Vim snippets

I love Vim and use it and it's bindings whenever possible. This post is a collection of useful snippets that I've collected over time.

Delete rows that match a pattern

:g/<pattern>/d

Very useful for de-cluttering log files.

It's also possible to do the inverse: delete all rows that don't match the pattern:

:g!/<pattern>/d

See more

Rename the current file from inside vim

Let's say you are working on the file foo.txt and realize that it's name really should be bar.txt. One way to realize this would be to close the file in vim, navigating to a file explorer, renaming the file, then opening it again in vim. Doable, but involving lots of steps.

A smoother way is descibed in this Stack Overflow answer:

1. Enter the internal file browser by typing :Ex.
2. Navigate to foo.txt.
3. Press R.
4. Change the name to bar.txt.
5. Press enter to save the edit, then again to open the renamed file.

Edit file in hex mode in Vim

• Open the file in Vim.
• Convert it to hex by running %!xxd.
• Make any changes.
• Convert it back by running %!xxd -r.

For a more in-depth explanation, read the following text by Tim Murphy: Link.