116
votes
Accepted
How can I easily move a line?
First, you do not need to yank and delete; the latter will also put the deleted contents into the (default or specified) register. Therefore, ddp / ddkP are common commands to move a line one down / ...
- 16.6k
105
votes
Accepted
Close and unload a buffer without exiting Vim
There is command to do exactly that: :bdelete or just :bd. By default it will unload current buffer. To unload other buffer, first get the list of all buffers with :buffers command, and after that you ...
- 1,881
83
votes
Accepted
How to open multiple files in split mode?
You can use the option -o to open the files in horizontal splits or -O (letter "O") to open vertical splits. The following commands open a window for each file specified:
vim -o *.cpp
vim -O ...
- 4,452
78
votes
How can I easily move a line?
The easiest is: :m+ or :m-2 which is abbreviation for :move as Ingo suggested.
Or using visual mode (V) by cutting the line (d/x) then paste it (p - below cursor, P above cursor) after you moved your ...
- 16.5k
68
votes
Accepted
Close all split files, except the one currently focused?
If you want to close all windows(splits) except the current one:
:only
If you want to close all tabs except the current one:
:tabonly
If you want to delete all hidden buffers (files open but not ...
- 2,818
57
votes
Accepted
Dump the output of internal vim command into buffer
You can use :redir to redirect the output to a variable, register, or file. Example of redirecting to the unnamed register:
:redir @">|silent scriptnames|redir END|enew|put
Alternatively Tim Pope'...
- 14.8k
49
votes
Accepted
Execute current buffer as bash script from vim
I wrote a pretty extensive answer about this over on stack-overflow. The basic idea is that since the write command is about writing not saving, you can write the text in your buffer into an external ...
- 16.5k
46
votes
Close all split files, except the one currently focused?
Press Ctrl+w,o to quickly close all split windows, but current one.
Alternatively use the command: :on (:only).
:on[ly][!] Make the current window the only one on the screen. All other ...
- 16.5k
42
votes
Close and unload a buffer without exiting Vim
You can completely wipe out a buffer using the :bwipeout (or :bw) command. This completely removes the buffer from memory, including any marks, option settings, etc. that you have added to it. ...
- 521
38
votes
Accepted
How to go to previous open buffer from Vim command line?
The jumplist is not the best way to do buffer navigation. Vim has a great number of buffer navigation tools which are probably better used for this task.
<c-^>/<c-6> - jump to the ...
- 14.8k
36
votes
Accepted
How to edit content from the standard input?
You have to use - in place of the file name on the command line:
echo This is example. | vim -
The above command will open an unnamed buffer filled with the text read from the standard input.
- 4,452
36
votes
Accepted
How to edit files non-interactively (e.g. in pipeline)?
To edit file non-interactively using ex (vi is the visual mode for ex), you can use +{command} or -c {command} parameters which allows you to execute the vi commands after the first file has been read....
- 16.5k
29
votes
How can I easily move a line?
If I want to swap one line with the line above I usually do the following
ddkP
Explanation
dd will delete the line and add it to the default register.
k will move up a line (j would move down a ...
- 391
27
votes
Accepted
Execute normal command over range
You can do this with the normal command :
:1,10normal d2w
This is because the d operator doesn't accept a range, but only a motion :
:h d
["x]d{motion} Delete text that {motion} moves ...
- 15k
26
votes
Accepted
How do I use relative line numbers in command line mode?
Assuming your lines span from 15 to 10 lines above the current one, you can achieve what you requested using relative line numbers:
:-10,-15m.
Unfortunately when specifying a backwards range, Vim ...
- 3,392
24
votes
Accepted
How to save a file for which I have no write permissions?
The trick is to use an external call to sudo:
:w !sudo tee %
How this works:
:w !<command> executes <command> with the contents of the buffer as stdin.
tee duplicates stdin to a file &...
- 55.2k
24
votes
Accepted
How do I stop recording while in command line?
Another solution is when in command line mode, use Ctrl-f, and press q to stop recording.
Ctrl-f allows you to open the command line window, in which you can edit the command in normal mode. To ...
- 356
23
votes
How to split a line into multiple lines efficiently?
You could simply replace any consecutive space on the line with a newline using the command :s/\s\+/\r/g. \s\+ mean one or more whitespace characters, and \r is a newline, see :help :substitute and :...
- 4,452
21
votes
Accepted
What is the '[Command Line]' that sometimes comes up when I try to quit, and how can I quickly exit it?
You have invoked it by pressing q: which opens a new window and allows you to write an Ex command. That is why it's called the Command Line
You can read up on it by typing :help q:.
As it is a ...
- 461
20
votes
How do I stop recording while in command line?
One way to do it:
start your macro as usual (e.g. qq ... other chars)
when you reach the cmdline-mode, write all the characters you want
you want to end the macro here. Hit ESC to get out of cmdline-...
- 9,260
20
votes
Accepted
When to use :grep and :vimgrep in vim?
As the doc say:
Vim has two ways to find matches for a pattern: Internal and external.
In a nutshell, :vimgrep uses Vim's grep mechanism to read and find in files. :grep uses an external commands to ...
- 15k
19
votes
Accepted
How to work with command-line mode the vi way?
There's the command-line (that you know), and there's the command-line window (the command-line in a special buffer, which you can edit just like any other). You enter this either via <C-f> from ...
- 16.6k
19
votes
Accepted
Easiest way to switch git branches
To summarize the answers, here are the ways to accomplish this:
Vanilla Terminal Vim in a shell with job control
Press CTRL-Z in normal mode will drop you back in to the shell and suspend Vim. After ...
- 1,142
18
votes
Accepted
Bash-like partial tab-complete for filenames in Vim
You can use the wildmode option to control this.
If you use :set wildmode=list:longest, you get behaviour similar to bash.
I personally prefer to use :set wildmode=list:longest,full; this will list ...
- 55.2k
18
votes
Accepted
Can I search through 'oldfiles' with a specific name or extension?
Assuming you have Vim 8 you can use :filter
:browse filter /pattern/ oldfiles
For more help see:
:h :browse
:h :filter
:h oldfiles
:h new-items-8
- 14.8k
17
votes
Accepted
Is there a version of Vim or plugin with a Command Mode auto completion?
I really don't think that having autocompletion or not will help you learning how to use Vim. Your main problem in my opinion is to learn the basics of the editor and then learn more and more commands....
- 45.9k
17
votes
Accepted
How do I use a variable or return value in option, command, or mapping?
The reason your example attempts don't work is that in many locations text is simply seen as a literal string, rather than VimScript. So functions, variables, and the like don't work.
For example, if ...
- 20.6k
16
votes
How to work with command-line mode the vi way?
In addition to providing the command-line window, Vim also offers some limited features allowing you to interact with the command-line whilst in command-line mode (without using the arrow keys).
...
- 27.4k
16
votes
Accepted
How to substitute in multiple lines?
Performing a substitution on several consecutive lines is pretty easy:
:2,11s/^/word /
but a range can't cover non-consecutive lines.
With a bit of creativity, though, it is entirely possible to ...
- 32.6k
16
votes
vim doesn't show the command that is being typed
This behaviour is controlled by the showcmd option.
Try:
:set showcmd
and see if that brings it back.
- 3,392
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible