La Boina Roja

Linux, the struggles are real!

Basic vi commands

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Right now, I am Learning Python the Hard Way,  after lesson 10, I decided screw gedit Photobucket
I am going to learn vi. Vi is known to have a steep learning curve, but  these basic commands are enough to help you to get through Learning Python the Hard Way.

The good thing about this course is you start with rather small code, not much then 10 lines in the first couple of lessons.  This makes it perfect to get a more then decent grip on vi,  knowledge of the basic workings of the Terminal is assumed though!

If you want to see some vids about vi first,  then I would suggest watching the Lullabot vids called Command Line Basics, at vid 9 she discusses vi. The whole series is worth watching though Photobucket

This cheat sheet is based on this vi command summary, I added one help full Python command Photobucket

Starting vi

Command Description
vi file start at line 1 of file
vi +n file start at line n of file
vi + file start at last line of file
vi -r file recover file after a system crash

Saving files and quitting vi

Command Description
:q quit vi
:”x” save the file if it has changed and quit vi (don’t use the quotation marks around the x!)
:”q”! quit vi without saving changes(don’t use the quotation marks around the q!)

Setting line numbers

Keys pressed Effect
:set number displays line numbers
:set no number remove line numbers

Moving the cursor

Keys pressed Effect
h left one character
l right one character
k up one line
j down one line
b left one word
w right one word
( start of sentence
) end of sentence
{ start of paragraph
} end of paragraph
1G top of file
nG line n
G end of file

Inserting text

Keys pressed Text inserted
a after the cursor
i before the cursor

Deleting text

Keys pressed Text deleted
x character under cursor
dd current line

CTR + z stops a Python script

Want a pdf file of this cheat sheet? Cliccie on the pinkPhotobucketbutton!

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