Advanced filtering utilities in Vim
Efficient Search and Replace

© Lead Image © adimas, fotila.com
Whether you are writing code or text, vim-abolish can help you customize search and replace functions in Vim.
Traditionally, vim-abolish is introduced by saying that what it does is hard to explain. This tradition dates back to its creator Tim Pope, who introduced it by saying that "I've deferred release, primarily because it's so gosh darn hard to explain" [1]. However, while exactly what is being abolished is uncertain, vim-abolish can best be described as advanced search and replace functions, roughly analogous to but less powerful than the command sed
. It consists of four utilities: abbreviation (word completion), substitution, search, and coercion (case change). With a bit of organization, you can set up these utilities to use multiple forms of a word, such as different tenses, prefixes, suffixes, or spellings. With these tools, vim-abolish is equally useful for writing code or text documents.
Vim-abolish is installed by downloading the plugin from its homepage [1] to ~/.vim
or ~\vimfiles
, depending on your distribution. If you are using the plugin manager Pathogen, you can install Git and run the commands:
cd ~/.vim/bundle git clone git://github.com/tpope/vim-abolish.git
[...]
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Cairo Dock 3.6 Now Available for More Compositors
If you're a fan of third-party desktop docks, then the latest release of Cairo Dock with Wayland support is for you.
-
System76 Unleashes Pop!_OS 24.04 Beta
System76's first beta of Pop!_OS 24.04 is an impressive feat.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 is Available
Linus Torvalds has announced that the latest kernel has been released with plenty of core improvements and even more hardware support.
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
-
Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.
-
Fedora Linux 43 Beta Now Available for Testing
Fedora Linux 43 Beta ships with Gnome 49 and KDE Plasma 6.4 (and other goodies).
-
USB4 Maintainer Leaves Intel
Michael Jamet, one of the primary maintainers of USB4 and Thunderbolt drivers, has left Intel, leaving a gaping hole for the Linux community to deal with.
-
Budgie 10.9.3 Now Available
The latest version of this elegant and configurable Linux desktop aligns with changes in Gnome 49.
-
KDE Linux Alpha Available for Daring Users
It's official, KDE Linux has arrived, but it's not quite ready for prime time.
-
AMD Initiates Graphics Driver Updates for Linux Kernel 6.18
This new AMD update focuses on power management, display handling, and hardware support for Radeon GPUs.