Vim Recipes

Vim Recipes
A cookbook for the Vim text editor
by Run Paint Run Run / Run Paint Press

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction .............................................................................................................................................v
Conventions............................................................................................................................................vi
Contributing...........................................................................................................................................vii
License..................................................................................................................................................... ix
Credits ..................................................................................................................................................... x
Basics
Choosing the Right Mode ............................................................................................................. 12
Basic Navigation ............................................................................................................................... 14
Opening Files .................................................................................................................................... 16
Saving a File ....................................................................................................................................... 20
Quitting Vim...................................................................................................................................... 22
Deleting Text .................................................................................................................................... 24
Visually Selecting Text.................................................................................................................... 26
Copying, Cutting, and Pasting ...................................................................................................... 28
Configuring Vim................................................................................................................................ 30
Printing................................................................................................................................................ 34
Getting Help...................................................................................................................................... 36
Editing
Indenting Lines.................................................................................................................................. 41
Selecting Text with Motions......................................................................................................... 44
Repeating Commands ..................................................................................................................... 47
Changing the Case of Text........................................................................................................... 49
Sorting Text ...................................................................................................................................... 51
Executing External Commands .................................................................................................... 54
Managing Sessions ............................................................................................................................ 56
Formatting with an External Program ....................................................................................... 59
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Working with Different File Formats ........................................................................................ 61

Typing
Spell Checking................................................................................................................................... 64
Using Templates............................................................................................................................... 66
Undoing Mistakes............................................................................................................................. 69
Auto-Completing Text ................................................................................................................... 71
Abbreviating Common Strings ..................................................................................................... 74
Inserting Accented or “Foreign” Characters ........................................................................... 76
Opening the File .............................................................................................................................. 79
Inserting the Date............................................................................................................................ 82
Inserting Snippets............................................................................................................................. 84
Navigation
Navigating Text Files....................................................................................................................... 89
Navigating Source Code ................................................................................................................ 91
Navigating the Viewport ................................................................................................................ 93
Navigating Buffers ............................................................................................................................ 94
Navigating Tabs ................................................................................................................................ 96
Manually Creating Folds................................................................................................................. 98
Navigating Folds ............................................................................................................................. 100
Splitting the Screen .......................................................................................................................102
Navigating Marks............................................................................................................................104
Navigating Tags............................................................................................................................... 106
Bookmarking Lines with Visible Markers (Signs) ..................................................................109
GUI
Changing the Font .........................................................................................................................113
Maximising Screen Space .............................................................................................................115
Creating Menus and Toolbar Buttons .....................................................................................117
Searching
Searching for any Word ..............................................................................................................120
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Searching Over Multiple Files.....................................................................................................121
Searching and Replacing ...............................................................................................................124
Searching for the Word Beneath the Cursor.......................................................................126
Creating Regular Expressions.....................................................................................................127
Looking up Documentation for the Keyword Under the Cursor ..................................132
Display
Working with Long Lines............................................................................................................134
Displaying Line Numbers.............................................................................................................136
Working with Remote Files .......................................................................................................137
Changing the Status Line .............................................................................................................139
Redefining Highlight Groups .......................................................................................................142
Modifying the Cursor ...................................................................................................................145
Changing the Window Title .......................................................................................................147
Extending
Creating Keyboard Shortcuts with Key Mappings ...............................................................151
Changing the Colour Scheme ....................................................................................................153
Creating Command-Line Commands .......................................................................................155
Extending Vim with Scripts and Plugins ..................................................................................157
Integrating Vim with Git ..............................................................................................................160
Other Uses of Vim
Browsing Directories....................................................................................................................165
Using Vim as a File Manager ......................................................................................................167
Viewing Differences Between Files ...........................................................................................170
Outlining a Document..................................................................................................................172
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INTRODUCTION
The Vim text editor is perhaps as famous for its learning curve as it is for its contributions to
productivity. Vim isn't "intuitive" in the way other applications claim to be—you cannot use it
by simply replicating the actions you perform with a word processor, by clicking on menu
items aimlessly until you achieve your desired effect. But this is by design. The major strength
of Vim is that it does things differently to magnificent effect. It permanently alters the way in
which you regard text editors and software in general. And that is why, in 2009, I am putting
the finishing touches to a free book about a text editor whose ancestry can be traced back to
1976.
This book is written to be consulted when you're looking for a better way to perform a task.
It does not replace Vim's excellent built-in documentation, but complements it by focussing on
tasks rather than commands. It will always be incomplete by virtue of Vim having more
features and extensions than I have years alive, but will hopefully still serve as an indispensable
reference.
In addition to being free, this book is open source. The files from which it is compiled are
freely available, for you to examine and, hopefully, improve. In any case, I would enjoy hearing
any feedback you have. Contact details are in the Contributing section, and you can e-mail me
at the address below.
Happy Viming!
—Run Paint Run Run ([email protected]), 2009, U.K.
Visit http://vim.runpaint.org/ for latest updates. v

CONVENTIONS
The following typographical conventions are used in this book:
KEY PRESSES
<Esc> - Indicates that the named key should be pressed.
<Ctrl>-p - Keys joined with a - should be pressed simultaneously. In this example the
<Ctrl> should be held down while the p key is pressed.
NORMAL MODE COMMANDS
gqap - The named characters should be entered in order while in Normal mode.
COMMAND-LINE COMMANDS
:set spell - The command should be typed in Command-Line mode. (If you're in a
different mode, press <Esc> before you type the command).
:!command - As above, but command is a variable which should be substituted for its value.
MONOSPACED FONT
A fixed width font is used for filenames, code, and variable names.
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CONTRIBUTING
This book is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
License, and its complete text is available in a Git repository. All contributions are welcomed.
Patches are preferred, but if you're not comfortable with Git you can use the issue tracker as
described below.
ISSUE TRACKER
You may report typographical errors, factual mistakes, or unclear passages via the web-based
issues tool at github.com/runpaint/vim-recipes/issues.
E-MAIL
You can send patches and bug reports to [email protected].
PATCHES
The source for this book is available in a Git repository. If you have Git installed on your
system you may clone the repository using the URL git://github.com/runpaint/vim-recipes.git.
(For an introduction to Git see the Git Community Book).
You'll probably want to do something like this:
$ git clone git://github.com/runpaint/vim-recipes.git

Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/vim-recipes/.git/
remote: Counting objects: 666, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (610/610), done.
Visit http://vim.runpaint.org/ for latest updates. vii

remote: Total 666 (delta 350), reused 0 (delta 0)
Receiving objects: 100% (666/666), 407.52 KiB | 35 KiB/s,
done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (350/350), done.
$ cd vim-recipes
$ vim text/04_basics/09_configuring_vim.html
$ git commit -a
Then either send me a patch ([email protected]), or post it to the issue tracker.
Alternatively, if you already use GitHub, fork the repository, make your changes, then send me
a pull request.
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LICENSE
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or
send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California,
94105, USA.
Visit http://vim.runpaint.org/ for latest updates. ix

CREDITS
COVER IMAGE
The cover photograph of Bram Moolenaar, the creator of Vim, was taken by Sebastian
Bergmann and kindly released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
License. The original photograph can be viewed at Flickr.
CSS
The Cascading Style Sheets used in the production of the book were derived significantly from
the work of others. Mark Pilgrim's stylesheet from Dive Into Python 3 was the main inspiration.
In conjunction, the CSS created by Håkon Wium Lie and Bert Bos for their book entitled
Cascading Style Sheets: Designing for the Web, 3rd Edition, and graciously made available via A List
Apart, was particularly helpful. Lastly, Nando Vieira's kitabu project offered ideas on how to
tie it all together.
CONTRIBUTORS
The following people have kindly contributed ideas, corrections, and advice: Rizal Almashoor,
Raúl Núñez de Arenas Coronado, Adam Blinkinsop, coderpunk, dm3, Kjetil Dynnamittt, Ihar
Filipau, Michael Houghton, Javier Rojas, and others who I'm bound to have omitted. Thank
you!
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Vim Recipes
BASICS
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CHOOSING THE RIGHT MODE
PROBLEM
You know that Vim has multiple modes of operation but aren't sure when to use which one.
SOLUTION
For practical purposes there are four modes:
Insert mode
Use only for typing; not moving around or editing. Stay in this mode for as short a time
as possible.
Normal mode
Use this for editing: moving around the file, changing text, and rearranging structure. Dip
in and out of Insert mode when needed.
Visual mode
Use this for visually selecting text so that you can cut, copy, or format it.
Command-Line mode
Use this for entering commands, e.g. :set number
DISCUSSION
Vim's modal approach to editing can seem confusing, but it really is the key to understanding
Vim.
It's tempting to spend much of your time in Insert mode, and navigate with the arrow keys.
However, this is slow and requires an awful lot of key presses.
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Normal mode is the default mode because it makes it so easy to move around the file to
either edit existing text or position the cursor where you want to insert text.
✪ Use <Ctrl>+o in Insert mode to switch to Normal mode for one command,
then return to Insert mode. For example, <Ctrl>+o gqas enters Normal mode,
reformats the current sentence,1 then returns you to Insert mode.
If you create a new file, and just want to type, by all means go straight into Insert mode and
do so. All other times, though, stay in Normal mode.
For example, you want to find a paragraph you've written previously, and reword it. In
Normal mode you can either search for it (e.g. /Hobson argued), or simply page through
the file (e.g. <Ctrl>+F to scroll downwards) to find it. Once there, you can move to the
section you're interested in using either the basic movement commands or text objects. You
can now use text objects again to select something and change it. For example caw deletes the
current word and puts you into Insert mode to change it. Once you have done so, hit <Esc>
again to return to Normal mode.
1. For an explanation of gqas refer to the Selecting Text with Motions recipe.

BASIC NAVIGATION
PROBLEM
You want to move around inside a file.
SOLUTION
The traditional approach is to use the arrow keys to move up, down, left, and right. Vim
supports that style of navigation but also offers a more efficient alternative:
Key Movement
h Left
l Right
k Up a line
j Down a line
0 Start of line
^ First character of line
$ End of line
DISCUSSION
It is tempting to rely on old habits for something as basic as moving around in a file. Once
you're used to The Vim Way, however, you'll find yourself much more efficient. One reason
for this is that these keys are all located on the main keyboard, so you don't need to stretch
to the arrow keys, hence breaking your flow.
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Another benefit is that you can prefix these shortcuts with counts (as you can with many Vim
commands) which specify how many times they should be executed. For instance, 2k moves
up two lines.
Once you've become used to these keys, take a look at motions and text objects in Selecting
Text with Motions to make the humble combination of h, l, k, and j more powerful still.

OPENING FILES
PROBLEM
You want to open a file in Vim.
If you want to edit or view an existing file you need to open it first. For example, if your
world-changing novel is saved as novel.txt, you want to open novel.txt in Vim.
SOLUTION
To open a file from the command line invoke Vim with the filename as an argument. For
example: vim docs/novel.txt (on Windows: vim.exe docs\novel.txt).
To open a file from inside Vim you can use :e file (mnemonic: edit). This closes the
current file and opens a new buffer containing the given file.
✪ If you use Andy Lester's ack utility you can create a shell script to open files
without having to specify their path. For example, using bash:
#!/bin/sh
vim $(ack -g $@)
Name it vack, then vack shapes.rb will search recursively downwards from the
current directory to find shapes.rb, then open it in Vim.
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DISCUSSION
You may prefix the filename with +linenumber to instruct Vim to jump to the given line
after opening. For example, vim +7 todo.list or :e +100 treatise.txt. If you
omit linenumber, i.e. you prefix the filename with +, Vim will jump to the end of the file.
Similarly, prefixing the filename with +/pattern positions the cursor at the first occurrence
of the pattern pattern. For example, vim +/^References btrees.textile
instructs Vim to open btrees.textile, find the first line that starts with References, then
position the cursor there.
The :cd directory command lets you change the directory Vim resolves relative
paths to. So if you're working with multiple files in the same directory tree you can
use this command to set your working directory so it's easier to open files. For
example, instead of opening /home/julie/recipes/pasta/cabonara.txt
then /home/julie/recipes/pasta/peperonata.txt you can :cd
/home/julie/recipes/pasta then :e carbonara.txt. If you forget which
directory you're in :pwd (print working directory) will tell you.
If you supply multiple filenames, Vim opens them all, one in each buffer. The first file named is
opened in the current buffer. If you provide a line number or pattern to jump to, this only
affects the first named file. Typing :next advances you to the next file in the list.
When working with multiple files you may prefer to view them in tabs or split windows,
instead of buffers.
Tabs display a single file at a time, but, by default, provide a list of opened tabs across the top
of the screen. You can switch to an open tab by clicking on its name in the GUI or referring

to its number. From within Vim :tabedit file opens the named file in a new tab. Or,
from the command line vim -p files opens each named file in its own tab.
Split windows display multiple files on screen simultenously. By default the screen is divided
horizontally, putting each file beneath the previous, but you may also split it vertically so that
each file is displayed next to each other. From Vim :split file splits the screen
horizontally between the current file and the named file. :vsplit file effects a vertical
division. These operations can be conducted from the command line with vim -o files
and vim -O files, respectively.
So far we have specified filenames literally by naming each file to open. However, at other
times this is impractical. For example, suppose you want to edit all files whose names end
with .txt, or a file that you can only remember has the word lethargy in it. In cases such
as these we would rather describe a group of files by using wildcards.
If you're opening a file from the command line (i.e. vim resume.tex), your shell expands
any wildcards. Windows is notoriously weak at command-line work, but other operating
systems will probably do the right thing here. For example, using the bash shell I can open
.txt files whose names start with 1, 2, or 3 with vim [123]*.txt.
Vim commands that accept filenames support a similar set of wildcards with one caveat: some
commands only accept a single filename, while others accept a list. The implication is that if
you use wildcards with a command like :edit, which only takes a single filename, they
cannot expand to multiple files. So if your current directory contained only one .html file,
:edit *.html would save you typing and work how you expect. However, if the directory
contained multiple .html files, that same wildcard would imply a list of files, and :edit
*.html would complain: E77: Too many file names.
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Instead of using :edit, you can use :next files which happily accepts a list of files, and
opens each one in a new buffer. The :args files command is similar, but instead of
appending the list of files to the current list of open files, it uses them to replace the current
list.

SAVING A FILE
PROBLEM
You want to save the file you've been working on.
After you've made changes to a file you typically want to save them. For example, if you've
written up a turkey recipe to send to your daughter, you'd open Vim, type the recipe, save it
to turkey-recipe.txt, then e-mail turkey-recipe.txt to your hungry child.
SOLUTION
The :up[date] command saves the current buffer if it has been modified2. If your file
doesn't have a name yet, you'll need to follow :up with a filename. This is conceptually similar
to most word processors' Save function.
To change the name of an existing file, use :saveas file. If file already exists and you
want to overwrite it, use :saveas! file. This is conceptually the same as most word
processors' Save As function.
DISCUSSION
There are a number of situations where it can be useful to have Vim save your file for you
automatically. One is when you're working with files in multiple buffers and cycling between
them. By default, every time you switch to a buffer Vim prompts you to save the current one
first. Another is when you execute an external command on the current file. The command is
passed the file's name, so if your buffer contains unsaved changes, the command won't see
2. The more common command to save a file is :w, however this always saves the file, even if it hasn't
been changed. :up preserves timestamps and saves needless disk access.
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Vim Recipes
them. The solution is to :set autowrite. This causes files to be automatically saved when
you switch buffers and execute external commands. If you also want files automatically saved
when you quit Vim, use :set autowriteall.
✪ The :autowrite functionality is not related to some word processor's concept of
auto-saving a file periodically in case of a crash. Vim does this automatically.
You can also "write" a specific portion of a file to a new filename. By prefixing the :up
command with a line range only the specified lines are written to the named file. For example,
:20,30up 20-30.txt saves lines twenty to thirty of the current buffer to a file named
20-30.txt. Alternatively, select a portion of a file visually then execute :up filename
and the text you selected will be written to a file named filename.

QUITTING VIM
PROBLEM
You've finished using Vim and now you want to close the program.
SOLUTION
To save the changes in the current file then quit use :x3. In Normal mode you use ZZ.
DISCUSSION
The way you quit Vim depends on what you want to quit (the whole program, or just the
current window) and what you want to do with your unsaved changes.
As mentioned above, if you're using a single window either :x or ZZ will save any unsaved
changes, and exit Vim.
To exit and discard your changes you use :q! (mnemonic: quit in a possibly dangerous
(exclamatory) manner).
You can also quit on the condition that there are no unsaved changes with :q; if you do need
to save Vim warns you E37: No write since last change (add ! to
override).
If you're using multiple windows the above commands will act upon the current window. To
quit all windows use :qa (mnemonic: quit all). Vim will prompt you to save any changes. To
3. The more usual suggestion for saving then quiting is :wq. We use :x here because it only saves the file
if it has been changed, thus preserving its timestamp and saving needless disk access.
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quit all windows without saving use :qa! (mnemonic: quit all in a possibly dangerous
manner).

DELETING TEXT
PROBLEM
You wish to remove some text from a file. For example, you've typed a paragraph which is no
longer needed.
SOLUTION
In Normal mode, move your cursor over the character to banish and hit x (mnemonic:
expunge). This deletes characters under and after the cursor; to delete characters before the
cursor use X. This is fine for single characters, but to delete words and other text objects you
can use dmotion. The difference, then, is that x deletes characters, whereas d deletes text
described by a given motion.
If you'd rather nuke entire lines at a time use dd. So, to delete the current line and the one
following it: 2dd. Use a range prefix to delete the specified lines, e.g. :17,20d deletes lines
seventeen through to twenty.
A compromise is to delete the remainder of a line, which can be achieved with D. If your
cursor was positioned after compromise in the above sentence, and you then hit D, the line
would be changed to just A compromise.
If you've selected a block of text visually, you can delete it all with x.
DISCUSSION
Vim doesn't just delete text; it saves it to a register first. If you delete a small amount of text
(less than a line), it's stored in a register named "-. Otherwise, it's stored in "0, whose
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existing contents are moved to "1, whose existing…right up to "9. This allows you easy
access to previously deleted text inasmuch as you can recall, say, the 3rd most recently
deleted line with "2p. Even more usefully, you can use :registers to view your recent
deletions. The Undoing Mistakes recipe explains how to revert these deletions.

VISUALLY SELECTING TEXT
PROBLEM
You want to interactively select some text by drawing a box around it, thus enabling you to
perform a command that affects it. In other words, you want to select a text like you would
in a GUI word processor using either the keyboard or, in Gvim, the mouse.
SOLUTION
To select text character by character change to Visual mode with <Esc>-v, then move the
cursor as normal using the h,j,k,l keys. For example, to select the current character and the
three that follow hit <Esc>-v, then 3l. To select the current paragraph: <Esc>-v, then
ap.
To select text by lines switch to Visual Line mode with <Esc>-V, then move upwards and
downwards with k and j as normal. For example, to select the current line and the 2
following it hit <Esc>-V, then 2j.
To select text in vertical blocks, or 'columns' to the rest of us, you use Visual Block mode with
<Esc>-<Ctrl>-v. For example, if you wanted to select the first two characters of the
current line and the 20 following, you'd position your cursor on the first character of the first
line you're interested in, hit <Esc>-<Ctrl>-v, move one character to the right (l), then
move down 20 lines with 20j.
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DISCUSSION
As you get used to Vim's movement command, you'll have less of a need for the various visual
modes. Regardless, they can still be convenient when you're making complex selections or
aren't really sure what you're doing. ;-)
The point of selecting text is to operate on it. Here are some common actions:
• Copy/cut it.
• Format it, e.g. gq.
• Indent/unindent it.

COPYING, CUTTING, AND PASTING
PROBLEM
You want to duplicate text from one place to another. For example, you may want to move
the paragraph you've just typed above the previous one. Or maybe you want to copy some
text from a web page into Vim.
SOLUTION
To copy/cut text from Vim you must first select it. You can do so visually, or provide a motion
to the relevant command.
Vim calls copying yanking, so to copy visually selected text use the y (mnemonic: yank)
command. The syntax ymotion yanks the text defined by motion. For example, y2w would
copy the current and following words. yy works on lines instead, so 4yy would copy the
current line and the three following it. (Y is a synonym, thus saving you that extra keystroke
;-)).
Cutting is much the same, only it uses d (mnemonic: delete) and dd, respectively. To cut the
visually selected text, hit d. To cut the current line, dd. To cut the current word, dw.
The text is now in one of Vim's registers. To paste the contents of a register into a file,
position your cursor appropriately, then use the p (mnemonic: paste or put) key in Normal
mode. p inserts text after the cursor. To insert the text before use P. As with many Vim
commands, p and P can be prefixed with a repetition count, so 2p pastes the clipboard
contents twice.
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To paste text from the system clipboard use Shift+Ins in Insert mode or "*p in Normal
mode. Conversely, "+y yanks the current selection to the system clipboard.
DISCUSSION
The solution aboves uses the concept of a single clipboard, much like some operating systems
do. Vim can work this way, as you can see, but also supports 'named registers'. These are,
4
effectively, multiple, independent clipboards. Registers are named with a " character followed
by a single lowercase letter, e.g. "a5.
To yank/delete/put using a named register, simply prefix the command with the register name.
So, to yank the current line to register "b use "byy. To paste it use "bp.
To view the contents of the registers (both user-set and Vim-set), issue the :registers
command.
When pasting text from external applications into a Vim instance Vim may clobber the text by
attempting to be too clever. This happens when it cannot distinguish between entered text
and pasted text. The most common symptom is that the pasted text is indented bizarely.
To fix this, consider using :set paste before you paste, then :set nopaste afterwards.
Alternatively, use :set pastetoggle=key to map a key to toggle paste mode. With this
steup on Linux, for example, users could paste with F11+Shift-Ins+F11.
4. Registers are actually far more powerful than this; :help registers for details.
5. Again, this is a vast simplification.

CONFIGURING VIM
PROBLEM
You want your Vim preferences to persist over sessions.
For example, you want Vim to show line numbers all the time. Displaying Line Numbers
explains how, but when you restart Vim you find that your preferences have been forgotten.
SOLUTION
Throughout this book I will discuss how to configure Vim options using the :set option
or :set option=value syntax. This works, but only for the current instance of Vim. If
you specify these options in your vimrc file they'll be set permanently.
⇰ Location of vimrc
The default location of the vimrc file depends on your operating system. Identify
your operating system, then note the corresponding path. All references in this book
to vimrc refer to this path.
Gvim reads vimrc then a gvimrc file located in the same place as vimrc. In this
book vimrc and gvimrc are treated as synonyms.
Unix/Linux
$HOME/.vimrc
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OS/2
$HOME/.vimrc or $VIM/.vimrc (or _vimrc)
MS-DOS and Windows

$HOME/_vimrc or $VIM/_vimrc
Amiga
s:.vimrc or $VIM/.vimrc
The vimrc is a simple plain text file. Open the filename specified in the sidebar and add one
option per line using the option=value syntax (the ':' prefix is unnecessary). Indeed, this is
the general principle for adding any Command-Line command in this book to your vimrc. For
example:
" Set the boolean number option to true
set number
" Set the textwidth option to '78'
set textwidth=78
" Set the expandtab option to false
set noexpandtab
A single quotation mark (") introduces comments. They are ignored by Vim, but particularly
useful for remembering what all of your preferences mean.
✪ Even if you don't want to specify any options in vimrc you should still create
it. On some systems Vim will act like the Vi editor in the absence of this file, which
is unlikely to be what you want.

DISCUSSION
The vimrc locations given in the sidebar are used for user preferences; there are also system
wide vimrc files. User preferences take precedence over system preferences. This means that
if you change an option set in the system vimrc, your preferences will be respected.
However, if the system vimrc sets an option differently from the Vim defaults, and you don't
include it in your vimrc, the system preference will be used.
The example vimrc above is very basic. They can also include functions, conditionals, and
anything else Vim's scripting engine supports. For a simple example look at the usage of
:autocmd in the Using Templates recipe.
If your configuration becomes complex you may want to split it over multiple files. You can
instruct Vim to include these files in your configuration by adding a source file line to
vimrc for each config file. See Abbreviating Common Strings for an example.
If you want a different configuration for a specific project you can :set exrc then include a
.vimrc (or vimrc on DOS and MS Windows) in the project's directory. This takes
precedence over your vimrc, and will be used when you edit files in that directory.
Warning: There's the potential for security problems when using exrc. If a vimrc was placed in
your project directory without you knowing -- as a result of unpacking an archive, for example
-- it could be used to execute arbitrary commands under your user account. For this reason
it's strongly recommended that you use :set secure in conjunction with exrc. This
prevents the directory-specific vimrc files from executing potentially dangerous commands.
The Vim documentation suggests adding set secure as the last line in your vimrc.
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⇰ Debugging Configuration
• Start Vim without loading your vimrc: vim -u NORC. (Use -U for Gvim).
• Start Vim with a different vimrc: vim -u file.
• Start Vim in verbose mode: vim -V. (Describes each file being sourced).
• Check the system wide vimrc to see whether its interacting badly with
yours.

PRINTING
PROBLEM
You want to print something from Vim.
SOLUTION
In GVim there's a Print entry on the File menu, and a printer icon on the toolbar. In Vim
execute :hardcopy.
DISCUSSION
:hardcopy converts the current file to Postscript and sends it to the default printer. You
can specify that a different printer is used with :set pdev=printer. For example, :set
pdev=usblp1.
If you have a PDF printer installed6, you can use this technique to print a file to PDF. For
example, assuming your PDF printer is called pdf:
set pdev=pdf
set printoptions=paper:A4,syntax:y,wrap:y
The printoptions line is a comma separated list of values that affect how Vim formats the
document before it sends it to the printer. A list of options is at :help popt.
The paper option sets the paper size. It accepts values such as A3, letter, and legal.
6. Linux/Mac users can install the CUPS PDF package to get a PDF printer, e.g. on Debian/Ubuntu: apt-
get install cups-pdf.
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The syntax option determines whether the document is printed with syntax highlighting. By
default it has the value a which means that Vim only uses highlighting for colour printers. A
value of y forces highlighting.
Lines are wrapped when wrap:y, which is the default. If wrap has the value n, long lines are
truncated.
Other useful options are header:0 to stop a header from being printed, number:y to
number lines, duplex:off to print on only one side of the page.
On Linux the lpr utility is used for printing. To use a different program add a stanza such as
the following to your vimrc:
set printexpr=PrintFile(v:fname_in)
function PrintFile(fname)
call system("a2ps " . a:fname)
call delete(a:fname)
return v:shell_error
endfunc
The above example specifies that the GNU Anything to Postscript (a2ps) utility is used for
printing. a2ps can print two pages per physical page and custom headers, for example; see
man a2ps for a complete list of features.

GETTING HELP
PROBLEM
You want help with Vim but don't know where to look. Or, you've found help but find the
output of the online help confusing.
SOLUTION
Look up a topic in the online help with :help topic. Search it with the :helpgrep
pattern command.
✪ When requesting help for a subject use <Ctrl>+d to auto complete what
you've typed. For example, :help :h<Ctrl>+d shows a list of help topics for
commands starting with :h.
DISCUSSION
The :help topic displays documentation for the tag named topic in the Vim
documentation. The tags are named with the following convention:
Type of Topic Prepend Example

Normal mode command (nothing) :help x
Visual mode command v :help v_u
Insert mode command i :help i_<Esc>
Command-line command : :help :quit
Command-line editing c :help c_<Del>
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Vim command argument - :help -r

Option ' :help 'textwidth'
(The table above is excerpted from the Vim online help).
The documentation itself also uses several conventions that may not be immediately obvious.
For example, :help help displays the following7:
The strings in pink are synonymous tags for the current entry. For example, :help <F1>
locates the same entry as :help help.
The blue <Help> label indicates that in GVim the Help menu is the GUI equivalent of this
command.
The :h[elp] notation uses square brackets to indicate the optional portion of the
command. Command-line commands can be shortened to the point that they are still
unambiguous. In this case, :help can be shortened to :h or :hel.
7. If you're using a different colour scheme the colours may be different.

The green text ('helplang') indicates an option. It's also a hyperlink to an explanation of
the option, so if your cursor is over it you can use <Ctrl>+] to follow it.
The screenshot above identifies some further conventions to be aware of.
The {pattern} notation describes a variable, i.e. it's a placeholder for text that you must
supply.
Again square brackets are denote optional text. In this example, [@xx] means that you can
follow the pattern by a two-letter language code.
Lastly, the light green text are also hyperlinks. For example, :cwindow links to
documentation for that command.
helpgrep takes a pattern and matches it against the locally installed documentation in much
the same way as vimgrep did in Searching Over Multiple Files. If it finds any matches, it adds
them to the quick fix list8, and jumps to the first one.
✪ Once you've followed a hyperlink (with <Ctrl>+]), you can return to your
previous location with <Ctrl>+o. This works in a similar fashion to a web
8. See the Quick Fix List sidebar in Searching Over Multiple Files for more information
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browser's Back button, so using this key combination n times will take you to the
place you were at n links previously.
If you've installed a Vim addon, you'll need to run :helptags docs-path before
helpgrep will see its documentation.

EDITING
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INDENTING LINES
PROBLEM
You want to use whitespace (spaces or tabs) to indent lines from the left margin.
For example, you may want to start your paragraphs with an indented first line. Or, if you're
writing program source code, you may want to visually represent the structure of your
program by using indentation to show nesting.
SOLUTION
To start a line indented, just press the tab key once for each level of indentation.
To indent existing lines, highlight them visually and press > to indent or < to unindent.
If you're in Insert or Replace mode you can use <Ctl>-<Shift>-t to indent (mnemonic:
tab), and <Ctl>-<Shift>-d to unident (mnemonic: de-tab/indent).
More powerful are motions combined with indent/unident commands. The syntax is >motion
to indent the text described by motion, and <motion to unident it. For example, >ap
indents the current paragraph.
DESCRIPTION
For many users, this solution will be sufficient. However, programmers regularly need more
control over indentation because it's so important to their work.

✪ The :set list command makes literal tabs visible. It displays them as Î,
and uses a similar notation for other non-printable characters. The $ symbol is used
to show the end of lines.
A contentious issue among programmers involves how the tab key should work. There are
two main schools of thought:
• Literal tabs - Each press of the tab key should insert a literal tab character (padding
with spaces if necessary). To achieve this: :set tabstop=8 (the default), :set
softtabstop=8, :set shiftwidth=8, and :set noexpandtab. Tabs are
now eight columns wide; each indentation level is a single tab.
• Convert tabs to spaces - Each press of the tab key should insert a certain number of
spaces. The settings you need are :set tabstop=4, :set shiftwidth=4, and
:set expandtab. Tabs are now replaced with 4 spaces.
shiftwidth controls how many spaces are inserted when using the >>/<< technique
described above, or the automatic indenting used with source code.
softtabstop specifies how many columns Vim uses when Tab is hit in Insert mode. If it's
less than tabstop, and Vim's not expanding tabs (:set noexpandtab), Vim indents with
tabs, padding with spaces where necessary.
(It can be seen, then, that you'll typically want to make softtabstop and shiftwidth
equal, for reasons of consistency and sanity.)
The boolean expandtab option replaces tabs with spaces if true; leaves them alone if false.
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These settings are not retroactive. To make an existing file honour your indentation
preferences use the :retab! command.
SEE ALSO
• Tabs versus Spaces: An Eternal Holy War by Jamie Zawinski.

• Secrets of Tabs in Vim by Ted Logan.

SELECTING TEXT WITH MOTIONS
PROBLEM
You want to define an area of text for a command to operate on without leaving Normal
mode.
For example, you want to delete next two words, or reformat the current paragraph.
SOLUTION
In Normal and Visual mode operator commands can be followed by motions which describe
what text they should operate on. They can be thought of as a set of directions the operator
should use to select text.
For example, you can delete the character under the cursor with x. If you wanted to delete
the word fandangle you'd need to press x nine times: once for each character. You could
simplify the process by prefixing x with a count: 9x. However, that requires you to know how
many characters are in the word, and would be totally impractical if you wanted to delete
multiple words at once. Instead you can use the dmotion command which deletes the text
selected by motion, as opposed to the character-by-character approach of x. The motion for
a word is w, so you can delete the word more easily with dw.
The following table shows some common operators which understand motions.
Operator Action Description

c change Deletes then enters insert mode.
d delete Deletes.
y yank Copies to a register.
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gq format Reformats.
> indent Shifts text left.
< unindent Shifts text right.
Here are some common motions:
Command Moves
counth Left count characters.
countl Right count characters.
countj Down count characters.
countk Up count characters.
count$ To end of the line count-1 lines downward.
0 To the first character of the line.
countfchar To the countth occurrence of char to the right.
We can combine operators and motions to select text then operate upon it. Let's look at
some examples:
y10h
Copy the previous 10 characters to a register.
d$
Delete from the current character until the end of the line.
c2j
Delete the current line and the one below it, then enter Insert mode.

DISCUSSION
Motions aren't very intelligent. Say you wanted to delete the word This with dw. That works
as long as your cursor is over T; if you were on the h, you'd only delete that.
Vim supports additional motions for operating on text objects. One of these is aw (mnemonic:
a word) which would do the right thing in both examples above because it considers what
object, not character, the cursor over.
Text object commands are very similar to motions, and can be used with the same operators.
They're frequently just a motion command prefixed with either a or i. The a prefix indicates
that the whole object will be selected, including white space; the i prefix selects the inner
object without white space, or just the white space. A few of the available commands follow:
Command Selects
countaw
count words
countiw
countas
count sentences
countis
countaB
count […] or {…} blocks
countiB
counta"
count quoted strings
counti"
So, to delete a paragraph, position your cursor anywhere inside it then hit dap. Delete a
paragraph - it even sounds sensible9.
9. No, this is not a bug.
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REPEATING COMMANDS
PROBLEM
You've entered a command and want to repeat it without re-typing it.
SOLUTION
The period . repeats the last command entered in Normal mode. For example, dd deletes the
current line; dd.. deletes the current line, then deletes the new current line, then deletes
the new current line. In other words, it repeats the command twice.
To repeat a command entered in Command mode hit <Esc>+:, then ↑ to scroll back
through your command history. If you type the first few letters of the command before using
↑, the history will be limited appropriately.
DISCUSSION
The period command helps automating repetitive tasks with the fewest keypresses. It lets you
say “do that again”, but in only one character.
If you know you want to execute a command n times, you can prefix it with the integer n.
The above example rewritten in this way is 3dd.
The second approach requires fewer keystrokes so is clearly preferable if you know in
advance how many times you want to repeat a command. However, the period command lets
you make that decision incrementally, after executing the command.

You can combine these approaches by prefixing the period command with an integer to say
“do that n times again”: n.. Be aware that having done this, if you use the period command
again it will repeat your previous repetitions, i.e. command, followed by n., followed by .
will result in command being executed 2n + 1 times.
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CHANGING THE CASE OF TEXT
PROBLEM
You want to change the case of a character or block of text. For example, you may want to
change bob to Bob.
SOLUTION
~
Toggles the case of the current character in Normal mode, or the selection in Visual
mode.
u
Lowercases highlighted text. (Note: This only works in Visual mode; otherwise u will undo
your last change).
U
Uppercases highlighted text. (Note: This only works in Visual mode; otherwise U will undo
the changes made on the current line).
DISCUSSION
As normal, these commands accept motions. For example:
VU
Uppercase current line.
guu
Lowercases current word.

To convert a string to title case, i.e. initial capitals, you can use the following regular
expression: s/\<$\w$$\w*$\>/\u\1\L\2/g. Select the text you want to convert, hit :, then
enter the regular expression. If you use this regularly, consider remapping a key to execute
this command. For example:
nnoremap <F7> :s/\<$\w$$\w*$\>/\u\1\L\2/g<CR>
vnoremap <F7> :s/\%V$\w$$\w*$\%V/\u\1\L\2/g<CR>
Alternatively, you can install the titlecase plugin.
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SORTING TEXT
PROBLEM
You want to sort a selection of text or an entire whole file.
For example, if you've made a list of your books with one title per line, you'd like to organise
it alphabetically.
SOLUTION
Vim version 7 introduced a :sort command. So if you're using v7 or later you can sort an
entire file using :sort.
✪ You can find your Vim version number with the :version command. The first
line of output contains the version number, e.g. VIM - Vi IMproved 7.2
(2008 Aug 9, compiled Mar 19 2009 15:27:51), which indicates version
7.2.
If you're using an older version of Vim you'll need an external sort utility. Linux/UNIX users
should already have sort installed. You can sort the entire file by executing :!%sort, which
filters the file through the external sort utility.
To sort part of a file:
1. Select the area you're interested in.

2. Hit : and Vim will display :'<,'>' which refers to your selection.

3. Type !sort (i.e. execute :'<,'>!sort).
DISCUSSION
Both methods above sort lines alphabetically. If you require a different type of sorting you
need to pass options to the command.
If you're using Vim 7+:
:sort!
Reverses the sort order, i.e. sorts in descending order: z-a, 100-0.
:sort flags
The sort command can be followed by a series of flags which can be combined in any
order:
n
Sorts by the first decimal number in the line.
i
Ignores case while sorting.
u
Deletes duplicate lines (keeps unique lines).
:sort /pattern/
Ignore text matching pattern when sorting.
For example, the following table describes how the set of data in the Original column is
transformed for the given invocations of :sort.
Original :sort! :sort in :sort i /^./}
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ant 1 zebra 12 ant 1 zebra 12

Dog 7 frog 11 fish 6 fish 6
cow 8 fish 6 Dog 7 ant 1
fish 6 cow 8 cow 8 Dog 7
frog 11 ant 1 frog 11 cow 8
zebra 12 Dog 7 zebra 12 frog 11
If you're using the external sort utility the options are similar. See man sort for the
details. Common invocations are:
%!sort -u
Delete duplicate lines.
%!sort -f
Ignore case when sorting.
%!sort -r
Reverse sort order.

EXECUTING EXTERNAL COMMANDS
PROBLEM
You want to run a program from within Vim, possibly having it operate on the current file.
For example, you want to view a list of the other files in your project by getting a listing of
the current directory. Or you want to find the word count of the essay you're working on by
passing its filename to the wc utility.
SOLUTION
Invoke the program using the :!program syntax. For example, to view a directory listing on
a POSIX system: :!ls.
If you need to pass the current filename to the command as an argument, use the % wildcard.
For example, executing :!wc % from aristotle-essay.txt executes wc
aristotle-essay.txt.
⇰ Filename Modifiers
You can alter the filename represented by % by following the wildcard with a
modifier. For example:
%:p
Makes the filename a full path.
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%:.
Makes the filename relative to the current directory.
%:t
Removes any directories before the actual file name. For example ~/work/
foo.txt ⇒ foo.txt.
%:e
Removes everything except the filename extension. For example ~/work/
foo.txt ⇒ txt.
DISCUSSION
The concept is that Vim suspends itself, asks your system to execute the command, shows
you its output, then, once the user presses <Enter>, returns you to Vim.
If you don't want to see the output of the command, you can execute it like this: :silent
command. (To also hide any error output: :silent! command).
You can use :redir > file if you want to save the output of a command to a file. You
first execute, say, :redir > /tmp/output, then :!command. The output for command
will be saved in the file /tmp/output, and displayed on the screen. (You can combine
:silent command and :redir file to redirect a command's output to a file without
seeing it on screen). To stop output redirection execute :redir END.
You can use :r!command to execute command and read in its output to the current file.
For example, if you're using a POSIX system, you can insert your kernel version with
:r!uname -v.

MANAGING SESSIONS
PROBLEM
Every time you work on a project you need to manually open all of the files it comprises of,
readjust the window size, etc. You'd like Vim to do all this automatically.
SOLUTION
Use sessions.
To save a session: :mksession. Vim saves the session information as 'Session.vim' in the
working directory; to specify your own filename execute :mksession file instead. To
overwrite an existing session follow the command with an exclamation mark: :mksession!.
To restore a session invoke Vim with the -S flag from the same directory you saved
Session.vim in: vim -S. If you used a different filename for your session: vim -S
file. If you're already inside Vim, you can load a session by sourcing the session file, e.g.
:source Session.vim.
DISCUSSION
Applications such as Mozilla Firefox use the concept of a global session file which is overwritten
every time you use the program. To make Vim work this way you simply use a fixed name for
the session variable. For example, you could save it to $VIMHOME/Session.vim. You
could add a mapping something like this to your vimrc.
nmap SQ <ESC>:mksession! ~/vim/Session.vim<CR>:wqa<CR>
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(SQ for Session Quit). To automatically restore this session when Vim is called without
arguments add the following:
function! RestoreSession()
if argc() == 0 "vim called without arguments
execute 'source ~/.vim/Session.vim'
end
endfunction
autocmd VimEnter * call RestoreSession()
You can extend this in arbitrary ways to suit your working environment. One approach is to
only restore a session if it exists in the current file's directory. Another is to simply hardcode
a list of directories whereby if they are the file's current directory or parent directory, their
session file is used. This is useful for one-project-per-directory organisation.
If you don't just want one global session file, as described above, a more granular approach is
suggested below:
nmap SSA :wa<CR>:mksession! ~/sessions/
nmap SO :wa<CR>:so ~/sessions/
Session Save As saves the open files and prefills the command line with the command to save
the current session in a ~/sessions/ directory. All you need to do is enter a name and hit
<Enter>.
Session Open also saves the open files, then prefills the command line with the command to
load a session file. Just type the name of the session you want to load and hit <Enter>.
You can use <Tab> completion in both cases. For example, you could save a session with
SSAwork<Enter>. Later, when you want to restore the session but can't recall its name,
just hit SO<Tab> to cycle through the saved sessions.

(Both mappings assume the ~/sessions/ directory already exists; create it if it doesn't).
✪ Yuri Klubakov's sessionman plugin provides a more polished approach for

session management, subsuming the functionality described above.
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FORMATTING WITH AN EXTERNAL PROGRAM
PROBLEM
You want to reformat text with a program other than Vim. For example, you want to use the
W 3 C's 'tidy' utility to format H T M L.
SOLUTION
Set the equalprg option to the name of the program you want to use, along with any
arguments it should be passed. For example:
:set equalprg=tidy\ --indent=yes\ -q
You can now select the text you want to format, then hit =. You can reformat the entire file
with 1G=G.
DISCUSSION
The formatter that you use depends on the type of content you are producing. Here are a
couple of suggestions of programs to use for specific file types:
Text
If you want to format normal text using an external program, par is a popular choice. It can
wrap, align, justify, and quote text in every conceivable way, and many more aside.

HTML/XHTML
Use HTML Tidy. You can specify options on the command line, as shown in the example
above. If you want to specify a lot of options, put them into a config file, and point tidy to
it: tidy --config file. At a minimum you probably want to use:
:setlocal equalprg=tidy\ -utf8\ --indent\ yes\ -q\ -f\ /tmp/err
Then you can reformat your file with 1G=G. One caveat is that this won't work correctly for
reformatting a specific section of the file. You can use the --show-body-only true
option if you want to be able to do this, but like many formatters of markup languages, Tidy
doesn't perform as well on fragments because of lack of context.
XML
HTML Tidy can be used to format XML as well by passing it the -xml option. Alternatively,
you can use xmllint:
:set equalprg=xmllint\ --format\ -
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WORKING WITH DIFFERENT FILE FORMATS
PROBLEM
You're editing a file created on a different operating system, so need to change its line
endings. Or, you wish to convert a file to use different line endings, perhaps because a tool
expects them that way.
SOLUTION
Specify the desired file format with :set ff=format, where format is dos for Microsoft
Windows/DOS files, unix for Unix/Linux, or mac for Apple Mac. As usual, you must then save
the file to make the changes permanent: :up.
DISCUSSION
Different operating systems have different notions of what constitutes a line in a text file.
Specifically, they disagree on the control character that terminates a line. Unix/Linux uses a
line feed (LF), Microsoft Windows uses a carriage return followed by a line feed (CRLF), and
the Mac uses a carriage return (CR). This would be a matter of pedantry were it not for
users of different operating systems sharing files.
Luckily, Vim handles this situation transparently most of the time. When a file is loaded, its
format is guessed, and &ff is set appropriately. If Vim guesses incorrectly, you can insist on a
specific file format with :e ++ff=format, thus forcing the file to convert to the given
format.

The above assumes that a file's line endings are at least consistent. That is, each line ends with
the same character(s). If your file is mangled (some lines ending with CR, some with LF, for
example) you will likely see stray control characters such as ^J or ^M peppered throughout.
This can be fixed with search and replace: :%s/\r//. Lastly, if you have some Mac line
endings with dos/unix or Unix/Linux line endings with mac, use :%s/\r/\r/g.
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TYPING

SPELL CHECKING
PROBLEM
You want Vim to highlight misspelled words and suggest alternatives.
SOLUTION
To enable spell checking you first need to ensure that Vim knows which language you're
typing in. If you execute :echo &spelllang you'll see the language code that Vim thinks
applies. For instance en. To change this use :set spelllang=code. For example, I use
:set spelllang=en_GB.UTF-8.
If you're spell checking in American English, you should already have the dictionary installed.
Otherwise, Vim should prompt you to download it. If you're not and it doesn't, see the
Getting Dictionaries sidebar of Auto-Completing Text.
To highlight spelling errors just execute :set spell. To remove the highlighting: :set
nospell.
DISCUSSION
Spelling errors are highlighted in one of four colours depending on the type of error:
• Word is not in the dictionary.

• Word is in the dictionary but not capitalised.
• Word is classed as 'rare'.
• Word is spelled incorrectly for this region. For instance, color in British English.
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You can jump to the next spelling error after the cursor ]s and jump backwards with [s.
Similarly, you can use ]S and [S to only jump between words not in the dictionary (i.e. rare,
and region-specific misspellings are skipped).
Once the spelling errors are highlighted, you presumably want to correct them. If you hit z=
over a misspelled word you'll be presented with a list of suggested spellings. Enter the number
corresponding to the correct spelling and hit <Enter>.
If a correctly spelled word is highlighted as an error, you can add it to your personal
dictionary with zg. This prevents it from being marked as an error in the future.
Conversely, if an incorrectly spelled word isn't highlighted, you can add it to the bad word list
with zw.

USING TEMPLATES
PROBLEM
You create documents containing boilerplate text and would like to avoid typing it.
For instance, you write HTML documents and don't want to type the standard preamble every
time.
SOLUTION
Use templates and associate them with a file extension. When a new file is created with an
extension for which a template is available, the template contents will be inserted.
You must first create a skeleton document, e.g.:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/SCHEMA/xhtml11.xsd"
xml:lang="en">
<head>
<title>Document Title</title>
</head>
<body></body>
</html>
Save this document in your Vim directory with the corresponding file extension, e.g.
~/.vim/skel/tmpl.html. (You may also want to make this file read only so you don't
modify it by mistake).
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Add the following to your .vimrc:
autocmd! BufNewFile * silent! 0r ~/.vim/skel/tmpl.%:e
Now, every time you open a new file Vim checks ~/.vim/skel/ for a file whose name
starts with tmpl. and ends with the extension of the file you're creating. It then reads the
template file into your new file's buffer.
For example, if you added the template above then invoked Vim with vim page.html, the
XHTML above would be inserted into the page.html file automatically.
DISCUSSION
Once you have created a document from a template you have to insert text at various
predefined positions. For instance, for the XHTML template, you have to change the contents
of <title>…</title>, then start typing between the <body>…</body> tags. Navigating between these
points in the document, which are the same every time you use the template, is cumbersome.
The traditional solution is to use placeholders. This involves including some notation in the
template file that indicates where your input is required, then providing a method to jump
between them.
Here's the previous template with placeholders added:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/SCHEMA/xhtml11.xsd"
xml:lang="en">

<head>
<title>%TITLE%</title>
</head>
<body>%BODY%</body>
</html>
The placeholder notation is arbitrary, but let's stick with %VARIABLE% for the sake of
example. Now we need a way to jump between them, and <Ctrl>-p (menmonic:
placeholder) seems reasonable. While we're at it, we'll define a function (LoadTemplate())
to replace the autocmd line we added earlier. Add the following to your vimrc:
function! LoadTemplate()
silent! 0r ~/.vim/skel/tmpl.%:e
" Highlight %VAR% placeholders with the Todo colour group
syn match Todo "%\u\+%" containedIn=ALL
endfunction
autocmd! BufNewFile * call LoadTemplate()
"Jump between %VAR% placeholders in Normal mode with
" <Ctrl-p>
nnoremap <c-p> /%\u.\{-1,}%<cr>c/%/e<cr>
"Jump between %VAR% placeholders in Insert mode with
" <Ctrl-p>
inoremap <c-p> <ESC>/%\u.\{-1,}%<cr>c/%/e<cr>
If we create a new HTML file now this is what we see:
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UNDOING MISTAKES
PROBLEM
You've made a mistake while editing and you'd like to revert it. Or, worse, you've made a
mistake while reverting a mistake, and you'd like to revert that.
For example, you've just deleted the paragraphs containing, subject to peer review, the cure
for cancer. You'd kinda' like to retrieve it, and pretend the whole situation had never
occurred.
SOLUTION
Use the undo feature. Hit u in Normal mode or :u in Command mode. You can undo all
recent changes on the current line with U. To undo multiple times either repeat the command
or prefix it with a digit indicating the number of times. For example, to undo the previous
change and the one before that: uu.
To redo a change that was undone use <Ctrl>+R or :redo.
You can also jump backwards and forwards through your edits by time. To return to how
your file looked 1 hour ago use :earlier 1h, then travel forward 20 minutes with
:later 20m.
DISCUSSION
The undo/redo behaviour described above should be familiar to most users as it mirrors that
of many other applications. Vim, however, extends this concept into the idea of undo branches.

Imagine you opened a new file and entered elephant. You then entered calf on a new line and
hit u. This undid the addition of calf so now your file just contains the word elephant. Next
you entered moose. If you hit u again you'd undo moose and get back to elephant. No matter
how many times you do this you'd never get the calf back (which is unacceptable; elephant
calves are particularly photogenic) because you made an edit after undoing (by adding moose).
Undo branches to the rescue. Hit g- and your file will now contain elephant then calf. Here
are the events represented diagramatically:
Vim implicitly created an undo branch each time you hit u. The branch represents the state of
the file before you undid. g- (and g+ to move forwards) moves between these branches.
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AUTO-COMPLETING TEXT
PROBLEM
You want to be able to type the start of a word and then have Vim complete it. For example,
you want to type multip, be offered suggestions for words that start that way, then pick one.
SOLUTION
To auto-complete a word Vim needs a list of possible words. An obvious source is the
current file(s). If your file already contains the word multiplicand, then Vim can use it to auto-
complete multip. Simply hit <Ctrl>+n after the p to complete the word. If multiple matches
are found you'll be presented with a list from which to choose from.
Another source of words is a dictionary. Get one, using the sidebar for reference, then point
Vim to it with :set dictionary=file. Then add the dictionary to list of places Vim
looks for words: :set complete+=k.
⇰ Getting Dictionaries
If you specify your language with :set spellang=lang-code, e.g. :set

spelllang=it for Italian, Vim should automatically download the correct dictionary
for you and set it up. If this doesn't work for you see :help spell and vim/
runtime/spell/README.txt.
Auto-complete can also be used to lookup synonyms for the current word. Get a thesaurus
file, then instruct Vim to use it with :set thesaurus=file, :set complete+=s.

<Ctrl>-x <Ctrl>-f searches for the filename that starts with the text before the cursor.
If one is found, it is inserted before the cursor. If multiple filenames are found, a drop down
list is displayed to choose between them.
✪ Eric Van Dewoestine's SuperTab plugin lets you use the <Tab> key to auto-
complete text. You select the type of completion that you want using
:SuperTabHelp, then just hit <Tab> after a word to see a drop-down menu of
completion choices.
DISCUSSION
Vim can use pretty much any word source imaginable. Consult :help ins-completion
for more details.
Vim version 7 and above supports Omni-Completion, which allows custom functions to generate
possible completions dynamically. Even better, for programmers at least, is that some popular
programming languages already have Omni-Completion functions which are enabled
automatically. These typically allow context-sensitive completion of method names, objects, and
reserved words. For example, using Ruby I can type an integer, a period, then invoke Omni-
Completion to find that Fixnum objects support methods such as %, *, and +.
Languages that don't have Omni-Complete functions available can use their syntax highlighting
definitions to achieve a similar affect. The Vim documentation suggests adding the following
stanza to your vimrc, after any :filetype command, to enable Omni-Completion using the
best available method:
if has("autocmd") && exists("+omnifunc")
autocmd Filetype *
\ if &omnifunc == "" |
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\ setlocal omnifunc=syntaxcomplete#Complete |
\ endif
endif
To use Omni-Completion hit Ctrl+o to be presented with a list of choices for the text
behind the cursor.
Apart from programming languages, Omni-Completion also works for HTML and CSS. For
example, you can type <p cl, Ctrlx Ctrl+o, then be shown class=" CDATA,
onclick=" Script, and ondblclick=" Script.

ABBREVIATING COMMON STRINGS
PROBLEM
You regularly have to enter the same text, but don't want to.
For instance, if you use Vim to write e-mail you may often mention the URL of your website.
Instead of typing http://example.com/ every time, which is both annoying and error
prone, you want to enter, say, myUrl and have it replaced with the address.
SOLUTION
Use Vim's abbreviations feature to map concise abbreviations to frequently entered text.
To create the aforementioned abbreviation we use the :iabbrev command: :iabbrev

myUrl http://example.com/. To use it, type the name of the abbreviation (myUrl in
this case) and then hit <Space> or <Enter>. The name of the abbreviation is replaced with
its payload.
The syntax for defining abbreviations is :iabbrev name payload, where name is the
text you want replaced, and payload is what it should be replaced with.
DISCUSSION
The abbreviation feature is smart enough not to expand abbreviation names that occur as part
of another word, but its telepathic functionality is suboptimal. Useful abbreviation names are
easy to type, but will not appear in normal text. The convention I use is to prefix them with
my, then uppercase the first letter. (If you use a programming language that prefers
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"camelCased" variable names, you may see clashes. Either stop using Java®, or disable
abbreviations for the source code.)
You can also abbreviate commands. For instance, if you wanted to type :docs instead of
:help you could map one to the other with :cabbr docs help.
I suggest keeping your abbreviations in an abbreviations file in $VIM. You can then source it
from your vimrc. For example, you can create the file by running vim $VIM/
abbreviations, then populate it with your abbreviations:
iabbrev myUrl http://example.com/
iabbrev myEmail [email protected]
Then in vimrc just write source $VIM/abbreviations.

INSERTING ACCENTED OR "FOREIGN" CHARACTERS
PROBLEM
You want to type characters which don't exist on your keyboard.
For example, you want to type some words in another language, so need to insert accented
characters. Or you want to type a symbol such as ±.
SOLUTION
If you haven't already, set up Vim to use UTF-8 by following the sidebar. It makes this process
far easier.
⇰ Enabling UTF-8 Support
Vim uses the encoding specified by the user's environment. On Linux this is set with
the $LANG variable. To override this use :set encoding=utf-8.
If you're using Vim from a terminal your terminal software must also be configured to
use UTF-8. Instructions for that are outside the scope of this recipe.
When editing files their current encoding is maintained, so if you opened a file in
ISO-8859-2, your changes would be written in that encoding. To force UTF-8 for all
files use :set encoding=utf-8 fileencodings=.
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To insert an accented character you press <Ctrl>-K, the unadorned character, then another
character indicating the accent type. This method can also be used to produce translations of
characters in a given script.
For example, to insert an e acute (the last letter in café) you hold down <Ctrl>-K, type e,
then type an apostrophe (').
The following table shows the different types of characters you can produce:
Character Meaning
! Grave
' Acute accent
> Circumflex accent
? Tilde
- Macron
( Breve
. Dot above
: Diaeresis
, Cedilla
_ Underline
/ Stroke
" Double acute (Hungarumlaut)
; Ogonek
< Caron
0 Ring above
2 Hook
9 Horn
= Cyrillic

* Greek
% Greek/Cyrillic special
+ Smalls: Arabic, caps: Hebrew
3 Some Latin/Greek/Cyrillic
4 Bopomofo
5 Hiragana
6 Katakana
DISCUSSION
This method of input is most suitable for occasionally typing unusual characters. For regular
use, Vim supports most input methods. See :help keymap and :help termencoding
for more details.
Vim refers to printable, non-ASCII characters as digraphs. A list of digraphs available on your
system can be obtained with the command :digraphs. The output may appear chaotic, but
that's mainly because it's so dense. It lists, in columns, the character's internal name, the literal
character, and the character code in decimal.
You can also insert characters using their character code. If you're one of the slackers who
haven't memorised the Unicode specification yet, you can use the :digraphs command, or
any other reference, to lookup the code. Hit <Ctrl>-V, then type the code in either
hexadecimal or decimal. Continuing the above example of producing é, you could enter either
<Ctrl>-V xe9 or <Ctrl>-V 233.
The internal name :digraphs lists corresponds with the shortcut table above. That is to
say, the internal name for é is e'. Thus, we can generalise the <Ctrl>-K approach for any
character we know the name of. For example, to produce the ± sign you hit <Ctrl>-K-+-.
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OPENING THE FILE NAME BENEATH THE CURSOR
PROBLEM
You have a file name under your cursor and would like Vim to open it.
For example, program source code often references other files from which it includes
functionality. You want to quickly open such a file.
SOLUTION
Position your cursor over a file name then hit gf (mnemonic: go to file or get file) in Normal
mode. For example, consider a file like the following:
Edit your ~/.vimrc by opening it with Vim, then...
If your cursor was anywhere over ~/.vimrc, gf would try to open your Vim configuration
file. (This assumes that you're using Linux where ~ is shorthand for the user's home
directory).
Vim doesn't care if the word under the cursor looks like a filename, so if your cursor was
over the word your, instead, it would try to open a file named your in your path.
Your path is a list of directories in which Vim searches for the named file. To see what it's
currently set to execute :echo &path. The path is a comma-separated list of directories,
some of which have special significance:

.
The directory containing the current file.
;
A path that ends with a semicolon is searched recursively, up the directory hierarchy. For
example /usr/share/doc; means to first search in /usr/share/doc, then /usr/
share/, then /usr/, then /.
*
A path that ends in an asterisk is searched recursively downwards. For example, /home/
kate/* would search all of user kate's home directory.
I like gf to search recursively downwards from the current directory so I append ./** to
my path like so: :set path+=./**.
DISCUSSION
This feature has a surprising amount of uses for something so basic. I use it when:
• Log files are referenced in e-mail alerts.

• To open files referenced in my version control system's commit e-mails.
• When outlining10 a project that consists of multiple files. Each level of outline links to
the relevant file.
• To view source code for external modules when writing source code.
Vim also lets you follow URLs in this way, so you can gf on http://example.com/, to
open the HTML in Vim, or sftp://example.com/README to connect to example.com via
SFTP, fetch README, then open it for editing in Vim.
10. The Indentation Folding sidebar in Manually Creating Folds describes one approach to outlining in Vim
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By default gf opens the file in the same window. To open it in a new window (by splitting
the screen use <Ctrl>+wf. To make this behaviour the default consider a key remap:
:nnoremap gf <C-W>gf.
If your filename is followed by a line number, e.g. foo.txt:10 you can jump to the given line
with gF.
If the filename you use gf on doesn't exist, Vim complains. I don't use gF so I have
remapped it to create the given file: :nnoremap gF :view <cfile><cr>.

INSERTING THE DATE
PROBLEM
You're typing a document and want to insert the current date.
For example, you're composing a letter and want to include today's date at the top.
SOLUTION
Use !!date in Normal mode.
DISCUSSION
The !!command syntax executes command and replaces the current line with the output.11.
To control where the date is inserted see the following paragraphs.
A similar same effect can be achieved with :r!date. The advantage is that it inserts the
output of date on the next line, rather than replacing the current one.
The solutions above assume that you have a date executable in your PATH, as all UNIX-
based systems should. I understand that Windows users have to use !!date /t.
Alternatively, you can call Vim's strftime() function, e.g. strftime("%c"). This will
work on all systems which support the strftime system call, which I believe is the majority.
11. This is in fact an oversimplification. count!!command actually filters count lines through
command and returns the result, but when count is omitted, it has the effect I've described. This is why
the text on the current line is replaced with the date.
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You can map this function to a function key. For example, the following commands map <F7>
to insert a date stamp after the cursor.
:inoremap <F7> <C-R>=strftime("%c")<CR>
:nnoremap <F7> "=strftime("%c")<CR>p
I suggest the use of !!date because it doesn't waste a function key, and, personally, I find it
more memorable. If you intend to insert dates regularly, by all means remap a key to do so.

INSERTING SNIPPETS
PROBLEM
You repeatedly type the same constructs, so want to expedite the process by typing a few
letters then have Vim produce the boilerplate text.
For example, to enter a HTML <table> you want to type table<Tab> then have Vim
produce:
<table border=" ">
<tr><th> </th></tr>
<tr><h> </th></tr>
</table>
SOLUTION
Use Michael Sanders' snipMate plugin, which provides a subset of the snippets feature of the
Textmate. editor.
Follow the installation instructions on the script page, then open a HTML document with Vim,
e.g. vim test.html. Type table<Tab>. The <table> given above should be inserted
into your document.
In the above example, table is the trigger, the text you type, and the resultant HTML is the
snippet, the text that is inserted after typing trigger<Tab>.
snipMate is distributed with a collection of snippets for common file types. To see a list of
snippets available for the current buffer execute <Ctrl>-R <Tab>. To write your own see
:help snipMate.
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✪ Several snipMate users have made their snippets available on GitHub.com:

• Scala snippets by Tyler Weir.
• Ruby, Ruby on Rails, jQuery, rSpec, etc. snippets by Martin Grenfell and
Travis Jeffery.
• A general collection by Ron Damen.
DISCUSSION
The power of snipMate comes from how it lets you navigate the snippet once inserted.
Consider again the <table> example:
<table border="1">
<tr><th>2</th></tr>
<tr><h>3</th></tr>
</table>4
The numbers, e.g. 1, in the above output represent tab stops: the positions where the
nth<Tab> after the trigger will move the cursor to. So, the user types table<Tab> to
insert the snippet. His cursor is placed in position 1 so he can enter the border size. He then
hits <Tab> again to position his cursor in 2 so he can enter the name of the header for the
first row. And so on.
Some constructs require user-entered text to appear multiple times. For instance, HTML
authors may want to enter an <option> element like the following:
<option value="placeholder">placeholder</option>

In this example, placeholder is placeholder text that needs to be entered twice. snipMate
lets you enter the text in value="placeholder">, and have it copied into
>placeholder< as you type.
To learn more about snipMate and its features see :help snipMate.
⇰ Comparison of Techniques to Auto-Complete Text
We have discussed various approaches to automatically inserting text in this chapter,

so let us recap12.
Templates can be used to associate a skeleton document with a file extension,

whereby opening a file whose name ends with that extension causes the skeleton
document to be inserted into the buffer. The advantage of this approach is that it
doesn't require the installation of any plugins, but other than that snipMate can be
used to achieve the same effect. For example, SnipMate has a trigger named docx
which inserts the XHTML 1.1 doctype:
This can trivially be adapted to insert whatever boilerplate HTML you desire.
Abbreviations can be used to replace a piece of text with another piece of text after
pressing <Tab>. They differ from snippets in two key respects. Abbreviations are
typically defined globally, whereas snippets are defined for specific filetypes. For
instance, a trigger of for could insert a C for loop when editing C source code, or a
12. The forthcoming is intentionally opinionated and simplified because a detailed analysis of every
possibility is beyond the scope of this book. That said, if there are any factual errors, please let me know.
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Ruby for loop when editing Ruby code. More importantly, snippets have the notion of
placeholders that can be tabbed between. In general, snippets can do everything
abbreviations can, and more.
Insert-mode auto-completion can auto-complete text based on what has already been
typed or the grammar of the current file type. For instance, you can auto-complete a
variable name that you have declared previously, or a language keyword. This form of
auto-completion augments snipMate: use the former to complete unique definitions
and names in the current file, and those that it includes; use the latter to complete
pre-defined snippets. Where the two's functionalities overlap, snipMate has a simpler
interface (type a trigger, hit <Tab>), and is, arguably, easier to configure.

NAVIGATION
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NAVIGATING TEXT FILES
PROBLEM
You're editing a text file such an essay or e-mail, and want to exploit its structure to navigate
it efficiently.
SOLUTION
In Normal mode you can use the following shortcuts:
Key Move To
{ Beginning of current paragraph
} End of current paragraph
( Beginning of current sentence
) End of current sentence
w Beginning of next word
b Beginning of the previous word
e End of the word
DISCUSSION
The shortcuts above all rely on the fact that plain text is often very structured. A document
consists of paragraphs separated by newlines. Paragraphs contain one or more sentences which
begin with capital letters and end with periods. Sentences are collections of words which are
separated by spaces.

After using one of these shortcuts you may want to return to where you were previously.
This is particularly useful if you're writing one thing and are then reminded that you now have
to change another: you use a shortcut to jump to the location of the change, then want to
resume where you left of. You can use the g, (mnemonic: go back to where I paused
(commas can be used to represent pauses…)) command. Each time you execute it you'll be
taken back another step. To move in the other direction (towards more recent changes), use
g;.
All of these shortcuts can be combined. So, to move to the end of the previous word you
type be. You can also prefix them with numbers to indicate how many times they should be
executed: 3b moves to the beginning of the 3rd previous word.
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NAVIGATING SOURCE CODE
PROBLEM
You're editing the source code for a computer program, and want to navigate it efficiently.
SOLUTION
The commands below allow movement around source code in the context of typical
constructs. For instance, % finds the end of the if/elsif/else block, or a comment, your cursor
is over, and moves you to the end of it.
Key Move To
13
% End of construct
[[ Backwards to the beginning of the current function.
][ Forwards to the beginning of the current function.
}[ Beginning of the current block.
}] End of the current block.
}[ Beginning of the current comment block.
}] End of the current comment block.
14
gd First usage of the current variable name . (Mnemonic: go to definition).
15
gD Go to the first global usage of the current variable name.
13. A construct is a bracket pair, an if/elsif/else block, or a comment. For example, if you hit % on an
opening bracket you'd jump to the corresponding closing bracket. See :help % for more details.
14. Occurrences in comments are ignored.
15. gd looks for the definition closest to your current position, thus respecting the lexical scoping rules of
many languages. gD starts searching from the first line of the file, so prefers variables with a global scope.

DISCUSSION
The shortcuts available for text files are supported for source code, too, so review them if
you haven't already.
There's a lot to remember here. Despite my best efforts, I suspect that the descriptions above
are still confusing. To understand these shortcuts you really need to try them yourself. Open
some source code written in your favourite language with Vim, make sure that syntax
highlighting is on (:syntax on), and bounce back and forth between those braces.
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NAVIGATING THE VIEWPORT
PROBLEM
You want to scroll through a document in screenfulls; not line by line.
SOLUTION
Command Scroll To
H Top of the screen. (Mnemonic: Home).
L Bottom of the screen. (Mnemonic: Lower).
M Middle of the screen. (Mnemonic: Middle).
gg Top of file.
G Bottom of file.
DISCUSSION
If you're file is longer than the height of your window, you'll need a way of scrolling the
portion that appears on the screen.
The area of the screen displaying a file is called the viewport. As we scroll down the document
using j, the viewport updates to hide the line at the top, and show a new one at the bottom.
Scrolling through a long document this way is inefficient and unhealthy for our fingers. Instead
we can scroll one screenfull at a time, which severely reduces the amount of key presses
involved.

NAVIGATING BUFFERS
PROBLEM
You have multiple files open and want to navigate between them.
SOLUTION
Buffers allow you to have a collection of files open with only one displayed at a time. They
are particularly useful for processing a set of files sequentially, whereby you operate on one
file, then switch to the buffer containing the next. If you'd rather have the open files listed
along the top of the screen, consider using tabs instead.
Command Result
:buffers
:ls View the list of buffers along with their numbers.
:files
:buffers
:buffer N Open buffer N.
:bn[ext] Go to the next buffer. (Menmonic: buffer next).
:bp[revious] Go to the previous buffer. (Mnemonic: buffer previous).
:bf[irst] Go to the first buffer.
:bl[ast] Go to the last buffer.
Open all the buffers in the buffer list. (Mnemonic: buffer all, or have a ball,
:ba[ll]
go crazy and open them all at once).
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DISCUSSION
To quickly navigate between buffers its common to map :bnext and/or :bprev to a key.
For example map <F6> :bn<CR> lets you hit <F6> to cycle through the open buffers.

NAVIGATING TABS
PROBLEM
You want to group your windows into multiple, logical groups.
When you have a lot of open windows/buffers it can be tricky to navigate between them.
Often it makes more sense to group them into logical tabs, so you can switch between them
easier, and operate on them as a group.
For example, if you were using Vim to edit a website, you may have your CSS files open in
one tab, the HTML files in another, and a HTML reference guide in the third.
SOLUTION
Use tabs.
Command Action
:tabedit Open a new tab. If the optional file is supplied, that file is opened in the
[file] new tab.
:tabclose Close the current tab.
:tabnext n
Go to next tab, or the nth
ngt
:tabs Show a list of the open tabs.
:tabprevious
n Go to previous tab, or the nth
ngT
:tabdo cmd Executes cmd in each open tab, aborting on the first error.
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DISCUSSION
You can use Vim's tabs like those in Firefox® and Opera®, by opening one file in each tab,
then switching between them. Vim enables you to extend this concept, however, by allowing
multiple files to be opened in the same tab.
When you open a tab, a tabline appears along the top of the screen, which lists the open tabs.
In GVim you can switch to another tab, close existing tabs, and open new tabs, by clicking the
tabline with the mouse.
You can either cycle through open tabs using gt, or go directly to a specific tab by prefixing
gt with its number. Tabs are numbered starting with 1, so to switch to the 3rd tab on the
tabline, say, you'd use 3gt. If you have a lot of tabs, their numbers may not be obvious. In
this case, use :tabs to find them.
The power of tabs comes from executing commands on the windows they contain as a logical
group. Continuing the above example, this would let you perform a search and replace all
HTML files. For example, if you were in the HTML tab, you could say :windo s/<foo>/
<bar>/g, and all of your HTML files would have their <foo>s replaced with <bar>s.

MANUALLY CREATING FOLDS
PROBLEM
You want to fold a file, then navigate it in outline mode.
SOLUTION
⇰ Enabling Folding
Folding is very likely already enabled in your Vim. If not, check it has been compiled
with the +folding option, and that foldenable is true, i.e. :set foldenable.
Use Vim's folding feature to treat a file hierarchically, expanding and collapsing its sections as
necessary.
Fold commands start with z. Vim's help makes the spurious case that this, kinda', if you squint,
looks like a folded piece of paper.
Command Action
zf Fold the selected text.
zf#j Create a fold from the cursor down # lines.
zf/string Create a fold from the cursor to string.
zfaB Fold the current block delimited by bracket B16
16. B can be any of ()[]{}<>. This feature understands nested blocks, too, so will usually do the right
thing.
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For instance, zf4j creates a fold from the current line to the forth line down. Or, if you've
selected text in Visual mode, then zf will fold the selection.
DISCUSSION
How you use folds will depend very much on the type of file you are editing. They are
particularly useful for long papers or essays, for instance, where you fold each section so as to
navigate the document hierarchically. When editing program source code they can be used
with function/method/class declarations.
This recipe is entitled Manually Creating Folds, because there are other approaches to folding
which are automatic. A particularly useful method, indentation folding, is described below. In
addition, most programming languages support syntax folding. Try it out by opening some
source code in Vim then executing :set foldmethod=syntax.
⇰ Indentation Folding
If you're working with structured, indented text you may prefer to use indentation
folding.
Enable it with :set foldmethod=indent. Folds are now automatically created

for each level of indented text. (To indent simply start a line with a <Tab>17 So, for
example, zM folds all indented text.
To expand, collapse, and otherwise navigate folds see Navigating Folds.
17. Each shiftwidth of indent corresponds to one fold. See the Indenting Lines recipe for details.

NAVIGATING FOLDS
PROBLEM
Your document contains folds and you want to use them for navigation. (To create folds see
Manually Creating Folds).
SOLUTION
Command Action Mnemonic

zc Close the current fold. close fold
zo Open the current fold. open fold
zM Close all folds. fold More
zR Open all folds. Reduce folding
zj Move to the next fold. j moves to the next line
zk Move to the previous fold. k moves to the previous line
zn Disable folding. no folds
zN Re-enable folding. N is n toggled
DISCUSSION
You can use zM to achieve a birds-eye view of the file, which can be useful when you're
writing a long book and forget how the recipe you're currently writing relates to…
Vim treats folds like individual lines, so j and k move over one fold at a time. Further, you
can yank/delete18 a fold as if it was a single line.
18. yank is Vim terminology for copying text to the clipboard; see Copying, Cutting, and Pasting.
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By default, folds are forgotten when you edit another file. To save them use :mkview. Then,
to restore them, use :loadview.
The :set foldcolumn=W command, where W is a integer width less than 13, displays a
column along the left-hand side of the screen with information about the folds in the current
file. It indicates whether the corresponding line is an open or closed fold (with - or +,
respectively).

SPLITTING THE SCREEN
PROBLEM
You want to view multiple files at one time. Or, you want to view different positions in the
same file at the same time.
For example, if you were editing source code in an unfamiliar programming language, you may
want to have the documentation and source visible at the same time. Or, if you wanted to
move text between multiple files, you could view the source and target file together.
SOLUTION
Use Vim's split screen feature to divide the screen into multiple panes, each of which can
display a file.
Command Action
:split file Splits the window horizontally.
:vsplit file Splits the window vertically.
(If file is specified, that file is shown in the upper/left, as appropriate, pane; if not, both
panes show the current file).
To move between windows you use <Ctrl>-w (mnemonic: control window). To move in a
specific direction, add the relevant movement key. So, to move upwards: <Ctrl>-w+k.
To close the active window use :q, just as you would to close a window normally.
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You can reduce/enlarge the size of the current window with <Ctrl>-w+- and
<Ctrl>-w++, respectively. To specify the size of a window when you open it, prefix the
:split command with the desired height/width in lines. For example, to show README in a
window of 5 lines high: 5 :split README.
DISCUSSION
The default behaviour of both :split and :vsplit is to show the current file twice. This
is more useful than it may first sound.
When working with long documents it means that you can view the top and bottom of the
file simultaneously. If you use folding you can use one window to display an outline of a
document while editing a specific section in another. For example, when I'm working on
reports I use :30 :vsplit to view the first and second level headings along the left of the
screen, while editing the report in the main window.
By default the windows will scroll independently of each other. If you :set scrollbind
before you split the screen the windows scroll together.

NAVIGATING MARKS
PROBLEM
You want to bookmark specific points in a file so you can easily jump to them from elsewhere.
SOLUTION
Use Vim's marks feature. A mark is a character in the range a-zA-Z0-9. It's represented in the
examples below as M.
Command Action
mM Mark the current position as M.
'M Jump to the first character of the line containing M.
`M Jump to the position of mark M.
DISCUSSION
Marks 0-9 are mainly for Vim's internal use, so ignore them. Marks a-z are only available in the
current file, and are deleted when it is closed. Marks A-Z are available across multiple files. If
your .viminfo file is available, as it usually will be, they persist across sessions.
Marks have a multitude of uses. I use them often when I have a section of a file that I need to
keep referring to: I mark that section with ma, jump to it with 'a, then return to where I
was previously with ``. I use them almost implicitly when formatting and filtering text to
define the text that I want to edit.
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The :marks command shows a list of marks you have set, which is useful for the kind of
person who fully embraced the idea of marking anything and everything but was unable to
remember the significance of all 52 marks he used.

NAVIGATING TAGS
PROBLEM
You're working on a project where you need to jump between occurrences of significant
keywords, which are possibly spread across multiple files.
For example, you're writing source code and want to be able to type a function name then
quickly jump to where it was initially defined so you understand how it should be used. Then
you want to return to where you were.
SOLUTION
Use tags. Tags are similar to index entries in a book: significant terms are linked to the key
places that they occur.
We will use a program called Exuberant Ctags to generate the tag list because it is compatible
with all popular programming languages: C, assembler, ASP, Bourne/Korn/Z shell, C++,
COBOL, Eiffel, Fortran, Java, Lisp, Lua, Pascal, Perl, PHP, Python, REXX, Ruby, S-Lang, Scheme,
Tcl, Verilog, Vim and YACC.
After you have installed Ctags you can generate a tag list for the current directory (and its
sub-directories) with ctags -R. To only consider files in the current directory use ctags
*. This will generate a tag list for source code in most common languages.
You can now open a source file from that directory and use the :tag tag command to
jump to the definition of the tag. To look up the tag under the cursor use <Ctrl>+]. You
can also auto-complete tag names by starting to type one then using <Tab> to cycle through
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the list of matching tags. To return to where you were before you jumped to a tag you use
<Ctrl>+t.
DISCUSSION
So far, we have only described tags in terms of program source code, but they are by no
means limited to this domain. The Vim help system uses tags extensively to allow navigation.
When you use :help term you're actually looking up a tag in the documentation tag file.
When you position your cursor over a highlighted entry in a help file, you use <Ctrl>+] to
follow it. This is all possible because as long as you have a way of identifying significant terms
in a file, you can generate a tags list for it. For example, here's an excerpt from the tags
documentation:
*tags-option*
The 'tags' option is a list of file names. Each of these
files is searched for the tag. This can be used to use a
different tags file than the default file "tags". It can
also be used to access a common tags file.
The tags-option syntax is used for defining a tag. Elsewhere, the |tags-option|
syntax is used for linking to a tag. You can use :helptags dir for generating a taglist for
all *.txt files in the given directory which are marked up in this way.
However you generate it, the tag list is a static file, so it must be regenerated when your files
change significantly. In programming projects, it is typical to update the tags file during the
build process. For example, the Makefile could execute ctags.
Both invocations of ctags given above are very liberal in what they index. They search for all
programming language source code in the specified directories, and incorporate all the tags
found therein into a single tags file. To limit ctags to just Ruby source code, for example,

you can use ctags *.rb. For more control over what files ctags considers, consult its
documentation. On Linux: man ctags.
Once you have generated the tags file Vim needs to be able to find it. By default it looks for a
file named tags in the current directory, but for projects which span multiple directories this
is not always suitable. You can specify the location of the tags file using :set tags=file.
Specify multiple tag files by separating the paths with commas. Instruct Vim to search for a
tags file recursively with :set tags=./tags;/.
Using <Ctrl>+] to jump to a new tag takes you to a new buffer to show the results. If
you'd rather see them in a new window use <Ctrl>+W+], or :stag tag.
If you get dizzy after all this jumping around you can reacquaint yourself with where you've
been by using the :tags command. This shows you which tags you've jumped to, and where
you jumped to them from.
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BOOKMARKING LINES WITH VISIBLE MARKERS (SIGNS)
PROBLEM
You want to assign visible marks to the margins of certain lines.
For example, you're using Vim as an IDE and want breakpoints to be clearly marked. Or, you
want to label lines in need of editing with a question mark icon.
SOLUTION
Vim allows you to define a sign and then associate it with one or more lines of a file. It is
displayed in the right-hand margin as a two-character string in the terminal, and an icon in
Gvim.
Before you use a sign you must define it. For example:
:sign define fixme text=!! linehl=Todo texthl=Error icon=/path/to/todo.xpm
Let's break this down. We name the sign fixme, which is how we'll refer to it later. We
specify that in the terminal the sign should be displayed as !!, and that in the GUI the icon
stored at /path/to/todo.xpm should be used instead. The linehl argument defines the
highlight group used for the entire line the sign is attached to; texthl defines the highlight group
for the sign itself.
Now the sign is defined, presumably in vimrc, you can use it in any file. To attach the sign
to a specific line you use:

:sign place id line=line name=name
file=file-path
For example:
:sign place 22 line=200 name=fixme file=/home/user/novel.txt
The id is arbitrary, but must be unique and numeric. The name is the same name you used
when you defined the sign. The value of the line argument is the number of the line on
which the sign should be attached. The file argument is the full path (no expansion is done)
to a currently loaded file to which the sign should be attached. So, in the above example, two
exclamation marks are inserted in the margin of the 200th line of /home/user/
novel.txt.
DISCUSSION
You only need to define signs once, so that's easy enough, but the syntax for placing signs is
particularly unwieldy. Let's look at some alternative approaches.
You could place the following stanza in your vimrc so <F5> places the previously defined
fixme sign on the current line of the current file:
function! SignFixme()
execute(":sign place ".line(".")." line=".line(".")." name=fixme file=".expand("%:p"))
endfunction
map <F5> :call SignFixme()<CR>
Rather than placing signs manually, you may prefer to have them automatically placed on lines
satisfying some criteria. The following stanza attaches the fixme sign to lines containing notes
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like TODO: check for race conditions. It operates on the current line or selection. So, you can
select a range of lines, press <F6> then have your to-do list items flagged in the margin.
function! SignLines() range
let n = a:firstline
execute(":sign define fixme text=!! texthl=Todo")
while n <= a:lastline
if getline(n) =~ '$TODO\|FIXME$'
execute(":sign place ".n." line=".n." name=fixme file=".expand("%:p"))
endif
let n = n + 1
endwhile
endfunction
map <F6> :call SignLines()<CR>

GUI (GVIM)
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CHANGING THE FONT
PROBLEM
You want to display the text in a different font.
For example, the current font isn't particularly readable, or is too large.
SOLUTION
Standard Vim uses the font from the terminal it is run under. Gvim, however, gives you full
control over the font face and size.
The command :set guifont font-name changes the current font to font-name. The
font name can be followed by a size. There are, unfortunately, some platform-specific
differences at this point…
⇰ Specifying guifont in an Operating-System-Specific Manner
Linux
• The font name and size are space separated.

• Spaces and commas need to be backslash escaped.
For example: :set guifont=Andale\ Mono\ 11.

Mac
• The font name and size are colon separated.

• The size is prefixed with a h.
• Spaces and commas need to be backslash escaped.
For example: :set guifont=Monaco:h11.
Windows
• The font name and size are colon separated.

• The size is prefixed with a h.
• Spaces in font names can be replaced with underscores (_).
For example: :set guifont=Andale_Mono:h11.
DISCUSSION
To change the font you need to know its name. On most operating systems you can request
a GUI font chooser with the command :set guifont=*. Linux users can also use the
xlsfonts utility to see a list of available fonts.
If the font you've specified can not be found, Vim complains. To avoid this you can specify
multiple fonts in order of preference with a comma separated list. The first valid font is
loaded. For example: :set guifont=Screen15,\ 7x13. This approach is particularly
useful if you use your Vim configuration on multiple computers, or if you simply want it to be
portable.
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MAXIMISING SCREEN SPACE
PROBLEM
The toolbar, menubar, and other GUI artifacts take up too much of your screen; you want to
hide them.
SOLUTION
Modify the guioptions variable. Gvim decides which elements of the GUI to display based on
the value of guioptions. This is a series of letters, each of which refer to some specfic element.
Some examples follow:
• m - Display a menu bar.

• T - Display a toolbar.
• r - Always display the right-hand scrollbar.
• R - Display the right-hand scrollbar if the window is split vertically.
• l - Always display left-hand scrollbar.
• L - Display the left-hand scrollbar if the window is split vertically.
• b - Display the horizontal scrollbar.
So, to hide the menu bar, toolbar, and scrollbars you could use :set guioptions-
=mTrlb. To display a hidden element use += instead, e.g. :set guioptions+=T.

DISCUSSION
If you decide that you want to restore one or more of these elements you can simply execute
:set guioptions+=m, for example. This can be cumbersome, however, as it requires you
to remember the significance of each letter.
The following stanza in your gvimrc assigns <F11> to toggle the display of extraneous GUI
elements:
function ToggleGUICruft()
let opts = ['T','m','r','L']
let sign = &guioptions =~# 'T' ? '-' : '+'
for opt in opts
exec('set guioptions'.sign.'='.opt)
endfor
endfunction
map <F11> <Esc>:call ToggleGUICruft()<cr>
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CREATING MENUS AND TOOLBAR BUTTONS
PROBLEM
You want to add your own commands to Gvim's menus, or toolbar, for quick access.
For example, you've written a function that automatically writes bestselling novels for you, but
you're not willing to use it if you have to type its name every time; you want to invoke it by
selecting a menu option.
SOLUTION
Use :set amenu menu command to map a menu item to a command. This is the GUI
equivalent of :map.
For example, :amenu Help.Op&ions :help options<cr> adds a new item called
Options to the Help menu, which invokes :help options. The ampersand (&) signifies that
the character it prefixes can be used as a keyboard shortcut, so in this case <Alt>+h+t
selects this command.
DISCUSSION
You're not restricted to adding items to existing menus; you can create a new top-level menu
simply by specifying a name not currently in use. For example:
:amenu <silent>&Vim.vim\.org :!xdg-open http://www.vim.org/<cr>

will create a new top-level menu called Vim with the shortcut key V. It will contain one entry
named vim.org (we escape the . because otherwise it would create a vim entry which in turn
contain an org item). When invoked it will open the Vim website on systems adhering to the
Free Desktop Specification. The <silent> prefix prevents the command from being echoed on
the command-line.
If you want to add a dashed separator line between menu items use a menu item named -SEP-
and an empty command, e.g. :amenu Help.-SEP- :.
To control where a top-level menu appears relative to its neighbours you need to prefix
amenu with a numeric priority: the lower the number the further right the menu's position.
For example, :5amenu First.first :echo 'first'<cr> creates a top-level menu
named First that appears before all of the others.
The same approach can be used to position menu items. For example, :amenu 9999.1
Help.first :echo 'first'<cr> adds a first item to the Help menu, which appears
before the other items.
You can also use :amenu to add a new toolbar icon:
:amenu icon=image-path Toolbar.item-name
command
For example:
:amenu icon=options.png ToolBar.OptionsHelp :help<cr>
If the image-path consists only of a filename, as above, Vim prepends $VIMRUNTIME/

bitmaps/ to it.
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SEARCHING

SEARCHING FOR ANY WORD
PROBLEM
You want to search the current file for an arbitrary word.
SOLUTION
Use /word to search forward in the file; ?word to search backward.
DISCUSSION
You can use incremental (find-as-you-type) search by using the :set incsearch option.
Having done so, your cursor will move to the first match as you enter your query. This
enables you to receive feedback on the effectiveness of your query. Once satisfied with your
query, press <Enter> to run it. If you were interested more in the erratic cursor movement
than searching, pressing <Esc> will cancel the search and return to where you began.
You're not limited to finding literal strings; word can also be a regular expression. For example
/^[A-Z] searches for lines beginning with capital letters.
To repeat your search use // or ??.
After finding the first match using either of the above methods, you can press the n
(mnemonic: next match) key to jump to the next match. To jump to the previous match, use
N.
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SEARCHING OVER MULTIPLE FILES
PROBLEM
You want to search for a particular term in a collection of files. For example, you want to find
the files in your project that mention Mr J. Random.
SOLUTION
Use the :vimgrep command: :vimgrep /pattern/ [flags] file0 file1

fileN.
DISCUSSION
In its simplest form, vimgrep takes a word to search for, and a list of files in which to do
so. So, to search for grapes in shopping-list.txt you'd run :vimgrep /grapes/
shopping-list.txt.
You can name as many files as you like, but you'll probably want to use shell globbing, see the
sidebar for details, instead to specify groups of files. Searching for grapes in all *.txt files
could be accomplished with: :vimgrep /grapes/ *.txt.
⇰ Globbing
A number of Vim commands support filename globbing. This is a way of selecting a

group of files by specifying a pattern matching their names. For example, *.txt

refers to all files in the current directory whose names end in .txt. The * is a wildcard
and means anything.
** recursively matches directories below the current one, so **/*.txt searches

recursively downwards from the current directory for filenames ending in .txt.
If your operating system supports additional globbing patterns, you can use these as
well.
You're not restricted to searching on simple words, however. You can use any of Vim's
regular expressions between the forward slashes. Searching /tmp/bar.txt and
~/foo.tex for lines starting with numbers: :vimgrep /^[0-9]/ /tmp/bar.txt
~/foo.tex.
vimgrep jumps to the first match it finds. To jump to the next match use :cn; use :cN for
the previous.
✪ If you use :grep instead of :vimgrep an external grep-like utility is used to

perform the search. The program used is the value of &grepprg. A good choice is
Andy Lester's ack which can be used with set grepprg=ack and set
grepformat=%f:%l:%m.
The j flag inhibits the jumpiness (Ritalin for Vim); simply saving the search results to the
quickfix list (see sidebar for details) and leaving your cursor where it was.
The g flag controls how lines matching the pattern multiple times are handled. If not present
(by default), only the first match of a line is shown; otherwise, every occurrence of the
pattern is regarded as a separate match.
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The flags can be combined in either order.
⇰ Quick Fix List
The quick fix list mentioned above is a Vim concept for creating a temporary index of
positions in a file. vimgrep stores its results (a file name, a position within that file,
and the matched text) in the quick fix list.
To view the quick fix list (i.e. the results of the last search) use :cl[ist]. The
results are numbered, so you can jump to a specific one with :cc number.
For more information see :help quickfix.

SEARCHING AND REPLACING
PROBLEM
You want to replace all occurrences of one string with another.
For example, imagine you were using Vim to write a novel wherein there was a protaganist
named Curtis. You decide to change his name to Excalibur to give him more panache. You want
Vim to make these changes with the least possible effort.
SOLUTION
Execute :%s/target/replacement/g to replace all occurrences of target with

replacement. For example: :%s/Curtis/Excalibur/g.
DESCRIPTION
The solution above replaces Curtis with Excalibur. The g flag at the end causes this operation
to be performed globally, i.e. multiple times on each line, if necessary.
The % prefix indicates that the replacement should occur over the entire file. Had you
previously visually selected text to which you want to constrain the search/replace operation
omit the %, e.g. :s/Curtis/Excalibur/g. Or, prefix the command with a range to
contstrain it that way, e.g. 2,20s/Curtis/Excalibur/g performs the operation over
lines two to twenty.
The search string (Curtis in this example) doesn't have to be a literal string; it can be any Vim
regular expression. The details of Vim's regular expressions are explained in the Creating
Regular Expressions recipe, so I won't go into them here. Two tips, though:
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• Search for words - If you provide a literal string to replace, as above, Vim even
replaces occurrences that form parts of other words. For example :%s/and/or/g
would change supply and demand into supply or demor. To avoid this, surround the
string with word boundary anchors (\<, \>). Thus, the above command could be
rewritten as :%s/\<and\>/or/g.
• Search case insensitively - If you want linux to match Linux, linux, and LiNuX you need
to either add the i flag to the end of the replacement command, or, use :set
ignorecase to enable this behaviour for all searches.

SEARCHING FOR THE WORD BENEATH THE CURSOR
PROBLEM
You want to search the current document for the word underneath your cursor. You'd rather
not type it in again.
SOLUTION
In Normal mode, place your cursor on or just in front of the word you wish to find, then
press * (mnemonic: star search). This will jump to the next occurrence of the word in the
current file. Alternatively, pressing # will find the previous occurrence.
DISCUSSION
After finding the first match using either of the above methods, you can press the n
(mnemonic: next match) key to jump to the next match. To jump to the previous match, use
N.
To search for words containing the current word, press g* or g#, as appropriate. For
instance, if the current word is back, g* will jump to hunchback.
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CREATING REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
PROBLEM
You want to use a Vim regular expression, but don't know how they work.
For example, you want to search a document for a word that begins with a vowel.
SOLUTION
Vim allows you to use regular expressions (regexps) in many areas. The Searching for Any
Word recipe, for example, explains how to search a file for a regexp.
A regexp is a pattern that describes a string. We will use the /pattern/ notation for
describing patterns, and the "string" notation to represent the text the pattern is being
tested against.
The simplest form of pattern is a literal string, which matches that exact string. For example,
/cow/ matches "cow", "Don't have a cow", and "cower".
The period (.) has special significance in a regexp. It matches any single character. So, /.ow/
also matches "cow", but also "sow", and "tow".
You can use character ranges to indicate that any one of the specified characters are
acceptable. For example /[cs]ow/ would match "cow", "sow", and "undersow".

If your range consists of alphabetically or numerically consecutive characters you can specify
the start character and end character separated by a hyphen. For example, to match "b",
"c", "d", "e", or "f", you can use /[b-f]/. Or, an integer between 1 and 5: /[1-5]/.
You can invert character ranges so they match any character not specified. For example,
/[^cs]ow/ matches any character that isn't a "c" or an "s" followed by "ow", i.e.
"acknowledge", "I said "ow"!", and "bellow".
Another useful concept of regexps is repetition. If you wanted to match strings containing
consecutive "o"s followed by an ""i", like "cooing" and "tattooist", you could use
/ooi/. If you wanted to abstract this pattern, however, to match one or more "o"}s
followed by an "i", you'd have a problem.
The solution is to suffix the part of the pattern that can be repeated with a metacharacter
which specifies the type of repetition. A metacharacter is simply a character that has special
significance in a regular expression. For example, the "+" metacharacter requires that what
precedes it19 occurs either one or more times. For example, /o\+i/, matches one or more
"o"s followed by an "i": "abattoir", "cooing", and "oii".
The "*" metacharacter represents any number of occurrences of the preceding character, so
/o*i/ matches "zucchini", "boating", and "zooimg". This time the "o" is made
optional. (Given that it starts the pattern it's actually unnecessary; /i/ will match everything
that it matches).
A more useful example is /[a-c]t*o\+i/ which matches either "a", "b", or "c"
followed by any number of "t"s, followed by at least one "o", followed by an "i". The
following words satisfy the pattern: ""tattooing", "coins", and "limboing". It may
19. In fact, it requires that the atom that precedes it occurs one or more times, but this recipe is already too
complex. If you want this level of detail see :help pattern or a regular expression book.
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not be intuitive that "tattooing" would match, so let's walk through it: The "a" satisfies
/[a-c]/, the following two "t"s match /t*/, the following two "o"s match /o\+/, then
the "i" matches /i/.
A key concept to grasp here is that a string matches a regexp as long as a contiguous portion
of it matches. In the example above the regexp looks at the first character of "tattooing"
and tries applying the pattern to it. This fails because "t" is not a member of the character
class [a-c]. So it moves on to the next letter and starts again, this time it matches up to
"i", as explained above, and because the pattern has now been exhausted, the rest of the
string is ignored.
You can make a portion of the regexp optional (i.e. insisting that it matches 0 or 1 times)
with \=. You can generalise this with the \{min,max\} notation which matches at least
min times, but no more than max times. For example, /[â-c][a-c]\{2,4\}/ matches
"yachts" ("yac"), and "blabbed" ("labb"), but doesn't match "cabbage".
Like character ranges, alternation allows you to specify a list of alternatives that can match at
a given point. Whereas character ranges specify sets of characters, alternation is used for sets
of strings. For example, /$ing|ed$/ matches the string "ing" or the string "ed", e.g.
"simpered", and "attacking". If you used a character range here, e.g. /[inged]/, the
pattern would match any string that contained an "i", an "n", a "g", an "e", or a "d". i.e.
it would match all the strings the alternation approach does, but also many, many more.
All the patterns so far have been allowed to match at any point in the string. That is to say,
before Vim gives up on a match it will try applying the pattern at every point in the text. You
can change this behaviour by using anchors: ^ matches the start of a line, while $ matches the
end. So, /^\s\=\uo/ matches a line that begins with optional white space, which is followed
by an uppercase letter, which is followed by an "o". The following strings will all match: "
Popes are religious", "Roman", and "Soviet Union".

You can combine the two anchors to require that the whole line matches the pattern. For
example, /\ûo$v|ma$.\+[rnt]\$/ will match "November" and "Soviet", but
will reject "Soviet Union" or "During November".
DISCUSSION
The features described above are common to most regexp implementations. Vim offers some
extensions, though, that users familiar with other regexp implementations may not be aware
of.
By default regexps are case sensitive. That is to say /cow/ will not match "Cow". You can
make all patterns ignore case with :set ignorecase. To change the case sensitivity for a
particular pattern surround the relevant portions with \c (to ignore case from this point on)
and/or \C to respect case from this point on. For example, /\ccow/ matches "cow",
"coW", and "Cow". However, /\cco\Cw/ matches "COw" and "cow", but not "COW".
The \c makes the "co" case insensitive, then the \C makes the "w" case sensitive.
Some characters in a regexp have a special significance and don't match themselves literally in
the string. For example, /^foo/ matches a line starting with "foo"; it doesn't match
"^foo". To match a special character you need to precede it with a backslash, For example
\^ matches "^", \$ matches "$", \. matches ".", etc.
Of particular note in Vim is \n, which matches a newline character, \r which matches a
carriage return character. and \t which matches a <Tab>.
Vim supports backreferences which allow you to refer to part of a match later in the same
match. For example, /$[a-z]$\1/ matches a lowercase letter followed by the same
character that just matched. This would match "zoom", and "seeing". The parenthesised
portion of the pattern is a group, and the backreference (\n) refers to the nth group. So,
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/$[a-z]$$[a-z]$\2\1/ matches two lowercase letters, followed by the second one

again, then the first one again. This matches strings like "abba".

LOOKING UP DOCUMENTATION FOR THE KEYWORD UNDER THE CURSOR
PROBLEM
You want to invoke an external command to lookup documentation for the keyword
underneath the cursor. For example, Linux users may like to read the manual for the named
command with the man utility.
SOLUTION
Use :set keywordprg=program, then hit K while hovering over the word.
DISCUSSION
This recipe calls the command specified with :set keywordprg, passing the current
word20 as an argument. Thus, if keywordprg = man, then hovering over the word ls and
hitting K would display the documentation for Linux's ls command.
When used with man, Vim translates a count for the K command into a section number. So
7K over glob invokes man 7 glob to display section 7 of the glob documentation.
The Ruby programming language has a utility called ri that displays documentation about the
given Ruby method. The Perl programming language has a similar command called perldoc.
By setting keywordprg appropriately, you can make context-sensitive documentation lookup
trivial.
20. word is used in the sense of a string that looks like a word to Vim; it is not necessarily a valid word in
your language.
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DISPLAY

WORKING WITH LONG LINES
PROBLEM
Your file contains lines which are too long to fit on the screen. You find it hard to edit and
view.
SOLUTION
The :set wrap command, which should be on by default, changes how long lines are
displayed. Once they reach the right margin they are broken, and continued on the line below.
(To disable this behaviour: :set nowrap).
wrap only changes the way the lines are displayed, however; the file will not be changed. It
inserts soft line breaks.
This means that a file containing two particularly long lines may be represented by Vim as
having 5 lines, for example, after wrapping. If you try to navigate this file using the basic
movement commands j would move between the two logical lines, rather than the screen
lines. The solution is to prefix the movement commands with g, so gj moves down one
screen line.
If using wrap, you can specify what point the line should be broken by executing :set
linebreak. This uses the value of breakat to decide where to break the line. To change
the characters used modify breakat.
You can use :set textwidth=width to enforce a maximum line length, after which the
text is broken with a "hard" line break. Vim breaks at white space, so lines may be shorter
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than width. To reformat existing text according to this preference either select them visually
and hit gq or, in Normal mode, you can reformat the current paragraph with gqap.
DISCUSSION
In general, you'll be better off using hard line breaks with textwidth. This removes the need to
differentiate between logical lines and screen lines, and means that the file will display
reasonably in any editor, even if it doesn't wrap long lines.
Traditionally, text file lines are kept under 80 characters. This is mainly a holdover from the
days of terminals whose displays were limited in this way, but is still customary in many
programming languages and e-mail. To enforce this restriction just :set textwidth=80.
There's another way to insert hard line breaks without specifying a maximum line length. It is
called wrapmargin and wraps lines relative to the width of the terminal window. For
example, :set wrapmargin=4 means that when a line is more than four characters away
from the right-hand margin, it is broken. This approach is more flexible than textwidth, but
has the disadvantage of producing files which will display poorly on smaller displays or when
the screen is split between multiple files. Especially if you're sharing the files you produce with
others, I suggest the use of textwidth instead.
✪ textwidth takes precedence over wrapmargin. For wrapmargin to take

effect textwidth must be zero, as it is by default.

DISPLAYING LINE NUMBERS
PROBLEM
You want to see each line's number alongside it. For example, if you’re writing a program,
error messages frequently reference line numbers.
SOLUTION
Use :set number to enable line numbering. If you're using a small monitor, you may want
to disable them: :set nonumber.
DISCUSSION
Even if you're not programming, line numbers can still be useful. For example, if you’re
collaborating on a file with other people, they may mention specific lines, which you can then
jump to with :number. If you’re wrapping long lines, the line number can be used to
differentiate the beginning of the line from the point at which it has been wrapped.
By default the number column is at least 4 characters wide, regardless of how many lines the
file has. To change this minimum width use :set numberwidth=width.
The line numbers are only displayed when you’re viewing the file with Vim; the actual file isn't
modified. If you'd like it to be, and you have the cat command on your system, you can
execute :%!cat -n %. This filters the entire file through cat and prepends the number to
each line.
Lastly, if you'd like to see the line numbers when you print the file without permanently
changing its contents: :set printoptions=number:y.
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WORKING WITH REMOTE FILES
PROBLEM
You want to edit/view a file that is stored on another computer.
For example, you might want to change a file on your website from your home computer. Or,
you want to change the message of the day file on a server you administer.
SOLUTION
To invoke Vim with a remote file use its URL as the argument to vim. For example: vim
sftp://[email protected]/file.txt.
To work with remote files from within Vim, just use their URLs in place of a filename with
normal editing commands.
So, to to open a remote file for editing use :e URL. For example: :e
ftp://[email protected]/README.
To save to a remote file use :w URL. For example: :w

scp://[email protected]/etc/motd.
DISCUSSION
Vim supports the following protocols: S C P, S F T P , R C P, H T T P (read-only), W E B D A V, rsync

(read-only), and fetch (read-only). However, it relies on external programs to do so. On Linux,

most of these programs are available by default; on Windows, for example, only FTP is
normally available. See :help netrw-externapp for more information.
If the protocol requires authentication, you can supply the username as part of the URL, and
then be prompted for the password interactively. This gets boring fast, however.
If you're editing files via SSH or SCP consider setting up passwordless logins. The principle is
explained in Password-less logins with OpenSSH for Debian Linux, but it is much for the same
for other operating systems.
If you're using FTP on Linux, you can store your credentials in ~/.netrc'. The file is
formatted as follows:
machine {host name 1}
login {username}
password {password}
machine {host name 2}
...
It should be made read-only for your user: chmod 600 ~/.netrc . Now you can use
URLs like ftp://example.org/README, and it will find your username and password automatically.
⚠ FTP is an insecure protocol, so please don't use it unless you must. SSH/SFTP/SCP
are all superior alternatives.
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CHANGING THE STATUS LINE
PROBLEM
You don't like the way the status line looks or would prefer if it displayed different types of
information.
For example, you work with files created on different operating systems, so you'd like the file
format (e.g. unix, MS-Windows, or mac) to be displayed along the bottom of the screen.
SOLUTION
Use the :set statusline command along with a format string. The format string is the
text you want displayed interspersed with variable names corresponding to the types of
information you want included.
✪ By default Vim hides the status line. To show it: :set laststatus=2.
For example, to display the file format you could use :set statusline=%{&ff}. You
can surround this with arbitrary text, for example: :set statusline=format:\
%{&ff}.
Here are some common variables the status line can display:
Name Description
b Value of byte under cursor.
c Column number.

l Line number.
r Displays [RO] if file is read only.
t File name (as opposed to file path)
y File content type, e.g. [ruby] or [latex].
\&ff File format, e.g. unix, mac, dos.
Variable names are prefixed with a percentage sign (%). Spaces, bars (|), and other special
characters need to be backslash escaped.
Here's a longer example:
:set statusline=%t\ %y\ format:\ %{&ff};\ [%c,%l]
Sample output: .vimrc [vim] format: unix [2,3].
DISCUSSION
You may have noted that the syntax for displaying the file format was different from the other
variables. The %{} syntax evaluates the expression contained within the braces and displays the
result.
For example, to display the name of the current colour scheme: %{g:colors_name}
(example output: morning). Or the current language: %{v:lang} (example output:
en_GB.UTF-8). Here we are simply displaying the value of Vim internal variables. (See :let
for a list).
The reason %{&ff} works is because ff is the Vim option for getting/setting the file format,
and the & prefix is used for referring to options. The value of any option can be displayed in
this way.
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You can even call a function in this way. For example, to show the last modification time of
the current file:
\%{strftime(\"\%c\",getftime(expand(\"\%\%\")))}
Sample output: Fri 01 May 2009 19:26:07 BST

REDEFINING HIGHLIGHT GROUPS
PROBLEM
You want to change the colours of specific elements of the display. For example, you want
text to be white on a black background.
SOLUTION
Use the :highight group definition command.
A highlight group (group) is an element of the display whose colours can be customised. Some
of the default highlight groups are:
Cursor
Character under the cursor.
ErrorMsg
Command line error messages.
Normal
Normal text.
Visual
Text selected under Visual mode.
The definition is a list of key-value pairs. For example, the following sets the terminal
foreground colour to black and the terminal background colour to yellow:
:highlight Normal ctermfg=black ctermbg=yellow
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These are some common arguments:
ctermfg
Terminal foreground colour.
ctermbg
Terminal background colour.
term
Terminal font style, e.g. bold, italic, underline.
guifg
GUI foreground colour.
guibg
GUI background colour.
Apart from term, these arguments take a colour name or number as a value. Recognised
colour names include black, brown, grey, blue, green, cyan, magenta, yellow, and white.
The arguments that are not supplied retain their previous values. For example, :highlight
Normal\ ctermbg=white changes the background colour to white, but keeps the previous
foreground colour.
Let's look at some examples:
• :highlight Visual term=bold - Text that has been selected using Visual
mode is rendered in bold.
• :highlight Comment ctermfg=grey ctermbg=white term=bold -
Comments are rendered in bold, grey text.

DISCUSSION
Normally you'll select a colour scheme, and not define highlighting groups at all. Occasionally,
though, you want more control over colours or need to edit a syntax file. That's where the
:highlight command comes in.
Before you change highlight groups you may like to check their current values. You can do
this with :highlight group. To view all current settings use :highlight.
⇰ Defining a Highlight Group
You can define your own highlight group by using the :highlight command as
described above with a group name of your choice. To select what is highlighted you
use :match group /pattern/. For example:
:highlight Elephant ctermbg=grey ctermfg=white
:match Elephant /\celephant/
This renders all occurrences of the word elephant, regardless of case due to the \c
escape, in white on grey.
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MODIFYING THE CURSOR
PROBLEM
You want to make the cursor easier to see.
For example, you're using visually “busy” syntax highlighting, and sometimes lose the cursor.
Or, you're working with columnar data, and need the entire column that the cursor is over to
be highlighted.
SOLUTION
To change the cursor colour in Gvim redefine the Cursor highlighting group21.
Another approach is to highlight the line the cursor is on. You do this by executing :set
cursorline. Again, to change the colours modify the CursorLine highlighting group.
Similarly, you can highlight the current column the cursor is in with :set cursorcolumn.
The highlight group is, predictably, called CursorColumn.
If you want your terminal to resemble a sniper's sights, you can combine both line and column
highlighting to create a cross-hair effect, as shown below.
21. The Creating Highlight Groups recipe explains how to redefine highlight groups, but in standard Vim
the terminal defines the cursor colour.

DISCUSSION
Gvim allows you to customise every conceivable aspect of the cursor display with the
command :set guicursor. This allows you to change the cursor's appearance based on
the mode (i.e. one colour for Insert mode, another for Normal), its height, and control
whether it blinks… This is achieved by providing a format string as the value for
guioptions. Here are some examples:
• n-c-v:ver50-ncvCursor - In Normal, Command, and Insert mode set the cursor

to a vertical bar 50% of the current character's width. Highlight it with the ncvCursor
group.
• i:block-iCursor-blinkon0,v:block-vCursor - In Insert mode use a non-
blinking block cursor highlighted with the iCursor highlighting group. In Visual mode also
use a block cursor, but highlight it with vCursor.
The above examples should be adaptable for your uses. For the gritty detail of the supported
syntax look at :help guicursor.
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CHANGING THE WINDOW TITLE
PROBLEM
You want to change the title of a Vim window to make it more descriptive.
SOLUTION
Assign a value to the titlestring option, and set the title option. For example:
:set title titlestring=My\ Title
DISCUSSION
When working with multiple instances of Vim, it can be difficult to remember what task each
window corresponds to. You can avoid this problem by customising each window's title. The
window title can also function similarly to the status line, reminding the user about an
important aspect of the current file.
The default window title contains the current filename, followed by a character indicating the
state of this file, followed by the name of its directory22. The state character is one of the
following:
-
File can't be modified
22. To be precise, the directory name is followed by a hyphen then the value of &v:servername, if set,
otherwise just VIM.

+
File has been modified
=
File is read-only
=+
File is read-only and has been modified
This is already quite a descriptive title, but we can customise it further using a format string,
as described in the Changing the Status Line recipe. The Vim documentation (:help
titlestring) gives the following example:
:auto BufEnter * let &titlestring = hostname() . "/" .
expand("%:p")
Here the window title is reset when the user enters a new buffer. It contains the hostname, a
forward slash, then the full path of the current file23.
Another example is to display the value of an environment variable in the window title along
with the filename. For instance, Ruby on Rails developers could prefix the filename with the
value of RAILS_ENV, which indicates whether the application is in development, production,
staging, or testing mode:
let &titlestring=expand($RAILS_ENV) . ": " .
expand("%:t")
One last trick is to embed the value of an external command in the window title using the
%{system('command')} syntax. This could be used to display the name of the current
23. For an explanation of the %:p syntax see the Filename Modifiers section of the Executing External
Commands recipe.
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branch, if using a version control system, or indicate whether the project's unit tests are
passing or failing.

EXTENDING
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CREATING KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS WITH KEY MAPPINGS
PROBLEM
You'd like to execute a command, or series thereof, with a keyboard shortcut rather than
continually type it in. Or, you'd like to change an existing keyboard shortcut so that it does
something more useful.
For example, you use the <Space> key to page down in other applications, and you'd like to
do the same in Vim. Or, you regularly reformat paragraphs with gqap, but would prefer to
simply hit Q.
SOLUTION
Use key mappings. A map is simply a key combination followed by another key combination.
When you enter the first key combination Vim acts as if you entered the second.
For example, to remap <Space> to <PageDown> you execute :map <Space>

<PageDown>. The map command creates a mapping for Normal, Visual, and Operator Pending
mode; i.e. if you press <Space> in Insert mode this mapping, thankfully, has no effect.
Mapping Q to gqap is similarly straight forward: :nmap Q gqap. Unlike map, :nmap only
takes effect in Normal mode. We used nmap here because this mapping doesn't make sense
in other modes: in Insert mode we want Q to insert a literal Q, and in Visual mode we want
to reformat the selected text rather than the current paragraph. The Visual mode mapping is
:vmap Q gq.
The other main types of mapping commands are:

:imap
Insert mode only.
:cmap
Command-line only.
:map
Insert and Command-line.
DISCUSSION
Keyboard mapping is yet another way to save valuable keystrokes. If you find yourself
executing a command repeatedly create a mapping. It's also useful for creating more sensible
aliases for existing keyboard shortcuts that you can never quite remember.
It's generally recommended to map the function keys (<F1>-<F12>), as well as their shifted
counterparts (e.g. <Shift>-<F3>) because they're not used by Vim24. As long as you use a
combination that doesn't interfere with the commands you do use, you're free to use
whatever you want, though.
Before you create a mapping you might like to check what, if anything, it's currently being
used for. You can do this by executing :help key, e.g. :help <F1> will show that Vim
maps it to :help. If you want to see the user-defined mappings (whether set by you or a
plugin) call the :map command with no arguments. This works will the mode-specific map
commands outlined above, too, so :imap will show Insert mode mappings.
24. <F1> is used for :help but pretty useless given that you'd normally use :help topic.
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CHANGING THE COLOUR SCHEME
PROBLEM
You don't like the colours Vim uses; you want to change them.
For example, you've found a colour scheme you like better, so want to instruct Vim to use it.
Or, you find that the current colour scheme makes text hard to read so want to find a more
suitable one.
SOLUTION
To browse existing colour schemes enter :colourscheme, then hit <Tab> to cycle
through the installed schemes. If you find one that you like hit <Enter> to apply it.
DISCUSSION
A colour scheme is a set of rules controlling how different elements of the interface appear.
Vim is distributed with a selection of colour schemes, but you can also download new ones,
as explained in the sidebar.
✪ The Vim Color Scheme Test is a a gallery of colour schemes along with their
names. Browse through it to select a theme you like, then follow the instructions
below to install it.

⇰ Installing Colour Schemes
1. Browse the available colour schemes at Vim.org and download any that you
like.
2. Create a $VIM/colors, e.g. mkdir -p ~/.vim/colors on POSIX
systems.
3. Copy the .vim file you downloaded in step one to the colors directory
you just created.
4. Open vim then execute :colorscheme name, where name is that of the
file you downloaded without the .vim extension.
5. If you want to use this colour scheme permanently add colorscheme
name to your vimrc; otherwise repeat these steps with a different colour
scheme.
Before you change your color scheme you may like to make a note of what you're using at
the moment. You can find the name of the current scheme with :echo g:colors_name.
To change a specific aspect of a colour scheme you can redefine a highlight group.
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CREATING COMMAND-LINE COMMANDS
PROBLEM
You want to create your own :command command.
SOLUTION
Use the :command command like so::command name command, where name is the
command you're creating and command the command name should execute. (name must
start with an initial capital)
For example, :command Ls !ls -all % lets you use :Ls to view the long listing for the
current file on POSIX systems, thus showing the permissions, owner, group, etc.
DISCUSSION
The command can be anything you could enter at the : prompt.
You can modify how the command is defined by supplying :command with a list of arguments
with the syntax :command arg1, arg2, … ,argN name command. These are not to
be confused with arguments passed to the command, itself, however.
To create a command that accepts arguments you use the syntax :command -nargs=spec
name command, where spec is:
1
One argument.

*
Any number of arguments.
?
Zero or one arguments.
+
One or more arguments.
You reference the arguments in command with the <args> placeholder. The <q-args>
quotes special characters in the argument. For example, you could use :command -
nargs=1 Ci !cd %:h && git commit %:t -m <q-args> to quickly change to
the directory containing the current file (%:h is the current pathname with the last
component removed) and commit the current file (%:t is the last component of the current
pathname) to a Git repository by typing :Ci message, without worrying about using
quotation marks and the like25.
To create a command that accepts a count you use the -count=default argument, then
reference the count in command as <count>.
To create a command that accepts a range you use the -range=spec argument. If you don't
supply a spec (i.e. -range), the range defaults to the current line. A spec of % means that
the range defaults to the whole file. You can reference the range in the command with the
placeholders <line1> and <line2> which denote the first and last line of the given range,
respectively.
25. For more robust integration with Git see the Integrating Vim with Git recipe
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EXTENDING VIM WITH SCRIPTS AND PLUGINS
PROBLEM
You want to add functionality to Vim, preferably without having to write it yourself.
SOLUTION
Browse Vim Scripts to find a script that meets your needs. Its 'type' should be utility or
ftplugin. Download the latest version to your computer. If the plugin comes with its own
installation instructions, use those; otherwise, read on.
If the file you've downloaded has a name ending with .vim you usually just need to save it in
the right directory and then its ready to use. For scripts labelled utility, also known as global
plugins, this directory is $VIMHOME/plugin; for those labeled ftplugin, also known as filetype
plugins, the last component of this path is ftplugin instead. If this directory does not already
exist you need to create it. The sidebar lists the locations of the plugin directories on various
operating systems.
If the file is compressed (ending with .zip or .tar.gz), try uncompressing it in the parent
directory of the applicable plugin directory. For example, on Linux this is ~/.vim/.
Now you should just be able to start Vim and have the plugin work.
⇰ Plugin Directory Location

Note: For filetype plugins, the last portion of these paths is ftplugin; not plugin.

Unix
~/.vim/plugin
PC and OS/2
$HOME/vimfiles/plugin or $VIM/vimfiles/plugin
Amiga
s:vimfiles/plugin
Macintosh
$VIM:vimfiles:plugin
Mac OS X
~/.vim/plugin
RISC-OS
Choices:vimfiles.plugin
Plugin Types
Plugins can be either global or filetype-specific. Global plugins are loaded for every file you
open; filetype-specific plugins are only loaded for certain filetypes.
DISCUSSION
As complicated as the above instructions may sound, it's generally trivial to install a plugin. For
example, on Linux to install the potwiki plugin:
$ mkdir -p ~/.vim/plugin
$ wget
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http://www.vim.org/scripts/download_script.php?src_id=9316 -O
~/.vim/plugin/potwiki.vim
(If your plugin directory already exists, the first command is superfluous.)
Vim 7 added support for a new plugin installation method called vimball. Vimballs make plugin
installation and configuration easier, and are a slight improvement over the previous methods.
They're not in wide use yet, but if you find a plugin distributed in this way (they have a *.vba
extension), try following the steps below:
1. Download the *.vba file.

2. Open it with Vim, e.g. vim something.vba.
3. Use :VimballList to verify its contents.
4. Install it by sourcing: :source %.

INTEGRATING VIM WITH GIT
PROBLEM
You use the Git version control system with Vim and want shortcuts for common operations
and syntax highlighting for git output.
SOLUTION
Thanks to the work of Tim Pope and others, Vim ships with syntax highlighting support for
Git output/templates. For example, after executing git commit -a, with Vim set as your
default editor, you'll see
Vim can even help you write better commit messages. Git commit messages should typically
have a 50-character or less summary as their first line, with a blank second line, then,
optionally a long explanation, wrapped at about 72 characters26. There's no need to remember
this convention, however, because Vim warns you, visually, if you colour outside the lines. For
example:
26. For an explanation of this convention see A Note About Git Commit Messages.
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In this example, the first line is too long, so the extraneous characters are coloured black. The
second line should be blank, so it has a red background to indicate its contents are in error.
motemen's git-vim plugin extends this support by adding shortcuts and commands for common
Git operations.
Install it by copying its files to your Vim directory. For example, on Linux:
mkdir -p ~/.vim
cd /tmp
git clone git://github.com/motemen/git-vim.git
cp -r git-vim/{plugin,syntax} ~/.vim/
cd -
You now have access to commands such as :GitCommit, which will, split your window
horizontally, loading the Git commit template into the upper pane. Once you have written
your commit message and quit the buffer, your file will be committed. (This assumes, of
course, that the current file is located in a Git working directory).
✪ Bob Hiestand's vcscommand plugin offers similar functionality to git-vim, but

it also supports C V S, S V N , and SVK. This makes it especially suitable for situations
where one uses multiple version control systems.

DISCUSSION
Through a combination of editable history and particularly fast operation, Git invites regular
commits. This is only feasible, however, if Git is tightly integrated into Vim, because otherwise
version control will become a source of distraction that steals your focus and wastes your
time.
Vim's ability to execute external commands already makes using git reasonably
straightforward. For instance, :!git add % would add the current file, while :!git log
would temporarily suspend Vim to show you the commit log.
The git-vim plugin expedites this process by providing Normal mode shortcuts. \ga27 adds the
current file, \gc commits it, etc.28
git-vim takes this integration further for commands like :GitBlame where the window is split
vertically to show the author's name alongside the lines he was responsible for.
This presentation is clearly superior to the output of :!git blame %, shown below, in
that it employs syntax highlighting, allows inline editing, and hides extraneous output.
27. This example and those following assume that your Leader variable is set to the default of /; see
:help leader for details.
28. For a complete list of shortcuts offered by this plugin see its README.rdoc file.
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OTHER USES OF VIM
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BROWSING DIRECTORIES
PROBLEM
You want to see the contents of a directory, perhaps so as to select a file to edit. For
instance, if working on a project comprising multiple files you want to see a list of the files in
a separate window.
SOLUTION
Invoke Vim with a directory name as an argument, e.g. vim ~/projects/flying-pigs/.

From within Vim use the :Ex (mnemonic: Explore) command. By default it shows the
contents of the current file's directory, but you can provide a directory name if you wish. For
example: :Ex ~/projects/flying-pigs. The directory is shown in a split screen if the
current file has been modified.
To force a directory listing in a split pane, so you can view a file and its directory listing at
once, use :Sex29. Similarly, :Vex to browse in a vertical split, and :Tex to browse in a new
tab.
DISCUSSION
By default Vim lists every file contained in a directory. To get a more ls-style listing you can
specify a hiding list with :let g:netrw_listhide='\^\..*'. (This is a comma-
separated list of regular expressions). When you're browsing a directory files starting with a
29. No, that's not a joke; the concept is synonymous with Vim

30
period will now be hidden. If you hit a once you'll invert the hiding list (showing only
hidden files). If you hit a again you'll remove the hiding list, showing everything.
To change how directory entries are sorted you can modify the g:netrw_sort_sequence
variable. By default its value is, deep breath:
[\/]$,\.h$,\.c$,\.cpp$,*,\.o$,\.obj$,\.info$,\.swp$,\.bak$,\~$
The order of the patterns is the order of the sort. For instance, the first pattern matches
directories, so they're shown first. The next pattern matches file names ending with *.h (C
header files), so they're shown next. And so on. The * pattern matches everything not
matched by the other patterns. You can change this pattern on-the-fly by hitting S while
viewing a directory listing.
You can change into a directory by selecting it and hitting Enter. The same thing works for
files. If you'd rather open a file in a new buffer use p. P will open the file in a split screen.
If you want to operate on the files you see read Using Vim as a File Manager.
30. By Unix/Linux convention filenames which begin with a period are designated hidden. By default file
browsers and other utilities ignore these files unless explicitly commanded not to.
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USING VIM AS A FILE MANAGER
PROBLEM
You want to use Vim to manage your file system in a similar way to Nautilus, Midnight
Commander, or Windows Explorer.
For example, you want to rename files matching a certain pattern. Or you want to compress
the contents of a directory.
SOLUTION
Browsing Directories explains the basics of working with directories in Vim, so read it first.
⇰ Marking Files
To operate on files you must first mark them (this does not have any relation to the
marks feature).
• Mark the file under the cursor: mf (mnemonic: mark file).

• Unmark the marked file under the cursor: mf.
• Mark files matching a Vim regular expression: mr (mnemonic: mark
with regular expression). You're then prompted for a pattern.
• Unmark all files: mu (mnemonic: marks undo).
• Visually mark files: <Shift>-v, then j and k to change the selection
area.

You can operate on a single file or a group of them. In the latter case, you need to select files
by marking them, as explained in the sidebar. You can now perform various operations on
these files such as:
• Deletion: hit D. You're prompted for each file you've selected. Answering a deletes
them all without asking you any more.
• Renaming: hit R. For each file you're prompted for its new name.
• Copying/Moving: Hit mt (mnemonic: mark target) in the target directory. Change
to the directory containing the source files, select them, then hit mc (mnemonic:
marked copy) to copy or mm (mnemonic: marked move) to move.
• Diff: To diff up to three marked files, use md (mnemonic: marked diff).
• Printing: hit mp to print marked files (mnemonic: mark print).
• Execute shell command: hit mx (mnemonic: marked execute). (See the discussion
for examples).
• Compress/Decompress: hit mz (mnemonic: marked gzip). (Other compression
utilities can be used instead of gzip, but the Vim command remains the same).
• Open in horizontal split: hit o (mnemonic: open).
DISCUSSION
Vim can be used as a pretty well-featured file manager. In fact, given that it can be scripted,
key mapped, and configured in concert with Vim, as well as seamlessly operate on remote
directories, it is arguably better.
Perhaps the most interesting command is mx. This allows you to pass the list of marked files
to an external command. You're prompted for a command line, in which you can use the %
wildcard. Vim then loops through the selected files and calls the command for each one,
substituting % for the filename.
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For example, using a POSIX-compatible system, select three files (foo.txt, bar.txt, and
glark) with mf. Hit mx and enter cat %>>foo-bar-glark. Vim will now execute:
cat foo.txt >>foo-bar-glark
cat bar.txt >>foo-bar-glark
cat glark >>foo-bar-glark
foo-bar-glark will now contain the contents of each file in turn.
The mz command also bears further discussion. It toggles the state of the selected files
between compressed and decompressed.
If a file is uncompressed, Vim attempts to compress it. By default it uses gzip, but you can
change this by modifying the g:netrw_compress variable. For example, to use Bzip2: :let
g:netrw_compress=bzip2.
For decompression Vim uses an extension-to-program mapping:
• .tar - tar -xf

• .gz - gunzip
• .bz2 - bunzip2
• .zip - unzip
For example, if a filename ends with .zip Vim decompresses it by calling unzip zip-
file. To add support for another format use :let g:netrw_decompress[ext] =
prog.

VIEWING DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FILES
PROBLEM
You have multiple versions of a file and want to see how they differ.
For example, if you're working on a document with somebody else, you want to see the
differences between their version and yours.
SOLUTION
Vim calls this feature diff, as per UNIX convention. You diff a file.
To diff from the command line invoke Vim as vimdiff, e.g. vimdiff -o file1 file2.
To diff from within Vim use :diffsplit file.
The screen is split horizontally, and each file is shown in its own window. The differences
between them are highlighted. Lines that exist in one buffer but not in By default, a line that
exists in one file but not in another is coloured blue; the line in the other buffer that should
have held this line is coloured green, and is called a 'filler' line. When a line exists in both
buffers it is coloured purple. If characters inside the line differ they are highlighted in red.
Identical lines have no highlighting. Identical runs of lines are folded.
To split the screen vertically use vimdif file1 file2 or :vert diffsplit file1
file2.
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DISCUSSION
Diffs are traditionally used in programming to compare an old and new version of source code
to see what has changed. As suggested above, though, they're invaluable when collaborating on
a file with somebody else. For example, you write a file named grant-proposal.txt,
then e-mail it to somebody else for input. They make their changes and e-mail it back. You
now have two files: grant-proposal.txt and grant-proposal.changes.txt. You
use vimdiff grant-proposal.txt grant-proposal.changes.txt to see your
collaborator's suggestions.
It's important to note, though, that diff only works with plain text files. It won't work
correctly if you use proprietary, binary formats such as Microsoft Word's .doc. As a general
rule, if Vim can view a file it can diff it.
The windows diff feature splits your screen so each pane scrolls in concert with one other.
This means that if you scroll to line 20 in the bottom pane, the top pane will automatically
scroll to that point, too. This makes comparing long files easier, but you can disable it with
:set noscrollbind.
You can jump between the changes with [c to go to the previous change, and ]c for the
next.

OUTLINING A DOCUMENT
PROBLEM
You want to create an outline view of a document such that its structure can be treated as a
hierarchy, the levels of which can be expanded or collapsed.
For example, if you were writing an essay you may begin by creating an outline. Initially that
would consist of the main section headings. You may then decide to subdivide those headings
further, or add explanatory text that explains the heading's scope. As you continue this
iterative process, you can focus on a particular level by expanding that level of the hierarchy.
This process enables long or complex documents to be planned and organised in a logical
fashion.
SOLUTION
Use the Vim Outliner plugin.
Vim Outliner satisfies all of the objectives above. It's completely integrated with Vim, so your
existing Vim knowledge still applies, and there's little to learn.
Download the plugin from VimOutliner.org, then follow the installation instructions. (The
Extending Vim with Scripts and Plugins recipe may be helpful here).
✪ Debian/Ubuntu users can install Vim Outliner via their package manager. The
installation process is slightly convoluted, however, so instructions follow:
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$ sudo apt-get install vim-vimoutliner

vim-addon-manager
$ sudo vim-addons -w install vimoutliner
Add the following line to your vimrc if not already there:
filetype plugin indent on
Now open a new file with an .otl extension with Vim, e.g.
vim outline.otl
Each line of this file becomes an entry in the outline. Indentation is used to denote levels of
hierarchy. For example:
In this example, Solar System is at the top level of the outline. Sun and Planets are the next
level down. All of the planets are in the next level after that. Each level is automatically
assigned a colour.
You can add body text to a heading by starting a new line with a colon followed by a space,
i.e. : Body text.

In the example above, body text has been added to the Sun heading.
Vim Outliner uses Vim's folds feature, so the standard folds commands still work. Continuing
the above example, if your cursor is over the body text and you hit the fold close command
zc the text will be hidden.
Using zc on a heading collapses its child elements. So, with the cursor over Planets zc
displays:
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To expand a tree one level use zo; to expand it all the way down use zO.
To move a heading to a lower level in the hierarchy use >> in Normal mode; << reverses the
process.
A shortcut for expanding the hierarchy to a certain level is \n, where n is the minimum level
you want displayed. \0 expands every level. \1 collapses every level. Using \2 on our solar
system outline displays only the first- and second-level headings:
For more information see :help vimoutliner.
✪ A mature alternative to Vim Outliner is TVO (The Vim Outliner). Confusingly-

similar name aside, it's worth considering if Vim Outliner doesn't suit you.
DISCUSSION
A key strength of this form of organisation is that you can view a complex document at a
glance with \1, then drill down to a specific heading to work on it.

I use one for my todo/ideas list by putting every item on a line of its own, then, as patterns
emerge, grouping items under headings. For instance, I may add a heading for Book on HTML.
Some time later I think of some chapters, so add them as subheadings to Book on HTML.
When I want to start writing notes for a chapter I add body text to a heading, and start
typing.
Vim Outliner comes with various scripts to convert outlines into other file formats. For
instance, there is a script named otl2html which can be used to convert a .otl file into a
.html. This lets you create semantically-correct webpages without writing HTML. There's
also otl2docbook and otl2pdb, which target DocBook and AddressDB Palm, respectively.
For more tools like this, see VimOutliner.org.
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Vim Recipes

A cookbook for the Vim text editor

by Run Paint Run Run / Run Paint Press

Working with Different File Formats ........................................................................................ 61

Visit http://vim.runpaint.org/ for latest updates. iii

—Run Paint Run Run ([email protected]), 2009, U.K.

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The following typographical conventions are used in this book:

<Esc> - Indicates that the named key should be pressed.

NORMAL MODE COMMANDS

You can send patches and bug reports to [email protected].

You'll probably want to do something like this:

$ git clone git://github.com/runpaint/vim-recipes.git

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Then either send me a patch ([email protected]), or post it to the issue tracker.

Visit http://vim.runpaint.org/ for latest updates. ix

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For practical purposes there are four modes:

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You want to move around inside a file.

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You want to open a file in Vim.

vim $(ack -g $@)

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You want to save the file you've been working on.

✪ The :autowrite functionality is not related to some word processor's concept of

auto-saving a file periodically in case of a crash. Vim does this automatically.

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You want your Vim preferences to persist over sessions.

MS-DOS and Windows

" Set the boolean number option to true

" Set the textwidth option to '78'

" Set the expandtab option to false

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You want to print something from Vim.

call system("a2ps " . a:fname)

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Type of Topic Prepend Example

Vim command argument - :help -r

(The table above is excerpted from the Vim online help).

7. If you're using a different colour scheme the colours may be different.

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The screenshot above identifies some further conventions to be aware of.

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• Tabs versus Spaces: An Eternal Holy War by Jamie Zawinski.

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Operator Action Description

Here are some common motions:

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9. No, this is not a bug.

You've entered a command and want to repeat it without re-typing it.

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CHANGING THE CASE OF TEXT