Vim delete starting from character to end of line

Question

I'm trying to come up with something that will delete all text to end of line from a given character onwards.

E.g. in the example below I want to keep only the IP address:

192.168.2.121/32 -m comment --comment "blah blah bye bye"  -j DROP
10.1.3.207 -m comment --comment "much longer comment with all kinds of stuff" -j DROP
172.16.1.0/24 -m comment --comment "Drop this range" -j DROP

The pattern to remove from is -m, i.e., reading from left, the first "-" encountered. From that "-" to end-of-line should be deleted on every line in the file.

I'm stumped on this one, guidance would be appreciated.

Solution 1

A global command would be a good fit

:g/-/norm nD

Explanation

:g         : Start a Global Command (:h :g for extra help on global commands)
/-         : Search for -
/norm nD   : Execute nD in Normal Mode where 
               n - jumps to the match
               D - delete to the end of the line

Solution 2

There's a simple method to do that under the normal mode:

1. /-m to let the cursor move to the first occurrence "-m" in the file.
2. Press d$ to delete characters from the cursor to the end of the line.
3. Press n to find another "-m".
4. Press . to redo step 2.

Solution 3

Isn't this as simple as:

:%s/-m.*//

?

Or I didn't understand the problem right?

Solution 4

I would do:

:%norm f D

"On each line, move the cursor to the first space and cut everything from the cursor to the end of the line."

:help range
:help :normal
:help f
:help D

Solution 5

I would register a macro, for example:

1. Put the cursor on the first line, at position 0
2. ql start registering a macro on the letter l
3. t-D+
4. q end the macro
5. Launch the macro as many times as you want eg: 3@l to launch it three times

Explanation of t-D+:

• t- goes in front of the next occurence of -
• D delete till end
• +, jumps to the next line at the beginning of the string so that we can chain macros (l should work too on vim as you deleted till the end)

As @Nobe4 stated you can also register the macro on one line (eg qlt-Dq) and then repeat on a visual selection: VG:normal!@l.

View more solutions

Comments

[nobe4]

If you have a macro that operate line-wise, you can repeat it over a range of line with :'<,'>normal! @q, which may be useful also :)

[soyuka]

'<,'> is the visual selection no? Btw it doesn't work to me.

[nobe4]

strange, if you try your macro without the j0 at the end ? And to achieve this, you can select a set of line with v, then pressing : should give you :'<,'>

[soyuka]

My bad, I used the wrong letter (you typed q I used l here ;)). Thanks for the tip, I'll improve my answer. Why doesn't this work with % as a buffer instead of the visual selection?

[Kent]

two comments: 1) d$ could be D 2) j0 could be +

[Luc Hermitte]

In this case, %s/ .*// would do as well.

[Kent]

@LucHermitte sure it is gonna work for OP's example data. however his requirement was from -m. So I would follow what OP said, instead of the example. Otherwise it could be as easy as :%norm! WD

[kmonsoor]

No, it's not simple. It's anything but simple.

[anishjp]

Is there a global command to delete from the beginning of the line to a given character?

[Lieven Keersmaekers]

@anishjp - yes, try %norm 0dt<character>

[anishjp]

Thank you for that. If I have to also delete the given character?

[Lieven Keersmaekers]

@anishjp - %norm 0df<character>