vi and Vim Editors Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition

ex Commands

This section summarizes the ex commands used from the colon prompt in vi.

Command Syntax

:[address]command[options]

Address Symbols

Address	Includes
1,$	All lines in the file
x,y	Lines x through y
x;y	Lines x through y, with current line reset to x
0	Top of file
.	Current line
n	Absolute line number n
$	Last line
%	All lines; same as 1,$
x-n	n lines before x
x+n	n lines after x
-[n]	One or n lines previous
+[n]	One or n lines ahead
’ x	Line marked with x (single quote)
’ ’	Previous mark (two single quotes)
/pat/ or ?pat?	Ahead or back to the line where pat matches

Command Option Symbols

Symbol	Meaning
!	A variant form of the command
count	Repeat the command count times
file	Filename: % is current file, # is previous file

Alphabetical List of Commands

The following table of ex commands covers both standard ex commands and selected commands specific to Vim. Commands covered in Vim—vi Improved are omitted here.

Full name	Command	Vim only
Abbrev	ab [string text]	Â
Append	[address] a[!] text .	Â
Args	ar	Â
Args	args files …	✓
Bdelete	[num] bd[!] [num]	✓
Buffer	[num] b[!] [num]	✓
Buffers	[num] buffers[!]	✓
Center	[address] ce [width]	✓
Change	[address]c[!] text .	Â
Chdir	cd directory	Â
Copy	[address] co destination	Â
Delete	[address] d [buffer]	Â
Edit	e [!][+n] [filename]	Â
File	f [filename]	Â
Global	[address]g[!]/pattern/[commands]	Â
Insert	[address]i[!] text .	Â
Join	[address]j[!][count]	Â
K (mark)	[address] k char	Â
Left	[address] le [count]	✓
List	[address] l [count]	Â
Map	map char commands	Â
Mark	[address