Developer Reference

Vim Commands

Escape the editor! Essential Vim commands for navigation, editing, and saving.

Vim is a powerful text editor that is available on almost every Unix system. While its learning curve is steep, knowing basic commands like :wq and :q! is a survival skill for any developer ssh-ing into a server.

Essential

Quit without saving (Force)
:q!
Write (Save) and Quit
:wq

Editing

Insert mode (before cursor)
i
Delete (cut) line
dd
Yank (copy) line
yy
Paste after cursor
p
Undo
u

Navigation

Search for pattern
/pattern
Next match
n
Go to beginning of file
gg
Go to end of file
G

Once you master these basics, you'll find Vim to be an incredibly efficient tool for quick edits on remote servers.