William Lindley — Jacksonville, Florida

vim (vi) and emacs: "Rosetta Stone" Quick Reference

A "Cheat Sheet." Also includes default Readline bindings for bash shell.
NOTE: This guide now uses the Unicode and ISO standard characters:
⇧ for shift, ⎈ for Ctrl, ⎇ for Meta or Alt, and ⎆ for Enter.

Also NOTE: Alt-space is usually trapped by XWindows, thus the sequence Esc-space is shown in the Editing section.

S C R O L L I N G
vim		Action. Note: n generally defaults to 1 if not given. Emacs: command is cursor movement. Emacs arguments, use `⎈U` n or ⎇ n	emacs		bash (readline)
Forward	Backward		Forward	Backward	(×=as emacs)
`⎈E`	`⎈Y`	Scroll by line
`⎈D`	`⎈U`	Scroll by half page
`⎈F`	`⎈B`	Scroll by page	⎈V	⎇v
`z<cr> z. z-`		redraw; place current line at top of screen (`z.` in middle, `z-` at bottom). emacs: ⎈L alternates middle, top, bottom.	⎈L
M O V E M E N T
`j, ⎈N, ⎈J`	`k, ⎈P`	Move one line	⎈N	⎈P	×
`+`	`-`	Move one line, to first nonblank	`⎈N ⎇m`	`⎈P ⎇m`
`h, ⎈H`	`l, <sp>`	Move one column	⎈F	⎈B	×
`$`	`0`	Move to end or start of line	⎈E	⎈A	×
`^`		Move to first nonblank column	⎇m
`n\|`		Move to column n	`⎇G TAB n`
`nG`		Move to line n or EOF if n not given	⎇G ⎇G n
`Esc 1 G`	`G`	Move to end or start of buffer	⎇>	⎇<	×
`H, M, L`		Position top, middle, bottom
`nH`	nL	Position n lines past top or before bottom
Movement by content
`w`	`b`	Move by word	⎇f	⎇b	×
`W`	`B`	Move by blank-delimited word
`e, E`		Forward to end of word (`E` blank-delimited)
`)`	`(`	Move by sentence	⎇e	⎇a
`}`	`{`	Move by paragraph	⎇}	⎇{
`]]`	`[[`	Move by section (default: formfeed delimited) ※	`⎈X ]`	`⎈X [`
Searching
`/pattern`	`?pattern`	Search for pattern NOTE: Emacs searches are incremental	⎈S pattern	⎈R pattern	×
`n`	`N`	Search again in same (`n`) or opposite (`N`) direction	⎈S ⎆	⎈R ⎆	×
		In Isearch, edit search string non-incrementally	`⎇E`
		Search for regular expression	⎇⎈S regex	⎇⎈R regex
		Create buffer: all occurrences of regular expression ※	`⎇S o` regex `⎆`
		In Isearch, create occur buffer using search string as regex	`⎇S o`
`fchar`	`Fchar`	Search for character on current line
`tchar`	`Tchar`	Position before character on current line
`;`	`,`	Repeat character search on current line
`%`		Find matching brace	(automatic)
Marks ※
`mx`		Set mark x (emacs: global mark)※	⎈space		×
``	`''`	Move to previous mark; move to start of prev mark's line	⎈X⎈X		×
`x	`'x`	Move to mark x; to start of markx's line
		Move to previous mark from mark ring ※	`⎈U ⎈space`
`V`	`⎈V`	Set mark and enter visual (`V`) or visual block (`⎈V`) mode. NOTE: vi commands on visual area include: `~`, `d`, `p` (put), `y` (yank), `Y` (yank whole lines).
Editing
`a`	`i`	Insert new text after (`i` before) cursor
`A`	`I`	Insert at end (`I` beginning) of current line
`o`	`O`	Open new line after (`O` before) cursor	⎈O
`r`, `R`		Replace one character; Enter Replace mode
`x`	`X`	Delete character under (`X` to left of) cursor	⎈D	<delete>	×
`dw`		Delete word	⎇d	⎇BS	×
`d`{command}		Delete (cut) text in region or spanned by command	⎈space {command} ⎈W		×
`c`{command}		Change - `c` is like `d`{command}`i`
n`D`, n`C`		Delete, Change to start or end of line (and n-1 more lines)	⎈K		⎈X BS (to start)
		Delete blank lines around cursor	⎈X⎈O
		Delete all whitespace at cursor	⎇\
		Replace any whitespace at cursor with exactly one space	<Esc> <space>
`nJ`, `g`n`J`		Join next line (n lines) to end of current. (`g` omits spaces)	⎈E⎈D
		Join this line to previous and compress whitespace at join.	⎇⎈
		Move rest of line down (break and indent to current column)	⎈⎇O
		Break line and indent like current line	⎈⎇J
		Indent (negative n outdent) region by n columns	`⎈U` n `⎈X ⎈I`
n~		Toggle upper/lower case for n characters.
		UPPERCASE, Capitalize, lowercase current word	⎇u, ⎇c, ⎇l		×
Copy & Paste (see Delete above for Cut)
`y`{command}		Copy region or text spanned by command vi: in visual mode, omit command and operate on region.	⎈space {command} ⎇w		×
`Y`		Copy current line	⎈A ⎈space ⎈E ⎇w
`p`	`P`	Paste text (from Copy or Delete/Cut) after (`P` before) cursor	⎈Y		×
`"` n		Prefix for `y`, `Y`, `p`, or `P` to operate on register n.
		Paste text without moving cursor	⎈U⎈Y
		Replace last pasted text with previous entry from kill ring	⎇Y		×
		Copy to register n. (With argument, also delete.)	`⎈x r x` n
		Insert contents of register n.	`⎈x r i` n
`u`	`U`	Undo last command, commands on a line	`⎈_` or `⎈/`		×
`.`		Repeat last command †Emacs: continue repeating with `z`	⎈X z
		Abort current command	⎈G		×
Files
`:w`	`:z`	Save; Save and Exit	`⎈X⎈S`	`⎈X⎈S ⎈X⎈C`
`:q`	`:q!`	Quit (vi `:q!` quits without saving)	`⎈X⎈C`
Windows
`⎈Ws`	`⎈Wv`	Split Window Horizontally; Vertically	`⎈X2`	`⎈X3`
`⎈Ww`	`⎈Wq`	Switch windows; Close current window	`⎈Xo`	`⎈X0`	[zero]
		Close all other windows	`⎈X1`
`⎈W>`	`⎈W<`	Make current window wider; narrower	`⎈X}`	`⎈X{`
`⎈W+`	`⎈W–`	Make current window taller; shorter	`⎈X^`	`⎈U-1⎈X^`
		Fit current window to contents	`⎈X+`

See also: the official ※ GNU Emacs manual and the participatory Emacs wiki.

Courtesy wlindley.com
May be freely distributed. rev 2015-02-06

William Lindley — Jacksonville, Florida

vim (vi) and emacs: "Rosetta Stone" Quick Reference

S C R O L L I N G

M O V E M E N T

Movement by content

Searching

Marks ※

Editing

Copy & Paste (see Delete above for Cut)

Files

Windows