Vim Basics

Just the basics to get you up and running with Vim

• Quick start
• Commands
• Settings
• The <Ctrl> + z “problem”
• See also

This guide assumes some familiarity with the terminal. (See Unix Basics for a quick overview.)

Quick start

1. Launch Vim via the terminal:

   $ vim Main.java
   

   You are now in Vim’s Command mode.

   (You should see the contents of Main.java if the file already exists. Otherwise you will see an empty text editor window.)

2. You cannot type into or edit your file while in Command mode. To start typing into the file, you must switch to Vim’s Insert mode. Press i to do so. You should see -- INSERT -- on the bottom-left hand corner of your window. Now you can type as you would with any other text editor.

3. When you’re done typing, press <Esc> to go back to Command mode. (The <Esc> key is your friend! Hitting <Esc> will bring you back to Command mode.)

4. And… that’s about it, really! Now type :w and <Enter> to save the file, followed by :q! and <Enter> to quit Vim.

Commands

Almost all operations in Vim occur while in Command mode. Listed here are the more important commands that you should know.

Switching between Command and Insert mode

Moving the cursor around the file

Of course, you can also move the cursor using any of the arrow keys (↑, ↓, ←, →), but it will be a lot faster to use the above commands.

Delete/cut

Because whatever you delete is copied into Vim’s clipboard, these 3 commands are akin to performing a cut.

Copy and paste

You can also specify the text to be copied using a text selection. It is a bit more involved, though:

1. While in Command mode, press v to switch to Visual mode. You should see -- VISUAL -- on the bottom-left hand corner of your window.
2. Move the cursor to adjust the text selection.
3. When you have selected the text that you want to copy, press y. This will bring you back to Command mode, and the selected text will have been copied into Vim’s clipboard.

Undo and redo

Fixing code indentation

Save and quit

Settings

These are some of the commands to customise the display:

Vim will look for a settings file named .vimrc in your home directory. You can avoid having to type the above settings for every new Vim session by putting the following in your ~/.vimrc:

syntax on
set number

The <Ctrl> + z “problem”

Remember that the command for undo is simply u, not Ctrl + z!

If you’d accidentally pressed Ctrl + z, you will find yourself back in your terminal, where you will see something like the following:

[1]+  Stopped                 vim Main.java

A quick fix is to issue the fg command:

$ fg

This will bring us back to Vim, and all is well with the world.

(Explanation: Pressing <Ctrl> + z places the currently-running program in the background. Here, the currently-running program is Vim. The fg program simply brings the most recent “backgrounded” program back to the foreground.)

See also

• Shell Basics
• Vim Commands Cheatsheet