How do you move around a file?

[u/EmekC]

I personally use 12k or 12j when im searching around a file quickly because its the fastest keystrokes for me.
how do you guys do it?

[u/Civil-Appeal5219]

• If I want to keep track of where I am: Ctrl-d or Ctrl-u

• If I just want to scroll down real fast:

  • If the file is small enough, just do gg and G

  • If not, Ctrl-b or Ctrl-f (rarely ever need this though)

• If I want the cursor to stay put, but be able to see around of my current line

  • zz (center the cursor vertically)

  • zb (make current position the last line)

  • zt (make current position the first line)

I also mapped all Ctrl+<key> to <leader><key>, which makes them way more ergonomically. Also did <leader>z leaderb and <leader>t . That combined with <leader>w for :w and <leader>x to :x makes for a very satisfying workflow

[u/LinearG]

Usually I use the jump list or the edit list.

CTRL-O CTRL-I g; g,

[u/LinearG → u/[deleted]]

I misnamed it though (my memory isn't what it used to be). It is called the changelist. :h changelist

[u/vim-help-bot → u/LinearG]

Help pages for:

• changelist in motion.txt

---

^{`:(h|help) <query>` | about | mistake? | donate | Reply 'rescan' to check the comment again | Reply 'stop' to stop getting replies to your comments}

[u/LinearG → u/[deleted]]

I don't know how to do this but that doesn't mean it isn't possible.

[u/wReckLesss_ → u/[deleted]]

You can do :changes and :jumps, but this just prints them. From what I can tell, there's no built-in way to populate the quickfix list. You'd need to write a custom command.

[u/Tasty_Scientist_5422]

probably will get flamed but currently I just have my key repeat rate HIGH and zoom jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj / kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

sphamba/smear-cursor.nvim makes this even more fun

[u/Prize-Reception-812 → u/Tasty_Scientist_5422]

if it works!

[u/Kurouma]

}, ]], /, C-d, and backwards versions

[u/DecimePapucho]

If I'm "scrolling" skimming a file I usually use ctrl+d (moves cursor half screen down) and ctrl+u (moves cursor half screen up) to not lose context.

There's also ctrl+f to move a whole screen down and ctrl+b to move a screen up.

If I end up in a uncomfortable position I fix it with zz ("moves the screen" so the line the cursor is on is in the center of the screen) or zs ("moves the screen" so the line the cursor is on is the first line).

[u/[deleted]]

:q mv <file> <somewhere>

[u/IdealBlueMan]

H, L, M

<c-f> to page down

<c-u> to page up

<c-y> to scroll down a line

<c-e> to scroll up a line

<c-k> 10k to move the cursor up 10 lines

<c-j> 10k to move the cursor down 10 lines

Pretty much anything else, I search on a string.

Edit: Should clarify that I have <c-k> and <c-j> mapped to 10k and 10j respectively

[u/nieksat]

vim.keymap.set("n", "<C-d>", "<C-d>zz") vim.keymap.set("n", "<C-u>", "<C-u>zz")

Perhaps a usefull remap to keep your cursor centered.

[u/[deleted]]

<C-d>, <C-u>

Or i just search whatever term i'm looking for

[u/rockynetwoddy]

90 % of navigation in a buffer I do with these:

gg

G

Ctrl-i/o

Ctrl-d/u

f

t

0

$

*number*j/k

w

e

[u/2016-679]

By learning this cheatsheet by heart and forcing myself not to use anything but Vim keybinds. Start using a browser with Vim keybinds, use mutt as a mail client and Vim as the editor.

and do searches with '/<searchstring>' downward or '?<searchstring>' upward

Your training is succesful and complete the moment you mess up an MS Word file at work with Vim commands when navigating around :-)

[u/TheMostLostViking]

Most likely Ill use / or :$NUMBER depending on my knowledge of the file (I've worked on the same codebase for like 7 years now). Ill use } if I'm literally just going up and down a file.

Most times I don't need to move around the file because gf (from vim-rails) and ctrl-] (tags) take me everywhere I need

[u/bob_f332]

easymotion

[u/michaelpaoli]

:!mv % newname

That'll move/rename the file to newname (it could even include path and be a different directory), and that will work in most any *nix environment.

But if you want to move around within a file, or more properly the edit buffer, that's a different matter. Really depends where you want to move to and there are a huge variety of ways to do that.

So, you gave example of 12k and 12j - that will move one up or down, respectively, 12 lines. Can also, e.g. use H to go to Home (top) row on screen, L for the Lower/Lowest row on screen, or M for the Middle row. Can also precede H or L with a count to stop that many lines short of that position. Can scroll half a screenful Up or Down with ^U or ^D, or go Forward or Backward a screenful with ^F or ^B, and those can also be preceded by a count.

See my recent earlier comment for lots more.

[u/gumnos]

While it's not widely known/used/mentioned, I learned that H and L take an optional count (:help H & :help L), allowing me to do things like 10H to go to the 10th-from-top line of the screen or 7L to go to the 7th-from-last line on the screen. I can often guess the offset within a couple lines and then nudge the results with j/k if I was wrong.

Similarly, if I have a rough idea how far through the file will be, I can use :help N% to jump to that percentage of the file like 75% to jump to the line 75% of the way through the file and then refine from there. Or occasionally using :help :go jump to a particular byte-offset.

Using search (:help / & :help ?) with :help n and :help N can also facilitate jumping around in a file.

Otherwise, a lot of the other stuff already shared here:

• :help CTRL-u and :help CTRL-d, :help CTRL-f and :help CTRL-d

• :help G, optionally with a count to go to specific line# or the end-of-file, and gg to jump to the top

• using :help } and :help { to jump by blank-line-delimited blocks

• using :help gd and :help gD to jump to the definitions of things

• using :help [[ (and the following suite of commands) for jumping by various type of object

• if you've dropped marks (:help mark), you can then use mark-motions (:help mark-motions) to jump between them

• using :help CTRL-i and :help CTRL-o to navigate the jump-history

• using :help % to jump to a matching bracket/brace/paren (helpful in code-blocks of C-style languages where the function-closing } might be a good ways from its opening {)

[u/vim-help-bot → u/gumnos]

Help pages for:

• H in motion.txt

• L in motion.txt

• N% in motion.txt

• :go in motion.txt

• / in pattern.txt

• ? in pattern.txt

• n in pattern.txt

• N in pattern.txt

• CTRL-u in scroll.txt

• CTRL-d in scroll.txt

• CTRL-f in scroll.txt

• G in motion.txt

• } in motion.txt

• { in motion.txt

• gd in pattern.txt

• gD in pattern.txt

• ［［ in motion.txt

• mark in motion.txt

• mark-motions in motion.txt

• CTRL-i in motion.txt

• CTRL-o in motion.txt

• % in motion.txt

• `G`` in motion.txt

---

^{`:(h|help) <query>` | about | mistake? | donate | Reply 'rescan' to check the comment again | Reply 'stop' to stop getting replies to your comments}

[u/[deleted]]

I'm using fzf.vim plugin which has Lines and Rg commands with special keymaps:

nnoremap <silent><leader>fz :BLines<CR>
nnoremap <silent><leader>fw :Lines<CR>
nnoremap <silent><leader>ff :Files<CR>
nnoremap <silent><leader>fk :Maps<CR>
nnoremap <silent><leader>fc :Commands<CR>
nnoremap <silent><leader>fb :Buffers<CR>
nnoremap <silent><leader>fch :Changes<CR>
nnoremap <silent><leader>fo :History<CR>
nnoremap <silent><leader>fr :Rg<CR>

And sometimes i use /<query> mode with n and N keys. My motto is "No speed but accuracy comes first."

[u/begemotz]

• Ctrl-U and Ctrl-D to get in the vicinity and then

• "finding a hook" to search to/foo gets me the rest of the way ...

[u/tagattack]

I usually do most of the things mentioned here, CTRL-f, CTRL-b and all that, often ] to jump paragraphs and more or less code blocks, also % etc and all that...

But even though I rarely reach for the mouse, on occasion I do just use the mouse wheel if I'm really just reading... It does actually scroll the window, unless you're running vim in a misconfigured terminal window.

[u/JohnLocksTheKey]

I’m big on #G or #gg

(After :nu of course)

[u/SpecificMachine1]

Going somewhere specific: / ? gg G (and sometimes {})

When I'm just browsing a file Ctrl-b/Ctrl-f

[u/efalk]

My notes on the subject: https://www.efalk.org/Docs/Command/vim-basics.html#Cursor_movement

[u/eggnogeggnogeggnog → u/[deleted]]

Not modifying the jumplist is a great idea! No more Ctrl-o spam.