suggestion box – latest additions – see also – colophon

_Why? [vi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi) is the **de facto** standard text editor in any Unix-like operating system._ Here is a collection of [vi(1)](https://man.openbsd.org/vi.1)/[ex(1)](https://man.openbsd.org/ex.1) commands and command sequences.
Tested with [nvi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvi) 1.79 and 2.1.3 (unicode). [Bill Joy's greatest gift to man - the vi editor](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/11/bill_joys_greatest_gift/) ## Yank/delete lines (1) mark the first line: `mk`
(2) move to last line
(3a) yank: `y'k`
(3b) delete: `d'k`
(4) move to destination line
(5) put with `P` or `p`
## Apply regex to lines (1) mark the first line: `mk`
(2) mark the last line: `ml`

:'k,'ls/regex/power/g

## Increment / Decrement number in command mode (1) move cursor to number
(2a) increment by one: #+
(2b) increment by N (5): 5#+
(3a) decrement by one: #-
(3b) decrement by N (9): 9#- ## Add # to a block

:'k,'ls/^/#/

## Remove trailing whitespace from every line

:%s/ *$//

## Remove tabs

:%s/<CTRL-V><TAB>//g

## Remove trailing whitespace from a block

:'k,'ls/\ *$//

## Remove the first N-characters from every line N = 5

:%s/^.\{0,5\}//

## Delete all lines N-character long N = 10

:g/^.\{10\}$/d

## Delete all lines _except_ N-character long N = 10

:g!/^.\{10\}$/d

## Search/replace paths using # as delimiter

:%s#/usr/local/log#/var/log#g

## Search/replace ^M with LF

:g/<CTRL-V><ENTER>/s///g

## Write the file as root :w !doas tee % ## Diff the file on disk with the buffer :w !diff -u % - ## Make a backup of the file on disk :!cp % %.bak ## Sort all lines :%!sort ## Sort a block `}` won't be shown

!}sort

## Sort from the current line to EOF `G` won't be shown

!Gsort

## Delete duplicated lines in the file :%!uniq ## Delete duplicated lines in the block `}` won't be shown

!}uniq

## Delete duplicated lines till EOF `G` won't be shown

!Guniq

## Underline all lines starting with `pattern`

:g/^pattern /t.|s/./=/g

## Search for `pattern`, print the containing function (start with `def`) and line number

:g/pattern/?^ *def ?#

## Add # to paragraph containing `pattern`

:g/pattern/?^$?+,//-s/^/#

## Sort content of a multiline CSS block :g/{$/+,/^}/-!sort ## Sort content of a multiline CSS block (media queries) :g/^[^@].*{$/+,/}/-!sort ## Format content of `

` tag to fixed width width = 40

:g/<p>/+,/<\/p>/-!fmt -40

## Format whole document :%!fmt -s In your .nexrc

map gF :%!fmt -s<CTRL-V><ENTER>

## Reverse all lines, move `m` all lines to 0 :g/1*/m0 ## Swap `Lastname, Firstname` to `Firstname, Lastname` :%s/$.*$, $.*$/\2 \1/ ## Convert to lowercase :%s/.*/\L&/ ## Surround text with pattern :%s/.*/`pattern` & `pattern`/ ## Join all lines :%j ## Copy `t` or move `m` lines containing `pattern`

:g/pattern/t$
:g/pattern/m$

## Select a column of a table Select 3rd column separated by colon (`:`)

:%!awk -F':' '{print $3}'

## Insert the sum of a list of numbers after an arbitrary number of lines (1) mark the first line: `mk` (2) mark the last line: `ml`

:'k,'l!awk 'END{print "total:", i}{i+=$1; print}'

:'k,'l!awk 'END{print "total:", i} ++i || 1'

## Email the block

:?^$?+,//-w !mail -s "subject" email@example.com

## Enable and use `ex` history (1) Set `ESC` key to enable history or add to `~/.nexrc`:

:set cedit=<CTRL-V><ESC>

(2) Use it with:

:<ESC>

## Integrate with tmux buffer (1) cut text from current position to mark 'm' into tmux buffer. Hit undo to put text back into vi buffer.

!'mtmux load-buffer -

(2) paste text from tmux buffer into vi buffer.

:r!tmux show-buffer

(3) Map in ~/.nexrc (command mode)

map gx !'mtmux load-buffer -<CTRL-V><ENTER>
map gy !'mtmux load-buffer -<CTRL-V><ENTER>u
map gp :r!tmux show-buffer<CTRL-V><ENTER>

## Remap ESC to ALT-i in ~/.nexrc (insert mode)

map! <CTRL-V><ALT-i> <CTRL-V><ESC>