For Vim version 5.0p. Last modification: 1997 Oct 12
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar
Various commands
1. Various commands |various-cmds|
2. Online help |online_help|
1. Various commands
CTRL-L Clear and redraw the screen.
<Del> When entering a number: Remove the last digit.
Note: if you like to use <BS> for this, add this
mapping to your .vimrc:
:map CTRL-V <BS> CTRL-V <Del>
See |:fixdel| if your <Del> key does not do what you
want.
:as[cii] or
ga Print the ascii value of the character under the
cursor in decimal, hexadecimal and octal. For
example, when the cursor is on a 'R':
<R> 82, Hex 52, Octal 122
When the character is a non-standard ASCII character,
but printable according to the 'isprint' option, the
non-printable version is also given. When the
character is larger than 127, the <M-x> form is also
printed. For example:
<~A> <M-^A> 129, Hex 81, Octal 201
<p> <|~> <M-~> 254, Hex fe, Octal 376
(where <p> is a special character)
The <Nul> character in a file is stored internally as
<NL>, but it will be shown as:
<^@> 0, Hex 00, Octal 000
Mnemonic: Get Ascii value. {not in Vi}
:[range]p[rint] Print [range] lines (default current line).
:[range]p[rint] {count}
Print {count} lines, starting with [range] (default
current line |cmdline_ranges|).
:[range]l[ist] [count]
Same as :print, but display unprintable characters
with '^'.
:[range]nu[mber] [count]
Same as :print, but precede each line with its line
number. (See also 'highlight' option).
:[range]# [count] synonym for :number.
:{range}z[+-^.=]{count} Display several lines of text surrounding the line
specified with {range}, or around the current line
if there is no {range}. If there is a {count}, that's
how many lines you'll see; otherwise, the current
window size is used.
:z can be used either alone or followed by any of
several punctuation marks. These have the following
effect:
mark first line last line new location
---- ---------- --------- ------------
+ current line 1 scr forward 1 scr forward
- 1 scr back current line current line
^ 2 scr back 1 scr back 1 scr back
. 1/2 scr back 1/2 scr fwd 1/2 src fwd
= 1/2 src back 1/2 scr fwd current line
Specifying no mark at all is the same as "+".
If the mark is "=", a line of dashes is printed
around the current line.
:= Print the cursor line number.
:norm[al][!] {commands}
Execute Normal mode commands {commands}. This makes
it possible to execute Normal mode commands typed on
the command line. {commands} is executed like it is
typed. For undo all commands are undone together. If
the [!] is given, mappings will not be used.
{commands} should be a complete command. If
{commands} does not finish a command, more characters
need to be typed, but the display isn't updated while
doing this.
Mostly useful for autocommands. This command cannot
be followed by another command, since any '|' is
considered part of the command.
An alternative is to use ":execute", which uses an
expression as argument. See |:exe|.
Hint: If the {commands} ends in an <Esc>, Vim may
think it's the start of a function key, and 'ttimeout'
will apply, which makes things very slow, or even wait
indefenitely for anything to be typed. Include the
[!] in this case. {not in Vi, of course}
:{range}norm[al][!] {commands}
Execute Normal mode commands {commands} for each line
in the {range}. Before executing the {commands}, the
cursor is positioned in the first column of the range,
for each line. Otherwise it's the same as the
":normal" command without a range. {not in Vi}
:sh[ell] This command starts a shell. When the shell exits
(after the "exit" command) you return to Vim. The
name for the shell command comes from 'shell' option.
Note: This doesn't work when Vim on the Amiga was
started in QuickFix mode from a compiler, because the
compiler will have set stdin to a non-interactive
mode.
:!{cmd} Execute {cmd} with the shell. See also the 'shell'
and 'shelltype' option. Any '!' in {cmd} is replaced
with the previous external command (see also
'cpoptions'). But not when there is a backslash
before the '!', then that backslash is removed.
Example: ":!ls" followed by ":!echo ! \! \\!"
executes "echo ls ! \!". After the command has been
executed, the timestamp of the current file is checked
|timestamp|. Also see |shell_window|.
:!! Repeat last ":!{cmd}".
:ve[rsion] Print the version number of the editor. If the
compiler used understands "__DATE__" the compilation
date is mentioned. Otherwise a fixed release-date is
shown. The following lines contain information about
which options were defined when Vim was compiled.
:ve[rsion] {nr} Is now ignored. This was previously used to check the
version number of a .vimrc file. It was removed,
because you can now use the ":if" command for
version-dependend behaviour. {not in Vi}
:redi[r][!] > {file} Redirect messages to file {file}. The messages which
are the output of commands are written to that file,
until redirection ends. The messages are also still
shown on the screen. When [!] is included, an
existing file is overwritten. When [!] is omitted,
and {file} exists, this command fails. {not in Vi}
:redi[r] >> {file} Redirect message to file {file}. Append if {file}
already exists. {not in Vi}
:redi[r] END End redirecting messages. {not in Vi}
K Run a program to lookup the keyword under the
cursor. The name of the program is given with the
'keywordprg' (kp) option (default is "man"). The
keyword is formed of letters, numbers and the
characters in 'iskeyword'. The keyword under or
right of the cursor is used. The same can be done
with the command
> :!{program} {keyword}
There is an example of a program to use in the tools
directory of Vim. It is called 'ref' and does a
simple spelling check.
Special cases:
- If 'keywordprg' is empty, the ":help" command is
used. It's a good idea to include more characters
in 'iskeyword' then, to be able to find more help.
- When 'keywordprg' is equal to "man", a count before
"K" is inserted after the "man" command and before
the keyword. For example, using "2K" while the
cursor is on "mkdir", results in:
> !man 2 mkdir
{not in Vi}
{Visual}K Like "K", but use the visually highlighted text for
the keyword. Only works when the highlighted text is
not more than one line. {not in Vi}
[N]gs
:[N]sl[eep] [N] Do nothing for [N] seconds. Can be interrupted with
CTRL-C (CTRL-Break on MS-DOS). "gs" stands for "goto
sleep". While sleeping the cursor is positioned in
the text (if visible). {not in Vi}
2. Online help
<Help> or
:h[elp] Split the window and display the help file in
read-only mode. If there is a help window open
already, use that one. {not in Vi}
:h[elp] {subject} Like ":help", additionally jump to the tag
{subject}. {subject} can be a pattern |pattern|.
:help z. jump to help for any "z" command
:help z\. jump to the help for "z."
If there is no full match for the pattern, or there
are several matches, the "best" match will be used.
A sophisticated algorithm is used to decide which
match is better than another one. These items are
considered in the computation:
- A match with same case is much better than a match
with different case.
- A match that starts after a non-alphanumeric
character is better than a match in the middle of a
word.
- A match at or near the beginning of the tag is
better than a match furter on.
- The more alphanumeric characters match, the better.
- The shorter the length of the match, the better.
Note that the longer the {subject} you give, the less
matches will be found. You can get an idea how this
all works by using commandline completion (type CTRL-D
after ":help subject".
This command can be followed by '|' and another
command, but you don't need to escape the '|' inside a
help command. So these both work:
> :help |
> :help k| only
Note that a space before the '|' is seen as part of
the ":help" argument.
You can also use <LF> or <CR> to separate the help
command from a following command. You need to type
CTRL-V first to insert the <LF> or <CR>. Example:
> :help so<C-V><CR>only
{not in Vi}
The help file name can be set with the 'helpfile' option. The initial height
of the help window can be set with the 'helpheight' option (default 20).
Jump to specific subjects by using tags. This can be done in two ways:
- Use the "CTRL-]" command while standing on the name of a command or option.
This only works when the tag is a keyword. "<C-Leftmouse>" and
"g<LeftMouse>" work just like "CTRL-]".
- use the ":ta {subject}" command. This works with all characters.
Use "CTRL-T" to jump back.
Use ":q" to close the help window.
If you want to have the help in another xterm window, you could use this
command:
:!xterm -e vim +help &
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