vimtricks.wiki Concise Vim tricks, one at a time.

How do I scroll the screen up by one line without moving the cursor?

Answer

<C-y>

Explanation

The <C-y> command scrolls the window up one line at a time while keeping the cursor position fixed. It is the counterpart to <C-e>.

How it works

  • <C-y> scrolls the viewport up by one line
  • The cursor stays on its current line unless it would go below the visible area
  • Accepts a count: 5<C-y> scrolls up 5 lines

Example

If the window shows lines 20-50, pressing <C-y> changes the view to lines 19-49 while the cursor stays in place.

Tips

  • Best used when you want to peek at the line above the viewport
  • Pair with <C-e> for fine-grained scrolling
  • Does not create jump list entries

Next

How do you yank a single word into a named register?