Is there a way to move the cursor a relative amount of lines in vi/vim? Say you have the cursor 10 lines under a block of code you want to remove. If you have the line numbers shown in relative order, it would be nice to have a "jump 10 lines up command" that would take you there.
Or perhaps it's better to have the absolute line numbers shown and go xgg where x is the line number?
Yep, of course there's a way. j and k move down and up one line, so 10j and 10k move down and up ten lines. You can repeat any motion by putting a number before it.
You might also want to set relativenumber if this is something you do a lot of - it'll help save you counting by printing line numbers relative to the current line, instead of absolute numbers.
Moving 10 lines up and down might not suit your task as well as other options. Consider other movements:
Ctrlf, Ctrlb page forward and back.
}, { move forward and back by one paragraph.
You can write rules in your vimrc to bind 10j to a key, say J to move down 10 lines by adding the following line to your vimrc file:
map <S-j> 10j
However you'd be overwriting the useful existing J command (join two lines). Finding a well positioned unused key combination for 10j/10k might be difficult, so I suggest using the existing movements that I mentioned.
You may also want to know that you can move backwards to a word that you see by doing:
?someword and forward to a word you see by doing /someword. These are going to be faster than trying to move up/down 10 lines and then repositioning your cursor to the exact location. If you cant think of a simple search string for the line in question, you can always go to the line number as you said (xgg).
I was messing with vim and I noticed - moves you up and + moves you down, so you can:
10-
or you could use k since you're most likely used to hjkl cursor movement.
Related
I am using
set relativenumber
set number
which let's me move easily around. However, it is often hard to know the exact the line number of the object where I would like to jump to because I first need to look to the left. I feel it would be easier if I could see the line numbers also on the right hand side right because my eyes have less space to follow (maybe?). I think the ideal setting would be to show the relative/absolute line number where the $ appears when whitespace characters are shown and to the left/right of the buffer. I.e.
1 Random text.$1 1
159 This is the line where the cursor is.$159 159
1 Some random text.$1 1
2 More random text. Another sentence. Maybe a third one? And so on.$2 2
3 Another line which might be quite long and my eyes focus somewhere here.$3 3
4 More random text containing more text and more words and stuff.$4 4
(In this example, I would like to do 3k but I may type 2k or 4k because I did not follow the correct line to the left.)
Is it possible to achieve this somehow?
Any suggestion on how to change my workflow are welcome, too.
Note: Using cursorline does not help as I do not seek the number of the current line.
No, there is no built-in support to your requirement. also I don't think this is easy to be done by plugin.
Maybe you could consider to change your habit/workflow. E.g. enable the cursorline option, to highlight your "current" line, it may let you easier to identify which line are you on right now.
To move cursor, if you don't want to count lines, you may want to try the EasyMotion plugin. It is very handy plugin. However it won't replace the hjkl ... motions.
No, that's not possible, unless you modify Vim's source code in a non-trivial way, or work around with kludges like a vertically split small scratch buffer at the side that is updated via autocmds.
Do you have :set cursorline? That helps (me) a lot to follow the current line, even with large window widths. Reducing those might help, too, though you have to deal with wrapping / scrolling of long lines then.
Suppose I have the following (* = cursor):
...
*
Kittens
Puppies
Humans
...
How do I yank the "Humans" (cursor relative 3rd line) while leaving the cursor in place?
Preferably in one motion or one (generic) command.
Try this:
:+3y
It uses the range +3 , that it is the point where it will begin to yank. and by default it does one line.
UPDATE: If you wanted to copy both the second and third line without moving cursor, you would use same command but with a range of two points, like:
:+2,+3y
It would copy both Puppies and Humans.
Now, for those who are wondering, based on Birei's answer, you can also do :ny, where n is the line number you want to yank. This is actually what I was looking for when I came to this page, and is helpful if you've got set number on and don't want to count relative lines.
Now, I wonder, how to perform this yank to a particular register! :D
My LineJuggler plugin combines yanks and puts into various short mappings; e.g. with 3[f you can fetch a line 3 lines below the current line and put it below the current line.
Let's say I have a file with N lines. I'm at line X and I'd like to move to line Y, where both X and Y are visible on screen. I can do that by typing :Y<cr>, but if Y>99 that's a lot of typing. I can also do abs(Y-X)[kj] (move up or down by abs(Y-X)), but for big X,Y computing this difference mentally isn't so easy.
Is there a way to exploit the fact, that both X,Y are visible on screen and move between X and Y fast?
You can :set relativenumber which does that Y-X computing for you (only in Vim >= 7.3).
You can use H, M or L to go the top, middle and bottom of the screen.
Perhaps you can make use of H, M, or L.
These keys jump the cursor to display lines:
H "Home" top of screen
M "Middle" middle of screen
L "Last" last line of screen
With a count, they offset: 4L would go to the third line above the last (1L is the same as just L).
Personally, I make heavy use of the m command to mark a line for navigation. From where I am now, hit mq to mark the position with label q; then navigate to another line, and ma to mark it with label a; and from then on I can hit 'q to jump to position q and 'a to jump to position a. (q and a are arbitrary; I use those mostly due to their position on a QWERTY keyboard.)
One you have the marks, you can use them for commands. To delete from the current position to the line marked with q, you just use: d'q
There is a variant, where instead of single quote you use back quote. This takes you to the exact position on the line where you placed the mark; the single quote uses the start of the line.
Those marks work even for ex (command line) commands. To limit search and replace to a specific set of lines, I mark the beginning and end lines respectively with labels b and e, and then do my search and replace like so:
:'b,'es/foo/bar/g
Dropping my dime in the pond:
I find that traversing code is exceptionally easy with text objects. I rarely do use jk/JK for larger jumps any more. Instead I navigate for whitespace lines using { and }
Since on any one screen there are usually only so-many whitespace delineations (and they are very easily visually recognized and counted), I find that e.g.
3}j
lands me on the intended line a lot more often than, e.g., a guesstimated
27j
To top it all, many 'brace-full' programming languages have opening braces at the start of functions. These can be reached with [[ resp. ]]. So sometimes it is just a matter of doing, e.g.
2[[}
(meaning: go to start of previous function, after the first contiguous block of lines)
My version of VIM lets you guestimate a number immediately before hitting J or K to go that many lines.
15K goes up 15 lines
The tougher vimmer you are becoming, the bigger amount of lines you can count at first glance.
Don't know, maybe there are some clever techniques, but I just type something like 17k/23j and so on.
also, searching some word on the string you want to jump works.
also, zz (center screen) is sometimes helpful in this cases.
I'm a Ruby programming trying to switch from Textmate to MacVim, and I'm having trouble wading through the gargantuan lists of things you can do in VIM and all of the keypresses for them. I'm tired of hearing "You can use 'I' for inserting text, or 'a' for appending text after the character, or 'A' for appending text at the end of the line, or…" I can't imagine everyone uses all 20 different keypresses to navigate text, 10 or so keys to start adding text, and 18 ways to visually select an inner block. Or do you!?
My ideal cheat sheet would be the 30-40 most-used keypresses or commands that everyone uses for writing code on a daily basis, along with the absolute essential plugins that rubyists use daily and the 10 most-used commands for them. In theory, once I have that and start becoming as proficient in VIM as I am in Textmate, then I can start learning the thousands of other VIM commands that will make me more efficient.
Or, am I learning VIM the wrong way altogether?
Here's a tip sheet I wrote up once, with the commands I actually use regularly:
References
vim documentation online
advanced vim tips
more useful tips and graphical cheat sheet
General
Nearly all commands can be preceded by a number for a repeat count. eg. 5dd delete 5 lines
<Esc> gets you out of any mode and back to command mode
Commands preceded by : are executed on the command line at the bottom of the screen
:help help with any command
Navigation
Cursor movement: ←h ↓j ↑k l→
By words:
w next word (by punctuation); W next word (by spaces)
b back word (by punctuation); B back word (by spaces)
e end word (by punctuation); E end word (by spaces)
By line:
0 start of line; ^ first non-whitespace
$ end of line
By paragraph:
{ previous blank line; } next blank line
By file:
gg start of file; G end of file
123G go to specific line number
By marker:
mx set mark x; 'x go to mark x
'. go to position of last edit
' ' go back to last point before jump
Scrolling:
^F forward full screen; ^B backward full screen
^D down half screen; ^U up half screen
^E scroll one line up; ^Y scroll one line down
zz centre cursor line
Editing
u undo; ^R redo
. repeat last editing command
Inserting
All insertion commands are terminated with <Esc> to return to command mode.
i insert text at cursor; I insert text at start of line
a append text after cursor; A append text after end of line
o open new line below; O open new line above
Changing
r replace single character; R replace multiple characters
s change single character
cw change word; C change to end of line; cc change whole line
c<motion> changes text in the direction of the motion
ci( change inside parentheses (see text object selection for more examples)
Deleting
x delete char
dw delete word; D delete to end of line; dd delete whole line
d<motion> deletes in the direction of the motion
Cut and paste
yy copy line into paste buffer; dd cut line into paste buffer
p paste buffer below cursor line; P paste buffer above cursor line
xp swap two characters (x to delete one character, then p to put it back after the cursor position)
Blocks
v visual block stream; V visual block line; ^V visual block column
most motion commands extend the block to the new cursor position
o moves the cursor to the other end of the block
d or x cut block into paste buffer
y copy block into paste buffer
> indent block; < unindent block
gv reselect last visual block
Global
:%s/foo/bar/g substitute all occurrences of "foo" to "bar"
% is a range that indicates every line in the file
/g is a flag that changes all occurrences on a line instead of just the first one
Searching
/ search forward; ? search backward
* search forward for word under cursor; # search backward for word under cursor
n next match in same direction; N next match in opposite direction
fx forward to next character x; Fx backward to previous character x
; move again to same character in same direction; , move again to same character in opposite direction
Files
:w write file to disk
:w name write file to disk as name
ZZ write file to disk and quit
:n edit a new file; :n! edit a new file without saving current changes
:q quit editing a file; :q! quit editing without saving changes
:e edit same file again (if changed outside vim)
:e . directory explorer
Windows
^Wn new window
^Wj down to next window; ^Wk up to previous window
^W_ maximise current window; ^W= make all windows equal size
^W+ increase window size; ^W- decrease window size
Source Navigation
% jump to matching parenthesis/bracket/brace, or language block if language module loaded
gd go to definition of local symbol under cursor; ^O return to previous position
^] jump to definition of global symbol (requires tags file); ^T return to previous position (arbitrary stack of positions maintained)
^N (in insert mode) automatic word completion
Show local changes
Vim has some features that make it easy to highlight lines that have been changed from a base version in source control. I have created a small vim script that makes this easy: http://github.com/ghewgill/vim-scmdiff
http://www.viemu.com/a_vi_vim_graphical_cheat_sheet_tutorial.html
This is the greatest thing ever for learning VIM.
Here is a great cheat sheet for vim:
Have you run through Vim's built-in tutorial? If not, drop to the command-line and type vimtutor. It's a great way to learn the initial commands.
Vim has an incredible amount of flexibility and power and, if you're like most vim users, you'll learn a lot of new commands and forget old ones, then relearn them. The built-in help is good and worthy of periodic browsing to learn new stuff.
There are several good FAQs and cheatsheets for vim on the internet. I'd recommend searching for vim + faq and vim + cheatsheet. Cheat-Sheets.org#vim is a good source, as is Vim Tips wiki.
What most people do is start out with the bare basics, like maybe i, yw, yy, and p. You can continue to use arrow keys to move around, selecting text with the mouse, using the menus, etc. Then when something is slowing you down, you look up the faster way to do it, and gradually add more and more commands. You might learn one new command per day for a while, then it will trickle to one per week. You'll feel fairly productive in a month. After a year you will have a pretty solid repertoire, and after 2-3 years you won't even consciously think what your fingers are typing, and it will look weird if you have to spell it out for someone. I learned vi in 1993 and still pick up 2 or 3 new commands a year.
#Greg Hewgill's cheatsheet is very good. I started my switch from TextMate a few months ago. Now I'm as productive as I was with TM and constantly amazed by Vim's power.
Here is how I switched. Maybe it can be useful to you.
Grosso modo, I don't think it's a good idea to do a radical switch. Vim is very different and it's best to go progressively.
And to answer your subquestion, yes, I use all of iaIAoO everyday to enter insert mode. It certainly seems weird at first but you don't really think about it after a while.
Some commands incredibly useful for any programming related tasks:
r and R to replace characters
<C-a> and <C-x>to increase and decrease numbers
cit to change the content of an HTML tag, and its variants (cat, dit, dat, ci(, etc.)
<C-x><C-o> (mapped to ,,) for omnicompletion
visual block selection with <C-v>
and so on…
Once you are accustomed to the Vim way it becomes really hard to not hit o or x all the time when editing text in some other editor or textfield.
I can't imagine everyone uses all 20 different keypresses to navigate text, 10 or so keys to start adding text, and 18 ways to visually select an inner block. Or do you!?
I do.
In theory, once I have that and start becoming as proficient in VIM as I am in Textmate, then I can start learning the thousands of other VIM commands that will make me more efficient.
That's the right way to do it. Start with basic commands and then pick up ones that improve your productivity. I like following this blog for tips on how to improve my productivity with vim.
tuxfiles.org holds a pretty good cheat sheet. I think there are a couple of points to learning the commands:
Read the cheat sheet regularly. Don't worry about using all of them, or remembering all the keys, just know that the command exists. Look up the command and use it when you find yourself doing something repetitive.
If you find yourself doing something regularly (like deleting an entire line after a particular character d$), go a quick google search to see if you can find a command for it.
Write down commands you think you'll find useful and keep that list where you can see it while you're writing your code. I would argue against printing something out and instead encourage you to use post it notes for just a few commands at a time.
If possible, watch other programmers use vim, and ask them what commands they are using as you see them do something interesting.
Besides these tips, there are some basic concepts you should understand.
vim will use the same character to represent the same function. For example, to delete a line after a character use d$. To highlight a line after a particular character use v$. So notice that $ indicates you will be doing something to the end of the line from where your cursor currently is.
u is undo, and ctrl+r is redo.
putting a number in front of a command will execute it repeatedly. 3dd will delete the line your cursor is on and the two lines that follow, similarly 3yy will copy the line your cursor is on and the two lines that follow.
understand how to navigate through the buffers use :ls to list the buffers, and :bn, :bp to cycle through them.
read through the tutorial found in :help This is probably the best way to 'learn the ropes', and the rest of the commands you will learn through usage.
Go to Efficient Editing with vim and learn what you need to get started. Not everything on that page is essential starting off, so cherry pick what you want.
From there, use vim for everything. "hjkl", "y", and "p" will get you a long way, even if it's not the most efficient way. When you come up against a task for which you don't know the magic key to do it efficiently (or at all), and you find yourself doing it more than a few times, go look it up. Little by little it will become second nature.
I found vim daunting many moons ago (back when it didn't have the "m" on the end), but it only took about a week of steady use to get efficient. I still find it the quickest editor in which to get stuff done.
Put this in your .bashrc to open vim with last edited file at last edited line
alias vil="vim +\"'\"0"
I have to add a VIM personality to an IDE. I never used VIM for more than the most basic edits and i'm now overwhelmed by the complexity of the command structure.
Is there any overall structure for the combination of counts moves and insert/delete commands?
I just can't see the wood for the trees.
Well, there is obviously a finger position pattern behind h, j, k, l.
The fact that ^ goes to the beginning of a line and $ goes to the end is patterned on common regular expression syntax.
Ctrl-F and Ctrl-B page forward and back, and that's fairly intuitive.
i inserts (before) and a appends (after the cursor). Similarly,
I inserts at the beginning of the line, and A appends at the very end.
> and < indent and outdent, respectively. That's also kind of intuitive.
But on the whole, many of the other commands are on whatever keys were left – it's hard to find an intuitive mapping between the letters of the alphabet and an editor's commands.
Repeat counts are always entered before a command, and mostly repeat the command that many times, but in some cases do something clever but analogous.
I think the secret to not going crazy over vi is to start out with only a small handful of commands. I have a lot of colleagues who don't know to do anything other than
move the cursor around using the arrow keys (you don't have to use h, j, k, l);
insert with i, delete with Del (you don't have to use x);
delete a line with dd
get out of input mode with Esc
get out of vi with :x (exit) or q! (quit, and throw away my changes!)
Because I'm much smarter, the additional commands I know and use are:
go to the top of the file with gg, the bottom with G.
I can go to a specified line number with (line-number)G.
copy a line with y (yank), paste it with p
change a word with cw, the rest of the line with C
delete a word with dw, the rest of the line with D
I sometimes use . to repeat the last command, or u (undo) if I messed up.
When you have occasion to use other commands, you can teach them to yourself one by one as needed.
This is a good article for explaining the VIM philosophy.
I think the characteristic that better defines VIM in respect to other editors is its wide array of motion commands. The first thing to learn to fully use VIM is hitting the arrow keys as little as possible, and think at the text in terms of "blocks" like "a sentence" "a tag" "a word" "a group of brackets".
Say you have function foo($bar, $fooz) you can change the parameters by simply positioning your cursor anywhere inside the brackets and pressing ci) (mnemonic: change inner bracket). The same pattern applies to other commands: yank (y), delete (d) and so on.
I know this doesn't explain the whole "VIM philosophy" but combining normal mode commands with the vast amount of motion modifiers is what really made me see the light.
There are plenty of nice and interesting tutorials. One example is
http://blog.interlinked.org/tutorials/vim_tutorial.html
But the broad structure that most of them would give you is
There are two main modes for editing - Command mode and insert mode. You can move from insert mode to command mode using the key.
You can execute commands in the command mode by typing a single key or a sequence of keys.
Commands can help you achieve a wide variety of things
deletion of lines - dd
yanking (copying of lines ) - yy
pasting lines below the current line - p
pasting lines above the current line - P ( and so on)
Most commands in the command mode can be pre-fixed by a "count" to indicate the number of times the command has to be executed. For example, 3dd would delete three lines.
One set of commands in the command mode lets you move to the insert mode. That is explained below.
There are different ways of entering the insert mode from the command mode. Prominent among them are (i-insert at cursor, I-insert at beginning of line, o-insert a line below, O-insert a line above, a-append, A-append at end of line.
The quick reference at
http://www.andy-roberts.net/misc/vim/vim.pdf
Will help you understand the relevance of "count"