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cd ..
Tools

Vim Survival Guide

Essential Vim commands to edit files without panic-quitting.

2025-08-29
vim, editor, cli

Open file

vim file.txt

Exit Vim (without saving)

:q!

Save and exit

:wq

Or simply:

:x

Save without exiting

:w

Enter Insert mode

Press i (insert before cursor) or a (append after cursor).

Exit Insert mode

Press Esc.

Delete a line

In Normal mode: dd

Undo

u

Redo

Ctrl+r

Search for text

/search_term

Press n for next match, N for previous.

Replace text

Replace "old" with "new" in entire file:

:%s/old/new/g

Go to line number

:42

Copy (yank) line

yy

Paste

p

Delete from cursor to end of line

d$

Show line numbers

:set number

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