Moving Around a File in vi

Usually, you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move around the open file in vi. In some cases, such as a very old or very minimal Linux installation, the arrow keys don't operate.

You can always move around your file using the key commands in Table 18-1.

Table 18-1. Commands for Moving Around in a File

Key	What It Does
j	Moves cursor down one line.
k	Moves cursor up one line.
l	Moves cursor one character to the right.
h	Moves cursor one character to the left.
G	Moves cursor to the last line of the file.
L	Moves cursor to the last line on the screen.
Ctrl-d	Moves down one screen.
Ctrl-u	Moves up one screen.
:n	Moves the cursor to line n. For instance, :1 moves to the first line of the file.
$	Moves to the end of the current line.
^	Moves to the first non-space character in the current line.
0 (zero)	Moves to the beginning of the line.
w	Moves to the beginning of the next word.
b	Moves to the beginning of the previous word.
e	Moves to the end of the word.

NOTE

Be sure to use the correct case. vi is case sensitive. It doesn't see a and A as the same command.

In addition to the commands to move the cursor, you can move to specific text characters or strings by searching for them. You can search for a character in a line using the f (find) command. The syntax is fx, where x is the character to find. For instance, fh moves to the next h.

To search the entire file, press /. The cursor moves to the bottom of the screen. Type the text to search for. When you press <Enter>, the cursor moves to the next instance of the text. After finding one instance of the text, just press / again to search further for the same text. Use ? to search backward through the file.