Vim Quick Reference

A reference of the most common keybindings available in Vim Normal mode.

. repeats the last keybinding sequence used in Vim Normal mode or a change made within a complete Vim Insert session.

Moving around

In normal mode you can keep your fingers resting on the main row of your keyboard to move around.

In menus such as helm you can move around using Ctrl and these keybindings. So C-j will move the cursor down one item in a menu.

Navigating the current line

Navigating the current buffer

Searching

Search a buffer for characters or words / text pattern.

Text Editing

The following commands put you into the Evil Insert state

Return to Normal state

Regularly switch between normal and insert states is normal practice in Spacemacs. As soon as you finish typing some new text, it should become second nature to go back to normal state.

Switching from insert to normal state:

ESC or press f d keys in extremely quick succession.

Copy, cut, paste, undo, redo

v in Vim normal mode changes to Visual select mode. Use the navigation keys or any other movement keys to select text to copy or cut.

Replace and changing text

Combine d | c | v | r with avy-goto

Delete commands

Repeat commands

The . keybinding will repeat the last command in normal mode or the last text edit in insert mode.

Type a number before a command and that command will run that number of times.

Quit or Restart Emacs

I recommend using the Spacemacs menu from normal mode to quit / restart Spacemacs.

Editing

X - delete char before cursor
A - add to end of line
I - insert at the beginning of the line
dd - delete line
D - delete from cursor to end of line
di' - delete text inside single quotes
yy - copy line
Y - copy from cursor to end of line
cc - change line
C - change from cursor to end of line
cit - change text inside html tag
ci' - change text inside single quotes
ci{ - change text inside curly brackets.
ci... - etc
p - paste after cursor
P = paste before cursor
o - add line below
O - add line above
. = repeat last comment
r - replace character
R - replace. (overwrite) (good for columns of text)
J - join line (cursor can be anywhere on line)

visual state

v - visual char state
V - visual line state
C-v - block visual state

Classic Vim commands

Substitution

External commands

You can run external commands using :! followed by a command. For example:

:!ls - run the ls command

Spacemacs shell can be configured to pop-up a shell buffer to run commands from the directory of the current buffer.

Useful Vim key bindings

Manipulating words

Escaping Insert state and commands

Typing quickly fd takes me out of insert state. What is going on?

This is a feature of Spacemacs, enabling you to easily escape from a lot of situations, like escaping from insert state to normal state.

The sequence of characters used can be customized. See the documentation for more information.

If you don't like this feature, you can Deactivate it by adding evil-escape to dotspacemacs-excluded-packages in your init file.

Selecting

You can select text from Vim normal state by entering the visual state

Add comment / Toggle comment

In Vim normal mode you can comment out a single line using g c c.

To comment multiple lines you can use the repeat command style, especially if you are using relative line numbers. So using g c 3 j will comment out the current line and the following two lines below. You can comment out in reverse using g c 3 k.

In Visual state, v, select the lines you wish to comment and use g c to comment all the marked lines. Partially marked lines are not commented.

http://spacemacs.org/layers/+vim/evil-commentary/README.html

Spelling

As you are typing in any(?) buffer then Spacemacs is checking your spelling as you type. If you type a word that Spacemacs does not recognise then that word is underscored in red. To correct a spelling:

• Move to the word that is incorrectly spelt
• SPC S c to change the word and show a list of suggested words
• Either type in a new spelling or use C-j and C-k keys to move down and back up the list of words, using RET to select that word.

Scrolling

in vim command mode you can scroll just the text using the classic vi bindings. This does not scroll the cursor unless the cursor hist the top or bottom of the window, in which case the cursor stays at that window boundry.

C-y - scroll down C-e - scroll text up

Inserting a character multiple times

In Vim normal mode (yellow) type the number of times to repeat the character followed immediately followed by i, then the character or word you want to reapeat. Then press ESC or fd and the character will be printed repeatedly

redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum redrum

jump around...

SPC j i shows imenu that lists all the def and defn expressions in the current buffer, allowing you to jump to one of these definitions directly by typing its name or using C-j and C-k to select the name and pressing RET to jump to the name in the buffer

SPC j l labels each line of the buffer with a short, unique character code. By entering the character code you are taken directly to the specific line. This is the avy goto line function and this works on all visible buffers by default, although it can be just shown on the current buffer (TODO: how is this set).

searching

search with SPc /

Matching only within a boundary by wrapping your search term with \b.

So if you want to match or and not word, then you would do

SPC / \bor\b

getting stuff done - vim basics

http://paul-gowder.com/emacs.html

changing escape sequence for vim

(setq evil-escape-key-sequence "jk")

Working with Buffers

To work with files in Emacs, they are first loaded into a Buffer.

So when you open a file with M-x find file or SPC f f a new buffer is created so you can manage that file.

Buffers are displayed in a window and you can change the window to show any of the current buffers.

Here are the most commonly used buffer commands

See the full buffer menu via SPC b

Managing Files

Also consider using:

• dird
• neotree
• projectile

Editing text (especially in Evil mode)

See Vim section

Working with Windows

You can also create layouts that are a collection of windows

Useful Spacemacs commands

SPC w / - split window vertically SPC w - - split window horizontally SPC 1 - switch to window 1 SPC 2 - switch to window 2 SPC w c - delete current window SPC TAB - switch to previous buffer SPC b b - switch buffers SPC f f - find a file SPC f s - save a file (:w also works) SPC p p - open project SPC p h - find a file in current project SPC b d - kill current buffer SPC b M - move buffer to another window SPC v - enter expand-region state