Equivalence of Emacs and Vim commands

Equivalence of VIM and Emacs commands

Descriptions for VIM commands are quite straightforward, there is not many choice, you have just to type the command. This is not as simple in Emacs, because there is so much possibilities. Here is presented the Emacs commands and their standard key bindings when there are some. But many (like myself) alter the default keybindings to type faster and according to what they do with Emacs.

This heading includes contributions from David Richfield. Thanks David !

Conventions

• NA
  Not Applicable, the equivalence doesn't exist.
• -
  I personnaly don't know if there is an equivalence.

Commands

Help

Action	Emacs command	VIM command
General	apropos	:help :help <word> then hit CTRL-D to see matching help entries for word
About commands	apropos-command : f1 a	:help <command>
Describe function	describe-function : f1 f	NA
Describe variable	describe-variable : f1 v	:help options
Describe key briefly	describe-key-briefly : f1 c	NA
Tutorial	help-with-tutorial : C-h t	NA

Open/Close/Save

Action	Emacs command	VIM command
Open a file	find-file : C-x C-f	:e file-name
Reload a file from disk	revert-buffer	:e
Close a buffer, a frame	kill-buffer : C-x k	:q
Close all files	C-x C-c	:qall
List all buffers, frame	C-x C-b	:files
Change to next frame	switch-to-buffer : C-x b	C-w C-w
Change to next buffer	switch-to-buffer : C-x b	:e#<n>
Save a buffer, a frame	save-current-buffer : C-x C-s	:w
Save all buffers, frame	save-some-buffer : C-x s	:wall

In Emacs, it is better to load all the files in different buffers, but in the same instance of Emacs, if only to load the file faster. Thus, open as many files as you want and then switch from one buffer to another.

Navigation / Search

Action	Emacs command	VIM command
Go to the beginning of a buffer	beginning-of-buffer : M-<	1G or gg
Go to the end of a buffer	end-of-buffer : M->	G
Search forward	C-s	/<string>
Repeat last search forward	C-s C-s	n or /
Search backward	C-r	?<string>
Repeat last search backward	C-r C-r	N or ?
Find the next brace, bracket, etc.	Click on the brace, bracket, etc.	%

Edition

Action	Emacs command	VIM command
Transpose letters	C-t	xp
Transpose words	M-t	Go to start of first word, then dwwP. Except at the end of the line, then go to the space in between the words, and type 2dwbhP
downcase word	M-l	With cursor at beginning of word: veu
Downcase region	C-x C-l	Mark region, press u.
Upcase word	M-u	With cursor at beginning of word: veU
Upcase region	C-x C-u	Mark region, press U.
Syntax highlighting	M-x toggle-global-lazy-font-lock-mode	:syntax enable and then :set syntax=>syntax name<
Region indentation	M-x indent-according-to-mode	== (current line) <n>== (n, the number of lines) =G (till end of file)
Inserting comments	indent-for-comment : M-;	-

Cut & Paste

Action	Emacs command	VIM command
Copy a region, a selection	copy-region-as-kill	<n>yy to "yank" or copy n lines, or mark region in visual mode, then press y
Set mark	C-Space	m{a-zA-Z}
Copy	M-w	See above
Mark the buffer	C-x h	ggVG

String substitution

To come, work in progress.

:%s/stringToReplace/newString/gc
:%s#stringToReplace#newString#gc
:%s#/home/guest/tmp/comp#/usr/local/#gc

Undo / Redo

Action	Emacs command	VIM command
Undo	C-_	u
Redo	Space C-_	C-r
Repeat a command	M-x z	.
Repeat a complex command	repeat-complex-command : C-x M-:	.

More about the undo/redo in Emacs : All the actions are piled up, even the "undo" action. Thus to perform a "redo", one has to undo an "undo". One way to do that is after an "undo" to write a character, like "space", and then perform an "undo".

Check this out too about macros.

Spelling check

Action	Emacs command	VIM command
Check spelling of a region/file	ispell-region / ispell-buffer	:w! (hit ENTER):!ispell % (hit ENTER):e! % (hit ENTER) Or a bit more complex and powerful, use some macros : map <F5> :w!<CR>:!ispell -d francais %<CR>:e! %<CR> map <F6> :w!<CR>:!ispell -d american %<CR>:e! %<CR>
Check spelling of a word	ispell-word	NA

Emacs specificities

Insertion

Action	Emacs command
Insert special characters	C-q

Examples :

• To insert a TAB character
  C-q TAB
• To insert a newline in the minibuffer, for substitutions, etc.
  C-q C-j

LISP evaluation

Action	Emacs command
Evaluate a LISP expression and print the result	eval-expression : M-:

For a function evaluation expression is of the form (function)

Examples :

• Addition
  (+ 1 2)
  will return 3
• Division
  (/ 225 60)
  will return 3
• Division
  (/ 225.0 60)
  will return 3.75
• Variable assigment
  (setq shell-file-name "bash")
  will return "bash"

For a variable evaluation expression is of the form variable

Examples :

• Checking a variable value
  M-: shell-file-name
  might return "/bin/bash" or "bash"

Emacs modes

Action	Emacs command
Get name of current buffer major mode, eg xml-mode	M-: major-mode
Get pretty name of current buffer major mode	M-: mode-name
Full description of current major mode	M-x describe-mode