Tip 98: Delete Lines Containing a Pattern

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On the Etymology of Grep

abbreviated form of the :global command:

:g/re/p

• re: regular expression
• p: :print

Delete Matching Lines with :g/re/d

Example: throw away everything except for the contents of each <a> tag:

/\v\<\/?\w+>
:g//d

Keep Only Matching Lines with :v/re/d

Example: Delete each line that doesn’t contain href:

:v/href/d