Navigating in Vim's Command Mode

Question

I am a long time emacs user learning Vim. Emacs lets me navigate in the mini-buffer (where I issue commands like C-x C-s) using the same navigation keyboard shortcuts as in any other buffer. For example, I can navigate forward one character using C-f, even while in the mini-buffer. I could also use the arrow keys, but they are too far away.

Is there any keyboard shortcut to navigate in Vim's command mode (:), without using the arrow keys -- equivalent to emacs C-f, C-b? Thanks.

Answer 1

Adding to Greg Hewgill's answer, you can use q: to open the command-line window, where you have any Vim editing power at your hand.

Answer 2

Some from the Vim help:

CTRL-B or <Home>
        cursor to beginning of command-line
CTRL-E or <End> 
        cursor to end of command-line
CTRL-H              
<BS>        Delete the character in front of the cursor (see |:fixdel| if
        your <BS> key does not do what you want).
<Del>       Delete the character under the cursor (at end of line:
        character before the cursor).
CTRL-W      Delete the |word| before the cursor.  This depends on the
        'iskeyword' option.
CTRL-U      Remove all characters between the cursor position and
        the beginning of the line.  

Answer 3

I have these in my .vimrc

cnoremap <C-a> <Home>
cnoremap <C-e> <End>
cnoremap <C-p> <Up>
cnoremap <C-n> <Down>
cnoremap <C-b> <Left>
cnoremap <C-f> <Right>
cnoremap <M-b> <S-Left>
cnoremap <M-f> <S-Right>

Answer 4

With the default key bindings, vim does not offer non-arrow-key navigation of the command line editing. However, see :help cmdline-editing for an example of how to use the :cnoremap command to set up alternate key bindings.