VIM Quick Guide

September 17, 2022 2 min read

Whenever I use Vim to edit files on Linux, I need to relearn how to use it. Years ago I found a thread on Stack Overflow with two simple and extremely useful answers that helped me make sense of Vim. So here it is.

Vim Commands

In my search for a tutorial or guide to help me understand how Vim works, I came upon this Stack Overflow thread with excellent answers. My favorite of these are below, but feel free to dive deep at the original link.

Key	Effect
`:q`	to quit (short for `:quit`)
`:q!`	to quit without saving (short for `:quit!`)
`:wq`	to write and quit
`:wq!`	to write and quit even, force write is file has only read permission
`:x`	to write and quit (similar to `:wq`, but only write if there are changes)
`:qa`	to quit all (short for `:quitall`)
`:cq`	to quit without saving and make Vim return non-zero error (i.e. - exit with error)

Making sense of Vi (and Vim)

Pictures are worth a thousand Unix commands and options:

![Vi Diagram.](../../img/blog/vim.png Vi Diagram)

I draw this to my students each semester and they seem to grasp vi afterwards.

Vi is a finite state machine with only three states — COMMAND, INSERT, EX.

Upon starting, vi goes into COMMAND mode, where you can type short, few character commands, blindly. You know what you are doing; this isn’t for amateurs.

When you want to actually edit text, you should go to INSERT mode on key press:

Key	Effect
`i`	go to INSERT in the place of the cursor
`Shift + i`	go to INSERT mode at the beginning of the line
`a`	append after the cursor
`Shift + a`	append at the end of line
`o`	open a new line below the current line
`Shift + o`	open a new line in the place of the current line
`Esc`	go to COMMAND mode

Now, exiting. You can exit vi from EX mode:

Key	Effect
`:q`	quit if you haven’t made any modifications, or saved them beforehand
`:q!`	ignores any modifications and quit
`:wq`	save and quit
`:x`	this is equal to wq

w and x accept a file name parameter. If you started vi with a filename, you need not give it here again. At last, the most important: how can you reach EX mode?

EX mode is for long commands that you can see typing at the bottom line of the screen. From COMMAND mode, you push colon, :, and a colon will appear at the bottom line, where you can type the above commands.

From INSERT mode, you need to push Esc, going to COMMAND mode, and then colon (:) to go to EX mode. If you are unsure, push Esc and that will bring you to command mode.

So, the robust method, which saves your file and quits, is to hit Esc, type :x, then hit Enter.