vi and Vim Editors Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition

vile—vi like Emacs

vile is a vi clone based originally on MicroEmacs, whose main goal is to provide the “finger feel” of vi.

Important Command-Line Options

-g N

vile begins editing on the first file at the specified line number; this can also be given as +N.

-h

Invokes vile on the help file.

-R

Invokes vile in “read-only” mode; no writes are permitted while in this mode.

-s pattern

In the first file, vile executes an initial search for the given pattern; this can also be given as +/pattern.

-v

Invokes vile in “view” mode; no changes are permitted to any buffer while in this mode.

-?

vile prints a short usage summary and exits.

@ cmdfile

vile runs the specified file as its startup file and bypasses any normal startup file.

vile Window Management Commands

Command	Key sequences	Function
delete-other-windows	^O, ^X 1	Eliminate all windows except the current one
delete-window	^K, ^X 0	Destroy the current window unless it’s the last one
edit-file, E, e find-file	^X e	Bring given (or under-cursor, for ^X e) file or existing buffer into window
grow-window	V	Increase the size of the current window by count
move-next-window-down	^A ^E	Move next window down (or buffer up) by count lines
move-next-window-up	^A ^Y	Move next window up (or buffer down) by count lines
move-window-left	^X ^L	Scroll window to left by count columns, half-screen if count unspecified
move-window-right	^X ^R	Scroll window to right by count columns, half-screen if count unspecified
next-window	^X o	Move to the next window
position-window ...