vi cheat sheet/ survival kit

vi distinguishes between edit mode and command mode. When starting vi it will launch into command mode.

ESC - leaves edit mode and enters command mode (multiple pressing does not harm)
CONTROL+g - shows document status and current position of the cursor.

Undo and Redo

i - enter edit mode before the current cursor position (insert)
a - enter edit mode after the current cursor position (append)
o - create a new line below the current line and enter edit mode
O - create a new line above the current line and enter edit mode
r - exchanges a single character at the current cursor position
s - same as r but stays in edit mode
cc - delete the current line and enter edit mode
C - delete everything from the current position to the end of the line and enter edit mode

dd - delete the current line and places the content into the paste buffer
D - delete the rest of the line from the current position and places the content into the paste buffer
yy - places the current line into the past buffer without deleting
Y - and places the rest of the line from the current position into the paste buffer
p - insert the paste buffer after the current position. If it is a line paste below the current line
P - same as p but before the current position.

Delete multiple lines by adding the number of lines before dd. E.g., 6dd deletes 6 lines.

Search commands do not affect undo and repeat commands.

/search-pattern - search for the search pattern from the current position towards the end of the file
?search-pattern - search for the search pattern from the current position towards the beginnen of the file (reverse search)
n - move to the next match (in the direction of search)
N - move to the previous match (in the direction of search)

Search and replace commands do affect undo and repeat commands.

:s/search-pattern/replace-string - replace the search-pattern with the replace-string in the current line
:%s/search-pattern/replace-string - replace the search-pattern with the replace-string in the entire file
:.,$s/search-pattern/replace-string - replace the search-pattern with the replace-string from the current position to the end of the file
:3,9s/search-pattern/replace-string - replace the search-pattern with the replace-string between the given line numbers

:number - move the cursor to the line number given by number. E.g. :10 moves the cursor to line number 10.
^ - move to the beginning of the line
$ - move to the end of the line
e - move the cursor to the next word boundary (marked by the same character type of the current position)
w - same as e but moves after the next word boundary
b - move the cursor to the previous word boundary
E - move the cursor before the next whitespace
B - move the cursor after the previous whitespace