Basics of Vi editor in Unix

:w

save file without quitting

:q

quit without saving

:wq

save and quit

j or <Return>

move cursor down one line

k

move cursor up one line

h or <Backspace>

move cursor left one character

l or <Space>

move cursor right one character

0 (zero)

move cursor to start of current line (the one with the cursor)

$

move cursor to end of current line

w

move cursor to beginning of next word

b

move cursor back to beginning of preceding word

:0<Return> or 1G

move cursor to first line in file

:n<Return> or nG

move cursor to line n

:$<Return> or G

move cursor to last line in file

i

insert text before cursor

I

insert text at beginning of current line

o

open and put text in a new line below current line

O

open and put text in a new line above current line

a

append text after current cursor position

A

append text to end of current line

x

delete single character in current cursor position

Nx

delete N characters, starting with current cursor position

dw

delete the single word beginning with current cursor position

dd

delete entire line at current cursor position

dNd or Ndd

delete N lines, beginning with the current line; e.g., 4dd deletes 4 lines

dNw

delete N words starting at current cursor position; e.g., d7w deletes 7 words

D

delete the remainder of the line, starting with current cursor position

yy

copy (yank, cut) the current line

Nyy or yNy

copy (yank, cut) the next N lines, including the current line

p

paste the copied line/lines into the editor after the current line

/string

search forward for occurrence of string

?string

search backward for occurrence of string

n

move to next occurrence of search string

N

move to next occurrence of search string (opposite direction)