VIMTUTOR(1)
π VIMTUTOR β ok so you wanna learn Vim, bestie
So this is vimtutor, section 1 of the General Commands Manual, and honestly? It's the glow-up your terminal life has been waiting for. Periodt.
β¨ NAME β¨
vimtutor β the Vim tutor. That's it, that's the whole vibe. It teaches you Vim. Iconic behaviour, no notes.
π SYNOPSIS π
vimtutor [-h | --help]
vimtutor [--list]
Like, three whole ways to call her. Pick your fighter. π«Ά
πΈ DESCRIPTION πΈ
Okay so real talk: vimtutor starts the Vim tutor. Boom. That's the job.
It's genuinely for people who are like "what even is a Vim command" β your first-commands era, y'know? And the optional [ISO639] argument is the two or three letter name of a language, like "it" or "es". Cute little language codes. We love a multilingual queen. π
And here's the part that matters (the safety part, because I know you were about to panic): vimtutor only opens temporary copies of the original tutor files. So there is literally no danger of overwriting the lessons. Go feral in there, bestie, you cannot break it. π₯
Also important, no cap: Vim is always started in Vi nocompatible mode. That's just how she rolls here.
π OPTIONS π
-l,--languageISO639 β sets the two or three letter language code. E.g.'it','es','bar'. Defaults to the language of the locale if it's available, else to English. iykyk π¦-c,--chapterNUMBER β sets the chapter number. Defaults to chapter one, because we all start at the beginning, babes. β¨-g,--guiβ starts vimtutor in the GUI version of vim if it's available, otherwise falls back to console vim. She'll try her best, okay? π-h,--helpβ displays usage information. Your little "help me help you" moment. π--listβ displays chapters and languages. The full menu, the whole buffet, the entire aesthetic. π
π§ EXAMPLES π§
To start vimtutor in German on chapter one:
vimtutor de
In English on chapter two:
vimtutor -c2
Longform command for Bavarian in the GUI on chapter one:
vimtutor --language bar --chapter 1 --gui
Look at that longform flex. She's got range. β
π FILES π
/usr/share/vim/vim92/tutor/tutor1[.language]β the Vimtutor chapter one text file(s). Chapter one lives here, periodt./usr/share/vim/vim92/tutor/tutor2[.language]β the Vimtutor chapter two text file(s). Chapter two, same deal. π/usr/share/vim/vim92/tutor/tutor.vimβ the Vim script used to copy the Vimtutor text file. The backstage crew making the magic happen. π
π AUTHOR π
The Vi Tutorial was originally written for Vi by Michael C. Pierce and Robert K. Ware, Colorado School of Mines, using ideas supplied by Charles Smith, Colorado State University. E-mail: bware@mines.colorado.edu (now invalid β yeah, that address is giving 1996, rest in peace π).
Modified for Vim by Bram Moolenaar. Legend. Absolute main character energy. π
Translation contributors are listed in the tutor files β go give them their flowers, they earned them. π
π¦ SEE ALSO π¦
vim(1)β the big one. The mothership. Go read her next.
A lil reminder before you close this tab: no danger of overwriting the lessons, nocompatible mode always, defaults are locale-language (else English) and chapter one. Write that on your hand, bestie. π«Ά
mwah π that's a wrap β page VIMTUTOR(1), dated 2024 December 03, sourced from the General Commands Manual. Go learn Vim, slay, and hydrate. π
π¦ where this page comes from
- alpine 3.23: vim-doc 9.2.1202-r0 Β· Vim
- alpine 3.24: vim-doc 9.2.1202-r0 Β· Vim
- arch rolling: gvim 9.2.1178-1 Β· custom:vim
- arch rolling: vim 9.2.1178-1 Β· custom:vim
- opensuse-leap 16.0: vim 9.2.0957-160000.1.1 Β· Vim
- opensuse-leap 16.0: vim 9.2.0957-160000.1.1 Β· Vim
- opensuse-leap 16.0: vim 9.2.0957-160000.1.1 Β· Vim
- opensuse-leap 16.0: vim 9.2.0957-160000.1.1 Β· Vim
- ubuntu stonking: vim-runtime 2:9.2.0858-1ubuntu2 Β· Vim
- π girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms