Vim

Write to read-only file

:w !sudo tee "%"

Delete any number of lines

Shift+V from point of cursor and press D key to delete.

Search and replace

Current file

:%s/search/replace/g

Across all directories

1. Open Telescope with fuzzy finding:

   <leader>fw

2. Type in search term

3. Add all results to quickfix list at once using <Ctrl-q> or alternatively, press Tab on every desired entry and press <Alt-q>

4. Type the following command:

   :cfdo %s/search/replace/g

5. Write all changes:

   :wa

Tip

In Telescope it is necessary to escape certain characters like { (e.g. \{), but the same isn’t necessary when doing the actual replacement with :cfdo.

Disable search highlight

:noh

Prepend multiple lines with a character

1. Shift+V from point of cursor to enter Visual Block mode
2. Move up/down to select multiple lines
3. : to enter command mode
4. s/^/#/g to replace first character on the lines with a #

The prompt will look something like this when all done:

:'<,'>s/^/#/g

Format to certain column width

1. Set text width to desired width:

   :set textwidth=80

2. Move to start of file:

   gg

3. Format text from start to the end:

   gqG

Tip

Use visual mode the selectively format (don’t move to start of the file in that case).

Measure start-up speed

Using Hyperfine

$ hyperfine "nvim --headless +qa" --warmup 5
Benchmark 1: nvim --headless +qa
  Time (mean ± σ):      40.3 ms ±   1.8 ms    [User: 16.1 ms, System: 8.0 ms]
  Range (min … max):    37.2 ms …  46.3 ms    58 runs

Using NeoVim

$ nvim --startuptime startup.log -c exit && head -n 21 startup.log
--- Startup times for process: Primary/TUI ---

times in msec
 clock   self+sourced   self:  sourced script
 clock   elapsed:              other lines

000.000  000.000: --- NVIM STARTING ---
000.070  000.070: event init
000.197  000.126: early init
000.368  000.172: locale set
000.414  000.046: init first window
011.338  010.925: inits 1
011.346  000.008: window checked
011.350  000.004: parsing arguments
011.733  000.028  000.028: require('vim.shared')
011.798  000.031  000.031: require('vim.inspect')
011.836  000.028  000.028: require('vim._options')
011.837  000.100  000.041: require('vim._editor')
011.838  000.155  000.027: require('vim._init_packages')
011.840  000.334: init lua interpreter
012.142  000.302: --- NVIM STARTED ---

Re-indent according to file type

• A single line: ==
• A range of lines: <range>==
• Entire file: gg=G
  • Probably won’t be as intelligent as a language-specific formatter

Reverse lines

:g/^/m0

More information here.

Use visual mode to selectively reverse ((:g|:global) command is still required).

Useful for re-ordering commits with git rebase -i if you know you made the most relevant commit first and subsequent minor changes afterwards.