VIM editor useful commands

When you are working on a Linux server via SSH, if you do not want to lose time when editing or reading files, you should know by heart at least the basic commands to work with the file in the editor. Let's teach only useful and frequently used commands of VIM editor.

Command vi opens in console the file in a text editor VIM. If the file does not exist, it opens a blank sheet.

[root@name-of-your-server ~]# vi newfile.conf

Moving inside the file content:

key up, down, left, right - moving through the text.
key PageUp, PageDown - permit thumb through file by one screen to the top or to the end ,
key Home, End - let you jump to the beginning or end of the current line,
:set nu + ENTER - set numbers of lines in the file,
:4 + ENTER - go to line with specific number
gg - fast jump to the beginning of the file,
G (shift+g) - fast jump to the end of the file,
w - jump forward one word from the cursor,
b - go to one word back from the cursor.

Note that if you have a computer with an enlarged keyboard NumLock, ie there are additional key figures, duplicate keys PageUp, PageDown, Home, End, and arrows usualy cannot be used as commands.

Searching in the file:

/word_for_searching or ?word_for_searching + ENTER - search in the file a word or a phrase in direction from cursor till the end of the file (use /) and from cursor back to the beginning of the file (use ?),
n - jump to the next result found in the text.

Search is case sensitive, so if in an open file the required phrase is written in UPPER letters, for the searching you also should use UPPER ones.

Editing of the file (insert mode):

i - start to editing the file from the cursor position or other translation is start to insert to the file.
I (shift+i) - start to editing the file and put cursor to the position of first symbol in the line,
ESC - exit from editing mode (from insert mode),

Do not forget to get out from insert mode before you start to use any commands of movement, searching or any other. Before you start to edit the file (especially large), the best for you solution to locate the line you want to edit, and move your cursor there, it will save you time. In edit mode, you can move through the text using only the arrows keys.

Exit from VIM editor:

:q + ENTER - quit from file without saving in case if in the file nothing has changed,
:q! + ENTER - force quit from file without saving, even if something has changed in the file, or not changed, the changes will not be saved,
:wq + ENTER - save the file (write changes) and exit,

There is a lot of other commands but you should not clog your brain by unnecessary information, because information becomes every day more and more.