Linux Tutorial: 5 Cool Vim Command Line Tricks
Jeremy Morgan 
May 31, 2012 - 2 min read
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.
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