Linux Tutorial: 5 Cool Vim Command Line Tricks

Last Update: Mar 25, 2023

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Like most “hardcore” Linux/Unix hackers I love Vi/Vim, and I’ve found there is no end to the things you can learn about Vim so I decided to add a few command line tricks that I just learned recently.

I’m going to use “file.txt” as our example file.

Here are some cool Vim command line tricks:

1. Open at the end of a file

vi **+** file.txt

The plus sign added before the file name opens up the file with the cursor at the end of the file. This can be handy if you have a huge text file you and you don’t want to scroll down.

2. Open file at specific line

vi **+_n_** file.txt

If you add a number (replace n with a number in case you hadn’t guessed) the cursor will go exactly to that line number. Extremely handy for large text files or error messages that specify a line number in a config or source file.

3. Open file at a pattern

vi **+/_pattern_** file.txt

This will open the file on the same line as the pattern you specify (first instance of it). This is great if you have a specific phrase to search for.

4. Recover a file after a crash

vi **-r** file.txt

Use -r to open a file and recover it after a crash. This could save your butt someday.

5. Run a script against a file

vi **-s** file.txt < script.sh

This trick could be super powerful, but also dangerous. This allows you to run a script against the file while opening, usually a search or something of that sort.

I hope this helps, I’m going to post more stuff as I learn it, there’s a reason they’ve written whole books about Vim, it has a ton of features. If people enjoy these tips, I’ll add some more later.

Published: May 31, 2012 by Jeremy Morgan. Contact me before republishing this content.