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This article will explain in detail how to use Vim in linux. The editor thinks it is very practical, so I share it with you as a reference. I hope you can get something after reading this article.

Vim is the most powerful and widely used code editor for Unix-like systems. It is an extension of the Vi editor developed by Bill 喜悦. By default, Vim can be used on most Linux and BSD systems.

Therefore, you can use the same editor on all systems and remote computers. Vim's rigorous vocabulary also makes it very efficient and expressive.

How does Vim work?

Vim is different from the traditional Linux text editor. It maintains Unix's philosophy of doing only one thing and doing it well. The most basic concept is that, as programmers, we spend most of our time editing code rather than writing code.

Vim provides several modes to solve this problem. Each mode has different functions and is controlled by keystrokes. The basic Vim modes are normal mode, visual mode, insert mode, and command mode.

Vim schema diagram

We use normal mode to examine the code and perform quick actions. The visual mode is used to highlight the text section, and the insert mode is where you add the text. You will use command mode to type various Vim commands.

How to use Vim's insert mode

When you open Vim, it starts in normal mode. You can switch to insert mode by entering the I key. This invokes insert mode at the cursor position. You should see an indication in the lower left corner.

You can now enter any text, and vim will copy the text into the buffer. To save the progress, press the exit key to switch back to normal mode. Now type the following vim command.

: w

There are other ways to enter insert mode. For example, you can press o in normal mode to insert text below the current line. Use O to insert text above the current line.

Insert text in Vim

Use the I key (uppercase of I) to insert text at the beginning of the current line. You can use the a key to append text after the cursor. Use the A key to add text at the end of the line.

To save and exit the current file, switch to command mode and type the following.

: wq

How to use the normal mode of Vim

Vim users spend most of their time in normal mode. Here, you can browse the text and perform quick edits. Pressing Escape in any mode will take you into normal mode.

Instead of the standard arrow keys, vim uses hjkl (h for left, j for down, k for top, and l for right) for navigation. At first it seemed counterproductive. However, vim does this to save the time it takes the user to reach the arrow keys on the keyboard.

And, like many console-based editors, vim encourages users to stay away from the mouse. You can configure vim to enable mouse support.

You can also move the text word by word. For example, press w in normal mode to move the cursor to the beginning of the next word. You can use b to move to the beginning of the current word and then end with e.

Vim uses word navigation

Navigate to the beginning of the line with 0 and move to the end of the line with $. Press H to move the cursor to the top of the screen, M to move the cursor to the middle of the screen, and L to move the cursor to the bottom of the screen. You can scroll up and down using Ctrl + u and Ctrl + d. Pressing gg,vim in normal mode moves the cursor to the top. Enter G to move to the end.

Once you are used to moving in normal mode, you can learn vim editing commands. Delete a character with x and replace it with s. You can use the d operator to delete text. The syntax is as follows

D {motion}

Instructions for the scope of operation. For example, pressing dw in normal mode deletes the current word. If you enter dumbparentin vim, everything from the cursor to the end of the line will be deleted. Similarly, enter d0 to delete to the beginning of the line. Use dd to delete the entire row.

Delete text in Vim

However, you do not need to delete something and enter replacement mode to make changes. The c operator allows us to make changes to VIM motion directly from normal mode.

C {motion}

So when you press the cw key, vim deletes the current word and puts you in insert mode. Your cursor must be at the beginning of the word because the vim will be removed from the current location. Use ciw to avoid this. This is changed in the current word. Use cc to change the entire line.

Change the text cc in Vim to change the entire line

Use y to copy and p to paste. Yw copies the current word, while yy copies the entire line. You can repeat the previous command using the dot operator, undo the change using u, and then redo it using Ctrl + r.

If you want to find something in your code, use the following vim command in Linux.

/ {regex}

Here, regex is a regular expression. Press n to enter the next match and n to enter the previous match.

Find a string in Vim

How to use the visual mode of Vim

Using vim in visual mode allows us to select a block of text using the move key. This is how advanced users move blocks of code in vim. Enter v in normal mode to switch to visual mode.

You can now use the navigation key hjkl to highlight parts of the text or code. Use Ctrl+v to switch to visual block mode. Here, you can select a text block. You can highlight rows by entering visual line mode. Use V to select the visual row mode (select the entire row).

Block selection in Vim

This allows us to edit one piece of text at a time. For example, you can select a block of text and press y to copy the text into the vim buffer.

How to use the command mode of Vim

We can access command mode by typing: in normal mode. It moves the cursor to the bottom of the screen, followed by a colon. Here are some of the most useful vim commands in Linux.

W save changes to a file

Wq saves and exits

: saveas saves the file and saves the file as

: Q exit vim

: q! Exit and discard changes

: e open and edit the file

: help opens help

This is the end of this article on "how to use Vim in linux". I hope the above content can be of some help to you, so that you can learn more knowledge. if you think the article is good, please share it for more people to see.

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