How to delete all lines that start with a `\`?

Question

Here is (part of) a file that I am working on

turn down\
turn off\
turn on\
\pard\pardeftab720\ri-6\sl-660\qc\partightenfactor0
\f0\b\fs32 \cf0 U\
\pard\pardeftab720\ri-6\sl-240\qj\partightenfactor0
\f1\b0\fs21 \cf0 up and down\
used to do sth.\
\pard\pardeftab720\ri-6\sl-660\qc\partightenfactor0
\f0\b\fs32 \cf0 W\
\pard\pardeftab720\ri-6\sl-240\qj\partightenfactor0
\F1\b0\fs21 \cf0 wait for\
wake up\
work out\
worry about\
would like\
write down\
write to\

I would like to delete all lines that start with a \, but I am not sure how to go about it. I searched online but still there seems to be some piece missing. I tried to use regular expression.

:g/^\/dd

But it doesn't work. I think I need to double quote the patten, but it still doesn't work. Vim replied with an error of pattern not found.

Answer 1

You need to escape the backslash with another backslash. The below will work.

:global/^\\/delete

which can be abbreviated to :g/^\\/d.

Note that dd as you originally had is a Normal mode command, while :global takes an Ex command after the pattern. You can use :normal[!] to enter a Normal command, but in this case the equivalent Ex command :delete is shorter and more idiomatic.