How do I reverse the order of lines in a file or selection?

Explanation

Vim doesn't have a built-in reverse command, but you can pipe the buffer through tac (reverse of cat) to flip line order. For systems without tac, Vim's :g command offers a pure-Vim alternative.

How it works

• :%!tac — reverse all lines using the external tac command
• :'<,'>!tac — reverse only selected lines
• Pure Vim alternative: :g/^/m0 — moves each line to the top, effectively reversing

Example

Before:
line 1
line 2
line 3
line 4

After :%!tac:
line 4
line 3
line 2
line 1

Tips

• :g/^/m0 is the portable Vim-only solution (works everywhere)
• For macOS, use tail -r instead of tac (not installed by default)
• Reverse a range: :10,20g/^/m9 reverses lines 10-20
• Combine with sort: :%!sort -r for reverse-sorted lines