c=confirm each replace </code></pre> Save a character going to a line: instead of using :42&lt;enter&gt; to go to line 42, can use 42G<p>Auto-indent: =<p>Go to last file: Ctrl-^<p>Abbreviations: put this in your ~&#x2F;.vimrc<p><pre><code> iab cmain int main() { \&lt;CR&gt; return 0; \&lt;CR&gt;} </code></pre> Insert the contents of a file: :r &lt;filename&gt;<p>I like to have a ~&#x2F;gitmessage.txt which has a template I like, then when I do git commit all I have to do is:<p><pre><code> :r ~&#x2F;gitmessage.txt </code></pre> Vim + Ctags:<p>Ctags link usages and definitions so you can navigate through code like in an IDE without the bloat of an IDE. Works best with C, but works pretty well with any language with C-like syntax (and more).<p>Goto tag (definition) of what&#x27;s under cursor: Ctrl-]<p>Go back: Ctrl-t<p>Open tag in a preview: Ctrl-w<p>:tag &lt;tag&gt; &quot; go to tag, like:<p><pre><code> :tag someFunction :tag SOME_CONSTANT</code></pre>

`Shift+v` to select a block of text and do a single operation to the same portion of text on several lines (regexp, aligning, etc.)<p>There&#x27;s also `vt` + some character to select text from the cursor to the next occurrence of that character.

A couple of nice ones: `gq` for re-wrapping a visually selected block of text (&lt;shift&gt;-v is simplest) to your text width.<p>`=` for re-indenting a selection to your current shift-width settings etc. (or `gg=G` to just do the whole file)

You can use `Ctrl + C` instead of `ESC`<p>I figured this out today. And I submitted this Ask HN to find out more such things.

I use a lit this ed (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;man.openbsd.org&#x2F;4.4BSD-Lite2&#x2F;ed.1" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;man.openbsd.org&#x2F;4.4BSD-Lite2&#x2F;ed.1</a>) commands from vi (not just vim).<p>For instance:<p>Delele first 20 lines:<p>&lt;ESC&gt;:0,20d<p>Delete lines from current location to end of file:<p>&lt;ESC&gt;:,$d<p>Search and replace from regrex:<p>&lt;ESC&gt;:0,$s&#x2F;regex&#x2F;replacement&#x2F;g

I have two favourites : alt+* (search for the word I currently standing on) and ciw (delete the word you standing on and enter insert mode).

&#x27;Esc :q&#x27; to quit vim seems to be the one trick most people don&#x27;t know.

Mine is playing with errorformat (personal blogspam: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;flukus.github.io&#x2F;vim-errorformat-demystified.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;flukus.github.io&#x2F;vim-errorformat-demystified.html</a>) and combining this with :cf (read errors from file) or :cb (read errors from buffer) to parse a file&#x2F;buffer into the quicklist. Great for dealing with log files.

Not sure if most people don&#x27;t know it, but this is useful (in Windows vim):<p>In Unix vi(m), you use Ctrl-V to quote a special character to actually insert it into the text (or into a last line mode command; see example below).<p>So in Unix if you want to insert a carriage return (Ctrl-M) into a file or a command, you do Ctrl-V Ctrl-M. That does not work in Windows with gVim because Ctrl-V means paste from clipboard. So you use Ctrl-Q instead of Ctrl-V, like in this example, where you want to use vim to remove all the carriage returns (CRs) from the file (say if you were going to use the file on Unix later [1]):<p><pre><code> :%s&#x2F;Ctrl-QEnter&#x2F;&#x2F;g </code></pre> where instead of typing the letters Enter, you hit the Enter key.<p>The %s means do the command for all lines in the file (% for all lines, s for substitute), the command is search-and-replace (old pattern with new pattern, here Ctrl-M with nothing), and the g(lobal) at the end means do it for all occurrences in the line (otherwise it does it only for the first occurrence on the line).<p>This will show on your screen as:<p><pre><code> :%s&#x2F;^M&#x2F;&#x2F;g (the Ctrl-Q does not show on screen) </code></pre> where the ^M represents the CR or Enter.<p>The same command on Unix would be:<p><pre><code> :%s&#x2F;Ctrl-VEnter&#x2F;&#x2F;g </code></pre> This will show on your screen as:<p><pre><code> :%s&#x2F;^M&#x2F;&#x2F;g (the Ctrl-V does not show on screen) </code></pre> [1] Of course there are other ways to remove the CRs from the file, like a) using a dos2unix utility, a) many modern editors will do it for you (via a setting or a menu option), c) push it to Git from Windows and then pull it from Unix (with appropriate Git settings for line-ending handling), etc.

A slightly longer trick but..<p>:tabe newfile to open a new file.<p>Then, add the following to your ~&#x2F;.vimrc (on MacOS)<p>map &lt;Esc&gt;f &lt;Esc&gt;:tabn&lt;cr&gt; map &lt;Esc&gt;b &lt;Esc&gt;:tabp&lt;cr&gt;<p>Now you can switch between tabs using option + arrow keys

you can find most on this thread <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;stackoverflow.com&#x2F;questions&#x2F;726894&#x2F;what-are-the-dark-corners-of-vim-your-mom-never-told-you-about" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;stackoverflow.com&#x2F;questions&#x2F;726894&#x2F;what-are-the-dark...</a>

`gv` for reselecting the last selection<p>Assigning different functions to the arrow keys helps when learning vim navigation

If you&#x27;re in Insert Mode, and you want to paste the thing you last yanked, without leaving insert mode, you can do the following:&lt;C-r&gt;0<p>That pastes the contents of the 0 register into the buffer. Very useful. That&#x27;ll work for all registers too.

Better keyboard scrolling with this simple mapping:<p>nmap &lt;C-j&gt; 3j3&lt;C-e&gt;<p>nmap &lt;C-k&gt; 3k3&lt;C-y&gt;<p>This maps the &lt;C-j&gt; and &lt;C-k&gt; keys to a scroll action similar to mouse scrolling: the cursors stays in a fixed position while the whole screen moves up or down 3 rows.

Diff mode, delicious! Just edit the 2 files with vim -O file1 file2, and in vim do &lt;ESC&gt;:diffthis&lt;enter&gt;C-w&lt;right&gt;:diffthis&lt;enter&gt;, and voila!<p>Vimgrep and the quickfix window are also pretty cool.

Turning off the ability to enter recording mode. I still occasionally type :Q instead of :q and I’d like that to also quit...or even to just no-op.<p>Any tips on how to just rip recoding mode completely out of my vim?

If you like these, it&#x27;s worth skimming `:help index` and `:help option-summary` occasionally. You&#x27;re likely to find at least one interesting new keybinding or setting.

&#x27;ct&#x27; followed by a character later in the line. Erases all text from the cursor up to that character, and enters insert mode.

Writing some vimscript is actually not that bad and opens plenty of possibilities for advanced, context aware code editing.

How to quit is probably what most people don’t know, when it’s been invoked by something looking for $EDITOR

`:compiler` for parsing lines in the quickfix window - great for jumping directly to unit test failures

:vsplit filename<p>to open file called &quot;filename&quot; in a vertical split of the console window. Also<p>:split filename<p>will open it in a horizontal split

&#x27;Shift+zz&#x27; to save and exit

A lot of people seem to be unaware of switching files within vim instead of exiting and reinvoking.

zz - scroll the line with the cursor to the center of the screen<p>zt - scroll the line with the cursor to the top<p>zb - scroll the line with the cursor to the bottom<p>also:<p>Ctrl-O - jump to last (think &quot;o&quot;lder) cursor positions<p>Ctrl-I - jump to next cursor positions (after using Ctrl-O)

Ctrl-e and Ctrl-y to scroll with the cursor on the same line.

<p><pre><code> git grep -n foo | vim - -c &#x27;cbuf!&#x27;</code></pre>

Ctrl+V for making and operating on block selections.

I know i am going to get downvoted for this but :q!

Ctrl-a increases a number in visual model

copy a line using &lt;Esc&gt;1 yy and past simply &lt;Esc&gt; p

How to quit it

One of my favorite Vim tricks (which also works in vi) is the general technique of piping a specified range of text through a command (a Unix-style filter that reads from standard input and writes to standard output), with the output of that command then replacing that range of text.<p>The text can be anything from a single line, some arbitrary range of lines (defined via vim marks like a and b or other letters, some paragraphs (see example below), to the entire file - and the filter command can be anything at all, too. The Cartesian product of those two things makes it a very powerful technique.<p>An example is this key mapping of the character v to a command that format paragraphs of text using the fmt command [1]:<p>map v !}fmt -w 64&lt;CR&gt;<p>This says: map the letter v to the command following it (after the space), which is:<p><pre><code> !}fmt -w 64&lt;CR&gt; </code></pre> which runs&#x2F;pipes (!) the current paragraph (when at top of a para, the cursor movement } defines a para) through the fmt -w 64 command, which formats its input text into lines of not more than 64 characters each.<p>(I just used v because it was one of the characters that Vim does not already assign a command to - any other available character will work.)<p>I have the mapping in my _vimrc on Windows and .vimrc on Unix.<p>With that mapping, I can reformat any paragraph (where paragraphs in vim are defined by a blank line either above and below them or both), just by going to the top of the paragraph (with { ) and typing v (no Enter needed).<p>For example, if I have this (single) line in a file in vim:<p><pre><code> the quick brown fox jumped the quick brown fox jumped the quick brown fox jumped the quick brown fox jumped the quick brown fox jumped </code></pre> and I press v when at the start of that line, it gets reformatted into this para:<p><pre><code> the quick brown fox jumped the quick brown fox jumped the quick brown fox jumped the quick brown fox jumped the quick brown fox jumped </code></pre> I typically use this technique when writing text content (non-programming content, such as documentation, tech articles, blog posts, etc.) or sometimes even for block comments of text in programs.<p>You can also create a different version of that formatting command to filter the entire text file through fmt in one shot (that would be &quot;!Gfmt -w 64&quot; when at top of file, where G moves to the last line), but I tend not to use that approach much, because it sometimes messes up some paragraphs which should not be reformatted. So I do it a para at a time.<p>If you use the sort command instead of fmt, that will sort the range of lines you select, and the sorted lines replace the original lines. This is of course useful in text files and (text format) data files, but is also sometimes useful in source code, e.g. to sort lines of import statements (say in Python or Go - although Go has commands for that), ranges of variable declarations into alphabetical order, array literals, etc.).<p>[1] (Fmt is a Unix command, but you can probably get it in many of the Unix subsystems that run on Windows too, like Cygwin, UWin, Windows Subsystem for Linux too). c The command that you run the selected text through, can also be a Unix or Windows pipeline, which makes the technique even more powerful.

ZZ