vim for developer

vim command line

• vim file.c +10: Open file.c directly at line 10 (doesn’t work with vi, only vim)
• git diff | vim -: View the output of a command in vim (git diff command in this example)

Navigate

• gg: go to file start
• GG: go to file end
• 0: go to line start
• $: go to line end
• :10: go to line number 10
• [[, ]]: jump to previous/next of the class or function
• gf: Go To File, open the file with the file name under the cursor

Buffers

• :vs: Vertical Split
• :split: Horizontal Split
• :%bd: close all buffers

Programming

• Go to a function definition using ctags:
  • Run “:ctags -R” to create an index of symbols (classes, functions, variables)
  • Put the cursor on a symbol: CTRL+[ goes to the symbol defintion

Misc

• Open a file from encoding cp850: :e ++enc=cp850 document.txt

Windows

• gvim configuration files for user vstinner:
  • C:\Users\vstinner\_vimrc: vim configuration, same than ~/.vimrc on Unix
  • C:\Users\vstinner\_gvimrc: gvim configuration, same than ~/.gvimrc on Unix

Create a symbol link for configuration files using python:

C:\Users\vstinner>python
Python 3.8.0
>>> import os
>>> os.symlink(r'\vstinner\misc\conf\vimrc', '_vimrc')
>>> os.symlink(r'\vstinner\misc\conf\gvimrc', '_gvimrc')

Create a symbol links:

• from C:\vstinner\misc\conf\vimrc to C:\Users\vstinner\_vimrc
• from C:\vstinner\misc\conf\gvimrc to C:\Users\vstinner\_gvimrc