Change Terminal Keys to VIM
Daniel Shotonwa
Posted on January 22, 2020
So I have been struggling with my terminal lately, having done a lot of tweaks to improve my productivity, like using Tmux as a multiplexer, setting an alias for reoccurring commands and the likes.
I find it hard to use my terminal because to edit a command, you have to scroll with your arrow keys or press some weird key bindings. It has been frustrating so far.
I thought of using vim keys but don't know if it exists, just a little search online and I saw the command I needed.
$ set -o vi
This will set your terminal to use Vim key bindings, the default mode is insert mode so you can type anything you want. To go to command mode, just click escape key
and you are good.
Important VIM keys I use while in command mode
- 0 or ^ - to move to the first character
- $ - to move to the last character
- f and a letter - search for a letter through the current line
- F and a letter - search for a letter backwards
This setting will not persist, it will only be available for the life cycle of the terminal. To persists it, you have to add set -o vi
to your .bashrc
or .zshrc
or other profiles.
$ vim ~/.bashrc
After that, close your terminal and open it. Enjoy your super cool terminal.
Posted on January 22, 2020
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