Vim tips

vim-tips.md

VIM - Useful stuff

Plugins

• Minimalist Vim Plugin Manager
• VimAwesome

Usage

• Vim cheatsheet

Guides

(Most of the stuff in here comes from these guides)

• 10 essential Vim plugins for 2018
• Top 10 Vim plugins for programming in multiple languages
• How I boosted my Vim

Tips

General

• The standard Vim Leader key is the \ character.
• Close all buffers and quit: :qa
• Save all buffers and quit: :wqa
• To run terminal commands: :!command

Navigating tabs

• New tab: tabnew or CTRL+t (if using my .vimrc file)
• Close tab: tabc
• Next tab: gt
• Prior tab: gT
• Numbered tab: tabnumber gt
• Close all other tabs: :tabo or :tabonly

Window/splits

Splitting

• Ctrl+W v: split vertically
• Ctrl+W s: split horizontally

Navigating

• Ctrl+W hjkl: change focus of current windows split
  • hjkl are the keys that vim uses instead of the arrow keys (h = left, j = bottom, k = up, l = right)
• Ctrl+W HJKL: move current window split
  • Note the uppercase, meaning you have to use shift+h, for example.

Adjusting size

• Ctrl+W +/-: increase/decrease height (ex. 20+)
• Ctrl+W >/<: increase/decrease width (ex. 30<)
• Ctrl+W _: set height (ex. 50_)
• Ctrl+W |: set width (ex. 50|)
• Ctrl+W =: equalize width and height of all windows

You can also use the resize commands:

• :resize [+-]N: resize a horizontal split, increasing or decreasing height by N characters.
• :vertical resize [+-]N: resize a vertical split, increasing or decreasing height by N characters.
• :resize N: resize a horizontal split, setting height to N characters.
• :vertical resize N: resize a vertical split, setting width to N characters.

Plugins commands

vim-multiple-cursor

To make a basic selection, use the Ctrl+N keystroke in normal mode, followed by a motion:

• c – change text.
• I – insert at start of range.
• A – insert at end of range.

More actions can be found in the plugin’s quick start information.

vim-eunuch

This cryptically-named plugin adds a dozen core Unix file operations as Vim commands in the context of the current file.

:Rename new_name.sh
:Chmod +x
:SudoWrite

surround

It's easier to just check the project examples: https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround

git-gutter

To jump between changes and stage/discard individual hunks:

• ]c: GitGutterNextHunk
• [c: GitGutterPrevHunk
• <Leader>hs: GitGutterStageHunk
• <Leader>hu: GitGutterUndoHunk

NERD-commenter

• Leader+cc: Comment out the current line or text selected in visual mode.
• Leader+cn: Same as cc but forces nesting.
• Leader+c<space>: Toggles the comment state of the selected line(s). If the topmost selected line is commented, all selected lines are uncommented and vice versa.
• Leader+cm:Comments the given lines using only one set of multipart delimiters.
• Leader+cs:Comments out the selected lines with a pretty block formatted layout.

Ack

Search pattern in files.

• :Ack [options] {pattern} [{directories}]

Auto-pairs

https://github.com/jiangmiao/auto-pairs