Vim Tips

Posted on 2016-05-15 In Toolbox

Vim作为Linux下必备开发工具，熟练掌握，可以大大提升开发及编辑效率。

基本上所有Linux发行版都预装了Vim，开箱即用，唾手可得，无需再下载安装。

Vim强大的同时也带来了复杂性，学习成本较高，需要慢慢积累，先掌握基础操作，然后再遇到问题解决问题。Vim使用近三年，自己掌握了一些Vim有意思的特性，现在分享出来，希望对你也有帮助。

Think Vim before you use Emacs.

0. tab, window, buffer

tab-window-buffer

An illustration of the relationships among Vim’s tabs, windows, and buffers. Buffers 4 and 6 are considered hidden, since they are not visible in any window.

1. command-line window

In the command-line window the command line can be edited just like editing in any window.

To open command-line window, From Normal mode, use the "q:", "q/" or "q?" command.

command line window

2. edit binary file

The following command replaces the buffer with a hex dump:

:%!xxd

You can edit the hex bytes, then convert the file back to binary with the command:

:%!xxd -r

The above command reverses the hex dump by converting the hex bytes to binary (the printable text in the right column is ignored).

edit-binary-1

% current file name

%< current file name without extension

:%！hexdump -C

edit-binary-2

:%!xxd -p

edit-binary-3

:%!xxd -p -r

edit-binary-4

-p -plain

-r -revert

3. indent

gg=G

In normal mode, typing gg=G will reindent the entire file. This is a special case, = is an operator. Just like d or y, it will act on any text that you move over with a cursor motion command. In this case, gg positions the cursor on the first line, then =G re-indents from the current cursor position to the end of the buffer.

>> Indent line by shiftwidth spaces

<< De-indent line by shiftwidth spaces

5>> Indent 5 lines

5== Re-indent 5 lines

4. multiline editing

In visual block mode, you can press I to insert text at the same position in multiple lines, and you can press A to append text to each line in a block.

Insert

Use Ctrl+V(or Ctrl-Q if you use Ctrl-V for paste) to select the column of text in the lines you want to insert.

Then hit I and type the text you want to insert.

Then hit Esc, wait 1 second and the inserted text will appear on every line.

Append

Use Ctrl+V(or Ctrl-Q if you use Ctrl-V for paste) to select the column of text in the lines you want to append.

Press $ to extend the visual block to the end of each line.

Then hit A and type the text you want to append.

Then hit Esc, wait 1 second and the inserted text will appear on every line.

5. window resize

equal size ^W=

max height ^W_

max width ^W|

6. list mode

:set list displays whitespace, :set nolist displays normally.

set listchars: Strings to use in list mode.

7. digraphs

Digraphs are used to enter characters that normally cannot be entered by an ordinary keyboard.

:dig[raphs] show currently defined digraphs.

digraphs

In insert mode, CTRL-K {char1} {char2} to enter digraphs.

8. diff mode

$ vimdiff file1 file2 [file3 [file4]]
$ vim -d file1 file2 [file3 [file4]]

diff-mode

do - Get changes from other window into the current window.

dp - Put the changes from current window into the other window.

]c - Jump to the next change.

[c - Jump to the previous change.

zo - open fold.

zc - close fold.

:diffu[pdate] - Update the diff highlighting and folds.

:qa - quit all

:wa - write all

:wqa - write, then quit all

:qa! - force to quit all

9. edit compressed files

To see more info:

:h gzip    (*.gz, *.bz2, *.Z)
:h zip     (*.zip)
:h tar     (*.tar)

10. substitute

:%s/foo/bar/g
Find each occurrence of ‘foo’ (in all lines), and replace it with ‘bar’.

:s/foo/bar/g
Find each occurrence of ‘foo’ (in the current line only), and replace it with ‘bar’.

:%s/foo/bar/gc
Change each ‘foo’ to ‘bar’, but ask for confirmation first.

:5,12s/foo/bar/g
Change each ‘foo’ to ‘bar’ for all lines from line 5 to line 12 (inclusive).

:%s/\s\+$//
Delete all trailing whitespace (at the end of each line).
In a search, \s finds whitespace (a space or a tab), and + finds one or more occurrences.

11. recording a macro

Each register is identified by a letter a to z.

To enter a macro, type:

q<letter><commands>q

To execute the macro times (once by default), type:

<number>@<letter>

So, the complete process looks like:

qd start recording to register d

… your complex series of commands

q stop recording

@d execute your macro

@@ execute your macro again

12. count

g CTRL-G            (:h g_CTRL-G word-count byte-count)

count-1

{Visual}g CTRL-G    (:h v_g_CTRL-G)

count-2

13. changing tabs

:retab

:[range]ret[ab][!] [new_tabstop]

Replace all sequences of white-space containing a with new strings of white-space using the new tabstop value given. If you do not specify a new tabstop size or it is zero, Vim uses the current value of ‘tabstop’.

14. su-write

If you find you do not have permission to perform :w, use the following:

:w !sudo tee % > /dev/null

15. open file with specified line number

$ vim filename +10

+                    Start at end of file
+<lnum>              Start at line <lnum>
--cmd <command>      Execute <command> before loading any vimrc file
-c <command>         Execute <command> after loading the first file

16. jump

In normal mode, % jumps to corresponding item, e.g. from an open brace to its matching closing brace.

Like a web browser, you can go back, then forward:

Press Ctrl-O to jump back to the previous (older) location.
Press Ctrl-I (same as Tab) to jump forward to the next (newer) location.

Display the jump list for the current window with:

:jumps

17. format json

:%!python -m json.tool