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If I want to indent all lines in a document, I can type >G to apply it to the current line and below, followed by and >gg to apply it to the lines above.

Is there a combination I can use to just apply > to all lines at once?

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4 Answers 4

Reset to default
19

You are looking for the :> command and a range of 1,$ (% for short) for the whole file.

:%>

For more help see:

:h :>
:h :range
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1
  • 5
    Because of the title of this question ("apply a command to all lines"), I feel it's worth noting that the example in the question mentions the Normal-mode operator >, while this answer uses the Command-mode command :>. These are not, strictly speaking, the same thing. That they have the same name should be considered a coincidence; don't assume you can interchange operators and commands in general. For example, the gU operator converts text to uppercase, but :%gU is not a valid command to apply the same to the entire buffer.
    – tommcdo
    Dec 9, 2015 at 0:43
7

One way to indent all lines in a document:

:%>
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4

Without leaving normal mode you can simply do:

gg>G
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9
  • 2
    the downside here is that you lose your position in the file
    – TankorSmash
    Dec 8, 2015 at 20:56
  • All the other answers share that downside and the OP didn't mention "respect the cursor position" as a requirement.
    – romainl
    Dec 8, 2015 at 21:05
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    <c-o> can be used to go back to your previous position @romainl's solution requires you to go back twice while the other only require going back once
    – Brett Y
    Dec 8, 2015 at 21:24
  • Surely you can appreciate the value of keeping your place, and how an answer that would keep that position would be valuable.
    – TankorSmash
    Dec 8, 2015 at 22:33
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    That's why it's not being downvoted. It's simply a note saying there's a better option somewhere and that they should keep looking. For example, on a programming SE site, sloppy code that solves the problem solves the problem, but you'd still expect to find another solution that solves the problem and looks good.
    – TankorSmash
    Dec 8, 2015 at 23:04
3

Another option that has not been mentioned yet:

:g/^/>

This will run the command > on all lines that match the pattern ^.

Downside is that this will overwrite your search history.

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