These are Emacs shortcuts, not Vim. They're available in bash (the default MacOS shell) because bash uses the readline library. You can also put readline into Vi mode and use Vi/Vim shortcuts, but none of this has anything to do with editing files.

> but none of this has anything to do with editing files.

Why not? You can use these shortcuts across OS X. That includes your web browser and any other GUI you have on your machine (I use them heavily in notational velocity).

They work anywhere there's a system-provided text field.

fish shell has a vim mode for anyone interested

This is actually a readline thing, so you can edit your $HOME/.inputrc with

   set editing-mode vi

and get the vi bindings in everything that supports readline, e.g. the Python shell etc. There's tons more that can be customized here. You can even have it put the current vi mode in your prompt and stuff like that.

https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Readline-...

Bash and zsh also have vim mode. The bash mode is more like vi though.

Indeed, it’s in fact called “vi mode” in the bash/readline docs.

1. I think this is for the people who want more than just a couple vi-like motion keys.

2. Five of your seven shortcuts are for emacs[0], not vim.

[0]: https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Command-L...

Right, I just thought it was interesting enough to point out how there are many navigation shortcuts that are built into OS X. Useful even when you're using someone else's computer.

All seven are default keybindings in Emacs. Which two did you believe weren't?

I believe ctrl-n and ctrl-p work in vim

Oh, I see. I had forgotten that. They do also work in Emacs and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that their use in Emacs predates Vim.

I’m not sure when Vi[m] got ctrl n/p, but it looks like emacs got it WAY early on: http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/emacs_kb_shortcuts_pain.html

I've been using those commands in Emacs since the late 70s

Those are emacs-based shortcuts.

They are also the default in most shells (bash/zsh), which also have optional vi-based bindings.

Those OS X keybindings come from Emacs! I bet some vimmers would refuse to use them just on principle. :)

I'm a vimmer and always use readline bindings in "insert" mode context. I find using vim bindings on the commandline to be infuriating.

On macOS, you need to add the following to $HOME/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict to get ctrl-w and ctrl-u to work everywhere in macOS.

{ "^w" = "deleteWordBackward:"; "^u" = "deleteToBeginningOfLine:"; }

> I find using vim bindings on the commandline to be infuriating.

Some folks find vim bindings to be just as bad to edit text grin

I don't actually agree: I think that vim's text-editing language is actually nicer than emacs's is. But I use emacs — with its bindings, not vim's — because after almost thirty years it's what I'm used to.

Haha, I've never been interested in the whole vim vs. emacs thing. I just started with vim and a little too invested in it now. It definitely drives me nuts that it loads entire files into memory and that is the one thing that has made me tempted to switch. It rarely affects me but every once in a while when I accidentally open a massive file in vim and have to wait, I dream of emacs. I would use evil mode, OF COURSE :)

Oh, if you like those bindings in insert mode, you are probably already aware of Tim Pope's vim-rsi [1] plugin. If not, check it out, it might have some interesting bindings you aren't using yet.

[1] https://github.com/tpope/vim-rsi

I'm absolutely aware of it and was gonna mention it but figured I'd said enough :)

When I said "insert" I meant like, "insert mode" everywhere else but vim :)

But yes, RSI is a great plugin (as are most of tpope's plugins)

Also, you mentioning it made me realize I never starred the repo, so thanks, haha!

Thanks so much for this. I usually use Karabiner for the same thing.

Do you know anyway to get the same behaviour on Linux and Gnome at all?

I’m a heavy vim user and yet I add bindings to vim for Control-A and Control-E.

now that’s funny

Doesn’t Option-(Arrow Left|Arrow Right) move around per word?

You're right, but option+(f/b) is handier when combined with ctrl+(f/b)