384 lines
13 KiB
Text
384 lines
13 KiB
Text
*usr_20.txt* For Vim version 7.4. Last change: 2006 Apr 24
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VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar
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Typing command-line commands quickly
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Vim has a few generic features that makes it easier to enter commands. Colon
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commands can be abbreviated, edited and repeated. Completion is available for
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nearly everything.
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|20.1| Command line editing
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|20.2| Command line abbreviations
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|20.3| Command line completion
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|20.4| Command line history
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|20.5| Command line window
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Next chapter: |usr_21.txt| Go away and come back
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Previous chapter: |usr_12.txt| Clever tricks
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Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt|
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==============================================================================
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*20.1* Command line editing
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When you use a colon (:) command or search for a string with / or ?, Vim puts
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the cursor on the bottom of the screen. There you type the command or search
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pattern. This is called the Command line. Also when it's used for entering a
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search command.
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The most obvious way to edit the command you type is by pressing the <BS> key.
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This erases the character before the cursor. To erase another character,
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typed earlier, first move the cursor with the cursor keys.
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For example, you have typed this: >
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:s/col/pig/
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Before you hit <Enter>, you notice that "col" should be "cow". To correct
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this, you type <Left> five times. The cursor is now just after "col". Type
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<BS> and "w" to correct: >
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:s/cow/pig/
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Now you can press <Enter> directly. You don't have to move the cursor to the
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end of the line before executing the command.
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The most often used keys to move around in the command line:
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<Left> one character left
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<Right> one character right
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<S-Left> or <C-Left> one word left
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<S-Right> or <C-Right> one word right
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CTRL-B or <Home> to begin of command line
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CTRL-E or <End> to end of command line
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Note:
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<S-Left> (cursor left key with Shift key pressed) and <C-Left> (cursor
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left key with Control pressed) will not work on all keyboards. Same
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for the other Shift and Control combinations.
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You can also use the mouse to move the cursor.
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DELETING
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As mentioned, <BS> deletes the character before the cursor. To delete a whole
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word use CTRL-W.
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/the fine pig ~
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CTRL-W
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/the fine ~
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CTRL-U removes all text, thus allows you to start all over again.
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OVERSTRIKE
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The <Insert> key toggles between inserting characters and replacing the
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existing ones. Start with this text:
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/the fine pig ~
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Move the cursor to the start of "fine" with <S-Left> twice (or <Left> eight
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times, if <S-Left> doesn't work). Now press <Insert> to switch to overstrike
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and type "great":
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/the greatpig ~
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Oops, we lost the space. Now, don't use <BS>, because it would delete the
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"t" (this is different from Replace mode). Instead, press <Insert> to switch
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from overstrike to inserting, and type the space:
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/the great pig ~
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CANCELLING
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You thought of executing a : or / command, but changed your mind. To get rid
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of what you already typed, without executing it, press CTRL-C or <Esc>.
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Note:
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<Esc> is the universal "get out" key. Unfortunately, in the good old
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Vi pressing <Esc> in a command line executed the command! Since that
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might be considered to be a bug, Vim uses <Esc> to cancel the command.
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But with the 'cpoptions' option it can be made Vi compatible. And
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when using a mapping (which might be written for Vi) <Esc> also works
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Vi compatible. Therefore, using CTRL-C is a method that always works.
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If you are at the start of the command line, pressing <BS> will cancel the
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command. It's like deleting the ":" or "/" that the line starts with.
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==============================================================================
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*20.2* Command line abbreviations
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Some of the ":" commands are really long. We already mentioned that
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":substitute" can be abbreviated to ":s". This is a generic mechanism, all
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":" commands can be abbreviated.
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How short can a command get? There are 26 letters, and many more commands.
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For example, ":set" also starts with ":s", but ":s" doesn't start a ":set"
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command. Instead ":set" can be abbreviated to ":se".
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When the shorter form of a command could be used for two commands, it
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stands for only one of them. There is no logic behind which one, you have to
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learn them. In the help files the shortest form that works is mentioned. For
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example: >
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:s[ubstitute]
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This means that the shortest form of ":substitute" is ":s". The following
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characters are optional. Thus ":su" and ":sub" also work.
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In the user manual we will either use the full name of command, or a short
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version that is still readable. For example, ":function" can be abbreviated
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to ":fu". But since most people don't understand what that stands for, we
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will use ":fun". (Vim doesn't have a ":funny" command, otherwise ":fun" would
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be confusing too.)
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It is recommended that in Vim scripts you write the full command name. That
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makes it easier to read back when you make later changes. Except for some
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often used commands like ":w" (":write") and ":r" (":read").
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A particularly confusing one is ":end", which could stand for ":endif",
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":endwhile" or ":endfunction". Therefore, always use the full name.
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SHORT OPTION NAMES
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In the user manual the long version of the option names is used. Many options
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also have a short name. Unlike ":" commands, there is only one short name
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that works. For example, the short name of 'autoindent' is 'ai'. Thus these
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two commands do the same thing: >
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:set autoindent
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:set ai
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You can find the full list of long and short names here: |option-list|.
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==============================================================================
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*20.3* Command line completion
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This is one of those Vim features that, by itself, is a reason to switch from
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Vi to Vim. Once you have used this, you can't do without.
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Suppose you have a directory that contains these files:
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info.txt
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intro.txt
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bodyofthepaper.txt
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To edit the last one, you use the command: >
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:edit bodyofthepaper.txt
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It's easy to type this wrong. A much quicker way is: >
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:edit b<Tab>
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Which will result in the same command. What happened? The <Tab> key does
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completion of the word before the cursor. In this case "b". Vim looks in the
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directory and finds only one file that starts with a "b". That must be the
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one you are looking for, thus Vim completes the file name for you.
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Now type: >
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:edit i<Tab>
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Vim will beep, and give you: >
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:edit info.txt
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The beep means that Vim has found more than one match. It then uses the first
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match it found (alphabetically). If you press <Tab> again, you get: >
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:edit intro.txt
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Thus, if the first <Tab> doesn't give you the file you were looking for, press
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it again. If there are more matches, you will see them all, one at a time.
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If you press <Tab> on the last matching entry, you will go back to what you
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first typed: >
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:edit i
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Then it starts all over again. Thus Vim cycles through the list of matches.
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Use CTRL-P to go through the list in the other direction:
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<------------------- <Tab> -------------------------+
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<Tab> --> <Tab> -->
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:edit i :edit info.txt :edit intro.txt
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<-- CTRL-P <-- CTRL-P
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+---------------------- CTRL-P ------------------------>
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CONTEXT
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When you type ":set i" instead of ":edit i" and press <Tab> you get: >
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:set icon
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Hey, why didn't you get ":set info.txt"? That's because Vim has context
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sensitive completion. The kind of words Vim will look for depends on the
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command before it. Vim knows that you cannot use a file name just after a
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":set" command, but you can use an option name.
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Again, if you repeat typing the <Tab>, Vim will cycle through all matches.
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There are quite a few, it's better to type more characters first: >
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:set isk<Tab>
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Gives: >
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:set iskeyword
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Now type "=" and press <Tab>: >
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:set iskeyword=@,48-57,_,192-255
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What happens here is that Vim inserts the old value of the option. Now you
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can edit it.
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What is completed with <Tab> is what Vim expects in that place. Just try
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it out to see how it works. In some situations you will not get what you
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want. That's either because Vim doesn't know what you want, or because
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completion was not implemented for that situation. In that case you will get
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a <Tab> inserted (displayed as ^I).
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LIST MATCHES
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When there are many matches, you would like to see an overview. Do this by
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pressing CTRL-D. For example, pressing CTRL-D after: >
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:set is
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results in: >
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:set is
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incsearch isfname isident iskeyword isprint
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:set is
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Vim lists the matches and then comes back with the text you typed. You can
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now check the list for the item you wanted. If it isn't there, you can use
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<BS> to correct the word. If there are many matches, type a few more
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characters before pressing <Tab> to complete the rest.
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If you have watched carefully, you will have noticed that "incsearch"
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doesn't start with "is". In this case "is" stands for the short name of
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"incsearch". (Many options have a short and a long name.) Vim is clever
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enough to know that you might have wanted to expand the short name of the
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option into the long name.
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THERE IS MORE
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The CTRL-L command completes the word to the longest unambiguous string. If
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you type ":edit i" and there are files "info.txt" and "info_backup.txt" you
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will get ":edit info".
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The 'wildmode' option can be used to change the way completion works.
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The 'wildmenu' option can be used to get a menu-like list of matches.
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Use the 'suffixes' option to specify files that are less important and appear
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at the end of the list of files.
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The 'wildignore' option specifies files that are not listed at all.
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More about all of this here: |cmdline-completion|
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==============================================================================
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*20.4* Command line history
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In chapter 3 we briefly mentioned the history. The basics are that you can
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use the <Up> key to recall an older command line. <Down> then takes you back
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to newer commands.
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There are actually four histories. The ones we will mention here are for ":"
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commands and for "/" and "?" search commands. The "/" and "?" commands share
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the same history, because they are both search commands. The two other
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histories are for expressions and input lines for the input() function.
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|cmdline-history|
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Suppose you have done a ":set" command, typed ten more colon commands and then
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want to repeat that ":set" command again. You could press ":" and then ten
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times <Up>. There is a quicker way: >
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:se<Up>
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Vim will now go back to the previous command that started with "se". You have
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a good chance that this is the ":set" command you were looking for. At least
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you should not have to press <Up> very often (unless ":set" commands is all
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you have done).
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The <Up> key will use the text typed so far and compare it with the lines in
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the history. Only matching lines will be used.
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If you do not find the line you were looking for, use <Down> to go back to
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what you typed and correct that. Or use CTRL-U to start all over again.
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To see all the lines in the history: >
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:history
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That's the history of ":" commands. The search history is displayed with this
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command: >
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:history /
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CTRL-P will work like <Up>, except that it doesn't matter what you already
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typed. Similarly for CTRL-N and <Down>. CTRL-P stands for previous, CTRL-N
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for next.
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==============================================================================
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*20.5* Command line window
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Typing the text in the command line works different from typing text in Insert
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mode. It doesn't allow many commands to change the text. For most commands
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that's OK, but sometimes you have to type a complicated command. That's where
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the command line window is useful.
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Open the command line window with this command: >
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q:
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Vim now opens a (small) window at the bottom. It contains the command line
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history, and an empty line at the end:
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+-------------------------------------+
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|other window |
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|~ |
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|file.txt=============================|
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|:e c |
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|:e config.h.in |
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|:set path=.,/usr/include,, |
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|:set iskeyword=@,48-57,_,192-255 |
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|:set is |
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|:q |
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|: |
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|command-line=========================|
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+-------------------------------------+
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You are now in Normal mode. You can use the "hjkl" keys to move around. For
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example, move up with "5k" to the ":e config.h.in" line. Type "$h" to go to
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the "i" of "in" and type "cwout". Now you have changed the line to:
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:e config.h.out ~
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Now press <Enter> and this command will be executed. The command line window
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will close.
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The <Enter> command will execute the line under the cursor. It doesn't
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matter whether Vim is in Insert mode or in Normal mode.
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Changes in the command line window are lost. They do not result in the
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history to be changed. Except that the command you execute will be added to
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the end of the history, like with all executed commands.
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The command line window is very useful when you want to have overview of the
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history, lookup a similar command, change it a bit and execute it. A search
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command can be used to find something.
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In the previous example the "?config" search command could have been used
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to find the previous command that contains "config". It's a bit strange,
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because you are using a command line to search in the command line window.
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While typing that search command you can't open another command line window,
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there can be only one.
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==============================================================================
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Next chapter: |usr_21.txt| Go away and come back
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Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl:
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