Vim Cheat Sheet 2026: Essential Commands for DevOps

A quick reference for Vim — the terminal text editor. Bookmark this page.

Modes

Normal mode  → default, press Esc to return
Insert mode  → press i, a, o, O to enter
Visual mode  → press v (char), V (line), Ctrl+v (block)
Command mode → press : from Normal mode

Navigation

h j k l      → left, down, up, right
w / b        → next/previous word
0 / $        → start/end of line
gg / G       → start/end of file
:42          → go to line 42
Ctrl+d/u     → half page down/up
Ctrl+f/b     → full page down/up
%            → matching bracket

Editing

i            → insert before cursor
a            → insert after cursor
o / O        → new line below/above
x            → delete character
dd           → delete line
dw           → delete word
D            → delete to end of line
cc           → change (delete) entire line
cw           → change word
C            → change to end of line
r            → replace single character
u            → undo
Ctrl+r       → redo
.            → repeat last command

Copy and Paste

yy           → copy (yank) line
yw           → copy word
y$           → copy to end of line
p / P        → paste after/before cursor
dd then p    → cut and paste (move line)
"ay          → yank into register a
"ap          → paste from register a

Search and Replace

/pattern     → search forward
?pattern     → search backward
n / N        → next/previous match
*            → search word under cursor

:s/old/new/     → replace first on current line
:s/old/new/g    → replace all on current line
:%s/old/new/g   → replace all in file
:%s/old/new/gc  → replace all with confirmation

Visual Mode

v            → character selection
V            → line selection
Ctrl+v       → block (column) selection
d            → delete selection
y            → yank selection
>  / <       → indent/unindent selection

Windows and Tabs

:split file  → horizontal split
:vsplit file → vertical split
Ctrl+w w     → switch between splits
Ctrl+w h/j/k/l → navigate splits
:tabnew file → new tab
gt / gT      → next/previous tab
:q           → close current split/tab

File Operations

:w           → save
:w file.txt  → save as
:q           → quit
:q!          → quit without saving
:wq or ZZ    → save and quit
:e file.txt  → open file
:e!          → reload file (discard changes)

Advanced

ci"          → change inside quotes
ci(          → change inside parentheses
di{          → delete inside braces
da"          → delete around quotes (including quotes)
=G           → auto-indent entire file (from cursor)
gg=G         → auto-indent whole file
:set number  → show line numbers
:set paste   → paste mode (no auto-indent)
:noh         → clear search highlighting

Tips and Tricks

• Use vimtutor to learn interactively (30 min tutorial)
• Use .vimrc for persistent configuration
• Combine counts with commands: 5dd deletes 5 lines
• Use macros: qa to record, q to stop, @a to replay
• Use :!command to run shell commands from Vim

Related Resources

• Bash Cheat Sheet
• Git Cheat Sheet
• Linux Cheat Sheet