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*index.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Jan 04
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar
*index*
This file contains a list of all commands for each mode, with a tag and a
short description. The lists are sorted on ASCII value.
Tip: When looking for certain functionality, use a search command. E.g.,
to look for deleting something, use: "/delete".
1. Insert mode |insert-index|
2. Normal mode |normal-index|
2.1. Text objects |objects|
2.2. Window commands |CTRL-W|
2.3. Square bracket commands |[|
2.4. Commands starting with 'g' |g|
2.5. Commands starting with 'z' |z|
3. Visual mode |visual-index|
4. Command-line editing |ex-edit-index|
5. EX commands |ex-cmd-index|
For an overview of options see help.txt |option-list|.
For an overview of built-in functions see |functions|.
For a list of Vim variables see |vim-variable|.
For a complete listing of all help items see |help-tags|.
==============================================================================
1. Insert mode *insert-index*
tag char action in Insert mode
|i_CTRL-@| CTRL-@ insert previously inserted text and stop
insert
|i_CTRL-A| CTRL-A insert previously inserted text
CTRL-B not used |i_CTRL-B-gone|
|i_CTRL-C| CTRL-C quit insert mode, without checking for
abbreviation, unless 'insertmode' set.
|i_CTRL-D| CTRL-D delete one shiftwidth of indent in the current
line
|i_CTRL-E| CTRL-E insert the character which is below the cursor
CTRL-F not used (but by default it's in 'cinkeys' to
re-indent the current line)
|i_CTRL-G_j| CTRL-G CTRL-J line down, to column where inserting started
|i_CTRL-G_j| CTRL-G j line down, to column where inserting started
|i_CTRL-G_j| CTRL-G <Down> line down, to column where inserting started
|i_CTRL-G_k| CTRL-G CTRL-K line up, to column where inserting started
|i_CTRL-G_k| CTRL-G k line up, to column where inserting started
|i_CTRL-G_k| CTRL-G <Up> line up, to column where inserting started
|i_CTRL-G_u| CTRL-G u start new undoable edit
|i_<BS>| <BS> delete character before the cursor
|i_digraph| {char1}<BS>{char2}
enter digraph (only when 'digraph' option set)
|i_CTRL-H| CTRL-H same as <BS>
|i_<Tab>| <Tab> insert a <Tab> character
|i_CTRL-I| CTRL-I same as <Tab>
|i_<NL>| <NL> same as <CR>
|i_CTRL-J| CTRL-J same as <CR>
|i_CTRL-K| CTRL-K {char1} {char2}
enter digraph
|i_CTRL-L| CTRL-L when 'insertmode' set: Leave Insert mode
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/vimindex.html[2019/03/05 11:40:47 AM]

|i_<CR>| <CR> begin new line

|i_CTRL-M| CTRL-Msame as <CR>
|i_CTRL-N| CTRL-Nfind next match for keyword in front of the
cursor
|i_CTRL-O| CTRL-O execute a single command and return to insert
mode
|i_CTRL-P| CTRL-P find previous match for keyword in front of
the cursor
|i_CTRL-Q| CTRL-Q same as CTRL-V, unless used for terminal
control flow
|i_CTRL-R| CTRL-R {0-9a-z"%#*:=}
insert the contents of a register
|i_CTRL-R_CTRL-R| CTRL-R CTRL-R {0-9a-z"%#*:=}
insert the contents of a register literally
|i_CTRL-R_CTRL-O| CTRL-R CTRL-O {0-9a-z"%#*:=}
and don't auto-indent
|i_CTRL-R_CTRL-P| CTRL-R CTRL-P {0-9a-z"%#*:=}
and fix indent.
CTRL-S (used for terminal control flow)
|i_CTRL-T| CTRL-T insert one shiftwidth of indent in current
line
|i_CTRL-U| CTRL-U delete all entered characters in the current
line
|i_CTRL-V| CTRL-V {char} insert next non-digit literally
|i_CTRL-V_digit| CTRL-V {number} insert three digit decimal number as a single
byte.
|i_CTRL-W| CTRL-W delete word before the cursor
|i_CTRL-X| CTRL-X {mode} enter CTRL-X sub mode, see |i_CTRL-X_index|
|i_CTRL-Y| CTRL-Y insert the character which is above the cursor
|i_CTRL-Z| CTRL-Z when 'insertmode' set: suspend Vim
|i_<Esc>| <Esc> end insert mode (unless 'insertmode' set)
|i_CTRL-[| CTRL-[ same as <Esc>
|i_CTRL-\_CTRL-N| CTRL-\ CTRL-N go to Normal mode
|i_CTRL-\_CTRL-G| CTRL-\ CTRL-G go to mode specified with 'insertmode'
CTRL-\ a - z reserved for extensions
CTRL-\ others not used
|i_CTRL-]| CTRL-] trigger abbreviation
|i_CTRL-^| CTRL-^ toggle use of |:lmap| mappings
|i_CTRL-_| CTRL-_ When 'allowrevins' set: change language
(Hebrew, Farsi) {only when compiled with
the |+rightleft| feature}
<Space> to '~' not used, except '0' and '^' followed by
CTRL-D
|i_0_CTRL-D| 0 CTRL-D delete all indent in the current line
|i_^_CTRL-D| ^ CTRL-D delete all indent in the current line, restore
it in the next line
|i_<Del>| <Del> delete character under the cursor
Meta characters (0x80 to 0xff, 128 to 255)
not used
|i_<Left>| <Left> cursor one character left
|i_<S-Left>| <S-Left> cursor one word left
|i_<C-Left>| <C-Left> cursor one word left
|i_<Right>| <Right> cursor one character right
|i_<S-Right>| <S-Right> cursor one word right
|i_<C-Right>| <C-Right> cursor one word right
|i_<Up>| <Up> cursor one line up
|i_<S-Up>| <S-Up> same as <PageUp>
|i_<Down>| <Down> cursor one line down
|i_<S-Down>| <S-Down> same as <PageDown>
|i_<Home>| <Home> cursor to start of line
|i_<C-Home>| <C-Home> cursor to start of file
|i_<End>| <End> cursor past end of line
|i_<C-End>| <C-End> cursor past end of file
|i_<PageUp>| <PageUp> one screenful backward
|i_<PageDown>| <PageDown> one screenful forward
|i_<F1>| <F1> same as <Help>
|i_<Help>| <Help> stop insert mode and display help window
|i_<Insert>| <Insert> toggle Insert/Replace mode
|i_<LeftMouse>| <LeftMouse> cursor at mouse click
|i_<ScrollWheelDown>| <ScrollWheelDown> move window three lines down
|i_<S-ScrollWheelDown>| <S-ScrollWheelDown> move window one page down
|i_<ScrollWheelUp>| <ScrollWheelUp> move window three lines up
|i_<S-ScrollWheelUp>| <S-ScrollWheelUp> move window one page up
|i <ScrollWheelLeft>| <ScrollWheelLeft> move window six columns left

|i_<S-ScrollWheelLeft>| <S-ScrollWheelLeft> move window one page left

|i_<ScrollWheelRight>| <ScrollWheelRight> move window six columns right
|i_<S-ScrollWheelRight>| <S-ScrollWheelRight> move window one page right
commands in CTRL-X submode *i_CTRL-X_index*

|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-D| CTRL-X CTRL-D complete defined identifiers
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-E| CTRL-X CTRL-E scroll up
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-F| CTRL-X CTRL-F complete file names
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-I| CTRL-X CTRL-I complete identifiers
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-K| CTRL-X CTRL-K complete identifiers from dictionary
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-L| CTRL-X CTRL-L complete whole lines
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-N| CTRL-X CTRL-N next completion
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-O| CTRL-X CTRL-O omni completion
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-P| CTRL-X CTRL-P previous completion
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-S| CTRL-X CTRL-S spelling suggestions
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-T| CTRL-X CTRL-T complete identifiers from thesaurus
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-Y| CTRL-X CTRL-Y scroll down
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-U| CTRL-X CTRL-U complete with 'completefunc'
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-V| CTRL-X CTRL-V complete like in : command line
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-]| CTRL-X CTRL-] complete tags
|i_CTRL-X_s| CTRL-X s spelling suggestions
{not available when compiled without the |+insert_expand| feature}
==============================================================================
2. Normal mode *normal-index*
CHAR any non-blank character
WORD a sequence of non-blank characters
N a number entered before the command
{motion} a cursor movement command
Nmove the text that is moved over with a {motion}
SECTION a section that possibly starts with '}' instead of '{'
note: 1 = cursor movement command; 2 = can be undone/redone
tag char note action in Normal mode
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CTRL-@ not used
|CTRL-A| CTRL-A 2 add N to number at/after cursor
|CTRL-B| CTRL-B 1 scroll N screens Backwards
|CTRL-C| CTRL-C interrupt current (search) command
|CTRL-D| CTRL-D scroll Down N lines (default: half a screen)
|CTRL-E| CTRL-E scroll N lines upwards (N lines Extra)
|CTRL-F| CTRL-F 1 scroll N screens Forward
|CTRL-G| CTRL-G display current file name and position
|<BS>| <BS> 1 same as "h"
|CTRL-H| CTRL-H 1 same as "h"
|<Tab>| <Tab> 1 go to N newer entry in jump list
|CTRL-I| CTRL-I 1 same as <Tab>
|<NL>| <NL> 1 same as "j"
|CTRL-J| CTRL-J 1 same as "j"
CTRL-K not used
|CTRL-L| CTRL-L redraw screen
|<CR>| <CR> 1 cursor to the first CHAR N lines lower
|CTRL-M| CTRL-M 1 same as <CR>
|CTRL-N| CTRL-N 1 same as "j"
|CTRL-O| CTRL-O 1 go to N older entry in jump list
|CTRL-P| CTRL-P 1 same as "k"
CTRL-Q (used for terminal control flow)
|CTRL-R| CTRL-R 2 redo changes which were undone with 'u'
|CTRL-T| CTRL-T jump to N older Tag in tag list
|CTRL-U| CTRL-U scroll N lines Upwards (default: half a
screen)
|CTRL-V| CTRL-V start blockwise Visual mode
|CTRL-W| CTRL-W {char} window commands, see |CTRL-W|
|CTRL-X| CTRL-X 2 subtract N from number at/after cursor
|CTRL-Y| CTRL-Y scroll N lines downwards
|CTRL-Z| CTRL-Z suspend program (or start new shell)
CTRL-[ <Esc> not used
|CTRL-\_CTRL-N| CTRL-\ CTRL-N go to Normal mode (no-op)
|CTRL-\_CTRL-G| CTRL-\ CTRL-G go to mode specified with 'insertmode'
CTRL-\ a - z reserved for extensions
|CTRL-]| CTRL-] :ta to ident under cursor
|CTRL-^| CTRL-^ edit Nth alternate file (equivalent to
":e #N")

CTRL-_ not used

|<Space>| <Space> 1 same as "l"
|!| !{motion}{filter}
2 filter Nmove text through the {filter}
command
|!!| !!{filter} 2 filter N lines through the {filter} command
|quote| "{a-zA-Z0-9.%#:-"} use register {a-zA-Z0-9.%#:-"} for next
delete, yank or put (uppercase to append)
({.%#:} only work with put)
|#| # 1 search backward for the Nth occurrence of
the ident under the cursor
|$| $ 1 cursor to the end of Nth next line
|%| % 1 find the next (curly/square) bracket on
this line and go to its match, or go to
matching comment bracket, or go to matching
preprocessor directive.
|N%| {count}% 1 go to N percentage in the file
|&| & 2 repeat last :s
|'| '{a-zA-Z0-9} 1 cursor to the first CHAR on the line with
mark {a-zA-Z0-9}
|''| '' 1 cursor to the first CHAR of the line where
the cursor was before the latest jump.
|'(| '( 1 cursor to the first CHAR on the line of the
start of the current sentence
|')| ') 1 cursor to the first CHAR on the line of the
end of the current sentence
|'<| '< 1 cursor to the first CHAR of the line where
highlighted area starts/started in the
current buffer.
|'>| '> 1 cursor to the first CHAR of the line where
highlighted area ends/ended in the current
buffer.
|'[| '[ 1 cursor to the first CHAR on the line of the
start of last operated text or start of put
text
|']| '] 1 cursor to the first CHAR on the line of the
end of last operated text or end of put
text
|'{| '{ 1 cursor to the first CHAR on the line of the
start of the current paragraph
|'}| '} 1 cursor to the first CHAR on the line of the
end of the current paragraph
|(| ( 1 cursor N sentences backward
|)| ) 1 cursor N sentences forward
|star| * 1 search forward for the Nth occurrence of
the ident under the cursor
|+| + 1 same as <CR>
|,| , 1 repeat latest f, t, F or T in opposite
direction N times
|-| - 1 cursor to the first CHAR N lines higher
|.| . 2 repeat last change with count replaced with
N
|/| /{pattern}<CR> 1 search forward for the Nth occurrence of
{pattern}
|/<CR>| /<CR> 1 search forward for {pattern} of last search
|count| 0 1 cursor to the first char of the line
|count| 1 prepend to command to give a count
|count| 2 "
|count| 3 "
|count| 4 "
|count| 5 "
|count| 6 "
|count| 7 "
|count| 8 "
|count| 9 "
|:| : 1 start entering an Ex command
|N:| {count}: start entering an Ex command with range
from current line to N-1 lines down
|;| ; 1 repeat latest f, t, F or T N times
|<| <{motion} 2 shift Nmove lines one 'shiftwidth'
leftwards
|<<| << 2 shift N lines one 'shiftwidth' leftwards
|=| ={motion} 2 filter Nmove lines through "indent"
|==| == 2 filter N lines through "indent"
|>| >{motion} 2 shift Nmove lines one 'shiftwidth'
rightwards
|>>| >> 2 shift N lines one 'shiftwidth' rightwards
|?| ?{pattern}<CR> 1 search backward for the Nth previous
occurrence of {pattern}
|?<CR>| ?<CR> 1 search backward for {pattern} of last search

|@| @{a-z} 2 execute the contents of register {a-z}

N times
|@:| @: repeat the previous ":" command N times
|@@| @@ 2 repeat the previous @{a-z} N times
|A| A 2 append text after the end of the line N times
|B| B 1 cursor N WORDS backward
|C| ["x]C 2 change from the cursor position to the end
of the line, and N-1 more lines [into
buffer x]; synonym for "c$"
|D| ["x]D 2 delete the characters under the cursor
until the end of the line and N-1 more
lines [into buffer x]; synonym for "d$"
|E| E 1 cursor forward to the end of WORD N
|F| F{char} 1 cursor to the Nth occurrence of {char} to
the left
|G| G 1 cursor to line N, default last line
|H| H 1 cursor to line N from top of screen
|I| I 2 insert text before the first CHAR on the
line N times
|J| J 2 Join N lines; default is 2
|K| K lookup Keyword under the cursor with
'keywordprg'
|L| L 1 cursor to line N from bottom of screen
|M| M 1 cursor to middle line of screen
|N| N 1 repeat the latest '/' or '?' N times in
opposite direction
|O| O 2 begin a new line above the cursor and
insert text, repeat N times
|P| ["x]P 2 put the text [from buffer x] before the
cursor N times
|Q| Q switch to "Ex" mode
|R| R 2 enter replace mode: overtype existing
characters, repeat the entered text N-1
times
|S| ["x]S 2 delete N lines [into buffer x] and start
insert; synonym for "cc".
|T| T{char} 1 cursor till after Nth occurrence of {char}
to the left
|U| U 2 undo all latest changes on one line
|V| V start linewise Visual mode
|W| W 1 cursor N WORDS forward
|X| ["x]X 2 delete N characters before the cursor [into
buffer x]
|Y| ["x]Y yank N lines [into buffer x]; synonym for
"yy"
|ZZ| ZZ store current file if modified, and exit
|ZQ| ZQ exit current file always
|[| [{char} square bracket command (see |[| below)
\ not used
|]| ]{char} square bracket command (see |]| below)
|^| ^ 1 cursor to the first CHAR of the line
|_| _ 1 cursor to the first CHAR N - 1 lines lower
|`| `{a-zA-Z0-9} 1 cursor to the mark {a-zA-Z0-9}
|`(| `( 1 cursor to the start of the current sentence
|`)| `) 1 cursor to the end of the current sentence
|`<| `< 1 cursor to the start of the highlighted area
|`>| `> 1 cursor to the end of the highlighted area
|`[| `[ 1 cursor to the start of last operated text
or start of putted text
|`]| `] 1 cursor to the end of last operated text or
end of putted text
|``| `` 1 cursor to the position before latest jump
|`{| `{ 1 cursor to the start of the current paragraph
|`}| `} 1 cursor to the end of the current paragraph
|a| a 2 append text after the cursor N times
|b| b 1 cursor N words backward
|c| ["x]c{motion} 2 delete Nmove text [into buffer x] and start
insert
|cc| ["x]cc 2 delete N lines [into buffer x] and start
insert
|d| ["x]d{motion} 2 delete Nmove text [into buffer x]
|dd| ["x]dd 2 delete N lines [into buffer x]
|do| do 2 same as ":diffget"
|dp| dp 2 same as ":diffput"
|e| e 1 cursor forward to the end of word N
|f| f{char} 1 cursor to Nth occurrence of {char} to the
right
|g| g{char} extended commands, see |g| below
|h| h 1 cursor N chars to the left
|i| i 2 insert text before the cursor N times
|j| j 1 cursor N lines downward

|k| k 1
cursor N lines upward
|l| l 1
cursor N chars to the right
|m| m{A-Za-z} set mark {A-Za-z} at cursor position
|n| n 1 repeat the latest '/' or '?' N times
|o| o 2 begin a new line below the cursor and
insert text, repeat N times
|p| ["x]p 2 put the text [from register x] after the
cursor N times
|q| q{0-9a-zA-Z"} record typed characters into named register
{0-9a-zA-Z"} (uppercase to append)
|q| q (while recording) stops recording
|q:| q: edit : command-line in command-line window
|q/| q/ edit / command-line in command-line window
|q?| q? edit ? command-line in command-line window
|r| r{char} 2 replace N chars with {char}
|s| ["x]s 2 (substitute) delete N characters [into
buffer x] and start insert
|t| t{char} 1 cursor till before Nth occurrence of {char}
to the right
|u| u 2 undo changes
|v| v start characterwise Visual mode
|w| w 1 cursor N words forward
|x| ["x]x 2 delete N characters under and after the
cursor [into buffer x]
|y| ["x]y{motion} yank Nmove text [into buffer x]
|yy| ["x]yy yank N lines [into buffer x]
|z| z{char} commands starting with 'z', see |z| below
|{| { 1 cursor N paragraphs backward
|bar| | 1 cursor to column N
|}| } 1 cursor N paragraphs forward
|~| ~ 2 'tildeop' off: switch case of N characters
under cursor and move the cursor N
characters to the right
|~| ~{motion} 'tildeop' on: switch case of Nmove text
|<C-End>| <C-End> 1 same as "G"
|<C-Home>| <C-Home> 1 same as "gg"
|<C-Left>| <C-Left> 1 same as "b"
|<C-LeftMouse>| <C-LeftMouse> ":ta" to the keyword at the mouse click
|<C-Right>| <C-Right> 1 same as "w"
|<C-RightMouse>| <C-RightMouse> same as "CTRL-T"
|<Del>| ["x]<Del> 2 same as "x"
|N<Del>| {count}<Del> remove the last digit from {count}
|<Down>| <Down> 1 same as "j"
|<End>| <End> 1 same as "$"
|<F1>| <F1> same as <Help>
|<Help>| <Help> open a help window
|<Home>| <Home> 1 same as "0"
|<Insert>| <Insert> 2 same as "i"
|<Left>| <Left> 1 same as "h"
|<LeftMouse>| <LeftMouse> 1 move cursor to the mouse click position
|<MiddleMouse>| <MiddleMouse> 2 same as "gP" at the mouse click position
|<PageDown>| <PageDown> same as CTRL-F
|<PageUp>| <PageUp> same as CTRL-B
|<Right>| <Right> 1 same as "l"
|<RightMouse>| <RightMouse> start Visual mode, move cursor to the mouse
click position
|<S-Down>| <S-Down> 1 same as CTRL-F
|<S-Left>| <S-Left> 1 same as "b"
|<S-LeftMouse>| <S-LeftMouse> same as "*" at the mouse click position
|<S-Right>| <S-Right> 1 same as "w"
|<S-RightMouse>| <S-RightMouse> same as "#" at the mouse click position
|<S-Up>| <S-Up> 1 same as CTRL-B
|<Undo>| <Undo> 2 same as "u"
|<Up>| <Up> 1 same as "k"
|<ScrollWheelDown>| <ScrollWheelDown> move window three lines down
|<S-ScrollWheelDown>| <S-ScrollWheelDown> move window one page down
|<ScrollWheelUp>| <ScrollWheelUp> move window three lines up
|<S-ScrollWheelUp>| <S-ScrollWheelUp> move window one page up
|<ScrollWheelLeft>| <ScrollWheelLeft> move window six columns left
|<S-ScrollWheelLeft>| <S-ScrollWheelLeft> move window one page left
|<ScrollWheelRight>| <ScrollWheelRight> move window six columns right
|<S-ScrollWheelRight>| <S-ScrollWheelRight> move window one page right
==============================================================================
2.1 Text objects *objects*
These can be used after an operator or in Visual mode to select an object.
tag command action in op-pending and Visual mode

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|v_aquote| a" double quoted string
|v_a'| a' single quoted string
|v_a(| a( same as ab
|v_a)| a) same as ab
|v_a<| a< "a <>" from '<' to the matching '>'
|v_a>| a> same as a<
|v_aB| aB "a Block" from "[{" to "]}" (with brackets)
|v_aW| aW "a WORD" (with white space)
|v_a[| a[ "a []" from '[' to the matching ']'
|v_a]| a] same as a[
|v_a`| a` string in backticks
|v_ab| ab "a block" from "[(" to "])" (with braces)
|v_ap| ap "a paragraph" (with white space)
|v_as| as "a sentence" (with white space)
|v_at| at "a tag block" (with white space)
|v_aw| aw "a word" (with white space)
|v_a{| a{ same as aB
|v_a}| a} same as aB
|v_iquote| i" double quoted string without the quotes
|v_i'| i' single quoted string without the quotes
|v_i(| i( same as ib
|v_i)| i) same as ib
|v_i<| i< "inner <>" from '<' to the matching '>'
|v_i>| i> same as i<
|v_iB| iB "inner Block" from "[{" and "]}"
|v_iW| iW "inner WORD"
|v_i[| i[ "inner []" from '[' to the matching ']'
|v_i]| i] same as i[
|v_i`| i` string in backticks without the backticks
|v_ib| ib "inner block" from "[(" to "])"
|v_ip| ip "inner paragraph"
|v_is| is "inner sentence"
|v_it| it "inner tag block"
|v_iw| iw "inner word"
|v_i{| i{ same as iB
|v_i}| i} same as iB
==============================================================================
2.2 Window commands *CTRL-W*
tag command action in Normal mode
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|CTRL-W_CTRL-B| CTRL-W CTRL-B same as "CTRL-W b"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-C| CTRL-W CTRL-C same as "CTRL-W c"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-D| CTRL-W CTRL-D same as "CTRL-W d"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-F| CTRL-W CTRL-F same as "CTRL-W f"
CTRL-W CTRL-G same as "CTRL-W g .."
|CTRL-W_CTRL-H| CTRL-W CTRL-H same as "CTRL-W h"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-I| CTRL-W CTRL-I same as "CTRL-W i"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-J| CTRL-W CTRL-J same as "CTRL-W j"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-K| CTRL-W CTRL-K same as "CTRL-W k"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-L| CTRL-W CTRL-L same as "CTRL-W l"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-N| CTRL-W CTRL-N same as "CTRL-W n"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-O| CTRL-W CTRL-O same as "CTRL-W o"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-P| CTRL-W CTRL-P same as "CTRL-W p"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-Q| CTRL-W CTRL-Q same as "CTRL-W q"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-R| CTRL-W CTRL-R same as "CTRL-W r"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-S| CTRL-W CTRL-S same as "CTRL-W s"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-T| CTRL-W CTRL-T same as "CTRL-W t"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-V| CTRL-W CTRL-V same as "CTRL-W v"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-W| CTRL-W CTRL-W same as "CTRL-W w"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-X| CTRL-W CTRL-X same as "CTRL-W x"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-Z| CTRL-W CTRL-Z same as "CTRL-W z"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-]| CTRL-W CTRL-] same as "CTRL-W ]"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-^| CTRL-W CTRL-^ same as "CTRL-W ^"
|CTRL-W_CTRL-_| CTRL-W CTRL-_ same as "CTRL-W _"
|CTRL-W_+| CTRL-W + increase current window height N lines
|CTRL-W_-| CTRL-W - decrease current window height N lines
|CTRL-W_<| CTRL-W < decrease current window width N columns
|CTRL-W_=| CTRL-W = make all windows the same height & width
|CTRL-W_>| CTRL-W > increase current window width N columns
|CTRL-W_H| CTRL-W H move current window to the far left
|CTRL-W_J| CTRL-W J move current window to the very bottom
|CTRL-W_K| CTRL-W K move current window to the very top
|CTRL-W_L| CTRL-W L move current window to the far right
|CTRL-W_P| CTRL-W P go to preview window
|CTRL-W_R| CTRL-W R rotate windows upwards N times
|CTRL-W_S| CTRL-W S same as "CTRL-W s"

|CTRL-W_T| CTRL-W T
move current window to a new tab page
|CTRL-W_W| CTRL-W W
go to N previous window (wrap around)
|CTRL-W_]| CTRL-W ]
split window and jump to tag under cursor
|CTRL-W_^| CTRL-W ^
split current window and edit alternate
file N
|CTRL-W__| CTRL-W _ set current window height to N (default:
very high)
|CTRL-W_b| CTRL-W b go to bottom window
|CTRL-W_c| CTRL-W c close current window (like |:close|)
|CTRL-W_d| CTRL-W d split window and jump to definition under
the cursor
|CTRL-W_f| CTRL-W f split window and edit file name under the
cursor
|CTRL-W_F| CTRL-W F split window and edit file name under the
cursor and jump to the line number
following the file name.
|CTRL-W_g_CTRL-]| CTRL-W g CTRL-] split window and do |:tjump| to tag under
cursor
|CTRL-W_g]| CTRL-W g ] split window and do |:tselect| for tag
under cursor
|CTRL-W_g}| CTRL-W g } do a |:ptjump| to the tag under the cursor
|CTRL-W_gf| CTRL-W g f edit file name under the cursor in a new
tab page
|CTRL-W_gF| CTRL-W g F edit file name under the cursor in a new
tab page and jump to the line number
following the file name.
|CTRL-W_h| CTRL-W h go to Nth left window (stop at first window)
|CTRL-W_i| CTRL-W i split window and jump to declaration of
identifier under the cursor
|CTRL-W_j| CTRL-W j go N windows down (stop at last window)
|CTRL-W_k| CTRL-W k go N windows up (stop at first window)
|CTRL-W_l| CTRL-W l go to Nth right window (stop at last window)
|CTRL-W_n| CTRL-W n open new window, N lines high
|CTRL-W_o| CTRL-W o close all but current window (like |:only|)
|CTRL-W_p| CTRL-W p go to previous (last accessed) window
|CTRL-W_q| CTRL-W q quit current window (like |:quit|)
|CTRL-W_r| CTRL-W r rotate windows downwards N times
|CTRL-W_s| CTRL-W s split current window in two parts, new
window N lines high
|CTRL-W_t| CTRL-W t go to top window
|CTRL-W_v| CTRL-W v split current window vertically, new window
N columns wide
|CTRL-W_w| CTRL-W w go to N next window (wrap around)
|CTRL-W_x| CTRL-W x exchange current window with window N
(default: next window)
|CTRL-W_z| CTRL-W z close preview window
|CTRL-W_bar| CTRL-W | set window width to N columns
|CTRL-W_}| CTRL-W } show tag under cursor in preview window
|CTRL-W_<Down>| CTRL-W <Down> same as "CTRL-W j"
|CTRL-W_<Up>| CTRL-W <Up> same as "CTRL-W k"
|CTRL-W_<Left>| CTRL-W <Left> same as "CTRL-W h"
|CTRL-W_<Right>| CTRL-W <Right> same as "CTRL-W l"
==============================================================================
2.3 Square bracket commands *[* *]*
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|[_CTRL-D| [ CTRL-D jump to first #define found in current and
included files matching the word under the
cursor, start searching at beginning of
current file
|[_CTRL-I| [ CTRL-I jump to first line in current and included
files that contains the word under the
current file
|[#| [# 1 cursor to N previous unmatched #if, #else
or #ifdef
|['| [' 1 cursor to previous lowercase mark, on first
non-blank
|[(| [( 1 cursor N times back to unmatched '('
|[star| [* 1 same as "[/"
|[`| [` 1 cursor to previous lowercase mark
|[/| [/ 1 cursor to N previous start of a C comment
|[D| [D list all defines found in current and
current file
|[I| [I list all lines found in current and

included files that contain the word under

the cursor, start searching at beginning of
current file
|[P| [P 2 same as "[p"
|[[| [[ 1 cursor N sections backward
|[]| [] 1 cursor N SECTIONS backward
|[c| [c 1 cursor N times backwards to start of change
|[d| [d show first #define found in current and
current file
|[f| [f same as "gf"
|[i| [i show first line found in current and
included files that contains the word under
the cursor, start searching at beginning of
current file
|[m| [m 1 cursor N times back to start of member
function
|[p| [p 2 like "P", but adjust indent to current line
|[s| [s 1 move to the previous misspelled word
|[z| [z 1 move to start of open fold
|[{| [{ 1 cursor N times back to unmatched '{'
|[<MiddleMouse> [<MiddleMouse> 2 same as "[p"
|]_CTRL-D| ] CTRL-D jump to first #define found in current and
cursor, start searching at cursor position
|]_CTRL-I| ] CTRL-I jump to first line in current and included
files that contains the word under the
|]#| ]# 1 cursor to N next unmatched #endif or #else
|]'| ]' 1 cursor to next lowercase mark, on first
non-blank
|])| ]) 1 cursor N times forward to unmatched ')'
|]star| ]* 1 same as "]/"
|]`| ]` 1 cursor to next lowercase mark
|]/| ]/ 1 cursor to N next end of a C comment
|]D| ]D list all #defines found in current and
|]I| ]I list all lines found in current and
included files that contain the word under
the cursor, start searching at cursor
position
|]P| ]P 2 same as "[p"
|][| ][ 1 cursor N SECTIONS forward
|]]| ]] 1 cursor N sections forward
|]c| ]c 1 cursor N times forward to start of change
|]d| ]d show first #define found in current and
|]f| ]f same as "gf"
|]i| ]i show first line found in current and
included files that contains the word under
the cursor, start searching at cursor
position
|]m| ]m 1 cursor N times forward to end of member
function
|]p| ]p 2 like "p", but adjust indent to current line
|]s| ]s 1 move to next misspelled word
|]z| ]z 1 move to end of open fold
|]}| ]} 1 cursor N times forward to unmatched '}'
|]<MiddleMouse> ]<MiddleMouse> 2 same as "]p"
==============================================================================
2.4 Commands starting with 'g' *g*
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|g_CTRL-A| g CTRL-A only when compiled with MEM_PROFILE
defined: dump a memory profile
|g_CTRL-G| g CTRL-G show information about current cursor
position
|g_CTRL-H| g CTRL-H start Select block mode
|g_CTRL-]| g CTRL-] |:tjump| to the tag under the cursor
|g#| g# 1 like "#", but without using "\<" and "\>"
|g$| g$ 1 when 'wrap' off go to rightmost character of
the current line that is on the screen;
when 'wrap' on go to the rightmost character

of
the current screen line
|g&| g& 2
repeat last ":s" on all lines
|g'| g'{mark} 1
like |'| but without changing the jumplist
|g`| g`{mark} 1
like |`| but without changing the jumplist
|gstar| g* 1 like "*", but without using "\<" and "\>"
|g0| g0 1 when 'wrap' off go to leftmost character of
the current line that is on the screen;
when 'wrap' on go to the leftmost character
of the current screen line
|g8| g8 print hex value of bytes used in UTF-8
character under the cursor
|g<| g< display previous command output
|g?| g? 2 Rot13 encoding operator
|g?g?| g?? 2 Rot13 encode current line
|g?g?| g?g? 2 Rot13 encode current line
|gD| gD 1 go to definition of word under the cursor
in current file
|gE| gE 1 go backwards to the end of the previous
WORD
|gH| gH start Select line mode
|gI| gI 2 like "I", but always start in column 1
|gJ| gJ 2 join lines without inserting space
|gP| ["x]gP 2 put the text [from register x] before the
cursor N times, leave the cursor after it
|gQ| gQ switch to "Ex" mode with Vim editing
|gR| gR 2 enter Virtual Replace mode
|gU| gU{motion} 2 make Nmove text uppercase
|gV| gV don't reselect the previous Visual area
when executing a mapping or menu in Select
mode
|g]| g] :tselect on the tag under the cursor
|g^| g^ 1 when 'wrap' off go to leftmost non-white
character of the current line that is on
the screen; when 'wrap' on go to the
leftmost non-white character of the current
screen line
|ga| ga print ascii value of character under the
cursor
|gd| gd 1 go to definition of word under the cursor
in current function
|ge| ge 1 go backwards to the end of the previous
word
|gf| gf start editing the file whose name is under
the cursor
|gF| gF start editing the file whose name is under
the cursor and jump to the line number
following the filename.
|gg| gg 1 cursor to line N, default first line
|gh| gh start Select mode
|gi| gi 2 like "i", but first move to the |'^| mark
|gj| gj 1 like "j", but when 'wrap' on go N screen
lines down
|gk| gk 1 like "k", but when 'wrap' on go N screen
lines up
|gm| gm 1 go to character at middle of the screenline
|go| go 1 cursor to byte N in the buffer
|gp| ["x]gp 2 put the text [from register x] after the
cursor N times, leave the cursor after it
|gq| gq{motion} 2 format Nmove text
|gr| gr{char} 2 virtual replace N chars with {char}
|gs| gs go to sleep for N seconds (default 1)
|gu| gu{motion} 2 make Nmove text lowercase
|gv| gv reselect the previous Visual area
|gw| gw{motion} 2 format Nmove text and keep cursor
|netrw-gx| gx execute application for file name under the
cursor (only with |netrw| plugin)
|g@| g@{motion} call 'operatorfunc'
|g~| g~{motion} 2 swap case for Nmove text
|g<Down>| g<Down> 1 same as "gj"
|g<End>| g<End> 1 same as "g$"
|g<Home>| g<Home> 1 same as "g0"
|g<LeftMouse>| g<LeftMouse> same as <C-LeftMouse>
g<MiddleMouse> same as <C-MiddleMouse>
|g<RightMouse>| g<RightMouse> same as <C-RightMouse>
|g<Up>| g<Up> 1 same as "gk"
==============================================================================
2.5 Commands starting with 'z' *z*


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|z<CR>| z<CR> redraw, cursor line to top of window,
cursor on first non-blank
|zN<CR>| z{height}<CR> redraw, make window {height} lines high
|z+| z+ cursor on line N (default line below
window), otherwise like "z<CR>"
|z-| z- redraw, cursor line at bottom of window,
|z.| z. redraw, cursor line to center of window,
|z=| z= give spelling suggestions
|zA| zA open a closed fold or close an open fold
recursively
|zC| zC close folds recursively
|zD| zD delete folds recursively
|zE| zE eliminate all folds
|zF| zF create a fold for N lines
|zG| zG mark word as good spelled word
|zM| zM set 'foldlevel' to zero
|zN| zN set 'foldenable'
|zO| zO open folds recursively
|zR| zR set 'foldlevel' to the deepest fold
|zW| zW mark word as wrong (bad) spelled word
|zX| zX re-apply 'foldlevel'
|z^| z^ cursor on line N (default line above
window), otherwise like "z-"
|za| za open a closed fold, close an open fold
|zb| zb redraw, cursor line at bottom of window
|zc| zc close a fold
|zd| zd delete a fold
|ze| ze when 'wrap' off scroll horizontally to
position the cursor at the end (right side)
of the screen
|zf| zf{motion} create a fold for Nmove text
|zg| zg mark word as good spelled word
|zh| zh when 'wrap' off scroll screen N characters
to the right
|zi| zi toggle 'foldenable'
|zj| zj 1 move to the start of the next fold
|zk| zk 1 move to the end of the previous fold
|zl| zl when 'wrap' off scroll screen N characters
to the left
|zm| zm subtract one from 'foldlevel'
|zn| zn reset 'foldenable'
|zo| zo open fold
|zr| zr add one to 'foldlevel'
|zs| zs when 'wrap' off scroll horizontally to
position the cursor at the start (left
side) of the screen
|zt| zt redraw, cursor line at top of window
|zv| zv open enough folds to view the cursor line
|zw| zw mark word as wrong (bad) spelled word
|zx| zx re-apply 'foldlevel' and do "zv"
|zz| zz redraw, cursor line at center of window
|z<Left>| z<Left> same as "zh"
|z<Right>| z<Right> same as "zl"
==============================================================================
3. Visual mode *visual-index*
Most commands in Visual mode are the same as in Normal mode. The ones listed
here are those that are different.
tag command note action in Visual mode
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|v_CTRL-\_CTRL-N| CTRL-\ CTRL-N stop Visual mode
|v_CTRL-\_CTRL-G| CTRL-\ CTRL-G go to mode specified with 'insertmode'
|v_CTRL-C| CTRL-C stop Visual mode
|v_CTRL-G| CTRL-G toggle between Visual mode and Select mode
|v_<BS>| <BS> 2 Select mode: delete highlighted area
|v_CTRL-H| CTRL-H 2 same as <BS>
|v_CTRL-O| CTRL-O switch from Select to Visual mode for one
command
|v_CTRL-V| CTRL-V make Visual mode blockwise or stop Visual
mode
|v_<Esc>| <Esc> stop Visual mode
|v_CTRL-]| CTRL-] jump to highlighted tag
|v_!| !{filter} 2 filter the highlighted lines through the

external command {filter}

|v_:| : start a command-line with the highlighted
lines as a range
|v_<| < 2 shift the highlighted lines one
'shiftwidth' left
|v_=| = 2 filter the highlighted lines through the
external program given with the 'equalprg'
option
|v_>| > 2 shift the highlighted lines one
'shiftwidth' right
|v_b_A| A 2 block mode: append same text in all lines,
after the highlighted area
|v_C| C 2 delete the highlighted lines and start
insert
|v_D| D 2 delete the highlighted lines
|v_b_I| I 2 block mode: insert same text in all lines,
before the highlighted area
|v_J| J 2 join the highlighted lines
|v_K| K run 'keywordprg' on the highlighted area
|v_O| O Move horizontally to other corner of area.
Q does not start Ex mode
|v_R| R 2 delete the highlighted lines and start
insert
|v_S| S 2 delete the highlighted lines and start
insert
|v_U| U 2 make highlighted area uppercase
|v_V| V make Visual mode linewise or stop Visual
mode
|v_X| X 2 delete the highlighted lines
|v_Y| Y yank the highlighted lines
|v_aquote| a" extend highlighted area with a double
quoted string
|v_a'| a' extend highlighted area with a single
quoted string
|v_a(| a( same as ab
|v_a)| a) same as ab
|v_a<| a< extend highlighted area with a <> block
|v_a>| a> same as a<
|v_aB| aB extend highlighted area with a {} block
|v_aW| aW extend highlighted area with "a WORD"
|v_a[| a[ extend highlighted area with a [] block
|v_a]| a] same as a[
|v_a`| a` extend highlighted area with a backtick
quoted string
|v_ab| ab extend highlighted area with a () block
|v_ap| ap extend highlighted area with a paragraph
|v_as| as extend highlighted area with a sentence
|v_at| at extend highlighted area with a tag block
|v_aw| aw extend highlighted area with "a word"
|v_a{| a{ same as aB
|v_a}| a} same as aB
|v_c| c 2 delete highlighted area and start insert
|v_d| d 2 delete highlighted area
|v_gJ| gJ 2 join the highlighted lines without
inserting spaces
|v_gq| gq 2 format the highlighted lines
|v_gv| gv exchange current and previous highlighted
area
|v_iquote| i" extend highlighted area with a double
quoted string (without quotes)
|v_i'| i' extend highlighted area with a single
quoted string (without quotes)
|v_i(| i( same as ib
|v_i)| i) same as ib
|v_i<| i< extend highlighted area with inner <> block
|v_i>| i> same as i<
|v_iB| iB extend highlighted area with inner {} block
|v_iW| iW extend highlighted area with "inner WORD"
|v_i[| i[ extend highlighted area with inner [] block
|v_i]| i] same as i[
|v_i`| i` extend highlighted area with a backtick
quoted string (without the backticks)
|v_ib| ib extend highlighted area with inner () block
|v_ip| ip extend highlighted area with inner paragraph
|v_is| is extend highlighted area with inner sentence
|v_it| it extend highlighted area with inner tag block
|v_iw| iw extend highlighted area with "inner word"
|v_i{| i{ same as iB
|v_i}| i} same as iB
|v_o| o move cursor to other corner of area
|v r| r 2 delete highlighted area and start insert

|v_s| s 2 delete highlighted area and start insert

|v_u| u 2 make highlighted area lowercase
|v_v| v make Visual mode characterwise or stop
Visual mode
|v_x| x 2 delete the highlighted area
|v_y| y yank the highlighted area
|v_~| ~ 2 swap case for the highlighted area
==============================================================================
4. Command-line editing *ex-edit-index*
Get to the command-line with the ':', '!', '/' or '?' commands.
Normal characters are inserted at the current cursor position.
"Completion" below refers to context-sensitive completion. It will complete
file names, tags, commands etc. as appropriate.
tag command action in Command-line editing mode
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CTRL-@ not used
|c_CTRL-A| CTRL-A do completion on the pattern in front of the
cursor and insert all matches
|c_CTRL-B| CTRL-B cursor to begin of command-line
|c_CTRL-C| CTRL-C same as <Esc>
|c_CTRL-D| CTRL-D list completions that match the pattern in
front of the cursor
|c_CTRL-E| CTRL-E cursor to end of command-line
|'cedit'| CTRL-F default value for 'cedit': opens the
command-line window; otherwise not used
CTRL-G not used
|c_<BS>| <BS> delete the character in front of the cursor
|c_digraph| {char1} <BS> {char2}
enter digraph when 'digraph' is on
|c_CTRL-H| CTRL-H same as <BS>
|c_<Tab>| <Tab> if 'wildchar' is <Tab>: Do completion on
the pattern in front of the cursor
|c_<S-Tab>| <S-Tab> same as CTRL-P
|c_wildchar| 'wildchar' Do completion on the pattern in front of the
cursor (default: <Tab>)
|c_CTRL-I| CTRL-I same as <Tab>
|c_<NL>| <NL> same as <CR>
|c_CTRL-J| CTRL-J same as <CR>
|c_CTRL-K| CTRL-K {char1} {char2}
enter digraph
|c_CTRL-L| CTRL-L do completion on the pattern in front of the
cursor and insert the longest common part
|c_<CR>| <CR> execute entered command
|c_<CR>| CTRL-M same as <CR>
|c_CTRL-N| CTRL-N after using 'wildchar' with multiple matches:
go to next match, otherwise: same as <Down>
CTRL-O not used
|c_CTRL-P| CTRL-P after using 'wildchar' with multiple matches:
go to previous match, otherwise: same as <Up>
|c_CTRL-Q| CTRL-Q same as CTRL-V, unless it's used for terminal
control flow
|c_CTRL-R| CTRL-R {0-9a-z"%#*:= CTRL-F CTRL-P CTRL-W CTRL-A}
insert the contents of a register or object
under the cursor as if typed
|c_CTRL-R_CTRL-R| CTRL-R CTRL-R {0-9a-z"%#*:= CTRL-F CTRL-P CTRL-W CTRL-A}
insert the contents of a register or object
under the cursor literally
CTRL-T not used
|c_CTRL-U| CTRL-U remove all characters
|c_CTRL-V| CTRL-V insert next non-digit literally, insert three
digit decimal number as a single byte.
|c_CTRL-W| CTRL-W delete the word in front of the cursor
CTRL-X not used (reserved for completion)
CTRL-Y copy (yank) modeless selection
CTRL-Z not used (reserved for suspend)
|c_<Esc>| <Esc> abandon command-line without executing it
|c_<Esc>| CTRL-[ same as <Esc>
|c_CTRL-\_CTRL-N| CTRL-\ CTRL-N go to Normal mode, abandon command-line
|c_CTRL-\_CTRL-G| CTRL-\ CTRL-G go to mode specified with 'insertmode',
abandon command-line
CTRL-\ a - d reserved for extensions
|c_CTRL-\_e| CTRL-\ e {expr} replace the command line with the result of
{expr}
CTRL-\ f - z reserved for extensions

|c_CTRL-]| CTRL-] trigger abbreviation

|c_CTRL-^| CTRL-^ toggle use of |:lmap| mappings
|c_CTRL-_| CTRL-_ when 'allowrevins' set: change language
(Hebrew, Farsi)
|c_<Del>| <Del> delete the character under the cursor
|c_<Left>| <Left> cursor left
|c_<S-Left>| <S-Left>
cursor one word left
|c_<C-Left>| <C-Left>
cursor one word left
|c_<Right>| <Right> cursor right
|c_<S-Right>| <S-Right>
cursor one word right
|c_<C-Right>| <C-Right>
cursor one word right
|c_<Up>| <Up> recall previous command-line from history that
matches pattern in front of the cursor
|c_<S-Up>| <S-Up> recall previous command-line from history
|c_<Down>| <Down> recall next command-line from history that
matches pattern in front of the cursor
|c_<S-Down>| <S-Down> recall next command-line from history
|c_<Home>| <Home> cursor to start of command-line
|c_<End>| <End> cursor to end of command-line
|c_<PageDown>| <PageDown> same as <S-Down>
|c_<PageUp>| <PageUp> same as <S-Up>
|c_<Insert>| <Insert> toggle insert/overstrike mode
|c_<LeftMouse>| <LeftMouse> cursor at mouse click
You found it, Arthur! *holy-grail*

==============================================================================
5. EX commands *ex-cmd-index* *:index*
This is a brief but complete listing of all the ":" commands, without
mentioning any arguments. The optional part of the command name is inside [].
The commands are sorted on the non-optional part of their name.
tag command action
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|:!| :! filter lines or execute an external command
|:!!| :!! repeat last ":!" command
|:#| :# same as ":number"
|:&| :& repeat last ":substitute"
|:star| :* execute contents of a register
|:<| :< shift lines one 'shiftwidth' left
|:=| := print the cursor line number
|:>| :> shift lines one 'shiftwidth' right
|:@| :@ execute contents of a register
|:@@| :@@ repeat the previous ":@"
|:Next| :N[ext] go to previous file in the argument list
|:Print| :P[rint] print lines
|:X| :X ask for encryption key
|:append| :a[ppend] append text
|:abbreviate| :ab[breviate] enter abbreviation
|:abclear| :abc[lear] remove all abbreviations
|:aboveleft| :abo[veleft] make split window appear left or above
|:all| :al[l] open a window for each file in the argument
list
|:amenu| :am[enu] enter new menu item for all modes
|:anoremenu| :an[oremenu] enter a new menu for all modes that will not
be remapped
|:args| :ar[gs] print the argument list
|:argadd| :arga[dd] add items to the argument list
|:argdelete| :argd[elete] delete items from the argument list
|:argedit| :arge[dit] add item to the argument list and edit it
|:argdo| :argdo do a command on all items in the argument list
|:argglobal| :argg[lobal] define the global argument list
|:arglocal| :argl[ocal] define a local argument list
|:argument| :argu[ment] go to specific file in the argument list
|:ascii| :as[cii] print ascii value of character under the cursor
|:autocmd| :au[tocmd] enter or show autocommands
|:augroup| :aug[roup] select the autocommand group to use
|:aunmenu| :aun[menu] remove menu for all modes
|:buffer| :b[uffer] go to specific buffer in the buffer list
|:bNext| :bN[ext] go to previous buffer in the buffer list
|:ball| :ba[ll] open a window for each buffer in the buffer list
|:badd| :bad[d] add buffer to the buffer list
|:bdelete| :bd[elete] remove a buffer from the buffer list
|:behave| :be[have] set mouse and selection behavior
|:belowright| :bel[owright] make split window appear right or below
|:bfirst| :bf[irst] go to first buffer in the buffer list

|:blast| :bl[ast] go to last buffer in the buffer list

|:bmodified| :bm[odified] go to next buffer in the buffer list that has
been modified
|:bnext| :bn[ext] go to next buffer in the buffer list
|:botright| :bo[tright] make split window appear at bottom or far right
|:bprevious| :bp[revious] go to previous buffer in the buffer list
|:brewind| :br[ewind] go to first buffer in the buffer list
|:break| :brea[k] break out of while loop
|:breakadd| :breaka[dd] add a debugger breakpoint
|:breakdel| :breakd[el] delete a debugger breakpoint
|:breaklist| :breakl[ist] list debugger breakpoints
|:browse| :bro[wse] use file selection dialog
|:bufdo| :bufdo execute command in each listed buffer
|:buffers| :buffers list all files in the buffer list
|:bunload| :bun[load] unload a specific buffer
|:bwipeout| :bw[ipeout] really delete a buffer
|:change| :c[hange] replace a line or series of lines
|:cNext| :cN[ext] go to previous error
|:cNfile| :cNf[ile] go to last error in previous file
|:cabbrev| :ca[bbrev] like ":abbreviate" but for Command-line mode
|:cabclear| :cabc[lear] clear all abbreviations for Command-line mode
|:caddbuffer| :caddb[uffer] add errors from buffer
|:caddexpr| :cad[dexpr] add errors from expr
|:caddfile| :caddf[ile] add error message to current quickfix list
|:call| :cal[l] call a function
|:catch| :cat[ch] part of a :try command
|:cbuffer| :cb[uffer] parse error messages and jump to first error
|:cc| :cc go to specific error
|:cclose| :ccl[ose] close quickfix window
|:cd| :cd change directory
|:center| :ce[nter] format lines at the center
|:cexpr| :cex[pr] read errors from expr and jump to first
|:cfile| :cf[ile] read file with error messages and jump to first
|:cfirst| :cfir[st] go to the specified error, default first one
|:cgetbuffer| :cgetb[uffer] get errors from buffer
|:cgetexpr| :cgete[xpr] get errors from expr
|:cgetfile| :cg[etfile] read file with error messages
|:changes| :cha[nges] print the change list
|:chdir| :chd[ir] change directory
|:checkpath| :che[ckpath] list included files
|:checktime| :checkt[ime] check timestamp of loaded buffers
|:clist| :cl[ist] list all errors
|:clast| :cla[st] go to the specified error, default last one
|:close| :clo[se] close current window
|:cmap| :cm[ap] like ":map" but for Command-line mode
|:cmapclear| :cmapc[lear] clear all mappings for Command-line mode
|:cmenu| :cme[nu] add menu for Command-line mode
|:cnext| :cn[ext] go to next error
|:cnewer| :cnew[er] go to newer error list
|:cnfile| :cnf[ile] go to first error in next file
|:cnoremap| :cno[remap] like ":noremap" but for Command-line mode
|:cnoreabbrev| :cnorea[bbrev] like ":noreabbrev" but for Command-line mode
|:cnoremenu| :cnoreme[nu] like ":noremenu" but for Command-line mode
|:copy| :co[py] copy lines
|:colder| :col[der] go to older error list
|:colorscheme| :colo[rscheme] load a specific color scheme
|:command| :com[mand] create user-defined command
|:comclear| :comc[lear] clear all user-defined commands
|:compiler| :comp[iler] do settings for a specific compiler
|:continue| :con[tinue] go back to :while
|:confirm| :conf[irm] prompt user when confirmation required
|:copen| :cope[n] open quickfix window
|:cprevious| :cp[revious] go to previous error
|:cpfile| :cpf[ile] go to last error in previous file
|:cquit| :cq[uit] quit Vim with an error code
|:crewind| :cr[ewind] go to the specified error, default first one
|:cscope| :cs[cope] execute cscope command
|:cstag| :cst[ag] use cscope to jump to a tag
|:cunmap| :cu[nmap] like ":unmap" but for Command-line mode
|:cunabbrev| :cuna[bbrev] like ":unabbrev" but for Command-line mode
|:cunmenu| :cunme[nu] remove menu for Command-line mode
|:cwindow| :cw[indow] open or close quickfix window
|:delete| :d[elete] delete lines
|:delmarks| :delm[arks] delete marks
|:debug| :deb[ug] run a command in debugging mode
|:debuggreedy| :debugg[reedy] read debug mode commands from normal input
|:delcommand| :delc[ommand] delete user-defined command
|:delfunction| :delf[unction] delete a user function
|:diffupdate| :dif[fupdate] update 'diff' buffers
|:diffget| :diffg[et] remove differences in current buffer
|:diffoff| :diffo[ff] switch off diff mode

|:diffpatch| :diffp[atch] apply a patch and show differences

|:diffput| :diffpu[t] remove differences in other buffer
|:diffsplit| :diffs[plit] show differences with another file
|:diffthis| :diffthis make current window a diff window
|:digraphs| :dig[raphs] show or enter digraphs
|:display| :di[splay] display registers
|:djump| :dj[ump] jump to #define
|:dlist| :dl[ist] list #defines
|:doautocmd| :do[autocmd] apply autocommands to current buffer
|:doautoall| :doautoa[ll] apply autocommands for all loaded buffers
|:drop| :dr[op] jump to window editing file or edit file in
current window
|:dsearch| :ds[earch] list one #define
|:dsplit| :dsp[lit] split window and jump to #define
|:edit| :e[dit] edit a file
|:earlier| :ea[rlier] go to older change, undo
|:echo| :ec[ho] echoes the result of expressions
|:echoerr| :echoe[rr] like :echo, show like an error and use history
|:echohl| :echoh[l] set highlighting for echo commands
|:echomsg| :echom[sg] same as :echo, put message in history
|:echon| :echon same as :echo, but without <EOL>
|:else| :el[se] part of an :if command
|:elseif| :elsei[f] part of an :if command
|:emenu| :em[enu] execute a menu by name
|:endif| :en[dif] end previous :if
|:endfor| :endfo[r] end previous :for
|:endfunction| :endf[unction] end of a user function
|:endtry| :endt[ry] end previous :try
|:endwhile| :endw[hile] end previous :while
|:enew| :ene[w] edit a new, unnamed buffer
|:ex| :ex same as ":edit"
|:execute| :exe[cute] execute result of expressions
|:exit| :exi[t] same as ":xit"
|:exusage| :exu[sage] overview of Ex commands
|:file| :f[ile] show or set the current file name
|:files| :files list all files in the buffer list
|:filetype| :filet[ype] switch file type detection on/off
|:find| :fin[d] find file in 'path' and edit it
|:finally| :fina[lly] part of a :try command
|:finish| :fini[sh] quit sourcing a Vim script
|:first| :fir[st] go to the first file in the argument list
|:fixdel| :fix[del] set key code of <Del>
|:fold| :fo[ld] create a fold
|:foldclose| :foldc[lose] close folds
|:folddoopen| :foldd[oopen] execute command on lines not in a closed fold
|:folddoclosed| :folddoc[losed] execute command on lines in a closed fold
|:foldopen| :foldo[pen] open folds
|:for| :for for loop
|:function| :fu[nction] define a user function
|:global| :g[lobal] execute commands for matching lines
|:goto| :go[to] go to byte in the buffer
|:grep| :gr[ep] run 'grepprg' and jump to first match
|:grepadd| :grepa[dd] like :grep, but append to current list
|:gui| :gu[i] start the GUI
|:gvim| :gv[im] start the GUI
|:hardcopy| :ha[rdcopy] send text to the printer
|:help| :h[elp] open a help window
|:helpfind| :helpf[ind] dialog to open a help window
|:helpgrep| :helpg[rep] like ":grep" but searches help files
|:helptags| :helpt[ags] generate help tags for a directory
|:highlight| :hi[ghlight] specify highlighting methods
|:hide| :hid[e] hide current buffer for a command
|:history| :his[tory] print a history list
|:insert| :i[nsert] insert text
|:iabbrev| :ia[bbrev] like ":abbrev" but for Insert mode
|:iabclear| :iabc[lear] like ":abclear" but for Insert mode
|:if| :if execute commands when condition met
|:ijump| :ij[ump] jump to definition of identifier
|:ilist| :il[ist] list lines where identifier matches
|:imap| :im[ap] like ":map" but for Insert mode
|:imapclear| :imapc[lear] like ":mapclear" but for Insert mode
|:imenu| :ime[nu] add menu for Insert mode
|:inoremap| :ino[remap] like ":noremap" but for Insert mode
|:inoreabbrev| :inorea[bbrev] like ":noreabbrev" but for Insert mode
|:inoremenu| :inoreme[nu] like ":noremenu" but for Insert mode
|:intro| :int[ro] print the introductory message
|:isearch| :is[earch] list one line where identifier matches
|:isplit| :isp[lit] split window and jump to definition of
identifier
|:iunmap| :iu[nmap] like ":unmap" but for Insert mode
|:iunabbrev| :iuna[bbrev] like ":unabbrev" but for Insert mode

|:iunmenu| :iunme[nu] remove menu for Insert mode

|:join| :j[oin] join lines
|:jumps| :ju[mps] print the jump list
|:k| :k set a mark
|:keepalt| :keepa[lt] following command keeps the alternate file
|:keepmarks| :kee[pmarks] following command keeps marks where they are
|:keepjumps| :keepj[jumps] following command keeps jumplist and marks
|:lNext| :lN[ext] go to previous entry in location list
|:lNfile| :lNf[ile] go to last entry in previous file
|:list| :l[ist] print lines
|:laddexpr| :lad[dexpr] add locations from expr
|:laddbuffer| :laddb[uffer] add locations from buffer
|:laddfile| :laddf[ile] add locations to current location list
|:last| :la[st] go to the last file in the argument list
|:language| :lan[guage] set the language (locale)
|:later| :lat[er] go to newer change, redo
|:lbuffer| :lb[uffer] parse locations and jump to first location
|:lcd| :lc[d] change directory locally
|:lchdir| :lch[dir] change directory locally
|:lclose| :lcl[ose] close location window
|:lcscope| :lcs[cope] like ":cscope" but uses location list
|:left| :le[ft] left align lines
|:leftabove| :lefta[bove] make split window appear left or above
|:let| :let assign a value to a variable or option
|:lexpr| :lex[pr] read locations from expr and jump to first
|:lfile| :lf[ile] read file with locations and jump to first
|:lfirst| :lfir[st] go to the specified location, default first one
|:lgetbuffer| :lgetb[uffer] get locations from buffer
|:lgetexpr| :lgete[xpr] get locations from expr
|:lgetfile| :lg[etfile] read file with locations
|:lgrep| :lgr[ep] run 'grepprg' and jump to first match
|:lgrepadd| :lgrepa[dd] like :grep, but append to current list
|:lhelpgrep| :lh[elpgrep] like ":helpgrep" but uses location list
|:ll| :ll go to specific location
|:llast| :lla[st] go to the specified location, default last one
|:llist| :lli[st] list all locations
|:lmake| :lmak[e] execute external command 'makeprg' and parse
error messages
|:lmap| :lm[ap] like ":map!" but includes Lang-Arg mode
|:lmapclear| :lmapc[lear] like ":mapclear!" but includes Lang-Arg mode
|:lnext| :lne[xt] go to next location
|:lnewer| :lnew[er] go to newer location list
|:lnfile| :lnf[ile] go to first location in next file
|:lnoremap| :ln[oremap] like ":noremap!" but includes Lang-Arg mode
|:loadkeymap| :loadk[eymap] load the following keymaps until EOF
|:loadview| :lo[adview] load view for current window from a file
|:lockmarks| :loc[kmarks] following command keeps marks where they are
|:lockvar| :lockv[ar] lock variables
|:lolder| :lol[der] go to older location list
|:lopen| :lope[n] open location window
|:lprevious| :lp[revious] go to previous location
|:lpfile| :lpf[ile] go to last location in previous file
|:lrewind| :lr[ewind] go to the specified location, default first one
|:ls| :ls list all buffers
|:ltag| :lt[ag] jump to tag and add matching tags to the
location list
|:lunmap| :lu[nmap] like ":unmap!" but includes Lang-Arg mode
|:lua| :lua execute |Lua| command
|:luado| :luad[o] execute Lua command for each line
|:luafile| :luaf[ile] execute |Lua| script file
|:lvimgrep| :lv[imgrep] search for pattern in files
|:lvimgrepadd| :lvimgrepa[dd] like :vimgrep, but append to current list
|:lwindow| :lw[indow] open or close location window
|:move| :m[ove] move lines
|:mark| :ma[rk] set a mark
|:make| :mak[e] execute external command 'makeprg' and parse
error messages
|:map| :map show or enter a mapping
|:mapclear| :mapc[lear] clear all mappings for Normal and Visual mode
|:marks| :marks list all marks
|:match| :mat[ch] define a match to highlight
|:menu| :me[nu] enter a new menu item
|:menutranslate| :menut[ranslate] add a menu translation item
|:messages| :mes[sages] view previously displayed messages
|:mkexrc| :mk[exrc] write current mappings and settings to a file
|:mksession| :mks[ession] write session info to a file
|:mkspell| :mksp[ell] produce .spl spell file
|:mkvimrc| :mkv[imrc] write current mappings and settings to a file
|:mkview| :mkvie[w] write view of current window to a file
|:mode| :mod[e] show or change the screen mode
|:mzscheme| :mz[scheme] execute MzScheme command

|:mzfile| :mzf[ile] execute MzScheme script file

|:nbclose| :nbc[lose] close the current Netbeans session
|:nbkey| :nb[key] pass a key to Netbeans
|:nbstart| :nbs[art] start a new Netbeans session
|:next| :n[ext] go to next file in the argument list
|:new| :new create a new empty window
|:nmap| :nm[ap] like ":map" but for Normal mode
|:nmapclear| :nmapc[lear] clear all mappings for Normal mode
|:nmenu| :nme[nu] add menu for Normal mode
|:nnoremap| :nn[oremap] like ":noremap" but for Normal mode
|:nnoremenu| :nnoreme[nu] like ":noremenu" but for Normal mode
|:noautocmd| :noa[utocmd] following command don't trigger autocommands
|:noremap| :no[remap] enter a mapping that will not be remapped
|:nohlsearch| :noh[lsearch] suspend 'hlsearch' highlighting
|:noreabbrev| :norea[bbrev] enter an abbreviation that will not be
remapped
|:noremenu| :noreme[nu] enter a menu that will not be remapped
|:normal| :norm[al] execute Normal mode commands
|:number| :nu[mber] print lines with line number
|:nunmap| :nun[map] like ":unmap" but for Normal mode
|:nunmenu| :nunme[nu] remove menu for Normal mode
|:oldfiles| :ol[dfiles] list files that have marks in the viminfo file
|:open| :o[pen] start open mode (not implemented)
|:omap| :om[ap] like ":map" but for Operator-pending mode
|:omapclear| :omapc[lear] remove all mappings for Operator-pending mode
|:omenu| :ome[nu] add menu for Operator-pending mode
|:only| :on[ly] close all windows except the current one
|:onoremap| :ono[remap] like ":noremap" but for Operator-pending mode
|:onoremenu| :onoreme[nu] like ":noremenu" but for Operator-pending mode
|:options| :opt[ions] open the options-window
|:ounmap| :ou[nmap] like ":unmap" but for Operator-pending mode
|:ounmenu| :ounme[nu] remove menu for Operator-pending mode
|:ownsyntax| :ow[nsyntax] set new local syntax highlight for this window
|:pclose| :pc[lose] close preview window
|:pedit| :ped[it] edit file in the preview window
|:perl| :pe[rl] execute Perl command
|:print| :p[rint] print lines
|:profdel| :profd[el] stop profiling a function or script
|:profile| :prof[ile] profiling functions and scripts
|:promptfind| :pro[mptfind] open GUI dialog for searching
|:promptrepl| :promptr[epl] open GUI dialog for search/replace
|:perldo| :perld[o] execute Perl command for each line
|:pop| :po[p] jump to older entry in tag stack
|:popup| :pop[up] popup a menu by name
|:ppop| :pp[op] ":pop" in preview window
|:preserve| :pre[serve] write all text to swap file
|:previous| :prev[ious] go to previous file in argument list
|:psearch| :ps[earch] like ":ijump" but shows match in preview window
|:ptag| :pt[ag] show tag in preview window
|:ptNext| :ptN[ext] |:tNext| in preview window
|:ptfirst| :ptf[irst] |:trewind| in preview window
|:ptjump| :ptj[ump] |:tjump| and show tag in preview window
|:ptlast| :ptl[ast] |:tlast| in preview window
|:ptnext| :ptn[ext] |:tnext| in preview window
|:ptprevious| :ptp[revious] |:tprevious| in preview window
|:ptrewind| :ptr[ewind] |:trewind| in preview window
|:ptselect| :pts[elect] |:tselect| and show tag in preview window
|:put| :pu[t] insert contents of register in the text
|:pwd| :pw[d] print current directory
|:py3| :py3 execute Python 3 command
|:python3| :python3 same as :py3
|:py3file| :py3f[ile] execute Python 3 script file
|:python| :py[thon] execute Python command
|:pyfile| :pyf[ile] execute Python script file
|:quit| :q[uit] quit current window (when one window quit Vim)
|:quitall| :quita[ll] quit Vim
|:qall| :qa[ll] quit Vim
|:read| :r[ead] read file into the text
|:recover| :rec[over] recover a file from a swap file
|:redo| :red[o] redo one undone change
|:redir| :redi[r] redirect messages to a file or register
|:redraw| :redr[aw] force a redraw of the display
|:redrawstatus| :redraws[tatus] force a redraw of the status line(s)
|:registers| :reg[isters] display the contents of registers
|:resize| :res[ize] change current window height
|:retab| :ret[ab] change tab size
|:return| :retu[rn] return from a user function
|:rewind| :rew[ind] go to the first file in the argument list
|:right| :ri[ght] right align text
|:rightbelow| :rightb[elow] make split window appear right or below
|:ruby| :rub[y] execute Ruby command

|:rubydo| :rubyd[o] execute Ruby command for each line

|:rubyfile| :rubyf[ile] execute Ruby script file
|:rundo| :rund[o] read undo information from a file
|:runtime| :ru[ntime] source vim scripts in 'runtimepath'
|:rviminfo| :rv[iminfo] read from viminfo file
|:substitute| :s[ubstitute] find and replace text
|:sNext| :sN[ext] split window and go to previous file in
argument list
|:sandbox| :san[dbox] execute a command in the sandbox
|:sargument| :sa[rgument] split window and go to specific file in
argument list
|:sall| :sal[l] open a window for each file in argument list
|:saveas| :sav[eas] save file under another name.
|:sbuffer| :sb[uffer] split window and go to specific file in the
buffer list
|:sbNext| :sbN[ext] split window and go to previous file in the
buffer list
|:sball| :sba[ll] open a window for each file in the buffer list
|:sbfirst| :sbf[irst] split window and go to first file in the
buffer list
|:sblast| :sbl[ast] split window and go to last file in buffer
list
|:sbmodified| :sbm[odified] split window and go to modified file in the
buffer list
|:sbnext| :sbn[ext] split window and go to next file in the buffer
list
|:sbprevious| :sbp[revious] split window and go to previous file in the
buffer list
|:sbrewind| :sbr[ewind] split window and go to first file in the
buffer list
|:scriptnames| :scrip[tnames] list names of all sourced Vim scripts
|:scriptencoding| :scripte[ncoding] encoding used in sourced Vim script
|:scscope| :scs[cope] split window and execute cscope command
|:set| :se[t] show or set options
|:setfiletype| :setf[iletype] set 'filetype', unless it was set already
|:setglobal| :setg[lobal] show global values of options
|:setlocal| :setl[ocal] show or set options locally
|:sfind| :sf[ind] split current window and edit file in 'path'
|:sfirst| :sfir[st] split window and go to first file in the
argument list
|:shell| :sh[ell] escape to a shell
|:simalt| :sim[alt] Win32 GUI: simulate Windows ALT key
|:sign| :sig[n] manipulate signs
|:silent| :sil[ent] run a command silently
|:sleep| :sl[eep] do nothing for a few seconds
|:slast| :sla[st] split window and go to last file in the
argument list
|:smagic| :sm[agic] :substitute with 'magic'
|:smap| :sma[p] like ":map" but for Select mode
|:smapclear| :smapc[lear] remove all mappings for Select mode
|:smenu| :sme[nu] add menu for Select mode
|:snext| :sn[ext] split window and go to next file in the
argument list
|:sniff| :sni[ff] send request to sniff
|:snomagic| :sno[magic] :substitute with 'nomagic'
|:snoremap| :snor[emap] like ":noremap" but for Select mode
|:snoremenu| :snoreme[nu] like ":noremenu" but for Select mode
|:sort| :sor[t] sort lines
|:source| :so[urce] read Vim or Ex commands from a file
|:spelldump| :spelld[ump] split window and fill with all correct words
|:spellgood| :spe[llgood] add good word for spelling
|:spellinfo| :spelli[nfo] show info about loaded spell files
|:spellrepall| :spellr[epall] replace all bad words like last |z=|
|:spellundo| :spellu[ndo] remove good or bad word
|:spellwrong| :spellw[rong] add spelling mistake
|:split| :sp[lit] split current window
|:sprevious| :spr[evious] split window and go to previous file in the
argument list
|:srewind| :sre[wind] split window and go to first file in the
argument list
|:stop| :st[op] suspend the editor or escape to a shell
|:stag| :sta[g] split window and jump to a tag
|:startinsert| :star[tinsert] start Insert mode
|:startgreplace| :startg[replace] start Virtual Replace mode
|:startreplace| :startr[eplace] start Replace mode
|:stopinsert| :stopi[nsert] stop Insert mode
|:stjump| :stj[ump] do ":tjump" and split window
|:stselect| :sts[elect] do ":tselect" and split window
|:sunhide| :sun[hide] same as ":unhide"
|:sunmap| :sunm[ap] like ":unmap" but for Select mode
|:sunmenu| :sunme[nu] remove menu for Select mode

|:suspend| :sus[pend] same as ":stop"

|:sview| :sv[iew] split window and edit file read-only
|:swapname| :sw[apname] show the name of the current swap file
|:syntax| :sy[ntax] syntax highlighting
|:syncbind| :sync[bind] sync scroll binding
|:t| :t same as ":copy"
|:tNext| :tN[ext] jump to previous matching tag
|:tabNext| :tabN[ext] go to previous tab page
|:tabclose| :tabc[lose] close current tab page
|:tabdo| :tabdo execute command in each tab page
|:tabedit| :tabe[dit] edit a file in a new tab page
|:tabfind| :tabf[ind] find file in 'path', edit it in a new tab page
|:tabfirst| :tabfir[st] got to first tab page
|:tablast| :tabl[ast] got to last tab page
|:tabmove| :tabm[ove] move tab page to other position
|:tabnew| :tabnew edit a file in a new tab page
|:tabnext| :tabn[ext] go to next tab page
|:tabonly| :tabo[nly] close all tab pages except the current one
|:tabprevious| :tabp[revious] go to previous tab page
|:tabrewind| :tabr[ewind] got to first tab page
|:tabs| :tabs list the tab pages and what they contain
|:tab| :tab create new tab when opening new window
|:tag| :ta[g] jump to tag
|:tags| :tags show the contents of the tag stack
|:tcl| :tc[l] execute Tcl command
|:tcldo| :tcld[o] execute Tcl command for each line
|:tclfile| :tclf[ile] execute Tcl script file
|:tearoff| :te[aroff] tear-off a menu
|:tfirst| :tf[irst] jump to first matching tag
|:throw| :th[row] throw an exception
|:tjump| :tj[ump] like ":tselect", but jump directly when there
is only one match
|:tlast| :tl[ast] jump to last matching tag
|:tmenu| :tm[enu] define menu tooltip
|:tnext| :tn[ext] jump to next matching tag
|:topleft| :to[pleft] make split window appear at top or far left
|:tprevious| :tp[revious] jump to previous matching tag
|:trewind| :tr[ewind] jump to first matching tag
|:try| :try execute commands, abort on error or exception
|:tselect| :ts[elect] list matching tags and select one
|:tunmenu| :tu[nmenu] remove menu tooltip
|:undo| :u[ndo] undo last change(s)
|:undojoin| :undoj[oin] join next change with previous undo block
|:undolist| :undol[ist] list leafs of the undo tree
|:unabbreviate| :una[bbreviate] remove abbreviation
|:unhide| :unh[ide] open a window for each loaded file in the
buffer list
|:unlet| :unl[et] delete variable
|:unlockvar| :unlo[ckvar] unlock variables
|:unmap| :unm[ap] remove mapping
|:unmenu| :unme[nu] remove menu
|:unsilent| :uns[ilent] run a command not silently
|:update| :up[date] write buffer if modified
|:vglobal| :v[global] execute commands for not matching lines
|:version| :ve[rsion] print version number and other info
|:verbose| :verb[ose] execute command with 'verbose' set
|:vertical| :vert[ical] make following command split vertically
|:vimgrep| :vim[grep] search for pattern in files
|:vimgrepadd| :vimgrepa[dd] like :vimgrep, but append to current list
|:visual| :vi[sual] same as ":edit", but turns off "Ex" mode
|:viusage| :viu[sage] overview of Normal mode commands
|:view| :vie[w] edit a file read-only
|:vmap| :vm[ap] like ":map" but for Visual+Select mode
|:vmapclear| :vmapc[lear] remove all mappings for Visual+Select mode
|:vmenu| :vme[nu] add menu for Visual+Select mode
|:vnew| :vne[w] create a new empty window, vertically split
|:vnoremap| :vn[oremap] like ":noremap" but for Visual+Select mode
|:vnoremenu| :vnoreme[nu] like ":noremenu" but for Visual+Select mode
|:vsplit| :vs[plit] split current window vertically
|:vunmap| :vu[nmap] like ":unmap" but for Visual+Select mode
|:vunmenu| :vunme[nu] remove menu for Visual+Select mode
|:windo| :windo execute command in each window
|:write| :w[rite] write to a file
|:wNext| :wN[ext] write to a file and go to previous file in
argument list
|:wall| :wa[ll] write all (changed) buffers
|:while| :wh[ile] execute loop for as long as condition met
|:winsize| :wi[nsize] get or set window size (obsolete)
|:wincmd| :winc[md] execute a Window (CTRL-W) command
|:winpos| :winp[os] get or set window position
|:wnext| :wn[ext] write to a file and go to next file in

argument list
|:wprevious| :wp[revious] write to a file and go to previous file in
argument list
|:wq| :wq write to a file and quit window or Vim
|:wqall| :wqa[ll] write all changed buffers and quit Vim
|:wsverb| :ws[verb] pass the verb to workshop over IPC
|:wundo| :wu[ndo] write undo information to a file
|:wviminfo| :wv[iminfo] write to viminfo file
|:xit| :x[it] write if buffer changed and quit window or Vim
|:xall| :xa[ll] same as ":wqall"
|:xmapclear| :xmapc[lear] remove all mappings for Visual mode
|:xmap| :xm[ap] like ":map" but for Visual mode
|:xmenu| :xme[nu] add menu for Visual mode
|:xnoremap| :xn[oremap] like ":noremap" but for Visual mode
|:xnoremenu| :xnoreme[nu] like ":noremenu" but for Visual mode
|:xunmap| :xu[nmap] like ":unmap" but for Visual mode
|:xunmenu| :xunme[nu] remove menu for Visual mode
|:yank| :y[ank] yank lines into a register
|:z| :z print some lines
|:~| :~ repeat last ":substitute"
top - main help file
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: help
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both
*help.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Jul 20

VIM - main help file
k
Move around: Use the cursor keys, or "h" to go left, h l
"j" to go down, "k" to go up, "l" to go right. j
Close this window: Use ":q<Enter>".
Get out of Vim: Use ":qa!<Enter>" (careful, all changes are lost!).
Jump to a subject: Position the cursor on a tag (e.g. |bars|) and hit CTRL-].
With the mouse: ":set mouse=a" to enable the mouse (in xterm or GUI).
Double-click the left mouse button on a tag, e.g. |bars|.
Jump back: Type CTRL-T or CTRL-O (repeat to go further back).
Get specific help: It is possible to go directly to whatever you want help
on, by giving an argument to the |:help| command.
It is possible to further specify the context:
*help-context*
WHAT PREPEND EXAMPLE
Normal mode command (nothing) :help x
Visual mode command v_ :help v_u
Insert mode command i_ :help i_<Esc>
Command-line command : :help :quit
Command-line editing c_ :help c_<Del>
Vim command argument - :help -r
Option '' :help 'textwidth'
Search for help: Type ":help word", then hit CTRL-D to see matching
help entries for "word".
Or use ":helpgrep word". |:helpgrep|
VIM stands for Vi IMproved. Most of VIM was made by Bram Moolenaar, but only
through the help of many others. See |credits|.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*doc-file-list* *Q_ct*
BASIC:
|quickref| Overview of the most common commands you will use
|tutor| 30 minutes training course for beginners
|copying| About copyrights
|iccf| Helping poor children in Uganda
|sponsor| Sponsor Vim development, become a registered Vim user
|www| Vim on the World Wide Web
|bugs| Where to send bug reports
USER MANUAL: These files explain how to accomplish an editing task.
|usr_toc.txt| Table Of Contents
Getting Started
|usr_01.txt| About the manuals
|usr_02.txt| The first steps in Vim
|usr_03.txt| Moving around
|usr_04.txt| Making small changes
|usr_05.txt| Set your settings
|usr_06.txt| Using syntax highlighting
|usr_07.txt| Editing more than one file
|usr_08.txt| Splitting windows
|usr_09.txt| Using the GUI
|usr_10.txt| Making big changes
|usr_11.txt| Recovering from a crash
|usr_12.txt| Clever tricks
Editing Effectively
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/help.html[2019/03/05 11:40:55 AM]

|usr_20.txt| Typing command-line commands quickly

|usr_21.txt| Go away and come back
|usr_22.txt| Finding the file to edit
|usr_23.txt| Editing other files
|usr_24.txt| Inserting quickly
|usr_25.txt| Editing formatted text
|usr_26.txt| Repeating
|usr_27.txt| Search commands and patterns
|usr_28.txt| Folding
|usr_29.txt| Moving through programs
|usr_30.txt| Editing programs
|usr_31.txt| Exploiting the GUI
|usr_32.txt| The undo tree
Tuning Vim
|usr_40.txt| Make new commands
|usr_41.txt| Write a Vim script
|usr_42.txt| Add new menus
|usr_43.txt| Using filetypes
|usr_44.txt| Your own syntax highlighted
|usr_45.txt| Select your language
Making Vim Run
|usr_90.txt| Installing Vim
REFERENCE MANUAL: These files explain every detail of Vim. *reference_toc*

General subjects
|intro.txt| general introduction to Vim; notation used in help files
|help.txt| overview and quick reference (this file)
|helphelp.txt| about using the help files
|index.txt| alphabetical index of all commands
|help-tags| all the tags you can jump to (index of tags)
|howto.txt| how to do the most common editing tasks
|tips.txt| various tips on using Vim
|message.txt| (error) messages and explanations
|quotes.txt| remarks from users of Vim
|todo.txt| known problems and desired extensions
|develop.txt| development of Vim
|debug.txt| debugging Vim itself
|uganda.txt| Vim distribution conditions and what to do with your money
Basic editing
|starting.txt| starting Vim, Vim command arguments, initialisation
|editing.txt| editing and writing files
|motion.txt| commands for moving around
|scroll.txt| scrolling the text in the window
|insert.txt| Insert and Replace mode
|change.txt| deleting and replacing text
|indent.txt| automatic indenting for C and other languages
|undo.txt| Undo and Redo
|repeat.txt| repeating commands, Vim scripts and debugging
|visual.txt| using the Visual mode (selecting a text area)
|various.txt| various remaining commands
|recover.txt| recovering from a crash
Advanced editing
|cmdline.txt| Command-line editing
|options.txt| description of all options
|pattern.txt| regexp patterns and search commands
|map.txt| key mapping and abbreviations
|tagsrch.txt| tags and special searches
|quickfix.txt| commands for a quick edit-compile-fix cycle
|windows.txt| commands for using multiple windows and buffers
|tabpage.txt| commands for using multiple tab pages
|syntax.txt| syntax highlighting
|spell.txt| spell checking
|diff.txt| working with two to four versions of the same file
|autocmd.txt| automatically executing commands on an event
|filetype.txt| settings done specifically for a type of file
|eval.txt| expression evaluation, conditional commands
|fold.txt| hide (fold) ranges of lines
Special issues
|print.txt| printing
|remote.txt| using Vim as a server or client
|term.txt| using different terminals and mice
|digraph.txt| list of available digraphs

|mbyte.txt| multi-byte text support

|mlang.txt| non-English language support
|arabic.txt| Arabic language support and editing
|farsi.txt| Farsi (Persian) editing
|hebrew.txt| Hebrew language support and editing
|russian.txt| Russian language support and editing
|ft_ada.txt| Ada (the programming language) support
|ft_sql.txt| about the SQL filetype plugin
|hangulin.txt| Hangul (Korean) input mode
|rileft.txt| right-to-left editing mode
GUI
|gui.txt| Graphical User Interface (GUI)
|gui_w16.txt| Windows 3.1 GUI
|gui_w32.txt| Win32 GUI
|gui_x11.txt| X11 GUI
Interfaces
|if_cscop.txt| using Cscope with Vim
|if_lua.txt| Lua interface
|if_mzsch.txt| MzScheme interface
|if_perl.txt| Perl interface
|if_pyth.txt| Python interface
|if_sniff.txt| SNiFF+ interface
|if_tcl.txt| Tcl interface
|if_ole.txt| OLE automation interface for Win32
|if_ruby.txt| Ruby interface
|debugger.txt| Interface with a debugger
|workshop.txt| Sun Visual Workshop interface
|netbeans.txt| NetBeans External Editor interface
|sign.txt| debugging signs
Versions
|vi_diff.txt| Main differences between Vim and Vi
|version4.txt| Differences between Vim version 3.0 and 4.x
*sys-file-list*
Remarks about specific systems
|os_390.txt| OS/390 Unix
|os_amiga.txt| Amiga
|os_beos.txt| BeOS and BeBox
|os_dos.txt| MS-DOS and MS-Windows NT/95 common items
|os_mac.txt| Macintosh
|os_mint.txt| Atari MiNT
|os_msdos.txt| MS-DOS (plain DOS and DOS box under Windows)
|os_os2.txt| OS/2
|os_qnx.txt| QNX
|os_risc.txt| RISC-OS
|os_unix.txt| Unix
|os_vms.txt| VMS
|os_win32.txt| MS-Windows 95/98/NT
*standard-plugin-list*
Standard plugins
|pi_getscript.txt| Downloading latest version of Vim scripts
|pi_gzip.txt| Reading and writing compressed files
|pi_netrw.txt| Reading and writing files over a network
|pi_paren.txt| Highlight matching parens
|pi_tar.txt| Tar file explorer
|pi_vimball.txt| Create a self-installing Vim script
|pi_zip.txt| Zip archive explorer
LOCAL ADDITIONS: *local-additions*

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*bars* Bars example
Now that you've jumped here with CTRL-] or a double mouse click, you can use
CTRL-T, CTRL-O, g<RightMouse>, or <C-RightMouse> to go back to where you were.
Note that tags are within | characters, but when highlighting is enabled these
characters are hidden. That makes it easier to read a command.
Anyway, you can use CTRL-] on any word, also when it is not within |, and Vim
will try to find help for it. Especially for options in single quotes, e.g.

'compatible'.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
top
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: intro
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*intro.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Dec 08
Introduction to Vim *ref* *reference*

1. Introduction |intro|
2. Vim on the internet |internet|
3. Credits |credits|
4. Notation |notation|
5. Modes, introduction |vim-modes-intro|
6. Switching from mode to mode |mode-switching|
7. The window contents |window-contents|
8. Definitions |definitions|
==============================================================================
1. Introduction *intro*
Vim stands for Vi IMproved. It used to be Vi IMitation, but there are so many
improvements that a name change was appropriate. Vim is a text editor which
includes almost all the commands from the Unix program "Vi" and a lot of new
ones. It is very useful for editing programs and other plain text.
All commands are given with the keyboard. This has the advantage that you
can keep your fingers on the keyboard and your eyes on the screen. For those
who want it, there is mouse support and a GUI version with scrollbars and
menus (see |gui.txt|).
An overview of this manual can be found in the file "help.txt", |help.txt|.
It can be accessed from within Vim with the <Help> or <F1> key and with the
|:help| command (just type ":help", without the bars or quotes).
The 'helpfile' option can be set to the name of the help file, in case it
is not located in the default place. You can jump to subjects like with tags:
Use CTRL-] to jump to a subject under the cursor, use CTRL-T to jump back.
Throughout this manual the differences between Vi and Vim are mentioned in
curly braces, like this: {Vi does not have on-line help}. See |vi_diff.txt|
for a summary of the differences between Vim and Vi.
This manual refers to Vim on various machines. There may be small differences
between different computers and terminals. Besides the remarks given in this
document, there is a separate document for each supported system, see
|sys-file-list|.
*pronounce*
Vim is pronounced as one word, like Jim, not vi-ai-em. It's written with a
capital, since it's a name, again like Jim.
This manual is a reference for all the Vim commands and options. This is not
an introduction to the use of Vi or Vim, it gets a bit complicated here and
there. For beginners, there is a hands-on |tutor|. To learn using Vim, read
the user manual |usr_toc.txt|.
*book*
There are many books on Vi that contain a section for beginners. There are
two books I can recommend:
"Vim - Vi Improved" by Steve Oualline
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/intro.html[2019/03/05 11:40:56 AM]

This is the very first book completely dedicated to Vim. It is very good for
beginners. The most often used commands are explained with pictures and
examples. The less often used commands are also explained, the more advanced
features are summarized. There is a comprehensive index and a quick
reference. Parts of this book have been included in the user manual
|frombook|.
Published by New Riders Publishing. ISBN: 0735710015
For more information try one of these:
http://iccf-holland.org/click5.html
http://www.vim.org/iccf/click5.html
"Learning the Vi editor" by Linda Lamb and Arnold Robbins
This is a book about Vi that includes a chapter on Vim (in the sixth edition).
The first steps in Vi are explained very well. The commands that Vim adds are
only briefly mentioned. There is also a German translation.
Published by O'Reilly. ISBN: 1-56592-426-6.
==============================================================================
2. Vim on the internet *internet*
*www* *WWW* *faq* *FAQ* *distribution* *download*

The Vim pages contain the most recent information about Vim. They also
contain links to the most recent version of Vim. The FAQ is a list of
Frequently Asked Questions. Read this if you have problems.
VIM home page: http://www.vim.org/
VIM FAQ: http://vimdoc.sf.net/
Downloading: ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/MIRRORS
Usenet News group where Vim is discussed: *news* *usenet*

comp.editors
This group is also for other editors. If you write about Vim, don't forget to
mention that.
*mail-list* *maillist*
There are several mailing lists for Vim:
<vim@vim.org>
For discussions about using existing versions of Vim: Useful mappings,
questions, answers, where to get a specific version, etc. There are
quite a few people watching this list and answering questions, also
for beginners. Don't hesitate to ask your question here.
<vim-dev@vim.org> *vim-dev* *vimdev*
For discussions about changing Vim: New features, porting, patches,
beta-test versions, etc.
<vim-announce@vim.org> *vim-announce*
Announcements about new versions of Vim; also for beta-test versions
and ports to different systems. This is a read-only list.
<vim-multibyte@vim.org> *vim-multibyte*
For discussions about using and improving the multi-byte aspects of
Vim.
<vim-mac@vim.org> *vim-mac*
For discussions about using and improving the Macintosh version of
Vim.
See http://www.vim.org/maillist.php for the latest information.
NOTE:
- You can only send messages to these lists if you have subscribed!
- You need to send the messages from the same location as where you subscribed
from (to avoid spam mail).
- Maximum message size is 40000 characters.
*subscribe-maillist*
If you want to join, send a message to
<vim-subscribe@vim.org>
Make sure that your "From:" address is correct. Then the list server will
give you help on how to subscribe.

*maillist-archive*
For more information and archives look on the Vim maillist page:
http://www.vim.org/maillist.php
Bug reports: *bugs* *bug-reports* *bugreport.vim*

Send bug reports to: Vim bugs <bugs@vim.org>
This is not a maillist but the message is redirected to the Vim maintainer.
Please be brief; all the time that is spent on answering mail is subtracted
from the time that is spent on improving Vim! Always give a reproducible
example and try to find out which settings or other things influence the
appearance of the bug. Try different machines, if possible. Send me patches
if you can!
It will help to include information about the version of Vim you are using and
your setup. You can get the information with this command:
:so $VIMRUNTIME/bugreport.vim
This will create a file "bugreport.txt" in the current directory, with a lot
of information of your environment. Before sending this out, check if it
doesn't contain any confidential information!
If Vim crashes, please try to find out where. You can find help on this here:
|debug.txt|.
In case of doubt or when you wonder if the problem has already been fixed but
you can't find a fix for it, become a member of the vim-dev maillist and ask
your question there. |maillist|
*year-2000* *Y2K*
Since Vim internally doesn't use dates for editing, there is no year 2000
problem to worry about. Vim does use the time in the form of seconds since
January 1st 1970. It is used for a time-stamp check of the edited file and
the swap file, which is not critical and should only cause warning messages.
There might be a year 2038 problem, when the seconds don't fit in a 32 bit int
anymore. This depends on the compiler, libraries and operating system.
Specifically, time_t and the ctime() function are used. And the time_t is
stored in four bytes in the swap file. But that's only used for printing a
file date/time for recovery, it will never affect normal editing.
The Vim strftime() function directly uses the strftime() system function.
localtime() uses the time() system function. getftime() uses the time
returned by the stat() system function. If your system libraries are year
2000 compliant, Vim is too.
The user may create scripts for Vim that use external commands. These might
introduce Y2K problems, but those are not really part of Vim itself.
==============================================================================
3. Credits *credits* *author* *Bram* *Moolenaar*
Most of Vim was written by Bram Moolenaar <Bram@vim.org>.
Parts of the documentation come from several Vi manuals, written by:
W.N. Joy
Alan P.W. Hewett
Mark Horton
The Vim editor is based on Stevie and includes (ideas from) other software,
worked on by the people mentioned here. Other people helped by sending me
patches, suggestions and giving feedback about what is good and bad in Vim.
Vim would never have become what it is now, without the help of these people!
Ron Aaron Win32 GUI changes
Mohsin Ahmed encryption
Zoltan Arpadffy work on VMS port
Tony Andrews Stevie
Gert van Antwerpen changes for DJGPP on MS-DOS
Berkeley DB(3) ideas for swap file implementation
Keith Bostic Nvi
Walter Briscoe Makefile updates, various patches
Ralf Brown SPAWNO library for MS-DOS
Robert Colon many useful remarks
Marcin Dalecki GTK+ GUI port, toolbar icons, gettext()

Kayhan Demirel sent me news in Uganda

Chris & John Downey xvi (ideas for multi-windows version)
Henk Elbers first VMS port
Daniel Elstner GTK+ 2 port
Eric Fischer Mac port, 'cindent', and other improvements
Benji Fisher Answering lots of user questions
Bill Foster Athena GUI port
Google Lets me work on Vim one day a week
Loic Grenie xvim (ideas for multi windows version)
Sven Guckes Vim promoter and previous WWW page maintainer
Darren Hiebert Exuberant ctags
Jason Hildebrand GTK+ 2 port
Bruce Hunsaker improvements for VMS port
Andy Kahn Cscope support, GTK+ GUI port
Oezguer Kesim Maintainer of Vim Mailing Lists
Axel Kielhorn work on the Macintosh port
Steve Kirkendall Elvis
Roger Knobbe original port to Windows NT
Sergey Laskavy Vim's help from Moscow
Felix von Leitner Previous maintainer of Vim Mailing Lists
David Leonard Port of Python extensions to Unix
Avner Lottem Edit in right-to-left windows
Flemming Madsen X11 client-server, various features and patches
Tony Mechelynck answers many user questions
Paul Moore Python interface extensions, many patches
Katsuhito Nagano Work on multi-byte versions
Sung-Hyun Nam Work on multi-byte versions
Vince Negri Win32 GUI and generic console enhancements
Steve Oualline Author of the first Vim book |frombook|
Dominique Pelle valgrind reports and many fixes
A.Politz Many bug reports and some fixes
George V. Reilly Win32 port, Win32 GUI start-off
Stephen Riehm bug collector
Stefan Roemer various patches and help to users
Ralf Schandl IBM OS/390 port
Olaf Seibert DICE and BeBox version, regexp improvements
Mortaza Shiran Farsi patches
Peter da Silva termlib
Paul Slootman OS/2 port
Henry Spencer regular expressions
Dany St-Amant Macintosh port
Tim Thompson Stevie
G. R. (Fred) Walter Stevie
Sven Verdoolaege Perl interface
Robert Webb Command-line completion, GUI versions, and
lots of patches
Ingo Wilken Tcl interface
Mike Williams PostScript printing
Juergen Weigert Lattice version, AUX improvements, UNIX and
MS-DOS ports, autoconf
Stefan 'Sec' Zehl Maintainer of vim.org
I wish to thank all the people that sent me bug reports and suggestions. The
list is too long to mention them all here. Vim would not be the same without
the ideas from all these people: They keep Vim alive!
In this documentation there are several references to other versions of Vi:

*Vi* *vi*
Vi "the original". Without further remarks this is the version
of Vi that appeared in Sun OS 4.x. ":version" returns
"Version 3.7, 6/7/85". Sometimes other versions are referred
to. Only runs under Unix. Source code only available with a
license. More information on Vi can be found through:
http://vi-editor.org [doesn't currently work...]
*Posix*
Posix From the IEEE standard 1003.2, Part 2: Shell and utilities.
Generally known as "Posix". This is a textual description of
how Vi is supposed to work.
See |posix-compliance|.
*Nvi*
Nvi The "New" Vi. The version of Vi that comes with BSD 4.4 and FreeBSD.
Very good compatibility with the original Vi, with a few extensions.
The version used is 1.79. ":version" returns "Version 1.79
(10/23/96)". There has been no release the last few years, although
there is a development version 1.81.
Source code is freely available.

*Elvis*
Elvis Another Vi clone, made by Steve Kirkendall. Very compact but isn't
as flexible as Vim.
The version used is 2.1. It is still being developed. Source code is
freely available.
==============================================================================
4. Notation *notation*
When syntax highlighting is used to read this, text that is not typed
literally is often highlighted with the Special group. These are items in [],
{} and <>, and CTRL-X.
Note that Vim uses all possible characters in commands. Sometimes the [], {}
and <> are part of what you type, the context should make this clear.
[] Characters in square brackets are optional.
*count* *[count]*
[count] An optional number that may precede the command to multiply
or iterate the command. If no number is given, a count of one
is used, unless otherwise noted. Note that in this manual the
[count] is not mentioned in the description of the command,
but only in the explanation. This was done to make the
commands easier to look up. If the 'showcmd' option is on,
the (partially) entered count is shown at the bottom of the
window. You can use <Del> to erase the last digit (|N<Del>|).
*[quotex]*
["x] An optional register designation where text can be stored.
See |registers|. The x is a single character between 'a' and
'z' or 'A' and 'Z' or '"'', and in some cases (with the put
command) between '0' and '9', '%', '#', or others. The
uppercase and lowercase letter designate the same register,
but the lowercase letter is used to overwrite the previous
register contents, while the uppercase letter is used to
append to the previous register contents. Without the ""x" or
with """" the stored text is put into the unnamed register.
*{}*
{} Curly braces denote parts of the command which must appear,
but which can take a number of different values. The
differences between Vim and Vi are also given in curly braces
(this will be clear from the context).
*{char1-char2}*
{char1-char2} A single character from the range char1 to char2. For
example: {a-z} is a lowercase letter. Multiple ranges may be
concatenated. For example, {a-zA-Z0-9} is any alphanumeric
character.
*{motion}* *movement*
{motion} A command that moves the cursor. These are explained in
|motion.txt|. Examples:
w to start of next word
b to begin of current word
4j four lines down
/The<CR> to next occurrence of "The"
This is used after an |operator| command to move over the text
that is to be operated upon.
- If the motion includes a count and the operator also has a
count, the two counts are multiplied. For example: "2d3w"
deletes six words.
- The motion can be backwards, e.g. "db" to delete to the
start of the word.
- The motion can also be a mouse click. The mouse is not
supported in every terminal though.
- The ":omap" command can be used to map characters while an
operator is pending.
- Ex commands can be used to move the cursor. This can be
used to call a function that does some complicated motion.
The motion is always characterwise exclusive, no matter

what ":" command is used. This means it's impossible to

include the last character of a line without the line break
(unless 'virtualedit' is set).
If the Ex command changes the text before where the operator
starts or jumps to another buffer the result is
unpredictable. It is possible to change the text further
down. Jumping to another buffer is possible if the current
buffer is not unloaded.
*{Visual}*
{Visual} A selected text area. It is started with the "v", "V", or
CTRL-V command, then any cursor movement command can be used
to change the end of the selected text.
This is used before an |operator| command to highlight the
text that is to be operated upon.
See |Visual-mode|.
*<character>*
<character> A special character from the table below, optionally with
modifiers, or a single ASCII character with modifiers.
*'character'*
'c' A single ASCII character.
*CTRL-{char}*
CTRL-{char} {char} typed as a control character; that is, typing {char}
while holding the CTRL key down. The case of {char} does not
matter; thus CTRL-A and CTRL-a are equivalent. But on some
terminals, using the SHIFT key will produce another code,
don't use it then.
*'option'*
'option' An option, or parameter, that can be set to a value, is
enclosed in single quotes. See |options|.
*quotecommandquote*
"command" A reference to a command that you can type is enclosed in
double quotes.
*key-notation* *key-codes* *keycodes*

These names for keys are used in the documentation. They can also be used
with the ":map" command (insert the key name by pressing CTRL-K and then the
key you want the name for).
notation meaning equivalent decimal value(s)
<Nul> zero CTRL-@ 0 (stored as 10) *<Nul>*
<BS> backspace CTRL-H 8 *backspace*
<Tab> tab CTRL-I 9 *tab* *Tab*
*linefeed*
<NL> linefeed CTRL-J 10 (used for <Nul>)
<FF> formfeed CTRL-L 12 *formfeed*
<CR> carriage return CTRL-M 13 *carriage-return*
<Return> same as <CR> *<Return>*
<Enter> same as <CR> *<Enter>*
<Esc> escape CTRL-[ 27 *escape* *<Esc>*
<Space> space 32 *space*
<lt> less-than < 60 *<lt>*
<Bslash> backslash \ 92 *backslash* *<Bslash>*
<Bar> vertical bar | 124 *<Bar>*

<Del> delete 127

<CSI> command sequence intro ALT-Esc 155 *<CSI>*
<xCSI> CSI when typed in the GUI *<xCSI>*
<EOL> end-of-line (can be <CR>, <LF> or <CR><LF>,
depends on system and 'fileformat') *<EOL>*
<Up> cursor-up *cursor-up* *cursor_up*

<Down> cursor-down *cursor-down* *cursor_down*
<Left> cursor-left *cursor-left* *cursor_left*
<Right> cursor-right *cursor-right* *cursor_right*
<S-Up> shift-cursor-up
<S-Down> shift-cursor-down
<S-Left> shift-cursor-left
<S-Right> shift-cursor-right
<C-Left> control-cursor-left
<C-Right> control-cursor-right
<F1> - <F12> function keys 1 to 12 *function_key* *function-key*
<S-F1> - <S-F12> shift-function keys 1 to 12 *<S-F1>*
<Help> help key
<Undo> undo key
<Insert> insert key
<Home> home *home*
<End> end *end*
<PageUp> page-up *page_up* *page-up*
<PageDown> page-down *page_down* *page-down*
<kHome> keypad home (upper left) *keypad-home*
<kEnd> keypad end (lower left) *keypad-end*
<kPageUp> keypad page-up (upper right) *keypad-page-up*
<kPageDown> keypad page-down (lower right) *keypad-page-down*
<kPlus> keypad + *keypad-plus*
<kMinus> keypad - *keypad-minus*
<kMultiply> keypad * *keypad-multiply*
<kDivide> keypad / *keypad-divide*
<kEnter> keypad Enter *keypad-enter*
<kPoint> keypad Decimal point *keypad-point*
<k0> - <k9> keypad 0 to 9 *keypad-0* *keypad-9*
<S-...> shift-key *shift* *<S-*
<C-...> control-key *control* *ctrl* *<C-*
<M-...> alt-key or meta-key *meta* *alt* *<M-*
<A-...> same as <M-...> *<A-*
<D-...> command-key (Macintosh only) *<D-*
<t_xx> key with "xx" entry in termcap
Note: The shifted cursor keys, the help key, and the undo key are only
available on a few terminals. On the Amiga, shifted function key 10 produces
a code (CSI) that is also used by key sequences. It will be recognized only
after typing another key.

Note: There are two codes for the delete key. 127 is the decimal ASCII value
for the delete key, which is always recognized. Some delete keys send another
value, in which case this value is obtained from the termcap entry "kD". Both
values have the same effect. Also see |:fixdel|.
Note: The keypad keys are used in the same way as the corresponding "normal"
keys. For example, <kHome> has the same effect as <Home>. If a keypad key
sends the same raw key code as its non-keypad equivalent, it will be
recognized as the non-keypad code. For example, when <kHome> sends the same
code as <Home>, when pressing <kHome> Vim will think <Home> was pressed.
Mapping <kHome> will not work then.
*<>*
Examples are often given in the <> notation. Sometimes this is just to make
clear what you need to type, but often it can be typed literally, e.g., with
the ":map" command. The rules are:
1. Any printable characters are typed directly, except backslash and '<'
2. A backslash is represented with "\\", double backslash, or "<Bslash>".
3. A real '<' is represented with "\<" or "<lt>". When there is no
confusion possible, a '<' can be used directly.
4. "<key>" means the special key typed. This is the notation explained in
the table above. A few examples:
<Esc> Escape key
<C-G> CTRL-G
<Up> cursor up key
<C-LeftMouse> Control- left mouse click
<S-F11> Shifted function key 11
<M-a> Meta- a ('a' with bit 8 set)
<M-A> Meta- A ('A' with bit 8 set)
<t_kd> "kd" termcap entry (cursor down key)
If you want to use the full <> notation in Vim, you have to make sure the '<'
flag is excluded from 'cpoptions' (when 'compatible' is not set, it already is
by default).
:set cpo-=<
The <> notation uses <lt> to escape the special meaning of key names. Using a
backslash also works, but only when 'cpoptions' does not include the 'B' flag.
Examples for mapping CTRL-H to the six characters "<Home>":
:imap <C-H> \<Home>
:imap <C-H> <lt>Home>
The first one only works when the 'B' flag is not in 'cpoptions'. The second
one always works.
To get a literal "<lt>" in a mapping:
:map <C-L> <lt>lt>
For mapping, abbreviation and menu commands you can then copy-paste the
examples and use them directly. Or type them literally, including the '<' and
'>' characters. This does NOT work for other commands, like ":set" and
":autocmd"!
==============================================================================
5. Modes, introduction *vim-modes-intro* *vim-modes*
Vim has six BASIC modes:
*Normal* *Normal-mode* *command-mode*

Normal mode In Normal mode you can enter all the normal editor
commands. If you start the editor you are in this
mode (unless you have set the 'insertmode' option,
see below). This is also known as command mode.
Visual mode This is like Normal mode, but the movement commands
extend a highlighted area. When a non-movement
command is used, it is executed for the highlighted
area. See |Visual-mode|.
If the 'showmode' option is on "-- VISUAL --" is shown
at the bottom of the window.
Select mode This looks most like the MS-Windows selection mode.
Typing a printable character deletes the selection
and starts Insert mode. See |Select-mode|.
If the 'showmode' option is on "-- SELECT --" is shown
Insert mode In Insert mode the text you type is inserted into the
buffer. See |Insert-mode|.

If the 'showmode' option is on "-- INSERT --" is shown

Command-line mode In Command-line mode (also called Cmdline mode) you
Cmdline mode can enter one line of text at the bottom of the
window. This is for the Ex commands, ":", the pattern
search commands, "?" and "/", and the filter command,
"!". |Cmdline-mode|
Ex mode Like Command-line mode, but after entering a command
you remain in Ex mode. Very limited editing of the
command line. |Ex-mode|
There are six ADDITIONAL modes. These are variants of the BASIC modes:
*Operator-pending* *Operator-pending-mode*
Operator-pending mode This is like Normal mode, but after an operator
command has started, and Vim is waiting for a {motion}
to specify the text that the operator will work on.
Replace mode Replace mode is a special case of Insert mode. You
can do the same things as in Insert mode, but for
each character you enter, one character of the existing
text is deleted. See |Replace-mode|.
If the 'showmode' option is on "-- REPLACE --" is
shown at the bottom of the window.
Virtual Replace mode Virtual Replace mode is similar to Replace mode, but
instead of file characters you are replacing screen
real estate. See |Virtual-Replace-mode|.
If the 'showmode' option is on "-- VREPLACE --" is
Insert Normal mode Entered when CTRL-O given in Insert mode. This is
like Normal mode, but after executing one command Vim
returns to Insert mode.
If the 'showmode' option is on "-- (insert) --" is
Insert Visual mode Entered when starting a Visual selection from Insert
mode, e.g., by using CTRL-O and then "v", "V" or
CTRL-V. When the Visual selection ends, Vim returns
to Insert mode.
If the 'showmode' option is on "-- (insert) VISUAL --"
is shown at the bottom of the window.
Insert Select mode Entered when starting Select mode from Insert mode.
E.g., by dragging the mouse or <S-Right>.
When the Select mode ends, Vim returns to Insert mode.
If the 'showmode' option is on "-- (insert) SELECT --"
is shown at the bottom of the window.
==============================================================================
6. Switching from mode to mode *mode-switching*
If for any reason you do not know which mode you are in, you can always get
back to Normal mode by typing <Esc> twice. This doesn't work for Ex mode
though, use ":visual".
You will know you are back in Normal mode when you see the screen flash or
hear the bell after you type <Esc>. However, when pressing <Esc> after using
CTRL-O in Insert mode you get a beep but you are still in Insert mode, type
<Esc> again.
*i_esc*
TO mode
Normal Visual Select Insert Replace Cmd-line Ex
FROM mode
Normal v V ^V *4 *1 R gR : / ? ! Q
Visual *2 ^G c C -- : --
Select *5 Ô ^G *6 -- -- --
Insert <Esc> -- -- <Insert> -- --
Replace <Esc> -- -- <Insert> -- --
Command-line *3 -- -- :start -- -
-
Ex :vi -- -- -- -- --
-- not possible

*1 Go from Normal mode to Insert mode by giving the command "i", "I", "a",
"A", "o", "O", "c", "C", "s" or S".
*2 Go from Visual mode to Normal mode by giving a non-movement command, which
causes the command to be executed, or by hitting <Esc> "v", "V" or "CTRL-V"
(see |v_v|), which just stops Visual mode without side effects.
*3 Go from Command-line mode to Normal mode by:
- Hitting <CR> or <NL>, which causes the entered command to be executed.
- Deleting the complete line (e.g., with CTRL-U) and giving a final <BS>.
- Hitting CTRL-C or <Esc>, which quits the command-line without executing
the command.
In the last case <Esc> may be the character defined with the 'wildchar'
option, in which case it will start command-line completion. You can
ignore that and type <Esc> again. {Vi: when hitting <Esc> the command-line
is executed. This is unexpected for most people; therefore it was changed
in Vim. But when the <Esc> is part of a mapping, the command-line is
executed. If you want the Vi behaviour also when typing <Esc>, use ":cmap
^V<Esc> ^V^M"}
*4 Go from Normal to Select mode by:
- use the mouse to select text while 'selectmode' contains "mouse"
- use a non-printable command to move the cursor while keeping the Shift
key pressed, and the 'selectmode' option contains "key"
- use "v", "V" or "CTRL-V" while 'selectmode' contains "cmd"
- use "gh", "gH" or "g CTRL-H" |g_CTRL-H|
*5 Go from Select mode to Normal mode by using a non-printable command to move
the cursor, without keeping the Shift key pressed.
*6 Go from Select mode to Insert mode by typing a printable character. The
selection is deleted and the character is inserted.
If the 'insertmode' option is on, editing a file will start in Insert mode.
*CTRL-\_CTRL-N* *i_CTRL-\_CTRL-N* *c_CTRL-\_CTRL-N* *v_CTRL-\_CTRL-N*

Additionally the command CTRL-\ CTRL-N or <C-\><C-N> can be used to go to
Normal mode from any other mode. This can be used to make sure Vim is in
Normal mode, without causing a beep like <Esc> would. However, this does not
work in Ex mode. When used after a command that takes an argument, such as
|f| or |m|, the timeout set with 'ttimeoutlen' applies.
*CTRL-\_CTRL-G* *i_CTRL-\_CTRL-G* *c_CTRL-\_CTRL-G* *v_CTRL-\_CTRL-G*

The command CTRL-\ CTRL-G or <C-\><C-G> can be used to go to Insert mode when
'insertmode' is set. Otherwise it goes to Normal mode. This can be used to
make sure Vim is in the mode indicated by 'insertmode', without knowing in
what mode Vim currently is.
*Q* *mode-Ex* *Ex-mode* *Ex* *EX* *E501*

Q Switch to "Ex" mode. This is a bit like typing ":"
commands one after another, except:
- You don't have to keep pressing ":".
- The screen doesn't get updated after each command.
- There is no normal command-line editing.
- Mappings and abbreviations are not used.
In fact, you are editing the lines with the "standard"
line-input editing commands (<Del> or <BS> to erase,
CTRL-U to kill the whole line).
Vim will enter this mode by default if it's invoked as
"ex" on the command-line.
Use the ":vi" command |:visual| to exit "Ex" mode.
Note: In older versions of Vim "Q" formatted text,
that is now done with |gq|. But if you use the
|vimrc_example.vim| script "Q" works like "gq".
*gQ*
gQ Switch to "Ex" mode like with "Q", but really behave
like typing ":" commands after another. All command
line editing, completion etc. is available.
Use the ":vi" command |:visual| to exit "Ex" mode.
{not in Vi}
==============================================================================
7. The window contents *window-contents*
In Normal mode and Insert/Replace mode the screen window will show the current
contents of the buffer: What You See Is What You Get. There are two
exceptions:
- When the 'cpoptions' option contains '$', and the change is within one line,

the text is not directly deleted, but a '$' is put at the last deleted
character.
- When inserting text in one window, other windows on the same text are not
updated until the insert is finished.
{Vi: The screen is not always updated on slow terminals}
Lines longer than the window width will wrap, unless the 'wrap' option is off
(see below). The 'linebreak' option can be set to wrap at a blank character.
If the window has room after the last line of the buffer, Vim will show '~' in
the first column of the last lines in the window, like this:
+-----------------------+
|some line |
|last line |
|~ |
|~ |
+-----------------------+
Thus the '~' lines indicate that the end of the buffer was reached.
If the last line in a window doesn't fit, Vim will indicate this with a '@' in
the first column of the last lines in the window, like this:
+-----------------------+
|first line |
|second line |
|@ |
|@ |
+-----------------------+
Thus the '@' lines indicate that there is a line that doesn't fit in the
window.
When the "lastline" flag is present in the 'display' option, you will not see
'@' characters at the left side of window. If the last line doesn't fit
completely, only the part that fits is shown, and the last three characters of
the last line are replaced with "@@@", like this:
+-----------------------+
|first line |
|second line |
|a very long line that d|
|oesn't fit in the wi@@@|
+-----------------------+
If there is a single line that is too long to fit in the window, this is a
special situation. Vim will show only part of the line, around where the
cursor is. There are no special characters shown, so that you can edit all
parts of this line.
{Vi: gives an "internal error" on lines that do not fit in the window}
The '@' occasion in the 'highlight' option can be used to set special
highlighting for the '@' and '~' characters. This makes it possible to
distinguish them from real characters in the buffer.
The 'showbreak' option contains the string to put in front of wrapped lines.
*wrap-off*
If the 'wrap' option is off, long lines will not wrap. Only the part that
fits on the screen is shown. If the cursor is moved to a part of the line
that is not shown, the screen is scrolled horizontally. The advantage of
this method is that columns are shown as they are and lines that cannot fit
on the screen can be edited. The disadvantage is that you cannot see all the
characters of a line at once. The 'sidescroll' option can be set to the
minimal number of columns to scroll. {Vi: has no 'wrap' option}
All normal ASCII characters are displayed directly on the screen. The <Tab>
is replaced with the number of spaces that it represents. Other non-printing
characters are replaced with "^{char}", where {char} is the non-printing
character with 64 added. Thus character 7 (bell) will be shown as "^G".
Characters between 127 and 160 are replaced with "~{char}", where {char} is
the character with 64 subtracted. These characters occupy more than one
position on the screen. The cursor can only be positioned on the first one.
If you set the 'number' option, all lines will be preceded with their
number. Tip: If you don't like wrapping lines to mix with the line numbers,
set the 'showbreak' option to eight spaces:
":set showbreak=\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ "

If you set the 'list' option, <Tab> characters will not be shown as several
spaces, but as "Î". A '$' will be placed at the end of the line, so you can
find trailing blanks.
In Command-line mode only the command-line itself is shown correctly. The
display of the buffer contents is updated as soon as you go back to Command
mode.
The last line of the window is used for status and other messages. The
status messages will only be used if an option is on:
status message option default Unix default
current mode 'showmode' on on
command characters 'showcmd' on off
cursor position 'ruler' off off
The current mode is "-- INSERT --" or "-- REPLACE --", see |'showmode'|. The
command characters are those that you typed but were not used yet. {Vi: does
not show the characters you typed or the cursor position}
If you have a slow terminal you can switch off the status messages to speed
up editing:
:set nosc noru nosm
If there is an error, an error message will be shown for at least one second
(in reverse video). {Vi: error messages may be overwritten with other
messages before you have a chance to read them}
Some commands show how many lines were affected. Above which threshold this
happens can be controlled with the 'report' option (default 2).
On the Amiga Vim will run in a CLI window. The name Vim and the full name of
the current file name will be shown in the title bar. When the window is
resized, Vim will automatically redraw the window. You may make the window as
small as you like, but if it gets too small not a single line will fit in it.
Make it at least 40 characters wide to be able to read most messages on the
last line.
On most Unix systems, resizing the window is recognized and handled correctly
by Vim. {Vi: not ok}
==============================================================================
8. Definitions *definitions*
screen The whole area that Vim uses to work in. This can be
a terminal emulator window. Also called "the Vim
window".
window A view on a buffer.
A screen contains one or more windows, separated by status lines and with the
command line at the bottom.
+-------------------------------+
screen | window 1 | window 2 |
| | |
| | |
|= status line =|= status line =|
| window 3 |
| |
| |
|==== status line ==============|
|command line |
+-------------------------------+
The command line is also used for messages. It scrolls up the screen when
there is not enough room in the command line.
A difference is made between four types of lines:
buffer lines The lines in the buffer. This is the same as the
lines as they are read from/written to a file. They
can be thousands of characters long.
logical lines The buffer lines with folding applied. Buffer lines
in a closed fold are changed to a single logical line:
"+-- 99 lines folded". They can be thousands of
characters long.
window lines The lines displayed in a window: A range of logical
lines with wrapping, line breaks, etc. applied. They

can only be as long as the width of the window allows,

longer lines are wrapped or truncated.
screen lines The lines of the screen that Vim uses. Consists of
the window lines of all windows, with status lines
and the command line added. They can only be as long
as the width of the screen allows. When the command
line gets longer it wraps and lines are scrolled to
make room.
buffer lines logical lines window lines screen lines
1. one 1. one 1. +-- folded 1. +-- folded
2. two 2. +-- folded 2. five 2. five
3. three 3. five 3. six 3. six
4. four 4. six 4. seven 4. seven
5. five 5. seven 5. === status line ===
6. six 6. aaa
7. seven 7. bbb
8. ccc ccc c
1. aaa 1. aaa 1. aaa 9. cc
2. bbb 2. bbb 2. bbb 10. ddd
3. ccc ccc ccc 3. ccc ccc ccc 3. ccc ccc c 11. ~
4. ddd 4. ddd 4. cc 12. === status line ===
5. ddd 13. (command line)
6. ~
==============================================================================
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: tagsrch
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*tagsrch.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2009 Feb 18
Tags and special searches *tags-and-searches*

See section |29.1| of the user manual for an introduction.
1. Jump to a tag |tag-commands|
2. Tag stack |tag-stack|
3. Tag match list |tag-matchlist|
4. Tags details |tag-details|
5. Tags file format |tags-file-format|
6. Include file searches |include-search|
==============================================================================
1. Jump to a tag *tag-commands*
*tag* *tags*
A tag is an identifier that appears in a "tags" file. It is a sort of label
that can be jumped to. For example: In C programs each function name can be
used as a tag. The "tags" file has to be generated by a program like ctags,
before the tag commands can be used.
With the ":tag" command the cursor will be positioned on the tag. With the
CTRL-] command, the keyword on which the cursor is standing is used as the
tag. If the cursor is not on a keyword, the first keyword to the right of the
cursor is used.
The ":tag" command works very well for C programs. If you see a call to a
function and wonder what that function does, position the cursor inside of the
function name and hit CTRL-]. This will bring you to the function definition.
An easy way back is with the CTRL-T command. Also read about the tag stack
below.
*:ta* *:tag* *E426* *E429*

:[count]ta[g][!] {ident}
Jump to the definition of {ident}, using the
information in the tags file(s). Put {ident} in the
tag stack. See |tag-!| for [!].
{ident} can be a regexp pattern, see |tag-regexp|.
When there are several matching tags for {ident}, jump
to the [count] one. When [count] is omitted the
first one is jumped to. See |tag-matchlist| for
jumping to other matching tags.
g<LeftMouse> *g<LeftMouse>*
<C-LeftMouse> *<C-LeftMouse>* *CTRL-]*
CTRL-] Jump to the definition of the keyword under the
cursor. Same as ":tag {ident}", where {ident} is the
keyword under or after cursor.
When there are several matching tags for {ident}, jump
to the [count] one. When no [count] is given the
first one is jumped to. See |tag-matchlist| for
jumping to other matching tags.
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/tagsrch.html[2019/03/05 11:40:57 AM]

{Vi: identifier after the cursor}
*v_CTRL-]*
{Visual}CTRL-] Same as ":tag {ident}", where {ident} is the text that
is highlighted. {not in Vi}
*telnet-CTRL-]*
CTRL-] is the default telnet escape key. When you type CTRL-] to jump to a
tag, you will get the telnet prompt instead. Most versions of telnet allow
changing or disabling the default escape key. See the telnet man page. You
can 'telnet -E {Hostname}' to disable the escape character, or 'telnet -e
{EscapeCharacter} {Hostname}' to specify another escape character. If
possible, try to use "ssh" instead of "telnet" to avoid this problem.
*tag-priority*
When there are multiple matches for a tag, this priority is used:
1. "FSC" A full matching static tag for the current file.
2. "F C" A full matching global tag for the current file.
3. "F " A full matching global tag for another file.
4. "FS " A full matching static tag for another file.
5. " SC" An ignore-case matching static tag for the current file.
6. " C" An ignore-case matching global tag for the current file.
7. " " An ignore-case matching global tag for another file.
8. " S " An ignore-case matching static tag for another file.
Note that when the current file changes, the priority list is mostly not
changed, to avoid confusion when using ":tnext". It is changed when using
":tag {ident}".
The ignore-case matches are not found for a ":tag" command when the
'ignorecase' option is off. They are found when a pattern is used (starting
with a "/") and for ":tselect", also when 'ignorecase' is off. Note that
using ignore-case tag searching disables binary searching in the tags file,
which causes a slowdown. This can be avoided by fold-case sorting the tag
file. See the 'tagbsearch' option for an explanation.
==============================================================================
2. Tag stack *tag-stack* *tagstack* *E425*
On the tag stack is remembered which tags you jumped to, and from where.
Tags are only pushed onto the stack when the 'tagstack' option is set.
g<RightMouse> *g<RightMouse>*
<C-RightMouse> *<C-RightMouse>* *CTRL-T*
CTRL-T Jump to [count] older entry in the tag stack
(default 1). {not in Vi}
*:po* *:pop* *E555* *E556*

:[count]po[p][!] Jump to [count] older entry in tag stack (default 1).
See |tag-!| for [!]. {not in Vi}
:[count]ta[g][!] Jump to [count] newer entry in tag stack (default 1).
*:tags*
:tags Show the contents of the tag stack. The active
entry is marked with a '>'. {not in Vi}
The output of ":tags" looks like this:
# TO tag FROM line in file/text
1 1 main 1 harddisk2:text/vim/test
> 2 2 FuncA 58 i = FuncA(10);
3 1 FuncC 357 harddisk2:text/vim/src/amiga.c
This list shows the tags that you jumped to and the cursor position before
that jump. The older tags are at the top, the newer at the bottom.
The '>' points to the active entry. This is the tag that will be used by the
next ":tag" command. The CTRL-T and ":pop" command will use the position
above the active entry.

Below the "TO" is the number of the current match in the match list. Note
that this doesn't change when using ":pop" or ":tag".
The line number and file name are remembered to be able to get back to where
you were before the tag command. The line number will be correct, also when
deleting/inserting lines, unless this was done by another program (e.g.
another instance of Vim).
For the current file, the "file/text" column shows the text at the position.
An indent is removed and a long line is truncated to fit in the window.
You can jump to previously used tags with several commands. Some examples:
":pop" or CTRL-T to position before previous tag
{count}CTRL-T to position before {count} older tag
":tag" to newer tag
":0tag" to last used tag
The most obvious way to use this is while browsing through the call graph of
a program. Consider the following call graph:
main ---> FuncA ---> FuncC
---> FuncB
(Explanation: main calls FuncA and FuncB; FuncA calls FuncC).
You can get from main to FuncA by using CTRL-] on the call to FuncA. Then
you can CTRL-] to get to FuncC. If you now want to go back to main you can
use CTRL-T twice. Then you can CTRL-] to FuncB.
If you issue a ":ta {ident}" or CTRL-] command, this tag is inserted at the
current position in the stack. If the stack was full (it can hold up to 20
entries), the oldest entry is deleted and the older entries shift one
position up (their index number is decremented by one). If the last used
entry was not at the bottom, the entries below the last used one are
deleted. This means that an old branch in the call graph is lost. After the
commands explained above the tag stack will look like this:
1 1 main 1 harddisk2:text/vim/test
2 1 FuncB 59 harddisk2:text/vim/src/main.c
*E73*
When you try to use the tag stack while it doesn't contain anything you will
get an error message.
==============================================================================
3. Tag match list *tag-matchlist* *E427* *E428*
When there are several matching tags, these commands can be used to jump
between them. Note that these commands don't change the tag stack, they keep
the same entry.
*:ts* *:tselect*
:ts[elect][!] [ident] List the tags that match [ident], using the
information in the tags file(s).
When [ident] is not given, the last tag name from the
tag stack is used.
With a '>' in the first column is indicated which is
the current position in the list (if there is one).
[ident] can be a regexp pattern, see |tag-regexp|.
See |tag-priority| for the priorities used in the
listing. {not in Vi}
Example output:
nr pri kind tag file

1 F f mch_delay os_amiga.c
mch_delay(msec, ignoreinput)
> 2 F f mch_delay os_msdos.c
3 F f mch_delay os_unix.c
Enter nr of choice (<CR> to abort):
See |tag-priority| for the "pri" column. Note that
this depends on the current file, thus using
":tselect xxx" can produce different results.

The "kind" column gives the kind of tag, if this was

included in the tags file.
The "info" column shows information that could be
found in the tags file. It depends on the program
that produced the tags file.
When the list is long, you may get the |more-prompt|.
If you already see the tag you want to use, you can
type 'q' and enter the number.
*:sts* *:stselect*
:sts[elect][!] [ident] Does ":tselect[!] [ident]" and splits the window for
the selected tag. {not in Vi}
*g]*
g] Like CTRL-], but use ":tselect" instead of ":tag".
{not in Vi}
*v_g]*
{Visual}g] Same as "g]", but use the highlighted text as the
identifier. {not in Vi}
*:tj* *:tjump*
:tj[ump][!] [ident] Like ":tselect", but jump to the tag directly when
there is only one match. {not in Vi}
*:stj* *:stjump*
:stj[ump][!] [ident] Does ":tjump[!] [ident]" and splits the window for the
selected tag. {not in Vi}
*g_CTRL-]*
g CTRL-] Like CTRL-], but use ":tjump" instead of ":tag".
{not in Vi}
*v_g_CTRL-]*
{Visual}g CTRL-] Same as "g CTRL-]", but use the highlighted text as
the identifier. {not in Vi}
*:tn* *:tnext*
:[count]tn[ext][!] Jump to [count] next matching tag (default 1). See
|tag-!| for [!]. {not in Vi}
*:tp* *:tprevious*
:[count]tp[revious][!] Jump to [count] previous matching tag (default 1).
*:tN* *:tNext*
:[count]tN[ext][!] Same as ":tprevious". {not in Vi}
*:tr* *:trewind*
:[count]tr[ewind][!] Jump to first matching tag. If [count] is given, jump
to [count]th matching tag. See |tag-!| for [!]. {not
in Vi}
*:tf* *:tfirst*
:[count]tf[irst][!] Same as ":trewind". {not in Vi}
*:tl* *:tlast*
:tl[ast][!] Jump to last matching tag. See |tag-!| for [!]. {not
in Vi}
*:lt* *:ltag*
:lt[ag][!] [ident] Jump to tag [ident] and add the matching tags to a new
location list for the current window. [ident] can be
a regexp pattern, see |tag-regexp|. When [ident] is
not given, the last tag name from the tag stack is

used. The search pattern to locate the tag line is

prefixed with "\V" to escape all the special
characters (very nomagic). The location list showing
the matching tags is independent of the tag stack.
See |tag-!| for [!].
{not in Vi}
When there is no other message, Vim shows which matching tag has been jumped
to, and the number of matching tags:
tag 1 of 3 or more
The " or more" is used to indicate that Vim didn't try all the tags files yet.
When using ":tnext" a few times, or with ":tlast", more matches may be found.
When you didn't see this message because of some other message, or you just
want to know where you are, this command will show it again (and jump to the
same tag as last time):
:0tn
*tag-skip-file*
When a matching tag is found for which the file doesn't exist, this match is
skipped and the next matching tag is used. Vim reports this, to notify you of
missing files. When the end of the list of matches has been reached, an error
message is given.
*tag-preview*
The tag match list can also be used in the preview window. The commands are
the same as above, with a "p" prepended.
{not available when compiled without the |+quickfix| feature}
*:pts* *:ptselect*
:pts[elect][!] [ident] Does ":tselect[!] [ident]" and shows the new tag in a
"Preview" window. See |:ptag| for more info.
{not in Vi}
*:ptj* *:ptjump*
:ptj[ump][!] [ident] Does ":tjump[!] [ident]" and shows the new tag in a
"Preview" window. See |:ptag| for more info.
{not in Vi}
*:ptn* *:ptnext*
:[count]ptn[ext][!] ":tnext" in the preview window. See |:ptag|.
{not in Vi}
*:ptp* *:ptprevious*
:[count]ptp[revious][!] ":tprevious" in the preview window. See |:ptag|.
{not in Vi}
*:ptN* *:ptNext*
:[count]ptN[ext][!] Same as ":ptprevious". {not in Vi}
*:ptr* *:ptrewind*
:[count]ptr[ewind][!] ":trewind" in the preview window. See |:ptag|.
{not in Vi}
*:ptf* *:ptfirst*
:[count]ptf[irst][!] Same as ":ptrewind". {not in Vi}
*:ptl* *:ptlast*
:ptl[ast][!] ":tlast" in the preview window. See |:ptag|.
{not in Vi}
==============================================================================
4. Tags details *tag-details*
*static-tag*
A static tag is a tag that is defined for a specific file. In a C program
this could be a static function.

In Vi jumping to a tag sets the current search pattern. This means that
the "n" command after jumping to a tag does not search for the same pattern
that it did before jumping to the tag. Vim does not do this as we consider it
to be a bug. You can still find the tag search pattern in the search history.
If you really want the old Vi behavior, set the 't' flag in 'cpoptions'.
*tag-binary-search*
Vim uses binary searching in the tags file to find the desired tag quickly
(when enabled at compile time |+tag_binary|). But this only works if the
tags file was sorted on ASCII byte value. Therefore, if no match was found,
another try is done with a linear search. If you only want the linear search,
reset the 'tagbsearch' option. Or better: Sort the tags file!
Note that the binary searching is disabled when not looking for a tag with a
specific name. This happens when ignoring case and when a regular expression
is used that doesn't start with a fixed string. Tag searching can be a lot
slower then. The former can be avoided by case-fold sorting the tags file.
See 'tagbsearch' for details.
*tag-regexp*
The ":tag" and "tselect" commands accept a regular expression argument. See
|pattern| for the special characters that can be used.
When the argument starts with '/', it is used as a pattern. If the argument
does not start with '/', it is taken literally, as a full tag name.
Examples:
:tag main
jumps to the tag "main" that has the highest priority.
:tag /^get
jumps to the tag that starts with "get" and has the highest priority.
:tag /norm
lists all the tags that contain "norm", including "id_norm".
When the argument both exists literally, and match when used as a regexp, a
literal match has a higher priority. For example, ":tag /open" matches "open"
before "open_file" and "file_open".
When using a pattern case is ignored. If you want to match case use "\C" in
the pattern.
*tag-!*
If the tag is in the current file this will always work. Otherwise the
performed actions depend on whether the current file was changed, whether a !
is added to the command and on the 'autowrite' option:
tag in file autowrite
current file changed ! option action
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
yes x x x goto tag
no no x x read other file, goto tag
no yes yes x abandon current file, read other file, goto
tag
no yes no on write current file, read other file, goto
tag
no yes no off fail
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- If the tag is in the current file, the command will always work.
- If the tag is in another file and the current file was not changed, the
other file will be made the current file and read into the buffer.
- If the tag is in another file, the current file was changed and a ! is
added to the command, the changes to the current file are lost, the other
file will be made the current file and read into the buffer.
- If the tag is in another file, the current file was changed and the
'autowrite' option is on, the current file will be written, the other
file will be made the current file and read into the buffer.
- If the tag is in another file, the current file was changed and the
'autowrite' option is off, the command will fail. If you want to save
the changes, use the ":w" command and then use ":tag" without an argument.
This works because the tag is put on the stack anyway. If you want to lose
the changes you can use the ":tag!" command.
*tag-security*
Note that Vim forbids some commands, for security reasons. This works like
using the 'secure' option for exrc/vimrc files in the current directory. See
|trojan-horse| and |sandbox|.
When the {tagaddress} changes a buffer, you will get a warning message:
"WARNING: tag command changed a buffer!!!"

In a future version changing the buffer will be impossible. All this for
security reasons: Somebody might hide a nasty command in the tags file, which
would otherwise go unnoticed. Example:
:$d|/tag-function-name/
{this security prevention is not present in Vi}
In Vi the ":tag" command sets the last search pattern when the tag is searched
for. In Vim this is not done, the previous search pattern is still remembered,
unless the 't' flag is present in 'cpoptions'. The search pattern is always
put in the search history, so you can modify it if searching fails.
*emacs-tags* *emacs_tags* *E430*

Emacs style tag files are only supported if Vim was compiled with the
|+emacs_tags| feature enabled. Sorry, there is no explanation about Emacs tag
files here, it is only supported for backwards compatibility :-).
Lines in Emacs tags files can be very long. Vim only deals with lines of up
to about 510 bytes. To see whether lines are ignored set 'verbose' to 5 or
higher.
*tags-option*
The 'tags' option is a list of file names. Each of these files is searched
for the tag. This can be used to use a different tags file than the default
file "tags". It can also be used to access a common tags file.
The next file in the list is not used when:
- A matching static tag for the current buffer has been found.
- A matching global tag has been found.
This also depends on the 'ignorecase' option. If it is off, and the tags file
only has a match without matching case, the next tags file is searched for a
match with matching case. If no tag with matching case is found, the first
match without matching case is used. If 'ignorecase' is on, and a matching
global tag with or without matching case is found, this one is used, no
further tags files are searched.
When a tag file name starts with "./", the '.' is replaced with the path of
the current file. This makes it possible to use a tags file in the directory
where the current file is (no matter what the current directory is). The idea
of using "./" is that you can define which tag file is searched first: In the
current directory ("tags,./tags") or in the directory of the current file
("./tags,tags").
For example:
:set tags=./tags,tags,/home/user/commontags
In this example the tag will first be searched for in the file "tags" in the
directory where the current file is. Next the "tags" file in the current
directory. If it is not found there, then the file "/home/user/commontags"
will be searched for the tag.
This can be switched off by including the 'd' flag in 'cpoptions', to make
it Vi compatible. "./tags" will then be the tags file in the current
directory, instead of the tags file in the directory where the current file
is.
Instead of the comma a space may be used. Then a backslash is required for
the space to be included in the string option:
:set tags=tags\ /home/user/commontags
To include a space in a file name use three backslashes. To include a comma
in a file name use two backslashes. For example, use:
:set tags=tag\\\ file,/home/user/common\\,tags
for the files "tag file" and "/home/user/common,tags". The 'tags' option will
have the value "tag\ file,/home/user/common\,tags".
If the 'tagrelative' option is on (which is the default) and using a tag file
in another directory, file names in that tag file are relative to the
directory where the tag file is.
==============================================================================
5. Tags file format *tags-file-format* *E431*
*ctags* *jtags*
A tags file can be created with an external command, for example "ctags". It
will contain a tag for each function. Some versions of "ctags" will also make

a tag for each "#defined" macro, typedefs, enums, etc.

Some programs that generate tags files:
ctags As found on most Unix systems. Only supports C. Only
does the basic work.
*Exuberant_ctags*
exuberant ctags This a very good one. It works for C, C++, Java,
Fortran, Eiffel and others. It can generate tags for
many items. See http://ctags.sourceforge.net.
etags Connected to Emacs. Supports many languages.
JTags For Java, in Java. It can be found at
http://www.fleiner.com/jtags/.
ptags.py For Python, in Python. Found in your Python source
directory at Tools/scripts/ptags.py.
ptags For Perl, in Perl. It can be found at
http://www.eleves.ens.fr:8080/home/nthiery/Tags/.
gnatxref For Ada. See http://www.gnuada.org/. gnatxref is
part of the gnat package.
The lines in the tags file must have one of these three formats:
1. {tagname} {TAB} {tagfile} {TAB} {tagaddress}
2. {tagfile}:{tagname} {TAB} {tagfile} {TAB} {tagaddress}
3. {tagname} {TAB} {tagfile} {TAB} {tagaddress} {term} {field} ..
The first is a normal tag, which is completely compatible with Vi. It is the
only format produced by traditional ctags implementations. This is often used
for functions that are global, also referenced in other files.
The lines in the tags file can end in <LF> or <CR><LF>. On the Macintosh <CR>
also works. The <CR> and <NL> characters can never appear inside a line.
*tag-old-static*
The second format is for a static tag only. It is obsolete now, replaced by
the third format. It is only supported by Elvis 1.x and Vim and a few
versions of ctags. A static tag is often used for functions that are local,
only referenced in the file {tagfile}. Note that for the static tag, the two
occurrences of {tagfile} must be exactly the same. Also see |tags-option|
below, for how static tags are used.
The third format is new. It includes additional information in optional
fields at the end of each line. It is backwards compatible with Vi. It is
only supported by new versions of ctags (such as Exuberant ctags).
{tagname} The identifier. Normally the name of a function, but it can
be any identifier. It cannot contain a <Tab>.
{TAB} One <Tab> character. Note: previous versions allowed any
white space here. This has been abandoned to allow spaces in
{tagfile}. It can be re-enabled by including the
|+tag_any_white| feature at compile time. *tag-any-white*
{tagfile} The file that contains the definition of {tagname}. It can
have an absolute or relative path. It may contain environment
variables and wildcards (although the use of wildcards is
doubtful). It cannot contain a <Tab>.
{tagaddress} The Ex command that positions the cursor on the tag. It can
be any Ex command, although restrictions apply (see
|tag-security|). Posix only allows line numbers and search
commands, which are mostly used.
{term} ;" The two characters semicolon and double quote. This is
interpreted by Vi as the start of a comment, which makes the
following be ignored. This is for backwards compatibility
with Vi, it ignores the following fields.
{field} .. A list of optional fields. Each field has the form:
<Tab>{fieldname}:{value}
The {fieldname} identifies the field, and can only contain
alphabetical characters [a-zA-Z].
The {value} is any string, but cannot contain a <Tab>.
These characters are special:
"\t" stands for a <Tab>
"\r" stands for a <CR>
"\n" stands for a <NL>
"\\" stands for a single '\' character
There is one field that doesn't have a ':'. This is the kind

of the tag. It is handled like it was preceded with "kind:".

See the documentation of ctags for the kinds it produces.
The only other field currently recognized by Vim is "file:"
(with an empty value). It is used for a static tag.
The first lines in the tags file can contain lines that start with
!_TAG_
These are sorted to the first lines, only rare tags that start with "!" can
sort to before them. Vim recognizes two items. The first one is the line
that indicates if the file was sorted. When this line is found, Vim uses
binary searching for the tags file:
!_TAG_FILE_SORTED<Tab>1<Tab>{anything}
A tag file may be case-fold sorted to avoid a linear search when 'ignorecase'
is on. See 'tagbsearch' for details. The value '2' should be used then:
!_TAG_FILE_SORTED<Tab>2<Tab>{anything}
The other tag that Vim recognizes, but only when compiled with the
|+multi_byte| feature, is the encoding of the tags file:
!_TAG_FILE_ENCODING<Tab>utf-8<Tab>{anything}
Here "utf-8" is the encoding used for the tags. Vim will then convert the tag
being searched for from 'encoding' to the encoding of the tags file. And when
listing tags the reverse happens. When the conversion fails the unconverted
tag is used.
*tag-search*
The command can be any Ex command, but often it is a search command.
Examples:
tag1 file1 /^main(argc, argv)/
tag2 file2 108
The command is always executed with 'magic' not set. The only special
characters in a search pattern are "^" (begin-of-line) and "$" (<EOL>).
See |pattern|. Note that you must put a backslash before each backslash in
the search text. This is for backwards compatibility with Vi.
*E434* *E435*
If the command is a normal search command (it starts and ends with "/" or
"?"), some special handling is done:
- Searching starts on line 1 of the file.
The direction of the search is forward for "/", backward for "?".
Note that 'wrapscan' does not matter, the whole file is always searched. (Vi
does use 'wrapscan', which caused tags sometimes not be found.) {Vi starts
searching in line 2 of another file. It does not find a tag in line 1 of
another file when 'wrapscan' is not set}
- If the search fails, another try is done ignoring case. If that fails too,
a search is done for:
"^tagname[ \t]*("
(the tag with '^' prepended and "[ \t]*(" appended). When using function
names, this will find the function name when it is in column 0. This will
help when the arguments to the function have changed since the tags file was
made. If this search also fails another search is done with:
"^[#a-zA-Z_].*\<tagname[ \t]*("
This means: A line starting with '#' or an identifier and containing the tag
followed by white space and a '('. This will find macro names and function
names with a type prepended. {the extra searches are not in Vi}
==============================================================================
6. Include file searches *include-search* *definition-search*
*E387* *E388* *E389*
These commands look for a string in the current file and in all encountered
included files (recursively). This can be used to find the definition of a
variable, function or macro. If you only want to search in the current
buffer, use the commands listed at |pattern-searches|.
These commands are not available when the |+find_in_path| feature was disabled
at compile time.
When a line is encountered that includes another file, that file is searched
before continuing in the current buffer. Files included by included files are
also searched. When an include file could not be found it is silently
ignored. Use the |:checkpath| command to discover which files could not be
found, possibly your 'path' option is not set up correctly. Note: the
included file is searched, not a buffer that may be editing that file. Only

for the current file the lines in the buffer are used.
The string can be any keyword or a defined macro. For the keyword any match
will be found. For defined macros only lines that match with the 'define'
option will be found. The default is "^#\s*define", which is for C programs.
For other languages you probably want to change this. See 'define' for an
example for C++. The string cannot contain an end-of-line, only matches
within a line are found.
When a match is found for a defined macro, the displaying of lines continues
with the next line when a line ends in a backslash.
The commands that start with "[" start searching from the start of the current
file. The commands that start with "]" start at the current cursor position.
The 'include' option is used to define a line that includes another file. The
default is "\^#\s*include", which is for C programs. Note: Vim does not
recognize C syntax, if the 'include' option matches a line inside
"#ifdef/#endif" or inside a comment, it is searched anyway. The 'isfname'
option is used to recognize the file name that comes after the matched
pattern.
The 'path' option is used to find the directory for the include files that
do not have an absolute path.
The 'comments' option is used for the commands that display a single line or
jump to a line. It defines patterns that may start a comment. Those lines
are ignored for the search, unless [!] is used. One exception: When the line
matches the pattern "^# *define" it is not considered to be a comment.
If you want to list matches, and then select one to jump to, you could use a
mapping to do that for you. Here is an example:
:map <F4> [I:let nr = input("Which one: ")<Bar>exe "normal " . nr ."[\t"<CR>
*[i*
[i Display the first line that contains the keyword
under the cursor. The search starts at the beginning
of the file. Lines that look like a comment are
ignored (see 'comments' option). If a count is given,
the count'th matching line is displayed, and comment
lines are not ignored. {not in Vi}
*]i*
]i like "[i", but start at the current cursor position.
{not in Vi}
*:is* *:isearch*
:[range]is[earch][!] [count] [/]pattern[/]
Like "[i" and "]i", but search in [range] lines
(default: whole file).
See |:search-args| for [/] and [!]. {not in Vi}
*[I*
[I Display all lines that contain the keyword under the
cursor. Filenames and line numbers are displayed
for the found lines. The search starts at the
beginning of the file. {not in Vi}
*]I*
]I like "[I", but start at the current cursor position.
{not in Vi}
*:il* *:ilist*
:[range]il[ist][!] [/]pattern[/]
Like "[I" and "]I", but search in [range] lines
*[_CTRL-I*
[ CTRL-I Jump to the first line that contains the keyword
under the cursor. The search starts at the beginning
of the file. Lines that look like a comment are

ignored (see 'comments' option). If a count is given,

the count'th matching line is jumped to, and comment
lines are not ignored. {not in Vi}
*]_CTRL-I*
] CTRL-I like "[ CTRL-I", but start at the current cursor
position. {not in Vi}
*:ij* *:ijump*
:[range]ij[ump][!] [count] [/]pattern[/]
Like "[ CTRL-I" and "] CTRL-I", but search in
[range] lines (default: whole file).
CTRL-W CTRL-I *CTRL-W_CTRL-I* *CTRL-W_i*

CTRL-W i Open a new window, with the cursor on the first line
that contains the keyword under the cursor. The
search starts at the beginning of the file. Lines
that look like a comment line are ignored (see
'comments' option). If a count is given, the count'th
matching line is jumped to, and comment lines are not
ignored. {not in Vi}
*:isp* *:isplit*
:[range]isp[lit][!] [count] [/]pattern[/]
Like "CTRL-W i" and "CTRL-W i", but search in
*[d*
[d Display the first macro definition that contains the
macro under the cursor. The search starts from the
beginning of the file. If a count is given, the
count'th matching line is displayed. {not in Vi}
*]d*
]d like "[d", but start at the current cursor position.
{not in Vi}
*:ds* *:dsearch*
:[range]ds[earch][!] [count] [/]string[/]
Like "[d" and "]d", but search in [range] lines
*[D*
[D Display all macro definitions that contain the macro
under the cursor. Filenames and line numbers are
displayed for the found lines. The search starts
from the beginning of the file. {not in Vi}
*]D*
]D like "[D", but start at the current cursor position.
{not in Vi}
*:dli* *:dlist*
:[range]dl[ist][!] [/]string[/]
Like "[D" and "]D", but search in [range] lines
Note that ":dl" works like ":delete" with the "l"
flag.
*[_CTRL-D*
[ CTRL-D Jump to the first macro definition that contains the
keyword under the cursor. The search starts from
the beginning of the file. If a count is given, the
count'th matching line is jumped to. {not in Vi}

*]_CTRL-D*
] CTRL-D like "[ CTRL-D", but start at the current cursor
position. {not in Vi}
*:dj* *:djump*
:[range]dj[ump][!] [count] [/]string[/]
Like "[ CTRL-D" and "] CTRL-D", but search in
CTRL-W CTRL-D *CTRL-W_CTRL-D* *CTRL-W_d*

CTRL-W d Open a new window, with the cursor on the first
macro definition line that contains the keyword
under the cursor. The search starts from the
beginning of the file. If a count is given, the
count'th matching line is jumped to. {not in Vi}
*:dsp* *:dsplit*
:[range]dsp[lit][!] [count] [/]string[/]
Like "CTRL-W d", but search in [range] lines
*:che* *:checkpath*
:che[ckpath] List all the included files that could not be found.
{not in Vi}
:che[ckpath]! List all the included files. {not in Vi}
*:search-args*
Common arguments for the commands above:
[!] When included, find matches in lines that are recognized as comments.
When excluded, a match is ignored when the line is recognized as a
comment (according to 'comments'), or the match is in a C comment (after
"//" or inside /* */). Note that a match may be missed if a line is
recognized as a comment, but the comment ends halfway the line.
And if the line is a comment, but it is not recognized (according to
'comments') a match may be found in it anyway. Example:
/* comment
foobar */
A match for "foobar" is found, because this line is not recognized as a
comment (even though syntax highlighting does recognize it).
Note: Since a macro definition mostly doesn't look like a comment, the
[!] makes no difference for ":dlist", ":dsearch" and ":djump".
[/] A pattern can be surrounded by '/'. Without '/' only whole words are
matched, using the pattern "\<pattern\>". Only after the second '/' a
next command can be appended with '|'. Example:
:isearch /string/ | echo "the last one"
For a ":djump", ":dsplit", ":dlist" and ":dsearch" command the pattern
is used as a literal string, not as a search pattern.
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: change
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*change.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Feb 25
This file describes commands that delete or change text. In this context,
changing text means deleting the text and replacing it with other text using
one command. You can undo all of these commands. You can repeat the non-Ex
commands with the "." command.
1. Deleting text |deleting|
2. Delete and insert |delete-insert|
3. Simple changes |simple-change| *changing*
4. Complex changes |complex-change|
4.1 Filter commands |filter|
4.2 Substitute |:substitute|
4.3 Search and replace |search-replace|
4.4 Changing tabs |change-tabs|
5. Copying and moving text |copy-move|
6. Formatting text |formatting|
7. Sorting text |sorting|
For inserting text see |insert.txt|.
==============================================================================
1. Deleting text *deleting* *E470*
["x]<Del> or *<Del>* *x* *dl*

["x]x Delete [count] characters under and after the cursor
[into register x] (not |linewise|). Does the same as
"dl".
The <Del> key does not take a [count]. Instead, it
deletes the last character of the count.
See |:fixdel| if the <Del> key does not do what you
want. See |'whichwrap'| for deleting a line break
(join lines). {Vi does not support <Del>}
*X* *dh*
["x]X Delete [count] characters before the cursor [into
register x] (not |linewise|). Does the same as "dh".
Also see |'whichwrap'|.
*d*
["x]d{motion} Delete text that {motion} moves over [into register
x]. See below for exceptions.
*dd*
["x]dd Delete [count] lines [into register x] |linewise|.
*D*
["x]D Delete the characters under the cursor until the end
of the line and [count]-1 more lines [into register
x]; synonym for "d$".
(not |linewise|)
When the '#' flag is in 'cpoptions' the count is
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/change.html[2019/03/05 11:40:59 AM]

ignored.
{Visual}["x]x or *v_x* *v_d* *v_<Del>*

{Visual}["x]d or
{Visual}["x]<Del> Delete the highlighted text [into register x] (for
{Visual} see |Visual-mode|). {not in Vi}
{Visual}["x]CTRL-H or *v_CTRL-H* *v_<BS>*

{Visual}["x]<BS> When in Select mode: Delete the highlighted text [into
register x].
{Visual}["x]X or *v_X* *v_D* *v_b_D*

{Visual}["x]D Delete the highlighted lines [into register x] (for
{Visual} see |Visual-mode|). In Visual block mode,
"D" deletes the highlighted text plus all text until
the end of the line. {not in Vi}
*:d* *:de* *:del* *:delete*

:[range]d[elete] [x] Delete [range] lines (default: current line) [into
register x].
:[range]d[elete] [x] {count}
Delete {count} lines, starting with [range]
(default: current line |cmdline-ranges|) [into
register x].
These commands delete text. You can repeat them with the "." command
(except ":d") and undo them. Use Visual mode to delete blocks of text. See
|registers| for an explanation of registers.
An exception for the d{motion} command: If the motion is not linewise, the
start and end of the motion are not in the same line, and there are only
blanks before the start and after the end of the motion, the delete becomes
linewise. This means that the delete also removes the line of blanks that you
might expect to remain.
Trying to delete an empty region of text (e.g., "d0" in the first column)
is an error when 'cpoptions' includes the 'E' flag.
*J*
J Join [count] lines, with a minimum of two lines.
Remove the indent and insert up to two spaces (see
below).
*v_J*
{Visual}J Join the highlighted lines, with a minimum of two
lines. Remove the indent and insert up to two spaces
(see below). {not in Vi}
*gJ*
gJ Join [count] lines, with a minimum of two lines.
Don't insert or remove any spaces. {not in Vi}
*v_gJ*
{Visual}gJ Join the highlighted lines, with a minimum of two
lines. Don't insert or remove any spaces. {not in
Vi}
*:j* *:join*
:[range]j[oin][!] [flags]
Join [range] lines. Same as "J", except with [!]
the join does not insert or delete any spaces.
If a [range] has equal start and end values, this
command does nothing. The default behavior is to
join the current line with the line below it.
{not in Vi: !}
See |ex-flags| for [flags].
:[range]j[oin][!] {count} [flags]
Join {count} lines, starting with [range] (default:
current line |cmdline-ranges|). Same as "J", except

with [!] the join does not insert or delete any

spaces.
{not in Vi: !}
These commands delete the <EOL> between lines. This has the effect of joining
multiple lines into one line. You can repeat these commands (except ":j") and
undo them.
These commands, except "gJ", insert one space in place of the <EOL> unless
there is trailing white space or the next line starts with a ')'. These
commands, except "gJ", delete any leading white space on the next line. If
the 'joinspaces' option is on, these commands insert two spaces after a '.',
'!' or '?' (but if 'cpoptions' includes the 'j' flag, they insert two spaces
only after a '.').
The 'B' and 'M' flags in 'formatoptions' change the behavior for inserting
spaces before and after a multi-byte character |fo-table|.
==============================================================================
2. Delete and insert *delete-insert* *replacing*
*R*
R Enter Replace mode: Each character you type replaces
an existing character, starting with the character
under the cursor. Repeat the entered text [count]-1
times. See |Replace-mode| for more details.
*gR*
gR Enter Virtual Replace mode: Each character you type
replaces existing characters in screen space. So a
<Tab> may replace several characters at once.
Repeat the entered text [count]-1 times. See
|Virtual-Replace-mode| for more details.
{not available when compiled without the |+vreplace|
feature}
*c*
["x]c{motion} Delete {motion} text [into register x] and start
insert. When 'cpoptions' includes the 'E' flag and
there is no text to delete (e.g., with "cTx" when the
cursor is just after an 'x'), an error occurs and
insert mode does not start (this is Vi compatible).
When 'cpoptions' does not include the 'E' flag, the
"c" command always starts insert mode, even if there
is no text to delete.
*cc*
["x]cc Delete [count] lines [into register x] and start
insert |linewise|. If 'autoindent' is on, preserve
the indent of the first line.
*C*
["x]C Delete from the cursor position to the end of the
line and [count]-1 more lines [into register x], and
start insert. Synonym for c$ (not |linewise|).
*s*
["x]s Delete [count] characters [into register x] and start
insert (s stands for Substitute). Synonym for "cl"
(not |linewise|).
*S*
["x]S Delete [count] lines [into register x] and start
insert. Synonym for "cc" |linewise|.
{Visual}["x]c or *v_c* *v_s*

{Visual}["x]s Delete the highlighted text [into register x] and
start insert (for {Visual} see |Visual-mode|). {not
in Vi}

*v_r*
{Visual}["x]r{char} Replace all selected characters by {char}.
*v_C*
{Visual}["x]C Delete the highlighted lines [into register x] and
start insert. In Visual block mode it works
differently |v_b_C|. {not in Vi}
*v_S*
{Visual}["x]S Delete the highlighted lines [into register x] and
start insert (for {Visual} see |Visual-mode|). {not
in Vi}
*v_R*
{Visual}["x]R Currently just like {Visual}["x]S. In a next version
it might work differently. {not in Vi}
Notes:
- You can end Insert and Replace mode with <Esc>.
- See the section "Insert and Replace mode" |mode-ins-repl| for the other
special characters in these modes.
- The effect of [count] takes place after Vim exits Insert or Replace mode.
- When the 'cpoptions' option contains '$' and the change is within one line,
Vim continues to show the text to be deleted and puts a '$' at the last
deleted character.
See |registers| for an explanation of registers.
Replace mode is just like Insert mode, except that every character you enter
deletes one character. If you reach the end of a line, Vim appends any
further characters (just like Insert mode). In Replace mode, the backspace
key restores the original text (if there was any). (See section "Insert and
Replace mode" |mode-ins-repl|).
*cw* *cW*
Special case: When the cursor is in a word, "cw" and "cW" do not include the
white space after a word, they only change up to the end of the word. This is
because Vim interprets "cw" as change-word, and a word does not include the
following white space.
{Vi: "cw" when on a blank followed by other blanks changes only the first
blank; this is probably a bug, because "dw" deletes all the blanks; use the
'w' flag in 'cpoptions' to make it work like Vi anyway}
If you prefer "cw" to include the space after a word, use this mapping:
:map cw dwi
Or use "caw" (see |aw|).
*:c* *:ch* *:change*

:{range}c[hange][!] Replace lines of text with some different text.
Type a line containing only "." to stop replacing.
Without {range}, this command changes only the current
line.
Adding [!] toggles 'autoindent' for the time this
command is executed.
==============================================================================
3. Simple changes *simple-change*
*r*
r{char} Replace the character under the cursor with {char}.
If {char} is a <CR> or <NL>, a line break replaces the
character. To replace with a real <CR>, use CTRL-V
<CR>. CTRL-V <NL> replaces with a <Nul>.
{Vi: CTRL-V <CR> still replaces with a line break,
cannot replace something with a <CR>}
If you give a [count], Vim replaces [count] characters
with [count] {char}s. When {char} is a <CR> or <NL>,
however, Vim inserts only one <CR>: "5r<CR>" replaces
five characters with a single line break.
When {char} is a <CR> or <NL>, Vim performs
autoindenting. This works just like deleting the
characters that are replaced and then doing
"i<CR><Esc>".
{char} can be entered as a digraph |digraph-arg|.

|:lmap| mappings apply to {char}. The CTRL-^ command

in Insert mode can be used to switch this on/off
|i_CTRL-^|. See |utf-8-char-arg| about using
composing characters when 'encoding' is Unicode.
*gr*
gr{char} Replace the virtual characters under the cursor with
{char}. This replaces in screen space, not file
space. See |gR| and |Virtual-Replace-mode| for more
details. As with |r| a count may be given.
{char} can be entered like with |r|.
{not available when compiled without the |+vreplace|
feature}
*digraph-arg*
The argument for Normal mode commands like |r| and |t| is a single character.
When 'cpo' doesn't contain the 'D' flag, this character can also be entered
like |digraphs|. First type CTRL-K and then the two digraph characters.
{not available when compiled without the |+digraphs| feature}
*case*
The following commands change the case of letters. The currently active
|locale| is used. See |:language|. The LC_CTYPE value matters here.
*~*
~ 'notildeop' option: Switch case of the character
under the cursor and move the cursor to the right.
If a [count] is given, do that many characters. {Vi:
no count}
~{motion} 'tildeop' option: switch case of {motion} text. {Vi:
tilde cannot be used as an operator}
*g~*
g~{motion} Switch case of {motion} text. {not in Vi}
g~g~ *g~g~* *g~~*

g~~ Switch case of current line. {not in Vi}.
*v_~*
{Visual}~ Switch case of highlighted text (for {Visual} see
|Visual-mode|). {not in Vi}
*v_U*
{Visual}U Make highlighted text uppercase (for {Visual} see
*gU* *uppercase*
gU{motion} Make {motion} text uppercase. {not in Vi}
Example:
:map! <C-F> <Esc>gUiw`]a
This works in Insert mode: press CTRL-F to make the
word before the cursor uppercase. Handy to type
words in lowercase and then make them uppercase.
gUgU *gUgU* *gUU*

gUU Make current line uppercase. {not in Vi}.
*v_u*
{Visual}u Make highlighted text lowercase (for {Visual} see
*gu* *lowercase*
gu{motion} Make {motion} text lowercase. {not in Vi}

gugu *gugu* *guu*

guu Make current line lowercase. {not in Vi}.
*g?* *rot13*
g?{motion} Rot13 encode {motion} text. {not in Vi}
*v_g?*
{Visual}g? Rot13 encode the highlighted text (for {Visual} see
g?g? *g?g?* *g??*

g?? Rot13 encode current line. {not in Vi}.
To turn one line into title caps, make every first letter of a word
uppercase:
:s/\v<(.)(\w*)/\u\1\L\2/g
Adding and subtracting

*CTRL-A*
CTRL-A Add [count] to the number or alphabetic character at
or after the cursor. {not in Vi}
*CTRL-X*
CTRL-X Subtract [count] from the number or alphabetic
character at or after the cursor. {not in Vi}
The CTRL-A and CTRL-X commands work for (signed) decimal numbers, unsigned
octal and hexadecimal numbers and alphabetic characters. This depends on the
'nrformats' option.
- When 'nrformats' includes "octal", Vim considers numbers starting with a '0'
to be octal, unless the number includes a '8' or '9'. Other numbers are
decimal and may have a preceding minus sign.
If the cursor is on a number, the commands apply to that number; otherwise
Vim uses the number to the right of the cursor.
- When 'nrformats' includes "hex", Vim assumes numbers starting with '0x' or
'0X' are hexadecimal. The case of the rightmost letter in the number
determines the case of the resulting hexadecimal number. If there is no
letter in the current number, Vim uses the previously detected case.
- When 'nrformats' includes "alpha", Vim will change the alphabetic character
under or after the cursor. This is useful to make lists with an alphabetic
index.
For numbers with leading zeros (including all octal and hexadecimal numbers),
Vim preserves the number of characters in the number when possible. CTRL-A on
"0077" results in "0100", CTRL-X on "0x100" results in "0x0ff".
There is one exception: When a number that starts with a zero is found not to
be octal (it contains a '8' or '9'), but 'nrformats' does include "octal",
leading zeros are removed to avoid that the result may be recognized as an
octal number.
Note that when 'nrformats' includes "octal", decimal numbers with leading
zeros cause mistakes, because they can be confused with octal numbers.
The CTRL-A command is very useful in a macro. Example: Use the following
steps to make a numbered list.
1. Create the first list entry, make sure it starts with a number.
2. qa - start recording into register 'a'
3. Y - yank the entry
4. p - put a copy of the entry below the first one
5. CTRL-A - increment the number
6. q - stop recording
7. <count>@a - repeat the yank, put and increment <count> times
SHIFTING LINES LEFT OR RIGHT *shift-left-right*
*<*
<{motion} Shift {motion} lines one 'shiftwidth' leftwards.
*<<*

<< Shift [count] lines one 'shiftwidth' leftwards.
*v_<*
{Visual}[count]< Shift the highlighted lines [count] 'shiftwidth'
leftwards (for {Visual} see |Visual-mode|). {not in
Vi}
*>*
>{motion} Shift {motion} lines one 'shiftwidth' rightwards.
*>>*
>> Shift [count] lines one 'shiftwidth' rightwards.
*v_>*
{Visual}[count]> Shift the highlighted lines [count] 'shiftwidth'
rightwards (for {Visual} see |Visual-mode|). {not in
Vi}
*:<*
:[range]< Shift [range] lines one 'shiftwidth' left. Repeat '<'
for shifting multiple 'shiftwidth's.
:[range]< {count} Shift {count} lines one 'shiftwidth' left, starting
with [range] (default current line |cmdline-ranges|).
Repeat '<' for shifting multiple 'shiftwidth's.
:[range]le[ft] [indent] left align lines in [range]. Sets the indent in the
lines to [indent] (default 0). {not in Vi}
*:>*
:[range]> [flags] Shift {count} [range] lines one 'shiftwidth' right.
Repeat '>' for shifting multiple 'shiftwidth's.
:[range]> {count} [flags]
Shift {count} lines one 'shiftwidth' right, starting
with [range] (default current line |cmdline-ranges|).
Repeat '>' for shifting multiple 'shiftwidth's.
The ">" and "<" commands are handy for changing the indentation within
programs. Use the 'shiftwidth' option to set the size of the white space
which these commands insert or delete. Normally the 'shiftwidth' option is 8,
but you can set it to, say, 3 to make smaller indents. The shift leftwards
stops when there is no indent. The shift right does not affect empty lines.
If the 'shiftround' option is on, the indent is rounded to a multiple of
'shiftwidth'.
If the 'smartindent' option is on, or 'cindent' is on and 'cinkeys' contains
'#', shift right does not affect lines starting with '#' (these are supposed
to be C preprocessor lines that must stay in column 1).
When the 'expandtab' option is off (this is the default) Vim uses <Tab>s as
much as possible to make the indent. You can use ">><<" to replace an indent
made out of spaces with the same indent made out of <Tab>s (and a few spaces
if necessary). If the 'expandtab' option is on, Vim uses only spaces. Then
you can use ">><<" to replace <Tab>s in the indent by spaces (or use
":retab!").
To move a line several 'shiftwidth's, use Visual mode or the ":" commands.
For example:
Vjj4> move three lines 4 indents to the right
:<<< move current line 3 indents to the left
:>> 5 move 5 lines 2 indents to the right
:5>> move line 5 2 indents to the right
==============================================================================
4. Complex changes *complex-change*
4.1 Filter commands *filter*

A filter is a program that accepts text at standard input, changes it in some

way, and sends it to standard output. You can use the commands below to send
some text through a filter, so that it is replaced by the filter output.
Examples of filters are "sort", which sorts lines alphabetically, and
"indent", which formats C program files (you need a version of indent that
works like a filter; not all versions do). The 'shell' option specifies the
shell Vim uses to execute the filter command (See also the 'shelltype'
option). You can repeat filter commands with ".". Vim does not recognize a
comment (starting with '"'') after the ":!" command.
*!*
!{motion}{filter} Filter {motion} text lines through the external
program {filter}.
*!!*
!!{filter} Filter [count] lines through the external program
{filter}.
*v_!*
{Visual}!{filter} Filter the highlighted lines through the external
program {filter} (for {Visual} see |Visual-mode|).
{not in Vi}
:{range}![!]{filter} [!][arg] *:range!*

Filter {range} lines through the external program
{filter}. Vim replaces the optional bangs with the
latest given command and appends the optional [arg].
Vim saves the output of the filter command in a
temporary file and then reads the file into the buffer
|tempfile|. Vim uses the 'shellredir' option to
redirect the filter output to the temporary file.
However, if the 'shelltemp' option is off then pipes
are used when possible (on Unix).
When the 'R' flag is included in 'cpoptions' marks in
the filtered lines are deleted, unless the
|:keepmarks| command is used. Example:
:keepmarks '<,'>!sort
When the number of lines after filtering is less than
before, marks in the missing lines are deleted anyway.
*=*
={motion} Filter {motion} lines through the external program
given with the 'equalprg' option. When the 'equalprg'
option is empty (this is the default), use the
internal formatting function |C-indenting|. But when
'indentexpr' is not empty, it will be used instead
|indent-expression|. When Vim was compiled without
internal formatting then the "indent" program is used
as a last resort.
*==*
== Filter [count] lines like with ={motion}.
*v_=*
{Visual}= Filter the highlighted lines like with ={motion}.
{not in Vi}
*tempfile* *setuid*
Vim uses temporary files for filtering, generating diffs and also for
tempname(). For Unix, the file will be in a private directory (only
accessible by the current user) to avoid security problems (e.g., a symlink
attack or other people reading your file). When Vim exits the directory and
all files in it are deleted. When Vim has the setuid bit set this may cause
problems, the temp file is owned by the setuid user but the filter command
probably runs as the original user.
On MS-DOS and OS/2 the first of these directories that works is used: $TMP,
$TEMP, c:\TMP, c:\TEMP.
For Unix the list of directories is: $TMPDIR, /tmp, current-dir, $HOME.
For MS-Windows the GetTempFileName() system function is used.
For other systems the tmpnam() library function is used.

4.2 Substitute *:substitute*

*:s* *:su*
:[range]s[ubstitute]/{pattern}/{string}/[flags] [count]
For each line in [range] replace a match of {pattern}
with {string}.
For the {pattern} see |pattern|.
{string} can be a literal string, or something
special; see |sub-replace-special|.
When [range] and [count] are omitted, replace in the
current line only.
When [count] is given, replace in [count] lines,
starting with the last line in [range]. When [range]
is omitted start in the current line.
Also see |cmdline-ranges|.
See |:s_flags| for [flags].
:[range]s[ubstitute] [flags] [count]
:[range]&[&][flags] [count] *:&*
Repeat last :substitute with same search pattern and
substitute string, but without the same flags. You
may add [flags], see |:s_flags|.
Note that after ":substitute" the '&' flag can't be
used, it's recognized as a pattern separator.
The space between ":substitute" and the 'c', 'g' and
'r' flags isn't required, but in scripts it's a good
idea to keep it to avoid confusion.
:[range]~[&][flags] [count] *:~*

Repeat last substitute with same substitute string
but with last used search pattern. This is like
":&r". See |:s_flags| for [flags].
*&*
& Synonym for ":s" (repeat last substitute). Note
that the flags are not remembered, thus it might
actually work differently. You can use ":&&" to keep
the flags.
*g&*
g& Synonym for ":%s//~/&" (repeat last substitute on all
lines with the same flags).
Mnemonic: global substitute. {not in Vi}
*:snomagic* *:sno*
:[range]sno[magic] ... Same as ":substitute", but always use 'nomagic'.
{not in Vi}
*:smagic* *:sm*
:[range]sm[agic] ... Same as ":substitute", but always use 'magic'.
{not in Vi}
*:s_flags*
The flags that you can use for the substitute commands:
[&] Must be the first one: Keep the flags from the previous substitute
command. Examples:
:&&
:s/this/that/&
Note that ":s" and ":&" don't keep the flags.
{not in Vi}
[c] Confirm each substitution. Vim highlights the matching string (with
|hl-IncSearch|). You can type: *:s_c*
'y' to substitute this match
'l' to substitute this match and then quit ("last")
'n' to skip this match
<Esc> to quit substituting
'a' to substitute this and all remaining matches {not in Vi}

'q' to quit substituting {not in Vi}

CTRL-Eto scroll the screen up {not in Vi, not available when
compiled without the |+insert_expand| feature}
CTRL-Y to scroll the screen down {not in Vi, not available when
compiled without the |+insert_expand| feature}
If the 'edcompatible' option is on, Vim remembers the [c] flag and
toggles it each time you use it, but resets it when you give a new
search pattern.
{not in Vi: highlighting of the match, other responses than 'y' or 'n'}
[e] When the search pattern fails, do not issue an error message and, in
particular, continue in maps as if no error occurred. This is most
useful to prevent the "No match" error from breaking a mapping. Vim
does not suppress the following error messages, however:
Regular expressions can't be delimited by letters
\ should be followed by /, ? or &
No previous substitute regular expression
Trailing characters
Interrupted
{not in Vi}
[g] Replace all occurrences in the line. Without this argument,
replacement occurs only for the first occurrence in each line. If
the 'edcompatible' option is on, Vim remembers this flag and toggles
it each time you use it, but resets it when you give a new search
pattern. If the 'gdefault' option is on, this flag is on by default
and the [g] argument switches it off.
[i] Ignore case for the pattern. The 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase' options
are not used.
{not in Vi}
[I] Don't ignore case for the pattern. The 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase'
options are not used.
{not in Vi}
[n] Report the number of matches, do not actually substitute. The [c]
flag is ignored. The matches are reported as if 'report' is zero.
Useful to |count-items|.
[p] Print the line containing the last substitute.
[#] Like [p] and prepend the line number.
[l] Like [p] but print the text like |:list|.
[r] Only useful in combination with ":&" or ":s" without arguments. ":&r"
works the same way as ":~": When the search pattern is empty, use the
previously used search pattern instead of the search pattern from the
last substitute or ":global". If the last command that did a search
was a substitute or ":global", there is no effect. If the last
command was a search command such as "/", use the pattern from that
command.
For ":s" with an argument this already happens:
:s/blue/red/
/green
:s//red/ or :~ or :&r
The last commands will replace "green" with "red".
:s/blue/red/
/green
:&
The last command will replace "blue" with "red".
{not in Vi}
Note that there is no flag to change the "magicness" of the pattern. A
different command is used instead, or you can use |/\v| and friends. The
reason is that the flags can only be found by skipping the pattern, and in
order to skip the pattern the "magicness" must be known. Catch 22!
If the {pattern} for the substitute command is empty, the command uses the
pattern from the last substitute or ":global" command. If there is none, but
there is a previous search pattern, that one is used. With the [r] flag, the
command uses the pattern from the last substitute, ":global", or search
command.
If the {string} is omitted the substitute is done as if it's empty. Thus the
matched pattern is deleted. The separator after {pattern} can also be left
out then. Example:
:%s/TESTING
This deletes "TESTING" from all lines, but only one per line.

For compatibility with Vi these two exceptions are allowed:

"\/{string}/" and "\?{string}?" do the same as "//{string}/r".
"\&{string}&" does the same as "//{string}/".
*E146*
Instead of the '/' which surrounds the pattern and replacement string, you
can use any other single-byte character, but not an alphanumeric character,
'\', '"'' or '|'. This is useful if you want to include a '/' in the search
pattern or replacement string. Example:
:s+/+//+
For the definition of a pattern, see |pattern|. In Visual block mode, use
|/\%V| in the pattern to have the substitute work in the block only.
Otherwise it works on whole lines anyway.
*sub-replace-special* *:s\=*
When the {string} starts with "\=" it is evaluated as an expression, see
|sub-replace-expression|. You can use that for any special characters.
Otherwise these characters in {string} have a special meaning:
*:s%*
When {string} is equal to "%" and '/' is included with the 'cpoptions' option,
then the {string} of the previous substitute command is used. |cpo-/|
magic nomagic action
& \& replaced with the whole matched pattern *s/\&*
\& & replaced with &
\0 replaced with the whole matched pattern *\0* *s/\0*
\1 replaced with the matched pattern in the first
pair of () *s/\1*
\2 replaced with the matched pattern in the second
pair of () *s/\2*
.. .. *s/\3*
\9 replaced with the matched pattern in the ninth
pair of () *s/\9*
~ \~ replaced with the {string} of the previous
substitute *s~*
\~ ~ replaced with ~ *s/\~*
\u next character made uppercase *s/\u*
\U following characters made uppercase, until \E *s/\U*
\l next character made lowercase *s/\l*
\L following characters made lowercase, until \E *s/\L*
\e end of \u, \U, \l and \L (NOTE: not <Esc>!) *s/\e*
\E end of \u, \U, \l and \L *s/\E*
<CR> split line in two at this point
(Type the <CR> as CTRL-V <Enter>) *s<CR>*
\r idem *s/\r*
\<CR> insert a carriage-return (CTRL-M)
(Type the <CR> as CTRL-V <Enter>) *s/\<CR>*
\n insert a <NL> (<NUL> in the file)
(does NOT break the line) *s/\n*
\b insert a <BS> *s/\b*
\t insert a <Tab> *s/\t*
\\ insert a single backslash *s/\\*
\x where x is any character not mentioned above:

Reserved for future expansion

Examples:
:s/a\|b/xxx\0xxx/g modifies "a b" to "xxxaxxx xxxbxxx"
:s/$[abc]$$[efg]$/\2\1/g modifies "af fa bg" to "fa fa gb"
:s/abcde/abc^Mde/ modifies "abcde" to "abc", "de" (two lines)
:s/$/\^M/ modifies "abcde" to "abcde^M"
:s/\w\+/\u\0/g modifies "bla bla" to "Bla Bla"
Note: In previous versions CTRL-V was handled in a special way. Since this is
not Vi compatible, this was removed. Use a backslash instead.
command text result
:s/aa/a^Ma/ aa a<line-break>a
:s/aa/a\^Ma/ aa a^Ma
:s/aa/a\\^Ma/ aa a\<line-break>a
(you need to type CTRL-V <CR> to get a ^M here)
The numbering of "\1", "\2" etc. is done based on which "$" comes first in
the pattern (going left to right). When a parentheses group matches several
times, the last one will be used for "\1", "\2", etc. Example:
:s/\(\(a[a-d] $*\)/\2/ modifies "aa ab x" to "ab x"
When using parentheses in combination with '|', like in $[ab]$\|$[cd]$,
either the first or second pattern in parentheses did not match, so either
\1 or \2 is empty. Example:
:s/$[ab]$\|$[cd]$/\1x/g modifies "a b c d" to "ax bx x x"
Substitute with an expression *sub-replace-expression*

*sub-replace-\=*
When the substitute string starts with "\=" the remainder is interpreted as an
expression. This does not work recursively: a substitute() function inside
the expression cannot use "\=" for the substitute string.
The special meaning for characters as mentioned at |sub-replace-special| does
not apply except for "<CR>", "\<CR>" and "\\". Thus in the result of the
expression you need to use two backslashes to get one, put a backslash before a
<CR> you want to insert, and use a <CR> without a backslash where you want to
break the line.
For convenience a <NL> character is also used as a line break. Prepend a
backslash to get a real <NL> character (which will be a NUL in the file).
When the result is a |List| then the items are joined with separating line
breaks. Thus each item becomes a line, except that they can contain line
breaks themselves.
The whole matched text can be accessed with "submatch(0)". The text matched
with the first pair of () with "submatch(1)". Likewise for further
sub-matches in ().
Be careful: The separation character must not appear in the expression!
Consider using a character like "@" or ":". There is no problem if the result
of the expression contains the separation character.
Examples:
:s@\n@\="\r" . expand("$HOME") . "\r"@
This replaces an end-of-line with a new line containing the value of $HOME.
s/E/\="\<Char-0x20ac>"/g
This replaces each 'E' character with a euro sign. Read more in |<Char->|.
4.3 Search and replace *search-replace*
*:pro* *:promptfind*
:promptf[ind] [string]
Put up a Search dialog. When [string] is given, it is
used as the initial search string.
{only for Win32, Motif and GTK GUI}
*:promptr* *:promptrepl*

:promptr[epl] [string]
Put up a Search/Replace dialog. When [string] is
given, it is used as the initial search string.
{only for Win32, Motif and GTK GUI}
4.4 Changing tabs *change-tabs*

*:ret* *:retab*
:[range]ret[ab][!] [new_tabstop]
Replace all sequences of white-space containing a
<Tab> with new strings of white-space using the new
tabstop value given. If you do not specify a new
tabstop size or it is zero, Vim uses the current value
of 'tabstop'.
The current value of 'tabstop' is always used to
compute the width of existing tabs.
With !, Vim also replaces strings of only normal
spaces with tabs where appropriate.
With 'expandtab' on, Vim replaces all tabs with the
appropriate number of spaces.
This command sets 'tabstop' to the new value given,
and if performed on the whole file, which is default,
should not make any visible change.
Careful: This command modifies any <Tab> characters
inside of strings in a C program. Use "\t" to avoid
this (that's a good habit anyway).
":retab!" may also change a sequence of spaces by
<Tab> characters, which can mess up a printf().
{not in Vi}
Not available when |+ex_extra| feature was disabled at
compile time.
*retab-example*
Example for using autocommands and ":retab" to edit a file which is stored
with tabstops at 8 but edited with tabstops set at 4. Warning: white space
inside of strings can change! Also see 'softtabstop' option.
:auto BufReadPost *.xx retab! 4
:auto BufWritePre *.xx retab! 8
:auto BufWritePost *.xx retab! 4
:auto BufNewFile *.xx set ts=4
==============================================================================
5. Copying and moving text *copy-move*
*quote*
"{a-zA-Z0-9.%#:-"} Use register {a-zA-Z0-9.%#:-"} for next delete, yank
or put (use uppercase character to append with
delete and yank) ({.%#:} only work with put).
*:reg* *:registers*
:reg[isters] Display the contents of all numbered and named
registers. If a register is written to for |:redir|
it will not be listed.
{not in Vi}
:reg[isters] {arg} Display the contents of the numbered and named

registers that are mentioned in {arg}. For example:
:dis 1a
to display registers '1' and 'a'. Spaces are allowed
in {arg}. {not in Vi}
*:di* *:display*
:di[splay] [arg] Same as :registers. {not in Vi}
*y* *yank*
["x]y{motion} Yank {motion} text [into register x]. When no
characters are to be yanked (e.g., "y0" in column 1),
this is an error when 'cpoptions' includes the 'E'
flag.

*yy*
["x]yy Yank [count] lines [into register x] |linewise|.
*Y*
["x]Y yank [count] lines [into register x] (synonym for
yy, |linewise|). If you like "Y" to work from the
cursor to the end of line (which is more logical,
but not Vi-compatible) use ":map Y y$".
*v_y*
{Visual}["x]y Yank the highlighted text [into register x] (for
*v_Y*
{Visual}["x]Y Yank the highlighted lines [into register x] (for
*:y* *:yank*
:[range]y[ank] [x] Yank [range] lines [into register x].
:[range]y[ank] [x] {count}
Yank {count} lines, starting with last line number
in [range] (default: current line |cmdline-ranges|),
[into register x].
*p* *put* *E353*

["x]p Put the text [from register x] after the cursor
[count] times. {Vi: no count}
*P*
["x]P Put the text [from register x] before the cursor
[count] times. {Vi: no count}
*<MiddleMouse>*
["x]<MiddleMouse> Put the text from a register before the cursor [count]
times. Uses the "* register, unless another is
specified.
Leaves the cursor at the end of the new text.
Using the mouse only works when 'mouse' contains 'n'
or 'a'.
{not in Vi}
If you have a scrollwheel and often accidentally paste
text, you can use these mappings to disable the
pasting with the middle mouse button:
:map <MiddleMouse> <Nop>
:imap <MiddleMouse> <Nop>
You might want to disable the multi-click versions
too, see |double-click|.
*gp*
["x]gp Just like "p", but leave the cursor just after the new
text. {not in Vi}
*gP*
["x]gP Just like "P", but leave the cursor just after the new
text. {not in Vi}
*:pu* *:put*
:[line]pu[t] [x] Put the text [from register x] after [line] (default
current line). This always works |linewise|, thus
this command can be used to put a yanked block as new
lines.
The cursor is left on the first non-blank in the last
new line.
The register can also be '=' followed by an optional
expression. The expression continues until the end of
the command. You need to escape the '|' and '"''

characters to prevent them from terminating the

command. Example:
:put ='path' . \",/test\"
If there is no expression after '=', Vim uses the
previous expression. You can see it with ":dis =".
:[line]pu[t]! [x] Put the text [from register x] before [line] (default
current line).
["x]]p or *]p* *]<MiddleMouse>*

["x]]<MiddleMouse> Like "p", but adjust the indent to the current line.
or 'a'. {not in Vi}
["x][P or *[P*
["x]]P or *]P*
["x][p or *[p* *[<MiddleMouse>*
["x][<MiddleMouse> Like "P", but adjust the indent to the current line.
or 'a'. {not in Vi}
You can use these commands to copy text from one place to another. Do this
by first getting the text into a register with a yank, delete or change
command, then inserting the register contents with a put command. You can
also use these commands to move text from one file to another, because Vim
preserves all registers when changing buffers (the CTRL-^ command is a quick
way to toggle between two files).
*linewise-register* *characterwise-register*
You can repeat the put commands with "." (except for :put) and undo them. If
the command that was used to get the text into the register was |linewise|,
Vim inserts the text below ("p") or above ("P") the line where the cursor is.
Otherwise Vim inserts the text after ("p") or before ("P") the cursor. With
the ":put" command, Vim always inserts the text in the next line. You can
exchange two characters with the command sequence "xp". You can exchange two
lines with the command sequence "ddp". You can exchange two words with the
command sequence "deep" (start with the cursor in the blank space before the
first word). You can use the "']" or "`]" command after the put command to
move the cursor to the end of the inserted text, or use "'[" or "`[" to move
the cursor to the start.
*put-Visual-mode* *v_p* *v_P*

When using a put command like |p| or |P| in Visual mode, Vim will try to
replace the selected text with the contents of the register. Whether this
works well depends on the type of selection and the type of the text in the
register. With blockwise selection it also depends on the size of the block
and whether the corners are on an existing character. (Implementation detail:
it actually works by first putting the register after the selection and then
deleting the selection.)
The previously selected text is put in the unnamed register. If you want to
put the same text into a Visual selection several times you need to use
another register. E.g., yank the text to copy, Visually select the text to
replace and use "0p . You can repeat this as many times as you like, the
unnamed register will be changed each time.
*blockwise-register*
If you use a blockwise Visual mode command to get the text into the register,
the block of text will be inserted before ("P") or after ("p") the cursor
column in the current and next lines. Vim makes the whole block of text start
in the same column. Thus the inserted text looks the same as when it was
yanked or deleted. Vim may replace some <Tab> characters with spaces to make
this happen. However, if the width of the block is not a multiple of a <Tab>
width and the text after the inserted block contains <Tab>s, that text may be
misaligned.
Note that after a characterwise yank command, Vim leaves the cursor on the
first yanked character that is closest to the start of the buffer. This means
that "yl" doesn't move the cursor, but "yh" moves the cursor one character
left.
Rationale: In Vi the "y" command followed by a backwards motion would
sometimes not move the cursor to the first yanked character,
because redisplaying was skipped. In Vim it always moves to
the first character, as specified by Posix.

With a linewise yank command the cursor is put in the first line, but the
column is unmodified, thus it may not be on the first yanked character.
There are nine types of registers: *registers* *E354*

1. The unnamed register ""
2. 10 numbered registers "0 to "9
3. The small delete register "-
4. 26 named registers "a to "z or "A to "Z
5. four read-only registers ":, "., "% and "#
6. the expression register "=
7. The selection and drop registers "*, "+ and "~
8. The black hole register "_
9. Last search pattern register "/
1. Unnamed register "" *quote_quote* *quotequote*

Vim fills this register with text deleted with the "d", "c", "s", "x" commands
or copied with the yank "y" command, regardless of whether or not a specific
register was used (e.g. "xdd). This is like the unnamed register is pointing
to the last used register. Thus when appending using an uppercase register
name, the unnamed register contains the same text as the named register.
An exception is the '_' register: "_dd does not store the deleted text in any
register.
Vim uses the contents of the unnamed register for any put command (p or P)
which does not specify a register. Additionally you can access it with the
name '"''. This means you have to type two double quotes. Writing to the ""
register writes to register "0.
{Vi: register contents are lost when changing files, no '"''}
2. Numbered registers "0 to "9 *quote_number* *quote0* *quote1*

*quote2* *quote3* *quote4* *quote9*
Vim fills these registers with text from yank and delete commands.
Numbered register 0 contains the text from the most recent yank command,
unless the command specified another register with ["x].
Numbered register 1 contains the text deleted by the most recent delete or
change command, unless the command specified another register or the text is
less than one line (the small delete register is used then). An exception is
made for the delete operator with these movement commands: |%|, |(|, |)|, |`|,
|/|, |?|, |n|, |N|, |{| and |}|. Register "1 is always used then (this is Vi
compatible). The "- register is used as well if the delete is within a line.
With each successive deletion or change, Vim shifts the previous contents
of register 1 into register 2, 2 into 3, and so forth, losing the previous
contents of register 9.
{Vi: numbered register contents are lost when changing files; register 0 does
not exist}
3. Small delete register "- *quote_-* *quote-*

This register contains text from commands that delete less than one line,
except when the command specifies a register with ["x].
{not in Vi}
4. Named registers "a to "z or "A to "Z *quote_alpha* *quotea*

Vim fills these registers only when you say so. Specify them as lowercase
letters to replace their previous contents or as uppercase letters to append
to their previous contents. When the '>' flag is present in 'cpoptions' then
a line break is inserted before the appended text.
5. Read-only registers ":, "., "% and "#
These are '%', '#', ':' and '.'. You can use them only with the "p", "P",
and ":put" commands and with CTRL-R. {not in Vi}
*quote_.* *quote.* *E29*
". Contains the last inserted text (the same as what is inserted
with the insert mode commands CTRL-A and CTRL-@). Note: this
doesn't work with CTRL-R on the command-line. It works a bit
differently, like inserting the text instead of putting it
('textwidth' and other options affect what is inserted).
*quote_%* *quote%*
"% Contains the name of the current file.
*quote_#* *quote#*
"# Contains the name of the alternate file.
*quote_:* *quote:* *E30*

": Contains the most recent executed command-line. Example: Use

"@:" to repeat the previous command-line command.
The command-line is only stored in this register when at least
one character of it was typed. Thus it remains unchanged if
the command was completely from a mapping.
{not available when compiled without the |+cmdline_hist|
feature}
6. Expression register "= *quote_=* *quote=* *@=*

This is not really a register that stores text, but is a way to use an
expression in commands which use a register. The expression register is
read-only; you cannot put text into it. After the '=', the cursor moves to
the command-line, where you can enter any expression (see |expression|). All
normal command-line editing commands are available, including a special
history for expressions. When you end the command-line by typing <CR>, Vim
computes the result of the expression. If you end it with <Esc>, Vim abandons
the expression. If you do not enter an expression, Vim uses the previous
expression (like with the "/" command).
The expression must evaluate to a String. A Number is always automatically
converted to a String. For the "p" and ":put" command, if the result is a
Float it's converted into a String. If the result is a List each element is
turned into a String and used as a line. A Dictionary or FuncRef results in
an error message (use string() to convert).
If the "= register is used for the "p" command, the String is split up at <NL>
characters. If the String ends in a <NL>, it is regarded as a linewise
register. {not in Vi}
7. Selection and drop registers "*, "+ and "~
Use these registers for storing and retrieving the selected text for the GUI.
See |quotestar| and |quoteplus|. When the clipboard is not available or not
working, the unnamed register is used instead. For Unix systems the clipboard
is only available when the |+xterm_clipboard| feature is present. {not in Vi}
Note that there is only a distinction between "* and "+ for X11 systems. For
an explanation of the difference, see |x11-selection|. Under MS-Windows, use
of "* and "+ is actually synonymous and refers to the |gui-clipboard|.
*quote_~* *quote~* *<Drop>*

The read-only "~ register stores the dropped text from the last drag'n'drop
operation. When something has been dropped onto Vim, the "~ register is
filled in and the <Drop> pseudo key is sent for notification. You can remap
this key if you want; the default action (for all modes) is to insert the
contents of the "~ register at the cursor position. {not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+dnd| feature, currently only with the
GTK GUI}
Note: The "~ register is only used when dropping plain text onto Vim.
Drag'n'drop of URI lists is handled internally.
8. Black hole register "_ *quote_*

When writing to this register, nothing happens. This can be used to delete
text without affecting the normal registers. When reading from this register,
nothing is returned. {not in Vi}
9. Last search pattern register "/ *quote_/* *quote/*
Contains the most recent search-pattern. This is used for "n" and 'hlsearch'.
It is writable with ":let", you can change it to have 'hlsearch' highlight
other matches without actually searching. You can't yank or delete into this
register. The search direction is available in |v:searchforward|.
Note that the valued is restored when returning from a function
|function-search-undo|.
{not in Vi}
*@/*
You can write to a register with a ":let" command |:let-@|. Example:
:let @/ = "the"
If you use a put command without specifying a register, Vim uses the register
that was last filled (this is also the contents of the unnamed register). If
you are confused, use the ":dis" command to find out what Vim will put (this
command displays all named and numbered registers; the unnamed register is
labelled '"'').
The next three commands always work on whole lines.

:[range]co[py] {address} *:co* *:copy*

Copy the lines given by [range] to below the line
given by {address}.
*:t*
:t Synonym for copy.
:[range]m[ove] {address} *:m* *:mo* *:move* *E134*

Move the lines given by [range] to below the line
given by {address}.
==============================================================================
6. Formatting text *formatting*
:[range]ce[nter] [width] *:ce* *:center*

Center lines in [range] between [width] columns
(default 'textwidth' or 80 when 'textwidth' is 0).
{not in Vi}
compile time.
:[range]ri[ght] [width] *:ri* *:right*

Right-align lines in [range] at [width] columns
(default 'textwidth' or 80 when 'textwidth' is 0).
{not in Vi}
compile time.
*:le* *:left*
:[range]le[ft] [indent]
Left-align lines in [range]. Sets the indent in the
lines to [indent] (default 0). {not in Vi}
compile time.
*gq*
gq{motion} Format the lines that {motion} moves over.
Formatting is done with one of three methods:
1. If 'formatexpr' is not empty the expression is
evaluated. This can differ for each buffer.
2. If 'formatprg' is not empty an external program
is used.
3. Otherwise formatting is done internally.
In the third case the 'textwidth' option controls the
length of each formatted line (see below).
If the 'textwidth' option is 0, the formatted line
length is the screen width (with a maximum width of
79).
The 'formatoptions' option controls the type of
formatting |fo-table|.
The cursor is left on the first non-blank of the last
formatted line.
NOTE: The "Q" command formerly performed this
function. If you still want to use "Q" for
formatting, use this mapping:
:nnoremap Q gq
gqgq *gqgq* *gqq*

gqq Format the current line. With a count format that
many lines. {not in Vi}
*v_gq*
{Visual}gq Format the highlighted text. (for {Visual} see
*gw*
gw{motion} Format the lines that {motion} moves over. Similar to

|gq| but puts the cursor back at the same position in

the text. However, 'formatprg' and 'formatexpr' are
not used. {not in Vi}
gwgw *gwgw* *gww*

gww Format the current line as with "gw". {not in Vi}
*v_gw*
{Visual}gw Format the highlighted text as with "gw". (for
Example: To format the current paragraph use: *gqap*

gqap
The "gq" command leaves the cursor in the line where the motion command takes
the cursor. This allows you to repeat formatting repeated with ".". This
works well with "gqj" (format current and next line) and "gq}" (format until
end of paragraph). Note: When 'formatprg' is set, "gq" leaves the cursor on
the first formatted line (as with using a filter command).
If you want to format the current paragraph and continue where you were, use:
gwap
If you always want to keep paragraphs formatted you may want to add the 'a'
flag to 'formatoptions'. See |auto-format|.
If the 'autoindent' option is on, Vim uses the indent of the first line for
the following lines.
Formatting does not change empty lines (but it does change lines with only
white space!).
The 'joinspaces' option is used when lines are joined together.
You can set the 'formatexpr' option to an expression or the 'formatprg' option
to the name of an external program for Vim to use for text formatting. The
'textwidth' and other options have no effect on formatting by an external
program.
*right-justify*
There is no command in Vim to right justify text. You can do it with
an external command, like "par" (e.g.: "!}par" to format until the end of the
paragraph) or set 'formatprg' to "par".
*format-comments*
An overview of comment formatting is in section |30.6| of the user manual.
Vim can automatically insert and format comments in a special way. Vim
recognizes a comment by a specific string at the start of the line (ignoring
white space). Three types of comments can be used:
- A comment string that repeats at the start of each line. An example is the
type of comment used in shell scripts, starting with "#".
- A comment string that occurs only in the first line, not in the following
lines. An example is this list with dashes.
- Three-piece comments that have a start string, an end string, and optional
lines in between. The strings for the start, middle and end are different.
An example is the C style comment:
/*
* this is a C comment
*/
The 'comments' option is a comma-separated list of parts. Each part defines a
type of comment string. A part consists of:
{flags}:{string}
{string} is the literal text that must appear.
{flags}:
n Nested comment. Nesting with mixed parts is allowed. If 'comments'
is "n:),n:>" a line starting with "> ) >" is a comment.
b Blank (<Space>, <Tab> or <EOL>) required after {string}.
f Only the first line has the comment string. Do not repeat comment on
the next line, but preserve indentation (e.g., a bullet-list).

s Start of three-piece comment

m Middle of a three-piece comment
e End of a three-piece comment
l Left align. Used together with 's' or 'e', the leftmost character of
start or end will line up with the leftmost character from the middle.
This is the default and can be omitted. See below for more details.
r Right align. Same as above but rightmost instead of leftmost. See
below for more details.
O Don't consider this comment for the "O" command.
x Allows three-piece comments to be ended by just typing the last
character of the end-comment string as the first action on a new
line when the middle-comment string has been inserted automatically.
See below for more details.
{digits}
When together with 's' or 'e': add {digit} amount of offset to an
automatically inserted middle or end comment leader. The offset begins
from a left alignment. See below for more details.
-{digits}
Like {digits} but reduce the indent. This only works when there is
some indent for the start or end part that can be removed.
When a string has none of the 'f', 's', 'm' or 'e' flags, Vim assumes the
comment string repeats at the start of each line. The flags field may be
empty.
Any blank space in the text before and after the {string} is part of the
{string}, so do not include leading or trailing blanks unless the blanks are a
required part of the comment string.
When one comment leader is part of another, specify the part after the whole.
For example, to include both "-" and "->", use
:set comments=f:->,f:-
A three-piece comment must always be given as start,middle,end, with no other
parts in between. An example of a three-piece comment is
sr:/*,mb:*,ex:*/
for C-comments. To avoid recognizing "*ptr" as a comment, the middle string
includes the 'b' flag. For three-piece comments, Vim checks the text after
the start and middle strings for the end string. If Vim finds the end string,
the comment does not continue on the next line. Three-piece comments must
have a middle string because otherwise Vim can't recognize the middle lines.
Notice the use of the "x" flag in the above three-piece comment definition.
When you hit Return in a C-comment, Vim will insert the middle comment leader
for the new line: " * ". To close this comment you just have to type "/"
before typing anything else on the new line. This will replace the
middle-comment leader with the end-comment leader and apply any specified
alignment, leaving just " */". There is no need to hit BackSpace first.
Here is an example of alignment flags at work to make a comment stand out

(kind of looks like a 1 too). Consider comment string
sr:/***,m:**,ex2:******/
/***
**<--right aligned from "r" flag
**
offset 2 spaces from the "2" flag--->**
******/
In this case, the first comment was typed, then return was pressed 4 times,
then "/" was pressed to end the comment.
Here are some finer points of three part comments. There are three times when
alignment and offset flags are taken into consideration: opening a new line
after a start-comment, opening a new line before an end-comment, and
automatically ending a three-piece comment. The end alignment flag has a
backwards perspective; the result is that the same alignment flag used with
"s" and "e" will result in the same indent for the starting and ending pieces.
Only one alignment per comment part is meant to be used, but an offset number
will override the "r" and "l" flag.

Enabling 'cindent' will override the alignment flags in many cases.

Reindenting using a different method like |gq| or |=| will not consult
alignment flags either. The same behaviour can be defined in those other
formatting options. One consideration is that 'cindent' has additional options
for context based indenting of comments but cannot replicate many three piece
indent alignments. However, 'indentexpr' is has the ability to work better
with three piece comments.
Other examples:
"b:*" Includes lines starting with "*", but not if the "*" is
followed by a non-blank. This avoids a pointer dereference
like "*str" to be recognized as a comment.
"n:>" Includes a line starting with ">", ">>", ">>>", etc.
"fb:-" Format a list that starts with "- ".
By default, "b:#" is included. This means that a line that starts with
"#include" is not recognized as a comment line. But a line that starts with
"# define" is recognized. This is a compromise.
{not available when compiled without the |+comments| feature}
*fo-table*
You can use the 'formatoptions' option to influence how Vim formats text.
'formatoptions' is a string that can contain any of the letters below. The
default setting is "tcq". You can separate the option letters with commas for
readability.
letter meaning when present in 'formatoptions'
t Auto-wrap text using textwidth
c Auto-wrap comments using textwidth, inserting the current comment
leader automatically.
r Automatically insert the current comment leader after hitting
<Enter> in Insert mode.
o Automatically insert the current comment leader after hitting 'o' or
'O' in Normal mode.
q Allow formatting of comments with "gq".
Note that formatting will not change blank lines or lines containing
only the comment leader. A new paragraph starts after such a line,
or when the comment leader changes.
w Trailing white space indicates a paragraph continues in the next line.
A line that ends in a non-white character ends a paragraph.
a Automatic formatting of paragraphs. Every time text is inserted or
deleted the paragraph will be reformatted. See |auto-format|.
When the 'c' flag is present this only happens for recognized
comments.
n When formatting text, recognize numbered lists. This actually uses
the 'formatlistpat' option, thus any kind of list can be used. The
indent of the text after the number is used for the next line. The
default is to find a number, optionally followed by '.', ':', ')',
']' or '}'. Note that 'autoindent' must be set too. Doesn't work
well together with "2".
Example:
1. the first item
wraps
2. the second item
2 When formatting text, use the indent of the second line of a paragraph
for the rest of the paragraph, instead of the indent of the first
line. This supports paragraphs in which the first line has a
different indent than the rest. Note that 'autoindent' must be set
too. Example:
first line of a paragraph
second line of the same paragraph
third line.
v Vi-compatible auto-wrapping in insert mode: Only break a line at a
blank that you have entered during the current insert command. (Note:
this is not 100% Vi compatible. Vi has some "unexpected features" or
bugs in this area. It uses the screen column instead of the line
column.)
b Like 'v', but only auto-wrap if you enter a blank at or before
the wrap margin. If the line was longer than 'textwidth' when you
started the insert, or you do not enter a blank in the insert before
reaching 'textwidth', Vim does not perform auto-wrapping.
l Long lines are not broken in insert mode: When a line was longer than
'textwidth' when the insert command started, Vim does not
automatically format it.
m Also break at a multi-byte character above 255. This is useful for
Asian text where every character is a word on its own.

M When joining lines, don't insert a space before or after a multi-byte

character. Overrules the 'B' flag.
B When joining lines, don't insert a space between two multi-byte
characters. Overruled by the 'M' flag.
1 Don't break a line after a one-letter word. It's broken before it
instead (if possible).
With 't' and 'c' you can specify when Vim performs auto-wrapping:
value action
"" no automatic formatting (you can use "gq" for manual formatting)
"t" automatic formatting of text, but not comments
"c" automatic formatting for comments, but not text (good for C code)
"tc" automatic formatting for text and comments
Note that when 'textwidth' is 0, Vim does no automatic formatting anyway (but
does insert comment leaders according to the 'comments' option). An exception
is when the 'a' flag is present. |auto-format|
Note that when 'paste' is on, Vim does no formatting at all.
Note that 'textwidth' can be non-zero even if Vim never performs auto-wrapping;
'textwidth' is still useful for formatting with "gq".
If the 'comments' option includes "/*", "*" and/or "*/", then Vim has some
built in stuff to treat these types of comments a bit more cleverly.
Opening a new line before or after "/*" or "*/" (with 'r' or 'o' present in
'formatoptions') gives the correct start of the line automatically. The same
happens with formatting and auto-wrapping. Opening a line after a line
starting with "/*" or "*" and containing "*/", will cause no comment leader to
be inserted, and the indent of the new line is taken from the line containing
the start of the comment.
E.g.:
/*
* Your typical comment.
*/
The indent on this line is the same as the start of the above
comment.
All of this should be really cool, especially in conjunction with the new
:autocmd command to prepare different settings for different types of file.
Some examples:
for C code (only format comments):
:set fo=croq
for Mail/news (format all, don't start comment with "o" command):
:set fo=tcrq
Automatic formatting *auto-format*

When the 'a' flag is present in 'formatoptions' text is formatted
automatically when inserting text or deleting text. This works nice for
editing text paragraphs. A few hints on how to use this:
- You need to properly define paragraphs. The simplest is paragraphs that are
separated by a blank line. When there is no separating blank line, consider
using the 'w' flag and adding a space at the end of each line in the
paragraphs except the last one.
- You can set the 'formatoptions' based on the type of file |filetype| or
specifically for one file with a |modeline|.
- Set 'formatoptions' to "aw2tq" to make text with indents like this:
bla bla foobar bla
bla foobar bla foobar bla
bla bla foobar bla
bla foobar bla bla foobar
- Add the 'c' flag to only auto-format comments. Useful in source code.
- Set 'textwidth' to the desired width. If it is zero then 79 is used, or the
width of the screen if this is smaller.
And a few warnings:
- When part of the text is not properly separated in paragraphs, making
changes in this text will cause it to be formatted anyway. Consider doing

:set fo-=a
- When using the 'w' flag (trailing space means paragraph continues) and
deleting the last line of a paragraph with |dd|, the paragraph will be
joined with the next one.
- Changed text is saved for undo. Formatting is also a change. Thus each
format action saves text for undo. This may consume quite a lot of memory.
- Formatting a long paragraph and/or with complicated indenting may be slow.
==============================================================================
7. Sorting text *sorting*
Vim has a sorting function and a sorting command. The sorting function can be
found here: |sort()|.
*:sor* *:sort*
:[range]sor[t][!] [i][u][r][n][x][o] [/{pattern}/]
Sort lines in [range]. When no range is given all
lines are sorted.
With [!] the order is reversed.
With [i] case is ignored.
With [n] sorting is done on the first decimal number
in the line (after or inside a {pattern} match).
One leading '-' is included in the number.
With [x] sorting is done on the first hexadecimal
number in the line (after or inside a {pattern}
match). A leading "0x" or "0X" is ignored.
One leading '-' is included in the number.
With [o] sorting is done on the first octal number in
the line (after or inside a {pattern} match).
With [u] only keep the first of a sequence of
identical lines (ignoring case when [i] is used).
Without this flag, a sequence of identical lines
will be kept in their original order.
Note that leading and trailing white space may cause
lines to be different.
When /{pattern}/ is specified and there is no [r] flag
the text matched with {pattern} is skipped, so that
you sort on what comes after the match.
Instead of the slash any non-letter can be used.
For example, to sort on the second comma-separated
field:
:sort /[^,]*,/
To sort on the text at virtual column 10 (thus
ignoring the difference between tabs and spaces):
:sort /.*\%10v/
To sort on the first number in the line, no matter
what is in front of it:
:sort /.\{-}\ze\d/
(Explanation: ".\{-}" matches any text, "\ze" sets the
end of the match and \d matches a digit.)
With [r] sorting is done on the matching {pattern}
instead of skipping past it as described above.
For example, to sort on only the first three letters
of each line:
:sort /\a\a\a/ r
If a {pattern} is used, any lines which don't have a
match for {pattern} are kept in their current order,
but separate from the lines which do match {pattern}.
If you sorted in reverse, they will be in reverse
order after the sorted lines, otherwise they will be
in their original order, right before the sorted
lines.
If {pattern} is empty (e.g. // is specified), the
last search pattern is used. This allows trying out
a pattern first.

Note that using ":sort" with ":global" doesn't sort the matching lines, it's
quite useless.
The details about sorting depend on the library function used. There is no
guarantee that sorting is "stable" or obeys the current locale. You will have
to try it out.
The sorting can be interrupted, but if you interrupt it too late in the
process you may end up with duplicated lines. This also depends on the system
library function used.
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: insert
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*insert.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Nov 10
*Insert* *Insert-mode*
Inserting and replacing text *mode-ins-repl*
Most of this file is about Insert and Replace mode. At the end are a few
commands for inserting text in other ways.
An overview of the most often used commands can be found in chapter 24 of the
user manual |usr_24.txt|.
1. Special keys |ins-special-keys|
2. Special special keys |ins-special-special|
3. 'textwidth' and 'wrapmargin' options |ins-textwidth|
4. 'expandtab', 'smarttab' and 'softtabstop' options |ins-expandtab|
5. Replace mode |Replace-mode|
6. Virtual Replace mode |Virtual-Replace-mode|
7. Insert mode completion |ins-completion|
8. Insert mode commands |inserting|
9. Ex insert commands |inserting-ex|
10. Inserting a file |inserting-file|
Also see 'virtualedit', for moving the cursor to positions where there is no
character. Useful for editing a table.
==============================================================================
1. Special keys *ins-special-keys*
In Insert and Replace mode, the following characters have a special meaning;
other characters are inserted directly. To insert one of these special
characters into the buffer, precede it with CTRL-V. To insert a <Nul>
character use "CTRL-V CTRL-@" or "CTRL-V 000". On some systems, you have to
use "CTRL-V 003" to insert a CTRL-C. Note: When CTRL-V is mapped you can
often use CTRL-Q instead |i_CTRL-Q|.
If you are working in a special language mode when inserting text, see the
'langmap' option, |'langmap'|, on how to avoid switching this mode on and off
all the time.
If you have 'insertmode' set, <Esc> and a few other keys get another meaning.
See |'insertmode'|.
char action
*i_CTRL-[* *i_<Esc>*
<Esc> or CTRL-[ End insert or Replace mode, go back to Normal mode. Finish
abbreviation.
Note: If your <Esc> key is hard to hit on your keyboard, train
yourself to use CTRL-[.
*i_CTRL-C*
CTRL-C Quit insert mode, go back to Normal mode. Do not check for
abbreviations. Does not trigger the |InsertLeave| autocommand
event.
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/insert.html[2019/03/05 11:41:02 AM]

*i_CTRL-@*
CTRL-@ Insert previously inserted text and stop insert. {Vi: only
when typed as first char, only up to 128 chars}
*i_CTRL-A*
CTRL-A Insert previously inserted text. {not in Vi}
*i_CTRL-H* *i_<BS>* *i_BS*

<BS> or CTRL-H Delete the character before the cursor (see |i_backspacing|
about joining lines).
See |:fixdel| if your <BS> key does not do what you want.
{Vi: does not delete autoindents}
*i_<Del>* *i_DEL*
<Del> Delete the character under the cursor. If the cursor is at
the end of the line, and the 'backspace' option includes
"eol", delete the <EOL>; the next line is appended after the
current one.
See |:fixdel| if your <Del> key does not do what you want.
{not in Vi}
*i_CTRL-W*
CTRL-W Delete the word before the cursor (see |i_backspacing| about
joining lines). See the section "word motions",
|word-motions|, for the definition of a word.
*i_CTRL-U*
CTRL-U Delete all entered characters in the current line (see
|i_backspacing| about joining lines).
*i_CTRL-I* *i_<Tab>* *i_Tab*

<Tab> or CTRL-I Insert a tab. If the 'expandtab' option is on, the
equivalent number of spaces is inserted (use CTRL-V <Tab> to
avoid the expansion; use CTRL-Q <Tab> if CTRL-V is mapped
|i_CTRL-Q|). See also the 'smarttab' option and
|ins-expandtab|.
*i_CTRL-J* *i_<NL>*
<NL> or CTRL-J Begin new line.
*i_CTRL-M* *i_<CR>*
<CR> or CTRL-M Begin new line.
*i_CTRL-K*
CTRL-K {char1} [char2]
Enter digraph (see |digraphs|). When {char1} is a special
key, the code for that key is inserted in <> form. For
example, the string "<S-Space>" can be entered by typing
<C-K><S-Space> (two keys). Neither char is considered for
mapping. {not in Vi}
CTRL-N Find next keyword (see |i_CTRL-N|). {not in Vi}
CTRL-P Find previous keyword (see |i_CTRL-P|). {not in Vi}
CTRL-R {0-9a-z"%#*+:.-=} *i_CTRL-R*

Insert the contents of a register. Between typing CTRL-R and
the second character, '"'' will be displayed to indicate that
you are expected to enter the name of a register.
The text is inserted as if you typed it, but mappings and
abbreviations are not used. If you have options like
'textwidth', 'formatoptions', or 'autoindent' set, this will
influence what will be inserted. This is different from what
happens with the "p" command and pasting with the mouse.
Special registers:
'"'' the unnamed register, containing the text of
the last delete or yank
'%' the current file name
'#' the alternate file name
'*' the clipboard contents (X11: primary selection)
'+' the clipboard contents
'/' the last search pattern
':' the last command-line
'.' the last inserted text
'-' the last small (less than a line) delete
*i_CTRL-R_=*
'=' the expression register: you are prompted to

enter an expression (see |expression|)

Note that 0x80 (128 decimal) is used for
special keys. E.g., you can use this to move
the cursor up:
CTRL-R ="\<Up>"
Use CTRL-R CTRL-R to insert text literally.
When the result is a |List| the items are used
as lines. They can have line breaks inside
too.
When the result is a Float it's automatically
converted to a String.
See |registers| about registers. {not in Vi}
CTRL-R CTRL-R {0-9a-z"%#*+/:.-=} *i_CTRL-R_CTRL-R*

Insert the contents of a register. Works like using a single
CTRL-R, but the text is inserted literally, not as if typed.
This differs when the register contains characters like <BS>.
Example, where register a contains "ab^Hc":
CTRL-R a results in "ac".
CTRL-R CTRL-R a results in "ab^Hc".
Options 'textwidth', 'formatoptions', etc. still apply. If
you also want to avoid these, use "<C-R><C-O>r", see below.
The '.' register (last inserted text) is still inserted as
typed. {not in Vi}
CTRL-R CTRL-O {0-9a-z"%#*+/:.-=} *i_CTRL-R_CTRL-O*

Insert the contents of a register literally and don't
auto-indent. Does the same as pasting with the mouse
|<MiddleMouse>|.
Does not replace characters!
typed. {not in Vi}
CTRL-R CTRL-P {0-9a-z"%#*+/:.-=} *i_CTRL-R_CTRL-P*

Insert the contents of a register literally and fix the
indent, like |[<MiddleMouse>|.
Does not replace characters!
typed. {not in Vi}
*i_CTRL-T*
CTRL-T Insert one shiftwidth of indent at the start of the current
line. The indent is always rounded to a 'shiftwidth' (this is
vi compatible). {Vi: only when in indent}
*i_CTRL-D*
CTRL-D Delete one shiftwidth of indent at the start of the current
line. The indent is always rounded to a 'shiftwidth' (this is
vi compatible). {Vi: CTRL-D works only when used after
autoindent}
*i_0_CTRL-D*
0 CTRL-D Delete all indent in the current line. {Vi: CTRL-D works
only when used after autoindent}
*i_^_CTRL-D*
^ CTRL-D Delete all indent in the current line. The indent is
restored in the next line. This is useful when inserting a
label. {Vi: CTRL-D works only when used after autoindent}
*i_CTRL-V*
CTRL-V Insert next non-digit literally. For special keys, the
terminal code is inserted. It's also possible to enter the
decimal, octal or hexadecimal value of a character
|i_CTRL-V_digit|.
The characters typed right after CTRL-V are not considered for
mapping. {Vi: no decimal byte entry}
Note: When CTRL-V is mapped (e.g., to paste text) you can
often use CTRL-Q instead |i_CTRL-Q|.
*i_CTRL-Q*
CTRL-Q Same as CTRL-V.
Note: Some terminal connections may eat CTRL-Q, it doesn't
work then. It does work in the GUI.

CTRL-X Enter CTRL-X mode. This is a sub-mode where commands can

be given to complete words or scroll the window. See
|i_CTRL-X| and |ins-completion|. {not in Vi}
*i_CTRL-E*
CTRL-E Insert the character which is below the cursor. {not in Vi}
*i_CTRL-Y*
CTRL-Y Insert the character which is above the cursor. {not in Vi}
Note that for CTRL-E and CTRL-Y 'textwidth' is not used, to be
able to copy characters from a long line.
*i_CTRL-_*
CTRL-_ Switch between languages, as follows:
- When in a rightleft window, revins and nohkmap are toggled,
since English will likely be inserted in this case.
- When in a norightleft window, revins and hkmap are toggled,
since Hebrew will likely be inserted in this case.
CTRL-_ moves the cursor to the end of the typed text.
This command is only available when the 'allowrevins' option
is set.
Please refer to |rileft.txt| for more information about
right-to-left mode.
{not in Vi}
Only if compiled with the |+rightleft| feature.
*i_CTRL-^*
CTRL-^ Toggle the use of typing language characters.
When language |:lmap| mappings are defined:
- If 'iminsert' is 1 (langmap mappings used) it becomes 0 (no
langmap mappings used).
- If 'iminsert' has another value it becomes 1, thus langmap
mappings are enabled.
When no language mappings are defined:
- If 'iminsert' is 2 (Input Method used) it becomes 0 (no
Input Method used).
- If 'iminsert' has another value it becomes 2, thus the Input
Method is enabled.
When set to 1, the value of the "b:keymap_name" variable, the
'keymap' option or "<lang>" appears in the status line.
The language mappings are normally used to type characters
that are different from what the keyboard produces. The
'keymap' option can be used to install a whole number of them.
{not in Vi}
*i_CTRL-]*
CTRL-] Trigger abbreviation, without inserting a character. {not in
Vi}
*i_<Insert>*
<Insert> Toggle between Insert and Replace mode. {not in Vi}
*i_backspacing*
The effect of the <BS>, CTRL-W, and CTRL-U depend on the 'backspace' option
(unless 'revins' is set). This is a comma separated list of items:
item action
indent allow backspacing over autoindent
eol allow backspacing over end-of-line (join lines)
start allow backspacing over the start position of insert; CTRL-W and
CTRL-U stop once at the start position
When 'backspace' is empty, Vi compatible backspacing is used. You cannot
backspace over autoindent, before column 1 or before where insert started.
For backwards compatibility the values "0", "1" and "2" are also allowed, see
|'backspace'|.
If the 'backspace' option does contain "eol" and the cursor is in column 1
when one of the three keys is used, the current line is joined with the
previous line. This effectively deletes the <EOL> in front of the cursor.

{Vi: does not cross lines, does not delete past start position of insert}
*i_CTRL-V_digit*
With CTRL-V the decimal, octal or hexadecimal value of a character can be
entered directly. This way you can enter any character, except a line break
(<NL>, value 10). There are five ways to enter the character value:
first char mode max nr of chars max value
(none) decimal 3 255
o or O octal 3 377 (255)
x or X hexadecimal 2 ff (255)
u hexadecimal 4 ffff (65535)
U hexadecimal 8 7fffffff (2147483647)
Normally you would type the maximum number of characters. Thus to enter a
space (value 32) you would type <C-V>032. You can omit the leading zero, in
which case the character typed after the number must be a non-digit. This
happens for the other modes as well: As soon as you type a character that is
invalid for the mode, the value before it will be used and the "invalid"
character is dealt with in the normal way.
If you enter a value of 10, it will end up in the file as a 0. The 10 is a
<NL>, which is used internally to represent the <Nul> character. When writing
the buffer to a file, the <NL> character is translated into <Nul>. The <NL>
character is written at the end of each line. Thus if you want to insert a
<NL> character in a file you will have to make a line break.
*i_CTRL-X* *insert_expand*
CTRL-X enters a sub-mode where several commands can be used. Most of these
commands do keyword completion; see |ins-completion|. These are not available
when Vim was compiled without the |+insert_expand| feature.
Two commands can be used to scroll the window up or down, without exiting
insert mode:
*i_CTRL-X_CTRL-E*
CTRL-X CTRL-E scroll window one line up.
When doing completion look here: |complete_CTRL-E|
*i_CTRL-X_CTRL-Y*
CTRL-X CTRL-Y scroll window one line down.
When doing completion look here: |complete_CTRL-Y|
After CTRL-X is pressed, each CTRL-E (CTRL-Y) scrolls the window up (down) by
one line unless that would cause the cursor to move from its current position
in the file. As soon as another key is pressed, CTRL-X mode is exited and
that key is interpreted as in Insert mode.
==============================================================================
2. Special special keys *ins-special-special*
The following keys are special. They stop the current insert, do something,
and then restart insertion. This means you can do something without getting
out of Insert mode. This is very handy if you prefer to use the Insert mode
all the time, just like editors that don't have a separate Normal mode. You
may also want to set the 'backspace' option to "indent,eol,start" and set the
'insertmode' option. You can use CTRL-O if you want to map a function key to
a command.
The changes (inserted or deleted characters) before and after these keys can
be undone separately. Only the last change can be redone and always behaves
like an "i" command.
char action
<Up> cursor one line up *i_<Up>*
<Down> cursor one line down *i_<Down>*
CTRL-G <Up> cursor one line up, insert start column *i_CTRL-G_<Up>*
CTRL-G k cursor one line up, insert start column *i_CTRL-G_k*
CTRL-G CTRL-K cursor one line up, insert start column *i_CTRL-G_CTRL-K*

CTRL-G <Down> cursor one line down, insert start column *i_CTRL-G_<Down>*
CTRL-G j cursor one line down, insert start column *i_CTRL-G_j*
CTRL-G CTRL-J cursor one line down, insert start column *i_CTRL-G_CTRL-J*
<Left> cursor one character left *i_<Left>*
<Right> cursor one character right *i_<Right>*
<S-Left> cursor one word back (like "b" command) *i_<S-Left>*
<C-Left> cursor one word back (like "b" command) *i_<C-Left>*
<S-Right> cursor one word forward (like "w" command) *i_<S-Right>*
<C-Right> cursor one word forward (like "w" command) *i_<C-Right>*
<Home> cursor to first char in the line *i_<Home>*
<End> cursor to after last char in the line *i_<End>*
<C-Home> cursor to first char in the file *i_<C-Home>*
<C-End> cursor to after last char in the file *i_<C-End>*
<LeftMouse> cursor to position of mouse click *i_<LeftMouse>*
<S-Up> move window one page up *i_<S-Up>*
<PageUp> move window one page up *i_<PageUp>*
<S-Down> move window one page down *i_<S-Down>*
<PageDown> move window one page down *i_<PageDown>*
<ScrollWheelDown> move window three lines down *i_<ScrollWheelDown>*
<S-ScrollWheelDown> move window one page down *i_<S-ScrollWheelDown>*
<ScrollWheelUp> move window three lines up *i_<ScrollWheelUp>*
<S-ScrollWheelUp> move window one page up *i_<S-ScrollWheelUp>*
<ScrollWheelLeft> move window six columns left *i_<ScrollWheelLeft>*
<S-ScrollWheelLeft> move window one page left *i_<S-ScrollWheelLeft>*
<ScrollWheelRight> move window six columns right *i_<ScrollWheelRight>*
<S-ScrollWheelRight> move window one page right *i_<S-ScrollWheelRight>*
CTRL-O execute one command, return to Insert mode *i_CTRL-O*
CTRL-\ CTRL-O like CTRL-O but don't move the cursor *i_CTRL-\_CTRL-O*
CTRL-L when 'insertmode' is set: go to Normal mode *i_CTRL-L*
CTRL-G u break undo sequence, start new change *i_CTRL-G_u*
Note: If the cursor keys take you out of Insert mode, check the 'noesckeys'
option.
The CTRL-O command sometimes has a side effect: If the cursor was beyond the
end of the line, it will be put on the last character in the line. In
mappings it's often better to use <Esc> (first put an "x" in the text, <Esc>
will then always put the cursor on it). Or use CTRL-\ CTRL-O, but then
beware of the cursor possibly being beyond the end of the line.
The CTRL-O command takes you to Normal mode. If you then use a command enter
Insert mode again it doesn't nest. Thus when typing "a<C-O>a" and then <Esc>
takes you back to Normal mode, you do not need to type <Esc> twice.
The shifted cursor keys are not available on all terminals.
Another side effect is that a count specified before the "i" or "a" command is
ignored. That is because repeating the effect of the command after CTRL-O is

too complicated.
An example for using CTRL-G u:
:inoremap <C-H> <C-G>u<C-H>
This redefines the backspace key to start a new undo sequence. You can now
undo the effect of the backspace key, without changing what you typed before
that, with CTRL-O u.
Using CTRL-O splits undo: the text typed before and after it is undone
separately. If you want to avoid this (e.g., in a mapping) you might be able
to use CTRL-R = |i_CTRL-R|. E.g., to call a function:
:imap <F2> <C-R>=MyFunc()<CR>
When the 'whichwrap' option is set appropriately, the <Left> and <Right>
keys on the first/last character in the line make the cursor wrap to the
previous/next line.
The CTRL-G j and CTRL-G k commands can be used to insert text in front of a
column. Example:
int i;
int j;
Position the cursor on the first "int", type "istatic <C-G>j ". The
result is:
static int i;
int j;
When inserting the same text in front of the column in every line, use the
Visual blockwise command "I" |v_b_I|.
==============================================================================
3. 'textwidth' and 'wrapmargin' options *ins-textwidth*
The 'textwidth' option can be used to automatically break a line before it
gets too long. Set the 'textwidth' option to the desired maximum line
length. If you then type more characters (not spaces or tabs), the
last word will be put on a new line (unless it is the only word on the
line). If you set 'textwidth' to 0, this feature is disabled.
The 'wrapmargin' option does almost the same. The difference is that
'textwidth' has a fixed width while 'wrapmargin' depends on the width of the
screen. When using 'wrapmargin' this is equal to using 'textwidth' with a
value equal to (columns - 'wrapmargin'), where columns is the width of the
screen.
When 'textwidth' and 'wrapmargin' are both set, 'textwidth' is used.
If you don't really want to break the line, but view the line wrapped at a
convenient place, see the 'linebreak' option.
The line is only broken automatically when using Insert mode, or when
appending to a line. When in replace mode and the line length is not
changed, the line will not be broken.
Long lines are broken if you enter a non-white character after the margin.
The situations where a line will be broken can be restricted by adding
characters to the 'formatoptions' option:
"l" Only break a line if it was not longer than 'textwidth' when the insert
started.
"v" Only break at a white character that has been entered during the
current insert command. This is mostly Vi-compatible.
"lv" Only break if the line was not longer than 'textwidth' when the insert
started and only at a white character that has been entered during the
current insert command. Only differs from "l" when entering non-white
characters while crossing the 'textwidth' boundary.
Normally an internal function will be used to decide where to break the line.
If you want to do it in a different way set the 'formatexpr' option to an
expression that will take care of the line break.
If you want to format a block of text, you can use the "gq" operator. Type
"gq" and a movement command to move the cursor to the end of the block. In
many cases, the command "gq}" will do what you want (format until the end of
paragraph). Alternatively, you can use "gqap", which will format the whole
paragraph, no matter where the cursor currently is. Or you can use Visual
mode: hit "v", move to the end of the block, and type "gq". See also |gq|.
==============================================================================

4. 'expandtab', 'smarttab' and 'softtabstop' options *ins-expandtab*

If the 'expandtab' option is on, spaces will be used to fill the amount of
whitespace of the tab. If you want to enter a real <Tab>, type CTRL-V first
(use CTRL-Q when CTRL-V is mapped |i_CTRL-Q|).
The 'expandtab' option is off by default. Note that in Replace mode, a single
character is replaced with several spaces. The result of this is that the
number of characters in the line increases. Backspacing will delete one
space at a time. The original character will be put back for only one space
that you backspace over (the last one). {Vi does not have the 'expandtab'
option}
*ins-smarttab*
When the 'smarttab' option is on, a <Tab> inserts 'shiftwidth' positions at
the beginning of a line and 'tabstop' positions in other places. This means
that often spaces instead of a <Tab> character are inserted. When 'smarttab
is off, a <Tab> always inserts 'tabstop' positions, and 'shiftwidth' is only
used for ">>" and the like. {not in Vi}
*ins-softtabstop*
When the 'softtabstop' option is non-zero, a <Tab> inserts 'softtabstop'
positions, and a <BS> used to delete white space, will delete 'softtabstop'
positions. This feels like 'tabstop' was set to 'softtabstop', but a real
<Tab> character still takes 'tabstop' positions, so your file will still look
correct when used by other applications.
If 'softtabstop' is non-zero, a <BS> will try to delete as much white space to
move to the previous 'softtabstop' position, except when the previously
inserted character is a space, then it will only delete the character before
the cursor. Otherwise you cannot always delete a single character before the
cursor. You will have to delete 'softtabstop' characters first, and then type
extra spaces to get where you want to be.
==============================================================================
5. Replace mode *Replace* *Replace-mode* *mode-replace*
Enter Replace mode with the "R" command in normal mode.
In Replace mode, one character in the line is deleted for every character you
type. If there is no character to delete (at the end of the line), the
typed character is appended (as in Insert mode). Thus the number of
characters in a line stays the same until you get to the end of the line.
If a <NL> is typed, a line break is inserted and no character is deleted.
Be careful with <Tab> characters. If you type a normal printing character in
its place, the number of characters is still the same, but the number of
columns will become smaller.
If you delete characters in Replace mode (with <BS>, CTRL-W, or CTRL-U), what
happens is that you delete the changes. The characters that were replaced
are restored. If you had typed past the existing text, the characters you
added are deleted. This is effectively a character-at-a-time undo.
If the 'expandtab' option is on, a <Tab> will replace one character with
several spaces. The result of this is that the number of characters in the
line increases. Backspacing will delete one space at a time. The original
character will be put back for only one space that you backspace over (the
last one). {Vi does not have the 'expandtab' option}
==============================================================================
6. Virtual Replace mode *vreplace-mode* *Virtual-Replace-mode*
Enter Virtual Replace mode with the "gR" command in normal mode.
{not available when compiled without the |+vreplace| feature}
{Vi does not have Virtual Replace mode}
Virtual Replace mode is similar to Replace mode, but instead of replacing
actual characters in the file, you are replacing screen real estate, so that
characters further on in the file never appear to move.
So if you type a <Tab> it may replace several normal characters, and if you
type a letter on top of a <Tab> it may not replace anything at all, since the
<Tab> will still line up to the same place as before.
Typing a <NL> still doesn't cause characters later in the file to appear to
move. The rest of the current line will be replaced by the <NL> (that is,

they are deleted), and replacing continues on the next line. A new line is
NOT inserted unless you go past the end of the file.
Interesting effects are seen when using CTRL-T and CTRL-D. The characters
before the cursor are shifted sideways as normal, but characters later in the
line still remain still. CTRL-T will hide some of the old line under the
shifted characters, but CTRL-D will reveal them again.
As with Replace mode, using <BS> etc will bring back the characters that were
replaced. This still works in conjunction with 'smartindent', CTRL-T and
CTRL-D, 'expandtab', 'smarttab', 'softtabstop', etc.
In 'list' mode, Virtual Replace mode acts as if it was not in 'list' mode,
unless "L" is in 'cpoptions'.
Note that the only situations for which characters beyond the cursor should
appear to move are in List mode |'list'|, and occasionally when 'wrap' is set
(and the line changes length to become shorter or wider than the width of the
screen). In other cases spaces may be inserted to avoid following characters
to move.
This mode is very useful for editing <Tab> separated columns in tables, for
entering new data while keeping all the columns aligned.
==============================================================================
7. Insert mode completion *ins-completion*
In Insert and Replace mode, there are several commands to complete part of a
keyword or line that has been typed. This is useful if you are using
complicated keywords (e.g., function names with capitals and underscores).
These commands are not available when the |+insert_expand| feature was
disabled at compile time.
Completion can be done for:
1. Whole lines |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-L|
2. keywords in the current file |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-N|
3. keywords in 'dictionary' |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-K|
4. keywords in 'thesaurus', thesaurus-style |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-T|
5. keywords in the current and included files |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-I|
6. tags |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-]|
7. file names |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-F|
8. definitions or macros |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-D|
9. Vim command-line |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-V|
10. User defined completion |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-U|
11. omni completion |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-O|
12. Spelling suggestions |i_CTRL-X_s|
13. keywords in 'complete' |i_CTRL-N|
All these (except 2) are done in CTRL-X mode. This is a sub-mode of Insert
and Replace modes. You enter CTRL-X mode by typing CTRL-X and one of the
CTRL-X commands. You exit CTRL-X mode by typing a key that is not a valid
CTRL-X mode command. Valid keys are the CTRL-X command itself, CTRL-N (next),
and CTRL-P (previous).
Also see the 'infercase' option if you want to adjust the case of the match.
*complete_CTRL-E*
When completion is active you can use CTRL-E to stop it and go back to the
originally typed text. The CTRL-E will not be inserted.
*complete_CTRL-Y*
When the popup menu is displayed you can use CTRL-Y to stop completion and
accept the currently selected entry. The CTRL-Y is not inserted. Typing a
space, Enter, or some other unprintable character will leave completion mode
and insert that typed character.
When the popup menu is displayed there are a few more special keys, see
|popupmenu-keys|.
Note: The keys that are valid in CTRL-X mode are not mapped. This allows for
":map ^F ^X^F" to work (where ^F is CTRL-F and ^X is CTRL-X). The key that
ends CTRL-X mode (any key that is not a valid CTRL-X mode command) is mapped.
Also, when doing completion with 'complete' mappings apply as usual.
Note: While completion is active Insert mode can't be used recursively.

Mappings that somehow invoke ":normal i.." will generate an E523 error.
The following mappings are suggested to make typing the completion commands
a bit easier (although they will hide other commands):
:inoremap ^] ^X^]
:inoremap ^F ^X^F
:inoremap ^D ^X^D
:inoremap ^L ^X^L
As a special case, typing CTRL-R to perform register insertion (see
|i_CTRL-R|) will not exit CTRL-X mode. This is primarily to allow the use of
the '=' register to call some function to determine the next operation. If
the contents of the register (or result of the '=' register evaluation) are
not valid CTRL-X mode keys, then CTRL-X mode will be exited as if those keys
had been typed.
For example, the following will map <Tab> to either actually insert a <Tab> if
the current line is currently only whitespace, or start/continue a CTRL-N
completion operation:
function! CleverTab()
if strpart( getline('.'), 0, col('.')-1 ) =~ '^\s*$'
return "\<Tab>"
else
return "\<C-N>"
endif
endfunction
inoremap <Tab> <C-R>=CleverTab()<CR>
Completing whole lines *compl-whole-line*
*i_CTRL-X_CTRL-L*
CTRL-X CTRL-L Search backwards for a line that starts with the
same characters as those in the current line before
the cursor. Indent is ignored. The matching line is
inserted in front of the cursor.
The 'complete' option is used to decide which buffers
are searched for a match. Both loaded and unloaded
buffers are used.
CTRL-L or
CTRL-P Search backwards for next matching line. This line
replaces the previous matching line.
CTRL-N Search forward for next matching line. This line
replaces the previous matching line.
CTRL-X CTRL-L After expanding a line you can additionally get the
line next to it by typing CTRL-X CTRL-L again, unless
a double CTRL-X is used. Only works for loaded
buffers.
Completing keywords in current file *compl-current*
*i_CTRL-X_CTRL-P*
*i_CTRL-X_CTRL-N*
CTRL-X CTRL-N Search forwards for words that start with the keyword
in front of the cursor. The found keyword is inserted
in front of the cursor.
CTRL-X CTRL-P Search backwards for words that start with the keyword
in front of the cursor. The found keyword is inserted
CTRL-N Search forward for next matching keyword. This
keyword replaces the previous matching keyword.
CTRL-P Search backwards for next matching keyword. This
CTRL-X CTRL-N or
CTRL-X CTRL-P Further use of CTRL-X CTRL-N or CTRL-X CTRL-P will
copy the words following the previous expansion in

other contexts unless a double CTRL-X is used.

If there is a keyword in front of the cursor (a name made out of alphabetic
characters and characters in 'iskeyword'), it is used as the search pattern,
with "\<" prepended (meaning: start of a word). Otherwise "\<\k\k" is used
as search pattern (start of any keyword of at least two characters).
In Replace mode, the number of characters that are replaced depends on the
length of the matched string. This works like typing the characters of the
matched string in Replace mode.
If there is not a valid keyword character before the cursor, any keyword of
at least two characters is matched.
e.g., to get:
printf("(%g, %g, %g)", vector[0], vector[1], vector[2]);
just type:
printf("(%g, %g, %g)", vector[0], ^P[1], ^P[2]);
The search wraps around the end of the file, the value of 'wrapscan' is not
used here.
Multiple repeats of the same completion are skipped; thus a different match
will be inserted at each CTRL-N and CTRL-P (unless there is only one
matching keyword).
Single character matches are never included, as they usually just get in
the way of what you were really after.
e.g., to get:
printf("name = %s\n", name);
just type:
printf("name = %s\n", n^P);
or even:
printf("name = %s\n", ^P);
The 'n' in '\n' is skipped.
After expanding a word, you can use CTRL-X CTRL-P or CTRL-X CTRL-N to get the
word following the expansion in other contexts. These sequences search for
the text just expanded and further expand by getting an extra word. This is
useful if you need to repeat a sequence of complicated words. Although CTRL-P
and CTRL-N look just for strings of at least two characters, CTRL-X CTRL-P and
CTRL-X CTRL-N can be used to expand words of just one character.
e.g., to get:
México
you can type:
M^N^P^X^P^X^P
CTRL-N starts the expansion and then CTRL-P takes back the single character
"M", the next two CTRL-X CTRL-P's get the words "&eacute" and ";xico".
If the previous expansion was split, because it got longer than 'textwidth',
then just the text in the current line will be used.
If the match found is at the end of a line, then the first word in the next
line will be inserted and the message "word from next line" displayed, if
this word is accepted the next CTRL-X CTRL-P or CTRL-X CTRL-N will search
for those lines starting with this word.
Completing keywords in 'dictionary' *compl-dictionary*
*i_CTRL-X_CTRL-K*
CTRL-X CTRL-K Search the files given with the 'dictionary' option
for words that start with the keyword in front of the
cursor. This is like CTRL-N, but only the dictionary
files are searched, not the current file. The found
keyword is inserted in front of the cursor. This
could potentially be pretty slow, since all matches
are found before the first match is used. By default,
the 'dictionary' option is empty.
For suggestions where to find a list of words, see the
'dictionary' option.
CTRL-K or

*i_CTRL-X_CTRL-T*
CTRL-X CTRL-T Works as CTRL-X CTRL-K, but in a special way. It uses
the 'thesaurus' option instead of 'dictionary'. If a
match is found in the thesaurus file, all the
remaining words on the same line are included as
matches, even though they don't complete the word.
Thus a word can be completely replaced.
For an example, imagine the 'thesaurus' file has a
line like this:
angry furious mad enraged
Placing the cursor after the letters "ang" and typing
CTRL-X CTRL-T would complete the word "angry";
subsequent presses would change the word to "furious",
"mad" etc.
Other uses include translation between two languages,
or grouping API functions by keyword.
CTRL-T or
Completing keywords in the current and included files *compl-keyword*

The 'include' option is used to specify a line that contains an include file
name. The 'path' option is used to search for include files.
*i_CTRL-X_CTRL-I*
CTRL-X CTRL-I Search for the first keyword in the current and
included files that starts with the same characters
as those before the cursor. The matched keyword is
inserted in front of the cursor.
CTRL-N Search forwards for next matching keyword. This
Note: CTRL-I is the same as <Tab>, which is likely to
be typed after a successful completion, therefore
CTRL-I is not used for searching for the next match.
CTRL-P Search backward for previous matching keyword. This
CTRL-X CTRL-I Further use of CTRL-X CTRL-I will copy the words
following the previous expansion in other contexts
unless a double CTRL-X is used.
Completing tags *compl-tag*

*i_CTRL-X_CTRL-]*
CTRL-X CTRL-] Search for the first tag that starts with the same
characters as before the cursor. The matching tag is
inserted in front of the cursor. Alphabetic
characters and characters in 'iskeyword' are used
to decide which characters are included in the tag
name (same as for a keyword). See also |CTRL-]|.
The 'showfulltag' option can be used to add context
from around the tag definition.
CTRL-] or
CTRL-N Search forwards for next matching tag. This tag
replaces the previous matching tag.
CTRL-P Search backward for previous matching tag. This tag
replaces the previous matching tag.
Completing file names *compl-filename*

*i_CTRL-X_CTRL-F*
CTRL-X CTRL-F Search for the first file name that starts with the
same characters as before the cursor. The matching
file name is inserted in front of the cursor.

Alphabetic characters and characters in 'isfname'

are used to decide which characters are included in
the file name. Note: the 'path' option is not used
here (yet).
CTRL-F or
CTRL-N Search forwards for next matching file name. This
file name replaces the previous matching file name.
CTRL-P Search backward for previous matching file name.
This file name replaces the previous matching file
name.
Completing definitions or macros *compl-define*

The 'define' option is used to specify a line that contains a definition.
The 'include' option is used to specify a line that contains an include file
name. The 'path' option is used to search for include files.
*i_CTRL-X_CTRL-D*
CTRL-X CTRL-D Search in the current and included files for the
first definition (or macro) name that starts with
the same characters as before the cursor. The found
definition name is inserted in front of the cursor.
CTRL-D or
CTRL-N Search forwards for next matching macro name. This
macro name replaces the previous matching macro
name.
CTRL-P Search backward for previous matching macro name.
This macro name replaces the previous matching macro
name.
CTRL-X CTRL-D Further use of CTRL-X CTRL-D will copy the words
following the previous expansion in other contexts
unless a double CTRL-X is used.
Completing Vim commands *compl-vim*

Completion is context-sensitive. It works like on the Command-line. It
completes an Ex command as well as its arguments. This is useful when writing
a Vim script.
*i_CTRL-X_CTRL-V*
CTRL-X CTRL-V Guess what kind of item is in front of the cursor and
find the first match for it.
Note: When CTRL-V is mapped you can often use CTRL-Q
instead of |i_CTRL-Q|.
CTRL-V or
CTRL-N Search forwards for next match. This match replaces
the previous one.
CTRL-P Search backwards for previous match. This match
replaces the previous one.
CTRL-X CTRL-V Further use of CTRL-X CTRL-V will do the same as
CTRL-V. This allows mapping a key to do Vim command
completion, for example:
:imap <Tab> <C-X><C-V>
User defined completion *compl-function*

Completion is done by a function that can be defined by the user with the
'completefunc' option. See below for how the function is called and an
example |complete-functions|.
*i_CTRL-X_CTRL-U*
CTRL-X CTRL-U Guess what kind of item is in front of the cursor and
CTRL-U or
CTRL-N Use the next match. This match replaces the previous
one.

CTRL-P Use the previous match. This match replaces the

previous one.
Omni completion *compl-omni*

Completion is done by a function that can be defined by the user with the
'omnifunc' option. This is to be used for filetype-specific completion.
See below for how the function is called and an example |complete-functions|.
For remarks about specific filetypes see |compl-omni-filetypes|.
More completion scripts will appear, check www.vim.org. Currently there is a
first version for C++.
*i_CTRL-X_CTRL-O*
CTRL-X CTRL-O Guess what kind of item is in front of the cursor and
CTRL-O or
CTRL-N Use the next match. This match replaces the previous
one.
CTRL-P Use the previous match. This match replaces the
previous one.
Spelling suggestions *compl-spelling*

A word before or at the cursor is located and correctly spelled words are
suggested to replace it. If there is a badly spelled word in the line, before
or under the cursor, the cursor is moved to after it. Otherwise the word just
before the cursor is used for suggestions, even though it isn't badly spelled.
NOTE: CTRL-S suspends display in many Unix terminals. Use 's' instead. Type
CTRL-Q to resume displaying.
*i_CTRL-X_CTRL-S* *i_CTRL-X_s*
CTRL-X CTRL-S or
CTRL-X s Locate the word in front of the cursor and find the
first spell suggestion for it.
CTRL-S or
CTRL-N Use the next suggestion. This replaces the previous
one. Note that you can't use 's' here.
CTRL-P Use the previous suggestion. This replaces the
previous one.
Completing keywords from different sources *compl-generic*
*i_CTRL-N*
CTRL-N Find next match for words that start with the
keyword in front of the cursor, looking in places
specified with the 'complete' option. The found
keyword is inserted in front of the cursor.
*i_CTRL-P*
CTRL-P Find previous match for words that start with the
keyword in front of the cursor, looking in places
specified with the 'complete' option. The found
keyword is inserted in front of the cursor.
CTRL-X CTRL-N or
CTRL-X CTRL-P Further use of CTRL-X CTRL-N or CTRL-X CTRL-P will
copy the words following the previous expansion in
other contexts unless a double CTRL-X is used.

FUNCTIONS FOR FINDING COMPLETIONS *complete-functions*

This applies to 'completefunc' and 'omnifunc'.
The function is called in two different ways:
- First the function is called to find the start of the text to be completed.
- Later the function is called to actually find the matches.
On the first invocation the arguments are:
a:findstart 1
a:base empty
The function must return the column where the completion starts. It must be a
number between zero and the cursor column "col('.')". This involves looking
at the characters just before the cursor and including those characters that
could be part of the completed item. The text between this column and the
cursor column will be replaced with the matches. Return -1 if no completion
can be done.
On the second invocation the arguments are:
a:findstart 0
a:base the text with which matches should match; the text that was
located in the first call (can be empty)
The function must return a List with the matching words. These matches
usually include the "a:base" text. When there are no matches return an empty
List.
*complete-items*
Each list item can either be a string or a Dictionary. When it is a string it
is used as the completion. When it is a Dictionary it can contain these
items:
word the text that will be inserted, mandatory
abbr abbreviation of "word"; when not empty it is used in
the menu instead of "word"
menu extra text for the popup menu, displayed after "word"
or "abbr"
info more information about the item, can be displayed in a
preview window
kind single letter indicating the type of completion
icase when non-zero case is to be ignored when comparing
items to be equal; when omitted zero is used, thus
items that only differ in case are added
dup when non-zero this match will be added even when an
item with the same word is already present.
empty when non-zero this match will be added even when it is
an empty string
All of these except 'icase' must be a string. If an item does not meet these
requirements then an error message is given and further items in the list are
not used. You can mix string and Dictionary items in the returned list.
The "menu" item is used in the popup menu and may be truncated, thus it should
be relatively short. The "info" item can be longer, it will be displayed in
the preview window when "preview" appears in 'completeopt'. The "info" item
will also remain displayed after the popup menu has been removed. This is
useful for function arguments. Use a single space for "info" to remove
existing text in the preview window. The size of the preview window is three
lines, but 'previewheight' is used when it has a value of 1 or 2.
The "kind" item uses a single letter to indicate the kind of completion. This
may be used to show the completion differently (different color or icon).
Currently these types can be used:
v variable
f function or method
m member of a struct or class
t typedef
d #define or macro
When searching for matches takes some time call |complete_add()| to add each
match to the total list. These matches should then not appear in the returned
list! Call |complete_check()| now and then to allow the user to press a key
while still searching for matches. Stop searching when it returns non-zero.
*E839* *E840*
The function is allowed to move the cursor, it is restored afterwards.
The function is not allowed to move to another window or delete text.

An example that completes the names of the months:

fun! CompleteMonths(findstart, base)
if a:findstart
" locate the start of the word
let line = getline('.')
let start = col('.') - 1
while start > 0 && line[start - 1] =~ '\a'
let start -= 1
endwhile
return start
else
" find months matching with "a:base"
let res = []
for m in split("Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec")
if m =~ '^' . a:base
call add(res, m)
endif
endfor
return res
endif
endfun
set completefunc=CompleteMonths
The same, but now pretending searching for matches is slow:
fun! CompleteMonths(findstart, base)
if a:findstart
" locate the start of the word
let line = getline('.')
let start = col('.') - 1
while start > 0 && line[start - 1] =~ '\a'
let start -= 1
endwhile
return start
else
" find months matching with "a:base"
for m in split("Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec")
if m =~ '^' . a:base
call complete_add(m)
endif
sleep 300m " simulate searching for next match
if complete_check()
break
endif
endfor
return []
endif
endfun
set completefunc=CompleteMonths
INSERT COMPLETION POPUP MENU *ins-completion-menu*

*popupmenu-completion*
Vim can display the matches in a simplistic popup menu.
The menu is used when:
- The 'completeopt' option contains "menu" or "menuone".
- The terminal supports at least 8 colors.
- There are at least two matches. One if "menuone" is used.
The 'pumheight' option can be used to set a maximum height. The default is to
use all space available.
There are three states:
1. A complete match has been inserted, e.g., after using CTRL-N or CTRL-P.
2. A cursor key has been used to select another match. The match was not
inserted then, only the entry in the popup menu is highlighted.
3. Only part of a match has been inserted and characters were typed or the
backspace key was used. The list of matches was then adjusted for what is
You normally start in the first state, with the first match being inserted.
When "longest" is in 'completeopt' and there is more than one match you start
in the third state.
If you select another match, e.g., with CTRL-N or CTRL-P, you go to the first

state. This doesn't change the list of matches.

When you are back at the original text then you are in the third state. To
get there right away you can use a mapping that uses CTRL-P right after
starting the completion:
:imap <F7> <C-N><C-P>
*popupmenu-keys*
In the first state these keys have a special meaning:
<BS> and CTRL-H Delete one character, find the matches for the word before
the cursor. This reduces the list of matches, often to one
entry, and switches to the second state.
Any non-special character:
Stop completion without changing the match and insert the
typed character.
In the second and third state these keys have a special meaning:
<BS> and CTRL-H Delete one character, find the matches for the shorter word
before the cursor. This may find more matches.
CTRL-L Add one character from the current match, may reduce the
number of matches.
any printable, non-white character:
Add this character and reduce the number of matches.
In all three states these can be used:
CTRL-Y Yes: Accept the currently selected match and stop completion.
CTRL-E End completion, go back to what was there before selecting a
match (what was typed or longest common string).
<PageUp> Select a match several entries back, but don't insert it.
<PageDown> Select a match several entries further, but don't insert it.
<Up> Select the previous match, as if CTRL-P was used, but don't
insert it.
<Down> Select the next match, as if CTRL-N was used, but don't
insert it.
<Space> or <Tab> Stop completion without changing the match and insert the
typed character.
The behavior of the <Enter> key depends on the state you are in:
first state: Use the text as it is and insert a line break.
second state: Insert the currently selected match.
third state: Use the text as it is and insert a line break.
In other words: If you used the cursor keys to select another entry in the
list of matches then the <Enter> key inserts that match. If you typed
something else then <Enter> inserts a line break.
The colors of the menu can be changed with these highlight groups:
Pmenu normal item |hl-Pmenu|
PmenuSel selected item |hl-PmenuSel|
PmenuSbar scrollbar |hl-PmenuSbar|
PmenuThumb thumb of the scrollbar |hl-PmenuThumb|
There are no special mappings for when the popup menu is visible. However,
you can use an Insert mode mapping that checks the |pumvisible()| function to
do something different. Example:
:inoremap <Down> <C-R>=pumvisible() ? "\<lt>C-N>" : "\<lt>Down>"<CR>
You can use of <expr> in mapping to have the popup menu used when typing a
character and some condition is met. For example, for typing a dot:
inoremap <expr> . MayComplete()
func MayComplete()
if (can complete)
return ".\<C-X>\<C-O>"
endif
return '.'
endfunc
See |:map-<expr>| for more info.
FILETYPE-SPECIFIC REMARKS FOR OMNI COMPLETION *compl-omni-filetypes*

The file used for {filetype} should be autoload/{filetype}complete.vim
in 'runtimepath'. Thus for "java" it is autoload/javacomplete.vim.

C *ft-c-omni*
Completion of C code requires a tags file. You should use Exuberant ctags,
because it adds extra information that is needed for completion. You can find
it here: http://ctags.sourceforge.net/ Version 5.6 or later is recommended.
For version 5.5.4 you should add a patch that adds the "typename:" field:
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unstable/patches/ctags-5.5.4.patch
A compiled .exe for MS-Windows can be found at:
http://georgevreilly.com/vim/ctags.html
If you want to complete system functions you can do something like this. Use
ctags to generate a tags file for all the system header files:
% ctags -R -f ~/.vim/systags /usr/include /usr/local/include
In your vimrc file add this tags file to the 'tags' option:
set tags+=~/.vim/systags
When using CTRL-X CTRL-O after a name without any "." or "->" it is completed
from the tags file directly. This works for any identifier, also function
names. If you want to complete a local variable name, which does not appear
in the tags file, use CTRL-P instead.
When using CTRL-X CTRL-O after something that has "." or "->" Vim will attempt
to recognize the type of the variable and figure out what members it has.
This means only members valid for the variable will be listed.
When a member name already was complete, CTRL-X CTRL-O will add a "." or
"->" for composite types.
Vim doesn't include a C compiler, only the most obviously formatted
declarations are recognized. Preprocessor stuff may cause confusion.
When the same structure name appears in multiple places all possible members
are included.
CSS *ft-css-omni*
Complete properties and their appropriate values according to CSS 2.1
specification.
HTML *ft-html-omni*
XHTML *ft-xhtml-omni*
CTRL-X CTRL-O provides completion of various elements of (X)HTML files. It is
designed to support writing of XHTML 1.0 Strict files but will also works for
other versions of HTML. Features:
- after "<" complete tag name depending on context (no div suggestion inside
of an a tag); '/>' indicates empty tags
- inside of tag complete proper attributes (no width attribute for an a tag);
show also type of attribute; '*' indicates required attributes
- when attribute has limited number of possible values help to complete them
- complete names of entities
- complete values of "class" and "id" attributes with data obtained from
<style> tag and included CSS files
- when completing value of "style" attribute or working inside of "style" tag
switch to |ft-css-omni| completion
- when completing values of events attributes or working inside of "script"
tag switch to |ft-javascript-omni| completion
- when used after "</" CTRL-X CTRL-O will close the last opened tag
Note: When used first time completion menu will be shown with little delay
- this is time needed for loading of data file.
Note: Completion may fail in badly formatted documents. In such case try to
run |:make| command to detect formatting problems.
HTML flavor *html-flavor*

The default HTML completion depends on the filetype. For HTML files it is
HTML 4.01 Transitional ('filetype' is "html"), for XHTML it is XHTML 1.0
Strict ('filetype' is "xhtml").
When doing completion outside of any other tag you will have possibility to
choose DOCTYPE and the appropriate data file will be loaded and used for all

next completions.
More about format of data file in |xml-omni-datafile|. Some of the data files
may be found on the Vim website (|www|).
Note that b:html_omni_flavor may point to a file with any XML data. This
makes possible to mix PHP (|ft-php-omni|) completion with any XML dialect
(assuming you have data file for it). Without setting that variable XHTML 1.0
Strict will be used.
JAVASCRIPT *ft-javascript-omni*
Completion of most elements of JavaScript language and DOM elements.
Complete:
- variables
- function name; show function arguments
- function arguments
- properties of variables trying to detect type of variable
- complete DOM objects and properties depending on context
- keywords of language
Completion works in separate JavaScript files (&ft==javascript), inside of
<script> tag of (X)HTML and in values of event attributes (including scanning
of external files.
DOM compatibility
At the moment (beginning of 2006) there are two main browsers - MS Internet
Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. These two applications are covering over 90% of
market. Theoretically standards are created by W3C organisation
http://www.w3c.org but they are not always followed/implemented.
IE FF W3C Omni completion
+/- +/- + +
+ + - +
+ - - -
- + - -
Regardless from state of implementation in browsers but if element is defined
in standards, completion plugin will place element in suggestion list. When
both major engines implemented element, even if this is not in standards it
will be suggested. All other elements are not placed in suggestion list.
PHP *ft-php-omni*
Completion of PHP code requires a tags file for completion of data from
external files and for class aware completion. You should use Exuberant ctags
version 5.5.4 or newer. You can find it here: http://ctags.sourceforge.net/
Script completes:
- after $ variables name
- if variable was declared as object add "->", if tags file is available show
name of class
- after "->" complete only function and variable names specific for given
class. To find class location and contents tags file is required. Because
PHP isn't strongly typed language user can use @var tag to declare class:
/* @var $myVar myClass */
$myVar->
Still, to find myClass contents tags file is required.
- function names with additional info:
- in case of built-in functions list of possible arguments and after | type
data returned by function
- in case of user function arguments and name of file where function was
defined (if it is not current file)
- constants names
- class names after "new" declaration
Note: when doing completion first time Vim will load all necessary data into

memory. It may take several seconds. After next use of completion delay
should not be noticeable.
Script detects if cursor is inside <?php ?> tags. If it is outside it will
automatically switch to HTML/CSS/JavaScript completion. Note: contrary to
original HTML files completion of tags (and only tags) isn't context aware.
RUBY *ft-ruby-omni*
Completion of Ruby code requires that vim be built with |+ruby|.
Ruby completion will parse your buffer on demand in order to provide a list of
completions. These completions will be drawn from modules loaded by 'require'
and modules defined in the current buffer.
The completions provided by CTRL-X CTRL-O are sensitive to the context:
CONTEXT COMPLETIONS PROVIDED
1. Not inside a class definition Classes, constants and globals
2. Inside a class definition Methods or constants defined in the class
3. After '.', '::' or ':' Methods applicable to the object being
dereferenced
4. After ':' or ':foo' Symbol name (beginning with 'foo')
Notes:
- Vim will load/evaluate code in order to provide completions. This may
cause some code execution, which may be a concern. This is no longer
enabled by default, to enable this feature add
let g:rubycomplete_buffer_loading = 1
- In context 1 above, Vim can parse the entire buffer to add a list of
classes to the completion results. This feature is turned off by default,
to enable it add
let g:rubycomplete_classes_in_global = 1
to your vimrc
- In context 2 above, anonymous classes are not supported.
- In context 3 above, Vim will attempt to determine the methods supported by
the object.
- Vim can detect and load the Rails environment for files within a rails
project. The feature is disabled by default, to enable it add
let g:rubycomplete_rails = 1
to your vimrc
SYNTAX *ft-syntax-omni*
Vim has the ability to color syntax highlight nearly 500 languages. Part of
this highlighting includes knowing what keywords are part of a language. Many
filetypes already have custom completion scripts written for them, the
syntaxcomplete plugin provides basic completion for all other filetypes. It
does this by populating the omni completion list with the text Vim already
knows how to color highlight. It can be used for any filetype and provides a
minimal language-sensitive completion.
To enable syntax code completion you can run:
setlocal omnifunc=syntaxcomplete#Complete
You can automate this by placing the following in your vimrc (after any
":filetype" command):
if has("autocmd") && exists("+omnifunc")
autocmd Filetype *
\ if &omnifunc == "" |
\ setlocal omnifunc=syntaxcomplete#Complete |
\ endif
endif
The above will set completion to this script only if a specific plugin does
not already exist for that filetype.
Each filetype can have a wide range of syntax items. The plugin allows you to
customize which syntax groups to include or exclude from the list. Let's have
a look at the PHP filetype to see how this works.

If you edit a file called, index.php, run the following command:

:syntax list
The first thing you will notice is that there are many different syntax groups.
The PHP language can include elements from different languages like HTML,
JavaScript and many more. The syntax plugin will only include syntax groups
that begin with the filetype, "php", in this case. For example these syntax
groups are included by default with the PHP: phpEnvVar, phpIntVar,
phpFunctions.
The PHP language has an enormous number of items which it knows how to syntax
highlight. This means these items will be available within the omni
completion list. Some people may find this list unwieldy or are only
interested in certain items.
There are two ways to prune this list (if necessary). If you find certain
syntax groups you do not wish displayed you can add the following to your
vimrc:
let g:omni_syntax_group_exclude_php = 'phpCoreConstant,phpConstant'
Add as many syntax groups to this list by comma separating them. The basic
form of this variable is:
let g:omni_syntax_group_exclude_{filetype} = 'comma,separated,list'
For completeness the opposite is also true. Creating this variable in your
vimrc will only include the items in the phpFunctions and phpMethods syntax
groups:
let g:omni_syntax_group_include_php = 'phpFunctions,phpMethods'
You can create as many of these variables as you need, varying only the
filetype at the end of the variable name.
The plugin uses the isKeyword option to determine where word boundaries are
for the syntax items. For example, in the Scheme language completion should
include the "-", call-with-output-file. Depending on your filetype, this may
not provide the words you are expecting. Setting the
g:omni_syntax_use_iskeyword option to 0 will force the syntax plugin to break
on word characters. This can be controlled adding the following to your
vimrc:
let g:omni_syntax_use_iskeyword = 0
For plugin developers, the plugin exposes a public function OmniSyntaxList.
This function can be used to request a List of syntax items. When editing a
SQL file (:e syntax.sql) you can use the ":syntax list" command to see the
various groups and syntax items. For example:
syntax list
Yields data similar to this:
sqlOperator xxx some prior all like and any escape exists in is not
or intersect minus between distinct
links to Operator
sqlType xxx varbit varchar nvarchar bigint int uniqueidentifier
date money long tinyint unsigned xml text smalldate
double datetime nchar smallint numeric time bit char
varbinary binary smallmoney
image float integer timestamp real decimal
There are two syntax groups listed here: sqlOperator and sqlType. To retrieve
a List of syntax items you can call OmniSyntaxList a number of different
ways. To retrieve all syntax items regardless of syntax group:
echo OmniSyntaxList( [] )
To retrieve only the syntax items for the sqlOperator syntax group:
echo OmniSyntaxList( ['sqlOperator'] )
To retrieve all syntax items for both the sqlOperator and sqlType groups:
echo OmniSyntaxList( ['sqlOperator', 'sqlType'] )
From within a plugin, you would typically assign the output to a List:
let myKeywords = []
let myKeywords = OmniSyntaxList( ['sqlKeyword'] )
SQL *ft-sql-omni*
Completion for the SQL language includes statements, functions, keywords.
It will also dynamically complete tables, procedures, views and column lists

with data pulled directly from within a database. For detailed instructions
and a tutorial see |omni-sql-completion|.
The SQL completion plugin can be used in conjunction with other completion
plugins. For example, the PHP filetype has its own completion plugin.
Since PHP is often used to generate dynamic website by accessing a database,
the SQL completion plugin can also be enabled. This allows you to complete
PHP code and SQL code at the same time.
XML *ft-xml-omni*
Vim 7 provides a mechanism for context aware completion of XML files. It
depends on a special |xml-omni-datafile| and two commands: |:XMLns| and
|:XMLent|. Features are:
- after "<" complete the tag name, depending on context
- inside of a tag complete proper attributes
- when an attribute has a limited number of possible values help to complete
them
- complete names of entities (defined in |xml-omni-datafile| and in the
current file with "<!ENTITY" declarations)
- when used after "</" CTRL-X CTRL-O will close the last opened tag
Format of XML data file *xml-omni-datafile*

XML data files are stored in the "autoload/xml" directory in 'runtimepath'.
Vim distribution provides examples of data files in the
"$VIMRUNTIME/autoload/xml" directory. They have a meaningful name which will
be used in commands. It should be a unique name which will not create
conflicts. For example, the name xhtml10s.vim means it is the data file for
XHTML 1.0 Strict.
Each file contains a variable with a name like g:xmldata_xhtml10s . It is
a compound from two parts:
1. "g:xmldata_" general prefix, constant for all data files
2. "xhtml10s" the name of the file and the name of the described XML
dialect; it will be used as an argument for the |:XMLns|
command
Part two must be exactly the same as name of file.
The variable is a |Dictionary|. Keys are tag names and each value is a two
element |List|. The first element of the List is also a List with the names
of possible children. The second element is a |Dictionary| with the names of
attributes as keys and the possible values of attributes as values. Example:
let g:xmldata_crippled = {
\ "vimxmlentities": ["amp", "lt", "gt", "apos", "quot"],
\ 'vimxmlroot': ['tag1'],
\ 'tag1':
\ [ ['childoftag1a', 'childoftag1b'], {'attroftag1a': [],
\ 'attroftag1b': ['valueofattr1', 'valueofattr2']}],
\ 'childoftag1a':
\ [ [], {'attrofchild': ['attrofchild']}],
\ 'childoftag1b':
\ [ ['childoftag1a'], {'attrofchild': []}],
\ "vimxmltaginfo": {
\ 'tag1': ['Menu info', 'Long information visible in preview window']},
\ 'vimxmlattrinfo': {
\ 'attrofchild': ['Menu info', 'Long information visible in preview window']}}
This example would be put in the "autoload/xml/crippled.vim" file and could
help to write this file:
<tag1 attroftag1b="valueofattr1">
<childoftag1a attrofchild>
& <
</childoftag1a>
<childoftag1b attrofchild="5">
<childoftag1a>
> ' "
</childoftag1a>
</childoftag1b>
</tag1>

In the example four special elements are visible:

1. "vimxmlentities" - a special key with List containing entities of this XML
dialect.
2. If the list containing possible values of attributes has one element and
this element is equal to the name of the attribute this attribute will be
treated as boolean and inserted as 'attrname' and not as 'attrname="'
3. "vimxmltaginfo" - a special key with a Dictionary containing tag
names as keys and two element List as values, for additional menu info and
the long description.
4. "vimxmlattrinfo" - special key with Dictionary containing attribute names
as keys and two element List as values, for additional menu info and long
description.
Note: Tag names in the data file MUST not contain a namespace description.
Check xsl.vim for an example.
Note: All data and functions are publicly available as global
variables/functions and can be used for personal editing functions.
DTD -> Vim *dtd2vim*

On |www| is the script |dtd2vim| which parses DTD and creates an XML data file
for Vim XML omni completion.
dtd2vim: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1462
Check the beginning of that file for usage details.
The script requires perl and:
perlSGML: http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/perlsgml
Commands
:XMLns {name} [{namespace}] *:XMLns*

Vim has to know which data file should be used and with which namespace. For
loading of the data file and connecting data with the proper namespace use
|:XMLns| command. The first (obligatory) argument is the name of the data
(xhtml10s, xsl). The second argument is the code of namespace (h, xsl). When
used without a second argument the dialect will be used as default - without
namespace declaration. For example to use XML completion in .xsl files:
:XMLns xhtml10s
:XMLns xsl xsl
:XMLent {name} *:XMLent*

By default entities will be completed from the data file of the default
namespace. The XMLent command should be used in case when there is no default
namespace:
:XMLent xhtml10s
Usage
While used in this situation (after declarations from previous part, | is
cursor position):
<|
Will complete to an appropriate XHTML tag, and in this situation:
<xsl:|
Will complete to an appropriate XSL tag.
The script xmlcomplete.vim, provided through the |autoload| mechanism,

has the xmlcomplete#GetLastOpenTag() function which can be used in XML files
to get the name of the last open tag (b:unaryTagsStack has to be defined):
:echo xmlcomplete#GetLastOpenTag("b:unaryTagsStack")

==============================================================================
8. Insert mode commands *inserting*
The following commands can be used to insert new text into the buffer. They
can all be undone and repeated with the "." command.
*a*
a Append text after the cursor [count] times. If the
cursor is in the first column of an empty line Insert
starts there. But not when 'virtualedit' is set!
*A*
A Append text at the end of the line [count] times.
<insert> or *i* *insert* *<Insert>*

i Insert text before the cursor [count] times.
When using CTRL-O in Insert mode |i_CTRL-O| the count
is not supported.
*I*
I Insert text before the first non-blank in the line
[count] times.
When the 'H' flag is present in 'cpoptions' and the
line only contains blanks, insert start just before
the last blank.
*gI*
gI Insert text in column 1 [count] times. {not in Vi}
*gi*
gi Insert text in the same position as where Insert mode
was stopped last time in the current buffer.
This uses the |'^| mark. It's different from "`î"
when the mark is past the end of the line.
The position is corrected for inserted/deleted lines,
but NOT for inserted/deleted characters.
When the |:keepjumps| command modifier is used the |'^|
mark won't be changed.
{not in Vi}
*o*
o Begin a new line below the cursor and insert text,
repeat [count] times. {Vi: blank [count] screen
lines}
ignored.
*O*
O Begin a new line above the cursor and insert text,
repeat [count] times. {Vi: blank [count] screen
lines}
ignored.
These commands are used to start inserting text. You can end insert mode with
<Esc>. See |mode-ins-repl| for the other special characters in Insert mode.
The effect of [count] takes place after Insert mode is exited.
When 'autoindent' is on, the indent for a new line is obtained from the
previous line. When 'smartindent' or 'cindent' is on, the indent for a line
is automatically adjusted for C programs.
'textwidth' can be set to the maximum width for a line. When a line becomes
too long when appending characters a line break is automatically inserted.
==============================================================================
9. Ex insert commands *inserting-ex*

*:a* *:append*
:{range}a[ppend][!] Insert several lines of text below the specified
line. If the {range} is missing, the text will be
inserted after the current line.
*:i* *:in* *:insert*

:{range}i[nsert][!] Insert several lines of text above the specified
line. If the {range} is missing, the text will be
inserted before the current line.
These two commands will keep on asking for lines, until you type a line
containing only a ".". Watch out for lines starting with a backslash, see
|line-continuation|.
When in Ex mode (see |-e|) a backslash at the end of the line can be used to
insert a NUL character. To be able to have a line ending in a backslash use
two backslashes. This means that the number of backslashes is halved, but
only at the end of the line.
NOTE: These commands cannot be used with |:global| or |:vglobal|.
":append" and ":insert" don't work properly in between ":if" and
":endif", ":for" and ":endfor", ":while" and ":endwhile".
*:start* *:startinsert*
:star[tinsert][!] Start Insert mode just after executing this command.
Works like typing "i" in Normal mode. When the ! is
included it works like "A", append to the line.
Otherwise insertion starts at the cursor position.
Note that when using this command in a function or
script, the insertion only starts after the function
or script is finished.
This command does not work from |:normal|.
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+ex_extra|
feature}
*:stopi* *:stopinsert*
:stopi[nsert] Stop Insert mode as soon as possible. Works like
typing <Esc> in Insert mode.
Can be used in an autocommand, example:
:au BufEnter scratch stopinsert
*replacing-ex* *:startreplace*
:startr[eplace][!] Start Replace mode just after executing this command.
Works just like typing "R" in Normal mode. When the
! is included it acts just like "$R" had been typed
(ie. begin replace mode at the end-of-line). Other-
wise replacement begins at the cursor position.
Note that when using this command in a function or
script that the replacement will only start after
the function or script is finished.
{not in Vi}
feature}
*:startgreplace*
:startg[replace][!] Just like |:startreplace|, but use Virtual Replace
mode, like with |gR|.
{not in Vi}
feature}
==============================================================================
10. Inserting a file *inserting-file*
*:r* *:re* *:read*

:r[ead] [++opt] [name]

Insert the file [name] (default: current file) below

the cursor.
See |++opt| for the possible values of [++opt].
:{range}r[ead] [++opt] [name]
Insert the file [name] (default: current file) below
the specified line.
See |++opt| for the possible values of [++opt].
*:r!* *:read!*
:[range]r[ead] !{cmd} Execute {cmd} and insert its standard output below
the cursor or the specified line. A temporary file is
used to store the output of the command which is then
read into the buffer. 'shellredir' is used to save
the output of the command, which can be set to include
stderr or not. {cmd} is executed like with ":!{cmd}",
any '!' is replaced with the previous command |:!|.
These commands insert the contents of a file, or the output of a command,
into the buffer. They can be undone. They cannot be repeated with the "."
command. They work on a line basis, insertion starts below the line in which
the cursor is, or below the specified line. To insert text above the first
line use the command ":0r {name}".
After the ":read" command, the cursor is left on the first non-blank in the
first new line. Unless in Ex mode, then the cursor is left on the last new
line (sorry, this is Vi compatible).
If a file name is given with ":r", it becomes the alternate file. This can be
used, for example, when you want to edit that file instead: ":e! #". This can
be switched off by removing the 'a' flag from the 'cpoptions' option.
Of the [++opt] arguments one is specifically for ":read", the ++edit argument.
This is useful when the ":read" command is actually used to read a file into
the buffer as if editing that file. Use this command in an empty buffer:
:read ++edit filename
The effect is that the 'fileformat', 'fileencoding', 'bomb', etc. options are
set to what has been detected for "filename". Note that a single empty line
remains, you may want to delete it.
*file-read*
The 'fileformat' option sets the <EOL> style for a file:
'fileformat' characters name
"dos" <CR><NL> or <NL> DOS format
"unix" <NL> Unix format
"mac" <CR> Mac format
Previously 'textmode' was used. It is obsolete now.
If 'fileformat' is "dos", a <CR> in front of an <NL> is ignored and a CTRL-Z
at the end of the file is ignored.
If 'fileformat' is "mac", a <NL> in the file is internally represented by a
<CR>. This is to avoid confusion with a <NL> which is used to represent a
<NUL>. See |CR-used-for-NL|.
If the 'fileformats' option is not empty Vim tries to recognize the type of
<EOL> (see |file-formats|). However, the 'fileformat' option will not be
changed, the detected format is only used while reading the file.
A similar thing happens with 'fileencodings'.
On non-MS-DOS, Win32, and OS/2 systems the message "[dos format]" is shown if
a file is read in DOS format, to remind you that something unusual is done.
On Macintosh, MS-DOS, Win32, and OS/2 the message "[unix format]" is shown if
a file is read in Unix format.
On non-Macintosh systems, the message "[Mac format]" is shown if a file is
read in Mac format.
An example on how to use ":r !":
:r !uuencode binfile binfile
This command reads "binfile", uuencodes it and reads it into the current
buffer. Useful when you are editing e-mail and want to include a binary
file.
*read-messages*
When reading a file Vim will display a message with information about the read
file. In the table is an explanation for some of the items. The others are
self explanatory. Using the long or the short version depends on the

'shortmess' option.
long short meaning
[readonly] {RO} the file is write protected
[fifo/socket] using a stream
[fifo] using a fifo stream
[socket] using a socket stream
[CR missing] reading with "dos" 'fileformat' and a
NL without a preceding CR was found.
[NL found] reading with "mac" 'fileformat' and a
NL was found (could be "unix" format)
[long lines split] at least one line was split in two
[NOT converted] conversion from 'fileencoding' to
'encoding' was desired but not
possible
[converted] conversion from 'fileencoding' to
'encoding' done
[crypted] file was decrypted
[READ ERRORS] not all of the file could be read
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Vim documentation: visual
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Help FAQ Both

main help file
*visual.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Feb 17
Visual mode *Visual* *Visual-mode* *visual-mode*

Visual mode is a flexible and easy way to select a piece of text for an
operator. It is the only way to select a block of text.
This is introduced in section |04.4| of the user manual.
1. Using Visual mode |visual-use|
2. Starting and stopping Visual mode |visual-start|
3. Changing the Visual area |visual-change|
4. Operating on the Visual area |visual-operators|
5. Blockwise operators |blockwise-operators|
6. Repeating |visual-repeat|
7. Examples |visual-examples|
8. Select mode |Select-mode|
{Vi has no Visual mode, the name "visual" is used for Normal mode, to
distinguish it from Ex mode}
{not available when the |+visual| feature was disabled when compiling}
==============================================================================
1. Using Visual mode *visual-use*
Using Visual mode consists of three parts:
1. Mark the start of the text with "v", "V" or CTRL-V.
The character under the cursor will be used as the start.
2. Move to the end of the text.
The text from the start of the Visual mode up to and including the
character under the cursor is highlighted.
3. Type an operator command.
The highlighted characters will be operated upon.
The 'highlight' option can be used to set the display mode to use for
highlighting in Visual mode.
The 'virtualedit' option can be used to allow positioning the cursor to
positions where there is no actual character.
The highlighted text normally includes the character under the cursor.
However, when the 'selection' option is set to "exclusive" and the cursor is
after the Visual area, the character under the cursor is not included.
With "v" the text before the start position and after the end position will
not be highlighted. However, all uppercase and non-alpha operators, except
"~" and "U", will work on whole lines anyway. See the list of operators
below.
*visual-block*
With CTRL-V (blockwise Visual mode) the highlighted text will be a rectangle
between start position and the cursor. However, some operators work on whole
lines anyway (see the list below). The change and substitute operators will
delete the highlighted text and then start insertion at the top left
position.
==============================================================================
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/visual.html[2019/03/05 11:41:05 AM]

2. Starting and stopping Visual mode *visual-start*
*v* *characterwise-visual*
v start Visual mode per character.
*V* *linewise-visual*
V start Visual mode linewise.
*CTRL-V* *blockwise-visual*
CTRL-V start Visual mode blockwise. Note: Under Windows
CTRL-V could be mapped to paste text, it doesn't work
to start Visual mode then, see |CTRL-V-alternative|.
If you use <Esc>, click the left mouse button or use any command that
does a jump to another buffer while in Visual mode, the highlighting stops
and no text is affected. Also when you hit "v" in characterwise Visual mode,
"CTRL-V" in blockwise Visual mode or "V" in linewise Visual mode. If you hit
CTRL-Z the highlighting stops and the editor is suspended or a new shell is
started |CTRL-Z|.
new mode after typing: *v_v* *v_CTRL-V* *v_V*

old mode "v" "CTRL-V" "V"
Normal Visual blockwise Visual linewise Visual
Visual Normal blockwise Visual linewise Visual
blockwise Visual Visual Normal linewise Visual
linewise Visual Visual blockwise Visual Normal
*gv* *v_gv* *reselect-Visual*

gv Start Visual mode with the same area as the previous
area and the same mode.
In Visual mode the current and the previous Visual
area are exchanged.
After using "p" or "P" in Visual mode the text that
was put will be selected.
*<LeftMouse>*
<LeftMouse> Set the current cursor position. If Visual mode is
active it is stopped. Only when 'mouse' option is
contains 'n' or 'a'. If the position is within 'so'
lines from the last line on the screen the text is
scrolled up. If the position is within 'so' lines from
the first line on the screen the text is scrolled
down.
*<RightMouse>*
<RightMouse> Start Visual mode if it is not active. The text from
the cursor position to the position of the click is
highlighted. If Visual mode was already active move
the start or end of the highlighted text, which ever
is closest, to the position of the click. Only when
'mouse' option contains 'n' or 'a'.
Note: when 'mousemodel' is set to "popup",
<S-LeftMouse> has to be used instead of <RightMouse>.
*<LeftRelease>*
<LeftRelease> This works like a <LeftMouse>, if it is not at
the same position as <LeftMouse>. In an older version
of xterm you won't see the selected area until the
button is released, unless there is access to the
display where the xterm is running (via the DISPLAY
environment variable or the -display argument). Only
when 'mouse' option contains 'n' or 'a'.
If Visual mode is not active and the "v", "V" or CTRL-V is preceded with a
count, the size of the previously highlighted area is used for a start. You
can then move the end of the highlighted area and give an operator. The type
of the old area is used (character, line or blockwise).
- Linewise Visual mode: The number of lines is multiplied with the count.
- Blockwise Visual mode: The number of lines and columns is multiplied with

the count.
- Normal Visual mode within one line: The number of characters is multiplied
with the count.
- Normal Visual mode with several lines: The number of lines is multiplied
with the count, in the last line the same number of characters is used as
in the last line in the previously highlighted area.
The start of the text is the Cursor position. If the "$" command was used as
one of the last commands to extend the highlighted text, the area will be
extended to the rightmost column of the longest line.
If you want to highlight exactly the same area as the last time, you can use
"gv" |gv| |v_gv|.
*v_<Esc>*
<Esc> In Visual mode: Stop Visual mode.
*v_CTRL-C*
CTRL-C In Visual mode: Stop Visual mode. When insert mode is
pending (the mode message shows
"-- (insert) VISUAL --"), it is also stopped.
==============================================================================
3. Changing the Visual area *visual-change*
*v_o*
o Go to Other end of highlighted text: The current
cursor position becomes the start of the highlighted
text and the cursor is moved to the other end of the
highlighted text. The highlighted area remains the
same.
*v_O*
O Go to Other end of highlighted text. This is like
"o", but in Visual block mode the cursor moves to the
other corner in the same line. When the corner is at
a character that occupies more than one position on
the screen (e.g., a <Tab>), the highlighted text may
change.
*v_$*
When the "$" command is used with blockwise Visual mode, the right end of the
highlighted text will be determined by the longest highlighted line. This
stops when a motion command is used that does not move straight up or down.
For moving the end of the block many commands can be used, but you cannot
use Ex commands, commands that make changes or abandon the file. Commands
(starting with) ".", "&", CTRL-^, "Z", CTRL-], CTRL-T, CTRL-R, CTRL-I
and CTRL-O cause a beep and Visual mode continues.
When switching to another window on the same buffer, the cursor position in
that window is adjusted, so that the same Visual area is still selected. This
is especially useful to view the start of the Visual area in one window, and
the end in another. You can then use <RightMouse> (or <S-LeftMouse> when
'mousemodel' is "popup") to drag either end of the Visual area.
==============================================================================
4. Operating on the Visual area *visual-operators*
The operators that can be used are:
~ switch case |v_~|
d delete |v_d|
c change (4) |v_c|
y yank |v_y|
> shift right (4) |v_>|
< shift left (4) |v_<|
! filter through external command (1) |v_!|
= filter through 'equalprg' option command (1) |v_=|
gq format lines to 'textwidth' length (1) |v_gq|
The objects that can be used are:
aw a word (with white space) |v_aw|
iw inner word |v_iw|
aW a WORD (with white space) |v_aW|

iW inner WORD |v_iW|

as a sentence (with white space) |v_as|
is inner sentence |v_is|
ap a paragraph (with white space) |v_ap|
ip inner paragraph |v_ip|
ab a () block (with parenthesis) |v_ab|
ib inner () block |v_ib|
aB a {} block (with braces) |v_aB|
iB inner {} block |v_iB|
at a <tag> </tag> block (with tags) |v_at|
it inner <tag> </tag> block |v_it|
a< a <> block (with <>) |v_a<|
i< inner <> block |v_i<|
a[ a [] block (with []) |v_a[|
i[ inner [] block |v_i[|
a" a double quoted string (with quotes) |v_aquote|
i" inner double quoted string |v_iquote|
a' a single quoted string (with quotes) |v_a'|
i' inner simple quoted string |v_i'|
a` a string in backticks (with backticks) |v_a`|
i` inner string in backticks |v_i`|
Additionally the following commands can be used:
: start Ex command for highlighted lines (1) |v_:|
r change (4) |v_r|
s change |v_s|
C change (2)(4) |v_C|
S change (2) |v_S|
R change (2) |v_R|
x delete |v_x|
D delete (3) |v_D|
X delete (2) |v_X|
Y yank (2) |v_Y|
p put |v_p|
J join (1) |v_J|
U make uppercase |v_U|
u make lowercase |v_u|
^] find tag |v_CTRL-]|
I block insert |v_b_I|
A block append |v_b_A|
(1): Always whole lines, see |:visual_example|.
(2): Whole lines when not using CTRL-V.
(3): Whole lines when not using CTRL-V, delete until the end of the line when
using CTRL-V.
(4): When using CTRL-V operates on the block only.
Note that the ":vmap" command can be used to specifically map keys in Visual
mode. For example, if you would like the "/" command not to extend the Visual
area, but instead take the highlighted text and search for that:
:vmap / y/<C-R>"<CR>
(In the <> notation |<>|, when typing it you should type it literally; you
need to remove the 'B' and '<' flags from 'cpoptions'.)
If you want to give a register name using the """ command, do this just before
typing the operator character: "v{move-around}"xd".
If you want to give a count to the command, do this just before typing the
operator character: "v{move-around}3>" (move lines 3 indents to the right).
*{move-around}*
The {move-around} is any sequence of movement commands. Note the difference
with {motion}, which is only ONE movement command.
Another way to operate on the Visual area is using the |/\%V| item in a
pattern. For example, to replace all '(' in the Visual area with '#':
:%s/\%V(/X/g
==============================================================================
5. Blockwise operators *blockwise-operators*
{not available when compiled without the |+visualextra| feature}
Reminder: Use 'virtualedit' to be able to select blocks that start or end
after the end of a line or halfway a tab.

Visual-block Insert *v_b_I*

With a blockwise selection, I{string}<ESC> will insert {string} at the start
of block on every line of the block, provided that the line extends into the
block. Thus lines that are short will remain unmodified. TABs are split to
retain visual columns.
See |v_b_I_example|.
Visual-block Append *v_b_A*

With a blockwise selection, A{string}<ESC> will append {string} to the end of
block on every line of the block. There is some differing behavior where the
block RHS is not straight, due to different line lengths:
1. Block was created with <C-v>$
In this case the string is appended to the end of each line.
2. Block was created with <C-v>{move-around}
In this case the string is appended to the end of the block on each line,
and whitespace is inserted to pad to the end-of-block column.
See |v_b_A_example|.
Note: "I" and "A" behave differently for lines that don't extend into the
selected block. This was done intentionally, so that you can do it the way
you want.
Visual-block change *v_b_c*

All selected text in the block will be replaced by the same text string. When
using "c" the selected text is deleted and Insert mode started. You can then
enter text (without a line break). When you hit <Esc>, the same string is
inserted in all previously selected lines.
Visual-block Change *v_b_C*

Like using "c", but the selection is extended until the end of the line for
all lines.
*v_b_<*
Visual-block Shift *v_b_>*
The block is shifted by 'shiftwidth'. The RHS of the block is irrelevant. The
LHS of the block determines the point from which to apply a right shift, and
padding includes TABs optimally according to 'ts' and 'et'. The LHS of the
block determines the point upto which to shift left.
See |v_b_>_example|.
See |v_b_<_example|.
Visual-block Replace *v_b_r*

Every screen char in the highlighted region is replaced with the same char, ie
TABs are split and the virtual whitespace is replaced, maintaining screen
layout.
See |v_b_r_example|.
==============================================================================
6. Repeating *visual-repeat*
When repeating a Visual mode operator, the operator will be applied to the
same amount of text as the last time:
- Linewise Visual mode: The same number of lines.
- Blockwise Visual mode: The same number of lines and columns.
- Normal Visual mode within one line: The same number of characters.
- Normal Visual mode with several lines: The same number of lines, in the
last line the same number of characters as in the last line the last time.
The start of the text is the Cursor position. If the "$" command was used as
one of the last commands to extend the highlighted text, the repeating will
be applied up to the rightmost column of the longest line.
==============================================================================
7. Examples *visual-examples*
*:visual_example*
Currently the ":" command works on whole lines only. When you select part of
a line, doing something like ":!date" will replace the whole line. If you
want only part of the line to be replaced you will have to make a mapping for
it. In a future release ":" may work on partial lines.

Here is an example, to replace the selected text with the output of "date":
:vmap _a <Esc>`>a<CR><Esc>`<i<CR><Esc>!!date<CR>kJJ
need to remove the 'B' and '<' flags from 'cpoptions')
What this does is:
<Esc> stop Visual mode
`> go to the end of the Visual area
a<CR><Esc> break the line after the Visual area
`< jump to the start of the Visual area
i<CR><Esc> break the line before the Visual area
!!date<CR> filter the Visual text through date
kJJ Join the lines back together
*visual-search*
Here is an idea for a mapping that makes it possible to do a search for the
selected text:
:vmap X y/<C-R>"<CR>
need to remove the 'B' and '<' flags from 'cpoptions')
Note that special characters (like '.' and '*') will cause problems.
Visual-block Examples *blockwise-examples*

With the following text, I will indicate the commands to produce the block and
the results below. In all cases, the cursor begins on the 'a' in the first
line of the test text.
The following modeline settings are assumed ":ts=8:sw=4:".
It will be helpful to
:set hls
/<TAB>
where <TAB> is a real TAB. This helps visualise the operations.
The test text is:
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
abc defghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
abcdef ghi jklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1. fo<C-v>3jISTRING<ESC> *v_b_I_example*
abcdefghijklmnSTRINGopqrstuvwxyz
abc STRING defghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
abcdef ghi STRING jklmnopqrstuvwxyz
abcdefghijklmnSTRINGopqrstuvwxyz
2. fo<C-v>3j$ASTRING<ESC> *v_b_A_example*
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzSTRING
abc defghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzSTRING
abcdef ghi jklmnopqrstuvwxyzSTRING
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzSTRING
3. fo<C-v>3j3l<.. *v_b_<_example*
4. fo<C-v>3j>.. *v_b_>_example*
abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz
abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz
5. fo<C-v>5l3jrX *v_b_r_example*

abcdefghijklmnXXXXXXuvwxyz
abc XXXXXXhijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
abcdef ghi XXXXXX jklmnopqrstuvwxyz
abcdefghijklmnXXXXXXuvwxyz
==============================================================================
8. Select mode *Select* *Select-mode*
Select mode looks like Visual mode, but the commands accepted are quite
different. This resembles the selection mode in Microsoft Windows.
When the 'showmode' option is set, "-- SELECT --" is shown in the last line.
Entering Select mode:
- Using the mouse to select an area, and 'selectmode' contains "mouse".
'mouse' must also contain a flag for the current mode.
- Using a non-printable movement command, with the Shift key pressed, and
'selectmode' contains "key". For example: <S-Left> and <S-End>. 'keymodel'
must also contain "startsel".
- Using "v", "V" or CTRL-V command, and 'selectmode' contains "cmd".
- Using "gh", "gH" or "g_CTRL-H" command in Normal mode.
- From Visual mode, press CTRL-G. *v_CTRL-G*
Commands in Select mode:
- Printable characters, <NL> and <CR> cause the selection to be deleted, and
Vim enters Insert mode. The typed character is inserted.
- Non-printable movement commands, with the Shift key pressed, extend the
selection. 'keymodel' must include "startsel".
- Non-printable movement commands, with the Shift key NOT pressed, stop Select
mode. 'keymodel' must include "stopsel".
- ESC stops Select mode.
- CTRL-O switches to Visual mode for the duration of one command. *v_CTRL-O*
- CTRL-G switches to Visual mode.
Otherwise, typed characters are handled as in Visual mode.
When using an operator in Select mode, and the selection is linewise, the
selected lines are operated upon, but like in characterwise selection. For
example, when a whole line is deleted, it can later be pasted halfway a line.
Mappings and menus in Select mode. *Select-mode-mapping*

When mappings and menus are defined with the |:vmap| or |:vmenu| command they
work both in Visual mode and in Select mode. When these are used in Select
mode Vim automatically switches to Visual mode, so that the same behavior as
in Visual mode is effective. If you don't want this use |:xmap| or |:smap|.
Users will expect printable characters to replace the selected area.
Therefore avoid mapping printable characters in Select mode. Or use
|:sunmap| after |:map| and |:vmap| to remove it for Select mode.
After the mapping or menu finishes, the selection is enabled again and Select
mode entered, unless the selected area was deleted, another buffer became
the current one or the window layout was changed.
When a character was typed that causes the selection to be deleted and Insert
mode started, Insert mode mappings are applied to this character. This may
cause some confusion, because it means Insert mode mappings apply to a
character typed in Select mode. Language mappings apply as well.
*gV* *v_gV*
gV Avoid the automatic reselection of the Visual area
after a Select mode mapping or menu has finished.
Put this just before the end of the mapping or menu.
At least it should be after any operations on the
selection.
*gh*
gh Start Select mode, characterwise. This is like "v",
but starts Select mode instead of Visual mode.
Mnemonic: "get highlighted".

*gH*
gH Start Select mode, linewise. This is like "V",
Mnemonic: "get Highlighted".
*g_CTRL-H*
g CTRL-H Start Select mode, blockwise. This is like CTRL-V,
Mnemonic: "get Highlighted".
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: cmdline
Search tag (regex)
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main help file
*cmdline.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Mar 27
*Cmdline-mode* *Command-line-mode*
Command-line mode *Cmdline* *Command-line* *mode-cmdline* *:*
Command-line mode is used to enter Ex commands (":"), search patterns
("/" and "?"), and filter commands ("!").
Basic command line editing is explained in chapter 20 of the user manual
|usr_20.txt|.
1. Command-line editing |cmdline-editing|
2. Command-line completion |cmdline-completion|
3. Ex command-lines |cmdline-lines|
4. Ex command-line ranges |cmdline-ranges|
5. Ex command-line flags |ex-flags|
6. Ex special characters |cmdline-special|
7. Command-line window |cmdline-window|
==============================================================================
1. Command-line editing *cmdline-editing*
Normally characters are inserted in front of the cursor position. You can
move around in the command-line with the left and right cursor keys. With the
<Insert> key, you can toggle between inserting and overstriking characters.
{Vi: can only alter the last character in the line}
Note that if your keyboard does not have working cursor keys or any of the
other special keys, you can use ":cnoremap" to define another key for them.
For example, to define tcsh style editing keys: *tcsh-style*
:cnoremap <C-A> <Home>
:cnoremap <C-F> <Right>
:cnoremap <C-B> <Left>
:cnoremap <Esc>b <S-Left>
:cnoremap <Esc>f <S-Right>
(<> notation |<>|; type all this literally)
*cmdline-too-long*
When the command line is getting longer than what fits on the screen, only the
part that fits will be shown. The cursor can only move in this visible part,
thus you cannot edit beyond that.
*cmdline-history* *history*
The command-lines that you enter are remembered in a history table. You can
recall them with the up and down cursor keys. There are actually five
history tables:
- one for ':' commands
- one for search strings
- one for expressions
- one for input lines, typed for the |input()| function.
- one for debug mode commands
These are completely separate. Each history can only be accessed when
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/cmdline.html[2019/03/05 11:41:06 AM]

entering the same type of line.

Use the 'history' option to set the number of lines that are remembered
(default: 20).
Notes:
- When you enter a command-line that is exactly the same as an older one, the
old one is removed (to avoid repeated commands moving older commands out of
the history).
- Only commands that are typed are remembered. Ones that completely come from
mappings are not put in the history.
- All searches are put in the search history, including the ones that come
from commands like "*" and "#". But for a mapping, only the last search is
remembered (to avoid that long mappings trash the history).
{Vi: no history}
{not available when compiled without the |+cmdline_hist| feature}
There is an automatic completion of names on the command-line; see
|cmdline-completion|.
*c_CTRL-V*
CTRL-V Insert next non-digit literally. Up to three digits form the
decimal value of a single byte. The non-digit and the three
digits are not considered for mapping. This works the same
way as in Insert mode (see above, |i_CTRL-V|).
Note: Under Windows CTRL-V is often mapped to paste text.
Use CTRL-Q instead then.
*c_CTRL-Q*
CTRL-Q Same as CTRL-V. But with some terminals it is used for
control flow, it doesn't work then.
*c_<Left>* *c_Left*
<Left> cursor left
*c_<Right>* *c_Right*
<Right> cursor right
*c_<S-Left>*
<S-Left> or <C-Left> *c_<C-Left>*
cursor one WORD left
*c_<S-Right>*
<S-Right> or <C-Right> *c_<C-Right>*
cursor one WORD right
CTRL-B or <Home> *c_CTRL-B* *c_<Home>* *c_Home*
cursor to beginning of command-line
CTRL-E or <End> *c_CTRL-E* *c_<End>* *c_End*
cursor to end of command-line
*c_<LeftMouse>*
<LeftMouse> Move the cursor to the position of the mouse click.
CTRL-H *c_<BS>* *c_CTRL-H* *c_BS*

<BS> Delete the character in front of the cursor (see |:fixdel| if
your <BS> key does not do what you want).
*c_<Del>* *c_Del*
<Del> Delete the character under the cursor (at end of line:
character before the cursor) (see |:fixdel| if your <Del>
key does not do what you want).
*c_CTRL-W*
CTRL-W Delete the |word| before the cursor. This depends on the
'iskeyword' option.
*c_CTRL-U*
CTRL-U Remove all characters between the cursor position and
the beginning of the line. Previous versions of vim
deleted all characters on the line. If that is the
preferred behavior, add the following to your .vimrc:
:cnoremap <C-U> <C-E><C-U>

*c_<Insert>* *c_Insert*
<Insert> Toggle between insert and overstrike. {not in Vi}
{char1} <BS> {char2} or *c_digraph*

CTRL-K {char1} {char2} *c_CTRL-K*
enter digraph (see |digraphs|). When {char1} is a special
key, the code for that key is inserted in <> form. {not in Vi}
CTRL-R {0-9a-z"%#:-=.} *c_CTRL-R* *c_<C-R>*

Insert the contents of a numbered or named register. Between
typing CTRL-R and the second character '"'' will be displayed
to indicate that you are expected to enter the name of a
register.
The text is inserted as if you typed it, but mappings and
abbreviations are not used. Command-line completion through
'wildchar' is not triggered though. And characters that end
the command line are inserted literally (<Esc>, <CR>, <NL>,
<C-C>). A <BS> or CTRL-W could still end the command line
though, and remaining characters will then be interpreted in
another mode, which might not be what you intended.
Special registers:
'"'' the unnamed register, containing the text of
the last delete or yank
'%' the current file name
'#' the alternate file name
'*' the clipboard contents (X11: primary selection)
'+' the clipboard contents
'/' the last search pattern
':' the last command-line
'-' the last small (less than a line) delete
'.' the last inserted text
*c_CTRL-R_=*
'=' the expression register: you are prompted to
enter an expression (see |expression|)
(doesn't work at the expression prompt; some
things such as changing the buffer or current
window are not allowed to avoid side effects)
When the result is a |List| the items are used
as lines. They can have line breaks inside
too.
When the result is a Float it's automatically
converted to a String.
See |registers| about registers. {not in Vi}
Implementation detail: When using the |expression| register
and invoking setcmdpos(), this sets the position before
inserting the resulting string. Use CTRL-R CTRL-R to set the
position afterwards.
CTRL-R CTRL-F *c_CTRL-R_CTRL-F* *c_<C-R>_<C-F>*

CTRL-R CTRL-P *c_CTRL-R_CTRL-P* *c_<C-R>_<C-P>*
CTRL-R CTRL-W *c_CTRL-R_CTRL-W* *c_<C-R>_<C-W>*
CTRL-R CTRL-A *c_CTRL-R_CTRL-A* *c_<C-R>_<C-A>*
Insert the object under the cursor:
CTRL-F the Filename under the cursor
CTRL-P the Filename under the cursor, expanded with
'path' as in |gf|
CTRL-W the Word under the cursor
CTRL-A the WORD under the cursor; see |WORD|
When 'incsearch' is set the cursor position at the end of the
currently displayed match is used. With CTRL-W the part of
the word that was already typed is not inserted again.
{not in Vi}
CTRL-F and CTRL-P: {only when |+file_in_path| feature is
included}
*c_CTRL-R_CTRL-R* *c_<C-R>_<C-R>*
*c_CTRL-R_CTRL-O* *c_<C-R>_<C-O>*

CTRL-R CTRL-R {0-9a-z"%#:-=. CTRL-F CTRL-P CTRL-W CTRL-A}

CTRL-R CTRL-O {0-9a-z"%#:-=. CTRL-F CTRL-P CTRL-W CTRL-A}
Insert register or object under the cursor. Works like
|c_CTRL-R| but inserts the text literally. For example, if
register a contains "xy^Hz" (where ^H is a backspace),
"CTRL-R a" will insert "xz" while "CTRL-R CTRL-R a" will
insert "xy^Hz".
CTRL-\ e {expr} *c_CTRL-\_e*

Evaluate {expr} and replace the whole command line with the
result. You will be prompted for the expression, type <Enter>
to finish it. It's most useful in mappings though. See
|expression|.
See |c_CTRL-R_=| for inserting the result of an expression.
Useful functions are |getcmdtype()|, |getcmdline()| and
|getcmdpos()|.
The cursor position is unchanged, except when the cursor was
at the end of the line, then it stays at the end.
|setcmdpos()| can be used to set the cursor position.
The |sandbox| is used for evaluating the expression to avoid
nasty side effects.
Example:
:cmap <F7> <C-\>eAppendSome()<CR>
:func AppendSome()
:let cmd = getcmdline() . " Some()"
:" place the cursor on the )
:call setcmdpos(strlen(cmd))
:return cmd
:endfunc
This doesn't work recursively, thus not when already editing
an expression.
*c_CTRL-Y*
CTRL-Y When there is a modeless selection, copy the selection into
the clipboard. |modeless-selection|
If there is no selection CTRL-Y is inserted as a character.
CTRL-J *c_CTRL-J* *c_<NL>* *c_<CR>* *c_CR*

<CR> or <NL> start entered command
*c_<Esc>* *c_Esc*
<Esc> When typed and 'x' not present in 'cpoptions', quit
Command-line mode without executing. In macros or when 'x'
present in 'cpoptions', start entered command.
Note: If your <Esc> key is hard to hit on your keyboard, train
yourself to use CTRL-[.
*c_CTRL-C*
CTRL-C quit command-line without executing
*c_<Up>* *c_Up*
<Up> recall older command-line from history, whose beginning
matches the current command-line (see below).
feature}
*c_<Down>* *c_Down*
<Down> recall more recent command-line from history, whose beginning
matches the current command-line (see below).
feature}
*c_<S-Up>* *c_<PageUp>*
<S-Up> or <PageUp>
recall older command-line from history
feature}
*c_<S-Down>* *c_<PageDown>*
<S-Down> or <PageDown>
recall more recent command-line from history
feature}

CTRL-D command-line completion (see |cmdline-completion|)

'wildchar' option
command-line completion (see |cmdline-completion|)
CTRL-N command-line completion (see |cmdline-completion|)
CTRL-P command-line completion (see |cmdline-completion|)
CTRL-A command-line completion (see |cmdline-completion|)
CTRL-L command-line completion (see |cmdline-completion|)
*c_CTRL-_*
CTRL-_ a - switch between Hebrew and English keyboard mode, which is
private to the command-line and not related to hkmap.
This is useful when Hebrew text entry is required in the
command-line, searches, abbreviations, etc. Applies only if
Vim is compiled with the |+rightleft| feature and the
'allowrevins' option is set.
See |rileft.txt|.
b - switch between Farsi and English keyboard mode, which is
private to the command-line and not related to fkmap. In
Farsi keyboard mode the characters are inserted in reverse
insert manner. This is useful when Farsi text entry is
required in the command-line, searches, abbreviations, etc.
Applies only if Vim is compiled with the |+farsi| feature.
See |farsi.txt|.
*c_CTRL-^*
CTRL-^ Toggle the use of language |:lmap| mappings and/or Input
Method.
When typing a pattern for a search command and 'imsearch' is
not -1, VAL is the value of 'imsearch', otherwise VAL is the
value of 'iminsert'.
When language mappings are defined:
- If VAL is 1 (langmap mappings used) it becomes 0 (no langmap
mappings used).
- If VAL was not 1 it becomes 1, thus langmap mappings are
enabled.
When no language mappings are defined:
- If VAL is 2 (Input Method is used) it becomes 0 (no input
method used)
- If VAL has another value it becomes 2, thus the Input Method
is enabled.
These language mappings are normally used to type characters
that are different from what the keyboard produces. The
'keymap' option can be used to install a whole number of them.
When entering a command line, langmap mappings are switched
off, since you are expected to type a command. After
switching it on with CTRL-^, the new state is not used again
for the next command or Search pattern.
{not in Vi}
*c_CTRL-]*
CTRL-] Trigger abbreviation, without inserting a character. {not in
Vi}
For Emacs-style editing on the command-line see |emacs-keys|.
The <Up> and <Down> keys take the current command-line as a search string.
The beginning of the next/previous command-lines are compared with this
string. The first line that matches is the new command-line. When typing
these two keys repeatedly, the same string is used again. For example, this
can be used to find the previous substitute command: Type ":s" and then <Up>.
The same could be done by typing <S-Up> a number of times until the desired
command-line is shown. (Note: the shifted arrow keys do not work on all
terminals)
*:his* *:history*
:his[tory] Print the history of last entered commands.
{not in Vi}
feature}
:his[tory] [{name}] [{first}][, [{last}]]
List the contents of history {name} which can be:
c[md] or : command-line history
s[earch] or / search string history
e[xpr] or = expression register history

i[nput] or @ input line history

d[ebug] or > debug command history
a[ll] all of the above
{not in Vi}
If the numbers {first} and/or {last} are given, the respective
range of entries from a history is listed. These numbers can
be specified in the following form:
*:history-indexing*
A positive number represents the absolute index of an entry
as it is given in the first column of a :history listing.
This number remains fixed even if other entries are deleted.
A negative number means the relative position of an entry,
counted from the newest entry (which has index -1) backwards.
Examples:
List entries 6 to 12 from the search history:
:history / 6,12
List the recent five entries from all histories:
:history all -5,
==============================================================================
2. Command-line completion *cmdline-completion*
When editing the command-line, a few commands can be used to complete the
word before the cursor. This is available for:
- Command names: At the start of the command-line.
- Tags: Only after the ":tag" command.
- File names: Only after a command that accepts a file name or a setting for
an option that can be set to a file name. This is called file name
completion.
- Shell command names: After ":!cmd", ":r !cmd" and ":w !cmd". $PATH is used.
- Options: Only after the ":set" command.
- Mappings: Only after a ":map" or similar command.
- Variable and function names: Only after a ":if", ":call" or similar command.
When Vim was compiled without the |+cmdline_compl| feature only file names,
directories and help items can be completed. The number of help item matches
is limited (currently to 300) to avoid a long delay when there are very many
matches.
These are the commands that can be used:
*c_CTRL-D*
CTRL-D List names that match the pattern in front of the cursor.
When showing file names, directories are highlighted (see
'highlight' option). Names where 'suffixes' matches are moved
to the end.
The 'wildoptions' option can be set to "tagfile" to list the
file of matching tags.
*c_CTRL-I* *c_wildchar* *c_<Tab>*
'wildchar' option
A match is done on the pattern in front of the cursor. The
match (if there are several, the first match) is inserted
in place of the pattern. (Note: does not work inside a
macro, because <Tab> or <Esc> are mostly used as 'wildchar',
and these have a special meaning in some macros.) When typed
again and there were multiple matches, the next
match is inserted. After the last match, the first is used
again (wrap around).
The behavior can be changed with the 'wildmode' option.
*c_CTRL-N*
CTRL-N After using 'wildchar' which got multiple matches, go to next
match. Otherwise recall more recent command-line from history.
<S-Tab> *c_CTRL-P* *c_<S-Tab>*
CTRL-P After using 'wildchar' which got multiple matches, go to
previous match. Otherwise recall older command-line from
history. <S-Tab> only works with the GUI, on the Amiga and
with MS-DOS.
*c_CTRL-A*

CTRL-A All names that match the pattern in front of the cursor are
inserted.
*c_CTRL-L*
CTRL-L A match is done on the pattern in front of the cursor. If
there is one match, it is inserted in place of the pattern.
If there are multiple matches the longest common part is
inserted in place of the pattern. If the result is shorter
than the pattern, no completion is done.
When 'incsearch' is set, entering a search pattern for "/" or
"?" and the current match is displayed then CTRL-L will add
one character from the end of the current match. If
'ignorecase' and 'smartcase' are set and the command line has
no uppercase characters, the added character is converted to
lowercase.
The 'wildchar' option defaults to <Tab> (CTRL-E when in Vi compatible mode; in
a previous version <Esc> was used). In the pattern standard wildcards '*' and
'?' are accepted when matching file names. '*' matches any string, '?'
matches exactly one character.
If you like tcsh's autolist completion, you can use this mapping:
:cnoremap X <C-L><C-D>
(Where X is the command key to use, <C-L> is CTRL-L and <C-D> is CTRL-D)
This will find the longest match and then list all matching files.
If you like tcsh's autolist completion, you can use the 'wildmode' option to
emulate it. For example, this mimics autolist=ambiguous:
:set wildmode=longest,list
This will find the longest match with the first 'wildchar', then list all
matching files with the next.
*suffixes*
For file name completion you can use the 'suffixes' option to set a priority
between files with almost the same name. If there are multiple matches,
those files with an extension that is in the 'suffixes' option are ignored.
The default is ".bak,~,.o,.h,.info,.swp,.obj", which means that files ending
in ".bak", "~", ".o", ".h", ".info", ".swp" and ".obj" are sometimes ignored.
An empty entry, two consecutive commas, match a file name that does not
contain a ".", thus has no suffix. This is useful to ignore "prog" and prefer
"prog.c".
Examples:
pattern: files: match:
test* test.c test.h test.o test.c
test* test.h test.o test.h and test.o
test* test.i test.h test.c test.i and test.c
It is impossible to ignore suffixes with two dots.
If there is more than one matching file (after ignoring the ones matching
the 'suffixes' option) the first file name is inserted. You can see that
there is only one match when you type 'wildchar' twice and the completed
match stays the same. You can get to the other matches by entering
'wildchar', CTRL-N or CTRL-P. All files are included, also the ones with
extensions matching the 'suffixes' option.
To completely ignore files with some extension use 'wildignore'.
To match only files that end at the end of the typed text append a "$". For
example, to match only files that end in ".c":
:e *.c$
This will not match a file ending in ".cpp". Without the "$" it does match.
The old value of an option can be obtained by hitting 'wildchar' just after
the '='. For example, typing 'wildchar' after ":set dir=" will insert the
current value of 'dir'. This overrules file name completion for the options
that take a file name.
If you would like using <S-Tab> for CTRL-P in an xterm, put this command in
your .cshrc:
xmodmap -e "keysym Tab = Tab Find"
And this in your .vimrc:
:cmap <Esc>[1~ <C-P>
==============================================================================

3. Ex command-lines *cmdline-lines*
The Ex commands have a few specialties:
*:quote* *:comment*
'"'' at the start of a line causes the whole line to be ignored. '"''
after a command causes the rest of the line to be ignored. This can be used
to add comments. Example:
:set ai "set 'autoindent' option
It is not possible to add a comment to a shell command ":!cmd" or to the
":map" command and a few others, because they see the '"'' as part of their
argument. This is mentioned where the command is explained.
*:bar* *:\bar*
'|' can be used to separate commands, so you can give multiple commands in one
line. If you want to use '|' in an argument, precede it with '\'.
These commands see the '|' as their argument, and can therefore not be
followed by another Vim command:
:argdo
:autocmd
:bufdo
:command
:cscope
:debug
:folddoopen
:folddoclosed
:function
:global
:help
:helpfind
:lcscope
:make
:normal
:perl
:perldo
:promptfind
:promptrepl
:pyfile
:python
:registers
:read !
:scscope
:sign
:tcl
:tcldo
:tclfile
:vglobal
:windo
:write !
:[range]!
a user defined command without the "-bar" argument |:command|
Note that this is confusing (inherited from Vi): With ":g" the '|' is included
in the command, with ":s" it is not.
To be able to use another command anyway, use the ":execute" command.
Example (append the output of "ls" and jump to the first line):
:execute 'r !ls' | '[
There is one exception: When the 'b' flag is present in 'cpoptions', with the
":map" and ":abbr" commands and friends CTRL-V needs to be used instead of
'\'. You can also use "<Bar>" instead. See also |map_bar|.
Examples:
:!ls | wc view the output of two commands
:r !ls | wc insert the same output in the text
:%g/foo/p|> moves all matching lines one shiftwidth
:%s/foo/bar/|> moves one line one shiftwidth
:map q 10^V| map "q" to "10|"
:map q 10\| map \ l map "q" to "10\" and map "\" to "l"
(when 'b' is present in 'cpoptions')
You can also use <NL> to separate commands in the same way as with '|'. To
insert a <NL> use CTRL-V CTRL-J. "^@" will be shown. Using '|' is the
preferred method. But for external commands a <NL> must be used, because a
'|' is included in the external command. To avoid the special meaning of <NL>
it must be preceded with a backslash. Example:

:r !date<NL>-join
This reads the current date into the file and joins it with the previous line.
Note that when the command before the '|' generates an error, the following
commands will not be executed.
Because of Vi compatibility the following strange commands are supported:

:| print current line (like ":p")
:3| print line 3 (like ":3p")
:3 goto line 3
A colon is allowed between the range and the command name. It is ignored
(this is Vi compatible). For example:
:1,$:s/pat/string
When the character '%' or '#' is used where a file name is expected, they are
expanded to the current and alternate file name (see the chapter "editing
files" |:_%| |:_#|).
Embedded spaces in file names are allowed on the Amiga if one file name is
expected as argument. Trailing spaces will be ignored, unless escaped with a
backslash or CTRL-V. Note that the ":next" command uses spaces to separate
file names. Escape the spaces to include them in a file name. Example:
:next foo\ bar goes\ to school\
starts editing the three files "foo bar", "goes to" and "school ".
When you want to use the special characters '"'' or '|' in a command, or want
to use '%' or '#' in a file name, precede them with a backslash. The
backslash is not required in a range and in the ":substitute" command.
*:_!*
The '!' (bang) character after an Ex command makes the command behave in a
different way. The '!' should be placed immediately after the command, without
any blanks in between. If you insert blanks the '!' will be seen as an
argument for the command, which has a different meaning. For example:
:w! name write the current buffer to file "name", overwriting
any existing file
:w !name send the current buffer as standard input to command
"name"
==============================================================================
4. Ex command-line ranges *cmdline-ranges* *[range]* *E16*
Some Ex commands accept a line range in front of them. This is noted as
[range]. It consists of one or more line specifiers, separated with ',' or
';'.
The basics are explained in section |10.3| of the user manual.
*:,* *:;*
When separated with ';' the cursor position will be set to that line
before interpreting the next line specifier. This doesn't happen for ','.
Examples:
4,/this line/
from line 4 till match with "this line" after the cursor line.
5;/that line/
from line 5 till match with "that line" after line 5.
The default line specifier for most commands is the cursor position, but the
commands ":write" and ":global" have the whole file (1,$) as default.
If more line specifiers are given than required for the command, the first
one(s) will be ignored.
Line numbers may be specified with: *:range* *E14* *{address}*

{number} an absolute line number
. the current line *:.*
$ the last line in the file *:$*
% equal to 1,$ (the entire file) *:%*
't position of mark t (lowercase) *:'*

'T position of mark T (uppercase); when the mark is in

another file it cannot be used in a range
/{pattern}[/] the next line where {pattern} matches *:/*
?{pattern}[?] the previous line where {pattern} matches *:?*
\/ the next line where the previously used search
pattern matches
\? the previous line where the previously used search
pattern matches
\& the next line where the previously used substitute
pattern matches
Each may be followed (several times) by '+' or '-' and an optional number.
This number is added or subtracted from the preceding line number. If the
number is omitted, 1 is used.
The "/" and "?" after {pattern} are required to separate the pattern from
anything that follows.
The "/" and "?" may be preceded with another address. The search starts from
there. The difference from using ';' is that the cursor isn't moved.
Examples:
/pat1//pat2/ Find line containing "pat2" after line containing
"pat1", without moving the cursor.
7;/pat2/ Find line containing "pat2", after line 7, leaving
the cursor in line 7.
The {number} must be between 0 and the number of lines in the file. When
using a 0 (zero) this is interpreted as a 1 by most commands. Commands that
use it as a count do use it as a zero (|:tag|, |:pop|, etc). Some commands
interpret the zero as "before the first line" (|:read|, search pattern, etc).
Examples:
.+3 three lines below the cursor
/that/+1 the line below the next line containing "that"
.,$ from current line until end of file
0;/that the first line containing "that", also matches in the
first line.
1;/that the first line after line 1 containing "that"
Some commands allow for a count after the command. This count is used as the
number of lines to be used, starting with the line given in the last line
specifier (the default is the cursor line). The commands that accept a count
are the ones that use a range but do not have a file name argument (because
a file name can also be a number).
Examples:
:s/x/X/g 5 substitute 'x' by 'X' in the current line and four
following lines
:23d 4 delete lines 23, 24, 25 and 26
Folds and Range

When folds are active the line numbers are rounded off to include the whole
closed fold. See |fold-behavior|.
Reverse Range *E493*

A range should have the lower line number first. If this is not the case, Vim
will ask you if it should swap the line numbers.
Backwards range given, OK to swap
This is not done within the global command ":g".
You can use ":silent" before a command to avoid the question, the range will
always be swapped then.
Count and Range *N:*

When giving a count before entering ":", this is translated into:
:.,.+(count - 1)
In words: The 'count' lines at and after the cursor. Example: To delete
three lines:
3:d<CR> is translated into: .,.+2d<CR>

Visual Mode and Range *v_:*

{Visual}: Starts a command-line with the Visual selected lines as a
range. The code ":'<,'>" is used for this range, which makes
it possible to select a similar line from the command-line
history for repeating a command on different Visually selected
lines.
==============================================================================
5. Ex command-line flags *ex-flags*
These flags are supported by a selection of Ex commands. They print the line
that the cursor ends up after executing the command:
l output like for |:list|
# add line number
p output like for |:print|
The flags can be combined, thus "l#" uses both a line number and |:list| style
output.
==============================================================================
6. Ex special characters *cmdline-special*
Note: These are special characters in the executed command line. If you want
to insert special things while typing you can use the CTRL-R command. For
example, "%" stands for the current file name, while CTRL-R % inserts the
current file name right away. See |c_CTRL-R|.
Note: If you want to avoid the special characters in a Vim script you may want
to use |fnameescape()|.
In Ex commands, at places where a file name can be used, the following

characters have a special meaning. These can also be used in the expression
function expand() |expand()|.
% Is replaced with the current file name. *:_%* *c_%*
# Is replaced with the alternate file name. *:_#* *c_#*
#n (where n is a number) is replaced with *:_#0* *:_#n*
the file name of buffer n. "#0" is the same as "#". *c_#n*
## Is replaced with all names in the argument list *:_##* *c_##*
concatenated, separated by spaces. Each space in a name
is preceded with a backslash.
#<n (where n is a number > 0) is replaced with old *:_#<* *c_#<*
file name n. See |:oldfiles| or |v:oldfiles| to get the
number. *E809*
{only when compiled with the |+eval| and |+viminfo| features}
Note that these, except "#<n", give the file name as it was typed. If an
absolute path is needed (when using the file name from a different directory),
you need to add ":p". See |filename-modifiers|.
The "#<n" item returns an absolute path, but it will start with "~/" for files
below your home directory.
Note that backslashes are inserted before spaces, so that the command will
correctly interpret the file name. But this doesn't happen for shell
commands. For those you probably have to use quotes (this fails for files
that contain a quote and wildcards):
:!ls "%"
:r !spell "%"
To avoid the special meaning of '%' and '#' insert a backslash before it.
Detail: The special meaning is always escaped when there is a backslash before
it, no matter how many backslashes.
you type: result
# alternate.file

\# #
\\# \#
*:<cword>* *:<cWORD>* *:<cfile>* *<cfile>*

*:<sfile>* *<sfile>* *:<afile>* *<afile>*
*:<abuf>* *<abuf>* *:<amatch>* *<amatch>*
*<slnum>* *E495* *E496* *E497* *E499* *E500*
Note: these are typed literally, they are not special keys!
<cword> is replaced with the word under the cursor (like |star|)
<cWORD> is replaced with the WORD under the cursor (see |WORD|)
<cfile> is replaced with the path name under the cursor (like what
|gf| uses)
<afile> When executing autocommands, is replaced with the file name
for a file read or write.
<abuf> When executing autocommands, is replaced with the currently
effective buffer number (for ":r file" and ":so file" it is
the current buffer, the file being read/sourced is not in a
buffer).
<amatch> When executing autocommands, is replaced with the match for
which this autocommand was executed. It differs from
<afile> only when the file name isn't used to match with
(for FileType, Syntax and SpellFileMissing events).
<sfile> When executing a ":source" command, is replaced with the
file name of the sourced file. *E498*
When executing a function, is replaced with
"function {function-name}"; function call nesting is
indicated like this:
"function {function-name1}..{function-name2}". Note that
filename-modifiers are useless when <sfile> is used inside
a function.
<slnum> When executing a ":source" command, is replaced with the
line number. *E842*
When executing a function it's the line number relative to
the start of the function.
*filename-modifiers*
*:_%:* *::8* *::p* *::.* *::~* *::h* *::t* *::r* *::e* *::s* *::gs*
*%:8* *%:p* *%:.* *%:~* *%:h* *%:t* *%:r* *%:e* *%:s* *%:gs*
The file name modifiers can be used after "%", "#", "#n", "<cfile>", "<sfile>",
"<afile>" or "<abuf>". They are also used with the |fnamemodify()| function.
These are not available when Vim has been compiled without the |+modify_fname|
feature.
These modifiers can be given, in this order:
:p Make file name a full path. Must be the first modifier. Also
changes "~/" (and "~user/" for Unix and VMS) to the path for
the home directory. If the name is a directory a path
separator is added at the end. For a file name that does not
exist and does not have an absolute path the result is
unpredictable.
:8 Converts the path to 8.3 short format (currently only on
win32). Will act on as much of a path that is an existing
path.
:~ Reduce file name to be relative to the home directory, if
possible. File name is unmodified if it is not below the home
directory.
:. Reduce file name to be relative to current directory, if
possible. File name is unmodified if it is not below the
current directory.
For maximum shortness, use ":~:.".
:h Head of the file name (the last component and any separators
removed). Cannot be used with :e, :r or :t.
Can be repeated to remove several components at the end.
When the file name ends in a path separator, only the path
separator is removed. Thus ":p:h" on a directory name results
on the directory name itself (without trailing slash).
When the file name is an absolute path (starts with "/" for
Unix; "x:\" for MS-DOS, WIN32, OS/2; "drive:" for Amiga), that
part is not removed. When there is no head (path is relative
to current directory) the result is empty.
:t Tail of the file name (last component of the name). Must
precede any :r or :e.

:r Root of the file name (the last extension removed). When

there is only an extension (file name that starts with '.',
e.g., ".vimrc"), it is not removed. Can be repeated to remove
several extensions (last one first).
:e Extension of the file name. Only makes sense when used alone.
When there is no extension the result is empty.
When there is only an extension (file name that starts with
'.'), the result is empty. Can be repeated to include more
extensions. If there are not enough extensions (but at least
one) as much as possible are included.
:s?pat?sub?
Substitute the first occurrence of "pat" with "sub". This
works like the |:s| command. "pat" is a regular expression.
Any character can be used for '?', but it must not occur in
"pat" or "sub".
After this, the previous modifiers can be used again. For
example ":p", to make a full path after the substitution.
:gs?pat?sub?
Substitute all occurrences of "pat" with "sub". Otherwise
this works like ":s".
Examples, when the file name is "src/version.c", current dir
"/home/mool/vim":
:p /home/mool/vim/src/version.c
:p:. src/version.c
:p:~ ~/vim/src/version.c
:h src
:p:h /home/mool/vim/src
:p:h:h /home/mool/vim
:t version.c
:p:t version.c
:r src/version
:p:r /home/mool/vim/src/version
:t:r version
:e c
:s?version?main? src/main.c
:s?version?main?:p /home/mool/vim/src/main.c
:p:gs?/?\\? \home\mool\vim\src\version.c
Examples, when the file name is "src/version.c.gz":
:p /home/mool/vim/src/version.c.gz
:e gz
:e:e c.gz
:e:e:e c.gz
:e:e:r c
:r src/version.c
:r:e c
:r:r src/version
:r:r:r src/version
*extension-removal* *:_%<*
If a "<" is appended to "%", "#", "#n" or "CTRL-V p" the extension of the file
name is removed (everything after and including the last '.' in the file
name). This is included for backwards compatibility with version 3.0, the
":r" form is preferred. Examples:
% current file name
%< current file name without extension
# alternate file name for current window
#< idem, without extension
#31 alternate file number 31
#31< idem, without extension
<cword> word under the cursor
<cWORD> WORD under the cursor (see |WORD|)
<cfile> path name under the cursor
<cfile>< idem, without extension
Note: Where a file name is expected wildcards expansion is done. On Unix the
shell is used for this, unless it can be done internally (for speed).
Backticks also work, like in
:n ècho *.c`
(backtick expansion is not possible in |restricted-mode|)
But expansion is only done if there are any wildcards before expanding the
'%', '#', etc.. This avoids expanding wildcards inside a file name. If you
want to expand the result of <cfile>, add a wildcard character to it.
Examples: (alternate file name is "?readme?")

command expands to
:e # :e ?readme?
:e `ls #` :e {files matching "?readme?"}
:e #.* :e {files matching "?readme?.*"}
:cd <cfile> :cd {file name under cursor}
:cd <cfile>* :cd {file name under cursor plus "*" and then expanded}
When the expanded argument contains a "!" and it is used for a shell command
(":!cmd", ":r !cmd" or ":w !cmd"), the "!" is escaped with a backslash to
avoid it being expanded into a previously used command. When the 'shell'
option contains "sh", this is done twice, to avoid the shell trying to expand
the "!".
*filename-backslash*
For filesystems that use a backslash as directory separator (MS-DOS, Windows,
OS/2), it's a bit difficult to recognize a backslash that is used to escape
the special meaning of the next character. The general rule is: If the
backslash is followed by a normal file name character, it does not have a
special meaning. Therefore "\file\foo" is a valid file name, you don't have
to type the backslash twice.
An exception is the '$' sign. It is a valid character in a file name. But
to avoid a file name like "$home" to be interpreted as an environment variable,
it needs to be preceded by a backslash. Therefore you need to use "/\$home"
for the file "$home" in the root directory. A few examples:
FILE NAME INTERPRETED AS
$home expanded to value of environment var $home
\$home file "$home" in current directory
/\$home file "$home" in root directory
\\$home file "\\", followed by expanded $home
==============================================================================
6. Command-line window *cmdline-window* *cmdwin*
*command-line-window*
In the command-line window the command line can be edited just like editing
text in any window. It is a special kind of window, because you cannot leave
it in a normal way.
{not available when compiled without the |+cmdline_hist| or |+vertsplit|
feature}
OPEN *c_CTRL-F* *q:* *q/* *q?*

There are two ways to open the command-line window:
1. From Command-line mode, use the key specified with the 'cedit' option.
The default is CTRL-F when 'compatible' is not set.
2. From Normal mode, use the "q:", "q/" or "q?" command.
This starts editing an Ex command-line ("q:") or search string ("q/" or
"q?"). Note that this is not possible while recording is in progress (the
"q" stops recording then).
When the window opens it is filled with the command-line history. The last
line contains the command as typed so far. The left column will show a
character that indicates the type of command-line being edited, see
|cmdwin-char|.
Vim will be in Normal mode when the editor is opened, except when 'insertmode'
is set.
The height of the window is specified with 'cmdwinheight' (or smaller if there
is no room). The window is always full width and is positioned just above the
command-line.
EDIT
You can now use commands to move around and edit the text in the window. Both
in Normal mode and Insert mode.
It is possible to use ":", "/" and other commands that use the command-line,
but it's not possible to open another command-line window then. There is no
nesting.
*E11*
The command-line window is not a normal window. It is not possible to move to

another window or edit another buffer. All commands that would do this are
disabled in the command-line window. Of course it _is_ possible to execute
any command that you entered in the command-line window. Other text edits are
discarded when closing the window.
CLOSE *E199*
There are several ways to leave the command-line window:
<CR> Execute the command-line under the cursor. Works both in
Insert and in Normal mode.
CTRL-C Continue in Command-line mode. The command-line under the
cursor is used as the command-line. Works both in Insert and
in Normal mode. ":close" also works. There is no redraw,
thus the window will remain visible.
:quit Discard the command line and go back to Normal mode.
":exit", ":xit" and CTRL-\ CTRL-N also work.
:qall Quit Vim, unless there are changes in some buffer.
:qall! Quit Vim, discarding changes to any buffer.
Once the command-line window is closed the old window sizes are restored. The
executed command applies to the window and buffer where the command-line was
started from. This works as if the command-line window was not there, except
that there will be an extra screen redraw.
The buffer used for the command-line window is deleted. Any changes to lines
other than the one that is executed with <CR> are lost.
If you would like to execute the command under the cursor and then have the
command-line window open again, you may find this mapping useful:
:autocmd CmdwinEnter * map <buffer> <F5> <CR>q:
VARIOUS
The command-line window cannot be used:
- when there already is a command-line window (no nesting)
- for entering an encryption key or when using inputsecret()
- when Vim was not compiled with the |+vertsplit| feature
Some options are set when the command-line window is opened:
'filetype' "vim", when editing an Ex command-line; this starts Vim syntax
highlighting if it was enabled
'rightleft' off
'modifiable' on
'buftype' "nofile"
'swapfile' off
It is allowed to write the buffer contents to a file. This is an easy way to
save the command-line history and read it back later.
If the 'wildchar' option is set to <Tab>, and the command-line window is used
for an Ex command, then two mappings will be added to use <Tab> for completion
in the command-line window, like this:
:imap <buffer> <Tab> <C-X><C-V>
:nmap <buffer> <Tab> a<C-X><C-V>
Note that hitting <Tab> in Normal mode will do completion on the next
character. That way it works at the end of the line.
If you don't want these mappings, disable them with:
au CmdwinEnter [:>] iunmap <Tab>
au CmdwinEnter [:>] nunmap <Tab>
You could put these lines in your vimrc file.
While in the command-line window you cannot use the mouse to put the cursor in
another window, or drag statuslines of other windows. You can drag the
statusline of the command-line window itself and the statusline above it.
Thus you can resize the command-line window, but not others.
AUTOCOMMANDS
Two autocommand events are used: |CmdwinEnter| and |CmdwinLeave|. Since this
window is of a special type, the WinEnter, WinLeave, BufEnter and BufLeave
events are not triggered. You can use the Cmdwin events to do settings
specifically for the command-line window. Be careful not to cause side
effects!
Example:
:au CmdwinEnter : let b:cpt_save = &cpt | set cpt=.

:au CmdwinLeave : let &cpt = b:cpt_save

This sets 'complete' to use completion in the current window for |i_CTRL-N|.
Another example:
:au CmdwinEnter [/?] startinsert
This will make Vim start in Insert mode in the command-line window.
*cmdwin-char*
The character used for the pattern indicates the type of command-line:
: normal Ex command
> debug mode command |debug-mode|
/ forward search string
? backward search string
= expression for "= |expr-register|
@ string for |input()|
- text for |:insert| or |:append|
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: options
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*options.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Mar 22
Options *options*
1. Setting options |set-option|
2. Automatically setting options |auto-setting|
3. Options summary |option-summary|
For an overview of options see help.txt |option-list|.
Vim has a number of internal variables and switches which can be set to
achieve special effects. These options come in three forms:
boolean can only be on or off *boolean* *toggle*
number has a numeric value
string has a string value
==============================================================================
1. Setting options *set-option* *E764*
*:se* *:set*
:se[t] Show all options that differ from their default value.
:se[t] all Show all but terminal options.
:se[t] termcap Show all terminal options. Note that in the GUI the
key codes are not shown, because they are generated
internally and can't be changed. Changing the terminal
codes in the GUI is not useful either...
*E518* *E519*
:se[t] {option}? Show value of {option}.
:se[t] {option} Toggle option: set, switch it on.
Number option: show value.
String option: show value.
:se[t] no{option} Toggle option: Reset, switch it off.
*:set-!* *:set-inv*
:se[t] {option}! or
:se[t] inv{option} Toggle option: Invert value. {not in Vi}
*:set-default* *:set-&* *:set-&vi* *:set-&vim*

:se[t] {option}& Reset option to its default value. May depend on the
current value of 'compatible'. {not in Vi}
:se[t] {option}&vi Reset option to its Vi default value. {not in Vi}
:se[t] {option}&vim Reset option to its Vim default value. {not in Vi}
:se[t] all& Set all options, except terminal options, to their
default value. The values of 'term', 'lines' and
'columns' are not changed. {not in Vi}
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/options.html[2019/03/05 11:41:12 AM]

*:set-args* *E487* *E521*

:se[t] {option}={value} or
:se[t] {option}:{value}
Set string or number option to {value}.
For numeric options the value can be given in decimal,
hex (preceded with 0x) or octal (preceded with '0')
(hex and octal are only available for machines which
have the strtol() function).
The old value can be inserted by typing 'wildchar' (by
default this is a <Tab> or CTRL-E if 'compatible' is
set). See |cmdline-completion|.
White space between {option} and '=' is allowed and
will be ignored. White space between '=' and {value}
is not allowed.
See |option-backslash| for using white space and
backslashes in {value}.
:se[t] {option}+={value} *:set+=*

Add the {value} to a number option, or append the
{value} to a string option. When the option is a
comma separated list, a comma is added, unless the
value was empty.
If the option is a list of flags, superfluous flags
are removed. When adding a flag that was already
present the option value doesn't change.
Also see |:set-args| above.
{not in Vi}
:se[t] {option}^={value} *:set^=*

Multiply the {value} to a number option, or prepend
the {value} to a string option. When the option is a
comma separated list, a comma is added, unless the
value was empty.
{not in Vi}
:se[t] {option}-={value} *:set-=*

Subtract the {value} from a number option, or remove
the {value} from a string option, if it is there.
If the {value} is not found in a string option, there
is no error or warning. When the option is a comma
separated list, a comma is deleted, unless the option
becomes empty.
When the option is a list of flags, {value} must be
exactly as they appear in the option. Remove flags
one by one to avoid problems.
{not in Vi}
The {option} arguments to ":set" may be repeated. For example:
:set ai nosi sw=3 ts=3
If you make an error in one of the arguments, an error message will be given
and the following arguments will be ignored.
*:set-verbose*
When 'verbose' is non-zero, displaying an option value will also tell where it
was last set. Example:
:verbose set shiftwidth cindent?
shiftwidth=4
Last set from modeline
cindent
Last set from /usr/local/share/vim/vim60/ftplugin/c.vim
This is only done when specific option values are requested, not for ":verbose
set all" or ":verbose set" without an argument.
When the option was set by hand there is no "Last set" message.
When the option was set while executing a function, user command or
autocommand, the script in which it was defined is reported.
Note that an option may also have been set as a side effect of setting
'compatible'.
A few special texts:
Last set from modeline
Option was set in a |modeline|.
Last set from --cmd argument
Option was set with command line argument |--cmd| or +.

Last set from -c argument

Option was set with command line argument |-c|, +, |-S| or
|-q|.
Last set from environment variable
Option was set from an environment variable, $VIMINIT,
$GVIMINIT or $EXINIT.
Last set from error handler
Option was cleared when evaluating it resulted in an error.
{not available when compiled without the |+eval| feature}
*:set-termcap* *E522*
For {option} the form "t_xx" may be used to set a terminal option. This will
override the value from the termcap. You can then use it in a mapping. If
the "xx" part contains special characters, use the <t_xx> form:
:set <t_#4>=^[Ot
This can also be used to translate a special code for a normal key. For
example, if Alt-b produces <Esc>b, use this:
:set <M-b>=^[b
(the ^[ is a real <Esc> here, use CTRL-V <Esc> to enter it)
The advantage over a mapping is that it works in all situations.
You can define any key codes, e.g.:
:set t_xy=^[foo;
There is no warning for using a name that isn't recognized. You can map these
codes as you like:
:map <t_xy> something
*E846*
When a key code is not set, it's like it does not exist. Trying to get its
value will result in an error:
:set t_kb=
:set t_kb
E846: Key code not set: t_kb
The t_xx options cannot be set from a |modeline| or in the |sandbox|, for
security reasons.
The listing from ":set" looks different from Vi. Long string options are put
at the end of the list. The number of options is quite large. The output of
"set all" probably does not fit on the screen, causing Vim to give the
|more-prompt|.
*option-backslash*
To include white space in a string option value it has to be preceded with a
backslash. To include a backslash you have to use two. Effectively this
means that the number of backslashes in an option value is halved (rounded
down).
A few examples:
:set tags=tags\ /usr/tags results in "tags /usr/tags"
:set tags=tags\\,file results in "tags\,file"
:set tags=tags\\\ file results in "tags\ file"
The "|" character separates a ":set" command from a following command. To
include the "|" in the option value, use "\|" instead. This example sets the
'titlestring' option to "hi|there":
:set titlestring=hi\|there
This sets the 'titlestring' option to "hi" and 'iconstring' to "there":
:set titlestring=hi|set iconstring=there
Similarly, the double quote character starts a comment. To include the '"'' in
the option value, use '\"' instead. This example sets the 'titlestring'
option to 'hi "there"':
:set titlestring=hi\ \"there\"
For MS-DOS and WIN32 backslashes in file names are mostly not removed. More
precise: For options that expect a file name (those where environment
variables are expanded) a backslash before a normal file name character is not
removed. But a backslash before a special character (space, backslash, comma,
etc.) is used like explained above.
There is one special situation, when the value starts with "\\":
:set dir=\\machine\path results in "\\machine\path"
:set dir=\\\\machine\\path results in "\\machine\path"
:set dir=\\path\\file results in "\\path\file" (wrong!)
For the first one the start is kept, but for the second one the backslashes
are halved. This makes sure it works both when you expect backslashes to be
halved and when you expect the backslashes to be kept. The third gives a

result which is probably not what you want. Avoid it.
*add-option-flags* *remove-option-flags*
*E539* *E550* *E551* *E552*
Some options are a list of flags. When you want to add a flag to such an
option, without changing the existing ones, you can do it like this:
:set guioptions+=a
Remove a flag from an option like this:
:set guioptions-=a
This removes the 'a' flag from 'guioptions'.
Note that you should add or remove one flag at a time. If 'guioptions' has
the value "ab", using "set guioptions-=ba" won't work, because the string "ba"
doesn't appear.
*:set_env* *expand-env* *expand-environment-var*

Environment variables in specific string options will be expanded. If the
environment variable exists the '$' and the following environment variable
name is replaced with its value. If it does not exist the '$' and the name
are not modified. Any non-id character (not a letter, digit or '_') may
follow the environment variable name. That character and what follows is
appended to the value of the environment variable. Examples:
:set term=$TERM.new
:set path=/usr/$INCLUDE,$HOME/include,.
When adding or removing a string from an option with ":set opt-=val" or ":set
opt+=val" the expansion is done before the adding or removing.
Handling of local options *local-options*

Some of the options only apply to a window or buffer. Each window or buffer
has its own copy of this option, thus can each have their own value. This
allows you to set 'list' in one window but not in another. And set
'shiftwidth' to 3 in one buffer and 4 in another.
The following explains what happens to these local options in specific
situations. You don't really need to know all of this, since Vim mostly uses
the option values you would expect. Unfortunately, doing what the user
expects is a bit complicated...
When splitting a window, the local options are copied to the new window. Thus
right after the split the contents of the two windows look the same.
When editing a new buffer, its local option values must be initialized. Since
the local options of the current buffer might be specifically for that buffer,
these are not used. Instead, for each buffer-local option there also is a
global value, which is used for new buffers. With ":set" both the local and
global value is changed. With "setlocal" only the local value is changed,
thus this value is not used when editing a new buffer.
When editing a buffer that has been edited before, the last used window
options are used again. If this buffer has been edited in this window, the
values from back then are used. Otherwise the values from the window where
the buffer was edited last are used.
It's possible to set a local window option specifically for a type of buffer.
When you edit another buffer in the same window, you don't want to keep
using these local window options. Therefore Vim keeps a global value of the
local window options, which is used when editing another buffer. Each window
has its own copy of these values. Thus these are local to the window, but
global to all buffers in the window. With this you can do:
:e one
:set list
:e two
Now the 'list' option will also be set in "two", since with the ":set list"
command you have also set the global value.
:set nolist
:e one
:setlocal list
:e two
Now the 'list' option is not set, because ":set nolist" resets the global
value, ":setlocal list" only changes the local value and ":e two" gets the
global value. Note that if you do this next:
:e one
You will not get back the 'list' value as it was the last time you edited
"one". The options local to a window are not remembered for each buffer.

*:setl* *:setlocal*
:setl[ocal] ... Like ":set" but set only the value local to the
current buffer or window. Not all options have a
local value. If the option does not have a local
value the global value is set.
With the "all" argument: display local values for all
local options.
Without argument: Display local values for all local
options which are different from the default.
When displaying a specific local option, show the
local value. For a global/local boolean option, when
the global value is being used, "--" is displayed
before the option name.
For a global option the global value is
shown (but that might change in the future).
{not in Vi}
:setl[ocal] {option}< Set the local value of {option} to its global value by
copying the value.
{not in Vi}
:se[t] {option}< Set the local value of {option} to its global value by
making it empty. Only makes sense for |global-local|
options.
{not in Vi}
*:setg* *:setglobal*
:setg[lobal] ... Like ":set" but set only the global value for a local
option without changing the local value.
When displaying an option, the global value is shown.
With the "all" argument: display global values for all
local options.
Without argument: display global values for all local
options which are different from the default.
{not in Vi}
For buffer-local and window-local options:
Command global value local value
:set option=value set set
:setlocal option=value - set
:setglobal option=value set -
:set option? - display
:setlocal option? - display
:setglobal option? display -
Global options with a local value *global-local*

Options are global when you mostly use one value for all buffers and windows.
For some global options it's useful to sometimes have a different local value.
You can set the local value with ":setlocal". That buffer or window will then
use the local value, while other buffers and windows continue using the global
value.
For example, you have two windows, both on C source code. They use the global
'makeprg' option. If you do this in one of the two windows:
:set makeprg=gmake
then the other window will switch to the same value. There is no need to set
the 'makeprg' option in the other C source window too.
However, if you start editing a Perl file in a new window, you want to use
another 'makeprg' for it, without changing the value used for the C source
files. You use this command:
:setlocal makeprg=perlmake
You can switch back to using the global value by making the local value empty:
:setlocal makeprg=
This only works for a string option. For a boolean option you need to use the
"<" flag, like this:
:setlocal autoread<
Note that for non-boolean options using "<" copies the global value to the
local value, it doesn't switch back to using the global value (that matters
when the global value changes later). You can also use:
:set path<
This will make the local value of 'path' empty, so that the global value is
used. Thus it does the same as:
:setlocal path=
Note: In the future more global options can be made global-local. Using

":setlocal" on a global option might work differently then.
Setting the filetype
:setf[iletype] {filetype} *:setf* *:setfiletype*

Set the 'filetype' option to {filetype}, but only if
not done yet in a sequence of (nested) autocommands.
This is short for:
:if !did_filetype()
: setlocal filetype={filetype}
:endif
This command is used in a filetype.vim file to avoid
setting the 'filetype' option twice, causing different
settings and syntax files to be loaded.
{not in Vi}
*option-window* *optwin*
:bro[wse] se[t] *:set-browse* *:browse-set* *:opt* *:options*
:opt[ions] Open a window for viewing and setting all options.
Options are grouped by function.
Offers short help for each option. Hit <CR> on the
short help to open a help window with more help for
the option.
Modify the value of the option and hit <CR> on the
"set" line to set the new value. For window and
buffer specific options, the last accessed window is
used to set the option value in, unless this is a help
window, in which case the window below help window is
used (skipping the option-window).
{not available when compiled without the |+eval| or
|+autocmd| features}
*$HOME*
Using "~" is like using "$HOME", but it is only recognized at the start of an
option and after a space or comma.
On Unix systems "~user" can be used too. It is replaced by the home directory
of user "user". Example:
:set path=~mool/include,/usr/include,.
On Unix systems the form "${HOME}" can be used too. The name between {} can
contain non-id characters then. Note that if you want to use this for the
"gf" command, you need to add the '{' and '}' characters to 'isfname'.
NOTE: expanding environment variables and "~/" is only done with the ":set"
command, not when assigning a value to an option with ":let".
Note the maximum length of an expanded option is limited. How much depends on
the system, mostly it is something like 256 or 1024 characters.
*:fix* *:fixdel*
:fix[del] Set the value of 't_kD':
't_kb' is 't_kD' becomes
CTRL-? CTRL-H
not CTRL-? CTRL-?
(CTRL-? is 0177 octal, 0x7f hex) {not in Vi}
If your delete key terminal code is wrong, but the
code for backspace is alright, you can put this in
your .vimrc:
:fixdel
This works no matter what the actual code for
backspace is.
If the backspace key terminal code is wrong you can
use this:
:if &term == "termname"
: set t_kb=^V<BS>
: fixdel
:endif
Where "^V" is CTRL-V and "<BS>" is the backspace key

(don't type four characters!). Replace "termname"

with your terminal name.
If your <Delete> key sends a strange key sequence (not
CTRL-? or CTRL-H) you cannot use ":fixdel". Then use:
:if &term == "termname"
: set t_kD=^V<Delete>
:endif
Where "^V" is CTRL-V and "<Delete>" is the delete key
(don't type eight characters!). Replace "termname"
with your terminal name.
*Linux-backspace*
Note about Linux: By default the backspace key
produces CTRL-?, which is wrong. You can fix it by
putting this line in your rc.local:
echo "keycode 14 = BackSpace" | loadkeys
*NetBSD-backspace*
Note about NetBSD: If your backspace doesn't produce
the right code, try this:
xmodmap -e "keycode 22 = BackSpace"
If this works, add this in your .Xmodmap file:
keysym 22 = BackSpace
You need to restart for this to take effect.
==============================================================================
2. Automatically setting options *auto-setting*
Besides changing options with the ":set" command, there are three alternatives
to set options automatically for one or more files:
1. When starting Vim initializations are read from various places. See
|initialization|. Most of them are performed for all editing sessions,
and some of them depend on the directory where Vim is started.
You can create an initialization file with |:mkvimrc|, |:mkview| and
|:mksession|.
2. If you start editing a new file, the automatic commands are executed.
This can be used to set options for files matching a particular pattern and
many other things. See |autocommand|.
3. If you start editing a new file, and the 'modeline' option is on, a
number of lines at the beginning and end of the file are checked for
modelines. This is explained here.
*modeline* *vim:* *vi:* *ex:* *E520*

There are two forms of modelines. The first form:
[text]{white}{vi:|vim:|ex:}[white]{options}
[text] any text or empty
{white} at least one blank character (<Space> or <Tab>)
{vi:|vim:|ex:} the string "vi:", "vim:" or "ex:"
[white] optional white space
{options} a list of option settings, separated with white space or ':',
where each part between ':' is the argument for a ":set"
command (can be empty)
Example:
vi:noai:sw=3 ts=6
The second form (this is compatible with some versions of Vi):
[text]{white}{vi:|vim:|ex:}[white]se[t] {options}:[text]
{white} at least one blank character (<Space> or <Tab>)
{vi:|vim:|ex:} the string "vi:", "vim:" or "ex:"
[white] optional white space
se[t] the string "set " or "se " (note the space)
{options} a list of options, separated with white space, which is the
argument for a ":set" command
: a colon
Example:
/* vim: set ai tw=75: */

The white space before {vi:|vim:|ex:} is required. This minimizes the chance
that a normal word like "lex:" is caught. There is one exception: "vi:" and
"vim:" can also be at the start of the line (for compatibility with version
3.0). Using "ex:" at the start of the line will be ignored (this could be
short for "example:").
*modeline-local*
The options are set like with ":setlocal": The new value only applies to the
buffer and window that contain the file. Although it's possible to set global
options from a modeline, this is unusual. If you have two windows open and
the files in it set the same global option to a different value, the result
depends on which one was opened last.
When editing a file that was already loaded, only the window-local options
from the modeline are used. Thus if you manually changed a buffer-local
option after opening the file, it won't be changed if you edit the same buffer
in another window. But window-local options will be set.
*modeline-version*
If the modeline is only to be used for some versions of Vim, the version
number can be specified where "vim:" is used:
vim{vers}: version {vers} or later
vim<{vers}: version before {vers}
vim={vers}: version {vers}
vim>{vers}: version after {vers}
{vers} is 600 for Vim 6.0 (hundred times the major version plus minor).
For example, to use a modeline only for Vim 6.0 and later:
/* vim600: set foldmethod=marker: */
To use a modeline for Vim before version 5.7:
/* vim<570: set sw=4: */
There can be no blanks between "vim" and the ":".
The number of lines that are checked can be set with the 'modelines' option.
If 'modeline' is off or 'modelines' is 0 no lines are checked.
Note that for the first form all of the rest of the line is used, thus a line
like:
/* vi:ts=4: */
will give an error message for the trailing "*/". This line is OK:
/* vi:set ts=4: */
If an error is detected the rest of the line is skipped.
If you want to include a ':' in a set command precede it with a '\'. The
backslash in front of the ':' will be removed. Example:
/* vi:set dir=c\:\tmp: */
This sets the 'dir' option to "c:\tmp". Only a single backslash before the
':' is removed. Thus to include "\:" you have to specify "\\:".
No other commands than "set" are supported, for security reasons (somebody
might create a Trojan horse text file with modelines). And not all options
can be set. For some options a flag is set, so that when it's used the
|sandbox| is effective. Still, there is always a small risk that a modeline
causes trouble. E.g., when some joker sets 'textwidth' to 5 all your lines
are wrapped unexpectedly. So disable modelines before editing untrusted text.
The mail ftplugin does this, for example.
Hint: If you would like to do something else than setting an option, you could
define an autocommand that checks the file for a specific string. For
example:
au BufReadPost * if getline(1) =~ "VAR" | call SetVar() | endif
And define a function SetVar() that does something with the line containing
"VAR".
==============================================================================
3. Options summary *option-summary*
In the list below all the options are mentioned with their full name and with
an abbreviation if there is one. Both forms may be used.
In this document when a boolean option is "set" that means that ":set option"
is entered. When an option is "reset", ":set nooption" is used.
For some options there are two default values: The "Vim default", which is
used when 'compatible' is not set, and the "Vi default", which is used when
'compatible' is set.

Most options are the same in all windows and buffers. There are a few that
are specific to how the text is presented in a window. These can be set to a
different value in each window. For example the 'list' option can be set in
one window and reset in another for the same text, giving both types of view
at the same time. There are a few options that are specific to a certain
file. These can have a different value for each file or buffer. For example
the 'textwidth' option can be 78 for a normal text file and 0 for a C
program.
global one option for all buffers and windows
local to window each window has its own copy of this option
local to buffer each buffer has its own copy of this option
When creating a new window the option values from the currently active window
are used as a default value for the window-specific options. For the
buffer-specific options this depends on the 's' and 'S' flags in the
'cpoptions' option. If 's' is included (which is the default) the values for
buffer options are copied from the currently active buffer when a buffer is
first entered. If 'S' is present the options are copied each time the buffer
is entered, this is almost like having global options. If 's' and 'S' are not
present, the options are copied from the currently active buffer when the
buffer is created.
Hidden options *hidden-options*

Not all options are supported in all versions. This depends on the supported
features and sometimes on the system. A remark about this is in curly braces
below. When an option is not supported it may still be set without getting an
error, this is called a hidden option. You can't get the value of a hidden
option though, it is not stored.
To test if option "foo" can be used with ":set" use something like this:
if exists('&foo')
This also returns true for a hidden option. To test if option "foo" is really
supported use something like this:
if exists('+foo')
*E355*
A jump table for the options with a short description can be found at |Q_op|.
*'aleph'* *'al'* *aleph* *Aleph*

'aleph' 'al' number (default 128 for MS-DOS, 224 otherwise)
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+rightleft|
feature}
The ASCII code for the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The
routine that maps the keyboard in Hebrew mode, both in Insert mode
(when hkmap is set) and on the command-line (when hitting CTRL-_)
outputs the Hebrew characters in the range [aleph..aleph+26].
aleph=128 applies to PC code, and aleph=224 applies to ISO 8859-8.
See |rileft.txt|.
*'allowrevins'* *'ari'* *'noallowrevins'* *'noari'*

'allowrevins' 'ari' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Allow CTRL-_ in Insert and Command-line mode. This is default off, to
avoid that users that accidentally type CTRL-_ instead of SHIFT-_ get
into reverse Insert mode, and don't know how to get out. See
'revins'.
NOTE: This option is reset when 'compatible' is set.
*'altkeymap'* *'akm'* *'noaltkeymap'* *'noakm'*

'altkeymap' 'akm' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+farsi|
feature}
When on, the second language is Farsi. In editing mode CTRL-_ toggles
the keyboard map between Farsi and English, when 'allowrevins' set.

When off, the keyboard map toggles between Hebrew and English. This
is useful to start the Vim in native mode i.e. English (left-to-right
mode) and have default second language Farsi or Hebrew (right-to-left
mode). See |farsi.txt|.
*'ambiwidth'* *'ambw'*
'ambiwidth' 'ambw' string (default: "single")
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+multi_byte|
feature}
Only effective when 'encoding' is "utf-8" or another Unicode encoding.
Tells Vim what to do with characters with East Asian Width Class
Ambiguous (such as Euro, Registered Sign, Copyright Sign, Greek
letters, Cyrillic letters).
There are currently two possible values:
"single": Use the same width as characters in US-ASCII. This is
expected by most users.
"double": Use twice the width of ASCII characters.
*E834* *E835*
The value "double" cannot be used if 'listchars' or 'fillchars'
contains a character that would be double width.
There are a number of CJK fonts for which the width of glyphs for
those characters are solely based on how many octets they take in
legacy/traditional CJK encodings. In those encodings, Euro,
Registered sign, Greek/Cyrillic letters are represented by two octets,
therefore those fonts have "wide" glyphs for them. This is also
true of some line drawing characters used to make tables in text
file. Therefore, when a CJK font is used for GUI Vim or
Vim is running inside a terminal (emulators) that uses a CJK font
(or Vim is run inside an xterm invoked with "-cjkwidth" option.),
this option should be set to "double" to match the width perceived
by Vim with the width of glyphs in the font. Perhaps it also has
to be set to "double" under CJK Windows 9x/ME or Windows 2k/XP
when the system locale is set to one of CJK locales. See Unicode
Standard Annex #11 http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr11.
*'antialias'* *'anti'* *'noantialias'* *'noanti'*

'antialias' 'anti' boolean (default: off)
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with GUI enabled
on Mac OS X}
This option only has an effect in the GUI version of Vim on Mac OS X
v10.2 or later. When on, Vim will use smooth ("antialiased") fonts,
which can be easier to read at certain sizes on certain displays.
Setting this option can sometimes cause problems if 'guifont' is set
to its default (empty string).
*'autochdir'* *'acd'* *'noautochdir'* *'noacd'*

'autochdir' 'acd' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with it, use
exists("+autochdir") to check}
When on, Vim will change the current working directory whenever you
open a file, switch buffers, delete a buffer or open/close a window.
It will change to the directory containing the file which was opened
or selected.
This option is provided for backward compatibility with the Vim
released with Sun ONE Studio 4 Enterprise Edition.
Note: When this option is on some plugins may not work.
*'arabic'* *'arab'* *'noarabic'* *'noarab'*

'arabic' 'arab' boolean (default off)
local to window
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+arabic|
feature}
This option can be set to start editing Arabic text.
Setting this option will:
- Set the 'rightleft' option, unless 'termbidi' is set.
- Set the 'arabicshape' option, unless 'termbidi' is set.

- Set the 'keymap' option to "arabic"; in Insert mode CTRL-^ toggles

between typing English and Arabic key mapping.
- Set the 'delcombine' option
Note that 'encoding' must be "utf-8" for working with Arabic text.
Resetting this option will:
- Reset the 'rightleft' option.
- Disable the use of 'keymap' (without changing its value).
Note that 'arabicshape' and 'delcombine' are not reset (it is a global
option.
Also see |arabic.txt|.
*'arabicshape'* *'arshape'*
*'noarabicshape'* *'noarshape'*
'arabicshape' 'arshape' boolean (default on)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
When on and 'termbidi' is off, the required visual character
corrections that need to take place for displaying the Arabic language
take affect. Shaping, in essence, gets enabled; the term is a broad
one which encompasses:
a) the changing/morphing of characters based on their location
within a word (initial, medial, final and stand-alone).
b) the enabling of the ability to compose characters
c) the enabling of the required combining of some characters
When disabled the display shows each character's true stand-alone
form.
Arabic is a complex language which requires other settings, for
further details see |arabic.txt|.
*'autoindent'* *'ai'* *'noautoindent'* *'noai'*

'autoindent' 'ai' boolean (default off)
local to buffer
Copy indent from current line when starting a new line (typing <CR>
in Insert mode or when using the "o" or "O" command). If you do not
type anything on the new line except <BS> or CTRL-D and then type
<Esc>, CTRL-O or <CR>, the indent is deleted again. Moving the cursor
to another line has the same effect, unless the 'I' flag is included
in 'cpoptions'.
When autoindent is on, formatting (with the "gq" command or when you
reach 'textwidth' in Insert mode) uses the indentation of the first
line.
When 'smartindent' or 'cindent' is on the indent is changed in
a different way.
The 'autoindent' option is reset when the 'paste' option is set.
{small difference from Vi: After the indent is deleted when typing
<Esc> or <CR>, the cursor position when moving up or down is after the
deleted indent; Vi puts the cursor somewhere in the deleted indent}.
*'autoread'* *'ar'* *'noautoread'* *'noar'*

'autoread' 'ar' boolean (default off)
global or local to buffer |global-local|
{not in Vi}
When a file has been detected to have been changed outside of Vim and
it has not been changed inside of Vim, automatically read it again.
When the file has been deleted this is not done. |timestamp|
If this option has a local value, use this command to switch back to
using the global value:
:set autoread<
*'autowrite'* *'aw'* *'noautowrite'* *'noaw'*

'autowrite' 'aw' boolean (default off)
global
Write the contents of the file, if it has been modified, on each
:next, :rewind, :last, :first, :previous, :stop, :suspend, :tag, :!,
:make, CTRL-] and CTRL-^ command; and when a :buffer, CTRL-O, CTRL-I,
'{A-Z0-9}, or `{A-Z0-9} command takes one to another file.
Note that for some commands the 'autowrite' option is not used, see
'autowriteall' for that.
*'autowriteall'* *'awa'* *'noautowriteall'* *'noawa'*

'autowriteall' 'awa' boolean (default off)

global
{not in Vi}
Like 'autowrite', but also used for commands ":edit", ":enew", ":quit",
":qall", ":exit", ":xit", ":recover" and closing the Vim window.
Setting this option also implies that Vim behaves like 'autowrite' has
been set.
*'background'* *'bg'*
'background' 'bg' string (default "dark" or "light")
global
{not in Vi}
When set to "dark", Vim will try to use colors that look good on a
dark background. When set to "light", Vim will try to use colors that
look good on a light background. Any other value is illegal.
Vim tries to set the default value according to the terminal used.
This will not always be correct.
Setting this option does not change the background color, it tells Vim
what the background color looks like. For changing the background
color, see |:hi-normal|.
When 'background' is set Vim will adjust the default color groups for
the new value. But the colors used for syntax highlighting will not
change. *g:colors_name*
When a color scheme is loaded (the "g:colors_name" variable is set)
setting 'background' will cause the color scheme to be reloaded. If
the color scheme adjusts to the value of 'background' this will work.
However, if the color scheme sets 'background' itself the effect may
be undone. First delete the "g:colors_name" variable when needed.
When setting 'background' to the default value with:
:set background&
Vim will guess the value. In the GUI this should work correctly,
in other cases Vim might not be able to guess the right value.
When starting the GUI, the default value for 'background' will be
"light". When the value is not set in the .gvimrc, and Vim detects
that the background is actually quite dark, 'background' is set to
"dark". But this happens only AFTER the .gvimrc file has been read
(because the window needs to be opened to find the actual background
color). To get around this, force the GUI window to be opened by
putting a ":gui" command in the .gvimrc file, before where the value
of 'background' is used (e.g., before ":syntax on").
Normally this option would be set in the .vimrc file. Possibly
depending on the terminal name. Example:
:if &term == "pcterm"
: set background=dark
:endif
When this option is set, the default settings for the highlight groups
will change. To use other settings, place ":highlight" commands AFTER
the setting of the 'background' option.
This option is also used in the "$VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syntax.vim" file
to select the colors for syntax highlighting. After changing this
option, you must load syntax.vim again to see the result. This can be
done with ":syntax on".
*'backspace'* *'bs'*
'backspace' 'bs' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
Influences the working of <BS>, <Del>, CTRL-W and CTRL-U in Insert
mode. This is a list of items, separated by commas. Each item allows
a way to backspace over something:
value effect
indent allow backspacing over autoindent
eol allow backspacing over line breaks (join lines)
start allow backspacing over the start of insert; CTRL-W and CTRL-U
stop once at the start of insert.
When the value is empty, Vi compatible backspacing is used.
For backwards compatibility with version 5.4 and earlier:
value effect
0 same as ":set backspace=" (Vi compatible)
1 same as ":set backspace=indent,eol"
2 same as ":set backspace=indent,eol,start"
See |:fixdel| if your <BS> or <Del> key does not do what you want.

NOTE: This option is set to "" when 'compatible' is set.
*'backup'* *'bk'* *'nobackup'* *'nobk'*

'backup' 'bk' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
Make a backup before overwriting a file. Leave it around after the
file has been successfully written. If you do not want to keep the
backup file, but you do want a backup while the file is being
written, reset this option and set the 'writebackup' option (this is
the default). If you do not want a backup file at all reset both
options (use this if your file system is almost full). See the
|backup-table| for more explanations.
When the 'backupskip' pattern matches, a backup is not made anyway.
When 'patchmode' is set, the backup may be renamed to become the
oldest version of a file.
*'backupcopy'* *'bkc'*
'backupcopy' 'bkc' string (Vi default for Unix: "yes", otherwise: "auto")
global
{not in Vi}
When writing a file and a backup is made, this option tells how it's
done. This is a comma separated list of words.
The main values are:
"yes" make a copy of the file and overwrite the original one
"no" rename the file and write a new one
"auto" one of the previous, what works best
Extra values that can be combined with the ones above are:
"breaksymlink" always break symlinks when writing
"breakhardlink" always break hardlinks when writing
Making a copy and overwriting the original file:
- Takes extra time to copy the file.
+ When the file has special attributes, is a (hard/symbolic) link or
has a resource fork, all this is preserved.
- When the file is a link the backup will have the name of the link,
not of the real file.
Renaming the file and writing a new one:
+ It's fast.
- Sometimes not all attributes of the file can be copied to the new
file.
- When the file is a link the new file will not be a link.
The "auto" value is the middle way: When Vim sees that renaming file
is possible without side effects (the attributes can be passed on and
the file is not a link) that is used. When problems are expected, a
copy will be made.
The "breaksymlink" and "breakhardlink" values can be used in
combination with any of "yes", "no" and "auto". When included, they
force Vim to always break either symbolic or hard links by doing
exactly what the "no" option does, renaming the original file to
become the backup and writing a new file in its place. This can be
useful for example in source trees where all the files are symbolic or
hard links and any changes should stay in the local source tree, not
be propagated back to the original source.
*crontab*
One situation where "no" and "auto" will cause problems: A program
that opens a file, invokes Vim to edit that file, and then tests if
the open file was changed (through the file descriptor) will check the
backup file instead of the newly created file. "crontab -e" is an
example.
When a copy is made, the original file is truncated and then filled
with the new text. This means that protection bits, owner and
symbolic links of the original file are unmodified. The backup file
however, is a new file, owned by the user who edited the file. The
group of the backup is set to the group of the original file. If this
fails, the protection bits for the group are made the same as for
others.
When the file is renamed this is the other way around: The backup has
the same attributes of the original file, and the newly written file

is owned by the current user. When the file was a (hard/symbolic)

link, the new file will not! That's why the "auto" value doesn't
rename when the file is a link. The owner and group of the newly
written file will be set to the same ones as the original file, but
the system may refuse to do this. In that case the "auto" value will
again not rename the file.
*'backupdir'* *'bdir'*
'backupdir' 'bdir' string (default for Amiga: ".,t:",
for MS-DOS and Win32: ".,c:/tmp,c:/temp"
for Unix: ".,~/tmp,~/")
global
{not in Vi}
List of directories for the backup file, separated with commas.
- The backup file will be created in the first directory in the list
where this is possible. The directory must exist, Vim will not
create it for you.
- Empty means that no backup file will be created ('patchmode' is
impossible!). Writing may fail because of this.
- A directory "." means to put the backup file in the same directory
as the edited file.
- A directory starting with "./" (or ".\" for MS-DOS et al.) means to
put the backup file relative to where the edited file is. The
leading "." is replaced with the path name of the edited file.
("." inside a directory name has no special meaning).
- Spaces after the comma are ignored, other spaces are considered part
of the directory name. To have a space at the start of a directory
name, precede it with a backslash.
- To include a comma in a directory name precede it with a backslash.
- A directory name may end in an '/'.
- Environment variables are expanded |:set_env|.
- Careful with '\' characters, type one before a space, type two to
get one in the option (see |option-backslash|), for example:
:set bdir=c:\\tmp,\ dir\\,with\\,commas,\\\ dir\ with\ spaces
- For backwards compatibility with Vim version 3.0 a '>' at the start
of the option is removed.
See also 'backup' and 'writebackup' options.
If you want to hide your backup files on Unix, consider this value:
:set backupdir=./.backup,~/.backup,.,/tmp
You must create a ".backup" directory in each directory and in your
home directory for this to work properly.
The use of |:set+=| and |:set-=| is preferred when adding or removing
directories from the list. This avoids problems when a future version
uses another default.
This option cannot be set from a |modeline| or in the |sandbox|, for
security reasons.
*'backupext'* *'bex'* *E589*

'backupext' 'bex' string (default "~", for VMS: "_")
global
{not in Vi}
String which is appended to a file name to make the name of the
backup file. The default is quite unusual, because this avoids
accidentally overwriting existing files with a backup file. You might
prefer using ".bak", but make sure that you don't have files with
".bak" that you want to keep.
Only normal file name characters can be used, "/\*?[|<>" are illegal.
If you like to keep a lot of backups, you could use a BufWritePre
autocommand to change 'backupext' just before writing the file to
include a timestamp.
:au BufWritePre * let &bex = '-' . strftime("%Y%b%d%X") . '~'
Use 'backupdir' to put the backup in a different directory.
*'backupskip'* *'bsk'*
'backupskip' 'bsk' string (default: "/tmp/*,$TMPDIR/*,$TMP/*,$TEMP/*")
global
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+wildignore|
feature}
A list of file patterns. When one of the patterns matches with the
name of the file which is written, no backup file is created. Both
the specified file name and the full path name of the file are used.
The pattern is used like with |:autocmd|, see |autocmd-patterns|.
Watch out for special characters, see |option-backslash|.
When $TMPDIR, $TMP or $TEMP is not defined, it is not used for the
default value. "/tmp/*" is only used for Unix.

Note that environment variables are not expanded. If you want to use
$HOME you must expand it explicitly, e.g.:
:let backupskip = escape(expand('$HOME'), '\') . '/tmp/*'
Note that the default also makes sure that "crontab -e" works (when a
backup would be made by renaming the original file crontab won't see
the newly created file). Also see 'backupcopy' and |crontab|.
*'balloondelay'* *'bdlay'*
'balloondelay' 'bdlay' number (default: 600)
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+balloon_eval|
feature}
Delay in milliseconds before a balloon may pop up. See |balloon-eval|.
*'ballooneval'* *'beval'* *'noballooneval'* *'nobeval'*

'ballooneval' 'beval' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Switch on the |balloon-eval| functionality.
*'balloonexpr'* *'bexpr'*
'balloonexpr' 'bexpr' string (default "")
{not in Vi}
feature}
Expression for text to show in evaluation balloon. It is only used
when 'ballooneval' is on. These variables can be used:
v:beval_bufnr number of the buffer in which balloon is going to show
v:beval_winnr number of the window
v:beval_lnum line number
v:beval_col column number (byte index)
v:beval_text word under or after the mouse pointer
The evaluation of the expression must not have side effects!
Example:
function! MyBalloonExpr()
return 'Cursor is at line ' . v:beval_lnum .
\', column ' . v:beval_col .
\ ' of file ' . bufname(v:beval_bufnr) .
\ ' on word "' . v:beval_text . '"'
endfunction
set bexpr=MyBalloonExpr()
set ballooneval
NOTE: The balloon is displayed only if the cursor is on a text
character. If the result of evaluating 'balloonexpr' is not empty,
Vim does not try to send a message to an external debugger (Netbeans
or Sun Workshop).
The expression may be evaluated in the |sandbox|, see
|sandbox-option|.
It is not allowed to change text or jump to another window while
evaluating 'balloonexpr' |textlock|.
To check whether line breaks in the balloon text work use this check:
if has("balloon_multiline")
When they are supported "\n" characters will start a new line. If the
expression evaluates to a |List| this is equal to using each List item
as a string and putting "\n" in between them.
*'binary'* *'bin'* *'nobinary'* *'nobin'*

'binary' 'bin' boolean (default off)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
This option should be set before editing a binary file. You can also
use the |-b| Vim argument. When this option is switched on a few
options will be changed (also when it already was on):

'textwidth' will be set to 0

'wrapmargin' will be set to 0
'modeline' will be off
'expandtab' will be off
Also, 'fileformat' and 'fileformats' options will not be used, the
file is read and written like 'fileformat' was "unix" (a single <NL>
separates lines).
The 'fileencoding' and 'fileencodings' options will not be used, the
file is read without conversion.
NOTE: When you start editing a(nother) file while the 'bin' option is
on, settings from autocommands may change the settings again (e.g.,
'textwidth'), causing trouble when editing. You might want to set
'bin' again when the file has been loaded.
The previous values of these options are remembered and restored when
'bin' is switched from on to off. Each buffer has its own set of
saved option values.
To edit a file with 'binary' set you can use the |++bin| argument.
This avoids you have to do ":set bin" which would have effect for all
files you edit.
When writing a file the <EOL> for the last line is only written if
there was one in the original file (normally Vim appends an <EOL> to
the last line if there is none; this would make the file longer). See
the 'endofline' option.
*'bioskey'* *'biosk'* *'nobioskey'* *'nobiosk'*

'bioskey' 'biosk' boolean (default on)
global
{not in Vi} {only for MS-DOS}
When on the BIOS is called to obtain a keyboard character. This works
better to detect CTRL-C, but only works for the console. When using a
terminal over a serial port reset this option.
Also see |'conskey'|.
*'bomb'* *'nobomb'*
'bomb' boolean (default off)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
feature}
When writing a file and the following conditions are met, a BOM (Byte
Order Mark) is prepended to the file:
- this option is on
- the 'binary' option is off
- 'fileencoding' is "utf-8", "ucs-2", "ucs-4" or one of the little/big
endian variants.
Some applications use the BOM to recognize the encoding of the file.
Often used for UCS-2 files on MS-Windows. For other applications it
causes trouble, for example: "cat file1 file2" makes the BOM of file2
appear halfway the resulting file. Gcc doesn't accept a BOM.
When Vim reads a file and 'fileencodings' starts with "ucs-bom", a
check for the presence of the BOM is done and 'bomb' set accordingly.
Unless 'binary' is set, it is removed from the first line, so that you
don't see it when editing. When you don't change the options, the BOM
will be restored when writing the file.
*'breakat'* *'brk'*
'breakat' 'brk' string (default " Î!@*-+;:,./?")
global
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+linebreak|
feature}
This option lets you choose which characters might cause a line
break if 'linebreak' is on. Only works for ASCII and also for 8-bit
characters when 'encoding' is an 8-bit encoding.
*'browsedir'* *'bsdir'*
'browsedir' 'bsdir' string (default: "last")
global
{not in Vi} {only for Motif, Athena, GTK, Mac and
Win32 GUI}
Which directory to use for the file browser:
last Use same directory as with last file browser, where a
file was opened or saved.
buffer Use the directory of the related buffer.
current Use the current directory.
{path} Use the specified directory

*'bufhidden'* *'bh'*
'bufhidden' 'bh' string (default: "")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+quickfix|
feature}
This option specifies what happens when a buffer is no longer
displayed in a window:
<empty> follow the global 'hidden' option
hide hide the buffer (don't unload it), also when 'hidden'
is not set
unload unload the buffer, also when 'hidden' is set or using
|:hide|
delete delete the buffer from the buffer list, also when
'hidden' is set or using |:hide|, like using
|:bdelete|
wipe wipe out the buffer from the buffer list, also when
'hidden' is set or using |:hide|, like using
|:bwipeout|
CAREFUL: when "unload", "delete" or "wipe" is used changes in a buffer
are lost without a warning.
This option is used together with 'buftype' and 'swapfile' to specify
special kinds of buffers. See |special-buffers|.
*'buflisted'* *'bl'* *'nobuflisted'* *'nobl'* *E85*

'buflisted' 'bl' boolean (default: on)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
When this option is set, the buffer shows up in the buffer list. If
it is reset it is not used for ":bnext", "ls", the Buffers menu, etc.
This option is reset by Vim for buffers that are only used to remember
a file name or marks. Vim sets it when starting to edit a buffer.
But not when moving to a buffer with ":buffer".
*'buftype'* *'bt'* *E382*

'buftype' 'bt' string (default: "")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
feature}
The value of this option specifies the type of a buffer:
<empty> normal buffer
nofile buffer which is not related to a file and will not be
written
nowrite buffer which will not be written
acwrite buffer which will always be written with BufWriteCmd
autocommands. {not available when compiled without the
|+autocmd| feature}
quickfix quickfix buffer, contains list of errors |:cwindow|
or list of locations |:lwindow|
help help buffer (you are not supposed to set this
manually)
This option is used together with 'bufhidden' and 'swapfile' to
specify special kinds of buffers. See |special-buffers|.
Be careful with changing this option, it can have many side effects!
A "quickfix" buffer is only used for the error list and the location
list. This value is set by the |:cwindow| and |:lwindow| commands and
you are not supposed to change it.
"nofile" and "nowrite" buffers are similar:
both: The buffer is not to be written to disk, ":w" doesn't
work (":w filename" does work though).
both: The buffer is never considered to be |'modified'|.
There is no warning when the changes will be lost, for
example when you quit Vim.
both: A swap file is only created when using too much memory
(when 'swapfile' has been reset there is never a swap
file).
nofile only: The buffer name is fixed, it is not handled like a
file name. It is not modified in response to a |:cd|
command.

*E676*
"acwrite" implies that the buffer name is not related to a file, like
"nofile", but it will be written. Thus, in contrast to "nofile" and
"nowrite", ":w" does work and a modified buffer can't be abandoned
without saving. For writing there must be matching |BufWriteCmd|,
|FileWriteCmd| or |FileAppendCmd| autocommands.
*'casemap'* *'cmp'*
'casemap' 'cmp' string (default: "internal,keepascii")
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Specifies details about changing the case of letters. It may contain
these words, separated by a comma:
internal Use internal case mapping functions, the current
locale does not change the case mapping. This only
matters when 'encoding' is a Unicode encoding,
"latin1" or "iso-8859-15". When "internal" is
omitted, the towupper() and towlower() system library
functions are used when available.
keepascii For the ASCII characters (0x00 to 0x7f) use the US
case mapping, the current locale is not effective.
This probably only matters for Turkish.
*'cdpath'* *'cd'* *E344* *E346*

'cdpath' 'cd' string (default: equivalent to $CDPATH or ",,")
global
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the
|+file_in_path| feature}
This is a list of directories which will be searched when using the
|:cd| and |:lcd| commands, provided that the directory being searched
for has a relative path, not an absolute part starting with "/", "./"
or "../", the 'cdpath' option is not used then.
The 'cdpath' option's value has the same form and semantics as
|'path'|. Also see |file-searching|.
The default value is taken from $CDPATH, with a "," prepended to look
in the current directory first.
If the default value taken from $CDPATH is not what you want, include
a modified version of the following command in your vimrc file to
override it:
:let &cdpath = ',' . substitute(substitute($CDPATH, '[, ]', '\\\0', 'g'), ':', ',',
'g')
security reasons.
(parts of 'cdpath' can be passed to the shell to expand file names).
*'cedit'*
'cedit' string (Vi default: "", Vim default: CTRL-F)
global
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+vertsplit|
feature}
The key used in Command-line Mode to open the command-line window.
The default is CTRL-F when 'compatible' is off.
Only non-printable keys are allowed.
The key can be specified as a single character, but it is difficult to
type. The preferred way is to use the <> notation. Examples:
:set cedit=<C-Y>
:set cedit=<Esc>
|Nvi| also has this option, but it only uses the first character.
See |cmdwin|.
*'charconvert'* *'ccv'* *E202* *E214* *E513*

'charconvert' 'ccv' string (default "")
global
and |+eval| features}
{not in Vi}
An expression that is used for character encoding conversion. It is
evaluated when a file that is to be read or has been written has a
different encoding from what is desired.
'charconvert' is not used when the internal iconv() function is
supported and is able to do the conversion. Using iconv() is
preferred, because it is much faster.

'charconvert' is not used when reading stdin |--|, because there is no

file to convert from. You will have to save the text in a file first.
The expression must return zero or an empty string for success,
non-zero for failure.
The possible encoding names encountered are in 'encoding'.
Additionally, names given in 'fileencodings' and 'fileencoding' are
used.
Conversion between "latin1", "unicode", "ucs-2", "ucs-4" and "utf-8"
is done internally by Vim, 'charconvert' is not used for this.
'charconvert' is also used to convert the viminfo file, if the 'c'
flag is present in 'viminfo'. Also used for Unicode conversion.
Example:
set charconvert=CharConvert()
fun CharConvert()
system("recode "
\ . v:charconvert_from . ".." . v:charconvert_to
\ . " <" . v:fname_in . " >" v:fname_out)
return v:shell_error
endfun
The related Vim variables are:
v:charconvert_from name of the current encoding
v:charconvert_to name of the desired encoding
v:fname_in name of the input file
v:fname_out name of the output file
Note that v:fname_in and v:fname_out will never be the same.
Note that v:charconvert_from and v:charconvert_to may be different
from 'encoding'. Vim internally uses UTF-8 instead of UCS-2 or UCS-4.
Encryption is not done by Vim when using 'charconvert'. If you want
to encrypt the file after conversion, 'charconvert' should take care
of this.
security reasons.
*'cindent'* *'cin'* *'nocindent'* *'nocin'*

'cindent' 'cin' boolean (default off)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+cindent|
feature}
Enables automatic C program indenting. See 'cinkeys' to set the keys
that trigger reindenting in insert mode and 'cinoptions' to set your
preferred indent style.
If 'indentexpr' is not empty, it overrules 'cindent'.
If 'lisp' is not on and both 'indentexpr' and 'equalprg' are empty,
the "=" operator indents using this algorithm rather than calling an
external program.
See |C-indenting|.
When you don't like the way 'cindent' works, try the 'smartindent'
option or 'indentexpr'.
This option is not used when 'paste' is set.
*'cinkeys'* *'cink'*
'cinkeys' 'cink' string (default "0{,0},0),:,0#,!^F,o,O,e")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
feature}
A list of keys that, when typed in Insert mode, cause reindenting of
the current line. Only used if 'cindent' is on and 'indentexpr' is
empty.
For the format of this option see |cinkeys-format|.
See |C-indenting|.
*'cinoptions'* *'cino'*
'cinoptions' 'cino' string (default "")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
feature}
The 'cinoptions' affect the way 'cindent' reindents lines in a C
program. See |cinoptions-values| for the values of this option, and
|C-indenting| for info on C indenting in general.
*'cinwords'* *'cinw'*

'cinwords' 'cinw' string (default "if,else,while,do,for,switch")

local to buffer
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without both the
|+cindent| and the |+smartindent| features}
These keywords start an extra indent in the next line when
'smartindent' or 'cindent' is set. For 'cindent' this is only done at
an appropriate place (inside {}).
Note that 'ignorecase' isn't used for 'cinwords'. If case doesn't
matter, include the keyword both the uppercase and lowercase:
"if,If,IF".
*'clipboard'* *'cb'*
'clipboard' 'cb' string (default "autoselect,exclude:cons\|linux"
for X-windows, "" otherwise)
global
{not in Vi}
{only in GUI versions or when the |+xterm_clipboard|
feature is included}
This option is a list of comma separated names.
These names are recognized:
unnamed When included, Vim will use the clipboard register '*'
for all yank, delete, change and put operations which
would normally go to the unnamed register. When a
register is explicitly specified, it will always be
used regardless of whether "unnamed" is in 'clipboard'
or not. The clipboard register can always be
explicitly accessed using the "* notation. Also see
|gui-clipboard|.
unnamedplus A variant of "unnamed" flag which uses the clipboard
register '+' (|quoteplus|) instead of register '*' for
all operations except yank. Yank shall copy the text
into register '+' and also into '*' when "unnamed" is
included.
Only available with the |+X11| feature.
Availability can be checked with:
if has('unnamedplus')
autoselect Works like the 'a' flag in 'guioptions': If present,
then whenever Visual mode is started, or the Visual
area extended, Vim tries to become the owner of the
windowing system's global selection or put the
selected text on the clipboard used by the selection
register "*. See |guioptions_a| and |quotestar| for
details. When the GUI is active, the 'a' flag in
'guioptions' is used, when the GUI is not active, this
"autoselect" flag is used.
Also applies to the modeless selection.
autoselectml Like "autoselect", but for the modeless selection
only. Compare to the 'A' flag in 'guioptions'.
html When the clipboard contains HTML, use this when
pasting. When putting text on the clipboard, mark it
as HTML. This works to copy rendered HTML from
Firefox, paste it as raw HTML in Vim, select the HTML
in Vim and paste it in a rich edit box in Firefox.
You probably want to add this only temporarily,
possibly use BufEnter autocommands.
Only supported for GTK version 2 and later.
Only available with the |+multi_byte| feature.
exclude:{pattern}
Defines a pattern that is matched against the name of
the terminal 'term'. If there is a match, no
connection will be made to the X server. This is
useful in this situation:
- Running Vim in a console.
- $DISPLAY is set to start applications on another
display.
- You do not want to connect to the X server in the
console, but do want this in a terminal emulator.
To never connect to the X server use:
exclude:.*
This has the same effect as using the |-X| argument.
Note that when there is no connection to the X server
the window title won't be restored and the clipboard

cannot be accessed.
The value of 'magic' is ignored, {pattern} is
interpreted as if 'magic' was on.
The rest of the option value will be used for
{pattern}, this must be the last entry.
*'cmdheight'* *'ch'*
'cmdheight' 'ch' number (default 1)
global
{not in Vi}
Number of screen lines to use for the command-line. Helps avoiding
|hit-enter| prompts.
The value of this option is stored with the tab page, so that each tab
page can have a different value.
*'cmdwinheight'* *'cwh'*
'cmdwinheight' 'cwh' number (default 7)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Number of screen lines to use for the command-line window. |cmdwin|
*'colorcolumn'* *'cc'*
'colorcolumn' 'cc' string (default "")
local to window
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+syntax|
feature}
'colorcolumn' is a comma separated list of screen columns that are
highlighted with ColorColumn |hl-ColorColumn|. Useful to align
text. Will make screen redrawing slower.
The screen column can be an absolute number, or a number preceded with
'+' or '-', which is added to or subtracted from 'textwidth'.
:set cc=+1 " highlight column after 'textwidth'
:set cc=+1,+2,+3 " highlight three columns after 'textwidth'
:hi ColorColumn ctermbg=lightgrey guibg=lightgrey
When 'textwidth' is zero then the items with '-' and '+' are not used.
A maximum of 256 columns are highlighted.
*'columns'* *'co'* *E594*

'columns' 'co' number (default 80 or terminal width)
global
{not in Vi}
Number of columns of the screen. Normally this is set by the terminal
initialization and does not have to be set by hand. Also see
|posix-screen-size|.
When Vim is running in the GUI or in a resizable window, setting this
option will cause the window size to be changed. When you only want
to use the size for the GUI, put the command in your |gvimrc| file.
When you set this option and Vim is unable to change the physical
number of columns of the display, the display may be messed up. For
the GUI it is always possible and Vim limits the number of columns to
what fits on the screen. You can use this command to get the widest
window possible:
:set columns=9999
Minimum value is 12, maximum value is 10000.
*'comments'* *'com'* *E524* *E525*

'comments' 'com' string
(default
"s1:/*,mb:*,ex:*/,://,b:#,:%,:XCOMM,n:>,fb:-")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+comments|
feature}
A comma separated list of strings that can start a comment line. See
|format-comments|. See |option-backslash| about using backslashes to
insert a space.
*'commentstring'* *'cms'* *E537*

'commentstring' 'cms' string (default "/*%s*/")
local to buffer

{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+folding|
feature}
A template for a comment. The "%s" in the value is replaced with the
comment text. Currently only used to add markers for folding, see
|fold-marker|.
*'compatible'* *'cp'* *'nocompatible'* *'nocp'*

'compatible' 'cp' boolean (default on, off when a |vimrc| or |gvimrc|
file is found)
global
{not in Vi}
This option has the effect of making Vim either more Vi-compatible, or
make Vim behave in a more useful way.
This is a special kind of option, because when it's set or reset,
other options are also changed as a side effect. CAREFUL: Setting or
resetting this option can have a lot of unexpected effects: Mappings
are interpreted in another way, undo behaves differently, etc. If you
set this option in your vimrc file, you should probably put it at the
very start.
By default this option is on and the Vi defaults are used for the
options. This default was chosen for those people who want to use Vim
just like Vi, and don't even (want to) know about the 'compatible'
option.
When a |vimrc| or |gvimrc| file is found while Vim is starting up,
this option is switched off, and all options that have not been
modified will be set to the Vim defaults. Effectively, this means
that when a |vimrc| or |gvimrc| file exists, Vim will use the Vim
defaults, otherwise it will use the Vi defaults. (Note: This doesn't
happen for the system-wide vimrc or gvimrc file, nor for a file given
with the |-u| argument). Also see |compatible-default| and
|posix-compliance|.
You can also set this option with the "-C" argument, and reset it with
"-N". See |-C| and |-N|.
Switching this option off makes the Vim defaults be used for options
that have a different Vi and Vim default value. See the options
marked with a '+' below. Other options are not modified.
At the moment this option is set, several other options will be set
or reset to make Vim as Vi-compatible as possible. See the table
below. This can be used if you want to revert to Vi compatible
editing.
See also 'cpoptions'.
option + set value effect
'allowrevins' off no CTRL-_ command
'backupcopy' Unix: "yes" backup file is a copy
others: "auto" copy or rename backup file
'backspace' "" normal backspace
'backup' off no backup file
'cindent' off no C code indentation
'cedit' + "" no key to open the |cmdwin|
'cpoptions' + (all flags) Vi-compatible flags
'cscopetag' off don't use cscope for ":tag"
'cscopetagorder' 0 see |cscopetagorder|
'cscopeverbose' off see |cscopeverbose|
'digraph' off no digraphs
'esckeys' + off no <Esc>-keys in Insert mode
'expandtab' off tabs not expanded to spaces
'fileformats' + "" no automatic file format detection,
"dos,unix" except for DOS, Windows and OS/2
'formatoptions' + "vt" Vi compatible formatting
'gdefault' off no default 'g' flag for ":s"
'history' + 0 no commandline history
'hkmap' off no Hebrew keyboard mapping
'hkmapp' off no phonetic Hebrew keyboard mapping
'hlsearch' off no highlighting of search matches
'incsearch' off no incremental searching
'indentexpr' "" no indenting by expression
'insertmode' off do not start in Insert mode
'iskeyword' + "@,48-57,_" keywords contain alphanumeric
characters and '_'
'joinspaces' on insert 2 spaces after period
'modeline' + off no modelines
'more' + off no pauses in listings
'revins' off no reverse insert
'ruler' off no ruler
'scrolljump' 1 no jump scroll
'scrolloff' 0 no scroll offset

'shiftround' off indent not rounded to shiftwidth

'shortmess' + "" no shortening of messages
'showcmd' + off command characters not shown
'showmode' + off current mode not shown
'smartcase' off no automatic ignore case switch
'smartindent' off no smart indentation
'smarttab' off no smart tab size
'softtabstop' 0 tabs are always 'tabstop' positions
'startofline' on goto startofline with some commands
'tagrelative' + off tag file names are not relative
'textauto' + off no automatic textmode detection
'textwidth' 0 no automatic line wrap
'tildeop' off tilde is not an operator
'ttimeout' off no terminal timeout
'whichwrap' + "" left-right movements don't wrap
'wildchar' + CTRL-E only when the current value is <Tab>
use CTRL-E for cmdline completion
'writebackup' on or off depends on the |+writebackup| feature
*'complete'* *'cpt'* *E535*

'complete' 'cpt' string (default: ".,w,b,u,t,i")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
This option specifies how keyword completion |ins-completion| works
when CTRL-P or CTRL-N are used. It is also used for whole-line
completion |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-L|. It indicates the type of completion
and the places to scan. It is a comma separated list of flags:
. scan the current buffer ('wrapscan' is ignored)
w scan buffers from other windows
b scan other loaded buffers that are in the buffer list
u scan the unloaded buffers that are in the buffer list
U scan the buffers that are not in the buffer list
k scan the files given with the 'dictionary' option
kspell use the currently active spell checking |spell|
k{dict} scan the file {dict}. Several "k" flags can be given,
patterns are valid too. For example:
:set cpt=k/usr/dict/*,k~/spanish
s scan the files given with the 'thesaurus' option
s{tsr} scan the file {tsr}. Several "s" flags can be given, patterns
are valid too.
i scan current and included files
d scan current and included files for defined name or macro
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-D|
] tag completion
t same as "]"
Unloaded buffers are not loaded, thus their autocmds |:autocmd| are
not executed, this may lead to unexpected completions from some files
(gzipped files for example). Unloaded buffers are not scanned for
whole-line completion.
The default is ".,w,b,u,t,i", which means to scan:
1. the current buffer
2. buffers in other windows
3. other loaded buffers
4. unloaded buffers
5. tags
6. included files
As you can see, CTRL-N and CTRL-P can be used to do any 'iskeyword'-
based expansion (e.g., dictionary |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-K|, included patterns
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-I|, tags |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-]| and normal expansions).
*'completefunc'* *'cfu'*
'completefunc' 'cfu' string (default: empty)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+eval|
or |+insert_expand| features}
This option specifies a function to be used for Insert mode completion
with CTRL-X CTRL-U. |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-U|
See |complete-functions| for an explanation of how the function is
invoked and what it should return.
security reasons.
*'completeopt'* *'cot'*

'completeopt' 'cot' string (default: "menu,preview")

global
|+insert_expand| feature}
{not in Vi}
A comma separated list of options for Insert mode completion
|ins-completion|. The supported values are:
menu Use a popup menu to show the possible completions. The
menu is only shown when there is more than one match and
sufficient colors are available. |ins-completion-menu|
menuone Use the popup menu also when there is only one match.
Useful when there is additional information about the
match, e.g., what file it comes from.
longest Only insert the longest common text of the matches. If
the menu is displayed you can use CTRL-L to add more
characters. Whether case is ignored depends on the kind
of completion. For buffer text the 'ignorecase' option is
used.
preview Show extra information about the currently selected
completion in the preview window. Only works in
combination with "menu" or "menuone".
*'concealcursor'* *'cocu'*
'concealcursor' 'cocu' string (default: "")
local to window
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+conceal|
feature}
Sets the modes in which text in the cursor line can also be concealed.
When the current mode is listed then concealing happens just like in
other lines.
n Normal mode
v Visual mode
i Insert mode
c Command line editing, for 'incsearch'
'v' applies to all lines in the Visual area, not only the cursor.
A useful value is "nc". This is used in help files. So long as you
are moving around text is concealed, but when starting to insert text
or selecting a Visual area the concealed text is displayed, so that
you can see what you are doing.
Keep in mind that the cursor position is not always where it's
displayed. E.g., when moving vertically it may change column.
'conceallevel' 'cole' *'conceallevel'* *'cole'*

number (default 0)
local to window
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+conceal|
feature}
Determine how text with the "conceal" syntax attribute |:syn-conceal|
is shown:
Value Effect
0 Text is shown normally
1 Each block of concealed text is replaced with one
character. If the syntax item does not have a custom
replacement character defined (see |:syn-cchar|) the
character defined in 'listchars' is used (default is a
space).
It is highlighted with the "Conceal" highlight group.
2 Concealed text is completely hidden unless it has a
custom replacement character defined (see
|:syn-cchar|).
3 Concealed text is completely hidden.
Note: in the cursor line concealed text is not hidden, so that you can
edit and copy the text. This can be changed with the 'concealcursor'
option.
*'confirm'* *'cf'* *'noconfirm'* *'nocf'*

'confirm' 'cf' boolean (default off)

global
{not in Vi}
When 'confirm' is on, certain operations that would normally
fail because of unsaved changes to a buffer, e.g. ":q" and ":e",
instead raise a |dialog| asking if you wish to save the current
file(s). You can still use a ! to unconditionally |abandon| a buffer.
If 'confirm' is off you can still activate confirmation for one
command only (this is most useful in mappings) with the |:confirm|
command.
Also see the |confirm()| function and the 'v' flag in 'guioptions'.
*'conskey'* *'consk'* *'noconskey'* *'noconsk'*

'conskey' 'consk' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi} {only for MS-DOS}
When on direct console I/O is used to obtain a keyboard character.
This should work in most cases. Also see |'bioskey'|. Together,
three methods of console input are available:
'conskey' 'bioskey' action
on on or off direct console input
off on BIOS
off off STDIN
*'copyindent'* *'ci'* *'nocopyindent'* *'noci'*

'copyindent' 'ci' boolean (default off)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
Copy the structure of the existing lines indent when autoindenting a
new line. Normally the new indent is reconstructed by a series of
tabs followed by spaces as required (unless |'expandtab'| is enabled,
in which case only spaces are used). Enabling this option makes the
new line copy whatever characters were used for indenting on the
existing line. 'expandtab' has no effect on these characters, a Tab
remains a Tab. If the new indent is greater than on the existing
line, the remaining space is filled in the normal manner.
NOTE: 'copyindent' is reset when 'compatible' is set.
Also see 'preserveindent'.
*'cpoptions'* *'cpo'*
'cpoptions' 'cpo' string (Vim default: "aABceFs",
Vi default: all flags)
global
{not in Vi}
A sequence of single character flags. When a character is present
this indicates vi-compatible behavior. This is used for things where
not being vi-compatible is mostly or sometimes preferred.
'cpoptions' stands for "compatible-options".
Commas can be added for readability.
To avoid problems with flags that are added in the future, use the
"+=" and "-=" feature of ":set" |add-option-flags|.
NOTE: This option is set to the Vi default value when 'compatible' is
set and to the Vim default value when 'compatible' is reset.
NOTE: This option is set to the POSIX default value at startup when
the Vi default value would be used and the $VIM_POSIX environment
variable exists |posix|. This means Vim tries to behave like the
POSIX specification.
contains behavior
*cpo-a*
a When included, a ":read" command with a file name
argument will set the alternate file name for the
current window.
*cpo-A*
A When included, a ":write" command with a file name
argument will set the alternate file name for the
current window.
*cpo-b*
b "\|" in a ":map" command is recognized as the end of
the map command. The '\' is included in the mapping,
the text after the '|' is interpreted as the next
command. Use a CTRL-V instead of a backslash to
include the '|' in the mapping. Applies to all
mapping, abbreviation, menu and autocmd commands.

See also |map_bar|.

*cpo-B*
B A backslash has no special meaning in mappings,
abbreviations and the "to" part of the menu commands.
Remove this flag to be able to use a backslash like a
CTRL-V. For example, the command ":map X \<Esc>"
results in X being mapped to:
'B' included: "\^[" (^[ is a real <Esc>)
'B' excluded: "<Esc>" (5 characters)
('<' excluded in both cases)
*cpo-c*
c Searching continues at the end of any match at the
cursor position, but not further than the start of the
next line. When not present searching continues
one character from the cursor position. With 'c'
"abababababab" only gets three matches when repeating
"/abab", without 'c' there are five matches.
*cpo-C*
C Do not concatenate sourced lines that start with a
backslash. See |line-continuation|.
*cpo-d*
d Using "./" in the 'tags' option doesn't mean to use
the tags file relative to the current file, but the
tags file in the current directory.
*cpo-D*
D Can't use CTRL-K to enter a digraph after Normal mode
commands with a character argument, like |r|, |f| and
|t|.
*cpo-e*
e When executing a register with ":@r", always add a
<CR> to the last line, also when the register is not
linewise. If this flag is not present, the register
is not linewise and the last line does not end in a
<CR>, then the last line is put on the command-line
and can be edited before hitting <CR>.
*cpo-E*
E It is an error when using "y", "d", "c", "g~", "gu" or
"gU" on an Empty region. The operators only work when
at least one character is to be operate on. Example:
This makes "y0" fail in the first column.
*cpo-f*
f When included, a ":read" command with a file name
argument will set the file name for the current buffer,
if the current buffer doesn't have a file name yet.
*cpo-F*
F When included, a ":write" command with a file name
argument will set the file name for the current
buffer, if the current buffer doesn't have a file name
yet. Also see |cpo-P|.
*cpo-g*
g Goto line 1 when using ":edit" without argument.
*cpo-H*
H When using "I" on a line with only blanks, insert
before the last blank. Without this flag insert after
the last blank.
*cpo-i*
i When included, interrupting the reading of a file will
leave it modified.
*cpo-I*
I When moving the cursor up or down just after inserting
indent for 'autoindent', do not delete the indent.
*cpo-j*
j When joining lines, only add two spaces after a '.',
not after '!' or '?'. Also see 'joinspaces'.

*cpo-J*
J A |sentence| has to be followed by two spaces after
the '.', '!' or '?'. A <Tab> is not recognized as
white space.
*cpo-k*
k Disable the recognition of raw key codes in
mappings, abbreviations, and the "to" part of menu
commands. For example, if <Key> sends ^[OA (where ^[
is <Esc>), the command ":map X ^[OA" results in X
being mapped to:
'k' included: "^[OA" (3 characters)
'k' excluded: "<Key>" (one key code)
Also see the '<' flag below.
*cpo-K*
K Don't wait for a key code to complete when it is
halfway a mapping. This breaks mapping <F1><F1> when
only part of the second <F1> has been read. It
enables cancelling the mapping by typing <F1><Esc>.
*cpo-l*
l Backslash in a [] range in a search pattern is taken
literally, only "\]", "\^", "\-" and "\\" are special.
See |/[]|
'l' included: "/[ \t]" finds <Space>, '\' and 't'
'l' excluded: "/[ \t]" finds <Space> and <Tab>
Also see |cpo-\|.
*cpo-L*
L When the 'list' option is set, 'wrapmargin',
'textwidth', 'softtabstop' and Virtual Replace mode
(see |gR|) count a <Tab> as two characters, instead of
the normal behavior of a <Tab>.
*cpo-m*
m When included, a showmatch will always wait half a
second. When not included, a showmatch will wait half
a second or until a character is typed. |'showmatch'|
*cpo-M*
M When excluded, "%" matching will take backslashes into
account. Thus in "( $ )" and "\( ( $" the outer
parenthesis match. When included "%" ignores
backslashes, which is Vi compatible.
*cpo-n*
n When included, the column used for 'number' and
'relativenumber' will also be used for text of wrapped
lines.
*cpo-o*
o Line offset to search command is not remembered for
next search.
*cpo-O*
O Don't complain if a file is being overwritten, even
when it didn't exist when editing it. This is a
protection against a file unexpectedly created by
someone else. Vi didn't complain about this.
*cpo-p*
p Vi compatible Lisp indenting. When not present, a
slightly better algorithm is used.
*cpo-P*
P When included, a ":write" command that appends to a
file will set the file name for the current buffer, if
the current buffer doesn't have a file name yet and
the 'F' flag is also included |cpo-F|.
*cpo-q*
q When joining multiple lines leave the cursor at the
position where it would be when joining two lines.
*cpo-r*
r Redo ("." command) uses "/" to repeat a search
command, instead of the actually used search string.

*cpo-R*
R Remove marks from filtered lines. Without this flag
marks are kept like |:keepmarks| was used.
*cpo-s*
s Set buffer options when entering the buffer for the
first time. This is like it is in Vim version 3.0.
And it is the default. If not present the options are
set when the buffer is created.
*cpo-S*
S Set buffer options always when entering a buffer
(except 'readonly', 'fileformat', 'filetype' and
'syntax'). This is the (most) Vi compatible setting.
The options are set to the values in the current
buffer. When you change an option and go to another
buffer, the value is copied. Effectively makes the
buffer options global to all buffers.
's' 'S' copy buffer options
no no when buffer created
yes no when buffer first entered (default)
X yes each time when buffer entered (vi comp.)
*cpo-t*
t Search pattern for the tag command is remembered for
"n" command. Otherwise Vim only puts the pattern in
the history for search pattern, but doesn't change the
last used search pattern.
*cpo-u*
u Undo is Vi compatible. See |undo-two-ways|.
*cpo-v*
v Backspaced characters remain visible on the screen in
Insert mode. Without this flag the characters are
erased from the screen right away. With this flag the
screen newly typed text overwrites backspaced
characters.
*cpo-w*
w When using "cw" on a blank character, only change one
character and not all blanks until the start of the
next word.
*cpo-W*
W Don't overwrite a readonly file. When omitted, ":w!"
overwrites a readonly file, if possible.
*cpo-x*
x <Esc> on the command-line executes the command-line.
The default in Vim is to abandon the command-line,
because <Esc> normally aborts a command. |c_<Esc>|
*cpo-X*
X When using a count with "R" the replaced text is
deleted only once. Also when repeating "R" with "."
and a count.
*cpo-y*
y A yank command can be redone with ".".
*cpo-Z*
Z When using "w!" while the 'readonly' option is set,
don't reset 'readonly'.
*cpo-!*
! When redoing a filter command, use the last used
external command, whatever it was. Otherwise the last
used -filter- command is used.
*cpo-$*
$ When making a change to one line, don't redisplay the
line, but put a '$' at the end of the changed text.
The changed text will be overwritten when you type the
new text. The line is redisplayed if you type any
command that moves the cursor from the insertion
point.

*cpo-%*
% Vi-compatible matching is done for the "%" command.
Does not recognize "#if", "#endif", etc.
Does not recognize "/*" and "*/".
Parens inside single and double quotes are also
counted, causing a string that contains a paren to
disturb the matching. For example, in a line like
"if (strcmp("foo(", s))" the first paren does not
match the last one. When this flag is not included,
parens inside single and double quotes are treated
specially. When matching a paren outside of quotes,
everything inside quotes is ignored. When matching a
paren inside quotes, it will find the matching one (if
there is one). This works very well for C programs.
This flag is also used for other features, such as
C-indenting.
*cpo--*
- When included, a vertical movement command fails when
it would go above the first line or below the last
line. Without it the cursor moves to the first or
last line, unless it already was in that line.
Applies to the commands "-", "k", CTRL-P, "+", "j",
CTRL-N, CTRL-J and ":1234".
*cpo-+*
+ When included, a ":write file" command will reset the
'modified' flag of the buffer, even though the buffer
itself may still be different from its file.
*cpo-star*
* Use ":*" in the same way as ":@". When not included,
":*" is an alias for ":'<,'>", select the Visual area.
*cpo-<*
< Disable the recognition of special key codes in |<>|
form in mappings, abbreviations, and the "to" part of
menu commands. For example, the command
":map X <Tab>" results in X being mapped to:
'<' included: "<Tab>" (5 characters)
'<' excluded: "Î" (Î is a real <Tab>)
Also see the 'k' flag above.
*cpo->*
> When appending to a register, put a line break before
the appended text.
POSIX flags. These are not included in the Vi default value, except
when $VIM_POSIX was set on startup. |posix|
contains behavior
*cpo-#*
# A count before "D", "o" and "O" has no effect.
*cpo-&*
& When ":preserve" was used keep the swap file when
exiting normally while this buffer is still loaded.
This flag is tested when exiting.
*cpo-\*
\ Backslash in a [] range in a search pattern is taken
literally, only "\]" is special See |/[]|
'\' included: "/[ \-]" finds <Space>, '\' and '-'
'\' excluded: "/[ \-]" finds <Space> and '-'
Also see |cpo-l|.
*cpo-/*
/ When "%" is used as the replacement string in a |:s|
command, use the previous replacement string. |:s%|
*cpo-{*
{ The |{| and |}| commands also stop at a "{" character
at the start of a line.
*cpo-.*
. The ":chdir" and ":cd" commands fail if the current
buffer is modified, unless ! is used. Vim doesn't
need this, since it remembers the full path of an

opened file.
*cpo-bar*
| The value of the $LINES and $COLUMNS environment
variables overrule the terminal size values obtained
with system specific functions.
*'cryptmethod'* *'cm'*
'cryptmethod' string (default "zip")
{not in Vi}
Method used for encryption when the buffer is written to a file:
*pkzip*
zip PkZip compatible method. A weak kind of encryption.
Backwards compatible with Vim 7.2 and older.
*blowfish*
blowfish Blowfish method. Strong encryption. Requires Vim 7.3
or later, files can NOT be read by Vim 7.2 and older.
This adds a "seed" to the file, every time you write
the file the encrypted bytes will be different.
When reading an encrypted file 'cryptmethod' will be set automatically
to the detected method of the file being read. Thus if you write it
without changing 'cryptmethod' the same method will be used.
Changing 'cryptmethod' does not mark the file as modified, you have to
explicitly write it, you don't get a warning unless there are other
modifications. Also see |:X|.
When setting the global value to an empty string, it will end up with
the value "zip". When setting the local value to an empty string the
buffer will use the global value.
When a new encryption method is added in a later version of Vim, and
the current version does not recognize it, you will get *E821* .
You need to edit this file with the later version of Vim.
*'cscopepathcomp'* *'cspc'*
'cscopepathcomp' 'cspc' number (default 0)
global
{not available when compiled without the |+cscope|
feature}
{not in Vi}
Determines how many components of the path to show in a list of tags.
See |cscopepathcomp|.
*'cscopeprg'* *'csprg'*
'cscopeprg' 'csprg' string (default "cscope")
global
feature}
{not in Vi}
Specifies the command to execute cscope. See |cscopeprg|.
security reasons.
*'cscopequickfix'* *'csqf'*
'cscopequickfix' 'csqf' string (default "")
global
or |+quickfix| features}
{not in Vi}
Specifies whether to use quickfix window to show cscope results.
See |cscopequickfix|.
*'cscopetag'* *'cst'* *'nocscopetag'* *'nocst'*

'cscopetag' 'cst' boolean (default off)
global
feature}
{not in Vi}

Use cscope for tag commands. See |cscope-options|.

*'cscopetagorder'* *'csto'*
'cscopetagorder' 'csto' number (default 0)
global
feature}
{not in Vi}
Determines the order in which ":cstag" performs a search. See
|cscopetagorder|.
NOTE: This option is set to 0 when 'compatible' is set.
*'cscopeverbose'* *'csverb'*
*'nocscopeverbose'* *'nocsverb'*
'cscopeverbose' 'csverb' boolean (default off)
global
feature}
{not in Vi}
Give messages when adding a cscope database. See |cscopeverbose|.
*'cursorbind'* *'crb'* *'nocursorbind'* *'nocrb'*

'cursorbind' 'crb' boolean (default off)
local to window
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+cursorbind|
feature}
When this option is set, as the cursor in the current
window moves other cursorbound windows (windows that also have
this option set) move their cursors to the corresponding line and
column. This option is useful for viewing the
differences between two versions of a file (see 'diff'); in diff mode,
inserted and deleted lines (though not characters within a line) are
taken into account.
*'cursorcolumn'* *'cuc'* *'nocursorcolumn'* *'nocuc'*

'cursorcolumn' 'cuc' boolean (default off)
local to window
{not in Vi}
feature}
Highlight the screen column of the cursor with CursorColumn
|hl-CursorColumn|. Useful to align text. Will make screen redrawing
slower.
If you only want the highlighting in the current window you can use
these autocommands:
au WinLeave * set nocursorline nocursorcolumn
au WinEnter * set cursorline cursorcolumn
*'cursorline'* *'cul'* *'nocursorline'* *'nocul'*

'cursorline' 'cul' boolean (default off)
local to window
{not in Vi}
feature}
Highlight the screen line of the cursor with CursorLine
|hl-CursorLine|. Useful to easily spot the cursor. Will make screen
redrawing slower.
When Visual mode is active the highlighting isn't used to make it
easier to see the selected text.
*'debug'*
'debug' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
These values can be used:
msg Error messages that would otherwise be omitted will be given
anyway.

throw Error messages that would otherwise be omitted will be given

anyway and also throw an exception and set |v:errmsg|.
beep A message will be given when otherwise only a beep would be
produced.
The values can be combined, separated by a comma.
"msg" and "throw" are useful for debugging 'foldexpr', 'formatexpr' or
'indentexpr'.
*'define'* *'def'*
'define' 'def' string (default "^\s*#\s*define")
{not in Vi}
Pattern to be used to find a macro definition. It is a search
pattern, just like for the "/" command. This option is used for the
commands like "[i" and "[d" |include-search|. The 'isident' option is
used to recognize the defined name after the match:
{match with 'define'}{non-ID chars}{defined name}{non-ID char}
See |option-backslash| about inserting backslashes to include a space
or backslash.
The default value is for C programs. For C++ this value would be
useful, to include const type declarations:
^$#\s*define\|[a-z]*\s*const\s*[a-z]*$
When using the ":set" command, you need to double the backslashes!
*'delcombine'* *'deco'* *'nodelcombine'* *'nodeco'*

'delcombine' 'deco' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
If editing Unicode and this option is set, backspace and Normal mode
"x" delete each combining character on its own. When it is off (the
default) the character along with its combining characters are
deleted.
Note: When 'delcombine' is set "xx" may work different from "2x"!
This is useful for Arabic, Hebrew and many other languages where one
may have combining characters overtop of base characters, and want
to remove only the combining ones.
*'dictionary'* *'dict'*
'dictionary' 'dict' string (default "")
{not in Vi}
List of file names, separated by commas, that are used to lookup words
for keyword completion commands |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-K|. Each file should
contain a list of words. This can be one word per line, or several
words per line, separated by non-keyword characters (white space is
preferred). Maximum line length is 510 bytes.
When this option is empty, or an entry "spell" is present, spell
checking is enabled the currently active spelling is used. |spell|
To include a comma in a file name precede it with a backslash. Spaces
after a comma are ignored, otherwise spaces are included in the file
name. See |option-backslash| about using backslashes.
This has nothing to do with the |Dictionary| variable type.
Where to find a list of words?
- On FreeBSD, there is the file "/usr/share/dict/words".
- In the Simtel archive, look in the "msdos/linguist" directory.
- In "miscfiles" of the GNU collection.
Backticks cannot be used in this option for security reasons.
*'diff'* *'nodiff'*
'diff' boolean (default off)
local to window
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+diff|
feature}
Join the current window in the group of windows that shows differences
between files. See |vimdiff|.
*'dex'* *'diffexpr'*
'diffexpr' 'dex' string (default "")

global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Expression which is evaluated to obtain an ed-style diff file from two
versions of a file. See |diff-diffexpr|.
security reasons.
*'dip'* *'diffopt'*
'diffopt' 'dip' string (default "filler")
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Option settings for diff mode. It can consist of the following items.
All are optional. Items must be separated by a comma.
filler Show filler lines, to keep the text
synchronized with a window that has inserted
lines at the same position. Mostly useful
when windows are side-by-side and 'scrollbind'
is set.
context:{n} Use a context of {n} lines between a change
and a fold that contains unchanged lines.
When omitted a context of six lines is used.
See |fold-diff|.
icase Ignore changes in case of text. "a" and "A"
are considered the same. Adds the "-i" flag
to the "diff" command if 'diffexpr' is empty.
iwhite Ignore changes in amount of white space. Adds
the "-b" flag to the "diff" command if
'diffexpr' is empty. Check the documentation
of the "diff" command for what this does
exactly. It should ignore adding trailing
white space, but not leading white space.
horizontal Start diff mode with horizontal splits (unless
explicitly specified otherwise).
vertical Start diff mode with vertical splits (unless
explicitly specified otherwise).
foldcolumn:{n} Set the 'foldcolumn' option to {n} when
starting diff mode. Without this 2 is used.
Examples:
:set diffopt=filler,context:4
:set diffopt=
:set diffopt=filler,foldcolumn:3
*'digraph'* *'dg'* *'nodigraph'* *'nodg'*

'digraph' 'dg' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+digraphs|
feature}
Enable the entering of digraphs in Insert mode with {char1} <BS>
{char2}. See |digraphs|.
*'directory'* *'dir'*
'directory' 'dir' string (default for Amiga: ".,t:",
for MS-DOS and Win32: ".,c:\tmp,c:\temp"
for Unix: ".,~/tmp,/var/tmp,/tmp")
global
List of directory names for the swap file, separated with commas.
- The swap file will be created in the first directory where this is
possible.
- Empty means that no swap file will be used (recovery is
impossible!).
- A directory "." means to put the swap file in the same directory as
the edited file. On Unix, a dot is prepended to the file name, so

it doesn't show in a directory listing. On MS-Windows the "hidden"

attribute is set and a dot prepended if possible.
- A directory starting with "./" (or ".\" for MS-DOS et al.) means to
put the swap file relative to where the edited file is. The leading
"." is replaced with the path name of the edited file.
- For Unix and Win32, if a directory ends in two path separators "//"
or "\\", the swap file name will be built from the complete path to
the file with all path separators substituted to percent '%' signs.
This will ensure file name uniqueness in the preserve directory.
On Win32, when a separating comma is following, you must use "//",
since "\\" will include the comma in the file name.
- Spaces after the comma are ignored, other spaces are considered part
of the directory name. To have a space at the start of a directory
name, precede it with a backslash.
- To include a comma in a directory name precede it with a backslash.
- A directory name may end in an ':' or '/'.
- Careful with '\' characters, type one before a space, type two to
get one in the option (see |option-backslash|), for example:
:set dir=c:\\tmp,\ dir\\,with\\,commas,\\\ dir\ with\ spaces
- For backwards compatibility with Vim version 3.0 a '>' at the start
of the option is removed.
Using "." first in the list is recommended. This means that editing
the same file twice will result in a warning. Using "/tmp" on Unix is
discouraged: When the system crashes you lose the swap file.
"/var/tmp" is often not cleared when rebooting, thus is a better
choice than "/tmp". But it can contain a lot of files, your swap
files get lost in the crowd. That is why a "tmp" directory in your
home directory is tried first.
security reasons.
{Vi: directory to put temp file in, defaults to "/tmp"}
*'display'* *'dy'*
'display' 'dy' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
Change the way text is displayed. This is comma separated list of
flags:
lastline When included, as much as possible of the last line
in a window will be displayed. When not included, a
last line that doesn't fit is replaced with "@" lines.
uhex Show unprintable characters hexadecimal as <xx>
instead of using ^C and ~C.
*'eadirection'* *'ead'*
'eadirection' 'ead' string (default "both")
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Tells when the 'equalalways' option applies:
ver vertically, width of windows is not affected
hor horizontally, height of windows is not affected
both width and height of windows is affected
*'ed'* *'edcompatible'* *'noed'* *'noedcompatible'*

'edcompatible' 'ed' boolean (default off)
global
Makes the 'g' and 'c' flags of the ":substitute" command to be
toggled each time the flag is given. See |complex-change|. See
also 'gdefault' option.
Switching this option on is discouraged!
*'encoding'* *'enc'* *E543*

'encoding' 'enc' string (default: "latin1" or value from $LANG)
global
feature}
{not in Vi}
Sets the character encoding used inside Vim. It applies to text in
the buffers, registers, Strings in expressions, text stored in the
viminfo file, etc. It sets the kind of characters which Vim can work

with. See |encoding-names| for the possible values.

NOTE: Changing this option will not change the encoding of the
existing text in Vim. It may cause non-ASCII text to become invalid.
It should normally be kept at its default value, or set when Vim
starts up. See |multibyte|. To reload the menus see |:menutrans|.
This option cannot be set from a |modeline|. It would most likely
corrupt the text.
NOTE: For GTK+ 2 it is highly recommended to set 'encoding' to
"utf-8". Although care has been taken to allow different values of
'encoding', "utf-8" is the natural choice for the environment and
avoids unnecessary conversion overhead. "utf-8" has not been made
the default to prevent different behavior of the GUI and terminal
versions, and to avoid changing the encoding of newly created files
without your knowledge (in case 'fileencodings' is empty).
The character encoding of files can be different from 'encoding'.
This is specified with 'fileencoding'. The conversion is done with
iconv() or as specified with 'charconvert'.
If you need to know whether 'encoding' is a multi-byte encoding, you
can use:
if has("multi_byte_encoding")
Normally 'encoding' will be equal to your current locale. This will
be the default if Vim recognizes your environment settings. If
'encoding' is not set to the current locale, 'termencoding' must be
set to convert typed and displayed text. See |encoding-table|.
When you set this option, it fires the |EncodingChanged| autocommand
event so that you can set up fonts if necessary.
When the option is set, the value is converted to lowercase. Thus
you can set it with uppercase values too. Underscores are translated
to '-' signs.
When the encoding is recognized, it is changed to the standard name.
For example "Latin-1" becomes "latin1", "ISO_88592" becomes
"iso-8859-2" and "utf8" becomes "utf-8".
Note: "latin1" is also used when the encoding could not be detected.
This only works when editing files in the same encoding! When the
actual character set is not latin1, make sure 'fileencoding' and
'fileencodings' are empty. When conversion is needed, switch to using
utf-8.
When "unicode", "ucs-2" or "ucs-4" is used, Vim internally uses utf-8.
You don't notice this while editing, but it does matter for the
|viminfo-file|. And Vim expects the terminal to use utf-8 too. Thus
setting 'encoding' to one of these values instead of utf-8 only has
effect for encoding used for files when 'fileencoding' is empty.
When 'encoding' is set to a Unicode encoding, and 'fileencodings' was
not set yet, the default for 'fileencodings' is changed.
*'endofline'* *'eol'* *'noendofline'* *'noeol'*

'endofline' 'eol' boolean (default on)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
When writing a file and this option is off and the 'binary' option
is on, no <EOL> will be written for the last line in the file. This
option is automatically set when starting to edit a new file, unless
the file does not have an <EOL> for the last line in the file, in
which case it is reset. Normally you don't have to set or reset this
option. When 'binary' is off the value is not used when writing the
file. When 'binary' is on it is used to remember the presence of a
<EOL> for the last line in the file, so that when you write the file
the situation from the original file can be kept. But you can change
it if you want to.
*'equalalways'* *'ea'* *'noequalalways'* *'noea'*

'equalalways' 'ea' boolean (default on)
global
{not in Vi}
When on, all the windows are automatically made the same size after
splitting or closing a window. This also happens the moment the
option is switched on. When off, splitting a window will reduce the

size of the current window and leave the other windows the same. When
closing a window the extra lines are given to the window next to it
(depending on 'splitbelow' and 'splitright').
When mixing vertically and horizontally split windows, a minimal size
is computed and some windows may be larger if there is room. The
'eadirection' option tells in which direction the size is affected.
Changing the height and width of a window can be avoided by setting
'winfixheight' and 'winfixwidth', respectively.
If a window size is specified when creating a new window sizes are
currently not equalized (it's complicated, but may be implemented in
the future).
*'equalprg'* *'ep'*
'equalprg' 'ep' string (default "")
{not in Vi}
External program to use for "=" command. When this option is empty
the internal formatting functions are used; either 'lisp', 'cindent'
or 'indentexpr'. When Vim was compiled without internal formatting,
the "indent" program is used.
Environment variables are expanded |:set_env|. See |option-backslash|
about including spaces and backslashes.
security reasons.
*'errorbells'* *'eb'* *'noerrorbells'* *'noeb'*

'errorbells' 'eb' boolean (default off)
global
Ring the bell (beep or screen flash) for error messages. This only
makes a difference for error messages, the bell will be used always
for a lot of errors without a message (e.g., hitting <Esc> in Normal
mode). See 'visualbell' on how to make the bell behave like a beep,
screen flash or do nothing.
*'errorfile'* *'ef'*
'errorfile' 'ef' string (Amiga default: "AztecC.Err",
others: "errors.err")
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Name of the errorfile for the QuickFix mode (see |:cf|).
When the "-q" command-line argument is used, 'errorfile' is set to the
following argument. See |-q|.
NOT used for the ":make" command. See 'makeef' for that.
Environment variables are expanded |:set_env|.
See |option-backslash| about including spaces and backslashes.
security reasons.
*'errorformat'* *'efm'*
'errorformat' 'efm' string (default is very long)
{not in Vi}
feature}
Scanf-like description of the format for the lines in the error file
(see |errorformat|).
*'esckeys'* *'ek'* *'noesckeys'* *'noek'*

'esckeys' 'ek' boolean (Vim default: on, Vi default: off)
global
{not in Vi}
Function keys that start with an <Esc> are recognized in Insert
mode. When this option is off, the cursor and function keys cannot be
used in Insert mode if they start with an <Esc>. The advantage of
this is that the single <Esc> is recognized immediately, instead of
after one second. Instead of resetting this option, you might want to
try changing the values for 'timeoutlen' and 'ttimeoutlen'. Note that
when 'esckeys' is off, you can still map anything, but the cursor keys
won't work by default.

*'eventignore'* *'ei'*
'eventignore' 'ei' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+autocmd|
feature}
A list of autocommand event names, which are to be ignored.
When set to "all" or when "all" is one of the items, all autocommand
events are ignored, autocommands will not be executed.
Otherwise this is a comma separated list of event names. Example:
:set ei=WinEnter,WinLeave
*'expandtab'* *'et'* *'noexpandtab'* *'noet'*

'expandtab' 'et' boolean (default off)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
In Insert mode: Use the appropriate number of spaces to insert a
<Tab>. Spaces are used in indents with the '>' and '<' commands and
when 'autoindent' is on. To insert a real tab when 'expandtab' is
on, use CTRL-V<Tab>. See also |:retab| and |ins-expandtab|.
*'exrc'* *'ex'* *'noexrc'* *'noex'*

'exrc' 'ex' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
Enables the reading of .vimrc, .exrc and .gvimrc in the current
directory. If you switch this option on you should also consider
setting the 'secure' option (see |initialization|). Using a local
.exrc, .vimrc or .gvimrc is a potential security leak, use with care!
also see |.vimrc| and |gui-init|.
security reasons.
*'fileencoding'* *'fenc'* *E213*

'fileencoding' 'fenc' string (default: "")
local to buffer
feature}
{not in Vi}
Sets the character encoding for the file of this buffer.
When 'fileencoding' is different from 'encoding', conversion will be
done when writing the file. For reading see below.
When 'fileencoding' is empty, the same value as 'encoding' will be
used (no conversion when reading or writing a file).
Conversion will also be done when 'encoding' and 'fileencoding' are
both a Unicode encoding and 'fileencoding' is not utf-8. That's
because internally Unicode is always stored as utf-8.
WARNING: Conversion can cause loss of information! When
'encoding' is "utf-8" or another Unicode encoding, conversion
is most likely done in a way that the reverse conversion
results in the same text. When 'encoding' is not "utf-8" some
characters may be lost!
See 'encoding' for the possible values. Additionally, values may be
specified that can be handled by the converter, see
|mbyte-conversion|.
When reading a file 'fileencoding' will be set from 'fileencodings'.
To read a file in a certain encoding it won't work by setting
'fileencoding', use the |++enc| argument. One exception: when
'fileencodings' is empty the value of 'fileencoding' is used.
For a new file the global value of 'fileencoding' is used.
Prepending "8bit-" and "2byte-" has no meaning here, they are ignored.
When the option is set, the value is converted to lowercase. Thus
you can set it with uppercase values too. '_' characters are
replaced with '-'. If a name is recognized from the list for
'encoding', it is replaced by the standard name. For example
"ISO8859-2" becomes "iso-8859-2".
When this option is set, after starting to edit a file, the 'modified'
option is set, because the file would be different when written.
Keep in mind that changing 'fenc' from a modeline happens
AFTER the text has been read, thus it applies to when the file will be

written. If you do set 'fenc' in a modeline, you might want to set

'nomodified' to avoid not being able to ":q".
This option can not be changed when 'modifiable' is off.
*'fe'*
NOTE: Before version 6.0 this option specified the encoding for the
whole of Vim, this was a mistake. Now use 'encoding' instead. The
old short name was 'fe', which is no longer used.
*'fileencodings'* *'fencs'*
'fileencodings' 'fencs' string (default: "ucs-bom",
"ucs-bom,utf-8,default,latin1" when
'encoding' is set to a Unicode value)
global
feature}
{not in Vi}
This is a list of character encodings considered when starting to edit
an existing file. When a file is read, Vim tries to use the first
mentioned character encoding. If an error is detected, the next one
in the list is tried. When an encoding is found that works,
'fileencoding' is set to it. If all fail, 'fileencoding' is set to
an empty string, which means the value of 'encoding' is used.
WARNING: Conversion can cause loss of information! When
'encoding' is "utf-8" (or one of the other Unicode variants)
conversion is most likely done in a way that the reverse
conversion results in the same text. When 'encoding' is not
"utf-8" some non-ASCII characters may be lost! You can use
the |++bad| argument to specify what is done with characters
that can't be converted.
For an empty file or a file with only ASCII characters most encodings
will work and the first entry of 'fileencodings' will be used (except
"ucs-bom", which requires the BOM to be present). If you prefer
another encoding use an BufReadPost autocommand event to test if your
preferred encoding is to be used. Example:
au BufReadPost * if search('\S', 'w') == 0 |
\ set fenc=iso-2022-jp | endif
This sets 'fileencoding' to "iso-2022-jp" if the file does not contain
non-blank characters.
When the |++enc| argument is used then the value of 'fileencodings' is
not used.
Note that 'fileencodings' is not used for a new file, the global value
of 'fileencoding' is used instead. You can set it with:
:setglobal fenc=iso-8859-2
This means that a non-existing file may get a different encoding than
an empty file.
The special value "ucs-bom" can be used to check for a Unicode BOM
(Byte Order Mark) at the start of the file. It must not be preceded
by "utf-8" or another Unicode encoding for this to work properly.
An entry for an 8-bit encoding (e.g., "latin1") should be the last,
because Vim cannot detect an error, thus the encoding is always
accepted.
The special value "default" can be used for the encoding from the
environment. This is the default value for 'encoding'. It is useful
when 'encoding' is set to "utf-8" and your environment uses a
non-latin1 encoding, such as Russian.
When 'encoding' is "utf-8" and a file contains an illegal byte
sequence it won't be recognized as UTF-8. You can use the |8g8|
command to find the illegal byte sequence.
WRONG VALUES: WHAT'S WRONG:
latin1,utf-8 "latin1" will always be used
utf-8,ucs-bom,latin1 BOM won't be recognized in an utf-8
file
cp1250,latin1 "cp1250" will always be used
If 'fileencodings' is empty, 'fileencoding' is not modified.
See 'fileencoding' for the possible values.
Setting this option does not have an effect until the next time a file
is read.
*'fileformat'* *'ff'*
'fileformat' 'ff' string (MS-DOS, MS-Windows, OS/2 default: "dos",
Unix default: "unix",
Macintosh default: "mac")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
This gives the <EOL> of the current buffer, which is used for

reading/writing the buffer from/to a file:

dos <CR> <NL>
unix <NL>
mac <CR>
When "dos" is used, CTRL-Z at the end of a file is ignored.
See |file-formats| and |file-read|.
For the character encoding of the file see 'fileencoding'.
When 'binary' is set, the value of 'fileformat' is ignored, file I/O
works like it was set to "unix'.
This option is set automatically when starting to edit a file and
'fileformats' is not empty and 'binary' is off.
When this option is set, after starting to edit a file, the 'modified'
option is set, because the file would be different when written.
This option can not be changed when 'modifiable' is off.
For backwards compatibility: When this option is set to "dos",
'textmode' is set, otherwise 'textmode' is reset.
*'fileformats'* *'ffs'*
'fileformats' 'ffs' string (default:
Vim+Vi MS-DOS, MS-Windows OS/2: "dos,unix",
Vim Unix: "unix,dos",
Vim Mac: "mac,unix,dos",
Vi Cygwin: "unix,dos",
Vi others: "")
global
{not in Vi}
This gives the end-of-line (<EOL>) formats that will be tried when
starting to edit a new buffer and when reading a file into an existing
buffer:
- When empty, the format defined with 'fileformat' will be used
always. It is not set automatically.
- When set to one name, that format will be used whenever a new buffer
is opened. 'fileformat' is set accordingly for that buffer. The
'fileformats' name will be used when a file is read into an existing
buffer, no matter what 'fileformat' for that buffer is set to.
- When more than one name is present, separated by commas, automatic
<EOL> detection will be done when reading a file. When starting to
edit a file, a check is done for the <EOL>:
1. If all lines end in <CR><NL>, and 'fileformats' includes "dos",
'fileformat' is set to "dos".
2. If a <NL> is found and 'fileformats' includes "unix", 'fileformat'
is set to "unix". Note that when a <NL> is found without a
preceding <CR>, "unix" is preferred over "dos".
3. If 'fileformat' has not yet been set, and if 'fileformats'
includes "mac", 'fileformat' is set to "mac".
This means that "mac" is only chosen when:
"unix" is not present or no <NL> is found in the file, and
"dos" is not present or no <CR><NL> is found in the file.
Except: if "unix" was chosen, but there is a <CR> before
the first <NL>, and there appear to be more <CR>s than <NL>s in
the first few lines, "mac" is used.
4. If 'fileformat' is still not set, the first name from
'fileformats' is used.
When reading a file into an existing buffer, the same is done, but
this happens like 'fileformat' has been set appropriately for that
file only, the option is not changed.
When 'binary' is set, the value of 'fileformats' is not used.
Note that when Vim starts up with an empty buffer this option is not
used. Set 'fileformat' in your .vimrc instead.
For systems with a Dos-like <EOL> (<CR><NL>), when reading files that
are ":source"ed and for vimrc files, automatic <EOL> detection may be
done:
- When 'fileformats' is empty, there is no automatic detection. Dos
format will be used.
- When 'fileformats' is set to one or more names, automatic detection
is done. This is based on the first <NL> in the file: If there is a
<CR> in front of it, Dos format is used, otherwise Unix format is
used.
Also see |file-formats|.
For backwards compatibility: When this option is set to an empty
string or one format (no comma is included), 'textauto' is reset,
otherwise 'textauto' is set.
*'filetype'* *'ft'*

'filetype' 'ft' string (default: "")

local to buffer
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+autocmd|
feature}
When this option is set, the FileType autocommand event is triggered.
All autocommands that match with the value of this option will be
executed. Thus the value of 'filetype' is used in place of the file
name.
Otherwise this option does not always reflect the current file type.
This option is normally set when the file type is detected. To enable
this use the ":filetype on" command. |:filetype|
Setting this option to a different value is most useful in a modeline,
for a file for which the file type is not automatically recognized.
Example, for in an IDL file:
/* vim: set filetype=idl : */
|FileType| |filetypes|
When a dot appears in the value then this separates two filetype
names. Example:
/* vim: set filetype=c.doxygen : */
This will use the "c" filetype first, then the "doxygen" filetype.
This works both for filetype plugins and for syntax files. More than
one dot may appear.
Do not confuse this option with 'osfiletype', which is for the file
type that is actually stored with the file.
This option is not copied to another buffer, independent of the 's' or
'S' flag in 'cpoptions'.
*'fillchars'* *'fcs'*
'fillchars' 'fcs' string (default "vert:YXXY,fold:-")
global
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+windows|
and |+folding| features}
Characters to fill the statuslines and vertical separators.
It is a comma separated list of items:
item default Used for
stl:c '' '' or '^' statusline of the current window
stlnc:c '' '' or '-' statusline of the non-current windows
vert:c '|' vertical separators |:vsplit|
fold:c '-' filling 'foldtext'
diff:c '-' deleted lines of the 'diff' option
Any one that is omitted will fall back to the default. For "stl" and
"stlnc" the space will be used when there is highlighting, '^' or '-'
otherwise.
Example:
:set fillchars=stl:^,stlnc:-,vert:\|,fold:-,diff:-
This is similar to the default, except that these characters will also
be used when there is highlighting.
for "stl" and "stlnc" only single-byte values are supported.
The highlighting used for these items:
item highlight group
stl:c StatusLine |hl-StatusLine|
stlnc:c StatusLineNC |hl-StatusLineNC|
vert:c VertSplit |hl-VertSplit|
fold:c Folded |hl-Folded|
diff:c DiffDelete |hl-DiffDelete|
*'fkmap'* *'fk'* *'nofkmap'* *'nofk'*

'fkmap' 'fk' boolean (default off) *E198*
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
When on, the keyboard is mapped for the Farsi character set.
Normally you would set 'allowrevins' and use CTRL-_ in insert mode to
toggle this option |i_CTRL-_|. See |farsi.txt|.
*'foldclose'* *'fcl'*
'foldclose' 'fcl' string (default "")

global
{not in Vi}
feature}
When set to "all", a fold is closed when the cursor isn't in it and
its level is higher than 'foldlevel'. Useful if you want folds to
automatically close when moving out of them.
*'foldcolumn'* *'fdc'*
'foldcolumn' 'fdc' number (default 0)
local to window
{not in Vi}
feature}
When non-zero, a column with the specified width is shown at the side
of the window which indicates open and closed folds. The maximum
value is 12.
See |folding|.
*'foldenable'* *'fen'* *'nofoldenable'* *'nofen'*

'foldenable' 'fen' boolean (default on)
local to window
{not in Vi}
feature}
When off, all folds are open. This option can be used to quickly
switch between showing all text unfolded and viewing the text with
folds (including manually opened or closed folds). It can be toggled
with the |zi| command. The 'foldcolumn' will remain blank when
'foldenable' is off.
This option is set by commands that create a new fold or close a fold.
See |folding|.
*'foldexpr'* *'fde'*
'foldexpr' 'fde' string (default: "0")
local to window
{not in Vi}
or |+eval| features}
The expression used for when 'foldmethod' is "expr". It is evaluated
for each line to obtain its fold level. See |fold-expr|.
|sandbox-option|.
This option can't be set from a |modeline| when the 'diff' option is
on.
evaluating 'foldexpr' |textlock|.
*'foldignore'* *'fdi'*
'foldignore' 'fdi' string (default: "#")
local to window
{not in Vi}
feature}
Used only when 'foldmethod' is "indent". Lines starting with
characters in 'foldignore' will get their fold level from surrounding
lines. White space is skipped before checking for this character.
The default "#" works well for C programs. See |fold-indent|.
*'foldlevel'* *'fdl'*
'foldlevel' 'fdl' number (default: 0)
local to window
{not in Vi}
feature}
Sets the fold level: Folds with a higher level will be closed.
Setting this option to zero will close all folds. Higher numbers will
close fewer folds.
This option is set by commands like |zm|, |zM| and |zR|.
See |fold-foldlevel|.
*'foldlevelstart'* *'fdls'*

'foldlevelstart' 'fdls' number (default: -1)

global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Sets 'foldlevel' when starting to edit another buffer in a window.
Useful to always start editing with all folds closed (value zero),
some folds closed (one) or no folds closed (99).
This is done before reading any modeline, thus a setting in a modeline
overrules this option. Starting to edit a file for |diff-mode| also
ignores this option and closes all folds.
It is also done before BufReadPre autocommands, to allow an autocmd to
overrule the 'foldlevel' value for specific files.
When the value is negative, it is not used.
*'foldmarker'* *'fmr'* *E536*

'foldmarker' 'fmr' string (default: "{{{,}}}")
local to window
{not in Vi}
feature}
The start and end marker used when 'foldmethod' is "marker". There
must be one comma, which separates the start and end marker. The
marker is a literal string (a regular expression would be too slow).
See |fold-marker|.
*'foldmethod'* *'fdm'*
'foldmethod' 'fdm' string (default: "manual")
local to window
{not in Vi}
feature}
The kind of folding used for the current window. Possible values:
|fold-manual| manual Folds are created manually.
|fold-indent| indent Lines with equal indent form a fold.
|fold-expr| expr 'foldexpr' gives the fold level of a line.
|fold-marker| marker Markers are used to specify folds.
|fold-syntax| syntax Syntax highlighting items specify folds.
|fold-diff| diff Fold text that is not changed.
*'foldminlines'* *'fml'*
'foldminlines' 'fml' number (default: 1)
local to window
{not in Vi}
feature}
Sets the number of screen lines above which a fold can be displayed
closed. Also for manually closed folds. With the default value of
one a fold can only be closed if it takes up two or more screen lines.
Set to zero to be able to close folds of just one screen line.
Note that this only has an effect of what is displayed. After using
"zc" to close a fold, which is displayed open because it's smaller
than 'foldminlines', a following "zc" may close a containing fold.
*'foldnestmax'* *'fdn'*
'foldnestmax' 'fdn' number (default: 20)
local to window
{not in Vi}
feature}
Sets the maximum nesting of folds for the "indent" and "syntax"
methods. This avoids that too many folds will be created. Using more
than 20 doesn't work, because the internal limit is 20.
*'foldopen'* *'fdo'*
'foldopen' 'fdo' string (default: "block,hor,mark,percent,quickfix,
search,tag,undo")
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Specifies for which type of commands folds will be opened, if the
command moves the cursor into a closed fold. It is a comma separated
list of items.
NOTE: When the command is part of a mapping this option is not used.

Add the |zv| command to the mapping to get the same effect.
(rationale: the mapping may want to control opening folds itself)
item commands
all any
block "(", "{", "[[", "[{", etc.
hor horizontal movements: "l", "w", "fx", etc.
insert any command in Insert mode
jump far jumps: "G", "gg", etc.
mark jumping to a mark: "'m", CTRL-O, etc.
percent "%"
quickfix ":cn", ":crew", ":make", etc.
search search for a pattern: "/", "n", "*", "gd", etc.
(not for a search pattern in a ":" command)
Also for |[s| and |]s|.
tag jumping to a tag: ":ta", CTRL-T, etc.
undo undo or redo: "u" and CTRL-R
When a movement command is used for an operator (e.g., "dl" or "y%")
this option is not used. This means the operator will include the
whole closed fold.
Note that vertical movements are not here, because it would make it
very difficult to move onto a closed fold.
In insert mode the folds containing the cursor will always be open
when text is inserted.
To close folds you can re-apply 'foldlevel' with the |zx| command or
set the 'foldclose' option to "all".
*'foldtext'* *'fdt'*
'foldtext' 'fdt' string (default: "foldtext()")
local to window
{not in Vi}
feature}
An expression which is used to specify the text displayed for a closed
fold. See |fold-foldtext|.
|sandbox-option|.
evaluating 'foldtext' |textlock|.
*'formatoptions'* *'fo'*
'formatoptions' 'fo' string (Vim default: "tcq", Vi default: "vt")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
This is a sequence of letters which describes how automatic
formatting is to be done. See |fo-table|. When the 'paste' option is
on, no formatting is done (like 'formatoptions' is empty). Commas can
be inserted for readability.
*'formatlistpat'* *'flp'*
'formatlistpat' 'flp' string (default: "^\s*\d\+[\]:.)}\t ]\s*")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
A pattern that is used to recognize a list header. This is used for
the "n" flag in 'formatoptions'.
The pattern must match exactly the text that will be the indent for
the line below it. You can use |/\ze| to mark the end of the match
while still checking more characters. There must be a character
following the pattern, when it matches the whole line it is handled
like there is no match.
The default recognizes a number, followed by an optional punctuation
character and white space.
*'formatprg'* *'fp'*
'formatprg' 'fp' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
The name of an external program that will be used to format the lines
selected with the |gq| operator. The program must take the input on
stdin and produce the output on stdout. The Unix program "fmt" is

such a program.
If the 'formatexpr' option is not empty it will be used instead.
Otherwise, if 'formatprg' option is an empty string, the internal
format function will be used |C-indenting|.
|sandbox-option|.
*'formatexpr'* *'fex'*
'formatexpr' 'fex' string (default "")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
feature}
Expression which is evaluated to format a range of lines for the |gq|
operator or automatic formatting (see 'formatoptions'). When this
option is empty 'formatprg' is used.
The |v:lnum| variable holds the first line to be formatted.
The |v:count| variable holds the number of lines to be formatted.
The |v:char| variable holds the character that is going to be
inserted if the expression is being evaluated due to
automatic formatting. This can be empty. Don't insert
it yet!
Example:
:set formatexpr=mylang#Format()
This will invoke the mylang#Format() function in the
autoload/mylang.vim file in 'runtimepath'. |autoload|
The expression is also evaluated when 'textwidth' is set and adding
text beyond that limit. This happens under the same conditions as
when internal formatting is used. Make sure the cursor is kept in the
same spot relative to the text then! The |mode()| function will
return "i" or "R" in this situation.
When the expression evaluates to non-zero Vim will fall back to using
the internal format mechanism.
|sandbox-option|. That stops the option from working, since changing
the buffer text is not allowed.
*'fsync'* *'fs'*
'fsync' 'fs' boolean (default on)
global
{not in Vi}
When on, the library function fsync() will be called after writing a
file. This will flush a file to disk, ensuring that it is safely
written even on filesystems which do metadata-only journaling. This
will force the harddrive to spin up on Linux systems running in laptop
mode, so it may be undesirable in some situations. Be warned that
turning this off increases the chances of data loss after a crash. On
systems without an fsync() implementation, this variable is always
off.
Also see 'swapsync' for controlling fsync() on swap files.
*'gdefault'* *'gd'* *'nogdefault'* *'nogd'*

'gdefault' 'gd' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
When on, the ":substitute" flag 'g' is default on. This means that
all matches in a line are substituted instead of one. When a 'g' flag
is given to a ":substitute" command, this will toggle the substitution
of all or one match. See |complex-change|.
command 'gdefault' on 'gdefault' off
:s/// subst. all subst. one
:s///g subst. one subst. all
:s///gg subst. all subst. one
*'grepformat'* *'gfm'*
'grepformat' 'gfm' string (default "%f:%l%m,%f %l%m")

global
{not in Vi}
Format to recognize for the ":grep" command output.
This is a scanf-like string that uses the same format as the
'errorformat' option: see |errorformat|.
*'grepprg'* *'gp'*
'grepprg' 'gp' string
(default "grep -n ",
Unix: "grep -n $* /dev/null",
Win32: "findstr /n" or "grep -n",
VMS: "SEARCH/NUMBERS ")
{not in Vi}
Program to use for the |:grep| command. This option may contain '%'
and '#' characters, which are expanded like when used in a command-
line. The placeholder "$*" is allowed to specify where the arguments
will be included. Environment variables are expanded |:set_env|. See
|option-backslash| about including spaces and backslashes.
When your "grep" accepts the "-H" argument, use this to make ":grep"
also work well with a single file:
:set grepprg=grep\ -nH
Special value: When 'grepprg' is set to "internal" the |:grep| command
works like |:vimgrep|, |:lgrep| like |:lvimgrep|, |:grepadd| like
|:vimgrepadd| and |:lgrepadd| like |:lvimgrepadd|.
See also the section |:make_makeprg|, since most of the comments there
apply equally to 'grepprg'.
For Win32, the default is "findstr /n" if "findstr.exe" can be found,
otherwise it's "grep -n".
security reasons.
*'guicursor'* *'gcr'* *E545* *E546* *E548* *E549*

'guicursor' 'gcr' string (default "n-v-c:block-Cursor/lCursor,
ve:ver35-Cursor,
o:hor50-Cursor,
i-ci:ver25-Cursor/lCursor,
r-cr:hor20-Cursor/lCursor,
sm:block-Cursor
-blinkwait175-blinkoff150-blinkon175",
for MS-DOS and Win32 console:
"n-v-c:block,o:hor50,i-ci:hor15,
r-cr:hor30,sm:block")
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with GUI enabled, and
for MS-DOS and Win32 console}
This option tells Vim what the cursor should look like in different
modes. It fully works in the GUI. In an MSDOS or Win32 console, only
the height of the cursor can be changed. This can be done by
specifying a block cursor, or a percentage for a vertical or
horizontal cursor.
For a console the 't_SI' and 't_EI' escape sequences are used.
The option is a comma separated list of parts. Each part consist of a
mode-list and an argument-list:
mode-list:argument-list,mode-list:argument-list,..
The mode-list is a dash separated list of these modes:
n Normal mode
v Visual mode
ve Visual mode with 'selection' "exclusive" (same as 'v',
if not specified)
o Operator-pending mode
i Insert mode
r Replace mode
c Command-line Normal (append) mode
ci Command-line Insert mode
cr Command-line Replace mode
sm showmatch in Insert mode
a all modes
The argument-list is a dash separated list of these arguments:
hor{N} horizontal bar, {N} percent of the character height
ver{N} vertical bar, {N} percent of the character width
block block cursor, fills the whole character
[only one of the above three should be present]
blinkwait{N} *cursor-blinking*
blinkon{N}
blinkoff{N}

blink times for cursor: blinkwait is the delay before

the cursor starts blinking, blinkon is the time that
the cursor is shown and blinkoff is the time that the
cursor is not shown. The times are in msec. When one
of the numbers is zero, there is no blinking. The
default is: "blinkwait700-blinkon400-blinkoff250".
These numbers are used for a missing entry. This
means that blinking is enabled by default. To switch
blinking off you can use "blinkon0". The cursor only
blinks when Vim is waiting for input, not while
executing a command.
To make the cursor blink in an xterm, see
|xterm-blink|.
{group-name}
a highlight group name, that sets the color and font
for the cursor
{group-name}/{group-name}
Two highlight group names, the first is used when
no language mappings are used, the other when they
are. |language-mapping|
Examples of parts:
n-c-v:block-nCursor in Normal, Command-line and Visual mode, use a
block cursor with colors from the "nCursor"
highlight group
i-ci:ver30-iCursor-blinkwait300-blinkon200-blinkoff150
In Insert and Command-line Insert mode, use a
30% vertical bar cursor with colors from the
"iCursor" highlight group. Blink a bit
faster.
The 'a' mode is different. It will set the given argument-list for
all modes. It does not reset anything to defaults. This can be used
to do a common setting for all modes. For example, to switch off
blinking: "a:blinkon0"
Examples of cursor highlighting:
:highlight Cursor gui=reverse guifg=NONE guibg=NONE
:highlight Cursor gui=NONE guifg=bg guibg=fg
*'guifont'* *'gfn'*
*E235* *E596* *E610* *E611*
'guifont' 'gfn' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with GUI enabled}
This is a list of fonts which will be used for the GUI version of Vim.
In its simplest form the value is just one font name. When
the font cannot be found you will get an error message. To try other
font names a list can be specified, font names separated with commas.
The first valid font is used.
On systems where 'guifontset' is supported (X11) and 'guifontset' is
not empty, then 'guifont' is not used.
Spaces after a comma are ignored. To include a comma in a font name
precede it with a backslash. Setting an option requires an extra
backslash before a space and a backslash. See also
|option-backslash|. For example:
:set guifont=Screen15,\ 7x13,font\\,with\\,commas
will make Vim try to use the font "Screen15" first, and if it fails it
will try to use "7x13" and then "font,with,commas" instead.
If none of the fonts can be loaded, Vim will keep the current setting.
If an empty font list is given, Vim will try using other resource
settings (for X, it will use the Vim.font resource), and finally it
will try some builtin default which should always be there ("7x13" in
the case of X). The font names given should be "normal" fonts. Vim
will try to find the related bold and italic fonts.
For Win32, GTK, Motif, Mac OS and Photon:
:set guifont=*
will bring up a font requester, where you can pick the font you want.
The font name depends on the GUI used. See |setting-guifont| for a
way to set 'guifont' for various systems.
For the GTK+ 2 GUI the font name looks like this:

:set guifont=Andale\ Mono\ 11

That's all. XLFDs are not used. For Chinese this is reported to work
well:
if has("gui_gtk2")
set guifont=Bitstream\ Vera\ Sans\ Mono\ 12,Fixed\ 12
set guifontwide=Microsoft\ Yahei\ 12,WenQuanYi\ Zen\ Hei\ 12
endif
For Mac OSX you can use something like this:
:set guifont=Monaco:h10
Also see 'macatsui', it can help fix display problems.
*E236*
Note that the fonts must be mono-spaced (all characters have the same
width). An exception is GTK 2: all fonts are accepted, but
mono-spaced fonts look best.
To preview a font on X11, you might be able to use the "xfontsel"
program. The "xlsfonts" program gives a list of all available fonts.
For the Win32 GUI *E244* *E245*

- takes these options in the font name:
hXX - height is XX (points, can be floating-point)
wXX - width is XX (points, can be floating-point)
b - bold
i - italic
u - underline
s - strikeout
cXX - character set XX. Valid charsets are: ANSI, ARABIC,
BALTIC, CHINESEBIG5, DEFAULT, EASTEUROPE, GB2312, GREEK,
HANGEUL, HEBREW, JOHAB, MAC, OEM, RUSSIAN, SHIFTJIS,
SYMBOL, THAI, TURKISH, VIETNAMESE ANSI and BALTIC.
Normally you would use "cDEFAULT".
Use a ':' to separate the options.
- A '_' can be used in the place of a space, so you don't need to use
backslashes to escape the spaces.
- Examples:
:set guifont=courier_new:h12:w5:b:cRUSSIAN
:set guifont=Andale_Mono:h7.5:w4.5
See also |font-sizes|.
*'guifontset'* *'gfs'*
*E250* *E252* *E234* *E597* *E598*
'guifontset' 'gfs' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with GUI enabled and
with the |+xfontset| feature}
{not available in the GTK+ 2 GUI}
When not empty, specifies two (or more) fonts to be used. The first
one for normal English, the second one for your special language. See
|xfontset|.
Setting this option also means that all font names will be handled as
a fontset name. Also the ones used for the "font" argument of the
|:highlight| command.
The fonts must match with the current locale. If fonts for the
character sets that the current locale uses are not included, setting
'guifontset' will fail.
Note the difference between 'guifont' and 'guifontset': In 'guifont'
the comma-separated names are alternative names, one of which will be
used. In 'guifontset' the whole string is one fontset name,
including the commas. It is not possible to specify alternative
fontset names.
This example works on many X11 systems:
:set guifontset=-*-*-medium-r-normal--16-*-*-*-c-*-*-*
*'guifontwide'* *'gfw'* *E231* *E533* *E534*

'guifontwide' 'gfw' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
When not empty, specifies a comma-separated list of fonts to be used
for double-width characters. The first font that can be loaded is
used.

Note: The size of these fonts must be exactly twice as wide as the one
specified with 'guifont' and the same height.
All GUI versions but GTK+ 2:
'guifontwide' is only used when 'encoding' is set to "utf-8" and
'guifontset' is empty or invalid.
When 'guifont' is set and a valid font is found in it and
'guifontwide' is empty Vim will attempt to find a matching
double-width font and set 'guifontwide' to it.
GTK+ 2 GUI only: *guifontwide_gtk2*

If set and valid, 'guifontwide' is always used for double width
characters, even if 'encoding' is not set to "utf-8".
Vim does not attempt to find an appropriate value for 'guifontwide'
automatically. If 'guifontwide' is empty Pango/Xft will choose the
font for characters not available in 'guifont'. Thus you do not need
to set 'guifontwide' at all unless you want to override the choice
made by Pango/Xft.
*'guiheadroom'* *'ghr'*
'guiheadroom' 'ghr' number (default 50)
global
{not in Vi} {only for GTK and X11 GUI}
The number of pixels subtracted from the screen height when fitting
the GUI window on the screen. Set this before the GUI is started,
e.g., in your |gvimrc| file. When zero, the whole screen height will
be used by the window. When positive, the specified number of pixel
lines will be left for window decorations and other items on the
screen. Set it to a negative value to allow windows taller than the
screen.
*'guioptions'* *'go'*
'guioptions' 'go' string (default "gmrLtT" (MS-Windows),
"agimrLtT" (GTK, Motif and Athena))
global
{not in Vi}
This option only has an effect in the GUI version of Vim. It is a
sequence of letters which describes what components and options of the
GUI should be used.
Valid letters are as follows:
*guioptions_a* *'go-a'*
'a' Autoselect: If present, then whenever VISUAL mode is started,
or the Visual area extended, Vim tries to become the owner of
the windowing system's global selection. This means that the
Visually highlighted text is available for pasting into other
applications as well as into Vim itself. When the Visual mode
ends, possibly due to an operation on the text, or when an
application wants to paste the selection, the highlighted text
is automatically yanked into the "* selection register.
Thus the selection is still available for pasting into other
applications after the VISUAL mode has ended.
If not present, then Vim won't become the owner of the
windowing system's global selection unless explicitly told to
by a yank or delete operation for the "* register.
The same applies to the modeless selection.
*'go-A'*
'A' Autoselect for the modeless selection. Like 'a', but only
applies to the modeless selection.
'guioptions' autoselect Visual autoselect modeless
"" - -
"a" yes yes
"A" - yes
"aA" yes yes
*'go-c'*
'c' Use console dialogs instead of popup dialogs for simple
choices.

*'go-e'*
'e' Add tab pages when indicated with 'showtabline'.
'guitablabel' can be used to change the text in the labels.
When 'e' is missing a non-GUI tab pages line may be used.
The GUI tabs are only supported on some systems, currently
GTK, Motif, Mac OS/X and MS-Windows.
*'go-f'*
'f' Foreground: Don't use fork() to detach the GUI from the shell
where it was started. Use this for programs that wait for the
editor to finish (e.g., an e-mail program). Alternatively you
can use "gvim -f" or ":gui -f" to start the GUI in the
foreground. |gui-fork|
Note: Set this option in the vimrc file. The forking may have
happened already when the |gvimrc| file is read.
*'go-i'*
'i' Use a Vim icon. For GTK with KDE it is used in the left-upper
corner of the window. It's black&white on non-GTK, because of
limitations of X11. For a color icon, see |X11-icon|.
*'go-m'*
'm' Menu bar is present.
*'go-M'*
'M' The system menu "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim" is not sourced. Note
that this flag must be added in the .vimrc file, before
switching on syntax or filetype recognition (when the |gvimrc|
file is sourced the system menu has already been loaded; the
":syntax on" and ":filetype on" commands load the menu too).
*'go-g'*
'g' Grey menu items: Make menu items that are not active grey. If
'g' is not included inactive menu items are not shown at all.
Exception: Athena will always use grey menu items.
*'go-t'*
't' Include tearoff menu items. Currently only works for Win32,
GTK+, and Motif 1.2 GUI.
*'go-T'*
'T' Include Toolbar. Currently only in Win32, GTK+, Motif, Photon
and Athena GUIs.
*'go-r'*
'r' Right-hand scrollbar is always present.
*'go-R'*
'R' Right-hand scrollbar is present when there is a vertically
split window.
*'go-l'*
'l' Left-hand scrollbar is always present.
*'go-L'*
'L' Left-hand scrollbar is present when there is a vertically
split window.
*'go-b'*
'b' Bottom (horizontal) scrollbar is present. Its size depends on
the longest visible line, or on the cursor line if the 'h'
flag is included. |gui-horiz-scroll|
*'go-h'*
'h' Limit horizontal scrollbar size to the length of the cursor
line. Reduces computations. |gui-horiz-scroll|
And yes, you may even have scrollbars on the left AND the right if
you really want to :-). See |gui-scrollbars| for more information.
*'go-v'*
'v' Use a vertical button layout for dialogs. When not included,
a horizontal layout is preferred, but when it doesn't fit a
vertical layout is used anyway.
*'go-p'*
'p' Use Pointer callbacks for X11 GUI. This is required for some

window managers. If the cursor is not blinking or hollow at

the right moment, try adding this flag. This must be done
before starting the GUI. Set it in your |gvimrc|. Adding or
removing it after the GUI has started has no effect.
*'go-F'*
'F' Add a footer. Only for Motif. See |gui-footer|.
*'guipty'* *'noguipty'*
'guipty' boolean (default on)
global
{not in Vi}
Only in the GUI: If on, an attempt is made to open a pseudo-tty for
I/O to/from shell commands. See |gui-pty|.
*'guitablabel'* *'gtl'*
'guitablabel' 'gtl' string (default empty)
global
{not in Vi}
with the |+windows| feature}
When nonempty describes the text to use in a label of the GUI tab
pages line. When empty and when the result is empty Vim will use a
default label. See |setting-guitablabel| for more info.
The format of this option is like that of 'statusline'.
'guitabtooltip' is used for the tooltip, see below.
Only used when the GUI tab pages line is displayed. 'e' must be
present in 'guioptions'. For the non-GUI tab pages line 'tabline' is
used.
*'guitabtooltip'* *'gtt'*
'guitabtooltip' 'gtt' string (default empty)
global
{not in Vi}
with the |+windows| feature}
When nonempty describes the text to use in a tooltip for the GUI tab
pages line. When empty Vim will use a default tooltip.
This option is otherwise just like 'guitablabel' above.
You can include a line break. Simplest method is to use YXXY:let|:
:let &guitabtooltip = "line one\nline two"
*'helpfile'* *'hf'*
'helpfile' 'hf' string (default (MSDOS) "$VIMRUNTIME\doc\help.txt"
(others) "$VIMRUNTIME/doc/help.txt")
global
{not in Vi}
Name of the main help file. All distributed help files should be
placed together in one directory. Additionally, all "doc" directories
in 'runtimepath' will be used.
Environment variables are expanded |:set_env|. For example:
"$VIMRUNTIME/doc/help.txt". If $VIMRUNTIME is not set, $VIM is also
tried. Also see |$VIMRUNTIME| and |option-backslash| about including
spaces and backslashes.
security reasons.
*'helpheight'* *'hh'*
'helpheight' 'hh' number (default 20)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Minimal initial height of the help window when it is opened with the
":help" command. The initial height of the help window is half of the
current window, or (when the 'ea' option is on) the same as other
windows. When the height is less than 'helpheight', the height is
set to 'helpheight'. Set to zero to disable.

*'helplang'* *'hlg'*
'helplang' 'hlg' string (default: messages language or empty)
global
{only available when compiled with the |+multi_lang|
feature}
{not in Vi}
Comma separated list of languages. Vim will use the first language
for which the desired help can be found. The English help will always
be used as a last resort. You can add "en" to prefer English over
another language, but that will only find tags that exist in that
language and not in the English help.
Example:
:set helplang=de,it
This will first search German, then Italian and finally English help
files.
When using |CTRL-]| and ":help!" in a non-English help file Vim will
try to find the tag in the current language before using this option.
See |help-translated|.
*'hidden'* *'hid'* *'nohidden'* *'nohid'*

'hidden' 'hid' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
When off a buffer is unloaded when it is |abandon|ed. When on a
buffer becomes hidden when it is |abandon|ed. If the buffer is still
displayed in another window, it does not become hidden, of course.
The commands that move through the buffer list sometimes make a buffer
hidden although the 'hidden' option is off: When the buffer is
modified, 'autowrite' is off or writing is not possible, and the '!'
flag was used. See also |windows.txt|.
To only make one buffer hidden use the 'bufhidden' option.
This option is set for one command with ":hide {command}" |:hide|.
WARNING: It's easy to forget that you have changes in hidden buffers.
Think twice when using ":q!" or ":qa!".
*'highlight'* *'hl'*
'highlight' 'hl' string (default (as a single string):
"8:SpecialKey,@:NonText,d:Directory,
e:ErrorMsg,i:IncSearch,l:Search,m:MoreMsg,
M:ModeMsg,n:LineNr,r:Question,
s:StatusLine,S:StatusLineNC,c:VertSplit,
t:Title,v:Visual,w:WarningMsg,W:WildMenu,
f:Folded,F:FoldColumn,A:DiffAdd,
C:DiffChange,D:DiffDelete,T:DiffText,
>:SignColumn,B:SpellBad,P:SpellCap,
R:SpellRare,L:SpellLocal,-:Conceal,
+:Pmenu,=:PmenuSel,
x:PmenuSbar,X:PmenuThumb")
global
{not in Vi}
This option can be used to set highlighting mode for various
occasions. It is a comma separated list of character pairs. The
first character in a pair gives the occasion, the second the mode to
use for that occasion. The occasions are:
|hl-SpecialKey| 8 Meta and special keys listed with ":map"
|hl-NonText| @ '~' and '@' at the end of the window and
characters from 'showbreak'
|hl-Directory| d directories in CTRL-D listing and other special
things in listings
|hl-ErrorMsg| e error messages
h (obsolete, ignored)
|hl-IncSearch| i 'incsearch' highlighting
|hl-Search| l last search pattern highlighting (see 'hlsearch')
|hl-MoreMsg| m |more-prompt|
|hl-ModeMsg| M Mode (e.g., "-- INSERT --")
|hl-LineNr| n line number for ":number" and ":#" commands, and
when 'number' or 'relativenumber' option is set.
|hl-Question| r |hit-enter| prompt and yes/no questions
|hl-StatusLine| s status line of current window |status-line|
|hl-StatusLineNC| S status lines of not-current windows
|hl-Title| t Titles for output from ":set all", ":autocmd" etc.
|hl-VertSplit| c column used to separate vertically split windows
|hl-Visual| v Visual mode
|hl-VisualNOS| V Visual mode when Vim does is "Not Owning the
Selection" Only X11 Gui's |gui-x11| and
|xterm-clipboard|.
|hl-WarningMsg| w warning messages
|hl-WildMenu| W wildcard matches displayed for 'wildmenu'

|hl-Folded| f line used for closed folds

|hl-FoldColumn| F 'foldcolumn'
|hl-DiffAdd| A added line in diff mode
|hl-DiffChange| C changed line in diff mode
|hl-DiffDelete| D deleted line in diff mode
|hl-DiffText| T inserted text in diff mode
|hl-SignColumn| > column used for |signs|
|hl-SpellBad| B misspelled word |spell|
|hl-SpellCap| P word that should start with capital |spell|
|hl-SpellRare| R rare word |spell|
|hl-SpellLocal| L word from other region |spell|
|hl-Conceal| - the placeholders used for concealed characters
(see 'conceallevel')
|hl-Pmenu| + popup menu normal line
|hl-PmenuSel| = popup menu normal line
|hl-PmenuSbar| x popup menu scrollbar
|hl-PmenuThumb| X popup menu scrollbar thumb
The display modes are:
r reverse (termcap entry "mr" and "me")
i italic (termcap entry "ZH" and "ZR")
b bold (termcap entry "md" and "me")
s standout (termcap entry "so" and "se")
u underline (termcap entry "us" and "ue")
c undercurl (termcap entry "Cs" and "Ce")
n no highlighting
- no highlighting
: use a highlight group
The default is used for occasions that are not included.
If you want to change what the display modes do, see |dos-colors|
for an example.
When using the ':' display mode, this must be followed by the name of
a highlight group. A highlight group can be used to define any type
of highlighting, including using color. See |:highlight| on how to
define one. The default uses a different group for each occasion.
See |highlight-default| for the default highlight groups.
*'hlsearch'* *'hls'* *'nohlsearch'* *'nohls'*

'hlsearch' 'hls' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
|+extra_search| feature}
When there is a previous search pattern, highlight all its matches.
The type of highlighting used can be set with the 'l' occasion in the
'highlight' option. This uses the "Search" highlight group by
default. Note that only the matching text is highlighted, any offsets
are not applied.
See also: 'incsearch' and |:match|.
When you get bored looking at the highlighted matches, you can turn it
off with |:nohlsearch|. As soon as you use a search command, the
highlighting comes back.
'redrawtime' specifies the maximum time spent on finding matches.
When the search pattern can match an end-of-line, Vim will try to
highlight all of the matched text. However, this depends on where the
search starts. This will be the first line in the window or the first
line below a closed fold. A match in a previous line which is not
drawn may not continue in a newly drawn line.
*'history'* *'hi'*
'history' 'hi' number (Vim default: 20, Vi default: 0)
global
{not in Vi}
A history of ":" commands, and a history of previous search patterns
are remembered. This option decides how many entries may be stored in
each of these histories (see |cmdline-editing|).
*'hkmap'* *'hk'* *'nohkmap'* *'nohk'*

'hkmap' 'hk' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
When on, the keyboard is mapped for the Hebrew character set.

Normally you would set 'allowrevins' and use CTRL-_ in insert mode to
toggle this option. See |rileft.txt|.
*'hkmapp'* *'hkp'* *'nohkmapp'* *'nohkp'*

'hkmapp' 'hkp' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
When on, phonetic keyboard mapping is used. 'hkmap' must also be on.
This is useful if you have a non-Hebrew keyboard.
See |rileft.txt|.
*'icon'* *'noicon'*
'icon' boolean (default off, on when title can be restored)
global
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+title|
feature}
When on, the icon text of the window will be set to the value of
'iconstring' (if it is not empty), or to the name of the file
currently being edited. Only the last part of the name is used.
Overridden by the 'iconstring' option.
Only works if the terminal supports setting window icons (currently
only X11 GUI and terminals with a non-empty 't_IS' option - these are
Unix xterm and iris-ansi by default, where 't_IS' is taken from the
builtin termcap).
When Vim was compiled with HAVE_X11 defined, the original icon will be
restored if possible |X11|. See |X11-icon| for changing the icon on
X11.
*'iconstring'*
'iconstring' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
When this option is not empty, it will be used for the icon text of
the window. This happens only when the 'icon' option is on.
Only works if the terminal supports setting window icon text
(currently only X11 GUI and terminals with a non-empty 't_IS' option).
Does not work for MS Windows.
When Vim was compiled with HAVE_X11 defined, the original icon will be
restored if possible |X11|.
When this option contains printf-style '%' items, they will be
expanded according to the rules used for 'statusline'. See
'titlestring' for example settings.
{not available when compiled without the |+statusline| feature}
*'ignorecase'* *'ic'* *'noignorecase'* *'noic'*

'ignorecase' 'ic' boolean (default off)
global
Ignore case in search patterns. Also used when searching in the tags
file.
Also see 'smartcase'.
Can be overruled by using "\c" or "\C" in the pattern, see
|/ignorecase|.
*'imactivatekey'* *'imak'*
'imactivatekey' 'imak' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with |+xim| and
YXXY+GUI_GTK|} *E599*
Specifies the key that your Input Method in X-Windows uses for
activation. When this is specified correctly, vim can fully control
IM with 'imcmdline', 'iminsert' and 'imsearch'.
You can't use this option to change the activation key, the option
tells Vim what the key is.
Format:
[MODIFIER_FLAG-]KEY_STRING

These characters can be used for MODIFIER_FLAG (case is ignored):

S Shift key
L Lock key
C Control key
1 Mod1 key
2 Mod2 key
3 Mod3 key
4 Mod4 key
5 Mod5 key
Combinations are allowed, for example "S-C-space" or "SC-space" are
both shift+ctrl+space.
See <X11/keysymdef.h> and XStringToKeysym for KEY_STRING.
Example:
:set imactivatekey=S-space
"S-space" means shift+space. This is the activation key for kinput2 +
canna (Japanese), and ami (Korean).
*'imcmdline'* *'imc'* *'noimcmdline'* *'noimc'*

'imcmdline' 'imc' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+xim|,
|+multi_byte_ime| or |global-ime| features}
When set the Input Method is always on when starting to edit a command
line, unless entering a search pattern (see 'imsearch' for that).
Setting this option is useful when your input method allows entering
English characters directly, e.g., when it's used to type accented
characters with dead keys.
*'imdisable'* *'imd'* *'noimdisable'* *'noimd'*

'imdisable' 'imd' boolean (default off, on for some systems (SGI))
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+xim|,
|+multi_byte_ime| or |global-ime| features}
When set the Input Method is never used. This is useful to disable
the IM when it doesn't work properly.
Currently this option is on by default for SGI/IRIX machines. This
may change in later releases.
*'iminsert'* *'imi'*
'iminsert' 'imi' number (default 0, 2 when an input method is supported)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
Specifies whether :lmap or an Input Method (IM) is to be used in
Insert mode. Valid values:
0 :lmap is off and IM is off
1 :lmap is ON and IM is off
2 :lmap is off and IM is ON
2 is available only when compiled with the |+multi_byte_ime|, |+xim|
or |global-ime|.
To always reset the option to zero when leaving Insert mode with <Esc>
this can be used:
:inoremap <ESC> <ESC>:set iminsert=0<CR>
This makes :lmap and IM turn off automatically when leaving Insert
mode.
Note that this option changes when using CTRL-^ in Insert mode
|i_CTRL-^|.
The value is set to 1 when setting 'keymap' to a valid keymap name.
It is also used for the argument of commands like "r" and "f".
The value 0 may not work correctly with Athena and Motif with some XIM
methods. Use 'imdisable' to disable XIM then.
*'imsearch'* *'ims'*
'imsearch' 'ims' number (default 0, 2 when an input method is supported)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
Specifies whether :lmap or an Input Method (IM) is to be used when
entering a search pattern. Valid values:
-1 the value of 'iminsert' is used, makes it look like
'iminsert' is also used when typing a search pattern
0 :lmap is off and IM is off
1 :lmap is ON and IM is off
2 :lmap is off and IM is ON
Note that this option changes when using CTRL-^ in Command-line mode

|c_CTRL-^|.
The value is set to 1 when it is not -1 and setting the 'keymap'
option to a valid keymap name.
The value 0 may not work correctly with Athena and Motif with some XIM
methods. Use 'imdisable' to disable XIM then.
*'include'* *'inc'*
'include' 'inc' string (default "^\s*#\s*include")
{not in Vi}
|+find_in_path| feature}
Pattern to be used to find an include command. It is a search
pattern, just like for the "/" command (See |pattern|). The default
value is for C programs. This option is used for the commands "[i",
"]I", "[d", etc.
Normally the 'isfname' option is used to recognize the file name that
comes after the matched pattern. But if "\zs" appears in the pattern
then the text matched from "\zs" to the end, or until "\ze" if it
appears, is used as the file name. Use this to include characters
that are not in 'isfname', such as a space. You can then use
'includeexpr' to process the matched text.
*'includeexpr'* *'inex'*
'includeexpr' 'inex' string (default "")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
|+find_in_path| or |+eval| features}
Expression to be used to transform the string found with the 'include'
option to a file name. Mostly useful to change "." to "/" for Java:
:set includeexpr=substitute(v:fname,'\\.','/','g')
The "v:fname" variable will be set to the file name that was detected.
Also used for the |gf| command if an unmodified file name can't be
found. Allows doing "gf" on the name after an 'include' statement.
Also used for |<cfile>|.
|sandbox-option|.
evaluating 'includeexpr' |textlock|.
*'incsearch'* *'is'* *'noincsearch'* *'nois'*

'incsearch' 'is' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
|+extra_search| features}
While typing a search command, show where the pattern, as it was typed
so far, matches. The matched string is highlighted. If the pattern
is invalid or not found, nothing is shown. The screen will be updated
often, this is only useful on fast terminals.
Note that the match will be shown, but the cursor will return to its
original position when no match is found and when pressing <Esc>. You
still need to finish the search command with <Enter> to move the
cursor to the match.
When compiled with the |+reltime| feature Vim only searches for about
half a second. With a complicated pattern and/or a lot of text the
match may not be found. This is to avoid that Vim hangs while you
are typing the pattern.
The highlighting can be set with the 'i' flag in 'highlight'.
See also: 'hlsearch'.
CTRL-L can be used to add one character from after the current match
to the command line. If 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase' are set and the
command line has no uppercase characters, the added character is
converted to lowercase.
CTRL-R CTRL-W can be used to add the word at the end of the current
match, excluding the characters that were already typed.
*'indentexpr'* *'inde'*
'indentexpr' 'inde' string (default "")
local to buffer

{not in Vi}
or |+eval| features}
Expression which is evaluated to obtain the proper indent for a line.
It is used when a new line is created, for the |=| operator and
in Insert mode as specified with the 'indentkeys' option.
When this option is not empty, it overrules the 'cindent' and
'smartindent' indenting.
When 'paste' is set this option is not used for indenting.
The expression is evaluated with |v:lnum| set to the line number for
which the indent is to be computed. The cursor is also in this line
when the expression is evaluated (but it may be moved around).
The expression must return the number of spaces worth of indent. It
can return "-1" to keep the current indent (this means 'autoindent' is
used for the indent).
Functions useful for computing the indent are |indent()|, |cindent()|
and |lispindent()|.
The evaluation of the expression must not have side effects! It must
not change the text, jump to another window, etc. Afterwards the
cursor position is always restored, thus the cursor may be moved.
Normally this option would be set to call a function:
:set indentexpr=GetMyIndent()
Error messages will be suppressed, unless the 'debug' option contains
"msg".
See |indent-expression|.
NOTE: This option is made empty when 'compatible' is set.
|sandbox-option|.
evaluating 'indentexpr' |textlock|.
*'indentkeys'* *'indk'*
'indentkeys' 'indk' string (default "0{,0},:,0#,!^F,o,O,e")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
feature}
A list of keys that, when typed in Insert mode, cause reindenting of
the current line. Only happens if 'indentexpr' isn't empty.
The format is identical to 'cinkeys', see |indentkeys-format|.
See |C-indenting| and |indent-expression|.
*'infercase'* *'inf'* *'noinfercase'* *'noinf'*

'infercase' 'inf' boolean (default off)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
When doing keyword completion in insert mode |ins-completion|, and
'ignorecase' is also on, the case of the match is adjusted depending
on the typed text. If the typed text contains a lowercase letter
where the match has an upper case letter, the completed part is made
lowercase. If the typed text has no lowercase letters and the match
has a lowercase letter where the typed text has an uppercase letter,
and there is a letter before it, the completed part is made uppercase.
With 'noinfercase' the match is used as-is.
*'insertmode'* *'im'* *'noinsertmode'* *'noim'*

'insertmode' 'im' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
Makes Vim work in a way that Insert mode is the default mode. Useful
if you want to use Vim as a modeless editor. Used for |evim|.
These Insert mode commands will be useful:
- Use the cursor keys to move around.
- Use CTRL-O to execute one Normal mode command |i_CTRL-O|). When
this is a mapping, it is executed as if 'insertmode' was off.
Normal mode remains active until the mapping is finished.
- Use CTRL-L to execute a number of Normal mode commands, then use
<Esc> to get back to Insert mode. Note that CTRL-L moves the cursor
left, like <Esc> does when 'insertmode' isn't set. |i_CTRL-L|
These items change when 'insertmode' is set:
- when starting to edit of a file, Vim goes to Insert mode.
- <Esc> in Insert mode is a no-op and beeps.
- <Esc> in Normal mode makes Vim go to Insert mode.

- CTRL-L in Insert mode is a command, it is not inserted.

- CTRL-Z in Insert mode suspends Vim, see |CTRL-Z|. *i_CTRL-Z*
However, when <Esc> is used inside a mapping, it behaves like
'insertmode' was not set. This was done to be able to use the same
mappings with 'insertmode' set or not set.
When executing commands with |:normal| 'insertmode' is not used.
*'isfname'* *'isf'*
'isfname' 'isf' string (default for MS-DOS, Win32 and OS/2:
"@,48-57,/,\,.,-,_,+,,,#,$,%,{,},[,],:,@-@,!,~,="
for AMIGA: "@,48-57,/,.,-,_,+,,,$,:"
for VMS: "@,48-57,/,.,-,_,+,,,#,$,%,<,>,[,],:,;,~"
for OS/390: "@,240-249,/,.,-,_,+,,,#,$,%,~,="
otherwise: "@,48-57,/,.,-,_,+,,,#,$,%,~,=")
global
{not in Vi}
The characters specified by this option are included in file names and
path names. Filenames are used for commands like "gf", "[i" and in
the tags file. It is also used for "\f" in a |pattern|.
Multi-byte characters 256 and above are always included, only the
characters up to 255 are specified with this option.
For UTF-8 the characters 0xa0 to 0xff are included as well.
Think twice before adding white space to this option. Although a
space may appear inside a file name, the effect will be that Vim
doesn't know where a file name starts or ends when doing completion.
It most likely works better without a space in 'isfname'.
Note that on systems using a backslash as path separator, Vim tries to
do its best to make it work as you would expect. That is a bit
tricky, since Vi originally used the backslash to escape special
characters. Vim will not remove a backslash in front of a normal file
name character on these systems, but it will on Unix and alikes. The
'&' and '^' are not included by default, because these are special for
cmd.exe.
The format of this option is a list of parts, separated with commas.
Each part can be a single character number or a range. A range is two
character numbers with '-' in between. A character number can be a
decimal number between 0 and 255 or the ASCII character itself (does
not work for digits). Example:
"_,-,128-140,#-43" (include '_' and '-' and the range
128 to 140 and '#' to 43)
If a part starts with '^', the following character number or range
will be excluded from the option. The option is interpreted from left
to right. Put the excluded character after the range where it is
included. To include '^' itself use it as the last character of the
option or the end of a range. Example:
"â-z,#,^" (exclude 'a' to 'z', include '#' and '^')
If the character is '@', all characters where isalpha() returns TRUE
are included. Normally these are the characters a to z and A to Z,
plus accented characters. To include '@' itself use "@-@". Examples:
"@,â-z" All alphabetic characters, excluding lower
case ASCII letters.
"a-z,A-Z,@-@" All letters plus the '@' character.
A comma can be included by using it where a character number is
expected. Example:
"48-57,,,_" Digits, comma and underscore.
A comma can be excluded by prepending a '^'. Example:
" -~,^,,9" All characters from space to '~', excluding
comma, plus <Tab>.
*'isident'* *'isi'*
'isident' 'isi' string (default for MS-DOS, Win32 and OS/2:
"@,48-57,_,128-167,224-235"
otherwise: "@,48-57,_,192-255")
global
{not in Vi}
The characters given by this option are included in identifiers.
Identifiers are used in recognizing environment variables and after a
match of the 'define' option. It is also used for "\i" in a
|pattern|. See 'isfname' for a description of the format of this
option.
Careful: If you change this option, it might break expanding
environment variables. E.g., when '/' is included and Vim tries to

expand "$HOME/.viminfo". Maybe you should change 'iskeyword' instead.
*'iskeyword'* *'isk'*
'iskeyword' 'isk' string (Vim default for MS-DOS and Win32:
"@,48-57,_,128-167,224-235"
otherwise: "@,48-57,_,192-255"
Vi default: "@,48-57,_")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
Keywords are used in searching and recognizing with many commands:
"w", "*", "[i", etc. It is also used for "\k" in a |pattern|. See
'isfname' for a description of the format of this option. For C
programs you could use "a-z,A-Z,48-57,_,.,-,>".
For a help file it is set to all non-blank printable characters except
'*', '"'' and '|' (so that CTRL-] on a command finds the help for that
command).
When the 'lisp' option is on the '-' character is always included.
*'isprint'* *'isp'*
'isprint' 'isp' string (default for MS-DOS, Win32, OS/2 and Macintosh:
"@,~-255"; otherwise: "@,161-255")
global
{not in Vi}
The characters given by this option are displayed directly on the
screen. It is also used for "\p" in a |pattern|. The characters from
space (ASCII 32) to '~' (ASCII 126) are always displayed directly,
even when they are not included in 'isprint' or excluded. See
'isfname' for a description of the format of this option.
Non-printable characters are displayed with two characters:
0 - 31 "^@" - "^_"
32 - 126 always single characters
127 "^?"
128 - 159 "~@" - "~_"
160 - 254 "| " - "|~"
255 "~?"
When 'encoding' is a Unicode one, illegal bytes from 128 to 255 are
displayed as <xx>, with the hexadecimal value of the byte.
When 'display' contains "uhex" all unprintable characters are
displayed as <xx>.
The SpecialKey highlighting will be used for unprintable characters.
|hl-SpecialKey|
Multi-byte characters 256 and above are always included, only the
characters up to 255 are specified with this option. When a character
is printable but it is not available in the current font, a
replacement character will be shown.
Unprintable and zero-width Unicode characters are displayed as <xxxx>.
There is no option to specify these characters.
*'joinspaces'* *'js'* *'nojoinspaces'* *'nojs'*

'joinspaces' 'js' boolean (default on)
global
{not in Vi}
Insert two spaces after a '.', '?' and '!' with a join command.
When 'cpoptions' includes the 'j' flag, only do this after a '.'.
Otherwise only one space is inserted.
NOTE: This option is set when 'compatible' is set.
*'key'*
'key' string (default "")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+cryptv|
feature}
The key that is used for encrypting and decrypting the current buffer.
See |encryption| and 'cryptmethod'.
Careful: Do not set the key value by hand, someone might see the typed
key. Use the |:X| command. But you can make 'key' empty:
:set key=
It is not possible to get the value of this option with ":set key" or
"echo &key". This is to avoid showing it to someone who shouldn't
know. It also means you cannot see it yourself once you have set it,
be careful not to make a typing error!

You can use "&key" in an expression to detect whether encryption is

enabled. When 'key' is set it returns "*****" (five stars).
*'keymap'* *'kmp'* *E544*

'keymap' 'kmp' string (default "")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+keymap|
feature}
Name of a keyboard mapping. See |mbyte-keymap|.
Setting this option to a valid keymap name has the side effect of
setting 'iminsert' to one, so that the keymap becomes effective.
'imsearch' is also set to one, unless it was -1
*'keymodel'* *'km'*
'keymodel' 'km' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
List of comma separated words, which enable special things that keys
can do. These values can be used:
startsel Using a shifted special key starts selection (either
Select mode or Visual mode, depending on "key" being
present in 'selectmode').
stopsel Using a not-shifted special key stops selection.
Special keys in this context are the cursor keys, <End>, <Home>,
<PageUp> and <PageDown>.
The 'keymodel' option is set by the |:behave| command.
*'keywordprg'* *'kp'*
'keywordprg' 'kp' string
(default "man" or "man -s", DOS: ":help",
OS/2: "view /", VMS: "help")
{not in Vi}
Program to use for the |K| command. Environment variables are
expanded |:set_env|. ":help" may be used to access the Vim internal
help. (Note that previously setting the global option to the empty
value did this, which is now deprecated.)
When "man" is used, Vim will automatically translate a count for the
"K" command to a section number. Also for "man -s", in which case the
"-s" is removed when there is no count.
Example:
:set keywordprg=man\ -s
security reasons.
*'langmap'* *'lmap'* *E357* *E358*

'langmap' 'lmap' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+langmap|
feature}
This option allows switching your keyboard into a special language
mode. When you are typing text in Insert mode the characters are
inserted directly. When in command mode the 'langmap' option takes
care of translating these special characters to the original meaning
of the key. This means you don't have to change the keyboard mode to
be able to execute Normal mode commands.
This is the opposite of the 'keymap' option, where characters are
mapped in Insert mode.
Example (for Greek, in UTF-8): *greek*

:set langmap=Î‘A,Î’B,Î¨C,Î”D,Î•E,Î¦F,Î“G,Î—H,Î™I,ÎžJ,ÎšK,Î›L,ÎœM,ÎN,ÎŸO,Î P,QQ,Î¡R,Î
£S,Î¤T,Î˜U,Î©V,WW,Î§X,Î¥Y,Î–Z,Î±a,Î²b,Ïˆc,Î´d,Îµe,Ï†f,Î³g,Î·h,Î¹i,Î¾j,Îºk,Î»l,Î¼m,Î½n,Î¿o,Ï
€p,qq,Ïr,Ïƒs,Ï„t,Î¸u,Ï‰v,Ï‚w,Ï‡x,Ï…y,Î¶z
Example (exchanges meaning of z and y for commands):
:set langmap=zy,yz,ZY,YZ
The 'langmap' option is a list of parts, separated with commas. Each
part can be in one of two forms:
1. A list of pairs. Each pair is a "from" character immediately
followed by the "to" character. Examples: "aA", "aAbBcC".
2. A list of "from" characters, a semi-colon and a list of "to"
characters. Example: "abc;ABC"

Example: "aA,fgh;FGH,cCdDeE"
Special characters need to be preceded with a backslash. These are
";", ',' and backslash itself.
This will allow you to activate vim actions without having to switch
back and forth between the languages. Your language characters will
be understood as normal vim English characters (according to the
langmap mappings) in the following cases:
o Normal/Visual mode (commands, buffer/register names, user mappings)
o Insert/Replace Mode: Register names after CTRL-R
o Insert/Replace Mode: Mappings
Characters entered in Command-line mode will NOT be affected by
this option. Note that this option can be changed at any time
allowing to switch between mappings for different languages/encodings.
Use a mapping to avoid having to type it each time!
*'langmenu'* *'lm'*
'langmenu' 'lm' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+menu| and
|+multi_lang| features}
Language to use for menu translation. Tells which file is loaded
from the "lang" directory in 'runtimepath':
"lang/menu_" . &langmenu . ".vim"
(without the spaces). For example, to always use the Dutch menus, no
matter what $LANG is set to:
:set langmenu=nl_NL.ISO_8859-1
When 'langmenu' is empty, |v:lang| is used.
If your $LANG is set to a non-English language but you do want to use
the English menus:
:set langmenu=none
This option must be set before loading menus, switching on filetype
detection or syntax highlighting. Once the menus are defined setting
this option has no effect. But you could do this:
:source $VIMRUNTIME/delmenu.vim
:set langmenu=de_DE.ISO_8859-1
:source $VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim
Warning: This deletes all menus that you defined yourself!
*'laststatus'* *'ls'*
'laststatus' 'ls' number (default 1)
global
{not in Vi}
The value of this option influences when the last window will have a
status line:
0: never
1: only if there are at least two windows
2: always
The screen looks nicer with a status line if you have several
windows, but it takes another screen line. |status-line|
*'lazyredraw'* *'lz'* *'nolazyredraw'* *'nolz'*

'lazyredraw' 'lz' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
When this option is set, the screen will not be redrawn while
executing macros, registers and other commands that have not been
typed. Also, updating the window title is postponed. To force an
update use |:redraw|.
*'linebreak'* *'lbr'* *'nolinebreak'* *'nolbr'*

'linebreak' 'lbr' boolean (default off)
local to window
{not in Vi}
feature}
If on Vim will wrap long lines at a character in 'breakat' rather
than at the last character that fits on the screen. Unlike
'wrapmargin' and 'textwidth', this does not insert <EOL>s in the file,
it only affects the way the file is displayed, not its contents. The
value of 'showbreak' is used to put in front of wrapped lines.
This option is not used when the 'wrap' option is off or 'list' is on.
Note that <Tab> characters after an <EOL> are mostly not displayed
with the right amount of white space.

*'lines'* *E593*
'lines' number (default 24 or terminal height)
global
Number of lines of the Vim window.
Normally you don't need to set this. It is done automatically by the
terminal initialization code. Also see |posix-screen-size|.
When Vim is running in the GUI or in a resizable window, setting this
option will cause the window size to be changed. When you only want
to use the size for the GUI, put the command in your |gvimrc| file.
Vim limits the number of lines to what fits on the screen. You can
use this command to get the tallest window possible:
:set lines=999
Minimum value is 2, maximum value is 1000.
If you get less lines than expected, check the 'guiheadroom' option.
When you set this option and Vim is unable to change the physical
number of lines of the display, the display may be messed up.
*'linespace'* *'lsp'*
'linespace' 'lsp' number (default 0, 1 for Win32 GUI)
global
{not in Vi}
{only in the GUI}
Number of pixel lines inserted between characters. Useful if the font
uses the full character cell height, making lines touch each other.
When non-zero there is room for underlining.
With some fonts there can be too much room between lines (to have
space for ascents and descents). Then it makes sense to set
'linespace' to a negative value. This may cause display problems
though!
*'lisp'* *'nolisp'*
'lisp' boolean (default off)
local to buffer
{not available when compiled without the |+lispindent|
feature}
Lisp mode: When <Enter> is typed in insert mode set the indent for
the next line to Lisp standards (well, sort of). Also happens with
"cc" or "S". 'autoindent' must also be on for this to work. The 'p'
flag in 'cpoptions' changes the method of indenting: Vi compatible or
better. Also see 'lispwords'.
The '-' character is included in keyword characters. Redefines the
"=" operator to use this same indentation algorithm rather than
calling an external program if 'equalprg' is empty.
This option is not used when 'paste' is set.
{Vi: Does it a little bit differently}
*'lispwords'* *'lw'*
'lispwords' 'lw' string (default is very long)
global
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+lispindent|
feature}
Comma separated list of words that influence the Lisp indenting.
|'lisp'|
*'list'* *'nolist'*
'list' boolean (default off)
local to window
List mode: Show tabs as CTRL-I is displayed, display $ after end of
line. Useful to see the difference between tabs and spaces and for
trailing blanks. Further changed by the 'listchars' option.
The cursor is displayed at the start of the space a Tab character
occupies, not at the end as usual in Normal mode. To get this cursor
position while displaying Tabs with spaces, use:
:set list lcs=tab\ \
Note that list mode will also affect formatting (set with 'textwidth'
or 'wrapmargin') when 'cpoptions' includes 'L'. See 'listchars' for
changing the way tabs are displayed.
*'listchars'* *'lcs'*
'listchars' 'lcs' string (default "eol:$")

global
{not in Vi}
Strings to use in 'list' mode and for the |:list| command. It is a
comma separated list of string settings.
eol:c Character to show at the end of each line. When
omitted, there is no extra character at the end of the
line.
tab:xy Two characters to be used to show a tab. The first
char is used once. The second char is repeated to
fill the space that the tab normally occupies.
"tab:>-" will show a tab that takes four spaces as
">---". When omitted, a tab is show as Î.
trail:c Character to show for trailing spaces. When omitted,
trailing spaces are blank.
extends:c Character to show in the last column, when 'wrap' is
off and the line continues beyond the right of the
screen.
precedes:c Character to show in the first column, when 'wrap'
is off and there is text preceding the character
visible in the first column.
conceal:c Character to show in place of concealed text, when
'conceallevel' is set to 1.
nbsp:c Character to show for a non-breakable space (character
0xA0, 160). Left blank when omitted.
The characters ':' and ',' should not be used. UTF-8 characters can
be used when 'encoding' is "utf-8", otherwise only printable
characters are allowed. All characters must be single width.
Examples:
:set lcs=tab:>-,trail:-
:set lcs=tab:>-,eol:<,nbsp:%
:set lcs=extends:>,precedes:<
The "NonText" highlighting will be used for "eol", "extends" and
"precedes". "SpecialKey" for "nbsp", "tab" and "trail".
|hl-NonText| |hl-SpecialKey|
*'lpl'* *'nolpl'* *'loadplugins'* *'noloadplugins'*

'loadplugins' 'lpl' boolean (default on)
global
{not in Vi}
When on the plugin scripts are loaded when starting up |load-plugins|.
This option can be reset in your |vimrc| file to disable the loading
of plugins.
Note that using the "-u NONE" and "--noplugin" command line arguments
reset this option. |-u| |--noplugin|
*'macatsui'* *'nomacatsui'*
'macatsui' boolean (default on)
global
{only available in Mac GUI version}
This is a workaround for when drawing doesn't work properly. When set
and compiled with multi-byte support ATSUI text drawing is used. When
not set ATSUI text drawing is not used. Switch this option off when
you experience drawing problems. In a future version the problems may
be solved and this option becomes obsolete. Therefore use this method
to unset it:
if exists('&macatsui')
set nomacatsui
endif
Another option to check if you have drawing problems is
'termencoding'.
*'magic'* *'nomagic'*
'magic' boolean (default on)
global
Changes the special characters that can be used in search patterns.
See |pattern|.
NOTE: To avoid portability problems with using patterns, always keep
this option at the default "on". Only switch it off when working with
old Vi scripts. In any other situation write patterns that work when
'magic' is on. Include "\M" when you want to |/\M|.
*'makeef'* *'mef'*
'makeef' 'mef' string (default: "")
global

{not in Vi}
feature}
Name of the errorfile for the |:make| command (see |:make_makeprg|)
and the |:grep| command.
When it is empty, an internally generated temp file will be used.
When "##" is included, it is replaced by a number to make the name
unique. This makes sure that the ":make" command doesn't overwrite an
existing file.
NOT used for the ":cf" command. See 'errorfile' for that.
security reasons.
*'makeprg'* *'mp'*
'makeprg' 'mp' string (default "make", VMS: "MMS")
{not in Vi}
Program to use for the ":make" command. See |:make_makeprg|.
This option may contain '%' and '#' characters, which are expanded to
the current and alternate file name. |:_%| |:_#|
Note that a '|' must be escaped twice: once for ":set" and once for
the interpretation of a command. When you use a filter called
"myfilter" do it like this:
:set makeprg=gmake\ \\\|\ myfilter
The placeholder "$*" can be given (even multiple times) to specify
where the arguments will be included, for example:
:set makeprg=latex\ \\\\nonstopmode\ \\\\input\\{$*}
security reasons.
*'matchpairs'* *'mps'*
'matchpairs' 'mps' string (default "(:),{:},[:]")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
Characters that form pairs. The |%| command jumps from one to the
other. Currently only single byte character pairs are allowed, and
they must be different. The characters must be separated by a colon.
The pairs must be separated by a comma. Example for including '<' and
'>' (HTML):
:set mps+=<:>
A more exotic example, to jump between the '=' and ';' in an
assignment, useful for languages like C and Java:
:au FileType c,cpp,java set mps+==:;
For a more advanced way of using "%", see the matchit.vim plugin in
the $VIMRUNTIME/macros directory. |add-local-help|
*'matchtime'* *'mat'*
'matchtime' 'mat' number (default 5)
global
{not in Vi}{in Nvi}
Tenths of a second to show the matching paren, when 'showmatch' is
set. Note that this is not in milliseconds, like other options that
set a time. This is to be compatible with Nvi.
*'maxcombine'* *'mco'*
'maxcombine' 'mco' number (default 2)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
The maximum number of combining characters supported for displaying.
Only used when 'encoding' is "utf-8".
The default is OK for most languages. Hebrew may require 4.
Maximum value is 6.
Even when this option is set to 2 you can still edit text with more
combining characters, you just can't see them. Use |g8| or |ga|.
See |mbyte-combining|.
*'maxfuncdepth'* *'mfd'*

'maxfuncdepth' 'mfd' number (default 100)

global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Maximum depth of function calls for user functions. This normally
catches endless recursion. When using a recursive function with
more depth, set 'maxfuncdepth' to a bigger number. But this will use
more memory, there is the danger of failing when memory is exhausted.
See also |:function|.
*'maxmapdepth'* *'mmd'* *E223*

'maxmapdepth' 'mmd' number (default 1000)
global
{not in Vi}
Maximum number of times a mapping is done without resulting in a
character to be used. This normally catches endless mappings, like
":map x y" with ":map y x". It still does not catch ":map g wg",
because the 'w' is used before the next mapping is done. See also
|key-mapping|.
*'maxmem'* *'mm'*
'maxmem' 'mm' number (default between 256 to 5120 (system
dependent) or half the amount of memory
available)
global
{not in Vi}
Maximum amount of memory (in Kbyte) to use for one buffer. When this
limit is reached allocating extra memory for a buffer will cause
other memory to be freed. The maximum usable value is about 2000000.
Use this to work without a limit. Also see 'maxmemtot'.
*'maxmempattern'* *'mmp'*
'maxmempattern' 'mmp' number (default 1000)
global
{not in Vi}
Maximum amount of memory (in Kbyte) to use for pattern matching.
The maximum value is about 2000000. Use this to work without a limit.
*E363*
When Vim runs into the limit it gives an error message and mostly
behaves like CTRL-C was typed.
Running into the limit often means that the pattern is very
inefficient or too complex. This may already happen with the pattern
"$.$*" on a very long line. ".*" works much better.
Vim may run out of memory before hitting the 'maxmempattern' limit.
*'maxmemtot'* *'mmt'*
'maxmemtot' 'mmt' number (default between 2048 and 10240 (system
dependent) or half the amount of memory
available)
global
{not in Vi}
Maximum amount of memory in Kbyte to use for all buffers together.
The maximum usable value is about 2000000 (2 Gbyte). Use this to work
without a limit. On 64 bit machines higher values might work. But
hey, do you really need more than 2 Gbyte for text editing?
Also see 'maxmem'.
*'menuitems'* *'mis'*
'menuitems' 'mis' number (default 25)
global
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+menu|
feature}
Maximum number of items to use in a menu. Used for menus that are
generated from a list of items, e.g., the Buffers menu. Changing this
option has no direct effect, the menu must be refreshed first.
*'mkspellmem'* *'msm'*
'mkspellmem' 'msm' string (default "460000,2000,500")
global
{not in Vi}

feature}
Parameters for |:mkspell|. This tunes when to start compressing the
word tree. Compression can be slow when there are many words, but
it's needed to avoid running out of memory. The amount of memory used
per word depends very much on how similar the words are, that's why
this tuning is complicated.
There are three numbers, separated by commas:
{start},{inc},{added}
For most languages the uncompressed word tree fits in memory. {start}
gives the amount of memory in Kbyte that can be used before any
compression is done. It should be a bit smaller than the amount of
memory that is available to Vim.
When going over the {start} limit the {inc} number specifies the
amount of memory in Kbyte that can be allocated before another
compression is done. A low number means compression is done after
less words are added, which is slow. A high number means more memory
will be allocated.
After doing compression, {added} times 1024 words can be added before
the {inc} limit is ignored and compression is done when any extra
amount of memory is needed. A low number means there is a smaller
chance of hitting the {inc} limit, less memory is used but it's
slower.
The languages for which these numbers are important are Italian and
Hungarian. The default works for when you have about 512 Mbyte. If
you have 1 Gbyte you could use:
:set mkspellmem=900000,3000,800
If you have less than 512 Mbyte |:mkspell| may fail for some
languages, no matter what you set 'mkspellmem' to.
*'modeline'* *'ml'* *'nomodeline'* *'noml'*

'modeline' 'ml' boolean (Vim default: on (off for root),
Vi default: off)
local to buffer
*'modelines'* *'mls'*
'modelines' 'mls' number (default 5)
global
{not in Vi}
If 'modeline' is on 'modelines' gives the number of lines that is
checked for set commands. If 'modeline' is off or 'modelines' is zero
no lines are checked. See |modeline|.
NOTE: 'modeline' is set to the Vi default value when 'compatible' is
*'modifiable'* *'ma'* *'nomodifiable'* *'noma'*

'modifiable' 'ma' boolean (default on)
local to buffer
{not in Vi} *E21*
When off the buffer contents cannot be changed. The 'fileformat' and
'fileencoding' options also can't be changed.
Can be reset with the |-M| command line argument.
*'modified'* *'mod'* *'nomodified'* *'nomod'*

'modified' 'mod' boolean (default off)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
When on, the buffer is considered to be modified. This option is set
when:
1. A change was made to the text since it was last written. Using the
|undo| command to go back to the original text will reset the
option. But undoing changes that were made before writing the
buffer will set the option again, since the text is different from
when it was written.
2. 'fileformat' or 'fileencoding' is different from its original
value. The original value is set when the buffer is read or
written. A ":set nomodified" command also resets the original
values to the current values and the 'modified' option will be
reset.
When 'buftype' is "nowrite" or "nofile" this option may be set, but
will be ignored.

*'more'* *'nomore'*
'more' boolean (Vim default: on, Vi default: off)
global
{not in Vi}
When on, listings pause when the whole screen is filled. You will get
the |more-prompt|. When this option is off there are no pauses, the
listing continues until finished.
*'mouse'* *E538*
'mouse' string (default "", "a" for GUI, MS-DOS and Win32)
global
{not in Vi}
Enable the use of the mouse. Only works for certain terminals
(xterm, MS-DOS, Win32 |win32-mouse|, QNX pterm, *BSD console with
sysmouse and Linux console with gpm). For using the mouse in the
GUI, see |gui-mouse|.
The mouse can be enabled for different modes:
n Normal mode
v Visual mode
i Insert mode
c Command-line mode
h all previous modes when editing a help file
a all previous modes
r for |hit-enter| and |more-prompt| prompt
Normally you would enable the mouse in all four modes with:
:set mouse=a
When the mouse is not enabled, the GUI will still use the mouse for
modeless selection. This doesn't move the text cursor.
See |mouse-using|. Also see |'clipboard'|.
Note: When enabling the mouse in a terminal, copy/paste will use the
"* register if there is access to an X-server. The xterm handling of
the mouse buttons can still be used by keeping the shift key pressed.
Also see the 'clipboard' option.
*'mousefocus'* *'mousef'* *'nomousefocus'* *'nomousef'*

'mousefocus' 'mousef' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
{only works in the GUI}
The window that the mouse pointer is on is automatically activated.
When changing the window layout or window focus in another way, the
mouse pointer is moved to the window with keyboard focus. Off is the
default because it makes using the pull down menus a little goofy, as
a pointer transit may activate a window unintentionally.
*'mousehide'* *'mh'* *'nomousehide'* *'nomh'*

'mousehide' 'mh' boolean (default on)
global
{not in Vi}
{only works in the GUI}
When on, the mouse pointer is hidden when characters are typed.
The mouse pointer is restored when the mouse is moved.
*'mousemodel'* *'mousem'*
'mousemodel' 'mousem' string (default "extend", "popup" for MS-DOS and Win32)
global
{not in Vi}
Sets the model to use for the mouse. The name mostly specifies what
the right mouse button is used for:
extend Right mouse button extends a selection. This works
like in an xterm.
popup Right mouse button pops up a menu. The shifted left
mouse button extends a selection. This works like
with Microsoft Windows.
popup_setpos Like "popup", but the cursor will be moved to the
position where the mouse was clicked, and thus the
selected operation will act upon the clicked object.
If clicking inside a selection, that selection will
be acted upon, i.e. no cursor move. This implies of
course, that right clicking outside a selection will
end Visual mode.

Overview of what button does what for each model:

mouse extend popup(_setpos)
left click place cursor place cursor
left drag start selection start selection
shift-left search word extend selection
right click extend selection popup menu (place cursor)
right drag extend selection -
middle click paste paste
In the "popup" model the right mouse button produces a pop-up menu.
You need to define this first, see |popup-menu|.
Note that you can further refine the meaning of buttons with mappings.
See |gui-mouse-mapping|. But mappings are NOT used for modeless
selection (because that's handled in the GUI code directly).
The 'mousemodel' option is set by the |:behave| command.
*'mouseshape'* *'mouses'* *E547*

'mouseshape' 'mouses' string (default "i:beam,r:beam,s:updown,sd:cross,
m:no,ml:up-arrow,v:rightup-arrow")
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+mouseshape|
feature}
This option tells Vim what the mouse pointer should look like in
different modes. The option is a comma separated list of parts, much
like used for 'guicursor'. Each part consist of a mode/location-list
and an argument-list:
mode-list:shape,mode-list:shape,..
The mode-list is a dash separated list of these modes/locations:
In a normal window:
n Normal mode
v Visual mode
ve Visual mode with 'selection' "exclusive" (same as 'v',
if not specified)
i Insert mode
r Replace mode
Others:
c appending to the command-line
ci inserting in the command-line
cr replacing in the command-line
m at the 'Hit ENTER' or 'More' prompts
ml idem, but cursor in the last line
e any mode, pointer below last window
s any mode, pointer on a status line
sd any mode, while dragging a status line
vs any mode, pointer on a vertical separator line
vd any mode, while dragging a vertical separator line
a everywhere
The shape is one of the following:
avail name looks like
w x arrow Normal mouse pointer
w x blank no pointer at all (use with care!)
w x beam I-beam
w x updown up-down sizing arrows
w x leftright left-right sizing arrows
w x busy The system's usual busy pointer
w x no The system's usual 'no input' pointer
x udsizing indicates up-down resizing
x lrsizing indicates left-right resizing
x crosshair like a big thin +
x hand1 black hand
x hand2 white hand
x pencil what you write with
x question big ?
x rightup-arrow arrow pointing right-up
w x up-arrow arrow pointing up
x <number> any X11 pointer number (see X11/cursorfont.h)
The "avail" column contains a 'w' if the shape is available for Win32,
x for X11.
Any modes not specified or shapes not available use the normal mouse
pointer.
Example:

:set mouseshape=s:udsizing,m:no
will make the mouse turn to a sizing arrow over the status lines and
indicate no input when the hit-enter prompt is displayed (since
clicking the mouse has no effect in this state.)
*'mousetime'* *'mouset'*
'mousetime' 'mouset' number (default 500)
global
{not in Vi}
Only for GUI, MS-DOS, Win32 and Unix with xterm. Defines the maximum
time in msec between two mouse clicks for the second click to be
recognized as a multi click.
*'mzquantum'* *'mzq'*
'mzquantum' 'mzq' number (default 100)
global
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+mzscheme|
feature}
The number of milliseconds between polls for MzScheme threads.
Negative or zero value means no thread scheduling.
*'nrformats'* *'nf'*
'nrformats' 'nf' string (default "octal,hex")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
This defines what bases Vim will consider for numbers when using the
CTRL-A and CTRL-X commands for adding to and subtracting from a number
respectively; see |CTRL-A| for more info on these commands.
alpha If included, single alphabetical characters will be
incremented or decremented. This is useful for a list with a
letter index a), b), etc. *octal-number*
octal If included, numbers that start with a zero will be considered
to be octal. Example: Using CTRL-A on "007" results in "010".
hex If included, numbers starting with "0x" or "0X" will be
considered to be hexadecimal. Example: Using CTRL-X on
"0x100" results in "0x0ff".
Numbers which simply begin with a digit in the range 1-9 are always
considered decimal. This also happens for numbers that are not
recognized as octal or hex.
*'number'* *'nu'* *'nonumber'* *'nonu'*

'number' 'nu' boolean (default off)
local to window
Print the line number in front of each line. When the 'n' option is
excluded from 'cpoptions' a wrapped line will not use the column of
line numbers (this is the default when 'compatible' isn't set).
The 'numberwidth' option can be used to set the room used for the line
number.
When a long, wrapped line doesn't start with the first character, '-'
characters are put before the number.
See |hl-LineNr| for the highlighting used for the number.
When setting this option, 'relativenumber' is reset.
*'numberwidth'* *'nuw'*
'numberwidth' 'nuw' number (Vim default: 4 Vi default: 8)
local to window
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+linebreak|
feature}
Minimal number of columns to use for the line number. Only relevant
when the 'number' or 'relativenumber' option is set or printing lines
with a line number. Since one space is always between the number and
the text, there is one less character for the number itself.
The value is the minimum width. A bigger width is used when needed to
fit the highest line number in the buffer respectively the number of
rows in the window, depending on whether 'number' or 'relativenumber'
is set. Thus with the Vim default of 4 there is room for a line number
up to 999. When the buffer has 1000 lines five columns will be used.
The minimum value is 1, the maximum value is 10.
NOTE: 'numberwidth' is reset to 8 when 'compatible' is set.
*'omnifunc'* *'ofu'*

'omnifunc' 'ofu' string (default: empty)

local to buffer
{not in Vi}
or |+insert_expand| features}
This option specifies a function to be used for Insert mode omni
completion with CTRL-X CTRL-O. |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-O|
See |complete-functions| for an explanation of how the function is
invoked and what it should return.
This option is usually set by a filetype plugin:
|:filetype-plugin-on|
*'opendevice'* *'odev'* *'noopendevice'* *'noodev'*

'opendevice' 'odev' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
{only for MS-DOS, MS-Windows and OS/2}
Enable reading and writing from devices. This may get Vim stuck on a
device that can be opened but doesn't actually do the I/O. Therefore
it is off by default.
Note that on MS-Windows editing "aux.h", "lpt1.txt" and the like also
result in editing a device.
*'operatorfunc'* *'opfunc'*
'operatorfunc' 'opfunc' string (default: empty)
global
{not in Vi}
This option specifies a function to be called by the |g@| operator.
See |:map-operator| for more info and an example.
security reasons.
*'osfiletype'* *'oft'* *E366*

'osfiletype' 'oft' string (RISC-OS default: "Text",
others default: "")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+osfiletype|
feature}
Some operating systems store extra information about files besides
name, datestamp and permissions. This option contains the extra
information, the nature of which will vary between systems.
The value of this option is usually set when the file is loaded, and
is used to set the operating system file type when file is written.
It can affect the pattern matching of the automatic commands.
|autocmd-osfiletypes|
*'paragraphs'* *'para'*
'paragraphs' 'para' string (default "IPLPPPQPP TPHPLIPpLpItpplpipbp")
global
Specifies the nroff macros that separate paragraphs. These are pairs
of two letters (see |object-motions|).
*'paste'* *'nopaste'*
'paste' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
Put Vim in Paste mode. This is useful if you want to cut or copy
some text from one window and paste it in Vim. This will avoid
unexpected effects.
Setting this option is useful when using Vim in a terminal, where Vim
cannot distinguish between typed text and pasted text. In the GUI, Vim
knows about pasting and will mostly do the right thing without 'paste'
being set. The same is true for a terminal where Vim handles the
mouse clicks itself.
This option is reset when starting the GUI. Thus if you set it in
your .vimrc it will work in a terminal, but not in the GUI. Setting
'paste' in the GUI has side effects: e.g., the Paste toolbar button
will no longer work in Insert mode, because it uses a mapping.
When the 'paste' option is switched on (also when it was already on):
- mapping in Insert mode and Command-line mode is disabled

- abbreviations are disabled

- 'textwidth' is set to 0
- 'wrapmargin' is set to 0
- 'autoindent' is reset
- 'smartindent' is reset
- 'softtabstop' is set to 0
- 'revins' is reset
- 'ruler' is reset
- 'showmatch' is reset
- 'formatoptions' is used like it is empty
These options keep their value, but their effect is disabled:
- 'lisp'
- 'indentexpr'
- 'cindent'
NOTE: When you start editing another file while the 'paste' option is
on, settings from the modelines or autocommands may change the
settings again, causing trouble when pasting text. You might want to
set the 'paste' option again.
When the 'paste' option is reset the mentioned options are restored to
the value before the moment 'paste' was switched from off to on.
Resetting 'paste' before ever setting it does not have any effect.
Since mapping doesn't work while 'paste' is active, you need to use
the 'pastetoggle' option to toggle the 'paste' option with some key.
*'pastetoggle'* *'pt'*
'pastetoggle' 'pt' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
When non-empty, specifies the key sequence that toggles the 'paste'
option. This is like specifying a mapping:
:map {keys} :set invpaste<CR>
Where {keys} is the value of 'pastetoggle'.
The difference is that it will work even when 'paste' is set.
'pastetoggle' works in Insert mode and Normal mode, but not in
Command-line mode.
Mappings are checked first, thus overrule 'pastetoggle'. However,
when 'paste' is on mappings are ignored in Insert mode, thus you can do
this:
:map <F10> :set paste<CR>
:map <F11> :set nopaste<CR>
:imap <F10> <C-O>:set paste<CR>
:imap <F11> <nop>
:set pastetoggle=<F11>
This will make <F10> start paste mode and <F11> stop paste mode.
Note that typing <F10> in paste mode inserts "<F10>", since in paste
mode everything is inserted literally, except the 'pastetoggle' key
sequence.
When the value has several bytes 'ttimeoutlen' applies.
*'pex'* *'patchexpr'*
'patchexpr' 'pex' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Expression which is evaluated to apply a patch to a file and generate
the resulting new version of the file. See |diff-patchexpr|.
*'patchmode'* *'pm'* *E206*

'patchmode' 'pm' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
When non-empty the oldest version of a file is kept. This can be used
to keep the original version of a file if you are changing files in a
source distribution. Only the first time that a file is written a
copy of the original file will be kept. The name of the copy is the
name of the original file with the string in the 'patchmode' option
appended. This option should start with a dot. Use a string like
".org". 'backupdir' must not be empty for this to work (Detail: The
backup file is renamed to the patchmode file after the new file has
been successfully written, that's why it must be possible to write a
backup file). If there was no file to be backed up, an empty file is
created.
When the 'backupskip' pattern matches, a patchmode file is not made.
Using 'patchmode' for compressed files appends the extension at the
end (e.g., "file.gz.orig"), thus the resulting name isn't always
recognized as a compressed file.

*'path'* *'pa'* *E343* *E345* *E347*

'path' 'pa' string
(default on Unix: ".,/usr/include,,"
on OS/2: ".,/emx/include,,"
other systems: ".,,")
{not in Vi}
This is a list of directories which will be searched when using the
|gf|, [f, ]f, ^Wf, |:find|, |:sfind|, |:tabfind| and other commands,
provided that the file being searched for has a relative path (not
starting with "/", "./" or "../"). The directories in the 'path'
option may be relative or absolute.
- Use commas to separate directory names:
:set path=.,/usr/local/include,/usr/include
- Spaces can also be used to separate directory names (for backwards
compatibility with version 3.0). To have a space in a directory
name, precede it with an extra backslash, and escape the space:
:set path=.,/dir/with\\\ space
- To include a comma in a directory name precede it with an extra
backslash:
:set path=.,/dir/with\\,comma
- To search relative to the directory of the current file, use:
:set path=.
- To search in the current directory use an empty string between two
commas:
:set path=,,
- A directory name may end in a ':' or '/'.
- When using |netrw.vim| URLs can be used. For example, adding
"http://www.vim.org" will make ":find index.html" work.
- Search upwards and downwards in a directory tree using "*", "**" and
";". See |file-searching| for info and syntax.
{not available when compiled without the |+path_extra| feature}
- Careful with '\' characters, type two to get one in the option:
:set path=.,c:\\include
Or just use '/' instead:
:set path=.,c:/include
Don't forget "." or files won't even be found in the same directory as
the file!
The maximum length is limited. How much depends on the system, mostly
it is something like 256 or 1024 characters.
You can check if all the include files are found, using the value of
'path', see |:checkpath|.
uses another default. To remove the current directory use:
:set path-=
To add the current directory use:
:set path+=
To use an environment variable, you probably need to replace the
separator. Here is an example to append $INCL, in which directory
names are separated with a semi-colon:
:let &path = &path . "," . substitute($INCL, ';', ',', 'g')
Replace the ';' with a ':' or whatever separator is used. Note that
this doesn't work when $INCL contains a comma or white space.
*'preserveindent'* *'pi'* *'nopreserveindent'* *'nopi'*

'preserveindent' 'pi' boolean (default off)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
When changing the indent of the current line, preserve as much of the
indent structure as possible. Normally the indent is replaced by a
series of tabs followed by spaces as required (unless |'expandtab'| is
enabled, in which case only spaces are used). Enabling this option
means the indent will preserve as many existing characters as possible
for indenting, and only add additional tabs or spaces as required.
'expandtab' does not apply to the preserved white space, a Tab remains
a Tab.
NOTE: When using ">>" multiple times the resulting indent is a mix of
tabs and spaces. You might not like this.
NOTE: 'preserveindent' is reset when 'compatible' is set.
Also see 'copyindent'.
Use |:retab| to clean up white space.
*'previewheight'* *'pvh'*

'previewheight' 'pvh' number (default 12)

global
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+windows| or
|+quickfix| features}
Default height for a preview window. Used for |:ptag| and associated
commands. Used for |CTRL-W_}| when no count is given.
*'previewwindow'* *'nopreviewwindow'*
*'pvw'* *'nopvw'* *E590*
'previewwindow' 'pvw' boolean (default off)
local to window
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+windows| or
|+quickfix| features}
Identifies the preview window. Only one window can have this option
set. It's normally not set directly, but by using one of the commands
|:ptag|, |:pedit|, etc.
*'printdevice'* *'pdev'*
'printdevice' 'pdev' string (default empty)
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+printer|
feature}
The name of the printer to be used for |:hardcopy|.
See |pdev-option|.
security reasons.
*'printencoding'* *'penc'*
'printencoding' 'penc' String (default empty, except for some systems)
global
{not in Vi}
and |+postscript| features}
Sets the character encoding used when printing.
See |penc-option|.
*'printexpr'* *'pexpr'*
'printexpr' 'pexpr' String (default: see below)
global
{not in Vi}
and |+postscript| features}
Expression used to print the PostScript produced with |:hardcopy|.
See |pexpr-option|.
*'printfont'* *'pfn'*
'printfont' 'pfn' string (default "courier")
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
The name of the font that will be used for |:hardcopy|.
See |pfn-option|.
*'printheader'* *'pheader'*
'printheader' 'pheader' string (default "%<%f%h%m%=Page %N")
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
The format of the header produced in |:hardcopy| output.
See |pheader-option|.
*'printmbcharset'* *'pmbcs'*
'printmbcharset' 'pmbcs' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+printer|,
|+postscript| and |+multi_byte| features}

The CJK character set to be used for CJK output from |:hardcopy|.
See |pmbcs-option|.
*'printmbfont'* *'pmbfn'*
'printmbfont' 'pmbfn' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+printer|,
|+postscript| and |+multi_byte| features}
List of font names to be used for CJK output from |:hardcopy|.
See |pmbfn-option|.
*'printoptions'* *'popt'*
'printoptions' 'popt' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with |+printer| feature}
List of items that control the format of the output of |:hardcopy|.
See |popt-option|.
*'prompt'* *'noprompt'*
'prompt' boolean (default on)
global
When on a ":" prompt is used in Ex mode.
*'pumheight'* *'ph'*
'pumheight' 'ph' number (default 0)
global
|+insert_expand| feature}
{not in Vi}
Determines the maximum number of items to show in the popup menu for
Insert mode completion. When zero as much space as available is used.
|ins-completion-menu|.
*'quoteescape'* *'qe'*
'quoteescape' 'qe' string (default "\")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
The characters that are used to escape quotes in a string. Used for
objects like a', a" and a` |a'|.
When one of the characters in this option is found inside a string,
the following character will be skipped. The default value makes the
text "foo\"bar\\" considered to be one string.
*'readonly'* *'ro'* *'noreadonly'* *'noro'*

'readonly' 'ro' boolean (default off)
local to buffer
If on, writes fail unless you use a '!'. Protects you from
accidentally overwriting a file. Default on when Vim is started
in read-only mode ("vim -R") or when the executable is called "view".
When using ":w!" the 'readonly' option is reset for the current
buffer, unless the 'Z' flag is in 'cpoptions'.
{not in Vi:} When using the ":view" command the 'readonly' option is
set for the newly edited buffer.
*'redrawtime'* *'rdt'*
'redrawtime' 'rdt' number (default 2000)
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+reltime|
feature}
The time in milliseconds for redrawing the display. This applies to
searching for patterns for 'hlsearch' and |:match| highlighting.
When redrawing takes more than this many milliseconds no further
matches will be highlighted. This is used to avoid that Vim hangs
when using a very complicated pattern.
*'relativenumber'* *'rnu'* *'norelativenumber'* *'nornu'*

'relativenumber' 'rnu' boolean (default off)
local to window

{not in Vi}
Show the line number relative to the line with the cursor in front of
each line. Relative line numbers help you use the |count| you can
precede some vertical motion commands (e.g. j k + -) with, without
having to calculate it yourself. Especially useful in combination with
other commands (e.g. y d c < > gq gw =).
When the 'n' option is excluded from 'cpoptions' a wrapped
line will not use the column of line numbers (this is the default when
'compatible' isn't set).
The 'numberwidth' option can be used to set the room used for the line
number.
When a long, wrapped line doesn't start with the first character, '-'
characters are put before the number.
See |hl-LineNr| for the highlighting used for the number.
When setting this option, 'number' is reset.
*'remap'* *'noremap'*
'remap' boolean (default on)
global
Allows for mappings to work recursively. If you do not want this for
a single entry, use the :noremap[!] command.
NOTE: To avoid portability problems with Vim scripts, always keep
this option at the default "on". Only switch it off when working with
old Vi scripts.
*'report'*
'report' number (default 2)
global
Threshold for reporting number of lines changed. When the number of
changed lines is more than 'report' a message will be given for most
":" commands. If you want it always, set 'report' to 0.
For the ":substitute" command the number of substitutions is used
instead of the number of lines.
*'restorescreen'* *'rs'* *'norestorescreen'* *'nors'*

'restorescreen' 'rs' boolean (default on)
global
{not in Vi} {only in Windows 95/NT console version}
When set, the screen contents is restored when exiting Vim. This also
happens when executing external commands.
For non-Windows Vim: You can set or reset the 't_ti' and 't_te'
options in your .vimrc. To disable restoring:
set t_ti= t_te=
To enable restoring (for an xterm):
set t_ti=^[7^[[r^[[?47h t_te=^[[?47l^[8
(Where ^[ is an <Esc>, type CTRL-V <Esc> to insert it)
*'revins'* *'ri'* *'norevins'* *'nori'*

'revins' 'ri' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Inserting characters in Insert mode will work backwards. See "typing
backwards" |ins-reverse|. This option can be toggled with the CTRL-_
command in Insert mode, when 'allowrevins' is set.
NOTE: This option is reset when 'compatible' or 'paste' is set.
*'rightleft'* *'rl'* *'norightleft'* *'norl'*

'rightleft' 'rl' boolean (default off)
local to window
{not in Vi}
feature}
When on, display orientation becomes right-to-left, i.e., characters
that are stored in the file appear from the right to the left.
Using this option, it is possible to edit files for languages that
are written from the right to the left such as Hebrew and Arabic.
This option is per window, so it is possible to edit mixed files
simultaneously, or to view the same file in both ways (this is
useful whenever you have a mixed text file with both right-to-left
and left-to-right strings so that both sets are displayed properly
in different windows). Also see |rileft.txt|.

*'rightleftcmd'* *'rlc'*
'rightleftcmd' 'rlc' string (default "search")
local to window
{not in Vi}
feature}
Each word in this option enables the command line editing to work in
right-to-left mode for a group of commands:
search "/" and "?" commands
This is useful for languages such as Hebrew, Arabic and Farsi.
The 'rightleft' option must be set for 'rightleftcmd' to take effect.
*'ruler'* *'ru'* *'noruler'* *'noru'*

'ruler' 'ru' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
|+cmdline_info| feature}
Show the line and column number of the cursor position, separated by a
comma. When there is room, the relative position of the displayed
text in the file is shown on the far right:
Top first line is visible
Bot last line is visible
All first and last line are visible
45% relative position in the file
If 'rulerformat' is set, it will determine the contents of the ruler.
Each window has its own ruler. If a window has a status line, the
ruler is shown there. Otherwise it is shown in the last line of the
screen. If the statusline is given by 'statusline' (i.e. not empty),
this option takes precedence over 'ruler' and 'rulerformat'
If the number of characters displayed is different from the number of
bytes in the text (e.g., for a TAB or a multi-byte character), both
the text column (byte number) and the screen column are shown,
separated with a dash.
For an empty line "0-1" is shown.
For an empty buffer the line number will also be zero: "0,0-1".
This option is reset when the 'paste' option is set.
If you don't want to see the ruler all the time but want to know where
you are, use "g CTRL-G" |g_CTRL-G|.
*'rulerformat'* *'ruf'*
'rulerformat' 'ruf' string (default empty)
global
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+statusline|
feature}
When this option is not empty, it determines the content of the ruler
string, as displayed for the 'ruler' option.
The format of this option is like that of 'statusline'.
The default ruler width is 17 characters. To make the ruler 15
characters wide, put "%15(" at the start and "%)" at the end.
Example:
:set rulerformat=%15(%c%V\ %p%%%)
*'runtimepath'* *'rtp'* *vimfiles*

'runtimepath' 'rtp' string (default:
Unix: "$HOME/.vim,
$VIM/vimfiles,
$VIMRUNTIME,
$VIM/vimfiles/after,
$HOME/.vim/after"
Amiga: "home:vimfiles,
$VIM/vimfiles,
$VIMRUNTIME,
home:vimfiles/after"
PC, OS/2: "$HOME/vimfiles,
$VIM/vimfiles,
$VIMRUNTIME,
$HOME/vimfiles/after"
Macintosh: "$VIM:vimfiles,
$VIMRUNTIME,

$VIM:vimfiles:after"
RISC-OS: "Choices:vimfiles,
$VIMRUNTIME,
Choices:vimfiles/after"
VMS: "sys$login:vimfiles,
$VIM/vimfiles,
$VIMRUNTIME,
sys$login:vimfiles/after")
global
{not in Vi}
This is a list of directories which will be searched for runtime
files:
filetype.vim filetypes by file name |new-filetype|
scripts.vim filetypes by file contents |new-filetype-scripts|
autoload/ automatically loaded scripts |autoload-functions|
colors/ color scheme files |:colorscheme|
compiler/ compiler files |:compiler|
doc/ documentation |write-local-help|
ftplugin/ filetype plugins |write-filetype-plugin|
indent/ indent scripts |indent-expression|
keymap/ key mapping files |mbyte-keymap|
lang/ menu translations |:menutrans|
menu.vim GUI menus |menu.vim|
plugin/ plugin scripts |write-plugin|
print/ files for printing |postscript-print-encoding|
spell/ spell checking files |spell|
syntax/ syntax files |mysyntaxfile|
tutor/ files for vimtutor |tutor|
And any other file searched for with the |:runtime| command.
The defaults for most systems are setup to search five locations:
1. In your home directory, for your personal preferences.
2. In a system-wide Vim directory, for preferences from the system
administrator.
3. In $VIMRUNTIME, for files distributed with Vim.
*after-directory*
4. In the "after" directory in the system-wide Vim directory. This is
for the system administrator to overrule or add to the distributed
defaults (rarely needed)
5. In the "after" directory in your home directory. This is for
personal preferences to overrule or add to the distributed defaults
or system-wide settings (rarely needed).
Note that, unlike 'path', no wildcards like "**" are allowed. Normal
wildcards are allowed, but can significantly slow down searching for
runtime files. For speed, use as few items as possible and avoid
wildcards.
See |:runtime|.
Example:
:set runtimepath=~/vimruntime,/mygroup/vim,$VIMRUNTIME
This will use the directory "~/vimruntime" first (containing your
personal Vim runtime files), then "/mygroup/vim" (shared between a
group of people) and finally "$VIMRUNTIME" (the distributed runtime
files).
You probably should always include $VIMRUNTIME somewhere, to use the
distributed runtime files. You can put a directory before $VIMRUNTIME
to find files which replace a distributed runtime files. You can put
a directory after $VIMRUNTIME to find files which add to distributed
runtime files.
security reasons.
*'scroll'* *'scr'*
'scroll' 'scr' number (default: half the window height)
local to window
Number of lines to scroll with CTRL-U and CTRL-D commands. Will be
set to half the number of lines in the window when the window size
changes. If you give a count to the CTRL-U or CTRL-D command it will
be used as the new value for 'scroll'. Reset to half the window
height with ":set scroll=0". {Vi is a bit different: 'scroll' gives
the number of screen lines instead of file lines, makes a difference
when lines wrap}
*'scrollbind'* *'scb'* *'noscrollbind'* *'noscb'*

'scrollbind' 'scb' boolean (default off)

local to window
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+scrollbind|
feature}
See also |scroll-binding|. When this option is set, the current
window scrolls as other scrollbind windows (windows that also have
this option set) scroll. This option is useful for viewing the
differences between two versions of a file, see 'diff'.
See |'scrollopt'| for options that determine how this option should be
interpreted.
This option is mostly reset when splitting a window to edit another
file. This means that ":split | edit file" results in two windows
with scroll-binding, but ":split file" does not.
*'scrolljump'* *'sj'*
'scrolljump' 'sj' number (default 1)
global
{not in Vi}
Minimal number of lines to scroll when the cursor gets off the
screen (e.g., with "j"). Not used for scroll commands (e.g., CTRL-E,
CTRL-D). Useful if your terminal scrolls very slowly.
When set to a negative number from -1 to -100 this is used as the
percentage of the window height. Thus -50 scrolls half the window
height.
*'scrolloff'* *'so'*
'scrolloff' 'so' number (default 0)
global
{not in Vi}
Minimal number of screen lines to keep above and below the cursor.
This will make some context visible around where you are working. If
you set it to a very large value (999) the cursor line will always be
in the middle of the window (except at the start or end of the file or
when long lines wrap).
For scrolling horizontally see 'sidescrolloff'.
*'scrollopt'* *'sbo'*
'scrollopt' 'sbo' string (default "ver,jump")
global
{not available when compiled without the |+scrollbind|
feature}
{not in Vi}
This is a comma-separated list of words that specifies how
'scrollbind' windows should behave. 'sbo' stands for ScrollBind
Options.
The following words are available:
ver Bind vertical scrolling for 'scrollbind' windows
hor Bind horizontal scrolling for 'scrollbind' windows
jump Applies to the offset between two windows for vertical
scrolling. This offset is the difference in the first
displayed line of the bound windows. When moving
around in a window, another 'scrollbind' window may
reach a position before the start or after the end of
the buffer. The offset is not changed though, when
moving back the 'scrollbind' window will try to scroll
to the desired position when possible.
When now making that window the current one, two
things can be done with the relative offset:
1. When "jump" is not included, the relative offset is
adjusted for the scroll position in the new current
window. When going back to the other window, the
new relative offset will be used.
2. When "jump" is included, the other windows are
scrolled to keep the same relative offset. When
going back to the other window, it still uses the
same relative offset.
Also see |scroll-binding|.
When 'diff' mode is active there always is vertical scroll binding,
even when "ver" isn't there.
*'sections'* *'sect'*
'sections' 'sect' string (default "SHNHH HUnhsh")
global
Specifies the nroff macros that separate sections. These are pairs of

two letters (See |object-motions|). The default makes a section start

at the nroff macros ".SH", ".NH", ".H", ".HU", ".nh" and ".sh".
*'secure'* *'nosecure'* *E523*

'secure' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
When on, ":autocmd", shell and write commands are not allowed in
".vimrc" and ".exrc" in the current directory and map commands are
displayed. Switch it off only if you know that you will not run into
problems, or when the 'exrc' option is off. On Unix this option is
only used if the ".vimrc" or ".exrc" is not owned by you. This can be
dangerous if the systems allows users to do a "chown". You better set
'secure' at the end of your ~/.vimrc then.
security reasons.
*'selection'* *'sel'*
'selection' 'sel' string (default "inclusive")
global
{not in Vi}
This option defines the behavior of the selection. It is only used
in Visual and Select mode.
Possible values:
value past line inclusive
old no yes
inclusive yes yes
exclusive yes no
"past line" means that the cursor is allowed to be positioned one
character past the line.
"inclusive" means that the last character of the selection is included
in an operation. For example, when "x" is used to delete the
selection.
Note that when "exclusive" is used and selecting from the end
backwards, you cannot include the last character of a line, when
starting in Normal mode and 'virtualedit' empty.
The 'selection' option is set by the |:behave| command.
*'selectmode'* *'slm'*
'selectmode' 'slm' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
This is a comma separated list of words, which specifies when to start
Select mode instead of Visual mode, when a selection is started.
Possible values:
mouse when using the mouse
key when using shifted special keys
cmd when using "v", "V" or CTRL-V
See |Select-mode|.
The 'selectmode' option is set by the |:behave| command.
*'sessionoptions'* *'ssop'*
'sessionoptions' 'ssop' string (default: "blank,buffers,curdir,folds,
help,options,tabpages,winsize")
global
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+mksession|
feature}
Changes the effect of the |:mksession| command. It is a comma
separated list of words. Each word enables saving and restoring
something:
word save and restore
blank empty windows
buffers hidden and unloaded buffers, not just those in windows
curdir the current directory
folds manually created folds, opened/closed folds and local
fold options
globals global variables that start with an uppercase letter
and contain at least one lowercase letter. Only
String and Number types are stored.
help the help window
localoptions options and mappings local to a window or buffer (not
global values for local options)
options all options and mappings (also global values for local
options)

resize size of the Vim window: 'lines' and 'columns'

sesdir the directory in which the session file is located
will become the current directory (useful with
projects accessed over a network from different
systems)
slash backslashes in file names replaced with forward
slashes
tabpages all tab pages; without this only the current tab page
is restored, so that you can make a session for each
tab page separately
unix with Unix end-of-line format (single <NL>), even when
on Windows or DOS
winpos position of the whole Vim window
winsize window sizes
Don't include both "curdir" and "sesdir".
When neither "curdir" nor "sesdir" is included, file names are stored
with absolute paths.
"slash" and "unix" are useful on Windows when sharing session files
with Unix. The Unix version of Vim cannot source dos format scripts,
but the Windows version of Vim can source unix format scripts.
*'shell'* *'sh'* *E91*

'shell' 'sh' string (default $SHELL or "sh",
MS-DOS and Win32: "command.com" or
"cmd.exe", OS/2: "cmd")
global
Name of the shell to use for ! and :! commands. When changing the
value also check these options: 'shelltype', 'shellpipe', 'shellslash'
'shellredir', 'shellquote', 'shellxquote' and 'shellcmdflag'.
It is allowed to give an argument to the command, e.g. "csh -f".
If the name of the shell contains a space, you might need to enclose
it in quotes. Example:
:set shell=\"c:\program\ files\unix\sh.exe\"\ -f
Note the backslash before each quote (to avoid starting a comment) and
each space (to avoid ending the option value). Also note that the
"-f" is not inside the quotes, because it is not part of the command
name. And Vim automagically recognizes the backslashes that are path
separators.
For Dos 32 bits (DJGPP), you can set the $DJSYSFLAGS environment
variable to change the way external commands are executed. See the
libc.inf file of DJGPP.
Under MS-Windows, when the executable ends in ".com" it must be
included. Thus setting the shell to "command.com" or "4dos.com"
works, but "command" and "4dos" do not work for all commands (e.g.,
filtering).
For unknown reasons, when using "4dos.com" the current directory is
changed to "C:\". To avoid this set 'shell' like this:
:set shell=command.com\ /c\ 4dos
security reasons.
*'shellcmdflag'* *'shcf'*
'shellcmdflag' 'shcf' string (default: "-c", MS-DOS and Win32, when 'shell'
does not contain "sh" somewhere: "/c")
global
{not in Vi}
Flag passed to the shell to execute "!" and ":!" commands; e.g.,
"bash.exe -c ls" or "command.com /c dir". For the MS-DOS-like
systems, the default is set according to the value of 'shell', to
reduce the need to set this option by the user. It's not used for
OS/2 (EMX figures this out itself). See |option-backslash| about
including spaces and backslashes. See |dos-shell|.
security reasons.
*'shellpipe'* *'sp'*
'shellpipe' 'sp' string (default ">", "| tee", "|& tee" or "2>&1| tee")|||
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
String to be used to put the output of the ":make" command in the
error file. See also |:make_makeprg|. See |option-backslash| about
including spaces and backslashes.

The name of the temporary file can be represented by "%s" if necessary

(the file name is appended automatically if no %s appears in the value
of this option).
For the Amiga and MS-DOS the default is ">". The output is directly
saved in a file and not echoed to the screen.
For Unix the default it "| tee". The stdout of the compiler is saved
in a file and echoed to the screen. If the 'shell' option is "csh" or
"tcsh" after initializations, the default becomes "|& tee". If the
'shell' option is "sh", "ksh", "zsh" or "bash" the default becomes
"2>&1| tee". This means that stderr is also included. Before using
the 'shell' option a path is removed, thus "/bin/sh" uses "sh".
The initialization of this option is done after reading the ".vimrc"
and the other initializations, so that when the 'shell' option is set
there, the 'shellpipe' option changes automatically, unless it was
explicitly set before.
When 'shellpipe' is set to an empty string, no redirection of the
":make" output will be done. This is useful if you use a 'makeprg'
that writes to 'makeef' by itself. If you want no piping, but do
want to include the 'makeef', set 'shellpipe' to a single space.
Don't forget to precede the space with a backslash: ":set sp=\ ".
In the future pipes may be used for filtering and this option will
become obsolete (at least for Unix).
security reasons.
*'shellquote'* *'shq'*
'shellquote' 'shq' string (default: ""; MS-DOS and Win32, when 'shell'
contains "sh" somewhere: "\"")
global
{not in Vi}
Quoting character(s), put around the command passed to the shell, for
the "!" and ":!" commands. The redirection is kept outside of the
quoting. See 'shellxquote' to include the redirection. It's
probably not useful to set both options.
This is an empty string by default. Only known to be useful for
third-party shells on MS-DOS-like systems, such as the MKS Korn Shell
or bash, where it should be "\"". The default is adjusted according
the value of 'shell', to reduce the need to set this option by the
user. See |dos-shell|.
security reasons.
*'shellredir'* *'srr'*
'shellredir' 'srr' string (default ">", ">&" or ">%s 2>&1")
global
{not in Vi}
String to be used to put the output of a filter command in a temporary
file. See also |:!|. See |option-backslash| about including spaces
and backslashes.
The name of the temporary file can be represented by "%s" if necessary
(the file name is appended automatically if no %s appears in the value
of this option).
The default is ">". For Unix, if the 'shell' option is "csh", "tcsh"
or "zsh" during initializations, the default becomes ">&". If the
'shell' option is "sh", "ksh" or "bash" the default becomes
">%s 2>&1". This means that stderr is also included.
For Win32, the Unix checks are done and additionally "cmd" is checked
for, which makes the default ">%s 2>&1". Also, the same names with
".exe" appended are checked for.
The initialization of this option is done after reading the ".vimrc"
and the other initializations, so that when the 'shell' option is set
there, the 'shellredir' option changes automatically unless it was
explicitly set before.
In the future pipes may be used for filtering and this option will
become obsolete (at least for Unix).
security reasons.
*'shellslash'* *'ssl'* *'noshellslash'* *'nossl'*

'shellslash' 'ssl' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi} {only for MSDOS, MS-Windows and OS/2}
When set, a forward slash is used when expanding file names. This is
useful when a Unix-like shell is used instead of command.com or
cmd.exe. Backward slashes can still be typed, but they are changed to
forward slashes by Vim.
Note that setting or resetting this option has no effect for some

existing file names, thus this option needs to be set before opening
any file for best results. This might change in the future.
'shellslash' only works when a backslash can be used as a path
separator. To test if this is so use:
if exists('+shellslash')
*'shelltemp'* *'stmp'* *'noshelltemp'* *'nostmp'*

'shelltemp' 'stmp' boolean (Vi default off, Vim default on)
global
{not in Vi}
When on, use temp files for shell commands. When off use a pipe.
When using a pipe is not possible temp files are used anyway.
Currently a pipe is only supported on Unix. You can check it with:
:if has("filterpipe")
The advantage of using a pipe is that nobody can read the temp file
and the 'shell' command does not need to support redirection.
The advantage of using a temp file is that the file type and encoding
can be detected.
The |FilterReadPre|, |FilterReadPost| and |FilterWritePre|,
|FilterWritePost| autocommands event are not triggered when
'shelltemp' is off.
*'shelltype'* *'st'*
'shelltype' 'st' number (default 0)
global
{not in Vi} {only for the Amiga}
On the Amiga this option influences the way how the commands work
which use a shell.
0 and 1: always use the shell
2 and 3: use the shell only to filter lines
4 and 5: use shell only for ':sh' command
When not using the shell, the command is executed directly.
0 and 2: use "shell 'shellcmdflag' cmd" to start external commands
1 and 3: use "shell cmd" to start external commands
*'shellxquote'* *'sxq'*
'shellxquote' 'sxq' string (default: "";
for Win32, when 'shell' contains "sh"
somewhere: "\""
for Unix, when using system(): "\"")
global
{not in Vi}
Quoting character(s), put around the command passed to the shell, for
the "!" and ":!" commands. Includes the redirection. See
'shellquote' to exclude the redirection. It's probably not useful
to set both options.
This is an empty string by default. Known to be useful for
third-party shells when using the Win32 version, such as the MKS Korn
Shell or bash, where it should be "\"". The default is adjusted
according the value of 'shell', to reduce the need to set this option
by the user. See |dos-shell|.
security reasons.
*'shiftround'* *'sr'* *'noshiftround'* *'nosr'*

'shiftround' 'sr' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
Round indent to multiple of 'shiftwidth'. Applies to > and <
commands. CTRL-T and CTRL-D in Insert mode always round the indent to
a multiple of 'shiftwidth' (this is Vi compatible).
*'shiftwidth'* *'sw'*
'shiftwidth' 'sw' number (default 8)
local to buffer
Number of spaces to use for each step of (auto)indent. Used for
|'cindent'|, |>>|, |<<|, etc.
*'shortmess'* *'shm'*
'shortmess' 'shm' string (Vim default "filnxtToO", Vi default: "",
POSIX default: "A")
global

{not in Vi}
This option helps to avoid all the |hit-enter| prompts caused by file
messages, for example with CTRL-G, and to avoid some other messages.
It is a list of flags:
flag meaning when present
f use "(3 of 5)" instead of "(file 3 of 5)"
i use "[noeol]" instead of "[Incomplete last line]"
l use "999L, 888C" instead of "999 lines, 888 characters"
m use "[+]" instead of "[Modified]"
n use "[New]" instead of "[New File]"
r use "[RO]" instead of "[readonly]"
w use "[w]" instead of "written" for file write message
and "[a]" instead of "appended" for ':w >> file' command
x use "[dos]" instead of "[dos format]", "[unix]" instead of
"[unix format]" and "[mac]" instead of "[mac format]".
a all of the above abbreviations
o overwrite message for writing a file with subsequent message
for reading a file (useful for ":wn" or when 'autowrite' on)
O message for reading a file overwrites any previous message.
Also for quickfix message (e.g., ":cn").
s don't give "search hit BOTTOM, continuing at TOP" or "search
hit TOP, continuing at BOTTOM" messages
t truncate file message at the start if it is too long to fit
on the command-line, "<" will appear in the left most column.
Ignored in Ex mode.
T truncate other messages in the middle if they are too long to
fit on the command line. "..." will appear in the middle.
Ignored in Ex mode.
W don't give "written" or "[w]" when writing a file
A don't give the "ATTENTION" message when an existing swap file
is found.
I don't give the intro message when starting Vim |:intro|.
This gives you the opportunity to avoid that a change between buffers
requires you to hit <Enter>, but still gives as useful a message as
possible for the space available. To get the whole message that you
would have got with 'shm' empty, use ":file!"
Useful values:
shm= No abbreviation of message.
shm=a Abbreviation, but no loss of information.
shm=at Abbreviation, and truncate message when necessary.
*'shortname'* *'sn'* *'noshortname'* *'nosn'*

'shortname' 'sn' boolean (default off)
local to buffer
{not in Vi, not in MS-DOS versions}
Filenames are assumed to be 8 characters plus one extension of 3
characters. Multiple dots in file names are not allowed. When this
option is on, dots in file names are replaced with underscores when
adding an extension (".~" or ".swp"). This option is not available
for MS-DOS, because then it would always be on. This option is useful
when editing files on an MS-DOS compatible filesystem, e.g., messydos
or crossdos. When running the Win32 GUI version under Win32s, this
option is always on by default.
*'showbreak'* *'sbr'* *E595*

'showbreak' 'sbr' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
String to put at the start of lines that have been wrapped. Useful
values are "> " or "+++ ":
:set showbreak=>\
Note the backslash to escape the trailing space. It's easier like
this:
:let &showbreak = '+++ '
Only printable single-cell characters are allowed, excluding <Tab> and
comma (in a future version the comma might be used to separate the
part that is shown at the end and at the start of a line).
The characters are highlighted according to the '@' flag in
'highlight'.
Note that tabs after the showbreak will be displayed differently.
If you want the 'showbreak' to appear in between line numbers, add the

"n" flag to 'cpoptions'.
*'showcmd'* *'sc'* *'noshowcmd'* *'nosc'*

'showcmd' 'sc' boolean (Vim default: on, off for Unix, Vi default:
off)
global
{not in Vi}
|+cmdline_info| feature}
Show (partial) command in the last line of the screen. Set this
option off if your terminal is slow.
In Visual mode the size of the selected area is shown:
- When selecting characters within a line, the number of characters.
If the number of bytes is different it is also displayed: "2-6"
means two characters and six bytes.
- When selecting more than one line, the number of lines.
- When selecting a block, the size in screen characters:
{lines}x{columns}.
*'showfulltag'* *'sft'* *'noshowfulltag'* *'nosft'*

'showfulltag' 'sft' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
When completing a word in insert mode (see |ins-completion|) from the
tags file, show both the tag name and a tidied-up form of the search
pattern (if there is one) as possible matches. Thus, if you have
matched a C function, you can see a template for what arguments are
required (coding style permitting).
Note that this doesn't work well together with having "longest" in
'completeopt', because the completion from the search pattern may not
match the typed text.
*'showmatch'* *'sm'* *'noshowmatch'* *'nosm'*

'showmatch' 'sm' boolean (default off)
global
When a bracket is inserted, briefly jump to the matching one. The
jump is only done if the match can be seen on the screen. The time to
show the match can be set with 'matchtime'.
A Beep is given if there is no match (no matter if the match can be
seen or not). This option is reset when the 'paste' option is set.
When the 'm' flag is not included in 'cpoptions', typing a character
will immediately move the cursor back to where it belongs.
See the "sm" field in 'guicursor' for setting the cursor shape and
blinking when showing the match.
The 'matchpairs' option can be used to specify the characters to show
matches for. 'rightleft' and 'revins' are used to look for opposite
matches.
Also see the matchparen plugin for highlighting the match when moving
around |pi_paren.txt|.
Note: Use of the short form is rated PG.
*'showmode'* *'smd'* *'noshowmode'* *'nosmd'*

'showmode' 'smd' boolean (Vim default: on, Vi default: off)
global
If in Insert, Replace or Visual mode put a message on the last line.
Use the 'M' flag in 'highlight' to set the type of highlighting for
this message.
When |XIM| may be used the message will include "XIM". But this
doesn't mean XIM is really active, especially when 'imactivatekey' is
not set.
*'showtabline'* *'stal'*
'showtabline' 'stal' number (default 1)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
The value of this option specifies when the line with tab page labels
will be displayed:
0: never
1: only if there are at least two tab pages

2: always
This is both for the GUI and non-GUI implementation of the tab pages
line.
See |tab-page| for more information about tab pages.
*'sidescroll'* *'ss'*
'sidescroll' 'ss' number (default 0)
global
{not in Vi}
The minimal number of columns to scroll horizontally. Used only when
the 'wrap' option is off and the cursor is moved off of the screen.
When it is zero the cursor will be put in the middle of the screen.
When using a slow terminal set it to a large number or 0. When using
a fast terminal use a small number or 1. Not used for "zh" and "zl"
commands.
*'sidescrolloff'* *'siso'*
'sidescrolloff' 'siso' number (default 0)
global
{not in Vi}
The minimal number of screen columns to keep to the left and to the
right of the cursor if 'nowrap' is set. Setting this option to a
value greater than 0 while having |'sidescroll'| also at a non-zero
value makes some context visible in the line you are scrolling in
horizontally (except at beginning of the line). Setting this option
to a large value (like 999) has the effect of keeping the cursor
horizontally centered in the window, as long as one does not come too
close to the beginning of the line.
Example: Try this together with 'sidescroll' and 'listchars' as
in the following example to never allow the cursor to move
onto the "extends" character:
:set nowrap sidescroll=1 listchars=extends:>,precedes:<
:set sidescrolloff=1
*'smartcase'* *'scs'* *'nosmartcase'* *'noscs'*

'smartcase' 'scs' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
Override the 'ignorecase' option if the search pattern contains upper
case characters. Only used when the search pattern is typed and
'ignorecase' option is on. Used for the commands "/", "?", "n", "N",
":g" and ":s". Not used for "*", "#", "gd", tag search, etc.. After
"*" and "#" you can make 'smartcase' used by doing a "/" command,
recalling the search pattern from history and hitting <Enter>.
*'smartindent'* *'si'* *'nosmartindent'* *'nosi'*

'smartindent' 'si' boolean (default off)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
|+smartindent| feature}
Do smart autoindenting when starting a new line. Works for C-like
programs, but can also be used for other languages. 'cindent' does
something like this, works better in most cases, but is more strict,
see |C-indenting|. When 'cindent' is on or 'indentexpr' is set,
setting 'si' has no effect. 'indentexpr' is a more advanced
alternative.
Normally 'autoindent' should also be on when using 'smartindent'.
An indent is automatically inserted:
- After a line ending in '{'.
- After a line starting with a keyword from 'cinwords'.
- Before a line starting with '}' (only with the "O" command).
When typing '}' as the first character in a new line, that line is
given the same indent as the matching '{'.
When typing '#' as the first character in a new line, the indent for
that line is removed, the '#' is put in the first column. The indent
is restored for the next line. If you don't want this, use this
mapping: ":inoremap # X^H#", where ^H is entered with CTRL-V CTRL-H.
When using the ">>" command, lines starting with '#' are not shifted
right.
NOTE: 'smartindent' is reset when 'compatible' is set. When 'paste'

is set smart indenting is disabled.
*'smarttab'* *'sta'* *'nosmarttab'* *'nosta'*

'smarttab' 'sta' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
When on, a <Tab> in front of a line inserts blanks according to
'shiftwidth'. 'tabstop' or 'softtabstop' is used in other places. A
<BS> will delete a 'shiftwidth' worth of space at the start of the
line.
When off, a <Tab> always inserts blanks according to 'tabstop' or
'softtabstop'. 'shiftwidth' is only used for shifting text left or
right |shift-left-right|.
What gets inserted (a <Tab> or spaces) depends on the 'expandtab'
option. Also see |ins-expandtab|. When 'expandtab' is not set, the
number of spaces is minimized by using <Tab>s.
*'softtabstop'* *'sts'*
'softtabstop' 'sts' number (default 0)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
Number of spaces that a <Tab> counts for while performing editing
operations, like inserting a <Tab> or using <BS>. It "feels" like
<Tab>s are being inserted, while in fact a mix of spaces and <Tab>s is
used. This is useful to keep the 'ts' setting at its standard value
of 8, while being able to edit like it is set to 'sts'. However,
commands like "x" still work on the actual characters.
When 'sts' is zero, this feature is off.
'softtabstop' is set to 0 when the 'paste' option is set.
See also |ins-expandtab|. When 'expandtab' is not set, the number of
spaces is minimized by using <Tab>s.
The 'L' flag in 'cpoptions' changes how tabs are used when 'list' is
set.
*'spell'* *'nospell'*
'spell' boolean (default off)
local to window
{not in Vi}
feature}
When on spell checking will be done. See |spell|.
The languages are specified with 'spelllang'.
*'spellcapcheck'* *'spc'*
'spellcapcheck' 'spc' string (default "[.?!]\_[\])'"' \t]\+")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
feature}
Pattern to locate the end of a sentence. The following word will be
checked to start with a capital letter. If not then it is highlighted
with SpellCap |hl-SpellCap| (unless the word is also badly spelled).
When this check is not wanted make this option empty.
Only used when 'spell' is set.
Be careful with special characters, see |option-backslash| about
including spaces and backslashes.
To set this option automatically depending on the language, see
|set-spc-auto|.
*'spellfile'* *'spf'*
'spellfile' 'spf' string (default empty)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
feature}
Name of the word list file where words are added for the |zg| and |zw|
commands. It must end in ".{encoding}.add". You need to include the
path, otherwise the file is placed in the current directory.
*E765*
It may also be a comma separated list of names. A count before the
|zg| and |zw| commands can be used to access each. This allows using
a personal word list file and a project word list file.

When a word is added while this option is empty Vim will set it for
you: Using the first directory in 'runtimepath' that is writable. If
there is no "spell" directory yet it will be created. For the file
name the first language name that appears in 'spelllang' is used,
ignoring the region.
The resulting ".spl" file will be used for spell checking, it does not
have to appear in 'spelllang'.
Normally one file is used for all regions, but you can add the region
name if you want to. However, it will then only be used when
'spellfile' is set to it, for entries in 'spelllang' only files
without region name will be found.
security reasons.
*'spelllang'* *'spl'*
'spelllang' 'spl' string (default "en")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
feature}
A comma separated list of word list names. When the 'spell' option is
on spellchecking will be done for these languages. Example:
set spelllang=en_us,nl,medical
This means US English, Dutch and medical words are recognized. Words
that are not recognized will be highlighted.
The word list name must not include a comma or dot. Using a dash is
recommended to separate the two letter language name from a
specification. Thus "en-rare" is used for rare English words.
A region name must come last and have the form "_xx", where "xx" is
the two-letter, lower case region name. You can use more than one
region by listing them: "en_us,en_ca" supports both US and Canadian
English, but not words specific for Australia, New Zealand or Great
Britain.
*E757*
As a special case the name of a .spl file can be given as-is. The
first "_xx" in the name is removed and used as the region name
(_xx is an underscore, two letters and followed by a non-letter).
This is mainly for testing purposes. You must make sure the correct
encoding is used, Vim doesn't check it.
When 'encoding' is set the word lists are reloaded. Thus it's a good
idea to set 'spelllang' after setting 'encoding' to avoid loading the
files twice.
How the related spell files are found is explained here: |spell-load|.
If the |spellfile.vim| plugin is active and you use a language name
for which Vim cannot find the .spl file in 'runtimepath' the plugin
will ask you if you want to download the file.
After this option has been set successfully, Vim will source the files
"spell/LANG.vim" in 'runtimepath'. "LANG" is the value of 'spelllang'
up to the first comma, dot or underscore.
Also see |set-spc-auto|.
*'spellsuggest'* *'sps'*
'spellsuggest' 'sps' string (default "best")
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Methods used for spelling suggestions. Both for the |z=| command and
the |spellsuggest()| function. This is a comma-separated list of
items:
best Internal method that works best for English. Finds
changes like "fast" and uses a bit of sound-a-like
scoring to improve the ordering.
double Internal method that uses two methods and mixes the
results. The first method is "fast", the other method
computes how much the suggestion sounds like the bad
word. That only works when the language specifies
sound folding. Can be slow and doesn't always give
better results.
fast Internal method that only checks for simple changes:
character inserts/deletes/swaps. Works well for

simple typing mistakes.

{number} The maximum number of suggestions listed for |z=|.
Not used for |spellsuggest()|. The number of
suggestions is never more than the value of 'lines'
minus two.
file:{filename} Read file {filename}, which must have two columns,
separated by a slash. The first column contains the
bad word, the second column the suggested good word.
Example:
theribal/terrible
Use this for common mistakes that do not appear at the
top of the suggestion list with the internal methods.
Lines without a slash are ignored, use this for
comments.
The file is used for all languages.
expr:{expr} Evaluate expression {expr}. Use a function to avoid
trouble with spaces. |v:val| holds the badly spelled
word. The expression must evaluate to a List of
Lists, each with a suggestion and a score.
Example:
[['the', 33], ['that', 44]]
Set 'verbose' and use |z=| to see the scores that the
internal methods use. A lower score is better.
This may invoke |spellsuggest()| if you temporarily
set 'spellsuggest' to exclude the "expr:" part.
Errors are silently ignored, unless you set the
'verbose' option to a non-zero value.
Only one of "best", "double" or "fast" may be used. The others may
appear several times in any order. Example:
:set sps=file:~/.vim/sugg,best,expr:MySuggest()
security reasons.
*'splitbelow'* *'sb'* *'nosplitbelow'* *'nosb'*

'splitbelow' 'sb' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
When on, splitting a window will put the new window below the current
one. |:split|
*'splitright'* *'spr'* *'nosplitright'* *'nospr'*

'splitright' 'spr' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
When on, splitting a window will put the new window right of the
current one. |:vsplit|
*'startofline'* *'sol'* *'nostartofline'* *'nosol'*

'startofline' 'sol' boolean (default on)
global
{not in Vi}
When "on" the commands listed below move the cursor to the first
non-blank of the line. When off the cursor is kept in the same column
(if possible). This applies to the commands: CTRL-D, CTRL-U, CTRL-B,
CTRL-F, "G", "H", "M", "L", gg, and to the commands "d", "<<" and ">>"
with a linewise operator, with "%" with a count and to buffer changing
commands (CTRL-^, :bnext, :bNext, etc.). Also for an Ex command that
only has a line number, e.g., ":25" or ":+".
In case of buffer changing commands the cursor is placed at the column
where it was the last time the buffer was edited.
NOTE: This option is set when 'compatible' is set.
*'statusline'* *'stl'* *E540* *E542*

'statusline' 'stl' string (default empty)
global or local to window |global-local|
{not in Vi}

{not available when compiled without the |+statusline|

feature}
When nonempty, this option determines the content of the status line.
Also see |status-line|.
The option consists of printf style '%' items interspersed with
normal text. Each status line item is of the form:
%-0{minwid}.{maxwid}{item}
All fields except the {item} is optional. A single percent sign can
be given as "%%". Up to 80 items can be specified. *E541*
When the option starts with "%!" then it is used as an expression,
evaluated and the result is used as the option value. Example:
:set statusline=%!MyStatusLine()
The result can contain %{} items that will be evaluated too.
When there is error while evaluating the option then it will be made
empty to avoid further errors. Otherwise screen updating would loop.
Note that the only effect of 'ruler' when this option is set (and
'laststatus' is 2) is controlling the output of |CTRL-G|.
field meaning
- Left justify the item. The default is right justified
when minwid is larger than the length of the item.
0 Leading zeroes in numeric items. Overridden by '-'.
minwid Minimum width of the item, padding as set by '-' & '0'.
Value must be 50 or less.
maxwid Maximum width of the item. Truncation occurs with a '<'
on the left for text items. Numeric items will be
shifted down to maxwid-2 digits followed by '>'number
where number is the amount of missing digits, much like
an exponential notation.
item A one letter code as described below.
Following is a description of the possible statusline items. The
second character in "item" is the type:
N for number
S for string
F for flags as described below
- not applicable
item meaning
f S Path to the file in the buffer, as typed or relative to current
directory.
F S Full path to the file in the buffer.
t S File name (tail) of file in the buffer.
m F Modified flag, text is "[+]"; "[-]" if 'modifiable' is off.
M F Modified flag, text is ",+" or ",-".
r F Readonly flag, text is "[RO]".
R F Readonly flag, text is ",RO".
h F Help buffer flag, text is "[help]".
H F Help buffer flag, text is ",HLP".
w F Preview window flag, text is "[Preview]".
W F Preview window flag, text is ",PRV".
y F Type of file in the buffer, e.g., "[vim]". See 'filetype'.
Y F Type of file in the buffer, e.g., ",VIM". See 'filetype'.
{not available when compiled without |+autocmd| feature}
q S "[Quickfix List]", "[Location List]" or empty.
k S Value of "b:keymap_name" or 'keymap' when |:lmap| mappings are
being used: "<keymap>"
n N Buffer number.
b N Value of character under cursor.
B N As above, in hexadecimal.
o N Byte number in file of byte under cursor, first byte is 1.
Mnemonic: Offset from start of file (with one added)
{not available when compiled without |+byte_offset| feature}
O N As above, in hexadecimal.
N N Printer page number. (Only works in the 'printheader' option.)
l N Line number.
L N Number of lines in buffer.
c N Column number.
v N Virtual column number.
V N Virtual column number as -{num}. Not displayed if equal to 'c'.
p N Percentage through file in lines as in |CTRL-G|.
P S Percentage through file of displayed window. This is like the
percentage described for 'ruler'. Always 3 in length.
a S Argument list status as in default title. ({current} of {max})
Empty if the argument file count is zero or one.

{ NF Evaluate expression between '%{' and '}' and substitute result.

Note that there is no '%' before the closing '}'.
( - Start of item group. Can be used for setting the width and
alignment of a section. Must be followed by %) somewhere.
) - End of item group. No width fields allowed.
T N For 'tabline': start of tab page N label. Use %T after the last
label. This information is used for mouse clicks.
X N For 'tabline': start of close tab N label. Use %X after the
label, e.g.: %3Xclose%X. Use %999X for a "close current tab"
mark. This information is used for mouse clicks.
< - Where to truncate line if too long. Default is at the start.
No width fields allowed.
= - Separation point between left and right aligned items.
No width fields allowed.
# - Set highlight group. The name must follow and then a # again.
Thus use %#HLname# for highlight group HLname. The same
highlighting is used, also for the statusline of non-current
windows.
* - Set highlight group to User{N}, where {N} is taken from the
minwid field, e.g. %1*. Restore normal highlight with %* or %0*.
The difference between User{N} and StatusLine will be applied
to StatusLineNC for the statusline of non-current windows.
The number N must be between 1 and 9. See |hl-User1..9|
When displaying a flag, Vim removes the leading comma, if any, when
that flag comes right after plaintext. This will make a nice display
when flags are used like in the examples below.
When all items in a group becomes an empty string (i.e. flags that are
not set) and a minwid is not set for the group, the whole group will
become empty. This will make a group like the following disappear
completely from the statusline when none of the flags are set.
:set statusline=...%(\ [%M%R%H]%)...
Beware that an expression is evaluated each and every time the status
line is displayed. The current buffer and current window will be set
temporarily to that of the window (and buffer) whose statusline is
currently being drawn. The expression will evaluate in this context.
The variable "actual_curbuf" is set to the 'bufnr()' number of the
real current buffer.
The 'statusline' option may be evaluated in the |sandbox|, see
|sandbox-option|.
evaluating 'statusline' |textlock|.
If the statusline is not updated when you want it (e.g., after setting
a variable that's used in an expression), you can force an update by
setting an option without changing its value. Example:
:let &ro = &ro
A result of all digits is regarded a number for display purposes.
Otherwise the result is taken as flag text and applied to the rules
described above.
Watch out for errors in expressions. They may render Vim unusable!
If you are stuck, hold down ':' or 'Q' to get a prompt, then quit and
edit your .vimrc or whatever with "vim -u NONE" to get it right.
Examples:
Emulate standard status line with 'ruler' set
:set statusline=%<%f\ %h%m%r%=%-14.(%l,%c%V%)\ %P
Similar, but add ASCII value of char under the cursor (like "ga")
:set statusline=%<%f%h%m%r%=%b\ 0x%B\ \ %l,%c%V\ %P
Display byte count and byte value, modified flag in red.
:set statusline=%<%f%=\ [%1*%M%*%n%R%H]\ %-19(%3l,%02c%03V%)%O'%02b'
:hi User1 term=inverse,bold cterm=inverse,bold ctermfg=red
Display a ,GZ flag if a compressed file is loaded
:set statusline=...%r%{VarExists('b:gzflag','\ [GZ]')}%h...
In the YXXY:autocmd|'s:
:let b:gzflag = 1
And:
:unlet b:gzflag
And define this function:
:function VarExists(var, val)
: if exists(a:var) | return a:val | else | return '' | endif
:endfunction

*'suffixes'* *'su'*
'suffixes' 'su' string (default ".bak,~,.o,.h,.info,.swp,.obj")
global
{not in Vi}
Files with these suffixes get a lower priority when multiple files
match a wildcard. See |suffixes|. Commas can be used to separate the
suffixes. Spaces after the comma are ignored. A dot is also seen as
the start of a suffix. To avoid a dot or comma being recognized as a
separator, precede it with a backslash (see |option-backslash| about
including spaces and backslashes).
See 'wildignore' for completely ignoring files.
suffixes from the list. This avoids problems when a future version
*'suffixesadd'* *'sua'*
'suffixesadd' 'sua' string (default "")
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
|+file_in_path| feature}
Comma separated list of suffixes, which are used when searching for a
file for the "gf", "[I", etc. commands. Example:
:set suffixesadd=.java
*'swapfile'* *'swf'* *'noswapfile'* *'noswf'*

'swapfile' 'swf' boolean (default on)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
Use a swapfile for the buffer. This option can be reset when a
swapfile is not wanted for a specific buffer. For example, with
confidential information that even root must not be able to access.
Careful: All text will be in memory:
- Don't use this for big files.
- Recovery will be impossible!
A swapfile will only be present when |'updatecount'| is non-zero and
'swapfile' is set.
When 'swapfile' is reset, the swap file for the current buffer is
immediately deleted. When 'swapfile' is set, and 'updatecount' is
non-zero, a swap file is immediately created.
Also see |swap-file| and |'swapsync'|.
This option is used together with 'bufhidden' and 'buftype' to
specify special kinds of buffers. See |special-buffers|.
*'swapsync'* *'sws'*
'swapsync' 'sws' string (default "fsync")
global
{not in Vi}
When this option is not empty a swap file is synced to disk after
writing to it. This takes some time, especially on busy unix systems.
When this option is empty parts of the swap file may be in memory and
not written to disk. When the system crashes you may lose more work.
On Unix the system does a sync now and then without Vim asking for it,
so the disadvantage of setting this option off is small. On some
systems the swap file will not be written at all. For a unix system
setting it to "sync" will use the sync() call instead of the default
fsync(), which may work better on some systems.
The 'fsync' option is used for the actual file.
*'switchbuf'* *'swb'*
'switchbuf' 'swb' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
This option controls the behavior when switching between buffers.
Possible values (comma separated list):
useopen If included, jump to the first open window that
contains the specified buffer (if there is one).
Otherwise: Do not examine other windows.
This setting is checked with |quickfix| commands, when
jumping to errors (":cc", ":cn", "cp", etc.). It is
also used in all buffer related split commands, for
example ":sbuffer", ":sbnext", or ":sbrewind".
usetab Like "useopen", but also consider windows in other tab
pages.
split If included, split the current window before loading

a buffer. Otherwise: do not split, use current window.

Supported in |quickfix| commands that display errors.
newtab Like "split", but open a new tab page. Overrules
"split" when both are present.
*'synmaxcol'* *'smc'*
'synmaxcol' 'smc' number (default 3000)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
feature}
Maximum column in which to search for syntax items. In long lines the
text after this column is not highlighted and following lines may not
be highlighted correctly, because the syntax state is cleared.
This helps to avoid very slow redrawing for an XML file that is one
long line.
Set to zero to remove the limit.
*'syntax'* *'syn'*
'syntax' 'syn' string (default empty)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
feature}
When this option is set, the syntax with this name is loaded, unless
syntax highlighting has been switched off with ":syntax off".
Otherwise this option does not always reflect the current syntax (the
b:current_syntax variable does).
This option is most useful in a modeline, for a file which syntax is
not automatically recognized. Example, in an IDL file:
/* vim: set syntax=idl : */
When a dot appears in the value then this separates two filetype
names. Example:
/* vim: set syntax=c.doxygen : */
This will use the "c" syntax first, then the "doxygen" syntax.
Note that the second one must be prepared to be loaded as an addition,
otherwise it will be skipped. More than one dot may appear.
To switch off syntax highlighting for the current file, use:
:set syntax=OFF
To switch syntax highlighting on according to the current value of the
'filetype' option:
:set syntax=ON
What actually happens when setting the 'syntax' option is that the
Syntax autocommand event is triggered with the value as argument.
This option is not copied to another buffer, independent of the 's' or
'S' flag in 'cpoptions'.
*'tabline'* *'tal'*
'tabline' 'tal' string (default empty)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
When nonempty, this option determines the content of the tab pages
line at the top of the Vim window. When empty Vim will use a default
tab pages line. See |setting-tabline| for more info.
The tab pages line only appears as specified with the 'showtabline'
option and only when there is no GUI tab line. When 'e' is in
'guioptions' and the GUI supports a tab line 'guitablabel' is used
instead. Note that the two tab pages lines are very different.
The value is evaluated like with 'statusline'. You can use
|tabpagenr()|, |tabpagewinnr()| and |tabpagebuflist()| to figure out
the text to be displayed. Use "%1T" for the first label, "%2T" for
the second one, etc. Use "%X" items for closing labels.
Keep in mind that only one of the tab pages is the current one, others
are invisible and you can't jump to their windows.
*'tabpagemax'* *'tpm'*
'tabpagemax' 'tpm' number (default 10)
global
{not in Vi}


feature}
Maximum number of tab pages to be opened by the |-p| command line
argument or the ":tab all" command. |tabpage|
*'tabstop'* *'ts'*
'tabstop' 'ts' number (default 8)
local to buffer
Number of spaces that a <Tab> in the file counts for. Also see
|:retab| command, and 'softtabstop' option.
Note: Setting 'tabstop' to any other value than 8 can make your file
appear wrong in many places (e.g., when printing it).
There are four main ways to use tabs in Vim:
1. Always keep 'tabstop' at 8, set 'softtabstop' and 'shiftwidth' to 4
(or 3 or whatever you prefer) and use 'noexpandtab'. Then Vim
will use a mix of tabs and spaces, but typing <Tab> and <BS> will
behave like a tab appears every 4 (or 3) characters.
2. Set 'tabstop' and 'shiftwidth' to whatever you prefer and use
'expandtab'. This way you will always insert spaces. The
formatting will never be messed up when 'tabstop' is changed.
3. Set 'tabstop' and 'shiftwidth' to whatever you prefer and use a
|modeline| to set these values when editing the file again. Only
works when using Vim to edit the file.
4. Always set 'tabstop' and 'shiftwidth' to the same value, and
'noexpandtab'. This should then work (for initial indents only)
for any tabstop setting that people use. It might be nice to have
tabs after the first non-blank inserted as spaces if you do this
though. Otherwise aligned comments will be wrong when 'tabstop' is
changed.
*'tagbsearch'* *'tbs'* *'notagbsearch'* *'notbs'*

'tagbsearch' 'tbs' boolean (default on)
global
{not in Vi}
When searching for a tag (e.g., for the |:ta| command), Vim can either
use a binary search or a linear search in a tags file. Binary
searching makes searching for a tag a LOT faster, but a linear search
will find more tags if the tags file wasn't properly sorted.
Vim normally assumes that your tags files are sorted, or indicate that
they are not sorted. Only when this is not the case does the
'tagbsearch' option need to be switched off.
When 'tagbsearch' is on, binary searching is first used in the tags
files. In certain situations, Vim will do a linear search instead for
certain files, or retry all files with a linear search. When
'tagbsearch' is off, only a linear search is done.
Linear searching is done anyway, for one file, when Vim finds a line
at the start of the file indicating that it's not sorted:
!_TAG_FILE_SORTED 0 /some comment/
[The whitespace before and after the '0' must be a single <Tab>]
When a binary search was done and no match was found in any of the
files listed in 'tags', and 'ignorecase' is set or a pattern is used
instead of a normal tag name, a retry is done with a linear search.
Tags in unsorted tags files, and matches with different case will only
be found in the retry.
If a tag file indicates that it is case-fold sorted, the second,
linear search can be avoided for the 'ignorecase' case. Use a value
of '2' in the "!_TAG_FILE_SORTED" line for this. A tag file can be
case-fold sorted with the -f switch to "sort" in most unices, as in
the command: "sort -f -o tags tags". For "Exuberant ctags" version
5.x or higher (at least 5.5) the --sort=foldcase switch can be used
for this as well. Note that case must be folded to uppercase for this
to work.
When 'tagbsearch' is off, tags searching is slower when a full match
exists, but faster when no full match exists. Tags in unsorted tags
files may only be found with 'tagbsearch' off.
When the tags file is not sorted, or sorted in a wrong way (not on
ASCII byte value), 'tagbsearch' should be off, or the line given above
must be included in the tags file.
This option doesn't affect commands that find all matching tags (e.g.,
command-line completion and ":help").

{Vi: always uses binary search in some versions}
*'taglength'* *'tl'*
'taglength' 'tl' number (default 0)
global
If non-zero, tags are significant up to this number of characters.
*'tagrelative'* *'tr'* *'notagrelative'* *'notr'*

'tagrelative' 'tr' boolean (Vim default: on, Vi default: off)
global
{not in Vi}
If on and using a tags file in another directory, file names in that
tags file are relative to the directory where the tags file is.
*'tags'* *'tag'* *E433*

'tags' 'tag' string (default "./tags,tags", when compiled with
|+emacs_tags|: "./tags,./TAGS,tags,TAGS")
Filenames for the tag command, separated by spaces or commas. To
include a space or comma in a file name, precede it with a backslash
(see |option-backslash| about including spaces and backslashes).
When a file name starts with "./", the '.' is replaced with the path
of the current file. But only when the 'd' flag is not included in
'cpoptions'. Environment variables are expanded |:set_env|. Also see
|tags-option|.
"*", "**" and other wildcards can be used to search for tags files in
a directory tree. See |file-searching|. E.g., "/lib/**/tags" will
find all files named "tags" below "/lib". The filename itself cannot
contain wildcards, it is used as-is. E.g., "/lib/**/tags?" will find
files called "tags?". {not available when compiled without the
|+path_extra| feature}
The |tagfiles()| function can be used to get a list of the file names
actually used.
If Vim was compiled with the |+emacs_tags| feature, Emacs-style tag
files are also supported. They are automatically recognized. The
default value becomes "./tags,./TAGS,tags,TAGS", unless case
differences are ignored (MS-Windows). |emacs-tags|
file names from the list. This avoids problems when a future version
{Vi: default is "tags /usr/lib/tags"}
*'tagstack'* *'tgst'* *'notagstack'* *'notgst'*

'tagstack' 'tgst' boolean (default on)
global
{not in all versions of Vi}
When on, the |tagstack| is used normally. When off, a ":tag" or
":tselect" command with an argument will not push the tag onto the
tagstack. A following ":tag" without an argument, a ":pop" command or
any other command that uses the tagstack will use the unmodified
tagstack, but does change the pointer to the active entry.
Resetting this option is useful when using a ":tag" command in a
mapping which should not change the tagstack.
*'term'* *E529* *E530* *E531*

'term' string (default is $TERM, if that fails:
in the GUI: "builtin_gui"
on Amiga: "amiga"
on BeOS: "beos-ansi"
on Mac: "mac-ansi"
on MiNT: "vt52"
on MS-DOS: "pcterm"
on OS/2: "os2ansi"
on Unix: "ansi"
on VMS: "ansi"
on Win 32: "win32")
global
Name of the terminal. Used for choosing the terminal control
characters. Environment variables are expanded |:set_env|.
For example:
:set term=$TERM
See |termcap|.

*'termbidi'* *'tbidi'*
*'notermbidi'* *'notbidi'*
'termbidi' 'tbidi' boolean (default off, on for "mlterm")
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
The terminal is in charge of Bi-directionality of text (as specified
by Unicode). The terminal is also expected to do the required shaping
that some languages (such as Arabic) require.
Setting this option implies that 'rightleft' will not be set when
'arabic' is set and the value of 'arabicshape' will be ignored.
Note that setting 'termbidi' has the immediate effect that
'arabicshape' is ignored, but 'rightleft' isn't changed automatically.
This option is reset when the GUI is started.
For further details see |arabic.txt|.
*'termencoding'* *'tenc'*
'termencoding' 'tenc' string (default ""; with GTK+ 2 GUI: "utf-8"; with
Macintosh GUI: "macroman")
global
feature}
{not in Vi}
Encoding used for the terminal. This specifies what character
encoding the keyboard produces and the display will understand. For
the GUI it only applies to the keyboard ('encoding' is used for the
display). Except for the Mac when 'macatsui' is off, then
'termencoding' should be "macroman".
In the Win32 console version the default value is the console codepage
when it differs from the ANSI codepage.
*E617*
Note: This does not apply to the GTK+ 2 GUI. After the GUI has been
successfully initialized, 'termencoding' is forcibly set to "utf-8".
Any attempts to set a different value will be rejected, and an error
message is shown.
For the Win32 GUI 'termencoding' is not used for typed characters,
because the Win32 system always passes Unicode characters.
When empty, the same encoding is used as for the 'encoding' option.
This is the normal value.
Not all combinations for 'termencoding' and 'encoding' are valid. See
|encoding-table|.
The value for this option must be supported by internal conversions or
iconv(). When this is not possible no conversion will be done and you
will probably experience problems with non-ASCII characters.
Example: You are working with the locale set to euc-jp (Japanese) and
want to edit a UTF-8 file:
:let &termencoding = &encoding
:set encoding=utf-8
You need to do this when your system has no locale support for UTF-8.
*'terse'* *'noterse'*
'terse' boolean (default off)
global
When set: Add 's' flag to 'shortmess' option (this makes the message
for a search that hits the start or end of the file not being
displayed). When reset: Remove 's' flag from 'shortmess' option. {Vi
shortens a lot of messages}
*'textauto'* *'ta'* *'notextauto'* *'nota'*

'textauto' 'ta' boolean (Vim default: on, Vi default: off)
global
{not in Vi}
This option is obsolete. Use 'fileformats'.
For backwards compatibility, when 'textauto' is set, 'fileformats' is
set to the default value for the current system. When 'textauto' is
reset, 'fileformats' is made empty.
*'textmode'* *'tx'* *'notextmode'* *'notx'*

'textmode' 'tx' boolean (MS-DOS, Win32 and OS/2: default on,
others: default off)

local to buffer
{not in Vi}
This option is obsolete. Use 'fileformat'.
For backwards compatibility, when 'textmode' is set, 'fileformat' is
set to "dos". When 'textmode' is reset, 'fileformat' is set to
"unix".
*'textwidth'* *'tw'*
'textwidth' 'tw' number (default 0)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
Maximum width of text that is being inserted. A longer line will be
broken after white space to get this width. A zero value disables
this. 'textwidth' is set to 0 when the 'paste' option is set. When
'textwidth' is zero, 'wrapmargin' may be used. See also
'formatoptions' and |ins-textwidth|.
When 'formatexpr' is set it will be used to break the line.
*'thesaurus'* *'tsr'*
'thesaurus' 'tsr' string (default "")
{not in Vi}
List of file names, separated by commas, that are used to lookup words
for thesaurus completion commands |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-T|. Each line in
the file should contain words with similar meaning, separated by
non-keyword characters (white space is preferred). Maximum line
length is 510 bytes.
To obtain a file to be used here, check out the wordlist FAQ at
http://www.hyphenologist.co.uk .
To include a comma in a file name precede it with a backslash. Spaces
after a comma are ignored, otherwise spaces are included in the file
name. See |option-backslash| about using backslashes.
Backticks cannot be used in this option for security reasons.
*'tildeop'* *'top'* *'notildeop'* *'notop'*

'tildeop' 'top' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
When on: The tilde command "~" behaves like an operator.
*'timeout'* *'to'* *'notimeout'* *'noto'*

'timeout' 'to' boolean (default on)
global
*'ttimeout'* *'nottimeout'*
'ttimeout' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
These two options together determine the behavior when part of a
mapped key sequence or keyboard code has been received:
'timeout' 'ttimeout' action
off off do not time out
on on or off time out on :mappings and key codes
off on time out on key codes
If both options are off, Vim will wait until either the complete
mapping or key sequence has been received, or it is clear that there
is no mapping or key sequence for the received characters. For
example: if you have mapped "vl" and Vim has received 'v', the next
character is needed to see if the 'v' is followed by an 'l'.
When one of the options is on, Vim will wait for about 1 second for
the next character to arrive. After that the already received
characters are interpreted as single characters. The waiting time can
be changed with the 'timeoutlen' option.
On slow terminals or very busy systems timing out may cause
malfunctioning cursor keys. If both options are off, Vim waits
forever after an entered <Esc> if there are key codes that start
with <Esc>. You will have to type <Esc> twice. If you do not have
problems with key codes, but would like to have :mapped key
sequences not timing out in 1 second, set the 'ttimeout' option and

reset the 'timeout' option.

NOTE: 'ttimeout' is reset when 'compatible' is set.
*'timeoutlen'* *'tm'*
'timeoutlen' 'tm' number (default 1000)
global
{not in all versions of Vi}
*'ttimeoutlen'* *'ttm'*
'ttimeoutlen' 'ttm' number (default -1)
global
{not in Vi}
The time in milliseconds that is waited for a key code or mapped key
sequence to complete. Also used for CTRL-\ CTRL-N and CTRL-\ CTRL-G
when part of a command has been typed.
Normally only 'timeoutlen' is used and 'ttimeoutlen' is -1. When a
different timeout value for key codes is desired set 'ttimeoutlen' to
a non-negative number.
ttimeoutlen mapping delay key code delay
< 0 'timeoutlen' 'timeoutlen'
>= 0 'timeoutlen' 'ttimeoutlen'
The timeout only happens when the 'timeout' and 'ttimeout' options
tell so. A useful setting would be
:set timeout timeoutlen=3000 ttimeoutlen=100
(time out on mapping after three seconds, time out on key codes after
a tenth of a second).
*'title'* *'notitle'*
'title' boolean (default off, on when title can be restored)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
When on, the title of the window will be set to the value of
'titlestring' (if it is not empty), or to:
filename [+=-] (path) - VIM
Where:
filename the name of the file being edited
- indicates the file cannot be modified, 'ma' off
+ indicates the file was modified
= indicates the file is read-only
=+ indicates the file is read-only and modified
(path) is the path of the file being edited
- VIM the server name |v:servername| or "VIM"
Only works if the terminal supports setting window titles
(currently Amiga console, Win32 console, all GUI versions and
terminals with a non- empty 't_ts' option - these are Unix xterm and
iris-ansi by default, where 't_ts' is taken from the builtin termcap).
*X11*
When Vim was compiled with HAVE_X11 defined, the original title will
be restored if possible. The output of ":version" will include "+X11"
when HAVE_X11 was defined, otherwise it will be "-X11". This also
works for the icon name |'icon'|.
But: When Vim was started with the |-X| argument, restoring the title
will not work (except in the GUI).
If the title cannot be restored, it is set to the value of 'titleold'.
You might want to restore the title outside of Vim then.
When using an xterm from a remote machine you can use this command:
rsh machine_name xterm -display $DISPLAY &
then the WINDOWID environment variable should be inherited and the
title of the window should change back to what it should be after
exiting Vim.
*'titlelen'*
'titlelen' number (default 85)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Gives the percentage of 'columns' to use for the length of the window
title. When the title is longer, only the end of the path name is
shown. A '<' character before the path name is used to indicate this.
Using a percentage makes this adapt to the width of the window. But

it won't work perfectly, because the actual number of characters

available also depends on the font used and other things in the title
bar. When 'titlelen' is zero the full path is used. Otherwise,
values from 1 to 30000 percent can be used.
'titlelen' is also used for the 'titlestring' option.
*'titleold'*
'titleold' string (default "Thanks for flying Vim")
global
{not in Vi}
{only available when compiled with the |+title|
feature}
This option will be used for the window title when exiting Vim if the
original title cannot be restored. Only happens if 'title' is on or
'titlestring' is not empty.
security reasons.
*'titlestring'*
'titlestring' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
When this option is not empty, it will be used for the title of the
window. This happens only when the 'title' option is on.
Only works if the terminal supports setting window titles (currently
Amiga console, Win32 console, all GUI versions and terminals with a
non-empty 't_ts' option).
When Vim was compiled with HAVE_X11 defined, the original title will
be restored if possible |X11|.
When this option contains printf-style '%' items, they will be
expanded according to the rules used for 'statusline'.
Example:
:auto BufEnter * let &titlestring = hostname() . "/" . expand("%:p")
:set title titlestring=%<%F%=%l/%L-%P titlelen=70
The value of 'titlelen' is used to align items in the middle or right
of the available space.
Some people prefer to have the file name first:
:set titlestring=%t%(\ %M%)%(\ (%{expand(\"%:~:.:h\")})%)%(\ %a%)
Note the use of "%{ }" and an expression to get the path of the file,
without the file name. The "%( %)" constructs are used to add a
separating space only when needed.
NOTE: Use of special characters in 'titlestring' may cause the display
to be garbled (e.g., when it contains a CR or NL character).
{not available when compiled without the |+statusline| feature}
*'toolbar'* *'tb'*
'toolbar' 'tb' string (default "icons,tooltips")
global
{only for |+GUI_GTK|, |+GUI_Athena|, |+GUI_Motif| and
YXXY+GUI_Photon|}
The contents of this option controls various toolbar settings. The
possible values are:
icons Toolbar buttons are shown with icons.
text Toolbar buttons shown with text.
horiz Icon and text of a toolbar button are
horizontally arranged. {only in GTK+ 2 GUI}
tooltips Tooltips are active for toolbar buttons.
Tooltips refer to the popup help text which appears after the mouse
cursor is placed over a toolbar button for a brief moment.
If you want the toolbar to be shown with icons as well as text, do the
following:
:set tb=icons,text
Motif and Athena cannot display icons and text at the same time. They
will show icons if both are requested.
If none of the strings specified in 'toolbar' are valid or if
'toolbar' is empty, this option is ignored. If you want to disable
the toolbar, you need to set the 'guioptions' option. For example:
:set guioptions-=T
Also see |gui-toolbar|.
*'toolbariconsize'* *'tbis'*
'toolbariconsize' 'tbis' string (default "small")
global

{not in Vi}
{only in the GTK+ 2 GUI}
Controls the size of toolbar icons. The possible values are:
tiny Use tiny toolbar icons.
small Use small toolbar icons (default).
medium Use medium-sized toolbar icons.
large Use large toolbar icons.
The exact dimensions in pixels of the various icon sizes depend on
the current theme. Common dimensions are large=32x32, medium=24x24,
small=20x20 and tiny=16x16.
If 'toolbariconsize' is empty, the global default size as determined
by user preferences or the current theme is used.
*'ttybuiltin'* *'tbi'* *'nottybuiltin'* *'notbi'*

'ttybuiltin' 'tbi' boolean (default on)
global
{not in Vi}
When on, the builtin termcaps are searched before the external ones.
When off the builtin termcaps are searched after the external ones.
When this option is changed, you should set the 'term' option next for
the change to take effect, for example:
:set notbi term=$TERM
See also |termcap|.
Rationale: The default for this option is "on", because the builtin
termcap entries are generally better (many systems contain faulty
xterm entries...).
*'ttyfast'* *'tf'* *'nottyfast'* *'notf'*

'ttyfast' 'tf' boolean (default off, on when 'term' is xterm, hpterm,
sun-cmd, screen, rxvt, dtterm or
iris-ansi; also on when running Vim in
a DOS console)
global
{not in Vi}
Indicates a fast terminal connection. More characters will be sent to
the screen for redrawing, instead of using insert/delete line
commands. Improves smoothness of redrawing when there are multiple
windows and the terminal does not support a scrolling region.
Also enables the extra writing of characters at the end of each screen
line for lines that wrap. This helps when using copy/paste with the
mouse in an xterm and other terminals.
*'ttymouse'* *'ttym'*
'ttymouse' 'ttym' string (default depends on 'term')
global
{not in Vi}
{only in Unix and VMS, doesn't work in the GUI; not
available when compiled without YXXY+mouse|}
Name of the terminal type for which mouse codes are to be recognized.
Currently these strings are valid:
*xterm-mouse*
xterm xterm-like mouse handling. The mouse generates
"<Esc>[Mscr", where "scr" is three bytes:
"s" = button state
"c" = column plus 33
"r" = row plus 33
This only works up to 223 columns! See "dec" for a
solution.
xterm2 Works like "xterm", but with the xterm reporting the
mouse position while the mouse is dragged. This works
much faster and more precise. Your xterm must at
least at patchlevel 88 / XFree 3.3.3 for this to
work. See below for how Vim detects this
automatically.
*netterm-mouse*
netterm NetTerm mouse handling. The mouse generates
"<Esc>}r,c<CR>", where "r,c" are two decimal numbers
for the row and column.
*dec-mouse*
dec DEC terminal mouse handling. The mouse generates a
rather complex sequence, starting with "<Esc>[".
This is also available for an Xterm, if it was
configured with "--enable-dec-locator".

*jsbterm-mouse*
jsbterm JSB term mouse handling.
*pterm-mouse*
pterm QNX pterm mouse handling.
The mouse handling must be enabled at compile time |+mouse_xterm|
|+mouse_dec| |+mouse_netterm|.
Only "xterm"(2) is really recognized. NetTerm mouse codes are always
recognized, if enabled at compile time. DEC terminal mouse codes
are recognized if enabled at compile time, and 'ttymouse' is not
"xterm" (because the xterm and dec mouse codes conflict).
This option is automatically set to "xterm", when the 'term' option is
set to a name that starts with "xterm", and 'ttymouse' is not "xterm"
or "xterm2" already. The main use of this option is to set it to
"xterm", when the terminal name doesn't start with "xterm", but it can
handle xterm mouse codes.
The "xterm2" value will be set if the xterm version is reported to be
95 or higher. This only works when compiled with the |+termresponse|
feature and if |t_RV| is set to the escape sequence to request the
xterm version number. Otherwise "xterm2" must be set explicitly.
If you do not want 'ttymouse' to be set to "xterm2" automatically, set
t_RV to an empty string:
:set t_RV=
*'ttyscroll'* *'tsl'*
'ttyscroll' 'tsl' number (default 999)
global
Maximum number of lines to scroll the screen. If there are more lines
to scroll the window is redrawn. For terminals where scrolling is
very slow and redrawing is not slow this can be set to a small number,
e.g., 3, to speed up displaying.
*'ttytype'* *'tty'*
'ttytype' 'tty' string (default from $TERM)
global
Alias for 'term', see above.
*'undodir'* *'udir'*
'undodir' 'udir' string (default ".")
global
{not in Vi}
{only when compiled with the |+persistent_undo| feature}
List of directory names for undo files, separated with commas.
See |'backupdir'| for details of the format.
"." means using the directory of the file. The undo file name for
"file.txt" is ".file.txt.un~".
For other directories the file name is the full path of the edited
file, with path separators replaced with "%".
When writing: The first directory that exists is used. "." always
works, no directories after "." will be used for writing.
When reading all entries are tried to find an undo file. The first
undo file that exists is used. When it cannot be read an error is
given, no further entry is used.
See |undo-persistence|.
*'undofile'* *'udf'*
'undofile' 'udf' boolean (default off)
local to buffer
{not in Vi}
{only when compiled with the |+persistent_undo| feature}
When on, Vim automatically saves undo history to an undo file when
writing a buffer to a file, and restores undo history from the same
file on buffer read.
The directory where the undo file is stored is specified by 'undodir'.
For more information about this feature see |undo-persistence|.
The undo file is not read when 'undoreload' causes the buffer from
before a reload to be saved for undo.
WARNING: this is a very new feature. Use at your own risk!
*'undolevels'* *'ul'*
'undolevels' 'ul' number (default 100, 1000 for Unix, VMS,
Win32 and OS/2)
global

{not in Vi}
Maximum number of changes that can be undone. Since undo information
is kept in memory, higher numbers will cause more memory to be used
(nevertheless, a single change can use an unlimited amount of memory).
Set to 0 for Vi compatibility: One level of undo and "u" undoes
itself:
set ul=0
But you can also get Vi compatibility by including the 'u' flag in
'cpoptions', and still be able to use CTRL-R to repeat undo.
Also see |undo-two-ways|.
Set to a negative number for no undo at all:
set ul=-1
This helps when you run out of memory for a single change.
Also see |clear-undo|.
*'undoreload'* *'ur'*
'undoreload' 'ur' number (default 10000)
global
{not in Vi}
Save the whole buffer for undo when reloading it. This applies to the
":e!" command and reloading for when the buffer changed outside of
Vim. |FileChangedShell|
The save only happens when this options is negative or when the number
of lines is smaller than the value of this option.
Set this option to zero to disable undo for a reload.
When saving undo for a reload, any undo file is not read.
Note that this causes the whole buffer to be stored in memory. Set
this option to a lower value if you run out of memory.
*'updatecount'* *'uc'*
'updatecount' 'uc' number (default: 200)
global
{not in Vi}
After typing this many characters the swap file will be written to
disk. When zero, no swap file will be created at all (see chapter on
recovery |crash-recovery|). 'updatecount' is set to zero by starting
Vim with the "-n" option, see |startup|. When editing in readonly
mode this option will be initialized to 10000.
The swapfile can be disabled per buffer with |'swapfile'|.
When 'updatecount' is set from zero to non-zero, swap files are
created for all buffers that have 'swapfile' set. When 'updatecount'
is set to zero, existing swap files are not deleted.
Also see |'swapsync'|.
This option has no meaning in buffers where |'buftype'| is "nofile"
or "nowrite".
*'updatetime'* *'ut'*
'updatetime' 'ut' number (default 4000)
global
{not in Vi}
If this many milliseconds nothing is typed the swap file will be
written to disk (see |crash-recovery|). Also used for the
|CursorHold| autocommand event.
*'verbose'* *'vbs'*
'verbose' 'vbs' number (default 0)
global
{not in Vi, although some versions have a boolean
verbose option}
When bigger than zero, Vim will give messages about what it is doing.
Currently, these messages are given:
>= 1 When the viminfo file is read or written.
>= 2 When a file is ":source"'ed.
>= 5 Every searched tags file and include file.
>= 8 Files for which a group of autocommands is executed.
>= 9 Every executed autocommand.
>= 12 Every executed function.
>= 13 When an exception is thrown, caught, finished, or discarded.
>= 14 Anything pending in a ":finally" clause.
>= 15 Every executed Ex command (truncated at 200 characters).
This option can also be set with the "-V" argument. See |-V|.
This option is also set by the |:verbose| command.

When the 'verbosefile' option is set then the verbose messages are not
displayed.
*'verbosefile'* *'vfile'*
'verbosefile' 'vfile' string (default empty)
global
{not in Vi}
When not empty all messages are written in a file with this name.
When the file exists messages are appended.
Writing to the file ends when Vim exits or when 'verbosefile' is made
empty. Writes are buffered, thus may not show up for some time.
Setting 'verbosefile' to a new value is like making it empty first.
The difference with |:redir| is that verbose messages are not
displayed when 'verbosefile' is set.
*'viewdir'* *'vdir'*
'viewdir' 'vdir' string (default for Amiga, MS-DOS, OS/2 and Win32:
"$VIM/vimfiles/view",
for Unix: "~/.vim/view",
for Macintosh: "$VIM:vimfiles:view"
for VMS: "sys$login:vimfiles/view"
for RiscOS: "Choices:vimfiles/view")
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Name of the directory where to store files for |:mkview|.
security reasons.
*'viewoptions'* *'vop'*
'viewoptions' 'vop' string (default: "folds,options,cursor")
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Changes the effect of the |:mkview| command. It is a comma separated
list of words. Each word enables saving and restoring something:
word save and restore
cursor cursor position in file and in window
folds manually created folds, opened/closed folds and local
fold options
options options and mappings local to a window or buffer (not
global values for local options)
slash backslashes in file names replaced with forward
slashes
unix with Unix end-of-line format (single <NL>), even when
on Windows or DOS
"slash" and "unix" are useful on Windows when sharing view files
with Unix. The Unix version of Vim cannot source dos format scripts,
but the Windows version of Vim can source unix format scripts.
*'viminfo'* *'vi'* *E526* *E527* *E528*

'viminfo' 'vi' string (Vi default: "", Vim default for MS-DOS,
Windows and OS/2: '100,<50,s10,h,rA:,rB:,
for Amiga: '100,<50,s10,h,rdf0:,rdf1:,rdf2:
for others: '100,<50,s10,h)
global
{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+viminfo|
feature}
When non-empty, the viminfo file is read upon startup and written
when exiting Vim (see |viminfo-file|). The string should be a comma
separated list of parameters, each consisting of a single character
identifying the particular parameter, followed by a number or string
which specifies the value of that parameter. If a particular
character is left out, then the default value is used for that
parameter. The following is a list of the identifying characters and
the effect of their value.
CHAR VALUE
! When included, save and restore global variables that start
with an uppercase letter, and don't contain a lowercase
letter. Thus "KEEPTHIS and "K_L_M" are stored, but "KeepThis"
and "_K_L_M" are not. Nested List and Dict items may not be
read back correctly, you end up with an empty item.

" Maximum number of lines saved for each register. Old name of
the '<' item, with the disadvantage that you need to put a
backslash before the ", otherwise it will be recognized as the
start of a comment!
% When included, save and restore the buffer list. If Vim is
started with a file name argument, the buffer list is not
restored. If Vim is started without a file name argument, the
buffer list is restored from the viminfo file. Buffers
without a file name and buffers for help files are not written
to the viminfo file.
When followed by a number, the number specifies the maximum
number of buffers that are stored. Without a number all
buffers are stored.
'' Maximum number of previously edited files for which the marks
are remembered. This parameter must always be included when
'viminfo' is non-empty.
Including this item also means that the |jumplist| and the
|changelist| are stored in the viminfo file.
/ Maximum number of items in the search pattern history to be
saved. If non-zero, then the previous search and substitute
patterns are also saved. When not included, the value of
'history' is used.
: Maximum number of items in the command-line history to be
saved. When not included, the value of 'history' is used.
< Maximum number of lines saved for each register. If zero then
registers are not saved. When not included, all lines are
saved. '"'' is the old name for this item.
Also see the 's' item below: limit specified in Kbyte.
@ Maximum number of items in the input-line history to be
saved. When not included, the value of 'history' is used.
c When included, convert the text in the viminfo file from the
'encoding' used when writing the file to the current
'encoding'. See |viminfo-encoding|.
f Whether file marks need to be stored. If zero, file marks ('0
to '9, 'A to 'Z) are not stored. When not present or when
non-zero, they are all stored. '0 is used for the current
cursor position (when exiting or when doing ":wviminfo").
h Disable the effect of 'hlsearch' when loading the viminfo
file. When not included, it depends on whether ":nohlsearch"
has been used since the last search command.
n Name of the viminfo file. The name must immediately follow
the 'n'. Must be the last one! If the "-i" argument was
given when starting Vim, that file name overrides the one
given here with 'viminfo'. Environment variables are expanded
when opening the file, not when setting the option.
r Removable media. The argument is a string (up to the next
','). This parameter can be given several times. Each
specifies the start of a path for which no marks will be
stored. This is to avoid removable media. For MS-DOS you
could use "ra:,rb:", for Amiga "rdf0:,rdf1:,rdf2:". You can
also use it for temp files, e.g., for Unix: "r/tmp". Case is
ignored. Maximum length of each 'r' argument is 50
characters.
s Maximum size of an item in Kbyte. If zero then registers are
not saved. Currently only applies to registers. The default
"s10" will exclude registers with more than 10 Kbyte of text.
Also see the '<' item above: line count limit.
Example:
:set viminfo='50,<1000,s100,:0,n~/vim/viminfo
'50 Marks will be remembered for the last 50 files you
edited.
<1000 Contents of registers (up to 1000 lines each) will be
remembered.
s100 Registers with more than 100 Kbyte text are skipped.
:0 Command-line history will not be saved.
n~/vim/viminfo The name of the file to use is "~/vim/viminfo".
no / Since '/' is not specified, the default will be used,
that is, save all of the search history, and also the
previous search and substitute patterns.
no % The buffer list will not be saved nor read back.
no h 'hlsearch' highlighting will be restored.
When setting 'viminfo' from an empty value you can use |:rviminfo| to
load the contents of the file, this is not done automatically.
security reasons.

*'virtualedit'* *'ve'*
'virtualedit' 've' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
|+virtualedit| feature}
A comma separated list of these words:
block Allow virtual editing in Visual block mode.
insert Allow virtual editing in Insert mode.
all Allow virtual editing in all modes.
onemore Allow the cursor to move just past the end of the line
Virtual editing means that the cursor can be positioned where there is
no actual character. This can be halfway into a tab or beyond the end
of the line. Useful for selecting a rectangle in Visual mode and
editing a table.
"onemore" is not the same, it will only allow moving the cursor just
after the last character of the line. This makes some commands more
consistent. Previously the cursor was always past the end of the line
if the line was empty. But it is far from Vi compatible. It may also
break some plugins or Vim scripts. For example because |l| can move
the cursor after the last character. Use with care!
Using the |$| command will move to the last character in the line, not
past it. This may actually move the cursor to the left!
It doesn't make sense to combine "all" with "onemore", but you will
not get a warning for it.
*'visualbell'* *'vb'* *'novisualbell'* *'novb'* *beep*

'visualbell' 'vb' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
Use visual bell instead of beeping. The terminal code to display the
visual bell is given with 't_vb'. When no beep or flash is wanted,
use ":set vb t_vb=".
Note: When the GUI starts, 't_vb' is reset to its default value. You
might want to set it again in your |gvimrc|.
In the GUI, 't_vb' defaults to "<Esc>|f", which inverts the display
for 20 msec. If you want to use a different time, use "<Esc>|40f",
where 40 is the time in msec.
Does not work on the Amiga, you always get a screen flash.
Also see 'errorbells'.
*'warn'* *'nowarn'*
'warn' boolean (default on)
global
Give a warning message when a shell command is used while the buffer
has been changed.
*'weirdinvert'* *'wiv'* *'noweirdinvert'* *'nowiv'*

'weirdinvert' 'wiv' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
This option has the same effect as the 't_xs' terminal option.
It is provided for backwards compatibility with version 4.x.
Setting 'weirdinvert' has the effect of making 't_xs' non-empty, and
vice versa. Has no effect when the GUI is running.
*'whichwrap'* *'ww'*
'whichwrap' 'ww' string (Vim default: "b,s", Vi default: "")
global
{not in Vi}
Allow specified keys that move the cursor left/right to move to the
previous/next line when the cursor is on the first/last character in
the line. Concatenate characters to allow this for these keys:
char key mode
b <BS> Normal and Visual
s <Space> Normal and Visual
h "h" Normal and Visual (not recommended)
l "l" Normal and Visual (not recommended)
< <Left> Normal and Visual
> <Right> Normal and Visual
~ "~" Normal
[ <Left> Insert and Replace
] <Right> Insert and Replace
For example:

:set ww=<,>,[,]
allows wrap only when cursor keys are used.
When the movement keys are used in combination with a delete or change
operator, the <EOL> also counts for a character. This makes "3h"
different from "3dh" when the cursor crosses the end of a line. This
is also true for "x" and "X", because they do the same as "dl" and
"dh". If you use this, you may also want to use the mapping
":map <BS> X" to make backspace delete the character in front of the
cursor.
When 'l' is included and it is used after an operator at the end of a
line then it will not move to the next line. This makes "dl", "cl",
"yl" etc. work normally.
*'wildchar'* *'wc'*
'wildchar' 'wc' number (Vim default: <Tab>, Vi default: CTRL-E)
global
{not in Vi}
Character you have to type to start wildcard expansion in the
command-line, as specified with 'wildmode'.
More info here: |cmdline-completion|.
The character is not recognized when used inside a macro. See
'wildcharm' for that.
Although 'wc' is a number option, you can set it to a special key:
:set wc=<Esc>
*'wildcharm'* *'wcm'*
'wildcharm' 'wcm' number (default: none (0))
global
{not in Vi}
'wildcharm' works exactly like 'wildchar', except that it is
recognized when used inside a macro. You can find "spare" command-line
keys suitable for this option by looking at |ex-edit-index|. Normally
you'll never actually type 'wildcharm', just use it in mappings that
automatically invoke completion mode, e.g.:
:set wcm=<C-Z>
:cnoremap ss so $vim/sessions/*.vim<C-Z>
Then after typing :ss you can use CTRL-P & CTRL-N.
*'wildignore'* *'wig'*
'wildignore' 'wig' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
A list of file patterns. A file that matches with one of these
patterns is ignored when completing file or directory names, and
influences the result of |expand()|, |glob()| and |globpath()| unless
a flag is passed to disable this.
The pattern is used like with |:autocmd|, see |autocmd-patterns|.
Also see 'suffixes'.
Example:
:set wildignore=*.o,*.obj
a pattern from the list. This avoids problems when a future version
*'wildignorecase'* *'wic'* *'nowildignorecase'* *'nowic'*

'wildignorecase' 'wic' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}
When set case is ignored when completing file names and directories.
Has no effect on systems where file name case is generally ignored.
Does not apply when the shell is used to expand wildcards, which
happens when there are special characters.
*'wildmenu'* *'wmnu'* *'nowildmenu'* *'nowmnu'*

'wildmenu' 'wmnu' boolean (default off)
global
{not in Vi}

{not available if compiled without the |+wildmenu|

feature}
When 'wildmenu' is on, command-line completion operates in an enhanced
mode. On pressing 'wildchar' (usually <Tab>) to invoke completion,
the possible matches are shown just above the command line, with the
first match highlighted (overwriting the status line, if there is
one). Keys that show the previous/next match, such as <Tab> or
CTRL-P/CTRL-N, cause the highlight to move to the appropriate match.
When 'wildmode' is used, "wildmenu" mode is used where "full" is
specified. "longest" and "list" do not start "wildmenu" mode.
If there are more matches than can fit in the line, a ">" is shown on
the right and/or a "<" is shown on the left. The status line scrolls
as needed.
The "wildmenu" mode is abandoned when a key is hit that is not used
for selecting a completion.
While the "wildmenu" is active the following keys have special
meanings:
<Left> <Right> - select previous/next match (like CTRL-P/CTRL-N)
<Down> - in filename/menu name completion: move into a
subdirectory or submenu.
<CR> - in menu completion, when the cursor is just after a
dot: move into a submenu.
<Up> - in filename/menu name completion: move up into
parent directory or parent menu.
This makes the menus accessible from the console |console-menus|.
If you prefer the <Left> and <Right> keys to move the cursor instead
of selecting a different match, use this:
:cnoremap <Left> <Space><BS><Left>
:cnoremap <Right> <Space><BS><Right>
The "WildMenu" highlighting is used for displaying the current match
|hl-WildMenu|.
*'wildmode'* *'wim'*
'wildmode' 'wim' string (Vim default: "full")
global
{not in Vi}
Completion mode that is used for the character specified with
'wildchar'. It is a comma separated list of up to four parts. Each
part specifies what to do for each consecutive use of 'wildchar'. The
first part specifies the behavior for the first use of 'wildchar',
The second part for the second use, etc.
These are the possible values for each part:
"" Complete only the first match.
"full" Complete the next full match. After the last match,
the original string is used and then the first match
again.
"longest" Complete till longest common string. If this doesn't
result in a longer string, use the next part.
"longest:full" Like "longest", but also start 'wildmenu' if it is
enabled.
"list" When more than one match, list all matches.
"list:full" When more than one match, list all matches and
complete first match.
"list:longest" When more than one match, list all matches and
complete till longest common string.
When there is only a single match, it is fully completed in all cases.
Examples:
:set wildmode=full
Complete first full match, next match, etc. (the default)
:set wildmode=longest,full
Complete longest common string, then each full match
:set wildmode=list:full
List all matches and complete each full match
:set wildmode=list,full
List all matches without completing, then each full match
:set wildmode=longest,list
Complete longest common string, then list alternatives.
More info here: |cmdline-completion|.
*'wildoptions'* *'wop'*
'wildoptions' 'wop' string (default "")
global
{not in Vi}


feature}
A list of words that change how command line completion is done.
Currently only one word is allowed:
tagfile When using CTRL-D to list matching tags, the kind of
tag and the file of the tag is listed. Only one match
is displayed per line. Often used tag kinds are:
d #define
f function
Also see |cmdline-completion|.
*'winaltkeys'* *'wak'*
'winaltkeys' 'wak' string (default "menu")
global
{not in Vi}
{only used in Win32, Motif, GTK and Photon GUI}
Some GUI versions allow the access to menu entries by using the ALT
key in combination with a character that appears underlined in the
menu. This conflicts with the use of the ALT key for mappings and
entering special characters. This option tells what to do:
no Don't use ALT keys for menus. ALT key combinations can be
mapped, but there is no automatic handling. This can then be
done with the |:simalt| command.
yes ALT key handling is done by the windowing system. ALT key
combinations cannot be mapped.
menu Using ALT in combination with a character that is a menu
shortcut key, will be handled by the windowing system. Other
keys can be mapped.
If the menu is disabled by excluding 'm' from 'guioptions', the ALT
key is never used for the menu.
This option is not used for <F10>; on Win32 and with GTK <F10> will
select the menu, unless it has been mapped.
*'window'* *'wi'*
'window' 'wi' number (default screen height - 1)
global
Window height. Do not confuse this with the height of the Vim window,
use 'lines' for that.
Used for |CTRL-F| and |CTRL-B| when there is only one window and the
value is smaller than 'lines' minus one. The screen will scroll
'window' minus two lines, with a minimum of one.
When 'window' is equal to 'lines' minus one CTRL-F and CTRL-B scroll
in a much smarter way, taking care of wrapping lines.
When resizing the Vim window, the value is smaller than 1 or more than
or equal to 'lines' it will be set to 'lines' minus 1.
{Vi also uses the option to specify the number of displayed lines}
*'winheight'* *'wh'* *E591*

'winheight' 'wh' number (default 1)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Minimal number of lines for the current window. This is not a hard
minimum, Vim will use fewer lines if there is not enough room. If the
focus goes to a window that is smaller, its size is increased, at the
cost of the height of other windows.
Set 'winheight' to a small number for normal editing.
Set it to 999 to make the current window fill most of the screen.
Other windows will be only 'winminheight' high. This has the drawback
that ":all" will create only two windows. To avoid "vim -o 1 2 3 4"
to create only two windows, set the option after startup is done,
using the |VimEnter| event:
au VimEnter * set winheight=999
Minimum value is 1.
The height is not adjusted after one of the commands that change the
height of the current window.
'winheight' applies to the current window. Use 'winminheight' to set
the minimal height for other windows.
*'winfixheight'* *'wfh'* *'nowinfixheight'* *'nowfh'*

'winfixheight' 'wfh' boolean (default off)
local to window
{not in Vi}
feature}

Keep the window height when windows are opened or closed and
'equalalways' is set. Also for |CTRL-W_=|. Set by default for the
|preview-window| and |quickfix-window|.
The height may be changed anyway when running out of room.
*'winfixwidth'* *'wfw'* *'nowinfixwidth'* *'nowfw'*

'winfixwidth' 'wfw' boolean (default off)
local to window
{not in Vi}
feature}
Keep the window width when windows are opened or closed and
'equalalways' is set. Also for |CTRL-W_=|.
The width may be changed anyway when running out of room.
*'winminheight'* *'wmh'*
'winminheight' 'wmh' number (default 1)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
The minimal height of a window, when it's not the current window.
This is a hard minimum, windows will never become smaller.
When set to zero, windows may be "squashed" to zero lines (i.e. just a
status bar) if necessary. They will return to at least one line when
they become active (since the cursor has to have somewhere to go.)
Use 'winheight' to set the minimal height of the current window.
This option is only checked when making a window smaller. Don't use a
large number, it will cause errors when opening more than a few
windows. A value of 0 to 3 is reasonable.
*'winminwidth'* *'wmw'*
'winminwidth' 'wmw' number (default 1)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
The minimal width of a window, when it's not the current window.
This is a hard minimum, windows will never become smaller.
When set to zero, windows may be "squashed" to zero columns (i.e. just
a vertical separator) if necessary. They will return to at least one
line when they become active (since the cursor has to have somewhere
to go.)
Use 'winwidth' to set the minimal width of the current window.
This option is only checked when making a window smaller. Don't use a
large number, it will cause errors when opening more than a few
windows. A value of 0 to 12 is reasonable.
*'winwidth'* *'wiw'* *E592*

'winwidth' 'wiw' number (default 20)
global
{not in Vi}
feature}
Minimal number of columns for the current window. This is not a hard
minimum, Vim will use fewer columns if there is not enough room. If
the current window is smaller, its size is increased, at the cost of
the width of other windows. Set it to 999 to make the current window
always fill the screen. Set it to a small number for normal editing.
The width is not adjusted after one of the commands to change the
width of the current window.
'winwidth' applies to the current window. Use 'winminwidth' to set
the minimal width for other windows.
*'wrap'* *'nowrap'*
'wrap' boolean (default on)
local to window
{not in Vi}
This option changes how text is displayed. It doesn't change the text
in the buffer, see 'textwidth' for that.
When on, lines longer than the width of the window will wrap and
displaying continues on the next line. When off lines will not wrap
and only part of long lines will be displayed. When the cursor is
moved to a part that is not shown, the screen will scroll
horizontally.

The line will be broken in the middle of a word if necessary. See

'linebreak' to get the break at a word boundary.
To make scrolling horizontally a bit more useful, try this:
:set sidescroll=5
:set listchars+=precedes:<,extends:>
See 'sidescroll', 'listchars' and |wrap-off|.
This option can't be set from a |modeline| when the 'diff' option is
on.
*'wrapmargin'* *'wm'*
'wrapmargin' 'wm' number (default 0)
local to buffer
Number of characters from the right window border where wrapping
starts. When typing text beyond this limit, an <EOL> will be inserted
and inserting continues on the next line.
Options that add a margin, such as 'number' and 'foldcolumn', cause
the text width to be further reduced. This is Vi compatible.
When 'textwidth' is non-zero, this option is not used.
See also 'formatoptions' and |ins-textwidth|. {Vi: works differently
and less usefully}
*'wrapscan'* *'ws'* *'nowrapscan'* *'nows'*

'wrapscan' 'ws' boolean (default on) *E384* *E385*
global
Searches wrap around the end of the file. Also applies to |]s| and
|[s|, searching for spelling mistakes.
*'write'* *'nowrite'*
'write' boolean (default on)
global
{not in Vi}
Allows writing files. When not set, writing a file is not allowed.
Can be used for a view-only mode, where modifications to the text are
still allowed. Can be reset with the |-m| or |-M| command line
argument. Filtering text is still possible, even though this requires
writing a temporary file.
*'writeany'* *'wa'* *'nowriteany'* *'nowa'*

'writeany' 'wa' boolean (default off)
global
Allows writing to any file with no need for "!" override.
*'writebackup'* *'wb'* *'nowritebackup'* *'nowb'*

'writebackup' 'wb' boolean (default on with |+writebackup| feature, off
otherwise)
global
{not in Vi}
Make a backup before overwriting a file. The backup is removed after
the file was successfully written, unless the 'backup' option is
also on. Reset this option if your file system is almost full. See
|backup-table| for another explanation.
When the 'backupskip' pattern matches, a backup is not made anyway.
NOTE: This option is set to the default value when 'compatible' is
set.
*'writedelay'* *'wd'*
'writedelay' 'wd' number (default 0)
global
{not in Vi}
The number of microseconds to wait for each character sent to the
screen. When non-zero, characters are sent to the terminal one by
one. For MS-DOS pcterm this does not work. For debugging purposes.
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: quickref
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*quickref.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Dec 02

Quick reference guide
*quickref* *Contents*
tag subject tag subject
|Q_ct| list of help files |Q_re| Repeating commands
|Q_lr| motion: Left-right |Q_km| Key mapping
|Q_ud| motion: Up-down |Q_ab| Abbreviations
|Q_tm| motion: Text object |Q_op| Options
|Q_pa| motion: Pattern searches |Q_ur| Undo/Redo commands
|Q_ma| motion: Marks |Q_et| External commands
|Q_vm| motion: Various |Q_qf| Quickfix commands
|Q_ta| motion: Using tags |Q_vc| Various commands
|Q_sc| Scrolling |Q_ce| Ex: Command-line editing
|Q_in| insert: Inserting text |Q_ra| Ex: Ranges
|Q_ai| insert: Keys |Q_ex| Ex: Special characters
|Q_ss| insert: Special keys |Q_st| Starting Vim
|Q_di| insert: Digraphs |Q_ed| Editing a file
|Q_si| insert: Special inserts |Q_fl| Using the argument list
|Q_de| change: Deleting text |Q_wq| Writing and quitting
|Q_cm| change: Copying and moving |Q_ac| Automatic commands
|Q_ch| change: Changing text |Q_wi| Multi-window commands
|Q_co| change: Complex |Q_bu| Buffer list commands
|Q_vi| Visual mode |Q_sy| Syntax highlighting
|Q_to| Text objects |Q_gu| GUI commands
|Q_fo| Folding
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
N is used to indicate an optional count that can be given before the command.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_lr* Left-right motions
|h| N h left (also: CTRL-H, <BS>, or <Left> key)
|l| N l right (also: <Space> or <Right> key)
|0| 0 to first character in the line (also: <Home> key)
|^| ^ to first non-blank character in the line
|$| N $ to the last character in the line (N-1 lines lower)
(also: <End> key)
|g0| g0 to first character in screen line (differs from "0"
when lines wrap)
|g^| g^ to first non-blank character in screen line (differs
from "^" when lines wrap)
|g$| N g$ to last character in screen line (differs from "$"
when lines wrap)
|gm| gm to middle of the screen line
|bar| N | to column N (default: 1)
|f| N f{char} to the Nth occurrence of {char} to the right
|F| N F{char} to the Nth occurrence of {char} to the left
|t| N t{char} till before the Nth occurrence of {char} to the right
|T| N T{char} till before the Nth occurrence of {char} to the left
|;| N ; repeat the last "f", "F", "t", or "T" N times
|,| N , repeat the last "f", "F", "t", or "T" N times in
opposite direction
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_ud* Up-down motions
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/quickref.html[2019/03/05 11:41:24 AM]

|k| N k up N lines (also: CTRL-P and <Up>)

|j| N j down N lines (also: CTRL-J, CTRL-N, <NL>, and <Down>)
|-| N - up N lines, on the first non-blank character
|+| N + down N lines, on the first non-blank character (also:
CTRL-M and <CR>)
|_| N _ down N-1 lines, on the first non-blank character
|G| N G goto line N (default: last line), on the first
non-blank character
|gg| N gg goto line N (default: first line), on the first
non-blank character
|N%| N % goto line N percentage down in the file; N must be
given, otherwise it is the |%| command
|gk| N gk up N screen lines (differs from "k" when line wraps)
|gj| N gj down N screen lines (differs from "j" when line wraps)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_tm* Text object motions
|w| N w N words forward
|W| N W N blank-separated |WORD|s forward
|e| N e forward to the end of the Nth word
|E| N E forward to the end of the Nth blank-separated |WORD|
|b| N b N words backward
|B| N B N blank-separated |WORD|s backward
|ge| N ge backward to the end of the Nth word
|gE| N gE backward to the end of the Nth blank-separated |WORD|
|)| N ) N sentences forward
|(| N ( N sentences backward
|}| N } N paragraphs forward
|{| N { N paragraphs backward
|]]| N ]] N sections forward, at start of section
|[[| N [[ N sections backward, at start of section
|][| N ][ N sections forward, at end of section
|[]| N [] N sections backward, at end of section
|[(| N [( N times back to unclosed '('
|[{| N [{ N times back to unclosed '{'
|[m| N [m N times back to start of method (for Java)
|[M| N [M N times back to end of method (for Java)
|])| N ]) N times forward to unclosed ')'
|]}| N ]} N times forward to unclosed '}'
|]m| N ]m N times forward to start of method (for Java)
|]M| N ]M N times forward to end of method (for Java)
|[#| N [# N times back to unclosed "#if" or "#else"
|]#| N ]# N times forward to unclosed "#else" or "#endif"
|[star| N [* N times back to start of comment "/*"
|]star| N ]* N times forward to end of comment "*/"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_pa* Pattern searches
|/| N /{pattern}[/[offset]]<CR>
search forward for the Nth occurrence of {pattern}
|?| N ?{pattern}[?[offset]]<CR>
search backward for the Nth occurrence of {pattern}
|/<CR>| N /<CR> repeat last search, in the forward direction
|?<CR>| N ?<CR> repeat last search, in the backward direction
|n| N n repeat last search
|N| N N repeat last search, in opposite direction
|star| N * search forward for the identifier under the cursor
|#| N # search backward for the identifier under the cursor
|gstar| N g* like "*", but also find partial matches
|g#| N g# like "#", but also find partial matches
|gd| gd goto local declaration of identifier under the cursor
|gD| gD goto global declaration of identifier under the cursor
|pattern| Special characters in search patterns
meaning magic nomagic
matches any single character . \.
matches start of line ^ ^
matches <EOL> $ $
matches start of word \< \<
matches end of word \> \>
matches a single char from the range [a-z] \[a-z]
matches a single char not in the range [â-z] \[â-z]
matches an identifier char \i \i
idem but excluding digits \I \I
matches a keyword character \k \k
idem but excluding digits \K \K

matches a file name character \f \f

idem but excluding digits \F \F
matches a printable character \p \p
idem but excluding digits \P \P
matches a white space character \s \s
matches a non-white space character \S \S
matches <Esc> \e \e
matches <Tab> \t \t
matches <CR> \r \r
matches <BS> \b \b
matches 0 or more of the preceding atom * \*
matches 1 or more of the preceding atom \+ \+
matches 0 or 1 of the preceding atom \= \=
matches 2 to 5 of the preceding atom \{2,5} \{2,5}
separates two alternatives \| \|
group a pattern into an atom  
|search-offset| Offsets allowed after search command
[num] [num] lines downwards, in column 1
+[num] [num] lines downwards, in column 1
-[num] [num] lines upwards, in column 1
e[+num] [num] characters to the right of the end of the match
e[-num] [num] characters to the left of the end of the match
s[+num] [num] characters to the right of the start of the match
s[-num] [num] characters to the left of the start of the match
b[+num] [num] identical to s[+num] above (mnemonic: begin)
b[-num] [num] identical to s[-num] above (mnemonic: begin)
;{search-command} execute {search-command} next
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_ma* Marks and motions
|m| m{a-zA-Z}
mark current position with mark {a-zA-Z}
|à| `{a-z}go to mark {a-z} within current file
|À| `{A-Z}go to mark {A-Z} in any file
|`0| `{0-9}go to the position where Vim was previously exited
|``| `` go to the position before the last jump
|`quote| `" go to the position when last editing this file
|`[| `[ go to the start of the previously operated or put text
|`]| `] go to the end of the previously operated or put text
|`<| `< go to the start of the (previous) Visual area
|`>| `> go to the end of the (previous) Visual area
|`.| `. go to the position of the last change in this file
|'| '{a-zA-Z0-9[]'"'<>.}
same as `, but on the first non-blank in the line
|:marks| :marks print the active marks
|CTRL-O| N CTRL-O go to Nth older position in jump list
|CTRL-I| N CTRL-I go to Nth newer position in jump list
|:ju| :ju[mps] print the jump list
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_vm* Various motions
|%| % find the next brace, bracket, comment, or "#if"/
"#else"/"#endif" in this line and go to its match
|H| N H go to the Nth line in the window, on the first
non-blank
|M| M go to the middle line in the window, on the first
non-blank
|L| N L go to the Nth line from the bottom, on the first
non-blank
|go| N go go to Nth byte in the buffer
|:go| :[range]go[to] [off] go to [off] byte in the buffer
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_ta* Using tags
|:ta| :ta[g][!] {tag} jump to tag {tag}
|:ta| :[count]ta[g][!] jump to [count]'th newer tag in tag list
|CTRL-]| CTRL-] jump to the tag under cursor, unless changes
have been made
|:ts| :ts[elect][!] [tag] list matching tags and select one to jump to
|:tjump| :tj[ump][!] [tag] jump to tag [tag] or select from list when
there are multiple matches
|:ltag| :lt[ag][!] [tag] jump to tag [tag] and add matching tags to the
location list

|:tags| :tags print tag list

|CTRL-T| N CTRL-T jump back from Nth older tag in tag list
|:po| :[count]po[p][!] jump back from [count]'th older tag in tag list
|:tnext| :[count]tn[ext][!] jump to [count]'th next matching tag
|:tp| :[count]tp[revious][!] jump to [count]'th previous matching tag
|:tr| :[count]tr[ewind][!] jump to [count]'th matching tag
|:tl| :tl[ast][!] jump to last matching tag
|:ptag| :pt[ag] {tag} open a preview window to show tag {tag}
|CTRL-W_}| CTRL-W } like CTRL-] but show tag in preview window
|:pts| :pts[elect] like ":tselect" but show tag in preview window
|:ptjump| :ptj[ump] like ":tjump" but show tag in preview window
|:pclose| :pc[lose] close tag preview window
|CTRL-W_z| CTRL-W z close tag preview window
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_sc* Scrolling
|CTRL-E| N CTRL-E window N lines downwards (default: 1)
|CTRL-D| N CTRL-D window N lines Downwards (default: 1/2 window)
|CTRL-F| N CTRL-F window N pages Forwards (downwards)
|CTRL-Y| N CTRL-Y window N lines upwards (default: 1)
|CTRL-U| N CTRL-U window N lines Upwards (default: 1/2 window)
|CTRL-B| N CTRL-B window N pages Backwards (upwards)
|z<CR>| z<CR> or zt redraw, current line at top of window
|z.| z. or zz redraw, current line at center of window
|z-| z- or zb redraw, current line at bottom of window
These only work when 'wrap' is off:
|zh| N zh scroll screen N characters to the right
|zl| N zl scroll screen N characters to the left
|zH| N zH scroll screen half a screenwidth to the right
|zL| N zL scroll screen half a screenwidth to the left
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_in* Inserting text
|a| N a append text after the cursor (N times)
|A| N A append text at the end of the line (N times)
|i| N i insert text before the cursor (N times) (also: <Insert>)
|I| N I insert text before the first non-blank in the line (N times)
|gI| N gI insert text in column 1 (N times)
|o| N o open a new line below the current line, append text (N times)
|O| N O open a new line above the current line, append text (N times)
|:startinsert| :star[tinsert][!] start Insert mode, append when [!] used
|:startreplace| :startr[eplace][!] start Replace mode, at EOL when [!] used
in Visual block mode:
|v_b_I| I insert the same text in front of all the selected lines
|v_b_A| A append the same text after all the selected lines
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_ai* Insert mode keys
|insert-index| alphabetical index of Insert mode commands
leaving Insert mode:
|i_<Esc>| <Esc> end Insert mode, back to Normal mode
|i_CTRL-C| CTRL-C like <Esc>, but do not use an abbreviation
|i_CTRL-O| CTRL-O {command} execute {command} and return to Insert mode
moving around:
|i_<Up>| cursor keys move cursor left/right/up/down
|i_<S-Left>| shift-left/right one word left/right
|i_<S-Up>| shift-up/down one screenful backward/forward
|i_<End>| <End> cursor after last character in the line
|i_<Home>| <Home> cursor to first character in the line
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_ss* Special keys in Insert mode
|i_CTRL-V| CTRL-V {char}.. insert character literally, or enter decimal
byte value
|i_<NL>| <NL> or <CR> or CTRL-M or CTRL-J
begin new line
|i_CTRL-E| CTRL-E insert the character from below the cursor
|i_CTRL-Y| CTRL-Y insert the character from above the cursor
|i_CTRL-A| CTRL-A insert previously inserted text

|i_CTRL-@| CTRL-@ insert previously inserted text and stop

Insert mode
|i_CTRL-R| CTRL-R {0-9a-z%#:.-="} insert the contents of a register
|i_CTRL-N| CTRL-N insert next match of identifier before the
cursor
|i_CTRL-P| CTRL-P insert previous match of identifier before
the cursor
|i_CTRL-X| CTRL-X ... complete the word before the cursor in
various ways
|i_<BS>| <BS> or CTRL-H delete the character before the cursor
|i_<Del>| <Del> delete the character under the cursor
|i_CTRL-W| CTRL-W delete word before the cursor
|i_CTRL-U| CTRL-U delete all entered characters in the current
line
|i_CTRL-T| CTRL-T insert one shiftwidth of indent in front of
the current line
|i_CTRL-D| CTRL-D delete one shiftwidth of indent in front of
the current line
|i_0_CTRL-D| 0 CTRL-D delete all indent in the current line
|i_^_CTRL-D| ^ CTRL-D delete all indent in the current line,
restore indent in next line
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_di* Digraphs
|:dig| :dig[raphs] show current list of digraphs
|:dig| :dig[raphs] {char1}{char2} {number} ...
add digraph(s) to the list
In Insert or Command-line mode:
|i_CTRL-K| CTRL-K {char1} {char2}
enter digraph
|i_digraph| {char1} <BS> {char2}
enter digraph if 'digraph' option set
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_si* Special inserts
|:r| :r [file]
insert the contents of [file] below the cursor
|:r!| :r! {command}
insert the standard output of {command} below the
cursor
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_de* Deleting text
|x| N x delete N characters under and after the cursor
|<Del>| N <Del> delete N characters under and after the cursor
|X| N X delete N characters before the cursor
|d| N d{motion} delete the text that is moved over with {motion}
|v_d| {visual}d delete the highlighted text
|dd| N dd delete N lines
|D| N D delete to the end of the line (and N-1 more lines)
|J| N J join N-1 lines (delete <EOL>s)
|v_J| {visual}J join the highlighted lines
|gJ| N gJ like "J", but without inserting spaces
|v_gJ| {visual}gJ like "{visual}J", but without inserting spaces
|:d| :[range]d [x] delete [range] lines [into register x]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_cm* Copying and moving text
|quote| "{char} use register {char} for the next delete, yank, or put
|:reg| :reg show the contents of all registers
|:reg| :reg {arg} show the contents of registers mentioned in {arg}
|y| N y{motion} yank the text moved over with {motion} into a register
|v_y| {visual}y yank the highlighted text into a register
|yy| N yy yank N lines into a register
|Y| N Y yank N lines into a register
|p| N p put a register after the cursor position (N times)
|P| N P put a register before the cursor position (N times)
|]p| N ]p like p, but adjust indent to current line
|[p| N [p like P, but adjust indent to current line
|gp| N gp like p, but leave cursor after the new text
|gP| N gP like P, but leave cursor after the new text
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_ch* Changing text

|r| N r{char} replace N characters with {char}

|gr| N
gr{char} replace N characters without affecting layout
|R| N R enter Replace mode (repeat the entered text N times)
|gR| N gR enter virtual Replace mode: Like Replace mode but
without affecting layout
|v_b_r| {visual}r{char}
in Visual block mode: Replace each char of the
selected text with {char}
(change = delete text and enter Insert mode)
|c| N c{motion} change the text that is moved over with {motion}
|v_c| {visual}c change the highlighted text
|cc| N cc change N lines
|S| N S change N lines
|C| N C change to the end of the line (and N-1 more lines)
|s| N s change N characters
|v_b_c| {visual}c in Visual block mode: Change each of the selected
lines with the entered text
|v_b_C| {visual}C in Visual block mode: Change each of the selected
lines until end-of-line with the entered text
|~| N ~ switch case for N characters and advance cursor
|v_~| {visual}~ switch case for highlighted text
|v_u| {visual}u make highlighted text lowercase
|v_U| {visual}U make highlighted text uppercase
|g~| g~{motion} switch case for the text that is moved over with
{motion}
|gu| gu{motion} make the text that is moved over with {motion}
lowercase
|gU| gU{motion} make the text that is moved over with {motion}
uppercase
|v_g?| {visual}g? perform rot13 encoding on highlighted text
|g?| g?{motion} perform rot13 encoding on the text that is moved over
with {motion}
|CTRL-A| N CTRL-A add N to the number at or after the cursor
|CTRL-X| N CTRL-X subtract N from the number at or after the cursor
|<| N <{motion}
move the lines that are moved over with {motion} one
shiftwidth left
|<<| N << move N lines one shiftwidth left
|>| N >{motion} move the lines that are moved over with {motion} one
shiftwidth right
|>>| N >> move N lines one shiftwidth right
|gq| N gq{motion} format the lines that are moved over with {motion} to
'textwidth' length
|:ce| :[range]ce[nter] [width]
center the lines in [range]
|:le| :[range]le[ft] [indent]
left-align the lines in [range] (with [indent])
|:ri| :[range]ri[ght] [width]
right-align the lines in [range]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_co* Complex changes
|!| N
!{motion}{command}<CR>
filter the lines that are moved over through {command}
|!!| N !!{command}<CR>
filter N lines through {command}
|v_!| {visual}!{command}<CR>
filter the highlighted lines through {command}
|:range!| :[range]! {command}<CR>
filter [range] lines through {command}
|=| N ={motion}
filter the lines that are moved over through 'equalprg'
|==| N == filter N lines through 'equalprg'
|v_=| {visual}=
filter the highlighted lines through 'equalprg'
|:s| :[range]s[ubstitute]/{pattern}/{string}/[g][c]
substitute {pattern} by {string} in [range] lines;
with [g], replace all occurrences of {pattern};
with [c], confirm each replacement
|:s| :[range]s[ubstitute] [g][c]
repeat previous ":s" with new range and options
|&| & Repeat previous ":s" on current line without options
|:ret| :[range]ret[ab][!] [tabstop]
set 'tabstop' to new value and adjust white space
accordingly
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Q_vi* Visual mode

|visual-index| list of Visual mode commands.
|v| v start highlighting characters } move cursor and use
|V| V start highlighting linewise } operator to affect
|CTRL-V| CTRL-V start highlighting blockwise } highlighted text
|v_o| o exchange cursor position with start of highlighting
|gv| gv start highlighting on previous visual area
|v_v| v highlight characters or stop highlighting
|v_V| V highlight linewise or stop highlighting
|v_CTRL-V| CTRL-V highlight blockwise or stop highlighting
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_to* Text objects (only in Visual mode or after an operator)
|v_aw| N aw Select "a word"
|v_iw| N iw Select "inner word"
|v_aW| N aW Select "a |WORD|"
|v_iW| N iW Select "inner |WORD|"
|v_as| N as Select "a sentence"
|v_is| N is Select "inner sentence"
|v_ap| N ap Select "a paragraph"
|v_ip| N ip Select "inner paragraph"
|v_ab| N ab Select "a block" (from "[(" to "])")
|v_ib| N ib Select "inner block" (from "[(" to "])")
|v_aB| N aB Select "a Block" (from "[{" to "]}")
|v_iB| N iB Select "inner Block" (from "[{" to "]}")
|v_a>| N a> Select "a <> block"
|v_i>| N i> Select "inner <> block"
|v_at| N at Select "a tag block" (from <aaa> to </aaa>)
|v_it| N it Select "inner tag block" (from <aaa> to </aaa>)
|v_a'| N a' Select "a single quoted string"
|v_i'| N i' Select "inner single quoted string"
|v_aquote| N a" Select "a double quoted string"
|v_iquote| N i" Select "inner double quoted string"
|v_a`| N a` Select "a backward quoted string"
|v_i`| N i` Select "inner backward quoted string"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_re* Repeating commands
|.| N . repeat last change (with count replaced with N)
|q| q{a-z}
record typed characters into register {a-z}
|q| q{A-Z}
record typed characters, appended to register {a-z}
|q| q stop recording
|@| N @{a-z}
execute the contents of register {a-z} (N times)
|@@| N @@ repeat previous @{a-z} (N times)
|:@| :@{a-z}
execute the contents of register {a-z} as an Ex
command
|:@@| :@@ repeat previous :@{a-z}
|:g| :[range]g[lobal]/{pattern}/[cmd]
execute Ex command [cmd] (default: ":p") on the lines
within [range] where {pattern} matches
|:g| :[range]g[lobal]!/{pattern}/[cmd]
execute Ex command [cmd] (default: ":p") on the lines
within [range] where {pattern} does NOT match
|:so| :so[urce] {file}
read Ex commands from {file}
|:so| :so[urce]! {file}
read Vim commands from {file}
|:sl| :sl[eep] [sec]
don't do anything for [sec] seconds
|gs| N gs goto Sleep for N seconds
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_km* Key mapping
|:map| :ma[p] {lhs} {rhs} map {lhs} to {rhs} in Normal and Visual mode
|:map!| :ma[p]! {lhs} {rhs} map {lhs} to {rhs} in Insert and Command-line
mode
|:noremap| :no[remap][!] {lhs} {rhs}
same as ":map", no remapping for this {rhs}
|:unmap| :unm[ap] {lhs} remove the mapping of {lhs} for Normal and
Visual mode
|:unmap!| :unm[ap]! {lhs} remove the mapping of {lhs} for Insert and
Command-line mode
|:map_l| :ma[p] [lhs] list mappings (starting with [lhs]) for

Normal and Visual mode

|:map_l!| :ma[p]! [lhs] list mappings (starting with [lhs]) for
Insert and Command-line mode
|:cmap| :cmap/:cunmap/:cnoremap
like ":map!"/":unmap!"/":noremap!" but for
Command-line mode only
|:imap| :imap/:iunmap/:inoremap
like ":map!"/":unmap!"/":noremap!" but for
Insert mode only
|:nmap| :nmap/:nunmap/:nnoremap
like ":map"/":unmap"/":noremap" but for
Normal mode only
|:vmap| :vmap/:vunmap/:vnoremap
like ":map"/":unmap"/":noremap" but for
Visual mode only
|:omap| :omap/:ounmap/:onoremap
like ":map"/":unmap"/":noremap" but only for
when an operator is pending
|:mapc| :mapc[lear] remove mappings for Normal and Visual mode
|:mapc| :mapc[lear]! remove mappings for Insert and Cmdline mode
|:imapc| :imapc[lear] remove mappings for Insert mode
|:vmapc| :vmapc[lear] remove mappings for Visual mode
|:omapc| :omapc[lear] remove mappings for Operator-pending mode
|:nmapc| :nmapc[lear] remove mappings for Normal mode
|:cmapc| :cmapc[lear] remove mappings for Cmdline mode
|:mkexrc| :mk[exrc][!] [file] write current mappings, abbreviations, and
settings to [file] (default: ".exrc";
use ! to overwrite)
|:mkvimrc| :mkv[imrc][!] [file]
same as ":mkexrc", but with default ".vimrc"
|:mksession| :mks[ession][!] [file]
like ":mkvimrc", but store current files,
windows, etc. too, to be able to continue
this session later
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_ab* Abbreviations
|:abbreviate| :ab[breviate] {lhs} {rhs} add abbreviation for {lhs} to {rhs}
|:abbreviate| :ab[breviate] {lhs} show abbr's that start with {lhs}
|:abbreviate| :ab[breviate] show all abbreviations
|:unabbreviate| :una[bbreviate] {lhs} remove abbreviation for {lhs}
|:noreabbrev| :norea[bbrev] [lhs] [rhs] like ":ab", but don't remap [rhs]
|:iabbrev| :iab/:iunab/:inoreab like ":ab", but only for Insert mode
|:cabbrev| :cab/:cunab/:cnoreab like ":ab", but only for
Command-line mode
|:abclear| :abc[lear] remove all abbreviations
|:cabclear| :cabc[lear] remove all abbr's for Cmdline mode
|:iabclear| :iabc[lear] remove all abbr's for Insert mode
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_op* Options
|:set| :se[t] show all modified options
|:set| :se[t] all show all non-termcap options
|:set| :se[t] termcap show all termcap options
|:set| :se[t] {option} set boolean option (switch it on),
show string or number option
|:set| :se[t] no{option} reset boolean option (switch it off)
|:set| :se[t] inv{option} invert boolean option
|:set| :se[t] {option}={value} set string/number option to {value}
|:set| :se[t] {option}+={value} append {value} to string option, add
{value} to number option
|:set| :se[t] {option}-={value} remove {value} to string option,
subtract {value} from number option
|:set| :se[t] {option}? show value of {option}
|:set| :se[t] {option}& reset {option} to its default value
|:setlocal| :setl[ocal] like ":set" but set the local value
for options that have one
|:setglobal| :setg[lobal] like ":set" but set the global value
of a local option
|:fix| :fix[del] set value of 't_kD' according to
value of 't_kb'
|:options| :opt[ions] open a new window to view and set
options, grouped by functionality,
a one line explanation and links to
the help

Short explanation of each option: *option-list*

'aleph' 'al' ASCII code of the letter Aleph (Hebrew)
'allowrevins' 'ari' allow CTRL-_ in Insert and Command-line mode
'altkeymap' 'akm' for default second language (Farsi/Hebrew)
'ambiwidth' 'ambw' what to do with Unicode chars of ambiguous width
'antialias' 'anti' Mac OS X: use smooth, antialiased fonts
'autochdir' 'acd' change directory to the file in the current window
'arabic' 'arab' for Arabic as a default second language
'arabicshape' 'arshape' do shaping for Arabic characters
'autoindent' 'ai' take indent for new line from previous line
'autoread' 'ar' autom. read file when changed outside of Vim
'autowrite' 'aw' automatically write file if changed
'autowriteall' 'awa' as 'autowrite', but works with more commands
'background' 'bg' "dark" or "light", used for highlight colors
'backspace' 'bs' how backspace works at start of line
'backup' 'bk' keep backup file after overwriting a file
'backupcopy' 'bkc' make backup as a copy, don't rename the file
'backupdir' 'bdir' list of directories for the backup file
'backupext' 'bex' extension used for the backup file
'backupskip' 'bsk' no backup for files that match these patterns
'balloondelay' 'bdlay' delay in mS before a balloon may pop up
'ballooneval' 'beval' switch on balloon evaluation
'balloonexpr' 'bexpr' expression to show in balloon
'binary' 'bin' read/write/edit file in binary mode
'bioskey' 'biosk' MS-DOS: use bios calls for input characters
'bomb' prepend a Byte Order Mark to the file
'breakat' 'brk' characters that may cause a line break
'browsedir' 'bsdir' which directory to start browsing in
'bufhidden' 'bh' what to do when buffer is no longer in window
'buflisted' 'bl' whether the buffer shows up in the buffer list
'buftype' 'bt' special type of buffer
'casemap' 'cmp' specifies how case of letters is changed
'cdpath' 'cd' list of directories searched with ":cd"
'cedit' key used to open the command-line window
'charconvert' 'ccv' expression for character encoding conversion
'cindent' 'cin' do C program indenting
'cinkeys' 'cink' keys that trigger indent when 'cindent' is set
'cinoptions' 'cino' how to do indenting when 'cindent' is set
'cinwords' 'cinw' words where 'si' and 'cin' add an indent
'clipboard' 'cb' use the clipboard as the unnamed register
'cmdheight' 'ch' number of lines to use for the command-line
'cmdwinheight' 'cwh' height of the command-line window
'colorcolumn' 'cc' columns to highlight
'columns' 'co' number of columns in the display
'comments' 'com' patterns that can start a comment line
'commentstring' 'cms' template for comments; used for fold marker
'compatible' 'cp' behave Vi-compatible as much as possible
'complete' 'cpt' specify how Insert mode completion works
'completefunc' 'cfu' function to be used for Insert mode completion
'completeopt' 'cot' options for Insert mode completion
'concealcursor' 'cocu' whether concealable text is hidden in cursor line
'conceallevel' 'cole' whether concealable text is shown or hidden
'confirm' 'cf' ask what to do about unsaved/read-only files
'conskey' 'consk' get keys directly from console (MS-DOS only)
'copyindent' 'ci' make 'autoindent' use existing indent structure
'cpoptions' 'cpo' flags for Vi-compatible behavior
'cryptmethod' 'cm' type of encryption to use for file writing
'cscopepathcomp' 'cspc' how many components of the path to show
'cscopeprg' 'csprg' command to execute cscope
'cscopequickfix' 'csqf' use quickfix window for cscope results
'cscopetag' 'cst' use cscope for tag commands
'cscopetagorder' 'csto' determines ":cstag" search order
'cscopeverbose' 'csverb' give messages when adding a cscope database
'cursorbind' 'crb' move cursor in window as it moves in other windows
'cursorcolumn' 'cuc' highlight the screen column of the cursor
'cursorline' 'cul' highlight the screen line of the cursor
'debug' set to "msg" to see all error messages
'define' 'def' pattern to be used to find a macro definition
'delcombine' 'deco' delete combining characters on their own
'dictionary' 'dict' list of file names used for keyword completion
'diff' use diff mode for the current window
'diffexpr' 'dex' expression used to obtain a diff file
'diffopt' 'dip' options for using diff mode
'digraph' 'dg' enable the entering of digraphs in Insert mode
'directory' 'dir' list of directory names for the swap file
'display' 'dy' list of flags for how to display text
'eadirection' 'ead' in which direction 'equalalways' works
'edcompatible' 'ed' toggle flags of ":substitute" command
'encoding' 'enc' encoding used internally

'endofline' 'eol' write <EOL> for last line in file

'equalalways' 'ea' windows are automatically made the same size
'equalprg' 'ep' external program to use for "=" command
'errorbells' 'eb' ring the bell for error messages
'errorfile' 'ef' name of the errorfile for the QuickFix mode
'errorformat' 'efm' description of the lines in the error file
'esckeys' 'ek' recognize function keys in Insert mode
'eventignore' 'ei' autocommand events that are ignored
'expandtab' 'et' use spaces when <Tab> is inserted
'exrc' 'ex' read .vimrc and .exrc in the current directory
'fileencoding' 'fenc' file encoding for multi-byte text
'fileencodings' 'fencs' automatically detected character encodings
'fileformat' 'ff' file format used for file I/O
'fileformats' 'ffs' automatically detected values for 'fileformat'
'filetype' 'ft' type of file, used for autocommands
'fillchars' 'fcs' characters to use for displaying special items
'fkmap' 'fk' Farsi keyboard mapping
'foldclose' 'fcl' close a fold when the cursor leaves it
'foldcolumn' 'fdc' width of the column used to indicate folds
'foldenable' 'fen' set to display all folds open
'foldexpr' 'fde' expression used when 'foldmethod' is "expr"
'foldignore' 'fdi' ignore lines when 'foldmethod' is "indent"
'foldlevel' 'fdl' close folds with a level higher than this
'foldlevelstart' 'fdls' 'foldlevel' when starting to edit a file
'foldmarker' 'fmr' markers used when 'foldmethod' is "marker"
'foldmethod' 'fdm' folding type
'foldminlines' 'fml' minimum number of lines for a fold to be closed
'foldnestmax' 'fdn' maximum fold depth
'foldopen' 'fdo' for which commands a fold will be opened
'foldtext' 'fdt' expression used to display for a closed fold
'formatlistpat' 'flp' pattern used to recognize a list header
'formatoptions' 'fo' how automatic formatting is to be done
'formatprg' 'fp' name of external program used with "gq" command
'formatexpr' 'fex' expression used with "gq" command
'fsync' 'fs' whether to invoke fsync() after file write
'gdefault' 'gd' the ":substitute" flag 'g' is default on
'grepformat' 'gfm' format of 'grepprg' output
'grepprg' 'gp' program to use for ":grep"
'guicursor' 'gcr' GUI: settings for cursor shape and blinking
'guifont' 'gfn' GUI: Name(s) of font(s) to be used
'guifontset' 'gfs' GUI: Names of multi-byte fonts to be used
'guifontwide' 'gfw' list of font names for double-wide characters
'guiheadroom' 'ghr' GUI: pixels room for window decorations
'guioptions' 'go' GUI: Which components and options are used
'guipty' GUI: try to use a pseudo-tty for ":!" commands
'guitablabel' 'gtl' GUI: custom label for a tab page
'guitabtooltip' 'gtt' GUI: custom tooltip for a tab page
'helpfile' 'hf' full path name of the main help file
'helpheight' 'hh' minimum height of a new help window
'helplang' 'hlg' preferred help languages
'hidden' 'hid' don't unload buffer when it is YXXYabandon|ed
'highlight' 'hl' sets highlighting mode for various occasions
'hlsearch' 'hls' highlight matches with last search pattern
'history' 'hi' number of command-lines that are remembered
'hkmap' 'hk' Hebrew keyboard mapping
'hkmapp' 'hkp' phonetic Hebrew keyboard mapping
'icon' let Vim set the text of the window icon
'iconstring' string to use for the Vim icon text
'ignorecase' 'ic' ignore case in search patterns
'imactivatekey' 'imak' key that activates the X input method
'imcmdline' 'imc' use IM when starting to edit a command line
'imdisable' 'imd' do not use the IM in any mode
'iminsert' 'imi' use :lmap or IM in Insert mode
'imsearch' 'ims' use :lmap or IM when typing a search pattern
'include' 'inc' pattern to be used to find an include file
'includeexpr' 'inex' expression used to process an include line
'incsearch' 'is' highlight match while typing search pattern
'indentexpr' 'inde' expression used to obtain the indent of a line
'indentkeys' 'indk' keys that trigger indenting with 'indentexpr'
'infercase' 'inf' adjust case of match for keyword completion
'insertmode' 'im' start the edit of a file in Insert mode
'isfname' 'isf' characters included in file names and pathnames
'isident' 'isi' characters included in identifiers
'iskeyword' 'isk' characters included in keywords
'isprint' 'isp' printable characters
'joinspaces' 'js' two spaces after a period with a join command
'key' encryption key
'keymap' 'kmp' name of a keyboard mapping
'keymodel' 'km' enable starting/stopping selection with keys
'keywordprg' 'kp' program to use for the "K" command
'langmap' 'lmap' alphabetic characters for other language mode

'langmenu' 'lm' language to be used for the menus

'laststatus' 'ls' tells when last window has status lines
'lazyredraw' 'lz' don't redraw while executing macros
'linebreak' 'lbr' wrap long lines at a blank
'lines' number of lines in the display
'linespace' 'lsp' number of pixel lines to use between characters
'lisp' automatic indenting for Lisp
'lispwords' 'lw' words that change how lisp indenting works
'list' show <Tab> and <EOL>
'listchars' 'lcs' characters for displaying in list mode
'loadplugins' 'lpl' load plugin scripts when starting up
'macatsui' Mac GUI: use ATSUI text drawing
'magic' changes special characters in search patterns
'makeef' 'mef' name of the errorfile for ":make"
'makeprg' 'mp' program to use for the ":make" command
'matchpairs' 'mps' pairs of characters that "%" can match
'matchtime' 'mat' tenths of a second to show matching paren
'maxcombine' 'mco' maximum nr of combining characters displayed
'maxfuncdepth' 'mfd' maximum recursive depth for user functions
'maxmapdepth' 'mmd' maximum recursive depth for mapping
'maxmem' 'mm' maximum memory (in Kbyte) used for one buffer
'maxmempattern' 'mmp' maximum memory (in Kbyte) used for pattern search
'maxmemtot' 'mmt' maximum memory (in Kbyte) used for all buffers
'menuitems' 'mis' maximum number of items in a menu
'mkspellmem' 'msm' memory used before |:mkspell| compresses the tree
'modeline' 'ml' recognize modelines at start or end of file
'modelines' 'mls' number of lines checked for modelines
'modifiable' 'ma' changes to the text are not possible
'modified' 'mod' buffer has been modified
'more' pause listings when the whole screen is filled
'mouse' enable the use of mouse clicks
'mousefocus' 'mousef' keyboard focus follows the mouse
'mousehide' 'mh' hide mouse pointer while typing
'mousemodel' 'mousem' changes meaning of mouse buttons
'mouseshape' 'mouses' shape of the mouse pointer in different modes
'mousetime' 'mouset' max time between mouse double-click
'mzquantum' 'mzq' the interval between polls for MzScheme threads
'nrformats' 'nf' number formats recognized for CTRL-A command
'number' 'nu' print the line number in front of each line
'numberwidth' 'nuw' number of columns used for the line number
'omnifunc' 'ofu' function for filetype-specific completion
'opendevice' 'odev' allow reading/writing devices on MS-Windows
'operatorfunc' 'opfunc' function to be called for |g@| operator
'osfiletype' 'oft' operating system-specific filetype information
'paragraphs' 'para' nroff macros that separate paragraphs
'paste' allow pasting text
'pastetoggle' 'pt' key code that causes 'paste' to toggle
'patchexpr' 'pex' expression used to patch a file
'patchmode' 'pm' keep the oldest version of a file
'path' 'pa' list of directories searched with "gf" et.al.
'preserveindent' 'pi' preserve the indent structure when reindenting
'previewheight' 'pvh' height of the preview window
'previewwindow' 'pvw' identifies the preview window
'printdevice' 'pdev' name of the printer to be used for :hardcopy
'printencoding' 'penc' encoding to be used for printing
'printexpr' 'pexpr' expression used to print PostScript for :hardcopy
'printfont' 'pfn' name of the font to be used for :hardcopy
'printheader' 'pheader' format of the header used for :hardcopy
'printmbcharset' 'pmbcs' CJK character set to be used for :hardcopy
'printmbfont' 'pmbfn' font names to be used for CJK output of :hardcopy
'printoptions' 'popt' controls the format of :hardcopy output
'pumheight' 'ph' maximum height of the popup menu
'quoteescape' 'qe' escape characters used in a string
'readonly' 'ro' disallow writing the buffer
'redrawtime' 'rdt' timeout for 'hlsearch' and |:match| highlighting
'relativenumber' 'rnu' show relative line number in front of each line
'remap' allow mappings to work recursively
'report' threshold for reporting nr. of lines changed
'restorescreen' 'rs' Win32: restore screen when exiting
'revins' 'ri' inserting characters will work backwards
'rightleft' 'rl' window is right-to-left oriented
'rightleftcmd' 'rlc' commands for which editing works right-to-left
'ruler' 'ru' show cursor line and column in the status line
'rulerformat' 'ruf' custom format for the ruler
'runtimepath' 'rtp' list of directories used for runtime files
'scroll' 'scr' lines to scroll with CTRL-U and CTRL-D
'scrollbind' 'scb' scroll in window as other windows scroll
'scrolljump' 'sj' minimum number of lines to scroll
'scrolloff' 'so' minimum nr. of lines above and below cursor
'scrollopt' 'sbo' how 'scrollbind' should behave
'sections' 'sect' nroff macros that separate sections

'secure' secure mode for reading .vimrc in current dir

'selection' 'sel' what type of selection to use
'selectmode' 'slm' when to use Select mode instead of Visual mode
'sessionoptions' 'ssop' options for |:mksession|
'shell' 'sh' name of shell to use for external commands
'shellcmdflag' 'shcf' flag to shell to execute one command
'shellpipe' 'sp' string to put output of ":make" in error file
'shellquote' 'shq' quote character(s) for around shell command
'shellredir' 'srr' string to put output of filter in a temp file
'shellslash' 'ssl' use forward slash for shell file names
'shelltemp' 'stmp' whether to use a temp file for shell commands
'shelltype' 'st' Amiga: influences how to use a shell
'shellxquote' 'sxq' like 'shellquote', but include redirection
'shiftround' 'sr' round indent to multiple of shiftwidth
'shiftwidth' 'sw' number of spaces to use for (auto)indent step
'shortmess' 'shm' list of flags, reduce length of messages
'shortname' 'sn' non-MS-DOS: Filenames assumed to be 8.3 chars
'showbreak' 'sbr' string to use at the start of wrapped lines
'showcmd' 'sc' show (partial) command in status line
'showfulltag' 'sft' show full tag pattern when completing tag
'showmatch' 'sm' briefly jump to matching bracket if insert one
'showmode' 'smd' message on status line to show current mode
'showtabline' 'stal' tells when the tab pages line is displayed
'sidescroll' 'ss' minimum number of columns to scroll horizontal
'sidescrolloff' 'siso' min. nr. of columns to left and right of cursor
'smartcase' 'scs' no ignore case when pattern has uppercase
'smartindent' 'si' smart autoindenting for C programs
'smarttab' 'sta' use 'shiftwidth' when inserting <Tab>
'softtabstop' 'sts' number of spaces that <Tab> uses while editing
'spell' enable spell checking
'spellcapcheck' 'spc' pattern to locate end of a sentence
'spellfile' 'spf' files where |zg| and |zw| store words
'spelllang' 'spl' language(s) to do spell checking for
'spellsuggest' 'sps' method(s) used to suggest spelling corrections
'splitbelow' 'sb' new window from split is below the current one
'splitright' 'spr' new window is put right of the current one
'startofline' 'sol' commands move cursor to first non-blank in line
'statusline' 'stl' custom format for the status line
'suffixes' 'su' suffixes that are ignored with multiple match
'suffixesadd' 'sua' suffixes added when searching for a file
'swapfile' 'swf' whether to use a swapfile for a buffer
'swapsync' 'sws' how to sync the swap file
'switchbuf' 'swb' sets behavior when switching to another buffer
'synmaxcol' 'smc' maximum column to find syntax items
'syntax' 'syn' syntax to be loaded for current buffer
'tabstop' 'ts' number of spaces that <Tab> in file uses
'tabline' 'tal' custom format for the console tab pages line
'tabpagemax' 'tpm' maximum number of tab pages for |-p| and "tab all"
'tagbsearch' 'tbs' use binary searching in tags files
'taglength' 'tl' number of significant characters for a tag
'tagrelative' 'tr' file names in tag file are relative
'tags' 'tag' list of file names used by the tag command
'tagstack' 'tgst' push tags onto the tag stack
'term' name of the terminal
'termbidi' 'tbidi' terminal takes care of bi-directionality
'termencoding' 'tenc' character encoding used by the terminal
'terse' shorten some messages
'textauto' 'ta' obsolete, use 'fileformats'
'textmode' 'tx' obsolete, use 'fileformat'
'textwidth' 'tw' maximum width of text that is being inserted
'thesaurus' 'tsr' list of thesaurus files for keyword completion
'tildeop' 'top' tilde command "~" behaves like an operator
'timeout' 'to' time out on mappings and key codes
'timeoutlen' 'tm' time out time in milliseconds
'title' let Vim set the title of the window
'titlelen' percentage of 'columns' used for window title
'titleold' old title, restored when exiting
'titlestring' string to use for the Vim window title
'toolbar' 'tb' GUI: which items to show in the toolbar
'toolbariconsize' 'tbis' size of the toolbar icons (for GTK 2 only)
'ttimeout' time out on mappings
'ttimeoutlen' 'ttm' time out time for key codes in milliseconds
'ttybuiltin' 'tbi' use built-in termcap before external termcap
'ttyfast' 'tf' indicates a fast terminal connection
'ttymouse' 'ttym' type of mouse codes generated
'ttyscroll' 'tsl' maximum number of lines for a scroll
'ttytype' 'tty' alias for 'term'
'undodir' 'udir' where to store undo files
'undofile' 'udf' save undo information in a file
'undolevels' 'ul' maximum number of changes that can be undone
'undoreload' 'ur' max nr of lines to save for undo on a buffer reload

'updatecount' 'uc' after this many characters flush swap file

'updatetime' 'ut' after this many milliseconds flush swap file
'verbose' 'vbs' give informative messages
'verbosefile' 'vfile' file to write messages in
'viewdir' 'vdir' directory where to store files with :mkview
'viewoptions' 'vop' specifies what to save for :mkview
'viminfo' 'vi' use .viminfo file upon startup and exiting
'virtualedit' 've' when to use virtual editing
'visualbell' 'vb' use visual bell instead of beeping
'warn' warn for shell command when buffer was changed
'weirdinvert' 'wiv' for terminals that have weird inversion method
'whichwrap' 'ww' allow specified keys to cross line boundaries
'wildchar' 'wc' command-line character for wildcard expansion
'wildcharm' 'wcm' like 'wildchar' but also works when mapped
'wildignore' 'wig' files matching these patterns are not completed
'wildignorecase' 'wic' ignore case when completing file names
'wildmenu' 'wmnu' use menu for command line completion
'wildmode' 'wim' mode for 'wildchar' command-line expansion
'wildoptions' 'wop' specifies how command line completion is done
'winaltkeys' 'wak' when the windows system handles ALT keys
'window' 'wi' nr of lines to scroll for CTRL-F and CTRL-B
'winheight' 'wh' minimum number of lines for the current window
'winfixheight' 'wfh' keep window height when opening/closing windows
'winfixwidth' 'wfw' keep window width when opening/closing windows
'winminheight' 'wmh' minimum number of lines for any window
'winminwidth' 'wmw' minimal number of columns for any window
'winwidth' 'wiw' minimal number of columns for current window
'wrap' long lines wrap and continue on the next line
'wrapmargin' 'wm' chars from the right where wrapping starts
'wrapscan' 'ws' searches wrap around the end of the file
'write' writing to a file is allowed
'writeany' 'wa' write to file with no need for "!" override
'writebackup' 'wb' make a backup before overwriting a file
'writedelay' 'wd' delay this many msec for each char (for debug)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_ur* Undo/Redo commands
|u| N u undo last N changes
|CTRL-R| N CTRL-R redo last N undone changes
|U| U restore last changed line
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_et* External commands
|:shell| :sh[ell] start a shell
|:!| :!{command} execute {command} with a shell
|K| K lookup keyword under the cursor with
'keywordprg' program (default: "man")
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_qf* Quickfix commands
|:cc| :cc [nr]
display error [nr] (default is the same again)
|:cnext| :cn display the next error
|:cprevious| :cp display the previous error
|:clist| :cl list all errors
|:cfile| :cf read errors from the file 'errorfile'
|:cgetbuffer| :cgetb like :cbuffer but don't jump to the first error
|:cgetfile| :cg like :cfile but don't jump to the first error
|:cgetexpr| :cgete like :cexpr but don't jump to the first error
|:caddfile| :caddf add errors from the error file to the current
quickfix list
|:caddexpr| :cad add errors from an expression to the current
quickfix list
|:cbuffer| :cb read errors from text in a buffer
|:cexpr| :cex read errors from an expression
|:cquit| :cq quit without writing and return error code (to
the compiler)
|:make| :make [args] start make, read errors, and jump to first
error
|:grep| :gr[ep] [args] execute 'grepprg' to find matches and jump to
the first one
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_vc* Various commands
|CTRL-L| CTRL-L clear and redraw the screen
|CTRL-G| CTRL-G show current file name (with path) and cursor
position

|ga| ga
show ascii value of character under cursor in
decimal, hex, and octal
|g8| g8 for utf-8 encoding: show byte sequence for
character under cursor in hex
|g_CTRL-G| g CTRL-G show cursor column, line, and character
position
|CTRL-C| CTRL-C during searches: Interrupt the search
|dos-CTRL-Break| CTRL-Break MS-DOS: during searches: Interrupt the search
|<Del>| <Del> while entering a count: delete last character
|:version| :ve[rsion] show version information
|:mode| :mode N MS-DOS: set screen mode to N (number, C80,
C4350, etc.)
|:normal| :norm[al][!] {commands}
execute Normal mode commands
|Q| Q switch to "Ex" mode
|:redir| :redir >{file} redirect messages to {file}
|:silent| :silent[!] {command}
execute {command} silently
|:confirm| :confirm {command}
quit, write, etc., asking about
unsaved changes or read-only files
|:browse| :browse {command} open/read/write file, using a
file selection dialog
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_ce* Command-line editing
|c_<Esc>| <Esc> abandon command-line (if 'wildchar' is
<Esc>, type it twice)
|c_CTRL-V| CTRL-V {char} insert {char} literally
|c_CTRL-V| CTRL-V {number} enter decimal value of character (up to
three digits)
|c_CTRL-K| CTRL-K {char1} {char2}
enter digraph (See |Q_di|)
|c_CTRL-R| CTRL-R {0-9a-z"%#:-=}
insert the contents of a register
|c_<Left>| <Left>/<Right> cursor left/right
|c_<S-Left>| <S-Left>/<S-Right> cursor one word left/right
|c_CTRL-B| CTRL-B/CTRL-E cursor to beginning/end of command-line
|c_<BS>| <BS> delete the character in front of the cursor
|c_<Del>| <Del> delete the character under the cursor
|c_CTRL-W| CTRL-W delete the word in front of the cursor
|c_CTRL-U| CTRL-U remove all characters
|c_<Up>| <Up>/<Down> recall older/newer command-line that starts
with current command
|c_<S-Up>| <S-Up>/<S-Down> recall older/newer command-line from history
|:history| :his[tory] show older command-lines
Context-sensitive completion on the command-line:
|c_wildchar| 'wildchar'
(default: <Tab>)
do completion on the pattern in front of the
cursor; if there are multiple matches,
beep and show the first one; further
'wildchar' will show the next ones
|c_CTRL-D| CTRL-D list all names that match the pattern in
front of the cursor
|c_CTRL-A| CTRL-A insert all names that match pattern in front
of cursor
|c_CTRL-L| CTRL-L insert longest common part of names that
match pattern
|c_CTRL-N| CTRL-N after 'wildchar' with multiple matches: go
to next match
|c_CTRL-P| CTRL-P after 'wildchar' with multiple matches: go
to previous match
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_ra* Ex ranges
|:range| , separates two line numbers
|:range| ; idem, set cursor to the first line number
before interpreting the second one
|:range| {number} an absolute line number
|:range| . the current line
|:range| $ the last line in the file
|:range| % equal to 1,$ (the entire file)

|:range| * equal to '<,'> (visual area)

|:range| 't position of mark t
|:range| /{pattern}[/] the next line where {pattern} matches
|:range| ?{pattern}[?] the previous line where {pattern} matches
|:range| +[num] add [num] to the preceding line number
(default: 1)
|:range| -[num] subtract [num] from the preceding line
number (default: 1)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_ex* Special Ex characters
|:bar| | separates two commands (not for ":global" and ":!")
|:quote| " begins comment
|:_%| %
current file name (only where a file name is expected)
|:_#| #[num]
alternate file name [num] (only where a file name is
expected)
Note: The next seven are typed literally; these are not special keys!
|:<abuf>| <abuf> buffer number, for use in an autocommand (only where a
file name is expected)
|:<afile>| <afile> file name, for use in an autocommand (only where a
file name is expected)
|:<amatch>| <amatch> what matched with the pattern, for use in an
autocommand (only where a file name is expected)
|:<cword>| <cword> word under the cursor (only where a file name is
expected)
|:<cWORD>| <cWORD> WORD under the cursor (only where a file name is
expected) (see |WORD|)
|:<cfile>| <cfile> file name under the cursor (only where a file name is
expected)
|:<sfile>| <sfile> file name of a ":source"d file, within that file (only
where a file name is expected)
After "%", "#", "<cfile>", "<sfile>" or "<afile>"
|::p| :p full path
|::h| :h head (file name removed)
|::t| :t tail (file name only)
|::r| :r root (extension removed)
|::e| :e extension
|::s| :s/{pat}/{repl}/ substitute {pat} with {repl}
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_st* Starting Vim
|-vim| vim [options] start editing with an empty buffer
|-file| vim [options] {file} .. start editing one or more files
|--| vim [options] - read file from stdin
|-tag| vim [options] -t {tag} edit the file associated with {tag}
|-qf| vim [options] -q [fname] start editing in QuickFix mode,
display the first error
Most useful Vim arguments (for full list see |startup-options|)
|-gui| -g start GUI (also allows other options)
|-+| +[num] put the cursor at line [num] (default: last line)
|-+c| +{command} execute {command} after loading the file
|-+/| +/{pat} {file} .. put the cursor at the first occurrence of {pat}
|-v| -v Vi mode, start ex in Normal mode
|-e| -e Ex mode, start vim in Ex mode
|-R| -R Read-only mode, implies -n
|-m| -m modifications not allowed (resets 'write' option)
|-d| -d diff mode |diff|
|-b| -b binary mode
|-l| -l lisp mode
|-A| -A Arabic mode ('arabic' is set)
|-F| -F Farsi mode ('fkmap' and 'rightleft' are set)
|-H| -H Hebrew mode ('hkmap' and 'rightleft' are set)
|-V| -V Verbose, give informative messages
|-C| -C Compatible, set the 'compatible' option
|-N| -N Nocompatible, reset the 'compatible' option
|-r| -r give list of swap files
|-r| -r {file} .. recover aborted edit session
|-n| -n do not create a swap file
|-o| -o [num] open [num] windows (default: one for each file)
|-f| -f GUI: foreground process, don't fork
Amiga: do not restart Vim to open a window (for
e.g., mail)

|-s| -s {scriptin} first read commands from the file {scriptin}

|-w| -w {scriptout} write typed chars to file {scriptout} (append)
|-W| -W {scriptout} write typed chars to file {scriptout} (overwrite)
|-T| -T {terminal} set terminal name
|-d| -d {device} Amiga: open {device} to be used as a console
|-u| -u {vimrc} read inits from {vimrc} instead of other inits
|-U| -U {gvimrc} idem, for when starting the GUI
|-i| -i {viminfo} read info from {viminfo} instead of other files
|---| -- end of options, other arguments are file names
|--help| --help show list of arguments and exit
|--version| --version show version info and exit
|--| - read file from stdin
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_ed* Editing a file
Without !: Fail if changes have been made to the current buffer.
With !: Discard any changes to the current buffer.
|:edit_f| :e[dit][!] {file} edit {file}
|:edit| :e[dit][!] reload the current file
|:enew| :ene[w][!] edit a new, unnamed buffer
|:find| :fin[d][!] {file} find {file} in 'path' and edit it
|CTRL-^| N CTRL-^ edit alternate file N (equivalent to ":e #N")
|gf| gf or ]f edit the file whose name is under the cursor
|:pwd| :pwd print the current directory name
|:cd| :cd [path] change the current directory to [path]
|:cd-| :cd - back to previous current directory
|:file| :f[ile] print the current file name and the cursor
position
|:file| :f[ile] {name} set the current file name to {name}
|:files| :files show alternate file names
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_fl* Using the argument list |argument-list|
|:args| :ar[gs] print the argument list, with the current file
in "[]"
|:all| :all or :sall open a window for every file in the arg list
|:wn| :wn[ext][!] write file and edit next file
|:wn| :wn[ext][!] {file} write to {file} and edit next file, unless
{file} exists; With !, overwrite existing
file
|:wN| :wN[ext][!] [file] write file and edit previous file
in current window
in new window
|:argument| :argu[ment] N :sar[gument] N edit file N
|:next| :n[ext] :sn[ext] edit next file
|:next_f| :n[ext] {arglist} :sn[ext] {arglist} define new arg list
and edit first file
|:Next| :N[ext] :sN[ext] edit previous file
|:first| :fir[st] :sfir[st] edit first file
|:last| :la[st] :sla[st] edit last file
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_wq* Writing and quitting
|:w| :[range]w[rite][!] write to the current file
|:w_f| :[range]w[rite] {file} write to {file}, unless it already
exists
|:w_f| :[range]w[rite]! {file} write to {file}. Overwrite an existing
file
|:w_a| :[range]w[rite][!] >> append to the current file
|:w_a| :[range]w[rite][!] >> {file} append to {file}
|:w_c| :[range]w[rite] !{cmd} execute {cmd} with [range] lines as
standard input
|:up| :[range]up[date][!] write to current file if modified
|:wall| :wa[ll][!] write all changed buffers
|:q| :q[uit] quit current buffer, unless changes have been
made; Exit Vim when there are no other
non-help buffers
|:q| :q[uit]! quit current buffer always, discard any
changes. Exit Vim when there are no other
non-help buffers
|:qa| :qa[ll] exit Vim, unless changes have been made
|:qa| :qa[ll]! exit Vim always, discard any changes
|:cq| :cq quit without writing and return error code
|:wq| :wq[!] write the current file and exit

|:wq| :wq[!] {file} write to {file} and exit

|:xit| :x[it][!] [file] like ":wq" but write only when changes have
been made
|ZZ| ZZ same as ":x"
|ZQ| ZQ same as ":q!"
|:xall| :xa[ll][!] or :wqall[!]
write all changed buffers and exit
|:stop| :st[op][!]suspend Vim or start new shell; if 'aw' option
is set and [!] not given write the buffer
|CTRL-Z| CTRL-Z same as ":stop"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_ac* Automatic Commands
|viminfo-file| read registers, marks, history at startup, save when exiting.
|:rviminfo| :rv[iminfo] [file] read info from viminfo file [file]
|:rviminfo| :rv[iminfo]! [file] idem, overwrite existing info
|:wviminfo| :wv[iminfo] [file] add info to viminfo file [file]
|:wviminfo| :wv[iminfo]! [file] write info to viminfo file [file]
|modeline| Automatic option setting when editing a file
|modeline| vim:{set-arg}: .. In the first and last lines of the
file (see 'ml' option), {set-arg} is
given as an argument to ":set"
|autocommand| Automatic execution of commands on certain events.
|:autocmd| :au list all autocommands
|:autocmd| :au {event} list all autocommands for {event}
|:autocmd| :au {event} {pat}
list all autocommands for {event}
with {pat}
|:autocmd| :au {event} {pat} {cmd} enter new autocommands for {event}
with {pat}
|:autocmd| :au! remove all autocommands
|:autocmd| :au! {event} remove all autocommands for {event}
|:autocmd| :au! * {pat} remove all autocommands for {pat}
|:autocmd| :au! {event} {pat} remove all autocommands for {event}
with {pat}
|:autocmd| :au! {event} {pat} {cmd} remove all autocommands for {event}
with {pat} and enter new one
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_wi* Multi-window commands
|CTRL-W_s| CTRL-W s or :split split window into two parts
|:split_f| :split {file} split window and edit {file} in one of
them
|:vsplit| :vsplit {file} same, but split vertically
|:vertical| :vertical {cmd} make {cmd} split vertically
|:sfind| :sf[ind] {file} split window, find {file} in 'path'
and edit it
|CTRL-W_]| CTRL-W ] split window and jump to tag under
cursor
|CTRL-W_f| CTRL-W f split window and edit file name under
the cursor
|CTRL-W_^| CTRL-W ^ split window and edit alternate file
|CTRL-W_n| CTRL-W n or :new create new empty window
|CTRL-W_q| CTRL-W q or :q[uit] quit editing and close window
|CTRL-W_c| CTRL-W c or :cl[ose] make buffer hidden and close window
|CTRL-W_o| CTRL-W o or :on[ly] make current window only one on the
screen
|CTRL-W_j| CTRL-W j move cursor to window below
|CTRL-W_k| CTRL-W k move cursor to window above
|CTRL-W_CTRL-W| CTRL-W CTRL-W move cursor to window below (wrap)
|CTRL-W_W| CTRL-W W move cursor to window above (wrap)
|CTRL-W_t| CTRL-W t move cursor to top window
|CTRL-W_b| CTRL-W b move cursor to bottom window
|CTRL-W_p| CTRL-W p move cursor to previous active window
|CTRL-W_r| CTRL-W r rotate windows downwards
|CTRL-W_R| CTRL-W R rotate windows upwards
|CTRL-W_x| CTRL-W x exchange current window with next one
|CTRL-W_=| CTRL-W = make all windows equal height
|CTRL-W_-| CTRL-W - decrease current window height

|CTRL-W_+| CTRL-W + increase current window height

|CTRL-W__| CTRL-W _ set current window height (default:
very high)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_bu* Buffer list commands
|:buffers| :buffers or :files list all known buffer and file names
|:ball| :ball or :sball edit all args/buffers
|:unhide| :unhide or :sunhide edit all loaded buffers
|:badd| :badd {fname} add file name {fname} to the list
|:bunload| :bunload[!] [N] unload buffer [N] from memory
|:bdelete| :bdelete[!] [N] unload buffer [N] and delete it from
the buffer list
in current window in new window
|:buffer| :[N]buffer [N] :[N]sbuffer [N] to arg/buf N
|:bnext| :[N]bnext [N] :[N]sbnext [N] to Nth next arg/buf
|:bNext| :[N]bNext [N] :[N]sbNext [N] to Nth previous arg/buf
|:bprevious| :[N]bprevious [N] :[N]sbprevious [N] to Nth previous arg/buf
|:bfirst| :bfirst :sbfirst to first arg/buf
|:blast| :blast :sblast to last arg/buf
|:bmodified| :[N]bmod [N] :[N]sbmod [N] to Nth modified buf
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_sy* Syntax Highlighting
|:syn-on| :syntax on start using syntax highlighting
|:syn-off| :syntax off stop using syntax highlighting
|:syn-keyword| :syntax keyword {group-name} {keyword} ..
add a syntax keyword item
|:syn-match| :syntax match {group-name} {pattern} ...
add syntax match item
|:syn-region| :syntax region {group-name} {pattern} ...
add syntax region item
|:syn-sync| :syntax sync [ccomment | lines {N} | ...]
tell syntax how to sync
|:syntax| :syntax [list] list current syntax items
|:syn-clear| :syntax clear clear all syntax info
|:highlight| :highlight clear clear all highlight info
|:highlight| :highlight {group-name} {key}={arg} ..
set highlighting for {group-name}
|:filetype| :filetype on switch on file type detection, without
syntax highlighting
|:filetype| :filetype plugin indent on
switch on file type detection, with
automatic indenting and settings
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_gu* GUI commands
|:gui| :gui UNIX: start the GUI
|:gui| :gui {fname} .. idem, and edit {fname} ..
|:menu| :menu list all menus
|:menu| :menu {mpath} list menus starting with {mpath}
|:menu| :menu {mpath} {rhs} add menu {mpath}, giving {rhs}
|:menu| :menu {pri} {mpath} {rhs}
idem, with priorities {pri}
|:menu| :menu ToolBar.{name} {rhs}
add toolbar item, giving {rhs}
|:tmenu| :tmenu {mpath} {text} add tooltip to menu {mpath}
|:unmenu| :unmenu {mpath} remove menu {mpath}
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Q_fo* Folding
|'foldmethod'| set foldmethod=manual manual folding
set foldmethod=indent folding by indent
set foldmethod=expr folding by 'foldexpr'
set foldmethod=syntax folding by syntax regions
set foldmethod=marker folding by 'foldmarker'
|zf| zf{motion} operator: Define a fold manually
|:fold| :{range}fold define a fold for {range} lines

|zd| zd delete one fold under the cursor

|zD| zD delete all folds under the cursor
|zo| zo open one fold under the cursor
|zO| zO open all folds under the cursor
|zc| zc close one fold under the cursor
|zC| zC close all folds under the cursor
|zm| zm fold more: decrease 'foldlevel'
|zM| zM close all folds: make 'foldlevel' zero
|zr| zr reduce folding: increase 'foldlevel'
|zR| zR open all folds: make 'foldlevel' max.
|zn| zn fold none: reset 'foldenable'
|zN| zN fold normal set 'foldenable'
|zi| zi invert 'foldenable'
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: eval
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*eval.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Mar 18
Expression evaluation *expression* *expr* *E15* *eval*

Using expressions is introduced in chapter 41 of the user manual |usr_41.txt|.
Note: Expression evaluation can be disabled at compile time. If this has been
done, the features in this document are not available. See |+eval| and
|no-eval-feature|.
1. Variables |variables|
1.1 Variable types
1.2 Function references |Funcref|
1.3 Lists |Lists|
1.4 Dictionaries |Dictionaries|
1.5 More about variables |more-variables|
2. Expression syntax |expression-syntax|
3. Internal variable |internal-variables|
4. Builtin Functions |functions|
5. Defining functions |user-functions|
6. Curly braces names |curly-braces-names|
7. Commands |expression-commands|
8. Exception handling |exception-handling|
9. Examples |eval-examples|
10. No +eval feature |no-eval-feature|
11. The sandbox |eval-sandbox|
12. Textlock |textlock|
{Vi does not have any of these commands}
==============================================================================
1. Variables *variables*
1.1 Variable types
*E712*
There are six types of variables:
Number A 32 bit signed number. |expr-number| *Number*

Examples: -123 0x10 0177
Float A floating point number. |floating-point-format| *Float*

{only when compiled with the |+float| feature}
Examples: 123.456 1.15e-6 -1.1e3
String A NUL terminated string of 8-bit unsigned characters (bytes).
|expr-string| Examples: "ab\txx\"--" 'x-z''a,c'
Funcref A reference to a function |Funcref|.
Example: function("strlen")
List An ordered sequence of items |List|.
Example: [1, 2, ['a', 'b']]
Dictionary An associative, unordered array: Each entry has a key and a
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/eval.html[2019/03/05 11:41:34 AM]

value. |Dictionary|
Example: {'blue': "#0000ff", 'red': "#ff0000"}
The Number and String types are converted automatically, depending on how they
are used.
Conversion from a Number to a String is by making the ASCII representation of
the Number. Examples:
Number 123 --> String "123"
Number 0 --> String "0"
Number -1 --> String "-1"
*octal*
Conversion from a String to a Number is done by converting the first digits
to a number. Hexadecimal "0xf9" and Octal "017" numbers are recognized. If
the String doesn't start with digits, the result is zero. Examples:
String "456" --> Number 456
String "6bar" --> Number 6
String "foo" --> Number 0
String "0xf1" --> Number 241
String "0100" --> Number 64
String "-8" --> Number -8
String "+8" --> Number 0
To force conversion from String to Number, add zero to it:
:echo "0100" + 0
64
To avoid a leading zero to cause octal conversion, or for using a different
base, use |str2nr()|.
For boolean operators Numbers are used. Zero is FALSE, non-zero is TRUE.
Note that in the command
:if "foo"
"foo" is converted to 0, which means FALSE. To test for a non-empty string,
use strlen():
:if strlen("foo")
*E745* *E728* *E703* *E729* *E730* *E731*
List, Dictionary and Funcref types are not automatically converted.
*E805* *E806* *E808*

When mixing Number and Float the Number is converted to Float. Otherwise
there is no automatic conversion of Float. You can use str2float() for String
to Float, printf() for Float to String and float2nr() for Float to Number.
*E706* *sticky-type-checking*
You will get an error if you try to change the type of a variable. You need
to |:unlet| it first to avoid this error. String and Number are considered
equivalent though, as well are Float and Number. Consider this sequence of
commands:
:let l = "string"
:let l = 44 " changes type from String to Number
:let l = [1, 2, 3] " error! l is still a Number
:let l = 4.4 " changes type from Number to Float
:let l = "string" " error!
1.2 Function references

*Funcref* *E695* *E718*
A Funcref variable is obtained with the |function()| function. It can be used
in an expression in the place of a function name, before the parenthesis
around the arguments, to invoke the function it refers to. Example:
:let Fn = function("MyFunc")
:echo Fn()
*E704* *E705* *E707*
A Funcref variable must start with a capital, "s:", "w:", "t:" or "b:". You
cannot have both a Funcref variable and a function with the same name.
A special case is defining a function and directly assigning its Funcref to a
Dictionary entry. Example:
:function dict.init() dict

: let self.val = 0
:endfunction
The key of the Dictionary can start with a lower case letter. The actual
function name is not used here. Also see |numbered-function|.
A Funcref can also be used with the |:call| command:
:call Fn()
:call dict.init()
The name of the referenced function can be obtained with |string()|.
:let func = string(Fn)
You can use |call()| to invoke a Funcref and use a list variable for the
arguments:
:let r = call(Fn, mylist)
1.3 Lists
*List* *Lists* *E686*
A List is an ordered sequence of items. An item can be of any type. Items
can be accessed by their index number. Items can be added and removed at any
position in the sequence.
List creation
*E696* *E697*
A List is created with a comma separated list of items in square brackets.
Examples:
:let mylist = [1, two, 3, "four"]
:let emptylist = []
An item can be any expression. Using a List for an item creates a
List of Lists:
:let nestlist = [[11, 12], [21, 22], [31, 32]]
An extra comma after the last item is ignored.
List index
*list-index* *E684*
An item in the List can be accessed by putting the index in square brackets
after the List. Indexes are zero-based, thus the first item has index zero.
:let item = mylist[0] " get the first item: 1
:let item = mylist[2] " get the third item: 3
When the resulting item is a list this can be repeated:
:let item = nestlist[0][1] " get the first list, second item: 12
A negative index is counted from the end. Index -1 refers to the last item in
the List, -2 to the last but one item, etc.
:let last = mylist[-1] " get the last item: "four"
To avoid an error for an invalid index use the |get()| function. When an item
is not available it returns zero or the default value you specify:
:echo get(mylist, idx)
:echo get(mylist, idx, "NONE")
List concatenation
Two lists can be concatenated with the "+" operator:
:let longlist = mylist + [5, 6]
:let mylist += [7, 8]
To prepend or append an item turn the item into a list by putting [] around
it. To change a list in-place see |list-modification| below.
Sublist
A part of the List can be obtained by specifying the first and last index,
separated by a colon in square brackets:
:let shortlist = mylist[2:-1] " get List [3, "four"]

Omitting the first index is similar to zero. Omitting the last index is
similar to -1.
:let endlist = mylist[2:] " from item 2 to the end: [3, "four"]
:let shortlist = mylist[2:2] " List with one item: [3]
:let otherlist = mylist[:] " make a copy of the List
If the first index is beyond the last item of the List or the second item is
before the first item, the result is an empty list. There is no error
message.
If the second index is equal to or greater than the length of the list the
length minus one is used:
:let mylist = [0, 1, 2, 3]
:echo mylist[2:8] " result: [2, 3]
NOTE: mylist[s:e] means using the variable "s:e" as index. Watch out for
using a single letter variable before the ":". Insert a space when needed:
mylist[s : e].
List identity
*list-identity*
When variable "aa" is a list and you assign it to another variable "bb", both
variables refer to the same list. Thus changing the list "aa" will also
change "bb":
:let aa = [1, 2, 3]
:let bb = aa
:call add(aa, 4)
:echo bb
[1, 2, 3, 4]
Making a copy of a list is done with the |copy()| function. Using [:] also
works, as explained above. This creates a shallow copy of the list: Changing
a list item in the list will also change the item in the copied list:
:let aa = [[1, 'a'], 2, 3]
:let bb = copy(aa)
:call add(aa, 4)
:let aa[0][1] = 'aaa'
:echo aa
[[1, aaa], 2, 3, 4]
:echo bb
[[1, aaa], 2, 3]
To make a completely independent list use |deepcopy()|. This also makes a
copy of the values in the list, recursively. Up to a hundred levels deep.
The operator "is" can be used to check if two variables refer to the same
List. "isnot" does the opposite. In contrast "==" compares if two lists have
the same value.
:let alist = [1, 2, 3]
:let blist = [1, 2, 3]
:echo alist is blist
0
:echo alist == blist
1
Note about comparing lists: Two lists are considered equal if they have the
same length and all items compare equal, as with using "==". There is one
exception: When comparing a number with a string they are considered
different. There is no automatic type conversion, as with using "==" on
variables. Example:
echo 4 == "4"
1
echo [4] == ["4"]
0
Thus comparing Lists is more strict than comparing numbers and strings. You
can compare simple values this way too by putting them in a list:
:let a = 5
:let b = "5"
:echo a == b
1
:echo [a] == [b]
0

List unpack
To unpack the items in a list to individual variables, put the variables in
square brackets, like list items:
:let [var1, var2] = mylist
When the number of variables does not match the number of items in the list
this produces an error. To handle any extra items from the list append ";"
and a variable name:
:let [var1, var2; rest] = mylist
This works like:
:let var1 = mylist[0]
:let var2 = mylist[1]
:let rest = mylist[2:]
Except that there is no error if there are only two items. "rest" will be an
empty list then.
List modification
*list-modification*
To change a specific item of a list use |:let| this way:
:let list[4] = "four"
:let listlist[0][3] = item
To change part of a list you can specify the first and last item to be
modified. The value must at least have the number of items in the range:
:let list[3:5] = [3, 4, 5]
Adding and removing items from a list is done with functions. Here are a few
examples:
:call insert(list, 'a') " prepend item 'a'
:call insert(list, 'a', 3) " insert item 'a' before list[3]
:call add(list, "new") " append String item
:call add(list, [1, 2]) " append a List as one new item
:call extend(list, [1, 2]) " extend the list with two more items
:let i = remove(list, 3) " remove item 3
:unlet list[3] " idem
:let l = remove(list, 3, -1) " remove items 3 to last item
:unlet list[3 : ] " idem
:call filter(list, 'v:val !~ "x"') " remove items with an 'x'
Changing the order of items in a list:
:call sort(list) " sort a list alphabetically
:call reverse(list) " reverse the order of items
For loop
The |:for| loop executes commands for each item in a list. A variable is set
to each item in the list in sequence. Example:
:for item in mylist
: call Doit(item)
:endfor
This works like:
:let index = 0
:while index < len(mylist)
: let item = mylist[index]
: :call Doit(item)
: let index = index + 1
:endwhile
Note that all items in the list should be of the same type, otherwise this
results in error |E706|. To avoid this |:unlet| the variable at the end of
the loop.
If all you want to do is modify each item in the list then the |map()|
function will be a simpler method than a for loop.
Just like the |:let| command, |:for| also accepts a list of variables. This
requires the argument to be a list of lists.
:for [lnum, col] in [[1, 3], [2, 8], [3, 0]]
: call Doit(lnum, col)
:endfor

This works like a |:let| command is done for each list item. Again, the types
must remain the same to avoid an error.
It is also possible to put remaining items in a List variable:
:for [i, j; rest] in listlist
: call Doit(i, j)
: if !empty(rest)
: echo "remainder: " . string(rest)
: endif
:endfor
List functions
*E714*
Functions that are useful with a List:
:let r = call(funcname, list) " call a function with an argument list
:if empty(list) " check if list is empty
:let l = len(list) " number of items in list
:let big = max(list) " maximum value in list
:let small = min(list) " minimum value in list
:let xs = count(list, 'x') " count nr of times 'x' appears in list
:let i = index(list, 'x') " index of first 'x' in list
:let lines = getline(1, 10) " get ten text lines from buffer
:call append('$', lines) " append text lines in buffer
:let list = split("a b c") " create list from items in a string
:let string = join(list, ', ') " create string from list items
:let s = string(list) " String representation of list
:call map(list, '">> " . v:val') " prepend ">> " to each item
Don't forget that a combination of features can make things simple. For
example, to add up all the numbers in a list:
:exe 'let sum = ' . join(nrlist, '+')
1.4 Dictionaries
*Dictionaries* *Dictionary*
A Dictionary is an associative array: Each entry has a key and a value. The
entry can be located with the key. The entries are stored without a specific
ordering.
Dictionary creation
*E720* *E721* *E722* *E723*
A Dictionary is created with a comma separated list of entries in curly
braces. Each entry has a key and a value, separated by a colon. Each key can
only appear once. Examples:
:let mydict = {1: 'one', 2: 'two', 3: 'three'}
:let emptydict = {}
*E713* *E716* *E717*
A key is always a String. You can use a Number, it will be converted to a
String automatically. Thus the String '4' and the number 4 will find the same
entry. Note that the String '04' and the Number 04 are different, since the
Number will be converted to the String '4'.
A value can be any expression. Using a Dictionary for a value creates a
nested Dictionary:
:let nestdict = {1: {11: 'a', 12: 'b'}, 2: {21: 'c'}}
An extra comma after the last entry is ignored.
Accessing entries
The normal way to access an entry is by putting the key in square brackets:
:let val = mydict["one"]
:let mydict["four"] = 4
You can add new entries to an existing Dictionary this way, unlike Lists.
For keys that consist entirely of letters, digits and underscore the following
form can be used YXXYexpr-entry|:
:let val = mydict.one
:let mydict.four = 4

Since an entry can be any type, also a List and a Dictionary, the indexing and
key lookup can be repeated:
:echo dict.key[idx].key
Dictionary to List conversion

You may want to loop over the entries in a dictionary. For this you need to
turn the Dictionary into a List and pass it to |:for|.
Most often you want to loop over the keys, using the |keys()| function:
:for key in keys(mydict)
: echo key . ': ' . mydict[key]
:endfor
The List of keys is unsorted. You may want to sort them first:
:for key in sort(keys(mydict))
To loop over the values use the |values()| function:
:for v in values(mydict)
: echo "value: " . v
:endfor
If you want both the key and the value use the |items()| function. It returns
a List in which each item is a List with two items, the key and the value:
:for [key, value] in items(mydict)
: echo key . ': ' . value
:endfor
Dictionary identity
*dict-identity*
Just like Lists you need to use |copy()| and |deepcopy()| to make a copy of a
Dictionary. Otherwise, assignment results in referring to the same
Dictionary:
:let onedict = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}
:let adict = onedict
:let adict['a'] = 11
:echo onedict['a']
11
Two Dictionaries compare equal if all the key-value pairs compare equal. For
more info see |list-identity|.
Dictionary modification
*dict-modification*
To change an already existing entry of a Dictionary, or to add a new entry,
use |:let| this way:
:let dict[4] = "four"
:let dict['one'] = item
Removing an entry from a Dictionary is done with |remove()| or |:unlet|.
Three ways to remove the entry with key "aaa" from dict:
:let i = remove(dict, 'aaa')
:unlet dict.aaa
:unlet dict['aaa']
Merging a Dictionary with another is done with YXXYextend()|:
:call extend(adict, bdict)
This extends adict with all entries from bdict. Duplicate keys cause entries
in adict to be overwritten. An optional third argument can change this.
Note that the order of entries in a Dictionary is irrelevant, thus don't
expect ":echo adict" to show the items from bdict after the older entries in
adict.
Weeding out entries from a Dictionary can be done with YXXYfilter()|:
:call filter(dict, 'v:val =~ "x"')
This removes all entries from "dict" with a value not matching 'x'.
Dictionary function
*Dictionary-function* *self* *E725*
When a function is defined with the "dict" attribute it can be used in a
special way with a dictionary. Example:

:function Mylen() dict

: return len(self.data)
:endfunction
:let mydict = {'data': [0, 1, 2, 3], 'len': function("Mylen")}
:echo mydict.len()
This is like a method in object oriented programming. The entry in the
Dictionary is a |Funcref|. The local variable "self" refers to the dictionary
the function was invoked from.
It is also possible to add a function without the "dict" attribute as a
Funcref to a Dictionary, but the "self" variable is not available then.
*numbered-function* *anonymous-function*
To avoid the extra name for the function it can be defined and directly
assigned to a Dictionary in this way:
:let mydict = {'data': [0, 1, 2, 3]}
:function mydict.len() dict
: return len(self.data)
:endfunction
:echo mydict.len()
The function will then get a number and the value of dict.len is a |Funcref|
that references this function. The function can only be used through a
|Funcref|. It will automatically be deleted when there is no |Funcref|
remaining that refers to it.
It is not necessary to use the "dict" attribute for a numbered function.
If you get an error for a numbered function, you can find out what it is with
a trick. Assuming the function is 42, the command is:
:function {42}
Functions for Dictionaries

*E715*
Functions that can be used with a Dictionary:
:if has_key(dict, 'foo') " TRUE if dict has entry with key "foo"
:if empty(dict) " TRUE if dict is empty
:let l = len(dict) " number of items in dict
:let big = max(dict) " maximum value in dict
:let small = min(dict) " minimum value in dict
:let xs = count(dict, 'x') " count nr of times 'x' appears in dict
:let s = string(dict) " String representation of dict
:call map(dict, '">> " . v:val') " prepend ">> " to each item
1.5 More about variables

*more-variables*
If you need to know the type of a variable or expression, use the |type()|
function.
When the '!' flag is included in the 'viminfo' option, global variables that
start with an uppercase letter, and don't contain a lowercase letter, are
stored in the viminfo file |viminfo-file|.
When the 'sessionoptions' option contains "global", global variables that
start with an uppercase letter and contain at least one lowercase letter are
stored in the session file |session-file|.
variable name can be stored where
my_var_6 not
My_Var_6 session file
MY_VAR_6 viminfo file
It's possible to form a variable name with curly braces, see

|curly-braces-names|.
==============================================================================
2. Expression syntax *expression-syntax*
Expression syntax summary, from least to most significant:

|expr1| expr2 ? expr1 : expr1 if-then-else

|expr2| expr3 || expr3 .. logical OR
|expr3| expr4 && expr4 .. logical AND
|expr4| expr5 == expr5 equal
expr5 != expr5 not equal
expr5 > expr5 greater than
expr5 >= expr5 greater than or equal
expr5 < expr5 smaller than
expr5 <= expr5 smaller than or equal
expr5 =~ expr5 regexp matches
expr5 !~ expr5 regexp doesn't match
expr5 ==? expr5 equal, ignoring case
expr5 ==# expr5 equal, match case
etc. As above, append ? for ignoring case, # for
matching case
expr5 is expr5 same |List| instance
expr5 isnot expr5 different |List| instance
|expr5| expr6 + expr6 .. number addition or list concatenation
expr6 - expr6 .. number subtraction
expr6 . expr6 .. string concatenation
|expr6| expr7 * expr7 .. number multiplication
expr7 / expr7 .. number division
expr7 % expr7 .. number modulo
|expr7| ! expr7 logical NOT
- expr7 unary minus
+ expr7 unary plus
|expr8| expr8[expr1] byte of a String or item of a |List|

expr8[expr1 : expr1] substring of a String or sublist of a |List|
expr8.name entry in a |Dictionary|
expr8(expr1, ...) function call with |Funcref| variable
|expr9| number number constant
"string" string constant, backslash is special
'string' string constant, '' is doubled
[expr1, ...] |List|
{expr1: expr1, ...} |Dictionary|
&option option value
(expr1) nested expression
variable internal variable
va{ria}ble internal variable with curly braces
$VAR environment variable
@r contents of register 'r'
function(expr1, ...) function call
func{ti}on(expr1, ...) function call with curly braces
".." indicates that the operations in this level can be concatenated.

Example:
&nu || &list && &shell == "csh"
All expressions within one level are parsed from left to right.
expr1 *expr1* *E109*

expr2 ? expr1 : expr1
The expression before the '?' is evaluated to a number. If it evaluates to
non-zero, the result is the value of the expression between the '?' and ':',
otherwise the result is the value of the expression after the ':'.
Example:
:echo lnum == 1 ? "top" : lnum
Since the first expression is an "expr2", it cannot contain another ?:. The
other two expressions can, thus allow for recursive use of ?:.
Example:
:echo lnum == 1 ? "top" : lnum == 1000 ? "last" : lnum
To keep this readable, using |line-continuation| is suggested:

:echo lnum == 1
:\ ? "top"
:\ : lnum == 1000
:\ ? "last"
:\ : lnum
You should always put a space before the ':', otherwise it can be mistaken for
use in a variable such as "a:1".
expr2 and expr3 *expr2* *expr3*
*expr-barbar* *expr-&&*
The "||" and "&&" operators take one argument on each side. The arguments
are (converted to) Numbers. The result is:
input output
n1 n2 n1 || n2 n1 && n2
zero zero zero zero
zero non-zero non-zero zero
non-zero zero non-zero zero
non-zero non-zero non-zero non-zero
The operators can be concatenated, for example:
&nu || &list && &shell == "csh"
Note that "&&" takes precedence over "||", so this has the meaning of:
&nu || (&list && &shell == "csh")
Once the result is known, the expression "short-circuits", that is, further
arguments are not evaluated. This is like what happens in C. For example:
let a = 1
echo a || b
This is valid even if there is no variable called "b" because "a" is non-zero,
so the result must be non-zero. Similarly below:
echo exists("b") && b == "yes"
This is valid whether "b" has been defined or not. The second clause will
only be evaluated if "b" has been defined.
expr4 *expr4*
expr5 {cmp} expr5
Compare two expr5 expressions, resulting in a 0 if it evaluates to false, or 1
if it evaluates to true.
*expr-==* *expr-!=* *expr->* *expr->=*

*expr-<* *expr-<=* *expr-=~* *expr-!~*
*expr-==#* *expr-!=#* *expr->#* *expr->=#*
*expr-<#* *expr-<=#* *expr-=~#* *expr-!~#*
*expr-==?* *expr-!=?* *expr->?* *expr->=?*
*expr-<?* *expr-<=?* *expr-=~?* *expr-!~?*
*expr-is*
use 'ignorecase' match case ignore case
equal == ==# ==?
not equal != !=# !=?
greater than > ># >?
greater than or equal >= >=# >=?
smaller than < <# <?
smaller than or equal <= <=# <=?
regexp matches =~ =~# =~?
regexp doesn't match !~ !~# !~?

same instance is
different instance isnot
Examples:
"abc" ==# "Abc" evaluates to 0
"abc" ==? "Abc" evaluates to 1
"abc" == "Abc" evaluates to 1 if 'ignorecase' is set, 0 otherwise
*E691* *E692*
A |List| can only be compared with a |List| and only "equal", "not equal" and
"is" can be used. This compares the values of the list, recursively.
Ignoring case means case is ignored when comparing item values.
*E735* *E736*
A |Dictionary| can only be compared with a |Dictionary| and only "equal", "not
equal" and "is" can be used. This compares the key/values of the |Dictionary|
recursively. Ignoring case means case is ignored when comparing item values.
*E693* *E694*
A |Funcref| can only be compared with a |Funcref| and only "equal" and "not
equal" can be used. Case is never ignored.
When using "is" or "isnot" with a |List| this checks if the expressions are
referring to the same |List| instance. A copy of a |List| is different from
the original |List|. When using "is" without a |List| it is equivalent to
using "equal", using "isnot" equivalent to using "not equal". Except that a
different type means the values are different. "4 == '4'"' is true, "4 is '4'"'
is false.
When comparing a String with a Number, the String is converted to a Number,
and the comparison is done on Numbers. This means that "0 == 'x'"' is TRUE,
because 'x' converted to a Number is zero.
When comparing two Strings, this is done with strcmp() or stricmp(). This
results in the mathematical difference (comparing byte values), not
necessarily the alphabetical difference in the local language.
When using the operators with a trailing '#', or the short version and
'ignorecase' is off, the comparing is done with strcmp(): case matters.
When using the operators with a trailing '?', or the short version and
'ignorecase' is set, the comparing is done with stricmp(): case is ignored.
'smartcase' is not used.
The "=~" and "!~" operators match the lefthand argument with the righthand
argument, which is used as a pattern. See |pattern| for what a pattern is.
This matching is always done like 'magic' was set and 'cpoptions' is empty, no
matter what the actual value of 'magic' or 'cpoptions' is. This makes scripts
portable. To avoid backslashes in the regexp pattern to be doubled, use a
single-quote string, see |literal-string|.
Since a string is considered to be a single line, a multi-line pattern
(containing \n, backslash-n) will not match. However, a literal NL character
can be matched like an ordinary character. Examples:
"foo\nbar" =~ "\n" evaluates to 1
"foo\nbar" =~ "\\n" evaluates to 0
expr5 and expr6 *expr5* *expr6*

expr6 + expr6 .. Number addition or |List| concatenation *expr-+*
expr6 - expr6 .. Number subtraction *expr--*
expr6 . expr6 .. String concatenation *expr-.*
For |Lists| only "+" is possible and then both expr6 must be a list. The
result is a new list with the two lists Concatenated.
expr7 * expr7 .. number multiplication *expr-star*

expr7 / expr7 .. number division *expr-/*
expr7 % expr7 .. number modulo *expr-%*

For all, except ".", Strings are converted to Numbers.

Note the difference between "+" and ".":
"123" + "456" = 579
"123" . "456" = "123456"
Since '.' has the same precedence as '+' and '-', you need to read:
1 . 90 + 90.0
As:
(1 . 90) + 90.0
That works, since the String "190" is automatically converted to the Number
190, which can be added to the Float 90.0. However:
1 . 90 * 90.0
Should be read as:
1 . (90 * 90.0)
Since '.' has lower precedence than '*'. This does NOT work, since this
attempts to concatenate a Float and a String.
When dividing a Number by zero the result depends on the value:
0 / 0 = -0x80000000 (like NaN for Float)
>0 / 0 = 0x7fffffff (like positive infinity)
<0 / 0 = -0x7fffffff (like negative infinity)
(before Vim 7.2 it was always 0x7fffffff)
When the righthand side of '%' is zero, the result is 0.
None of these work for |Funcref|s.
. and % do not work for Float. *E804*
expr7 *expr7*
! expr7 logical NOT *expr-!*
- expr7 unary minus *expr-unary--*
+ expr7 unary plus *expr-unary-+*
For '!' non-zero becomes zero, zero becomes one.
For '-' the sign of the number is changed.
For '+' the number is unchanged.
A String will be converted to a Number first.
These three can be repeated and mixed. Examples:
!-1 == 0
!!8 == 1
--9 == 9
expr8 *expr8*
expr8[expr1] item of String or |List| *expr-[]* *E111*
If expr8 is a Number or String this results in a String that contains the
expr1'th single byte from expr8. expr8 is used as a String, expr1 as a
Number. This doesn't recognize multi-byte encodings, see |byteidx()| for
an alternative.
Index zero gives the first character. This is like it works in C. Careful:
text column numbers start with one! Example, to get the character under the
cursor:
:let c = getline(".")[col(".") - 1]
If the length of the String is less than the index, the result is an empty
String. A negative index always results in an empty string (reason: backwards
compatibility). Use [-1:] to get the last byte.
If expr8 is a |List| then it results the item at index expr1. See |list-index|
for possible index values. If the index is out of range this results in an
error. Example:
:let item = mylist[-1] " get last item
Generally, if a |List| index is equal to or higher than the length of the
|List|, or more negative than the length of the |List|, this results in an

error.
expr8[expr1a : expr1b] substring or sublist *expr-[:]*

If expr8 is a Number or String this results in the substring with the bytes
from expr1a to and including expr1b. expr8 is used as a String, expr1a and
expr1b are used as a Number. This doesn't recognize multi-byte encodings, see
|byteidx()| for computing the indexes.
If expr1a is omitted zero is used. If expr1b is omitted the length of the
string minus one is used.
A negative number can be used to measure from the end of the string. -1 is
the last character, -2 the last but one, etc.
If an index goes out of range for the string characters are omitted. If
expr1b is smaller than expr1a the result is an empty string.
Examples:
:let c = name[-1:] " last byte of a string
:let c = name[-2:-2] " last but one byte of a string
:let s = line(".")[4:] " from the fifth byte to the end
:let s = s[:-3] " remove last two bytes
*sublist* *slice*
If expr8 is a |List| this results in a new |List| with the items indicated by
the indexes expr1a and expr1b. This works like with a String, as explained
just above, except that indexes out of range cause an error. Examples:
:let l = mylist[:3] " first four items
:let l = mylist[4:4] " List with one item
:let l = mylist[:] " shallow copy of a List
Using expr8[expr1] or expr8[expr1a : expr1b] on a |Funcref| results in an
error.
expr8.name entry in a |Dictionary| *expr-entry*

If expr8 is a |Dictionary| and it is followed by a dot, then the following
name will be used as a key in the |Dictionary|. This is just like:
expr8[name].
The name must consist of alphanumeric characters, just like a variable name,
but it may start with a number. Curly braces cannot be used.
There must not be white space before or after the dot.
Examples:
:let dict = {"one": 1, 2: "two"}
:echo dict.one
:echo dict .2
Note that the dot is also used for String concatenation. To avoid confusion
always put spaces around the dot for String concatenation.
expr8(expr1, ...) |Funcref| function call

When expr8 is a |Funcref| type variable, invoke the function it refers to.
*expr9*
number
number number constant *expr-number*
Decimal, Hexadecimal (starting with 0x or 0X), or Octal (starting with 0).
*floating-point-format*
Floating point numbers can be written in two forms:
[-+]{N}.{M}

[-+]{N}.{M}e[-+]{exp}
{N} and {M} are numbers. Both {N} and {M} must be present and can only
contain digits.
[-+] means there is an optional plus or minus sign.
{exp} is the exponent, power of 10.
Only a decimal point is accepted, not a comma. No matter what the current
locale is.
{only when compiled with the |+float| feature}
Examples:
123.456
+0.0001
55.0
-0.123
1.234e03
1.0E-6
-3.1416e+88
These are INVALID:
3. empty {M}
1e40 missing .{M}
*float-pi* *float-e*
A few useful values to copy&paste:
:let pi = 3.14159265359
:let e = 2.71828182846
Rationale:
Before floating point was introduced, the text "123.456" was interpreted as
the two numbers "123" and "456", both converted to a string and concatenated,
resulting in the string "123456". Since this was considered pointless, and we
could not find it intentionally being used in Vim scripts, this backwards
incompatibility was accepted in favor of being able to use the normal notation
for floating point numbers.
*floating-point-precision*
The precision and range of floating points numbers depends on what "double"
means in the library Vim was compiled with. There is no way to change this at
runtime.
The default for displaying a |Float| is to use 6 decimal places, like using
printf("%g", ff). You can select something else when using the |printf()|
function. Example:
:echo printf('%.15e', atan(1))
7.853981633974483e-01
string *expr-string* *E114*

"string" string constant *expr-quote*
Note that double quotes are used.
A string constant accepts these special characters:
\... three-digit octal number (e.g., "\316")
\.. two-digit octal number (must be followed by non-digit)
\. one-digit octal number (must be followed by non-digit)
\x.. byte specified with two hex numbers (e.g., "\x1f")
\x. byte specified with one hex number (must be followed by non-hex char)
\X.. same as \x..
\X. same as \x.
\u.... character specified with up to 4 hex numbers, stored according to the
current value of 'encoding' (e.g., "\u02a4")
\U.... same as \u....
\b backspace <BS>
\e escape <Esc>
\f formfeed <FF>
\n newline <NL>
\r return <CR>
\t tab <Tab>
\\ backslash
\" double quote
\<xxx> Special key named "xxx". e.g. "\<C-W>" for CTRL-W. This is for use
in mappings, the 0x80 byte is escaped. Don't use <Char-xxxx> to get a
utf-8 character, use \uxxxx as mentioned above.

Note that "\xff" is stored as the byte 255, which may be invalid in some
encodings. Use "\u00ff" to store character 255 according to the current value
of 'encoding'.
Note that "\000" and "\x00" force the end of the string.
literal-string *literal-string* *E115*

'string' string constant *expr-'*
Note that single quotes are used.
This string is taken as it is. No backslashes are removed or have a special
meaning. The only exception is that two quotes stand for one quote.
Single quoted strings are useful for patterns, so that backslashes do not need
to be doubled. These two commands are equivalent:
if a =~ "\\s*"
if a =~ '\s*'
option *expr-option* *E112* *E113*

&option option value, local value if possible
&g:option global option value
&l:option local option value
Examples:
echo "tabstop is " . &tabstop
if &insertmode
Any option name can be used here. See |options|. When using the local value
and there is no buffer-local or window-local value, the global value is used
anyway.
register *expr-register* *@r*

@r contents of register 'r'
The result is the contents of the named register, as a single string.
Newlines are inserted where required. To get the contents of the unnamed
register use @" or @@. See |registers| for an explanation of the available
registers.
When using the '=' register you get the expression itself, not what it
evaluates to. Use |eval()| to evaluate it.
nesting *expr-nesting* *E110*

(expr1) nested expression
environment variable *expr-env*

$VAR environment variable
The String value of any environment variable. When it is not defined, the
result is an empty string.
*expr-env-expand*
Note that there is a difference between using $VAR directly and using
expand("$VAR"). Using it directly will only expand environment variables that
are known inside the current Vim session. Using expand() will first try using
the environment variables known inside the current Vim session. If that
fails, a shell will be used to expand the variable. This can be slow, but it
does expand all variables that the shell knows about. Example:
:echo $version
:echo expand("$version")
The first one probably doesn't echo anything, the second echoes the $version
variable (if your shell supports it).
internal variable *expr-variable*

variable internal variable

See below |internal-variables|.
function call *expr-function* *E116* *E118* *E119* *E120*

function(expr1, ...) function call
See below |functions|.
==============================================================================
3. Internal variable *internal-variables* *E461*
An internal variable name can be made up of letters, digits and '_'. But it
cannot start with a digit. It's also possible to use curly braces, see
|curly-braces-names|.
An internal variable is created with the ":let" command |:let|.
An internal variable is explicitly destroyed with the ":unlet" command
|:unlet|.
Using a name that is not an internal variable or refers to a variable that has
been destroyed results in an error.
There are several name spaces for variables. Which one is to be used is
specified by what is prepended:
(nothing) In a function: local to a function; otherwise: global
|buffer-variable| b: Local to the current buffer.
|window-variable| w: Local to the current window.
|tabpage-variable| t: Local to the current tab page.
|global-variable| g: Global.
|local-variable| l: Local to a function.
|script-variable| s: Local to a |:source|'ed Vim script.
|function-argument| a: Function argument (only inside a function).
|vim-variable| v: Global, predefined by Vim.
The scope name by itself can be used as a |Dictionary|. For example, to
delete all script-local variables:
:for k in keys(s:)
: unlet s:[k]
:endfor
*buffer-variable* *b:var*
A variable name that is preceded with "b:" is local to the current buffer.
Thus you can have several "b:foo" variables, one for each buffer.
This kind of variable is deleted when the buffer is wiped out or deleted with
|:bdelete|.
One local buffer variable is predefined:
*b:changedtick-variable* *changetick*
b:changedtick The total number of changes to the current buffer. It is
incremented for each change. An undo command is also a change
in this case. This can be used to perform an action only when
the buffer has changed. Example:
:if my_changedtick != b:changedtick
: let my_changedtick = b:changedtick
: call My_Update()
:endif
*window-variable* *w:var*
A variable name that is preceded with "w:" is local to the current window. It
is deleted when the window is closed.
*tabpage-variable* *t:var*
A variable name that is preceded with "t:" is local to the current tab page,
It is deleted when the tab page is closed. {not available when compiled
without the |+windows| feature}
*global-variable* *g:var*
Inside functions global variables are accessed with "g:". Omitting this will
access a variable local to a function. But "g:" can also be used in any other
place if you like.

*local-variable* *l:var*
Inside functions local variables are accessed without prepending anything.
But you can also prepend "l:" if you like. However, without prepending "l:"
you may run into reserved variable names. For example "count". By itself it
refers to "v:count". Using "l:count" you can have a local variable with the
same name.
*script-variable* *s:var*
In a Vim script variables starting with "s:" can be used. They cannot be
accessed from outside of the scripts, thus are local to the script.
They can be used in:
- commands executed while the script is sourced
- functions defined in the script
- autocommands defined in the script
- functions and autocommands defined in functions and autocommands which were
defined in the script (recursively)
- user defined commands defined in the script
Thus not in:
- other scripts sourced from this one
- mappings
- menus
- etc.
Script variables can be used to avoid conflicts with global variable names.
Take this example:
let s:counter = 0
function MyCounter()
let s:counter = s:counter + 1
echo s:counter
endfunction
command Tick call MyCounter()
You can now invoke "Tick" from any script, and the "s:counter" variable in
that script will not be changed, only the "s:counter" in the script where
"Tick" was defined is used.
Another example that does the same:
let s:counter = 0
command Tick let s:counter = s:counter + 1 | echo s:counter
When calling a function and invoking a user-defined command, the context for
script variables is set to the script where the function or command was
defined.
The script variables are also available when a function is defined inside a
function that is defined in a script. Example:
let s:counter = 0
function StartCounting(incr)
if a:incr
endfunction
else
let s:counter = s:counter - 1
endfunction
endif
endfunction
This defines the MyCounter() function either for counting up or counting down
when calling StartCounting(). It doesn't matter from where StartCounting() is
called, the s:counter variable will be accessible in MyCounter().
When the same script is sourced again it will use the same script variables.
They will remain valid as long as Vim is running. This can be used to
maintain a counter:
if !exists("s:counter")
let s:counter = 1
echo "script executed for the first time"
else

echo "script executed " . s:counter . " times now"

endif
Note that this means that filetype plugins don't get a different set of script
variables for each buffer. Use local buffer variables instead |b:var|.
Predefined Vim variables: *vim-variable* *v:var*
*v:beval_col* *beval_col-variable*
v:beval_col The number of the column, over which the mouse pointer is.
This is the byte index in the |v:beval_lnum| line.
Only valid while evaluating the 'balloonexpr' option.
*v:beval_bufnr* *beval_bufnr-variable*
v:beval_bufnr The number of the buffer, over which the mouse pointer is. Only
valid while evaluating the 'balloonexpr' option.
*v:beval_lnum* *beval_lnum-variable*
v:beval_lnum The number of the line, over which the mouse pointer is. Only
valid while evaluating the 'balloonexpr' option.
*v:beval_text* *beval_text-variable*
v:beval_text The text under or after the mouse pointer. Usually a word as
it is useful for debugging a C program. 'iskeyword' applies,
but a dot and "->" before the position is included. When on a
']' the text before it is used, including the matching '[' and
word before it. When on a Visual area within one line the
highlighted text is used.
Only valid while evaluating the 'balloonexpr' option.
*v:beval_winnr* *beval_winnr-variable*
v:beval_winnr The number of the window, over which the mouse pointer is. Only
valid while evaluating the 'balloonexpr' option. The first
window has number zero (unlike most other places where a
window gets a number).
*v:char* *char-variable*
v:char Argument for evaluating 'formatexpr' and used for the typed
character when using <expr> in an abbreviation |:map-<expr>|.
*v:charconvert_from* *charconvert_from-variable*
v:charconvert_from
The name of the character encoding of a file to be converted.
Only valid while evaluating the 'charconvert' option.
*v:charconvert_to* *charconvert_to-variable*
v:charconvert_to
The name of the character encoding of a file after conversion.
Only valid while evaluating the 'charconvert' option.
*v:cmdarg* *cmdarg-variable*
v:cmdarg This variable is used for two purposes:
1. The extra arguments given to a file read/write command.
Currently these are "++enc=" and "++ff=". This variable is
set before an autocommand event for a file read/write
command is triggered. There is a leading space to make it
possible to append this variable directly after the
read/write command. Note: The "+cmd" argument isn't
included here, because it will be executed anyway.
2. When printing a PostScript file with ":hardcopy" this is
the argument for the ":hardcopy" command. This can be used
in 'printexpr'.
*v:cmdbang* *cmdbang-variable*
v:cmdbang Set like v:cmdarg for a file read/write command. When a "!"
was used the value is 1, otherwise it is 0. Note that this
can only be used in autocommands. For user commands |<bang>|

can be used.
*v:count* *count-variable*
v:count The count given for the last Normal mode command. Can be used
to get the count before a mapping. Read-only. Example:
:map _x :<C-U>echo "the count is " . v:count<CR>
Note: The <C-U> is required to remove the line range that you
get when typing ':' after a count.
When there are two counts, as in "3d2w", they are multiplied,
just like what happens in the command, "d6w" for the example.
Also used for evaluating the 'formatexpr' option.
"count" also works, for backwards compatibility.
*v:count1* *count1-variable*
v:count1 Just like "v:count", but defaults to one when no count is
used.
*v:ctype* *ctype-variable*
v:ctype The current locale setting for characters of the runtime
environment. This allows Vim scripts to be aware of the
current locale encoding. Technical: it's the value of
LC_CTYPE. When not using a locale the value is "C".
This variable can not be set directly, use the |:language|
command.
See |multi-lang|.
*v:dying* *dying-variable*
v:dying Normally zero. When a deadly signal is caught it's set to
one. When multiple signals are caught the number increases.
Can be used in an autocommand to check if Vim didn't
terminate normally. {only works on Unix}
Example:
:au VimLeave * if v:dying | echo "\nAAAAaaaarrrggghhhh!!!\n" | endif
Note: if another deadly signal is caught when v:dying is one,
VimLeave autocommands will not be executed.
*v:errmsg* *errmsg-variable*
v:errmsg Last given error message. It's allowed to set this variable.
Example:
:let v:errmsg = ""
:silent! next
:if v:errmsg != ""
: ... handle error
"errmsg" also works, for backwards compatibility.
*v:exception* *exception-variable*
v:exception The value of the exception most recently caught and not
finished. See also |v:throwpoint| and |throw-variables|.
Example:
:try
: throw "oops"
:catch /.*/
: echo "caught" v:exception
:endtry
Output: "caught oops".
*v:fcs_reason* *fcs_reason-variable*
v:fcs_reason The reason why the |FileChangedShell| event was triggered.
Can be used in an autocommand to decide what to do and/or what
to set v:fcs_choice to. Possible values:
deleted file no longer exists
conflict file contents, mode or timestamp was
changed and buffer is modified
changed file contents has changed
mode mode of file changed
time only file timestamp changed
*v:fcs_choice* *fcs_choice-variable*
v:fcs_choice What should happen after a |FileChangedShell| event was
triggered. Can be used in an autocommand to tell Vim what to
do with the affected buffer:

reload Reload the buffer (does not work if

the file was deleted).
ask Ask the user what to do, as if there
was no autocommand. Except that when
only the timestamp changed nothing
will happen.
<empty> Nothing, the autocommand should do
everything that needs to be done.
The default is empty. If another (invalid) value is used then
Vim behaves like it is empty, there is no warning message.
*v:fname_in* *fname_in-variable*
v:fname_in The name of the input file. Valid while evaluating:
option used for
'charconvert' file to be converted
'diffexpr' original file
'patchexpr' original file
'printexpr' file to be printed
And set to the swap file name for |SwapExists|.
*v:fname_out* *fname_out-variable*
v:fname_out The name of the output file. Only valid while
evaluating:
option used for
'charconvert' resulting converted file (*)
'diffexpr' output of diff
'patchexpr' resulting patched file
(*) When doing conversion for a write command (e.g., ":w
file") it will be equal to v:fname_in. When doing conversion
for a read command (e.g., ":e file") it will be a temporary
file and different from v:fname_in.
*v:fname_new* *fname_new-variable*
v:fname_new The name of the new version of the file. Only valid while
evaluating 'diffexpr'.
*v:fname_diff* *fname_diff-variable*
v:fname_diff The name of the diff (patch) file. Only valid while
evaluating 'patchexpr'.
*v:folddashes* *folddashes-variable*
v:folddashes Used for 'foldtext': dashes representing foldlevel of a closed
fold.
Read-only in the |sandbox|. |fold-foldtext|
*v:foldlevel* *foldlevel-variable*
v:foldlevel Used for 'foldtext': foldlevel of closed fold.
*v:foldend* *foldend-variable*
v:foldend Used for 'foldtext': last line of closed fold.
*v:foldstart* *foldstart-variable*
v:foldstart Used for 'foldtext': first line of closed fold.
*v:insertmode* *insertmode-variable*
v:insertmode Used for the |InsertEnter| and |InsertChange| autocommand
events. Values:
i Insert mode
r Replace mode
v Virtual Replace mode
*v:key* *key-variable*
v:key Key of the current item of a |Dictionary|. Only valid while
evaluating the expression used with |map()| and |filter()|.
Read-only.

*v:lang* *lang-variable*
v:lang The current locale setting for messages of the runtime
current language. Technical: it's the value of LC_MESSAGES.
The value is system dependent.
command.
It can be different from |v:ctype| when messages are desired
in a different language than what is used for character
encoding. See |multi-lang|.
*v:lc_time* *lc_time-variable*
v:lc_time The current locale setting for time messages of the runtime
current language. Technical: it's the value of LC_TIME.
command. See |multi-lang|.
*v:lnum* *lnum-variable*
v:lnum Line number for the 'foldexpr' |fold-expr|, 'formatexpr' and
'indentexpr' expressions, tab page number for 'guitablabel'
and 'guitabtooltip'. Only valid while one of these
expressions is being evaluated. Read-only when in the
|sandbox|.
*v:mouse_win* *mouse_win-variable*
v:mouse_win Window number for a mouse click obtained with |getchar()|.
First window has number 1, like with |winnr()|. The value is
zero when there was no mouse button click.
*v:mouse_lnum* *mouse_lnum-variable*
v:mouse_lnum Line number for a mouse click obtained with |getchar()|.
This is the text line number, not the screen line number. The
value is zero when there was no mouse button click.
*v:mouse_col* *mouse_col-variable*
v:mouse_col Column number for a mouse click obtained with |getchar()|.
This is the screen column number, like with |virtcol()|. The
value is zero when there was no mouse button click.
*v:oldfiles* *oldfiles-variable*
v:oldfiles List of file names that is loaded from the |viminfo| file on
startup. These are the files that Vim remembers marks for.
The length of the List is limited by the '' argument of the
'viminfo' option (default is 100).
Also see |:oldfiles| and |c_#<|.
The List can be modified, but this has no effect on what is
stored in the |viminfo| file later. If you use values other
than String this will cause trouble.
{only when compiled with the |+viminfo| feature}
*v:operator* *operator-variable*
v:operator The last operator given in Normal mode. This is a single
character except for commands starting with <g> or <z>,
in which case it is two characters. Best used alongside
|v:prevcount| and |v:register|. Useful if you want to cancel
Operator-pending mode and then use the operator, e.g.:
:omap O <Esc>:call MyMotion(v:operator)<CR>
The value remains set until another operator is entered, thus
don't expect it to be empty.
v:operator is not set for |:delete|, |:yank| or other Ex
commands.
Read-only.
*v:prevcount* *prevcount-variable*
v:prevcount The count given for the last but one Normal mode command.
This is the v:count value of the previous command. Useful if
you want to cancel Visual or Operator-pending mode and then
use the count, e.g.:
:vmap % <Esc>:call MyFilter(v:prevcount)<CR>
Read-only.

*v:profiling* *profiling-variable*
v:profiling Normally zero. Set to one after using ":profile start".
See |profiling|.
*v:progname* *progname-variable*
v:progname Contains the name (with path removed) with which Vim was
invoked. Allows you to do special initialisations for "view",
"evim" etc., or any other name you might symlink to Vim.
Read-only.
*v:register* *register-variable*
v:register The name of the register in effect for the current normal mode
command. If none is supplied it is the default register.
Also see |getreg()| and |setreg()|
*v:scrollstart* *scrollstart-variable*
v:scrollstart String describing the script or function that caused the
screen to scroll up. It's only set when it is empty, thus the
first reason is remembered. It is set to "Unknown" for a
typed command.
This can be used to find out why your script causes the
hit-enter prompt.
*v:servername* *servername-variable*
v:servername The resulting registered |x11-clientserver| name if any.
Read-only.
v:searchforward *v:searchforward* *searchforward-variable*

Search direction: 1 after a forward search, 0 after a
backward search. It is reset to forward when directly setting
the last search pattern, see |quote/|.
Note that the value is restored when returning from a
function. |function-search-undo|.
Read-write.
*v:shell_error* *shell_error-variable*
v:shell_error Result of the last shell command. When non-zero, the last
shell command had an error. When zero, there was no problem.
This only works when the shell returns the error code to Vim.
The value -1 is often used when the command could not be
executed. Read-only.
Example:
:!mv foo bar
:if v:shell_error
: echo 'could not rename "foo" to "bar"!'
:endif
"shell_error" also works, for backwards compatibility.
*v:statusmsg* *statusmsg-variable*
v:statusmsg Last given status message. It's allowed to set this variable.
*v:swapname* *swapname-variable*
v:swapname Only valid when executing |SwapExists| autocommands: Name of
the swap file found. Read-only.
*v:swapchoice* *swapchoice-variable*
v:swapchoice |SwapExists| autocommands can set this to the selected choice
for handling an existing swap file:
'o' Open read-only
'e' Edit anyway
'r' Recover
'd' Delete swapfile
'q' Quit
'a' Abort
The value should be a single-character string. An empty value
results in the user being asked, as would happen when there is
no SwapExists autocommand. The default is empty.

*v:swapcommand* *swapcommand-variable*
v:swapcommand Normal mode command to be executed after a file has been
opened. Can be used for a |SwapExists| autocommand to have
another Vim open the file and jump to the right place. For
example, when jumping to a tag the value is ":tag tagname\r".
For ":edit +cmd file" the value is ":cmd\r".
*v:termresponse* *termresponse-variable*
v:termresponse The escape sequence returned by the terminal for the |t_RV|
termcap entry. It is set when Vim receives an escape sequence
that starts with ESC [ or CSI and ends in a 'c', with only
digits, ';' and '.' in between.
When this option is set, the TermResponse autocommand event is
fired, so that you can react to the response from the
terminal.
The response from a new xterm is: "<Esc>[ Pp ; Pv ; Pc c". Pp
is the terminal type: 0 for vt100 and 1 for vt220. Pv is the
patch level (since this was introduced in patch 95, it's
always 95 or bigger). Pc is always zero.
{only when compiled with |+termresponse| feature}
*v:this_session* *this_session-variable*
v:this_session Full filename of the last loaded or saved session file. See
|:mksession|. It is allowed to set this variable. When no
session file has been saved, this variable is empty.
"this_session" also works, for backwards compatibility.
*v:throwpoint* *throwpoint-variable*
v:throwpoint The point where the exception most recently caught and not
finished was thrown. Not set when commands are typed. See
also |v:exception| and |throw-variables|.
Example:
:try
: throw "oops"
:catch /.*/
: echo "Exception from" v:throwpoint
:endtry
Output: "Exception from test.vim, line 2"
*v:val* *val-variable*
v:val Value of the current item of a |List| or |Dictionary|. Only
valid while evaluating the expression used with |map()| and
|filter()|. Read-only.
*v:version* *version-variable*
v:version Version number of Vim: Major version number times 100 plus
minor version number. Version 5.0 is 500. Version 5.1 (5.01)
is 501. Read-only. "version" also works, for backwards
compatibility.
Use |has()| to check if a certain patch was included, e.g.:
if has("patch123")
Note that patch numbers are specific to the version, thus both
version 5.0 and 5.1 may have a patch 123, but these are
completely different.
*v:warningmsg* *warningmsg-variable*
v:warningmsg Last given warning message. It's allowed to set this variable.
*v:windowid* *windowid-variable*
v:windowid When any X11 based GUI is running or when running in a
terminal and Vim connects to the X server (|-X|) this will be
set to the window ID.
When an MS-Windows GUI is running this will be set to the
window handle.
Otherwise the value is zero.
Note: for windows inside Vim use |winnr()|.
==============================================================================
4. Builtin Functions *functions*

See |function-list| for a list grouped by what the function is used for.
(Use CTRL-] on the function name to jump to the full explanation.)
USAGE RESULT DESCRIPTION
abs( {expr}) Float or Number absolute value of {expr}
acos( {expr}) Float arc cosine of {expr}
add( {list}, {item}) List append {item} to |List| {list}
append( {lnum}, {string}) Number append {string} below line {lnum}
append( {lnum}, {list}) Number append lines {list} below line {lnum}
argc() Number number of files in the argument list
argidx() Number current index in the argument list
argv( {nr}) String {nr} entry of the argument list
argv( ) List the argument list
asin( {expr}) Float arc sine of {expr}
atan( {expr}) Float arc tangent of {expr}
atan2( {expr}, {expr}) Float arc tangent of {expr1} / {expr2}
browse( {save}, {title}, {initdir}, {default})
String put up a file requester
browsedir( {title}, {initdir}) String put up a directory requester
bufexists( {expr}) Number TRUE if buffer {expr} exists
buflisted( {expr}) Number TRUE if buffer {expr} is listed
bufloaded( {expr}) Number TRUE if buffer {expr} is loaded
bufname( {expr}) String Name of the buffer {expr}
bufnr( {expr}) Number Number of the buffer {expr}
bufwinnr( {expr}) Number window number of buffer {expr}
byte2line( {byte}) Number line number at byte count {byte}
byteidx( {expr}, {nr}) Number byte index of {nr}'th char in {expr}
call( {func}, {arglist} [, {dict}])
any call {func} with arguments {arglist}
ceil( {expr}) Float round {expr} up
changenr() Number current change number
char2nr( {expr}) Number ASCII value of first char in {expr}
cindent( {lnum}) Number C indent for line {lnum}
clearmatches() none clear all matches
col( {expr}) Number column nr of cursor or mark
complete( {startcol}, {matches}) none set Insert mode completion
complete_add( {expr}) Number add completion match
complete_check() Number check for key typed during completion
confirm( {msg} [, {choices} [, {default} [, {type}]]])
Number number of choice picked by user
copy( {expr}) any make a shallow copy of {expr}
cos( {expr}) Float cosine of {expr}
cosh( {expr}) Float hyperbolic cosine of {expr}
count( {list}, {expr} [, {start} [, {ic}]])
Number count how many {expr} are in {list}
cscope_connection( [{num} , {dbpath} [, {prepend}]])
Number checks existence of cscope connection
cursor( {lnum}, {col} [, {coladd}])
Number move cursor to {lnum}, {col}, {coladd}
cursor( {list}) Number move cursor to position in {list}
deepcopy( {expr}) any make a full copy of {expr}
delete( {fname}) Number delete file {fname}
did_filetype() Number TRUE if FileType autocommand event used
diff_filler( {lnum}) Number diff filler lines about {lnum}
diff_hlID( {lnum}, {col}) Number diff highlighting at {lnum}/{col}
empty( {expr}) Number TRUE if {expr} is empty
escape( {string}, {chars}) String escape {chars} in {string} with '\'
eval( {string}) any evaluate {string} into its value
eventhandler( ) Number TRUE if inside an event handler
executable( {expr}) Number 1 if executable {expr} exists
exists( {expr}) Number TRUE if {expr} exists
extend( {expr1}, {expr2} [, {expr3}])
List/Dict insert items of {expr2} into {expr1}
exp( {expr}) Float exponential of {expr}
expand( {expr} [, {flag}]) String expand special keywords in {expr}
feedkeys( {string} [, {mode}]) Number add key sequence to typeahead buffer
filereadable( {file}) Number TRUE if {file} is a readable file
filewritable( {file}) Number TRUE if {file} is a writable file
filter( {expr}, {string}) List/Dict remove items from {expr} where
{string} is 0
finddir( {name}[, {path}[, {count}]])
String find directory {name} in {path}
findfile( {name}[, {path}[, {count}]])
String find file {name} in {path}
float2nr( {expr}) Number convert Float {expr} to a Number
floor( {expr}) Float round {expr} down
fmod( {expr1}, {expr2}) Float remainder of {expr1} / {expr2}
fnameescape( {fname}) String escape special characters in {fname}

fnamemodify( {fname}, {mods}) String modify file name

foldclosed( {lnum}) Number first line of fold at {lnum} if closed
foldclosedend( {lnum}) Number last line of fold at {lnum} if closed
foldlevel( {lnum}) Number fold level at {lnum}
foldtext( ) String line displayed for closed fold
foldtextresult( {lnum}) String text for closed fold at {lnum}
foreground( ) Number bring the Vim window to the foreground
function( {name}) Funcref reference to function {name}
garbagecollect( [at_exit]) none free memory, breaking cyclic references
get( {list}, {idx} [, {def}]) any get item {idx} from {list} or {def}
get( {dict}, {key} [, {def}]) any get item {key} from {dict} or {def}
getbufline( {expr}, {lnum} [, {end}])
List lines {lnum} to {end} of buffer {expr}
getbufvar( {expr}, {varname}) any variable {varname} in buffer {expr}
getchar( [expr]) Number get one character from the user
getcharmod( ) Number modifiers for the last typed character
getcmdline() String return the current command-line
getcmdpos() Number return cursor position in command-line
getcmdtype() String return the current command-line type
getcwd() String the current working directory
getfperm( {fname}) String file permissions of file {fname}
getfsize( {fname}) Number size in bytes of file {fname}
getfontname( [{name}]) String name of font being used
getftime( {fname}) Number last modification time of file
getftype( {fname}) String description of type of file {fname}
getline( {lnum}) String line {lnum} of current buffer
getline( {lnum}, {end}) List lines {lnum} to {end} of current buffer
getloclist( {nr}) List list of location list items
getmatches() List list of current matches
getpid() Number process ID of Vim
getpos( {expr}) List position of cursor, mark, etc.
getqflist() List list of quickfix items
getreg( [{regname} [, 1]]) String contents of register
getregtype( [{regname}]) String type of register
gettabvar( {nr}, {varname}) any variable {varname} in tab {nr}
gettabwinvar( {tabnr}, {winnr}, {name})
any {name} in {winnr} in tab page {tabnr}
getwinposx() Number X coord in pixels of GUI Vim window
getwinposy() Number Y coord in pixels of GUI Vim window
getwinvar( {nr}, {varname}) any variable {varname} in window {nr}
glob( {expr} [, {flag}]) String expand file wildcards in {expr}
globpath( {path}, {expr} [, {flag}])
String do glob({expr}) for all dirs in {path}
has( {feature}) Number TRUE if feature {feature} supported
has_key( {dict}, {key}) Number TRUE if {dict} has entry {key}
haslocaldir() Number TRUE if current window executed |:lcd|
hasmapto( {what} [, {mode} [, {abbr}]])
Number TRUE if mapping to {what} exists
histadd( {history},{item}) String add an item to a history
histdel( {history} [, {item}]) String remove an item from a history
histget( {history} [, {index}]) String get the item {index} from a history
histnr( {history}) Number highest index of a history
hlexists( {name}) Number TRUE if highlight group {name} exists
hlID( {name}) Number syntax ID of highlight group {name}
hostname() String name of the machine Vim is running on
iconv( {expr}, {from}, {to}) String convert encoding of {expr}
indent( {lnum}) Number indent of line {lnum}
index( {list}, {expr} [, {start} [, {ic}]])
Number index in {list} where {expr} appears
input( {prompt} [, {text} [, {completion}]])
String get input from the user
inputdialog( {p} [, {t} [, {c}]]) String like input() but in a GUI dialog
inputlist( {textlist}) Number let the user pick from a choice list
inputrestore() Number restore typeahead
inputsave() Number save and clear typeahead
inputsecret( {prompt} [, {text}]) String like input() but hiding the text
insert( {list}, {item} [, {idx}]) List insert {item} in {list} [before {idx}]
isdirectory( {directory}) Number TRUE if {directory} is a directory
islocked( {expr}) Number TRUE if {expr} is locked
items( {dict}) List key-value pairs in {dict}
join( {list} [, {sep}]) String join {list} items into one String
keys( {dict}) List keys in {dict}
len( {expr}) Number the length of {expr}
libcall( {lib}, {func}, {arg}) String call {func} in library {lib} with {arg}
libcallnr( {lib}, {func}, {arg}) Number idem, but return a Number
line( {expr}) Number line nr of cursor, last line or mark
line2byte( {lnum}) Number byte count of line {lnum}
lispindent( {lnum}) Number Lisp indent for line {lnum}
localtime() Number current time
log( {expr}) Float natural logarithm (base e) of {expr}
log10( {expr}) Float logarithm of Float {expr} to base 10

map( {expr}, {string}) List/Dict change each item in {expr} to {expr}

maparg( {name}[, {mode} [, {abbr} [, {dict}]]])
String rhs of mapping {name} in mode {mode}
mapcheck( {name}[, {mode} [, {abbr}]])
String check for mappings matching {name}
match( {expr}, {pat}[, {start}[, {count}]])
Number position where {pat} matches in {expr}
matchadd( {group}, {pattern}[, {priority}[, {id}]])
Number highlight {pattern} with {group}
matcharg( {nr}) List arguments of |:match|
matchdelete( {id}) Number delete match identified by {id}
matchend( {expr}, {pat}[, {start}[, {count}]])
Number position where {pat} ends in {expr}
matchlist( {expr}, {pat}[, {start}[, {count}]])
List match and submatches of {pat} in {expr}
matchstr( {expr}, {pat}[, {start}[, {count}]])
String {count}'th match of {pat} in {expr}
max( {list}) Number maximum value of items in {list}
min( {list}) Number minimum value of items in {list}
mkdir( {name} [, {path} [, {prot}]])
Number create directory {name}
mode( [expr]) String current editing mode
mzeval( {expr}) any evaluate |MzScheme| expression
nextnonblank( {lnum}) Number line nr of non-blank line >= {lnum}
nr2char( {expr}) String single char with ASCII value {expr}
pathshorten( {expr}) String shorten directory names in a path
pow( {x}, {y}) Float {x} to the power of {y}
prevnonblank( {lnum}) Number line nr of non-blank line <= {lnum}
printf( {fmt}, {expr1}...) String format text
pumvisible() Number whether popup menu is visible
range( {expr} [, {max} [, {stride}]])
List items from {expr} to {max}
readfile( {fname} [, {binary} [, {max}]])
List get list of lines from file {fname}
reltime( [{start} [, {end}]]) List get time value
reltimestr( {time}) String turn time value into a String
remote_expr( {server}, {string} [, {idvar}])
String send expression
remote_foreground( {server}) Number bring Vim server to the foreground
remote_peek( {serverid} [, {retvar}])
Number check for reply string
remote_read( {serverid}) String read reply string
remote_send( {server}, {string} [, {idvar}])
String send key sequence
remove( {list}, {idx} [, {end}]) any remove items {idx}-{end} from {list}
remove( {dict}, {key}) any remove entry {key} from {dict}
rename( {from}, {to}) Number rename (move) file from {from} to {to}
repeat( {expr}, {count}) String repeat {expr} {count} times
resolve( {filename}) String get filename a shortcut points to
reverse( {list}) List reverse {list} in-place
round( {expr}) Float round off {expr}
search( {pattern} [, {flags} [, {stopline} [, {timeout}]]])
Number search for {pattern}
searchdecl( {name} [, {global} [, {thisblock}]])
Number search for variable declaration
searchpair( {start}, {middle}, {end} [, {flags} [, {skip} [...]]])
Number search for other end of start/end pair
searchpairpos( {start}, {middle}, {end} [, {flags} [, {skip} [...]]])
List search for other end of start/end pair
searchpos( {pattern} [, {flags} [, {stopline} [, {timeout}]]])
List search for {pattern}
server2client( {clientid}, {string})
Number send reply string
serverlist() String get a list of available servers
setbufvar( {expr}, {varname}, {val}) set {varname} in buffer {expr} to {val}
setcmdpos( {pos}) Number set cursor position in command-line
setline( {lnum}, {line}) Number set line {lnum} to {line}
setloclist( {nr}, {list}[, {action}])
Number modify location list using {list}
setmatches( {list}) Number restore a list of matches
setpos( {expr}, {list}) Number set the {expr} position to {list}
setqflist( {list}[, {action}]) Number modify quickfix list using {list}
setreg( {n}, {v}[, {opt}]) Number set register to value and type
settabvar( {nr}, {varname}, {val}) set {varname} in tab page {nr} to {val}
settabwinvar( {tabnr}, {winnr}, {varname}, {val}) set {varname} in window
{winnr} in tab page {tabnr} to {val}
setwinvar( {nr}, {varname}, {val}) set {varname} in window {nr} to {val}
shellescape( {string} [, {special}])
String escape {string} for use as shell
command argument
simplify( {filename}) String simplify filename as much as possible

sin( {expr}) Float sine of {expr}

sinh( {expr}) Float hyperbolic sine of {expr}
sort( {list} [, {func}]) List sort {list}, using {func} to compare
soundfold( {word}) String sound-fold {word}
spellbadword() String badly spelled word at cursor
spellsuggest( {word} [, {max} [, {capital}]])
List spelling suggestions
split( {expr} [, {pat} [, {keepempty}]])
List make |List| from {pat} separated {expr}
sqrt( {expr}) Float square root of {expr}
str2float( {expr}) Float convert String to Float
str2nr( {expr} [, {base}]) Number convert String to Number
strchars( {expr}) Number character length of the String {expr}
strdisplaywidth( {expr} [, {col}]) Number display length of the String {expr}
strftime( {format}[, {time}]) String time in specified format
stridx( {haystack}, {needle}[, {start}])
Number index of {needle} in {haystack}
string( {expr}) String String representation of {expr} value
strlen( {expr}) Number length of the String {expr}
strpart( {src}, {start}[, {len}])
String {len} characters of {src} at {start}
strridx( {haystack}, {needle} [, {start}])
Number last index of {needle} in {haystack}
strtrans( {expr}) String translate string to make it printable
strwidth( {expr}) Number display cell length of the String {expr}
submatch( {nr}) String specific match in ":substitute"
substitute( {expr}, {pat}, {sub}, {flags})
String all {pat} in {expr} replaced with {sub}
synID( {lnum}, {col}, {trans}) Number syntax ID at {lnum} and {col}
synIDattr( {synID}, {what} [, {mode}])
String attribute {what} of syntax ID {synID}
synIDtrans( {synID}) Number translated syntax ID of {synID}
synconcealed( {lnum}, {col}) List info about concealing
synstack( {lnum}, {col}) List stack of syntax IDs at {lnum} and {col}
system( {expr} [, {input}]) String output of shell command/filter {expr}
tabpagebuflist( [{arg}]) List list of buffer numbers in tab page
tabpagenr( [{arg}]) Number number of current or last tab page
tabpagewinnr( {tabarg}[, {arg}])
Number number of current window in tab page
taglist( {expr}) List list of tags matching {expr}
tagfiles() List tags files used
tempname() String name for a temporary file
tan( {expr}) Float tangent of {expr}
tanh( {expr}) Float hyperbolic tangent of {expr}
tolower( {expr}) String the String {expr} switched to lowercase
toupper( {expr}) String the String {expr} switched to uppercase
tr( {src}, {fromstr}, {tostr}) String translate chars of {src} in {fromstr}
to chars in {tostr}
trunc( {expr}) Float truncate Float {expr}
type( {name}) Number type of variable {name}
undofile( {name}) String undo file name for {name}
undotree() List undo file tree
values( {dict}) List values in {dict}
virtcol( {expr}) Number screen column of cursor or mark
visualmode( [expr]) String last visual mode used
winbufnr( {nr}) Number buffer number of window {nr}
wincol() Number window column of the cursor
winheight( {nr}) Number height of window {nr}
winline() Number window line of the cursor
winnr( [{expr}]) Number number of current window
winrestcmd() String returns command to restore window sizes
winrestview( {dict}) none restore view of current window
winsaveview() Dict save view of current window
winwidth( {nr}) Number width of window {nr}
writefile( {list}, {fname} [, {binary}])
Number write list of lines to file {fname}
abs({expr}) *abs()*
Return the absolute value of {expr}. When {expr} evaluates to
a |Float| abs() returns a |Float|. When {expr} can be
converted to a |Number| abs() returns a |Number|. Otherwise
abs() gives an error message and returns -1.
Examples:
echo abs(1.456)
1.456
echo abs(-5.456)
5.456
echo abs(-4)
4

{only available when compiled with the |+float| feature}
acos({expr}) *acos()*
Return the arc cosine of {expr} measured in radians, as a
|Float| in the range of [0, pi].
{expr} must evaluate to a |Float| or a |Number| in the range
[-1, 1].
Examples:
:echo acos(0)
1.570796
:echo acos(-0.5)
2.094395
add({list}, {expr}) *add()*

Append the item {expr} to |List| {list}. Returns the
resulting |List|. Examples:
:let alist = add([1, 2, 3], item)
:call add(mylist, "woodstock")
Note that when {expr} is a |List| it is appended as a single
item. Use |extend()| to concatenate |Lists|.
Use |insert()| to add an item at another position.
append({lnum}, {expr}) *append()*

When {expr} is a |List|: Append each item of the |List| as a
text line below line {lnum} in the current buffer.
Otherwise append {expr} as one text line below line {lnum} in
the current buffer.
{lnum} can be zero to insert a line before the first one.
Returns 1 for failure ({lnum} out of range or out of memory),
0 for success. Example:
:let failed = append(line('$'), "# THE END")
:let failed = append(0, ["Chapter 1", "the beginning"])
*argc()*
argc() The result is the number of files in the argument list of the
current window. See |arglist|.
*argidx()*
argidx() The result is the current index in the argument list. 0 is
the first file. argc() - 1 is the last one. See |arglist|.
*argv()*
argv([{nr}]) The result is the {nr}th file in the argument list of the
current window. See |arglist|. "argv(0)" is the first one.
Example:
:let i = 0
:while i < argc()
: let f = escape(fnameescape(argv(i)), '.')
: exe 'amenu Arg.' . f . ' :e ' . f . '<CR>'
: let i = i + 1
:endwhile
Without the {nr} argument a |List| with the whole |arglist| is
returned.
asin({expr}) *asin()*
Return the arc sine of {expr} measured in radians, as a |Float|
in the range of [-pi/2, pi/2].
[-1, 1].
Examples:
:echo asin(0.8)
0.927295
:echo asin(-0.5)
-0.523599

atan({expr}) *atan()*
Return the principal value of the arc tangent of {expr}, in
the range [-pi/2, +pi/2] radians, as a |Float|.
{expr} must evaluate to a |Float| or a |Number|.
Examples:
:echo atan(100)
1.560797
:echo atan(-4.01)
-1.326405
atan2({expr1}, {expr2}) *atan2()*

Return the arc tangent of {expr1} / {expr2}, measured in
radians, as a |Float| in the range [-pi, pi].
{expr1} and {expr2} must evaluate to a |Float| or a |Number|.
Examples:
:echo atan2(-1, 1)
-0.785398
:echo atan2(1, -1)
2.356194
*browse()*
browse({save}, {title}, {initdir}, {default})
Put up a file requester. This only works when "has("browse")"
returns non-zero (only in some GUI versions).
The input fields are:
{save} when non-zero, select file to write
{title} title for the requester
{initdir} directory to start browsing in
{default} default file name
When the "Cancel" button is hit, something went wrong, or
browsing is not possible, an empty string is returned.
*browsedir()*
browsedir({title}, {initdir})
Put up a directory requester. This only works when
"has("browse")" returns non-zero (only in some GUI versions).
On systems where a directory browser is not supported a file
browser is used. In that case: select a file in the directory
to be used.
The input fields are:
{title} title for the requester
{initdir} directory to start browsing in
When the "Cancel" button is hit, something went wrong, or
browsing is not possible, an empty string is returned.
bufexists({expr}) *bufexists()*
The result is a Number, which is non-zero if a buffer called
{expr} exists.
If the {expr} argument is a number, buffer numbers are used.
If the {expr} argument is a string it must match a buffer name
exactly. The name can be:
- Relative to the current directory.
- A full path.
- The name of a buffer with 'buftype' set to "nofile".
- A URL name.
Unlisted buffers will be found.
Note that help files are listed by their short name in the
output of |:buffers|, but bufexists() requires using their
long name to be able to find them.
bufexists() may report a buffer exists, but to use the name
with a |:buffer| command you may need to use |expand()|. Esp
for MS-Windows 8.3 names in the form "c:\DOCUME~1"
Use "bufexists(0)" to test for the existence of an alternate
file name.
*buffer_exists()*
Obsolete name: buffer_exists().
buflisted({expr}) *buflisted()*
{expr} exists and is listed (has the 'buflisted' option set).

The {expr} argument is used like with |bufexists()|.
bufloaded({expr}) *bufloaded()*
{expr} exists and is loaded (shown in a window or hidden).
The {expr} argument is used like with |bufexists()|.
bufname({expr}) *bufname()*
The result is the name of a buffer, as it is displayed by the
":ls" command.
If {expr} is a Number, that buffer number's name is given.
Number zero is the alternate buffer for the current window.
If {expr} is a String, it is used as a |file-pattern| to match
with the buffer names. This is always done like 'magic' is
set and 'cpoptions' is empty. When there is more than one
match an empty string is returned.
"" or "%" can be used for the current buffer, "#" for the
alternate buffer.
A full match is preferred, otherwise a match at the start, end
or middle of the buffer name is accepted. If you only want a
full match then put "^" at the start and "$" at the end of the
pattern.
Listed buffers are found first. If there is a single match
with a listed buffer, that one is returned. Next unlisted
buffers are searched for.
If the {expr} is a String, but you want to use it as a buffer
number, force it to be a Number by adding zero to it:
:echo bufname("3" + 0)
If the buffer doesn't exist, or doesn't have a name, an empty
string is returned.
bufname("#") alternate buffer name
bufname(3) name of buffer 3
bufname("%") name of current buffer
bufname("file2") name of buffer where "file2" matches.
*buffer_name()*
Obsolete name: buffer_name().
*bufnr()*
bufnr({expr} [, {create}])
The result is the number of a buffer, as it is displayed by
the ":ls" command. For the use of {expr}, see |bufname()|
above.
If the buffer doesn't exist, -1 is returned. Or, if the
{create} argument is present and not zero, a new, unlisted,
buffer is created and its number is returned.
bufnr("$") is the last buffer:
:let last_buffer = bufnr("$")
The result is a Number, which is the highest buffer number
of existing buffers. Note that not all buffers with a smaller
number necessarily exist, because ":bwipeout" may have removed
them. Use bufexists() to test for the existence of a buffer.
*buffer_number()*
Obsolete name: buffer_number().
*last_buffer_nr()*
Obsolete name for bufnr("$"): last_buffer_nr().
bufwinnr({expr}) *bufwinnr()*
The result is a Number, which is the number of the first
window associated with buffer {expr}. For the use of {expr},
see |bufname()| above. If buffer {expr} doesn't exist or
there is no such window, -1 is returned. Example:
echo "A window containing buffer 1 is " . (bufwinnr(1))
The number can be used with |CTRL-W_w| and ":wincmd w"
|:wincmd|.
Only deals with the current tab page.
byte2line({byte}) *byte2line()*
Return the line number that contains the character at byte

count {byte} in the current buffer. This includes the

end-of-line character, depending on the 'fileformat' option
for the current buffer. The first character has byte count
one.
Also see |line2byte()|, |go| and |:goto|.
{not available when compiled without the |+byte_offset|
feature}
byteidx({expr}, {nr}) *byteidx()*

Return byte index of the {nr}'th character in the string
{expr}. Use zero for the first character, it returns zero.
This function is only useful when there are multibyte
characters, otherwise the returned value is equal to {nr}.
Composing characters are counted as a separate character.
Example :
echo matchstr(str, ".", byteidx(str, 3))
will display the fourth character. Another way to do the
same:
let s = strpart(str, byteidx(str, 3))
echo strpart(s, 0, byteidx(s, 1))
If there are less than {nr} characters -1 is returned.
If there are exactly {nr} characters the length of the string
is returned.
call({func}, {arglist} [, {dict}]) *call()* *E699*

Call function {func} with the items in |List| {arglist} as
arguments.
{func} can either be a |Funcref| or the name of a function.
a:firstline and a:lastline are set to the cursor line.
Returns the return value of the called function.
{dict} is for functions with the "dict" attribute. It will be
used to set the local variable "self". |Dictionary-function|
ceil({expr}) *ceil()*
Return the smallest integral value greater than or equal to
{expr} as a |Float| (round up).
Examples:
echo ceil(1.456)
2.0
echo ceil(-5.456)
-5.0
echo ceil(4.0)
4.0
changenr() *changenr()*
Return the number of the most recent change. This is the same
number as what is displayed with |:undolist| and can be used
with the |:undo| command.
When a change was made it is the number of that change. After
redo it is the number of the redone change. After undo it is
one less than the number of the undone change.
char2nr({expr}) *char2nr()*
Return number value of the first char in {expr}. Examples:
char2nr(" ") returns 32
char2nr("ABC") returns 65
The current 'encoding' is used. Example for "utf-8":
char2nr("á") returns 225
char2nr("á"[0]) returns 195
|nr2char()| does the opposite.
cindent({lnum}) *cindent()*
Get the amount of indent for line {lnum} according the C
indenting rules, as with 'cindent'.
The indent is counted in spaces, the value of 'tabstop' is
relevant. {lnum} is used just like in |getline()|.
When {lnum} is invalid or Vim was not compiled the |+cindent|
feature, -1 is returned.
See |C-indenting|.

clearmatches() *clearmatches()*
Clears all matches previously defined by |matchadd()| and the
|:match| commands.
*col()*
col({expr}) The result is a Number, which is the byte index of the column
position given with {expr}. The accepted positions are:
. the cursor position
$ the end of the cursor line (the result is the
number of characters in the cursor line plus one)
'x position of mark x (if the mark is not set, 0 is
returned)
Additionally {expr} can be [lnum, col]: a |List| with the line
and column number. Most useful when the column is "$", to get
the last column of a specific line. When "lnum" or "col" is
out of range then col() returns zero.
To get the line number use |line()|. To get both use
|getpos()|.
For the screen column position use |virtcol()|.
Note that only marks in the current file can be used.
Examples:
col(".") column of cursor
col("$") length of cursor line plus one
col("'t") column of mark t
col("'" . markname) column of mark markname
The first column is 1. 0 is returned for an error.
For an uppercase mark the column may actually be in another
buffer.
For the cursor position, when 'virtualedit' is active, the
column is one higher if the cursor is after the end of the
line. This can be used to obtain the column in Insert mode:
:imap <F2> <C-O>:let save_ve = &ve<CR>
\<C-O>:set ve=all<CR>
\<C-O>:echo col(".") . "\n" <Bar>
\let &ve = save_ve<CR>
complete({startcol}, {matches}) *complete()* *E785*

Set the matches for Insert mode completion.
Can only be used in Insert mode. You need to use a mapping
with CTRL-R = |i_CTRL-R|. It does not work after CTRL-O or
with an expression mapping.
{startcol} is the byte offset in the line where the completed
text start. The text up to the cursor is the original text
that will be replaced by the matches. Use col('.') for an
empty string. "col('.') - 1" will replace one character by a
match.
{matches} must be a |List|. Each |List| item is one match.
See |complete-items| for the kind of items that are possible.
Note that the after calling this function you need to avoid
inserting anything that would cause completion to stop.
The match can be selected with CTRL-N and CTRL-P as usual with
Insert mode completion. The popup menu will appear if
specified, see |ins-completion-menu|.
Example:
inoremap <F5> <C-R>=ListMonths()<CR>
func! ListMonths()
call complete(col('.'), ['January', 'February', 'March',
\ 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September',
\ 'October', 'November', 'December'])
return ''
endfunc
This isn't very useful, but it shows how it works. Note that
an empty string is returned to avoid a zero being inserted.
complete_add({expr}) *complete_add()*
Add {expr} to the list of matches. Only to be used by the
function specified with the 'completefunc' option.
Returns 0 for failure (empty string or out of memory),
1 when the match was added, 2 when the match was already in
the list.
See |complete-functions| for an explanation of {expr}. It is
the same as one item in the list that 'omnifunc' would return.

complete_check() *complete_check()*
Check for a key typed while looking for completion matches.
This is to be used when looking for matches takes some time.
Returns non-zero when searching for matches is to be aborted,
zero otherwise.
Only to be used by the function specified with the
'completefunc' option.
*confirm()*
confirm({msg} [, {choices} [, {default} [, {type}]]])
Confirm() offers the user a dialog, from which a choice can be
made. It returns the number of the choice. For the first
choice this is 1.
Note: confirm() is only supported when compiled with dialog
support, see |+dialog_con| and |+dialog_gui|.
{msg} is displayed in a |dialog| with {choices} as the
alternatives. When {choices} is missing or empty, "&OK" is
used (and translated).
{msg} is a String, use '\n' to include a newline. Only on
some systems the string is wrapped when it doesn't fit.
{choices} is a String, with the individual choices separated
by '\n', e.g.
confirm("Save changes?", "&Yes\n&No\n&Cancel")
The letter after the '&' is the shortcut key for that choice.
Thus you can type 'c' to select "Cancel". The shortcut does
not need to be the first letter:
confirm("file has been modified", "&Save\nSave &All")
For the console, the first letter of each choice is used as
the default shortcut key.
The optional {default} argument is the number of the choice
that is made if the user hits <CR>. Use 1 to make the first
choice the default one. Use 0 to not set a default. If
{default} is omitted, 1 is used.
The optional {type} argument gives the type of dialog. This
is only used for the icon of the GTK, Mac, Motif and Win32
GUI. It can be one of these values: "Error", "Question",
"Info", "Warning" or "Generic". Only the first character is
relevant. When {type} is omitted, "Generic" is used.
If the user aborts the dialog by pressing <Esc>, CTRL-C,
or another valid interrupt key, confirm() returns 0.
An example:
:let choice = confirm("What do you want?", "&Apples\n&Oranges\n&Bananas", 2)
:if choice == 0
: echo "make up your mind!"
:elseif choice == 3
: echo "tasteful"
:else
: echo "I prefer bananas myself."
:endif
In a GUI dialog, buttons are used. The layout of the buttons
depends on the 'v' flag in 'guioptions'. If it is included,
the buttons are always put vertically. Otherwise, confirm()
tries to put the buttons in one horizontal line. If they
don't fit, a vertical layout is used anyway. For some systems
the horizontal layout is always used.
*copy()*
copy({expr}) Make a copy of {expr}. For Numbers and Strings this isn't
different from using {expr} directly.
When {expr} is a |List| a shallow copy is created. This means
that the original |List| can be changed without changing the
copy, and vice versa. But the items are identical, thus
changing an item changes the contents of both |Lists|. Also
see |deepcopy()|.
cos({expr}) *cos()*
Return the cosine of {expr}, measured in radians, as a |Float|.
Examples:
:echo cos(100)

0.862319
:echo cos(-4.01)
-0.646043
cosh({expr}) *cosh()*
Return the hyperbolic cosine of {expr} as a |Float| in the range
[1, inf].
Examples:
:echo cosh(0.5)
1.127626
:echo cosh(-0.5)
-1.127626
count({comp}, {expr} [, {ic} [, {start}]]) *count()*

Return the number of times an item with value {expr} appears
in |List| or |Dictionary| {comp}.
If {start} is given then start with the item with this index.
{start} can only be used with a |List|.
When {ic} is given and it's non-zero then case is ignored.
*cscope_connection()*
cscope_connection([{num} , {dbpath} [, {prepend}]])
Checks for the existence of a |cscope| connection. If no
parameters are specified, then the function returns:
0, if cscope was not available (not compiled in), or
if there are no cscope connections;
1, if there is at least one cscope connection.
If parameters are specified, then the value of {num}
determines how existence of a cscope connection is checked:
{num} Description of existence check
----- ------------------------------
0 Same as no parameters (e.g., "cscope_connection()").
1 Ignore {prepend}, and use partial string matches for
{dbpath}.
2 Ignore {prepend}, and use exact string matches for
{dbpath}.
3 Use {prepend}, use partial string matches for both
{dbpath} and {prepend}.
4 Use {prepend}, use exact string matches for both
{dbpath} and {prepend}.
Note: All string comparisons are case sensitive!
Examples. Suppose we had the following (from ":cs show"):
# pid database name prepend path
0 27664 cscope.out /usr/local
Invocation Return Val
---------- ----------
cscope_connection() 1
cscope_connection(1, "out") 1
cscope_connection(3, "out", "local") 1
cscope_connection(4, "out", "local") 0
cscope_connection(4, "cscope.out", "/usr/local") 1
cursor({lnum}, {col} [, {off}]) *cursor()*

cursor({list})
Positions the cursor at the column (byte count) {col} in the
line {lnum}. The first column is one.
When there is one argument {list} this is used as a |List|
with two or three items {lnum}, {col} and {off}. This is like
the return value of |getpos()|, but without the first item.
Does not change the jumplist.

If {lnum} is greater than the number of lines in the buffer,

the cursor will be positioned at the last line in the buffer.
If {lnum} is zero, the cursor will stay in the current line.
If {col} is greater than the number of bytes in the line,
the cursor will be positioned at the last character in the
line.
If {col} is zero, the cursor will stay in the current column.
When 'virtualedit' is used {off} specifies the offset in
screen columns from the start of the character. E.g., a
position within a <Tab> or after the last character.
Returns 0 when the position could be set, -1 otherwise.
deepcopy({expr}[, {noref}]) *deepcopy()* *E698*

Make a copy of {expr}. For Numbers and Strings this isn't
different from using {expr} directly.
When {expr} is a |List| a full copy is created. This means
that the original |List| can be changed without changing the
copy, and vice versa. When an item is a |List|, a copy for it
is made, recursively. Thus changing an item in the copy does
not change the contents of the original |List|.
When {noref} is omitted or zero a contained |List| or
|Dictionary| is only copied once. All references point to
this single copy. With {noref} set to 1 every occurrence of a
|List| or |Dictionary| results in a new copy. This also means
that a cyclic reference causes deepcopy() to fail.
*E724*
Nesting is possible up to 100 levels. When there is an item
that refers back to a higher level making a deep copy with
{noref} set to 1 will fail.
Also see |copy()|.
delete({fname}) *delete()*
Deletes the file by the name {fname}. The result is a Number,
which is 0 if the file was deleted successfully, and non-zero
when the deletion failed.
Use |remove()| to delete an item from a |List|.
*did_filetype()*
did_filetype() Returns non-zero when autocommands are being executed and the
FileType event has been triggered at least once. Can be used
to avoid triggering the FileType event again in the scripts
that detect the file type. |FileType|
When editing another file, the counter is reset, thus this
really checks if the FileType event has been triggered for the
current buffer. This allows an autocommand that starts
editing another buffer to set 'filetype' and load a syntax
file.
diff_filler({lnum}) *diff_filler()*
Returns the number of filler lines above line {lnum}.
These are the lines that were inserted at this point in
another diff'ed window. These filler lines are shown in the
display but don't exist in the buffer.
{lnum} is used like with |getline()|. Thus "." is the current
line, "'m" mark m, etc.
Returns 0 if the current window is not in diff mode.
diff_hlID({lnum}, {col}) *diff_hlID()*

Returns the highlight ID for diff mode at line {lnum} column
{col} (byte index). When the current line does not have a
diff change zero is returned.
{col} is 1 for the leftmost column, {lnum} is 1 for the first
line.
The highlight ID can be used with |synIDattr()| to obtain
syntax information about the highlighting.
empty({expr}) *empty()*
Return the Number 1 if {expr} is empty, zero otherwise.
A |List| or |Dictionary| is empty when it does not have any
items. A Number is empty when its value is zero.

For a long |List| this is much faster than comparing the

length with zero.
escape({string}, {chars}) *escape()*

Escape the characters in {chars} that occur in {string} with a
backslash. Example:
:echo escape('c:\program files\vim', ' \')
results in:
c:\\program\ files\\vim
Also see |shellescape()|.
*eval()*
eval({string}) Evaluate {string} and return the result. Especially useful to
turn the result of |string()| back into the original value.
This works for Numbers, Floats, Strings and composites of
them. Also works for |Funcref|s that refer to existing
functions.
eventhandler() *eventhandler()*
Returns 1 when inside an event handler. That is that Vim got
interrupted while waiting for the user to type a character,
e.g., when dropping a file on Vim. This means interactive
commands cannot be used. Otherwise zero is returned.
executable({expr}) *executable()*
This function checks if an executable with the name {expr}
exists. {expr} must be the name of the program without any
arguments.
executable() uses the value of $PATH and/or the normal
searchpath for programs. *PATHEXT*
On MS-DOS and MS-Windows the ".exe", ".bat", etc. can
optionally be included. Then the extensions in $PATHEXT are
tried. Thus if "foo.exe" does not exist, "foo.exe.bat" can be
found. If $PATHEXT is not set then ".exe;.com;.bat;.cmd" is
used. A dot by itself can be used in $PATHEXT to try using
the name without an extension. When 'shell' looks like a
Unix shell, then the name is also tried without adding an
extension.
On MS-DOS and MS-Windows it only checks if the file exists and
is not a directory, not if it's really executable.
On MS-Windows an executable in the same directory as Vim is
always found. Since this directory is added to $PATH it
should also work to execute it |win32-PATH|.
The result is a Number:
1 exists
0 does not exist
-1 not implemented on this system
*exists()*
exists({expr}) The result is a Number, which is non-zero if {expr} is
defined, zero otherwise. The {expr} argument is a string,
which contains one of these:
&option-name Vim option (only checks if it exists,
not if it really works)
+option-name Vim option that works.
$ENVNAME environment variable (could also be
done by comparing with an empty
string)
*funcname built-in function (see |functions|)
or user defined function (see
|user-functions|).
varname internal variable (see
|internal-variables|). Also works
for |curly-braces-names|, |Dictionary|
entries, |List| items, etc. Beware
that evaluating an index may cause an
error message for an invalid
expression. E.g.:
:let l = [1, 2, 3]
:echo exists("l[5]")
0
:echo exists("l[xx]")
E121: Undefined variable: xx
0

:cmdname Ex command: built-in command, user

command or command modifier |:command|.
Returns:
1 for match with start of a command
2 full match with a command
3 matches several user commands
To check for a supported command
always check the return value to be 2.
:2match The |:2match| command.
:3match The |:3match| command.
#event autocommand defined for this event
#event#pattern autocommand defined for this event and
pattern (the pattern is taken
literally and compared to the
autocommand patterns character by
character)
#group autocommand group exists
#group#event autocommand defined for this group and
event.
#group#event#pattern
autocommand defined for this group,
event and pattern.
##event autocommand for this event is
supported.
For checking for a supported feature use |has()|.
Examples:
exists("&shortname")
exists("$HOSTNAME")
exists("*strftime")
exists("*s:MyFunc")
exists("bufcount")
exists(":Make")
exists("#CursorHold")
exists("#BufReadPre#*.gz")
exists("#filetypeindent")
exists("#filetypeindent#FileType")
exists("#filetypeindent#FileType#*")
exists("##ColorScheme")
There must be no space between the symbol (&/$/*/#) and the
name.
There must be no extra characters after the name, although in
a few cases this is ignored. That may become more strict in
the future, thus don't count on it!
Working example:
exists(":make")
NOT working example:
exists(":make install")
Note that the argument must be a string, not the name of the
variable itself. For example:
exists(bufcount)
This doesn't check for existence of the "bufcount" variable,
but gets the value of "bufcount", and checks if that exists.
exp({expr}) *exp()*
Return the exponential of {expr} as a |Float| in the range
[0, inf].
Examples:
:echo exp(2)
7.389056
:echo exp(-1)
0.367879
expand({expr} [, {flag}]) *expand()*

Expand wildcards and the following special keywords in {expr}.
The result is a String. 'wildignorecase' applies.
When there are several matches, they are separated by <NL>
characters. [Note: in version 5.0 a space was used, which
caused problems when a file name contains a space]
If the expansion fails, the result is an empty string. A name
for a non-existing file is not included.

When {expr} starts with '%', '#' or '<', the expansion is done
like for the |cmdline-special| variables with their associated
modifiers. Here is a short overview:
% current file name
# alternate file name
#n alternate file name n
<cfile> file name under the cursor
<afile> autocmd file name
<abuf> autocmd buffer number (as a String!)
<amatch> autocmd matched name
<sfile> sourced script file name
<slnum> sourced script file line number
<cword> word under the cursor
<cWORD> WORD under the cursor
<client> the {clientid} of the last received
message |server2client()|
Modifiers:
:p expand to full path
:h head (last path component removed)
:t tail (last path component only)
:r root (one extension removed)
:e extension only
Example:
:let &tags = expand("%:p:h") . "/tags"
Note that when expanding a string that starts with '%', '#' or
'<', any following text is ignored. This does NOT work:
:let doesntwork = expand("%:h.bak")
Use this:
:let doeswork = expand("%:h") . ".bak"
Also note that expanding "<cfile>" and others only returns the
referenced file name without further expansion. If "<cfile>"
is "~/.cshrc", you need to do another expand() to have the
"~/" expanded into the path of the home directory:
:echo expand(expand("<cfile>"))
There cannot be white space between the variables and the
following modifier. The |fnamemodify()| function can be used
to modify normal file names.
When using '%' or '#', and the current or alternate file name
is not defined, an empty string is used. Using "%:p" in a
buffer with no name, results in the current directory, with a
'/' added.
When {expr} does not start with '%', '#' or '<', it is
expanded like a file name is expanded on the command line.
'suffixes' and 'wildignore' are used, unless the optional
{flag} argument is given and it is non-zero. Names for
non-existing files are included. The "**" item can be used to
search in a directory tree. For example, to find all "README"
files in the current directory and below:
:echo expand("**/README")
Expand() can also be used to expand variables and environment
variables that are only known in a shell. But this can be
slow, because a shell must be started. See |expr-env-expand|.
The expanded variable is still handled like a list of file
names. When an environment variable cannot be expanded, it is
left unchanged. Thus ":echo expand('$FOOBAR')" results in
"$FOOBAR".
See |glob()| for finding existing files. See |system()| for
getting the raw output of an external command.
extend({expr1}, {expr2} [, {expr3}]) *extend()*

{expr1} and {expr2} must be both |Lists| or both
|Dictionaries|.
If they are |Lists|: Append {expr2} to {expr1}.
If {expr3} is given insert the items of {expr2} before item
{expr3} in {expr1}. When {expr3} is zero insert before the
first item. When {expr3} is equal to len({expr1}) then
{expr2} is appended.
Examples:
:echo sort(extend(mylist, [7, 5]))
:call extend(mylist, [2, 3], 1)

When {expr1} is the same List as {expr2} then the number of

items copied is equal to the original length of the List.
E.g., when {expr3} is 1 you get N new copies of the first item
(where N is the original length of the List).
Use |add()| to concatenate one item to a list. To concatenate
two lists into a new list use the + operator:
:let newlist = [1, 2, 3] + [4, 5]
If they are YXXYDictionaries|:
Add all entries from {expr2} to {expr1}.
If a key exists in both {expr1} and {expr2} then {expr3} is
used to decide what to do:
{expr3} = "keep": keep the value of {expr1}
{expr3} = "force": use the value of {expr2}
{expr3} = "error": give an error message *E737*
When {expr3} is omitted then "force" is assumed.
{expr1} is changed when {expr2} is not empty. If necessary
make a copy of {expr1} first.
{expr2} remains unchanged.
Returns {expr1}.
feedkeys({string} [, {mode}]) *feedkeys()*

Characters in {string} are queued for processing as if they
come from a mapping or were typed by the user. They are added
to the end of the typeahead buffer, thus if a mapping is still
being executed these characters come after them.
The function does not wait for processing of keys contained in
{string}.
To include special keys into {string}, use double-quotes
and "\..." notation |expr-quote|. For example,
feedkeys("\<CR>") simulates pressing of the <Enter> key. But
feedkeys('\<CR>') pushes 5 characters.
If {mode} is absent, keys are remapped.
{mode} is a String, which can contain these character flags:
'm' Remap keys. This is default.
'n' Do not remap keys.
't' Handle keys as if typed; otherwise they are handled as
if coming from a mapping. This matters for undo,
opening folds, etc.
Return value is always 0.
filereadable({file}) *filereadable()*
The result is a Number, which is TRUE when a file with the
name {file} exists, and can be read. If {file} doesn't exist,
or is a directory, the result is FALSE. {file} is any
expression, which is used as a String.
If you don't care about the file being readable you can use
|glob()|.
*file_readable()*
Obsolete name: file_readable().
filewritable({file}) *filewritable()*
The result is a Number, which is 1 when a file with the
name {file} exists, and can be written. If {file} doesn't
exist, or is not writable, the result is 0. If {file} is a
directory, and we can write to it, the result is 2.
filter({expr}, {string}) *filter()*

{expr} must be a |List| or a |Dictionary|.
For each item in {expr} evaluate {string} and when the result
is zero remove the item from the |List| or |Dictionary|.
Inside {string} |v:val| has the value of the current item.
For a |Dictionary| |v:key| has the key of the current item.
Examples:
:call filter(mylist, 'v:val !~ "OLD"')
Removes the items where "OLD" appears.
:call filter(mydict, 'v:key >= 8')
Removes the items with a key below 8.
:call filter(var, 0)
Removes all the items, thus clears the |List| or |Dictionary|.

Note that {string} is the result of expression and is then

used as an expression again. Often it is good to use a
|literal-string| to avoid having to double backslashes.
The operation is done in-place. If you want a |List| or
|Dictionary| to remain unmodified make a copy first:
:let l = filter(copy(mylist), 'v:val =~ "KEEP"')
Returns {expr}, the |List| or |Dictionary| that was filtered.
When an error is encountered while evaluating {string} no
further items in {expr} are processed.
finddir({name}[, {path}[, {count}]]) *finddir()*

Find directory {name} in {path}. Supports both downwards and
upwards recursive directory searches. See |file-searching|
for the syntax of {path}.
Returns the path of the first found match. When the found
directory is below the current directory a relative path is
returned. Otherwise a full path is returned.
If {path} is omitted or empty then 'path' is used.
If the optional {count} is given, find {count}'s occurrence of
{name} in {path} instead of the first one.
When {count} is negative return all the matches in a |List|.
This is quite similar to the ex-command |:find|.
{only available when compiled with the |+file_in_path|
feature}
findfile({name}[, {path}[, {count}]]) *findfile()*

Just like |finddir()|, but find a file instead of a directory.
Uses 'suffixesadd'.
Example:
:echo findfile("tags.vim", ".;")
Searches from the directory of the current file upwards until
it finds the file "tags.vim".
float2nr({expr}) *float2nr()*
Convert {expr} to a Number by omitting the part after the
decimal point.
{expr} must evaluate to a |Float| or a Number.
When the value of {expr} is out of range for a |Number| the
result is truncated to 0x7fffffff or -0x7fffffff. NaN results
in -0x80000000.
Examples:
echo float2nr(3.95)
3
echo float2nr(-23.45)
-23
echo float2nr(1.0e100)
2147483647
echo float2nr(-1.0e150)
-2147483647
echo float2nr(1.0e-100)
0
floor({expr}) *floor()*
Return the largest integral value less than or equal to
{expr} as a |Float| (round down).
Examples:
echo floor(1.856)
1.0
echo floor(-5.456)
-6.0
echo floor(4.0)
4.0
fmod({expr1}, {expr2}) *fmod()*

Return the remainder of {expr1} / {expr2}, even if the

division is not representable. Returns {expr1} - i * {expr2}

for some integer i such that if {expr2} is non-zero, the
result has the same sign as {expr1} and magnitude less than
the magnitude of {expr2}. If {expr2} is zero, the value
returned is zero. The value returned is a |Float|.
{expr1} and {expr2} must evaluate to a |Float| or a |Number|.
Examples:
:echo fmod(12.33, 1.22)
0.13
:echo fmod(-12.33, 1.22)
-0.13
{only available when compiled with |+float| feature}
fnameescape({string}) *fnameescape()*
Escape {string} for use as file name command argument. All
characters that have a special meaning, such as '%' and '|'
are escaped with a backslash.
For most systems the characters escaped are
" \t\n*?[{`$\\%#'\"|!<". For systems where a backslash
appears in a filename, it depends on the value of 'isfname'.
A leading '+' and '>' is also escaped (special after |:edit|
and |:write|). And a "-" by itself (special after |:cd|).
Example:
:let fname = '+some str%nge|name'
:exe "edit " . fnameescape(fname)
results in executing:
edit \+some\ str\%nge\|name
fnamemodify({fname}, {mods}) *fnamemodify()*

Modify file name {fname} according to {mods}. {mods} is a
string of characters like it is used for file names on the
command line. See |filename-modifiers|.
Example:
:echo fnamemodify("main.c", ":p:h")
results in:
/home/mool/vim/vim/src
Note: Environment variables don't work in {fname}, use
|expand()| first then.
foldclosed({lnum}) *foldclosed()*
The result is a Number. If the line {lnum} is in a closed
fold, the result is the number of the first line in that fold.
If the line {lnum} is not in a closed fold, -1 is returned.
foldclosedend({lnum}) *foldclosedend()*
The result is a Number. If the line {lnum} is in a closed
fold, the result is the number of the last line in that fold.
If the line {lnum} is not in a closed fold, -1 is returned.
foldlevel({lnum}) *foldlevel()*
The result is a Number, which is the foldlevel of line {lnum}
in the current buffer. For nested folds the deepest level is
returned. If there is no fold at line {lnum}, zero is
returned. It doesn't matter if the folds are open or closed.
When used while updating folds (from 'foldexpr') -1 is
returned for lines where folds are still to be updated and the
foldlevel is unknown. As a special case the level of the
previous line is usually available.
*foldtext()*
foldtext() Returns a String, to be displayed for a closed fold. This is
the default function used for the 'foldtext' option and should
only be called from evaluating 'foldtext'. It uses the
|v:foldstart|, |v:foldend| and |v:folddashes| variables.
The returned string looks like this:
+-- 45 lines: abcdef
The number of dashes depends on the foldlevel. The "45" is
the number of lines in the fold. "abcdef" is the text in the
first non-blank line of the fold. Leading white space, "//"
or "/*" and the text from the 'foldmarker' and 'commentstring'
options is removed.
{not available when compiled without the |+folding| feature}

foldtextresult({lnum}) *foldtextresult()*
Returns the text that is displayed for the closed fold at line
{lnum}. Evaluates 'foldtext' in the appropriate context.
When there is no closed fold at {lnum} an empty string is
returned.
Useful when exporting folded text, e.g., to HTML.
*foreground()*
foreground() Move the Vim window to the foreground. Useful when sent from
a client to a Vim server. |remote_send()|
On Win32 systems this might not work, the OS does not always
allow a window to bring itself to the foreground. Use
|remote_foreground()| instead.
{only in the Win32, Athena, Motif and GTK GUI versions and the
Win32 console version}
function({name}) *function()* *E700*

Return a |Funcref| variable that refers to function {name}.
{name} can be a user defined function or an internal function.
garbagecollect([at_exit]) *garbagecollect()*
Cleanup unused |Lists| and |Dictionaries| that have circular
references. There is hardly ever a need to invoke this
function, as it is automatically done when Vim runs out of
memory or is waiting for the user to press a key after
'updatetime'. Items without circular references are always
freed when they become unused.
This is useful if you have deleted a very big |List| and/or
|Dictionary| with circular references in a script that runs
for a long time.
When the optional "at_exit" argument is one, garbage
collection will also be done when exiting Vim, if it wasn't
done before. This is useful when checking for memory leaks.
get({list}, {idx} [, {default}]) *get()*

Get item {idx} from |List| {list}. When this item is not
available return {default}. Return zero when {default} is
omitted.
get({dict}, {key} [, {default}])
Get item with key {key} from |Dictionary| {dict}. When this
item is not available return {default}. Return zero when
{default} is omitted.
*getbufline()*
getbufline({expr}, {lnum} [, {end}])
Return a |List| with the lines starting from {lnum} to {end}
(inclusive) in the buffer {expr}. If {end} is omitted, a
|List| with only the line {lnum} is returned.
For the use of {expr}, see |bufname()| above.
For {lnum} and {end} "$" can be used for the last line of the
buffer. Otherwise a number must be used.
When {lnum} is smaller than 1 or bigger than the number of
lines in the buffer, an empty |List| is returned.
When {end} is greater than the number of lines in the buffer,
it is treated as {end} is set to the number of lines in the
buffer. When {end} is before {lnum} an empty |List| is
returned.
This function works only for loaded buffers. For unloaded and
non-existing buffers, an empty |List| is returned.
Example:
:let lines = getbufline(bufnr("myfile"), 1, "$")

getbufvar({expr}, {varname}) *getbufvar()*

The result is the value of option or local buffer variable
{varname} in buffer {expr}. Note that the name without "b:"
must be used.
When {varname} is empty returns a dictionary with all the
buffer-local variables.
This also works for a global or buffer-local option, but it
doesn't work for a global variable, window-local variable or
window-local option.
When the buffer or variable doesn't exist an empty string is
returned, there is no error message.
Examples:
:let bufmodified = getbufvar(1, "&mod")
:echo "todo myvar = " . getbufvar("todo", "myvar")
getchar([expr]) *getchar()*
Get a single character from the user or input stream.
If [expr] is omitted, wait until a character is available.
If [expr] is 0, only get a character when one is available.
Return zero otherwise.
If [expr] is 1, only check if a character is available, it is
not consumed. Return zero if no character available.
Without {expr} and when {expr} is 0 a whole character or
special key is returned. If it is an 8-bit character, the
result is a number. Use nr2char() to convert it to a String.
Otherwise a String is returned with the encoded character.
For a special key it's a sequence of bytes starting with 0x80
(decimal: 128). This is the same value as the string
"\<Key>", e.g., "\<Left>". The returned value is also a
String when a modifier (shift, control, alt) was used that is
not included in the character.
When {expr} is 1 only the first byte is returned. For a
one-byte character it is the character itself as a number.
Use nr2char() to convert it to a String.
When the user clicks a mouse button, the mouse event will be
returned. The position can then be found in |v:mouse_col|,
|v:mouse_lnum| and |v:mouse_win|. This example positions the
mouse as it would normally happen:
let c = getchar()
if c == "\<LeftMouse>" && v:mouse_win > 0
exe v:mouse_win . "wincmd w"
exe v:mouse_lnum
exe "normal " . v:mouse_col . "|"
endif
There is no prompt, you will somehow have to make clear to the
user that a character has to be typed.
There is no mapping for the character.
Key codes are replaced, thus when the user presses the <Del>
key you get the code for the <Del> key, not the raw character
sequence. Examples:
getchar() == "\<Del>"
getchar() == "\<S-Left>"
This example redefines "f" to ignore case:
:nmap f :call FindChar()<CR>
:function FindChar()
: let c = nr2char(getchar())
: while col('.') < col('$') - 1
: normal l
: if getline('.')[col('.') - 1] ==? c
: break
: endif
: endwhile
:endfunction
getcharmod() *getcharmod()*
The result is a Number which is the state of the modifiers for
the last obtained character with getchar() or in another way.
These values are added together:
2 shift
4 control
8 alt (meta)

16 mouse double click

32 mouse triple click
64 mouse quadruple click
128 Macintosh only: command
Only the modifiers that have not been included in the
character itself are obtained. Thus Shift-a results in "A"
without a modifier.
getcmdline() *getcmdline()*
Return the current command-line. Only works when the command
line is being edited, thus requires use of |c_CTRL-\_e| or
|c_CTRL-R_=|.
Example:
:cmap <F7> <C-\>eescape(getcmdline(), ' \')<CR>
Also see |getcmdtype()|, |getcmdpos()| and |setcmdpos()|.
getcmdpos() *getcmdpos()*
Return the position of the cursor in the command line as a
byte count. The first column is 1.
Only works when editing the command line, thus requires use of
|c_CTRL-\_e| or |c_CTRL-R_=|. Returns 0 otherwise.
Also see |getcmdtype()|, |setcmdpos()| and |getcmdline()|.
getcmdtype() *getcmdtype()*
Return the current command-line type. Possible return values
are:
: normal Ex command
> debug mode command |debug-mode|
/ forward search command
? backward search command
@ |input()| command
- |:insert| or |:append| command
Only works when editing the command line, thus requires use of
|c_CTRL-\_e| or |c_CTRL-R_=|. Returns an empty string
otherwise.
Also see |getcmdpos()|, |setcmdpos()| and |getcmdline()|.
*getcwd()*
getcwd() The result is a String, which is the name of the current
working directory.
getfsize({fname}) *getfsize()*
The result is a Number, which is the size in bytes of the
given file {fname}.
If {fname} is a directory, 0 is returned.
If the file {fname} can't be found, -1 is returned.
If the size of {fname} is too big to fit in a Number then -2
is returned.
getfontname([{name}]) *getfontname()*
Without an argument returns the name of the normal font being
used. Like what is used for the Normal highlight group
|hl-Normal|.
With an argument a check is done whether {name} is a valid
font name. If not then an empty string is returned.
Otherwise the actual font name is returned, or {name} if the
GUI does not support obtaining the real name.
Only works when the GUI is running, thus not in your vimrc or
gvimrc file. Use the |GUIEnter| autocommand to use this
function just after the GUI has started.
Note that the GTK 2 GUI accepts any font name, thus checking
for a valid name does not work.
getfperm({fname}) *getfperm()*
The result is a String, which is the read, write, and execute
permissions of the given file {fname}.
If {fname} does not exist or its directory cannot be read, an
empty string is returned.
The result is of the form "rwxrwxrwx", where each group of
"rwx" flags represent, in turn, the permissions of the owner
of the file, the group the file belongs to, and other users.
If a user does not have a given permission the flag for this
is replaced with the string "-". Example:

:echo getfperm("/etc/passwd")
This will hopefully (from a security point of view) display
the string "rw-r--r--" or even "rw-------".
getftime({fname}) *getftime()*
The result is a Number, which is the last modification time of
the given file {fname}. The value is measured as seconds
since 1st Jan 1970, and may be passed to strftime(). See also
|localtime()| and |strftime()|.
If the file {fname} can't be found -1 is returned.
getftype({fname}) *getftype()*
The result is a String, which is a description of the kind of
file of the given file {fname}.
If {fname} does not exist an empty string is returned.
Here is a table over different kinds of files and their
results:
Normal file "file"
Directory "dir"
Symbolic link "link"
Block device "bdev"
Character device "cdev"
Socket "socket"
FIFO "fifo"
All other "other"
Example:
getftype("/home")
Note that a type such as "link" will only be returned on
systems that support it. On some systems only "dir" and
"file" are returned.
*getline()*
getline({lnum} [, {end}])
Without {end} the result is a String, which is line {lnum}
from the current buffer. Example:
getline(1)
When {lnum} is a String that doesn't start with a
digit, line() is called to translate the String into a Number.
To get the line under the cursor:
getline(".")
When {lnum} is smaller than 1 or bigger than the number of
lines in the buffer, an empty string is returned.
When {end} is given the result is a |List| where each item is
a line from the current buffer in the range {lnum} to {end},
including line {end}.
{end} is used in the same way as {lnum}.
Non-existing lines are silently omitted.
When {end} is before {lnum} an empty |List| is returned.
Example:
:let start = line('.')
:let end = search("^$") - 1
:let lines = getline(start, end)
To get lines from another buffer see |getbufline()|
getloclist({nr}) *getloclist()*
Returns a list with all the entries in the location list for
window {nr}. When {nr} is zero the current window is used.
For a location list window, the displayed location list is
returned. For an invalid window number {nr}, an empty list is
returned. Otherwise, same as |getqflist()|.
getmatches() *getmatches()*
Returns a |List| with all matches previously defined by
|matchadd()| and the |:match| commands. |getmatches()| is
useful in combination with |setmatches()|, as |setmatches()|
can restore a list of matches saved by |getmatches()|.
Example:
:echo getmatches()
[{'group': 'MyGroup1', 'pattern': 'TODO',
'priority': 10, 'id': 1}, {'group': 'MyGroup2',
'pattern': 'FIXME', 'priority': 10, 'id': 2}]
:let m = getmatches()

:call clearmatches()
:echo getmatches()
[]
:call setmatches(m)
:echo getmatches()
[{'group': 'MyGroup1', 'pattern': 'TODO',
'priority': 10, 'id': 1}, {'group': 'MyGroup2',
'pattern': 'FIXME', 'priority': 10, 'id': 2}]
:unlet m
getqflist() *getqflist()*
Returns a list with all the current quickfix errors. Each
list item is a dictionary with these entries:
bufnr number of buffer that has the file name, use
bufname() to get the name
lnum line number in the buffer (first line is 1)
col column number (first column is 1)
vcol non-zero: "col" is visual column
zero: "col" is byte index
nr error number
pattern search pattern used to locate the error
text description of the error
type type of the error, 'E', '1', etc.
valid non-zero: recognized error message
When there is no error list or it's empty an empty list is
returned. Quickfix list entries with non-existing buffer
number are returned with "bufnr" set to zero.
Useful application: Find pattern matches in multiple files and
do something with them:
:vimgrep /theword/jg *.c
:for d in getqflist()
: echo bufname(d.bufnr) ':' d.lnum '=' d.text
:endfor
getreg([{regname} [, 1]]) *getreg()*

The result is a String, which is the contents of register
{regname}. Example:
:let cliptext = getreg('*')
getreg('=') returns the last evaluated value of the expression
register. (For use in maps.)
getreg('=', 1) returns the expression itself, so that it can
be restored with |setreg()|. For other registers the extra
argument is ignored, thus you can always give it.
If {regname} is not specified, |v:register| is used.
getregtype([{regname}]) *getregtype()*
The result is a String, which is type of register {regname}.
The value will be one of:
"v" for |characterwise| text
"V" for |linewise| text
"<CTRL-V>{width}" for |blockwise-visual| text
0 for an empty or unknown register
<CTRL-V> is one character with value 0x16.
If {regname} is not specified, |v:register| is used.
gettabvar({tabnr}, {varname}) *gettabvar()*

Get the value of a tab-local variable {varname} in tab page
{tabnr}. |t:var|
Tabs are numbered starting with one.
Note that the name without "t:" must be used.
gettabwinvar({tabnr}, {winnr}, {varname}) *gettabwinvar()*

Get the value of window-local variable {varname} in window
{winnr} in tab page {tabnr}.
When {varname} starts with "&" get the value of a window-local
option.
Tabs are numbered starting with one. For the current tabpage
use |getwinvar()|.
When {winnr} is zero the current window is used.

This also works for a global option, buffer-local option and

window-local option, but it doesn't work for a global variable
or buffer-local variable.
When {varname} is empty a dictionary with all window-local
variables is returned.
Note that {varname} must be the name without "w:".
Examples:
:let list_is_on = gettabwinvar(1, 2, '&list')
:echo "myvar = " . gettabwinvar(3, 1, 'myvar')
*getwinposx()*
getwinposx() The result is a Number, which is the X coordinate in pixels of
the left hand side of the GUI Vim window. The result will be
-1 if the information is not available.
*getwinposy()*
getwinposy() The result is a Number, which is the Y coordinate in pixels of
the top of the GUI Vim window. The result will be -1 if the
information is not available.
getwinvar({winnr}, {varname}) *getwinvar()*

Like |gettabwinvar()| for the current tabpage.
Examples:
:let list_is_on = getwinvar(2, '&list')
:echo "myvar = " . getwinvar(1, 'myvar')
glob({expr} [, {flag}]) *glob()*

Expand the file wildcards in {expr}. See |wildcards| for the
use of special characters.
The result is a String.
When there are several matches, they are separated by <NL>
characters.
Unless the optional {flag} argument is given and is non-zero,
the 'suffixes' and 'wildignore' options apply: Names matching
one of the patterns in 'wildignore' will be skipped and
'suffixes' affect the ordering of matches.
'wildignorecase' always applies.
If the expansion fails, the result is an empty string.
A name for a non-existing file is not included.
For most systems backticks can be used to get files names from
any external command. Example:
:let tagfiles = glob("`find . -name tags -print`")
:let &tags = substitute(tagfiles, "\n", ",", "g")
The result of the program inside the backticks should be one
item per line. Spaces inside an item are allowed.
See |expand()| for expanding special Vim variables. See
|system()| for getting the raw output of an external command.
globpath({path}, {expr} [, {flag}]) *globpath()*

Perform glob() on all directories in {path} and concatenate
the results. Example:
:echo globpath(&rtp, "syntax/c.vim")
{path} is a comma-separated list of directory names. Each
directory name is prepended to {expr} and expanded like with
|glob()|. A path separator is inserted when needed.
To add a comma inside a directory name escape it with a
backslash. Note that on MS-Windows a directory may have a
trailing backslash, remove it if you put a comma after it.
If the expansion fails for one of the directories, there is no
error message.
Unless the optional {flag} argument is given and is non-zero,
the 'suffixes' and 'wildignore' options apply: Names matching
one of the patterns in 'wildignore' will be skipped and
'suffixes' affect the ordering of matches.
The "**" item can be used to search in a directory tree.
For example, to find all "README.txt" files in the directories
in 'runtimepath' and below:
:echo globpath(&rtp, "**/README.txt")
Upwards search and limiting the depth of "**" is not
supported, thus using 'path' will not always work properly.

*has()*
has({feature}) The result is a Number, which is 1 if the feature {feature} is
supported, zero otherwise. The {feature} argument is a
string. See |feature-list| below.
Also see |exists()|.
has_key({dict}, {key}) *has_key()*

The result is a Number, which is 1 if |Dictionary| {dict} has
an entry with key {key}. Zero otherwise.
haslocaldir() *haslocaldir()*
The result is a Number, which is 1 when the current
window has set a local path via |:lcd|, and 0 otherwise.
hasmapto({what} [, {mode} [, {abbr}]]) *hasmapto()*

The result is a Number, which is 1 if there is a mapping that
contains {what} in somewhere in the rhs (what it is mapped to)
and this mapping exists in one of the modes indicated by
{mode}.
When {abbr} is there and it is non-zero use abbreviations
instead of mappings. Don't forget to specify Insert and/or
Command-line mode.
Both the global mappings and the mappings local to the current
buffer are checked for a match.
If no matching mapping is found 0 is returned.
The following characters are recognized in {mode}:
n Normal mode
v Visual mode
i Insert mode
l Language-Argument ("r", "f", "t", etc.)
c Command-line mode
When {mode} is omitted, "nvo" is used.
This function is useful to check if a mapping already exists
to a function in a Vim script. Example:
:if !hasmapto('\ABCdoit')
: map <Leader>d \ABCdoit
:endif
This installs the mapping to "\ABCdoit" only if there isn't
already a mapping to "\ABCdoit".
histadd({history}, {item}) *histadd()*

Add the String {item} to the history {history} which can be
one of: *hist-names*
"cmd" or ":" command line history
"search" or "/" search pattern history
"expr" or "=" typed expression history
"input" or "@" input line history
If {item} does already exist in the history, it will be
shifted to become the newest entry.
The result is a Number: 1 if the operation was successful,
otherwise 0 is returned.
Example:
:call histadd("input", strftime("%Y %b %d"))
:let date=input("Enter date: ")
This function is not available in the |sandbox|.
histdel({history} [, {item}]) *histdel()*

Clear {history}, i.e. delete all its entries. See |hist-names|
for the possible values of {history}.
If the parameter {item} evaluates to a String, it is used as a
regular expression. All entries matching that expression will
be removed from the history (if there are any).
Upper/lowercase must match, unless "\c" is used |/\c|.
If {item} evaluates to a Number, it will be interpreted as
an index, see |:history-indexing|. The respective entry will
be removed if it exists.
The result is a Number: 1 for a successful operation,

otherwise 0 is returned.
Examples:
Clear expression register history:
:call histdel("expr")
Remove all entries starting with "*" from the search history:
:call histdel("/", '^\*')
The following three are equivalent:
:call histdel("search", histnr("search"))
:call histdel("search", -1)
:call histdel("search", '^'.histget("search", -1).'$')
To delete the last search pattern and use the last-but-one for
the "n" command and 'hlsearch':
:call histdel("search", -1)
:let @/ = histget("search", -1)
histget({history} [, {index}]) *histget()*

The result is a String, the entry with Number {index} from
{history}. See |hist-names| for the possible values of
{history}, and |:history-indexing| for {index}. If there is
no such entry, an empty String is returned. When {index} is
omitted, the most recent item from the history is used.
Examples:
Redo the second last search from history.
:execute '/' . histget("search", -2)
Define an Ex command ":H {num}" that supports re-execution of
the {num}th entry from the output of |:history|.
:command -nargs=1 H execute histget("cmd", 0+<args>)
histnr({history}) *histnr()*
The result is the Number of the current entry in {history}.
See |hist-names| for the possible values of {history}.
If an error occurred, -1 is returned.
Example:
:let inp_index = histnr("expr")
hlexists({name}) *hlexists()*
The result is a Number, which is non-zero if a highlight group
called {name} exists. This is when the group has been
defined in some way. Not necessarily when highlighting has
been defined for it, it may also have been used for a syntax
item.
*highlight_exists()*
Obsolete name: highlight_exists().
*hlID()*
hlID({name}) The result is a Number, which is the ID of the highlight group
with name {name}. When the highlight group doesn't exist,
zero is returned.
This can be used to retrieve information about the highlight
group. For example, to get the background color of the
"Comment" group:
:echo synIDattr(synIDtrans(hlID("Comment")), "bg")
*highlightID()*
Obsolete name: highlightID().
hostname() *hostname()*
The result is a String, which is the name of the machine on
which Vim is currently running. Machine names greater than
256 characters long are truncated.
iconv({expr}, {from}, {to}) *iconv()*

The result is a String, which is the text {expr} converted
from encoding {from} to encoding {to}.
When the conversion completely fails an empty string is

returned. When some characters could not be converted they

are replaced with "?".
The encoding names are whatever the iconv() library function
can accept, see ":!man 3 iconv".
Most conversions require Vim to be compiled with the |+iconv|
feature. Otherwise only UTF-8 to latin1 conversion and back
can be done.
This can be used to display messages with special characters,
no matter what 'encoding' is set to. Write the message in
UTF-8 and use:
echo iconv(utf8_str, "utf-8", &enc)
Note that Vim uses UTF-8 for all Unicode encodings, conversion
from/to UCS-2 is automatically changed to use UTF-8. You
cannot use UCS-2 in a string anyway, because of the NUL bytes.
{only available when compiled with the |+multi_byte| feature}
*indent()*
indent({lnum}) The result is a Number, which is indent of line {lnum} in the
current buffer. The indent is counted in spaces, the value
of 'tabstop' is relevant. {lnum} is used just like in
|getline()|.
When {lnum} is invalid -1 is returned.
index({list}, {expr} [, {start} [, {ic}]]) *index()*

Return the lowest index in |List| {list} where the item has a
value equal to {expr}. There is no automatic conversion, so
the String "4" is different from the Number 4. And the number
4 is different from the Float 4.0. The value of 'ignorecase'
is not used here, case always matters.
If {start} is given then start looking at the item with index
{start} (may be negative for an item relative to the end).
When {ic} is given and it is non-zero, ignore case. Otherwise
case must match.
-1 is returned when {expr} is not found in {list}.
Example:
:let idx = index(words, "the")
:if index(numbers, 123) >= 0
input({prompt} [, {text} [, {completion}]]) *input()*

The result is a String, which is whatever the user typed on
the command-line. The {prompt} argument is either a prompt
string, or a blank string (for no prompt). A '\n' can be used
in the prompt to start a new line.
The highlighting set with |:echohl| is used for the prompt.
The input is entered just like a command-line, with the same
editing commands and mappings. There is a separate history
for lines typed for input().
Example:
:if input("Coffee or beer? ") == "beer"
: echo "Cheers!"
:endif
If the optional {text} argument is present and not empty, this
is used for the default reply, as if the user typed this.
Example:
:let color = input("Color? ", "white")
The optional {completion} argument specifies the type of
completion supported for the input. Without it completion is
not performed. The supported completion types are the same as
that can be supplied to a user-defined command using the
"-complete=" argument. Refer to |:command-completion| for
more information. Example:
let fname = input("File: ", "", "file")
NOTE: This function must not be used in a startup file, for
the versions that only run in GUI mode (e.g., the Win32 GUI).
Note: When input() is called from within a mapping it will
consume remaining characters from that mapping, because a
mapping is handled like the characters were typed.
Use |inputsave()| before input() and |inputrestore()|
after input() to avoid that. Another solution is to avoid
that further characters follow in the mapping, e.g., by using
|:execute| or |:normal|.

Example with a mapping:

:nmap \x :call GetFoo()<CR>:exe "/" . Foo<CR>
:function GetFoo()
: call inputsave()
: let g:Foo = input("enter search pattern: ")
: call inputrestore()
:endfunction
inputdialog({prompt} [, {text} [, {cancelreturn}]]) *inputdialog()*

Like |input()|, but when the GUI is running and text dialogs
are supported, a dialog window pops up to input the text.
Example:
:let n = inputdialog("value for shiftwidth", &sw)
:if n != ""
: let &sw = n
:endif
When the dialog is cancelled {cancelreturn} is returned. When
omitted an empty string is returned.
Hitting <Enter> works like pressing the OK button. Hitting
<Esc> works like pressing the Cancel button.
NOTE: Command-line completion is not supported.
inputlist({textlist}) *inputlist()*
{textlist} must be a |List| of strings. This |List| is
displayed, one string per line. The user will be prompted to
enter a number, which is returned.
The user can also select an item by clicking on it with the
mouse. For the first string 0 is returned. When clicking
above the first item a negative number is returned. When
clicking on the prompt one more than the length of {textlist}
is returned.
Make sure {textlist} has less than 'lines' entries, otherwise
it won't work. It's a good idea to put the entry number at
the start of the string. And put a prompt in the first item.
Example:
let color = inputlist(['Select color:', '1. red',
\ '2. green', '3. blue'])
inputrestore() *inputrestore()*
Restore typeahead that was saved with a previous |inputsave()|.
Should be called the same number of times inputsave() is
called. Calling it more often is harmless though.
Returns 1 when there is nothing to restore, 0 otherwise.
inputsave() *inputsave()*
Preserve typeahead (also from mappings) and clear it, so that
a following prompt gets input from the user. Should be
followed by a matching inputrestore() after the prompt. Can
be used several times, in which case there must be just as
many inputrestore() calls.
Returns 1 when out of memory, 0 otherwise.
inputsecret({prompt} [, {text}]) *inputsecret()*

This function acts much like the |input()| function with but
two exceptions:
a) the user's response will be displayed as a sequence of
asterisks ("*") thereby keeping the entry secret, and
b) the user's response will not be recorded on the input
|history| stack.
The result is a String, which is whatever the user actually
typed on the command-line in response to the issued prompt.
NOTE: Command-line completion is not supported.
insert({list}, {item} [, {idx}]) *insert()*

Insert {item} at the start of |List| {list}.
If {idx} is specified insert {item} before the item with index
{idx}. If {idx} is zero it goes before the first item, just
like omitting {idx}. A negative {idx} is also possible, see
|list-index|. -1 inserts just before the last item.
Returns the resulting |List|. Examples:
:let mylist = insert([2, 3, 5], 1)
:call insert(mylist, 4, -1)
:call insert(mylist, 6, len(mylist))

The last example can be done simpler with |add()|.

Note that when {item} is a |List| it is inserted as a single
item. Use |extend()| to concatenate |Lists|.
isdirectory({directory}) *isdirectory()*
The result is a Number, which is non-zero when a directory
with the name {directory} exists. If {directory} doesn't
exist, or isn't a directory, the result is FALSE. {directory}
is any expression, which is used as a String.
islocked({expr}) *islocked()* *E786*

The result is a Number, which is non-zero when {expr} is the
name of a locked variable.
{expr} must be the name of a variable, |List| item or
|Dictionary| entry, not the variable itself! Example:
:let alist = [0, ['a', 'b'], 2, 3]
:lockvar 1 alist
:echo islocked('alist') " 1
:echo islocked('alist[1]') " 0
When {expr} is a variable that does not exist you get an error
message. Use |exists()| to check for existence.
items({dict}) *items()*
Return a |List| with all the key-value pairs of {dict}. Each
|List| item is a list with two items: the key of a {dict}
entry and the value of this entry. The |List| is in arbitrary
order.
join({list} [, {sep}]) *join()*

Join the items in {list} together into one String.
When {sep} is specified it is put in between the items. If
{sep} is omitted a single space is used.
Note that {sep} is not added at the end. You might want to
add it there too:
let lines = join(mylist, "\n") . "\n"
String items are used as-is. |Lists| and |Dictionaries| are
converted into a string like with |string()|.
The opposite function is |split()|.
keys({dict}) *keys()*
Return a |List| with all the keys of {dict}. The |List| is in
arbitrary order.
*len()* *E701*
len({expr}) The result is a Number, which is the length of the argument.
When {expr} is a String or a Number the length in bytes is
used, as with |strlen()|.
When {expr} is a |List| the number of items in the |List| is
returned.
When {expr} is a |Dictionary| the number of entries in the
|Dictionary| is returned.
Otherwise an error is given.
*libcall()* *E364* *E368*

libcall({libname}, {funcname}, {argument})
Call function {funcname} in the run-time library {libname}
with single argument {argument}.
This is useful to call functions in a library that you
especially made to be used with Vim. Since only one argument
is possible, calling standard library functions is rather
limited.
The result is the String returned by the function. If the
function returns NULL, this will appear as an empty string ""
to Vim.
If the function returns a number, use libcallnr()!
If {argument} is a number, it is passed to the function as an
int; if {argument} is a string, it is passed as a
null-terminated string.
This function will fail in |restricted-mode|.
libcall() allows you to write your own 'plug-in' extensions to

Vim without having to recompile the program. It is NOT a

means to call system functions! If you try to do so Vim will
very probably crash.
For Win32, the functions you write must be placed in a DLL
and use the normal C calling convention (NOT Pascal which is
used in Windows System DLLs). The function must take exactly
one parameter, either a character pointer or a long integer,
and must return a character pointer or NULL. The character
pointer returned must point to memory that will remain valid
after the function has returned (e.g. in static data in the
DLL). If it points to allocated memory, that memory will
leak away. Using a static buffer in the function should work,
it's then freed when the DLL is unloaded.
WARNING: If the function returns a non-valid pointer, Vim may
crash! This also happens if the function returns a number,
because Vim thinks it's a pointer.
For Win32 systems, {libname} should be the filename of the DLL
without the ".DLL" suffix. A full path is only required if
the DLL is not in the usual places.
For Unix: When compiling your own plugins, remember that the
object code must be compiled as position-independent ('PIC').
{only in Win32 and some Unix versions, when the |+libcall|
feature is present}
Examples:
:echo libcall("libc.so", "getenv", "HOME")
*libcallnr()*
libcallnr({libname}, {funcname}, {argument})
Just like |libcall()|, but used for a function that returns an
int instead of a string.
{only in Win32 on some Unix versions, when the |+libcall|
feature is present}
Examples:
:echo libcallnr("/usr/lib/libc.so", "getpid", "")
:call libcallnr("libc.so", "printf", "Hello World!\n")
:call libcallnr("libc.so", "sleep", 10)
*line()*
line({expr}) The result is a Number, which is the line number of the file
position given with {expr}. The accepted positions are:
$ the last line in the current buffer
returned)
w0 first line visible in current window
w$ last line visible in current window
v In Visual mode: the start of the Visual area (the
cursor is the end). When not in Visual mode
returns the cursor position. Differs from |'<| in
that it's updated right away.
Note that a mark in another file can be used. The line number
then applies to another buffer.
To get the column number use |col()|. To get both use
|getpos()|.
Examples:
line(".") line number of the cursor
line("'t") line number of mark t
line("'" . marker) line number of mark marker
*last-position-jump*
This autocommand jumps to the last known position in a file
just after opening it, if the '"' mark is set:
:au BufReadPost * if line("'\"") > 1 && line("'\"") <= line("$") | exe "normal! g`\"" |
endif
line2byte({lnum}) *line2byte()*
Return the byte count from the start of the buffer for line
{lnum}. This includes the end-of-line character, depending on
the 'fileformat' option for the current buffer. The first
line returns 1.
This can also be used to get the byte count for the line just
below the last line:
line2byte(line("$") + 1)
This is the file size plus one.

When {lnum} is invalid, or the |+byte_offset| feature has been

disabled at compile time, -1 is returned.
Also see |byte2line()|, |go| and |:goto|.
lispindent({lnum}) *lispindent()*
Get the amount of indent for line {lnum} according the lisp
indenting rules, as with 'lisp'.
The indent is counted in spaces, the value of 'tabstop' is
relevant. {lnum} is used just like in |getline()|.
When {lnum} is invalid or Vim was not compiled the
|+lispindent| feature, -1 is returned.
localtime() *localtime()*
Return the current time, measured as seconds since 1st Jan
1970. See also |strftime()| and |getftime()|.
log({expr}) *log()*
Return the natural logarithm (base e) of {expr} as a |Float|.
(0, inf].
Examples:
:echo log(10)
2.302585
:echo log(exp(5))
5.0
log10({expr}) *log10()*
Return the logarithm of Float {expr} to base 10 as a |Float|.
Examples:
:echo log10(1000)
3.0
:echo log10(0.01)
-2.0
map({expr}, {string}) *map()*

{expr} must be a |List| or a |Dictionary|.
Replace each item in {expr} with the result of evaluating
{string}.
Inside {string} |v:val| has the value of the current item.
For a |Dictionary| |v:key| has the key of the current item
and for a |List| |v:key| has the index of the current item.
Example:
:call map(mylist, '"> " . v:val . " <"')
This puts "> " before and " <" after each item in "mylist".
Note that {string} is the result of an expression and is then
used as an expression again. Often it is good to use a
|literal-string| to avoid having to double backslashes. You
still have to double '' quotes
The operation is done in-place. If you want a |List| or
|Dictionary| to remain unmodified make a copy first:
:let tlist = map(copy(mylist), ' & . "\t"')
Returns {expr}, the |List| or |Dictionary| that was filtered.
When an error is encountered while evaluating {string} no
further items in {expr} are processed.
maparg({name}[, {mode} [, {abbr} [, {dict}]]]) *maparg()*

When {dict} is omitted or zero: Return the rhs of mapping
{name} in mode {mode}. The returned String has special
characters translated like in the output of the ":map" command
listing.
When there is no mapping for {name}, an empty String is
returned.
The {name} can have special key names, like in the ":map"

command.
{mode} can be one of these strings:
"n" Normal
"v" Visual (including Select)
"o" Operator-pending
"i" Insert
"c" Cmd-line
"s" Select
"x" Visual
"l" langmap |language-mapping|
"" Normal, Visual and Operator-pending
When {mode} is omitted, the modes for "" are used.
instead of mappings.
When {dict} is there and it is non-zero return a dictionary
containing all the information of the mapping with the
following items:
"lhs" The {lhs} of the mapping.
"rhs" The {rhs} of the mapping as typed.
"silent" 1 for a |:map-silent| mapping, else 0.
"noremap" 1 if the {rhs} of the mapping is not remappable.
"expr" 1 for an expression mapping (|:map-<expr>|).
"buffer" 1 for a buffer local mapping (|:map-local|).
"mode" Modes for which the mapping is defined. In
addition to the modes mentioned above, these
characters will be used:
" " Normal, Visual and Operator-pending
"!" Insert and Commandline mode
(|mapmode-ic|)
"sid" The script local ID, used for <sid> mappings
(|<SID>|).
The mappings local to the current buffer are checked first,
then the global mappings.
This function can be used to map a key even when it's already
mapped, and have it do the original mapping too. Sketch:
exe 'nnoremap <Tab> ==' . maparg('<Tab>', 'n')
mapcheck({name}[, {mode} [, {abbr}]]) *mapcheck()*

Check if there is a mapping that matches with {name} in mode
{mode}. See |maparg()| for {mode} and special names in
{name}.
instead of mappings.
A match happens with a mapping that starts with {name} and
with a mapping which is equal to the start of {name}.
matches mapping "a" "ab" "abc"
mapcheck("a") yes yes yes
mapcheck("abc") yes yes yes
mapcheck("ax") yes no no
mapcheck("b") no no no
The difference with maparg() is that mapcheck() finds a
mapping that matches with {name}, while maparg() only finds a
mapping for {name} exactly.
When there is no mapping that starts with {name}, an empty
String is returned. If there is one, the rhs of that mapping
is returned. If there are several mappings that start with
{name}, the rhs of one of them is returned.
The mappings local to the current buffer are checked first,
then the global mappings.
This function can be used to check if a mapping can be added
without being ambiguous. Example:
:if mapcheck("_vv") == ""
: map _vv :set guifont=7x13<CR>
:endif
This avoids adding the "_vv" mapping when there already is a
mapping for "_v" or for "_vvv".
match({expr}, {pat}[, {start}[, {count}]]) *match()*

When {expr} is a |List| then this returns the index of the
first item where {pat} matches. Each item is used as a
String, |Lists| and |Dictionaries| are used as echoed.

Otherwise, {expr} is used as a String. The result is a

Number, which gives the index (byte offset) in {expr} where
{pat} matches.
A match at the first character or |List| item returns zero.
If there is no match -1 is returned.
Example:
:echo match("testing", "ing") " results in 4
:echo match([1, 'x'], '\a') " results in 1
See |string-match| for how {pat} is used.
*strpbrk()*
Vim doesn't have a strpbrk() function. But you can do:
:let sepidx = match(line, '[.,;: \t]')
*strcasestr()*
Vim doesn't have a strcasestr() function. But you can add
"\c" to the pattern to ignore case:
:let idx = match(haystack, '\cneedle')
If {start} is given, the search starts from byte index
{start} in a String or item {start} in a |List|.
The result, however, is still the index counted from the
first character/item. Example:
:echo match("testing", "ing", 2)
result is again "4".
:echo match("testing", "ing", 4)
result is again "4".
:echo match("testing", "t", 2)
result is "3".
For a String, if {start} > 0 then it is like the string starts
{start} bytes later, thus "^" will match at {start}. Except
when {count} is given, then it's like matches before the
{start} byte are ignored (this is a bit complicated to keep it
backwards compatible).
For a String, if {start} < 0, it will be set to 0. For a list
the index is counted from the end.
If {start} is out of range ({start} > strlen({expr}) for a
String or {start} > len({expr}) for a |List|) -1 is returned.
When {count} is given use the {count}'th match. When a match
is found in a String the search for the next one starts one
character further. Thus this example results in 1:
echo match("testing", "..", 0, 2)
In a |List| the search continues in the next item.
Note that when {count} is added the way {start} works changes,
see above.
See |pattern| for the patterns that are accepted.
The 'ignorecase' option is used to set the ignore-caseness of
the pattern. 'smartcase' is NOT used. The matching is always
done like 'magic' is set and 'cpoptions' is empty.
*matchadd()* *E798* *E799* *E801*

matchadd({group}, {pattern}[, {priority}[, {id}]])
Defines a pattern to be highlighted in the current window (a
"match"). It will be highlighted with {group}. Returns an
identification number (ID), which can be used to delete the
match using |matchdelete()|.
The optional {priority} argument assigns a priority to the
match. A match with a high priority will have its
highlighting overrule that of a match with a lower priority.
A priority is specified as an integer (negative numbers are no
exception). If the {priority} argument is not specified, the
default priority is 10. The priority of 'hlsearch' is zero,
hence all matches with a priority greater than zero will
overrule it. Syntax highlighting (see 'syntax') is a separate
mechanism, and regardless of the chosen priority a match will
always overrule syntax highlighting.
The optional {id} argument allows the request for a specific
match ID. If a specified ID is already taken, an error
message will appear and the match will not be added. An ID
is specified as a positive integer (zero excluded). IDs 1, 2
and 3 are reserved for |:match|, |:2match| and |:3match|,
respectively. If the {id} argument is not specified,
|matchadd()| automatically chooses a free ID.
The number of matches is not limited, as it is the case with

the |:match| commands.

Example:
:highlight MyGroup ctermbg=green guibg=green
:let m = matchadd("MyGroup", "TODO")
Deletion of the pattern:
:call matchdelete(m)
A list of matches defined by |matchadd()| and |:match| are
available from |getmatches()|. All matches can be deleted in
one operation by |clearmatches()|.
matcharg({nr}) *matcharg()*
Selects the {nr} match item, as set with a |:match|,
|:2match| or |:3match| command.
Return a |List| with two elements:
The name of the highlight group used
The pattern used.
When {nr} is not 1, 2 or 3 returns an empty |List|.
When there is no match item set returns ['', ''].
This is useful to save and restore a |:match|.
Highlighting matches using the |:match| commands are limited
to three matches. |matchadd()| does not have this limitation.
matchdelete({id}) *matchdelete()* *E802* *E803*

Deletes a match with ID {id} previously defined by |matchadd()|
or one of the |:match| commands. Returns 0 if successful,
otherwise -1. See example for |matchadd()|. All matches can
be deleted in one operation by |clearmatches()|.
matchend({expr}, {pat}[, {start}[, {count}]]) *matchend()*

Same as |match()|, but return the index of first character
after the match. Example:
:echo matchend("testing", "ing")
results in "7".
*strspn()* *strcspn()*
Vim doesn't have a strspn() or strcspn() function, but you can
do it with matchend():
:let span = matchend(line, '[a-zA-Z]')
:let span = matchend(line, '[â-zA-Z]')
Except that -1 is returned when there are no matches.
The {start}, if given, has the same meaning as for |match()|.
:echo matchend("testing", "ing", 2)
results in "7".
:echo matchend("testing", "ing", 5)
result is "-1".
When {expr} is a |List| the result is equal to |match()|.
matchlist({expr}, {pat}[, {start}[, {count}]]) *matchlist()*

Same as |match()|, but return a |List|. The first item in the
list is the matched string, same as what matchstr() would
return. Following items are submatches, like "\1", "\2", etc.
in |:substitute|. When an optional submatch didn't match an
empty string is used. Example:
echo matchlist('acd', '$a$\?$b$\?$c$\?$.*$')
Results in: ['acd', 'a', '', 'c', 'd', '', '', '', '', '']
When there is no match an empty list is returned.
matchstr({expr}, {pat}[, {start}[, {count}]]) *matchstr()*

Same as |match()|, but return the matched string. Example:
:echo matchstr("testing", "ing")
results in "ing".
When there is no match "" is returned.
The {start}, if given, has the same meaning as for |match()|.
:echo matchstr("testing", "ing", 2)
results in "ing".
:echo matchstr("testing", "ing", 5)
result is "".
When {expr} is a |List| then the matching item is returned.
The type isn't changed, it's not necessarily a String.

*max()*
max({list}) Return the maximum value of all items in {list}.
If {list} is not a list or one of the items in {list} cannot
be used as a Number this results in an error.
An empty |List| results in zero.
*min()*
min({list}) Return the minimum value of all items in {list}.
If {list} is not a list or one of the items in {list} cannot
be used as a Number this results in an error.
An empty |List| results in zero.
*mkdir()* *E739*
mkdir({name} [, {path} [, {prot}]])
Create directory {name}.
If {path} is "p" then intermediate directories are created as
necessary. Otherwise it must be "".
If {prot} is given it is used to set the protection bits of
the new directory. The default is 0755 (rwxr-xr-x: r/w for
the user readable for others). Use 0700 to make it unreadable
for others. This is only used for the last part of {name}.
Thus if you create /tmp/foo/bar then /tmp/foo will be created
with 0755.
Example:
:call mkdir($HOME . "/tmp/foo/bar", "p", 0700)
Not available on all systems. To check use:
:if exists("*mkdir")
*mode()*
mode([expr]) Return a string that indicates the current mode.
If [expr] is supplied and it evaluates to a non-zero Number or
a non-empty String (|non-zero-arg|), then the full mode is
returned, otherwise only the first letter is returned. Note
that " " and "0" are also non-empty strings.
n Normal
no Operator-pending
v Visual by character
V Visual by line
CTRL-V Visual blockwise
s Select by character
S Select by line
CTRL-S Select blockwise
i Insert
R Replace |R|
Rv Virtual Replace |gR|
c Command-line
cv Vim Ex mode |gQ|
ce Normal Ex mode |Q|
r Hit-enter prompt
rm The -- more -- prompt
r? A |:confirm| query of some sort
! Shell or external command is executing
This is useful in the 'statusline' option or when used
with |remote_expr()| In most other places it always returns
"c" or "n".
Also see |visualmode()|.
mzeval({expr}) *mzeval()*
Evaluate MzScheme expression {expr} and return its result
convert to Vim data structures.
Numbers and strings are returned as they are.
Pairs (including lists and improper lists) and vectors are
returned as Vim |Lists|.
Hash tables are represented as Vim |Dictionary| type with keys
converted to strings.
All other types are converted to string with display function.
Examples:
:mz (define l (list 1 2 3))
:mz (define h (make-hash)) (hash-set! h "list" l)
:echo mzeval("l")
:echo mzeval("h")
{only available when compiled with the |+mzscheme| feature}

nextnonblank({lnum}) *nextnonblank()*
Return the line number of the first line at or below {lnum}
that is not blank. Example:
if getline(nextnonblank(1)) =~ "Java"
When {lnum} is invalid or there is no non-blank line at or
below it, zero is returned.
See also |prevnonblank()|.
nr2char({expr}) *nr2char()*
Return a string with a single character, which has the number
value {expr}. Examples:
nr2char(64) returns "@"
nr2char(32) returns " "
The current 'encoding' is used. Example for "utf-8":
nr2char(300) returns I with bow character
Note that a NUL character in the file is specified with
nr2char(10), because NULs are represented with newline
characters. nr2char(0) is a real NUL and terminates the
string, thus results in an empty string.
*getpid()*
getpid() Return a Number which is the process ID of the Vim process.
On Unix and MS-Windows this is a unique number, until Vim
exits. On MS-DOS it's always zero.
*getpos()*
getpos({expr}) Get the position for {expr}. For possible values of {expr}
see |line()|.
The result is a |List| with four numbers:
[bufnum, lnum, col, off]
"bufnum" is zero, unless a mark like '0 or 'A is used, then it
is the buffer number of the mark.
"lnum" and "col" are the position in the buffer. The first
column is 1.
The "off" number is zero, unless 'virtualedit' is used. Then
it is the offset in screen columns from the start of the
character. E.g., a position within a <Tab> or after the last
character.
This can be used to save and restore the cursor position:
let save_cursor = getpos(".")
MoveTheCursorAround
call setpos('.', save_cursor)
Also see |setpos()|.
pathshorten({expr}) *pathshorten()*
Shorten directory names in the path {expr} and return the
result. The tail, the file name, is kept as-is. The other
components in the path are reduced to single letters. Leading
'~' and '.' characters are kept. Example:
:echo pathshorten('~/.vim/autoload/myfile.vim')
~/.v/a/myfile.vim
It doesn't matter if the path exists or not.
pow({x}, {y}) *pow()*

Return the power of {x} to the exponent {y} as a |Float|.
{x} and {y} must evaluate to a |Float| or a |Number|.
Examples:
:echo pow(3, 3)
27.0
:echo pow(2, 16)
65536.0
:echo pow(32, 0.20)
2.0
prevnonblank({lnum}) *prevnonblank()*
Return the line number of the first line at or above {lnum}
that is not blank. Example:
let ind = indent(prevnonblank(v:lnum - 1))
When {lnum} is invalid or there is no non-blank line at or
above it, zero is returned.
Also see |nextnonblank()|.

printf({fmt}, {expr1} ...) *printf()*

Return a String with {fmt}, where "%" items are replaced by
the formatted form of their respective arguments. Example:
printf("%4d: E%d %.30s", lnum, errno, msg)
May result in:
" 99: E42 asdfasdfasdfasdfasdfasdfasdfas"
Often used items are:
%s string
%6s string right-aligned in 6 bytes
%.9s string truncated to 9 bytes
%c single byte
%d decimal number
%5d decimal number padded with spaces to 5 characters
%x hex number
%04x hex number padded with zeros to at least 4 characters
%X hex number using upper case letters
%o octal number
%f floating point number in the form 123.456
%e floating point number in the form 1.234e3
%E floating point number in the form 1.234E3
%g floating point number, as %f or %e depending on value
%G floating point number, as %f or %E depending on value
%% the % character itself
Conversion specifications start with '%' and end with the
conversion type. All other characters are copied unchanged to
the result.
The "%" starts a conversion specification. The following
arguments appear in sequence:
% [flags] [field-width] [.precision] type
flags
Zero or more of the following flags:
# The value should be converted to an "alternate
form". For c, d, and s conversions, this option
has no effect. For o conversions, the precision
of the number is increased to force the first
character of the output string to a zero (except
if a zero value is printed with an explicit
precision of zero).
For x and X conversions, a non-zero result has
the string "0x" (or "0X" for X conversions)
prepended to it.
0 (zero) Zero padding. For all conversions the converted
value is padded on the left with zeros rather
than blanks. If a precision is given with a
numeric conversion (d, o, x, and X), the 0 flag
is ignored.
- A negative field width flag; the converted value
is to be left adjusted on the field boundary.
The converted value is padded on the right with
blanks, rather than on the left with blanks or
zeros. A - overrides a 0 if both are given.
'' '' (space) A blank should be left before a positive
number produced by a signed conversion (d).
+ A sign must always be placed before a number
produced by a signed conversion. A + overrides
a space if both are used.
field-width
An optional decimal digit string specifying a minimum
field width. If the converted value has fewer bytes
than the field width, it will be padded with spaces on
the left (or right, if the left-adjustment flag has
been given) to fill out the field width.
.precision
An optional precision, in the form of a period '.'
followed by an optional digit string. If the digit

string is omitted, the precision is taken as zero.

This gives the minimum number of digits to appear for
d, o, x, and X conversions, or the maximum number of
bytes to be printed from a string for s conversions.
For floating point it is the number of digits after
the decimal point.
type
A character that specifies the type of conversion to
be applied, see below.
A field width or precision, or both, may be indicated by an
asterisk '*' instead of a digit string. In this case, a
Number argument supplies the field width or precision. A
negative field width is treated as a left adjustment flag
followed by a positive field width; a negative precision is
treated as though it were missing. Example:
:echo printf("%d: %.*s", nr, width, line)
This limits the length of the text used from "line" to
"width" bytes.
The conversion specifiers and their meanings are:
*printf-d* *printf-o* *printf-x* *printf-X*

doxX The Number argument is converted to signed decimal
(d), unsigned octal (o), or unsigned hexadecimal (x
and X) notation. The letters "abcdef" are used for
x conversions; the letters "ABCDEF" are used for X
conversions.
The precision, if any, gives the minimum number of
digits that must appear; if the converted value
requires fewer digits, it is padded on the left with
zeros.
In no case does a non-existent or small field width
cause truncation of a numeric field; if the result of
a conversion is wider than the field width, the field
is expanded to contain the conversion result.
*printf-c*
c The Number argument is converted to a byte, and the
resulting character is written.
*printf-s*
s The text of the String argument is used. If a
precision is specified, no more bytes than the number
specified are used.
*printf-f* *E807*
f The Float argument is converted into a string of the
form 123.456. The precision specifies the number of
digits after the decimal point. When the precision is
zero the decimal point is omitted. When the precision
is not specified 6 is used. A really big number
(out of range or dividing by zero) results in "inf".
"0.0 / 0.0" results in "nan".
Example:
echo printf("%.2f", 12.115)
12.12
Note that roundoff depends on the system libraries.
Use |round()| when in doubt.
*printf-e* *printf-E*
e E The Float argument is converted into a string of the
form 1.234e+03 or 1.234E+03 when using 'E'. The
precision specifies the number of digits after the
decimal point, like with 'f'.
*printf-g* *printf-G*
g G The Float argument is converted like with 'f' if the
value is between 0.001 (inclusive) and 10000000.0
(exclusive). Otherwise 'e' is used for 'g' and 'E'
for 'G'. When no precision is specified superfluous
zeroes and '+' signs are removed, except for the zero
immediately after the decimal point. Thus 10000000.0

results in 1.0e7.
*printf-%*
% A '%' is written. No argument is converted. The
complete conversion specification is "%%".
When a Number argument is expected a String argument is also
accepted and automatically converted.
When a Float or String argument is expected a Number argument
is also accepted and automatically converted.
Any other argument type results in an error message.
*E766* *E767*
The number of {exprN} arguments must exactly match the number
of "%" items. If there are not sufficient or too many
arguments an error is given. Up to 18 arguments can be used.
pumvisible() *pumvisible()*
Returns non-zero when the popup menu is visible, zero
otherwise. See |ins-completion-menu|.
This can be used to avoid some things that would remove the
popup menu.
*E726* *E727*
range({expr} [, {max} [, {stride}]]) *range()*
Returns a |List| with Numbers:
- If only {expr} is specified: [0, 1, ..., {expr} - 1]
- If {max} is specified: [{expr}, {expr} + 1, ..., {max}]
- If {stride} is specified: [{expr}, {expr} + {stride}, ...,
{max}] (increasing {expr} with {stride} each time, not
producing a value past {max}).
When the maximum is one before the start the result is an
empty list. When the maximum is more than one before the
start this is an error.
Examples:
range(4) " [0, 1, 2, 3]
range(2, 4) " [2, 3, 4]
range(2, 9, 3) " [2, 5, 8]
range(2, -2, -1) " [2, 1, 0, -1, -2]
range(0) " []
range(2, 0) " error!
*readfile()*
readfile({fname} [, {binary} [, {max}]])
Read file {fname} and return a |List|, each line of the file
as an item. Lines broken at NL characters. Macintosh files
separated with CR will result in a single long line (unless a
NL appears somewhere).
All NUL characters are replaced with a NL character.
When {binary} is equal to "b" binary mode is used:
- When the last line ends in a NL an extra empty list item is
added.
- No CR characters are removed.
Otherwise:
- CR characters that appear before a NL are removed.
- Whether the last line ends in a NL or not does not matter.
- When 'encoding' is Unicode any UTF-8 byte order mark is
removed from the text.
When {max} is given this specifies the maximum number of lines
to be read. Useful if you only want to check the first ten
lines of a file:
:for line in readfile(fname, '', 10)
: if line =~ 'Date' | echo line | endif
:endfor
When {max} is negative -{max} lines from the end of the file
are returned, or as many as there are.
When {max} is zero the result is an empty list.
Note that without {max} the whole file is read into memory.
Also note that there is no recognition of encoding. Read a
file into a buffer if you need to.
When the file can't be opened an error message is given and
the result is an empty list.

Also see |writefile()|.
reltime([{start} [, {end}]]) *reltime()*

Return an item that represents a time value. The format of
the item depends on the system. It can be passed to
|reltimestr()| to convert it to a string.
Without an argument it returns the current time.
With one argument is returns the time passed since the time
specified in the argument.
With two arguments it returns the time passed between {start}
and {end}.
The {start} and {end} arguments must be values returned by
reltime().
{only available when compiled with the |+reltime| feature}
reltimestr({time}) *reltimestr()*
Return a String that represents the time value of {time}.
This is the number of seconds, a dot and the number of
microseconds. Example:
let start = reltime()
call MyFunction()
echo reltimestr(reltime(start))
Note that overhead for the commands will be added to the time.
The accuracy depends on the system.
Leading spaces are used to make the string align nicely. You
can use split() to remove it.
echo split(reltimestr(reltime(start)))[0]
Also see |profiling|.
*remote_expr()* *E449*
remote_expr({server}, {string} [, {idvar}])
Send the {string} to {server}. The string is sent as an
expression and the result is returned after evaluation.
The result must be a String or a |List|. A |List| is turned
into a String by joining the items with a line break in
between (not at the end), like with join(expr, "\n").
If {idvar} is present, it is taken as the name of a
variable and a {serverid} for later use with
remote_read() is stored there.
See also |clientserver| |RemoteReply|.
{only available when compiled with the |+clientserver| feature}
Note: Any errors will cause a local error message to be issued
and the result will be the empty string.
Examples:
:echo remote_expr("gvim", "2+2")
:echo remote_expr("gvim1", "b:current_syntax")
remote_foreground({server}) *remote_foreground()*
Move the Vim server with the name {server} to the foreground.
This works like:
remote_expr({server}, "foreground()")
Except that on Win32 systems the client does the work, to work
around the problem that the OS doesn't always allow the server
to bring itself to the foreground.
Note: This does not restore the window if it was minimized,
like foreground() does.
{only in the Win32, Athena, Motif and GTK GUI versions and the
Win32 console version}
remote_peek({serverid} [, {retvar}]) *remote_peek()*

Returns a positive number if there are available strings
from {serverid}. Copies any reply string into the variable
{retvar} if specified. {retvar} must be a string with the
name of a variable.
Returns zero if none are available.
Returns -1 if something is wrong.
See also |clientserver|.
Examples:

:let repl = ""

:echo "PEEK: ".remote_peek(id, "repl").": ".repl
remote_read({serverid}) *remote_read()*
Return the oldest available reply from {serverid} and consume
it. It blocks until a reply is available.
Example:
:echo remote_read(id)
*remote_send()* *E241*
remote_send({server}, {string} [, {idvar}])
Send the {string} to {server}. The string is sent as input
keys and the function returns immediately. At the Vim server
the keys are not mapped |:map|.
If {idvar} is present, it is taken as the name of a variable
and a {serverid} for later use with remote_read() is stored
there.
See also |clientserver| |RemoteReply|.
Note: Any errors will be reported in the server and may mess
up the display.
Examples:
:echo remote_send("gvim", ":DropAndReply ".file, "serverid").
\ remote_read(serverid)
:autocmd NONE RemoteReply *
\ echo remote_read(expand("<amatch>"))
:echo remote_send("gvim", ":sleep 10 | echo ".
\ 'server2client(expand("<client>"), "HELLO")<CR>')
remove({list}, {idx} [, {end}]) *remove()*

Without {end}: Remove the item at {idx} from |List| {list} and
return the item.
With {end}: Remove items from {idx} to {end} (inclusive) and
return a List with these items. When {idx} points to the same
item as {end} a list with one item is returned. When {end}
points to an item before {idx} this is an error.
See |list-index| for possible values of {idx} and {end}.
Example:
:echo "last item: " . remove(mylist, -1)
:call remove(mylist, 0, 9)
remove({dict}, {key})
Remove the entry from {dict} with key {key}. Example:
:echo "removed " . remove(dict, "one")
If there is no {key} in {dict} this is an error.
Use |delete()| to remove a file.
rename({from}, {to}) *rename()*

Rename the file by the name {from} to the name {to}. This
should also work to move files across file systems. The
result is a Number, which is 0 if the file was renamed
successfully, and non-zero when the renaming failed.
NOTE: If {to} exists it is overwritten without warning.
repeat({expr}, {count}) *repeat()*

Repeat {expr} {count} times and return the concatenated
result. Example:
:let separator = repeat('-', 80)
When {count} is zero or negative the result is empty.
When {expr} is a |List| the result is {expr} concatenated
{count} times. Example:
:let longlist = repeat(['a', 'b'], 3)
Results in ['a', 'b', 'a', 'b', 'a', 'b'].
resolve({filename}) *resolve()* *E655*

On MS-Windows, when {filename} is a shortcut (a .lnk file),

returns the path the shortcut points to in a simplified form.

On Unix, repeat resolving symbolic links in all path
components of {filename} and return the simplified result.
To cope with link cycles, resolving of symbolic links is
stopped after 100 iterations.
On other systems, return the simplified {filename}.
The simplification step is done as by |simplify()|.
resolve() keeps a leading path component specifying the
current directory (provided the result is still a relative
path name) and also keeps a trailing path separator.
*reverse()*
reverse({list}) Reverse the order of items in {list} in-place. Returns
{list}.
If you want a list to remain unmodified make a copy first:
:let revlist = reverse(copy(mylist))
round({expr}) *round()*
Round off {expr} to the nearest integral value and return it
as a |Float|. If {expr} lies halfway between two integral
values, then use the larger one (away from zero).
Examples:
echo round(0.456)
0.0
echo round(4.5)
5.0
echo round(-4.5)
-5.0
search({pattern} [, {flags} [, {stopline} [, {timeout}]]]) *search()*

Search for regexp pattern {pattern}. The search starts at the
cursor position (you can use |cursor()| to set it).
{flags} is a String, which can contain these character flags:
'b' search backward instead of forward
'c' accept a match at the cursor position
'e' move to the End of the match
'n' do Not move the cursor
'p' return number of matching sub-pattern (see below)
's' set the '' mark at the previous location of the cursor
'w' wrap around the end of the file
'W' don't wrap around the end of the file
If neither 'w' or 'W' is given, the 'wrapscan' option applies.
If the 's' flag is supplied, the '' mark is set, only if the
cursor is moved. The 's' flag cannot be combined with the 'n'
flag.
'ignorecase', 'smartcase' and 'magic' are used.
When the {stopline} argument is given then the search stops
after searching this line. This is useful to restrict the
search to a range of lines. Examples:
let match = search('(', 'b', line("w0"))
let end = search('END', '', line("w$"))
When {stopline} is used and it is not zero this also implies
that the search does not wrap around the end of the file.
A zero value is equal to not giving the argument.
When the {timeout} argument is given the search stops when
more than this many milli seconds have passed. Thus when
{timeout} is 500 the search stops after half a second.
The value must not be negative. A zero value is like not
giving the argument.
If there is no match a 0 is returned and the cursor doesn't
move. No error message is given.
When a match has been found its line number is returned.
*search()-sub-match*
With the 'p' flag the returned value is one more than the
first sub-match in . One if none of them matched but the
whole pattern did match.

To get the column number too use |searchpos()|.

The cursor will be positioned at the match, unless the 'n'
flag is used.
Example (goes over all files in the argument list):
:let n = 1
:while n <= argc() " loop over all files in arglist
: exe "argument " . n
: " start at the last char in the file and wrap for the
: " first search to find match at start of file
: normal G$
: let flags = "w"
: while search("foo", flags) > 0
: s/foo/bar/g
: let flags = "W"
: endwhile
: update " write the file if modified
: let n = n + 1
:endwhile
Example for using some flags:
:echo search('\<if\|$else$\|$endif$', 'ncpe')
This will search for the keywords "if", "else", and "endif"
under or after the cursor. Because of the 'p' flag, it
returns 1, 2, or 3 depending on which keyword is found, or 0
if the search fails. With the cursor on the first word of the
line:
if (foo == 0) | let foo = foo + 1 | endif
the function returns 1. Without the 'c' flag, the function
finds the "endif" and returns 3. The same thing happens
without the 'e' flag if the cursor is on the "f" of "if".
The 'n' flag tells the function not to move the cursor.
searchdecl({name} [, {global} [, {thisblock}]]) *searchdecl()*

Search for the declaration of {name}.
With a non-zero {global} argument it works like |gD|, find
first match in the file. Otherwise it works like |gd|, find
first match in the function.
With a non-zero {thisblock} argument matches in a {} block
that ends before the cursor position are ignored. Avoids
finding variable declarations only valid in another scope.
Moves the cursor to the found match.
Returns zero for success, non-zero for failure.
Example:
if searchdecl('myvar') == 0
echo getline('.')
endif
*searchpair()*
searchpair({start}, {middle}, {end} [, {flags} [, {skip}
[, {stopline} [, {timeout}]]]])
Search for the match of a nested start-end pair. This can be
used to find the "endif" that matches an "if", while other
if/endif pairs in between are ignored.
The search starts at the cursor. The default is to search
forward, include 'b' in {flags} to search backward.
If a match is found, the cursor is positioned at it and the
line number is returned. If no match is found 0 or -1 is
returned and the cursor doesn't move. No error message is
given.
{start}, {middle} and {end} are patterns, see |pattern|. They
must not contain  pairs. Use of \%( \) is allowed. When
{middle} is not empty, it is found when searching from either
direction, but only when not in a nested start-end pair. A
typical use is:
searchpair('\<if\>', '\<else\>', '\<endif\>')
By leaving {middle} empty the "else" is skipped.
{flags} 'b', 'c', 'n', 's', 'w' and 'W' are used like with
|search()|. Additionally:
'r' Repeat until no more matches found; will find the

outer pair. Implies the 'W' flag.

'm' Return number of matches instead of line number with
the match; will be > 1 when 'r' is used.
Note: it's nearly always a good idea to use the 'W' flag, to
avoid wrapping around the end of the file.
When a match for {start}, {middle} or {end} is found, the
{skip} expression is evaluated with the cursor positioned on
the start of the match. It should return non-zero if this
match is to be skipped. E.g., because it is inside a comment
or a string.
When {skip} is omitted or empty, every match is accepted.
When evaluating {skip} causes an error the search is aborted
and -1 returned.
For {stopline} and {timeout} see |search()|.
The value of 'ignorecase' is used. 'magic' is ignored, the
patterns are used like it's on.
The search starts exactly at the cursor. A match with
{start}, {middle} or {end} at the next character, in the
direction of searching, is the first one found. Example:
if 1
if 2
endif 2
endif 1
When starting at the "if 2", with the cursor on the "i", and
searching forwards, the "endif 2" is found. When starting on
the character just before the "if 2", the "endif 1" will be
found. That's because the "if 2" will be found first, and
then this is considered to be a nested if/endif from "if 2" to
"endif 2".
When searching backwards and {end} is more than one character,
it may be useful to put "\zs" at the end of the pattern, so
that when the cursor is inside a match with the end it finds
the matching start.
Example, to find the "endif" command in a Vim script:
:echo searchpair('\<if\>', '\<el\%[seif]\>', '\<en\%[dif]\>', 'W',
\ 'getline(".") =~ "^\\s*\""')
The cursor must be at or after the "if" for which a match is
to be found. Note that single-quote strings are used to avoid
having to double the backslashes. The skip expression only
catches comments at the start of a line, not after a command.
Also, a word "en" or "if" halfway a line is considered a
match.
Another example, to search for the matching "{" of a "}":
:echo searchpair('{', '', '}', 'bW')
This works when the cursor is at or before the "}" for which a
match is to be found. To reject matches that syntax
highlighting recognized as strings:
:echo searchpair('{', '', '}', 'bW',
\ 'synIDattr(synID(line("."), col("."), 0), "name") =~? "string"')
*searchpairpos()*
searchpairpos({start}, {middle}, {end} [, {flags} [, {skip}
[, {stopline} [, {timeout}]]]])
Same as |searchpair()|, but returns a |List| with the line and
column position of the match. The first element of the |List|
is the line number and the second element is the byte index of
the column position of the match. If no match is found,
returns [0, 0].
:let [lnum,col] = searchpairpos('{', '', '}', 'n')
See |match-parens| for a bigger and more useful example.
searchpos({pattern} [, {flags} [, {stopline} [, {timeout}]]]) *searchpos()*

Same as |search()|, but returns a |List| with the line and
column position of the match. The first element of the |List|
is the line number and the second element is the byte index of
the column position of the match. If no match is found,

returns [0, 0].

Example:
:let [lnum, col] = searchpos('mypattern', 'n')
When the 'p' flag is given then there is an extra item with
the sub-pattern match number |search()-sub-match|. Example:
:let [lnum, col, submatch] = searchpos('$\l$\|$\u$', 'np')
In this example "submatch" is 2 when a lowercase letter is
found |/\l|, 3 when an uppercase letter is found |/\u|.
server2client( {clientid}, {string}) *server2client()*

Send a reply string to {clientid}. The most recent {clientid}
that sent a string can be retrieved with expand("<client>").
Note:
This id has to be stored before the next command can be
received. I.e. before returning from the received command and
before calling any commands that waits for input.
Example:
:echo server2client(expand("<client>"), "HELLO")
serverlist() *serverlist()*
Return a list of available server names, one per line.
When there are no servers or the information is not available
an empty string is returned. See also |clientserver|.
Example:
:echo serverlist()
setbufvar({expr}, {varname}, {val}) *setbufvar()*

Set option or local variable {varname} in buffer {expr} to
{val}.
This also works for a global or local window option, but it
doesn't work for a global or local window variable.
For a local window option the global value is unchanged.
Note that the variable name without "b:" must be used.
Examples:
:call setbufvar(1, "&mod", 1)
:call setbufvar("todo", "myvar", "foobar")
setcmdpos({pos}) *setcmdpos()*
Set the cursor position in the command line to byte position
{pos}. The first position is 1.
Use |getcmdpos()| to obtain the current position.
Only works while editing the command line, thus you must use
|c_CTRL-\_e|, |c_CTRL-R_=| or |c_CTRL-R_CTRL-R| with '='. For
|c_CTRL-\_e| and |c_CTRL-R_CTRL-R| with '=' the position is
set after the command line is set to the expression. For
|c_CTRL-R_=| it is set after evaluating the expression but
before inserting the resulting text.
When the number is too big the cursor is put at the end of the
line. A number smaller than one has undefined results.
Returns 0 when successful, 1 when not editing the command
line.
setline({lnum}, {text}) *setline()*

Set line {lnum} of the current buffer to {text}.
{lnum} is used like with |getline()|.
When {lnum} is just below the last line the {text} will be
added as a new line.
If this succeeds, 0 is returned. If this fails (most likely
because {lnum} is invalid) 1 is returned. Example:
:call setline(5, strftime("%c"))
When {text} is a |List| then line {lnum} and following lines
will be set to the items in the list. Example:
:call setline(5, ['aaa', 'bbb', 'ccc'])
This is equivalent to:
:for [n, l] in [[5, 6, 7], ['aaa', 'bbb', 'ccc']]
: call setline(n, l)
:endfor
Note: The '[ and '] marks are not set.

setloclist({nr}, {list} [, {action}]) *setloclist()*

Create or replace or add to the location list for window {nr}.
When {nr} is zero the current window is used. For a location
list window, the displayed location list is modified. For an
invalid window number {nr}, -1 is returned.
Otherwise, same as |setqflist()|.
Also see |location-list|.
setmatches({list}) *setmatches()*
Restores a list of matches saved by |getmatches()|. Returns 0
if successful, otherwise -1. All current matches are cleared
before the list is restored. See example for |getmatches()|.
*setpos()*
setpos({expr}, {list})
Set the position for {expr}. Possible values:
. the cursor
'x mark x
{list} must be a |List| with four numbers:
[bufnum, lnum, col, off]
"bufnum" is the buffer number. Zero can be used for the
current buffer. Setting the cursor is only possible for
the current buffer. To set a mark in another buffer you can
use the |bufnr()| function to turn a file name into a buffer
number.
Does not change the jumplist.
"lnum" and "col" are the position in the buffer. The first
column is 1. Use a zero "lnum" to delete a mark. If "col" is
smaller than 1 then 1 is used.
The "off" number is only used when 'virtualedit' is set. Then
it is the offset in screen columns from the start of the
character.
Returns 0 when the position could be set, -1 otherwise.
An error message is given if {expr} is invalid.
Also see |getpos()|
This does not restore the preferred column for moving
vertically. See |winrestview()| for that.
setqflist({list} [, {action}]) *setqflist()*

Create or replace or add to the quickfix list using the items
in {list}. Each item in {list} is a dictionary.
Non-dictionary items in {list} are ignored. Each dictionary
item can contain the following entries:
bufnr buffer number; must be the number of a valid
buffer
filename name of a file; only used when "bufnr" is not
present or it is invalid.
lnum line number in the file
pattern search pattern used to locate the error
col column number
vcol when non-zero: "col" is visual column
when zero: "col" is byte index
nr error number
text description of the error
type single-character error type, 'E', 'W', etc.
The "col", "vcol", "nr", "type" and "text" entries are
optional. Either "lnum" or "pattern" entry can be used to
locate a matching error line.
If the "filename" and "bufnr" entries are not present or
neither the "lnum" or "pattern" entries are present, then the
item will not be handled as an error line.
If both "pattern" and "lnum" are present then "pattern" will
be used.
If you supply an empty {list}, the quickfix list will be

cleared.
Note that the list is not exactly the same as what
|getqflist()| returns.
If {action} is set to 'a', then the items from {list} are
added to the existing quickfix list. If there is no existing
list, then a new list is created. If {action} is set to 'r',
then the items from the current quickfix list are replaced
with the items from {list}. If {action} is not present or is
set to '' '', then a new list is created.
Returns zero for success, -1 for failure.
This function can be used to create a quickfix list
independent of the 'errorformat' setting. Use a command like
":cc 1" to jump to the first position.
*setreg()*
setreg({regname}, {value} [,{options}])
Set the register {regname} to {value}.
If {options} contains "a" or {regname} is upper case,
then the value is appended.
{options} can also contain a register type specification:
"c" or "v" |characterwise| mode
"l" or "V" |linewise| mode
"b" or "<CTRL-V>" |blockwise-visual| mode
If a number immediately follows "b" or "<CTRL-V>" then this is
used as the width of the selection - if it is not specified
then the width of the block is set to the number of characters
in the longest line (counting a <Tab> as 1 character).
If {options} contains no register settings, then the default
is to use character mode unless {value} ends in a <NL>.
Setting the '=' register is not possible.
Returns zero for success, non-zero for failure.
Examples:
:call setreg(v:register, @*)
:call setreg('*', @%, 'ac')
:call setreg('a', "1\n2\n3", 'b5')
This example shows using the functions to save and restore a
register.
:let var_a = getreg('a', 1)
:let var_amode = getregtype('a')
....
:call setreg('a', var_a, var_amode)
You can also change the type of a register by appending
nothing:
:call setreg('a', '', 'al')
settabvar({tabnr}, {varname}, {val}) *settabvar()*

Set tab-local variable {varname} to {val} in tab page {tabnr}.
|t:var|
Note that the variable name without "t:" must be used.
Tabs are numbered starting with one.
Vim briefly goes to the tab page {tabnr}, this may trigger
TabLeave and TabEnter autocommands.
settabwinvar({tabnr}, {winnr}, {varname}, {val}) *settabwinvar()*

Set option or local variable {varname} in window {winnr} to
{val}.
Tabs are numbered starting with one. For the current tabpage
use |setwinvar()|.
When {winnr} is zero the current window is used.
This also works for a global or local buffer option, but it
doesn't work for a global or local buffer variable.
For a local buffer option the global value is unchanged.
Note that the variable name without "w:" must be used.
Vim briefly goes to the tab page {tabnr}, this may trigger
TabLeave and TabEnter autocommands.
Examples:
:call settabwinvar(1, 1, "&list", 0)

:call settabwinvar(3, 2, "myvar", "foobar")

setwinvar({nr}, {varname}, {val}) *setwinvar()*

Like |settabwinvar()| for the current tab page.
Examples:
:call setwinvar(1, "&list", 0)
:call setwinvar(2, "myvar", "foobar")
shellescape({string} [, {special}]) *shellescape()*

Escape {string} for use as a shell command argument.
On MS-Windows and MS-DOS, when 'shellslash' is not set, it
will enclose {string} in double quotes and double all double
quotes within {string}.
For other systems, it will enclose {string} in single quotes
and replace all "'"' with "'\''"'.
When the {special} argument is present and it's a non-zero
Number or a non-empty String (|non-zero-arg|), then special
items such as "!", "%", "#" and "<cword>" will be preceded by
a backslash. This backslash will be removed again by the |:!|
command.
The "!" character will be escaped (again with a |non-zero-arg|
{special}) when 'shell' contains "csh" in the tail. That is
because for csh and tcsh "!" is used for history replacement
even when inside single quotes.
The <NL> character is also escaped. With a |non-zero-arg|
{special} and 'shell' containing "csh" in the tail it's
escaped a second time.
Example of use with a |:!| command:
:exe '!dir ' . shellescape(expand('<cfile>'), 1)
This results in a directory listing for the file under the
cursor. Example of use with YXXYsystem()|:
:call system("chmod +w -- " . shellescape(expand("%")))
simplify({filename}) *simplify()*
Simplify the file name as much as possible without changing
the meaning. Shortcuts (on MS-Windows) or symbolic links (on
Unix) are not resolved. If the first path component in
{filename} designates the current directory, this will be
valid for the result as well. A trailing path separator is
not removed either.
Example:
simplify("./dir/.././/file/") == "./file/"
Note: The combination "dir/.." is only removed if "dir" is
a searchable directory or does not exist. On Unix, it is also
removed when "dir" is a symbolic link within the same
directory. In order to resolve all the involved symbolic
links before simplifying the path name, use |resolve()|.
sin({expr}) *sin()*
Return the sine of {expr}, measured in radians, as a |Float|.
Examples:
:echo sin(100)
-0.506366
:echo sin(-4.01)
0.763301
sinh({expr}) *sinh()*
Return the hyperbolic sine of {expr} as a |Float| in the range
[-inf, inf].
Examples:
:echo sinh(0.5)
0.521095
:echo sinh(-0.9)
-1.026517

sort({list} [, {func}]) *sort()* *E702*

Sort the items in {list} in-place. Returns {list}. If you
want a list to remain unmodified make a copy first:
:let sortedlist = sort(copy(mylist))
Uses the string representation of each item to sort on.
Numbers sort after Strings, |Lists| after Numbers.
For sorting text in the current buffer use |:sort|.
When {func} is given and it is one then case is ignored.
When {func} is a |Funcref| or a function name, this function
is called to compare items. The function is invoked with two
items as argument and must return zero if they are equal, 1 or
bigger if the first one sorts after the second one, -1 or
smaller if the first one sorts before the second one.
Example:
func MyCompare(i1, i2)
return a:i1 == a:i2 ? 0 : a:i1 > a:i2 ? 1 : -1
endfunc
let sortedlist = sort(mylist, "MyCompare")
A shorter compare version for this specific simple case, which
ignores overflow:
func MyCompare(i1, i2)
return a:i1 - a:i2
endfunc
*soundfold()*
soundfold({word})
Return the sound-folded equivalent of {word}. Uses the first
language in 'spelllang' for the current window that supports
soundfolding. 'spell' must be set. When no sound folding is
possible the {word} is returned unmodified.
This can be used for making spelling suggestions. Note that
the method can be quite slow.
*spellbadword()*
spellbadword([{sentence}])
Without argument: The result is the badly spelled word under
or after the cursor. The cursor is moved to the start of the
bad word. When no bad word is found in the cursor line the
result is an empty string and the cursor doesn't move.
With argument: The result is the first word in {sentence} that
is badly spelled. If there are no spelling mistakes the
result is an empty string.
The return value is a list with two items:
- The badly spelled word or an empty string.
- The type of the spelling error:
"bad" spelling mistake
"rare" rare word
"local" word only valid in another region
"caps" word should start with Capital
Example:
echo spellbadword("the quik brown fox")
['quik', 'bad']
The spelling information for the current window is used. The
'spell' option must be set and the value of 'spelllang' is
used.
*spellsuggest()*
spellsuggest({word} [, {max} [, {capital}]])
Return a |List| with spelling suggestions to replace {word}.
When {max} is given up to this number of suggestions are
returned. Otherwise up to 25 suggestions are returned.
When the {capital} argument is given and it's non-zero only
suggestions with a leading capital will be given. Use this
after a match with 'spellcapcheck'.
{word} can be a badly spelled word followed by other text.
This allows for joining two words that were split. The
suggestions also include the following text, thus you can
replace a line.
{word} may also be a good word. Similar words will then be

returned. {word} itself is not included in the suggestions,

although it may appear capitalized.
The spelling information for the current window is used. The
'spell' option must be set and the values of 'spelllang' and
'spellsuggest' are used.
split({expr} [, {pattern} [, {keepempty}]]) *split()*

Make a |List| out of {expr}. When {pattern} is omitted or
empty each white-separated sequence of characters becomes an
item.
Otherwise the string is split where {pattern} matches,
removing the matched characters.
When the first or last item is empty it is omitted, unless the
{keepempty} argument is given and it's non-zero.
Other empty items are kept when {pattern} matches at least one
character or when {keepempty} is non-zero.
Example:
:let words = split(getline('.'), '\W\+')
To split a string in individual characters:
:for c in split(mystring, '\zs')
If you want to keep the separator you can also use '\zs':
:echo split('abc:def:ghi', ':\zs')
['abc:', 'def:', 'ghi']
Splitting a table where the first element can be empty:
:let items = split(line, ':', 1)
The opposite function is |join()|.
sqrt({expr}) *sqrt()*
Return the non-negative square root of Float {expr} as a
|Float|.
{expr} must evaluate to a |Float| or a |Number|. When {expr}
is negative the result is NaN (Not a Number).
Examples:
:echo sqrt(100)
10.0
:echo sqrt(-4.01)
nan
"nan" may be different, it depends on system libraries.
str2float( {expr}) *str2float()*

Convert String {expr} to a Float. This mostly works the same
as when using a floating point number in an expression, see
|floating-point-format|. But it's a bit more permissive.
E.g., "1e40" is accepted, while in an expression you need to
write "1.0e40".
Text after the number is silently ignored.
The decimal point is always '.', no matter what the locale is
set to. A comma ends the number: "12,345.67" is converted to
12.0. You can strip out thousands separators with
YXXYsubstitute()|:
let f = str2float(substitute(text, ',', '', 'g'))
str2nr( {expr} [, {base}]) *str2nr()*

Convert string {expr} to a number.
{base} is the conversion base, it can be 8, 10 or 16.
When {base} is omitted base 10 is used. This also means that
a leading zero doesn't cause octal conversion to be used, as
with the default String to Number conversion.
When {base} is 16 a leading "0x" or "0X" is ignored. With a
different base the result will be zero.
Text after the number is silently ignored.
strchars({expr}) *strchars()*
The result is a Number, which is the number of characters
String {expr} occupies. Composing characters are counted
separately.

Also see |strlen()|, |strdisplaywidth()| and |strwidth()|.
strdisplaywidth({expr}[, {col}]) *strdisplaywidth()*

The result is a Number, which is the number of display cells
String {expr} occupies on the screen.
When {col} is omitted zero is used. Otherwise it is the
screen column where to start. This matters for Tab
characters.
The option settings of the current window are used. This
matters for anything that's displayed differently, such as
'tabstop' and 'display'.
When {expr} contains characters with East Asian Width Class
Ambiguous, this function's return value depends on 'ambiwidth'.
Also see |strlen()|, |strwidth()| and |strchars()|.
strftime({format} [, {time}]) *strftime()*

The result is a String, which is a formatted date and time, as
specified by the {format} string. The given {time} is used,
or the current time if no time is given. The accepted
{format} depends on your system, thus this is not portable!
See the manual page of the C function strftime() for the
format. The maximum length of the result is 80 characters.
See also |localtime()| and |getftime()|.
The language can be changed with the |:language| command.
Examples:
:echo strftime("%c") Sun Apr 27 11:49:23 1997
:echo strftime("%Y %b %d %X") 1997 Apr 27 11:53:25
:echo strftime("%y%m%d %T") 970427 11:53:55
:echo strftime("%H:%M") 11:55
:echo strftime("%c", getftime("file.c"))
Show mod time of file.c.
Not available on all systems. To check use:
:if exists("*strftime")
stridx({haystack}, {needle} [, {start}]) *stridx()*

The result is a Number, which gives the byte index in
{haystack} of the first occurrence of the String {needle}.
If {start} is specified, the search starts at index {start}.
This can be used to find a second match:
:let colon1 = stridx(line, ":")
:let colon2 = stridx(line, ":", colon1 + 1)
The search is done case-sensitive.
For pattern searches use |match()|.
-1 is returned if the {needle} does not occur in {haystack}.
See also |strridx()|.
Examples:
:echo stridx("An Example", "Example") 3
:echo stridx("Starting point", "Start") 0
:echo stridx("Starting point", "start") -1
*strstr()* *strchr()*
stridx() works similar to the C function strstr(). When used
with a single character it works similar to strchr().
*string()*
string({expr}) Return {expr} converted to a String. If {expr} is a Number,
Float, String or a composition of them, then the result can be
parsed back with |eval()|.
{expr} type result
String 'string'
Number 123
Float 123.123456 or 1.123456e8
Funcref function('name')
List [item, item]
Dictionary {key: value, key: value}
Note that in String values the '' character is doubled.
Also see |strtrans()|.
*strlen()*
strlen({expr}) The result is a Number, which is the length of the String
{expr} in bytes.
If you want to count the number of multi-byte characters (not
counting composing characters) use something like this:

:let len = strlen(substitute(str, ".", "x", "g"))

If the argument is a Number it is first converted to a String.
For other types an error is given.
Also see |len()|, |strchars()|, |strdisplaywidth()| and
|strwidth()|.
strpart({src}, {start}[, {len}]) *strpart()*

The result is a String, which is part of {src}, starting from
byte {start}, with the byte length {len}.
When non-existing bytes are included, this doesn't result in
an error, the bytes are simply omitted.
If {len} is missing, the copy continues from {start} till the
end of the {src}.
strpart("abcdefg", 3, 2) == "de"
strpart("abcdefg", -2, 4) == "ab"
strpart("abcdefg", 5, 4) == "fg"
strpart("abcdefg", 3) == "defg"
Note: To get the first character, {start} must be 0. For
example, to get three bytes under and after the cursor:
strpart(getline("."), col(".") - 1, 3)
strridx({haystack}, {needle} [, {start}]) *strridx()*

The result is a Number, which gives the byte index in
{haystack} of the last occurrence of the String {needle}.
When {start} is specified, matches beyond this index are
ignored. This can be used to find a match before a previous
match:
:let lastcomma = strridx(line, ",")
:let comma2 = strridx(line, ",", lastcomma - 1)
The search is done case-sensitive.
For pattern searches use |match()|.
-1 is returned if the {needle} does not occur in {haystack}.
If the {needle} is empty the length of {haystack} is returned.
See also |stridx()|. Examples:
:echo strridx("an angry armadillo", "an") 3
*strrchr()*
When used with a single character it works similar to the C
function strrchr().
strtrans({expr}) *strtrans()*
The result is a String, which is {expr} with all unprintable
characters translated into printable characters |'isprint'|.
Like they are shown in a window. Example:
echo strtrans(@a)
This displays a newline in register a as "^@" instead of
starting a new line.
strwidth({expr}) *strwidth()*
The result is a Number, which is the number of display cells
String {expr} occupies. A Tab character is counted as one
cell, alternatively use |strdisplaywidth()|.
When {expr} contains characters with East Asian Width Class
Ambiguous, this function's return value depends on 'ambiwidth'.
Also see |strlen()|, |strdisplaywidth()| and |strchars()|.
submatch({nr}) *submatch()*
Only for an expression in a |:substitute| command. Returns
the {nr}'th submatch of the matched text. When {nr} is 0
the whole matched text is returned.
Example:
:s/\d\+/\=submatch(0) + 1/
This finds the first number in the line and adds one to it.
A line break is included as a newline character.
substitute({expr}, {pat}, {sub}, {flags}) *substitute()*

The result is a String, which is a copy of {expr}, in which
the first match of {pat} is replaced with {sub}. This works
like the ":substitute" command (without any flags). But the
matching with {pat} is always done like the 'magic' option is
set and 'cpoptions' is empty (to make scripts portable).
'ignorecase' is still relevant. 'smartcase' is not used.

See |string-match| for how {pat} is used.

And a "~" in {sub} is not replaced with the previous {sub}.
Note that some codes in {sub} have a special meaning
|sub-replace-special|. For example, to replace something with
"\n" (two characters), use "\\\\n" or '\\n'.
When {pat} does not match in {expr}, {expr} is returned
unmodified.
When {flags} is "g", all matches of {pat} in {expr} are
replaced. Otherwise {flags} should be "".
Example:
:let &path = substitute(&path, ",\\=[^,]*$", "", "")
This removes the last component of the 'path' option.
:echo substitute("testing", ".*", "\\U\\0", "")
results in "TESTING".
synID({lnum}, {col}, {trans}) *synID()*

The result is a Number, which is the syntax ID at the position
{lnum} and {col} in the current window.
The syntax ID can be used with |synIDattr()| and
|synIDtrans()| to obtain syntax information about text.
{col} is 1 for the leftmost column, {lnum} is 1 for the first
line. 'synmaxcol' applies, in a longer line zero is returned.
When {trans} is non-zero, transparent items are reduced to the
item that they reveal. This is useful when wanting to know
the effective color. When {trans} is zero, the transparent
item is returned. This is useful when wanting to know which
syntax item is effective (e.g. inside parens).
Warning: This function can be very slow. Best speed is
obtained by going through the file in forward direction.
Example (echoes the name of the syntax item under the cursor):
:echo synIDattr(synID(line("."), col("."), 1), "name")
synIDattr({synID}, {what} [, {mode}]) *synIDattr()*

The result is a String, which is the {what} attribute of
syntax ID {synID}. This can be used to obtain information
about a syntax item.
{mode} can be "gui", "cterm" or "term", to get the attributes
for that mode. When {mode} is omitted, or an invalid value is
used, the attributes for the currently active highlighting are
used (GUI, cterm or term).
Use synIDtrans() to follow linked highlight groups.
{what} result
"name" the name of the syntax item
"fg" foreground color (GUI: color name used to set
the color, cterm: color number as a string,
term: empty string)
"bg" background color (as with "fg")
"font" font name (only available in the GUI)
|highlight-font|
"sp" special color (as with "fg") |highlight-guisp|
"fg#" like "fg", but for the GUI and the GUI is
running the name in "#RRGGBB" form
"bg#" like "fg#" for "bg"
"sp#" like "fg#" for "sp"
"bold" "1" if bold
"italic" "1" if italic
"reverse" "1" if reverse
"inverse" "1" if inverse (= reverse)
"standout" "1" if standout
"underline" "1" if underlined
"undercurl" "1" if undercurled
Example (echoes the color of the syntax item under the
cursor):
:echo synIDattr(synIDtrans(synID(line("."), col("."), 1)), "fg")
synIDtrans({synID}) *synIDtrans()*
The result is a Number, which is the translated syntax ID of
{synID}. This is the syntax group ID of what is being used to
highlight the character. Highlight links given with
":highlight link" are followed.

synconcealed({lnum}, {col}) *synconcealed()*

The result is a List. The first item in the list is 0 if the
character at the position {lnum} and {col} is not part of a
concealable region, 1 if it is. The second item in the list is
a string. If the first item is 1, the second item contains the
text which will be displayed in place of the concealed text,
depending on the current setting of 'conceallevel'. The third
and final item in the list is a unique number representing the
specific syntax region matched. This allows detection of the
beginning of a new concealable region if there are two
consecutive regions with the same replacement character.
For an example use see $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/2html.vim .
synstack({lnum}, {col}) *synstack()*

Return a |List|, which is the stack of syntax items at the
position {lnum} and {col} in the current window. Each item in
the List is an ID like what |synID()| returns.
The first item in the List is the outer region, following are
items contained in that one. The last one is what |synID()|
returns, unless not the whole item is highlighted or it is a
transparent item.
This function is useful for debugging a syntax file.
Example that shows the syntax stack under the cursor:
for id in synstack(line("."), col("."))
echo synIDattr(id, "name")
endfor
When the position specified with {lnum} and {col} is invalid
nothing is returned. The position just after the last
character in a line and the first column in an empty line are
valid positions.
system({expr} [, {input}]) *system()* *E677*

Get the output of the shell command {expr}.
When {input} is given, this string is written to a file and
passed as stdin to the command. The string is written as-is,
you need to take care of using the correct line separators
yourself. Pipes are not used.
Note: Use |shellescape()| to escape special characters in a
command argument. Newlines in {expr} may cause the command to
fail. The characters in 'shellquote' and 'shellxquote' may
also cause trouble.
This is not to be used for interactive commands.
The result is a String. Example:
:let files = system("ls " . shellescape(expand('%:h')))
To make the result more system-independent, the shell output
is filtered to replace <CR> with <NL> for Macintosh, and
<CR><NL> with <NL> for DOS-like systems.
The command executed is constructed using several options:
'shell' 'shellcmdflag' 'shellxquote' {expr} 'shellredir' {tmp} 'shellxquote'
({tmp} is an automatically generated file name).
For Unix and OS/2 braces are put around {expr} to allow for
concatenated commands.
The command will be executed in "cooked" mode, so that a
CTRL-C will interrupt the command (on Unix at least).
The resulting error code can be found in |v:shell_error|.
This function will fail in |restricted-mode|.
Note that any wrong value in the options mentioned above may
make the function fail. It has also been reported to fail
when using a security agent application.
Unlike ":!cmd" there is no automatic check for changed files.
Use |:checktime| to force a check.
tabpagebuflist([{arg}]) *tabpagebuflist()*
The result is a |List|, where each item is the number of the
buffer associated with each window in the current tab page.
{arg} specifies the number of tab page to be used. When
omitted the current tab page is used.
When {arg} is invalid the number zero is returned.
To get a list of all buffers in all tabs use this:
tablist = []

for i in range(tabpagenr('$'))
call extend(tablist, tabpagebuflist(i + 1))
endfor
Note that a buffer may appear in more than one window.
tabpagenr([{arg}]) *tabpagenr()*
The result is a Number, which is the number of the current
tab page. The first tab page has number 1.
When the optional argument is "$", the number of the last tab
page is returned (the tab page count).
The number can be used with the |:tab| command.
tabpagewinnr({tabarg}, [{arg}]) *tabpagewinnr()*

Like |winnr()| but for tab page {tabarg}.
{tabarg} specifies the number of tab page to be used.
{arg} is used like with YXXYwinnr()|:
- When omitted the current window number is returned. This is
the window which will be used when going to this tab page.
- When "$" the number of windows is returned.
- When "#" the previous window nr is returned.
Useful examples:
tabpagewinnr(1) " current window of tab page 1
tabpagewinnr(4, '$') " number of windows in tab page 4
When {tabarg} is invalid zero is returned.
*tagfiles()*
tagfiles() Returns a |List| with the file names used to search for tags
for the current buffer. This is the 'tags' option expanded.
taglist({expr}) *taglist()*
Returns a list of tags matching the regular expression {expr}.
Each list item is a dictionary with at least the following
entries:
name Name of the tag.
filename Name of the file where the tag is
defined. It is either relative to the
current directory or a full path.
cmd Ex command used to locate the tag in
the file.
kind Type of the tag. The value for this
entry depends on the language specific
kind values. Only available when
using a tags file generated by
Exuberant ctags or hdrtag.
static A file specific tag. Refer to
|static-tag| for more information.
More entries may be present, depending on the content of the
tags file: access, implementation, inherits and signature.
Refer to the ctags documentation for information about these
fields. For C code the fields "struct", "class" and "enum"
may appear, they give the name of the entity the tag is
contained in.
The ex-command 'cmd' can be either an ex search pattern, a
line number or a line number followed by a byte number.
If there are no matching tags, then an empty list is returned.
To get an exact tag match, the anchors '^' and '$' should be
used in {expr}. Refer to |tag-regexp| for more information
about the tag search regular expression pattern.
Refer to |'tags'| for information about how the tags file is
located by Vim. Refer to |tags-file-format| for the format of
the tags file generated by the different ctags tools.
tempname() *tempname()* *temp-file-name*

The result is a String, which is the name of a file that
doesn't exist. It can be used for a temporary file. The name
is different for at least 26 consecutive calls. Example:
:let tmpfile = tempname()
:exe "redir > " . tmpfile

For Unix, the file will be in a private directory |tempfile|.

For MS-Windows forward slashes are used when the 'shellslash'
option is set or when 'shellcmdflag' starts with '-'.
tan({expr}) *tan()*
Return the tangent of {expr}, measured in radians, as a |Float|
in the range [-inf, inf].
Examples:
:echo tan(10)
0.648361
:echo tan(-4.01)
-1.181502
tanh({expr}) *tanh()*
Return the hyperbolic tangent of {expr} as a |Float| in the
range [-1, 1].
Examples:
:echo tanh(0.5)
0.462117
:echo tanh(-1)
-0.761594
tolower({expr}) *tolower()*
The result is a copy of the String given, with all uppercase
characters turned into lowercase (just like applying |gu| to
the string).
toupper({expr}) *toupper()*
The result is a copy of the String given, with all lowercase
characters turned into uppercase (just like applying |gU| to
the string).
tr({src}, {fromstr}, {tostr}) *tr()*

The result is a copy of the {src} string with all characters
which appear in {fromstr} replaced by the character in that
position in the {tostr} string. Thus the first character in
{fromstr} is translated into the first character in {tostr}
and so on. Exactly like the unix "tr" command.
This code also deals with multibyte characters properly.
Examples:
echo tr("hello there", "ht", "HT")
returns "Hello THere"
echo tr("<blob>", "<>", "{}")
returns "{blob}"
trunc({expr}) *trunc()*
Return the largest integral value with magnitude less than or
equal to {expr} as a |Float| (truncate towards zero).
Examples:
echo trunc(1.456)
1.0
echo trunc(-5.456)
-5.0
echo trunc(4.0)
4.0
*type()*
type({expr}) The result is a Number, depending on the type of {expr}:
Number: 0
String: 1
Funcref: 2
List: 3

Dictionary: 4
Float: 5
To avoid the magic numbers it should be used this way:
:if type(myvar) == type(0)
:if type(myvar) == type("")
:if type(myvar) == type(function("tr"))
:if type(myvar) == type([])
:if type(myvar) == type({})
:if type(myvar) == type(0.0)
undofile({name}) *undofile()*
Return the name of the undo file that would be used for a file
with name {name} when writing. This uses the 'undodir'
option, finding directories that exist. It does not check if
the undo file exists.
{name} is always expanded to the full path, since that is what
is used internally.
Useful in combination with |:wundo| and |:rundo|.
When compiled without the +persistent_undo option this always
returns an empty string.
undotree() *undotree()*
Return the current state of the undo tree in a dictionary with
the following items:
"seq_last" The highest undo sequence number used.
"seq_cur" The sequence number of the current position in
the undo tree. This differs from "seq_last"
when some changes were undone.
"time_cur" Time last used for |:earlier| and related
commands. Use |strftime()| to convert to
something readable.
"save_last" Number of the last file write. Zero when no
write yet.
"save_cur" Number of the current position in the undo
tree.
"synced" Non-zero when the last undo block was synced.
This happens when waiting from input from the
user. See |undo-blocks|.
"entries" A list of dictionaries with information about
undo blocks.
The first item in the "entries" list is the oldest undo item.
Each List item is a Dictionary with these items:
"seq" Undo sequence number. Same as what appears in
|:undolist|.
"time" Timestamp when the change happened. Use
|strftime()| to convert to something readable.
"newhead" Only appears in the item that is the last one
that was added. This marks the last change
and where further changes will be added.
"curhead" Only appears in the item that is the last one
that was undone. This marks the current
position in the undo tree, the block that will
be used by a redo command. When nothing was
undone after the last change this item will
not appear anywhere.
"save" Only appears on the last block before a file
write. The number is the write count. The
first write has number 1, the last one the
"save_last" mentioned above.
"alt" Alternate entry. This is again a List of undo
blocks. Each item may again have an "alt"
item.
values({dict}) *values()*
Return a |List| with all the values of {dict}. The |List| is
in arbitrary order.
virtcol({expr}) *virtcol()*
The result is a Number, which is the screen column of the file
position given with {expr}. That is, the last screen position
occupied by the character at that position, when the screen
would be of unlimited width. When there is a <Tab> at the
position, the returned Number will be the column at the end of
the <Tab>. For example, for a <Tab> in column 1, with 'ts'

set to 8, it returns 8.
For the byte position use |col()|.
For the use of {expr} see |col()|.
When 'virtualedit' is used {expr} can be [lnum, col, off], where
"off" is the offset in screen columns from the start of the
character.
When Virtual editing is active in the current mode, a position
beyond the end of the line can be returned. |'virtualedit'|
The accepted positions are:
$ the end of the cursor line (the result is the
number of displayed characters in the cursor line
plus one)
returned)
Note that only marks in the current file can be used.
Examples:
virtcol(".") with text "foo^Lbar", with cursor on the "^L", returns 5
virtcol("$") with text "foo^Lbar", returns 9
virtcol("'t") with text " there", with 't at 'h', returns 6
The first column is 1. 0 is returned for an error.
A more advanced example that echoes the maximum length of
all lines:
echo max(map(range(1, line('$')), "virtcol([v:val, '$'])"))
visualmode([expr]) *visualmode()*
The result is a String, which describes the last Visual mode
used in the current buffer. Initially it returns an empty
string, but once Visual mode has been used, it returns "v",
"V", or "<CTRL-V>" (a single CTRL-V character) for
character-wise, line-wise, or block-wise Visual mode
respectively.
Example:
:exe "normal " . visualmode()
This enters the same Visual mode as before. It is also useful
in scripts if you wish to act differently depending on the
Visual mode that was used.
If Visual mode is active, use |mode()| to get the Visual mode
(e.g., in a |:vmap|).
*non-zero-arg*
If [expr] is supplied and it evaluates to a non-zero Number or
a non-empty String, then the Visual mode will be cleared and
the old value is returned. Note that " " and "0" are also
non-empty strings, thus cause the mode to be cleared. A List,
Dictionary or Float is not a Number or String, thus does not
cause the mode to be cleared.
*winbufnr()*
winbufnr({nr}) The result is a Number, which is the number of the buffer
associated with window {nr}. When {nr} is zero, the number of
the buffer in the current window is returned. When window
{nr} doesn't exist, -1 is returned.
Example:
:echo "The file in the current window is " . bufname(winbufnr(0))
*wincol()*
wincol() The result is a Number, which is the virtual column of the
cursor in the window. This is counting screen cells from the
left side of the window. The leftmost column is one.
winheight({nr}) *winheight()*
The result is a Number, which is the height of window {nr}.
When {nr} is zero, the height of the current window is
returned. When window {nr} doesn't exist, -1 is returned.
An existing window always has a height of zero or more.
Examples:
:echo "The current window has " . winheight(0) . " lines."
*winline()*
winline() The result is a Number, which is the screen line of the cursor
in the window. This is counting screen lines from the top of

the window. The first line is one.

If the cursor was moved the view on the file will be updated
first, this may cause a scroll.
*winnr()*
winnr([{arg}]) The result is a Number, which is the number of the current
window. The top window has number 1.
When the optional argument is "$", the number of the
last window is returned (the window count).
When the optional argument is "#", the number of the last
accessed window is returned (where |CTRL-W_p| goes to).
If there is no previous window or it is in another tab page 0
is returned.
The number can be used with |CTRL-W_w| and ":wincmd w"
|:wincmd|.
Also see |tabpagewinnr()|.
*winrestcmd()*
winrestcmd() Returns a sequence of |:resize| commands that should restore
the current window sizes. Only works properly when no windows
are opened or closed and the current window and tab page is
unchanged.
Example:
:let cmd = winrestcmd()
:call MessWithWindowSizes()
:exe cmd
*winrestview()*
winrestview({dict})
Uses the |Dictionary| returned by |winsaveview()| to restore
the view of the current window.
If you have changed the values the result is unpredictable.
If the window size changed the result won't be the same.
*winsaveview()*
winsaveview() Returns a |Dictionary| that contains information to restore
the view of the current window. Use |winrestview()| to
restore the view.
This is useful if you have a mapping that jumps around in the
buffer and you want to go back to the original view.
This does not save fold information. Use the 'foldenable'
option to temporarily switch off folding, so that folds are
not opened when moving around.
The return value includes:
lnum cursor line number
col cursor column
coladd cursor column offset for 'virtualedit'
curswant column for vertical movement
topline first line in the window
topfill filler lines, only in diff mode
leftcol first column displayed
skipcol columns skipped
Note that no option values are saved.
winwidth({nr}) *winwidth()*
The result is a Number, which is the width of window {nr}.
When {nr} is zero, the width of the current window is
returned. When window {nr} doesn't exist, -1 is returned.
An existing window always has a width of zero or more.
Examples:
:echo "The current window has " . winwidth(0) . " columns."
:if winwidth(0) <= 50
: exe "normal 50\<C-W>|"
:endif
*writefile()*
writefile({list}, {fname} [, {binary}])
Write |List| {list} to file {fname}. Each list item is
separated with a NL. Each list item must be a String or
Number.
When {binary} is equal to "b" binary mode is used: There will
not be a NL after the last list item. An empty item at the

end does cause the last line in the file to end in a NL.
All NL characters are replaced with a NUL character.
Inserting CR characters needs to be done before passing {list}
to writefile().
An existing file is overwritten, if possible.
When the write fails -1 is returned, otherwise 0. There is an
error message if the file can't be created or when writing
fails.
Also see |readfile()|.
To copy a file byte for byte:
:let fl = readfile("foo", "b")
:call writefile(fl, "foocopy", "b")
*feature-list*
There are three types of features:
1. Features that are only supported when they have been enabled when Vim
was compiled |+feature-list|. Example:
:if has("cindent")
2. Features that are only supported when certain conditions have been met.
Example:
:if has("gui_running")
*has-patch*
3. Included patches. First check |v:version| for the version of Vim.
Then the "patch123" feature means that patch 123 has been included for
this version. Example (checking version 6.2.148 or later):
:if v:version > 602 || v:version == 602 && has("patch148")
Note that it's possible for patch 147 to be omitted even though 148 is
included.
all_builtin_terms Compiled with all builtin terminals enabled.
amiga Amiga version of Vim.
arabic Compiled with Arabic support |Arabic|.
arp Compiled with ARP support (Amiga).
autocmd Compiled with autocommand support. |autocommand|
balloon_eval Compiled with |balloon-eval| support.
balloon_multiline GUI supports multiline balloons.
beos BeOS version of Vim.
browse Compiled with |:browse| support, and browse() will
work.
builtin_terms Compiled with some builtin terminals.
byte_offset Compiled with support for 'o' in 'statusline'
cindent Compiled with 'cindent' support.
clientserver Compiled with remote invocation support |clientserver|.
clipboard Compiled with 'clipboard' support.
cmdline_compl Compiled with |cmdline-completion| support.
cmdline_hist Compiled with |cmdline-history| support.
cmdline_info Compiled with 'showcmd' and 'ruler' support.
comments Compiled with |'comments'| support.
compatible Compiled to be very Vi compatible.
cryptv Compiled with encryption support |encryption|.
cscope Compiled with |cscope| support.
debug Compiled with "DEBUG" defined.
dialog_con Compiled with console dialog support.
dialog_gui Compiled with GUI dialog support.
diff Compiled with |vimdiff| and 'diff' support.
digraphs Compiled with support for digraphs.
dnd Compiled with support for the "~ register |quote_~|.
dos16 16 bits DOS version of Vim.
dos32 32 bits DOS (DJGPP) version of Vim.
ebcdic Compiled on a machine with ebcdic character set.
emacs_tags Compiled with support for Emacs tags.
eval Compiled with expression evaluation support. Always
true, of course!
ex_extra Compiled with extra Ex commands |+ex_extra|.
extra_search Compiled with support for |'incsearch'| and
|'hlsearch'|
farsi Compiled with Farsi support |farsi|.
file_in_path Compiled with support for |gf| and |<cfile>|
filterpipe When 'shelltemp' is off pipes are used for shell
read/write/filter commands
find_in_path Compiled with support for include file searches
|+find_in_path|.
float Compiled with support for |Float|.
fname_case Case in file names matters (for Amiga, MS-DOS, and
Windows this is not present).
folding Compiled with |folding| support.
footer Compiled with GUI footer support. |gui-footer|

fork Compiled to use fork()/exec() instead of system().

gettext Compiled with message translation |multi-lang|
gui Compiled with GUI enabled.
gui_athena Compiled with Athena GUI.
gui_gnome Compiled with Gnome support (gui_gtk is also defined).
gui_gtk Compiled with GTK+ GUI (any version).
gui_gtk2 Compiled with GTK+ 2 GUI (gui_gtk is also defined).
gui_mac Compiled with Macintosh GUI.
gui_motif Compiled with Motif GUI.
gui_photon Compiled with Photon GUI.
gui_running Vim is running in the GUI, or it will start soon.
gui_win32 Compiled with MS Windows Win32 GUI.
gui_win32s idem, and Win32s system being used (Windows 3.1)
hangul_input Compiled with Hangul input support. |hangul|
iconv Can use iconv() for conversion.
insert_expand Compiled with support for CTRL-X expansion commands in
Insert mode.
jumplist Compiled with |jumplist| support.
keymap Compiled with 'keymap' support.
langmap Compiled with 'langmap' support.
libcall Compiled with |libcall()| support.
linebreak Compiled with 'linebreak', 'breakat' and 'showbreak'
support.
lispindent Compiled with support for lisp indenting.
listcmds Compiled with commands for the buffer list |:files|
and the argument list |arglist|.
localmap Compiled with local mappings and abbr. |:map-local|
lua Compiled with Lua interface |Lua|.
mac Macintosh version of Vim.
macunix Macintosh version of Vim, using Unix files (OS-X).
menu Compiled with support for |:menu|.
mksession Compiled with support for |:mksession|.
modify_fname Compiled with file name modifiers. |filename-modifiers|
mouse Compiled with support mouse.
mouse_dec Compiled with support for Dec terminal mouse.
mouse_gpm Compiled with support for gpm (Linux console mouse)
mouse_netterm Compiled with support for netterm mouse.
mouse_pterm Compiled with support for qnx pterm mouse.
mouse_sysmouse Compiled with support for sysmouse (*BSD console mouse)
mouse_xterm Compiled with support for xterm mouse.
mouseshape Compiled with support for 'mouseshape'.
multi_byte Compiled with support for 'encoding'
multi_byte_encoding 'encoding' is set to a multi-byte encoding.
multi_byte_ime Compiled with support for IME input method.
multi_lang Compiled with support for multiple languages.
mzscheme Compiled with MzScheme interface |mzscheme|.
netbeans_enabled Compiled with support for |netbeans| and connected.
netbeans_intg Compiled with support for |netbeans|.
ole Compiled with OLE automation support for Win32.
os2 OS/2 version of Vim.
osfiletype Compiled with support for osfiletypes |+osfiletype|
path_extra Compiled with up/downwards search in 'path' and 'tags'
perl Compiled with Perl interface.
persistent_undo Compiled with support for persistent undo history.
postscript Compiled with PostScript file printing.
printer Compiled with |:hardcopy| support.
profile Compiled with |:profile| support.
python Compiled with Python interface.
qnx QNX version of Vim.
quickfix Compiled with |quickfix| support.
reltime Compiled with |reltime()| support.
rightleft Compiled with 'rightleft' support.
ruby Compiled with Ruby interface |ruby|.
scrollbind Compiled with 'scrollbind' support.
showcmd Compiled with 'showcmd' support.
signs Compiled with |:sign| support.
smartindent Compiled with 'smartindent' support.
sniff Compiled with SNiFF interface support.
spell Compiled with spell checking support |spell|.
startuptime Compiled with |--startuptime| support.
statusline Compiled with support for 'statusline', 'rulerformat'
and special formats of 'titlestring' and 'iconstring'.
sun_workshop Compiled with support for Sun |workshop|.
syntax Compiled with syntax highlighting support |syntax|.
syntax_items There are active syntax highlighting items for the
current buffer.
system Compiled to use system() instead of fork()/exec().
tag_binary Compiled with binary searching in tags files
|tag-binary-search|.
tag_old_static Compiled with support for old static tags
|tag-old-static|.

tag_any_white Compiled with support for any white characters in tags

files |tag-any-white|.
tcl Compiled with Tcl interface.
terminfo Compiled with terminfo instead of termcap.
termresponse Compiled with support for |t_RV| and |v:termresponse|.
textobjects Compiled with support for |text-objects|.
tgetent Compiled with tgetent support, able to use a termcap
or terminfo file.
title Compiled with window title support |'title'|.
toolbar Compiled with support for |gui-toolbar|.
unix Unix version of Vim.
user_commands User-defined commands.
vertsplit Compiled with vertically split windows |:vsplit|.
vim_starting True while initial source'ing takes place. |startup|
viminfo Compiled with viminfo support.
virtualedit Compiled with 'virtualedit' option.
visual Compiled with Visual mode.
visualextra Compiled with extra Visual mode commands.
|blockwise-operators|.
vms VMS version of Vim.
vreplace Compiled with |gR| and |gr| commands.
wildignore Compiled with 'wildignore' option.
wildmenu Compiled with 'wildmenu' option.
win16 Win16 version of Vim (MS-Windows 3.1).
win32 Win32 version of Vim (MS-Windows 95 and later, 32 or
64 bits)
win32unix Win32 version of Vim, using Unix files (Cygwin)
win64 Win64 version of Vim (MS-Windows 64 bit).
win95 Win32 version for MS-Windows 95/98/ME.
winaltkeys Compiled with 'winaltkeys' option.
windows Compiled with support for more than one window.
writebackup Compiled with 'writebackup' default on.
xfontset Compiled with X fontset support |xfontset|.
xim Compiled with X input method support |xim|.
xsmp Compiled with X session management support.
xsmp_interact Compiled with interactive X session management support.
xterm_clipboard Compiled with support for xterm clipboard.
xterm_save Compiled with support for saving and restoring the
xterm screen.
x11 Compiled with X11 support.
*string-match*
Matching a pattern in a String
A regexp pattern as explained at |pattern| is normally used to find a match in
the buffer lines. When a pattern is used to find a match in a String, almost
everything works in the same way. The difference is that a String is handled
like it is one line. When it contains a "\n" character, this is not seen as a
line break for the pattern. It can be matched with a "\n" in the pattern, or
with ".". Example:
:let a = "aaaa\nxxxx"
:echo matchstr(a, "..\n..")
aa
xx
:echo matchstr(a, "a.x")
a
x
Don't forget that "^" will only match at the first character of the String and
"$" at the last character of the string. They don't match after or before a
"\n".
==============================================================================
5. Defining functions *user-functions*
New functions can be defined. These can be called just like builtin
functions. The function executes a sequence of Ex commands. Normal mode
commands can be executed with the |:normal| command.
The function name must start with an uppercase letter, to avoid confusion with
builtin functions. To prevent from using the same name in different scripts
avoid obvious, short names. A good habit is to start the function name with
the name of the script, e.g., "HTMLcolor()".
It's also possible to use curly braces, see |curly-braces-names|. And the
|autoload| facility is useful to define a function only when it's called.

*local-function*
A function local to a script must start with "s:". A local script function
can only be called from within the script and from functions, user commands
and autocommands defined in the script. It is also possible to call the
function from a mapping defined in the script, but then |<SID>| must be used
instead of "s:" when the mapping is expanded outside of the script.
*:fu* *:function* *E128* *E129* *E123*

:fu[nction] List all functions and their arguments.
:fu[nction] {name} List function {name}.
{name} can also be a |Dictionary| entry that is a
YXXYFuncref|:
:function dict.init
:fu[nction] /{pattern} List functions with a name matching {pattern}.
Example that lists all functions ending with "File":
:function /File$
*:function-verbose*
When 'verbose' is non-zero, listing a function will also display where it was
last defined. Example:
:verbose function SetFileTypeSH
function SetFileTypeSH(name)
Last set from /usr/share/vim/vim-7.0/filetype.vim
See |:verbose-cmd| for more information.
*E124* *E125*
:fu[nction][!] {name}([arguments]) [range] [abort] [dict]
Define a new function by the name {name}. The name
must be made of alphanumeric characters and '_', and
must start with a capital or "s:" (see above).
YXXYFuncref|:
:function dict.init(arg)
"dict" must be an existing dictionary. The entry
"init" is added if it didn't exist yet. Otherwise [!]
is required to overwrite an existing function. The
result is a |Funcref| to a numbered function. The
function can only be used with a |Funcref| and will be
deleted if there are no more references to it.
*E127* *E122*
When a function by this name already exists and [!] is
not used an error message is given. When [!] is used,
an existing function is silently replaced. Unless it
is currently being executed, that is an error.
For the {arguments} see |function-argument|.
*a:firstline* *a:lastline*
When the [range] argument is added, the function is
expected to take care of a range itself. The range is
passed as "a:firstline" and "a:lastline". If [range]
is excluded, ":{range}call" will call the function for
each line in the range, with the cursor on the start
of each line. See |function-range-example|.
When the [abort] argument is added, the function will
abort as soon as an error is detected.
When the [dict] argument is added, the function must
be invoked through an entry in a |Dictionary|. The
local variable "self" will then be set to the
dictionary. See |Dictionary-function|.
*function-search-undo*
The last used search pattern and the redo command "."
will not be changed by the function. This also
implies that the effect of |:nohlsearch| is undone
when the function returns.

*:endf* *:endfunction* *E126* *E193*

:endf[unction] The end of a function definition. Must be on a line
by its own, without other commands.
*:delf* *:delfunction* *E130* *E131*

:delf[unction] {name} Delete function {name}.
YXXYFuncref|:
:delfunc dict.init
This will remove the "init" entry from "dict". The
function is deleted if there are no more references to
it.
*:retu* *:return* *E133*
:retu[rn] [expr] Return from a function. When "[expr]" is given, it is
evaluated and returned as the result of the function.
If "[expr]" is not given, the number 0 is returned.
When a function ends without an explicit ":return",
the number 0 is returned.
Note that there is no check for unreachable lines,
thus there is no warning if commands follow ":return".
If the ":return" is used after a |:try| but before the
matching |:finally| (if present), the commands
following the ":finally" up to the matching |:endtry|
are executed first. This process applies to all
nested ":try"s inside the function. The function
returns at the outermost ":endtry".
*function-argument* *a:var*
An argument can be defined by giving its name. In the function this can then
be used as "a:name" ("a:" for argument).
*a:0* *a:1* *a:000* *E740* *...*
Up to 20 arguments can be given, separated by commas. After the named
arguments an argument "..." can be specified, which means that more arguments
may optionally be following. In the function the extra arguments can be used
as "a:1", "a:2", etc. "a:0" is set to the number of extra arguments (which
can be 0). "a:000" is set to a |List| that contains these arguments. Note
that "a:1" is the same as "a:000[0]".
*E742*
The a: scope and the variables in it cannot be changed, they are fixed.
However, if a |List| or |Dictionary| is used, you can change their contents.
Thus you can pass a |List| to a function and have the function add an item to
it. If you want to make sure the function cannot change a |List| or
|Dictionary| use |:lockvar|.
When not using "...", the number of arguments in a function call must be equal
to the number of named arguments. When using "...", the number of arguments
may be larger.
It is also possible to define a function without any arguments. You must
still supply the () then. The body of the function follows in the next lines,
until the matching |:endfunction|. It is allowed to define another function
inside a function body.
*local-variables*
Inside a function variables can be used. These are local variables, which
will disappear when the function returns. Global variables need to be
accessed with "g:".
Example:
:function Table(title, ...)
: echohl Title
: echo a:title
: echohl None
: echo a:0 . " items:"
: for s in a:000
: echon ' ' . s
: endfor
:endfunction
This function can then be called with:

call Table("Table", "line1", "line2")

call Table("Empty Table")
To return more than one value, return a YXXYList|:
:function Compute(n1, n2)
: if a:n2 == 0
: return ["fail", 0]
: endif
: return ["ok", a:n1 / a:n2]
:endfunction
This function can then be called with:
:let [success, div] = Compute(102, 6)
:if success == "ok"
: echo div
:endif
*:cal* *:call* *E107* *E117*

:[range]cal[l] {name}([arguments])
Call a function. The name of the function and its arguments
are as specified with |:function|. Up to 20 arguments can be
used. The returned value is discarded.
Without a range and for functions that accept a range, the
function is called once. When a range is given the cursor is
positioned at the start of the first line before executing the
function.
When a range is given and the function doesn't handle it
itself, the function is executed for each line in the range,
with the cursor in the first column of that line. The cursor
is left at the last line (possibly moved by the last function
call). The arguments are re-evaluated for each line. Thus
this works:
*function-range-example*
:function Mynumber(arg)
: echo line(".") . " " . a:arg
:endfunction
:1,5call Mynumber(getline("."))
The "a:firstline" and "a:lastline" are defined anyway, they
can be used to do something different at the start or end of
the range.
Example of a function that handles the range itself:
:function Cont() range
: execute (a:firstline + 1) . "," . a:lastline . 's/^/\t\\ '
:endfunction
:4,8call Cont()
This function inserts the continuation character "\" in front
of all the lines in the range, except the first one.
When the function returns a composite value it can be further
dereferenced, but the range will not be used then. Example:
:4,8call GetDict().method()
Here GetDict() gets the range but method() does not.
*E132*
The recursiveness of user functions is restricted with the |'maxfuncdepth'|
option.
AUTOMATICALLY LOADING FUNCTIONS

*autoload-functions*
When using many or large functions, it's possible to automatically define them
only when they are used. There are two methods: with an autocommand and with
the "autoload" directory in 'runtimepath'.
Using an autocommand
This is introduced in the user manual, section |41.14|.
The autocommand is useful if you have a plugin that is a long Vim script file.

You can define the autocommand and quickly quit the script with |:finish|.
That makes Vim startup faster. The autocommand should then load the same file
again, setting a variable to skip the |:finish| command.
Use the FuncUndefined autocommand event with a pattern that matches the
function(s) to be defined. Example:
:au FuncUndefined BufNet* source ~/vim/bufnetfuncs.vim
The file "~/vim/bufnetfuncs.vim" should then define functions that start with
"BufNet". Also see |FuncUndefined|.
Using an autoload script

*autoload* *E746*
This is introduced in the user manual, section |41.15|.
Using a script in the "autoload" directory is simpler, but requires using
exactly the right file name. A function that can be autoloaded has a name
like this:
:call filename#funcname()
When such a function is called, and it is not defined yet, Vim will search the
"autoload" directories in 'runtimepath' for a script file called
"filename.vim". For example "~/.vim/autoload/filename.vim". That file should
then define the function like this:
function filename#funcname()
echo "Done!"
endfunction
The file name and the name used before the # in the function must match
exactly, and the defined function must have the name exactly as it will be
called.
It is possible to use subdirectories. Every # in the function name works like
a path separator. Thus when calling a function:
:call foo#bar#func()
Vim will look for the file "autoload/foo/bar.vim" in 'runtimepath'.
This also works when reading a variable that has not been set yet:
:let l = foo#bar#lvar
However, when the autoload script was already loaded it won't be loaded again
for an unknown variable.
When assigning a value to such a variable nothing special happens. This can
be used to pass settings to the autoload script before it's loaded:
:let foo#bar#toggle = 1
:call foo#bar#func()
Note that when you make a mistake and call a function that is supposed to be
defined in an autoload script, but the script doesn't actually define the
function, the script will be sourced every time you try to call the function.
And you will get an error message every time.
Also note that if you have two script files, and one calls a function in the
other and vice versa, before the used function is defined, it won't work.
Avoid using the autoload functionality at the toplevel.
Hint: If you distribute a bunch of scripts you can pack them together with the
|vimball| utility. Also read the user manual |distribute-script|.
==============================================================================
6. Curly braces names *curly-braces-names*
Wherever you can use a variable, you can use a "curly braces name" variable.
This is a regular variable name with one or more expressions wrapped in braces
{} like this:
my_{adjective}_variable
When Vim encounters this, it evaluates the expression inside the braces, puts

that in place of the expression, and re-interprets the whole as a variable

name. So in the above example, if the variable "adjective" was set to
"noisy", then the reference would be to "my_noisy_variable", whereas if
"adjective" was set to "quiet", then it would be to "my_quiet_variable".
One application for this is to create a set of variables governed by an option
value. For example, the statement
echo my_{&background}_message
would output the contents of "my_dark_message" or "my_light_message" depending
on the current value of 'background'.
You can use multiple brace pairs:
echo my_{adverb}_{adjective}_message
..or even nest them:
echo my_{ad{end_of_word}}_message
where "end_of_word" is either "verb" or "jective".
However, the expression inside the braces must evaluate to a valid single
variable name, e.g. this is invalid:
:let foo='a + b'
:echo c{foo}d
.. since the result of expansion is "ca + bd", which is not a variable name.
*curly-braces-function-names*
You can call and define functions by an evaluated name in a similar way.
Example:
:let func_end='whizz'
:call my_func_{func_end}(parameter)
This would call the function "my_func_whizz(parameter)".
==============================================================================
7. Commands *expression-commands*
:let {var-name} = {expr1} *:let* *E18*

Set internal variable {var-name} to the result of the
expression {expr1}. The variable will get the type
from the {expr}. If {var-name} didn't exist yet, it
is created.
:let {var-name}[{idx}] = {expr1} *E689*

Set a list item to the result of the expression
{expr1}. {var-name} must refer to a list and {idx}
must be a valid index in that list. For nested list
the index can be repeated.
This cannot be used to add an item to a |List|.
This cannot be used to set a byte in a String. You
can do that like this:
:let var = var[0:2] . 'X' . var[4:]
*E711* *E719*
:let {var-name}[{idx1}:{idx2}] = {expr1} *E708* *E709* *E710*
Set a sequence of items in a |List| to the result of
the expression {expr1}, which must be a list with the
correct number of items.
{idx1} can be omitted, zero is used instead.
{idx2} can be omitted, meaning the end of the list.
When the selected range of items is partly past the
end of the list, items will be added.
*:let+=* *:let-=* *:let.=* *E734*

:let {var} += {expr1} Like ":let {var} = {var} + {expr1}".
:let {var} -= {expr1} Like ":let {var} = {var} - {expr1}".
:let {var} .= {expr1} Like ":let {var} = {var} . {expr1}".
These fail if {var} was not set yet and when the type
of {var} and {expr1} don't fit the operator.
:let ${env-name} = {expr1} *:let-environment* *:let-$*

Set environment variable {env-name} to the result of

the expression {expr1}. The type is always String.

:let ${env-name} .= {expr1}
Append {expr1} to the environment variable {env-name}.
If the environment variable didn't exist yet this
works like "=".
:let @{reg-name} = {expr1} *:let-register* *:let-@*

Write the result of the expression {expr1} in register
{reg-name}. {reg-name} must be a single letter, and
must be the name of a writable register (see
|registers|). "@@" can be used for the unnamed
register, "@/" for the search pattern.
If the result of {expr1} ends in a <CR> or <NL>, the
register will be linewise, otherwise it will be set to
characterwise.
This can be used to clear the last search pattern:
:let @/ = ""
This is different from searching for an empty string,
that would match everywhere.
:let @{reg-name} .= {expr1}
Append {expr1} to register {reg-name}. If the
register was empty it's like setting it to {expr1}.
:let &{option-name} = {expr1} *:let-option* *:let-&*

Set option {option-name} to the result of the
expression {expr1}. A String or Number value is
always converted to the type of the option.
For an option local to a window or buffer the effect
is just like using the |:set| command: both the local
value and the global value are changed.
Example:
:let &path = &path . ',/usr/local/include'
:let &{option-name} .= {expr1}
For a string option: Append {expr1} to the value.
Does not insert a comma like |:set+=|.
:let &{option-name} += {expr1}
:let &{option-name} -= {expr1}
For a number or boolean option: Add or subtract
{expr1}.
:let &l:{option-name} = {expr1}
:let &l:{option-name} .= {expr1}
:let &l:{option-name} += {expr1}
:let &l:{option-name} -= {expr1}
Like above, but only set the local value of an option
(if there is one). Works like |:setlocal|.
:let &g:{option-name} = {expr1}
:let &g:{option-name} .= {expr1}
:let &g:{option-name} += {expr1}
:let &g:{option-name} -= {expr1}
Like above, but only set the global value of an option
(if there is one). Works like |:setglobal|.
:let [{name1}, {name2}, ...] = {expr1} *:let-unpack* *E687* *E688*

{expr1} must evaluate to a |List|. The first item in
the list is assigned to {name1}, the second item to
{name2}, etc.
The number of names must match the number of items in
the |List|.
Each name can be one of the items of the ":let"
command as mentioned above.
Example:
:let [s, item] = GetItem(s)
Detail: {expr1} is evaluated first, then the
assignments are done in sequence. This matters if
{name2} depends on {name1}. Example:
:let x = [0, 1]
:let i = 0
:let [i, x[i]] = [1, 2]
:echo x
The result is [0, 2].
:let [{name1}, {name2}, ...] .= {expr1}

:let [{name1}, {name2}, ...] += {expr1}

:let [{name1}, {name2}, ...] -= {expr1}
Like above, but append/add/subtract the value for each
|List| item.
:let [{name}, ..., ; {lastname}] = {expr1}
Like |:let-unpack| above, but the |List| may have more
items than there are names. A list of the remaining
items is assigned to {lastname}. If there are no
remaining items {lastname} is set to an empty list.
Example:
:let [a, b; rest] = ["aval", "bval", 3, 4]
:let [{name}, ..., ; {lastname}] .= {expr1}
:let [{name}, ..., ; {lastname}] += {expr1}
:let [{name}, ..., ; {lastname}] -= {expr1}
Like above, but append/add/subtract the value for each
|List| item.
*E121*
:let {var-name} .. List the value of variable {var-name}. Multiple
variable names may be given. Special names recognized
here: *E738*
g: global variables
b: local buffer variables
w: local window variables
t: local tab page variables
s: script-local variables
l: local function variables
v: Vim variables.
:let List the values of all variables. The type of the
variable is indicated before the value:
<nothing> String
# Number
* Funcref
:unl[et][!] {name} ... *:unlet* *:unl* *E108* *E795*

Remove the internal variable {name}. Several variable
names can be given, they are all removed. The name
may also be a |List| or |Dictionary| item.
With [!] no error message is given for non-existing
variables.
One or more items from a |List| can be removed:
:unlet list[3] " remove fourth item
:unlet list[3:] " remove fourth item to last
One item from a |Dictionary| can be removed at a time:
:unlet dict['two']
:unlet dict.two
This is especially useful to clean up used global
variables and script-local variables (these are not
deleted when the script ends). Function-local
variables are automatically deleted when the function
ends.
:lockv[ar][!] [depth] {name} ... *:lockvar* *:lockv*

Lock the internal variable {name}. Locking means that
it can no longer be changed (until it is unlocked).
A locked variable can be deleted:
:lockvar v
:let v = 'asdf' " fails!
:unlet v
*E741*
If you try to change a locked variable you get an
error message: "E741: Value of {name} is locked"
[depth] is relevant when locking a |List| or
|Dictionary|. It specifies how deep the locking goes:
1 Lock the |List| or |Dictionary| itself,
cannot add or remove items, but can
still change their values.
2 Also lock the values, cannot change
the items. If an item is a |List| or

|Dictionary|, cannot add or remove

items, but can still change the
values.
3 Like 2 but for the |List| /
|Dictionary| in the |List| /
|Dictionary|, one level deeper.
The default [depth] is 2, thus when {name} is a |List|
or |Dictionary| the values cannot be changed.
*E743*
For unlimited depth use [!] and omit [depth].
However, there is a maximum depth of 100 to catch
loops.
Note that when two variables refer to the same |List|
and you lock one of them, the |List| will also be
locked when used through the other variable.
Example:
:let l = [0, 1, 2, 3]
:let cl = l
:lockvar l
:let cl[1] = 99 " won't work!
You may want to make a copy of a list to avoid this.
See |deepcopy()|.
:unlo[ckvar][!] [depth] {name} ... *:unlockvar* *:unlo*

Unlock the internal variable {name}. Does the
opposite of |:lockvar|.
:if {expr1} *:if* *:endif* *:en* *E171* *E579* *E580*

:en[dif] Execute the commands until the next matching ":else"
or ":endif" if {expr1} evaluates to non-zero.
From Vim version 4.5 until 5.0, every Ex command in
between the ":if" and ":endif" is ignored. These two
commands were just to allow for future expansions in a
backwards compatible way. Nesting was allowed. Note
that any ":else" or ":elseif" was ignored, the "else"
part was not executed either.
You can use this to remain compatible with older
versions:
:if version >= 500
: version-5-specific-commands
:endif
The commands still need to be parsed to find the
"endif". Sometimes an older Vim has a problem with a
new command. For example, ":silent" is recognized as
a ":substitute" command. In that case ":execute" can
avoid problems:
:if version >= 600
: execute "silent 1,$delete"
:endif
NOTE: The ":append" and ":insert" commands don't work
properly in between ":if" and ":endif".
*:else* *:el* *E581* *E583*

:el[se] Execute the commands until the next matching ":else"
or ":endif" if they previously were not being
executed.
*:elseif* *:elsei* *E582* *E584*

:elsei[f] {expr1} Short for ":else" ":if", with the addition that there
is no extra ":endif".
:wh[ile] {expr1} *:while* *:endwhile* *:wh* *:endw*

*E170* *E585* *E588* *E733*
:endw[hile] Repeat the commands between ":while" and ":endwhile",
as long as {expr1} evaluates to non-zero.
When an error is detected from a command inside the

loop, execution continues after the "endwhile".

Example:
:let lnum = 1
:while lnum <= line("$")
:call FixLine(lnum)
:let lnum = lnum + 1
:endwhile
NOTE: The ":append" and ":insert" commands don't work
properly inside a ":while" and ":for" loop.
:for {var} in {list} *:for* *E690* *E732*

:endfo[r] *:endfo* *:endfor*
Repeat the commands between ":for" and ":endfor" for
each item in {list}. Variable {var} is set to the
value of each item.
When an error is detected for a command inside the
loop, execution continues after the "endfor".
Changing {list} inside the loop affects what items are
used. Make a copy if this is unwanted:
:for item in copy(mylist)
When not making a copy, Vim stores a reference to the
next item in the list, before executing the commands
with the current item. Thus the current item can be
removed without effect. Removing any later item means
it will not be found. Thus the following example
works (an inefficient way to make a list empty):
for item in mylist
call remove(mylist, 0)
endfor
Note that reordering the list (e.g., with sort() or
reverse()) may have unexpected effects.
Note that the type of each list item should be
identical to avoid errors for the type of {var}
changing. Unlet the variable at the end of the loop
to allow multiple item types:
for item in ["foo", ["bar"]]
echo item
unlet item " E706 without this
endfor
:for [{var1}, {var2}, ...] in {listlist}
:endfo[r]
Like ":for" above, but each item in {listlist} must be
a list, of which each item is assigned to {var1},
{var2}, etc. Example:
:for [lnum, col] in [[1, 3], [2, 5], [3, 8]]
:echo getline(lnum)[col]
:endfor
*:continue* *:con* *E586*

:con[tinue] When used inside a ":while" or ":for" loop, jumps back
to the start of the loop.
If it is used after a |:try| inside the loop but
before the matching |:finally| (if present), the
commands following the ":finally" up to the matching
|:endtry| are executed first. This process applies to
all nested ":try"s inside the loop. The outermost
":endtry" then jumps back to the start of the loop.
*:break* *:brea* *E587*

:brea[k] When used inside a ":while" or ":for" loop, skips to
the command after the matching ":endwhile" or
":endfor".
If it is used after a |:try| inside the loop but
before the matching |:finally| (if present), the
commands following the ":finally" up to the matching
|:endtry| are executed first. This process applies to
all nested ":try"s inside the loop. The outermost
":endtry" then jumps to the command after the loop.
:try *:try* *:endt* *:endtry* *E600* *E601* *E602*

:endt[ry] Change the error handling for the commands between
":try" and ":endtry" including everything being

executed across ":source" commands, function calls,

or autocommand invocations.
When an error or interrupt is detected and there is
a |:finally| command following, execution continues
after the ":finally". Otherwise, or when the
":endtry" is reached thereafter, the next
(dynamically) surrounding ":try" is checked for
a corresponding ":finally" etc. Then the script
processing is terminated. (Whether a function
definition has an "abort" argument does not matter.)
Example:
:try | edit too much | finally | echo "cleanup" | endtry
:echo "impossible" " not reached, script terminated above
Moreover, an error or interrupt (dynamically) inside
":try" and ":endtry" is converted to an exception. It
can be caught as if it were thrown by a |:throw|
command (see |:catch|). In this case, the script
processing is not terminated.
The value "Vim:Interrupt" is used for an interrupt
exception. An error in a Vim command is converted
to a value of the form "Vim({command}):{errmsg}",
other errors are converted to a value of the form
"Vim:{errmsg}". {command} is the full command name,
and {errmsg} is the message that is displayed if the
error exception is not caught, always beginning with
the error number.
Examples:
:try | sleep 100 | catch /^Vim:Interrupt$/ | endtry
:try | edit | catch /^Vim(edit):E\d\+/ | echo "error" | endtry
*:cat* *:catch* *E603* *E604* *E605*

:cat[ch] /{pattern}/ The following commands until the next |:catch|,
|:finally|, or |:endtry| that belongs to the same
|:try| as the ":catch" are executed when an exception
matching {pattern} is being thrown and has not yet
been caught by a previous ":catch". Otherwise, these
commands are skipped.
When {pattern} is omitted all errors are caught.
Examples:
:catch /^Vim:Interrupt$/ " catch interrupts (CTRL-C)
:catch /^Vim\%((\a\+)\)\=:E/ " catch all Vim errors
:catch /^Vim\%((\a\+)\)\=:/ " catch errors and interrupts
:catch /^Vim(write):/ " catch all errors in :write
:catch /^Vim\%((\a\+)\)\=:E123/ " catch error E123
:catch /my-exception/ " catch user exception
:catch /.*/ " catch everything
:catch " same as /.*/
Another character can be used instead of / around the
{pattern}, so long as it does not have a special
meaning (e.g., '|' or '"'') and doesn't occur inside
{pattern}.
NOTE: It is not reliable to ":catch" the TEXT of
an error message because it may vary in different
locales.
*:fina* *:finally* *E606* *E607*

:fina[lly] The following commands until the matching |:endtry|
are executed whenever the part between the matching
|:try| and the ":finally" is left: either by falling
through to the ":finally" or by a |:continue|,
|:break|, |:finish|, or |:return|, or by an error or
interrupt or exception (see |:throw|).
*:th* *:throw* *E608*

:th[row] {expr1} The {expr1} is evaluated and thrown as an exception.
If the ":throw" is used after a |:try| but before the
first corresponding |:catch|, commands are skipped
until the first ":catch" matching {expr1} is reached.
If there is no such ":catch" or if the ":throw" is
used after a ":catch" but before the |:finally|, the
commands following the ":finally" (if present) up to
the matching |:endtry| are executed. If the ":throw"

is after the ":finally", commands up to the ":endtry"

are skipped. At the ":endtry", this process applies
again for the next dynamically surrounding ":try"
(which may be found in a calling function or sourcing
script), until a matching ":catch" has been found.
If the exception is not caught, the command processing
is terminated.
Example:
:try | throw "oops" | catch /ôo/ | echo "caught" | endtry
Note that "catch" may need to be on a separate line
for when an error causes the parsing to skip the whole
line and not see the "|" that separates the commands.
*:ec* *:echo*
:ec[ho] {expr1} .. Echoes each {expr1}, with a space in between. The
first {expr1} starts on a new line.
Also see |:comment|.
Use "\n" to start a new line. Use "\r" to move the
cursor to the first column.
Uses the highlighting set by the |:echohl| command.
Cannot be followed by a comment.
Example:
:echo "the value of 'shell' is" &shell
*:echo-redraw*
A later redraw may make the message disappear again.
And since Vim mostly postpones redrawing until it's
finished with a sequence of commands this happens
quite often. To avoid that a command from before the
":echo" causes a redraw afterwards (redraws are often
postponed until you type something), force a redraw
with the |:redraw| command. Example:
:new | redraw | echo "there is a new window"
*:echon*
:echon {expr1} .. Echoes each {expr1}, without anything added. Also see
|:comment|.
Example:
:echon "the value of 'shell' is " &shell
Note the difference between using ":echo", which is a
Vim command, and ":!echo", which is an external shell
command:
:!echo % --> filename
The arguments of ":!" are expanded, see |:_%|.
:!echo "%" --> filename or "filename"
Like the previous example. Whether you see the double
quotes or not depends on your 'shell'.
:echo % --> nothing
The '%' is an illegal character in an expression.
:echo "%" --> %
This just echoes the '%' character.
:echo expand("%") --> filename
This calls the expand() function to expand the '%'.
*:echoh* *:echohl*
:echoh[l] {name} Use the highlight group {name} for the following
|:echo|, |:echon| and |:echomsg| commands. Also used
for the |input()| prompt. Example:
:echohl WarningMsg | echo "Don't panic!" | echohl None
Don't forget to set the group back to "None",
otherwise all following echo's will be highlighted.
*:echom* *:echomsg*
:echom[sg] {expr1} .. Echo the expression(s) as a true message, saving the
message in the |message-history|.
Spaces are placed between the arguments as with the
|:echo| command. But unprintable characters are
displayed, not interpreted.
The parsing works slightly different from |:echo|,
more like |:execute|. All the expressions are first
evaluated and concatenated before echoing anything.
The expressions must evaluate to a Number or String, a

Dictionary or List causes an error.

Example:
:echomsg "It's a Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz, as you can plainly see."
See |:echo-redraw| to avoid the message disappearing
when the screen is redrawn.
*:echoe* *:echoerr*
:echoe[rr] {expr1} .. Echo the expression(s) as an error message, saving the
message in the |message-history|. When used in a
script or function the line number will be added.
Spaces are placed between the arguments as with the
:echo command. When used inside a try conditional,
the message is raised as an error exception instead
(see |try-echoerr|).
Example:
:echoerr "This script just failed!"
If you just want a highlighted message use |:echohl|.
And to get a beep:
:exe "normal \<Esc>"
*:exe* *:execute*
:exe[cute] {expr1} .. Executes the string that results from the evaluation
of {expr1} as an Ex command.
Multiple arguments are concatenated, with a space in
between. To avoid the extra space use the "."
operator to concatenate strings into one argument.
{expr1} is used as the processed command, command line
editing keys are not recognized.
Examples:
:execute "buffer" nextbuf
:execute "normal" count . "w"
":execute" can be used to append a command to commands
that don't accept a '|'. Example:
:execute '!ls' | echo "theend"
":execute" is also a nice way to avoid having to type
control characters in a Vim script for a ":normal"
command:
:execute "normal ixxx\<Esc>"
This has an <Esc> character, see |expr-string|.
Be careful to correctly escape special characters in
file names. The |fnameescape()| function can be used
for Vim commands, |shellescape()| for |:!| commands.
Examples:
:execute "e " . fnameescape(filename)
:execute "!ls " . shellescape(expand('%:h'), 1)
Note: The executed string may be any command-line, but
you cannot start or end a "while", "for" or "if"
command. Thus this is illegal:
:execute 'while i > 5'
:execute 'echo "test" | break'
It is allowed to have a "while" or "if" command
completely in the executed string:
:execute 'while i < 5 | echo i | let i = i + 1 | endwhile'
*:exe-comment*
":execute", ":echo" and ":echon" cannot be followed by
a comment directly, because they see the '"'' as the
start of a string. But, you can use '|' followed by a
comment. Example:
:echo "foo" | "this is a comment
==============================================================================
8. Exception handling *exception-handling*
The Vim script language comprises an exception handling feature. This section
explains how it can be used in a Vim script.
Exceptions may be raised by Vim on an error or on interrupt, see

|catch-errors| and |catch-interrupt|. You can also explicitly throw an

exception by using the ":throw" command, see |throw-catch|.
TRY CONDITIONALS *try-conditionals*

Exceptions can be caught or can cause cleanup code to be executed. You can
use a try conditional to specify catch clauses (that catch exceptions) and/or
a finally clause (to be executed for cleanup).
A try conditional begins with a |:try| command and ends at the matching
|:endtry| command. In between, you can use a |:catch| command to start
a catch clause, or a |:finally| command to start a finally clause. There may
be none or multiple catch clauses, but there is at most one finally clause,
which must not be followed by any catch clauses. The lines before the catch
clauses and the finally clause is called a try block.
:try
: ...
: ... TRY BLOCK
: ...
:catch /{pattern}/
: ...
: ... CATCH CLAUSE
: ...
:catch /{pattern}/
: ...
: ... CATCH CLAUSE
: ...
:finally
: ...
: ... FINALLY CLAUSE
: ...
:endtry
The try conditional allows to watch code for exceptions and to take the
appropriate actions. Exceptions from the try block may be caught. Exceptions
from the try block and also the catch clauses may cause cleanup actions.
When no exception is thrown during execution of the try block, the control
is transferred to the finally clause, if present. After its execution, the
script continues with the line following the ":endtry".
When an exception occurs during execution of the try block, the remaining
lines in the try block are skipped. The exception is matched against the
patterns specified as arguments to the ":catch" commands. The catch clause
after the first matching ":catch" is taken, other catch clauses are not
executed. The catch clause ends when the next ":catch", ":finally", or
":endtry" command is reached - whatever is first. Then, the finally clause
(if present) is executed. When the ":endtry" is reached, the script execution
continues in the following line as usual.
When an exception that does not match any of the patterns specified by the
":catch" commands is thrown in the try block, the exception is not caught by
that try conditional and none of the catch clauses is executed. Only the
finally clause, if present, is taken. The exception pends during execution of
the finally clause. It is resumed at the ":endtry", so that commands after
the ":endtry" are not executed and the exception might be caught elsewhere,
see |try-nesting|.
When during execution of a catch clause another exception is thrown, the
remaining lines in that catch clause are not executed. The new exception is
not matched against the patterns in any of the ":catch" commands of the same
try conditional and none of its catch clauses is taken. If there is, however,
a finally clause, it is executed, and the exception pends during its
execution. The commands following the ":endtry" are not executed. The new
exception might, however, be caught elsewhere, see |try-nesting|.
When during execution of the finally clause (if present) an exception is
thrown, the remaining lines in the finally clause are skipped. If the finally
clause has been taken because of an exception from the try block or one of the
catch clauses, the original (pending) exception is discarded. The commands
following the ":endtry" are not executed, and the exception from the finally
clause is propagated and can be caught elsewhere, see |try-nesting|.
The finally clause is also executed, when a ":break" or ":continue" for
a ":while" loop enclosing the complete try conditional is executed from the
try block or a catch clause. Or when a ":return" or ":finish" is executed
from the try block or a catch clause of a try conditional in a function or
sourced script, respectively. The ":break", ":continue", ":return", or
":finish" pends during execution of the finally clause and is resumed when the
":endtry" is reached. It is, however, discarded when an exception is thrown
from the finally clause.
When a ":break" or ":continue" for a ":while" loop enclosing the complete

try conditional or when a ":return" or ":finish" is encountered in the finally

clause, the rest of the finally clause is skipped, and the ":break",
":continue", ":return" or ":finish" is executed as usual. If the finally
clause has been taken because of an exception or an earlier ":break",
":continue", ":return", or ":finish" from the try block or a catch clause,
this pending exception or command is discarded.
For examples see |throw-catch| and |try-finally|.
NESTING OF TRY CONDITIONALS *try-nesting*

Try conditionals can be nested arbitrarily. That is, a complete try
conditional can be put into the try block, a catch clause, or the finally
clause of another try conditional. If the inner try conditional does not
catch an exception thrown in its try block or throws a new exception from one
of its catch clauses or its finally clause, the outer try conditional is
checked according to the rules above. If the inner try conditional is in the
try block of the outer try conditional, its catch clauses are checked, but
otherwise only the finally clause is executed. It does not matter for
nesting, whether the inner try conditional is directly contained in the outer
one, or whether the outer one sources a script or calls a function containing
the inner try conditional.
When none of the active try conditionals catches an exception, just their
finally clauses are executed. Thereafter, the script processing terminates.
An error message is displayed in case of an uncaught exception explicitly
thrown by a ":throw" command. For uncaught error and interrupt exceptions
implicitly raised by Vim, the error message(s) or interrupt message are shown
as usual.
For examples see |throw-catch|.
EXAMINING EXCEPTION HANDLING CODE *except-examine*

Exception handling code can get tricky. If you are in doubt what happens, set
'verbose' to 13 or use the ":13verbose" command modifier when sourcing your
script file. Then you see when an exception is thrown, discarded, caught, or
finished. When using a verbosity level of at least 14, things pending in
a finally clause are also shown. This information is also given in debug mode
(see |debug-scripts|).
THROWING AND CATCHING EXCEPTIONS *throw-catch*

You can throw any number or string as an exception. Use the |:throw| command
and pass the value to be thrown as argument:
:throw 4711
:throw "string"
*throw-expression*
You can also specify an expression argument. The expression is then evaluated
first, and the result is thrown:
:throw 4705 + strlen("string")
:throw strpart("strings", 0, 6)
An exception might be thrown during evaluation of the argument of the ":throw"
command. Unless it is caught there, the expression evaluation is abandoned.
The ":throw" command then does not throw a new exception.
Example:
:function! Foo(arg)
: try
: throw a:arg
: catch /foo/
: endtry
: return 1
:endfunction
:
:function! Bar()
: echo "in Bar"
: return 4710
:endfunction
:
:throw Foo("arrgh") + Bar()

This throws "arrgh", and "in Bar" is not displayed since Bar() is not
executed.
:throw Foo("foo") + Bar()
however displays "in Bar" and throws 4711.
Any other command that takes an expression as argument might also be
abandoned by an (uncaught) exception during the expression evaluation. The
exception is then propagated to the caller of the command.
Example:
:if Foo("arrgh")
: echo "then"
:else
: echo "else"
:endif
Here neither of "then" or "else" is displayed.
*catch-order*
Exceptions can be caught by a try conditional with one or more |:catch|
commands, see |try-conditionals|. The values to be caught by each ":catch"
command can be specified as a pattern argument. The subsequent catch clause
gets executed when a matching exception is caught.
Example:
:function! Foo(value)
: try
: throw a:value
: catch /^\d\+$/
: echo "Number thrown"
: catch /.*/
: echo "String thrown"
: endtry
:endfunction
:
:call Foo(0x1267)
:call Foo('string')
The first call to Foo() displays "Number thrown", the second "String thrown".
An exception is matched against the ":catch" commands in the order they are
specified. Only the first match counts. So you should place the more
specific ":catch" first. The following order does not make sense:
: catch /.*/
: echo "String thrown"
: catch /^\d\+$/
: echo "Number thrown"
The first ":catch" here matches always, so that the second catch clause is
never taken.
*throw-variables*
If you catch an exception by a general pattern, you may access the exact value
in the variable YXXYv:exception|:
: catch /^\d\+$/
: echo "Number thrown. Value is" v:exception
You may also be interested where an exception was thrown. This is stored in
|v:throwpoint|. Note that "v:exception" and "v:throwpoint" are valid for the
exception most recently caught as long it is not finished.
Example:
:function! Caught()
: if v:exception != ""
: echo 'Caught "' . v:exception . '" in ' . v:throwpoint
: else
: echo 'Nothing caught'
: endif
:endfunction
:
:function! Foo()
: try
: try

: try
: throw 4711
: finally
: call Caught()
: endtry
: catch /.*/
: call Caught()
: throw "oops"
: endtry
: catch /.*/
: call Caught()
: finally
: call Caught()
: endtry
:endfunction
:
:call Foo()
This displays
Nothing caught
Caught "4711" in function Foo, line 4
Caught "oops" in function Foo, line 10
Nothing caught
A practical example: The following command ":LineNumber" displays the line
number in the script or function where it has been used:
:function! LineNumber()
: return substitute(v:throwpoint, '.*\D$\d\+$.*', '\1', "")
:endfunction
:command! LineNumber try | throw "" | catch | echo LineNumber() | endtry
*try-nested*
An exception that is not caught by a try conditional can be caught by
a surrounding try conditional:
:try
: try
: throw "foo"
: catch /foobar/
: echo "foobar"
: finally
: echo "inner finally"
: endtry
:catch /foo/
: echo "foo"
:endtry
The inner try conditional does not catch the exception, just its finally
clause is executed. The exception is then caught by the outer try
conditional. The example displays "inner finally" and then "foo".
*throw-from-catch*
You can catch an exception and throw a new one to be caught elsewhere from the
catch clause:
:function! Foo()
: throw "foo"
:endfunction
:
:function! Bar()
: try
: call Foo()
: catch /foo/
: echo "Caught foo, throw bar"
: throw "bar"
: endtry
:endfunction
:
:try
: call Bar()
:catch /.*/
: echo "Caught" v:exception

:endtry
This displays "Caught foo, throw bar" and then "Caught bar".
*rethrow*
There is no real rethrow in the Vim script language, but you may throw
"v:exception" instead:
:function! Bar()
: try
: call Foo()
: catch /.*/
: echo "Rethrow" v:exception
: throw v:exception
: endtry
:endfunction
*try-echoerr*
Note that this method cannot be used to "rethrow" Vim error or interrupt
exceptions, because it is not possible to fake Vim internal exceptions.
Trying so causes an error exception. You should throw your own exception
denoting the situation. If you want to cause a Vim error exception containing
the original error exception value, you can use the |:echoerr| command:
:try
: try
: asdf
: catch /.*/
: echoerr v:exception
: endtry
:catch /.*/
: echo v:exception
:endtry
This code displays
Vim(echoerr):Vim:E492: Not an editor command: asdf
CLEANUP CODE *try-finally*

Scripts often change global settings and restore them at their end. If the
user however interrupts the script by pressing CTRL-C, the settings remain in
an inconsistent state. The same may happen to you in the development phase of
a script when an error occurs or you explicitly throw an exception without
catching it. You can solve these problems by using a try conditional with
a finally clause for restoring the settings. Its execution is guaranteed on
normal control flow, on error, on an explicit ":throw", and on interrupt.
(Note that errors and interrupts from inside the try conditional are converted
to exceptions. When not caught, they terminate the script after the finally
clause has been executed.)
Example:
:try
: let s:saved_ts = &ts
: set ts=17
:
: " Do the hard work here.
:
:finally
: let &ts = s:saved_ts
: unlet s:saved_ts
:endtry
This method should be used locally whenever a function or part of a script
changes global settings which need to be restored on failure or normal exit of
that function or script part.
*break-finally*
Cleanup code works also when the try block or a catch clause is left by
a ":continue", ":break", ":return", or ":finish".
Example:
:let first = 1
:while 1

: try
: if first
: echo "first"
: let first = 0
: continue
: else
: throw "second"
: endif
: catch /.*/
: echo v:exception
: break
: finally
: echo "cleanup"
: endtry
: echo "still in while"
:endwhile
:echo "end"
This displays "first", "cleanup", "second", "cleanup", and "end".
:function! Foo()
: try
: return 4711
: finally
: echo "cleanup\n"
: endtry
: echo "Foo still active"
:endfunction
:
:echo Foo() "returned by Foo"
This displays "cleanup" and "4711 returned by Foo". You don't need to add an
extra ":return" in the finally clause. (Above all, this would override the
return value.)
*except-from-finally*
Using either of ":continue", ":break", ":return", ":finish", or ":throw" in
a finally clause is possible, but not recommended since it abandons the
cleanup actions for the try conditional. But, of course, interrupt and error
exceptions might get raised from a finally clause.
Example where an error in the finally clause stops an interrupt from
working correctly:
:try
: try
: echo "Press CTRL-C for interrupt"
: while 1
: endwhile
: finally
: unlet novar
: endtry
:catch /novar/
:endtry
:echo "Script still running"
:sleep 1
If you need to put commands that could fail into a finally clause, you should
think about catching or ignoring the errors in these commands, see
|catch-errors| and |ignore-errors|.
CATCHING ERRORS *catch-errors*

If you want to catch specific errors, you just have to put the code to be
watched in a try block and add a catch clause for the error message. The
presence of the try conditional causes all errors to be converted to an
exception. No message is displayed and |v:errmsg| is not set then. To find
the right pattern for the ":catch" command, you have to know how the format of
the error exception is.
Error exceptions have the following format:
Vim({cmdname}):{errmsg}
or
Vim:{errmsg}

{cmdname} is the name of the command that failed; the second form is used when
the command name is not known. {errmsg} is the error message usually produced
when the error occurs outside try conditionals. It always begins with
a capital "E", followed by a two or three-digit error number, a colon, and
a space.
Examples:
The command
:unlet novar
normally produces the error message
E108: No such variable: "novar"
which is converted inside try conditionals to an exception
Vim(unlet):E108: No such variable: "novar"
The command
:dwim
normally produces the error message
E492: Not an editor command: dwim
Vim:E492: Not an editor command: dwim
You can catch all ":unlet" errors by a
:catch /^Vim(unlet):/
or all errors for misspelled command names by a
:catch /^Vim:E492:/
Some error messages may be produced by different commands:
:function nofunc
and
:delfunction nofunc
both produce the error message
E128: Function name must start with a capital: nofunc
Vim(function):E128: Function name must start with a capital: nofunc
or
Vim(delfunction):E128: Function name must start with a capital: nofunc
respectively. You can catch the error by its number independently on the
command that caused it if you use the following pattern:
:catch /^Vim(\a\+):E128:/
Some commands like
:let x = novar
produce multiple error messages, here:
E121: Undefined variable: novar
E15: Invalid expression: novar
Only the first is used for the exception value, since it is the most specific
one (see |except-several-errors|). So you can catch it by
:catch /^Vim(\a\+):E121:/
You can catch all errors related to the name "nofunc" by
:catch /\<nofunc\>/
You can catch all Vim errors in the ":write" and ":read" commands by
:catch /^Vim($write\|read$):E\d\+:/
You can catch all Vim errors by the pattern
:catch /^Vim$(\a\+)$\=:E\d\+:/
*catch-text*
NOTE: You should never catch the error message text itself:
:catch /No such variable/
only works in the english locale, but not when the user has selected
a different language by the |:language| command. It is however helpful to
cite the message text in a comment:
:catch /^Vim(\a\+):E108:/ " No such variable
IGNORING ERRORS *ignore-errors*

You can ignore errors in a specific Vim command by catching them locally:
:try
: write
:catch
:endtry

But you are strongly recommended NOT to use this simple form, since it could
catch more than you want. With the ":write" command, some autocommands could
be executed and cause errors not related to writing, for instance:
:au BufWritePre * unlet novar
There could even be such errors you are not responsible for as a script
writer: a user of your script might have defined such autocommands. You would
then hide the error from the user.
It is much better to use
:try
: write
:catch /^Vim(write):/
:endtry
which only catches real write errors. So catch only what you'd like to ignore
intentionally.
For a single command that does not cause execution of autocommands, you could
even suppress the conversion of errors to exceptions by the ":silent!"
command:
:silent! nunmap k
This works also when a try conditional is active.
CATCHING INTERRUPTS *catch-interrupt*

When there are active try conditionals, an interrupt (CTRL-C) is converted to
the exception "Vim:Interrupt". You can catch it like every exception. The
script is not terminated, then.
Example:
:function! TASK1()
: sleep 10
:endfunction
:function! TASK2()
: sleep 20
:endfunction
:while 1
: let command = input("Type a command: ")
: try
: if command == ""
: continue
: elseif command == "END"
: break
: elseif command == "TASK1"
: call TASK1()
: elseif command == "TASK2"
: call TASK2()
: else
: echo "\nIllegal command:" command
: continue
: endif
: catch /^Vim:Interrupt$/
: echo "\nCommand interrupted"
: " Caught the interrupt. Continue with next prompt.
: endtry
:endwhile
You can interrupt a task here by pressing CTRL-C; the script then asks for
a new command. If you press CTRL-C at the prompt, the script is terminated.
For testing what happens when CTRL-C would be pressed on a specific line in
your script, use the debug mode and execute the |>quit| or |>interrupt|
command on that line. See |debug-scripts|.
CATCHING ALL *catch-all*

The commands
:catch /.*/

:catch //
:catch
catch everything, error exceptions, interrupt exceptions and exceptions
explicitly thrown by the |:throw| command. This is useful at the top level of
a script in order to catch unexpected things.
Example:
:try
:
: " do the hard work here
:
:catch /MyException/
:
: " handle known problem
:
:catch /^Vim:Interrupt$/
: echo "Script interrupted"
:catch /.*/
: echo "Internal error (" . v:exception . ")"
: echo " - occurred at " . v:throwpoint
:endtry
:" end of script
Note: Catching all might catch more things than you want. Thus, you are
strongly encouraged to catch only for problems that you can really handle by
specifying a pattern argument to the ":catch".
Example: Catching all could make it nearly impossible to interrupt a script
by pressing CTRL-C:
:while 1
: try
: sleep 1
: catch
: endtry
:endwhile
EXCEPTIONS AND AUTOCOMMANDS *except-autocmd*

Exceptions may be used during execution of autocommands. Example:
:autocmd User x try
:autocmd User x throw "Oops!"
:autocmd User x catch
:autocmd User x echo v:exception
:autocmd User x endtry
:autocmd User x throw "Arrgh!"
:autocmd User x echo "Should not be displayed"
:
:try
: doautocmd User x
:catch
: echo v:exception
:endtry
This displays "Oops!" and "Arrgh!".
*except-autocmd-Pre*
For some commands, autocommands get executed before the main action of the
command takes place. If an exception is thrown and not caught in the sequence
of autocommands, the sequence and the command that caused its execution are
abandoned and the exception is propagated to the caller of the command.
Example:
:autocmd BufWritePre * throw "FAIL"
:autocmd BufWritePre * echo "Should not be displayed"
:
:try
: write
:catch
: echo "Caught:" v:exception "from" v:throwpoint
:endtry
Here, the ":write" command does not write the file currently being edited (as

you can see by checking 'modified'), since the exception from the BufWritePre
autocommand abandons the ":write". The exception is then caught and the
script displays:
Caught: FAIL from BufWrite Auto commands for "*"
*except-autocmd-Post*
For some commands, autocommands get executed after the main action of the
command has taken place. If this main action fails and the command is inside
an active try conditional, the autocommands are skipped and an error exception
is thrown that can be caught by the caller of the command.
Example:
:autocmd BufWritePost * echo "File successfully written!"
:
:try
: write /i/m/p/o/s/s/i/b/l/e
:catch
: echo v:exception
:endtry
This just displays:
Vim(write):E212: Can't open file for writing (/i/m/p/o/s/s/i/b/l/e)
If you really need to execute the autocommands even when the main action
fails, trigger the event from the catch clause.
Example:
:autocmd BufWritePre * set noreadonly
:autocmd BufWritePost * set readonly
:
:try
: write /i/m/p/o/s/s/i/b/l/e
:catch
: doautocmd BufWritePost /i/m/p/o/s/s/i/b/l/e
:endtry
You can also use ":silent!":
:let x = "ok"
:let v:errmsg = ""
:autocmd BufWritePost * if v:errmsg != ""
:autocmd BufWritePost * let x = "after fail"
:autocmd BufWritePost * endif
:try
: silent! write /i/m/p/o/s/s/i/b/l/e
:catch
:endtry
:echo x
This displays "after fail".
If the main action of the command does not fail, exceptions from the
autocommands will be catchable by the caller of the command:
:autocmd BufWritePost * throw ":-("
:autocmd BufWritePost * echo "Should not be displayed"
:
:try
: write
:catch
: echo v:exception
:endtry
*except-autocmd-Cmd*
For some commands, the normal action can be replaced by a sequence of
autocommands. Exceptions from that sequence will be catchable by the caller
of the command.
Example: For the ":write" command, the caller cannot know whether the file
had actually been written when the exception occurred. You need to tell it in
some way.
:if !exists("cnt")
: let cnt = 0

:
: autocmd BufWriteCmd * if &modified
: autocmd BufWriteCmd * let cnt = cnt + 1
: autocmd BufWriteCmd * if cnt % 3 == 2
: autocmd BufWriteCmd * throw "BufWriteCmdError"
: autocmd BufWriteCmd * endif
: autocmd BufWriteCmd * write | set nomodified
: autocmd BufWriteCmd * if cnt % 3 == 0
: autocmd BufWriteCmd * throw "BufWriteCmdError"
: autocmd BufWriteCmd * echo "File successfully written!"
:endif
:
:try
: write
:catch /^BufWriteCmdError$/
: if &modified
: echo "Error on writing (file contents not changed)"
: else
: echo "Error after writing"
: endif
:catch /^Vim(write):/
: echo "Error on writing"
:endtry
When this script is sourced several times after making changes, it displays
first
File successfully written!
then
Error on writing (file contents not changed)
then
Error after writing
etc.
*except-autocmd-ill*
You cannot spread a try conditional over autocommands for different events.
The following code is ill-formed:
:autocmd BufWritePre * try
:
:autocmd BufWritePost * catch
:autocmd BufWritePost * echo v:exception
:autocmd BufWritePost * endtry
:
:write
EXCEPTION HIERARCHIES AND PARAMETERIZED EXCEPTIONS *except-hier-param*

Some programming languages allow to use hierarchies of exception classes or to
pass additional information with the object of an exception class. You can do
similar things in Vim.
In order to throw an exception from a hierarchy, just throw the complete
class name with the components separated by a colon, for instance throw the
string "EXCEPT:MATHERR:OVERFLOW" for an overflow in a mathematical library.
When you want to pass additional information with your exception class, add
it in parentheses, for instance throw the string "EXCEPT:IO:WRITEERR(myfile)"
for an error when writing "myfile".
With the appropriate patterns in the ":catch" command, you can catch for
base classes or derived classes of your hierarchy. Additional information in
parentheses can be cut out from |v:exception| with the ":substitute" command.
Example:
:function! CheckRange(a, func)
: if a:a < 0
: throw "EXCEPT:MATHERR:RANGE(" . a:func . ")"
: endif
:endfunction
:
:function! Add(a, b)
: call CheckRange(a:a, "Add")
: call CheckRange(a:b, "Add")
: let c = a:a + a:b
: if c < 0

: throw "EXCEPT:MATHERR:OVERFLOW"
: endif
: return c
:endfunction
:
:function! Div(a, b)
: call CheckRange(a:a, "Div")
: call CheckRange(a:b, "Div")
: if (a:b == 0)
: throw "EXCEPT:MATHERR:ZERODIV"
: endif
: return a:a / a:b
:endfunction
:
:function! Write(file)
: try
: execute "write" fnameescape(a:file)
: catch /^Vim(write):/
: throw "EXCEPT:IO(" . getcwd() . ", " . a:file . "):WRITEERR"
: endtry
:endfunction
:
:try
:
: " something with arithmetics and I/O
:
:catch /ÊXCEPT:MATHERR:RANGE/
: let function = substitute(v:exception, '.*($\a\+$).*', '\1', "")
: echo "Range error in" function
:
:catch /ÊXCEPT:MATHERR/ " catches OVERFLOW and ZERODIV
: echo "Math error"
:
:catch /ÊXCEPT:IO/
: let dir = substitute(v:exception, '.*($.\+$,\s*.\+).*', '\1', "")
: let file = substitute(v:exception, '.*(.\+,\s*$.\+$).*', '\1', "")
: if file !~ '^/'
: let file = dir . "/" . file
: endif
: echo 'I/O error for "' . file . '"'
:
:catch /ÊXCEPT/
: echo "Unspecified error"
:
:endtry
The exceptions raised by Vim itself (on error or when pressing CTRL-C) use
a flat hierarchy: they are all in the "Vim" class. You cannot throw yourself
exceptions with the "Vim" prefix; they are reserved for Vim.
Vim error exceptions are parameterized with the name of the command that
failed, if known. See |catch-errors|.
PECULIARITIES
*except-compat*
The exception handling concept requires that the command sequence causing the
exception is aborted immediately and control is transferred to finally clauses
and/or a catch clause.
In the Vim script language there are cases where scripts and functions
continue after an error: in functions without the "abort" flag or in a command
after ":silent!", control flow goes to the following line, and outside
functions, control flow goes to the line following the outermost ":endwhile"
or ":endif". On the other hand, errors should be catchable as exceptions
(thus, requiring the immediate abortion).
This problem has been solved by converting errors to exceptions and using
immediate abortion (if not suppressed by ":silent!") only when a try
conditional is active. This is no restriction since an (error) exception can
be caught only from an active try conditional. If you want an immediate
termination without catching the error, just use a try conditional without
catch clause. (You can cause cleanup code being executed before termination
by specifying a finally clause.)
When no try conditional is active, the usual abortion and continuation
behavior is used instead of immediate abortion. This ensures compatibility of

scripts written for Vim 6.1 and earlier.

However, when sourcing an existing script that does not use exception handling
commands (or when calling one of its functions) from inside an active try
conditional of a new script, you might change the control flow of the existing
script on error. You get the immediate abortion on error and can catch the
error in the new script. If however the sourced script suppresses error
messages by using the ":silent!" command (checking for errors by testing
|v:errmsg| if appropriate), its execution path is not changed. The error is
not converted to an exception. (See |:silent|.) So the only remaining cause
where this happens is for scripts that don't care about errors and produce
error messages. You probably won't want to use such code from your new
scripts.
*except-syntax-err*
Syntax errors in the exception handling commands are never caught by any of
the ":catch" commands of the try conditional they belong to. Its finally
clauses, however, is executed.
Example:
:try
: try
: throw 4711
: catch /\(/
: echo "in catch with syntax error"
: catch
: echo "inner catch-all"
: finally
: echo "inner finally"
: endtry
:catch
: echo 'outer catch-all caught "' . v:exception . '"'
: finally
: echo "outer finally"
:endtry
This displays:
inner finally
outer catch-all caught "Vim(catch):E54: Unmatched \("
outer finally
The original exception is discarded and an error exception is raised, instead.
*except-single-line*
The ":try", ":catch", ":finally", and ":endtry" commands can be put on
a single line, but then syntax errors may make it difficult to recognize the
"catch" line, thus you better avoid this.
Example:
:try | unlet! foo # | catch | endtry
raises an error exception for the trailing characters after the ":unlet!"
argument, but does not see the ":catch" and ":endtry" commands, so that the
error exception is discarded and the "E488: Trailing characters" message gets
displayed.
*except-several-errors*
When several errors appear in a single command, the first error message is
usually the most specific one and therefor converted to the error exception.
Example:
echo novar
causes
E121: Undefined variable: novar
E15: Invalid expression: novar
The value of the error exception inside try conditionals is:
Vim(echo):E121: Undefined variable: novar
*except-syntax-error*
But when a syntax error is detected after a normal error in the same command,
the syntax error is used for the exception being thrown.
Example:
unlet novar #
causes
E108: No such variable: "novar"
E488: Trailing characters
The value of the error exception inside try conditionals is:
Vim(unlet):E488: Trailing characters
This is done because the syntax error might change the execution path in a way

not intended by the user. Example:

try
try | unlet novar # | catch | echo v:exception | endtry
catch /.*/
echo "outer catch:" v:exception
endtry
This displays "outer catch: Vim(unlet):E488: Trailing characters", and then
a "E600: Missing :endtry" error message is given, see |except-single-line|.
==============================================================================
9. Examples *eval-examples*
Printing in Binary
:" The function Nr2Bin() returns the binary string representation of a number.
:func Nr2Bin(nr)
: let n = a:nr
: let r = ""
: while n
: let r = '01'[n % 2] . r
: let n = n / 2
: endwhile
: return r
:endfunc
:" The function String2Bin() converts each character in a string to a
:" binary string, separated with dashes.
:func String2Bin(str)
: let out = ''
: for ix in range(strlen(a:str))
: let out = out . '-' . Nr2Bin(char2nr(a:str[ix]))
: endfor
: return out[1:]
:endfunc
Example of its use:
:echo Nr2Bin(32)
result: "100000"
:echo String2Bin("32")
result: "110011-110010"
Sorting lines
This example sorts lines with a specific compare function.
:func SortBuffer()
: let lines = getline(1, '$')
: call sort(lines, function("Strcmp"))
: call setline(1, lines)
:endfunction
As a one-liner:
:call setline(1, sort(getline(1, '$'), function("Strcmp")))
scanf() replacement
*sscanf*
There is no sscanf() function in Vim. If you need to extract parts from a
line, you can use matchstr() and substitute() to do it. This example shows
how to get the file name, line number and column number out of a line like
"foobar.txt, 123, 45".
:" Set up the match bit
:let mx='$\f\+$,\s*$\d\+$,\s*$\d\+$'
:"get the part matching the whole expression
:let l = matchstr(line, mx)
:"get each item out of the match
:let file = substitute(l, mx, '\1', '')
:let lnum = substitute(l, mx, '\2', '')
:let col = substitute(l, mx, '\3', '')
The input is in the variable "line", the results in the variables "file",
"lnum" and "col". (idea from Michael Geddes)

getting the scriptnames in a Dictionary

*scriptnames-dictionary*
The |:scriptnames| command can be used to get a list of all script files that
have been sourced. There is no equivalent function or variable for this
(because it's rarely needed). In case you need to manipulate the list this
code can be used:
" Get the output of ":scriptnames" in the scriptnames_output variable.
let scriptnames_output = ''
redir => scriptnames_output
silent scriptnames
redir END
" Split the output into lines and parse each line. Add an entry to the
" "scripts" dictionary.
let scripts = {}
for line in split(scriptnames_output, "\n")
" Only do non-blank lines.
if line =~ '\S'
" Get the first number in the line.
let nr = matchstr(line, '\d\+')
" Get the file name, remove the script number " 123: ".
let name = substitute(line, '.\+:\s*', '', '')
" Add an item to the Dictionary
let scripts[nr] = name
endif
endfor
unlet scriptnames_output
==============================================================================
10. No +eval feature *no-eval-feature*
When the |+eval| feature was disabled at compile time, none of the expression
evaluation commands are available. To prevent this from causing Vim scripts
to generate all kinds of errors, the ":if" and ":endif" commands are still
recognized, though the argument of the ":if" and everything between the ":if"
and the matching ":endif" is ignored. Nesting of ":if" blocks is allowed, but
only if the commands are at the start of the line. The ":else" command is not
recognized.
Example of how to avoid executing commands when the |+eval| feature is
missing:
:if 1
: echo "Expression evaluation is compiled in"
:else
: echo "You will _never_ see this message"
:endif
==============================================================================
11. The sandbox *eval-sandbox* *sandbox* *E48*
The 'foldexpr', 'formatexpr', 'includeexpr', 'indentexpr', 'statusline' and
'foldtext' options may be evaluated in a sandbox. This means that you are
protected from these expressions having nasty side effects. This gives some
safety for when these options are set from a modeline. It is also used when
the command from a tags file is executed and for CTRL-R = in the command line.
The sandbox is also used for the |:sandbox| command.
These items are not allowed in the sandbox:
- changing the buffer text
- defining or changing mapping, autocommands, functions, user commands
- setting certain options (see |option-summary|)
- setting certain v: variables (see |v:var|) *E794*
- executing a shell command
- reading or writing a file
- jumping to another buffer or editing a file
- executing Python, Perl, etc. commands
This is not guaranteed 100% secure, but it should block most attacks.
*:san* *:sandbox*
:san[dbox] {cmd} Execute {cmd} in the sandbox. Useful to evaluate an
option that may have been set from a modeline, e.g.
'foldexpr'.

*sandbox-option*
A few options contain an expression. When this expression is evaluated it may
have to be done in the sandbox to avoid a security risk. But the sandbox is
restrictive, thus this only happens when the option was set from an insecure
location. Insecure in this context are:
- sourcing a .vimrc or .exrc in the current directory
- while executing in the sandbox
- value coming from a modeline
Note that when in the sandbox and saving an option value and restoring it, the
option will still be marked as it was set in the sandbox.
==============================================================================
12. Textlock *textlock*
In a few situations it is not allowed to change the text in the buffer, jump
to another window and some other things that might confuse or break what Vim
is currently doing. This mostly applies to things that happen when Vim is
actually doing something else. For example, evaluating the 'balloonexpr' may
happen any moment the mouse cursor is resting at some position.
This is not allowed when the textlock is active:
- changing the buffer text
- jumping to another buffer or window
- editing another file
- closing a window or quitting Vim
- etc.
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: version5
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*version5.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2008 Dec 17

Welcome to Vim Version 5.0!
This document lists the differences between Vim 4.x and Vim 5.0.
Although 5.0 is mentioned here, this is also for version 5.1, 5.2, etc..
See |vi_diff.txt| for an overview of differences between Vi and Vim 5.0.
See |version4.txt| for differences between Vim 3.0 and Vim 4.0.
INCOMPATIBLE: |incompatible-5|
Default value for 'compatible' changed |cp-default|
Text formatting command "Q" changed |Q-command-changed|
Command-line arguments changed |cmdline-changed|
Autocommands are kept |autocmds-kept|
Use of 'hidden' changed |hidden-changed|
Text object commands changed |text-objects-changed|
X-Windows Resources removed |x-resources|
Use of $VIM |$VIM-use|
Use of $HOME for MS-DOS and Win32 |$HOME-use|
Tags file format changed |tags-file-changed|
Options changed |options-changed|
CTRL-B in Insert mode gone |i_CTRL-B-gone|
NEW FEATURES: |new-5|
Syntax highlighting |new-highlighting|
Built-in script language |new-script|
Perl and Python support |new-perl-python|
Win32 GUI version |added-win32-GUI|
VMS version |added-VMS|
BeOS version |added-BeOS|
Macintosh GUI version |added-Mac|
More Vi compatible |more-compatible|
Read input from stdin |read-stdin|
Regular expression patterns |added-regexp|
Overloaded tags |tag-overloaded|
New commands |new-commands|
New options |added-options|
New command-line arguments |added-cmdline-args|
Various additions |added-various|
IMPROVEMENTS |improvements-5|
COMPILE TIME CHANGES |compile-changes-5|
BUG FIXES |bug-fixes-5|
VERSION 5.1 |version-5.1|
Changed |changed-5.1|
Added |added-5.1|
Fixed |fixed-5.1|
Long lines editable |long-lines|
File browser added |file-browser-5.2|
Dialogs added |dialogs-added|
Popup menu added |popup-menu-added|
Select mode added |new-Select-mode|
Session files added |new-session-files|
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/version5.html[2019/03/05 11:41:45 AM]

User defined functions and commands |new-user-defined|

New interfaces |interfaces-5.2|
New ports |ports-5.2|
Multi-byte support |new-multi-byte|
New functions |new-functions-5.2|
New options |new-options-5.2|
New Ex commands |new-ex-commands-5.2|
Added |added-5.2|
Fixed |fixed-5.2|
Added |added-5.3|
Fixed |fixed-5.3|
Runtime directory introduced |new-runtime-dir|
Filetype introduced |new-filetype-5.4|
Vim script line continuation |new-line-continuation|
Improved session files |improved-sessions|
Autocommands improved |improved-autocmds-5.4|
Encryption |new-encryption|
GTK GUI port |new-GTK-GUI|
Menu changes |menu-changes-5.4|
Viminfo improved |improved-viminfo|
Various new commands |new-commands-5.4|
Various new options |new-options-5.4|
Vim scripts |new-script-5.4|
Avoid hit-enter prompt |avoid-hit-enter|
Improved quickfix |improved-quickfix|
Regular expressions |regexp-changes-5.4|
Added |added-5.4|
Fixed |fixed-5.4|
Added |added-5.5|
Fixed |fixed-5.5|
Added |added-5.6|
Fixed |fixed-5.6|
Added |added-5.7|
Fixed |fixed-5.7|
Added |added-5.8|
Fixed |fixed-5.8|
==============================================================================
INCOMPATIBLE *incompatible-5*
Default value for 'compatible' changed *cp-default*

Vim version 5.0 tries to be more Vi compatible. This helps people who use Vim
as a drop-in replacement for Vi, but causes some things to be incompatible
with version 4.x.
In version 4.x the default value for the 'compatible' option was off. Now the
default is on. The first thing you will notice is that the "u" command undoes
itself. Other side effects will be that mappings may work differently or not
work at all.
Since a lot of people switching from Vim 4.x to 5.0 will find this annoying,
the 'compatible' option is switched off if Vim finds a vimrc file. This is a
bit of magic to make sure that 90% of the Vim users will not be bitten by
this change.
What does this mean?
- If you prefer to run in 'compatible' mode and don't have a vimrc file, you
don't have to do anything.

- If you prefer to run in 'nocompatible' mode and do have a vimrc file, you
don't have to do anything.
- If you prefer to run in 'compatible' mode and do have a vimrc file, you
should put this line first in your vimrc file:
:set compatible
- If you prefer to run in 'nocompatible' mode and don't have a vimrc file,
you can do one of the following:
- Create an empty vimrc file (e.g.: "~/.vimrc" for Unix).
- Put this command in your .exrc file or $EXINIT:
:set nocompatible
- Start Vim with the "-N" argument.
If you are new to Vi and Vim, using 'nocompatible' is strongly recommended,
because Vi has a lot of unexpected side effects, which are avoided by this
setting. See 'compatible'.
If you like some things from 'compatible' and some not, you can tune the
compatibility with 'cpoptions'.
When you invoke Vim as "ex" or "gex", Vim always starts in compatible mode.
Text formatting command "Q" changed *Q-command-changed*

The "Q" command formerly formatted lines to the width the 'textwidth' option
specifies. The command for this is now "gq" (see |gq| for more info). The
reason for this change is that "Q" is the standard Vi command to enter "Ex"
mode, and Vim now does in fact have an "Ex" mode (see |Q| for more info).
If you still want to use "Q" for formatting, use this mapping:
:noremap Q gq
And if you also want to use the functionality of "Q":
:noremap gQ Q
Command-line arguments changed *cmdline-changed*

Command-line file-arguments and option-arguments can now be mixed. You can
give options after the file names. Example:
vim main.c -g
This is not possible when editing a file that starts with a '-'. Use the "--"
argument then YXXY---|:
vim -g -- -main.c
"-v" now means to start Ex in Vi mode, use "-R" for read-only mode.
old: "vim -v file" |-v|
new: "vim -R file" |-R|
"-e" now means to start Vi in Ex mode, use "-q" for quickfix.
old: "vim -e errorfile" |-e|
new: "vim -q errorfile" |-q|
"-s" in Ex mode now means to run in silent (batch) mode. |-s-ex|
"-x" reserved for crypt, use "-f" to avoid starting a new CLI (Amiga).
old: "vim -x file" |-x|
new: "vim -f file" |-f|
Vim allows up to ten "+cmd" and "-c cmd" arguments. Previously Vim executed
only the last one.
"-n" now overrides any setting for 'updatecount' in a vimrc file, but not in
a gvimrc file.
Autocommands are kept *autocmds-kept*

Before version 5.0, autocommands with the same event, file name pattern, and
command could appear only once. This was fine for simple autocommands (like
setting option values), but for more complicated autocommands, where the same
command might appear twice, this restriction caused problems. Therefore
Vim stores all autocommands and keeps them in the order that they are defined.
The most obvious side effect of this change is that when you source a vimrc
file twice, the autocommands in it will be defined twice. To avoid this, do
one of these:

- Remove any autocommands that might potentially defined twice before

defining them. Example:
:au! * *.ext
:au BufEnter *.ext ...
- Put the autocommands inside an ":if" command. Example:
if !exists("did_ext_autocmds")
let did_ext_autocmds = 1
autocmd BufEnter *.ext ...
endif
- Put your autocommands in a different autocommand group so you can remove
them before defining them YXXY:augroup|:
augroup uncompress
au!
au BufReadPost *.gz ...
augroup END
Use of 'hidden' changed *hidden-changed*

In version 4.x, only some commands used the 'hidden' option. Now all commands
uses it whenever a buffer disappears from a window.
Previously you could do ":buf xxx" in a changed buffer and that buffer would
then become hidden. Now you must set the 'hidden' option for this to work.
The new behavior is simpler: whether Vim hides buffers no longer depends on
the specific command that you use.
- with 'hidden' not set, you never get hidden buffers. Exceptions are the
":hide" and ":close!" commands and, in rare cases, where you would otherwise
lose changes to the buffer.
- With 'hidden' set, you almost never unload a buffer. Exceptions are the
":bunload" or ":bdel" commands.
":buffer" now supports a "!": abandon changes in current buffer. So do
":bnext", ":brewind", etc.
Text object commands changed *text-objects-changed*

Text object commands have new names. This allows more text objects and makes
characters available for other Visual mode commands. Since no more single
characters were available, text objects names now require two characters.
The first one is always 'i' or 'a'.
OLD NEW
a aw a word |v_aw|
A aW a WORD |v_aW|
s as a sentence |v_as|
p ap a paragraph |v_ap|
S ab a () block |v_ab|
P aB a {} block |v_aB|
There is another set of text objects that starts with "i", for "inner". These
select the same objects, but exclude white space.
X-Windows Resources removed *x-resources*

Vim no longer supports the following X resources:
- boldColor
- italicColor
- underlineColor
- cursorColor
Vim now uses highlight groups to set colors. This avoids the confusion of
using a bold Font, which would imply a certain color. See |:highlight| and
|gui-resources|.
Use of $VIM *$VIM-use*

Vim now uses the VIM environment variable to find all Vim system files. This
includes the global vimrc, gvimrc, and menu.vim files and all on-line help

and syntax files. See |$VIM|. Starting with version 5.4, |$VIMRUNTIME| can
also be used.
For Unix, Vim sets a default value for $VIM when doing "make install".
When $VIM is not set, its default value is the directory from 'helpfile',
excluding "/doc/help.txt".
Use of $HOME for MS-DOS and Win32 *$HOME-use*

The MS-DOS and Win32 versions of Vim now first check $HOME when searching for
a vimrc or exrc file and for reading/storing the viminfo file. Previously Vim
used $VIM for these systems, but this causes trouble on a system with several
users. Now Vim uses $VIM only when $HOME is not set or the file is not found
in $HOME. See |_vimrc|.
Tags file format changed *tags-file-changed*

Only tabs are allowed to separate fields in a tags file. This allows for
spaces in a file name and is still Vi compatible. In previous versions of
Vim, any white space was allowed to separate the fields. If you have a file
which doesn't use a single tab between fields, edit the tags file and execute
this command:
:%s/$\S*$\s\+$\S*$\s\+$.*$/\1\t\2\t\3/
Options changed *options-changed*

The default value of 'errorfile' has changed from "errors.vim" to "errors.err".
The reason is that only Vim scripts should have the ".vim" extensions.
The ":make" command no longer uses the 'errorfile' option. This prevents the
output of the ":make" command from overwriting a manually saved error file.
":make" uses the 'makeef' option instead. This also allows for generating a
unique name, to prevent concurrently running ":make" commands from overwriting
each other's files.
With 'insertmode' set, a few more things change:
- <Esc> in Normal mode goes to Insert mode.
- <Esc> in Insert mode doesn't leave Insert mode.
- When doing ":set im" go to Insert mode immediately.
Vim considers a buffer to be changed when the 'fileformat' (formerly the
'textmode' option) is different from the buffer's initial format.
CTRL-B in Insert mode gone *i_CTRL-B-gone*

When Vim was compiled with the |+rightleft| feature, you could use CTRL-B to
toggle the 'revins' option. Unfortunately, some people hit the 'B' key
accidentally when trying to type CTRL-V or CTRL-N and then didn't know how to
undo this. Since toggling the 'revins' option can easily be done with the
mapping below, this use of the CTRL-B key is disabled. You can still use the
CTRL-_ key for this |i_CTRL-_|.
:imap <C-B> <C-O>:set revins!<CR>
==============================================================================
NEW FEATURES *new-5*
Syntax highlighting *new-highlighting*

Vim now has a very flexible way to highlighting just about any type of file.
See |syntax|. Summary:
:syntax on
Colors and attributes can be set for the syntax highlighting, and also for
other highlighted items with the ':' flag in the 'highlight' option. All
highlighted items are assigned a highlight group which specifies their
highlighting. See |:highlight|. The default colors have been improved.
You can use the "Normal" group to set the default fore/background colors for a
color terminal. For the GUI, you can use this group to specify the font, too.
The "2html.vim" script can be used to convert any file that has syntax

highlighting to HTML. The colors will be exactly the same as how you see them
in Vim. With a HTML viewer you can also print the file with colors.
Built-in script language *new-script*

A few extra commands and an expression evaluator enable you to write simple
but powerful scripts. Commands include ":if" and ":while". Expressions can
manipulate numbers and strings. You can use the '=' register to insert
directly the result of an expression. See |expression|.
Perl and Python support *new-perl-python*

Vim can call Perl commands with ":perldo", ":perl", etc. See |perl|.
Patches made by Sven Verdoolaege and Matt Gerassimoff.
Vim can call Python commands with ":python" and ":pyfile". See |python|.
Both of these are only available when enabled at compile time.
Win32 GUI version *added-win32-GUI*

The GUI has been ported to MS Windows 95 and NT. All the features of the X11
GUI are available to Windows users now. |gui-w32|
This also fixes problems with running the Win32 console version under Windows
95, where console support has always been bad.
There is also a version that supports OLE automation interface. |if_ole.txt|
Vim can be integrated with Microsoft Developer Studio using the VisVim DLL.
It is possible to produce a DLL version of gvim with Borland C++ (Aaron).
VMS version *added-VMS*

Vim can now also be used on VMS systems. Port done by Henk Elbers.
This has not been tested much, but it should work.
Sorry, no documentation!
BeOS version *added-BeOS*

Vim can be used on BeOS systems (including the BeBox). (Olaf Seibert)
See |os_beos.txt|.
Macintosh GUI version *added-Mac*

Vim can now be used on the Macintosh. (Dany St-Amant)
It has not been tested much yet, be careful!
See |os_mac.txt|.
More Vi compatible *more-compatible*

There is now a real Ex mode. Started with the "Q" command, or by calling the
executable "ex" or "gex". |Ex-mode|
Always allow multi-level undo, also in Vi compatible mode. When the 'u' flag
in 'cpoptions' is included, CTRL-R is used for repeating the undo or redo
(like "." in Nvi).
Read input from stdin *read-stdin*

When using the "-" command-line argument, Vim reads its text input from stdin.
This can be used for putting Vim at the end of a pipe:
grep "â.*" *.c | vim -
See |--|.

Regular expression patterns *added-regexp*

Added specifying a range for the number of matches of an atom: "\{a,b}". |/\{|
Added the "shortest match" regexp "\{-}" (Webb).
Added "\s", matches a white character. Can replace "[ \t]". |/\s|
Added "\S", matches a non-white character. Can replace "[^ \t]". |/\S|
Overloaded tags *tag-overloaded*

When using a language like C++, there can be several tags for the same
tagname. Commands have been added to be able to jump to any of these
overloaded tags:
|:tselect| List matching tags, and jump to one of them.
|:stselect| Idem, and split window.
|g_CTRL-]| Do ":tselect" with the word under the cursor.
After ":ta {tagname}" with multiple matches:
|:tnext| Go to next matching tag.
|:tprevious| Go to previous matching tag.
|:trewind| Go to first matching tag.
|:tlast| Go to last matching tag.
The ":tag" command now also accepts wildcards. When doing command-line
completion on tags, case-insensitive matching is also available (at the end).
New commands *new-commands*

|:amenu| Define menus for all modes, inserting a CTRL-O for Insert
mode, ESC for Visual and CTRL-C for Cmdline mode. "amenu" is
used for the default menus and the Syntax menu.
|:augroup| Set group to be used for following autocommands. Allows the
grouping of autocommands to enable deletion of a specific
group.
|:crewind| Go to first error.
|:clast| Go to last error.
|:doautoall| Execute autocommands for all loaded buffers.
|:echo| Echo its argument, which is an expression. Can be used to
display messages which include variables.
|:execute| Execute its argument, which is an expression. Can be used to
built up an Ex command with anything.
|:hide| Works like ":close".
|:if| Conditional execution, for built-in script language.
|:intro| Show introductory message. This is always executed when Vim
is started without file arguments.
|:let| Assign a value to an internal variable.
|:omap| Map only in operator-pending mode. Makes it possible to map
text-object commands.
|:redir| Redirect output of messages to a file.
|:update| Write when buffer has changed.
|:while| While-loop for built-in script language.
Visual mode:
|v_O| "O" in Visual block mode, moves the cursor to the other corner
horizontally.
|v_D| "D" in Visual block mode deletes till end of line.
Insert mode:
|i_CTRL-]| Triggers abbreviation, without inserting any character.
New options *added-options*

'background' Used for selecting highlight color defaults. Also used in

"syntax.vim" for selecting the syntax colors. Often set
automatically, depending on the terminal used.
'complete' Specifies how Insert mode completion works.
'eventignore' Makes it possible to ignore autocommands temporarily.
'fileformat' Current file format. Replaces 'textmode'.
'fileformats' Possible file formats. Replaces 'textauto'.
New is that this also supports Macintosh format: A single <CR>
separates lines.
The default for 'fileformats' for MS-DOS, Win32 and OS/2 is
"dos,unix", also when 'compatible' set. Unix type files
didn't work anyway when 'fileformats' was empty.
'guicursor' Set the cursor shape and blinking in various modes.
Default is to adjust the cursor for Insert and Replace mode,
and when an operator is pending. Blinking is default on.
'fkmap' Farsi key mapping.
'hlsearch' Highlight all matches with the last used search pattern.
'hkmapp' Phonetic Hebrew mapping. (Ilya Dogolazky)
'iconstring' Define the name of the icon, when not empty. (Version 5.2: the
string is used literally, a newline can be used to make two
lines.)
'lazyredraw' Don't redraw the screen while executing macros, registers or
other not typed commands.
'makeef' Errorfile to be used for ":make". "##" is replaced with a
unique number. Avoids that two Vim sessions overwrite each
others errorfile. The Unix default is "/tmp/vim##.err"; for
Amiga "t:vim##.Err, for others "vim##.err".
'matchtime' 1/10s of a second to show a matching paren, when 'showmatch'
is set. Like Nvi.
'mousehide' Hide mouse pointer in GUI when typing text.
'nrformats' Defines what bases Vim will consider for numbers when using
the CTRL-A and CTRL-X commands. Default: "hex,octal".
'shellxquote' Add extra quotes around the whole shell command, including
redirection.
'softtabstop' Make typing behave like tabstop is set at this value, without
changing the value of 'tabstop'. Makes it more easy to keep
'ts' at 8, while still getting four spaces for a <Tab>.
'titlestring' String for the window title, when not empty. (Version 5.2:
this string is used literally, a newline can be used to make
two lines.)
'verbose' Level of verbosity. Makes it possible to show which .vimrc,
.exrc, .viminfo files etc. are used for initializing. Also
to show autocommands that are being executed. Can also be set
by using the "-V" command-line argument.
New command-line arguments *added-cmdline-args*

|-U| Set the gvimrc file to be used. Like "-u" for the vimrc.
|-V| Set the 'verbose' option. E.g. "vim -V10".
|-N| Start in non-compatible mode.
|-C| Start in compatible mode.
|-Z| Start in restricted mode, disallow shell commands. Can also
be done by calling the executable "rvim".
|-h| Show usage information and exit.

Various additions *added-various*

Added support for SNiFF+ connection (submitted by Toni Leherbauer). Vim can
be used as an editor for SNiFF. No documentation available...
For producing a bug report, the bugreport.vim script has been included.
Can be used with ":so $VIMRUNTIME/bugreport.vim", which creates the file
"bugreport.txt" in the current directory. |bugs|
Added range to ":normal" command. Now you can repeat the same command for
each line in the range. |:normal-range|
Included support for the Farsi language (Shiran). Only when enabled at
compile time. See |farsi|.
==============================================================================
IMPROVEMENTS *improvements-5*
Performance:
- When 'showcmd' was set, mappings would execute much more slowly because the
output would be flushed very often. Helps a lot when executing the "life"
macros with 'showcmd' set.
- Included patches for binary searching in tags file (David O'Neill).
Can be disabled by resetting the 'tagbsearch' option.
- Don't update the ruler when repeating insert (slowed it down a lot).
- For Unix, file name expansion is now done internally instead of starting a
shell for it.
- Expand environment variables with expand_env(), instead of calling the
shell. Makes ":so $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syntax.vim" a LOT faster.
- Reduced output for cursor positioning: Use CR-LF for moving to first few
columns in next few lines; Don't output CR twice when using termios.
- Optimized cursor positioning. Use CR, BS and NL when it's shorter than
absolute cursor positioning.
- Disable redrawing while repeating insert "1000ii<Esc>".
- Made "d$" or "D" for long lines a lot faster (delete all characters at once,
instead of one by one).
- Access option table by first letter, instead of searching from start.
- Made setting special highlighting attributes a lot faster by using
highlight_attr[], instead of searching in the 'highlight' string.
- Don't show the mode when redrawing is disabled.
- When setting an option, only redraw the screen when required.
- Improved performance of Ex commands by using a lookup table for the first
character.
Options:
'cinoptions' Added 'g' flag, for C++ scope declarations.
'cpoptions' Added 'E' flag: Disallow yanking, deleting, etc. empty text
area. Default is to allow empty yanks. When 'E' is included,
"y$" in an empty line now is handled as an error (Vi
compatible).
Added 'j' flag: Only add two spaces for a join after a '.',
not after a '?' or '!'.
Added 'A' flag: don't give ATTENTION message.
Added 'L' flag: When not included, and 'list' is set,
'textwidth' formatting works like 'list' is not set.
Added 'W' flag: Let ":w!" behave like Vi: don't overwrite
readonly files, or a file owned by someone else.
'highlight' Added '@' flag, for '@' characters after the last line on the
screen, and '$' at the end of the line when 'list' is set.
Added 'i' flag: Set highlighting for 'incsearch'. Default
uses "IncSearch" highlight group, which is linked to "Visual".
Disallow 'h' flag in 'highlight' (wasn't used anymore since
3.0).
'guifont' Win32 GUI only: When set to "*" brings up a font requester.
'guipty' Default on, because so many people need it.
'path' Can contain wildcards, and "**" for searching a whole tree.
'shortmess' Added 'I' flag to avoid the intro message.
'viminfo' Added '%' flag: Store buffer list in viminfo file.
- Increased defaults for 'maxmem' and 'maxmemtot' for Unix and Win32. Most
machines have much more RAM now that prices have dropped.
- Implemented ":set all&", set all options to their default value. |:set|
Swap file:
- Don't create a swap file for a readonly file. Then create one on the first
change. Also create a swapfile when the amount of memory used is getting
too high. |swap-file|
- Make swap file "hidden", if possible. On Unix this is done by prepending a

dot to the swap file name. When long file names are used, the DJGPP and
Win32 versions also prepend a dot, in case a file on a mounted Unix file
system is edited. |:swapname| On MSDOS the hidden file attribute is NOT
set, because this causes problems with share.exe.
- 'updatecount' always defaults to non-zero, also for Vi compatible mode.
This means there is a swap file, which can be used for recovery.
Tags:
- Included ctags 2.0 (Darren Hiebert). The syntax for static tags changed
from
{tag}:{fname} {fname} {command}
to
{tag} {fname} {command};" file:
Which is both faster to parse, shorter and Vi compatible. The old format is
also still accepted, unless disabled in src/feature.h (see OLD_STATIC_TAGS).
|tags-file-format|
- Completion of tags now also includes static tags for other files, at the
end.
- Included "shtags" from Stephen Riehm.
- When finding a matching tag, but the file doesn't exist, continue searching
for another match. Helps when using the same tags file (with links) for
different versions of source code.
- Give a tag with a global match in the current file a higher priority than a
global match in another file.
Included xxd version V1.8 (Juergen Weigert).
Autocommands:
- VimLeave autocommands are executed after writing the viminfo file, instead
of before. |VimLeave|
- Allow changing autocommands while executing them. This allows for
self-modifying autocommands. (idea from Goldberg)
- When using autocommands with two or more patterns, could not split
":if/:endif" over two lines. Now all matching autocommands are executed in
one do_cmdline().
- Autocommands no longer change the command repeated with ".".
- Search patterns are restored after executing autocommands. This avoids
that the 'hlsearch' highlighting is messed up by autocommands.
- When trying to execute an autocommand, also try matching the pattern with
the short file name. Helps when short file name is different from full
file name (expanded symbolic links). |autocmd-patterns|
- Made the output of ":autocmd" shorter and look better.
- Expand <sfile> in an ":autocmd" when it is defined. |<sfile>|
- Added "nested" flag to ":autocmd", allows nesting. |autocmd-nested|
- Added [group] argument to ":autocmd". Overrides the currently set group.
|autocmd-groups|
- new events:
|BufUnload| before a buffer is unloaded
|BufDelete| before a buffer is deleted from the buffer list
|FileChangedShell| when a file's modification time has changed after
executing a shell command
|User| user-defined autocommand
- When 'modified' was set by a BufRead* autocommand, it was reset again
afterwards. Now the ":set modified" is remembered.
GUI:
- Improved GUI scrollbar handling when redrawing is slower than the scrollbar
events are generated.
- "vim -u NONE" now also stops loading the .gvimrc and other GUI inits. |-u|
Use "-U" to use another gvimrc file. |-U|
- Handle CTRL-C for external command, also for systems where "setsid()" is
supported.
- When starting the GUI, restrict the window size to the screen size.
- The default menus are read from $VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim. This allows for a
customized default menu. |menu.vim|
- Improved the default menus. Added File/Print, a Window menu, Syntax menu,
etc.
- Added priority to the ":menu" command. Now each menu can be put in a place
where you want it, independent of the order in which the menus are defined.
|menu-priority|
Give a warning in the intro screen when running the Win32 console version on
Windows 95 because there are problems using this version under Windows 95.
|win32-problems|
Added 'e' flag for ":substitute" command: Don't complain when not finding a
match (Campbell). |:s|
When using search commands in a mapping, only the last one is kept in the
history. Avoids that the history is trashed by long mappings.

Ignore characters after "ex", "view" and "gvim" when checking startup mode.
Allows the use of "gvim5" et. al. |gvim| "gview" starts the GUI in readonly
mode. |gview|
When resizing windows, the cursor is kept in the same relative position, if
possible. (Webb)
":all" and ":ball" no longer close and then open a window for the same buffer.
Avoids losing options, jumplist, and other info.
"-f" command-line argument is now ignored if Vim was compiled without GUI.
|-f|
In Visual block mode, the right mouse button picks up the nearest corner.
Changed default mappings for DOS et al. Removed the DOS-specific mappings,
only use the Windows ones. Added Shift-Insert, Ctrl-Insert, Ctrl-Del and
Shift-Del.
Changed the numbers in the output of ":jumps", so you can see where {count}
CTRL-O takes you. |:jumps|
Using "~" for $HOME now works for all systems. |$HOME|
Unix: Besides using CTRL-C, also use the INTR character from the tty settings.
Somebody has INTR set to DEL.
Allow a <LF> in a ":help" command argument to end the help command, so another
command can follow.
Doing "%" on a line that starts with " #if" didn't jump to matching "#else".
Don't recognize "#if", "#else" etc. for '%' when 'cpo' contains the '%' flag.
|%|
Insert mode expansion with "CTRL-N", "CTRL-P" and "CTRL-X" improved
YXXYins-completion|:
- 'complete' option added.
- When 'nowrapscan' is set, and no match found, report the searched direction
in the error message.
- Repeating CTRL-X commands adds following words/lines after the match.
- When adding-expansions, accept single character matches.
- Made repeated CTRL-X CTRL-N not break undo, and "." repeats the whole
insertion. Also fixes not being able to backspace over a word that has been
inserted with CTRL-N.
When copying characters in Insert mode from previous/next line, with CTRL-E or
CTRL-Y, 'textwidth' is no longer used. |i_CTRL-E|
Commands that move in the arglist, like ":n" and ":rew", keep the old cursor
position of the file (this is mostly Vi compatible).
Vim now remembers the '< and '> marks for each buffer. This fixes a problem
that a line-delete in one buffer invalidated the '< and '> marks in another
buffer. |'<|
For MSDOS, Unix and OS/2: When $VIM not set, use the path from the executable.
When using the executable path for $VIM, remove "src/" when present. Should
make Vim find the docs and syntax files when it is run directly after
compiling. |$VIM|
When quitting Visual mode with <Esc>, the cursor is put at start of the Visual
area (like after executing an operator).
Win32 and Unix version: Removed 1100 character limit on external commands.
Added possibility to include a space in a ":edit +command" argument, by
putting a backslash before it. |+cmd|
After recovery, BufReadPost autocommands are applied. |:recover|
Added color support for "os2ansi", OS/2 console. (Slootman) |os2ansi|
Allow "%:p:h" when % is empty. |:_%|
Included "<sfile>": file name from the ":source" command. |<sfile>|
Added "<Bslash>" special character. Helps for avoiding multiple backslashes
in mappings and menus.
In a help window, a double-click jumps to the tag under the cursor (like
CTRL-]).

<C-Left> and <C-Right> now work like <S-Left> and <S-Right>, move a word
forward/backward (Windows compatible). |<C-Left>|
Removed the requirement for a ":version" command in a .vimrc file. It wasn't
used for anything. You can use ":if" to handle differences between versions.
|:version|
For MS-DOS, Win32 and OS/2: When comparing file names for autocommands, don't
make a difference between '/' and '\' for path separator.
New termcap options:
"mb": blink. Can only be used by assigning it to one of the other highlight
options. |t_mb|
"bc": backspace character. |t_bc|
"nd": Used for moving the cursor right in the GUI, to avoid removing one line
of pixels from the last bold character. |t_nd|
"xs": highlighting not erased by overwriting, for hpterm. Combined with
'weirdinvert'. Visual mode works on hpterm now. |t_xs|
Unix: Set time of patch and backup file same as original file. (Hiebert).
Amiga: In QuickFix mode no longer opens another window. Shell commands can be
used now.
Added decmouse patches from David Binette. Can now use Dec and Netterm mouse.
But only when enabled at compile time.
Added '#' register: Alternate file name |quote#|. Display '#' register with
":dis" command. |:display|
Removed ':' from 'isfname' default for Unix. Check for "://" in a file name
anyway. Also check for ":\\", for MS-DOS.
Added count to "K"eyword command, when 'keywordprg' is "man", is inserted in
the man command. "2K" results in "!man 2 <cword>". |K|
When using "gf" on a relative path name, remove "../" from the file name, like
it's done for file names in the tags file. |gf|
When finishing recording, don't make the recorded register the default put
register.
When using "!!", don't put ":5,5!" on the command-line, but ":.!". And some
other enhancements to replace the line number with "." or "$" when possible.
MSDOS et al.: Renamed $VIM/viminfo to $VIM/_viminfo. It's more consistent:
.vimrc/_vimrc and .viminfo/_viminfo
For systems where case doesn't matter in file names (MSDOS, Amiga), ignore
case while sorting file names. For buffer names too.
When reading from stdin doesn't work, read from stderr (helps for "foo | xargs
vim").
32 bit MS-DOS version: Replaced csdpmi3 by csdpmi4.
Changed <C-Left> and <C-Right> to skip a WORD instead of a word.
Warning for changed modified time when overwriting a file now also works on
other systems than Unix.
Unix: Changed the defaults for configure to be the same as the defaults for
Makefile: include GUI, Perl, and Python.
Some versions of Motif require "-lXpm". Added check for this in configure.
Don't add "-L/usr/lib" to the link line, causes problems on a few systems.
==============================================================================
COMPILE TIME CHANGES *compile-changes-5*
When compiling, allow a choice for minimal, normal or maximal features in an
easy way, by changing a single line in src/feature.h.
The DOS16 version has been compiled with minimal features to avoid running
out of memory too quickly. |dos16|
The Win32, DJGPP, and OS/2 versions use maximal features, because they have
enough memory.
The Amiga version is available with normal and maximal features.

Added "make test" to Unix version Makefile. Allows for a quick check if most
"normal" commands work properly. Also tests a few specific commands.
Added setlocale() with codepage support for DJGPP version.
autoconf:
- Added autoconf check for -lXdmcp.
- Included check for -lXmu, no longer needed to edit the Makefile for this.
- Switched to autoconf 2.12.
- Added configure check for <poll.h>. Seems to be needed when including
Perl on Linux?
- termlib is now checked before termcap.
- Added configure check for strncasecmp(), stricmp() and strnicmp(). Added
vim_stricmp() for when there's no library function for stricmp().
- Use "datadir" in configure, instead of our own check for HELPDIR.
Removed "make proto" from Makefile.manx. Could not make it work without a lot
of #ifdefs.
Removed "proto/" from paths in proto.h. Needed for the Mac port.
Drastically changed Makefile.mint. Now it includes the Unix Makefile.
Added support for Dos16 in Makefile.b32 (renamed Makefile.b32 to Makefile.bor)
All source files are now edited with a tabstop of 8 instead of 4, which is
better when debugging and using other tools. 'softtabstop' is set to 4, to
make editing easier.
Unix: Added "link.sh" script, which removes a few unnecessary libraries from
the link command.
Don't use HPUX digraphs by default, but only when HPUX_DIGRAPHS is defined.
|digraphs-default|
==============================================================================
BUG FIXES *bug-fixes-5*
Note: Some of these fixes may only apply to test versions which were
created after version 4.6, but before 5.0.
When doing ":bdel", try going to the next loaded buffer. Don't rewind to the
start of the buffer list.
mch_isdir() for Unix returned TRUE for "" on some systems.
Win32: 'shell' set to "mksnt/sh.exe" breaks ":!" commands. Don't use
backslashes in the temp file names.
On linux, with a FAT file system, could get spurious "file xxx changed since
editing started" messages, because the time is rounded off to two seconds
unexpectedly.
Crash in GUI, when selecting a word (double click) and then extend until an
empty line.
For systems where isdigit() can't handle characters > 255, get_number() caused
a crash when moving the mouse during the prompt for recovery.
In Insert mode, "CTRL-O P" left the cursor on the last inserted character.
Now the cursor is left after the last putted character.
When quickfix found an error type other than 'e' or 'w', it was never printed.
A setting for 'errorfile' in a .vimrc overruled the "-q errorfile" argument.
Some systems create a file when generating a temp file name. Filtering would
then create a backup file for this, which was never deleted. Now no backup
file is made when filtering.
simplify_filename() could remove a ".." after a link, resulting in the wrong
file name. Made simplify_filename also work for MSDOS. Don't use it for
Amiga, since it doesn't have "../".
otherfile() was unreliable when using links. Could think that reading/writing
was for a different file, when it was the same.

Pasting with mouse in Replace mode didn't replace anything.

Window height computed wrong when resizing a window with an autocommand (could
cause a crash).
":s!foo!bar!" wasn't possible (Vi compatible).
do_bang() freed memory twice when called recursively, because of autocommands
(test11). Thanks to Electric Fence!
"v$d" on an empty line didn't remove the "-- VISUAL --" mode message from the
command-line, and inverted the cursor.
":mkexrc" didn't check for failure to open the file, causing a crash.
(Felderhoff).
Win32 mch_write() wrote past fixed buffer, causing terminal keys no longer to
be recognized. Both console and GUI version.
Athena GUI: Crash when removing a menu item. Now Vim doesn't crash, but the
reversing of the menu item is still wrong.
Always reset 'list' option for the help window.
When 'scrolloff' is non-zero, a 'showmatch' could cause the shown match to be
in the wrong line and the window to be scrolled (Acevedo).
After ":set all&", 'lines' and 'ttytype' were still non-default, because the
defaults never got set. Now the defaults for 'lines' and 'columns' are set
after detecting the window size. 'term' and 'ttytype' defaults are set when
detecting the terminal type.
For (most) non-Unix systems, don't add file names with illegal characters when
expanding. Fixes "cannot open swapfile" error when doing ":e *.burp", when
there is no match.
In X11 GUI, drawing part of the cursor obscured the text. Now the text is
drawn over the cursor, like when it fills the block. (Seibert)
when started with "-c cmd -q errfile", the cursor would be left in line 1.
Now a ":cc" is done after executing "cmd".
":ilist" never ignored case, even when 'ignorecase' set.
"vim -r file" for a readonly file, then making a change, got ATTENTION message
in insert mode, display mixed up until <Esc> typed. Also don't give ATTENTION
message after recovering a file.
The abbreviation ":ab #i #include" could not be removed.
CTRL-L completion (longest common match) on command-line didn't work properly
for case-insensitive systems (MS-DOS, Windows, etc.). (suggested by Richard
Kilgore).
For terminals that can hide the cursor ("vi" termcap entry), resizing the
window caused the cursor to disappear.
Using an invalid mark in an Ex address didn't abort the command.
When 'smarttab' set, would use 'shiftround' when inserting a TAB after a
space. Now it always rounds to a tabstop.
Set '[ and '] marks for ":copy", ":move", ":append", ":insert", ":substitute"
and ":change". (Acevedo).
"d$" in an empty line still caused an error, even when 'E' is not in
'cpoptions'.
Help files were stored in the viminfo buffer list without a path.
GUI: Displaying cursor was not synchronized with other displaying. Caused
several display errors. For example, when the last two lines in the file
start with spaces, "dd" on the last line copied text to the (then) last line.
Win32: Needed to type CTRL-SHIFT-- to get CTRL-_.
GUI: Moving the cursor forwards over bold text would remove one column of bold
pixels.
X11 GUI: When a bold character in the last column was scrolled up or down, one
column of pixels would not be copied.

Using <BS> to move the cursor left can sometimes erase a character. Now use
"le" termcap entry for this.
Keyword completion with regexp didn't work. e.g., for "b.*crat".
Fixed: With CTRL-O that jumps to another file, cursor could end up just after
the line.
Amiga: '$' was missing from character recognized as wildcards, causing $VIM
sometimes not to be expanded.
":change" didn't adjust marks for deleted lines.
":help [range]" didn't work. Also for [pattern], [count] and [quotex].
For 'cindent'ing, typing "class::method" doesn't align like a label when the
second ':' is typed.
When inserting a CR with 'cindent' set (and a bunch of other conditions) the
cursor went to a wrong location.
'cindent' was wrong for a line that ends in '}'.
'cindent' was wrong after "else {".
While editing the cmdline in the GUI, could not use the mouse to select text
from the command-line itself.
When deleting lines, marks in tag stack were only adjusted for the current
window, not for other windows on the same buffer.
Tag guessing could find a function "some_func" instead of the "func" we were
looking for.
Tags file name relative to the current file didn't work.
":g/pat2/s//pat2/g", causing the number of subs to be reported, used to cause
a scroll up. Now you no longer have to hit <CR>.
X11 GUI: Selecting text could cause a crash.
32 bit DOS version: CTRL-C in external command killed Vim. When SHELL is set
to "sh.exe", external commands didn't work. Removed using of command.com, no
longer need to set 'shellquote'.
Fixed crash when using ":g/pat/i".
Fixed (potential) crash for X11 GUI, when using an X selection. Was giving a
pointer on the stack to a callback function, now it's static.
Using "#" and "*" with an operator didn't work. E.g. "c#".
Command-line expansion didn't work properly after ":*". (Acevedo)
Setting 'weirdinvert' caused highlighting to be wrong in the GUI.
":e +4 #" didn't work, because the "4" was in unallocated memory (could cause
a crash).
Cursor position was wrong for ":e #", after ":e #" failed, because of changes
to the buffer.
When doing ":buf N", going to a buffer that was edited with ":view", the
readonly flag was reset. Now make a difference between ":e file" and ":buf
file": Only set/reset 'ro' for the first one.
Avoid |hit-enter| prompt when not able to write viminfo on exit.
When giving error messages in the terminal where the GUI was started, GUI
escape codes would be written to the terminal. In an xterm this could be seen
as a '$' after the message.
Mouse would not work directly after ":gui", because full_screen isn't set,
which causes starttermcap() not to do its work.
'incsearch' did not scroll the window in the same way as the actual search.
When 'nowrap' set, incsearch didn't show a match when it was off the side of
the screen. Now it also shows the whole match, instead of just the cursor
position (if possible).
":unmap", ":unab" and ":unmenu" did not accept a double quote, it was seen as
the start of a comment. Now it's Vi compatible.

Using <Up><Left><Left><Up> in the command-line, when there is no previous

cmdline in the history, inserted a NUL on the command-line.
"i<Esc>" when on a <Tab> in column 0 left the cursor in the wrong place.
GUI Motif: When adding a lot of menu items, the menu bar goes into two rows.
Deleting menu items, reducing the number of rows, now also works.
With ":g/pat/s//foo/c", a match in the first line was scrolled off of the
screen, so you could not see it.
When using ":s//c", with 'nowrap' set, a match could be off the side of the
screen, so you could not see it.
When 'helpfile' was set to a fixed, non-absolute path in feature.h, Vim would
crash. mch_Fullname can now handle file names in read-only memory. (Lottem)
When using CTRL-A or CTRL-@ in Insert mode, there could be strange effects
when using CTRL-D next. Also, when repeating inserted text that included "0
CTRL-D" or "^ CTRL-D" this didn't work. (Acevedo)
Using CTRL-D after using CTRL-E or CTRL-Y in Insert mode that inserted a '0'
or '^', removed the '0' or '^' and more indent.
The command "2".p" caused the last inserted text to be executed as commands.
(Acevedo)
Repeating the insert of "CTRL-V 048" resulted in "^@" to be inserted.
Repeating Insert completion could fail if there are special characters in the
text. (Acevedo)
":normal /string<CR>" caused the window to scroll. Now all ":normal" commands
are executed without scrolling messages.
Redo of CTRL-E or CTRL-Y in Insert mode interpreted special characters as
commands.
Line wrapping for 'tw' was done one character off for insert expansion
inserts.
buffer_exists() function didn't work properly for buffer names with a symbolic
link in them (e.g. when using buffer_exists(#)).
Removed the "MOTIF_COMMENT" construction from Makefile. It now works with
FreeBSD make, and probably with NeXT make too.
Matching the 'define' and 'include' arguments now honor the settings for
'ignorecase'. (Acevedo)
When one file shown in two windows, Visual selection mixed up cursor position
in current window and other window.
When doing ":e file" from a help file, the 'isk' option wasn't reset properly,
because of a modeline in the help file.
When doing ":e!", a cursor in another window on the same buffer could become
invalid, leading to "ml_get: invalid lnum" errors.
Matching buffer name for when expanded name has a different path from not
expanded name (Brugnara).
Normal mappings didn't work after an operator. For example, with ":map Q gq",
"QQ" didn't work.
When ":make" resulted in zero errors, a "No Errors" error message was given
(which breaks mappings).
When ":sourcing" a file, line length was limited to 1024 characters. CTRL-V
before <EOL> was not handled Vi compatible. (Acevedo)
Unexpected exit for X11 GUI, caused by SAVE_YOURSELF event. (Heimann)
CTRL-X CTRL-I only found one match per line. (Acevedo)
When using an illegal CTRL-X key in Insert mode, the CTRL-X mode message
was stuck.
Finally managed to ignore the "Quit" menu entry of the Window manager! Now
Vim only exists when there are no changed buffers.
Trying to start the GUI when $DISPLAY is not set resulted in a crash.
When $DISPLAY is not set and gvim starts vim, title was restored to "Thanks
for flying Vim".

When $DISPLAY not set, starting "gvim" (dropping back to vim) and then
selecting text with the mouse caused a crash.
"J", with 'joinspaces' set, on a line ending in ". ", caused one space too
many to be added. (Acevedo)
In insert mode, a CTRL-R {regname} which didn't insert anything left the '"''
on the screen.
":z10" didn't work. (Clapp)
"Help "*" didn't work.
Renamed a lot of functions, to avoid clashes with POSIX name space.
When adding characters to a line, making it wrap, the following lines were
sometimes not shifted down (e.g. after a tag jump).
CTRL-E, with 'so' set and cursor on last line, now does not move cursor as
long as the last line is on the screen.
When there are two windows, doing "^W+^W-" in the bottom window could cause
the status line to be doubled (not redrawn correctly).
This command would hang: ":n `cat`". Now connect stdin of the external
command to /dev/null, when expanding.
Fixed lalloc(0,) error for ":echo %:e:r". (Acevedo)
The "+command" argument to ":split" didn't work when there was no file name.
When selecting text in the GUI, which is the output of a command-line command
or an external command, the inversion would sometimes remain.
GUI: "-mh 70" argument was broken. Now, when menuheight is specified, it is
not changed anymore.
GUI: When using the scrollbar or mouse while executing an external command,
this caused garbage characters.
Showmatch sometimes jumped to the wrong position. Was caused by a call to
findmatch() when redrawing the display (when syntax highlighting is on).
Search pattern "$a *$\{3} did not work correctly, also matched "a a".
Problem with brace_count not being decremented.
Wildcard expansion added too many non-matching file names.
When 'iskeyword' contains characters like '~', "*" and "#" didn't work
properly. (Acevedo)
On Linux, on a FAT file system, modification time can change by one second.
Avoid a "file has changed" warning for a one second difference.
When using the page-switching in an xterm, Vim would position the cursor on
the last line of the window on exit. Also removed the cursor positioning for
":!" commands.
":g/pat/p" command (partly) overwrote the command. Now the output is on a
separate line.
With 'ic' and 'scs' set, a search for "Keyword", ignore-case matches were
highlighted too.
"^" on a line with only white space, put cursor beyond the end of the line.
When deleting characters before where insertion started ('bs' == 2), could not
use abbreviations.
CTRL-E at end of file puts cursor below the file, in Visual mode, when 'so' is
non-zero. CTRL-E didn't work when 'so' is big and the line below the window
wraps. CTRL-E, when 'so' is non-zero, at end of the file, caused jumping
up-down.
":retab" didn't work well when 'list' is set.
Amiga: When inserting characters at the last line on the screen, causing it
to wrap, messed up the display. It appears that a '\n' on the last line
doesn't always cause a scroll up.
In Insert mode "0<C-D><C-D>" deleted an extra character, because Vim thought

that the "0" was still there. (Acevedo)

"z{count}l" ignored the count. Also for "zh" et. al. (Acevedo)
"S" when 'autoindent' is off didn't delete leading white space.
"/<Tab>" landed on the wrong character when 'incsearch' is set.
Asking a yes/no question could cause a |hit-enter| prompt.
When the file consists of one long line (>4100 characters), making changes
caused various errors and a crash.
DJGPP version could not save long lines (>64000) for undo.
"yw" on the last char in the file didn't work. Also fixed "6x" at the end of
the line. "6X" at the start of a line fails, but does not break a mapping. In
general, a movement for an operator doesn't beep or flush a mapping, but when
there is nothing to operate on it beeps (this is Vi compatible).
"m'"' and "m`" now set the '' mark at the cursor position.
Unix: Resetting of signals for external program didn't work, because SIG_DFL
and NULL are the same! For "!!yes|dd count=1|, the yes command kept on
running.
Partly fixed: Unix GUI: Typeahead while executing an external command was lost.
Now it's not lost while the command is producing output.
Typing <S-Tab> in Insert mode, when it isn't mapped, inserted "<S-Tab>". Now
it works like a normal <Tab>, just like <C-Tab> and <M-Tab>.
Redrawing ruler didn't check for old value correctly (caused UMR warnings in
Purify).
Negative array index in finish_viminfo_history().
":g/^/d|mo $" deleted all the lines. The ":move" command now removes the
:global mark from the moved lines.
Using "vG" while the last line in the window is a "@" line, didn't update
correctly. Just the "v" showed "~" lines.
"daw" on the last char of the file, when it's a space, moved the cursor beyond
the end of the line.
When 'hlsearch' was set or reset, only the current buffer was redrawn, while
this affects all windows.
CTRL-^, positioning the cursor somewhere from 1/2 to 1 1/2 screen down the
file, put the cursor at the bottom of the window, instead of halfway.
When scrolling up for ":append" command, not all windows were updated
correctly.
When 'hlsearch' is set, and an auto-indent is highlighted, pressing <Esc>
didn't remove the highlighting, although the indent was deleted.
When 'ru' set and 'nosc', using "$j" showed a wrong ruler.
Under Xfree 3.2, Shift-Tab didn't work (wrong keysym is used).
Mapping <S-Tab> didn't work. Changed the key translations to use the shortest
key code possible. This makes the termcode translations and mappings more
consistent. Now all modifiers work in all combinations, not only with <Tab>,
but also with <Space>, <CR>, etc.
For Unix, restore three more signals. And Vim catches SIGINT now, so CTRL-C
in Ex mode doesn't make Vim exit.
""a5Y" yanked 25 lines instead of 5.
"vrxxx<Esc>" in an empty line could not be undone.
A CTRL-C that breaks ":make" caused the errorfile not to be read (annoying
when you want to handle what ":make" produced so far).
":0;/pat" didn't find "pat" in line 1.
Search for "/test/s+1" at first char of file gave bottom-top message, or
didn't work at all with 'nowrapscan'.

Bug in viminfo history. Could cause a crash on exit.

":print" didn't put cursor on first non-blank in line.
":0r !cat </dev/null" left cursor in line zero, with very strange effects.
With 'showcmd' set and 'timeoutlen' set to a few seconds, trick to position
the cursor leftwards didn't work.
AIX stty settings were restored to cs5 instead of cs8 (Winn).
File name completion didn't work for "zsh" versions that put spaces between
file names, instead of NULs.
Changed "XawChain*" to "XtChain*", should work for more systems.
Included quite a few fixes for rightleft mode (Lottem).
Didn't ask to |hit-enter| when GUI is started and error messages are printed.
When trying to edit a file in a non-existent directory, ended up with editing
"No file".
"gqap" to format a paragraph did too much redrawing.
When 'hlsearch' set, only the current window was updated for a new search
pattern.
Sometimes error messages on startup didn't cause a |hit-enter| prompt,
because of autocommands containing an empty line.
Was possible to select part of the window in the border, below the command
line.
'< and '> marks were not at the correct position after linewise Visual
selection.
When translating a help argument to "CTRL-x", prepend or append a '_', when
applicable.
Blockwise visual mode wasn't correct when moving vertically over a special
character (displayed as two screen characters).
Renamed "struct option" to "struct vimoption" to avoid name clash with GNU
getopt().
":abclear" didn't work (but ":iabclear" and ":cabclear" did work).
When 'nowrap' used, screen wasn't always updated correctly.
"vim -c split file" displayed extra lines.
After starting the GUI, searched the termcap for a "gui" term.
When 'hls' used, search for "^$" caused a hang.
When 'hls' was set, an error in the last regexp caused trouble.
Unix: Only output an extra <EOL> on exit when outputted something in the
alternate screen, or when there is a message that needs to be cleared.
"/a\{" did strange things, depending on previous search.
"c}" only redrew one line (with -u NONE).
For mappings, CTRL-META-A was shown as <M-Â> instead of <MC-A>, while :map
only accepts <MC-A>. Now <M-C-A> is shown.
Unix: When using full path name in a tags file, which contains a link, and
'hidden' set and jumping to a tag in the current file, would get bogus
ATTENTION message. Solved by always expanding file names, even when starting
with '/'.
'hlsearch' highlighting of special characters (e.g., a TAB) didn't highlight
the whole thing.
"r<CR>" didn't work correctly on the last char of a line.
Sometimes a window resize or other signal caused an endless loop, involving
set_winsize().

"vim -r" didn't work, it would just hang (using tgetent() while 'term' is
empty).
"gk" while 'nowrap' set moved two lines up.
When windows are split, a message that causes a scroll-up messed up one of the
windows, which required a CTRL-L to be typed.
Possible endless loop when using shell command in the GUI.
Menus defined in the .vimrc were removed when GUI started.
Crash when pasting with the mouse in insert mode.
Crash with ":unmenu *" in .gvimrc for Athena.
"5>>" shifted 5 lines 5 times, instead of 1 time.
CTRL-C when getting a prompt in ":global" didn't interrupt.
When 'so' is non-zero, and moving the scrollbar completely to the bottom,
there was a lot of flashing.
GUI: Scrollbar ident must be long for DEC Alpha.
Some functions called vim_regcomp() without setting reg_magic, which could
lead to unpredictable magicness.
Crash when clicking around the status line, could get a selection with a
backwards range.
When deleting more than one line characterwise, the last character wasn't
deleted.
GUI: Status line could be overwritten when moving the scrollbar quickly (or
when 'wd' is non-zero).
An ESC at the end of a ":normal" command caused a wait for a terminal code to
finish. Now, a terminal code is not recognized when its start comes from a
mapping or ":normal" command.
Included patches from Robert Webb for GUI. Layout of the windows is now done
inside Vim, instead of letting the layout manager do this. Makes Vim work
with Lesstif!
UMR warning in set_expand_context().
Memory leak: b_winlnum list was never freed.
Removed TIOCLSET/TIOCLGET code from os_unix.c. Was changing some of the
terminal settings, and looked like it wasn't doing anything good. (suggested
by Juergen Weigert).
Ruler overwrote "is a directory" message. When starting up, and 'cmdheight'
set to > 1, first message could still be in the last line.
Removed prototype for putenv() from proto.h, it's already in osdef2.h.in.
In replace mode, when moving the cursor and then backspacing, wrong characters
were inserted.
Win32 GUI was checking for a CTRL-C too often, making it slow.
Removed mappings for MS-DOS that were already covered by commands.
When visually selecting all lines in a file, cursor at last line, then "J".
Gave ml_get errors. Was a problem with scrolling down during redrawing.
When doing a linewise operator, and then an operator with a mouse click, it
was also linewise, instead of characterwise.
When 'list' is set, the column of the ruler was wrong.
Spurious error message for "/$b\+$*".
When visually selected many lines, message from ":w file" disappeared when
redrawing the screen.
":set <M-b>=^[b", then insert "^[b", waited for another character. And then
inserted "<M-b>" instead of the real <M-b> character. Was trying to insert
K SPECIAL x NUL.

CTRL-W ] didn't use count to set window height.

GUI: "-font" command-line argument didn't override 'guifont' setting from
.gvimrc. (Acevedo)
GUI: clipboard wasn't used for "*y". And some more Win32/X11 differences
fixed for the clipboard (Webb).
Jumping from one help file to another help file, with 'compatible' set,
removed the 'help' flag from the buffer.
File-writable bit could be reset when using ":w!" for a readonly file.
There was a wait for CTRL-O n in Insert mode, because the search pattern was
shown.
Reduced wait, to allow reading a message, from 10 to 3 seconds. It seemed
nothing was happening.
":recover" found same swap file twice.
GUI: "*yy only worked the second time (when pasting to an xterm)."
DJGPP version (dos32): The system flags were cleared.
Dos32 version: Underscores were sometimes replaced with y-umlaut (Levin).
Version 4.1 of ncurses can't handle tputs("", ..). Avoid calling tputs() with
an empty string.
<S-Tab> in the command-line worked like CTRL-P when no completion started yet.
Now it does completion, last match first.
Unix: Could get annoying "can't write viminfo" message after doing "su". Now
the viminfo file is overwritten, and the user set back to the original one.
":set term=builtin_gui" started the GUI in a wrong way. Now it's not
allowed anymore. But "vim -T gui" does start the GUI correctly now.
GUI: Triple click after a line only put last char in selection, when it is a
single character word.
When the window is bigger than the screen, the scrolling up of messages was
wrong (e.g. ":vers", ":hi"). Also when the bottom part of the window was
obscured by another window.
When using a wrong option only an error message is printed, to avoid that the
usage information makes it scroll off the screen.
When exiting because of not being able to read from stdin, didn't preserve the
swap files properly.
Visual selecting all chars in more than one line, then hit "x" didn't leave an
empty line. For one line it did leave an empty line.
Message for which autocommand is executing messed up file write message (for
FileWritePost event).
"vim -h" included "-U" even when GUI is not available, and "-l" when lisp is
not available.
Crash for ":he <C-A>" (command-line longer than screen).
":s/this/that/gc", type "y" two times, then undo, did reset the modified
option, even though the file is still modified.
Empty lines in a tags file caused a ":tag" to be aborted.
When hitting 'q' at the more prompt for ":menu", still scrolled a few lines.
In an xterm that uses the bold trick a single row of characters could remain
after an erased bold character. Now erase one extra char after the bold char,
like for the GUI.
":pop!" didn't work.
When the reading a buffer was interrupted, ":w" should not be able to
overwrite the file, ":w!" is required.
":cf%" caused a crash.

":gui longfilename", when forking is enabled, could leave part of the

longfilename at the shell prompt.
==============================================================================
VERSION 5.1 *version-5.1*
Improvements made between version 5.0 and 5.1.
This was mostly a bug-fix release, not many new features.
Changed *changed-5.1*
The expand() function now separates file names with <NL> instead of a space.
This avoids problems for file names with embedded spaces. To get the old
result, use substitute(expand(foo), "\n", " ", "g").
For Insert-expanding dictionaries allow a backslash to be used for
wildchars. Allows expanding "ze\kra", when 'isk' includes a backslash.
New icon for the Win32 GUI.
":tag", ":tselect" etc. only use the argument as a regexp when it starts
with '/'. Avoids that ":tag xx~" gives an error message: "No previous sub.
regexp". Also, when the :tag argument contained wildcard characters, it was
not Vi compatible.
When using '/', the argument is taken literally too, with a higher priority,
so it's found before wildcard matches.
Only when the '/' is used are matches with different case found, even though
'ignorecase' isn't set.
Changed "g^]" to only do ":tselect" when there is more than on matching tag.
Changed some of the default colors, because they were not very readable on a
dark background.
A character offset to a search pattern can move the cursor to the next or
previous line. Also fixes that "/pattern/e+2" got stuck on "pattern" at the
end of a line.
Double-clicks in the status line do no longer start Visual mode. Dragging a
status line no longer stops Visual mode.
Perl interface: Buffers() and Windows() now use more logical arguments, like
they are used in the rest of Vim (Moore).
Init '"' mark to the first character of the first line. Makes it possible to
use '"' in an autocommand without getting an error message.
Added *added-5.1*
"shell_error" internal variable: result of last shell command.
":echohl" command: Set highlighting for ":echo".
'S' flag in 'highlight' and StatusLineNC highlight group: highlighting for
status line of not-current window. Default is to use bold for current
window.
Added buffer_name() and buffer_number() functions (Aaron).
Added flags argument "g" to substitute() function (Aaron).
Added winheight() function.
Win32: When an external command starts with "start ", no console is opened
for it (Aaron).
Win32 console: Use termcap codes for bold/reverse based on the current
console attributes.
Configure check for "strip". (Napier)
CTRL-R CTRL-R x in Insert mode: Insert the contents of a register literally,
instead of as typed.
Made a few "No match" error messages more informative by adding the pattern
that didn't match.

"make install" now also copies the macro files.

tools/tcltags, a shell script to generate a tags file from a TCL file.
"--with-tlib" setting for configure. Easy way to use termlib: "./configure
--with-tlib=termlib".
'u' flag in 'cino' for setting the indent for contained () parts.
When Win32 OLE version can't load the registered type library, ask the user
if he wants to register Vim now. (Erhardt)
Win32 with OLE: When registered automatically, exit Vim.
Included VisVim 1.1b, with a few enhancements and the new icon (Heiko
Erhardt).
Added patch from Vince Negri for Win32s support. Needs to be compiled with
VC 4.1!
Perl interface: Added $curbuf. Rationalized Buffers() and Windows().
(Moore) Added "group" argument to Msg().
Included Perl files in DOS source archive. Changed Makefile.bor and
Makefile.w32 to support building a Win32 version with Perl included.
Included new Makefile.w32 from Ken Scott. Now it's able to make all Win32
versions, including OLE, Perl and Python.
Added CTRL-W g ] and CTRL-W g ^]: split window and do g] or g^].
Added "g]" to always do ":tselect" for the ident under the cursor.
Added ":tjump" and ":stjump" commands.
Improved listing of ":tselect" when tag names are a bit long.
Included patches for the Macintosh version. Also for Python interface.
(St-Amant)
":buf foo" now also restores cursor column, when the buffer was used before.
Adjusted the Makefile for different final destinations for the syntax files
and scripts (for Debian Linux).
Amiga: $VIM can be used everywhere. When $VIM is not defined, "VIM:" is
used. This fixes that "VIM:" had to be assigned for the help files, and
$VIM set for the syntax files. Now either of these work.
Some xterms send vt100 compatible function keys F1-F4. Since it's not
possible to detect this, recognize both type of keys and translate them to
<F1> - <F4>.
Added "VimEnter" autocommand. Executed after loading all the startup stuff.
BeOS version now also runs on Intel CPUs (Seibert).
Fixed *fixed-5.1*
":ts" changed position in the tag stack when cancelled with <CR>.
":ts" changed the cursor position for CTRL-T when cancelled with <CR>.
":tn" would always jump to the second match. Was using the wrong entry in
the tag stack.
Doing "tag foo", then ":tselect", overwrote the original cursor position in
the tag stack.
"make install" changed the vim.1 manpage in a wrong way, causing "doc/doc"
to appear for the documentation files.
When compiled with MAX_FEAT, xterm mouse handling failed. Was caused by DEC
mouse handling interfering.
Was leaking memory when using selection in X11.
CTRL-D halfway a command-line left some characters behind the first line(s)
of the listing.
When expanding directories for ":set path=", put two extra backslashes
before a space in a directory name.
When 'lisp' set, first line of a function would be indented. Now its indent
is set to zero. And use the indent of the first previous line that is at

the same () level. Added test33.

"so<Esc>u" in an empty file didn't work.
DOS: "seek error in swap file write" errors, when using DOS 6.2 share.exe,
because the swap file was made hidden. It's no longer hidden.
":global" command would sometimes not execute on a matching line. Happened
when a data block is full in ml_replace().
For AIX use a tgetent buffer of 2048 bytes, instead of 1024.
Win32 gvim now only sets the console size for external commands to 25x80
on Windows 95, not on NT.
Win32 console: Dead key could cause a crash, because of a missing "WINAPI"
(Deshpande).
The right mouse button started Visual mode, even when 'mouse' is empty, and
in the command-line, a left click moved the cursor when 'mouse' is empty.
In Visual mode, 'n' in 'mouse' would be used instead of 'v'.
A blinking cursor or focus change cleared a non-Visual selection.
CTRL-Home and CTRL-End didn't work for MS-DOS versions.
Could include NUL in 'iskeyword', causing a crash when doing insert mode
completion.
Use _dos_commit() to flush the swap file to disk for MSDOS 16 bit version.
In mappings, CTRL-H was replaced by the backspace key code. This caused
problems when it was used as text, e.g. ":map _U :%s/.^H//g<CR>".
":set t_Co=0" was not handled like a normal term. Now it's translated into
":set t_Co=", which works.
For ":syntax keyword" the "transparent" option did work, although not
mentioned in the help. But synID() returned wrong name.
"gqG" in a file with one-word-per-line (e.g. a dictionary) was very slow and
not interruptible.
"gq" operator inserted screen lines in the wrong situation. Now screen
lines are inserted or deleted when this speeds up displaying.
cindent was wrong when an "if" contained "((".
'r' flag in 'viminfo' was not used for '%'. Could get files in the buffer
list from removable media.
Win32 GUI with OLE: if_ole_vc.mak could not be converted into a project.
Hand-edited to fix this...
With 'nosol' set, doing "$kdw" below an empty line positioned the cursor at
the end of the line.
Dos32 version changed "\dir\file" into "/dir/file", to work around a DJGPP
bug. That bug appears to have been fixed, therefore this translation has
been removed.
"/^*" didn't work (find '*' in first column).
"<afile>" was not always set for autocommands. E.g., for ":au BufEnter *
let &tags = expand("<afile>:p:h") . "/tags".
In an xterm, the window may be a child of the outer xterm window. Use the
parent window when getting the title and icon names. (Smith)
When starting with "gvim -bg black -fg white", the value of 'background' is
only set after reading the .gvimrc file. This causes a ":syntax on" to use
the wrong colors. Now allow using ":gui" to open the GUI window and set the
colors. Previously ":gui" in a gvimrc crashed Vim.
tempname() returned the same name all the time, unless the file was actually
created. Now there are at least 26 different names.
File name used for <afile> was sometimes full path, sometimes file name
relative to current directory.
When 'background' was set after the GUI window was opened, it could change

colors that were set by the user in the .gvimrc file. Now it only changes
colors that have not been set by the user.
Ignore special characters after a CSI in the GUI version. These could be
interpreted as special characters in a wrong way. (St-Amant)
Memory leak in farsi code, when using search or ":s" command.
Farsi string reversing for a mapping was only done for new mappings. Now it
also works for replacing a mapping.
Crash in Win32 when using a file name longer than _MAX_PATH. (Aaron)
When BufDelete autocommands were executed, some things for the buffer were
already deleted (esp. Perl stuff).
Perl interface: Buffer specific items were deleted too soon; fixes "screen
no longer exists" messages. (Moore)
The Perl functions didn't set the 'modified' flag.
link.sh did not return an error on exit, which may cause Vim to start
installing, even though there is no executable to install. (Riehm)
Vi incompatibility: In Vi "." redoes the "y" command. Added the 'y' flag to
'cpoptions'. Only for 'compatible' mode.
":echohl" defined a new group, when the argument was not an existing group.
"syn on" and ":syn off" could move the cursor, if there is a hidden buffer
that is shorter that the current cursor position.
The " mark was not set when doing ":b file".
When a "nextgroup" is used with "skipwhite" in syntax highlighting, space at
the end of the line made the nextgroup also be found in the next line.
":he g<CTRL-D>", then ":" and backspace to the start didn't redraw.
X11 GUI: "gvim -rv" reversed the colors twice on Sun. Now Vim checks if the
result is really reverse video (background darker than foreground).
"cat link.sh | vim -" didn't set syntax highlighting.
Win32: Expanding "file.sw?" matched ".file.swp". This is an error of
FindnextFile() that we need to work around. (Kilgore)
"gqgq" gave an "Invalid lnum" error on the last line.
Formatting with "gq" didn't format the first line after a change of comment
leader.
There was no check for out-of-memory in win_alloc().
"vim -h" didn't mention "-register" and "-unregister" for the OLE version.
Could not increase 'cmdheight' when the last window is only one line. Now
other windows are also made smaller, when necessary.
Added a few {} to avoid "suggest braces around" warnings from gcc 2.8.x.
Changed return type of main() from void to int. (Nam)
Using '~' twice in a substitute pattern caused a crash.
"syn on" and ":syn off" could scroll the window, if there is a hidden buffer
that is shorter that the current cursor position.
":if 0 | if 1 | endif | endif" didn't work. Same for ":while" and "elseif".
With two windows on modified files, with 'autowrite' set, cursor in second
window, ":qa" gave a warning for the file in the first window, but then
auto-wrote the file in the second window. (Webb)
Win32 GUI scrollbar could only handle 32767 lines. Also makes the
intellimouse wheel use the configurable number of scrolls. (Robinson)
When using 'patchmode', and the backup file is on another partition, the file
copying messed up the write-file message.
GUI X11: Alt-Backspace and Alt-Delete didn't work.
"`0" could put the cursor after the last character in the line, causing
trouble for other commands, like "i".

When completing tags in insert mode with ^X^], some matches were skipped,
because the compare with other tags was wrong. E.g., when "mnuFileSave" was
already there, "mnuFile" would be skipped. (Negri)
When scrolling up/down, a syntax item with "keepend" didn't work properly.
Now the flags are also stored for the syntax state at the start of each line.
When 'ic' was changed while 'hlsearch' is on, there was no redraw to show the
effect.
Win32 GUI: Don't display "No write since last chance" in a message box, but in
the Vim window.
==============================================================================
Improvements made between version 5.1 and 5.2.
Long lines editable *long-lines*

A single long line that doesn't fit in the window doesn't show a line of @@@
anymore. Redrawing starts at a character further on in the line, such that
the text around the cursor can be seen. This makes it possible to edit these
long lines when wrapping is on.
File browser added *file-browser-5.2*

The Win32, Athena and Motif GUI bring up a file requester if the user asks to
":browse" for the ":e", ":w", ":r", ":so", ":redirect" and
":mkexrc/vimrc/vsess" commands. ::browse e /foo/bar" opens the requester in
the /foo/bar directory, so you can have nice mapping rhs's like ":browse so
$vim/macros". If no initial dir specified for ":browse e", can be compiled to
either begin in the current directory, or that of the current buffer. (Negri
and Kahn)
Added the 'browsedir' option, with value "current", "last" or "buffer". Tells
whether a browse dialog starts in last used dir, dir of current buffer, or
current dir. ":browse w" is unaffected.
The default menus have been changed to use the ":browse" command.
Dialogs added *dialogs-added*

Added the ":confirm" command. Works on ":e", ":q", ":w", ":cl". Win32,
Athena and Motif GUI uses a window-dialog. All other platforms can use
prompt in command-line. ":confirm qa" offers a choice to save all modified
files.
confirm() function: allows user access to the confirm engine.
Added 'v' flag to 'guioptions'. When included, a vertical button layout is
always used for the Win32 GUI dialog. Otherwise, a horizontal layout is
preferred.
Win32 GUI: ":promptfind" and ":promptrepl" pop up a dialog to find/replace.
To be used from a menu entry. (Negri)
Popup menu added *popup-menu-added*

When the 'mousemodel' option is set to "popup", the right mouse button
displays the top level menu headed with "PopUp" as pop-up context menu. The
"PopUp" menu is not displayed in the normal menu bar. This currently only
works for Win32 and Athena GUI.
Select mode added *new-Select-mode*

A new mode has been added: "Select mode". It is like Visual mode, but typing
a printable character replaces the selection.
- CTRL-G can be used to toggle between Visual mode and Select mode.
- CTRL-O can be used to switch from Select mode to Visual mode for one command.

- Added 'selectmode' option: tells when to start Select mode instead of Visual
mode.
- Added 'mousemodel' option: Change use of mouse buttons.
- Added 'keymodel' option: tells to use shifted special keys to start a
Visual or Select mode selection.
- Added ":behave". Can be used to quickly set 'selectmode', 'mousemodel'
and 'keymodel' for MS-Windows and xterm behavior.
- The xterm-like selection is now called modeless selection.
- Visual mode mappings and menus are used in Select mode. They automatically
switch to Visual mode first. Afterwards, reselect the area, unless it was
deleted. The "gV" command can be used in a mapping to skip the reselection.
- Added the "gh", "gH" and "g^H" commands: start Select (highlight) mode.
- Backspace in Select mode deletes the selected area.
"mswin.vim" script. Sets behavior mostly like MS-Windows.
Session files added *new-session-files*

":mks[ession]" acts like "mkvimrc", but also writes the full filenames of the
currently loaded buffers and current directory, so that :so'ing the file
re-loads those files and cd's to that directory. Also stores and restores
windows. File names are made relative to session file.
The 'sessionoptions' option sets behavior of ":mksession". (Negri)
User defined functions and commands *new-user-defined*

Added user defined functions. Defined with ":function" until ":endfunction".
Called with "Func()". Allows the use of a variable number of arguments.
Included support for local variables "l:name". Return a value with ":return".
See |:function|.
Call a function with ":call". When using a range, the function is called for
each line in the range. |:call|
"macros/justify.vim" is an example of using user defined functions.
User functions do not change the last used search pattern or the command to be
redone with ".".
'maxfuncdepth' option. Restricts the depth of function calls. Avoids trouble
(crash because of out-of-memory) when a function uses endless recursion.
User definable Ex commands: ":command", ":delcommand" and ":comclear".
(Moore) See |user-commands|.
New interfaces *interfaces-5.2*

Tcl interface. (Wilken) See |tcl|.
Uses the ":tcl", ":tcldo" and "tclfile" commands.
Cscope support. (Kahn) (Sekera) See |cscope|.
Uses the ":cscope" and ":cstag" commands. Uses the options 'cscopeprg',
'cscopetag', 'cscopetagorder' and 'cscopeverbose'.
New ports *ports-5.2*

Amiga GUI port. (Nielsen) Not tested much yet!
RISC OS version. (Thomas Leonard) See |riscos|.
This version can run either with a GUI or in text mode, depending upon where
it is invoked.
Deleted the "os_archie" files, they were not working anyway.
Multi-byte support *new-multi-byte*

MultiByte support for Win32 GUI. (Baek)
The 'fileencoding' option decides how the text in the file is encoded.
":ascii" works for multi-byte characters. Multi-byte characters work on
Windows 95, even when using the US version. (Aaron)
Needs to be enabled in feature.h.
This has not been tested much yet!

New functions *new-functions-5.2*

|browse()| puts up a file requester when available. (Negri)
|escape()| escapes characters in a string with a backslash.
|fnamemodify()| modifies a file name.
|input()| asks the user to enter a line. (Aaron) There is a separate
history for lines typed for the input() function.
|argc()|
|argv()| can be used to access the argument list.
|winbufnr()| buffer number of a window. (Aaron)
|winnr()| window number. (Aaron)
|matchstr()| Return matched string.
|setline()| Set a line to a string value.
New options *new-options-5.2*

'allowrevins' Enable the CTRL-_ command in Insert and Command-line mode.
'browsedir' Tells in which directory a browse dialog starts.
'confirm' when set, :q :w and :e commands always act as if ":confirm"
is used. (Negri)
'cscopeprg'
'cscopetag'
'cscopetagorder'
'cscopeverbose' Set the |cscope| behavior.
'filetype' RISC-OS specific type of file.
'grepformat'
'grepprg' For the |:grep| command.
'keymodel' Tells to use shifted special keys to start a Visual or Select
mode selection.
'listchars' Set character to show in 'list' mode for end-of-line, tabs and
trailing spaces. (partly by Smith) Also sets character to
display if a line doesn't fit when 'nowrap' is set.
'matchpairs' Allows matching '<' with '>', and other single character
pairs.
'mousefocus' Window focus follows mouse (partly by Terhaar). Changing the
focus with a keyboard command moves the pointer to that
window. Also move the pointer when changing the window layout
(split window, change window height, etc.).
'mousemodel' Change use of mouse buttons.
'selection' When set to "inclusive" or "exclusive", the cursor can go one
character past the end of the line in Visual or Select mode.
When set to "old" the old behavior is used. When
"inclusive", the character under the cursor is included in the
operation. When using "exclusive", the new "ve" entry of
'guicursor' is used. The default is a vertical bar.
'selectmode' Tells when to start Select mode instead of Visual mode.
'sessionoptions' Sets behavior of ":mksession". (Negri)
'showfulltag' When completing a tag in Insert mode, show the tag search
pattern (tidied up) as a choice as well (if there is one).
'swapfile' Whether to use a swap file for a buffer.
'syntax' When it is set, the syntax by that name is loaded. Allows for
setting a specific syntax from a modeline.
'ttymouse' Allows using xterm mouse codes for terminals which name
doesn't start with "xterm".
'wildignore' List of patterns for files that should not be completed at
all.
'wildmode' Can be used to set the type of expansion for 'wildchar'.
Replaces the CTRL-T command for command line completion.
Don't beep when listing all matches.
'winaltkeys' Win32 and Motif GUI. When "yes", ALT keys are handled
entirely by the window system. When "no", ALT keys are never
used by the window system. When "menu" it depends on whether
a key is a menu shortcut.
'winminheight' Minimal height for each window. Default is 1. Set to 0 if
you want zero-line windows. Scrollbar is removed for
zero-height windows. (Negri)
New Ex commands *new-ex-commands-5.2*

|:badd| Add file name to buffer list without side effects. (Negri)
|:behave| Quickly set MS-Windows or xterm behavior.
|:browse| Use file selection dialog.
|:call| Call a function, optionally with a range.
|:cnewer|
|:colder| To access a stack of quickfix error lists.

|:comclear| Clear all user-defined commands.

|:command| Define a user command.
|:continue| Go back to ":while".
|:confirm| Ask confirmation if something unexpected happens.
|:cscope| Execute cscope command.
|:cstag| Use cscope to jump to a tag.
|:delcommand| Delete a user-defined command.
|:delfunction| Delete a user-defined function.
|:endfunction| End of user-defined function.
|:function| Define a user function.
|:grep| Works similar to ":make". (Negri)
|:mksession| Create a session file.
|:nohlsearch| Stop 'hlsearch' highlighting for a moment.
|:Print| This is Vi compatible. Does the same as ":print".
|:promptfind| Search dialog (Win32 GUI).
|:promptrepl| Search/replace dialog (Win32 GUI).
|:return| Return from a user-defined function.
|:simalt| Win32 GUI: Simulate alt-key pressed. (Negri)
|:smagic| Like ":substitute", but always use 'magic'.
|:snomagic| Like ":substitute", but always use 'nomagic'.
|:tcl| Execute TCL command.
|:tcldo| Execute TCL command for a range of lines.
|:tclfile| Execute a TCL script file.
|:tearoff| Tear-off a menu (Win32 GUI).
|:tmenu|
|:tunmenu| Win32 GUI: menu tooltips. (Negri)
|:star| :* Execute a register.
Renamed functions:
buffer_exists() -> bufexists()
buffer_name() -> bufname()
buffer_number() -> bufnr()
file_readable() -> filereadable()
highlight_exists() -> hlexists()
highlightID() -> hlID()
last_buffer_nr() -> bufnr("$")
The old ones are still there, for backwards compatibility.
The CTRL-_ command in Insert and Command-line mode is only available when the
new 'allowrevins' option is set. Avoids that people who want to type SHIFT-_
accidentally enter reverse Insert mode, and don't know how to get out.
When a file name path in ":tselect" listing is too long, remove a part in the
middle and put "..." there.
Win32 GUI: Made font selector appear inside Vim window, not just any odd
place. (Negri)
":bn" skips help buffers, unless currently in a help buffer. (Negri)
When there is a status line and only one window, don't show '^' in the status
line of the current window.
":*" used to be used for "'<,'>", the Visual area. But in Vi it's used as an
alternative for ":@". When 'cpoptions' includes '*' this is Vi compatible.
When 'insertmode' is set, using CTRL-O to execute a mapping will work like
'insertmode' was not set. This allows "normal" mappings to be used even when
'insertmode' is set.
When 'mouse' was set already (e.g., in the .vimrc file), don't automatically
set 'mouse' when the GUI starts.
Removed the 'N', 'I' and 'A' flags from the 'mouse' option.
Renamed "toggle option" to "boolean option". Some people thought that ":set
xyz" would toggle 'xyz' on/off each time.
The internal variable "shell_error" contains the error code from the shell,
instead of just 0 or 1.
When inserting or replacing, typing CTRL-V CTRL-<CR> used to insert "<C-CR>".
That is not very useful. Now the CTRL key is ignored and a <CR> is inserted.
Same for all other "normal" keys with modifiers. Mapping these modified key
combinations is still possible.
In Insert mode, <C-CR> and <S-Space> can be inserted by using CTRL-K and then

the special character.

Moved "quotes" file to doc/quotes.txt, and "todo" file to doc/todo.txt. They
are now installed like other documentation files.
winheight() function returns -1 for a non-existing window. It used to be
zero, but that is a valid height now.
The default for 'selection' is "inclusive", which makes a difference when
using "$" or the mouse to move the cursor in Visual mode.
":q!" does not exit when there are changed buffers which are hidden. Use
":qa!" to exit anyway.
Disabled the Perl/Python/Tcl interfaces by default. Not many people use them
and they make the executable a lot bigger. The internal scripting language is
now powerful enough for most tasks.
The strings from the 'titlestring' and 'iconstring' options are used
untranslated for the Window title and icon. This allows for including a <CR>.
Previously a <CR> would be shown as "^M" (two characters).
When a mapping is started in Visual or Select mode which was started from
Insert mode (the mode shows "(insert) Visual"), don't return to Insert mode
until the mapping has ended. Makes it possible to use a mapping in Visual
mode that also works when the Visual mode was started from Select mode.
Menus in $VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim no longer overrule existing menus. This helps
when defining menus in the .vimrc file, or when sourcing mswin.vim.
Unix: Use /var/tmp for .swp files, if it exists. Files there survive a
reboot (at least on Linux).
Added *added-5.2*
--with-motif-lib configure argument. Allows for using a static Motif library.
Support for mapping numeric keypad +,-,*,/ keys. (Negri)
When not mapped, they produce the normal character.
Win32 GUI: When directory dropped on Gvim, cd there and edit new buffer.
(Negri)
Win32 GUI: Made CTRL-Break work as interrupt, so that CTRL-C can be
used for mappings.
In the output of ":map", highlight the "*" to make clear it's not part of the
rhs. (Roemer)
When showing the Visual area, the cursor is not switched off, so that it can
be located. The Visual area is now highlighted with a grey background in the
GUI. This makes the cursor visible when it's also reversed.
Win32: When started with single full pathname (e.g. via double-clicked file),
cd to that file's directory. (Negri)
Win32 GUI: Tear-off menus, with ":tearoff <menu-name>" command. (Negri)
't' option to 'guioptions': Add tearoff menu items for Win32 GUI and Motif.
It's included by default.
Win32 GUI: tearoff menu with submenus is indicated with a ">>". (Negri)
Added ^Kaa and ^KAA digraphs.
Added "euro" symbol to digraph.c. (Corry)
Support for Motif menu shortcut keys, using '&' like MS-Windows (Ollis).
Other GUIs ignore '&' in a menu name.
DJGPP: Faster screen updating (John Lange).
Clustering of syntax groups ":syntax cluster" (Bigham).
Including syntax files: ":syntax include" (Bigham).
Keep column when switching buffers, when 'nosol' is set (Radics).
Number function for Perl interface.
Support for Intellimouse in Athena GUI. (Jensen)

":sleep" also accepts an argument in milliseconds, when "m" is used.

Added 'p' flag in 'guioptions': Install callbacks for enter/leave window
events. Makes cursor blinking work for Terhaar, breaks it for me.
"--help" and "--version" command-line arguments.
Non-text in ":list" output is highlighted with NonText.
Added text objects: "i(" and "i)" as synonym for "ib". "i{" and "i}" as
synonym for "iB". New: "i<" and "i>", to select <thing>. All this also for
"a" objects.
'O' flag in 'shortmess': message for reading a file overwrites any previous
message. (Negri)
Win32 GUI: 'T' flag in 'guioptions': switch toolbar on/off.
Included a list with self-made toolbar bitmaps. (Negri)
Added menu priority for sub-menus. Implemented for Win32 and Motif GUI.
Display menu priority with ":menu" command.
Default and Syntax menus now include priority for items. Allows inserting
menu items in between the default ones.
When the 'number' option is on, highlight line numbers with the LineNr group.
"Ignore" highlight group: Text highlighted with this is made blank. It is
used to hide special characters in the help text.
Included Exuberant Ctags version 2.3, with C++ support, Java support and
recurse into directories. (Hiebert)
When a tags file is not sorted, and this is detected (in a simplistic way), an
error message is given.
":unlet" accepts a "!", to ignore non-existing variables, and accepts more
than one argument. (Roemer)
Completion of variable names for ":unlet". (Roemer)
When there is an error in a function which is called by another function, show
the call stack in the error message.
New file name modifiers:
":.": reduce file name to be relative to current dir.
":~": reduce file name to be relative to home dir.
":s?pat?sub?": substitute "pat" with "sub" once.
":gs?pat?sub?": substitute "pat" with "sub" globally.
New configure arguments: --enable-min-features and --enable-max-features.
Easy way to switch to minimum or maximum features.
New compile-time feature: modify_fname. For file name modifiers, e.g,
"%:p:h". Can be disabled to save some code (16 bit DOS).
When using whole-line completion in Insert mode, and 'cindent' is set, indent
the line properly.
MSDOS and Win32 console: 'guicursor' sets cursor thickness. (Negri)
Included new set of Farsi fonts. (Shiran)
Accelerator text now also works in Motif. All menus can be defined with & for
mnemonic and TAB for accelerator text. They are ignored on systems that don't
support them.
When removing or replacing a menu, compare the menu name only up to the <Tab>
before the mnemonic.
'i' and 'I' flags after ":substitute": ignore case or not.
"make install" complains if the runtime files are missing.
Unix: When finding an existing swap file that can't be opened, mention the
owner of the file in the ATTENTION message.
The 'i', 't' and 'k' options in 'complete' now also print the place where they
are looking for matches. (Acevedo)
"gJ" command: Join lines without inserting a space.
Setting 'keywordprg' to "man -s" is handled specifically. The "-s" is removed
when no count given, the count is added otherwise. Configure checks if "man

-s 2 read" works, and sets the default for 'keywordprg' accordingly.

If you do a ":bd" and there is only one window open, Vim tries to move to a
buffer of the same type (i.e. non-help to non-help, help to help), for
consistent behavior to :bnext/:bprev. (Negri)
Allow "<Nop>" to be used as the rhs of a mapping. ":map xx <Nop>", maps "xx"
to nothing at all.
In a ":menu" command, "<Tab>" can be used instead of a real tab, in the menu
path. This makes it more easy to type, no backslash needed.
POSIX compatible character classes for regexp patterns: [:alnum:], [:alpha:],
[:blank:], [:cntrl:], [:digit:], [:graph:], [:lower:], [:print:], [:punct:],
[:space:], [:upper:] and [:xdigit:]. (Briscoe)
regexp character classes (for fast syntax highlight matching):
digits: \d [0-9] \D not digit (Roemer)
hex: \x [0-9a-fA-F] \X not hex
octal: \o [0-7] \O not octal
word: \w [a-zA-Z0-9_] \W not word
head: \h [a-zA-Z_] \H not head
alphabetic: \a [a-zA-Z] \A not alphabetic
lowercase: \l [a-z] \L not lowercase
uppercase: \u [A-Z] \U not uppercase
":set" now accepts "+=", |^=" and "-=": add or remove parts of a string
option, add or subtract a number from a number option. A comma is
automagically inserted or deleted for options that are a comma separated list.
Filetype feature, for autocommands. Uses a file type instead of a pattern to
match a file. Currently only used for RISC OS. (Leonard)
In a pattern for an autocommand, environment variables can be used. They are
expanded when the autocommand is defined.
"BufFilePre" and "BufFilePost" autocommand evens: Before and after applying
the ":file" command to change the name of a buffer.
"VimLeavePre" autocommand event: before writing the .viminfo file.
For autocommands argument: <abuf> is buffer number, like <afile>.
Made syntax highlighting a bit faster when scrolling backwards, by keeping
more syncing context.
Win32 GUI: Made scrolling faster by avoiding a redraw when deleting or
inserting screen lines.
GUI: Made scrolling faster by not redrawing the scrollbar when the thumb moved
less than a pixel.
Included ":highlight" in bugreport.vim.
Created install.exe program, for simplistic installation on DOS and
MS-Windows.
New register: '_', the black hole. When writing to it, nothing happens. When
reading from it, it's always empty. Can be used to avoid a delete or change
command to modify the registers, or reduce memory use for big changes.
CTRL-V xff enters character by hex number. CTRL-V o123 enters character by
octal number. (Aaron)
Improved performance of syntax highlighting by skipping check for "keepend"
when there isn't any.
Moved the mode message ("-- INSERT --") to the last line of the screen. When
'cmdheight' is more than one, messages will remain readable.
When listing matching files, they are also sorted on 'suffixes', such that
they are listed in the same order as CTRL-N retrieves them.
synIDattr() takes a third argument (optionally), which tells for which
terminal type to get the attributes for. This makes it possible to run
2html.vim outside of gvim (using color names instead of #RRGGBB).
Memory profiling, only for debugging. Prints at exit, and with "gÂ" command.
(Kahn)
DOS: When using a file in the current drive, remove the drive name:
"A:\dir\file" -> "\dir\file". This helps when moving a session file on a

floppy from "A:\dir" to "B:\dir".

Increased number of remembered jumps from 30 to 50 per window.
Command to temporarily disable 'hls' highlighting until the next search:
":nohlsearch".
"gp" and "gP" commands: like "p" and "P", but leave the cursor just after the
inserted text. Used for the CTRL-V command in MS-Windows mode.
Fixed *fixed-5.2*
Win32 GUI: Could draw text twice in one place, for fake-bold text. Removed
this, Windows will handle the bold text anyway. (Negri)
patch 5.1.1: Win32s GUI: pasting caused a crash (Negri)
patch 5.1.2: When entering another window, where characters before the cursor
have been deleted, could have a cursor beyond the end of the line.
patch 5.1.3: Win32s GUI: Didn't wait for external command to finish. (Negri)
patch 5.1.4: Makefile.w32 can now also be used to generate the OLE version
(Scott).
patch 5.1.5: Crashed when using syntax highlighting: cursor on a line that
doesn't fit in the window, and splitting that line in two.
patch 5.1.6: Visual highlighting bug: After ":set nowrap" go to end of line
(so that the window scrolls horizontally), ":set wrap" Following Visual
selection was wrong.
patch 5.1.7: When 'tagbsearch' off, and 'ignorecase' off, still could do
binary searching.
patch 5.1.8: Win32 GUI: dragging the scrollbar didn't update the ruler.
patch 5.1.9: Using ":gui" in .vimrc, caused xterm cursor to disappear.
patch 5.1.10: A CTRL-N in Insert mode could cause a crash, when a buffer
without a name exists.
patch 5.1.11: "make test" didn't work in the shadow directory. Also adjusted
"make shadow" for the links in the ctags directory.
patch 5.1.12: "buf 123foo" used "123" as a count, instead as the start of a
buffer name.
patch 5.1.13: When completing file names on the command-line, reallocating the
command-line may go wrong.
patch 5.1.14: ":[nvci]unmenu" removed menu for all modes, when full menu patch
specified.
Graceful handling of NULLs in drag-dropped file list. Handle passing NULL to
Fullname_save(). (Negri)
Win32: ":!start" to invoke a program without opening a console, swapping
screens, or waiting for completion in either console or gui version, e.g. you
can type ":!start winfile". ALSO fixes "can't delete swapfile after spawning
a shell" bug. (enhancement of Aaron patch) (Negri)
Win32 GUI: Fix CTRL-X default keymapping to be more Windows-like. (Negri)
Shorten filenames on startup. If in /foo/bar, entering "vim ../bar/bang.c"
displays "bang.c" in status bar, not "/foo/bar/bang.c" (Negri)
Win32 GUI: No copy to Windows clipboard when it's not desired.
Win32s: Fix pasting from clipboard - made an assumption not valid under
Win32s. (Negri)
Win32 GUI: Speed up calls to gui_mch_draw_string() and cursor drawing
functions. (Negri)
Win32 GUI: Middle mouse button emulation now works in GUI! (Negri)
Could skip messages when combining commands in one line, e.g.:

":echo "hello" | write".

Perl interpreter was disabled before executing VimLeave autocommands. Could
not use ":perl" in them. (Aaron)
Included patch for the Intellimouse (Aaron/Robinson).
Could not set 'ls' to one, when last window has only one line. (Mitterand)
Fixed a memory leak when removing menus.
After ":only" the ruler could overwrite a message.
Dos32: removed changing of __system_flags. It appears to work better when
it's left at the default value.
p_aleph was an int instead of along, caused trouble on systems where
sizeof(int) != sizeof(long). (Schmidt)
Fixed enum problems for Ultrix. (Seibert)
Small redraw problem: "dd" on last line in file cleared wrong line.
Didn't interpret "cmd | endif" when "cmd" starts with a range. E.g. "if 0 |
.d | endif".
Command "+|" on the last line of the file caused ml_get errors.
Memory underrun in eval_vars(). (Aaron)
Don't rename files in a difficult way, except on Windows 95 (was also done on
Windows NT).
Win32 GUI: An external command that produces an error code put the error
message in a dialog box. had to close the window and close the dialog. Now
the error code is displayed in the console. (Negri)
"comctl32.lib" was missing from the GUI libraries in Makefile.w32. (Battle)
In Insert mode, when entering a window in Insert mode, allow the cursor to be
one char beyond the text.
Renamed machine dependent rename() to mch_rename(). Define mch_rename() to
rename() when it works properly.
Rename vim_chdir() to mch_chdir(), because it's machine dependent.
When using an arglist, and editing file 5 of 4, ":q" could cause "-1 more
files to edit" error.
In if_python.c, VimCommand() caused an assertion when a do_cmdline() failed.
Moved the Python_Release_Vim() to before the VimErrorCheck(). (Harkins)
Give an error message for an unknown argument after "--". E.g. for "vim
--xyz".
The FileChangedShell autocommand didn't set <afile> to the name of the changed
file.
When doing ":e file", causing the attention message, there sometimes was no
hit-enter prompt. Caused by empty line or "endif" at end of sourced file.
A large number of patches for the VMS version. (Hunsaker)
When CTRL-L completion (find longest match) results in a shorter string, no
completion is done (happens with ":help").
Crash in Win32 GUI version, when using an Ex "@" command, because
LinePointers[] was used while not initialized.
Win32 GUI: allow mapping of Alt-Space.
Output from "vim -h" was sent to stderr. Sending it to stdout is better, so
one can use "vim -h | more".
In command-line mode, ":vi[!]" should reload the file, just like ":e[!]".
In Ex mode, ":vi" stops Ex mode, but doesn't reload the file. This is Vi
compatible.
When using a ":set ls=1" in the .gvimrc file, would get a status line for a
single window. (Robinson)

Didn't give an error message for ":set ai,xx". (Roemer)

Didn't give an error message for ":set ai?xx", ":set ai&xx", ":set ai!xx".
Non-Unix systems: That a file exists but is unreadable is recognized as "new
file". Now check for existence when file can't be opened (like Unix).
Unix: osdef.sh didn't handle declarations where the function name is at the
first column of the line.
DJGPP: Shortening of file names didn't work properly, because get_cwd()
returned a path with backslashes. (Negri)
When using a 'comments' part where a space is required after the middle part,
always insert a space when starting a new line. Helps for C comments, below a
line with "/****".
Replacing path of home directory with "~/" could be wrong for file names
with embedded spaces or commas.
A few fixes for the Sniff interface. (Leherbauer)
When asking to hit 'y' or 'n' (e.g. for ":3,1d"), using the mouse caused
trouble. Same for ":s/x/y/c" prompt.
With 'nowrap' and 'list', a Tab halfway on the screen was displayed as blanks,
instead of the characters specified with 'listchars'. Also for other
characters that take more than one screen character.
When setting 'guifont' to an unknown font name, the previous font was lost and
a default font would be used. (Steed)
DOS: Filenames in the root directory didn't get shortened properly. (Negri)
DJGPP: making a full path name out of a file name didn't work properly when
there is no _fullpath() function. (Negri)
Win32 console: ":sh" caused a crash. (Negri)
Win32 console: Setting 'lines' and/or 'columns' in the _vimrc failed miserably
(could hang Windows 95). (Negri)
Win32: The change-drive function was not correct, went to the wrong drive.
(Tsindlekht)
GUI: When editing a command line in Ex mode, Tabs were sometimes not
backspaced properly, and unprintable characters were displayed directly.
non-GUI can still be wrong, because a system function is called for this.
":set" didn't stop after an error. For example ":set no ai" gave an error for
"no", but still set "ai". Now ":set" stops after the first error.
When running configure for ctags, $LDFLAGS wasn't passed to it, causing
trouble for IRIX.
"@%" and "@#" when file name not set gave an error message. Now they just
return an empty string. (Steed)
CTRL-X and CTRL-A didn't work correctly with negative hex and octal numbers.
(Steed)
":echo" always started with a blank.
Updating GUI cursor shape didn't always work (e.g., when blinking is off).
In silent Ex mode ("ex -s" or "ex <file") ":s///p" didn't print a line. Also
a few other commands that explicitly print a text line didn't work. Made this
Vi compatible.
Win32 version of _chdrive() didn't return correct value. (Tsindlekht)
When using 't' in 'complete' option, no longer give an error message for a
missing tags file.
Unix: tgoto() can return NULL, which was not handled correctly in configure.
When doing ":help" from a buffer where 'binary' is set, also edited the help
file in binary mode. Caused extra ^Ms for DOS systems.
Cursor position in a file was reset to 1 when closing a window.

":!ls" in Ex mode switched off echo.

When doing a double click in window A, while currently in window B, first
click would reset double click time, had to click three times to select a
word.
When using <F11> in mappings, ":mkexrc" produced an exrc file that can't be
used in Vi compatible mode. Added setting of 'cpo' to avoid this. Also, add
a CTRL-V in front of a '<', to avoid a normal string to be interpreted as a
special key name.
Gave confusing error message for ":set guifont=-*-lucida-*": first "font is
not fixed width", then "Unknown font".
Some options were still completely left out, instead of included as hidden
options.
While running the X11 GUI, ignore SIGHUP signals. Avoids a crash after
executing an external command (in rare cases).
In os_unixx.h, signal() was defined to sigset(), while it already was.
Memory leak when executing autocommands (was reported as a memory leak in
syntax highlighting).
Didn't print source of error sometimes, because pointers were the same,
although names were different.
Avoid a number of UMR errors from Purify (third argument to open()).
A swap file could still be created just after setting 'updatecount' to zero,
when there is an empty buffer and doing ":e file". (Kutschera)
Test 35 failed on 64 bit machines. (Schild)
With "p" and "P" commands, redrawing was slow.
Awk script for html documentation didn't work correctly with AIX awk.
Replaced "[ ,.);\] ]" with "[] ,.); ]". (Briscoe)
The makehtml.awk script had a small problem, causing extra lines to be
inserted. (Briscoe)
"gqgq" could not be repeated. Repeating for "gugu" and "gUgU" worked in a
wrong way. Also made "gqq" work to be consistent with "guu".
C indent was wrong after "case ':':".
":au BufReadPre *.c put": Line from put text was deleted, because the buffer
was still assumed to be empty.
Text pasted with the Edit/Paste menu was subject to 'textwidth' and
'autoindent'. That was inconsistent with using the mouse to paste. Now "*p
is used.
When using CTRL-W CTRL-] on a word that's not a tag, and then CTRL-] on a tag,
window was split.
":ts" got stuck on a tags line that has two extra fields.
In Insert mode, with 'showmode' on, <C-O><C-G> message was directly
overwritten by mode message, if preceded with search command warning message.
When putting the result of an expression with "=<expr>p, newlines were
inserted like ^@ (NUL in the file). Now the string is split up in lines at
the newline.
putenv() was declared with "const char *" in pty.c, but with "char *" in
osdef2.h.in. Made the last one also "const char *".
":help {word}", where +{word} is a feature, jumped to the feature list instead
of where the command was explained. E.g., ":help browse", ":help autocmd".
Using the "\<xx>" form in an expression only got one byte, even when using a
special character that uses several bytes (e.g., "\<F9>").
Changed "\<BS>" to produce CTRL-H instead of the special key code for the
backspace key. "\<Del>" produces 0x7f.
":mkvimrc" didn't write a command to set 'compatible' or 'nocompatible'.
The shell syntax didn't contain a "syn sync maxlines" setting. In a long file
without recognizable items, syncing took so long it looked like Vim hangs.

Added a maxlines setting, and made syncing interruptible.

The "gs" command didn't flush output before waiting.
Memory leaks for:
":if 0 | let a = b . c | endif"
"let a = b[c]"
":so {file}" where {file} contains a ":while"
GUI: allocated fonts were never released. (Leonard)
Makefile.bor:
- Changed $(DEFINES) into a list of "-D" options, so that it can also be used
for the resource compiler. (not tested!)
- "bcc.cfg" was used for all configurations. When building for another
configuration, the settings for the previous one would be used. Moved
"bcc.cfg" to the object directory. (Geddes)
- Included targets for vimrun, install, ctags and xxd. Changed the default to
use the Borland DLL Runtime Library, makes Vim.exe a log smaller. (Aaron)
"2*" search for the word under the cursor with "2" prepended. (Leonard)
When deleting into a specific register, would still overwrite the non-Win32
GUI selection. Now ""x"*P works.
When deleting into the "" register, would write to the last used register.
Now ""x always writes to the unnamed register.
GUI Athena: A submenu with a '.' in it didn't work. E.g.,
":amenu Syntax.XY\.Z.foo lll".
When first doing ":tag foo" and then ":tnext" and/or ":tselect" the order of
matching tags could change, because the current file is different. Now the
existing matches are kept in the same order, newly found matches are added
after them, not matter what the current file is.
":ta" didn't find the second entry in a tags file, if the second entry was
longer than the first one.
When using ":set si tw=7" inserting "foo {^P}" made the "}" inserted at the
wrong position. can_si was still TRUE when the cursor is not in the indent of
the line.
Running an external command in Win32 version had the problem that Vim exits
when the X on the console is hit (and confirmed). Now use the "vimrun"
command to start the external command indirectly. (Negri)
Win32 GUI: When running an external filter, do it in a minimized DOS box.
(Negri)
":let" listed variables without translation into printable characters.
Win32 console: When resizing the window, switching back to the old size
(when exiting or executing an external command) sometimes failed. (Negri)
This appears to also fix a "non fixable" problem:
Win32 console in NT 4.0: When running Vim in a cmd window with a scrollbar,
the scrollbar disappeared and was not restored when Vim exits. This does work
under NT 3.51, it appears not to be a Vim problem.
When executing BufDelete and BufUnload autocommands for a buffer without a
name, the name of the current buffer was used for <afile>.
When jumping to a tag it reported "tag 1 of >2", while in fact there could be
only two matches. Changed to "tag 1 of 2 or more".
":tjump tag" did a linear search in the tags file, which can be slow.
Configure didn't find "LibXm.so.2.0", a Xm library with a version number.
Win32 GUI: When using a shifted key with ALT, the shift modifier would remain
set, even when it was already used by changing the used key. E.g., "<M-S-9>"
resulted in "<M-S-(>", but it should be "<M-(>". (Negri)
A call to ga_init() was often followed by setting growsize and itemsize.
Created ga_init2() for this, which looks better. (Aaron)
Function filereadable() could call fopen() with an empty string, which might
be illegal.
X Windows GUI: When executing an external command that outputs text, could
write one character beyond the end of a buffer, which caused a crash. (Kohan)

When using "*" or "#" on a string that includes '/' or '?' (when these are
included in 'isk'), they were not escaped. (Parmelan)
When adding a ToolBar menu in the Motif GUI, the submenu_id field was not
cleared, causing random problems.
When adding a menu, the check if this menu (or submenu) name already exists
didn't compare with the simplified version (no mnemonic or accelerator) of the
new menu. Could get two menus with the same name, e.g., "File" and "&File".
Breaking a line because of 'textwidth' at the last line in the window caused a
redraw of the whole window instead of a scroll. Speeds up normal typing with
'textwidth' a lot for slow terminals.
An invalid line number produced an "invalid range" error, even when it wasn't
to be executed (inside "if 0").
When the unnamed, first buffer is re-used, the "BufDelete" autocommand was
not called. It would stick in a buffer list menu.
When doing "%" on the NUL after the line, a "{" or "}" in the last character
of the line was not found.
The Insert mode menu was not used for the "s" command, the Operator-pending
menu was used instead.
With 'compatible' set, some syntax highlighting was not correct, because of
using "[\t]" for a search pattern. Now use the regexps for syntax
highlighting like the 'cpoptions' option is empty (as was documented already).
When using "map <M-Space> ms" or "map <Space> sss" the output of ":map" didn't
show any lhs for the mapping (if 'isprint' includes 160). Now always use
<Space> and <M-Space>, even when they are printable.
Adjusted the Syntax menu, so that the lowest entry fits on a small screen (for
Athena, where menus don't wrap).
When using CTRL-E or CTRL-Y in Insert mode for characters like 'o', 'x' and
digits, repeating the insert didn't work.
The file "tools/ccfilter.README.txt" could not be unpacked when using short
file names, because of the two dots. Renamed it to
"tools/ccfilter_README.txt".
For a dark 'background', using Blue for Directory and SpecialKey highlight
groups is not very readable. Use Cyan instead.
In the function uc_scan_attr() in ex_docmd.c there was a goto that jumped into
a block with a local variable. That's illegal for some compilers.
Win32 GUI: There was a row of pixels at the bottom of the window which was not
drawn. (Aaron)
Under DOS, editing "filename/" created a swap file of "filename/.swp". Should
be "filename/_swp".
Win32 GUI: pointer was hidden when executing an external command.
When 'so' is 999, "J" near the end of the file didn't redisplay correctly.
":0a" inserted after the first line, instead of before the first line.
Unix: Wildcard expansion didn't handle single quotes and {} patterns. Now
":file 'window.c'"' removes the quotes and ":e 'main*.c'"' works (literal '*').
":file {o}{n}{e}" now results in file name "one".
Memory leak when setting a string option back to its default value.
==============================================================================
Version 5.3 was a bug-fix version of 5.2. There are not many changes.
Improvements made between version 5.2 and 5.3:
Renamed "IDE" menu to "Tools" menu.

Added *added-5.3*
Win32 GUI: Give a warning when Vim is activated, and one of the files changed
since editing started. (Negri)
Fixed *fixed-5.3*
5.2.1: Win32 GUI: space for external command was not properly allocated, could
cause a crash. (Aaron) This was the reason to bring out 5.3 quickly after
5.2.
5.2.2: Some commands didn't complain when used without an argument, although
they need one: ":badd", ":browse", ":call", ":confirm", ":behave",
":delfunction", ":delcommand" and ":tearoff".
":endfunction" outside of a function gave wrong error message: "Command not
implemented". Should be ":endfunction not inside a function".
5.2.3: Win32 GUI: When gvim was installed in "Program files", or another path
with a space in it, executing external commands with vimrun didn't work.
5.2.4: Pasting with the mouse in Insert mode left the cursor on the last
pasted character, instead of behind it.
5.2.5: In Insert mode, cursor after the end of the line, a shift-cursor-left
didn't include the last character in the selection.
5.2.6: When deleting text from Insert mode (with "<C-O>D" or the mouse), which
includes the last character in the line, the cursor could be left on the last
character in the line, instead of just after it.
5.2.7: Win32 GUI: scrollbar was one pixel too big.
5.2.8: Completion of "PopUp" menu showed the derivatives "PopUpc", "PopUPi",
etc. ":menu" also showed these.
5.2.9: When using two input() functions on a row, the prompt would not be
drawn in column 0.
5.2.10: A loop with input() could not be broken with CTRL-C.
5.2.11: ":call asdf" and ":call asdf(" didn't give an error message.
5.2.12: Recursively using ":normal" crashes Vim after a while. E.g.:
":map gq :normal gq<CR>"
5.2.13: Syntax highlighting used 'iskeyword' from wrong buffer. When using
":help", then "/\k*" in another window with 'hlsearch' set.
5.2.14: When using ":source" from a function, global variables would not be
available unless "g:" was used.
5.2.15: XPM files can have the extension ".pm", which is the same as for Perl
modules. Added "syntax/pmfile.vim" to handle this.
5.2.16: On Win32 and Amiga, "echo expand("%:p:h")" removed one dirname in an
empty buffer. mch_Fullname() didn't append a slash at the end of a directory
name.
Should include the character under the cursor in the Visual area when using
'selection' "exclusive". This wasn't done for "%", "e", "E", "t" and "f".
""p would always put register 0, instead of the unnamed (last used) register.
Reverse the change that ""x doesn't write in the unnamed (last used) register.
It would always write in register 0, which isn't very useful. Use "-x for the
paste mappings in Visual mode.
When there is one long line on the screen, and 'showcmd' is off, "0$" didn't
redraw the screen.
Win32 GUI: When using 'mousehide', the pointer would flicker when the cursor
shape is changed. (Negri)
When cancelling Visual mode, and the cursor moves to the start, the wanted
column wasn't set, "k" or "j" moved to the wrong column.

When using ":browse" or ":confirm", was checking for a comment and separating
bar, which can break some commands.
Included fixes for Macintosh. (Kielhorn)
==============================================================================
Version 5.4 adds new features, useful changes and a lot of bug fixes.
Runtime directory introduced *new-runtime-dir*

The distributed runtime files are now in $VIMRUNTIME, the user files in $VIM.
You normally don't set $VIMRUNTIME but let Vim find it, by using
$VIM/vim{version}, or use $VIM when that doesn't exist. This allows for
separating the user files from the distributed files and makes it more easy to
upgrade to another version. It also makes it possible to keep two versions of
Vim around, each with their own runtime files.
In the Unix distribution the runtime files have been moved to the "runtime"
directory. This makes it possible to copy all the runtime files at once,
without the need to know what needs to be copied.
The archives for DOS, Windows, Amiga and OS/2 now have an extra top-level
"vim" directory. This is to make clear that user-modified files should be put
here. The directory that contains the executables doesn't have '-' or '.'
characters. This avoids strange extensions.
The $VIM and $VIMRUNTIME variables are set when they are first used. This
allows them to be used by Perl, for example.
The runtime files are also found in a directory called "$VIM/runtime". This
helps when running Vim after just unpacking the runtime archive. When using
an executable in the "src" directory, Vim checks if "vim54" or "runtime" can
be added after removing it. This make the runtime files be found just after
compiling.
A default for $VIMRUNTIME can be given in the Unix Makefile. This is useful
if $VIM doesn't point to above the runtime directory but to e.g., "/etc/".
Filetype introduced *new-filetype-5.4*

Syntax files are now loaded with the new FileType autocommand. Old
"mysyntaxfile" files will no longer work. |filetypes|
The scripts for loading syntax highlighting have been changed to use the
new Syntax autocommand event.
This combination of Filetype and Syntax events allows tuning the syntax
highlighting a bit more, also when selected from the Syntax menu. The
FileType autocommand can also be used to set options and mappings specifically
for that type of file.
The "$VIMRUNTIME/filetype.vim" file is not loaded automatically. The
":filetype on" command has been added for this. ":syntax on" also loads it.
The 'filetype' option has been added. It is used to trigger the FileType
autocommand event, like the 'syntax' option does for the Syntax event.
":set syntax=OFF" and ":set syntax=ON" can be used (in a modeline) to switch
syntax highlighting on/off for the current file.
The Syntax menu commands have been moved to $VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim. The Syntax
menu is included both when ":filetype on" and when ":syntax manual" is used.
Renamed the old 'filetype' option to 'osfiletype'. It was only used for
RISCOS. 'filetype' is now used for the common file type.
Added the ":syntax manual" command. Allows manual selection of the syntax to
be used, e.g., from a modeline.
Vim script line continuation *new-line-continuation*

When an Ex line starts with a backslash, it is concatenated to the previous

line. This avoids the need for long lines. |line-continuation| (Roemer)
Example:
if has("dialog_con") ||
\ has("dialog_gui")
:let result = confirm("Enter your choice",
\ "&Yes\n&No\n&Maybe",
\ 2)
endif
Improved session files *improved-sessions*

New words for 'sessionoptions':
- "help" Restore the help window.
- "blank" Restore empty windows.
- "winpos" Restore the Vim window position. Uses the new ":winpos"
command
- "buffers" Restore hidden and unloaded buffers. Without it only the
buffers in windows are restored.
- "slash" Replace backward by forward slashes in file names.
- "globals" Store global variables.
- "unix" Use unix file format (<NL> instead of <CR><NL>)
The ":mksession" and 'sessionoptions' are now in the +mksession feature.
The top line of the window is also restored when using a session file.
":mksession" and ":mkvimrc" don't store 'fileformat', it should be detected
when loading a file.
(Most of this was done by Vince Negri and Robert Webb)
Autocommands improved *improved-autocmds-5.4*

New events:
|FileType| When the file type has been detected.
|FocusGained| When Vim got input focus. (Negri)
|FocusLost| When Vim lost input focus. (Negri)
|BufCreate| Called just after a new buffer has been created or has been
renamed. (Madsen)
|CursorHold| Triggered when no key has been typed for 'updatetime'. Can be
used to do something with the word under the cursor. (Negri)
Implemented CursorHold autocommand event for Unix. (Zellner)
Also for Amiga and MS-DOS.
|GUIEnter| Can be used to do something with the GUI window after it has
been created (e.g., a ":winpos 100 50").
|BufHidden| When a buffer becomes hidden. Used to delete the
option-window when it becomes hidden.
Also trigger |BufDelete| just before a buffer is going to be renamed. (Madsen)
The "<amatch>" pattern can be used like "<afile>" for autocommands, except
that it is the matching value for the FileType and Syntax events.
When ":let @/ = <string>" is used in an autocommand, this last search pattern
will be used after the autocommand finishes.
Made loading autocommands a bit faster. Avoid doing strlen() on each exiting
pattern for each new pattern by remembering the length.
Encryption *new-encryption*
Files can be encrypted when writing and decrypted when reading. Added the
'key' option, "-x" command line argument and ":X" command. |encryption| (based
on patch from Mohsin Ahmed)
When reading a file, there is an automatic detection whether it has been
crypted. Vim will then prompt for the key.
Note that the encryption method is not compatible with Vi. The encryption is
not unbreakable. This allows it to be exported from the US.

GTK GUI port *new-GTK-GUI*

New GUI port for GTK+. Includes a toolbar, menu tearoffs, etc. |gui-gtk|
Added the |:helpfind| command. (Kahn and Dalecki)
Menu changes *menu-changes-5.4*

Menus can now also be used in the console. It is enabled by the new
'wildmenu' option. This shows matches for command-line completion like a
menu. This works as a minimal file browser.
The new |:emenu| command can be used to execute a menu item.
Uses the last status line to list items, or inserts a line just above the
command line. (Negri)
The 'wildcharx' option can be used to trigger 'wildmenu' completion from a
mapping.
When compiled without menus, this can be detected with has("menu"). Also show
this in the ":version" output. Allow compiling GUI versions without menu
support. Only include toolbar support when there is menu support.
Moved the "Window" menu all the way to the right (priority 70). Looks more
familiar for people working with MS-Windows, shouldn't matter for others.
Included "Buffers" menu. Works with existing autocommands and functions. It
can be disabled by setting the "no_buffers_menu" variable. (Aaron and Madsen)
Win32 supports separators in a menu: "-.*-". (Geddes)
Menu separators for Motif now work too.
Made Popup menu for Motif GUI work. (Madsen)
'M' flag in 'guioptions': Don't source the system menu.
All the menu code has been moved from gui.c to menu.c.
Viminfo improved *improved-viminfo*

New flags for 'viminfo':
'!' Store global variables in the viminfo file if they are in uppercase
letters. (Negri)
'h' Do ":nohlsearch" when loading a viminfo file.
Store search patterns in the viminfo file with their offset, magic, etc. Also
store the flag whether 'hlsearch' highlighting is on or off (which is not used
if the 'h' flag is in 'viminfo').
Give an error message when setting 'viminfo' without commas.
Various new commands *new-commands-5.4*

Operator |g?|: rot13 encoding. (Negri)
|zH| and |zL| commands: Horizontal scrolling by half a page.
|gm| move cursor to middle of screen line. (Ideas by Campbell)
Operations on Visual blocks: |v_b_I|, |v_b_A|, |v_b_c|, |v_b_C|, |v_b_r|,
|v_b_<| and |v_b_>|. (Kelly)
New command: CTRL-\ CTRL-N, which does nothing in Normal mode, and goes to
Normal mode when in Insert or Command-line mode. Can be used by VisVim or
other OLE programs to make sure Vim is in Normal mode, without causing a beep.
|CTRL-\_CTRL-N|
":cscope kill" command to use the connection filename. |:cscope| (Kahn)
|:startinsert| command: Start Insert mode next.
|:history| command, to show all four types of histories. (Roemer)
|[m|, |[M|, |]m| and |]M| commands, for jumping backward/forward to start/end
of method in a (Java) class.

":@*" executes the * register. |:@| (Acevedo)

|go| and |:goto| commands: Jump to byte offset in the file.
|gR| and |gr| command: Virtual Replace mode. Replace characters without
changing the layout. (Webb)
":cd -" changes to the directory from before the previous ":cd" command.
|:cd-| (Webb)
Tag preview commands |:ptag|. Shows the result of a ":tag" in a dedicated
window. Can be used to see the context of the tag (e.g., function arguments).
(Negri)
|:pclose| command, and CTRL-W CTRL-Z: Close preview window. (Moore)
'previewheight' option, height for the preview window.
Also |:ppop|, |:ptnext|, |:ptprevious|, |:ptNext|, |:ptrewind|, |:ptlast|.
|:find| and |:sfind| commands: Find a file in 'path', (split window) and edit
it.
The |:options| command opens an option window that shows the current option
values. Or use ":browse set" to open it. Options are grouped by function.
Offers short help on each option. Hit <CR> to jump to more help. Edit the
option value and hit <CR> on a "set" line to set a new value.
Various new options *new-options-5.4*

Scroll-binding: 'scrollbind' and 'scrollopt' options. Added |:syncbind|
command. Makes windows scroll the same amount (horizontally and/or
vertically). (Ralston)
'conskey' option for MS-DOS. Use direct console I/O. This should work with
telnet (untested!).
'statusline' option: Configurable contents of the status line. Also allows
showing the byte offset in the file. Highlighting with %1* to %9*, using the
new highlight groups User1 to User9. (Madsen)
'rulerformat' option: Configurable contents of the ruler, like 'statusline'.
(Madsen)
'write' option: When off, writing files is not allowed. Avoids overwriting a
file even with ":w!". The |-m| command line option resets 'write'.
'clipboard' option: How the clipboard is used. Value "unnamed": Use unnamed
register like "*. (Cortopassi) Value "autoselect": Like what 'a' in
'guioptions' does but works in the terminal.
'guifontset' option: Specify fonts for the +fontset feature, for the X11 GUI
versions. Allows using normal fonts when vim is compiled with this feature.
(Nam)
'guiheadroom' option: How much room to allow above/below the GUI window.
Used for Motif, Athena and GTK.
Implemented 'tagstack' option: When off, pushing tags onto the stack is
disabled (Vi compatible). Useful for mappings.
'shellslash' option. Only for systems that use a backslash as a file
separator. This option will use a forward slash in file names when expanding
it. Useful when 'shell' is sh or csh.
'pastetoggle' option: Key sequence that toggles 'paste'. Works around the
problem that mappings don't work in Insert mode when 'paste' is set.
'display' option: When set to "lastline", the last line fills the window,
instead of being replaced with "@" lines. Only the last three characters are
replaced with "@@@", to indicate that the line has not finished yet.
'switchbuf' option: Allows re-using existing windows on a buffer that is being
jumped to, or split the window to open a new buffer. (Roemer)
'titleold' option. Replaces the fixed string "Thanks for flying Vim", which
is used to set the title when exiting. (Schild)

Vim scripts *new-script-5.4*

The |exists()| function can also check for existence of a function. (Roemer)
An internal function is now found with a binary search, should be a bit
faster. (Roemer)
New functions:
- |getwinposx()| and |getwinposy()|: get Vim window position. (Webb)
- |histnr()|, |histadd()|, |histget()| and |histdel()|: Make history
available. (Roemer)
- |maparg()|: Returns rhs of a mapping. Based on a patch from Vikas.
- |mapcheck()|: Check if a map name matches with an existing one.
- |visualmode()|: Return type of last Visual mode. (Webb)
- |libcall()|: Call a function in a library. Currently only for Win32. (Negri)
- |bufwinnr()|: find window that contains the specified buffer. (Roemer)
- |bufloaded()|: Whether a buffer exists and is loaded.
- |localtime()| and |getftime()|: wall clock time and last modification time
of a file (Webb)
- |glob()|: expand file name wildcards only.
- |system()|: get the raw output of an external command. (based on a patch
from Aaron).
- |strtrans()|: Translate String into printable characters. Used for
2html.vim script.
- |append()|: easy way to append a line of text in a buffer.
Changed functions:
- Optional argument to |strftime()| to give the time in seconds. (Webb)
- |expand()| now also returns names for files that don't exist.
Allow numbers in the name of a user command. (Webb)
Use "v:" for internal Vim variables: "v:errmsg", "v:shell_error", etc. The
ones from version 5.3 can be used without "v:" too, for backwards
compatibility.
New variables:
"v:warningmsg" and "v:statusmsg" internal variables. Contain the last given
warning and status message. |v:warningmsg| |v:statusmsg| (Madsen)
"v:count1" variable: like "v:count", but defaults to one when no count is
used. |v:count1|
When compiling without expression evaluation, "if 1" can be used around the
not supported commands to avoid it being executed. Works like in Vim 4.x.
Some of the runtime scripts gave errors when used with a Vim that was compiled
with minimal features. Now "if 1" is used around code that is not always
supported.
When evaluating an expression with && and ||, skip the parts that will not
influence the outcome. This makes it faster and avoids error messages. (Webb)
Also optimized the skipping of expressions inside an "if 0".
Avoid hit-enter prompt *avoid-hit-enter*

Added 'T' flag to 'shortmess': Truncate all messages that would cause the
hit-enter prompt (unless that would happen anyway).
The 'O' flag in 'shortmess' now also applies to quickfix messages, e.g., from
the ":cn" command.
The default for 'shortmess' is now "filnxtToO", to make most messages fit on
the command line, and not cause the hit-enter prompt.
Previous messages can be viewed with the new |:messages| command.
Some messages are shown fully, even when 'shortmess' tells to shorten
messages, because the user is expected to want to see them in full: CTRL-G and
some quickfix commands.
Improved quickfix *improved-quickfix*

Parse change-directory lines for gmake: "make[1]: Entering directory 'name'"'.
Uses "%D" and "%X" in 'errorformat'.
Also parse "Making {target} in {dir}" messages from make. Helps when not
using GNU make. (Schandl)
Use 'isfname' for "%f" in 'errorformat'.

Parsing of multi-line messages. |errorformat-multi-line|

Allow a range for the |:clist| command. (Roemer)
Support for "global" file names, for error formats that output the file name
once for several errors. (Roemer)
|:cnfile| jumps to first error in next file.
"$*" in 'makeprg' is replaced by arguments to ":make". (Roemer)
Regular expressions *regexp-changes-5.4*

In a regexp, a '$' before "\)" is also considered to be an end-of-line. |/$|
In patterns "^" after "\|" or "$" is a start-of-line. |/^| (Robinson)|||
In a regexp, in front of "$" and "\|" both "$" and "\$" were considered
end-of-line. Now use "$" as end-of-line and "\$" for a literal dollar. Same
for '^' after "$" and "\|". |/\$| |/\^||||||
Some search patterns can be extremely slow, even though they are not really
illegal. For example: "\([â-z]\+$\+Q". Allow interrupting any regexp
search with CTRL-C.
Register "/: last search string (read-only). (Kohan) Changed to use last used
search pattern (like what 'hlsearch' uses). Can set the search pattern with
":let @/ = {expr}".
Added character classes to search patterns, to avoid the need for removing the
'l' flag from 'cpoptions': |[:tab:]|, |[:return:]|, |[:backspace:]| and
|[:escape:]|.
By adding a '?' after a comparative operator in an expression, the comparison
is done by ignoring case. |expr-==?|
Other improvements made between version 5.3 and 5.4
Unix: Use $TMPDIR for temporary files, if it is set and exists.
Removed "Empty buffer" message. It isn't useful and can cause a hit-enter
prompt. (Negri)
"ex -" now reads commands from stdin and works in silent mode. This is to be
compatible with the original "ex" command that is used for scripts.
Default range for ":tcldo" is the whole file.
Cancelling Visual mode with ESC moved the cursor. There appears to be no
reason for this. Now leave the cursor where it is.
The ":grep" and ":make" commands see " as part of the arguments, instead of
the start of a comment.
In expressions the "=~" and "!~" operators no longer are affected by
'ignorecase'.
Renamed vimrc_example to vimrc_example.vim and gvimrc_example to
gvimrc_example.vim. Makes them being recognized as vim scripts.
"gd" no longer starts searching at the end of the previous function, but at
the first blank line above the start of the current function. Avoids that
using "gd" in the first function finds global a variable.
Default for 'complete' changed from ".,b" to ".,w,b,u,t,i". Many more matches
will be found, at the cost of time (the search can be interrupted).
It is no longer possible to set 'shell*' options from a modeline. Previously
only a warning message was given. This reduces security risks.
The ordering of the index of documentation files was changed to make it more
easy to find a subject.
On MS-DOS and win32, when $VIM was not set, $HOME was used. This caused
trouble if $HOME was set to e.g., "C:\" for some other tool, the runtime files

would not be found. Now use $HOME only for _vimrc, _gvimrc, etc., not to find
the runtime file.
When 'tags' is "./{fname}" and there is no file name for the current buffer,
just use it. Previously it was skipped, causing "vim -t {tag}" not to find
many tags.
When trying to select text in the 'scrolloff' area by mouse dragging, the
resulting scrolling made this difficult. Now 'scrolloff' is temporarily set
to 0 or 1 to avoid this. But still allow scrolling in the top line to extend
to above the displayed text.
Default for 'comments' now includes "sl:/*,mb: *,ex:*/", to make javadoc
comments work. Also helps for C comments that start with "/*******".
CTRL-X CTRL-] Insert mode tag expansion tried to expand to all tags when used
after a non-ID character, which can take a very long time. Now limit this to
200 matches. Also used for command-line tag completion.
The OS/2 distribution has been split in two files. It was too big to fit on a
floppy. The same runtime archive as for the PC is now used.
In the documentation, items like <a-z> have been replaced with {a-z} for
non-optional arguments. This avoids confusion with key names: <C-Z> is a
CTRL-Z, not a character between C and Z, that is {C-Z}.
Added *added-5.4*
Color support for the iris-ansi builtin termcap entry. (Tubman)
Included VisVim version 1.3a. (Erhardt)
Win32 port for SNiFF+ interface. (Leherbauer)
Documentation file for sniff interface: if_sniff.txt. (Leherbauer)
Included the "SendToVim" and "OpenWithVim" programs in the OleVim directory.
To be used with the OLE version of gvim under MS-Windows. (Schaller)
Included Exuberant Ctags version 3.2.4 with Eiffel support. (Hiebert)
When a file that is being edited is deleted, give a warning (like when the
time stamp changed).
Included newer versions of the HTML-generating Awk and Perl scripts. (Colombo)
Linux console mouse support through "gpm". (Tsindlekht)
Security fix: Disallow changing 'secure' and 'exrc' from a modeline. When
'secure' is set, give a warning for changing options that contain a program
name.
Made the Perl interface work with Perl 5.005 and threads. (Verdoolaege)
When giving an error message for an ambiguous mapping, include the offending
mapping. (Roemer)
Command line editing:
- Command line completion of mappings. (Roemer)
- Command line completion for ":function", ":delfunction", ":let", ":call",
":if", etc. (Roemer)
- When using CTRL-D completion for user commands that have
"-complete=tag_listfiles" also list the file names. (Madsen)
- Complete the arguments of the ":command" command. (Webb)
- CTRL-R . in command line inserts last inserted text. CTRL-F, CTRL-P, CTRL-W
and CTRL-A after CTRL-R are used to insert an object from under the cursor.
(Madsen)
Made the text in uganda.txt about copying Vim a bit more clear.
Updated the Vim tutor. Added the "vimtutor" command, which copies the tutor
and starts Vim on it. "make install" now also copies the tutor.
In the output of ":clist" the current entry is highlighted, with the 'i'
highlighting (same as used for 'incsearch').
For the ":clist" command, you can scroll backwards with "b" (one screenful),
"u" (half a screenful) and "k" (one line).

Multi-byte support:
- X-input method for multi-byte characters. And various fixes for multi-byte
support. (Nam)
- Hangul input method feature: |hangul|. (Nam)
- Cleaned up configuration of multi-byte support, XIM, fontset and Hangul
input. Each is now configurable separately.
- Changed check for GTK_KEYBOARD to HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE. (Nam)
- Added doc/hangulin.txt: Documentation for the Hangul input code. (Nam)
- XIM support for GTK+. (Nam)
- First attempt to include support for SJIS encoding. (Nagano)
- When a double-byte character doesn't fit at the end of the line, put a "~"
there and print it on the next line.
- Optimize output of multi-byte text. (Park)
- Win32 IME: preedit style is like over-the-spot. (Nagano)
- Win32 IME: IME mode change now done with ImmSetOpenStatus. (Nagano)
- GUI Athena: file selection dialog can display multi-byte characters.
(Nagano)
- Selection reply for XA_TEXT as XA_STRING. (Nagano)
"runtime/macros/diffwin.vim". Mappings to make a diff window. (Campbell)
Added ".obj" to the 'suffixes' option.
Reduced size of syntax/synload.vim by using the ":SynAu" user command.
Automated numbering of Syntax menu entries in menu.vim.
In the Syntax menu, insert separators between syntax names that start with
a different letter. (Geddes)
Xterm:
- Clipboard support when using the mouse in an xterm. (Madsen)
- When using the xterm mouse, track dragging of the mouse. Use xterm escape
sequences when possible. It is more precise than other methods, but
requires a fairly recent xterm version. It is enabled with "xterm2" in
'ttymouse'. (Madsen)
- Check xterm patch level, to set the value of 'ttymouse'. Has only been
added to xterm recently (patch level > 95). Uses the new 't_RV' termcap
option. Set 'ttymouse' to "xterm2" when a correct response is recognized.
Will make xterm mouse dragging work better.
- Support for shifted function keys on xterm. Changed codes for shifted
cursor keys to what the xterm actually produces. Added codes for shifted
<End> and <Home>.
- Added 't_WP' to set the window position in pixels and 't_WS' to set the
window size in characters. Xterm can now move (used for ":winpos") and
resize (use for ":set lines=" and ":set columns=").
X11:
- When in Visual mode but not owning the selection, display the Visual area
with the VisualNOS group to show this. (Madsen)
- Support for requesting the type of clipboard support. Used for AIX and
dtterm. (Wittig)
- Support compound_text selection (even when compiled without multi-byte).
Swap file:
- New variation for naming swap files: Replace path separators into %, place
all swap files in one directory. Used when a name in 'dir' ends in two path
separators. (Madsen)
- When a swap file is found, show whether it contains modifications or not in
the informative message. (Madsen)
- When dialogs are supported, use a dialog to ask the user what to do when a
swapfile already exists.
"popup_setpos" in 'mousemodel' option. Allows for moving the cursor when
using the right mouse button.
When a buffer is deleted, the selection for which buffer to display instead
now uses the most recent entry from the jump list. (Madsen)
When using CTRL-O/CTRL-I, skip deleted buffers.
A percentage is shown in the ruler, when there is room.
Used autoconf 1.13 to generate configure.
Included get_lisp_indent() from Dirk van Deun. Does better Lisp indenting
when 'p' flag in 'cpoptions' is not included.
Made the 2html.vim script quite a bit faster. (based on ideas from Geddes)
Unix:
- Included the name of the user that compiled Vim and the system name it was
compiled on in the version message.

- "make install" now also installs the "tools" directory. Makes them
available for everybody.
- "make check" now does the same as "make test". "make test" checks for
Visual block mode shift, insert, replace and change.
- Speed up comparing a file name with existing buffers by storing the
device/inode number with the buffer.
- Added configure arguments "--disable-gtk", "--disable-motif" and
"--disable-athena", to be able to disable a specific GUI (when it doesn't
work).
- Renamed the configure arguments for disabling the check for specific GUIs.
Should be clearer now. (Kahn)
- On a Digital Unix system ("OSF1") check for the curses library before
termlib and termcap. (Schild)
- "make uninstall_runtime" will only delete the version-specific files. Can
be used to delete the runtime files of a previous version.
Macintosh: (St-Amant)
- Dragging the scrollbar, like it's done for the Win32 GUI. Moved common code
from gui_w32.c to gui.c
- Added dialogs and file browsing.
- Resource fork preserved, warning when it will be lost.
- Copy original file attributes to newly written file.
- Set title/notitle bug solved.
- Filename completion improved.
- Grow box limit resize to a char by char size.
- Use of rgb.txt for more colors (but give back bad color).
- Apple menu works (beside the about...).
- Internal border now vim compliant.
- Removing a menu doesn't crash anymore.
- Weak-linking of Python 1.5.1 (only on PPC). Python is supported when the
library is available.
- If an error is encountered when sourcing the users .vimrc, the alert box now
shows right away with the OK button defaulted. There's no more "Delete"-key
sign at the start of each line
- Better management of environment variables. Now $VIM is calculated only
once, not regenerated every time it is used.
- No more CPU hog when in background.
- In a sourced Vim script the Mac file format can be recognized, just like DOS
file format is.
When both "unix" and "mac" are present in 'fileformats', prefer "mac" format
when there are more CR than NL characters.
When using "mac" fileformat, use CR instead of a NL, because NL is used for
NUL. Will preserve all characters in a file. (Madsen)
The DOS install.exe now contains checks for an existing installation. It
avoids setting $VIM and $PATH again.
The install program for Dos/Windows can now install Vim in the popup menu, by
adding two registry keys.
Port to EGCS/mingw32. New Makefile.ming. (Aaron)
DOS 16 bit: Don't include cursor shape stuff. Save some bytes.
TCL support to Makefile.w32. (Duperval)
OS/2: Use argv[0] to find runtime files.
When using "gf" to go to a buffer that has already been used, jump to the
line where the cursor last was.
Colored the output of ":tselect" a bit more. Different highlighting between
tag name and file name. Highlight field name ("struct:") separately from
argument.
Backtick expansion for non-Unix systems. Based on a patch from Aaron.
Allows the use of things like ":n `grep -l test *.c`" and
"echo expand('`ls m*`')".
Check for the 'complete' option when it is set. (Acevedo)
'd' flag in 'complete' searches for defined names or macros.
While searching for Insert mode completions in include files and tags files,
check for typeahead, so that you can use matches early. (Webb)
The '.' flag in 'complete' now scans the current buffer completely, ignoring
'nowrapscan'. (Webb)
Added '~' flag to 'whichwrap'. (Acevedo)
When ending the Visual mode (e.g., with ESC) don't grab ownership of the
selection.

In a color terminal, "fg" and "bg" can be used as color names. They stand for
the "Normal" colors.
A few cscope cleanups. (Kahn)
Included changed vimspell.sh from Schemenauer.
Concatenation of strings in an expression with "." is a bit faster. (Roemer)
The ":redir" command can now redirect to a register: ":redir @r". (Roemer)
Made the output of ":marks" and ":jumps" look similar. When the mark is in
the current file, show the text at the mark. Also for ":tags".
When configure finds ftello() and fseeko(), they are used in tag.c (for when
you have extremely big tags files).
Configure check for "-FOlimit,2000" argument for the compiler. (Borsenkow)
GUI:
- When using ":gui" in a non-GUI Vim, give a clear error message.
- "gvim -v" doesn't start the GUI (if console support is present).
- When in Ex mode, use non-Visual selection for the whole screen.
- When starting with "gvim -f" and using ":gui" in the .gvimrc file, Vim
forked anyway. Now the "-f" flag is remembered for ":gui". Added "gui -b"
to run gvim in the background anyway.
Motif GUI:
- Check for "-lXp" library in configure (but it doesn't work yet...).
- Let configure check for Lesstif in "/usr/local/Lesstif/Motif*". Changed the
order to let a local Motif version override a system standard version.
Win32 GUI:
- When using "-register" or "-unregister" in the non-OLE version, give an
error message.
- Use GTK toolbar icons. Make window border look better. Use sizing handles
on the lower left&right corners of the window. (Negri)
- When starting an external command with ":!start" and the command can not be
executed, give an error message. (Webb)
- Use sizing handles for the grey rectangles below the scrollbars. Can draw
toolbar in flat mode now, looks better. (Negri)
- Preparations for MS-Windows 3.1 addition. Mostly changing WIN32 to MSWIN
and USE_GUI_WIN32 to USE_GUI_MSWIN. (Negri)
Avoid allocating the same string four times in buflist_findpat(). (Williams)
Set title and icon text with termcap options 't_ts', 't_fs', 't_IS' and
't_IE'. Allows doing this on any terminal that supports setting the title
and/or icon text. (Schild)
New 'x' flag in 'comments': Automatically insert the end part when its last
character is typed. Helps to close a /* */ comment in C. (Webb)
When expand() has a second argument which is non-zero, don't use 'suffixes'
and 'wildignore', return all matches.
'O' flag in 'cpoptions: When not included, Vim will not overwrite a file, if
it didn't exist when editing started but it does exist when the buffer is
written to the file. The file must have been created outside of Vim, possibly
without the user knowing it. When this is detected after a shell command,
give a warning message.
When editing a new file, CTRL-G will show [New file]. When there were errors
while reading the file, CTRL-G will show [Read errors].
":wall" can now use a dialog and file-browsing when needed.
Grouped functionality into new features, mainly to reduce the size of the
minimal version:
+linebreak: 'showbreak', 'breakat' and 'linebreak'
+visualextra: "I"nsert and "A"ppend in Visual block mode, "c"hange all lines
in a block, ">" and "<": Shifting a block, "r": Replacing a
Visual area with one character.
+comments: 'comments'
+cmdline_info: 'ruler' and 'showcmd'. Replaces +showcmd.
"+title" Don't add code to set title or icon for MSDOS, this was not
possible anyway.
+cmdline_compl Disable commandline completion at compile time, except for
files, directories and help items.
Moved features from a list of function calls into an array. Should save a bit

of space.
While entering the body of a function, adjust indent according to "if" and
"while" commands.
VMS: Adjusted os_vms.mms a bit according to suggestions from Arpadffy.
The flags in the 'comments' option can now include an offset. This makes it
possible to align "/*****", "/* xxx" and "/*" comments with the same
'comments' setting. The default value for 'comments' uses this.
Added 'O' flag: Don't use this part for the "O" command. Useful for "set
com=sO:*\ -,mO:*\ \ ,exO:*/"
FileType autocommands recognize ".bak", ".orig" and "~" extensions and remove
them to find the relevant extension.
The tutorial for writing a Vim script file has been extended.
Some more highlighting in help files, for items that are not typed literally.
Can use "CTRL-W CTRL-G" like "CTRL-W g".
"make test" for OS/2.
Adjusted configure to automatically use the GUI for BeOS.
Fixed *fixed-5.4*
5.3.1: When using an autocommand for BufWritePre that changes the name of the
buffer, freed memory would be used. (Geddes)
Mac: Compiler didn't understand start of skip_class_name().
Win32 GUI:
- When cancelling the font requester, don't give an error message.
- When a tearoff-menu is open and its menu is deleted, Vim could crash.
(Negri)
- There was a problem on Windows 95 with (un)maximizing the window.
(Williams)
- when 'mousehide' is set, the mouse would stay hidden when a menu is dropped
with the keyboard. (Ralston)
- The tempname() function already created the file. Caused problems when
using ":w". Now the file is deleted.
- Cursor disappeared when ending up in the top-left character on the screen
after scrolling. (Webb)
- When adding a submenu for a torn-off menu, it was not updated.
- Menu tooltip was using the toolbar tooltip. (Negri)
- Setting 'notitle' didn't remove the title. (Steed)
- Using ":!start cmd" scrolled the screen one line up, and didn't wait for
return when the command wasn't found.
Cscope interface: Sorting of matches was wrong. Starting the interface could
fail. (Kahn)
Motif GUI: Could not compile with Motif 1.1, because some tear-off
functionality was not in #ifdefs.
Configure could sometimes not compile or link the test program for sizeof(int)
properly. This caused alignment problems for the undo structure allocations.
Added a safety check that SIZEOF_INT is not zero.
Added configure check to test if strings.h can be included after string.h.
Some systems can't handle it.
Some systems need both string.h and strings.h included. Adjusted vim.h for
that. Removed including string.h from os_unixx.h, since it's already in
vim.h. (Savage)
AIX: defining _NO_PROTO in os_unix.h causes a conflict between string.h and
strings.h, but after the configure check said it was OK. Also define
_NO_PROTO for AIX in the configure check. (Winn)
When closing a window with CTRL-W c, the value of 'hidden' was not taken into
account, the buffer was always unloaded. (Negri)
Unix Makefile: "make install" always tried to rename an older executable and
remove it. This caused an error message when it didn't exit. Added a check
for the existence of an old executable.
The command line for "make install" could get too long, because of the many
syntax files. Now first do a "cd" to reduce the length.

On RISCOS and MSDOS, reading a file could fail, because the short filename was
used, which can be wrong after a ":!cd".
In the DOS versions, the wrong install.exe was included (required Windows).
Now the install.exe version is included that is the same as the Vim version.
This also supports long file names where possible.
When recording, and stopping while in Insert mode with CTRL-O q, the CTRL-O
would also be recorded.
32bit DOS version: "vim \file", while in a subdirectory, resulted in "new
file" for "file" in the local directory, while "\file" did exist. When
"file" in the current directory existed, this didn't happen.
MSDOS: Mouse could not go beyond 80 columns in 132 columns mode. (Young)
"make test" failed in the RedHat RPM, because compatible is off by default.
In Insert mode <C-O><C-W><C-W> changes to other window, but the status bars
were not updated until another character was typed.
MSDOS: environment options in lowercase didn't work, although they did in the
Win32 versions. (Negri)
After ":nohlsearch", a tag command switched highlighting back on.
When using "append" command as the last line in an autocommand, Vim would
crash.
RISCOS: The scroll bumpers (?) were not working properly. (Leonard)
"zl" and "zh" could move the cursor, but this didn't set the column in which
e.g., "k" would move the cursor.
When doing ":set all&" the value of 'scroll' was not set correctly. This
caused an error message when later setting any other number option.
When 'hlsearch' highlighting has been disabled with ":nohlsearch",
incremental searching would switch it back on too early.
When listing tags for ":tselect", and using a non-search command, and the last
character was equal to the first (e.g., "99"), the last char would not be
shown.
When searching for tags with ":tag" Vim would assume that all matches had been
found when there were still more (e.g. from another tags file).
Win32: Didn't recognize "c:\" (e.g., in tags file) as absolute path when
upper/lowercase was different.
Some xterms (Debian) send <Esc>OH for HOME and <Esc>OF for END. Added these
to the builtin-xterm.
In ex mode, any CR was seen as the end of the line. Only a NL should be
handled that way. broke ":s/foo/some^Mtext/".
In menu.vim, a vmenu was used to override an amenu. That didn't work, because
the system menu file doesn't overwrite existing menus. Added explicit vunmenu
to solve this.
Configure check for terminal library could find a library that doesn't work at
runtime (Solaris: shared library not found). Added a check that a program
with tgoto() can run correctly.
Unix: "echo -n" in the Makefile doesn't work on all systems, causing errors
compiling pathdef.c. Replaced it with "tr".
Perl: DO_JOIN was redefined by Perl. Undefined it in the perl files.
Various XIM and multi-byte fixes:
- Fix user cannot see his language while he is typing his language with
off-the-spot method. (Nagano)
- Fix preedit position using text/edit area (using gui.wid). (Nagano)
- remove 'fix dead key' codes. It was needed since XNFocusWindow was
"x11_window", XNFocusWindow is now gui.wid. (Nagano)
- Remove some compile warnings and fix typos. (Namsh)
- For status area, check the gtk+ version while Vim runs. I believe it is
better than compile time check. (Namsh)
- Remove one FIXME for gtk+-xim. (Namsh)
- XIM: Dead keys didn't work for Czech. (Vyskovsky)
- Multibyte: If user input only 3byte such as mb1 mb2 eng or eng mb1 mb2 VIM

could convert it to special character. (Nam)

- Athena/Motif with XIM: fix preedit area. (Nam)
- XIM: Composed strings were sometimes ignored. Vim crashed when compose
string was longer than 256 bytes. IM's geometry control is fixed. (Nam,
Nagano)
- Win32 multi-byte: hollowed cursor width on a double byte char was wrong.
(Nagano)
- When there is no GUI, selecting XIM caused compilation problems.
Automatically disable XIM when there is no GUI in configure.
- Motif and Athena: When compiled with XIM, but the input method was not
enabled, there would still be a status line. Now the status line is gone if
the input method doesn't work. (Nam)
Win32: tooltip was not removed when selecting a parent menu (it was when
selecting a menu entry). (Negri)
Unix with X: Some systems crash on exit, because of the XtCloseDisplay() call.
Removed it, it should not be necessary when exiting.
Win32: Crash on keypress when compiled with Borland C++. (Aaron)
When checking for Motif library files, prefer the same location as the include
files (with "include" replaced with "lib") above another entry.
Athena GUI: Changed "XtOffset()" in gui_at_fs.c to "XtOffsetOf()", like it's
used in gui_x11.c.
Win32: When testing for a timestamp of a file on floppy, would get a dialog
box when the floppy has been removed. Now return with an error. (Negri)
Win32 OLE: When forced to come to the foreground, a minimized window was still
minimized, now it's restored. (Zivkov)
There was no check for a positive 'shiftwidth'. A negative value could cause
a hangup, a zero value a crash.
Athena GUI: horizontal scrollbar wasn't updated correctly when clicking right
or left of the thumb.
When making a Visual-block selection in one window, and trying to scroll
another, could cause errors for accessing non-existent line numbers.
When 'matchpairs' contains "`:'"', jumping from the ` to the '' didn't work
properly.
Changed '\"' to '"'' to make it compatible with old C compilers.
The command line expansion for mappings caused a script with a TAB between lhs
and rhs of a map command to fail. Assume the TAB is to separate lhs and rhs
when there are no mappings to expand.
When editing a file with very long lines with 'scrolloff' set, "j" would
sometimes end up in a line which wasn't displayed.
When editing a read-only file, it was completely read into memory, even when
it would not fit. Now create a swap file for a read-only file when running
out of memory while reading the file.
When using ":set cino={s,e-s", a line after "} else {" was not indented
properly. Also added a check for this in test3.in.
The Hebrew mapping for the command line was remembered for the next command
line. That isn't very useful, a command is not Hebrew. (Kol)
When completing file names with embedded spaces, like "Program\ files", this
didn't work. Also for user commands. Moved backslash_halve() down to
mch_expandpath().
When using "set mouse=a" in Ex mode, mouse events were handled like typed
text. Then typing "quit" screwed up the mouse behavior of the xterm.
When repeating an insert with "." that contains a CTRL-Y, a number 5 was
inserted as "053".
Yanking a Visual area, with the cursor past the line, didn't move the cursor
back onto the line. Same for "~", "u", "U" and "g?"
Win32: Default for 'grepprg' could be "findstr /n" even though there is no
findstr.exe (Windows 95). Check if it exists, and fall back to "grep -n" if
it doesn't.

Because gui_mouse_moved() inserted a leftmouse click in the input buffer,

remapping a leftmouse click caused strange effects. Now Insert another code
in the input buffer. Also insert a leftmouse release, to avoid the problem
with ":map <LeftMouse> l" that the next release is seen as the release for the
focus click.
With 'wrap' on, when using a line that doesn't fit on the screen, if the start
of the Visual area is before the start of the screen, there was no
highlighting. Also, 'showbreak' doesn't work properly.
DOS, Win32: A pattern "[0-9]\+" didn't work in autocommands.
When creating a swap file for a buffer which isn't the current buffer, could
get a mixup of short file name, resulting in a long file name when a short
file name was required. makeswapname() was calling modname() instead of
buf_modname().
When a function caused an error, and the error message was very long because
of recursiveness, this would cause a crash.
'suffixes' were always compared with matching case. For MS-DOS, Win32 and
OS/2 case is now ignored.
The use of CHARBITS in regexp.c didn't work on some Linux. Don't use it.
When generating a script file, 'cpo' was made empty. This caused backslashes
to disappear from mappings. Set it to "B" to avoid that.
Lots of typos in the documentation. (Campbell)
When editing an existing (hidden) buffer, jump to the last used cursor
position. (Madsen)
On a Sun the xterm screen was not restored properly when suspending. (Madsen)
When $VIMINIT is processed, 'nocompatible' was only set after processing it.
Unix: Polling for a character wasn't done for GPM, Sniff and Xterm clipboard
all together. Cleaned up the code for using select() too.
When executing external commands from the GUI, some typeahead was lost. Added
some code to regain as much typeahead as possible.
When the window height is 5 lines or fewer, <PageDown> didn't use a one-line
overlap, while <PageUp> does. Made sure that <PageUp> uses the same overlap
as <PageDown>, so that using them both always displays the same lines.
Removed a few unused functions and variables (found with lint).
Dictionary completion didn't use 'infercase'. (Raul)
Configure tests failed when the Perl library was not in LD_LIBRARY_PATH.
Don't use the Perl library for configure tests, add it to the linker line only
when linking Vim.
When using ncurses/terminfo, could get a 't_Sf' and 't_Sb' termcap entry that
has "%d" instead of "%p1%d". The light background colors didn't work then.
GTK GUI with ncurses: Crashed when starting up in tputs(). Don't use tputs()
when the GUI is active.
Could use the ":let" command to set the "count", "shell_error" and "version"
variables, but that didn't work. Give an error message when trying to set
them.
On FreeBSD 3.0, tclsh is called tclsh8.0. Adjusted configure.in to find it.
When Vim is linked with -lncurses, but python uses -ltermcap, this causes
trouble: "OOPS". Configure now removes the -ltermcap.
:@" and :*" didn't work properly, because the " was recognized as the start of
a comment.
Win32s GUI: Minimizing the console where a filter command runs in caused
trouble for detecting that the filter command has finished. (Negri)
After executing a filter command from an xterm, the mouse would be disabled.
It would work again after changing the mode.
Mac GUI: Crashed in newenv(). (St-Amant)

The menus and mappings in mswin.vim didn't handle text ending in a NL

correctly. (Acevedo)
The ":k" command didn't check if it had a valid argument or extra characters.
Now give a meaningful error message. (Webb)
On SGI, the signal function doesn't always have three arguments. Check for
struct sigcontext to find out. Might still be wrong...
Could crash when using 'hlsearch' and search pattern is "^".
When search patterns were saved and restored, status of no_hlsearch was not
also saved and restored (from ":nohlsearch" command).
When using setline() to make a line shorter, the cursor position was not
adjusted.
MS-DOS and Win95: When trying to edit a file and accidentally adding a slash
or backslash at the end, the file was deleted. Probably when trying to create
the swap file. Explicitly check for a trailing slash or backslash before
trying to read a file.
X11 GUI: When starting the GUI failed and received a deadly signal while
setting the title, would lock up when trying to exit, because the title is
reset again. Avoid using mch_settitle() recursively.
X11 GUI: When starting the GUI fails, and then trying it again, would crash,
because argv[] has been freed and x11_display was reset to NULL.
Win32: When $HOME was set, would put "~user" in the swap file, which would
never compare with a file name, and never cause the attention message. Put
the full path in the swap file instead.
Win32 console: There were funny characters at the end of the "vim -r" swap
files message (direct output of CR CR LF).
DOS 32 bit: "vim -r" put the text at the top of the window.
GUI: With 'mousefocus' set, got mouse codes as text with "!sleep 100" or "Q".
Motif and Win32 GUI: When changing 'guifont' to a font of the same size the
screen wasn't redrawn.
Unix: When using ":make", jumping to a file b.c, which is already open as a
symbolic link a.c, opened a new buffer instead of using the existing one.
Inserting text in the current buffer while sourcing the .vimrc file would
cause a crash or hang. The memfile for the current buffer was never
allocated. Now it's allocated as soon as something is written in the buffer.
DOS 32 bit: "lightblue" background worked for text, but not drawn parts were
black.
DOS: Colors of console were not restored upon exiting.
When recording, with 'cmdheight' set to 2 and typing Esc> in Insert mode
caused the "recording" message to be doubled.
Spurious "file changed" messages could happen on Windows. Now tolerate a one
second difference, like for Linux.
GUI: When returning from Ex mode, scrollbars were not updated.
Win32: Copying text to the clipboard containing a <CR>, pasting it would
replace it with a <NL> and drop the next character.
Entering a double byte character didn't work if the second byte is in [xXoO].
(Eric Lee)
vim_realloc was both defined and had a prototype in proto/misc2.pro. Caused
conflicts on Solaris.
A pattern in an autocommand was treated differently on DOS et al. than on
Unix. Now it's the same, also when using backslashes.
When using <Tab> twice for command line completion, without a match, the <Tab>
would be inserted. (Negri)
Bug in MS-Visual C++ 6.0 when compiling ex_docmd.c with optimization. (Negri)
Testing the result of mktemp() for failure was wrong. Could cause a crash.

(Peters)
GUI: When checking for a ".gvimrc" file in the current directory, didn't check
for a "_gvimrc" file too.
Motif GUI: When using the popup menu and then adding an item to the menu bar,
the menu bar would get very high.
Mouse clicks and special keys (e.g. cursor keys) quit the more prompt and
dialogs. Now they are ignored.
When at the more-prompt, xterm selection didn't work. Now use the 'r' flag in
'mouse' also for the more-prompt.
When selecting a Visual area of more than 1023 lines, with 'guioptions' set to
"a", could mess up the display because of a message in free_yank(). Removed
that message, except for the Amiga.
Moved auto-selection from ui_write() to the screen update functions. Avoids
unexpected behavior from a low-level function. Also makes the different
feedback of owning the selection possible.
Vi incompatibility: Using "i<CR>" in an indent, with 'ai' set, used the
original indent instead of truncating it at the cursor. (Webb)
":echo x" didn't stop at "q" for the more prompt.
Various fixes for Macintosh. (St-Amant)
When using 'selectmode' set to "exclusive", selecting a word and then using
CTRL-] included the character under the cursor.
Using ":let a:name" in a function caused a crash. (Webb)
When using ":append", an empty line didn't scroll up.
DOS etc.: A file name starting with '!' didn't work. Added '!' to default for
'isfname'.
BeOS: Compilation problem with prototype of skip_class_name(). (Price)
When deleting more than one line, e.g., with "de", could still use "U"
command, which didn't work properly then.
Amiga: Could not compile ex_docmd.c, it was getting too big. Moved some
functions to ex_cmds.c.
The expand() function would add a trailing slash for directories.
Didn't give an error message when trying to assign a value to an argument of a
function. (Webb)
Moved including sys/ptem.h to after termios.h. Needed for Sinix.
OLE interface: Don't delete the object in CVimCF::Release() when the reference
count becomes zero. (Cordell)
VisVim could still crash on exit. (Erhardt)
"case a: case b:" (two case statements in one line) aligned with the second
case. Now it uses one 'sw' for indent. (Webb)
Font initialisation wasn't right for Athena/Motif GUI. Moved the call to
highlight_gui_started() gui_mch_init() to gui_mch_open(). (Nam)
In Replace mode, backspacing over a TAB before where the replace mode started
while 'sts' is different from 'ts', would delete the TAB.
Win32 console: When executing external commands and switching between the two
console screens, Vim would copy the text between the buffers. That caused the
screen to be messed up for backtick expansion.
":winpos -1" then ":winpos" gave wrong error message.
Windows commander creates files called c:\tmp\$wc\abc.txt. Don't remove the
backslash before the $. Environment variables were not expanded anyway,
because of the backslash before the dollar.
Using "-=" with ":set" could remove half a part when it contains a "\,".
E.g., ":set path+=a\\,b" and then "set path-=b" removed ",b".
When Visually selecting lines, with 'selection' set to "inclusive", including

the last char of the line, "<<" moved an extra line. Also for other operators
that always work on lines.
link.sh changed "-lnsl_s" to "_s" when looking for "nsl" to be removed.
Now it only remove whole words.
When jumped to a mark or using "fz", and there is an error, the current column
was lost. E.g. when using "$fzj".
The "g CTRL-G" command could not be interrupted, even though it can take a
long time.
Some terminals do have <F4> and <xF4>. <xF4> was always interpreted as <F4>.
Now map <xF4> to <F4>, so that the user can override this.
When compiling os_win32.c with MIN_FEAT the apply_autocmds() should not be
used. (Aaron)
This autocommand looped forever: ":au FileChangedShell * nested e <afile>"
Now FileChangeShell never nests. (Roemer)
When evaluating an ":elseif" that was not going to matter anyway, ignore
errors. (Roemer)
GUI Lesstif: Tearoff bar was the last item, instead of the first.
GUI Motif: Colors of tear-off widgets was wrong when 't' flag added to
'guioptions' afterwards. When 't' flag in 'guioptions' is excluded, would
still get a tearoff item in a new menu.
An inode number can be "long long". Use ino_t instead of long. Added
configure check for ino_t.
Binary search for tags was using a file offset "long" instead of "off_t".
Insert mode completion of tags was not using 'ignorecase' properly.
In Insert mode, the <xFn> keys were not properly mapped to <Fn> for the
default mappings. Also caused errors for ":mkvimrc" and ":mksession".
When jumping to another window while in Insert mode, would get the "warning:
changing readonly file" even when not making a change.
A '(' or '{' inside a trailing "//" comment would disturb C-indenting.
When using two labels below each other, the second one was not indented
properly. Comments could mess up C-indenting in many places. (Roemer)
Could delete or redefine a function while it was being used. Could cause a
crash.
In a function it's logical to prepend "g:" to a system variable, but this
didn't work. (Roemer)
Hangul input: Buffer would overflow when user inputs invalid key sequence.
(Nam)
When BufLoad or BufEnter autocommands change the topline of the buffer in the
window, it was overruled and the cursor put halfway the window. Now only put
the cursor halfway if the autocommands didn't change the topline.
Calling exists("&option") always returned 1. (Roemer)
Win32: Didn't take actually available memory into account. (Williams)
White space after an automatically inserted comment leader was not removed
when 'ai' is not set and <CR> hit just after inserting it. (Webb)
A few menus had duplicated accelerators. (Roemer)
Spelling errors in documentation, quite a few "the the". (Roemer)
Missing prototypes for Macintosh. (Kielhorn)
Win32: When using 'shellquote' or 'shellxquote', the "!start cmd" wasn't
executed in a disconnected process.
When resizing the window, causing a line before the cursor to wrap or unwrap,
the cursor was displayed in the wrong position.
There was quite a bit of dead code when compiling with minimal features.
When doing a ":%s///" command that makes lines shorter, such that lines above

the final cursor position no longer wrap, the cursor position was not updated.
get_id_list() could allocate an array one too small, when a "contains=" item
has a wildcard that matches a group name that is added just after it. E.g.:
"contains=a.*b,axb". Give an error message for it.
When yanking a Visual area and using the middle mouse button -> crash. When
clipboard doesn't work, now make "* always use "".
Win32: Using ":buf a\ b\file" didn't work, it was interpreted as "ab\file".
Using ":ts ident", then hit <CR>, with 'cmdheight' set to 2: command line was
not cleared, the tselect prompt was on the last but one line.
mksession didn't restore the cursor column properly when it was after a tab.
Could not get all windows back when using a smaller terminal screen. Didn't
restore all windows when "winsize" was not in 'sessionoptions'. (Webb)
Command line completion for ":buffer" depended on 'ignorecase' for Unix, but
not for DOS et al.. Now don't use 'ignorecase', but let it depend on whether
file names are case sensitive or not (like when expanding file names).
Win32 GUI: (Negri)
- Redrawing the background caused flicker when resizing the window. Removed
_OnEraseBG(). Removed CS_HREDRAW and CS_VREDRAW flags from the
sndclass.style.
- Some parts of the window were drawn in grey, instead of using the color from
the user color scheme.
- Dropping a file on gvim didn't activate the window.
- When there is no menu ('guioptions' excludes 'm'), never use the ALT key for
it.
GUI: When resizing the window, would make the window height a bit smaller.
Now round off to the nearest char cell size. (Negri)
In Vi the ")" and "(" commands don't stop at a single space after a dot.
Added 'J' flag in 'cpoptions' to make this behave Vi compatible. (Roemer)
When saving a session without any buffers loaded, there would be a ":normal"
command without arguments in it. (Webb)
Memory leaks fixed: (Madsen)
- eval.c: forgot to release func structure when func deleted
- ex_docmd.c: forgot to release string after "<sfile>"
- misc1.c: leak when completion pattern had no matches.
- os_unix.c: forgot to release regexp after file completions
Could crash when using a buffer without a name. (Madsen)
Could crash when doing file name completion, because of backslash_halve().
(Madsen)
":@a" would do mappings on register a, which is not Vi compatible. (Roemer)
":g/foo.*()/s/foobar/_&/gc" worked fine, but then "n" searched for "foobar"
and displayed "/foo.*()". (Roemer)
OS/2: get_cmd_output() was not included. Didn't check for $VIM/.vimrc file.
Command line completion of options didn't work after "+=" and "-=".
Unix configure: Test for memmove()/bcopy()/memcpy() tried redefining these
functions, which could fail if they are defined already. Use mch_memmove() to
redefine.
Unix: ":let a = expand("`xterm`&")" started an xterm asynchronously, but
":let a = expand("`xterm&`")" generated an error message, because the
redirection was put after the '&'.
Win32 GUI: Dialog buttons could not be selected properly with cursor keys,
when the default is not the first button. (Webb)
The "File has changed since editing started" (when regaining focus) could not
always be seen. (Webb)
When starting with "ex filename", the file message was overwritten with
the "entering Ex mode" message.
Output of ":tselect" listed name of file directly from the tags file. Now it
is corrected for the position of the tags file.
When 'backspace' is 0, could backspace over autoindent. Now it is no longer

allowed (Vi compatible).

In Replace mode, when 'noexpandtab' and 'smarttab' were set, and inserting
Tabs, backspacing didn't work correctly for Tabs inserted at the start of the
line (unless 'sts' was set too). Also, when replacing the first non-blank
after which is a space, rounding the indent was done on the first non-blank
instead of on the character under the cursor.
When 'sw' at 4, 'ts' at 8 and 'smarttab' set: When a tab was appended after
four spaces (they are replaced with a tab) couldn't backspace over the tab.
In Insert mode, with 'bs' set to 0, couldn't backspace to before autoindent,
even when it was removed with CTRL-D.
When repeating an insert command where a <BS>, <Left> or other key causes an
error, would flush buffers and remain in Insert mode. No longer flush
buffers, only beep and continue with the insert command.
Dos and Win32 console: Setting t_me didn't work to get another color. Made
this works backwards compatible.
For Turkish (LANG = "tr") uppercase 'i' is not an 'I'. Use ASCII uppercase
translation in vim_strup() to avoid language problems. (Komur)
Unix: Use usleep() or nanosleep() for mch_delay() when available. Hopefully
this avoids a hangup in select(0, ..) for Solaris 2.6.
Vim would crash when using a script file with 'let &sp = "| tee"', starting
vim with "vim -u test", then doing ":set sp=". The P_WAS_SET flag wasn't set
for a string option, could cause problems with any string option.
When using "cmd | vim -", stdin is not a terminal. This gave problems with
GPM (Linux console mouse) and when executing external commands. Now close
stdin and re-open it as a copy of stderr.
Syntax highlighting: A "nextgroup" item was not properly stored in the state
list. This caused missing of next groups when not redrawing from start to
end, but starting halfway.
Didn't check for valid values of 'ttymouse'.
When executing an external command from the GUI, waiting for the child to
terminate might not work, causing a hang. (Parmelan)
"make uninstall" didn't delete the vimrc_example.vim and gvimrc_example.vim
files and the vimtutor.
Win32: "expand("%:p:h")" with no buffer name removed the directory name.
"fnamemodify("", ":p")" did not add a trailing slash, fname_case() removed it.
Fixed: When 'hlsearch' was set and the 'c' flag was not in 'cpoptions':
highlighting was not correct. Now overlapping matches are handled correctly.
Athena, Motif and GTK GUI: When started without focus, cursor was shown as if
with focus.
Don't include 'shellpipe' when compiled without quickfix, it's not used.
Don't include 'dictionary' option when compiled without the +insert_expand
feature.
Only include the 'shelltype' option for the Amiga.
When making a change to a line, with 'hlsearch' on, causing it to wrap, while
executing a register, the screen would not be updated correctly. This was a
generic problem in update_screenline() being called while must_redraw is
VALID.
Using ":bdelete" in a BufUnload autocommand could cause a crash. The window
height was added to another window twice in close_window().
Win32 GUI: When removing a menu item, the tearoff wasn't updated. (Negri)
Some performance bottlenecks removed. Allocating memory was not efficient.
For Win32 checking for available memory was slow, don't check it every time
now. On NT obtaining the user name takes a long time, cache the result (for
all systems).
fnamemodify() with an argument ":~:." or ":.:~" didn't work properly.
When editing a new file and exiting, the marks for the buffer were not saved
in the viminfo file.

":confirm only" didn't put up a dialog.

These text objects didn't work when 'selection' was "exclusive": va( vi( va{
vi{ va< vi< vi[ va[.
The dialog for writing a readonly file didn't have a valid default. (Negri)
The line number used for error messages when sourcing a file was reset when
modelines were inspected. It was wrong when executing a function.
The file name and line number for an error message wasn't displayed when it
was the same as for the last error, even when this was long ago. Now reset
the name/lnum after a hit-enter prompt.
In a session file, a "%" in a file name caused trouble, because fprintf() was
used to write it to the file.
When skipping statements, a mark in an address wasn't skipped correctly:
"ka|if 0|'ad|else|echo|endif". (Roemer)
":wall" could overwrite a not-edited file without asking.
GUI: When $DISPLAY was not set or starting the GUI failed in another way, the
console mode then started with wrong colors and skipped initializations. Now
do an early check if the GUI can be started. Don't source the menu.vim or
gvimrc when it will not. Also do normal terminal initializations if the GUI
might not start.
When using a BufEnter autocommand to position the cursor and scroll the
window, the cursor was always put at the last used line and halfway the window
anyhow.
When 'wildmode' was set to "longest,list:full", ":e *.c<Tab><Tab>" didn't list
the matches. Also avoid that listing after a "longest" lists the wrong
matches when the first expansion changed the string in front of the cursor.
When using ":insert", ":append" or ":change" inside a while loop, was not able
to break out of it with a CTRL-C.
Win32: ":e ." took an awful long time before an error message when used in
"C:\". Was caused by adding another backslash and then trying to get the full
name for "C:\\".
":winpos -10 100" was working like ":winpos -10 -10", because a pointer was
not advanced past the '-' sign.
When obtaining the value of a hidden option, would give an error message. Now
just use a zero value.
OS/2: Was using argv[0], even though it was not a useful name. It could be
just "vim", found in the search path.
Xterm: ":set columns=78" didn't redraw properly (when lines wrap/unwrap) until
after a delay of 'updatetime'. Didn't check for the size-changed signal.
'scrollbind' didn't work in Insert mode.
Horizontal scrollbinding didn't always work for "0" and "$" commands (e.g.,
when 'showcmd' was off).
When compiled with minimal features but with GUI, switching on the mouse in an
xterm caused garbage, because the mouse codes were not recognized. Don't
enable the mouse when it can't be recognized. In the GUI it also didn't work,
the arguments to the mouse code were not interpreted.
When 'showbreak' used, in Insert mode, when the cursor is just after the last
character in the line, which is also the in the rightmost column, the cursor
position would be like the 'showbreak' string is shown, but it wasn't.
Autocommands could move the cursor in a new file, so that CTRL-W i didn't show
the right line. Same for when using a filemark to jump to another file.
When redefining the argument list, the title used for other windows could be
showing the wrong info about the position in the argument list. Also update
this for a ":split" command without arguments.
When editing file 97 of 13, ":Next" didn't work. Now it goes to the last
file in the argument list.
Insert mode completion (for dictionaries or included files) could not be
interrupted by typing an <Esc>. Could get hit-enter prompt after line
completion, or whenever the informative message would get too long.

When using the ":edit" command to re-edit the same file, an autocommand to
jump to the last cursor position caused the cursor to move. Now set the last
used cursor position to avoid this.
When 'comments' has a part that starts with white space, formatting the
comment didn't work.
At the ":tselect" prompt Normal mode mappings were used. That has been
disabled.
When 'selection' is not "old", some commands still didn't allow the cursor
past the end-of-line in Visual mode.
Athena: When a menu was deleted, it would appear again (but not functional)
when adding another menu. Now they don't reappear anymore (although they are
not really deleted either).
Borland C++ 4.x had an optimizer problem in fill_breakat_flags(). (Negri)
"ze" didn't work when 'number' was on. (Davis)
Win32 GUI: Intellimouse code didn't work properly on Windows 98. (Robinson)
A few files were including proto.h a second time, after vim.h had already done
that, which could cause problems with the vim_realloc() macro.
Win32 console: <M-x> or ALT-x was not recognized. Also keypad '+', '-' and
'*'. (Negri)
MS-DOS: <M-x> didn't work, produced a two-byte code. Now the alphabetic and
number keys work. (Negri)
When finding a lot of matches for a tag completion, the check for avoiding
double matches could take a lot of time. Add a line_breakcheck() to be able
to interrupt this. (Deshpande)
When the command line was getting longer than the screen, the more-prompt
would be given regularly, and the cursor position would be wrong. Now only
show the part of the command line that fits on the screen and force the cursor
to be positioned on the visible part. There can be text after the cursor
which isn't editable.
At the more prompt and with the console dialog, a cursor key was interpreted
as <Esc> and OA. Now recognize special keys in get_keystroke(). Ignore mouse
and scrollbar events.
When typing a BS after inserting a middle comment leader, typing the last char
of the end comment leader still changed it into the end comment leader. (Webb)
When a file system is full, writing to a swap file failed. Now first try to
write one block to the file. Try next entry in 'dir' if it fails.
When "~" is in 'whichwrap', doing "~" on last char of a line didn't update the
display.
Unix: Expanding wildcards for ":file {\\}" didn't work, because "\}" was
translated to "}" before the shell got it. Now don't remove backslashes when
wildcards are going to be expanded.
Unix: ":e /tmp/$uid" didn't work. When expanding environment variables in a
file name doesn't work, use the shell to expand the file name. ":e /tmp/$tty"
still doesn't work though.
"make test" didn't always work on DOS/Windows for test30, because it depended
on the external "echo" command.
The link.sh script used "make" instead of $MAKE from the Makefile. Caused
problems for generating pathdef.c when "make" doesn't work properly.
On versions that can do console and GUI: In the console a typed CSI code could
cause trouble.
The patterns in expression evaluation didn't ignore the 'l' flag in
'cpoptions'. This broke the working of <CR> in the options window.
When 'hls' off and 'ai' on, "O<Esc>" did remove the indent, but it was still
highlighted red for trailing space.
Win32 GUI: Dropping an encrypted file on a running gvim didn't work right. Vim
would loop while outputting "*" characters. vgetc() was called recursively,
thus it returns NUL. Added safe vgetc(), which reads input directly from the

user in this situation.

While reading text from stdin, only an empty screen was shown. Now show that
Vim is reading from stdin.
The cursor shape wasn't set properly when returning to Insert mode, after
using a CTRL-O /asdf command which fails. It would be OK after a few seconds.
Now it's OK right away.
The 'isfname' default for DOS/Windows didn't include the '@' character. File
names that contained "dir\@file" could not be edited.
Win32 console: <C-S-Left> could cause a crash when compiled with Borland or
egcs. (Aaron)
Unix and VMS: "#if HAVE_DIRENT_H" caused problems for some compilers. Use
"#ifdef HAVE_DIRENT_H" instead. (Jones)
When a matching tag is in the current file but has a search pattern that
doesn't match, the cursor would jump to the first line.
Unix: Dependencies for pty.c were not included in Makefile. Dependency of
ctags/config.h was not included (only matters for parallel make).
Removed a few Uninitialized Memory Reads (potential crashes). In do_call()
calling clear_var() when not evaluating. In win32_expandpath() and
dos_expandpath() calling backslash_halve() past the end of a file name.
Removed memory leaks: Set_vim_var_string() never freed the value. The
next_list for a syntax keyword was never freed.
On non-Unix systems, using a file name with wildcards without a match would
silently fail. E.g., ":e *.sh". Now give a "No match" error message.
The life/life.mac, urm/urm.mac and hanoi/hanoi.mac files were not recognized
as Vim scripts. Renamed them to *.vim.
[Note: some numbered patches are not relevant when upgrading from version 5.3,
they have been removed]
Patch 5.4m.1
Problem: When editing a file with a long name, would get the hit-enter
prompt, even though all settings are such that the name should be
truncated to avoid that. filemess() was printing the file name
without truncating it.
Solution: Truncate the message in filemess(). Use the same code as for
msg_trunc_attr(), which is moved to the new function
msg_may_trunc().
Files: src/message.c, src/proto/message.pro, src/fileio.c
Patch 5.4m.3
Problem: The Motif libraries were not found by configure for Digital Unix.
Solution: Add "/usr/shlib" to the search path. (Andy Kahn)
Files: src/configure.in, src/configure
Patch 5.4m.5
Problem: Win32 GUI: When using the Save-As menu entry and selecting an
existing file in the file browser, would get a dialog to confirm
overwriting twice. (Ed Krall)
Solution: Removed the dialog from the file browser. It would be nicer to
set the "forceit" flag and skip Vim's ":confirm" dialog, but it
requires quite a few changes to do that.
Files: src/gui_w32.c
Patch 5.4m.6
Problem: Win32 GUI: When reading text from stdin, e.g., "cat foo | gvim -",
a message box would pop up with "-stdin-" (when exiting). (Michael
Schaap)
Solution: Don't switch off termcap mode for versions that are GUI-only.
They use another terminal to read from stdin.
Files: src/main.c, src/fileio.c
Patch 5.4m.7
Problem: Unix: running configure with --enable-gtk-check,
--enable-motif-check, --enable-athena-check or --enable-gtktest
had the reverse effect. (Thomas Koehler)
Solution: Use $enable_gtk_check variable correctly in AC_ARG_ENABLE().
Patch 5.4m.9
Problem: Multi-byte: With wrapping lines, the cursor was sometimes 2

characters to the left. Syntax highlighting was wrong when a

double-byte character was split for a wrapping line. When
'showbreak' was on the splitting also didn't work.
Solution: Adjust getvcol() and win_line(). (Chong-Dae Park)
Files: src/charset.c, src/screen.c
Patch 5.4m.11
Problem: The ":call" command didn't check for illegal trailing characters.
(Stefan Roemer)
Solution: Add the check in do_call().
Files: src/eval.c
Patch 5.4m.13
Problem: With the ":s" command:
1. When performing a substitute command, the mouse would be
disabled and enabled for every substitution.
2. The cursor position could be beyond the end of the line.
Calling line_breakcheck() could try to position the cursor,
which causes a crash in the Win32 GUI.
3. When using ":s" in a ":g" command, the cursor was not put on
the first non-white in the line.
4. There was a hit-enter prompt when confirming the substitution
and the replacement was a bit longer.
Solution: 1. Only disable/enable the mouse when asking for confirmation.
2. Always put the cursor on the first character, it is going to be
moved to the first non-blank anyway.
Don't use the cursor position in gui_mch_draw_hollow_cursor(),
get the character from the screen buffer.
3. Added global_need_beginline flag to call beginline() after ":g"
has finished all substitutions.
4. Clear the need_wait_return flag after prompting the user.
Files: src/ex_cmds.c, src/gui_w32.c
Patch 5.4m.14
Problem: When doing "vim xxx", ":opt", ":only" and then ":e xxx" we end
up with two swapfiles for "xxx". That is caused by the ":bdel"
command which is executed when unloading the option-window.
Also, there was no check if closing a buffer made the new one
invalid, this could cause a crash.
Solution: When closing a buffer causes the current buffer to be deleted,
use the new buffer to replace it. Also detect that the new buffer
has become invalid as a side effect of closing the current one.
Make autocommand that calls ":bdel" in optwin.vim nested, so that
the buffer loading it triggers also executes autocommands.
Also added a test for this in test13.
Files: runtime/optwin.vim, src/buffer.c, src/ex_cmds.c, src/globals.h
src/testdir/test13.in, src/testdir/test13.ok
Patch 5.4m.15
Problem: When using a BufEnter autocommand to reload the syntax file,
conversion to HTML caused a crash. (Sung-Hyun Nam)
Solution: When using ":syntax clear" the current stack of syntax items was
not cleared. This will cause memory to be used that has already
been freed. Added call to invalidate_current_state() in
syntax_clear().
Files: src/syntax.c
Patch 5.4m.17
Problem: When omitting a ')' in an expression it would not be seen as a
failure.
When detecting an error inside (), there would be an error message
for a missing ')' too.
When using ":echo 1+|echo 2" there was no error message. (Roemer)
When using ":exe 1+" there was no error message.
When using ":return 1+" there was no error message.
Solution: Fix do_echo(), do_execute() and do_return() to give an error
message when eval1() returns FAIL.
Fix eval6() to handle trailing ')' correctly and return FAIL when
it's missing.
Files: src/eval.c
Patch 5.4m.18
Problem: When using input() from inside an expression entered with
"CTRL-R =" on the command line, there could be a crash. And the
resulting command line was wrong.
Solution: Added getcmdline_prompt(), which handles recursive use of
getcmdline() correctly. It also sets the command line prompt.
Removed cmdline_prompt(). Also use getcmdline_prompt() for
getting the crypt key in get_crypt_key().
Files: src/proto/ex_getln.pro, src/ex_getln.c, src/eval.c, src/misc2.c

Patch 5.4m.21
Problem: When starting up, the screen structures were first allocated at
the minimal size, then initializations were done with Rows
possibly different from screen_Rows. Caused a crash in rare
situations (GTK with XIM and fontset).
Solution: Call screenalloc() in main() only after calling ui_get_winsize().
Also avoids a potential delay because of calling screenclear()
while "starting" is non-zero.
Files: src/main.c
Patch 5.4m.22
Problem: In the GUI it was possible that the screen was resized and the
screen structures re-allocated while redrawing the screen. This
could cause a crash (hard to reproduce). The call sequence goes
through update_screen() .. syntax_start() .. ui_breakcheck() ..
gui_resize_window() .. screenalloc().
Solution: Set updating_screen while redrawing. If the window is resized
remember the new size and handle it only after redrawing is
finished.
This also fixes that resizing the screen while still redrawing
(slow syntax highlighting) would not work properly.
Also disable display_hint, it was never used.
Files: src/globals.h, src/gui.c, src/screen.c, src/proto/gui.pro
Patch 5.4m.23
Problem: When using expand("<cword>") when there was no word under the
cursor, would get an error message. Same for <cWORD> and <cfile>.
Solution: Don't give an error message, return an empty string.
Files: src/eval.c
Patch 5.4m.24
Problem: ":help \|" didn't find anything. It was translated to "/\\|".
Solution: Translate "\|" into "\\bar". First check the table for specific
translations before checking for "\x".
Files: src/ex_cmds.c
Patch 5.4m.25
Problem: Unix: When using command line completion on files that contain
''', '"'' or '|' the file name could not be used.
Adding this file name to the Buffers menu caused an error message.
Solution: Insert a backslash before these three characters.
Adjust Mungename() function to insert a backslash before '|'.
Files: src/ex_getln.c, runtime/menu.vim
Patch 5.4m.26
Problem: When using a mapping of two function keys, e.g., <F1><F1>, and
only the first char of the second key has been read, the mapping
would not be recognized. Noticed on some Unix systems with xterm.
Solution: Add 'K' flag to 'cpoptions' to wait for the whole key code, even
when halfway a mapping.
Files: src/option.h, src/term.c
Patch 5.4m.27
Problem: When making test33 without the lisp feature it hangs. Interrupting
the execution of the script then might cause a crash.
Solution: In inchar(), after closing a script, don't use buf[] anymore.
closescript() has freed typebuf[] and buf[] might be pointing
inside typebuf[].
Avoid that test33 hangs when the lisp feature is missing.
Files: src/getchar.c src/testdir/test33.in
"os2" was missing from the feature list. Useful for has("os2").
BeOS:
- Included patches from Richard Offer for BeOS R4.5.
- menu code didn't work right. Crashed in the Buffers menu. The window title
wasn't set. (Offer)
Patch 5.4n.3
Problem: C-indenting was wrong after " } else". The white space was not
skipped. Visible when 'cino' has "+10".
Solution: Skip white space before calling cin_iselse(). (Norbert Zeh)
Files: src/misc1.c
Patch 5.4n.4
Problem: When the 't' flag in 'cpoptions' is included, after a
":nohlsearch" the search highlighting would not be enabled again
after a tag search. (Norbert Zeh)
Solution: When setting the new search pattern in jumpto_tag(), don't restore
no_hlsearch.
Files: src/tag.c

Patch 5.4n.5
Problem: When using ":normal" from a CursorHold autocommand Vim hangs. The
autocommand is executed down from vgetc(). Calling vgetc()
recursively to execute the command doesn't work then.
Solution: Forbid the use of ":normal" when vgetc_busy is set. Give an error
message when this happens.
Files: src/ex_docmd.c, runtime/doc/autocmd.txt
Patch 5.4n.6
Problem: "gv" could reselect a Visual that starts and/or ends past the end
of a line. (Robert Webb)
Solution: Check that the start and end of the Visual area are on a valid
character by calling adjust_cursor().
Files: src/normal.c
Patch 5.4n.8
Problem: When a mark was on a non existing line (e.g., when the .viminfo
was edited), jumping to it caused ml_get errors. (Alexey
Marinichev).
Solution: Added check_cursor_lnum() in nv_gomark().
Files: src/normal.c
Patch 5.4n.9
Problem: ":-2" moved the cursor to a negative line number. (Ralf Schandl)
Solution: Give an error message for a negative line number.
Files: src/ex_docmd.c
Patch 5.4n.10
Problem: Win32 GUI: At the hit-enter prompt, it was possible to scroll the
text. This erased the prompt and made Vim look like it is in
Normal mode, while it is actually still waiting for a <CR>.
Solution: Disallow scrolling at the hit-enter prompt for systems that use
on the fly scrolling.
Files: src/message.c
Patch 5.4n.14
Problem: Win32 GUI: When using ":winsize 80 46" and the height is more than
what fits on the screen, the window size was made smaller than
asked for (that's OK) and Vim crashed (that's not OK)>
Solution: Call check_winsize() from gui_set_winsize() to resize the windows.
Files: src/gui.c
Patch 5.4n.16
Problem: Win32 GUI: The <F10> key both selected the menu and was handled as
a key hit.
Solution: Apply 'winaltkeys' to <F10>, like it is used for Alt keys.
Patch 5.4n.17
Problem: Local buffer variables were freed when the buffer is unloaded.
That's not logical, since options are not freed. (Ron Aaron)
Solution: Free local buffer variables only when deleting the buffer.
Files: src/buffer.c
Patch 5.4n.19
Problem: Doing ":e" (without argument) in an option-window causes trouble.
The mappings for <CR> and <Space> are not removed. When there is
another buffer loaded, the swap file for it gets mixed up.
(Steve Mueller)
Solution: Also remove the mappings at the BufUnload event, if they are still
present.
When re-editing the same file causes the current buffer to be
deleted, don't try editing it.
Also added a test for this situation.
Files: runtime/optwin.vim, src/ex_cmds.c, src/testdir/test13.in,
src/testdir/test13.ok
Patch 5.4n.24
Problem: BeOS: configure never enabled the GUI, because $with_x was "no".
Unix prototypes caused problems, because Display and Widget are
undefined.
Freeing fonts on exit caused a crash.
Solution: Only disable the GUI when $with_x is "no" and $BEOS is not "yes".
Add dummy defines for Display and Widget in proto.h.
Don't free the fonts in gui_exit() for BeOS.
Files: src/configure.in, src/configure, src/proto.h, src/gui.c.
The runtime/vim48x48.xpm icon didn't have a transparent background. (Schild)

Some versions of the mingw32/egcs compiler didn't have WINBASEAPI defined.

(Aaron)
VMS:
- mch_setenv() had two arguments instead of three.
- The system vimrc and gvimrc files were called ".vimrc" and ".gvimrc".
Removed the dot.
- call to RealWaitForChar() had one argument too many. (Campbell)
- WaitForChar() is static, removed the prototype from proto/os_vms.pro.
- Many file accesses failed, because Unix style file names were used.
Translate file names to VMS style by using vim_fopen().
- Filtering didn't work, because the temporary file name was generated wrong.
- There was an extra newline every 9192 characters when writing a file. Work
around it by writing line by line. (Campbell)
- os_vms.c contained "# typedef int DESC". Should be "typedef int DESC;".
Only mattered for generating prototypes.
- Added file name translation to many places. Made easy by defining macros
mch_access(), mch_fopen(), mch_fstat(), mch_lstat() and mch_stat().
- Set default for 'tagbsearch' to off, because binary tag searching apparently
doesn't work for VMS.
- make mch_get_host_name() work with /dec and /standard=vaxc. (Campbell)
Patch 5.4o.2
Problem: Crash when using "gf" on "file.c://comment here". (Scott Graham)
Solution: Fix wrong use of pointers in get_file_name_in_path().
Files: src/window.c
Patch 5.4o.3
Problem: The horizontal scrollbar was not sized correctly when 'number' is
set and 'wrap' not set.
Athena: Horizontal scrollbar wasn't updated when the cursor was
positioned with a mouse click just after dragging.
Solution: Subtract 8 from the size when 'number' set and 'wrap' not set.
Reset gui.dragged_sb when a mouse click is received.
Files: src/gui.c
Patch 5.4o.4
Problem: When running in an xterm and $WINDOWID is set to an illegal value,
Vim would exit with "Vim: Got X error".
Solution: When using the display which was opened for the xterm clipboard,
check if x11_window is valid by trying to obtain the window title.
Also add a check in setup_xterm_clip(), for when using X calls to
get the pointer position in an xterm.
Files: src/os_unix.c
Patch 5.4o.5
Problem: Motif version with Lesstif: When removing the menubar and then
using a menu shortcut key, Vim would crash. (raf)
Solution: Disable the menu mnemonics when the menu bar is removed.
Files: src/gui_motif.c
Patch 5.4o.9
Problem: The DOS install.exe program used the "move" program. That doesn't
work on Windows NT, where "move" is internal to cmd.exe.
Solution: Don't use an external program for moving the executables. Use C
functions to copy the file and delete the original.
Files: src/dosinst.c
Motif and Athena obtained the status area height differently from GTK. Moved
status_area_enabled from global.h to gui_x11.c and call
xim_get_status_area_height() to get the status area height.
Patch 5.4p.1
Problem: When using auto-select, and the "gv" command is used, would not
always obtain ownership of the selection. Caused by the Visual
area still being the same, but ownership taken away by another
program.
Solution: Reset the clipboard Visual mode to force updating the selection.
Files: src/normal.c
Patch 5.4p.2
Problem: Motif and Athena with XIM: Typing 3-byte
<multibyte><multibyte><space> doesn't work correctly with Ami XIM.
Solution: Avoid using key_sym XK_VoidSymbol. (Nam)
Files: src/multbyte.c, src/gui_x11.c
Patch 5.4p.4
Problem: Win32 GUI: The scrollbar values were reduced for a file with more
than 32767 lines. But this info was kept global for all
scrollbars, causing a mixup between the windows.

Using the down arrow of a scrollbar in a large file didn't work.

Because of round-off errors there is no scroll at all.
Solution: Give each scrollbar its own scroll_shift field. When the down
arrow is used, scroll several lines.
Files: src/gui.h, src/gui_w32.c
Patch 5.4p.5
Problem: When changing buffers in a BufDelete autocommand, there could be
ml_line errors and/or a crash. (Schandl) Was caused by deleting
the current buffer.
Solution: When the buffer to be deleted unexpectedly becomes the current
buffer, don't delete it.
Also added a check for this in test13.
Files: src/buffer.c, src/testdir/test13.in, src/testdir/test13.ok
Patch 5.4p.7
Problem: Win32 GUI: When using 'mousemodel' set to "popup_setpos" and
clicking the right mouse button outside of the selected area, the
selected area wasn't removed until the popup menu has gone.
(Aaron)
Solution: Set the cursor and update the display before showing the popup
menu.
Files: src/normal.c
Patch 5.4p.8
Problem: The generated bugreport didn't contain information about
$VIMRUNTIME and whether runtime files actually exist.
Solution: Added a few checks to the bugreport script.
Files: runtime/bugreport.vim
Patch 5.4p.9
Problem: The windows install.exe created a wrong entry in the popup menu.
The "%1" was "". The full directory was included, even when the
executable had been moved elsewhere. (Ott)
Solution: Double the '%' to get one from printf. Only include the path to
gvim.exe when it wasn't moved and it's not in $PATH.
Patch 5.4p.10
Problem: Win32: On top of 5.4p.9: The "Edit with Vim" entry sometimes used
a short file name for a directory.
Solution: Change the "%1" to "%L" in the registry entry.
Patch 5.4p.11
Problem: Motif, Athena and GTK: When closing the GUI window when there is a
changed buffer, there was only an error message and Vim would not
exit.
Solution: Put up a dialog, like for ":confirm qa". Uses the code that was
already used for MS-Windows.
Files: src/gui.c, src/gui_w32.c
Patch 5.4p.12
Problem: Win32: Trying to expand a string that is longer than 256
characters could cause a crash. (Steed)
Solution: For the buffer in win32_expandpath() don't use a fixed size array,
allocate it.
Files: src/os_win32.c
MSDOS: Added "-Wall" to Makefile.djg compile flags. Function prototypes for
fname_case() and mch_update_cursor() were missing. "fd" was unused in
mf_sync(). "puiLocation" was unused in myputch(). "newcmd" unused in
mch_call_shell() for DJGPP version.
==============================================================================
Version 5.5 is a bug-fix version of 5.4.
The DJGPP version is now compiled with "-O2" instead of "-O4" to reduce the
size of the executables.
Moved the src/STYLE file to runtime/doc/develop.txt. Added the design goals
to it.

'backspace' is now a string option. See patch 5.4.15.
Added *added-5.5*
Included Exuberant Ctags version 3.3. (Darren Hiebert)
In runtime/mswin.vim, map CTRL-Q to CTRL-V, so that CTRL-Q can be used
everywhere to do what CTRL-V used to do.
Support for decompression of bzip2 files in vimrc_example.vim.
When a patch is included, the patch number is entered in a table in version.c.
This allows skipping a patch without breaking a next one.
Support for mouse scroll wheel in X11. See patch 5.5a.14.
line2byte() can be used to get the size of the buffer. See patch 5.4.35.
The CTRL-R CTRL-O r and CTRL-R CTRL-P r commands in Insert mode are used to
insert a register literally. See patch 5.4.48.
Uninstall program for MS-Windows. To be able to remove the registry entries
for "Edit with Vim". It is registered to be run from the "Add/Remove
programs" application. See patch 5.4.x7.
Fixed *fixed-5.5*
When using vimrc_example.vim: An error message when the cursor is on a line
higher than the number of lines in the compressed file. Move the autocommand
for jumping to the last known cursor position to after the decompressing
autocommands.
":mkexrc" and ":mksession" wrote the current value of 'textmode'. That may
mark a file as modified, which causes problems. This is a buffer-specific
setting, it should not affect all files.
"vim --version" wrote two empty lines.
Unix: The alarm signal could kill Vim. It is generated by the Perl alarm()
function. Ignore SIGALRM.
Win32 GUI: Toolbar still had the yellow bitmap for running a Vim script.
BeOS: "tmo" must be bigtime_t, instead of double. (Seibert)
Patch 5.4.1
Problem: Test11 fails when $GZIP is set to "-v". (Matthew Jackson)
Solution: Set $GZIP to an empty string.
Files: src/testdir/test11.in
Patch 5.4.2
Problem: Typing <Esc> at the crypt key prompt caused a crash. (Kallingal)
Solution: Check for a NULL pointer returned from get_crypt_key().
Files: src/fileio.c
Patch 5.4.3
Problem: Python: Trying to use the name of an unnamed buffer caused a
crash. (Daniel Burrows)
Solution: Check for b_fname being a NULL pointer.
Files: src/if_python.c
Patch 5.4.4
Problem: Win32: When compiled without toolbar, but the 'T' flag is in
'guioptions', there would be an empty space for the toolbar.
Solution: Add two #ifdefs where checking for the 'T' flag. (Vince Negri)
Files: src/gui.c
Patch 5.4.5
Problem: Athena GUI: Using the Buffers.Refresh menu entry caused a crash.
Looks like any ":unmenu" command may cause trouble.
Solution: Disallow ":unmenu" in the Athena version. Disable the Buffers
menu, because the Refresh item would not work.
Files: src/menu.c, runtime/menu.vim
Patch 5.4.6
Problem: GTK GUI: Using ":gui" in the .gvimrc file caused an error. Only

happens when the GUI forks.

Solution: Don't fork in a recursive call of gui_start().
Files: src/gui.c
Patch 5.4.7
Problem: Typing 'q' at the more prompt for the ATTENTION message causes the
file loading to be interrupted. (Will Day)
Solution: Reset got_int after showing the ATTENTION message.
Files: src/memline.c
Patch 5.4.8
Problem: Edit some file, ":he", ":opt": options from help window are shown,
but pressing space updates from the other window. (Phillipps)
Also: When there are changes in the option-window, ":q!" gives an
error message.
Solution: Before creating the option-window, go to a non-help window.
Use ":bdel!" to delete the buffer.
Files: runtime/optwin.vim
Patch 5.4.9
Just updates version.h. The real patch has been moved to 5.4.x1.
This patch is just to keep the version number correct.
Patch 5.4.10
Problem: GTK GUI: When $DISPLAY is invalid, "gvim -f" just exits. It
should run in the terminal.
Solution: Use gtk_init_check() instead of gtk_init().
Files: src/gui_gtk_x11.c
Patch 5.4.11
Problem: When using the 'S' flag in 'cpoptions', 'tabstop' is not copied to
the next buffer for some commands, e.g., ":buffer".
Solution: When the BCO_NOHELP flag is given to buf_copy_options(), still
copy the options used by do_help() when neither the "from" or "to"
buffer is a help buffer.
Files: src/option.c
Patch 5.4.12
Problem: When using 'smartindent', there would be no extra indent if the
current line did not have any indent already. (Hanus Adler)
Solution: There was a wrongly placed "else", that previously matched with
the "if" that set trunc_line. Removed the "else" and added a
check for trunc_line to be false.
Files: src/misc1.c
Patch 5.4.13
Problem: New SGI C compilers need another option for optimisation.
Solution: Add a check in configure for "-OPT:Olimit". (Chin A Young)
Patch 5.4.14
Problem: Motif GUI: When the popup menu is present, a tiny window appears
on the desktop for some users.
Solution: Set the menu widget ID for a popup menu to 0. (Thomas Koehler)
Patch 5.4.15
Problem: Since 'backspace' set to 0 has been made Vi compatible, it is no
longer possible to only allow deleting autoindent.
Solution: Make 'backspace' a list of parts, to allow each kind of
backspacing separately.
Files: src/edit.c, src/option.c, src/option.h, src/proto/option.pro,
runtime/doc/option.txt, runtime/doc/insert.txt
Patch 5.4.16
Problem: Multibyte: Locale zh_TW.Big5 was not checked for in configure.
Solution: Add zh_TW.Big5 to configure check. (Chih-Tsun Huang)
Patch 5.4.17
Problem: GUI: When started from inside gvim with ":!gvim", Vim would not
start. ":!gvim -f" works fine.
Solution: After forking, wait a moment in the parent process, to give the
child a chance to set its process group.
Files: src/gui.c
Patch 5.4.18
Problem: Python: The clear_history() function also exists in a library.
Solution: Rename clear_history() to clear_hist().
Files: src/ex_getln.c, src/eval.c, src/proto/ex_getln.pro

Patch 5.4.19
Problem: In a terminal with 25 lines, there is a more prompt after the
ATTENTION message. When hitting 'q' here the dialog prompt
doesn't appear and file loading is interrupted. (Will Day)
Solution: Don't allow quitting the printing of a message for the dialog
prompt. Added the msg_noquit_more flag for this.
Patch 5.4.20
Problem: GTK: When starting gvim, would send escape sequences to the
terminal to switch the cursor off and on.
Solution: Don't call msg_start() if the GUI is expected to start.
Files: src/main.c
Patch 5.4.21
Problem: Motif: Toplevel menu ordering was wrong when using tear-off items.
Solution: Don't add one to the index for a toplevel menu.
Patch 5.4.22
Problem: In Insert mode, <C-Left>, <S-Left>, <C-Right> and <S-Right> didn't
update the column used for vertical movement.
Solution: Set curwin->w_set_curswant for those commands.
Files: src/edit.c
Patch 5.4.23
Problem: When a Visual selection is lost to another program, and then the
same text is Visually selected again, the clipboard ownership
wasn't regained.
Solution: Set clipboard.vmode to NUL to force regaining the clipboard.
Files: src/normal.c
Patch 5.4.24
Problem: Encryption: When using ":r file" while 'key' has already entered,
the 'key' option would be messed up. When writing the file it
would be encrypted with an unknown key and lost! (Brad Despres)
Solution: Don't free cryptkey when it is equal to the 'key' option.
Files: src/fileio.c
Patch 5.4.25
Problem: When 'cindent' is set, but 'autoindent' isn't, comments are not
properly indented when starting a new line. (Mitterand)
Solution: When there is a comment leader for the new line, but 'autoindent'
isn't set, do C-indenting.
Files: src/misc1.c
Patch 5.4.26
Problem: Multi-byte: a multi-byte character is never recognized in a file
name, causing a backslash before it to be removed on Windows.
Solution: Assume that a leading-byte character is a file name character in
vim_isfilec().
Files: src/charset.c
Patch 5.4.27
Problem: Entries in the PopUp[nvic] menus were added for several modes, but
only deleted for the mode they were used for. This resulted in
the entry remaining in the PopUp menu.
When removing a PopUp[nvic] menu, the name had been truncated,
could result in greying-out the whole PopUp menu.
Solution: Remove entries for all modes from the PopUp[nvic] menus. Remove
the PopUp[nvic] menu entries first, before the name is changed.
Files: src/menu.c
Patch 5.4.28
Problem: When using a BufWritePre autocommand to change 'fileformat', the
new value would not be used for writing the file.
Solution: Check 'fileformat' after executing the autocommands instead of
before.
Files: src/fileio.c
Patch 5.4.29
Problem: Athena GUI: When removing the 'g' flag from 'guioptions', using a
menu can result in a crash.
Solution: Always grey-out menus for Athena, don't hide them.
Files: src/menu.c
Patch 5.4.30
Problem: BeOS: Suspending Vim with CTRL-Z didn't work (killed Vim). The
first character typed after ":sh" goes to Vim, instead of the
started shell.
Solution: Don't suspend Vim, start a new shell. Kill the async read thread

when starting a new shell. It will be restarted later. (Will Day)

Files: src/os_unix.c, src/ui.c
Patch 5.4.31
Problem: GUI: When 'mousefocus' is set, moving the mouse over where a
window boundary was, causes a hit-enter prompt to be finished.
(Jeff Walker)
Solution: Don't use 'mousefocus' at the hit-enter prompt. Also ignore it
for the more prompt and a few other situations. When an operator
is pending, abort it first.
Files: src/gui.c
Patch 5.4.32
Problem: Unix: $LDFLAGS was not passed to configure.
Solution: Pass $LDFLAGS to configure just like $CFLAGS. (Jon Miner)
Files: src/Makefile
Patch 5.4.33
Problem: Unix: After expanding an environment variable with the shell, the
next expansion would also use the shell, even though it is not
needed.
Solution: Reset "recursive" before returning from gen_expand_wildcards().
Files: src/misc1.c
Patch 5.4.34 (also see 5.4.x5)
Problem: When editing a file, and the file name is relative to a directory
above the current directory, the file name was made absolute.
(Gregory Margo)
Solution: Add an argument to shorten_fnames() which indicates if all file
names should be shortened, or only absolute names. In main() only
use shorten_fnames() to shorten absolute names.
Files: src/ex_docmd.c, src/fileio.c, src/main.c, src/proto/fileio.pro
Patch 5.4.35
Problem: There is no function to get the current file size.
Solution: Allow using line2byte() with the number of lines in the file plus
one. This returns the offset of the line past the end of the
file, which is the file size plus one.
Files: src/eval.c, runtime/doc/eval.txt
Patch 5.4.36
Problem: Comparing strings while ignoring case didn't work correctly for
some machines. (Mide Steed)
Solution: vim_stricmp() and vim_strnicmp() only returned 0 or 1. Changed
them to return -1 when the first argument is smaller.
Files: src/misc2.c
Patch 5.4.37 (also see 5.4.40 and 5.4.43)
Problem: Long strings from the viminfo file are truncated.
Solution: When writing a long string to the viminfo file, first write a line
with the length, then the string itself in a second line.
Files: src/eval.c, src/ex_cmds.c, src/ex_getln.c, src/mark.c, src/ops.c,
src/search.c, src/proto/ex_cmds.pro, runtime/syntax/viminfo.vim
Patch 5.4.38
Problem: In the option-window, ":set go&" resulted in 'go' being handled
like a boolean option.
Mappings for <Space> and <CR> were overruled by the option-window.
Solution: When the value of an option isn't 0 or 1, don't handle it like a
boolean option.
Save and restore mappings for <Space> and <CR> when entering and
leaving the option-window.
Files: runtime/optwin.vim
Patch 5.4.39
Problem: When setting a hidden option, spaces before the equal sign were
not skipped and cause an error message. E.g., ":set csprg =cmd".
Solution: When skipping over a hidden option, check for a following "=val"
and skip it too.
Files: src/option.c
Patch 5.4.40 (depends on 5.4.37)
Problem: Compiler error for "atol(p + 1)". (Axel Kielhorn)
Solution: Add a typecast: "atol((char *)p + 1)".
Patch 5.4.41
Problem: Some commands that were not included would give an error message,
even when after "if 0".
Solution: Don't give an error message for an unsupported command when not
executing the command.

Patch 5.4.42
Problem: ":w" would also cause a truncated message to appear in the message
history.
Solution: Don't put a kept message in the message history when it starts
with "<".
Problem: Mixing long lines with multiple lines in a register causes errors
when writing the viminfo file. (Robinson)
Solution: When reading the viminfo file to skip register contents, skip
lines that start with "<".
Files: src/ops.c
Patch 5.4.44
Problem: When 'whichwrap' includes '~', a "~" command that goes on to the
next line cannot be properly undone. (Zellner)
Solution: Save each line for undo in n_swapchar().
Files: src/normal.c
Patch 5.4.45 (also see 5.4.x8)
Problem: When expand("$ASDF") fails, there is an error message.
Solution: Remove the global expand_interactively. Pass a flag down to skip
the error message.
Also: expand("$ASDF") returns an empty string if $ASDF isn't set.
Previously it returned "$ASDF" when 'shell' is "sh".
Also: system() doesn't print an error when the command returns an
error code.
Files: many
Patch 5.4.46
Problem: Backspacing did not always use 'softtabstop' after hitting <CR>,
inserting a register, moving the cursor, etc.
Solution: Reset inserted_space much more often in edit().
Files: src/edit.c
Patch 5.4.47
Problem: When executing BufWritePre or BufWritePost autocommands for a
hidden buffer, the cursor could be moved to a non-existing
position. (Vince Negri)
Solution: Save and restore the cursor and topline for the current window
when it is going to be used to execute autocommands for a hidden
buffer. Use an existing window for the buffer when it's not
hidden.
Files: src/fileio.c
Patch 5.4.48
Problem: A paste with the mouse in Insert mode was not repeated exactly the
same with ".". For example, when 'autoindent' is set and pasting
text with leading indent. (Perry)
Solution: Add the CTRL-R CTRL-O r and CTRL-R CTRL-P r commands in Insert
mode, which insert the contents of a register literally.
Files: src/edit.c, src/normal.c, runtime/doc/insert.txt
Patch 5.4.49
Problem: When pasting text with [ <MiddleMouse>, the cursor could end up
after the last character of the line.
Solution: Correct the cursor position for the change in indent.
Files: src/ops.c
Patch 5.4.x1 (note: Replaces patch 5.4.9)
Problem: Win32 GUI: menu hints were never used, because WANT_MENU is not
defined until vim.h is included.
Solution: Move the #ifdef WANT_MENU from where MENUHINTS is defined to where
it is used.
Patch 5.4.x2
Problem: BeOS: When pasting text, one character was moved to the end.
Solution: Re-enable the BeOS code in fill_input_buf(), and fix timing out
with acquire_sem_etc(). (Will Day)
Files: src/os_beos.c, src/ui.c
Patch 5.4.x3
Problem: Win32 GUI: When dropping a directory on a running gvim it crashes.
Solution: Avoid using a NULL file name. Also display a message to indicate
that the current directory was changed.

Patch 5.4.x4
Problem: Win32 GUI: Removing an item from the popup menu doesn't work.
Solution: Don't remove the item from the menubar, but from the parent popup
menu.
Patch 5.4.x5 (addition to 5.4.34)
Patch 5.4.x6
Problem: Win32: Expanding (dir)name starting with a dot doesn't work.
(McCormack) Only when there is a path before it.
Solution: Fix the check, done before expansion, if the file name pattern
starts with a dot.
Patch 5.4.x7
Problem: Win32 GUI: Removing "Edit with Vim" from registry is difficult.
Solution: Add uninstall program to remove the registry keys. It is installed
in the "Add/Remove programs" list for ease of use.
Also: don't set $VIM when the executable is with the runtime files.
Also: Add a text file with a step-by-step description of how to
uninstall Vim for DOS and Windows.
Files: src/uninstal.c, src/dosinst.c, src/Makefile.w32, uninstal.txt
Patch 5.4.x8 (addition to 5.4.45)
Files: many
Patch 5.4.x9
Problem: Win32 GUI: After executing an external command, focus is not
always regained (when using focus-follows-mouse).
Solution: Add SetFocus() in mch_system(). (Mike Steed)
Patch 5.5a.1
Problem: ":let @* = @:" did not work. The text was not put on the
I clipboard. (Fisher)
Solution: Own the clipboard and put the text on it.
Files: src/ops.c
Patch 5.5a.2
Problem: append() did not mark the buffer modified. Marks below the
new line were not adjusted.
Solution: Fix the f_append() function.
Files: src/eval.c
Patch 5.5a.3
Problem: Editing compressed ".gz" files doesn't work on non-Unix systems,
because there is no "mv" command.
Solution: Add the rename() function and use it instead of ":!mv".
Also: Disable the automatic jump to the last position, because it
changes the jumplist.
Files: src/eval.c, runtime/doc/eval.txt, runtime/vimrc_example.vim
Patch 5.5a.4
Problem: When using whole-line completion in insert mode while the cursor
is in the indent, get "out of memory" error. (Stekrt)
Solution: Don't allocate a negative amount of memory in ins_complete().
Files: src/edit.c
Patch 5.5a.5
Problem: Win32: The 'path' option can hold only up to 256 characters,
because _MAX_PATH is 256. (Robert Webb)
Solution: Use a fixed path length of 1024.
Files: src/os_win32.h
Patch 5.5a.6
Problem: Compiling with gcc on Win32, using the Unix Makefile, didn't work.
Solution: Add $(SUFFIX) to all places where an executable is used. Also
pass it to ctags. (Reynolds)
Files: src/Makefile
Patch 5.5a.7
Problem: When using "cat | vim -" in an xterm, the xterm version reply
would end up in the file.
Solution: Read the file from stdin before switching the terminal to RAW
mode. Should also avoid problems with programs that use a
specific terminal setting.
Also: when using the GUI, print "Reading from stdin..." in the GUI
window, to give a hint why it doesn't do anything.

Files: src/main.c, src/fileio.c

Patch 5.5a.8
Problem: On multi-threaded Solaris, suspending doesn't work.
Solution: Call pause() when the SIGCONT signal was not received after
sending the SIGTSTP signal. (Nagano)
Patch 5.5a.9
Problem: 'winaltkeys' could be set to an empty argument, which is illegal.
Solution: Give an error message when doing ":set winaltkeys=".
Files: src/option.c
Patch 5.5a.10
Problem: Win32 console: Using ALTGR on a German keyboard to produce "}"
doesn't work, because the 8th bit is set when ALT is pressed.
Solution: Don't set the 8th bit when ALT and CTRL are used. (Leipert)
Patch 5.5a.11
Problem: Tcl: Configure always uses tclsh8.0.
Also: Loading a library doesn't work.
Solution: Add "--with-tclsh" configure argument to allow specifying another
name for the tcl shell.
Call Tcl_Init() in tclinit() to make loading libraries work.
(Johannes Zellner)
Files: src/configure.in, src/configure, src/if_tcl.c
Patch 5.5a.12
Problem: The "user_commands" feature is called "user-commands".
Solution: Replace "user-commands" with "user_commands". (Kim Sung-bom)
Keep "user-commands" for the has() function, to remain backwards
compatible with 5.4.
Files: src/eval.c, src/version.c
Patch 5.5a.13
Problem: OS/2: When $HOME is not defined, "C:/" is used for the viminfo
file. That is very wrong when OS/2 is on another partition.
Solution: Use $VIM for the viminfo file when it is defined, like for MSDOS.
Also: Makefile.os2 didn't depend on os_unix.h.
Files: src/os_unix.h, src/Makefile.os2
Patch 5.5a.14
Problem: Athena, Motif and GTK: The Mouse scroll wheel doesn't work.
Solution: Interpret a click of the wheel as a key press of the <MouseDown>
or <MouseUp> keys. Default behavior is to scroll three lines, or
a full page when Shift is used.
Files: src/edit.c, src/ex_getln.c, src/gui.c, src/gui_gtk_x11.c,
src/gui_x11.c, src/keymap.h, src/message.c, src/misc1.c,
src/misc2.c, src/normal.c, src/proto/normal.pro, src/vim.h,
runtime/doc/scroll.txt
Patch 5.5a.15
Problem: Using CTRL-A in Insert mode doesn't work correctly when the insert
started with the <Insert> key. (Andreas Rohrschneider)
Solution: Replace <Insert> with "i" before setting up the redo buffer.
Files: src/normal.c
Patch 5.5a.16
Problem: VMS: GUI does not compile and run.
Solution: Various fixes. (Zoltan Arpadffy)
Moved functions from os_unix.c to ui.c, so that VMS can use them
too: open_app_context(), x11_setup_atoms() and clip_x11* functions.
Made xterm_dpy global, it's now used by ui.c and os_unix.c.
Use gethostname() always, sys_hostname doesn't exist.
Files: src/globals.h, src/gui_x11.c, src/os_vms.mms, src/os_unix.c,
src/os_vms.c, src/ui.c, src/proto/os_unix.pro, src/proto/ui.pro
Renamed AdjustCursorForMultiByteCharacter() to AdjustCursorForMultiByteChar()
to avoid symbol length limit of 31 characters. (Steve P. Wall)
Patch 5.5b.1
Problem: SASC complains about dead assignments and implicit type casts.
Solution: Removed the dead assignments. Added explicit type casts.
Files: src/buffer.c, src/edit.c, src/eval.c, src/ex_cmds.c,
src/ex_getln.c, src/fileio.c, src/getchar.c, src/memline.c,
src/menu.c, src/misc1.c, src/normal.c, src/ops.c, src/quickfix.c,
src/screen.c
Patch 5.5b.2
Problem: When using "CTRL-O O" in Insert mode, hit <Esc> and then "o" in

another line truncates that line. (Devin Weaver)

Solution: When using a command that starts Insert mode from CTRL-O, reset
"restart_edit" first. This avoids that edit() is called with a
mix of starting a new edit command and restarting a previous one.
Files: src/normal.c
==============================================================================
Small changes to OleVim files. (Christian Schaller)
Inserted "/**/" between patch numbers in src/version.c. This allows for one
line of context, which some versions of patch need.
Reordered the Syntax menu to avoid long submenus. Removed keyboard shortcuts
for alphabetical items to avoid a clash with fixed items.
Added *added-5.6*
Included Exuberant Ctags version 3.4. (Darren Hiebert)
OpenWithVim in Python. (Christian Schaller)
Win32 GUI: gvimext.dll, for the context menu "Edit with Vim" entry. Avoids
the reported problems with the MS Office taskbar. Now it's a Shell Extension.
(Tianmiao Hu)
New syntax files:
abel Abel (John Cook)
aml Arc Macro Language (Nikki Knuit)
apachestyle Apache-style config file (Christian Hammers)
cf Cold Fusion (Jeff Lanzarotta)
ctrlh files with CTRL-H sequences (Bram Moolenaar)
cupl CUPL (John Cook)
cuplsim CUPL simulation (John Cook)
erlang Erlang (Kresimir Marzic)
gedcom Gedcom (Paul Johnson)
icon Icon (Wendell Turner)
ist MakeIndex style (Peter Meszaros)
jsp Java Server Pages (Rafael Garcia-Suarez)
rcslog Rcslog (Joe Karthauser)
remind Remind (Davide Alberani)
sqr Structured Query Report Writer (Paul Moore)
tads TADS (Amir Karger)
texinfo Texinfo (Sandor Kopanyi)
xpm2 X Pixmap v2 (Steve Wall)
The 'C' flag in 'cpoptions' can be used to switch off concatenation for
sourced lines. See patch 5.5.013 below. |line-continuation|
"excludenl" argument for the ":syntax" command. See patch 5.5.032 below.
|:syn-excludenl|
Implemented |z+| and |z^| commands. See patch 5.5.050 below.
Vim logo in Corel Draw format. Can be scaled to any resolution.
Fixed *fixed-5.6*
Using this mapping in Select mode, terminated completion:
":vnoremap <C-N> <Esc>a<C-N>" (Benji Fisher)
Ignore K_SELECT in ins_compl_prep().
VMS (Zoltan Arpadffy, David Elins):
- ioctl() in pty.c caused trouble, #ifndef VMS added.
- Cut & paste mismatch corrected.
- Popup menu line crash corrected. (Patch 5.5.047)
- Motif directories during open and save as corrected.
- Handle full file names with version numbers. (Patch 5.5.046)

- Directory handling (CD command etc.)

- Corrected file name conversion VMS to Unix and v.v.
- Recovery was not working.
- Terminal and signal handling was outdated compared to os_unix.c.
- Improved os_vms.txt.
Configure used fprintf() instead of printf() to check for __DATE__ and
__TIME__. (John Card II)
BeOS: Adjust computing the char_height and char_ascent. Round them up
separately, avoids redrawing artifacts. (Mike Steed)
Fix a few multi-byte problems in menu_name_skip(), set_reg_ic(), searchc() and
findmatchlimit(). (Taro Muraoka)
GTK GUI:
- With GTK 1.2.5 and later the scrollbars were not redrawn correctly.
- Adjusted the gtk_form_draw() function.
- SNiFF connection didn't work.
- 'mousefocus' was not working. (Dalecki)
- Some keys were not working with modifiers: Shift-Tab, Ctrl-Space and CTRL-@.
Patch 5.5.001
Problem: Configure in the top directory did not pass on an argument with a
space correctly. For example "./configure --previs="/My home".
(Stephane Chazelas)
Solution: Use '"'$@"' instead of '$*' to pass on the arguments.
Files: configure
Patch 5.5.002
Problem: Compilation error for using "fds[] & POLLIN". (Jeff Walker)
Solution: Use "fds[].revents & POLLIN".
Patch 5.5.003
Problem: The autoconf check for sizeof(int) is wrong on machines where
sizeof(size_t) != sizeof(int).
Solution: Use our own configure check. Also fixes the warning for
cross-compiling.
Patch 5.5.004
Problem: On Unix it's not possible to interrupt ":sleep 100".
Solution: Switch terminal to cooked mode while asleep, to allow a SIGINT to
wake us up. But switch off echo, added TMODE_SLEEP.
Files: src/term.h, src/os_unix.c
Patch 5.5.005
Problem: When using <f-args> with a user command, an empty argument to the
command resulted in one empty string, while no string was
expected.
Solution: Catch an empty argument and pass no argument to the function.
(Paul Moore)
Patch 5.5.006
Problem: Python: When platform-dependent files are in another directory
than the platform-independent files it doesn't work.
Solution: Also check the executable directory, and add it to CFLAGS. (Tessa
Lau)
Patch 5.5.007 (extra)
Problem: Win32 OLE: Occasional crash when exiting while still being used
via OLE.
Solution: Move OleUninitialize() to before deleting the application object.
(Vince Negri)
Files: src/if_ole.cpp
Patch 5.5.008
Problem: 10000@@ takes a long time and cannot be interrupted.
Solution: Check for CTRL-C typed while in the loop to push the register.
Files: src/normal.c
Patch 5.5.009
Problem: Recent Sequent machines don't link with "-linet". (Kurtis Rader)
Solution: Remove configure check for Sequent.
Patch 5.5.010

Problem: Ctags freed a memory block twice when exiting. When out of
memory, a misleading error message was given.
Solution: Update to ctags 3.3.2. Also fixes a few other problems. (Darren
Hiebert)
Files: src/ctags/*
Patch 5.5.011
Problem: After "CTRL-V s", the cursor jumps back to the start, while all
other operators leave the cursor on the last changed character.
(Xiangjiang Ma)
Solution: Position cursor on last changed character, if possible.
Files: src/ops.c
Patch 5.5.012
Problem: Using CTRL-] in Visual mode doesn't work when the text includes a
space (just where it's useful). (Stefan Bittner)
Solution: Don't escape special characters in a tag name with a backslash.
Files: src/normal.c
Patch 5.5.013
Problem: The ":append" and ":insert" commands allow using a leading
backslash in a line. The ":source" command concatenates those
lines. (Heinlein)
Solution: Add the 'C' flag in 'cpoptions' to switch off concatenation.
Files: src/ex_docmd.c, src/option.h, runtime/doc/options.txt,
runtime/filetype.vim, runtime/scripts.vim
Patch 5.5.014
Problem: When executing a register with ":@", the ":append" command would
get text lines with a ':' prepended. (Heinlein)
Solution: Remove the ':' characters.
Files: src/ex_docmd.c, src/ex_getln.c, src/globals.h
Patch 5.5.015
Problem: When using ":g/pat/p", it's hard to see where the output starts,
the ":g" command is overwritten. Vi keeps the ":g" command.
Solution: Keep the ":g" command, but allow overwriting it with the report
for the number of changes.
Problem: Win32: Using regedit to install Vim in the popup menu requires the
user to confirm this in a dialog.
Solution: Use "regedit /s" to avoid the dialog
Patch 5.5.017
Problem: If an error occurs when closing the current window, Vim could get
stuck in the error handling.
Solution: Don't set curwin to NULL when closing the current window.
Files: src/window.c
Patch 5.5.018
Problem: Absolute paths in shell scripts do not always work.
Solution: Use /usr/bin/env to find out the path.
Files: runtime/doc/vim2html.pl, runtime/tools/efm_filter.pl,
runtime/tools/shtags.pl
Patch 5.5.019
Problem: A function call in 'statusline' stops using ":q" twice from
exiting, when the last argument hasn't been edited.
Solution: Don't decrement quitmore when executing a function. (Madsen)
Patch 5.5.020
Problem: When the output of CTRL-D completion in the commandline goes all
the way to the last column, there is an empty line.
Solution: Don't add a newline when the cursor wrapped already. (Madsen)
Files: src/ex_getln.c
Patch 5.5.021
Problem: When checking if a file name in the tags file is relative,
environment variables were not expanded.
Solution: Expand the file name before checking if it is relative. (Madsen)
Files: src/tag.c
Patch 5.5.022
Problem: When setting or resetting 'paste' the ruler wasn't updated.
Solution: Update the status lines when 'ruler' changes because of 'paste'.
Files: src/option.c

Patch 5.5.023
Problem: When editing a new file and autocommands change the cursor
position, the cursor was moved back to the first non-white, unless
'startofline' was reset.
Solution: Keep the new column, just like the line number.
Problem: Win32 GUI: When using confirm() to put up a dialog without a
default button, the dialog would not have keyboard focus.
(Krishna)
Solution: Always set focus to the dialog window. Only set focus to a button
when a default one is specified.
Patch 5.5.025
Problem: When using "keepend" in a syntax region, a contained match that
includes the end-of-line could still force that region to
continue, if there is another contained match in between.
Solution: Check the keepend_level in check_state_ends().
Files: src/syntax.c
Patch 5.5.026
Problem: When starting Vim in a white-on-black xterm, with 'bg' set to
"dark", and then starting the GUI with ":gui", setting 'bg' to
"light" in the gvimrc, the highlighting isn't set. (Tsjokwing)
Solution: Set the highlighting when 'bg' is changed in the gvimrc, even
though full_screen isn't set.
Files: src/option.c
Patch 5.5.027
Problem: Unix: os_unix.c doesn't compile when XTERM_CLIP is used but
WANT_TITLE isn't. (Barnum)
Solution: Move a few functions that are used by the X11 title and clipboard
and put another "#if" around it.
Problem: Win32 GUI: When a file is dropped on Win32 gvim while at the ":"
prompt, the file is edited but the command line is actually still
there, the cursor goes back to command line on the next command.
(Krishna)
Solution: When dropping a file or directory on gvim while at the ":" prompt,
insert the name of the file/directory. Allows using the
file/directory name for any Ex command.
Patch 5.5.029
Problem: "das" at the end of the file didn't delete the last character of
the sentence.
Solution: When there is no character after the sentence, make the operation
inclusive in current_sent().
Files: src/search.c
Patch 5.5.030
Problem: Unix: in os_unix.c, "term_str" is used, which is also defined in
vim.h as a macro. (wuxin)
Solution: Renamed "term_str" to "buf" in do_xterm_trace().
Problem: Win32 GUI: When exiting Windows, gvim will leave swap files behind
and will be killed ungracefully. (Krishna)
Solution: Catch the WM_QUERYENDSESSION and WM_ENDSESSION messages and try to
exit gracefully. Allow the user to cancel the shutdown if there
is a changed buffer.
Patch 5.5.032
Problem: Patch 5.5.025 wasn't right. And C highlighting was still not
working correctly for a #define.
Solution: Added "excludenl" argument to ":syntax", to be able not to extend
a containing item when there is a match with the end-of-line.
Files: src/syntax.c, runtime/doc/syntax.txt, runtime/syntax/c.vim
Patch 5.5.033
Problem: When reading from stdin, a long line in viminfo would mess up the
file message. readfile() uses IObuff for keep_msg, which could be
overwritten by anyone.
Solution: Copy the message from IObuff to msg_buf and set keep_msg to that.
Also change vim fgets() to not use IObuff any longer.

Files: src/fileio.c
Patch 5.5.034
Problem: "gvim -rv" caused a crash. Using 't_Co' before it's set.
Solution: Don't try to initialize the highlighting before it has been
initialized from main().
Files: src/syntax.c
Patch 5.5.035
Problem: GTK with XIM: Resizing with status area was messy, and
":set guioptions+=b" didn't work.
Solution: Make status area a separate widget, but not a separate window.
(Chi-Deok Hwang)
Files: src/gui_gtk_f.c, src/gui_gtk_x11.c, src/multbyte.c
Patch 5.5.036
Problem: The GZIP_read() function in $VIMRUNTIME/vimrc_example.vim to
uncompress a file did not do detection for 'fileformat'. This is
because the filtering is done with 'binary' set.
Solution: Split the filtering into separate write, filter and read commands.
Files: runtime/vimrc_example.vim
Patch 5.5.037
Problem: The "U" command didn't mark the buffer as changed. (McCormack)
Solution: Set the 'modified' flag when using "U".
Files: src/undo.c
Patch 5.5.038
Problem: When typing a long ":" command, so that the screen scrolls up,
causes the hit-enter prompt, even though the user just typed
return to execute the command.
Solution: Reset need_wait_return if (part of) the command was typed in
getcmdline().
Patch 5.5.039
Problem: When using a custom status line, "%a" (file # of #) reports the
index of the current window for all windows.
Solution: Pass a window pointer to append_arg_number(), and pass the window
being updated from build_stl_str_hl(). (Stephen P. Wall)
Files: src/buffer.c, src/screen.c, src/proto/buffer.pro
Patch 5.5.040
Problem: Multi-byte: When there is some error in xim_real_init(), it can
close XIM and return. After this there can be a segv.
Solution: Test "xic" for being non-NULL, don't set "xim" to NULL. Also try
to find more matches for supported styles. (Sung-Hyun Nam)
Files: src/multbyte.c
Patch 5.5.041
Problem: X11 GUI: CTRL-_ requires the SHIFT key only on some machines.
Solution: Translate CTRL-- to CTRL-_. (Robert Webb)
Files: src/gui_x11.c
Patch 5.5.042
Problem: X11 GUI: keys with ALT were assumed to be used for the menu, even
when the menu has been disabled by removing 'm' from 'guioptions'.
Solution: Ignore keys with ALT only when gui.menu_is_active is set. (Raf)
Patch 5.5.043
Problem: GTK: Handling of fontset fonts was not right when 'guifontset'
contains exactly 14 times '-'.
Solution: Avoid setting fonts when working with a fontset. (Sung-Hyun Nam)
Patch 5.5.044
Problem: pltags.pl contains an absolute path "/usr/local/bin/perl". That
might not work everywhere.
Solution: Use "/usr/bin/env perl" instead.
Files: runtime/tools/pltags.pl
Patch 5.5.045
Problem: Using "this_session" variable does not work, requires preceding it
with "v:". Default filename for ":mksession" isn't mentioned
in the docs. (Fisher)
Solution: Support using "this_session" to be backwards compatible.
Files: src/eval.c, runtime/doc/options.txt
Problem: VMS: problems with path and filename.

Solution: Truncate file name at last ';', etc. (Zoltan Arpadffy)

Files: src/buffer.c, src/fileio.c, src/gui_motif.c, src/os_vms.c,
src/proto/os_vms.pro
Patch 5.5.047
Problem: VMS: Crash when using the popup menu
Solution: Turn the #define MENU_MODE_CHARS into an array. (Arpadffy)
Files: src/structs.h, src/menu.c
Patch 5.5.048
Problem: HP-UX 11: Compiling doesn't work, because both string.h and
strings.h are included. (Squassabia)
Solution: The configure test for including both string.h and strings.h
must include <Xm/Xm.h> first, because it causes problems.
Files: src/configure.in, src/configure, src/config.h.in
Patch 5.5.049
Problem: Unix: When installing Vim, the protection bits of files might be
influenced by the umask.
Solution: Add $(FILEMOD) to Makefile. (Shetye)
Files: src/Makefile
Patch 5.5.050
Problem: "z+" and "z^" commands are missing.
Solution: Implemented "z+" and "z^".
Files: src/normal.c, runtime/doc/scroll.txt, runtime/doc/index.txt
Patch 5.5.051
Problem: Several Unix systems have a problem with the optimization limits
check in configure.
Solution: Removed the configure check, let the user add it manually in
Makefile or the environment.
Files: src/configure.in, src/configure, src/Makefile
Patch 5.5.052
Problem: Crash when using a cursor key at the ATTENTION prompt. (Alberani)
Solution: Ignore special keys at the console dialog. Also ignore characters
> 255 for other uses of tolower() and toupper().
Files: src/menu.c, src/message.c, src/misc2.c
Patch 5.5.053
Problem: Indenting is wrong after a function when 'cino' has "fs". Another
problem when 'cino' has "{s".
Solution: Put line after closing "}" of a function at the left margin.
Apply ind_open_extra in the right way after a '{'.
Files: src/misc1.c, src/testdir/test3.in, src/testdir/test3.ok
Patch 5.5.054
Problem: Unix: ":e #" doesn't work if the alternate file name contains a
space or backslash. (Hudacek)
Solution: When replacing "#", "%" or other items that stand for a file name,
prepend a backslash before special characters.
Patch 5.5.055
Problem: Using "<C-V>$r-" in blockwise Visual mode replaces one character
beyond the end of the line. (Zivkov)
Solution: Only replace existing characters.
Files: src/ops.c
Patch 5.5.056
Problem: After "z20<CR>" messages were printed at the old command line
position once. (Veselinovic)
Solution: Set msg_row and msg_col when changing cmdline_row in
win_setheight().
Files: src/window.c
Patch 5.5.057
Problem: After "S<Esc>" it should be possible to restore the line with "U".
(Veselinovic)
Solution: Don't call u_clearline() in op_delete() when changing only one
line.
Files: src/ops.c
Patch 5.5.058
Problem: Using a long search pattern and then "n" causes the hit-enter
prompt. (Krishna)
Solution: Truncate the echoed pattern, like other messages. Moved code for
truncating from msg_attr() to msg_strtrunc().
Files: src/message.c, src/proto/message.pro, src/search.c

Patch 5.5.059
Problem: GTK GUI: When $term is invalid, using "gvim" gives an error
message, even though $term isn't really used. (Robbins)
Solution: When the GUI is about to start, skip the error messages for a
wrong $term.
Files: src/term.c
Problem: Dos 32 bit: When a directory in 'backupdir' doesn't exist, ":w"
causes the file to be renamed to "axlqwqhy.ba~". (Matzdorf)
Solution: The code to work around a LFN bug in Windows 95 doesn't handle a
non-existing target name correctly. When renaming fails, make
sure the file has its original name. Also do this for the Win32
version, although it's unlikely that it runs into this problem.
Files: src/os_msdos.c, src/os_win32.c
Patch 5.5.061
Problem: When using "\:" in a modeline, the backslash is included in the
option value. (Mohsin)
Solution: Remove one backslash before the ':' in a modeline.
Files: src/buffer.c, runtime/doc/options.txt
Problem: Win32 console: Temp files are created in the root of the current
drive, which may be read-only. (Peterson)
Solution: Use the same mechanism of the GUI version: Use $TMP, $TEMP or the
current directory. Cleaned up vim_tempname() a bit.
Files: src/fileio.c, src/os_win32.h, runtime/doc/os_dos.txt
Patch 5.5.063
Problem: When using whole-line completion in Insert mode, 'cindent' is
applied, even after changing the indent of the line.
Solution: Don't reindent the completed line after inserting/removing indent.
(Robert Webb)
Files: src/edit.c
Patch 5.5.064
Problem: has("sniff") doesn't work correctly.
Solution: Return 1 when Vim was compiled with the +sniff feature. (Pruemmer)
Files: src/eval.c
Patch 5.5.065
Problem: When dropping a file on Vim, the 'shellslash' option is not
effective. (Krishna)
Solution: Fix the slashes in the dropped file names according to
'shellslash'.
Files: src/ex_docmd.c, runtime/doc/options.txt
Patch 5.5.066
Problem: For systems with backslash in file name: Setting a file name
option to a value starting with "\\machine" removed a backslash.
Solution: Keep the double backslash for "\\machine", but do change
"\\\\machine" to "\\machine" for backwards compatibility.
Files: src/option.c, runtime/doc/options.txt
Patch 5.5.067
Problem: With 'hlsearch' set, the pattern "\>" doesn't highlight the first
match in a line. (Benji Fisher)
Solution: Fix highlighting an empty match. Also highlight the first
character in an empty line for "$".
Files: src/screen.c
Patch 5.5.068
Problem: Crash when a ":while" is used with an argument that has an error.
(Sylvain Viart)
Solution: Was using an uninitialized index in the cs_line[] array. The
crash only happened when the index was far off. Made sure the
uninitialized index isn't used.
Patch 5.5.069
Problem: Shifting lines in blockwise Visual mode didn't set the 'modified'
flag.
Solution: Do set the 'modified' flag.
Files: src/ops.c
Patch 5.5.070
Problem: When editing a new file, creating that file outside of Vim, then
editing it again, ":w" still warns for overwriting an existing
file. (Nam)
Solution: The BF NEW flag in the "b flags" field wasn't cleared properly.

Files: src/buffer.c, src/fileio.c

Patch 5.5.071
Problem: Using a matchgroup in a ":syn region", which is the same syntax
group as the region, didn't stop a contained item from matching in
the start pattern.
Solution: Also push an item on the stack when the syntax ID of the
matchgroup is the same as the syntax ID of the region.
Files: src/syntax.c
Problem: Dos 32 bit: When setting 'columns' to a too large value, Vim may
crash, and the DOS console too.
Solution: Check that the value of 'columns' isn't larger than the number of
columns that the BIOS reports.
Files: src/os_msdos.c, src/proto/os_msdos.pro, src/option.c
Problem: Win 32 GUI: The Find and Find/Replace dialogs didn't show the
"match case" checkbox. The Find/Replace dialog didn't handle the
"match whole word" checkbox.
Solution: Support the "match case" and "match whole word" checkboxes.
Patch 5.6a.001
Problem: Using <C-End> with a count doesn't work like it does with "G".
(Benji Fisher)
Solution: Accept a count for <C-End> and <C-Home>.
Files: src/normal.c
Patch 5.6a.002
Problem: The script for conversion to HTML was an older version.
Solution: Add support for running 2html.vim on a color terminal.
Files: runtime/syntax/2html.vim
Patch 5.6a.003
Problem: Defining a function inside a function didn't give an error
message. A missing ":endfunction" doesn't give an error message.
Solution: Allow defining a function inside a function.
Files: src/eval.c, runtime/doc/eval.txt
Patch 5.6a.004
Problem: A missing ":endwhile" or ":endif" doesn't give an error message.
(Johannes Zellner)
Solution: Check for missing ":endwhile" and ":endif" in sourced files.
Add missing ":endif" in file selection macros.
Files: src/ex_docmd.c, runtime/macros/file_select.vim
Patch 5.6a.005
Problem: 'hlsearch' was not listed alphabetically. The value of 'toolbar'
was changed when 'compatible' is set.
Solution: Moved entry of 'hlsearch' in options[] table down.
Don't reset 'toolbar' option to the default value when
'compatible' is set.
Files: src/option.c
Patch 5.6a.006
Problem: Using a backwards range inside ":if 0" gave an error message.
Solution: Don't complain about a range when it is not going to be used.
(Stefan Roemer)
Patch 5.6a.007
Problem: ":let" didn't show internal Vim variables. (Ron Aaron)
Solution: Do show ":v" variables for ":let" and ":let v:name".
Files: src/eval.c
Patch 5.6a.008
Problem: Selecting a syntax from the Syntax menu gives an error message.
Solution: Replace "else if" in SetSyn() with "elseif". (Ronald Schild)
Files: runtime/menu.vim
Patch 5.6a.009
Problem: When compiling with +extra_search but without +syntax, there is a
compilation error in screen.c. (Axel Kielhorn)
Solution: Adjust the #ifdef for declaring and initializing "line" in
win_line(). Also solve compilation problem when +statusline is
used without +eval. Another one when +cmdline_compl is used
without +eval.
Files: src/screen.c, src/misc2.c

Patch 5.6a.010
Problem: In a function, ":startinsert!" does not append to the end of the
line if a ":normal" command was used to move the cursor. (Fisher)
Solution: Reset "w_set_curswant" to avoid that w_curswant is changed again.
Patch 5.6a.011 (depends on 5.6a.004)
Problem: A missing ":endif" or ":endwhile" in a function doesn't give an
error message.
Solution: Give that error message.
Patch 5.6a.012 (depends on 5.6a.008)
Problem: Some Syntax menu entries caused a hit-enter prompt.
Solution: Call a function to make the command shorter. Also rename a few
functions to avoid name clashes.
Patch 5.6a.013
Problem: Command line completion works different when another completion
was done earlier. (Johannes Zellner)
Solution: Reset wim_index when starting a new completion.
Patch 5.6a.014
Problem: Various warning messages when compiling and running lint with
different combinations of features.
Solution: Fix the warning messages.
Files: src/eval.c, src/ex_cmds.c, src/ex_docmd.c, src/gui_gtk_x11.c,
src/option.c, src/screen.c, src/search.c, src/syntax.c,
src/feature.h, src/globals.h
Patch 5.6a.015
Problem: The vimtutor command doesn't always know the value of $VIMRUNTIME.
Solution: Let Vim expand $VIMRUNTIME, instead of the shell.
Files: src/vimtutor
Patch 5.6a.016 (extra)
Problem: Mac: Window size is restricted when starting. Cannot drag the
window all over the desktop.
Solution: Get real screen size instead of assuming 640x400. Do not use a
fixed number for the drag limits. (Axel Kielhorn)
Files: src/gui_mac.c
Patch 5.6a.017
Problem: The "Paste" entry in popup menu for Visual, Insert and Cmdline
mode is in the wrong position. (Stol)
Solution: Add priority numbers for all Paste menu entries.
Patch 5.6a.018
Problem: GTK GUI: submenu priority doesn't work.
Help dialog could be destroyed too soon.
When closing a dialog window (e.g. the "ATTENTION" one), Vim would
just hang.
When GTK theme is changed, Vim doesn't adjust to the new colors.
Argument for ":promptfind" isn't used.
Solution: Fixed the mentioned problems.
Made the dialogs look&feel nicer.
Moved functions to avoid the need for a forward declaration.
Fixed reentrancy of the file browser dialog.
Added drag&drop support for GNOME.
Init the text for the Find/replace dialog from the last used
search string. Set "match whole word" toggle button correctly.
Made repeat rate for drag outside of window depend on the
distance from the window. (Marcin Dalecki)
Made the drag in Visual mode actually work.
Removed recursiveness protection from gui_mch_get_rgb(), it might
cause more trouble than it solves.
Files: src/ex_docmd.c, src/gui_gtk.c, src/gui_gtk_x11.c, src/ui.c,
src/proto/ui.pro, src/misc2.c
Patch 5.6a.019
Problem: When trying to recover through NFS, which uses a large block size,
Vim might think the swap file is empty, because mf_blocknr_max is
zero. (Scott McDermott)
Solution: When computing the number of blocks of the file in mf_open(),
round up instead of down.
Files: src/memfile.c
Patch 5.6a.020

Problem: GUI GTK: Could not set display for gvim.

Solution: Add "-display" and "--display" arguments. (Marcin Dalecki)
Patch 5.6a.021
Problem: Recovering still may not work when the block size of the device
where the swap file is located is larger than 4096.
Solution: Read block 0 with the minimal block size.
Files: src/memline.c, src/memfile.c, src/vim.h
Problem: Win32 GUI: When an error in the vimrc causes a dialog to pop up
(e.g., for an existing swap file), Vim crashes. (David Elins)
Solution: Before showing a dialog, open the main window.
Patch 5.6a.023
Problem: Using expand("%:gs??/?") causes a crash. (Ron Aaron)
Solution: Check for running into the end of the string in do_string_sub().
Files: src/eval.c
Patch 5.6a.024
Problem: Using an autocommand to delete a buffer when leaving it can cause
a crash when jumping to a tag. (Franz Gorkotte)
Solution: In do_tag(), store tagstacklen before jumping to another buffer.
Check tagstackidx after jumping to another buffer.
Add extra check in win_split() if tagname isn't NULL.
Files: src/tag.c, src/window.c
Problem: Win32 GUI: The tables for toupper() and tolower() are initialized
too late. (Mike Steed)
Solution: Move the initialization to win32_init() and call it from main().
Files: src/main.c, src/os_w32.c, src/proto/os_w32.pro
Patch 5.6a.026
Problem: When the SNiFF connection is open, shell commands hang. (Pruemmer)
Solution: Skip a second wait() call if waitpid() already detected that the
child has exited.
Problem: Win32 GUI: The "Edit with Vim" popup menu entry causes problems
for the Office toolbar.
Solution: Use a shell extension dll. (Tianmiao Hu)
Added it to the install and uninstal programs, replaces the old
"Edit with Vim" menu registry entries.
Files: src/dosinst.c, src/uninstal.c, gvimext/*, runtime/doc/gui_w32.txt
Problem: Win32 GUI: Dialogs and tear-off menus can't handle multi-byte
characters.
Solution: Adjust nCopyAnsiToWideChar() to handle multi-byte characters
correctly.
==============================================================================
Renamed src/INSTALL.mac to INSTALL_mac.txt to avoid it being recognized with a
wrong file type. Also renamed src/INSTALL.amiga to INSTALL_ami.txt.
Added *added-5.7*
New syntax files:
stp Stored Procedures (Jeff Lanzarotta)
snnsnet, snnspat, snnsres SNNS (Davide Alberani)
mel MEL (Robert Minsk)
ruby Ruby (Mirko Nasato)
tli TealInfo (Kurt W. Andrews)
ora Oracle config file (Sandor Kopanyi)
abaqus Abaqus (Carl Osterwisch)

jproperties Java Properties (Simon Baldwin)

apache Apache config (Allan Kelly)
csp CSP (Jan Bredereke)
samba Samba config (Rafael Garcia-Suarez)
kscript KDE script (Thomas Capricelli)
hb Hyper Builder (Alejandro Forero Cuervo)
fortran Fortran (rewritten) (Ajit J. Thakkar)
sml SML (Fabrizio Zeno Cornelli)
cvs CVS commit (Matt Dunford)
aspperl ASP Perl (Aaron Hope)
bc BC calculator (Vladimir Scholtz)
latte Latte (Nick Moffitt)
wml WML (Gerfried Fuchs)
Included Exuberant ctags 3.5.1. (Darren Hiebert)
"display" and "fold" arguments for syntax items. For future extension, they
are ignored now.
strftime() function for the Macintosh.
macros/explorer.vim: A file browser script (M A Aziz Ahmed)
Fixed *fixed-5.7*
The 16 bit MS-DOS version is now compiled with Bcc 3.1 instead of 4.0. The
executable is smaller.
When a "make test" failed, the output file was lost. Rename it to
test99.failed to be able to see what went wrong.
After sourcing bugreport.vim, it's not clear that bugreport.txt has been
written in the current directory. Edit bugreport.txt to avoid that.
Adding IME support when using Makefile.w32 didn't work. (Taro Muraoka)
Win32 console: Mouse drags were passed on even when the mouse didn't move.
Perl interface: In Buffers(), type of argument to SvPV() was int, should be
STRLEN. (Tony Leneis)
Problem with prototype for index() on AIX 4.3.0. Added check for _AIX43 in
os_unix.h. (Jake Hamby)
Mappings in mswin.vim could break when some commands are mapped. Add "nore"
to most mappings to avoid re-mapping.
modify_fname() made a copy of a file name for ":p" when it already was a full
path name, which is a bit slow.
Win32 with Borland C++ 5.5: Pass the path to the compiler on to xxd and ctags,
to avoid depending on $PATH. Fixed "make clean".
Many fixes to Macintosh specific parts: (mostly by Dany StAmant)
- Only one Help menu.
- No more crash when removing a menu item.
- Support as External Editor for Codewarrior (still some little glitches).
- Popup menu support.
- Fixed crash when pasting after application switch.
- Color from rgb.txt properly displayed.
- 'isprint' default includes all chars above '~'. (Axel Kielhorn)
- mac_expandpath() was leaking memory.
- Add digraphs table. (Axel Kielhorn)
- Multi-byte support: (Kenichi Asai)
Switch keyscript when going in/out of Insert mode.
Draw multi-byte character correctly.
Don't use mblen() but highest bit of char to detect multi-byte char.
Display value of multi-byte in statusline (also for other systems).
- mouse button was not initialized properly to MOUSE_LEFT when
USE_CTRLCLICKMENU not defined.
- With Japanese SJIS characters: Make "w", "b", and "e" work
properly. (Kenichi Asai)
- Replaced old CodeWarrior file os_mac.CW9.hqx with os_mac.cw5.sit.hqx.
Fixes for VMS: (Zoltan Arpadffy) (also see patch 5.6.045 below)
- Added Makefile_vms.mms and vimrc.vms to src/testdir to be able to run the
tests.
- Various fixes.

- Set 'undolevels' to 1000 by default.

- Made mch_settitle() equivalent to the one in os_unix.c.
RiscOS: A few prototypes for os_riscos.c were outdated. Generate prototypes
automatically.
Previously released patches:

Patch 5.6.001
Problem: When using "set bs=0 si cin", Inserting "#<BS>" or "}<BS>" which
reduces the indent doesn't delete the "#" or "}". (Lorton)
Solution: Adjust ai_col in ins_try_si().
Files: src/edit.c
Patch 5.6.002
Problem: When using the vim.vim syntax file, a comment with all uppercase
characters causes a hang.
Solution: Adjust pattern for vimCommentTitle (Charles Campbell)
Files: runtime/syntax/vim.vim
Patch 5.6.003
Problem: GTK GUI: Loading a user defined toolbar bitmap gives a warning
about the colormap. Probably because the window has not been
opened yet.
Solution: Use gdk_pixmap_colormap_create_from_xpm() to convert the xpm file.
(Keith Radebaugh)
Files: src/gui_gtk.c
Problem: Win32 GUI with IME: When setting 'guifont' to "*", the font
requester appears twice.
Solution: In gui_mch_init_font() don't call get_logfont() but copy
norm_logfont from fh. (Yasuhiro Matsumoto)
Patch 5.6.005
Problem: When 'winminheight' is zero, CTRL-W - with a big number causes a
crash. (David Kotchan)
Solution: Check for negative window height in win_setheight().
Files: src/window.c
Patch 5.6.006
Problem: GTK GUI: Bold font cannot always be used. Memory is freed too
early in gui_mch_init_font().
Solution: Move call to g_free() to after where sdup is used. (Artem Hodyush)
Problem: Win32 IME: Font is not changed when screen font is changed. And
IME composition window does not trace the cursor.
Solution: Initialize IME font. When cursor is moved, set IME composition
window with ImeSetCompositionWindow(). Add call to
ImmReleaseContext() in several places. (Taro Muraoka)
Files: src/gui.c, src/gui_w32.c, src/proto/gui_w32.pro
Problem: Win32: When two files exist with the same name but different case
(through NFS or Samba), fixing the file name case could cause the
wrong one to be edited.
Solution: Prefer a perfect match above a match while ignoring case in
fname_case(). (Flemming Madsen)
Problem: Win32 GUI: Garbage in Windows Explorer help line when selecting
"Edit with Vim" popup menu entry.
Solution: Only return the help line when called with the GCS_HELPTEXT flag.
(Tianmiao Hu)
Files: GvimExt/gvimext.cpp
Patch 5.6.010
Problem: A file name which contains a TAB was not read correctly from the
viminfo file and the ":ls" listing was not aligned properly.
Solution: Parse the buffer list lines in the viminfo file from the end
backwards. Count a Tab for two characters to align the ":ls" list.
Files: src/buffer.c
Patch 5.6.011
Problem: When 'columns' is huge (using a tiny font) and 'statusline' is
used, Vim can crash.

Solution: Limit maxlen to MAXPATHL in win_redr_custom(). (John Mullin)

Files: src/screen.c
Patch 5.6.012
Problem: When using "zsh" for /bin/sh, toolcheck may hang until "exit" is
typed. (Kuratczyk)
Solution: Add "-c exit" when checking for the shell version.
Files: src/toolcheck
Patch 5.6.013
Problem: Multibyte char in tooltip is broken.
Solution: Consider multibyte char in replace_termcodes(). (Taro Muraoka)
Files: src/term.c
Patch 5.6.014
Problem: When cursor is at the end of line and the character under cursor
is a multibyte character, "yl" doesn't yank 1 multibyte-char.
(Takuhiro Nishioka)
Solution: Recognize a multibyte-char at end-of-line correctly in oneright().
(Taro Muraoka)
Also: make "+quickfix" in ":version" output appear alphabetically.
Files: src/edit.c
Patch 5.6.015
Problem: New xterm delete key sends <Esc>[3~ by default.
Solution: Added <kDel> and <kIns> to make the set of keypad keys complete.
Files: src/edit.c, src/ex_getln.c, src/keymap.h, src/misc1.c,
src/misc2.c, src/normal.c, src/os_unix.c, src/term.c
Patch 5.6.016
Problem: When deleting a search string from history from inside a mapping,
another entry is deleted too. (Benji Fisher)
Solution: Reset last_maptick when deleting the last entry of the search
history. Also: Increment maptick when starting a mapping from
typed characters to avoid a just added search string being
overwritten or removed from history.
Files: src/ex_getln.c, src/getchar.c
Patch 5.6.017
Problem: ":s/e/\^M/" should replace an "e" with a CTRL-M, not split the
line. (Calder)
Solution: Replace the backslash with a CTRL-V internally. (Stephen P. Wall)
Patch 5.6.018
Problem: ":help [:digit:]" takes a long time to jump to the wrong place.
Solution: Insert a backslash to avoid the special meaning of '[]'.
Patch 5.6.019
Problem: "snd.c", "snd.java", etc. were recognized as "mail" filetype.
Solution: Make pattern for mail filetype more strict.
Files: runtime/filetype.vim
Problem: The DJGPP version eats processor time (Walter Briscoe).
Solution: Call __dpmi_yield() in the busy-wait loop.
Files: src/os_msdos.c
Patch 5.6.021
Problem: When 'selection' is "exclusive", a double mouse click in Insert
mode doesn't select last char in line. (Lutz)
Solution: Allow leaving the cursor on the NUL past the line in this case.
Files: src/edit.c
Patch 5.6.022
Problem: ":e \~<Tab>" expands to ":e ~\$ceelen", which doesn't work.
Solution: Re-insert the backslash before the '~'.
Problem: Various warnings for the Ming compiler.
Solution: Changes to avoid the warnings. (Bill McCarthy)
Files: src/ex_cmds.c, src/gui_w32.c, src/os_w32exe.c, src/os_win32.c,
src/syntax.c, src/vim.rc
Problem: Win32 console: Entering CTRL-_ requires the shift key. (Kotchan)
Solution: Specifically catch keycode 0xBD, like the GUI.

Patch 5.6.025
Problem: GTK GUI: Starting the GUI could be interrupted by a SIGWINCH.
(Nils Lohner)
Solution: Repeat the read() call to get the gui_in_use value when
interrupted by a signal.
Files: src/gui.c
Problem: Win32 GUI: Toolbar bitmaps are searched for in
$VIMRUNTIME/bitmaps, while GTK looks in $VIM/bitmaps. (Keith
Radebaugh)
Solution: Use $VIM/bitmaps for both, because these are not part of the
distribution but defined by the user.
Files: src/gui_w32.c, runtime/doc/gui.txt
Patch 5.6.027
Problem: TCL: Crash when using a Tcl script (reported for Win32).
Solution: Call Tcl_FindExecutable() in main(). (Brent Fulgham)
Files: src/main.c
Patch 5.6.028
Problem: Xterm patch level 126 sends codes for mouse scroll wheel.
Fully works with xterm patch level 131.
Solution: Recognize the codes for button 4 (0x60) and button 5 (0x61).
Files: src/term.c
Patch 5.6.029
Problem: GTK GUI: Shortcut keys cannot be used for a dialog. (Johannes
Zellner)
Solution: Add support for shortcut keys. (Marcin Dalecki)
Files: src/gui_gtk.c
Patch 5.6.030
Problem: When closing a window and 'ea' is set, Vim can crash. (Yasuhiro
Matsumoto)
Solution: Set "curbuf" to a valid value in win_close().
Files: src/window.c
Patch 5.6.031
Problem: Multi-byte: When a double-byte character ends in CSI, Vim waits
for another character to be typed.
Solution: Recognize the CSI as the second byte of a character and don't wait
for another one. (Yasuhiro Matsumoto)
Files: src/getchar.c
Patch 5.6.032
Problem: Functions with an argument that is a line number don't all accept
".", "$", etc. (Ralf Arens)
Solution: Add get_art_lnum() and use it for setline(), line2byte() and
synID().
Files: src/eval.c
Patch 5.6.033
Problem: Multi-byte: "f " sometimes skips to the second space. (Sung-Hyun
Nam)
Solution: Change logic in searchc() to skip trailing byte of a double-byte
character.
Also: Ask for second byte when searching for double-byte
character. (Park Chong-Dae)
Files: src/search.c
Problem: Compiling with Borland C++ 5.5 fails on tolower() and toupper().
Solution: Use TO_LOWER() and TO_UPPER() instead. Also adjust the Makefile
to make using bcc 5.5 easier.
Files: src/edit.c, src/ex_docmd.c, src/misc1.c, src/Makefile.bor
Patch 5.6.035
Problem: Listing the"+comments" feature in the ":version" output depended
on the wrong ID. (Stephen P. Wall)
Solution: Change "CRYPTV" to "COMMENTS".
Files: src/version.c
Patch 5.6.036
Problem: GTK GUI: Copy/paste text doesn't work between gvim and Eterm.
Solution: Support TEXT and COMPOUND_TEXT selection targets. (ChiDeok Hwang)
Patch 5.6.037
Problem: Multi-byte: Can't use "f" command with multi-byte character in GUI.
Solution: Enable XIM in Normal mode for the GUI. (Sung-Hyun Nam)

Files: src/gui_gtk_x11.c, src/multbyte.c

Patch 5.6.038
Problem: Multi-clicks in GUI are interpreted as a mouse wheel click. When
'ttymouse' is "xterm" a mouse click is interpreted as a mouse
wheel click.
Solution: Don't recognize the mouse wheel in check_termcode() in the GUI.
Use 0x43 for a mouse drag in do_xterm_trace(), not 0x63.
Files: src/term.c, src/os_unix.c
Patch 5.6.039
Problem: Motif GUI under KDE: When trying to logout, Vim hangs up the
system. (Hermann Rochholz)
Solution: When handling the WM_SAVE_YOURSELF event, set the WM_COMMAND
property of the window to let the session manager know we finished
saving ourselves.
Patch 5.6.040
Problem: When using ":s" command, matching the regexp is done twice.
Solution: After copying the matched line, adjust the pointers instead of
finding the match again. (Loic Grenie) Added vim_regnewptr().
Files: src/ex_cmds.c, src/regexp.c, src/proto/regexp.pro
Patch 5.6.041
Problem: GUI: Athena, Motif and GTK don't give more than 10 dialog buttons.
Solution: Remove the limit on the number of buttons.
Also support the 'v' flag in 'guioptions'.
For GTK: Center the buttons.
Files: src/gui_athena.c, src/gui_gtk.c, src/gui_motif.c
Patch 5.6.042
Problem: When doing "vim -u vimrc" and vimrc contains ":q", the cursor in
the terminal can remain off.
Solution: Call cursor_on() in mch_windexit().
Problem: Win32 GUI: When selecting guifont with the dialog, 'guifont'
doesn't include the bold or italic attributes.
Solution: Append ":i" and/or ":b" to 'guifont' in gui_mch_init_font().
Problem: MS-DOS and Windows: The line that dosinst.exe appends to
autoexec.bat to set PATH is wrong when Vim is in a directory with
an embedded space.
Solution: Use double quotes for the value when there is an embedded space.
Patch 5.6.045 (extra) (fixed version)
Problem: VMS: Various small problems.
Solution: Many small changes. (Zoltan Arpadffy)
File name modifier ":h" keeps the path separator.
File name modifier ":e" also removes version.
Compile with MAX_FEAT by default.
When checking for autocommands ignore version in file name.
Be aware of file names being case insensitive.
Added vt320 builtin termcap.
Be prepared for an empty default_vim_dir.
Files: runtime/gvimrc_example.vim, runtime/vimrc_example.vim,
runtime/doc/os_vms.txt, src/eval.c, src/feature.h, src/fileio.c,
src/gui_motif.c, src/gui_vms_conf.h, src/main.c, src/memline.c,
src/misc1.c, src/option.c, src/os_vms_conf.h, src/os_vms.c,
src/os_vms.h, src/os_vms.mms, src/tag.c, src/term.c, src/version.c
Patch 5.6.046
Problem: Systems with backslash in file name: With 'shellslash' set, "vim
*/*.c" only uses a slash for the first file name. (Har'El)
Solution: Fix slashes in file name arguments after reading the vimrc file.
Files: src/option.c
Patch 5.6.047
Problem: $CPPFLAGS is not passed on to ctags configure.
Solution: Add it. (Walter Briscoe)
Files: src/config.mk.in, src/Makefile
Patch 5.6.048
Problem: CTRL-R in Command-line mode is documented to insert text as typed,
but inserts text literally.
Solution: Make CTRL-R insert text as typed, use CTRL-R CTRL-R to insert

literally. This is consistent with Insert mode. But characters

that end Command-line mode are inserted literally.
Files: runtime/doc/index.txt, runtime/doc/cmdline.txt, src/ex_getln.c,
src/ops.c, src/proto/ops.pro
Patch 5.6.049
Problem: Documentation for [!] after ":ijump" is wrong way around. (Benji
Fisher)
Solution: Fix the documentation. Also improve the code to check for a match
after a /* */ comment.
Files: runtime/doc/tagsearch.txt, src/search.c
Patch 5.6.050
Problem: Replacing is wrong when replacing a single-byte char with
double-byte char or the other way around.
Solution: Shift the text after the character when it is replaced.
(Yasuhiro Matsumoto)
Files: src/normal.c, src/misc1.c
Patch 5.6.051
Problem: ":tprev" and ":tnext" don't give an error message when trying to
go before the first or beyond the last tag. (Robert Webb)
Solution: Added error messages. Also: Delay a second when a file-read
message is going to overwrite an error message, otherwise it won't
be seen.
Files: src/fileio.c, src/tag.c
Patch 5.6.052
Problem: Multi-byte: When an Ex command has a '|' or '"'' as a second byte,
it terminates the command.
Solution: Skip second byte of multi-byte char when checking for '|' and '"''.
(Asai Kenichi)
Patch 5.6.053
Problem: CTRL-] doesn't work on a tag that contains a '|'. (Cesar Crusius)
Solution: Escape '|', '"'' and '\' in tag names when using CTRL-] and also
for command-line completion.
Files: src/ex_getln.c, src/normal.c
Patch 5.6.054
Problem: When using ":e" and ":e #" the cursor is put in the first column
when 'startofline' is set. (Cordell)
Solution: Use the last known column when 'startofline' is set.
Also, use ECMD_LAST more often to simplify the code.
Files: src/buffer.c, src/ex_cmds.c, src/ex_docmd.c, src/proto/buffer.pro
Patch 5.6.055
Problem: When 'statusline' only contains a text without "%" and doesn't fit
in the window, Vim crashes. (Ron Aaron)
Solution: Don't use the pointer for the first item if there is no item.
Files: src/screen.c
Problem: MS-DOS: F11 and F12 don't work when 'bioskey' is set.
Solution: Use enhanced keyboard functions. (Vince Negri)
Detect presence of enhanced keyboard and set bioskey_read and
bioskey_ready.
Files: src/os_msdos.c
Problem: Win32 GUI: Multi-byte characters are wrong in dialogs and tear-off
menus.
Solution: Use system font instead of a fixed font. (Matsumoto, Muraoka)
Patch 5.6.058
Problem: When the 'a' flag is not in 'guioptions', non-Windows systems
copy Visually selected text to the clipboard/selection on a yank
or delete command anyway. On Windows it isn't done even when the
'a' flag is included.
Solution: Respect the 'a' flag in 'guioptions' on all systems.
Files: src/normal.c
Problem: When moving the cursor over italic text and the characters spill
over to the cell on the right, that spill-over is deleted.
Noticed in the Win32 GUI, can happen on other systems too.
Solution: Redraw italic text starting from a blank, like this is already
done for bold text. (Vince Negri)
Files: src/gui.c, src/gui.h, src/gui w32.c

Patch 5.6.060
Problem: Some bold characters spill over to the cell on the left, that
spill-over can remain sometimes.
Solution: Redraw a character when the next character was bold and needs
redrawing. (Robert Webb)
Files: src/screen.c
Patch 5.6.061
Problem: When xterm sends 8-bit controls, recognizing the version response
doesn't work.
When using CSI instead of <Esc>[ for the termcap color codes,
using 16 colors doesn't work. (Neil Bird)
Solution: Also accept CSI in place of <Esc>[ for the version string.
Also check for CSI when handling colors 8-15 in term_color().
Use CSI for builtin xterm termcap entries when 'term' contains
"8bit".
Files: runtime/doc/term.txt, src/ex_cmds.c, src/option.c, src/term.c,
src/os_unix.c, src/proto/option.pro, src/proto/term.pro
Patch 5.6.062
Problem: The documentation says that setting 'smartindent' doesn't have an
effect when 'cindent' is set, but it does make a difference for
lines starting with "#". (Neil Bird)
Solution: Really ignore 'smartindent' when 'cindent' is set.
Files: src/misc1.c, src/ops.c
Patch 5.6.063
Problem: Using "I" in Visual-block mode doesn't accept a count. (Johannes
Zellner)
Solution: Pass the count on to do_insert() and edit(). (Allan Kelly)
Files: src/normal.c, src/ops.c, src/proto/ops.pro
Patch 5.6.064
Problem: MS-DOS and Win32 console: Mouse doesn't work correctly after
including patch 5.6.28. (Vince Negri)
Solution: Don't check for mouse scroll wheel when the mouse code contains
the number of clicks.
Files: src/term.c
Patch 5.6.065
Problem: After moving the cursor around in Insert mode, typing a space can
still trigger an abbreviation. (Benji Fisher)
Solution: Don't check for an abbreviation after moving around in Insert mode.
Files: src/edit.c
Patch 5.6.066
Problem: Still a few bold character spill-over remains after patch 60.
Solution: Clear character just in front of blanking out rest of the line.
(Robert Webb)
Files: src/screen.c
Patch 5.6.067
Problem: When a file name contains a NL, the viminfo file is corrupted.
Solution: Use viminfo_writestring() to convert the NL to CTRL-V n.
Also fix the Buffers menu and listing a menu name with a newline.
Files: runtime/menu.vim, src/buffer.c, src/mark.c, src/menu.c
Patch 5.6.068
Problem: Compiling the Perl interface doesn't work with Perl 5.6.0.
(Bernhard Rosenkraenzer)
Solution: Also check xs_apiversion for the version number when prepending
defines for PL_*.
Files: src/Makefile
Patch 5.6.069
Problem: "go" doesn't always end up at the right character when
'fileformat' is "dos". (Bruce DeVisser)
Solution: Correct computations in ml_find_line_or_offset().
Files: src/memline.
Problem: Compiling the Perl interface doesn't work with Perl 5.6.0.
(Bernhard Rosenkraenzer)
Solution: Simpler check instead of the one from patch 68.
Files: src/Makefile
Patch 5.6.071
Problem: "A" in Visual block mode on a Tab positions the cursor one char to
the right. (Michael Haumann)
Solution: Correct the column computation in op insert().

Files: src/ops.c
Patch 5.6.072
Problem: When starting Vim with "vim +startinsert", it enters Insert mode
only after typing the first command. (Andrew Pimlott)
Solution: Insert a dummy command in the stuff buffer.
Files: src/main.c
Patch 5.6.073 (extra) (depends on 5.6.034)
Problem: Win32 GUI: When compiled with Bcc 5.5 menus don't work.
In dosinst.c toupper() and tolower() give an "internal compiler
error" for Bcc 5.5.
Solution: Define WINVER to 4 to avoid compiling for Windows 2000. (Dan
Sharp) Also cleaned up compilation arguments.
Use our own implementation of toupper() in dosinst.c. Use
mytoupper() instead of tolower().
Files: src/Makefile.bor, src/dosinst.c
Problem: Entering CSI directly doesn't always work, because it's recognized
as the start of a special key. Mostly a problem with multi-byte
in the GUI.
Solution: Use K_CSI for a typed CSI character. Use <CSI> for a normal CSI,
<xCSI> for a CSI typed in the GUI.
Files: runtime/doc/intro.txt, src/getchar.c, src/gui_amiga.c,
src/gui_gtk_x11.c, src/gui_mac.c, src/gui_riscos.c, src/gui_w32.c,
src/keymap.h, src/misc2.c
Patch 5.6.075
Problem: When using "I" or "A" in Visual block mode while 'sts' is set may
change spaces to a Tab the inserted text is not correct. (Mike
Steed) And some other problems when using "A" to append after the
end of the line.
Solution: Check for change in spaces/tabs after inserting the text. Append
spaces to fill the gap between the end-of-line and the right edge
of the block.
Files: src/ops.c
Patch 5.6.076
Problem: GTK GUI: Mapping <M-Space> doesn't work.
Solution: Don't use the "Alt" modifier twice in key_press_event().
Patch 5.6.077
Problem: GUI: When interrupting an external program with CTRL-C, gvim might
crash. (Benjamin Korvemaker)
Solution: Avoid using a NULL pointer in ui_inchar_undo().
Files: src/ui.c
Patch 5.6.078
Problem: Locale doesn't always work on FreeBSD. (David O'Brien)
Solution: Link with the "xpg4" library when available.
Patch 5.6.079
Problem: Vim could crash when several Tcl interpreters are created and
destroyed.
Solution: handle the "exit" command and nested ":tcl" commands better. (Ingo
Wilken)
Files: runtime/doc/if_tcl.txt, src/if_tcl.c
Patch 5.6.080
Problem: When jumping to a tag, generating the tags file and jumping to the
same tag again uses the old search pattern. (Sung-Hyun Nam)
Solution: Flush cached tag matches when executing an external command.
Files: src/misc2.c, src/proto/tag.pro, src/tag.c
Patch 5.6.081
Problem: ":syn include" uses a level for the included file, this confuses
contained items included at the same level.
Solution: Use a unique tag for each included file. Changed sp_syn_inc_lvl
to sp_syn_inc_tag. (Scott Bigham)
Files: src/syntax.c, src/structs.h
Patch 5.6.082
Problem: When using cscope, Vim can crash.
Solution: Initialize tag_fname in find_tags(). (Anton Blanchard)
Files: src/tag.c
Problem: Win32: The visual beep can't be seen. (Eric Roesinger)

Solution: Flush the output before waiting with GdiFlush(). (Maurice S. Barnum)
Also: Allow specifying the delay in t_vb for the GUI.
Files: src/gui.c, src/gui_amiga.c, src/gui_gtk_x11.c, src/gui_mac.c,
src/gui_riscos.c, src/gui_w32.c, src/gui_x11.c, src/gui_beos.cc,
src/proto/gui_amiga.pro, src/proto/gui_gtk_x11.pro,
src/proto/gui_mac.pro, src/proto/gui_riscos.pro,
src/proto/gui_w32.pro, src/proto/gui_x11.pro,
src/proto/gui_beos.pro
Problem: GUI: Entering CSI doesn't always work for Athena and Motif.
Solution: Handle typed CSI as <xCSI> (forgot this bit in 5.6.074).
Patch 5.6.085
Problem: Multi-byte: Using "r" to replace a double-byte char with a
single-byte char moved the cursor one character. (Matsumoto)
Also, using a count when replacing a single-byte char with a
double-byte char didn't work.
Solution: Don't use del_char() to delete the second byte.
Get "ptr" again after calling ins_char().
Files: src/normal.c
Problem: Win32: When using libcall() and the returned value is not a valid
pointer, Vim crashes.
Solution: Use IsBadStringPtr() to check if the pointer is valid.
Patch 5.6.087
Problem: Multi-byte: Commands and messages with multi-byte characters are
displayed wrong.
Solution: Detect double-byte characters. (Yasuhiro Matsumoto)
Files: src/ex_getln.c, src/message.c, src/misc2.c, src/screen.c
Patch 5.6.088
Problem: Multi-byte with Motif or Athena: The message "XIM requires
fontset" is annoying when Vim was compiled with XIM support but it
is not being used.
Solution: Remove that message.
Files: src/multbyte.c
Patch 5.6.089
Problem: On non-Unix systems it's possible to overwrite a read-only file
without using "!".
Solution: Check if the file permissions allow overwriting before moving the
file to become the backup file.
Files: src/fileio.c
Patch 5.6.090
Problem: When editing a file in "/home/dir/home/dir" this was replaced with
"~~". (Andreas Jellinghaus)
Solution: Replace the home directory only once in home_replace().
Files: src/misc1.c
Patch 5.6.091
Problem: When editing many "no file" files, can't create swap file, because
.sw[a-p] have all been used. (Neil Bird)
Solution: Also use ".sv[a-z]", ".su[a-z]", etc.
Files: src/memline.c
Patch 5.6.092
Problem: FreeBSD: When setting $TERM to a non-valid terminal name, Vim
hangs in tputs().
Solution: After tgetent() returns an error code, call it again with the
terminal name "dumb". This apparently creates an environment in
which tputs() doesn't fail.
Files: src/term.c
Problem: Win32 GUI: "ls | gvim -" will show a message box about reading
stdin when Vim exits. (Donohue)
Solution: Don't write a message about the file read from stdin until the GUI
has started.
Files: src/fileio.c
Patch 5.6.094
Problem: Problem with multi-byte string for ":echo var".
Solution: Check for length in msg_outtrans_len_attr(). (Sung-Hyun Nam)
Also make do_echo() aware of multi-byte characters.
Files: src/eval.c, src/message.c

Patch 5.6.095
Problem: With an Emacs TAGS file that include another a relative path
doesn't always work.
Solution: Use expand_tag_fname() on the name of the included file.
(Utz-Uwe Haus)
Files: src/tag.c
Patch 5.6.096
Problem: Unix: When editing many files, startup can be slow. (Paul
Ackersviller)
Solution: Halve the number of stat() calls used to add a file to the buffer
list.
Files: src/buffer.c
Patch 5.7a.001
Problem: GTK doesn't respond on drag&drop from ROX-Filer.
Solution: Add "text/uri-list" target. (Thomas Leonard)
Also: fix problem with checking for trash arguments.
Patch 5.7a.002
Problem: Multi-byte: 'showmatch' is performed when second byte of an
inserted double-byte char is a paren or brace.
Solution: Check IsTrailByte() before calling showmatch(). (Taro Muraoka)
Files: src/misc1.c
Patch 5.7a.003
Problem: Multi-byte: After using CTRL-O in Insert mode with the cursor at
the end of the line on a multi-byte character the cursor moves to
the left.
Solution: Check for multi-byte character at end-of-line. (Taro Muraoka)
Also: fix cls() to detect a double-byte character. (Chong-Dae Park)
Files: src/edit.c, src/search.c
Patch 5.7a.004
Problem: When reporting the search pattern offset, the string could be
unterminated, which may cause a crash.
Solution: Terminate the string for the search offset. (Stephen P. Wall)
Files: src/search.c
Patch 5.7a.005
Problem: When ":s//~/" doesn't find a match it reports "[NULL]" for the
pattern.
Solution: Use get_search_pat() to obtain the actually used pattern.
Files: src/ex_cmds.c, src/proto/search.pro, src/search.c
Problem: VMS: Various problems, also with the VAXC compiler.
Solution: In many places use the Unix code for VMS too.
Added time, date and compiler version to version message.
(Zoltan Arpadffy)
Files: src/ex_cmds.c, src/ex_docmd.c, src/globals.h, src/gui_vms_conf.h,
src/main.c, src/message.c, src/misc1.c, src/os_vms.c,
src/os_vms.h, src/os_vms.mms, src/os_vms_conf.h,
src/proto/os_vms.pro, src/proto/version.pro, src/term.c,
src/version.c, src/xxd/os_vms.mms, src/xxd/xxd.c
Patch 5.7a.007
Problem: Motif and Athena GUI: CTRL-@ is interpreted as CTRL-C.
Solution: Only use "intr_char" when it has been set.
Patch 5.7a.008
Problem: GTK GUI: When using CTRL-L the screen is redrawn twice, causing
trouble for bold characters. Also happens when moving with the
scrollbar. Best seen when 'writedelay' is non-zero.
When starting the GUI with ":gui" the screen is redrawn once with
the wrong colors.
Solution: Only set the geometry hints when the window size really changed.
This avoids setting it each time the scrollbar is forcefully
redrawn.
Don't redraw in expose_event() when gui.starting is still set.
==============================================================================

Ctags is no longer included with Vim. It has grown into a project of its own.
You can find it here: http://ctags.sf.net. It is highly recommended as a Vim
companion when you are writing programs.
Added *added-5.8*
New syntax files:
acedb AceDB (Stewart Morris)
aflex Aflex (Mathieu Clabaut)
antlr Antlr (Mathieu Clabaut)
asm68k 68000 Assembly (Steve Wall)
automake Automake (John Williams)
ayacc Ayacc (Mathieu Clabaut)
b B (Mathieu Clabaut)
bindzone BIND zone (glory hump)
blank Blank (Rafal Sulejman)
cfg Configure files (Igor Prischepoff)
changelog ChangeLog (Gediminas Paulauskas)
cl Clever (Phil Uren)
crontab Crontab (John Hoelzel)
csc Essbase script (Raul Segura Acevedo)
cynlib Cynlib(C++) (Phil Derrick)
cynpp Cyn++ (Phil Derrick)
debchangelog Debian Changelog (Wichert Akkerman)
debcontrol Debian Control (Wichert Akkerman)
dns DNS zone file (Jehsom)
dtml Zope's DTML (Jean Jordaan)
dylan Dylan, Dylan-intr and Dylan-lid (Brent Fulgham)
ecd Embedix Component Description (John Beppu)
fgl Informix 4GL (Rafal Sulejman)
foxpro FoxPro (Powing Tse)
gsp GNU Server Pages (Nathaniel Harward)
gtkrc GTK rc (David Necas)
hercules Hercules (Avant! Corporation) (Dana Edwards)
htmlos HTML/OS by Aestiva (Jason Rust)
inittab SysV process control (David Necas)
iss Inno Setup (Dominique Stephan)
jam Jam (Ralf Lemke)
jess Jess (Paul Baleme)
lprolog LambdaProlog (Markus Mottl)
ia64 Intel Itanium (parth malwankar)
kix Kixtart (Nigel Gibbs)
mgp MaGic Point (Gerfried Fuchs)
mason Mason (HTML with Perl) (Andrew Smith)
mma Mathematica (Wolfgang Waltenberger)
nqc Not Quite C (Stefan Scherer)
omnimark Omnimark (Paul Terray)
openroad OpenROAD (Luis Moreno Serrano)
named BIND configuration (glory hump)
papp PApp (Marc Lehmann)
pfmain Postfix main config (Peter Kelemen)
pic PIC assembly (Aleksandar Veselinovic)
ppwiz PPWizard (Stefan Schwarzer)
progress Progress (Phil Uren)
psf Product Specification File (Rex Barzee)
r R (Tom Payne)
registry MS-Windows registry (Dominique Stephan)
robots Robots.txt (Dominique Stephan)
rtf Rich Text Format (Dominique Stephan)
setl SETL (Alex Poylisher)
sgmldecl SGML Declarations (Daniel A. Molina W.)
sinda Sinda input (Adrian Nagle)
sindacmp Sinda compare (Adrian Nagle)
sindaout Sinda output (Adrian Nagle)
smith SMITH (Rafal Sulejman)
snobol4 Snobol 4 (Rafal Sulejman)
strace Strace (David Necas)
tak TAK input (Adrian Nagle)
takcmp TAK compare (Adrian Nagle)
takout TAK output (Adrian Nagle)
tasm Turbo assembly (FooLman)
texmf TeX configuration (David Necas)

trasys Trasys input (Adrian Nagle)

tssgm TSS Geometry (Adrian Nagle)
tssop TSS Optics (Adrian Nagle)
tsscl TSS Command line (Adrian Nagle)
virata Virata Configuration Script (Manuel M.H. Stol)
vsejcl VSE JCL (David Ondrejko)
wdiff Wordwise diff (Gerfried Fuchs)
wsh Windows Scripting Host (Paul Moore)
xkb X Keyboard Extension (David Necas)
Renamed php3 to php, it now also supports php4 (Lutz Eymers)
Patch 5.7.015
Problem: Syntax files for Vim 6.0 can't be used with 5.x.
Solution: Add the "default" argument to the ":highlight" command: Ignore the
command if highlighting was already specified.
Files: src/syntax.c
Generate the Syntax menu with makemenu.vim, so that it doesn't have to be done
when Vim is starting up. Reduces the startup time of the GUI.
Fixed *fixed-5.8*
Conversion of docs to HTML didn't convert "|tag|s" to a hyperlink.
Fixed compiling under NeXT. (Jeroen C.M. Goudswaard)
optwin.vim gave an error when used in Vi compatible mode ('cpo' contains 'C').
Tcl interpreter: "buffer" command didn't check for presence of an argument.
(Dave Bodenstab)
dosinst.c: Added checks for too long file name.
Amiga: a file name starting with a colon was considered absolute but it isn't.
Amiga: ":pwd" added a slash when in the root of a drive.
Macintosh: Warnings for unused variables. (Bernhard Pruemmer)
Unix: When catching a deadly signal, handle it in such a way that it's
unlikely that Vim will hang. Call _exit() instead of exit() in case of a
severe problem.
Setting the window title from nothing to something didn't work after patch 29.
Check for ownership of .exrc and .vimrc was done with stat(). Use lstat() as
well for extra security.
Win32 GUI: Printing a file with 'fileformat' "unix" didn't work. Set
'fileformat' to "dos" before writing the temp file.
Unix: Could start waiting for a character when checking for a CTRL-C typed
when an X event is received.
Could not use Perl and Python at the same time on FreeBSD, because Perl used
"-lc" and Python used the threaded C library.
Win32: The Mingw compiler gave a few warning messages.
When using "ZZ" and an autocommand for writing uses an abbreviation it didn't
work. Don't stuff the ":x" command but execute it directly. (Mikael Berthe)
VMS doesn't always have lstat(), added an #ifdef around it.
Added a few corrections for the Macintosh. (Axel Kielhorn)
Win32: Gvimext could not edit more than a few files at once, the length of the
argument was fixed.
Previously released patches for Vim 5.7:

Patch 5.7.001
Problem: When the current buffer is crypted, and another modified buffer
isn't, ":wall" will encrypt the other buffer.
Solution: In buf_write() use "buf" instead of "curbuf" to check for the
crypt key.
Files: src/fileio.c

Patch 5.7.002
Problem: When 'showmode' is set, using "CTRL-O :r file" waits three seconds
before displaying the read text. (Wichert Akkerman)
Solution: Set "keep_msg" to the file message so that the screen is redrawn
before the three seconds wait for displaying the mode message.
Files: src/fileio.c
Patch 5.7.003
Problem: Searching for "[[:cntrl:]]" doesn't work.
Solution: Exclude NUL from the matching characters, it terminates the list.
Files: src/regexp.c
Patch 5.7.004
Problem: GTK: When selecting a new font, Vim can crash.
Solution: In gui_mch_init_font() unreference the old font, not the new one.
Patch 5.7.005
Problem: Multibyte: Inserting a wrapped line corrupts kterm screen.
Pasting TEXT/COMPOUND_TEXT into Vim does not work.
On Motif no XIM status line is displayed even though it is
available.
Solution: Don't use xterm trick for wrapping lines for multibyte mode.
Correct a missing "break", added TEXT/COMPOUND_TEXT selection
request.
Add XIMStatusArea fallback code.
(Katsuhito Nagano)
Files: src/gui_gtk_x11.c, src/multbyte.c, src/screen.c, src/ui.c
Patch 5.7.006
Problem: GUI: redrawing the non-Visual selection is wrong when the window
is unobscured. (Jean-Pierre Etienne)
Solution: Redraw the selection properly and don't clear it. Added "len"
argument to clip_may_redraw_selection().
Files: src/gui.c, src/ui.c, src/proto/ui.pro
Patch 5.7.007
Problem: Python: Crash when using the current buffer twice.
Solution: Increase the reference count for buffer and window objects.
(Johannes Zellner)
Files: src/if_python.c
Patch 5.7.008
Problem: In Ex mode, backspacing over the first TAB doesn't work properly.
(Wichert Akkerman)
Solution: Switch the cursor on before printing the newline.
Problem: Mac: Crash when using a long file.
Solution: Don't redefine malloc() and free(), because it will break using
realloc().
Files: src/os_mac.h
Patch 5.7.010
Problem: When using CTRL-A on a very long number Vim can crash. (Michael
Naumann)
Solution: Truncate the length of the new number to avoid a buffer overflow.
Files: src/ops.c
Problem: Win32 GUI on NT 5 and Win98: Displaying Hebrew is reversed.
Solution: Output each character separately, to avoid that Windows reverses
the text for some fonts. (Ron Aaron)
Patch 5.7.012
Problem: When using "-complete=buffer" for ":command" the user command
fails.
Solution: In a user command don't replace the buffer name with a count for
the buffer number.
Patch 5.7.013
Problem: "gD" didn't always find a match in the first line, depending on
the column the search started at.
Solution: Reset the column to zero before starting to search.
Files: src/normal.c
Patch 5.7.014

Problem: Rot13 encoding was done on characters with accents, which is

wrong. (Sven Gottwald)
Solution: Only do rot13 encoding on ASCII characters.
Files: src/ops.c
Patch 5.7.016
Problem: When hitting 'n' for a ":s///c" command, the ignore-case flag was
not restored, some matches were skipped. (Daniel Blaustein)
Solution: Restore the reg_ic variable when 'n' was hit.
Patch 5.7.017
Problem: When using a Vim script for Vim 6.0 with <SID> before a function
name, it produces an error message even when inside an "if version
>= 600". (Charles Campbell)
Solution: Ignore errors in the function name when the function is not going
to be defined.
Files: src/eval.c
Patch 5.7.018
Problem: When running "rvim" or "vim -Z" it was still possible to execute a
shell command with system() and backtick-expansion. (Antonios A.
Kavarnos)
Solution: Disallow executing a shell command in get_cmd_output() and
mch_expand_wildcards().
Files: src/misc1.c, src/os_unix.c
Patch 5.7.019
Problem: Multibyte: In a substitute string, a multi-byte character isn't
skipped properly, can be a problem when the second byte is a
backslash.
Solution: Skip an extra byte for a double-byte character. (Muraoka Taro)
Patch 5.7.020
Problem: Compilation doesn't work on MacOS-X.
Solution: Add a couple of #ifdefs. (Jamie Curmi)
Files: src/regexp.c, src/ctags/general.h
Patch 5.7.021
Problem: Vim sometimes produces a beep when started in an xterm. Only
happens when compiled without mouse support.
Solution: Requesting the xterm version results in a K_IGNORE. This wasn't
handled when mouse support is disabled. Accept K_IGNORE always.
Files: src/normal.c
Patch 5.7.022
Problem: %v in 'statusline' is not displayed when it's equal to %c.
Solution: Check if %V or %v is used and handle them differently.
Files: src/screen.c
Patch 5.7.023
Problem: Crash when a WinLeave autocommand deletes the buffer in the other
window.
Solution: Check that after executing the WinLeave autocommands there still
is a window to be closed. Also update the test that was supposed
to check for this problem.
Files: src/window.c, testdir/test13.in, testdir/test13.ok
Patch 5.7.024
Problem: Evaluating an expression for 'statusline' can have side effects.
Solution: Evaluate the expression in a sandbox.
Files: src/edit.c, src/eval.c, src/proto/eval.pro, src/ex_cmds.c,
src/ex_cmds.h, src/ex_docmd.c, src/globals.h, src/option.c,
src/screen.c, src/undo.c
Patch 5.7.025 (fixed)
Problem: Creating a temp file has a race condition.
Solution: Create a private directory to write the temp files in.
Files: src/fileio.c, src/misc1.c, src/proto/misc1.pro,
src/proto/fileio.pro, src/memline.c, src/os_unix.h
Problem: Creating a temp file has a race condition.
Solution: Create a private directory to write the temp files in.
This is the extra part of patch 5.7.025.
Files: src/os_msdos.h
Patch 5.7.027
Problem: Starting to edit a file can cause a crash. For example when in
Insert mode, using CTRL-O :help abbr<Tab> to scroll the screen and

then <CR>, which edits a help file. (Robert Bogomip)

Solution: Check if keep_msg is NULL before copying it.
Files: src/fileio.c
Patch 5.7.028
Problem: Creating a backup or swap file could fail in rare situations.
Solution: Use O_EXCL for open().
Files: src/fileio.c, src/memfile.c
Patch 5.7.029
Problem: Editing a file with an extremely long name crashed Vim.
Solution: Check for length of the name when setting the window title.
Files: src/buffer.c
Patch 5.7.030
Problem: A ":make" or ":grep" command with a very long argument could cause
a crash.
Solution: Allocate the buffer for the shell command.
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: scroll
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*scroll.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2006 Aug 27
Scrolling *scrolling*
These commands move the contents of the window. If the cursor position is
moved off of the window, the cursor is moved onto the window (with
'scrolloff' screen lines around it). A page is the number of lines in the
window minus two. The mnemonics for these commands may be a bit confusing.
Remember that the commands refer to moving the window (the part of the buffer
that you see) upwards or downwards in the buffer. When the window moves
upwards in the buffer, the text in the window moves downwards on your screen.
See section |03.7| of the user manual for an introduction.
1. Scrolling downwards |scroll-down|
2. Scrolling upwards |scroll-up|
3. Scrolling relative to cursor |scroll-cursor|
4. Scrolling horizontally |scroll-horizontal|
5. Scrolling synchronously |scroll-binding|
6. Scrolling with a mouse wheel |scroll-mouse-wheel|
==============================================================================
1. Scrolling downwards *scroll-down*
The following commands move the edit window (the part of the buffer that you
see) downwards (this means that more lines downwards in the text buffer can be
seen):
*CTRL-E*
CTRL-E Scroll window [count] lines downwards in the buffer.
Mnemonic: Extra lines.
*CTRL-D*
CTRL-D Scroll window Downwards in the buffer. The number of
lines comes from the 'scroll' option (default: half a
screen). If [count] given, first set 'scroll' option
to [count]. The cursor is moved the same number of
lines down in the file (if possible; when lines wrap
and when hitting the end of the file there may be a
difference). When the cursor is on the last line of
the buffer nothing happens and a beep is produced.
See also 'startofline' option.
{difference from vi: Vim scrolls 'scroll' screen
lines, instead of file lines; makes a difference when
lines wrap}
<S-Down> or *<S-Down>* *<kPageDown>*

<PageDown> or *<PageDown>* *CTRL-F*
CTRL-F Scroll window [count] pages Forwards (downwards) in
the buffer. See also 'startofline' option.
When there is only one window the 'window' option
might be used.
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/scroll.html[2019/03/05 11:41:53 AM]

*z+*
z+ Without [count]: Redraw with the line just below the
window at the top of the window. Put the cursor in
that line, at the first non-blank in the line.
With [count]: just like "z<CR>".
==============================================================================
2. Scrolling upwards *scroll-up*
The following commands move the edit window (the part of the buffer that you
see) upwards (this means that more lines upwards in the text buffer can be
seen):
*CTRL-Y*
CTRL-Y Scroll window [count] lines upwards in the buffer.
Note: When using the MS-Windows key bindings CTRL-Y is
remapped to redo.
*CTRL-U*
CTRL-U Scroll window Upwards in the buffer. The number of
lines comes from the 'scroll' option (default: half a
screen). If [count] given, first set the 'scroll'
option to [count]. The cursor is moved the same
number of lines up in the file (if possible; when
lines wrap and when hitting the end of the file there
may be a difference). When the cursor is on the first
line of the buffer nothing happens and a beep is
produced. See also 'startofline' option.
{difference from vi: Vim scrolls 'scroll' screen
lines, instead of file lines; makes a difference when
lines wrap}
<S-Up> or *<S-Up>* *<kPageUp>*

<PageUp> or *<PageUp>* *CTRL-B*
CTRL-B Scroll window [count] pages Backwards (upwards) in the
buffer. See also 'startofline' option.
When there is only one window the 'window' option
might be used.
*z^*
z^ Without [count]: Redraw with the line just above the
window at the bottom of the window. Put the cursor in
that line, at the first non-blank in the line.
With [count]: First scroll the text to put the [count]
line at the bottom of the window, then redraw with the
line which is now at the top of the window at the
bottom of the window. Put the cursor in that line, at
the first non-blank in the line.
==============================================================================
3. Scrolling relative to cursor *scroll-cursor*
The following commands reposition the edit window (the part of the buffer that
you see) while keeping the cursor on the same line:
*z<CR>*
z<CR> Redraw, line [count] at top of window (default
cursor line). Put cursor at first non-blank in the
line.
*zt*
zt Like "z<CR>", but leave the cursor in the same
column. {not in Vi}
*zN<CR>*
z{height}<CR> Redraw, make window {height} lines tall. This is
useful to make the number of lines small when screen
updating is very slow. Cannot make the height more
than the physical screen height.

*z.*
z. Redraw, line [count] at center of window (default
line.
*zz*
zz Like "z.", but leave the cursor in the same column.
Careful: If caps-lock is on, this command becomes
"ZZ": write buffer and exit! {not in Vi}
*z-*
z- Redraw, line [count] at bottom of window (default
line.
*zb*
zb Like "z-", but leave the cursor in the same column.
{not in Vi}
==============================================================================
4. Scrolling horizontally *scroll-horizontal*
For the following four commands the cursor follows the screen. If the
character that the cursor is on is moved off the screen, the cursor is moved
to the closest character that is on the screen. The value of 'sidescroll' is
not used.
z<Right> or *zl* *z<Right>*

zl Move the view on the text [count] characters to the
right, thus scroll the text [count] characters to the
left. This only works when 'wrap' is off. {not in
Vi}
z<Left> or *zh* *z<Left>*

zh Move the view on the text [count] characters to the
left, thus scroll the text [count] characters to the
right. This only works when 'wrap' is off. {not in
Vi}
*zL*
zL Move the view on the text half a screenwidth to the
right, thus scroll the text half a screenwidth to the
left. This only works when 'wrap' is off. {not in
Vi}
*zH*
zH Move the view on the text half a screenwidth to the
left, thus scroll the text half a screenwidth to the
right. This only works when 'wrap' is off. {not in
Vi}
For the following two commands the cursor is not moved in the text, only the
text scrolls on the screen.
*zs*
zs Scroll the text horizontally to position the cursor
at the start (left side) of the screen. This only
works when 'wrap' is off. {not in Vi}
*ze*
ze Scroll the text horizontally to position the cursor
at the end (right side) of the screen. This only
works when 'wrap' is off. {not in Vi}
==============================================================================
5. Scrolling synchronously *scroll-binding*

Occasionally, it is desirable to bind two or more windows together such that

when one window is scrolled, the other windows are also scrolled. In Vim,
windows can be given this behavior by setting the (window-specific)
'scrollbind' option. When a window that has 'scrollbind' set is scrolled, all
other 'scrollbind' windows are scrolled the same amount, if possible. The
behavior of 'scrollbind' can be modified by the 'scrollopt' option.
When using the scrollbars, the binding only happens when scrolling the window
with focus (where the cursor is). You can use this to avoid scroll-binding
for a moment without resetting options.
When a window also has the 'diff' option set, the scroll-binding uses the
differences between the two buffers to synchronize the position precisely.
Otherwise the following method is used.
*scrollbind-relative*
Each 'scrollbind' window keeps track of its "relative offset," which can be
thought of as the difference between the current window's vertical scroll
position and the other window's vertical scroll position. When one of the
'scrollbind' windows is asked to vertically scroll past the beginning or end
limit of its text, the window no longer scrolls, but remembers how far past
the limit it wishes to be. The window keeps this information so that it can
maintain the same relative offset, regardless of its being asked to scroll
past its buffer's limits.
However, if a 'scrollbind' window that has a relative offset that is past its
buffer's limits is given the cursor focus, the other 'scrollbind' windows must
jump to a location where the current window's relative offset is valid. This
behavior can be changed by clearing the 'jump' flag from the 'scrollopt'
option.
*syncbind* *:syncbind* *:sync*

:syncbind Force all 'scrollbind' windows to have the same
relative offset. I.e., when any of the 'scrollbind'
windows is scrolled to the top of its buffer, all of
the 'scrollbind' windows will also be at the top of
their buffers.
*scrollbind-quickadj*
The 'scrollbind' flag is meaningful when using keyboard commands to vertically
scroll a window, and also meaningful when using the vertical scrollbar of the
window which has the cursor focus. However, when using the vertical scrollbar
of a window which doesn't have the cursor focus, 'scrollbind' is ignored.
This allows quick adjustment of the relative offset of 'scrollbind' windows.
==============================================================================
6. Scrolling with a mouse wheel *scroll-mouse-wheel*
When your mouse has a scroll wheel, it should work with Vim in the GUI. How
it works depends on your system. It might also work in an xterm
|xterm-mouse-wheel|. By default only vertical scroll wheels are supported,
but some GUIs also support horizontal scroll wheels.
For the Win32 GUI the scroll action is hard coded. It works just like
dragging the scrollbar of the current window. How many lines are scrolled
depends on your mouse driver. If the scroll action causes input focus
problems, see |intellimouse-wheel-problems|.
For the X11 GUIs (Motif, Athena and GTK) scrolling the wheel generates key
presses <ScrollWheelUp>, <ScrollWheelDown>, <ScrollWheelLeft> and
<ScrollWheelRight>. For example, if you push the scroll wheel upwards a
<ScrollWheelUp> key press is generated causing the window to scroll upwards
(while the text is actually moving downwards). The default action for these
keys are:
<ScrollWheelUp> scroll three lines up *<ScrollWheelUp>*
<S-ScrollWheelUp> scroll one page up *<S-ScrollWheelUp>*
<C-ScrollWheelUp> scroll one page up *<C-ScrollWheelUp>*
<ScrollWheelDown> scroll three lines down *<ScrollWheelDown>*
<S-ScrollWheelDown> scroll one page down *<S-ScrollWheelDown>*
<C-ScrollWheelDown> scroll one page down *<C-ScrollWheelDown>*

<ScrollWheelLeft> scroll six columns left *<ScrollWheelLeft>*

<S-ScrollWheelLeft> scroll one page left *<S-ScrollWheelLeft>*
<C-ScrollWheelLeft> scroll one page left *<C-ScrollWheelLeft>*
<ScrollWheelRight> scroll six columns right *<ScrollWheelRight>*
<S-ScrollWheelRight> scroll one page right *<S-ScrollWheelRight>*
<C-ScrollWheelRight> scroll one page right *<C-ScrollWheelRight>*
This should work in all modes, except when editing the command line.
Note that horizontal scrolling only works if 'nowrap' is set. Also, unless
the "h" flag in 'guioptions' is set, the cursor moves to the longest visible
line if the cursor line is about to be scrolled off the screen (similarly to
how the horizontal scrollbar works).
You can modify the default behavior by mapping the keys. For example, to make
the scroll wheel move one line or half a page in Normal mode:
:map <ScrollWheelUp> <C-Y>
:map <S-ScrollWheelUp> <C-U>
:map <ScrollWheelDown> <C-E>
:map <S-ScrollWheelDown> <C-D>
You can also use Alt and Ctrl modifiers.
This only works when Vim gets the scroll wheel events, of course. You can
check if this works with the "xev" program.
When using XFree86, the /etc/XF86Config file should have the correct entry for
your mouse. For FreeBSD, this entry works for a Logitech scrollmouse:
Protocol "MouseMan"
Device "/dev/psm0"
ZAxisMapping 4 5
See the XFree86 documentation for information.
*<MouseDown>* *<MouseUp>*
The keys <MouseDown> and <MouseUp> have been deprecated. Use <ScrollWheelUp>
instead of <MouseDown> and use <ScrollWheelDown> instead of <MouseUp>.
*xterm-mouse-wheel*
To use the mouse wheel in a new xterm you only have to make the scroll wheel
work in your Xserver, as mentioned above.
To use the mouse wheel in an older xterm you must do this:
1. Make it work in your Xserver, as mentioned above.
2. Add translations for the xterm, so that the xterm will pass a scroll event
to Vim as an escape sequence.
3. Add mappings in Vim, to interpret the escape sequences as <ScrollWheelDown>
or <ScrollWheelUp> keys.
You can do the translations by adding this to your ~.Xdefaults file (or other
file where your X resources are kept):
XTerm*VT100.Translations: #override \n\
s<Btn4Down>: string("0x9b") string("[64~") \n\
s<Btn5Down>: string("0x9b") string("[65~") \n\
<Btn4Down>: string("0x9b") string("[62~") \n\
<Btn5Down>: string("0x9b") string("[63~") \n\
<Btn4Up>: \n\
<Btn5Up>:
Add these mappings to your vimrc file:
:map <M-Esc>[62~ <ScrollWheelUp>
:map! <M-Esc>[62~ <ScrollWheelUp>
:map <M-Esc>[63~ <ScrollWheelDown>
:map! <M-Esc>[63~ <ScrollWheelDown>
:map <M-Esc>[64~ <S-ScrollWheelUp>
:map! <M-Esc>[64~ <S-ScrollWheelUp>
:map <M-Esc>[65~ <S-ScrollWheelDown>
:map! <M-Esc>[65~ <S-ScrollWheelDown>

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: motion
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*motion.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 May 14
Cursor motions *cursor-motions* *navigation*

These commands move the cursor position. If the new position is off of the
screen, the screen is scrolled to show the cursor (see also 'scrolljump' and
'scrolloff' options).
1. Motions and operators |operator|
2. Left-right motions |left-right-motions|
3. Up-down motions |up-down-motions|
4. Word motions |word-motions|
5. Text object motions |object-motions|
6. Text object selection |object-select|
7. Marks |mark-motions|
8. Jumps |jump-motions|
9. Various motions |various-motions|
General remarks:
If you want to know where you are in the file use the "CTRL-G" command
|CTRL-G| or the "g CTRL-G" command |g_CTRL-G|. If you set the 'ruler' option,
the cursor position is continuously shown in the status line (which slows down
Vim a little).
Experienced users prefer the hjkl keys because they are always right under
their fingers. Beginners often prefer the arrow keys, because they do not
know what the hjkl keys do. The mnemonic value of hjkl is clear from looking
at the keyboard. Think of j as an arrow pointing downwards.
The 'virtualedit' option can be set to make it possible to move the cursor to
positions where there is no character or halfway a character.
==============================================================================
1. Motions and operators *operator*
The motion commands can be used after an operator command, to have the command
operate on the text that was moved over. That is the text between the cursor
position before and after the motion. Operators are generally used to delete
or change text. The following operators are available:
|c| c change
|d| d delete
|y| y yank into register (does not change the text)
|~| ~ swap case (only if 'tildeop' is set)
|g~| g~ swap case
|gu| gu make lowercase
|gU| gU make uppercase
|!| ! filter through an external program
|=| = filter through 'equalprg' or C-indenting if empty
|gq| gq text formatting
|g?| g? ROT13 encoding
|>| > shift right
|<| < shift left
|zf| zf define a fold
|g@| g@ call function set with the 'operatorfunc' option
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/motion.html[2019/03/05 11:41:54 AM]

If the motion includes a count and the operator also had a count before it,
the two counts are multiplied. For example: "2d3w" deletes six words.
After applying the operator the cursor is mostly left at the start of the text
that was operated upon. For example, "yfe" doesn't move the cursor, but "yFe"
moves the cursor leftwards to the "e" where the yank started.
*linewise* *characterwise*
The operator either affects whole lines, or the characters between the start
and end position. Generally, motions that move between lines affect lines
(are linewise), and motions that move within a line affect characters (are
characterwise). However, there are some exceptions.
*exclusive* *inclusive*
A character motion is either inclusive or exclusive. When inclusive, the
start and end position of the motion are included in the operation. When
exclusive, the last character towards the end of the buffer is not included.
Linewise motions always include the start and end position.
Which motions are linewise, inclusive or exclusive is mentioned with the
command. There are however, two general exceptions:
1. If the motion is exclusive and the end of the motion is in column 1, the
end of the motion is moved to the end of the previous line and the motion
becomes inclusive. Example: "}" moves to the first line after a paragraph,
but "d}" will not include that line.
*exclusive-linewise*
2. If the motion is exclusive, the end of the motion is in column 1 and the
start of the motion was at or before the first non-blank in the line, the
motion becomes linewise. Example: If a paragraph begins with some blanks
and you do "d}" while standing on the first non-blank, all the lines of
the paragraph are deleted, including the blanks. If you do a put now, the
deleted lines will be inserted below the cursor position.
Note that when the operator is pending (the operator command is typed, but the
motion isn't yet), a special set of mappings can be used. See |:omap|.
Instead of first giving the operator and then a motion you can use Visual
mode: mark the start of the text with "v", move the cursor to the end of the
text that is to be affected and then hit the operator. The text between the
start and the cursor position is highlighted, so you can see what text will
be operated upon. This allows much more freedom, but requires more key
strokes and has limited redo functionality. See the chapter on Visual mode
|Visual-mode|.
You can use a ":" command for a motion. For example "d:call FindEnd()".
But this can't be redone with "." if the command is more than one line.
This can be repeated:
d:call search("f")<CR>
This cannot be repeated:
d:if 1<CR>
call search("f")<CR>
endif<CR>
FORCING A MOTION TO BE LINEWISE, CHARACTERWISE OR BLOCKWISE

When a motion is not of the type you would like to use, you can force another
type by using "v", "V" or CTRL-V just after the operator.
Example:
dj
deletes two lines
dvj
deletes from the cursor position until the character below the cursor
d<C-V>j
deletes the character under the cursor and the character below the cursor.
Be careful with forcing a linewise movement to be used characterwise or
blockwise, the column may not always be defined.
*o_v*
v When used after an operator, before the motion command: Force
the operator to work characterwise, also when the motion is
linewise. If the motion was linewise, it will become
|exclusive|.
If the motion already was characterwise, toggle
inclusive/exclusive. This can be used to make an exclusive

motion inclusive and an inclusive motion exclusive.
*o_V*
V When used after an operator, before the motion command: Force
the operator to work linewise, also when the motion is
characterwise.
*o_CTRL-V*
CTRL-V When used after an operator, before the motion command: Force
the operator to work blockwise. This works like Visual block
mode selection, with the corners defined by the cursor
position before and after the motion.
==============================================================================
2. Left-right motions *left-right-motions*
These commands move the cursor to the specified column in the current line.
They stop at the first column and at the end of the line, except "$", which
may move to one of the next lines. See 'whichwrap' option to make some of the
commands move across line boundaries.
h or *h*
<Left> or *<Left>*
CTRL-H or *CTRL-H* *<BS>*
<BS> [count] characters to the left. |exclusive| motion.
Note: If you prefer <BS> to delete a character, use
the mapping:
:map CTRL-V<BS> X
(to enter "CTRL-V<BS>" type the CTRL-V key, followed
by the <BS> key)
See |:fixdel| if the <BS> key does not do what you
want.
l or *l*
<Right> or *<Right>* *<Space>*
<Space> [count] characters to the right. |exclusive| motion.
*0*
0 To the first character of the line. |exclusive|
motion.
*<Home>* *<kHome>*
<Home> To the first character of the line. |exclusive|
motion. When moving up or down next, stay in same
TEXT column (if possible). Most other commands stay
in the same SCREEN column. <Home> works like "1|",
which differs from "0" when the line starts with a
<Tab>. {not in Vi}
*^*
^ To the first non-blank character of the line.
|exclusive| motion.
*$* *<End>* *<kEnd>*

$ or <End> To the end of the line. When a count is given also go
[count - 1] lines downward |inclusive|.
In Visual mode the cursor goes to just after the last
character in the line.
When 'virtualedit' is active, "$" may move the cursor
back from past the end of the line to the last
character in the line.
*g_*
g_ To the last non-blank character of the line and
[count - 1] lines downward |inclusive|. {not in Vi}

*g0* *g<Home>*
g0 or g<Home> When lines wrap ('wrap' on): To the first character of
the screen line. |exclusive| motion. Differs from
"0" when a line is wider than the screen.
When lines don't wrap ('wrap' off): To the leftmost
character of the current line that is on the screen.
Differs from "0" when the first character of the line
is not on the screen. {not in Vi}
*g^*
g^ When lines wrap ('wrap' on): To the first non-blank
character of the screen line. |exclusive| motion.
Differs from "^" when a line is wider than the screen.
When lines don't wrap ('wrap' off): To the leftmost
non-blank character of the current line that is on the
screen. Differs from "^" when the first non-blank
character of the line is not on the screen. {not in
Vi}
*gm*
gm Like "g0", but half a screenwidth to the right (or as
much as possible). {not in Vi}
*g$* *g<End>*
g$ or g<End> When lines wrap ('wrap' on): To the last character of
the screen line and [count - 1] screen lines downward
|inclusive|. Differs from "$" when a line is wider
than the screen.
When lines don't wrap ('wrap' off): To the rightmost
character of the current line that is visible on the
screen. Differs from "$" when the last character of
the line is not on the screen or when a count is used.
Additionally, vertical movements keep the column,
instead of going to the end of the line.
{not in Vi}
*bar*
| To screen column [count] in the current line.
|exclusive| motion. Ceci n'est pas une pipe.
*f*
f{char} To [count]'th occurrence of {char} to the right. The
cursor is placed on {char} |inclusive|.
{char} can be entered as a digraph |digraph-arg|.
When 'encoding' is set to Unicode, composing
characters may be used, see |utf-8-char-arg|.
|:lmap| mappings apply to {char}. The CTRL-^ command
in Insert mode can be used to switch this on/off
|i_CTRL-^|.
*F*
F{char} To the [count]'th occurrence of {char} to the left.
The cursor is placed on {char} |exclusive|.
{char} can be entered like with the |f| command.
*t*
t{char} Till before [count]'th occurrence of {char} to the
right. The cursor is placed on the character left of
{char} |inclusive|.
*T*
T{char} Till after [count]'th occurrence of {char} to the
left. The cursor is placed on the character right of
{char} |exclusive|.
*;*
; Repeat latest f, t, F or T [count] times.

*,*
, Repeat latest f, t, F or T in opposite direction
[count] times.
==============================================================================
3. Up-down motions *up-down-motions*
k or *k*
<Up> or *<Up>* *CTRL-P*
CTRL-P [count] lines upward |linewise|.
j or *j*
<Down> or *<Down>*
CTRL-J or *CTRL-J*
<NL> or *<NL>* *CTRL-N*
CTRL-N [count] lines downward |linewise|.
gk or *gk* *g<Up>*
g<Up> [count] display lines upward. |exclusive| motion.
Differs from 'k' when lines wrap, and when used with
an operator, because it's not linewise. {not in Vi}
gj or *gj* *g<Down>*
g<Down> [count] display lines downward. |exclusive| motion.
Differs from 'j' when lines wrap, and when used with
an operator, because it's not linewise. {not in Vi}
*-*
- <minus> [count] lines upward, on the first non-blank
character |linewise|.
+ or *+*
CTRL-M or *CTRL-M* *<CR>*
<CR> [count] lines downward, on the first non-blank
*_*
_ <underscore> [count] - 1 lines downward, on the first non-blank
*G*
G Goto line [count], default last line, on the first
non-blank character |linewise|. If 'startofline' not
set, keep the same column.
G is a one of |jump-motions|.
*<C-End>*
<C-End> Goto line [count], default last line, on the last
character |inclusive|. {not in Vi}
<C-Home> or *gg* *<C-Home>*

gg Goto line [count], default first line, on the first
non-blank character |linewise|. If 'startofline' not
set, keep the same column.
:[range] Set the cursor on the last line number in [range].
[range] can also be just one line number, e.g., ":1"
or ":'m".
In contrast with |G| this command does not modify the
|jumplist|.
*N%*

{count}% Go to {count} percentage in the file, on the first

non-blank in the line |linewise|. To compute the new
line number this formula is used:
({count} * number-of-lines + 99) / 100
See also 'startofline' option. {not in Vi}
:[range]go[to] [count] *:go* *:goto* *go*

[count]go Go to {count} byte in the buffer. Default [count] is
one, start of the file. When giving [range], the
last number in it used as the byte count. End-of-line
characters are counted depending on the current
'fileformat' setting.
{not in Vi}
|+byte_offset| feature}
These commands move to the specified line. They stop when reaching the first
or the last line. The first two commands put the cursor in the same column
(if possible) as it was after the last command that changed the column,
except after the "$" command, then the cursor will be put on the last
character of the line.
If "k", "-" or CTRL-P is used with a [count] and there are less than [count]
lines above the cursor and the 'cpo' option includes the "-" flag it is an
error. |cpo--|.
==============================================================================
4. Word motions *word-motions*
<S-Right> or *<S-Right>* *w*

w [count] words forward. |exclusive| motion.
<C-Right> or *<C-Right>* *W*

W [count] WORDS forward. |exclusive| motion.
*e*
e Forward to the end of word [count] |inclusive|.
Does not stop in an empty line.
*E*
E Forward to the end of WORD [count] |inclusive|.
Does not stop in an empty line.
<S-Left> or *<S-Left>* *b*

b [count] words backward. |exclusive| motion.
<C-Left> or *<C-Left>* *B*

B [count] WORDS backward. |exclusive| motion.
*ge*
ge Backward to the end of word [count] |inclusive|.
*gE*
gE Backward to the end of WORD [count] |inclusive|.
These commands move over words or WORDS.
*word*
A word consists of a sequence of letters, digits and underscores, or a
sequence of other non-blank characters, separated with white space (spaces,
tabs, <EOL>). This can be changed with the 'iskeyword' option. An empty line
is also considered to be a word.
*WORD*
A WORD consists of a sequence of non-blank characters, separated with white
space. An empty line is also considered to be a WORD.
A sequence of folded lines is counted for one word of a single character.
"w" and "W", "e" and "E" move to the start/end of the first word or WORD after
a range of folded lines. "b" and "B" move to the start of the first word or

WORD before the fold.

Special case: "cw" and "cW" are treated like "ce" and "cE" if the cursor is
on a non-blank. This is because "cw" is interpreted as change-word, and a
word does not include the following white space. {Vi: "cw" when on a blank
followed by other blanks changes only the first blank; this is probably a
bug, because "dw" deletes all the blanks}
Another special case: When using the "w" motion in combination with an
operator and the last word moved over is at the end of a line, the end of
that word becomes the end of the operated text, not the first word in the
next line.
The original Vi implementation of "e" is buggy. For example, the "e" command
will stop on the first character of a line if the previous line was empty.
But when you use "2e" this does not happen. In Vim "ee" and "2e" are the
same, which is more logical. However, this causes a small incompatibility
between Vi and Vim.
==============================================================================
5. Text object motions *object-motions*
*(*
( [count] sentences backward. |exclusive| motion.
*)*
) [count] sentences forward. |exclusive| motion.
*{*
{ [count] paragraphs backward. |exclusive| motion.
*}*
} [count] paragraphs forward. |exclusive| motion.
*]]*
]] [count] sections forward or to the next '{' in the
first column. When used after an operator, then also
stops below a '}' in the first column. |exclusive|
Note that |exclusive-linewise| often applies.
*][*
][ [count] sections forward or to the next '}' in the
first column. |exclusive|
*[[*
[[ [count] sections backward or to the previous '{' in
the first column. |exclusive|
*[]*
[] [count] sections backward or to the previous '}' in
the first column. |exclusive|
These commands move over three kinds of text objects.
*sentence*
A sentence is defined as ending at a '.', '!' or '?' followed by either the
end of a line, or by a space or tab. Any number of closing ')', ']', '"''
and ''' characters may appear after the '.', '!' or '?' before the spaces,
tabs or end of line. A paragraph and section boundary is also a sentence
boundary.
If the 'J' flag is present in 'cpoptions', at least two spaces have to
follow the punctuation mark; <Tab>s are not recognized as white space.
The definition of a sentence cannot be changed.
*paragraph*
A paragraph begins after each empty line, and also at each of a set of

paragraph macros, specified by the pairs of characters in the 'paragraphs'

option. The default is "IPLPPPQPP TPHPLIPpLpItpplpipbp", which corresponds to
the macros ".IP", ".LP", etc. (These are nroff macros, so the dot must be in
the first column). A section boundary is also a paragraph boundary.
Note that a blank line (only containing white space) is NOT a paragraph
boundary.
Also note that this does not include a '{' or '}' in the first column. When
the '{' flag is in 'cpoptions' then '{' in the first column is used as a
paragraph boundary |posix|.
*section*
A section begins after a form-feed (<C-L>) in the first column and at each of
a set of section macros, specified by the pairs of characters in the
'sections' option. The default is "SHNHH HUnhsh", which defines a section to
start at the nroff macros ".SH", ".NH", ".H", ".HU", ".nh" and ".sh".
The "]" and "[" commands stop at the '{' or '}' in the first column. This is
useful to find the start or end of a function in a C program. Note that the
first character of the command determines the search direction and the
second character the type of brace found.
If your '{' or '}' are not in the first column, and you would like to use "[["
and "]]" anyway, try these mappings:
:map [[ ?{<CR>w99[{
:map ][ /}<CR>b99]}
:map ]] j0[[%/{<CR>
:map [] k$][%?}<CR>
[type these literally, see |<>|]
==============================================================================
6. Text object selection *object-select* *text-objects*
*v_a* *v_i*
This is a series of commands that can only be used while in Visual mode or
after an operator. The commands that start with "a" select "a"n object
including white space, the commands starting with "i" select an "inner" object
without white space, or just the white space. Thus the "inner" commands
always select less text than the "a" commands.
These commands are {not in Vi}.
These commands are not available when the |+textobjects| feature has been
*v_aw* *aw*
aw "a word", select [count] words (see |word|).
Leading or trailing white space is included, but not
counted.
When used in Visual linewise mode "aw" switches to
Visual characterwise mode.
*v_iw* *iw*
iw "inner word", select [count] words (see |word|).
White space between words is counted too.
When used in Visual linewise mode "iw" switches to
*v_aW* *aW*
aW "a WORD", select [count] WORDs (see |WORD|).
Leading or trailing white space is included, but not
counted.
When used in Visual linewise mode "aW" switches to
*v_iW* *iW*
iW "inner WORD", select [count] WORDs (see |WORD|).
White space between words is counted too.
When used in Visual linewise mode "iW" switches to
*v_as* *as*
as "a sentence", select [count] sentences (see
|sentence|).
When used in Visual mode it is made characterwise.

*v_is* *is*
is "inner sentence", select [count] sentences (see
|sentence|).
*v_ap* *ap*
ap "a paragraph", select [count] paragraphs (see
|paragraph|).
Exception: a blank line (only containing white space)
is also a paragraph boundary.
When used in Visual mode it is made linewise.
*v_ip* *ip*
ip "inner paragraph", select [count] paragraphs (see
|paragraph|).
Exception: a blank line (only containing white space)
is also a paragraph boundary.
When used in Visual mode it is made linewise.
a] *v_a]* *v_a[* *a]* *a[*

a[ "a [] block", select [count] '[' ']' blocks. This
goes backwards to the [count] unclosed '[', and finds
the matching ']'. The enclosed text is selected,
including the '[' and ']'.
i] *v_i]* *v_i[* *i]* *i[*

i[ "inner [] block", select [count] '[' ']' blocks. This
goes backwards to the [count] unclosed '[', and finds
the matching ']'. The enclosed text is selected,
excluding the '[' and ']'.
a) *v_a)* *a)* *a(*

a( *v_ab* *v_a(* *ab*
ab "a block", select [count] blocks, from "[count] [(" to
the matching ')', including the '(' and ')' (see
|[(|). Does not include white space outside of the
parenthesis.
i) *v_i)* *i)* *i(*

i( *v_ib* *v_i(* *ib*
ib "inner block", select [count] blocks, from "[count] [("
to the matching ')', excluding the '(' and ')' (see
|[(|).
a> *v_a>* *v_a<* *a>* *a<*

a< "a <> block", select [count] <> blocks, from the
[count]'th unmatched '<' backwards to the matching
'>', including the '<' and '>'.
i> *v_i>* *v_i<* *i>* *i<*

i< "inner <> block", select [count] <> blocks, from
the [count]'th unmatched '<' backwards to the matching
'>', excluding the '<' and '>'.
*v_at* *at*
at "a tag block", select [count] tag blocks, from the
[count]'th unmatched "<aaa>" backwards to the matching
"</aaa>", including the "<aaa>" and "</aaa>".
See |tag-blocks| about the details.

*v_it* *it*
it "inner tag block", select [count] tag blocks, from the
[count]'th unmatched "<aaa>" backwards to the matching
"</aaa>", excluding the "<aaa>" and "</aaa>".
See |tag-blocks| about the details.
a} *v_a}* *a}* *a{*

a{ *v_aB* *v_a{* *aB*
aB "a Block", select [count] Blocks, from "[count] [{" to
the matching '}', including the '{' and '}' (see
|[{|).
i} *v_i}* *i}* *i{*

i{ *v_iB* *v_i{* *iB*
iB "inner Block", select [count] Blocks, from "[count] [{"
to the matching '}', excluding the '{' and '}' (see
|[{|).
a" *v_aquote* *aquote*

a' *v_a'* *a'*
a` *v_a`* *a`*
"a quoted string". Selects the text from the previous
quote until the next quote. The 'quoteescape' option
is used to skip escaped quotes.
Only works within one line.
When the cursor starts on a quote, Vim will figure out
which quote pairs form a string by searching from the
start of the line.
Any trailing white space is included, unless there is
none, then leading white space is included.
Repeating this object in Visual mode another string is
included. A count is currently not used.
i" *v_iquote* *iquote*

i' *v_i'* *i'*
i` *v_i`* *i`*
Like a", a' and a`, but exclude the quotes and
repeating won't extend the Visual selection.
Special case: With a count of 2 the quotes are
included, but no extra white space as with a"/a'/a`.
When used after an operator:
For non-block objects:
For the "a" commands: The operator applies to the object and the white
space after the object. If there is no white space after the object
or when the cursor was in the white space before the object, the white
space before the object is included.
For the "inner" commands: If the cursor was on the object, the
operator applies to the object. If the cursor was on white space, the
operator applies to the white space.
For a block object:
The operator applies to the block where the cursor is in, or the block
on which the cursor is on one of the braces. For the "inner" commands
the surrounding braces are excluded. For the "a" commands, the braces
are included.
When used in Visual mode:
When start and end of the Visual area are the same (just after typing "v"):
One object is selected, the same as for using an operator.
When start and end of the Visual area are not the same:
For non-block objects the area is extended by one object or the white
space up to the next object, or both for the "a" objects. The
direction in which this happens depends on which side of the Visual
area the cursor is. For the block objects the block is extended one
level outwards.

For illustration, here is a list of delete commands, grouped from small to big
objects. Note that for a single character and a whole line the existing vi
movement commands are used.
"dl" delete character (alias: "x") |dl|
"diw" delete inner word *diw*
"daw" delete a word *daw*
"diW" delete inner WORD (see |WORD|) *diW*
"daW" delete a WORD (see |WORD|) *daW*
"dd" delete one line |dd|
"dis" delete inner sentence *dis*
"das" delete a sentence *das*
"dib" delete inner '(' ')' block *dib*
"dab" delete a '(' ')' block *dab*
"dip" delete inner paragraph *dip*
"dap" delete a paragraph *dap*
"diB" delete inner '{' '}' block *diB*
"daB" delete a '{' '}' block *daB*
Note the difference between using a movement command and an object. The
movement command operates from here (cursor position) to where the movement
takes us. When using an object the whole object is operated upon, no matter
where on the object the cursor is. For example, compare "dw" and "daw": "dw"
deletes from the cursor position to the start of the next word, "daw" deletes
the word under the cursor and the space after or before it.
Tag blocks *tag-blocks*

For the "it" and "at" text objects an attempt is done to select blocks between
matching tags for HTML and XML. But since these are not completely compatible
there are a few restrictions.
The normal method is to select a <tag> until the matching </tag>. For "at"
the tags are included, for "it" they are excluded. But when "it" is repeated
the tags will be included (otherwise nothing would change). Also, "it" used
on a tag block with no contents will select the leading tag.
"<aaa/>" items are skipped. Case is ignored, also for XML where case does
matter.
In HTML it is possible to have a tag like <br> or <meta ...> without a
matching end tag. These are ignored.
The text objects are tolerant about mistakes. Stray end tags are ignored.
==============================================================================
7. Marks *mark-motions* *E20* *E78*
Jumping to a mark can be done in two ways:
1. With ` (backtick): The cursor is positioned at the specified location
and the motion is |exclusive|.
2. With '' (single quote): The cursor is positioned on the first non-blank
character in the line of the specified location and
the motion is linewise.
*m* *mark* *Mark*

m{a-zA-Z} Set mark {a-zA-Z} at cursor position (does not move
the cursor, this is not a motion command).
*m'* *m`*
m' or m` Set the previous context mark. This can be jumped to
with the "''"' or "``" command (does not move the

cursor, this is not a motion command).
*m[* *m]*
m[ or m] Set the |'[| or |']| mark. Useful when an operator is
to be simulated by multiple commands. (does not move
the cursor, this is not a motion command).
*:ma* *:mark* *E191*

:[range]ma[rk] {a-zA-Z'}
Set mark {a-zA-Z'} at last line number in [range],
column 0. Default is cursor line.
*:k*
:[range]k{a-zA-Z'} Same as :mark, but the space before the mark name can
be omitted.
*'* *'a* *`* *à*

'{a-z} `{a-z} Jump to the mark {a-z} in the current buffer.
*'A* *'0* *À* *`0*

'{A-Z0-9} `{A-Z0-9} To the mark {A-Z0-9} in the file where it was set (not
a motion command when in another file). {not in Vi}
*g'* *g'a* *g`* *gà*

g'{mark} g`{mark}
Jump to the {mark}, but don't change the jumplist when
jumping within the current buffer. Example:
g`"
jumps to the last known position in a file. See
$VIMRUNTIME/vimrc_example.vim.
Also see |:keepjumps|.
{not in Vi}
*:marks*
:marks List all the current marks (not a motion command).
The |'(|, |')|, |'{| and |'}| marks are not listed.
The first column has number zero.
{not in Vi}
*E283*
:marks {arg} List the marks that are mentioned in {arg} (not a
motion command). For example:
:marks aB
to list marks 'a' and 'B'. {not in Vi}
*:delm* *:delmarks*
:delm[arks] {marks} Delete the specified marks. Marks that can be deleted
include A-Z and 0-9. You cannot delete the '' mark.
They can be specified by giving the list of mark
names, or with a range, separated with a dash. Spaces
are ignored. Examples:
:delmarks a deletes mark a
:delmarks a b 1 deletes marks a, b and 1
:delmarks Aa deletes marks A and a
:delmarks p-z deletes marks in the range p to z
:delmarks ^.[] deletes marks ^ . [ ]
:delmarks \" deletes mark "
{not in Vi}
:delm[arks]! Delete all marks for the current buffer, but not marks
A-Z or 0-9.
{not in Vi}
A mark is not visible in any way. It is just a position in the file that is
remembered. Do not confuse marks with named registers, they are totally
unrelated.
'a - 'z lowercase marks, valid within one file
'A - 'Z uppercase marks, also called file marks, valid between files
'0 - '9 numbered marks, set from .viminfo file

Lowercase marks 'a to 'z are remembered as long as the file remains in the
buffer list. If you remove the file from the buffer list, all its marks are
lost. If you delete a line that contains a mark, that mark is erased.
Lowercase marks can be used in combination with operators. For example: "d't"
deletes the lines from the cursor position to mark 't'. Hint: Use mark 't' for
Top, 'b' for Bottom, etc.. Lowercase marks are restored when using undo and
redo.
Uppercase marks 'A to 'Z include the file name. {Vi: no uppercase marks} You
can use them to jump from file to file. You can only use an uppercase mark
with an operator if the mark is in the current file. The line number of the
mark remains correct, even if you insert/delete lines or edit another file for
a moment. When the 'viminfo' option is not empty, uppercase marks are kept in
the .viminfo file. See |viminfo-file-marks|.
Numbered marks '0 to '9 are quite different. They can not be set directly.
They are only present when using a viminfo file |viminfo-file|. Basically '0
is the location of the cursor when you last exited Vim, '1 the last but one
time, etc. Use the "r" flag in 'viminfo' to specify files for which no
Numbered mark should be stored. See |viminfo-file-marks|.
*'[* *`[*
'[ `[ To the first character of the previously changed
or yanked text. {not in Vi}
*']* *`]*
'] `] To the last character of the previously changed or
yanked text. {not in Vi}
After executing an operator the Cursor is put at the beginning of the text
that was operated upon. After a put command ("p" or "P") the cursor is
sometimes placed at the first inserted line and sometimes on the last inserted
character. The four commands above put the cursor at either end. Example:
After yanking 10 lines you want to go to the last one of them: "10Y']". After
inserting several lines with the "p" command you want to jump to the lowest
inserted line: "p']". This also works for text that has been inserted.
Note: After deleting text, the start and end positions are the same, except
when using blockwise Visual mode. These commands do not work when no change
was made yet in the current file.
*'<* *`<*
'< `< To the first line or character of the last selected
Visual area in the current buffer. For block mode it
may also be the last character in the first line (to
be able to define the block). {not in Vi}.
*'>* *`>*
'> `> To the last line or character of the last selected
Visual area in the current buffer. For block mode it
may also be the first character of the last line (to
be able to define the block). Note that 'selection'
applies, the position may be just after the Visual
area. {not in Vi}.
*''* *``*
'' `` To the position before the latest jump, or where the
last "m'"' or "m`" command was given. Not set when the
|:keepjumps| command modifier was used.
Also see |restore-position|.
*'quote* *`quote*
'"' `" To the cursor position when last exiting the current
buffer. Defaults to the first character of the first
line. See |last-position-jump| for how to use this
for each opened file.
Only one position is remembered per buffer, not one
for each window. As long as the buffer is visible in
a window the position won't be changed.
{not in Vi}.

*'^* *`^*
'^ `^ To the position where the cursor was the last time
when Insert mode was stopped. This is used by the
|gi| command. Not set when the |:keepjumps| command
modifier was used. {not in Vi}
*'.* *`.*
'. `. To the position where the last change was made. The
position is at or near where the change started.
Sometimes a command is executed as several changes,
then the position can be near the end of what the
command changed. For example when inserting a word,
the position will be on the last character.
{not in Vi}
*'(* *`(*
'( `( To the start of the current sentence, like the |(|
command. {not in Vi}
*')* *`)*
') `) To the end of the current sentence, like the |)|
*'{* *`{*
'{ `{ To the start of the current paragraph, like the |{|
*'}* *`}*
'} `} To the end of the current paragraph, like the |}|
These commands are not marks themselves, but jump to a mark:
*]'*
]' [count] times to next line with a lowercase mark below
the cursor, on the first non-blank character in the
line. {not in Vi}
*]`*
]` [count] times to lowercase mark after the cursor. {not
in Vi}
*['*
[' [count] times to previous line with a lowercase mark
before the cursor, on the first non-blank character in
the line. {not in Vi}
*[`*
[` [count] times to lowercase mark before the cursor.
{not in Vi}
:loc[kmarks] {command} *:loc* *:lockmarks*

Execute {command} without adjusting marks. This is
useful when changing text in a way that the line count
will be the same when the change has completed.
WARNING: When the line count does change, marks below
the change will keep their line number, thus move to
another text line.
These items will not be adjusted for deleted/inserted
lines:
- lower case letter marks 'a - 'z
- upper case letter marks 'A - 'Z
- numbered marks '0 - '9
- last insert position '^
- last change position '.
- the Visual area '< and '>
- line numbers in placed signs
- line numbers in quickfix positions
- positions in the |jumplist|

- positions in the |tagstack|

These items will still be adjusted:
- previous context mark ''
- the cursor position
- the view of a window on a buffer
- folds
- diffs
:kee[pmarks] {command} *:kee* *:keepmarks*

Currently only has effect for the filter command
YXXY:range!|:
- When the number of lines after filtering is equal to
or larger than before, all marks are kept at the
same line number.
- When the number of lines decreases, the marks in the
lines that disappeared are deleted.
In any case the marks below the filtered text have
their line numbers adjusted, thus stick to the text,
as usual.
When the 'R' flag is missing from 'cpoptions' this has
the same effect as using ":keepmarks".
*:keepj* *:keepjumps*
:keepj[umps] {command}
Moving around in {command} does not change the |''|,
|'.| and |'^| marks, the |jumplist| or the
|changelist|.
Useful when making a change or inserting text
automatically and the user doesn't want to go to this
position. E.g., when updating a "Last change"
timestamp in the first line:
:let lnum = line(".")
:keepjumps normal gg
:call SetLastChange()
:keepjumps exe "normal " . lnum . "G"
Note that ":keepjumps" must be used for every command.
When invoking a function the commands in that function
can still change the jumplist. Also, for
":keepjumps exe 'command '"' the "command" won't keep
jumps. Instead use: ":exe 'keepjumps command'"'
==============================================================================
8. Jumps *jump-motions*
A "jump" is one of the following commands: "'"', "`", "G", "/", "?", "n",
"N", "%", "(", ")", "[[", "]]", "{", "}", ":s", ":tag", "L", "M", "H" and
the commands that start editing a new file. If you make the cursor "jump"
with one of these commands, the position of the cursor before the jump is
remembered. You can return to that position with the "''"' and "``" command,
unless the line containing that position was changed or deleted.
*CTRL-O*
CTRL-O Go to [count] Older cursor position in jump list
(not a motion command). {not in Vi}
{not available without the |+jumplist| feature}
<Tab> or *CTRL-I* *<Tab>*

CTRL-I Go to [count] newer cursor position in jump list
(not a motion command).
In a |quickfix-window| it takes you to the position of
the error under the cursor.
{not in Vi}
*:ju* *:jumps*
:ju[mps] Print the jump list (not a motion command). {not in
Vi} {not available without the |+jumplist| feature}
*jumplist*
Jumps are remembered in a jump list. With the CTRL-O and CTRL-I command you
can go to cursor positions before older jumps, and back again. Thus you can

move up and down the list. There is a separate jump list for each window.
The maximum number of entries is fixed at 100.
For example, after three jump commands you have this jump list:
jump line col file/text
3 1 0 some text
2 70 0 another line
1 1154 23 end.
>
The "file/text" column shows the file name, or the text at the jump if it is
in the current file (an indent is removed and a long line is truncated to fit
in the window).
You are currently in line 1167. If you then use the CTRL-O command, the
cursor is put in line 1154. This results in:
2 1 0 some text
1 70 0 another line
> 0 1154 23 end.
1 1167 0 foo bar
The pointer will be set at the last used jump position. The next CTRL-O
command will use the entry above it, the next CTRL-I command will use the
entry below it. If the pointer is below the last entry, this indicates that
you did not use a CTRL-I or CTRL-O before. In this case the CTRL-O command
will cause the cursor position to be added to the jump list, so you can get
back to the position before the CTRL-O. In this case this is line 1167.
With more CTRL-O commands you will go to lines 70 and 1. If you use CTRL-I
you can go back to 1154 and 1167 again. Note that the number in the "jump"
column indicates the count for the CTRL-O or CTRL-I command that takes you to
this position.
If you use a jump command, the current line number is inserted at the end of
the jump list. If the same line was already in the jump list, it is removed.
The result is that when repeating CTRL-O you will get back to old positions
only once.
When the |:keepjumps| command modifier is used, jumps are not stored in the
jumplist. Jumps are also not stored in other cases, e.g., in a |:global|
command. You can explicitly add a jump by setting the '' mark.
After the CTRL-O command that got you into line 1154 you could give another
jump command (e.g., "G"). The jump list would then become:
4 1 0 some text
3 70 0 another line
2 1167 0 foo bar
1 1154 23 end.
>
The line numbers will be adjusted for deleted and inserted lines. This fails
if you stop editing a file without writing, like with ":n!".
When you split a window, the jumplist will be copied to the new window.
If you have included the '' item in the 'viminfo' option the jumplist will be
stored in the viminfo file and restored when starting Vim.
CHANGE LIST JUMPS *changelist* *change-list-jumps* *E664*

When making a change the cursor position is remembered. One position is
remembered for every change that can be undone, unless it is close to a
previous change. Two commands can be used to jump to positions of changes,
also those that have been undone:
*g;* *E662*
g; Go to [count] older position in change list.
If [count] is larger than the number of older change
positions go to the oldest change.
If there is no older change an error message is given.

(not a motion command)

{not in Vi}
*g,* *E663*
g, Go to [count] newer cursor position in change list.
Just like |g;| but in the opposite direction.
(not a motion command)
{not in Vi}
When using a count you jump as far back or forward as possible. Thus you can
use "999g;" to go to the first change for which the position is still
remembered. The number of entries in the change list is fixed and is the same
as for the |jumplist|.
When two undo-able changes are in the same line and at a column position less
than 'textwidth' apart only the last one is remembered. This avoids that a
sequence of small changes in a line, for example "xxxxx", adds many positions
to the change list. When 'textwidth' is zero 'wrapmargin' is used. When that
also isn't set a fixed number of 79 is used. Detail: For the computations
bytes are used, not characters, to avoid a speed penalty (this only matters
for multi-byte encodings).
Note that when text has been inserted or deleted the cursor position might be
a bit different from the position of the change. Especially when lines have
been deleted.
When the |:keepjumps| command modifier is used the position of a change is not
remembered.
*:changes*
:changes Print the change list. A ">" character indicates the
current position. Just after a change it is below the
newest entry, indicating that "g;" takes you to the
newest entry position. The first column indicates the
count needed to take you to this position. Example:
change line col text
3 9 8 bla bla bla
2 11 57 foo is a bar
1 14 54 the latest changed line
>
The "3g;" command takes you to line 9. Then the
output of ":changes is:
change line col text
> 0 9 8 bla bla bla
1 11 57 foo is a bar
2 14 54 the latest changed line
Now you can use "g," to go to line 11 and "2g," to go
to line 14.
==============================================================================
9. Various motions *various-motions*
*%*
% Find the next item in this line after or under the
cursor and jump to its match. |inclusive| motion.
Items can be:
([{}]) parenthesis or (curly/square) brackets
(this can be changed with the
'matchpairs' option)
/* */ start or end of C-style comment
#if, #ifdef, #else, #elif, #endif
C preprocessor conditionals (when the
cursor is on the # or no ([{
following)
For other items the matchit plugin can be used, see
|matchit-install|. This plugin also helps to skip
matches in comments.
When 'cpoptions' contains "M" |cpo-M| backslashes
before parens and braces are ignored. Without "M" the

number of backslashes matters: an even number doesn't

match with an odd number. Thus in "( \) )" and "$ (
$" the first and last parenthesis match.
When the '%' character is not present in 'cpoptions'
|cpo-%|, parens and braces inside double quotes are
ignored, unless the number of parens/braces in a line
is uneven and this line and the previous one does not
end in a backslash. '(', '{', '[', ']', '}' and ')'
are also ignored (parens and braces inside single
quotes). Note that this works fine for C, but not for
Perl, where single quotes are used for strings.
Nothing special is done for matches in comments. You
can either use the matchit plugin |matchit-install| or
put quotes around matches.
No count is allowed, {count}% jumps to a line {count}
percentage down the file |N%|. Using '%' on
#if/#else/#endif makes the movement linewise.
*[(*
[( go to [count] previous unmatched '('.
|exclusive| motion. {not in Vi}
*[{*
[{ go to [count] previous unmatched '{'.
*])*
]) go to [count] next unmatched ')'.
*]}*
]} go to [count] next unmatched '}'.
The above four commands can be used to go to the start or end of the current
code block. It is like doing "%" on the '(', ')', '{' or '}' at the other
end of the code block, but you can do this from anywhere in the code block.
Very useful for C programs. Example: When standing on "case x:", "[{" will
bring you back to the switch statement.
*]m*
]m Go to [count] next start of a method (for Java or
similar structured language). When not before the
start of a method, jump to the start or end of the
class. When no '{' is found after the cursor, this is
an error. |exclusive| motion. {not in Vi}
*]M*
]M Go to [count] next end of a method (for Java or
similar structured language). When not before the end
of a method, jump to the start or end of the class.
When no '}' is found after the cursor, this is an
error. |exclusive| motion. {not in Vi}
*[m*
[m Go to [count] previous start of a method (for Java or
similar structured language). When not after the
start of a method, jump to the start or end of the
class. When no '{' is found before the cursor this is
*[M*
[M Go to [count] previous end of a method (for Java or
similar structured language). When not after the
end of a method, jump to the start or end of the
class. When no '}' is found before the cursor this is
The above two commands assume that the file contains a class with methods.
The class definition is surrounded in '{' and '}'. Each method in the class
is also surrounded with '{' and '}'. This applies to the Java language. The
file looks like this:

// comment
class foo {
int method_one() {
body_one();
}
int method_two() {
body_two();
}
}
Starting with the cursor on "body_two()", using "[m" will jump to the '{' at
the start of "method_two()" (obviously this is much more useful when the
method is long!). Using "2[m" will jump to the start of "method_one()".
Using "3[m" will jump to the start of the class.
*[#*
[# go to [count] previous unmatched "#if" or "#else".
*]#*
]# go to [count] next unmatched "#else" or "#endif".
These two commands work in C programs that contain #if/#else/#endif
constructs. It brings you to the start or end of the #if/#else/#endif where
the current line is included. You can then use "%" to go to the matching line.
*[star* *[/*
[* or [/ go to [count] previous start of a C comment "/*".
*]star* *]/*
]* or ]/ go to [count] next end of a C comment "*/".
*H*
H To line [count] from top (Home) of window (default:
first line on the window) on the first non-blank
character |linewise|. See also 'startofline' option.
Cursor is adjusted for 'scrolloff' option.
*M*
M To Middle line of window, on the first non-blank
character |linewise|. See also 'startofline' option.
*L*
L To line [count] from bottom of window (default: Last
line on the window) on the first non-blank character
|linewise|. See also 'startofline' option.
Cursor is adjusted for 'scrolloff' option.
<LeftMouse> Moves to the position on the screen where the mouse
click is |exclusive|. See also |<LeftMouse>|. If the
position is in a status line, that window is made the
active window and the cursor is not moved. {not in Vi}
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: digraph
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*digraph.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Jan 15
Digraphs *digraph* *digraphs* *Digraphs*

Digraphs are used to enter characters that normally cannot be entered by
an ordinary keyboard. These are mostly printable non-ASCII characters. The
digraphs are easier to remember than the decimal number that can be entered
with CTRL-V (see |i_CTRL-V|).
There is a brief introduction on digraphs in the user manual: |24.9|
An alternative is using the 'keymap' option.
1. Defining digraphs |digraphs-define|
2. Using digraphs |digraphs-use|
3. Default digraphs |digraphs-default|
==============================================================================
1. Defining digraphs *digraphs-define*
*:dig* *:digraphs*
:dig[raphs] show currently defined digraphs.
*E104* *E39*
:dig[raphs] {char1}{char2} {number} ...
Add digraph {char1}{char2} to the list. {number} is
the decimal representation of the character. Normally
it is the Unicode character, see |digraph-encoding|.
Example:
:digr e: 235 a: 228
Avoid defining a digraph with '_' (underscore) as the
first character, it has a special meaning in the
future.
Vim is normally compiled with the |+digraphs| feature. If the feature is
disabled, the ":digraph" command will display an error message.
Example of the output of ":digraphs":
TH Ãž 222 ss ÃŸ 223 a! Ã 224 a' Ã¡ 225 a> Ã¢ 226 a? Ã£ 227 a: Ã¤ 228
The first two characters in each column are the characters you have to type to
enter the digraph.
In the middle of each column is the resulting character. This may be mangled
if you look at it on a system that does not support digraphs or if you print
this file.
*digraph-encoding*
The decimal number normally is the Unicode number of the character. Note that
the meaning doesn't change when 'encoding' changes. The character will be
converted from Unicode to 'encoding' when needed. This does require the
conversion to be available, it might fail. For the NUL character you will see
"10". That's because NUL characters are internally represented with a NL
character. When you write the file it will become a NUL character.
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/digraph.html[2019/03/05 11:41:56 AM]

When Vim was compiled without the |+multi_byte| feature, you need to specify
the character in the encoding given with 'encoding'. You might want to use
something like this:
if has("multi_byte")
digraph oe 339
elseif &encoding == "iso-8859-15"
digraph oe 189
endif
This defines the "oe" digraph for a character that is number 339 in Unicode
and 189 in latin9 (iso-8859-15).
==============================================================================
2. Using digraphs *digraphs-use*
There are two methods to enter digraphs: *i_digraph*

CTRL-K {char1} {char2} or
{char1} <BS> {char2}
The first is always available; the second only when the 'digraph' option is
set.
If a digraph with {char1}{char2} does not exist, Vim searches for a digraph
{char2}{char1}. This helps when you don't remember which character comes
first.
Note that when you enter CTRL-K {char1}, where {char1} is a special key, Vim
enters the code for that special key. This is not a digraph.
Once you have entered the digraph, Vim treats the character like a normal
character that occupies only one character in the file and on the screen.
Example:
'B' <BS> 'B' will enter the broken '|' character (166)
'a' <BS> '>' will enter an 'a' with a circumflex (226)
CTRL-K '-' '-' will enter a soft hyphen (173)
The current digraphs are listed with the ":digraphs" command. Some of the
default ones are listed below |digraph-table|.
For CTRL-K, there is one general digraph: CTRL-K <Space> {char} will enter
{char} with the highest bit set. You can use this to enter meta-characters.
The <Esc> character cannot be part of a digraph. When hitting <Esc>, Vim
stops digraph entry and ends Insert mode or Command-line mode, just like
hitting an <Esc> out of digraph context. Use CTRL-V 155 to enter meta-ESC
(CSI).
If you accidentally typed an 'a' that should be an 'e', you will type 'a' <BS>
'e'. But that is a digraph, so you will not get what you want. To correct
this, you will have to type <BS> e again. To avoid this don't set the
'digraph' option and use CTRL-K to enter digraphs.
You may have problems using Vim with characters which have a value above 128.
For example: You insert ue (u-umlaut) and the editor echoes \334 in Insert
mode. After leaving the Insert mode everything is fine. Note that fmt
removes all characters with a value above 128 from the text being formatted.
On some Unix systems this means you have to define the environment-variable
LC_CTYPE. If you are using csh, then put the following line in your .cshrc:
setenv LC_CTYPE iso_8859_1
==============================================================================
3. Default digraphs *digraphs-default*
Vim comes with a set of default digraphs. Check the output of ":digraphs" to
see them.
On most systems Vim uses the same digraphs. They work for the Unicode and
ISO-8859-1 character sets. These default digraphs are taken from the RFC1345
mnemonics. To make it easy to remember the mnemonic, the second character has
a standard meaning:
char name char meaning
Exclamation mark ! Grave
Apostrophe '' Acute accent
Greater-Than sign > Circumflex accent

Question mark ? Tilde

Hyphen-Minus - Macron
Left parenthesis ( Breve
Full stop . Dot above
Colon : Diaeresis
Comma , Cedilla
Underline _ Underline
Solidus / Stroke
Quotation mark " Double acute accent
Semicolon ; Ogonek
Less-Than sign < Caron
Zero 0 Ring above
Two 2 Hook
Nine 9 Horn
Equals = Cyrillic
Asterisk * Greek
Percent sign % Greek/Cyrillic special
Plus + smalls: Arabic, capitals: Hebrew
Three 3 some Latin/Greek/Cyrillic letters
Four 4 Bopomofo
Five 5 Hiragana
Six 6 Katakana
Example: a: is Ã¤ and o: is Ã¶
These are the RFC1345 digraphs for the one-byte characters. See the output of
":digraphs" for the others. The characters above 255 are only available when
Vim was compiled with the |+multi_byte| feature.
EURO
Exception: RFC1345 doesn't specify the euro sign. In Vim the digraph =e was
added for this. Note the difference between latin1, where the digraph Cu is
used for the currency sign, and latin9 (iso-8859-15), where the digraph =e is
used for the euro sign, while both of them are the character 164, 0xa4. For
compatibility with zsh Eu can also be used for the euro sign.
*digraph-table*
char digraph hex dec official name
^@ NU 0x00 0 NULL (NUL)
Â SH 0x01 1 START OF HEADING (SOH)
^B SX 0x02 2 START OF TEXT (STX)
^C EX 0x03 3 END OF TEXT (ETX)
^D ET 0x04 4 END OF TRANSMISSION (EOT)
Ê EQ 0x05 5 ENQUIRY (ENQ)
^F AK 0x06 6 ACKNOWLEDGE (ACK)
^G BL 0x07 7 BELL (BEL)
^H BS 0x08 8 BACKSPACE (BS)
Î HT 0x09 9 CHARACTER TABULATION (HT)
^@ LF 0x0a 10 LINE FEED (LF)
^K VT 0x0b 11 LINE TABULATION (VT)
^L FF 0x0c 12 FORM FEED (FF)
^M CR 0x0d 13 CARRIAGE RETURN (CR)
^N SO 0x0e 14 SHIFT OUT (SO)
Ô SI 0x0f 15 SHIFT IN (SI)
^P DL 0x10 16 DATALINK ESCAPE (DLE)
^Q D1 0x11 17 DEVICE CONTROL ONE (DC1)
^R D2 0x12 18 DEVICE CONTROL TWO (DC2)
^S D3 0x13 19 DEVICE CONTROL THREE (DC3)
^T D4 0x14 20 DEVICE CONTROL FOUR (DC4)
Û NK 0x15 21 NEGATIVE ACKNOWLEDGE (NAK)
^V SY 0x16 22 SYNCHRONOUS IDLE (SYN)
^W EB 0x17 23 END OF TRANSMISSION BLOCK (ETB)
^X CN 0x18 24 CANCEL (CAN)
^Y EM 0x19 25 END OF MEDIUM (EM)
^Z SB 0x1a 26 SUBSTITUTE (SUB)
^[ EC 0x1b 27 ESCAPE (ESC)
^\ FS 0x1c 28 FILE SEPARATOR (IS4)
^] GS 0x1d 29 GROUP SEPARATOR (IS3)
^^ RS 0x1e 30 RECORD SEPARATOR (IS2)
^_ US 0x1f 31 UNIT SEPARATOR (IS1)
SP 0x20 32 SPACE
# Nb 0x23 35 NUMBER SIGN
$ DO 0x24 36 DOLLAR SIGN
@ At 0x40 64 COMMERCIAL AT
[ <( 0x5b 91 LEFT SQUARE BRACKET
\ // 0x5c 92 REVERSE SOLIDUS
] )> 0x5d 93 RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET

^ '> 0x5e 94 CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT

` ''! 0x60 96 GRAVE ACCENT
{ (! 0x7b 123 LEFT CURLY BRACKET
| !! 0x7c 124 VERTICAL LINE
} !) 0x7d 125 RIGHT CURLY BRACKET
~ ''? 0x7e 126 TILDE
^? DT 0x7f 127 DELETE (DEL)
~@ PA 0x80 128 PADDING CHARACTER (PAD)
~A HO 0x81 129 HIGH OCTET PRESET (HOP)
~B BH 0x82 130 BREAK PERMITTED HERE (BPH)
~C NH 0x83 131 NO BREAK HERE (NBH)
~D IN 0x84 132 INDEX (IND)
~E NL 0x85 133 NEXT LINE (NEL)
~F SA 0x86 134 START OF SELECTED AREA (SSA)
~G ES 0x87 135 END OF SELECTED AREA (ESA)
~H HS 0x88 136 CHARACTER TABULATION SET (HTS)
~I HJ 0x89 137 CHARACTER TABULATION WITH JUSTIFICATION (HTJ)
~J VS 0x8a 138 LINE TABULATION SET (VTS)
~K PD 0x8b 139 PARTIAL LINE FORWARD (PLD)
~L PU 0x8c 140 PARTIAL LINE BACKWARD (PLU)
~M RI 0x8d 141 REVERSE LINE FEED (RI)
~N S2 0x8e 142 SINGLE-SHIFT TWO (SS2)
~O S3 0x8f 143 SINGLE-SHIFT THREE (SS3)
~P DC 0x90 144 DEVICE CONTROL STRING (DCS)
~Q P1 0x91 145 PRIVATE USE ONE (PU1)
~R P2 0x92 146 PRIVATE USE TWO (PU2)
~S TS 0x93 147 SET TRANSMIT STATE (STS)
~T CC 0x94 148 CANCEL CHARACTER (CCH)
~U MW 0x95 149 MESSAGE WAITING (MW)
~V SG 0x96 150 START OF GUARDED AREA (SPA)
~W EG 0x97 151 END OF GUARDED AREA (EPA)
~X SS 0x98 152 START OF STRING (SOS)
~Y GC 0x99 153 SINGLE GRAPHIC CHARACTER INTRODUCER (SGCI)
~Z SC 0x9a 154 SINGLE CHARACTER INTRODUCER (SCI)
~[ CI 0x9b 155 CONTROL SEQUENCE INTRODUCER (CSI)
~\ ST 0x9c 156 STRING TERMINATOR (ST)
~] OC 0x9d 157 OPERATING SYSTEM COMMAND (OSC)
~^ PM 0x9e 158 PRIVACY MESSAGE (PM)
~_ AC 0x9f 159 APPLICATION PROGRAM COMMAND (APC)
| NS 0xa0 160 NO-BREAK SPACE
Â¡ !I 0xa1 161 INVERTED EXCLAMATION MARK
Â¢ Ct 0xa2 162 CENT SIGN
Â£ Pd 0xa3 163 POUND SIGN
Â¤ Cu 0xa4 164 CURRENCY SIGN
Â¥ Ye 0xa5 165 YEN SIGN
Â¦ BB 0xa6 166 BROKEN BAR
Â§ SE 0xa7 167 SECTION SIGN
Â¨ '': 0xa8 168 DIAERESIS
Â© Co 0xa9 169 COPYRIGHT SIGN
Âª -a 0xaa 170 FEMININE ORDINAL INDICATOR
Â« << 0xab 171 LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
Â¬ NO 0xac 172 NOT SIGN
Â -- 0xad 173 SOFT HYPHEN
Â® Rg 0xae 174 REGISTERED SIGN
Â¯ 'm 0xaf 175 MACRON
Â° DG 0xb0 176 DEGREE SIGN
Â± +- 0xb1 177 PLUS-MINUS SIGN
Â² 2S 0xb2 178 SUPERSCRIPT TWO
Â³ 3S 0xb3 179 SUPERSCRIPT THREE
Â´ '' 0xb4 180 ACUTE ACCENT
Âµ My 0xb5 181 MICRO SIGN
Â¶ PI 0xb6 182 PILCROW SIGN
Â· .M 0xb7 183 MIDDLE DOT
Â¸ '', 0xb8 184 CEDILLA
Â¹ 1S 0xb9 185 SUPERSCRIPT ONE
Âº -o 0xba 186 MASCULINE ORDINAL INDICATOR
Â» >> 0xbb 187 RIGHT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
Â¼ 14 0xbc 188 VULGAR FRACTION ONE QUARTER
Â½ 12 0xbd 189 VULGAR FRACTION ONE HALF
Â¾ 34 0xbe 190 VULGAR FRACTION THREE QUARTERS
Â¿ ?I 0xbf 191 INVERTED QUESTION MARK
Ã€ A! 0xc0 192 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH GRAVE
Ã A' 0xc1 193 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH ACUTE
Ã‚ A> 0xc2 194 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Ãƒ A? 0xc3 195 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH TILDE
Ã„ A: 0xc4 196 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS
Ã… AA 0xc5 197 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE
Ã† AE 0xc6 198 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER AE
Ã‡ C, 0xc7 199 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH CEDILLA
Ãˆ E! 0xc8 200 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH GRAVE
Ã‰ E' 0xc9 201 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH ACUTE

ÃŠ E> 0xca 202 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH CIRCUMFLEX

Ã‹ E: 0xcb 203 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH DIAERESIS
ÃŒ I! 0xcc 204 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH GRAVE
Ã I' 0xcd 205 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH ACUTE
ÃŽ I> 0xce 206 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Ã I: 0xcf 207 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH DIAERESIS
Ã D- 0xd0 208 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER ETH (Icelandic)
Ã‘ N? 0xd1 209 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH TILDE
Ã’ O! 0xd2 210 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH GRAVE
Ã“ O' 0xd3 211 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH ACUTE
Ã” O> 0xd4 212 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Ã• O? 0xd5 213 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH TILDE
Ã– O: 0xd6 214 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS
Ã— *X 0xd7 215 MULTIPLICATION SIGN
Ã˜ O/ 0xd8 216 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH STROKE
Ã™ U! 0xd9 217 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH GRAVE
Ãš U' 0xda 218 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH ACUTE
Ã› U> 0xdb 219 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Ãœ U: 0xdc 220 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS
Ã Y' 0xdd 221 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y WITH ACUTE
Ãž TH 0xde 222 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER THORN (Icelandic)
ÃŸ ss 0xdf 223 LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S (German)
Ã a! 0xe0 224 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH GRAVE
Ã¡ a' 0xe1 225 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH ACUTE
Ã¢ a> 0xe2 226 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Ã£ a? 0xe3 227 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH TILDE
Ã¤ a: 0xe4 228 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS
Ã¥ aa 0xe5 229 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE
Ã¦ ae 0xe6 230 LATIN SMALL LETTER AE
Ã§ c, 0xe7 231 LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH CEDILLA
Ã¨ e! 0xe8 232 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH GRAVE
Ã© e' 0xe9 233 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE
Ãª e> 0xea 234 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Ã« e: 0xeb 235 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH DIAERESIS
Ã¬ i! 0xec 236 LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH GRAVE
Ã i' 0xed 237 LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH ACUTE
Ã® i> 0xee 238 LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Ã¯ i: 0xef 239 LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH DIAERESIS
Ã° d- 0xf0 240 LATIN SMALL LETTER ETH (Icelandic)
Ã± n? 0xf1 241 LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH TILDE
Ã² o! 0xf2 242 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH GRAVE
Ã³ o' 0xf3 243 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH ACUTE
Ã´ o> 0xf4 244 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Ãµ o? 0xf5 245 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH TILDE
Ã¶ o: 0xf6 246 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS
Ã· -: 0xf7 247 DIVISION SIGN
Ã¸ o/ 0xf8 248 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH STROKE
Ã¹ u! 0xf9 249 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH GRAVE
Ãº u' 0xfa 250 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH ACUTE
Ã» u> 0xfb 251 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Ã¼ u: 0xfc 252 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS
Ã½ y' 0xfd 253 LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH ACUTE
Ã¾ th 0xfe 254 LATIN SMALL LETTER THORN (Icelandic)
Ã¿ y: 0xff 255 LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH DIAERESIS
If your Vim is compiled with |multibyte| support and you are using a multibyte
'encoding', Vim provides this enhanced set of additional digraphs:
*digraph-table-mbyte*
char digraph hex dec official name
Ä€ A- 0100 0256 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH MACRON
Ä a- 0101 0257 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH MACRON
Ä‚ A( 0102 0258 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH BREVE
Äƒ a( 0103 0259 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH BREVE
Ä„ A; 0104 0260 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH OGONEK
Ä… a; 0105 0261 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH OGONEK
Ä† C' 0106 0262 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH ACUTE
Ä‡ c' 0107 0263 LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH ACUTE
Äˆ C> 0108 0264 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Ä‰ c> 0109 0265 LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH CIRCUMFLEX
ÄŠ C. 010A 0266 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH DOT ABOVE
Ä‹ c. 010B 0267 LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH DOT ABOVE
ÄŒ C< 010C 0268 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH CARON
Ä c< 010D 0269 LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH CARON
ÄŽ D< 010E 0270 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH CARON
Ä d< 010F 0271 LATIN SMALL LETTER D WITH CARON
Ä D/ 0110 0272 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH STROKE
Ä‘ d/ 0111 0273 LATIN SMALL LETTER D WITH STROKE
Ä’ E- 0112 0274 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH MACRON

Ä“ e- 0113 0275 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH MACRON

Ä” E( 0114 0276 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH BREVE
Ä• e( 0115 0277 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH BREVE
Ä– E. 0116 0278 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH DOT ABOVE
Ä— e. 0117 0279 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH DOT ABOVE
Ä˜ E; 0118 0280 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH OGONEK
Ä™ e; 0119 0281 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH OGONEK
Äš E< 011A 0282 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH CARON
Ä› e< 011B 0283 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH CARON
Äœ G> 011C 0284 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER G WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Ä g> 011D 0285 LATIN SMALL LETTER G WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Äž G( 011E 0286 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER G WITH BREVE
ÄŸ g( 011F 0287 LATIN SMALL LETTER G WITH BREVE
Ä G. 0120 0288 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER G WITH DOT ABOVE
Ä¡ g. 0121 0289 LATIN SMALL LETTER G WITH DOT ABOVE
Ä¢ G, 0122 0290 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER G WITH CEDILLA
Ä£ g, 0123 0291 LATIN SMALL LETTER G WITH CEDILLA
Ä¤ H> 0124 0292 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER H WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Ä¥ h> 0125 0293 LATIN SMALL LETTER H WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Ä¦ H/ 0126 0294 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER H WITH STROKE
Ä§ h/ 0127 0295 LATIN SMALL LETTER H WITH STROKE
Ä¨ I? 0128 0296 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH TILDE
Ä© i? 0129 0297 LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH TILDE
Äª I- 012A 0298 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH MACRON
Ä« i- 012B 0299 LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH MACRON
Ä¬ I( 012C 0300 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH BREVE
Ä i( 012D 0301 LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH BREVE
Ä® I; 012E 0302 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH OGONEK
Ä¯ i; 012F 0303 LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH OGONEK
Ä° I. 0130 0304 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH DOT ABOVE
Ä± i. 0131 0305 LATIN SMALL LETTER DOTLESS I
Ä² IJ 0132 0306 LATIN CAPITAL LIGATURE IJ
Ä³ ij 0133 0307 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE IJ
Ä´ J> 0134 0308 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER J WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Äµ j> 0135 0309 LATIN SMALL LETTER J WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Ä¶ K, 0136 0310 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K WITH CEDILLA
Ä· k, 0137 0311 LATIN SMALL LETTER K WITH CEDILLA
Ä¸ kk 0138 0312 LATIN SMALL LETTER KRA
Ä¹ L' 0139 0313 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH ACUTE
Äº l' 013A 0314 LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH ACUTE
Ä» L, 013B 0315 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH CEDILLA
Ä¼ l, 013C 0316 LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH CEDILLA
Ä½ L< 013D 0317 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH CARON
Ä¾ l< 013E 0318 LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH CARON
Ä¿ L. 013F 0319 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH MIDDLE DOT
Å€ l. 0140 0320 LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH MIDDLE DOT
Å L/ 0141 0321 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH STROKE
Å‚ l/ 0142 0322 LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH STROKE
Åƒ N' 0143 0323 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH ACUTE `
Å„ n' 0144 0324 LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH ACUTE `
Å… N, 0145 0325 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH CEDILLA `
Å† n, 0146 0326 LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH CEDILLA `
Å‡ N< 0147 0327 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH CARON `
Åˆ n< 0148 0328 LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH CARON `
Å‰ 'n 0149 0329 LATIN SMALL LETTER N PRECEDED BY APOSTROPHE `
ÅŠ NG 014A 0330 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER ENG
Å‹ ng 014B 0331 LATIN SMALL LETTER ENG
ÅŒ O- 014C 0332 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH MACRON
Å o- 014D 0333 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH MACRON
ÅŽ O( 014E 0334 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH BREVE
Å o( 014F 0335 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH BREVE
Å O" 0150 0336 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH DOUBLE ACUTE
Å‘ o" 0151 0337 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DOUBLE ACUTE
Å’ OE 0152 0338 LATIN CAPITAL LIGATURE OE
Å“ oe 0153 0339 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE OE
Å” R' 0154 0340 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R WITH ACUTE
Å• r' 0155 0341 LATIN SMALL LETTER R WITH ACUTE
Å– R, 0156 0342 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R WITH CEDILLA
Å— r, 0157 0343 LATIN SMALL LETTER R WITH CEDILLA
Å˜ R< 0158 0344 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R WITH CARON
Å™ r< 0159 0345 LATIN SMALL LETTER R WITH CARON
Åš S' 015A 0346 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S WITH ACUTE
Å› s' 015B 0347 LATIN SMALL LETTER S WITH ACUTE
Åœ S> 015C 0348 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Å s> 015D 0349 LATIN SMALL LETTER S WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Åž S, 015E 0350 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S WITH CEDILLA
ÅŸ s, 015F 0351 LATIN SMALL LETTER S WITH CEDILLA
Å S< 0160 0352 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S WITH CARON
Å¡ s< 0161 0353 LATIN SMALL LETTER S WITH CARON
Å¢ T, 0162 0354 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T WITH CEDILLA
Å£ t, 0163 0355 LATIN SMALL LETTER T WITH CEDILLA

Å¤ T< 0164 0356 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T WITH CARON

Å¥ t< 0165 0357 LATIN SMALL LETTER T WITH CARON
Å¦ T/ 0166 0358 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T WITH STROKE
Å§ t/ 0167 0359 LATIN SMALL LETTER T WITH STROKE
Å¨ U? 0168 0360 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH TILDE
Å© u? 0169 0361 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH TILDE
Åª U- 016A 0362 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH MACRON
Å« u- 016B 0363 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH MACRON
Å¬ U( 016C 0364 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH BREVE
Å u( 016D 0365 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH BREVE
Å® U0 016E 0366 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH RING ABOVE
Å¯ u0 016F 0367 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH RING ABOVE
Å° U" 0170 0368 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH DOUBLE ACUTE
Å± u" 0171 0369 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH DOUBLE ACUTE
Å² U; 0172 0370 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH OGONEK
Å³ u; 0173 0371 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH OGONEK
Å´ W> 0174 0372 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Åµ w> 0175 0373 LATIN SMALL LETTER W WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Å¶ Y> 0176 0374 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Å· y> 0177 0375 LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH CIRCUMFLEX
Å¸ Y: 0178 0376 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y WITH DIAERESIS
Å¹ Z' 0179 0377 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z WITH ACUTE
Åº z' 017A 0378 LATIN SMALL LETTER Z WITH ACUTE
Å» Z. 017B 0379 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z WITH DOT ABOVE
Å¼ z. 017C 0380 LATIN SMALL LETTER Z WITH DOT ABOVE
Å½ Z< 017D 0381 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z WITH CARON
Å¾ z< 017E 0382 LATIN SMALL LETTER Z WITH CARON
Æ O9 01A0 0416 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH HORN
Æ¡ o9 01A1 0417 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH HORN
Æ¢ OI 01A2 0418 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER OI
Æ£ oi 01A3 0419 LATIN SMALL LETTER OI
Æ¦ yr 01A6 0422 LATIN LETTER YR
Æ¯ U9 01AF 0431 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH HORN
Æ° u9 01B0 0432 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH HORN
Æµ Z/ 01B5 0437 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z WITH STROKE
Æ¶ z/ 01B6 0438 LATIN SMALL LETTER Z WITH STROKE
Æ· ED 01B7 0439 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER EZH
Ç A< 01CD 0461 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH CARON
ÇŽ a< 01CE 0462 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH CARON
Ç I< 01CF 0463 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH CARON
Ç i< 01D0 0464 LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH CARON
Ç‘ O< 01D1 0465 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH CARON
Ç’ o< 01D2 0466 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH CARON
Ç“ U< 01D3 0467 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH CARON
Ç” u< 01D4 0468 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH CARON
Çž A1 01DE 0478 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS AND MACRON
ÇŸ a1 01DF 0479 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS AND MACRON
Ç A7 01E0 0480 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH DOT ABOVE AND MACRON
Ç¡ a7 01E1 0481 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DOT ABOVE AND MACRON
Ç¢ A3 01E2 0482 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER AE WITH MACRON
Ç£ a3 01E3 0483 LATIN SMALL LETTER AE WITH MACRON
Ç¤ G/ 01E4 0484 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER G WITH STROKE
Ç¥ g/ 01E5 0485 LATIN SMALL LETTER G WITH STROKE
Ç¦ G< 01E6 0486 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER G WITH CARON
Ç§ g< 01E7 0487 LATIN SMALL LETTER G WITH CARON
Ç¨ K< 01E8 0488 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K WITH CARON
Ç© k< 01E9 0489 LATIN SMALL LETTER K WITH CARON
Çª O; 01EA 0490 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH OGONEK
Ç« o; 01EB 0491 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH OGONEK
Ç¬ O1 01EC 0492 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH OGONEK AND MACRON
Ç o1 01ED 0493 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH OGONEK AND MACRON
Ç® EZ 01EE 0494 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER EZH WITH CARON
Ç¯ ez 01EF 0495 LATIN SMALL LETTER EZH WITH CARON
Ç° j< 01F0 0496 LATIN SMALL LETTER J WITH CARON
Ç´ G' 01F4 0500 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER G WITH ACUTE
Çµ g' 01F5 0501 LATIN SMALL LETTER G WITH ACUTE
Ê¿ ;S 02BF 0703 MODIFIER LETTER LEFT HALF RING
Ë‡ '< 02C7 0711 CARON
Ë˜ '( 02D8 0728 BREVE
Ë™ '. 02D9 0729 DOT ABOVE
Ëš '0 02DA 0730 RING ABOVE
Ë› ''; 02DB 0731 OGONEK
Ë '"' 02DD 0733 DOUBLE ACUTE ACCENT
Î† A% 0386 0902 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA WITH TONOS
Îˆ E% 0388 0904 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON WITH TONOS
Î‰ Y% 0389 0905 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ETA WITH TONOS
ÎŠ I% 038A 0906 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER IOTA WITH TONOS
ÎŒ O% 038C 0908 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON WITH TONOS
ÎŽ U% 038E 0910 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER UPSILON WITH TONOS
Î W% 038F 0911 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA WITH TONOS
Î i3 0390 0912 GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH DIALYTIKA AND TONOS

Î‘ A* 0391 0913 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA

Î’ B* 0392 0914 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER BETA
Î“ G* 0393 0915 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER GAMMA
Î” D* 0394 0916 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER DELTA
Î• E* 0395 0917 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON
Î– Z* 0396 0918 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ZETA
Î— Y* 0397 0919 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ETA
Î˜ H* 0398 0920 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER THETA
Î™ I* 0399 0921 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER IOTA
Îš K* 039A 0922 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KAPPA
Î› L* 039B 0923 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMDA
Îœ M* 039C 0924 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER MU
Î N* 039D 0925 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER NU
Îž C* 039E 0926 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER XI
ÎŸ O* 039F 0927 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON
Î P* 03A0 0928 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI
Î¡ R* 03A1 0929 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER RHO
Î£ S* 03A3 0931 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA
Î¤ T* 03A4 0932 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER TAU
Î¥ U* 03A5 0933 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER UPSILON
Î¦ F* 03A6 0934 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PHI
Î§ X* 03A7 0935 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER CHI
Î¨ Q* 03A8 0936 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PSI
Î© W* 03A9 0937 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA
Îª J* 03AA 0938 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER IOTA WITH DIALYTIKA
Î« V* 03AB 0939 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER UPSILON WITH DIALYTIKA
Î¬ a% 03AC 0940 GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH TONOS
Î e% 03AD 0941 GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH TONOS
Î® y% 03AE 0942 GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH TONOS
Î¯ i% 03AF 0943 GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH TONOS
Î° u3 03B0 0944 GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH DIALYTIKA AND TONOS
Î± a* 03B1 0945 GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA
Î² b* 03B2 0946 GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA
Î³ g* 03B3 0947 GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA
Î´ d* 03B4 0948 GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA
Îµ e* 03B5 0949 GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON
Î¶ z* 03B6 0950 GREEK SMALL LETTER ZETA
Î· y* 03B7 0951 GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA
Î¸ h* 03B8 0952 GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA
Î¹ i* 03B9 0953 GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA
Îº k* 03BA 0954 GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA
Î» l* 03BB 0955 GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA
Î¼ m* 03BC 0956 GREEK SMALL LETTER MU
Î½ n* 03BD 0957 GREEK SMALL LETTER NU
Î¾ c* 03BE 0958 GREEK SMALL LETTER XI
Î¿ o* 03BF 0959 GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON
Ï€ p* 03C0 0960 GREEK SMALL LETTER PI
Ï r* 03C1 0961 GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO
Ï‚ *s 03C2 0962 GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA
Ïƒ s* 03C3 0963 GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA
Ï„ t* 03C4 0964 GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU
Ï… u* 03C5 0965 GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON
Ï† f* 03C6 0966 GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI
Ï‡ x* 03C7 0967 GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI
Ïˆ q* 03C8 0968 GREEK SMALL LETTER PSI
Ï‰ w* 03C9 0969 GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA
ÏŠ j* 03CA 0970 GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH DIALYTIKA
Ï‹ v* 03CB 0971 GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH DIALYTIKA
ÏŒ o% 03CC 0972 GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH TONOS
Ï u% 03CD 0973 GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH TONOS
ÏŽ w% 03CE 0974 GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH TONOS
Ï˜ 'G 03D8 0984 GREEK LETTER ARCHAIC KOPPA
Ï™ ,G 03D9 0985 GREEK SMALL LETTER ARCHAIC KOPPA
Ïš T3 03DA 0986 GREEK LETTER STIGMA
Ï› t3 03DB 0987 GREEK SMALL LETTER STIGMA
Ïœ M3 03DC 0988 GREEK LETTER DIGAMMA
Ï m3 03DD 0989 GREEK SMALL LETTER DIGAMMA
Ïž K3 03DE 0990 GREEK LETTER KOPPA
ÏŸ k3 03DF 0991 GREEK SMALL LETTER KOPPA
Ï P3 03E0 0992 GREEK LETTER SAMPI
Ï¡ p3 03E1 0993 GREEK SMALL LETTER SAMPI
Ï´ '% 03F4 1012 GREEK CAPITAL THETA SYMBOL
Ïµ j3 03F5 1013 GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL
Ð IO 0401 1025 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER IO
Ð‚ D% 0402 1026 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER DJE
Ðƒ G% 0403 1027 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER GJE
Ð„ IE 0404 1028 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER UKRAINIAN IE
Ð… DS 0405 1029 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER DZE
Ð† II 0406 1030 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER BYELORUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN I
Ð‡ YI 0407 1031 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER YI
Ðˆ J% 0408 1032 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER JE

Ð‰ LJ 0409 1033 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER LJE

ÐŠ NJ 040A 1034 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER NJE
Ð‹ Ts 040B 1035 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER TSHE
ÐŒ KJ 040C 1036 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER KJE
ÐŽ V% 040E 1038 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER SHORT U
Ð DZ 040F 1039 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER DZHE
Ð A= 0410 1040 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER A
Ð‘ B= 0411 1041 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER BE
Ð’ V= 0412 1042 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER VE
Ð“ G= 0413 1043 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER GHE
Ð” D= 0414 1044 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER DE
Ð• E= 0415 1045 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER IE
Ð– Z% 0416 1046 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER ZHE
Ð— Z= 0417 1047 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER ZE
Ð˜ I= 0418 1048 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER I
Ð™ J= 0419 1049 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER SHORT I
Ðš K= 041A 1050 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER KA
Ð› L= 041B 1051 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER EL
Ðœ M= 041C 1052 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER EM
Ð N= 041D 1053 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER EN
Ðž O= 041E 1054 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER O
ÐŸ P= 041F 1055 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER PE
Ð R= 0420 1056 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER ER
Ð¡ S= 0421 1057 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER ES
Ð¢ T= 0422 1058 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER TE
Ð£ U= 0423 1059 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER U
Ð¤ F= 0424 1060 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER EF
Ð¥ H= 0425 1061 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER HA
Ð¦ C= 0426 1062 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER TSE
Ð§ C% 0427 1063 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER CHE
Ð¨ S% 0428 1064 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER SHA
Ð© Sc 0429 1065 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER SHCHA
Ðª =" 042A 1066 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER HARD SIGN
Ð« Y= 042B 1067 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER YERU
Ð¬ %" 042C 1068 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER SOFT SIGN
Ð JE 042D 1069 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER E
Ð® JU 042E 1070 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER YU
Ð¯ JA 042F 1071 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER YA
Ð° a= 0430 1072 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER A
Ð± b= 0431 1073 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER BE
Ð² v= 0432 1074 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER VE
Ð³ g= 0433 1075 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER GHE
Ð´ d= 0434 1076 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER DE
Ðµ e= 0435 1077 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER IE
Ð¶ z% 0436 1078 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER ZHE
Ð· z= 0437 1079 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER ZE
Ð¸ i= 0438 1080 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER I
Ð¹ j= 0439 1081 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER SHORT I
Ðº k= 043A 1082 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER KA
Ð» l= 043B 1083 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER EL
Ð¼ m= 043C 1084 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER EM
Ð½ n= 043D 1085 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER EN
Ð¾ o= 043E 1086 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER O
Ð¿ p= 043F 1087 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER PE
Ñ€ r= 0440 1088 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER ER
Ñ s= 0441 1089 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER ES
Ñ‚ t= 0442 1090 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER TE
Ñƒ u= 0443 1091 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER U
Ñ„ f= 0444 1092 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER EF
Ñ… h= 0445 1093 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER HA
Ñ† c= 0446 1094 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER TSE
Ñ‡ c% 0447 1095 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER CHE
Ñˆ s% 0448 1096 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER SHA
Ñ‰ sc 0449 1097 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER SHCHA
ÑŠ =' 044A 1098 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER HARD SIGN
Ñ‹ y= 044B 1099 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER YERU
ÑŒ %' 044C 1100 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER SOFT SIGN
Ñ je 044D 1101 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER E
ÑŽ ju 044E 1102 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER YU
Ñ ja 044F 1103 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER YA
Ñ‘ io 0451 1105 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER IO
Ñ’ d% 0452 1106 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER DJE
Ñ“ g% 0453 1107 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER GJE
Ñ” ie 0454 1108 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER UKRAINIAN IE
Ñ• ds 0455 1109 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER DZE
Ñ– ii 0456 1110 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER BYELORUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN I
Ñ— yi 0457 1111 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER YI
Ñ˜ j% 0458 1112 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER JE
Ñ™ lj 0459 1113 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER LJE
Ñš nj 045A 1114 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER NJE
Ñ› ts 045B 1115 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER TSHE

Ñœ kj 045C 1116 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER KJE

Ñž v% 045E 1118 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER SHORT U
ÑŸ dz 045F 1119 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER DZHE
Ñ¢ Y3 0462 1122 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER YAT
Ñ£ y3 0463 1123 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER YAT
Ñª O3 046A 1130 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER BIG YUS
Ñ« o3 046B 1131 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER BIG YUS
Ñ² F3 0472 1138 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER FITA
Ñ³ f3 0473 1139 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER FITA
Ñ´ V3 0474 1140 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER IZHITSA
Ñµ v3 0475 1141 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER IZHITSA
Ò€ C3 0480 1152 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER KOPPA
Ò c3 0481 1153 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER KOPPA
Ò G3 0490 1168 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER GHE WITH UPTURN
Ò‘ g3 0491 1169 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER GHE WITH UPTURN
× A+ 05D0 1488 HEBREW LETTER ALEF
×‘ B+ 05D1 1489 HEBREW LETTER BET
×’ G+ 05D2 1490 HEBREW LETTER GIMEL
×“ D+ 05D3 1491 HEBREW LETTER DALET
×” H+ 05D4 1492 HEBREW LETTER HE
×• W+ 05D5 1493 HEBREW LETTER VAV
×– Z+ 05D6 1494 HEBREW LETTER ZAYIN
×— X+ 05D7 1495 HEBREW LETTER HET
×˜ Tj 05D8 1496 HEBREW LETTER TET
×™ J+ 05D9 1497 HEBREW LETTER YOD
×š K% 05DA 1498 HEBREW LETTER FINAL KAF
×› K+ 05DB 1499 HEBREW LETTER KAF
×œ L+ 05DC 1500 HEBREW LETTER LAMED
× M% 05DD 1501 HEBREW LETTER FINAL MEM
×ž M+ 05DE 1502 HEBREW LETTER MEM
×Ÿ N% 05DF 1503 HEBREW LETTER FINAL NUN `
× N+ 05E0 1504 HEBREW LETTER NUN `
×¡ S+ 05E1 1505 HEBREW LETTER SAMEKH
×¢ E+ 05E2 1506 HEBREW LETTER AYIN
×£ P% 05E3 1507 HEBREW LETTER FINAL PE
×¤ P+ 05E4 1508 HEBREW LETTER PE
×¥ Zj 05E5 1509 HEBREW LETTER FINAL TSADI
×¦ ZJ 05E6 1510 HEBREW LETTER TSADI
×§ Q+ 05E7 1511 HEBREW LETTER QOF
×¨ R+ 05E8 1512 HEBREW LETTER RESH
×© Sh 05E9 1513 HEBREW LETTER SHIN
×ª T+ 05EA 1514 HEBREW LETTER TAV
ØŒ ,+ 060C 1548 ARABIC COMMA
Ø› ;+ 061B 1563 ARABIC SEMICOLON
ØŸ ?+ 061F 1567 ARABIC QUESTION MARK
Ø¡ H' 0621 1569 ARABIC LETTER HAMZA
Ø¢ aM 0622 1570 ARABIC LETTER ALEF WITH MADDA ABOVE
Ø£ aH 0623 1571 ARABIC LETTER ALEF WITH HAMZA ABOVE
Ø¤ wH 0624 1572 ARABIC LETTER WAW WITH HAMZA ABOVE
Ø¥ ah 0625 1573 ARABIC LETTER ALEF WITH HAMZA BELOW
Ø¦ yH 0626 1574 ARABIC LETTER YEH WITH HAMZA ABOVE
Ø§ a+ 0627 1575 ARABIC LETTER ALEF
Ø¨ b+ 0628 1576 ARABIC LETTER BEH
Ø© tm 0629 1577 ARABIC LETTER TEH MARBUTA
Øª t+ 062A 1578 ARABIC LETTER TEH
Ø« tk 062B 1579 ARABIC LETTER THEH
Ø¬ g+ 062C 1580 ARABIC LETTER JEEM
Ø hk 062D 1581 ARABIC LETTER HAH
Ø® x+ 062E 1582 ARABIC LETTER KHAH
Ø¯ d+ 062F 1583 ARABIC LETTER DAL
Ø° dk 0630 1584 ARABIC LETTER THAL
Ø± r+ 0631 1585 ARABIC LETTER REH
Ø² z+ 0632 1586 ARABIC LETTER ZAIN
Ø³ s+ 0633 1587 ARABIC LETTER SEEN
Ø´ sn 0634 1588 ARABIC LETTER SHEEN
Øµ c+ 0635 1589 ARABIC LETTER SAD
Ø¶ dd 0636 1590 ARABIC LETTER DAD
Ø· tj 0637 1591 ARABIC LETTER TAH
Ø¸ zH 0638 1592 ARABIC LETTER ZAH
Ø¹ e+ 0639 1593 ARABIC LETTER AIN
Øº i+ 063A 1594 ARABIC LETTER GHAIN
Ù€ ++ 0640 1600 ARABIC TATWEEL
Ù f+ 0641 1601 ARABIC LETTER FEH
Ù‚ q+ 0642 1602 ARABIC LETTER QAF
Ùƒ k+ 0643 1603 ARABIC LETTER KAF
Ù„ l+ 0644 1604 ARABIC LETTER LAM
Ù… m+ 0645 1605 ARABIC LETTER MEEM
Ù† n+ 0646 1606 ARABIC LETTER NOON
Ù‡ h+ 0647 1607 ARABIC LETTER HEH
Ùˆ w+ 0648 1608 ARABIC LETTER WAW
Ù‰ j+ 0649 1609 ARABIC LETTER ALEF MAKSURA

ÙŠ y+ 064A 1610 ARABIC LETTER YEH

Ù‹ :+ 064B 1611 ARABIC FATHATAN
ÙŒ "+ 064C 1612 ARABIC DAMMATAN
Ù =+ 064D 1613 ARABIC KASRATAN
ÙŽ /+ 064E 1614 ARABIC FATHA
Ù '+ 064F 1615 ARABIC DAMMA
Ù 1+ 0650 1616 ARABIC KASRA
Ù‘ 3+ 0651 1617 ARABIC SHADDA
Ù’ 0+ 0652 1618 ARABIC SUKUN
Ù° aS 0670 1648 ARABIC LETTER SUPERSCRIPT ALEF
Ù¾ p+ 067E 1662 ARABIC LETTER PEH
Ú¤ v+ 06A4 1700 ARABIC LETTER VEH
Ú¯ gf 06AF 1711 ARABIC LETTER GAF
Û° 0a 06F0 1776 EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT ZERO
Û± 1a 06F1 1777 EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT ONE
Û² 2a 06F2 1778 EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT TWO
Û³ 3a 06F3 1779 EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT THREE
Û´ 4a 06F4 1780 EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT FOUR
Ûµ 5a 06F5 1781 EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT FIVE
Û¶ 6a 06F6 1782 EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT SIX
Û· 7a 06F7 1783 EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT SEVEN
Û¸ 8a 06F8 1784 EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT EIGHT
Û¹ 9a 06F9 1785 EXTENDED ARABIC-INDIC DIGIT NINE
á¸‚ B. 1E02 7682 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER B WITH DOT ABOVE
á¸ƒ b. 1E03 7683 LATIN SMALL LETTER B WITH DOT ABOVE
á¸† B_ 1E06 7686 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER B WITH LINE BELOW
á¸‡ b_ 1E07 7687 LATIN SMALL LETTER B WITH LINE BELOW
á¸Š D. 1E0A 7690 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH DOT ABOVE
á¸‹ d. 1E0B 7691 LATIN SMALL LETTER D WITH DOT ABOVE
á¸Ž D_ 1E0E 7694 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH LINE BELOW
á¸ d_ 1E0F 7695 LATIN SMALL LETTER D WITH LINE BELOW
á¸ D, 1E10 7696 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH CEDILLA
á¸‘ d, 1E11 7697 LATIN SMALL LETTER D WITH CEDILLA
á¸ž F. 1E1E 7710 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER F WITH DOT ABOVE
á¸Ÿ f. 1E1F 7711 LATIN SMALL LETTER F WITH DOT ABOVE
á¸ G- 1E20 7712 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER G WITH MACRON
á¸¡ g- 1E21 7713 LATIN SMALL LETTER G WITH MACRON
á¸¢ H. 1E22 7714 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER H WITH DOT ABOVE
á¸£ h. 1E23 7715 LATIN SMALL LETTER H WITH DOT ABOVE
á¸¦ H: 1E26 7718 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER H WITH DIAERESIS
á¸§ h: 1E27 7719 LATIN SMALL LETTER H WITH DIAERESIS
á¸¨ H, 1E28 7720 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER H WITH CEDILLA
á¸© h, 1E29 7721 LATIN SMALL LETTER H WITH CEDILLA
á¸° K' 1E30 7728 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K WITH ACUTE
á¸± k' 1E31 7729 LATIN SMALL LETTER K WITH ACUTE
á¸´ K_ 1E34 7732 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K WITH LINE BELOW
á¸µ k_ 1E35 7733 LATIN SMALL LETTER K WITH LINE BELOW
á¸º L_ 1E3A 7738 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH LINE BELOW
á¸» l_ 1E3B 7739 LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH LINE BELOW
á¸¾ M' 1E3E 7742 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M WITH ACUTE
á¸¿ m' 1E3F 7743 LATIN SMALL LETTER M WITH ACUTE
á¹€ M. 1E40 7744 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M WITH DOT ABOVE
á¹ m. 1E41 7745 LATIN SMALL LETTER M WITH DOT ABOVE
á¹„ N. 1E44 7748 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH DOT ABOVE `
á¹… n. 1E45 7749 LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH DOT ABOVE `
á¹ˆ N_ 1E48 7752 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH LINE BELOW `
á¹‰ n_ 1E49 7753 LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH LINE BELOW `
á¹” P' 1E54 7764 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P WITH ACUTE
á¹• p' 1E55 7765 LATIN SMALL LETTER P WITH ACUTE
á¹– P. 1E56 7766 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P WITH DOT ABOVE
á¹— p. 1E57 7767 LATIN SMALL LETTER P WITH DOT ABOVE
á¹˜ R. 1E58 7768 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R WITH DOT ABOVE
á¹™ r. 1E59 7769 LATIN SMALL LETTER R WITH DOT ABOVE
á¹ž R_ 1E5E 7774 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R WITH LINE BELOW
á¹Ÿ r_ 1E5F 7775 LATIN SMALL LETTER R WITH LINE BELOW
á¹ S. 1E60 7776 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S WITH DOT ABOVE
á¹¡ s. 1E61 7777 LATIN SMALL LETTER S WITH DOT ABOVE
á¹ª T. 1E6A 7786 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T WITH DOT ABOVE
á¹« t. 1E6B 7787 LATIN SMALL LETTER T WITH DOT ABOVE
á¹® T_ 1E6E 7790 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T WITH LINE BELOW
á¹¯ t_ 1E6F 7791 LATIN SMALL LETTER T WITH LINE BELOW
á¹¼ V? 1E7C 7804 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER V WITH TILDE
á¹½ v? 1E7D 7805 LATIN SMALL LETTER V WITH TILDE
áº€ W! 1E80 7808 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W WITH GRAVE
áº w! 1E81 7809 LATIN SMALL LETTER W WITH GRAVE
áº‚ W' 1E82 7810 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W WITH ACUTE
áºƒ w' 1E83 7811 LATIN SMALL LETTER W WITH ACUTE
áº„ W: 1E84 7812 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W WITH DIAERESIS
áº… w: 1E85 7813 LATIN SMALL LETTER W WITH DIAERESIS
áº† W. 1E86 7814 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W WITH DOT ABOVE
áº‡ w. 1E87 7815 LATIN SMALL LETTER W WITH DOT ABOVE

áºŠ X. 1E8A 7818 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER X WITH DOT ABOVE

áº‹ x. 1E8B 7819 LATIN SMALL LETTER X WITH DOT ABOVE
áºŒ X: 1E8C 7820 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER X WITH DIAERESIS
áº x: 1E8D 7821 LATIN SMALL LETTER X WITH DIAERESIS
áºŽ Y. 1E8E 7822 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y WITH DOT ABOVE
áº y. 1E8F 7823 LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH DOT ABOVE
áº Z> 1E90 7824 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z WITH CIRCUMFLEX
áº‘ z> 1E91 7825 LATIN SMALL LETTER Z WITH CIRCUMFLEX
áº” Z_ 1E94 7828 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z WITH LINE BELOW
áº• z_ 1E95 7829 LATIN SMALL LETTER Z WITH LINE BELOW
áº– h_ 1E96 7830 LATIN SMALL LETTER H WITH LINE BELOW
áº— t: 1E97 7831 LATIN SMALL LETTER T WITH DIAERESIS
áº˜ w0 1E98 7832 LATIN SMALL LETTER W WITH RING ABOVE
áº™ y0 1E99 7833 LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH RING ABOVE
áº¢ A2 1EA2 7842 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH HOOK ABOVE
áº£ a2 1EA3 7843 LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH HOOK ABOVE
áºº E2 1EBA 7866 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH HOOK ABOVE
áº» e2 1EBB 7867 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH HOOK ABOVE
áº¼ E? 1EBC 7868 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH TILDE
áº½ e? 1EBD 7869 LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH TILDE
á»ˆ I2 1EC8 7880 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH HOOK ABOVE
á»‰ i2 1EC9 7881 LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH HOOK ABOVE
á»Ž O2 1ECE 7886 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH HOOK ABOVE
á» o2 1ECF 7887 LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH HOOK ABOVE
á»¦ U2 1EE6 7910 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH HOOK ABOVE
á»§ u2 1EE7 7911 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH HOOK ABOVE
á»² Y! 1EF2 7922 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y WITH GRAVE
á»³ y! 1EF3 7923 LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH GRAVE
á»¶ Y2 1EF6 7926 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y WITH HOOK ABOVE
á»· y2 1EF7 7927 LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH HOOK ABOVE
á»¸ Y? 1EF8 7928 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y WITH TILDE
á»¹ y? 1EF9 7929 LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH TILDE
á¼€ ;' 1F00 7936 GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI
á¼ ,' 1F01 7937 GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH DASIA
á¼‚ ;! 1F02 7938 GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI AND VARIA
á¼ƒ ,! 1F03 7939 GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH DASIA AND VARIA
á¼„ ?; 1F04 7940 GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI AND OXIA
á¼… ?, 1F05 7941 GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH DASIA AND OXIA
á¼† !: 1F06 7942 GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI AND PERISPOMENI
á¼‡ ?: 1F07 7943 GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH DASIA AND PERISPOMENI
â€‚ 1N 2002 8194 EN SPACE
â€ƒ 1M 2003 8195 EM SPACE
â€„ 3M 2004 8196 THREE-PER-EM SPACE
â€… 4M 2005 8197 FOUR-PER-EM SPACE
â€† 6M 2006 8198 SIX-PER-EM SPACE
â€‰ 1T 2009 8201 THIN SPACE
â€Š 1H 200A 8202 HAIR SPACE
â€ -1 2010 8208 HYPHEN
â€“ -N 2013 8211 EN DASH `
â€” -M 2014 8212 EM DASH
â€• -3 2015 8213 HORIZONTAL BAR
â€– !2 2016 8214 DOUBLE VERTICAL LINE
â€— =2 2017 8215 DOUBLE LOW LINE
â€˜ '6 2018 8216 LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK
â€™ '9 2019 8217 RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK
â€š .9 201A 8218 SINGLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK
â€› 9' 201B 8219 SINGLE HIGH-REVERSED-9 QUOTATION MARK
â€œ "6 201C 8220 LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK
â€ "9 201D 8221 RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK
â€ž :9 201E 8222 DOUBLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK
â€Ÿ 9" 201F 8223 DOUBLE HIGH-REVERSED-9 QUOTATION MARK
â€ /- 2020 8224 DAGGER
â€¡ /= 2021 8225 DOUBLE DAGGER
â€¥ .. 2025 8229 TWO DOT LEADER
â€° %0 2030 8240 PER MILLE SIGN
â€² 1' 2032 8242 PRIME
â€³ 2' 2033 8243 DOUBLE PRIME
â€´ 3' 2034 8244 TRIPLE PRIME
â€µ 1" 2035 8245 REVERSED PRIME
â€¶ 2" 2036 8246 REVERSED DOUBLE PRIME
â€· 3" 2037 8247 REVERSED TRIPLE PRIME
â€¸ Ca 2038 8248 CARET
â€¹ <1 2039 8249 SINGLE LEFT-POINTING ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
â€º >1 203A 8250 SINGLE RIGHT-POINTING ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
â€» :X 203B 8251 REFERENCE MARK
â€¾ '- 203E 8254 OVERLINE
â„ /f 2044 8260 FRACTION SLASH
â° 0S 2070 8304 SUPERSCRIPT ZERO
â´ 4S 2074 8308 SUPERSCRIPT FOUR
âµ 5S 2075 8309 SUPERSCRIPT FIVE
â¶ 6S 2076 8310 SUPERSCRIPT SIX

â· 7S 2077 8311 SUPERSCRIPT SEVEN

â¸ 8S 2078 8312 SUPERSCRIPT EIGHT
â¹ 9S 2079 8313 SUPERSCRIPT NINE
âº +S 207A 8314 SUPERSCRIPT PLUS SIGN
â» -S 207B 8315 SUPERSCRIPT MINUS
â¼ =S 207C 8316 SUPERSCRIPT EQUALS SIGN
â½ (S 207D 8317 SUPERSCRIPT LEFT PARENTHESIS
â¾ )S 207E 8318 SUPERSCRIPT RIGHT PARENTHESIS
â¿ nS 207F 8319 SUPERSCRIPT LATIN SMALL LETTER N `
â‚€ 0s 2080 8320 SUBSCRIPT ZERO
â‚ 1s 2081 8321 SUBSCRIPT ONE
â‚‚ 2s 2082 8322 SUBSCRIPT TWO
â‚ƒ 3s 2083 8323 SUBSCRIPT THREE
â‚„ 4s 2084 8324 SUBSCRIPT FOUR
â‚… 5s 2085 8325 SUBSCRIPT FIVE
â‚† 6s 2086 8326 SUBSCRIPT SIX
â‚‡ 7s 2087 8327 SUBSCRIPT SEVEN
â‚ˆ 8s 2088 8328 SUBSCRIPT EIGHT
â‚‰ 9s 2089 8329 SUBSCRIPT NINE
â‚Š +s 208A 8330 SUBSCRIPT PLUS SIGN
â‚‹ -s 208B 8331 SUBSCRIPT MINUS
â‚Œ =s 208C 8332 SUBSCRIPT EQUALS SIGN
â‚ (s 208D 8333 SUBSCRIPT LEFT PARENTHESIS
â‚Ž )s 208E 8334 SUBSCRIPT RIGHT PARENTHESIS
â‚¤ Li 20A4 8356 LIRA SIGN
â‚§ Pt 20A7 8359 PESETA SIGN
â‚© W= 20A9 8361 WON SIGN
â‚¬ Eu 20AC 8364 EURO SIGN
â„ƒ oC 2103 8451 DEGREE CELSIUS
â„… co 2105 8453 CARE OF
â„‰ oF 2109 8457 DEGREE FAHRENHEIT
â„– N0 2116 8470 NUMERO SIGN
â„— PO 2117 8471 SOUND RECORDING COPYRIGHT
â„ž Rx 211E 8478 PRESCRIPTION TAKE
â„ SM 2120 8480 SERVICE MARK
â„¢ TM 2122 8482 TRADE MARK SIGN
â„¦ Om 2126 8486 OHM SIGN
â„« AO 212B 8491 ANGSTROM SIGN
â…“ 13 2153 8531 VULGAR FRACTION ONE THIRD
â…” 23 2154 8532 VULGAR FRACTION TWO THIRDS
â…• 15 2155 8533 VULGAR FRACTION ONE FIFTH
â…– 25 2156 8534 VULGAR FRACTION TWO FIFTHS
â…— 35 2157 8535 VULGAR FRACTION THREE FIFTHS
â…˜ 45 2158 8536 VULGAR FRACTION FOUR FIFTHS
â…™ 16 2159 8537 VULGAR FRACTION ONE SIXTH
â…š 56 215A 8538 VULGAR FRACTION FIVE SIXTHS
â…› 18 215B 8539 VULGAR FRACTION ONE EIGHTH
â…œ 38 215C 8540 VULGAR FRACTION THREE EIGHTHS
â… 58 215D 8541 VULGAR FRACTION FIVE EIGHTHS
â…ž 78 215E 8542 VULGAR FRACTION SEVEN EIGHTHS
â… 1R 2160 8544 ROMAN NUMERAL ONE
â…¡ 2R 2161 8545 ROMAN NUMERAL TWO
â…¢ 3R 2162 8546 ROMAN NUMERAL THREE
â…£ 4R 2163 8547 ROMAN NUMERAL FOUR
â…¤ 5R 2164 8548 ROMAN NUMERAL FIVE
â…¥ 6R 2165 8549 ROMAN NUMERAL SIX
â…¦ 7R 2166 8550 ROMAN NUMERAL SEVEN
â…§ 8R 2167 8551 ROMAN NUMERAL EIGHT
â…¨ 9R 2168 8552 ROMAN NUMERAL NINE
â…© aR 2169 8553 ROMAN NUMERAL TEN
â…ª bR 216A 8554 ROMAN NUMERAL ELEVEN
â…« cR 216B 8555 ROMAN NUMERAL TWELVE
â…° 1r 2170 8560 SMALL ROMAN NUMERAL ONE
â…± 2r 2171 8561 SMALL ROMAN NUMERAL TWO
â…² 3r 2172 8562 SMALL ROMAN NUMERAL THREE
â…³ 4r 2173 8563 SMALL ROMAN NUMERAL FOUR
â…´ 5r 2174 8564 SMALL ROMAN NUMERAL FIVE
â…µ 6r 2175 8565 SMALL ROMAN NUMERAL SIX
â…¶ 7r 2176 8566 SMALL ROMAN NUMERAL SEVEN
â…· 8r 2177 8567 SMALL ROMAN NUMERAL EIGHT
â…¸ 9r 2178 8568 SMALL ROMAN NUMERAL NINE
â…¹ ar 2179 8569 SMALL ROMAN NUMERAL TEN
â…º br 217A 8570 SMALL ROMAN NUMERAL ELEVEN
â…» cr 217B 8571 SMALL ROMAN NUMERAL TWELVE
â† <- 2190 8592 LEFTWARDS ARROW
â†‘ -! 2191 8593 UPWARDS ARROW
â†’ -> 2192 8594 RIGHTWARDS ARROW
â†“ -v 2193 8595 DOWNWARDS ARROW
â†” <> 2194 8596 LEFT RIGHT ARROW
â†• UD 2195 8597 UP DOWN ARROW
â‡ <= 21D0 8656 LEFTWARDS DOUBLE ARROW

â‡’ => 21D2 8658 RIGHTWARDS DOUBLE ARROW

â‡” == 21D4 8660 LEFT RIGHT DOUBLE ARROW
âˆ€ FA 2200 8704 FOR ALL
âˆ‚ dP 2202 8706 PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL
âˆƒ TE 2203 8707 THERE EXISTS
âˆ… /0 2205 8709 EMPTY SET
âˆ† DE 2206 8710 INCREMENT
âˆ‡ NB 2207 8711 NABLA
âˆˆ (- 2208 8712 ELEMENT OF
âˆ‹ -) 220B 8715 CONTAINS AS MEMBER
âˆ *P 220F 8719 N-ARY PRODUCT `
âˆ‘ +Z 2211 8721 N-ARY SUMMATION `
âˆ’ -2 2212 8722 MINUS SIGN
âˆ“ -+ 2213 8723 MINUS-OR-PLUS SIGN
âˆ— *- 2217 8727 ASTERISK OPERATOR
âˆ˜ Ob 2218 8728 RING OPERATOR
âˆ™ Sb 2219 8729 BULLET OPERATOR
âˆš RT 221A 8730 SQUARE ROOT
âˆ 0( 221D 8733 PROPORTIONAL TO
âˆž 00 221E 8734 INFINITY
âˆŸ -L 221F 8735 RIGHT ANGLE
âˆ -V 2220 8736 ANGLE
âˆ¥ PP 2225 8741 PARALLEL TO
âˆ§ AN 2227 8743 LOGICAL AND
âˆ¨ OR 2228 8744 LOGICAL OR
âˆ© (U 2229 8745 INTERSECTION
âˆª )U 222A 8746 UNION
âˆ« In 222B 8747 INTEGRAL
âˆ¬ DI 222C 8748 DOUBLE INTEGRAL
âˆ® Io 222E 8750 CONTOUR INTEGRAL
âˆ´ .: 2234 8756 THEREFORE
âˆµ :. 2235 8757 BECAUSE
âˆ¶ :R 2236 8758 RATIO
âˆ· :: 2237 8759 PROPORTION
âˆ¼ ?1 223C 8764 TILDE OPERATOR
âˆ¾ CG 223E 8766 INVERTED LAZY S
â‰ƒ ?- 2243 8771 ASYMPTOTICALLY EQUAL TO
â‰… ?= 2245 8773 APPROXIMATELY EQUAL TO
â‰ˆ ?2 2248 8776 ALMOST EQUAL TO
â‰Œ =? 224C 8780 ALL EQUAL TO
â‰“ HI 2253 8787 IMAGE OF OR APPROXIMATELY EQUAL TO
â‰ != 2260 8800 NOT EQUAL TO
â‰¡ =3 2261 8801 IDENTICAL TO
â‰¤ =< 2264 8804 LESS-THAN OR EQUAL TO
â‰¥ >= 2265 8805 GREATER-THAN OR EQUAL TO
â‰ª <* 226A 8810 MUCH LESS-THAN
â‰« *> 226B 8811 MUCH GREATER-THAN
â‰® !< 226E 8814 NOT LESS-THAN
â‰¯ !> 226F 8815 NOT GREATER-THAN
âŠ‚ (C 2282 8834 SUBSET OF
âŠƒ )C 2283 8835 SUPERSET OF
âŠ† (_ 2286 8838 SUBSET OF OR EQUAL TO
âŠ‡ )_ 2287 8839 SUPERSET OF OR EQUAL TO
âŠ™ 0. 2299 8857 CIRCLED DOT OPERATOR
âŠš 02 229A 8858 CIRCLED RING OPERATOR
âŠ¥ -T 22A5 8869 UP TACK
â‹… .P 22C5 8901 DOT OPERATOR
â‹® :3 22EE 8942 VERTICAL ELLIPSIS
â‹¯ .3 22EF 8943 MIDLINE HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS
âŒ‚ Eh 2302 8962 HOUSE
âŒˆ <7 2308 8968 LEFT CEILING
âŒ‰ >7 2309 8969 RIGHT CEILING
âŒŠ 7< 230A 8970 LEFT FLOOR
âŒ‹ 7> 230B 8971 RIGHT FLOOR
âŒ NI 2310 8976 REVERSED NOT SIGN
âŒ’ (A 2312 8978 ARC
âŒ• TR 2315 8981 TELEPHONE RECORDER
âŒ Iu 2320 8992 TOP HALF INTEGRAL
âŒ¡ Il 2321 8993 BOTTOM HALF INTEGRAL
âŒ© </ 2329 9001 LEFT-POINTING ANGLE BRACKET
âŒª /> 232A 9002 RIGHT-POINTING ANGLE BRACKET
â£ Vs 2423 9251 OPEN BOX
â‘€ 1h 2440 9280 OCR HOOK
â‘ 3h 2441 9281 OCR CHAIR
â‘‚ 2h 2442 9282 OCR FORK
â‘ƒ 4h 2443 9283 OCR INVERTED FORK
â‘† 1j 2446 9286 OCR BRANCH BANK IDENTIFICATION
â‘‡ 2j 2447 9287 OCR AMOUNT OF CHECK
â‘ˆ 3j 2448 9288 OCR DASH
â‘‰ 4j 2449 9289 OCR CUSTOMER ACCOUNT NUMBER
â’ˆ 1. 2488 9352 DIGIT ONE FULL STOP

â’‰ 2. 2489 9353 DIGIT TWO FULL STOP

â’Š 3. 248A 9354 DIGIT THREE FULL STOP
â’‹ 4. 248B 9355 DIGIT FOUR FULL STOP
â’Œ 5. 248C 9356 DIGIT FIVE FULL STOP
â’ 6. 248D 9357 DIGIT SIX FULL STOP
â’Ž 7. 248E 9358 DIGIT SEVEN FULL STOP
â’ 8. 248F 9359 DIGIT EIGHT FULL STOP
â’ 9. 2490 9360 DIGIT NINE FULL STOP
â”€ hh 2500 9472 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT HORIZONTAL
â” HH 2501 9473 BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY HORIZONTAL
â”‚ vv 2502 9474 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT VERTICAL
â”ƒ VV 2503 9475 BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY VERTICAL
â”„ 3- 2504 9476 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT TRIPLE DASH HORIZONTAL
â”… 3_ 2505 9477 BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY TRIPLE DASH HORIZONTAL
â”† 3! 2506 9478 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT TRIPLE DASH VERTICAL
â”‡ 3/ 2507 9479 BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY TRIPLE DASH VERTICAL
â”ˆ 4- 2508 9480 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT QUADRUPLE DASH HORIZONTAL
â”‰ 4_ 2509 9481 BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY QUADRUPLE DASH HORIZONTAL
â”Š 4! 250A 9482 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT QUADRUPLE DASH VERTICAL
â”‹ 4/ 250B 9483 BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY QUADRUPLE DASH VERTICAL
â”Œ dr 250C 9484 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT DOWN AND RIGHT
â” dR 250D 9485 BOX DRAWINGS DOWN LIGHT AND RIGHT HEAVY
â”Ž Dr 250E 9486 BOX DRAWINGS DOWN HEAVY AND RIGHT LIGHT
â” DR 250F 9487 BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY DOWN AND RIGHT
â” dl 2510 9488 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT DOWN AND LEFT
â”‘ dL 2511 9489 BOX DRAWINGS DOWN LIGHT AND LEFT HEAVY
â”’ Dl 2512 9490 BOX DRAWINGS DOWN HEAVY AND LEFT LIGHT
â”“ LD 2513 9491 BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY DOWN AND LEFT
â”” ur 2514 9492 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT UP AND RIGHT
â”• uR 2515 9493 BOX DRAWINGS UP LIGHT AND RIGHT HEAVY
â”– Ur 2516 9494 BOX DRAWINGS UP HEAVY AND RIGHT LIGHT
â”— UR 2517 9495 BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY UP AND RIGHT
â”˜ ul 2518 9496 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT UP AND LEFT
â”™ uL 2519 9497 BOX DRAWINGS UP LIGHT AND LEFT HEAVY
â”š Ul 251A 9498 BOX DRAWINGS UP HEAVY AND LEFT LIGHT
â”› UL 251B 9499 BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY UP AND LEFT
â”œ vr 251C 9500 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT VERTICAL AND RIGHT
â” vR 251D 9501 BOX DRAWINGS VERTICAL LIGHT AND RIGHT HEAVY
â” Vr 2520 9504 BOX DRAWINGS VERTICAL HEAVY AND RIGHT LIGHT
â”£ VR 2523 9507 BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY VERTICAL AND RIGHT
â”¤ vl 2524 9508 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT VERTICAL AND LEFT
â”¥ vL 2525 9509 BOX DRAWINGS VERTICAL LIGHT AND LEFT HEAVY
â”¨ Vl 2528 9512 BOX DRAWINGS VERTICAL HEAVY AND LEFT LIGHT
â”« VL 252B 9515 BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY VERTICAL AND LEFT
â”¬ dh 252C 9516 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT DOWN AND HORIZONTAL
â”¯ dH 252F 9519 BOX DRAWINGS DOWN LIGHT AND HORIZONTAL HEAVY
â”° Dh 2530 9520 BOX DRAWINGS DOWN HEAVY AND HORIZONTAL LIGHT
â”³ DH 2533 9523 BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY DOWN AND HORIZONTAL
â”´ uh 2534 9524 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT UP AND HORIZONTAL
â”· uH 2537 9527 BOX DRAWINGS UP LIGHT AND HORIZONTAL HEAVY
â”¸ Uh 2538 9528 BOX DRAWINGS UP HEAVY AND HORIZONTAL LIGHT
â”» UH 253B 9531 BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY UP AND HORIZONTAL
â”¼ vh 253C 9532 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL
â”¿ vH 253F 9535 BOX DRAWINGS VERTICAL LIGHT AND HORIZONTAL HEAVY
â•‚ Vh 2542 9538 BOX DRAWINGS VERTICAL HEAVY AND HORIZONTAL LIGHT
â•‹ VH 254B 9547 BOX DRAWINGS HEAVY VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL
â•± FD 2571 9585 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT DIAGONAL UPPER RIGHT TO LOWER LEFT
â•² BD 2572 9586 BOX DRAWINGS LIGHT DIAGONAL UPPER LEFT TO LOWER RIGHT
â–€ TB 2580 9600 UPPER HALF BLOCK
â–„ LB 2584 9604 LOWER HALF BLOCK
â–ˆ FB 2588 9608 FULL BLOCK
â–Œ lB 258C 9612 LEFT HALF BLOCK
â– RB 2590 9616 RIGHT HALF BLOCK
â–‘ .S 2591 9617 LIGHT SHADE
â–’ :S 2592 9618 MEDIUM SHADE
â–“ ?S 2593 9619 DARK SHADE
â– fS 25A0 9632 BLACK SQUARE
â–¡ OS 25A1 9633 WHITE SQUARE
â–¢ RO 25A2 9634 WHITE SQUARE WITH ROUNDED CORNERS
â–£ Rr 25A3 9635 WHITE SQUARE CONTAINING BLACK SMALL SQUARE
â–¤ RF 25A4 9636 SQUARE WITH HORIZONTAL FILL
â–¥ RY 25A5 9637 SQUARE WITH VERTICAL FILL
â–¦ RH 25A6 9638 SQUARE WITH ORTHOGONAL CROSSHATCH FILL
â–§ RZ 25A7 9639 SQUARE WITH UPPER LEFT TO LOWER RIGHT FILL
â–¨ RK 25A8 9640 SQUARE WITH UPPER RIGHT TO LOWER LEFT FILL
â–© RX 25A9 9641 SQUARE WITH DIAGONAL CROSSHATCH FILL
â–ª sB 25AA 9642 BLACK SMALL SQUARE
â–¬ SR 25AC 9644 BLACK RECTANGLE
â– Or 25AD 9645 WHITE RECTANGLE
â–² UT 25B2 9650 BLACK UP-POINTING TRIANGLE
â–³ uT 25B3 9651 WHITE UP-POINTING TRIANGLE

â–¶ PR 25B6 9654 BLACK RIGHT-POINTING TRIANGLE

â–· Tr 25B7 9655 WHITE RIGHT-POINTING TRIANGLE
â–¼ Dt 25BC 9660 BLACK DOWN-POINTING TRIANGLE
â–½ dT 25BD 9661 WHITE DOWN-POINTING TRIANGLE
â—€ PL 25C0 9664 BLACK LEFT-POINTING TRIANGLE
â— Tl 25C1 9665 WHITE LEFT-POINTING TRIANGLE
â—† Db 25C6 9670 BLACK DIAMOND
â—‡ Dw 25C7 9671 WHITE DIAMOND
â—Š LZ 25CA 9674 LOZENGE
â—‹ 0m 25CB 9675 WHITE CIRCLE
â—Ž 0o 25CE 9678 BULLSEYE
â— 0M 25CF 9679 BLACK CIRCLE
â— 0L 25D0 9680 CIRCLE WITH LEFT HALF BLACK
â—‘ 0R 25D1 9681 CIRCLE WITH RIGHT HALF BLACK
â—˜ Sn 25D8 9688 INVERSE BULLET
â—™ Ic 25D9 9689 INVERSE WHITE CIRCLE
â—¢ Fd 25E2 9698 BLACK LOWER RIGHT TRIANGLE
â—£ Bd 25E3 9699 BLACK LOWER LEFT TRIANGLE
â˜… *2 2605 9733 BLACK STAR
â˜† *1 2606 9734 WHITE STAR
â˜œ <H 261C 9756 WHITE LEFT POINTING INDEX
â˜ž >H 261E 9758 WHITE RIGHT POINTING INDEX
â˜º 0u 263A 9786 WHITE SMILING FACE
â˜» 0U 263B 9787 BLACK SMILING FACE
â˜¼ SU 263C 9788 WHITE SUN WITH RAYS
â™€ Fm 2640 9792 FEMALE SIGN
â™‚ Ml 2642 9794 MALE SIGN
â™ cS 2660 9824 BLACK SPADE SUIT
â™¡ cH 2661 9825 WHITE HEART SUIT
â™¢ cD 2662 9826 WHITE DIAMOND SUIT
â™£ cC 2663 9827 BLACK CLUB SUIT
â™© Md 2669 9833 QUARTER NOTE `
â™ª M8 266A 9834 EIGHTH NOTE `
â™« M2 266B 9835 BEAMED EIGHTH NOTES
â™ Mb 266D 9837 MUSIC FLAT SIGN
â™® Mx 266E 9838 MUSIC NATURAL SIGN
â™¯ MX 266F 9839 MUSIC SHARP SIGN
âœ“ OK 2713 10003 CHECK MARK
âœ— XX 2717 10007 BALLOT X
âœ -X 2720 10016 MALTESE CROSS
ã€€ IS 3000 12288 IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE
ã€ ,_ 3001 12289 IDEOGRAPHIC COMMA
ã€‚ ._ 3002 12290 IDEOGRAPHIC FULL STOP
ã€ƒ +" 3003 12291 DITTO MARK
ã€„ +_ 3004 12292 JAPANESE INDUSTRIAL STANDARD SYMBOL
ã€… *_ 3005 12293 IDEOGRAPHIC ITERATION MARK
ã€† ;_ 3006 12294 IDEOGRAPHIC CLOSING MARK
ã€‡ 0_ 3007 12295 IDEOGRAPHIC NUMBER ZERO
ã€Š <+ 300A 12298 LEFT DOUBLE ANGLE BRACKET
ã€‹ >+ 300B 12299 RIGHT DOUBLE ANGLE BRACKET
ã€Œ <' 300C 12300 LEFT CORNER BRACKET
ã€ >' 300D 12301 RIGHT CORNER BRACKET
ã€Ž <" 300E 12302 LEFT WHITE CORNER BRACKET
ã€ >" 300F 12303 RIGHT WHITE CORNER BRACKET
ã€ (" 3010 12304 LEFT BLACK LENTICULAR BRACKET
ã€‘ )" 3011 12305 RIGHT BLACK LENTICULAR BRACKET
ã€’ =T 3012 12306 POSTAL MARK
ã€“ =_ 3013 12307 GETA MARK
ã€” (' 3014 12308 LEFT TORTOISE SHELL BRACKET
ã€• )' 3015 12309 RIGHT TORTOISE SHELL BRACKET
ã€– (I 3016 12310 LEFT WHITE LENTICULAR BRACKET
ã€— )I 3017 12311 RIGHT WHITE LENTICULAR BRACKET
ã€œ -? 301C 12316 WAVE DASH
ã A5 3041 12353 HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL A
ã‚ a5 3042 12354 HIRAGANA LETTER A
ãƒ I5 3043 12355 HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL I
ã„ i5 3044 12356 HIRAGANA LETTER I
ã… U5 3045 12357 HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL U
ã† u5 3046 12358 HIRAGANA LETTER U
ã‡ E5 3047 12359 HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL E
ãˆ e5 3048 12360 HIRAGANA LETTER E
ã‰ O5 3049 12361 HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL O
ãŠ o5 304A 12362 HIRAGANA LETTER O
ã‹ ka 304B 12363 HIRAGANA LETTER KA
ãŒ ga 304C 12364 HIRAGANA LETTER GA
ã ki 304D 12365 HIRAGANA LETTER KI
ãŽ gi 304E 12366 HIRAGANA LETTER GI
ã ku 304F 12367 HIRAGANA LETTER KU
ã gu 3050 12368 HIRAGANA LETTER GU
ã‘ ke 3051 12369 HIRAGANA LETTER KE
ã’ ge 3052 12370 HIRAGANA LETTER GE

ã“ ko 3053 12371 HIRAGANA LETTER KO

ã” go 3054 12372 HIRAGANA LETTER GO
ã• sa 3055 12373 HIRAGANA LETTER SA
ã– za 3056 12374 HIRAGANA LETTER ZA
ã— si 3057 12375 HIRAGANA LETTER SI
ã˜ zi 3058 12376 HIRAGANA LETTER ZI
ã™ su 3059 12377 HIRAGANA LETTER SU
ãš zu 305A 12378 HIRAGANA LETTER ZU
ã› se 305B 12379 HIRAGANA LETTER SE
ãœ ze 305C 12380 HIRAGANA LETTER ZE
ã so 305D 12381 HIRAGANA LETTER SO
ãž zo 305E 12382 HIRAGANA LETTER ZO
ãŸ ta 305F 12383 HIRAGANA LETTER TA
ã da 3060 12384 HIRAGANA LETTER DA
ã¡ ti 3061 12385 HIRAGANA LETTER TI
ã¢ di 3062 12386 HIRAGANA LETTER DI
ã£ tU 3063 12387 HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL TU
ã¤ tu 3064 12388 HIRAGANA LETTER TU
ã¥ du 3065 12389 HIRAGANA LETTER DU
ã¦ te 3066 12390 HIRAGANA LETTER TE
ã§ de 3067 12391 HIRAGANA LETTER DE
ã¨ to 3068 12392 HIRAGANA LETTER TO
ã© do 3069 12393 HIRAGANA LETTER DO
ãª na 306A 12394 HIRAGANA LETTER NA
ã« ni 306B 12395 HIRAGANA LETTER NI
ã¬ nu 306C 12396 HIRAGANA LETTER NU
ã ne 306D 12397 HIRAGANA LETTER NE
ã® no 306E 12398 HIRAGANA LETTER NO
ã¯ ha 306F 12399 HIRAGANA LETTER HA
ã° ba 3070 12400 HIRAGANA LETTER BA
ã± pa 3071 12401 HIRAGANA LETTER PA
ã² hi 3072 12402 HIRAGANA LETTER HI
ã³ bi 3073 12403 HIRAGANA LETTER BI
ã´ pi 3074 12404 HIRAGANA LETTER PI
ãµ hu 3075 12405 HIRAGANA LETTER HU
ã¶ bu 3076 12406 HIRAGANA LETTER BU
ã· pu 3077 12407 HIRAGANA LETTER PU
ã¸ he 3078 12408 HIRAGANA LETTER HE
ã¹ be 3079 12409 HIRAGANA LETTER BE
ãº pe 307A 12410 HIRAGANA LETTER PE
ã» ho 307B 12411 HIRAGANA LETTER HO
ã¼ bo 307C 12412 HIRAGANA LETTER BO
ã½ po 307D 12413 HIRAGANA LETTER PO
ã¾ ma 307E 12414 HIRAGANA LETTER MA
ã¿ mi 307F 12415 HIRAGANA LETTER MI
ã‚€ mu 3080 12416 HIRAGANA LETTER MU
ã‚ me 3081 12417 HIRAGANA LETTER ME
ã‚‚ mo 3082 12418 HIRAGANA LETTER MO
ã‚ƒ yA 3083 12419 HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL YA
ã‚„ ya 3084 12420 HIRAGANA LETTER YA
ã‚… yU 3085 12421 HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL YU
ã‚† yu 3086 12422 HIRAGANA LETTER YU
ã‚‡ yO 3087 12423 HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL YO
ã‚ˆ yo 3088 12424 HIRAGANA LETTER YO
ã‚‰ ra 3089 12425 HIRAGANA LETTER RA
ã‚Š ri 308A 12426 HIRAGANA LETTER RI
ã‚‹ ru 308B 12427 HIRAGANA LETTER RU
ã‚Œ re 308C 12428 HIRAGANA LETTER RE
ã‚ ro 308D 12429 HIRAGANA LETTER RO
ã‚Ž wA 308E 12430 HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL WA
ã‚ wa 308F 12431 HIRAGANA LETTER WA
ã‚ wi 3090 12432 HIRAGANA LETTER WI
ã‚‘ we 3091 12433 HIRAGANA LETTER WE
ã‚’ wo 3092 12434 HIRAGANA LETTER WO
ã‚“ n5 3093 12435 HIRAGANA LETTER N `
ã‚” vu 3094 12436 HIRAGANA LETTER VU
ã‚› "5 309B 12443 KATAKANA-HIRAGANA VOICED SOUND MARK
ã‚œ 05 309C 12444 KATAKANA-HIRAGANA SEMI-VOICED SOUND MARK
ã‚ *5 309D 12445 HIRAGANA ITERATION MARK
ã‚ž +5 309E 12446 HIRAGANA VOICED ITERATION MARK
ã‚¡ a6 30A1 12449 KATAKANA LETTER SMALL A
ã‚¢ A6 30A2 12450 KATAKANA LETTER A
ã‚£ i6 30A3 12451 KATAKANA LETTER SMALL I
ã‚¤ I6 30A4 12452 KATAKANA LETTER I
ã‚¥ u6 30A5 12453 KATAKANA LETTER SMALL U
ã‚¦ U6 30A6 12454 KATAKANA LETTER U
ã‚§ e6 30A7 12455 KATAKANA LETTER SMALL E
ã‚¨ E6 30A8 12456 KATAKANA LETTER E
ã‚© o6 30A9 12457 KATAKANA LETTER SMALL O
ã‚ª O6 30AA 12458 KATAKANA LETTER O
ã‚« Ka 30AB 12459 KATAKANA LETTER KA

ã‚¬ Ga 30AC 12460 KATAKANA LETTER GA

ã‚ Ki 30AD 12461 KATAKANA LETTER KI
ã‚® Gi 30AE 12462 KATAKANA LETTER GI
ã‚¯ Ku 30AF 12463 KATAKANA LETTER KU
ã‚° Gu 30B0 12464 KATAKANA LETTER GU
ã‚± Ke 30B1 12465 KATAKANA LETTER KE
ã‚² Ge 30B2 12466 KATAKANA LETTER GE
ã‚³ Ko 30B3 12467 KATAKANA LETTER KO
ã‚´ Go 30B4 12468 KATAKANA LETTER GO
ã‚µ Sa 30B5 12469 KATAKANA LETTER SA
ã‚¶ Za 30B6 12470 KATAKANA LETTER ZA
ã‚· Si 30B7 12471 KATAKANA LETTER SI
ã‚¸ Zi 30B8 12472 KATAKANA LETTER ZI
ã‚¹ Su 30B9 12473 KATAKANA LETTER SU
ã‚º Zu 30BA 12474 KATAKANA LETTER ZU
ã‚» Se 30BB 12475 KATAKANA LETTER SE
ã‚¼ Ze 30BC 12476 KATAKANA LETTER ZE
ã‚½ So 30BD 12477 KATAKANA LETTER SO
ã‚¾ Zo 30BE 12478 KATAKANA LETTER ZO
ã‚¿ Ta 30BF 12479 KATAKANA LETTER TA
ãƒ€ Da 30C0 12480 KATAKANA LETTER DA
ãƒ Ti 30C1 12481 KATAKANA LETTER TI
ãƒ‚ Di 30C2 12482 KATAKANA LETTER DI
ãƒƒ TU 30C3 12483 KATAKANA LETTER SMALL TU
ãƒ„ Tu 30C4 12484 KATAKANA LETTER TU
ãƒ… Du 30C5 12485 KATAKANA LETTER DU
ãƒ† Te 30C6 12486 KATAKANA LETTER TE
ãƒ‡ De 30C7 12487 KATAKANA LETTER DE
ãƒˆ To 30C8 12488 KATAKANA LETTER TO
ãƒ‰ Do 30C9 12489 KATAKANA LETTER DO
ãƒŠ Na 30CA 12490 KATAKANA LETTER NA
ãƒ‹ Ni 30CB 12491 KATAKANA LETTER NI
ãƒŒ Nu 30CC 12492 KATAKANA LETTER NU
ãƒ Ne 30CD 12493 KATAKANA LETTER NE
ãƒŽ No 30CE 12494 KATAKANA LETTER NO
ãƒ Ha 30CF 12495 KATAKANA LETTER HA
ãƒ Ba 30D0 12496 KATAKANA LETTER BA
ãƒ‘ Pa 30D1 12497 KATAKANA LETTER PA
ãƒ’ Hi 30D2 12498 KATAKANA LETTER HI
ãƒ“ Bi 30D3 12499 KATAKANA LETTER BI
ãƒ” Pi 30D4 12500 KATAKANA LETTER PI
ãƒ• Hu 30D5 12501 KATAKANA LETTER HU
ãƒ– Bu 30D6 12502 KATAKANA LETTER BU
ãƒ— Pu 30D7 12503 KATAKANA LETTER PU
ãƒ˜ He 30D8 12504 KATAKANA LETTER HE
ãƒ™ Be 30D9 12505 KATAKANA LETTER BE
ãƒš Pe 30DA 12506 KATAKANA LETTER PE
ãƒ› Ho 30DB 12507 KATAKANA LETTER HO
ãƒœ Bo 30DC 12508 KATAKANA LETTER BO
ãƒ Po 30DD 12509 KATAKANA LETTER PO
ãƒž Ma 30DE 12510 KATAKANA LETTER MA
ãƒŸ Mi 30DF 12511 KATAKANA LETTER MI
ãƒ Mu 30E0 12512 KATAKANA LETTER MU
ãƒ¡ Me 30E1 12513 KATAKANA LETTER ME
ãƒ¢ Mo 30E2 12514 KATAKANA LETTER MO
ãƒ£ YA 30E3 12515 KATAKANA LETTER SMALL YA
ãƒ¤ Ya 30E4 12516 KATAKANA LETTER YA
ãƒ¥ YU 30E5 12517 KATAKANA LETTER SMALL YU
ãƒ¦ Yu 30E6 12518 KATAKANA LETTER YU
ãƒ§ YO 30E7 12519 KATAKANA LETTER SMALL YO
ãƒ¨ Yo 30E8 12520 KATAKANA LETTER YO
ãƒ© Ra 30E9 12521 KATAKANA LETTER RA
ãƒª Ri 30EA 12522 KATAKANA LETTER RI
ãƒ« Ru 30EB 12523 KATAKANA LETTER RU
ãƒ¬ Re 30EC 12524 KATAKANA LETTER RE
ãƒ Ro 30ED 12525 KATAKANA LETTER RO
ãƒ® WA 30EE 12526 KATAKANA LETTER SMALL WA
ãƒ¯ Wa 30EF 12527 KATAKANA LETTER WA
ãƒ° Wi 30F0 12528 KATAKANA LETTER WI
ãƒ± We 30F1 12529 KATAKANA LETTER WE
ãƒ² Wo 30F2 12530 KATAKANA LETTER WO
ãƒ³ N6 30F3 12531 KATAKANA LETTER N `
ãƒ´ Vu 30F4 12532 KATAKANA LETTER VU
ãƒµ KA 30F5 12533 KATAKANA LETTER SMALL KA
ãƒ¶ KE 30F6 12534 KATAKANA LETTER SMALL KE
ãƒ· Va 30F7 12535 KATAKANA LETTER VA
ãƒ¸ Vi 30F8 12536 KATAKANA LETTER VI
ãƒ¹ Ve 30F9 12537 KATAKANA LETTER VE
ãƒº Vo 30FA 12538 KATAKANA LETTER VO
ãƒ» .6 30FB 12539 KATAKANA MIDDLE DOT
ãƒ¼ -6 30FC 12540 KATAKANA-HIRAGANA PROLONGED SOUND MARK

ãƒ½ *6 30FD 12541 KATAKANA ITERATION MARK

ãƒ¾ +6 30FE 12542 KATAKANA VOICED ITERATION MARK
ã„… b4 3105 12549 BOPOMOFO LETTER B
ã„† p4 3106 12550 BOPOMOFO LETTER P
ã„‡ m4 3107 12551 BOPOMOFO LETTER M
ã„ˆ f4 3108 12552 BOPOMOFO LETTER F
ã„‰ d4 3109 12553 BOPOMOFO LETTER D
ã„Š t4 310A 12554 BOPOMOFO LETTER T
ã„‹ n4 310B 12555 BOPOMOFO LETTER N `
ã„Œ l4 310C 12556 BOPOMOFO LETTER L
ã„ g4 310D 12557 BOPOMOFO LETTER G
ã„Ž k4 310E 12558 BOPOMOFO LETTER K
ã„ h4 310F 12559 BOPOMOFO LETTER H
ã„ j4 3110 12560 BOPOMOFO LETTER J
ã„‘ q4 3111 12561 BOPOMOFO LETTER Q
ã„’ x4 3112 12562 BOPOMOFO LETTER X
ã„“ zh 3113 12563 BOPOMOFO LETTER ZH
ã„” ch 3114 12564 BOPOMOFO LETTER CH
ã„• sh 3115 12565 BOPOMOFO LETTER SH
ã„– r4 3116 12566 BOPOMOFO LETTER R
ã„— z4 3117 12567 BOPOMOFO LETTER Z
ã„˜ c4 3118 12568 BOPOMOFO LETTER C
ã„™ s4 3119 12569 BOPOMOFO LETTER S
ã„š a4 311A 12570 BOPOMOFO LETTER A
ã„› o4 311B 12571 BOPOMOFO LETTER O
ã„œ e4 311C 12572 BOPOMOFO LETTER E
ã„ž ai 311E 12574 BOPOMOFO LETTER AI
ã„Ÿ ei 311F 12575 BOPOMOFO LETTER EI
ã„ au 3120 12576 BOPOMOFO LETTER AU
ã„¡ ou 3121 12577 BOPOMOFO LETTER OU
ã„¢ an 3122 12578 BOPOMOFO LETTER AN
ã„£ en 3123 12579 BOPOMOFO LETTER EN
ã„¤ aN 3124 12580 BOPOMOFO LETTER ANG
ã„¥ eN 3125 12581 BOPOMOFO LETTER ENG
ã„¦ er 3126 12582 BOPOMOFO LETTER ER
ã„§ i4 3127 12583 BOPOMOFO LETTER I
ã„¨ u4 3128 12584 BOPOMOFO LETTER U
ã„© iu 3129 12585 BOPOMOFO LETTER IU
ã„ª v4 312A 12586 BOPOMOFO LETTER V
ã„« nG 312B 12587 BOPOMOFO LETTER NG
ã„¬ gn 312C 12588 BOPOMOFO LETTER GN
ãˆ 1c 3220 12832 PARENTHESIZED IDEOGRAPH ONE
ãˆ¡ 2c 3221 12833 PARENTHESIZED IDEOGRAPH TWO
ãˆ¢ 3c 3222 12834 PARENTHESIZED IDEOGRAPH THREE
ãˆ£ 4c 3223 12835 PARENTHESIZED IDEOGRAPH FOUR
ãˆ¤ 5c 3224 12836 PARENTHESIZED IDEOGRAPH FIVE
ãˆ¥ 6c 3225 12837 PARENTHESIZED IDEOGRAPH SIX
ãˆ¦ 7c 3226 12838 PARENTHESIZED IDEOGRAPH SEVEN
ãˆ§ 8c 3227 12839 PARENTHESIZED IDEOGRAPH EIGHT
ãˆ¨ 9c 3228 12840 PARENTHESIZED IDEOGRAPH NINE
ï¬€ ff FB00 64256 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FF
ï¬ fi FB01 64257 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FI
ï¬‚ fl FB02 64258 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FL
ï¬… ft FB05 64261 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE LONG S T
ï¬† st FB06 64262 LATIN SMALL LIGATURE ST
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: sponsor
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*sponsor.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2008 Jun 21
SPONSOR VIM DEVELOPMENT *sponsor*

Fixing bugs and adding new features takes a lot of time and effort. To show
your appreciation for the work and motivate Bram and others to continue
working on Vim please send a donation.
Since Bram is back to a paid job the money will now be used to help children
in Uganda. See |uganda|. But at the same time donations increase Bram's
motivation to keep working on Vim!
For the most recent information about sponsoring look on the Vim web site:
http://www.vim.org/sponsor/
More explanations can be found in the |sponsor-faq|.
REGISTERED VIM USER *register*

You can become a registered Vim user by sending at least 10 euro. This works
similar to sponsoring Vim, see |sponsor| above. Registration was made
possible for the situation where your boss or bookkeeper may be willing to
register software, but does not like the terms "sponsoring" and "donation".
More explanations can be found in the |register-faq|.
VOTE FOR FEATURES *vote-for-features*

To give registered Vim users and sponsors an advantage over lurkers they can
vote for the items Bram should work on. How does this voting work?
1. You send at least 10 euro. See below for ways to transfer money
|send-money|.
2. You will be e-mailed a registration key. Enter this key on your account
page on the Vim website. You can easily create an account if you don't
have one yet.
3. You can enter your votes on the voting page. There is a link to that page
on your account page after entering a registration key. Your votes will
be counted for two years.
4. The voting results appear on the results page, which is visible for
everybody: http://www.vim.org/sponsor/vote_results.php
Additionally, once you have sent 100 euro or more in total, your name appears
in the "Vim hall of honour": http://www.vim.org/sponsor/hall_of_honour.php
But only if you enable this on your account page.
HOW TO SEND MONEY *send-money*
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/sponsor.html[2019/03/05 11:41:57 AM]

Credit card Through PayPal, see the PayPal site for information:
https://www.paypal.com/en_US/mrb/pal=XAC62PML3GF8Q
The e-mail address for sending sponsorship money is:
donate@vim.org
The e-mail address for Vim registration is:
register@vim.org
Using Euro is preferred, other currencies are also accepted.
In Euro countries a bank transfer is preferred, this has lower
costs.
Other methods See |iccf-donations|.
Include "Vim sponsor" or "Vim registration" in the comment of
your money transfer. Send me an e-mail that mentions the
amount you transferred if you want to vote for features and
show others you are a registered Vim user or sponsor.
Cash Small amounts can be sent with ordinary mail. Put something
around the money, so that it's not noticeable from the
outside. Mention your e-mail address if you want to vote for
features and show others you are a registered Vim user or
sponsor.
You can use this permanent address:
Bram Moolenaar
Finsterruetihof 1
8134 Adliswil
Switzerland
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS *sponsor-faq* *register-faq*

Why should I give money?
If you do not show your appreciation for Vim then Bram will be less motivated
to fix bugs and add new features. He will do something else instead.
How much money should I send?

That is up to you. The more you give, the more children will be helped.
An indication for individuals that use Vim at home: 10 Euro per year. For
professional use: 30 Euro per year per person. Send at least 10 euro to be
able to vote for features.
What do I get in return?

Each registered Vim user and sponsor who donates at least 10 euro will be able
to vote for new features. These votes will give priority to the work on Vim.
The votes are valid for two years. The more money you send the more your
votes count |votes-counted|.
If you send 100 Euro or more in total you will be mentioned on the "Vim hall
of honour" page on the Vim web site. But only if you enable this on your
account page. You can also select whether the amount will be visible.
How do I become a Vim sponsor or registered Vim user?

Send money, as explained above |send-money| and include your e-mail address.
When the money has been received you will receive a unique registration key.
This key can be used on the Vim website to activate voting on your Vim
account. You will then get an extra page where you can vote for features and
choose whether others will be able to see that you donated. There is a link
to this page on your "My Account" page.
What is the difference between sponsoring and registering?

It has a different name. Use the term "registration" if your boss doesn't
like "sponsoring" or "donation". The benefits are the same.
How can I send money?

See |send-money|. Check the web site for the most recent information:
http://www.vim.org/sponsor/

Why don't you use the SourceForge donation system?

SourceForge takes 5% of the donations for themselves. If you want to support
SourceForge you can send money to them directly.
I cannot afford to send money, may I still use Vim?

Yes.
I did not register Vim, can I use all available features?

Yes.
I noticed a bug, do I need to register before I can report it?

No, suggestions for improving Vim can always be given. For improvements use
the developer |maillist|, for reporting bugs see |bugs|.
How are my votes counted? *votes-counted*

You may vote when you send 10 euro or more. You can enter up to ten votes.
You can select the same item several times to give it more points. You can
also enter three counter votes, these count as negative points.
When you send 30 euro or more the points are doubled. Above 100 euro they
count four times, above 300 euro they count six times, above 1000 euro ten
times.
Can I change my votes?

You can change your votes any time you like, up to two years after you
sent money. The points will be counted right away.
Can I add an item to vote on?

Not directly. You can suggest items to vote on to Bram. He will consider
fitting your item into the list.
How about Charityware?

Currently the Vim donations go to |uganda| anyway. Thus it doesn't matter if
you sponsor Vim or ICCF. Except that Vim sponsoring will allow you to vote
for features.
I donated $$$, now please add feature XYZ!

There is no direct relation between your donation and the work Bram does.
Otherwise you would be paying for work and we would have to pay tax over the
donation. If you want to hire Bram for specific work, contact him directly,
don't use the donation system.
Are the donations tax deductible?

That depends on your country. The donations to help the children in |Uganda|
are tax deductible in Holland, Germany, Canada and in the USA. See the ICCF
website http://iccf-holland.org/donate.html. You must send an e-mail to Bram
to let him know that the donation is done because of the use of Vim.
Can you send me a bill?

No, because there is no relation between the money you send and the work that
is done. But a receipt is possible.

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: starting
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*starting.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Sep 18
Starting Vim *starting*

1. Vim arguments |vim-arguments|
2. Vim on the Amiga |starting-amiga|
3. Running eVim |evim-keys|
4. Initialization |initialization|
5. $VIM and $VIMRUNTIME |$VIM|
6. Suspending |suspend|
7. Saving settings |save-settings|
8. Views and Sessions |views-sessions|
9. The viminfo file |viminfo-file|
==============================================================================
1. Vim arguments *vim-arguments*
Most often, Vim is started to edit a single file with the command
vim filename *-vim*

More generally, Vim is started with:
vim [option | filename] ..
Option arguments and file name arguments can be mixed, and any number of them
can be given. However, watch out for options that take an argument.
For compatibility with various Vi versions, see |cmdline-arguments|.
Exactly one out of the following five items may be used to choose how to
start editing:
*-file* *---*
filename One or more file names. The first one will be the current
file and read into the buffer. The cursor will be positioned
on the first line of the buffer.
To avoid a file name starting with a '-' being interpreted as
an option, precede the arglist with "--", e.g.:
vim -- -filename
All arguments after the "--" will be interpreted as file names,
no other options or "+command" argument can follow.
*--*
- This argument can mean two things, depending on whether Ex
mode is to be used.
Starting in Normal mode:
vim -
ex -v -
Start editing a new buffer, which is filled with text
that is read from stdin. The commands that would normally be
read from stdin will now be read from stderr. Example:
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/starting.html[2019/03/05 11:41:58 AM]

find . -name "*.c" -print | vim -

The buffer will be marked modified, because it contains text
that needs to be saved. Except when in readonly mode, then
the buffer is not marked modified. Example:
ls | view -
Starting in Ex mode:
ex -
vim -e -
exim -
vim -E
Start editing in silent mode. See |-s-ex|.
*-t* *-tag*
-t {tag} A tag. "tag" is looked up in the tags file, the associated
file becomes the current file, and the associated command is
executed. Mostly this is used for C programs, in which case
"tag" often is a function name. The effect is that the file
containing that function becomes the current file and the
cursor is positioned on the start of the function (see
|tags|).
*-q* *-qf*
-q [errorfile] QuickFix mode. The file with the name [errorfile] is read
and the first error is displayed. See |quickfix|.
If [errorfile] is not given, the 'errorfile' option is used
for the file name. See 'errorfile' for the default value.
{not in Vi}
(nothing) Without one of the four items above, Vim will start editing a
new buffer. It's empty and doesn't have a file name.
The startup mode can be changed by using another name instead of "vim", which
is equal to giving options:
ex vim -e Start in Ex mode (see |Ex-mode|). *ex*
exim vim -E Start in improved Ex mode (see |Ex-mode|). *exim*
(normally not installed)
view vim -R Start in read-only mode (see |-R|). *view*
gvim vim -g Start the GUI (see |gui|). *gvim*
gex vim -eg Start the GUI in Ex mode. *gex*
gview vim -Rg Start the GUI in read-only mode. *gview*
rvim vim -Z Like "vim", but in restricted mode (see |-Z|) *rvim*
rview vim -RZ Like "view", but in restricted mode. *rview*
rgvim vim -gZ Like "gvim", but in restricted mode. *rgvim*
rgview vim -RgZ Like "gview", but in restricted mode. *rgview*
evim vim -y Easy Vim: set 'insertmode' (see |-y|) *evim*
eview vim -yR Like "evim" in read-only mode *eview*
vimdiff vim -d Start in diff mode |diff-mode|
gvimdiff vim -gd Start in diff mode |diff-mode|
Additional characters may follow, they are ignored. For example, you can have
"gvim-5" to start the GUI. You must have an executable by that name then, of
course.
On Unix, you would normally have one executable called Vim, and links from the
different startup-names to that executable. If your system does not support
links and you do not want to have several copies of the executable, you could
use an alias instead. For example:
alias view vim -R
alias gvim vim -g
*startup-options*
The option arguments may be given in any order. Single-letter options can be

combined after one dash. There can be no option arguments after the "--"
argument.
On VMS all option arguments are assumed to be lowercase, unless preceded with
a slash. Thus "-R" means recovery and "-/R" readonly.
--help *-h* *--help*

-h Give usage (help) message and exit. {not in Vi}
See |info-message| about capturing the text.
*--version*
--version Print version information and exit. Same output as for
|:version| command. {not in Vi}
See |info-message| about capturing the text.
*--noplugin*
--noplugin Skip loading plugins. Resets the 'loadplugins' option.
{not in Vi}
Note that the |-u| argument may also disable loading plugins:
argument load vimrc files load plugins
(nothing) yes yes
-u NONE no no
-u NORC no yes
--noplugin yes no
--startuptime {fname} *--startuptime*

During startup write timing messages to the file {fname}.
This can be used to find out where time is spent while loading
your .vimrc, plugins and opening the first file.
When {fname} already exists new messages are appended.
(Only available when compiled with the |+startuptime|
feature).
*--literal*
--literal Take file names literally, don't expand wildcards. Not needed
for Unix, because Vim always takes file names literally (the
shell expands wildcards).
Applies to all the names, also the ones that come before this
argument.
*-+*
+[num] The cursor will be positioned on line "num" for the first
file being edited. If "num" is missing, the cursor will be
positioned on the last line.
*-+/*
+/{pat} The cursor will be positioned on the first line containing
"pat" in the first file being edited (see |pattern| for the
available search patterns).
+{command} *-+c* *-c*

-c {command} {command} will be executed after the first file has been
read (and after autocommands and modelines for that file have
been processed). "command" is interpreted as an Ex command.
If the "command" contains spaces, it must be enclosed in
double quotes (this depends on the shell that is used).
Example:
vim "+set si" main.c
vim "+find stdio.h"
vim -c "set ff=dos" -c wq mine.mak
Note: You can use up to 10 "+" or "-c" arguments in a Vim
command. They are executed in the order given. A "-S"
argument counts as a "-c" argument as well.
{Vi only allows one command}
--cmd {command} *--cmd*

{command} will be executed before processing any vimrc file.
Otherwise it acts like -c {command}. You can use up to 10 of
these commands, independently from "-c" commands.

{not in Vi}
*-S*
-S {file} The {file} will be sourced after the first file has been read.
This is an easy way to do the equivalent of:
-c "source {file}"
It can be mixed with "-c" arguments and repeated like "-c".
The limit of 10 "-c" arguments applies here as well.
{file} cannot start with a "-".
{not in Vi}
-S Works like "-S Session.vim". Only when used as the last
argument or when another "-" option follows.
*-r*
-r Recovery mode. Without a file name argument, a list of
existing swap files is given. With a file name, a swap file
is read to recover a crashed editing session. See
|crash-recovery|.
*-L*
-L Same as -r. {only in some versions of Vi: "List recoverable
edit sessions"}
*-R*
-R Readonly mode. The 'readonly' option will be set for all the
files being edited. You can still edit the buffer, but will
be prevented from accidentally overwriting a file. If you
forgot that you are in View mode and did make some changes,
you can overwrite a file by adding an exclamation mark to
the Ex command, as in ":w!". The 'readonly' option can be
reset with ":set noro" (see the options chapter, |options|).
Subsequent edits will not be done in readonly mode. Calling
the executable "view" has the same effect as the -R argument.
The 'updatecount' option will be set to 10000, meaning that
the swap file will not be updated automatically very often.
*-m*
-m Modifications not allowed to be written. The 'write' option
will be reset, so that writing files is disabled. However,
the 'write' option can be set to enable writing again.
{not in Vi}
*-M*
-M Modifications not allowed. The 'modifiable' option will be
reset, so that changes are not allowed. The 'write' option
will be reset, so that writing files is disabled. However,
the 'modifiable' and 'write' options can be set to enable
changes and writing.
{not in Vi}
*-Z* *restricted-mode* *E145*

-Z Restricted mode. All commands that make use of an external
shell are disabled. This includes suspending with CTRL-Z,
":sh", filtering, the system() function, backtick expansion,
delete(), rename(), mkdir(), writefile(), libcall(), etc.
{not in Vi}
*-g*
-g Start Vim in GUI mode. See |gui|. {not in Vi}
*-v*
-v Start Ex in Vi mode. Only makes a difference when the
executable is called "ex" or "gvim". For gvim the GUI is not
started if possible.
*-e*
-e Start Vim in Ex mode |Q|. Only makes a difference when the
executable is not called "ex".

*-E*
-E Start Vim in improved Ex mode |gQ|. Only makes a difference
when the executable is not called "exim".
{not in Vi}
*-s-ex*
-s Silent or batch mode. Only when Vim was started as "ex" or
when preceded with the "-e" argument. Otherwise see |-s|,
which does take an argument while this use of "-s" doesn't.
To be used when Vim is used to execute Ex commands from a file
instead of a terminal. Switches off most prompts and
informative messages. Also warnings and error messages.
The output of these commands is displayed (to stdout):
:print
:list
:number
:set to display option values.
When 'verbose' is non-zero messages are printed (for
debugging, to stderr).
'term' and $TERM are not used.
If Vim appears to be stuck try typing "qa!<Enter>". You don't
get a prompt thus you can't see Vim is waiting for you to type
something.
Initializations are skipped (except the ones given with the
"-u" argument).
Example:
vim -e -s < thefilter thefile
*-b*
-b Binary mode. File I/O will only recognize <NL> to separate
lines. The 'expandtab' option will be reset. The 'textwidth'
option is set to 0. 'modeline' is reset. The 'binary' option
is set. This is done after reading the vimrc/exrc files but
before reading any file in the arglist. See also
|edit-binary|. {not in Vi}
*-l*
-l Lisp mode. Sets the 'lisp' and 'showmatch' options on.
*-A*
-A Arabic mode. Sets the 'arabic' option on. (Only when
compiled with the |+arabic| features (which include
|+rightleft|), otherwise Vim gives an error message
and exits.) {not in Vi}
*-F*
-F Farsi mode. Sets the 'fkmap' and 'rightleft' options on.
(Only when compiled with |+rightleft| and |+farsi| features,
otherwise Vim gives an error message and exits.) {not in Vi}
*-H*
-H Hebrew mode. Sets the 'hkmap' and 'rightleft' options on.
(Only when compiled with the |+rightleft| feature, otherwise
Vim gives an error message and exits.) {not in Vi}
*-V* *verbose*
-V[N] Verbose. Sets the 'verbose' option to [N] (default: 10).
Messages will be given for each file that is ":source"d and
for reading or writing a viminfo file. Can be used to find
out what is happening upon startup and exit. {not in Vi}
Example:
vim -V8 foobar
-V[N]{filename}
Like -V and set 'verbosefile' to {filename}. The result is
that messages are not displayed but written to the file
{filename}. {filename} must not start with a digit.
Example:
vim -V20vimlog foobar
*-D*

-D Debugging. Go to debugging mode when executing the first

command from a script. |debug-mode|
{not in Vi}
*-C*
-C Compatible mode. Sets the 'compatible' option. You can use
this to get 'compatible', even though a .vimrc file exists.
Keep in mind that the command ":set nocompatible" in some
plugin or startup script overrules this, so you may end up
with 'nocompatible' anyway. To find out, use:
:verbose set compatible?
Several plugins won't work with 'compatible' set. You may
want to set it after startup this way:
vim "+set cp" filename
Also see |compatible-default|. {not in Vi}
*-N*
-N Not compatible mode. Resets the 'compatible' option. You can
use this to get 'nocompatible', when there is no .vimrc file
or when using "-u NONE".
Also see |compatible-default|. {not in Vi}
*-y* *easy*
-y Easy mode. Implied for |evim| and |eview|. Starts with
'insertmode' set and behaves like a click-and-type editor.
This sources the script $VIMRUNTIME/evim.vim. Mappings are
set up to work like most click-and-type editors, see
|evim-keys|. The GUI is started when available.
{not in Vi}
*-n*
-n No swap file will be used. Recovery after a crash will be
impossible. Handy if you want to view or edit a file on a
very slow medium (e.g., a floppy).
Can also be done with ":set updatecount=0". You can switch it
on again by setting the 'updatecount' option to some value,
e.g., ":set uc=100".
NOTE: Don't combine -n with -b, making -nb, because that has a
different meaning: |-nb|.
'updatecount' is set to 0 AFTER executing commands from a
vimrc file, but before the GUI initializations. Thus it
overrides a setting for 'updatecount' in a vimrc file, but not
in a gvimrc file. See |startup|.
When you want to reduce accesses to the disk (e.g., for a
laptop), don't use "-n", but set 'updatetime' and
'updatecount' to very big numbers, and type ":preserve" when
you want to save your work. This way you keep the possibility
for crash recovery.
{not in Vi}
*-o*
-o[N] Open N windows, split horizontally. If [N] is not given,
one window is opened for every file given as argument. If
there is not enough room, only the first few files get a
window. If there are more windows than arguments, the last
few windows will be editing an empty file.
{not in Vi}
*-O*
-O[N] Open N windows, split vertically. Otherwise it's like -o.
If both the -o and the -O option are given, the last one on
the command line determines how the windows will be split.
{not in Vi}
*-p*
-p[N] Open N tab pages. If [N] is not given, one tab page is opened
for every file given as argument. The maximum is set with
'tabpagemax' pages (default 10). If there are more tab pages
than arguments, the last few tab pages will be editing an
empty file. Also see |tabpage|.
{not in Vi}

*-T*
-T {terminal} Set the terminal type to "terminal". This influences the
codes that Vim will send to your terminal. This is normally
not needed, because Vim will be able to find out what type
of terminal you are using. (See |terminal-info|.) {not in Vi}
*-d*
-d Start in diff mode, like |vimdiff|.
{not in Vi} {not available when compiled without the |+diff|
feature}
-d {device} Only on the Amiga and when not compiled with the |+diff|
feature. Works like "-dev".
*-dev*
-dev {device} Only on the Amiga: The {device} is opened to be used for
editing.
Normally you would use this to set the window position and
size: "-d con:x/y/width/height", e.g.,
"-d con:30/10/600/150". But you can also use it to start
editing on another device, e.g., AUX:. {not in Vi}
*-f*
-f Amiga: Do not restart Vim to open a new window. This
option should be used when Vim is started by a program that
will wait for the edit session to finish (e.g., mail or
readnews). See |amiga-window|.
GUI: Do not disconnect from the program that started Vim.
'f' stands for "foreground". If omitted, the GUI forks a new
process and exits the current one. "-f" should be used when
gvim is started by a program that will wait for the edit
session to finish (e.g., mail or readnews). If you want gvim
never to fork, include 'f' in 'guioptions' in your |gvimrc|.
Careful: You can use "-gf" to start the GUI in the foreground,
but "-fg" is used to specify the foreground color. |gui-fork|
{not in Vi}
*--nofork*
--nofork GUI: Do not fork. Same as |-f|.
*-u* *E282*
-u {vimrc} The file {vimrc} is read for initializations. Most other
initializations are skipped; see |initialization|. This can
be used to start Vim in a special mode, with special
mappings and settings. A shell alias can be used to make
this easy to use. For example:
alias vimc vim -u ~/.c_vimrc !*
Also consider using autocommands; see |autocommand|.
When {vimrc} is equal to "NONE" (all uppercase), all
initializations from files and environment variables are
skipped, including reading the |gvimrc| file when the GUI
starts. Loading plugins is also skipped.
When {vimrc} is equal to "NORC" (all uppercase), this has the
same effect as "NONE", but loading plugins is not skipped.
Using the "-u" argument has the side effect that the
'compatible' option will be on by default. This can have
unexpected effects. See |'compatible'|.
{not in Vi}
*-U* *E230*
-U {gvimrc} The file {gvimrc} is read for initializations when the GUI
starts. Other GUI initializations are skipped. When {gvimrc}
is equal to "NONE", no file is read for GUI initializations at
all. |gui-init|
Exception: Reading the system-wide menu file is always done.
{not in Vi}
*-i*
-i {viminfo} The file "viminfo" is used instead of the default viminfo
file. If the name "NONE" is used (all uppercase), no viminfo
file is read or written, even if 'viminfo' is set or when
":rv" or ":wv" are used. See also |viminfo-file|.
{not in Vi}

*-x*
-x Use encryption to read/write files. Will prompt for a key,
which is then stored in the 'key' option. All writes will
then use this key to encrypt the text. The '-x' argument is
not needed when reading a file, because there is a check if
the file that is being read has been encrypted, and Vim asks
for a key automatically. |encryption|
*-X*
-X Do not try connecting to the X server to get the current
window title and copy/paste using the X clipboard. This
avoids a long startup time when running Vim in a terminal
emulator and the connection to the X server is slow.
See |--startuptime| to find out if affects you.
Only makes a difference on Unix or VMS, when compiled with the
|+X11| feature. Otherwise it's ignored.
To disable the connection only for specific terminals, see the
'clipboard' option.
When the X11 Session Management Protocol (XSMP) handler has
been built in, the -X option also disables that connection as
it, too, may have undesirable delays.
When the connection is desired later anyway (e.g., for
client-server messages), call the |serverlist()| function.
This does not enable the XSMP handler though.
{not in Vi}
*-s*
-s {scriptin} The script file "scriptin" is read. The characters in the
file are interpreted as if you had typed them. The same can
be done with the command ":source! {scriptin}". If the end
of the file is reached before the editor exits, further
characters are read from the keyboard. Only works when not
started in Ex mode, see |-s-ex|. See also |complex-repeat|.
{not in Vi}
*-w_nr*
-w {number}
-w{number} Set the 'window' option to {number}.
*-w*
-w {scriptout} All the characters that you type are recorded in the file
"scriptout", until you exit Vim. This is useful if you want
to create a script file to be used with "vim -s" or
":source!". When the "scriptout" file already exists, new
characters are appended. See also |complex-repeat|.
{scriptout} cannot start with a digit.
{not in Vi}
*-W*
-W {scriptout} Like -w, but do not append, overwrite an existing file.
{not in Vi}
--remote [+{cmd}] {file} ...
Open the {file} in another Vim that functions as a server.
Any non-file arguments must come before this.
See |--remote|. {not in Vi}
--remote-silent [+{cmd}] {file} ...
Like --remote, but don't complain if there is no server.
See |--remote-silent|. {not in Vi}
--remote-wait [+{cmd}] {file} ...
Like --remote, but wait for the server to finish editing the
file(s).
See |--remote-wait|. {not in Vi}
--remote-wait-silent [+{cmd}] {file} ...
Like --remote-wait, but don't complain if there is no server.
See |--remote-wait-silent|. {not in Vi}
--servername {name}
Specify the name of the Vim server to send to or to become.
See |--servername|. {not in Vi}

--remote-send {keys}
Send {keys} to a Vim server and exit.
See |--remote-send|. {not in Vi}
--remote-expr {expr}
Evaluate {expr} in another Vim that functions as a server.
The result is printed on stdout.
See |--remote-expr|. {not in Vi}
--serverlist Output a list of Vim server names and exit. See
|--serverlist|. {not in Vi}
--socketid {id} *--socketid*

GTK+ GUI Vim only. Make gvim try to use GtkPlug mechanism, so
that it runs inside another window. See |gui-gtk-socketid|
for details. {not in Vi}
--windowid {id} *--windowid*

Win32 GUI Vim only. Make gvim try to use the window {id} as a
parent, so that it runs inside that window. See
|gui-w32-windowid| for details. {not in Vi}
--echo-wid *--echo-wid*
GTK+ GUI Vim only. Make gvim echo the Window ID on stdout,
which can be used to run gvim in a kpart widget. The format
of the output is:
WID: 12345\n
{not in Vi}
--role {role} *--role*

GTK+ 2 GUI only. Set the role of the main window to {role}.
The window role can be used by a window manager to uniquely
identify a window, in order to restore window placement and
such. The --role argument is passed automatically when
restoring the session on login. See |gui-gnome-session|
{not in Vi}
-P {parent-title} *-P* *MDI* *E671* *E672*

Win32 only: Specify the title of the parent application. When
possible, Vim will run in an MDI window inside the
application.
{parent-title} must appear in the window title of the parent
application. Make sure that it is specific enough.
Note that the implementation is still primitive. It won't
work with all applications and the menu doesn't work.
-nb *-nb*
-nb={fname}
-nb:{hostname}:{addr}:{password}
Attempt connecting to Netbeans and become an editor server for
it. The second form specifies a file to read connection info
from. The third form specifies the hostname, address and
password for connecting to Netbeans. |netbeans-run|
{only available when compiled with the |+netbeans_intg|
feature; if not then -nb will make Vim exit}
If the executable is called "view", Vim will start in Readonly mode. This is
useful if you can make a hard or symbolic link from "view" to "vim".
Starting in Readonly mode can also be done with "vim -R".
If the executable is called "ex", Vim will start in "Ex" mode. This means it
will accept only ":" commands. But when the "-v" argument is given, Vim will
start in Normal mode anyway.
Additional arguments are available on unix like systems when compiled with
X11 GUI support. See |gui-resources|.
==============================================================================
2. Vim on the Amiga *starting-amiga*
Starting Vim from the Workbench *workbench*

Vim can be started from the Workbench by clicking on its icon twice. It will
then start with an empty buffer.
Vim can be started to edit one or more files by using a "Project" icon. The
"Default Tool" of the icon must be the full pathname of the Vim executable.
The name of the ".info" file must be the same as the name of the text file.
By clicking on this icon twice, Vim will be started with the file name as
current file name, which will be read into the buffer (if it exists). You can
edit multiple files by pressing the shift key while clicking on icons, and
clicking twice on the last one. The "Default Tool" for all these icons must
be the same.
It is not possible to give arguments to Vim, other than file names, from the
workbench.
Vim window *amiga-window*

Vim will run in the CLI window where it was started. If Vim was started with
the "run" or "runback" command, or if Vim was started from the workbench, it
will open a window of its own.
Technical detail:
To open the new window a little trick is used. As soon as Vim
recognizes that it does not run in a normal CLI window, it will
create a script file in "t:". This script file contains the same
command as the one Vim was started with, and an "endcli" command.
This script file is then executed with a "newcli" command (the "c:run"
and "c:newcli" commands are required for this to work). The script
file will hang around until reboot, or until you delete it. This
method is required to get the ":sh" and ":!" commands to work
correctly. But when Vim was started with the -f option (foreground
mode), this method is not used. The reason for this is that
when a program starts Vim with the -f option it will wait for Vim to
exit. With the script trick, the calling program does not know when
Vim exits. The -f option can be used when Vim is started by a mail
program which also waits for the edit session to finish. As a
consequence, the ":sh" and ":!" commands are not available when the
-f option is used.
Vim will automatically recognize the window size and react to window
resizing. Under Amiga DOS 1.3, it is advised to use the fastfonts program,
"FF", to speed up display redrawing.
==============================================================================
3. Running eVim *evim-keys*
EVim runs Vim as click-and-type editor. This is very unlike the original Vi
idea. But it helps for people that don't use Vim often enough to learn the
commands. Hopefully they will find out that learning to use Normal mode
commands will make their editing much more effective.
In Evim these options are changed from their default value:
:set nocompatible Use Vim improvements
:set insertmode Remain in Insert mode most of the time
:set hidden Keep invisible buffers loaded
:set backup Keep backup files (not for VMS)
:set backspace=2 Backspace over everything
:set autoindent auto-indent new lines
:set history=50 keep 50 lines of Ex commands
:set ruler show the cursor position
:set incsearch show matches halfway typing a pattern
:set mouse=a use the mouse in all modes
:set hlsearch highlight all matches for a search pattern
:set whichwrap+=<,>,[,] <Left> and <Right> wrap around line breaks
:set guioptions-=a non-Unix only: don't do auto-select
Key mappings:
<Down> moves by screen lines rather than file lines
<Up> idem
Q does "gq", formatting, instead of Ex mode
<BS> in Visual mode: deletes the selection
CTRL-X in Visual mode: Cut to clipboard
<S-Del> idem
CTRL-C in Visual mode: Copy to clipboard
<C-Insert> idem
CTRL-V Pastes from the clipboard (in any mode)
<S-Insert> idem

CTRL-Q do what CTRL-V used to do

CTRL-Z undo
CTRL-Y redo
<M-Space> system menu
CTRL-A select all
<C-Tab> next window, CTRL-W w
<C-F4> close window, CTRL-W c
Additionally:
- ":behave mswin" is used |:behave|
- syntax highlighting is enabled
- filetype detection is enabled, filetype plugins and indenting is enabled
- in a text file 'textwidth' is set to 78
One hint: If you want to go to Normal mode to be able to type a sequence of
commands, use CTRL-L. |i_CTRL-L|
==============================================================================
4. Initialization *initialization* *startup*
This section is about the non-GUI version of Vim. See |gui-fork| for
additional initialization when starting the GUI.
At startup, Vim checks environment variables and files and sets values
accordingly. Vim proceeds in this order:
1. Set the 'shell' and 'term' option *SHELL* *COMSPEC* *TERM*

The environment variable SHELL, if it exists, is used to set the
'shell' option. On MS-DOS and Win32, the COMSPEC variable is used
if SHELL is not set.
The environment variable TERM, if it exists, is used to set the 'term'
option. However, 'term' will change later when starting the GUI (step
8 below).
2. Process the arguments
The options and file names from the command that start Vim are
inspected. Buffers are created for all files (but not loaded yet).
The |-V| argument can be used to display or log what happens next,
useful for debugging the initializations.
3. Execute Ex commands, from environment variables and/or files
An environment variable is read as one Ex command line, where multiple
commands must be separated with '|' or "<NL>".
*vimrc* *exrc*
A file that contains initialization commands is called a "vimrc" file.
Each line in a vimrc file is executed as an Ex command line. It is
sometimes also referred to as "exrc" file. They are the same type of
file, but "exrc" is what Vi always used, "vimrc" is a Vim specific
name. Also see |vimrc-intro|.
Recommended place for your personal initializations:
Unix $HOME/.vimrc
OS/2 $HOME/.vimrc or $VIM/.vimrc (or _vimrc)
MS-DOS and Win32 $HOME/_vimrc or $VIM/_vimrc
Amiga s:.vimrc or $VIM/.vimrc
If Vim was started with "-u filename", the file "filename" is used.
All following initializations until 4. are skipped.
"vim -u NORC" can be used to skip these initializations without
reading a file. "vim -u NONE" also skips loading plugins. |-u|
If Vim was started in Ex mode with the "-s" argument, all following
initializations until 4. are skipped. Only the "-u" option is
interpreted.
*evim.vim*
a. If vim was started as |evim| or |eview| or with the |-y| argument, the
script $VIMRUNTIME/evim.vim will be loaded.
*system-vimrc*
b. For Unix, MS-DOS, MS-Windows, OS/2, VMS, Macintosh, RISC-OS and Amiga
the system vimrc file is read for initializations. The path of this
file is shown with the ":version" command. Mostly it's "$VIM/vimrc".
Note that this file is ALWAYS read in 'compatible' mode, since the
automatic resetting of 'compatible' is only done later. Add a ":set
nocp" command if you like.
For the Macintosh the $VIMRUNTIME/macmap.vim is read.

*VIMINIT* *.vimrc* *_vimrc* *EXINIT* *.exrc* *_exrc* *$MYVIMRC*

c. Four places are searched for initializations. The first that exists
is used, the others are ignored. The $MYVIMRC environment variable is
set to the file that was first found, unless $MYVIMRC was already set
and when using VIMINIT.
- The environment variable VIMINIT (see also |compatible-default|) (*)
The value of $VIMINIT is used as an Ex command line.
- The user vimrc file(s):
"$HOME/.vimrc" (for Unix and OS/2) (*)
"s:.vimrc" (for Amiga) (*)
"home:.vimrc" (for Amiga) (*)
"$VIM/.vimrc" (for OS/2 and Amiga) (*)
"$HOME/_vimrc" (for MS-DOS and Win32) (*)
"$VIM/_vimrc" (for MS-DOS and Win32) (*)
Note: For Unix, OS/2 and Amiga, when ".vimrc" does not exist,
"_vimrc" is also tried, in case an MS-DOS compatible file
system is used. For MS-DOS and Win32 ".vimrc" is checked
after "_vimrc", in case long file names are used.
Note: For MS-DOS and Win32, "$HOME" is checked first. If no
"_vimrc" or ".vimrc" is found there, "$VIM" is tried.
See |$VIM| for when $VIM is not set.
- The environment variable EXINIT.
The value of $EXINIT is used as an Ex command line.
- The user exrc file(s). Same as for the user vimrc file, but with
"vimrc" replaced by "exrc". But only one of ".exrc" and "_exrc" is
used, depending on the system. And without the (*)!
d. If the 'exrc' option is on (which is not the default), the current
directory is searched for three files. The first that exists is used,
the others are ignored.
- The file ".vimrc" (for Unix, Amiga and OS/2) (*)
"_vimrc" (for MS-DOS and Win32) (*)
- The file "_vimrc" (for Unix, Amiga and OS/2) (*)
".vimrc" (for MS-DOS and Win32) (*)
- The file ".exrc" (for Unix, Amiga and OS/2)
"_exrc" (for MS-DOS and Win32)
(*) Using this file or environment variable will cause 'compatible' to be
off by default. See |compatible-default|.
4. Load the plugin scripts. *load-plugins*

This does the same as the command:
:runtime! plugin/**/*.vim
The result is that all directories in the 'runtimepath' option will be
searched for the "plugin" sub-directory and all files ending in ".vim"
will be sourced (in alphabetical order per directory), also in
subdirectories.
Loading plugins won't be done when:
- The 'loadplugins' option was reset in a vimrc file.
- The |--noplugin| command line argument is used.
- The "-u NONE" command line argument is used |-u|.
- When Vim was compiled without the |+eval| feature.
Note that using "-c 'set noloadplugins'"' doesn't work, because the
commands from the command line have not been executed yet. You can
use "--cmd 'set noloadplugins'"' |--cmd|.
5. Set 'shellpipe' and 'shellredir'
The 'shellpipe' and 'shellredir' options are set according to the
value of the 'shell' option, unless they have been set before.
This means that Vim will figure out the values of 'shellpipe' and
'shellredir' for you, unless you have set them yourself.
6. Set 'updatecount' to zero, if "-n" command argument used
7. Set binary options
If the "-b" flag was given to Vim, the options for binary editing will
be set now. See |-b|.
8. Perform GUI initializations
Only when starting "gvim", the GUI initializations will be done. See
|gui-init|.
9. Read the viminfo file
If the 'viminfo' option is not empty, the viminfo file is read. See
|viminfo-file|.
10. Read the quickfix file

If the "-q" flag was given to Vim, the quickfix file is read. If this
fails, Vim exits.
11. Open all windows
When the |-o| flag was given, windows will be opened (but not
displayed yet).
When the |-p| flag was given, tab pages will be created (but not
displayed yet).
When switching screens, it happens now. Redrawing starts.
If the "-q" flag was given to Vim, the first error is jumped to.
Buffers for all windows will be loaded.
12. Execute startup commands
If a "-t" flag was given to Vim, the tag is jumped to.
The commands given with the |-c| and |+cmd| arguments are executed.
The starting flag is reset, has("vim_starting") will now return zero.
If the 'insertmode' option is set, Insert mode is entered.
The |VimEnter| autocommands are executed.
Some hints on using initializations:
Standard setup:
Create a vimrc file to set the default settings and mappings for all your edit
sessions. Put it in a place so that it will be found by 3b:
~/.vimrc (Unix and OS/2)
s:.vimrc (Amiga)
$VIM\_vimrc (MS-DOS and Win32)
Note that creating a vimrc file will cause the 'compatible' option to be off
by default. See |compatible-default|.
Local setup:
Put all commands that you need for editing a specific directory only into a
vimrc file and place it in that directory under the name ".vimrc" ("_vimrc"
for MS-DOS and Win32). NOTE: To make Vim look for these special files you
have to turn on the option 'exrc'. See |trojan-horse| too.
System setup:
This only applies if you are managing a Unix system with several users and
want to set the defaults for all users. Create a vimrc file with commands
for default settings and mappings and put it in the place that is given with
the ":version" command.
Saving the current state of Vim to a file:
Whenever you have changed values of options or when you have created a
mapping, then you may want to save them in a vimrc file for later use. See
|save-settings| about saving the current state of settings to a file.
Avoiding setup problems for Vi users:
Vi uses the variable EXINIT and the file "~/.exrc". So if you do not want to
interfere with Vi, then use the variable VIMINIT and the file "vimrc" instead.
Amiga environment variables:
On the Amiga, two types of environment variables exist. The ones set with the
DOS 1.3 (or later) setenv command are recognized. See the AmigaDos 1.3
manual. The environment variables set with the old Manx Set command (before
version 5.0) are not recognized.
MS-DOS line separators:
On MS-DOS-like systems (MS-DOS itself, Win32, and OS/2), Vim assumes that all
the vimrc files have <CR> <NL> pairs as line separators. This will give
problems if you have a file with only <NL>s and have a line like
":map xx yy^M". The trailing ^M will be ignored.
*compatible-default*
When Vim starts, the 'compatible' option is on. This will be used when Vim
starts its initializations. But as soon as a user vimrc file is found, or a
vimrc file in the current directory, or the "VIMINIT" environment variable is
set, it will be set to 'nocompatible'. This has the side effect of setting or
resetting other options (see 'compatible'). But only the options that have
not been set or reset will be changed. This has the same effect like the
value of 'compatible' had this value when starting Vim. Note that this
doesn't happen for the system-wide vimrc file nor when Vim was started with
the |-u| command line argument. It does also happen for gvimrc files. The
$MYVIMRC or $MYGVIMRC file will be set to the first found vimrc and/or gvimrc
file.
But there is a side effect of setting or resetting 'compatible' at the moment
a .vimrc file is found: Mappings are interpreted the moment they are
encountered. This makes a difference when using things like "<CR>". If the

mappings depend on a certain value of 'compatible', set or reset it before

giving the mapping.
The above behavior can be overridden in these ways:
- If the "-N" command line argument is given, 'nocompatible' will be used,
even when no vimrc file exists.
- If the "-C" command line argument is given, 'compatible' will be used, even
when a vimrc file exists.
- If the "-u {vimrc}" argument is used, 'compatible' will be used.
- When the name of the executable ends in "ex", then this works like the "-C"
argument was given: 'compatible' will be used, even when a vimrc file
exists. This has been done to make Vim behave like "ex", when it is started
as "ex".
Avoiding trojan horses: *trojan-horse*

While reading the "vimrc" or the "exrc" file in the current directory, some
commands can be disabled for security reasons by setting the 'secure' option.
This is always done when executing the command from a tags file. Otherwise it
would be possible that you accidentally use a vimrc or tags file that somebody
else created and contains nasty commands. The disabled commands are the ones
that start a shell, the ones that write to a file, and ":autocmd". The ":map"
commands are echoed, so you can see which keys are being mapped.
If you want Vim to execute all commands in a local vimrc file, you
can reset the 'secure' option in the EXINIT or VIMINIT environment variable or
in the global "exrc" or "vimrc" file. This is not possible in "vimrc" or
"exrc" in the current directory, for obvious reasons.
On Unix systems, this only happens if you are not the owner of the
vimrc file. Warning: If you unpack an archive that contains a vimrc or exrc
file, it will be owned by you. You won't have the security protection. Check
the vimrc file before you start Vim in that directory, or reset the 'exrc'
option. Some Unix systems allow a user to do "chown" on a file. This makes
it possible for another user to create a nasty vimrc and make you the owner.
Be careful!
When using tag search commands, executing the search command (the last
part of the line in the tags file) is always done in secure mode. This works
just like executing a command from a vimrc/exrc in the current directory.
*slow-start*
If Vim takes a long time to start up, use the |--startuptime| argument to find
out what happens. There are a few common causes:
- If the Unix version was compiled with the GUI and/or X11 (check the output
of ":version" for "+GUI" and "+X11"), it may need to load shared libraries
and connect to the X11 server. Try compiling a version with GUI and X11
disabled. This also should make the executable smaller.
Use the |-X| command line argument to avoid connecting to the X server when
running in a terminal.
- If you have "viminfo" enabled, the loading of the viminfo file may take a
while. You can find out if this is the problem by disabling viminfo for a
moment (use the Vim argument "-i NONE", |-i|). Try reducing the number of
lines stored in a register with ":set viminfo='20,<50,s10". |viminfo-file|.
*:intro*
When Vim starts without a file name, an introductory message is displayed (for
those who don't know what Vim is). It is removed as soon as the display is
redrawn in any way. To see the message again, use the ":intro" command (if
there is not enough room, you will see only part of it).
To avoid the intro message on startup, add the 'I' flag to 'shortmess'.
*info-message*
The |--help| and |--version| arguments cause Vim to print a message and then
exit. Normally the message is sent to stdout, thus can be redirected to a
file with:
vim --help >file
From inside Vim:
:read !vim --help
When using gvim, it detects that it might have been started from the desktop,
without a terminal to show messages on. This is detected when both stdout and
stderr are not a tty. This breaks the ":read" command, as used in the example
above. To make it work again, set 'shellredir' to ">" instead of the default
">&":
:set shellredir=>

:read !gvim --help

This still won't work for systems where gvim does not use stdout at all
though.
==============================================================================
5. $VIM and $VIMRUNTIME
*$VIM*
The environment variable "$VIM" is used to locate various user files for Vim,
such as the user startup script ".vimrc". This depends on the system, see
|startup|.
To avoid the need for every user to set the $VIM environment variable, Vim
will try to get the value for $VIM in this order:
1. The value defined by the $VIM environment variable. You can use this to
make Vim look in a specific directory for its support files. Example:
setenv VIM /home/paul/vim
2. The path from 'helpfile' is used, unless it contains some environment
variable too (the default is "$VIMRUNTIME/doc/help.txt": chicken-egg
problem). The file name ("help.txt" or any other) is removed. Then
trailing directory names are removed, in this order: "doc", "runtime" and
"vim{version}" (e.g., "vim54").
3. For MSDOS, Win32 and OS/2 Vim tries to use the directory name of the
executable. If it ends in "/src", this is removed. This is useful if you
unpacked the .zip file in some directory, and adjusted the search path to
find the vim executable. Trailing directory names are removed, in this
order: "runtime" and "vim{version}" (e.g., "vim54").
4. For Unix the compile-time defined installation directory is used (see the
output of ":version").
Once Vim has done this once, it will set the $VIM environment variable. To
change it later, use a ":let" command like this:
:let $VIM = "/home/paul/vim/"
*$VIMRUNTIME*
The environment variable "$VIMRUNTIME" is used to locate various support
files, such as the on-line documentation and files used for syntax
highlighting. For example, the main help file is normally
"$VIMRUNTIME/doc/help.txt".
You don't normally set $VIMRUNTIME yourself, but let Vim figure it out. This
is the order used to find the value of $VIMRUNTIME:
1. If the environment variable $VIMRUNTIME is set, it is used. You can use
this when the runtime files are in an unusual location.
2. If "$VIM/vim{version}" exists, it is used. {version} is the version
number of Vim, without any '-' or '.'. For example: "$VIM/vim54". This is
the normal value for $VIMRUNTIME.
3. If "$VIM/runtime" exists, it is used.
4. The value of $VIM is used. This is for backwards compatibility with older
versions.
5. When the 'helpfile' option is set and doesn't contain a '$', its value is
used, with "doc/help.txt" removed from the end.
For Unix, when there is a compiled-in default for $VIMRUNTIME (check the
output of ":version"), steps 2, 3 and 4 are skipped, and the compiled-in
default is used after step 5. This means that the compiled-in default
overrules the value of $VIM. This is useful if $VIM is "/etc" and the runtime
files are in "/usr/share/vim/vim54".
Once Vim has done this once, it will set the $VIMRUNTIME environment variable.
To change it later, use a ":let" command like this:
:let $VIMRUNTIME = "/home/piet/vim/vim54"
In case you need the value of $VIMRUNTIME in a shell (e.g., for a script that
greps in the help files) you might be able to use this:
VIMRUNTIME=`vim -e -T dumb --cmd 'exe "set t_cm=\<C-M>"|echo $VIMRUNTIME|quit' | tr -d
'\015' `
==============================================================================
6. Suspending *suspend*
*iconize* *iconise* *CTRL-Z* *v_CTRL-Z*

CTRL-Z Suspend Vim, like ":stop".
Works in Normal and in Visual mode. In Insert and
Command-line mode, the CTRL-Z is inserted as a normal
character. In Visual mode Vim goes back to Normal

mode.
Note: if CTRL-Z undoes a change see |mswin.vim|.
:sus[pend][!] or *:sus* *:suspend* *:st* *:stop*

:st[op][!] Suspend Vim.
If the '!' is not given and 'autowrite' is set, every
buffer with changes and a file name is written out.
If the '!' is given or 'autowrite' is not set, changed
buffers are not written, don't forget to bring Vim
back to the foreground later!
In the GUI, suspending is implemented as iconising gvim. In Windows 95/NT,
gvim is minimized.
On many Unix systems, it is possible to suspend Vim with CTRL-Z. This is only
possible in Normal and Visual mode (see next chapter, |vim-modes|). Vim will
continue if you make it the foreground job again. On other systems, CTRL-Z
will start a new shell. This is the same as the ":sh" command. Vim will
continue if you exit from the shell.
In X-windows the selection is disowned when Vim suspends. this means you
can't paste it in another application (since Vim is going to sleep an attempt
to get the selection would make the program hang).
==============================================================================
7. Saving settings *save-settings*
Mostly you will edit your vimrc files manually. This gives you the greatest
flexibility. There are a few commands to generate a vimrc file automatically.
You can use these files as they are, or copy/paste lines to include in another
vimrc file.
*:mk* *:mkexrc*
:mk[exrc] [file] Write current key mappings and changed options to
[file] (default ".exrc" in the current directory),
unless it already exists. {not in Vi}
:mk[exrc]! [file] Always write current key mappings and changed
options to [file] (default ".exrc" in the current
directory). {not in Vi}
*:mkv* *:mkvimrc*
:mkv[imrc][!] [file] Like ":mkexrc", but the default is ".vimrc" in the
current directory. The ":version" command is also
written to the file. {not in Vi}
These commands will write ":map" and ":set" commands to a file, in such a way
that when these commands are executed, the current key mappings and options
will be set to the same values. The options 'columns', 'endofline',
'fileformat', 'key', 'lines', 'modified', 'scroll', 'term', 'textmode',
'ttyfast' and 'ttymouse' are not included, because these are terminal or file
dependent. Note that the options 'binary', 'paste' and 'readonly' are
included, this might not always be what you want.
When special keys are used in mappings, The 'cpoptions' option will be
temporarily set to its Vim default, to avoid the mappings to be
misinterpreted. This makes the file incompatible with Vi, but makes sure it
can be used with different terminals.
Only global mappings are stored, not mappings local to a buffer.
A common method is to use a default ".vimrc" file, make some modifications
with ":map" and ":set" commands and write the modified file. First read the
default ".vimrc" in with a command like ":source ~piet/.vimrc.Cprogs", change
the settings and then save them in the current directory with ":mkvimrc!". If
you want to make this file your default .vimrc, move it to your home directory
(on Unix), s: (Amiga) or $VIM directory (MS-DOS). You could also use
autocommands |autocommand| and/or modelines |modeline|.
*vimrc-option-example*
If you only want to add a single option setting to your vimrc, you can use
these steps:
1. Edit your vimrc file with Vim.
2. Play with the option until it's right. E.g., try out different values for

'guifont'.
3. Append a line to set the value of the option, using the expression register
'=' to enter the value. E.g., for the 'guifont' option:
o:set guifont=<C-R>=&guifont<CR><Esc>
[<C-R> is a CTRL-R, <CR> is a return, <Esc> is the escape key]
You need to escape special characters, esp. spaces.
Note that when you create a .vimrc file, this can influence the 'compatible'
option, which has several side effects. See |'compatible'|.
":mkvimrc", ":mkexrc" and ":mksession" write the command to set or reset the
'compatible' option to the output file first, because of these side effects.
==============================================================================
8. Views and Sessions *views-sessions*
This is introduced in sections |21.4| and |21.5| of the user manual.
*View* *view-file*
A View is a collection of settings that apply to one window. You can save a
View and when you restore it later, the text is displayed in the same way.
The options and mappings in this window will also be restored, so that you can
continue editing like when the View was saved.
*Session* *session-file*
A Session keeps the Views for all windows, plus the global settings. You can
save a Session and when you restore it later the window layout looks the same.
You can use a Session to quickly switch between different projects,
automatically loading the files you were last working on in that project.
Views and Sessions are a nice addition to viminfo-files, which are used to
remember information for all Views and Sessions together |viminfo-file|.
You can quickly start editing with a previously saved View or Session with the
|-S| argument:
vim -S Session.vim
All this is {not in Vi} and {not available when compiled without the
|+mksession| feature}.
*:mks* *:mksession*
:mks[ession][!] [file] Write a Vim script that restores the current editing
session.
When [!] is included an existing file is overwritten.
When [file] is omitted "Session.vim" is used.
The output of ":mksession" is like ":mkvimrc", but additional commands are
added to the file. Which ones depends on the 'sessionoptions' option. The
resulting file, when executed with a ":source" command:
1. Restores global mappings and options, if 'sessionoptions' contains
"options". Script-local mappings will not be written.
2. Restores global variables that start with an uppercase letter and contain
at least one lowercase letter, if 'sessionoptions' contains "globals".
3. Unloads all currently loaded buffers.
4. Restores the current directory if 'sessionoptions' contains "curdir", or
sets the current directory to where the Session file is if 'sessionoptions'
contains "sesdir".
5. Restores GUI Vim window position, if 'sessionoptions' contains "winpos".
6. Restores screen size, if 'sessionoptions' contains "resize".
7. Reloads the buffer list, with the last cursor positions. If
'sessionoptions' contains "buffers" then all buffers are restored,
including hidden and unloaded buffers. Otherwise only buffers in windows
are restored.
8. Restores all windows with the same layout. If 'sessionoptions' contains
"help", help windows are restored. If 'sessionoptions' contains "blank",
windows editing a buffer without a name will be restored.
If 'sessionoptions' contains "winsize" and no (help/blank) windows were
left out, the window sizes are restored (relative to the screen size).
Otherwise, the windows are just given sensible sizes.
9. Restores the Views for all the windows, as with |:mkview|. But
'sessionoptions' is used instead of 'viewoptions'.
10. If a file exists with the same name as the Session file, but ending in
"x.vim" (for eXtra), executes that as well. You can use *x.vim files to
specify additional settings and actions associated with a given Session,
such as creating menu items in the GUI version.
After restoring the Session, the full filename of your current Session is

available in the internal variable "v:this_session" |this_session-variable|.

An example mapping:
:nmap <F2> :wa<Bar>exe "mksession! " . v:this_session<CR>:so ~/sessions/
This saves the current Session, and starts off the command to load another.
A session includes all tab pages, unless "tabpages" was removed from
'sessionoptions'. |tab-page|
The |SessionLoadPost| autocmd event is triggered after a session file is
loaded/sourced.
*SessionLoad-variable*
While the session file is loading the SessionLoad global variable is set to 1.
Plugins can use this to postpone some work until the SessionLoadPost event is
triggered.
*:mkvie* *:mkview*
:mkvie[w][!] [file] Write a Vim script that restores the contents of the
current window.
When [!] is included an existing file is overwritten.
When [file] is omitted or is a number from 1 to 9, a
name is generated and 'viewdir' prepended. When the
last directory name in 'viewdir' does not exist, this
directory is created.
An existing file is always overwritten then. Use
|:loadview| to load this view again.
When [file] is the name of a file ('viewdir' is not
used), a command to edit the file is added to the
generated file.
The output of ":mkview" contains these items:
1. The argument list used in the window. When the global argument list is
used it is reset to the global list.
The index in the argument list is also restored.
2. The file being edited in the window. If there is no file, the window is
made empty.
3. Restore mappings, abbreviations and options local to the window if
'viewoptions' contains "options" or "localoptions". For the options it
restores only values that are local to the current buffer and values local
to the window.
When storing the view as part of a session and "options" is in
'sessionoptions', global values for local options will be stored too.
4. Restore folds when using manual folding and 'viewoptions' contains
"folds". Restore manually opened and closed folds.
5. The scroll position and the cursor position in the file. Doesn't work very
well when there are closed folds.
6. The local current directory, if it is different from the global current
directory.
Note that Views and Sessions are not perfect:
- They don't restore everything. For example, defined functions, autocommands
and ":syntax on" are not included. Things like register contents and
command line history are in viminfo, not in Sessions or Views.
- Global option values are only set when they differ from the default value.
When the current value is not the default value, loading a Session will not
set it back to the default value. Local options will be set back to the
default value though.
- Existing mappings will be overwritten without warning. An existing mapping
may cause an error for ambiguity.
- When storing manual folds and when storing manually opened/closed folds,
changes in the file between saving and loading the view will mess it up.
- The Vim script is not very efficient. But still faster than typing the
commands yourself!
*:lo* *:loadview*
:lo[adview] [nr] Load the view for the current file. When [nr] is
omitted, the view stored with ":mkview" is loaded.
When [nr] is specified, the view stored with ":mkview
[nr]" is loaded.
The combination of ":mkview" and ":loadview" can be used to store up to ten
different views of a file. These are remembered in the directory specified
with the 'viewdir' option. The views are stored using the file name. If a
file is renamed or accessed through a (symbolic) link the view will not be
found.
You might want to clean up your 'viewdir' directory now and then.

To automatically save and restore views for *.c files:

au BufWinLeave *.c mkview
au BufWinEnter *.c silent loadview
==============================================================================
9. The viminfo file *viminfo* *viminfo-file* *E136*
*E575* *E576* *E577*
If you exit Vim and later start it again, you would normally lose a lot of
information. The viminfo file can be used to remember that information, which
enables you to continue where you left off.
This is introduced in section |21.3| of the user manual.
The viminfo file is used to store:
- The command line history.
- The search string history.
- The input-line history.
- Contents of non-empty registers.
- Marks for several files.
- File marks, pointing to locations in files.
- Last search/substitute pattern (for 'n' and '&').
- The buffer list.
- Global variables.
The viminfo file is not supported when the |+viminfo| feature has been
You could also use a Session file. The difference is that the viminfo file
does not depend on what you are working on. There normally is only one
viminfo file. Session files are used to save the state of a specific editing
Session. You could have several Session files, one for each project you are
working on. Viminfo and Session files together can be used to effectively
enter Vim and directly start working in your desired setup. |session-file|
*viminfo-read*
When Vim is started and the 'viminfo' option is non-empty, the contents of
the viminfo file are read and the info can be used in the appropriate places.
The |v:oldfiles| variable is filled. The marks are not read in at startup
(but file marks are). See |initialization| for how to set the 'viminfo'
option upon startup.
*viminfo-write*
When Vim exits and 'viminfo' is non-empty, the info is stored in the viminfo
file (it's actually merged with the existing one, if one exists). The
'viminfo' option is a string containing information about what info should be
stored, and contains limits on how much should be stored (see 'viminfo').
Notes for Unix:
- The file protection for the viminfo file will be set to prevent other users
from being able to read it, because it may contain any text or commands that
you have worked with.
- If you want to share the viminfo file with other users (e.g. when you "su"
to another user), you can make the file writable for the group or everybody.
Vim will preserve this when writing new viminfo files. Be careful, don't
allow just anybody to read and write your viminfo file!
- Vim will not overwrite a viminfo file that is not writable by the current
"real" user. This helps for when you did "su" to become root, but your
$HOME is still set to a normal user's home directory. Otherwise Vim would
create a viminfo file owned by root that nobody else can read.
- The viminfo file cannot be a symbolic link. This is to avoid security
issues.
Marks are stored for each file separately. When a file is read and 'viminfo'
is non-empty, the marks for that file are read from the viminfo file. NOTE:
The marks are only written when exiting Vim, which is fine because marks are
remembered for all the files you have opened in the current editing session,
unless ":bdel" is used. If you want to save the marks for a file that you are
about to abandon with ":bdel", use ":wv". The '[' and ']' marks are not
stored, but the '"'' mark is. The '"'' mark is very useful for jumping to the
cursor position when the file was last exited. No marks are saved for files
that start with any string given with the "r" flag in 'viminfo'. This can be
used to avoid saving marks for files on removable media (for MS-DOS you would
use "ra:,rb:", for Amiga "rdf0:,rdf1:,rdf2:").
The |v:oldfiles| variable is filled with the file names that the viminfo file
has marks for.

*viminfo-file-marks*
Uppercase marks ('A to 'Z) are stored when writing the viminfo file. The
numbered marks ('0 to '9) are a bit special. When the viminfo file is written
(when exiting or with the ":wviminfo" command), '0 is set to the current cursor
position and file. The old '0 is moved to '1, '1 to '2, etc. This
resembles what happens with the "1 to "9 delete registers. If the current
cursor position is already present in '0 to '9, it is moved to '0, to avoid
having the same position twice. The result is that with "'0", you can jump
back to the file and line where you exited Vim. To do that right away, try
using this command:
vim -c "normal '0"
In a csh compatible shell you could make an alias for it:
alias lvim vim -c '"'normal "'"0'"'
For a bash-like shell:
alias lvim='vim -c "normal '\''0"'
Use the "r" flag in 'viminfo' to specify for which files no marks should be
remembered.
VIMINFO FILE NAME *viminfo-file-name*

- The default name of the viminfo file is "$HOME/.viminfo" for Unix and OS/2,
"s:.viminfo" for Amiga, "$HOME\_viminfo" for MS-DOS and Win32. For the last
two, when $HOME is not set, "$VIM\_viminfo" is used. When $VIM is also not
set, "c:\_viminfo" is used. For OS/2 "$VIM/.viminfo" is used when $HOME is
not set and $VIM is set.
- The 'n' flag in the 'viminfo' option can be used to specify another viminfo
file name |'viminfo'|.
- The "-i" Vim argument can be used to set another file name, |-i|. When the
file name given is "NONE" (all uppercase), no viminfo file is ever read or
written. Also not for the commands below!
- For the commands below, another file name can be given, overriding the
default and the name given with 'viminfo' or "-i" (unless it's NONE).
CHARACTER ENCODING *viminfo-encoding*

The text in the viminfo file is encoded as specified with the 'encoding'
option. Normally you will always work with the same 'encoding' value, and
this works just fine. However, if you read the viminfo file with another
value for 'encoding' than what it was written with, some of the text
(non-ASCII characters) may be invalid. If this is unacceptable, add the 'c'
flag to the 'viminfo' option:
:set viminfo+=c
Vim will then attempt to convert the text in the viminfo file from the
'encoding' value it was written with to the current 'encoding' value. This
requires Vim to be compiled with the |+iconv| feature. Filenames are not
converted.
MANUALLY READING AND WRITING *viminfo-read-write*

Two commands can be used to read and write the viminfo file manually. This
can be used to exchange registers between two running Vim programs: First
type ":wv" in one and then ":rv" in the other. Note that if the register
already contained something, then ":rv!" would be required. Also note
however that this means everything will be overwritten with information from
the first Vim, including the command line history, etc.
The viminfo file itself can be edited by hand too, although we suggest you
start with an existing one to get the format right. It is reasonably
self-explanatory once you're in there. This can be useful in order to
create a second file, say "~/.my_viminfo" which could contain certain
settings that you always want when you first start Vim. For example, you
can preload registers with particular data, or put certain commands in the
command line history. A line in your .vimrc file like
:rviminfo! ~/.my_viminfo
can be used to load this information. You could even have different viminfos
for different types of files (e.g., C code) and load them based on the file
name, using the ":autocmd" command (see |:autocmd|).

*viminfo-errors*
When Vim detects an error while reading a viminfo file, it will not overwrite
that file. If there are more than 10 errors, Vim stops reading the viminfo
file. This was done to avoid accidentally destroying a file when the file
name of the viminfo file is wrong. This could happen when accidentally typing
"vim -i file" when you wanted "vim -R file" (yes, somebody accidentally did
that!). If you want to overwrite a viminfo file with an error in it, you will
either have to fix the error, or delete the file (while Vim is running, so
most of the information will be restored).
*:rv* *:rviminfo* *E195*

:rv[iminfo][!] [file] Read from viminfo file [file] (default: see above).
If [!] is given, then any information that is
already set (registers, marks, |v:oldfiles|, etc.)
will be overwritten {not in Vi}
*:wv* *:wviminfo* *E137* *E138* *E574*

:wv[iminfo][!] [file] Write to viminfo file [file] (default: see above).
The information in the file is first read in to make
a merge between old and new info. When [!] is used,
the old information is not read first, only the
internal info is written. If 'viminfo' is empty, marks
for up to 100 files will be written.
When you get error "E138: Can't write viminfo file"
check that no old temp files were left behind (e.g.
~/.viminf*) and that you can write in the directory of
the .viminfo file.
{not in Vi}
*:ol* *:oldfiles*
:ol[dfiles] List the files that have marks stored in the viminfo
file. This list is read on startup and only changes
afterwards with ":rviminfo!". Also see |v:oldfiles|.
The number can be used with |c_#<|.
{not in Vi, only when compiled with the |+eval|
feature}
:bro[wse] ol[dfiles][!]
List file names as with |:oldfiles|, and then prompt
for a number. When the number is valid that file from
the list is edited.
If you get the |press-enter| prompt you can press "q"
and still get the prompt to enter a file number.
Use ! to abandon a modified buffer. |abandon|
{not when compiled with tiny or small features}
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: map
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*map.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Nov 10
Key mapping, abbreviations and user-defined commands.

This subject is introduced in sections |05.3|, |24.7| and |40.1| of the user
manual.
1. Key mapping |key-mapping|
1.1 MAP COMMANDS |:map-commands|
1.2 Special arguments |:map-arguments|
1.3 Mapping and modes |:map-modes|
1.4 Listing mappings |map-listing|
1.5 Mapping special keys |:map-special-keys|
1.6 Special characters |:map-special-chars|
1.7 What keys to map |map-which-keys|
1.8 Examples |map-examples|
1.9 Using mappings |map-typing|
1.10 Mapping alt-keys |:map-alt-keys|
1.11 Mapping an operator |:map-operator|
2. Abbreviations |abbreviations|
3. Local mappings and functions |script-local|
4. User-defined commands |user-commands|
==============================================================================
1. Key mapping *key-mapping* *mapping* *macro*
Key mapping is used to change the meaning of typed keys. The most common use
is to define a sequence commands for a function key. Example:
:map <F2> a<C-R>=strftime("%c")<CR><Esc>
This appends the current date and time after the cursor (in <> notation |<>|).
1.1 MAP COMMANDS *:map-commands*

There are commands to enter new mappings, remove mappings and list mappings.
See |map-overview| for the various forms of "map" and their relationships with
modes.
{lhs} means left-hand-side *{lhs}*

{rhs} means right-hand-side *{rhs}*
:map {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-nvo| *:map*

:nm[ap] {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-n| *:nm* *:nmap*
:vm[ap] {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-v| *:vm* *:vmap*
:xm[ap] {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-x| *:xm* *:xmap*
:smap {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-s| *:smap*
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/map.html[2019/03/05 11:42:01 AM]

:om[ap] {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-o| *:om* *:omap*

:map! {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-ic| *:map!*
:im[ap] {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-i| *:im* *:imap*
:lm[ap] {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-l| *:lm* *:lmap*
:cm[ap] {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-c| *:cm* *:cmap*
Map the key sequence {lhs} to {rhs} for the modes
where the map command applies. The result, including
{rhs}, is then further scanned for mappings. This
allows for nested and recursive use of mappings.
:no[remap] {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-nvo| *:no* *:noremap*

:nn[oremap] {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-n| *:nn* *:nnoremap*
:vn[oremap] {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-v| *:vn* *:vnoremap*
:xn[oremap] {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-x| *:xn* *:xnoremap*
:snor[emap] {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-s| *:snor* *:snoremap*
:ono[remap] {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-o| *:ono* *:onoremap*
:no[remap]! {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-ic| *:no!* *:noremap!*
:ino[remap] {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-i| *:ino* *:inoremap*
:ln[oremap] {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-l| *:ln* *:lnoremap*
:cno[remap] {lhs} {rhs} |mapmode-c| *:cno* *:cnoremap*
Map the key sequence {lhs} to {rhs} for the modes
where the map command applies. Disallow mapping of
{rhs}, to avoid nested and recursive mappings. Often
used to redefine a command. {not in Vi}
:unm[ap] {lhs} |mapmode-nvo| *:unm* *:unmap*

:nun[map] {lhs} |mapmode-n| *:nun* *:nunmap*
:vu[nmap] {lhs} |mapmode-v| *:vu* *:vunmap*
:xu[nmap] {lhs} |mapmode-x| *:xu* *:xunmap*
:sunm[ap] {lhs} |mapmode-s| *:sunm* *:sunmap*
:ou[nmap] {lhs} |mapmode-o| *:ou* *:ounmap*
:unm[ap]! {lhs} |mapmode-ic| *:unm!* *:unmap!*
:iu[nmap] {lhs} |mapmode-i| *:iu* *:iunmap*
:lu[nmap] {lhs} |mapmode-l| *:lu* *:lunmap*
:cu[nmap] {lhs} |mapmode-c| *:cu* *:cunmap*
Remove the mapping of {lhs} for the modes where the
map command applies. The mapping may remain defined
for other modes where it applies.
Note: Trailing spaces are included in the {lhs}. This
unmap does NOT work:
:map @@ foo
:unmap @@ | print
:mapc[lear] |mapmode-nvo| *:mapc* *:mapclear*

:nmapc[lear] |mapmode-n| *:nmapc* *:nmapclear*
:vmapc[lear] |mapmode-v| *:vmapc* *:vmapclear*
:xmapc[lear] |mapmode-x| *:xmapc* *:xmapclear*

:smapc[lear] |mapmode-s| *:smapc* *:smapclear*

:omapc[lear] |mapmode-o| *:omapc* *:omapclear*
:mapc[lear]! |mapmode-ic| *:mapc!* *:mapclear!*
:imapc[lear] |mapmode-i| *:imapc* *:imapclear*
:lmapc[lear] |mapmode-l| *:lmapc* *:lmapclear*
:cmapc[lear] |mapmode-c| *:cmapc* *:cmapclear*
Remove ALL mappings for the modes where the map
command applies. {not in Vi}
Warning: This also removes the default mappings.
:map |mapmode-nvo|
:nm[ap] |mapmode-n|
:vm[ap] |mapmode-v|
:xm[ap] |mapmode-x|
:sm[ap] |mapmode-s|
:om[ap] |mapmode-o|
:map! |mapmode-ic|
:im[ap] |mapmode-i|
:lm[ap] |mapmode-l|
:cm[ap] |mapmode-c|
List all key mappings for the modes where the map
command applies. Note that ":map" and ":map!" are
used most often, because they include the other modes.
:map {lhs} |mapmode-nvo| *:map_l*

:nm[ap] {lhs} |mapmode-n| *:nmap_l*
:vm[ap] {lhs} |mapmode-v| *:vmap_l*
:xm[ap] {lhs} |mapmode-x| *:xmap_l*
:sm[ap] {lhs} |mapmode-s| *:smap_l*
:om[ap] {lhs} |mapmode-o| *:omap_l*
:map! {lhs} |mapmode-ic| *:map_l!*
:im[ap] {lhs} |mapmode-i| *:imap_l*
:lm[ap] {lhs} |mapmode-l| *:lmap_l*
:cm[ap] {lhs} |mapmode-c| *:cmap_l*
List the key mappings for the key sequences starting
with {lhs} in the modes where the map command applies.
{not in Vi}
These commands are used to map a key or key sequence to a string of
characters. You can use this to put command sequences under function keys,
translate one key into another, etc. See |:mkexrc| for how to save and
restore the current mappings.
*map-ambiguous*
When two mappings start with the same sequence of characters, they are
ambiguous. Example:
:imap aa foo
:imap aaa bar
When Vim has read "aa", it will need to get another character to be able to
decide if "aa" or "aaa" should be mapped. This means that after typing "aa"
that mapping won't get expanded yet, Vim is waiting for another character.
If you type a space, then "foo" will get inserted, plus the space. If you
type "a", then "bar" will get inserted.
{Vi does not allow ambiguous mappings}
1.2 SPECIAL ARGUMENTS *:map-arguments*

"<buffer>", "<silent>", "<special>", "<script>", "<expr>" and "<unique>" can
be used in any order. They must appear right after the command, before any
other arguments.

*:map-local* *:map-<buffer>* *E224* *E225*

If the first argument to one of these commands is "<buffer>" the mapping will
be effective in the current buffer only. Example:
:map <buffer> ,w /[.,;]<CR>
Then you can map ",w" to something else in another buffer:
:map <buffer> ,w /[#&!]<CR>
The local buffer mappings are used before the global ones.
The "<buffer>" argument can also be used to clear mappings:
:unmap <buffer> ,w
:mapclear <buffer>
Local mappings are also cleared when a buffer is deleted, but not when it is
unloaded. Just like local option values.
*:map-<silent>* *:map-silent*
To define a mapping which will not be echoed on the command line, add
"<silent>" as the first argument. Example:
:map <silent> ,h /Header<CR>
The search string will not be echoed when using this mapping. Messages from
the executed command are still given though. To shut them up too, add a
":silent" in the executed command:
:map <silent> ,h :exe ":silent normal /Header\r"<CR>
Prompts will still be given, e.g., for inputdialog().
Using "<silent>" for an abbreviation is possible, but will cause redrawing of
the command line to fail.
*:map-<special>* *:map-special*
Define a mapping with <> notation for special keys, even though the "<" flag
may appear in 'cpoptions'. This is useful if the side effect of setting
'cpoptions' is not desired. Example:
:map <special> <F12> /Header<CR>
*:map-<script>* *:map-script*
If the first argument to one of these commands is "<script>" and it is used to
define a new mapping or abbreviation, the mapping will only remap characters
in the {rhs} using mappings that were defined local to a script, starting with
"<SID>". This can be used to avoid that mappings from outside a script
interfere (e.g., when CTRL-V is remapped in mswin.vim), but do use other
mappings defined in the script.
Note: ":map <script>" and ":noremap <script>" do the same thing. The
"<script>" overrules the command name. Using ":noremap <script>" is
preferred, because it's clearer that remapping is (mostly) disabled.
*:map-<unique>* *E226* *E227*

If the first argument to one of these commands is "<unique>" and it is used to
define a new mapping or abbreviation, the command will fail if the mapping or
abbreviation already exists. Example:
:map <unique> ,w /[#&!]<CR>
When defining a local mapping, there will also be a check if a global map
already exists which is equal.
Example of what will fail:
:map ,w /[#&!]<CR>
:map <buffer> <unique> ,w /[.,;]<CR>
If you want to map a key and then have it do what it was originally mapped to,
have a look at |maparg()|.
*:map-<expr>* *:map-expression*
If the first argument to one of these commands is "<expr>" and it is used to
define a new mapping or abbreviation, the argument is an expression. The
expression is evaluated to obtain the {rhs} that is used. Example:
:inoremap <expr> . InsertDot()
The result of the InsertDot() function will be inserted. It could check the
text before the cursor and start omni completion when some condition is met.
For abbreviations |v:char| is set to the character that was typed to trigger
the abbreviation. You can use this to decide how to expand the {lhs}. You
can't change v:char and you should not insert it.
Be very careful about side effects! The expression is evaluated while
obtaining characters, you may very well make the command dysfunctional.
For this reason the following is blocked:
- Changing the buffer text |textlock|.
- Editing another buffer.
- The |:normal| command.

- Moving the cursor is allowed, but it is restored afterwards.

- You can use getchar(), but the existing typeahead isn't seen and new
typeahead is discarded.
If you want the mapping to do any of these let the returned characters do
that.
Here is an example that inserts a list number that increases:
let counter = 0
inoremap <expr> <C-L> ListItem()
inoremap <expr> <C-R> ListReset()
func ListItem()
let g:counter += 1
return g:counter . '. '
endfunc
func ListReset()
let g:counter = 0
return ''
endfunc
CTRL-L inserts the next number, CTRL-R resets the count. CTRL-R returns an
empty string, so that nothing is inserted.
Note that there are some tricks to make special keys work and escape CSI bytes
in the text. The |:map| command also does this, thus you must avoid that it
is done twice. This does not work:
:imap <expr> <F3> "<Char-0x611B>"
Because the <Char- sequence is escaped for being a |:imap| argument and then
again for using <expr>. This does work:
:imap <expr> <F3> "\u611B"
Using 0x80 as a single byte before other text does not work, it will be seen
as a special key.
1.3 MAPPING AND MODES *:map-modes*

*mapmode-nvo* *mapmode-n* *mapmode-v* *mapmode-o*
There are six sets of mappings
- For Normal mode: When typing commands.
- For Visual mode: When typing commands while the Visual area is highlighted.
- For Select mode: like Visual mode but typing text replaces the selection.
- For Operator-pending mode: When an operator is pending (after "d", "y", "c",
etc.). See below: |omap-info|.
- For Insert mode. These are also used in Replace mode.
- For Command-line mode: When entering a ":" or "/" command.
Special case: While typing a count for a command in Normal mode, mapping zero
is disabled. This makes it possible to map zero without making it impossible
to type a count with a zero.
*map-overview* *map-modes*
Overview of which map command works in which mode:
commands: modes:
Normal Visual+Select Operator-pending
:map :noremap :unmap :mapclear yes yes yes
:nmap :nnoremap :nunmap :nmapclear yes - -
:vmap :vnoremap :vunmap :vmapclear - yes -
:omap :onoremap :ounmap :omapclear - - yes
:nunmap can also be used outside of a monastery.
*mapmode-x* *mapmode-s*
Some commands work both in Visual and Select mode, some in only one. Note
that quite often "Visual" is mentioned where both Visual and Select mode
apply. |Select-mode-mapping|
NOTE: Mapping a printable character in Select mode may confuse the user. It's
better to explicitly use :xmap and :smap for printable characters. Or use
:sunmap after defining the mapping.
commands: modes:
Visual Select
:vmap :vnoremap :vunmap :vmapclear yes yes
:xmap :xnoremap :xunmap :xmapclear yes -
:smap :snoremap :sunmap :smapclear - yes

*mapmode-ic* *mapmode-i* *mapmode-c* *mapmode-l*

Some commands work both in Insert mode and Command-line mode, some not:
commands: modes:
Insert Command-line Lang-Arg
:map! :noremap! :unmap! :mapclear! yes yes -
:imap :inoremap :iunmap :imapclear yes - -
:cmap :cnoremap :cunmap :cmapclear - yes -
:lmap :lnoremap :lunmap :lmapclear yes* yes* yes*
The original Vi did not have separate mappings for
Normal/Visual/Operator-pending mode and for Insert/Command-line mode.
Therefore the ":map" and ":map!" commands enter and display mappings for
several modes. In Vim you can use the ":nmap", ":vmap", ":omap", ":cmap" and
":imap" commands to enter mappings for each mode separately.
*omap-info*
Operator-pending mappings can be used to define a movement command that can be
used with any operator. Simple example: ":omap { w" makes "y{" work like "yw"
and "d{" like "dw".
To ignore the starting cursor position and select different text, you can have
the omap start Visual mode to select the text to be operated upon. Example
that operates on a function name in the current line:
onoremap <silent> F :<C-U>normal! 0f(hviw<CR>
The CTRL-U (<C-U>) is used to remove the range that Vim may insert. The
Normal mode commands find the first '(' character and select the first word
before it. That usually is the function name.
To enter a mapping for Normal and Visual mode, but not Operator-pending mode,
first define it for all three modes, then unmap it for Operator-pending mode:
:map xx something-difficult
:ounmap xx
Likewise for a mapping for Visual and Operator-pending mode or Normal and
Operator-pending mode.
*language-mapping*
":lmap" defines a mapping that applies to:
- Insert mode
- Command-line mode
- when entering a search pattern
- the argument of the commands that accept a text character, such as "r" and
"f"
- for the input() line
Generally: Whenever a character is to be typed that is part of the text in the
buffer, not a Vim command character. "Lang-Arg" isn't really another mode,
it's just used here for this situation.
The simplest way to load a set of related language mappings is by using the
'keymap' option. See |45.5|.
In Insert mode and in Command-line mode the mappings can be disabled with
the CTRL-^ command |i_CTRL-^| |c_CTRL-^|. When starting to enter a normal
command line (not a search pattern) the mappings are disabled until a CTRL-^
is typed. The state last used is remembered for Insert mode and Search
patterns separately. The state for Insert mode is also used when typing a
character as an argument to command like "f" or "t".
Language mappings will never be applied to already mapped characters. They
are only used for typed characters. This assumes that the language mapping
was already done when typing the mapping.
1.4 LISTING MAPPINGS *map-listing*

When listing mappings the characters in the first two columns are:
CHAR MODE
<Space> Normal, Visual, Select and Operator-pending
n Normal
v Visual and Select
s Select
x Visual
o Operator-pending
! Insert and Command-line
i Insert
l ":lmap" mappings for Insert, Command-line and Lang-Arg
c Command-line

Just before the {rhs} a special character can appear:

* indicates that it is not remappable
& indicates that only script-local mappings are remappable
@ indicates a buffer-local mapping
Everything from the first non-blank after {lhs} up to the end of the line
(or '|') is considered to be part of {rhs}. This allows the {rhs} to end
with a space.
Note: When using mappings for Visual mode, you can use the "'<" mark, which
is the start of the last selected Visual area in the current buffer |'<|.
*:map-verbose*
When 'verbose' is non-zero, listing a key map will also display where it was
:verbose map <C-W>*
n <C-W>* * <C-W><C-S>*
Last set from /home/abcd/.vimrc
1.5 MAPPING SPECIAL KEYS *:map-special-keys*

There are three ways to map a special key:
1. The Vi-compatible method: Map the key code. Often this is a sequence that
starts with <Esc>. To enter a mapping like this you type ":map " and then
you have to type CTRL-V before hitting the function key. Note that when
the key code for the key is in the termcap (the t_ options), it will
automatically be translated into the internal code and become the second
way of mapping (unless the 'k' flag is included in 'cpoptions').
2. The second method is to use the internal code for the function key. To
enter such a mapping type CTRL-K and then hit the function key, or use
the form "#1", "#2", .. "#9", "#0", "<Up>", "<S-Down>", "<S-F7>", etc.
(see table of keys |key-notation|, all keys from <Up> can be used). The
first ten function keys can be defined in two ways: Just the number, like
"#2", and with "<F>", like "<F2>". Both stand for function key 2. "#0"
refers to function key 10, defined with option 't_f10', which may be
function key zero on some keyboards. The <> form cannot be used when
'cpoptions' includes the '<' flag.
3. Use the termcap entry, with the form <t_xx>, where "xx" is the name of the
termcap entry. Any string entry can be used. For example:
:map <t_F3> G
Maps function key 13 to "G". This does not work if 'cpoptions' includes
the '<' flag.
The advantage of the second and third method is that the mapping will work on
different terminals without modification (the function key will be
translated into the same internal code or the actual key code, no matter what
terminal you are using. The termcap must be correct for this to work, and you
must use the same mappings).
DETAIL: Vim first checks if a sequence from the keyboard is mapped. If it
isn't the terminal key codes are tried (see |terminal-options|). If a
terminal code is found it is replaced with the internal code. Then the check
for a mapping is done again (so you can map an internal code to something
else). What is written into the script file depends on what is recognized.
If the terminal key code was recognized as a mapping the key code itself is
written to the script file. If it was recognized as a terminal code the
internal code is written to the script file.
1.6 SPECIAL CHARACTERS *:map-special-chars*

*map_backslash*
Note that only CTRL-V is mentioned here as a special character for mappings
and abbreviations. When 'cpoptions' does not contain 'B', a backslash can
also be used like CTRL-V. The <> notation can be fully used then |<>|. But
you cannot use "<C-V>" like CTRL-V to escape the special meaning of what
follows.
To map a backslash, or use a backslash literally in the {rhs}, the special
sequence "<Bslash>" can be used. This avoids the need to double backslashes
when using nested mappings.

*map_CTRL-C*
Using CTRL-C in the {lhs} is possible, but it will only work when Vim is
waiting for a key, not when Vim is busy with something. When Vim is busy
CTRL-C interrupts/breaks the command.
When using the GUI version on MS-Windows CTRL-C can be mapped to allow a Copy
command to the clipboard. Use CTRL-Break to interrupt Vim.
*map_space_in_lhs*
To include a space in {lhs} precede it with a CTRL-V (type two CTRL-Vs for
each space).
*map_space_in_rhs*
If you want a {rhs} that starts with a space, use "<Space>". To be fully Vi
compatible (but unreadable) don't use the |<>| notation, precede {rhs} with a
single CTRL-V (you have to type CTRL-V two times).
*map_empty_rhs*
You can create an empty {rhs} by typing nothing after a single CTRL-V (you
have to type CTRL-V two times). Unfortunately, you cannot do this in a vimrc
file.
*<Nop>*
A easier way to get a mapping that doesn't produce anything, is to use "<Nop>"
for the {rhs}. This only works when the |<>| notation is enabled. For
example, to make sure that function key 8 does nothing at all:
:map <F8> <Nop>
:map! <F8> <Nop>
*map-multibyte*
It is possible to map multibyte characters, but only the whole character. You
cannot map the first byte only. This was done to prevent problems in this
scenario:
:set encoding=latin1
:imap <M-C> foo
:set encoding=utf-8
The mapping for <M-C> is defined with the latin1 encoding, resulting in a 0xc3
byte. If you type the character á (0xe1 <M-a>) in UTF-8 encoding this is the
two bytes 0xc3 0xa1. You don't want the 0xc3 byte to be mapped then,
otherwise it would be impossible to type the á character.
*<Leader>* *mapleader*
To define a mapping which uses the "mapleader" variable, the special string
"<Leader>" can be used. It is replaced with the string value of "mapleader".
If "mapleader" is not set or empty, a backslash is used instead. Example:
:map <Leader>A oanother line<Esc>
Works like:
:map \A oanother line<Esc>
But after:
:let mapleader = ","
It works like:
:map ,A oanother line<Esc>
Note that the value of "mapleader" is used at the moment the mapping is
defined. Changing "mapleader" after that has no effect for already defined
mappings.
*<LocalLeader>* *maplocalleader*
<LocalLeader> is just like <Leader>, except that it uses "maplocalleader"
instead of "mapleader". <LocalLeader> is to be used for mappings which are
local to a buffer. Example:
:map <LocalLeader>q \DoItNow
In a global plugin <Leader> should be used and in a filetype plugin
<LocalLeader>. "mapleader" and "maplocalleader" can be equal. Although, if
you make them different, there is a smaller chance of mappings from global
plugins to clash with mappings for filetype plugins. For example, you could
keep "mapleader" at the default backslash, and set "maplocalleader" to an
underscore.
*map-<SID>*
In a script the special key name "<SID>" can be used to define a mapping
that's local to the script. See |<SID>| for details.

*<Plug>*
The special key name "<Plug>" can be used for an internal mapping, which is
not to be matched with any key sequence. This is useful in plugins
|using-<Plug>|.
*<Char>* *<Char->*
To map a character by its decimal, octal or hexadecimal number the <Char>
construct can be used:
<Char-123> character 123
<Char-033> character 27
<Char-0x7f> character 127
This is useful to specify a (multi-byte) character in a 'keymap' file.
Upper and lowercase differences are ignored.
*map-comments*
It is not possible to put a comment after these commands, because the '"''
character is considered to be part of the {lhs} or {rhs}.
*map_bar*
Since the '|' character is used to separate a map command from the next
command, you will have to do something special to include a '|' in {rhs}.
There are three methods:
use works when example
<Bar> '<' is not in 'cpoptions' :map _l :!ls <Bar> more^M
\| 'b' is not in 'cpoptions' :map _l :!ls \| more^M
^V| always, in Vim and Vi :map _l :!ls ^V| more^M
(here ^V stands for CTRL-V; to get one CTRL-V you have to type it twice; you
cannot use the <> notation "<C-V>" here).
All three work when you use the default setting for 'cpoptions'.
When 'b' is present in 'cpoptions', "\|" will be recognized as a mapping
ending in a '\' and then another command. This is Vi compatible, but
illogical when compared to other commands.
*map_return*
When you have a mapping that contains an Ex command, you need to put a line
terminator after it to have it executed. The use of <CR> is recommended for
this (see |<>|). Example:
:map _ls :!ls -l %<CR>:echo "the end"<CR>
To avoid mapping of the characters you type in insert or Command-line mode,
type a CTRL-V first. The mapping in Insert mode is disabled if the 'paste'
option is on.
Note that when an error is encountered (that causes an error message or beep)
the rest of the mapping is not executed. This is Vi-compatible.
Note that the second character (argument) of the commands @zZtTfF[]rm'`"v
and CTRL-X is not mapped. This was done to be able to use all the named
registers and marks, even when the command with the same name has been
mapped.
1.7 WHAT KEYS TO MAP *map-which-keys*

If you are going to map something, you will need to choose which key(s) to use
for the {lhs}. You will have to avoid keys that are used for Vim commands,
otherwise you would not be able to use those commands anymore. Here are a few
suggestions:
- Function keys <F2>, <F3>, etc.. Also the shifted function keys <S-F1>,
<S-F2>, etc. Note that <F1> is already used for the help command.
- Meta-keys (with the ALT key pressed). Depending on your keyboard accented
characters may be used as well. |:map-alt-keys|
- Use the '_' or ',' character and then any other character. The "_" and ","
commands do exist in Vim (see |_| and |,|), but you probably never use them.
- Use a key that is a synonym for another command. For example: CTRL-P and
CTRL-N. Use an extra character to allow more mappings.
- The key defined by <Leader> and one or more other keys. This is especially
useful in scripts. |mapleader|
See the file "index" for keys that are not used and thus can be mapped without
losing any builtin function. You can also use ":help {key}^D" to find out if

a key is used for some command. ({key} is the specific key you want to find
out about, ^D is CTRL-D).
1.8 EXAMPLES *map-examples*

A few examples (given as you type them, for "<CR>" you type four characters;
the '<' flag must not be present in 'cpoptions' for this to work).
:map <F3> o#include
:map <M-g> /foo<CR>cwbar<Esc>
:map _x d/END/e<CR>
:map! qq quadrillion questions
Multiplying a count
When you type a count before triggering a mapping, it's like the count was
typed before the {lhs}. For example, with this mapping:
:map <F4> 3w
Typing 2<F4> will result in "23w". Thus not moving 2 * 3 words but 23 words.
If you want to multiply counts use the expression register:
:map <F4> @='3w'<CR>
The part between quotes is the expression being executed. |@=|
1.9 USING MAPPINGS *map-typing*

Vim will compare what you type with the start of a mapped sequence. If there
is an incomplete match, it will get more characters until there either is a
complete match or until there is no match at all. Example: If you map! "qq",
the first 'q' will not appear on the screen until you type another
character. This is because Vim cannot know if the next character will be a
'q' or not. If the 'timeout' option is on (which is the default) Vim will
only wait for one second (or as long as specified with the 'timeoutlen'
option). After that it assumes that the 'q' is to be interpreted as such. If
you type slowly, or your system is slow, reset the 'timeout' option. Then you
might want to set the 'ttimeout' option.
*map-keys-fails*
There are situations where key codes might not be recognized:
- Vim can only read part of the key code. Mostly this is only the first
character. This happens on some Unix versions in an xterm.
- The key code is after character(s) that are mapped. E.g., "<F1><F1>" or
"g<F1>".
The result is that the key code is not recognized in this situation, and the
mapping fails. There are two actions needed to avoid this problem:
- Remove the 'K' flag from 'cpoptions'. This will make Vim wait for the rest
of the characters of the function key.
- When using <F1> to <F4> the actual key code generated may correspond to
<xF1> to <xF4>. There are mappings from <xF1> to <F1>, <xF2> to <F2>, etc.,
but these are not recognized after another half a mapping. Make sure the
key codes for <F1> to <F4> are correct:
:set <F1>=<type CTRL-V><type F1>
Type the <F1> as four characters. The part after the "=" must be done with
the actual keys, not the literal text.
Another solution is to use the actual key code in the mapping for the second
special key:
:map <F1><Esc>OP :echo "yes"<CR>
Don't type a real <Esc>, Vim will recognize the key code and replace it with
<F1> anyway.
Another problem may be that when keeping ALT or Meta pressed the terminal
prepends ESC instead of setting the 8th bit. See |:map-alt-keys|.
*recursive_mapping*
If you include the {lhs} in the {rhs} you have a recursive mapping. When
{lhs} is typed, it will be replaced with {rhs}. When the {lhs} which is
included in {rhs} is encountered it will be replaced with {rhs}, and so on.
This makes it possible to repeat a command an infinite number of times. The
only problem is that the only way to stop this is by causing an error. The
macros to solve a maze uses this, look there for an example. There is one
exception: If the {rhs} starts with {lhs}, the first character is not mapped
again (this is Vi compatible).

For example:
:map ab abcd
will execute the "a" command and insert "bcd" in the text. The "ab" in the
{rhs} will not be mapped again.
If you want to exchange the meaning of two keys you should use the :noremap
command. For example:
:noremap k j
:noremap j k
This will exchange the cursor up and down commands.
With the normal :map command, when the 'remap' option is on, mapping takes
place until the text is found not to be a part of a {lhs}. For example, if
you use:
:map x y
:map y x
Vim will replace x with y, and then y with x, etc. When this has happened
'maxmapdepth' times (default 1000), Vim will give the error message
"recursive mapping".
*:map-undo*
If you include an undo command inside a mapped sequence, this will bring the
text back in the state before executing the macro. This is compatible with
the original Vi, as long as there is only one undo command in the mapped
sequence (having two undo commands in a mapped sequence did not make sense
in the original Vi, you would get back the text before the first undo).
1.10 MAPPING ALT-KEYS *:map-alt-keys*

In the GUI Vim handles the Alt key itself, thus mapping keys with ALT should
always work. But in a terminal Vim gets a sequence of bytes and has to figure
out whether ALT was pressed or not.
By default Vim assumes that pressing the ALT key sets the 8th bit of a typed
character. Most decent terminals can work that way, such as xterm, aterm and
rxvt. If your <A-k> mappings don't work it might be that the terminal is
prefixing the character with an ESC character. But you can just as well type
ESC before a character, thus Vim doesn't know what happened (except for
checking the delay between characters, which is not reliable).
As of this writing, some mainstream terminals like gnome-terminal and konsole
use the ESC prefix. There doesn't appear a way to have them use the 8th bit
instead. Xterm should work well by default. Aterm and rxvt should work well
when started with the "--meta8" argument. You can also tweak resources like
"metaSendsEscape", "eightBitInput" and "eightBitOutput".
On the Linux console, this behavior can be toggled with the "setmetamode"
command. Bear in mind that not using an ESC prefix could get you in trouble
with other programs. You should make sure that bash has the "convert-meta"
option set to "on" in order for your Meta keybindings to still work on it
(it's the default readline behavior, unless changed by specific system
configuration). For that, you can add the line:
set convert-meta on
to your ~/.inputrc file. If you're creating the file, you might want to use:
$include /etc/inputrc
as the first line, if that file exists on your system, to keep global options.
This may cause a problem for entering special characters, such as the umlaut.
Then you should use CTRL-V before that character.
Bear in mind that convert-meta has been reported to have troubles when used in
UTF-8 locales. On terminals like xterm, the "metaSendsEscape" resource can be
toggled on the fly through the "Main Options" menu, by pressing Ctrl-LeftClick
on the terminal; that's a good last resource in case you want to send ESC when
using other applications but not when inside VIM.
1.11 MAPPING AN OPERATOR *:map-operator*

An operator is used before a {motion} command. To define your own operator
you must create mapping that first sets the 'operatorfunc' option and then
invoke the |g@| operator. After the user types the {motion} command the
specified function will be called.

*g@* *E774* *E775*

g@{motion} Call the function set by the 'operatorfunc' option.
The '[ mark is positioned at the start of the text
moved over by {motion}, the '] mark on the last
character of the text.
The function is called with one String argument:
"line" {motion} was |linewise|
"char" {motion} was |characterwise|
"block" {motion} was |blockwise-visual|
Although "block" would rarely appear, since it can
only result from Visual mode where "g@" is not useful.
feature}
Here is an example that counts the number of spaces with <F4>:
nmap <silent> <F4> :set opfunc=CountSpaces<CR>g@
vmap <silent> <F4> :<C-U>call CountSpaces(visualmode(), 1)<CR>
function! CountSpaces(type, ...)
let sel_save = &selection
let &selection = "inclusive"
let reg_save = @@
if a:0 " Invoked from Visual mode, use '< and '> marks.
silent exe "normal! `<" . a:type . "`>y"
elseif a:type == 'line'
silent exe "normal! '[V']y"
elseif a:type == 'block'
silent exe "normal! `[\<C-V>`]y"
else
silent exe "normal! `[v`]y"
endif
echomsg strlen(substitute(@@, '[^ ]', '', 'g'))
let &selection = sel_save
let @@ = reg_save
endfunction
Note that the 'selection' option is temporarily set to "inclusive" to be able
to yank exactly the right text by using Visual mode from the '[ to the ']
mark.
Also note that there is a separate mapping for Visual mode. It removes the
"'<,'>" range that ":" inserts in Visual mode and invokes the function with
visualmode() and an extra argument.
==============================================================================
2. Abbreviations *abbreviations* *Abbreviations*
Abbreviations are used in Insert mode, Replace mode and Command-line mode.
If you enter a word that is an abbreviation, it is replaced with the word it
stands for. This can be used to save typing for often used long words. And
you can use it to automatically correct obvious spelling errors.
Examples:
:iab ms Microsoft
:iab tihs this
There are three types of abbreviations:
full-id The "full-id" type consists entirely of keyword characters (letters
and characters from 'iskeyword' option). This is the most common
abbreviation.
Examples: "foo", "g3", "-1"
end-id The "end-id" type ends in a keyword character, but all the other
characters are not keyword characters.
Examples: "#i", "..f", "$/7"
non-id The "non-id" type ends in a non-keyword character, the other
characters may be of any type, excluding space and tab. {this type
is not supported by Vi}

Examples: "def#", "4/7$"

Examples of strings that cannot be abbreviations: "a.b", "#def", "a b", "_$r"
An abbreviation is only recognized when you type a non-keyword character.
This can also be the <Esc> that ends insert mode or the <CR> that ends a
command. The non-keyword character which ends the abbreviation is inserted
after the expanded abbreviation. An exception to this is the character <C-]>,
which is used to expand an abbreviation without inserting any extra
characters.
Example:
:ab hh hello
"hh<Space>" is expanded to "hello<Space>"
"hh<C-]>" is expanded to "hello"
The characters before the cursor must match the abbreviation. Each type has
an additional rule:
full-id In front of the match is a non-keyword character, or this is where
the line or insertion starts. Exception: When the abbreviation is
only one character, it is not recognized if there is a non-keyword
character in front of it, other than a space or a tab.
end-id In front of the match is a keyword character, or a space or a tab,
or this is where the line or insertion starts.
non-id In front of the match is a space, tab or the start of the line or
the insertion.
Examples: ({CURSOR} is where you type a non-keyword character)
:ab foo four old otters
" foo{CURSOR}" is expanded to " four old otters"
" foobar{CURSOR}" is not expanded
"barfoo{CURSOR}" is not expanded
:ab #i #include
"#i{CURSOR}" is expanded to "#include"
">#i{CURSOR}" is not expanded
:ab ;; <endofline>
"test;;" is not expanded
"test ;;" is expanded to "test <endofline>"
To avoid the abbreviation in insert mode: Type part of the abbreviation, exit
insert mode with <Esc>, re-enter insert mode with "a" and type the rest. Or
type CTRL-V before the character after the abbreviation.
To avoid the abbreviation in Command-line mode: Type CTRL-V twice somewhere in
the abbreviation to avoid it to be replaced. A CTRL-V in front of a normal
character is mostly ignored otherwise.
It is possible to move the cursor after an abbreviation:
:iab if if ()<Left>
This does not work if 'cpoptions' includes the '<' flag. |<>|
You can even do more complicated things. For example, to consume the space
typed after an abbreviation:
func Eatchar(pat)
let c = nr2char(getchar(0))
return (c =~ a:pat) ? '' : c
endfunc
iabbr <silent> if if ()<Left><C-R>=Eatchar('\s')<CR>
There are no default abbreviations.
Abbreviations are never recursive. You can use ":ab f f-o-o" without any
problem. But abbreviations can be mapped. {some versions of Vi support
recursive abbreviations, for no apparent reason}
Abbreviations are disabled if the 'paste' option is on.
*:abbreviate-local* *:abbreviate-<buffer>*
Just like mappings, abbreviations can be local to a buffer. This is mostly
used in a |filetype-plugin| file. Example for a C plugin file:
:abb <buffer> FF for (i = 0; i < ; ++i)
* * * *

:ab :abbreviate
:ab[breviate] list all abbreviations. The character in the first
column indicates the mode where the abbreviation is
used: 'i' for insert mode, 'c' for Command-line
mode, '!' for both. These are the same as for
mappings, see |map-listing|.
*:abbreviate-verbose*
When 'verbose' is non-zero, listing an abbreviation will also display where it
was last defined. Example:
:verbose abbreviate
! teh the
Last set from /home/abcd/vim/abbr.vim
:ab[breviate] {lhs} list the abbreviations that start with {lhs}
You may need to insert a CTRL-V (type it twice) to
avoid that a typed {lhs} is expanded, since
command-line abbreviations apply here.
:ab[breviate] [<expr>] {lhs} {rhs}
add abbreviation for {lhs} to {rhs}. If {lhs} already
existed it is replaced with the new {rhs}. {rhs} may
contain spaces.
See |:map-<expr>| for the optional <expr> argument.
*:una* *:unabbreviate*
:una[bbreviate] {lhs} Remove abbreviation for {lhs} from the list. If none
is found, remove abbreviations in which {lhs} matches
with the {rhs}. This is done so that you can even
remove abbreviations after expansion. To avoid
expansion insert a CTRL-V (type it twice).
*:norea* *:noreabbrev*
:norea[bbrev] [<expr>] [lhs] [rhs]
same as ":ab", but no remapping for this {rhs} {not
in Vi}
*:ca* *:cabbrev*
:ca[bbrev] [<expr>] [lhs] [rhs]
same as ":ab", but for Command-line mode only. {not
in Vi}
*:cuna* *:cunabbrev*
:cuna[bbrev] {lhs} same as ":una", but for Command-line mode only. {not
in Vi}
*:cnorea* *:cnoreabbrev*
:cnorea[bbrev] [<expr>] [lhs] [rhs]
same as ":ab", but for Command-line mode only and no
remapping for this {rhs} {not in Vi}
*:ia* *:iabbrev*
:ia[bbrev] [<expr>] [lhs] [rhs]
same as ":ab", but for Insert mode only. {not in Vi}
*:iuna* *:iunabbrev*
:iuna[bbrev] {lhs} same as ":una", but for insert mode only. {not in
Vi}
*:inorea* *:inoreabbrev*
:inorea[bbrev] [<expr>] [lhs] [rhs]
same as ":ab", but for Insert mode only and no
remapping for this {rhs} {not in Vi}
*:abc* *:abclear*
:abc[lear] Remove all abbreviations. {not in Vi}

*:iabc* *:iabclear*
:iabc[lear] Remove all abbreviations for Insert mode. {not in Vi}
*:cabc* *:cabclear*
:cabc[lear] Remove all abbreviations for Command-line mode. {not
in Vi}
*using_CTRL-V*
It is possible to use special characters in the rhs of an abbreviation.
CTRL-V has to be used to avoid the special meaning of most non printable
characters. How many CTRL-Vs need to be typed depends on how you enter the
abbreviation. This also applies to mappings. Let's use an example here.
Suppose you want to abbreviate "esc" to enter an <Esc> character. When you
type the ":ab" command in Vim, you have to enter this: (here ^V is a CTRL-V
and ^[ is <Esc>)
You type: ab esc ^V^V^V^V^V^[
All keyboard input is subjected to ^V quote interpretation, so
the first, third, and fifth ^V characters simply allow the second,
and fourth ^Vs, and the ^[, to be entered into the command-line.
You see: ab esc ^V^V^[
The command-line contains two actual ^Vs before the ^[. This is
how it should appear in your .exrc file, if you choose to go that
route. The first ^V is there to quote the second ^V; the :ab
command uses ^V as its own quote character, so you can include quoted
whitespace or the | character in the abbreviation. The :ab command
doesn't do anything special with the ^[ character, so it doesn't need
to be quoted. (Although quoting isn't harmful; that's why typing 7
[but not 8!] ^Vs works.)
Stored as: esc ^V^[
After parsing, the abbreviation's short form ("esc") and long form
(the two characters "^V^[") are stored in the abbreviation table.
If you give the :ab command with no arguments, this is how the
abbreviation will be displayed.
Later, when the abbreviation is expanded because the user typed in
the word "esc", the long form is subjected to the same type of
^V interpretation as keyboard input. So the ^V protects the ^[
character from being interpreted as the "exit Insert mode" character.
Instead, the ^[ is inserted into the text.
Expands to: ^[
[example given by Steve Kirkendall]
==============================================================================
3. Local mappings and functions *script-local*
When using several Vim script files, there is the danger that mappings and
functions used in one script use the same name as in other scripts. To avoid
this, they can be made local to the script.
*<SID>* *<SNR>* *E81*

The string "<SID>" can be used in a mapping or menu. This requires that the
'<' flag is not present in 'cpoptions'.
When executing the map command, Vim will replace "<SID>" with the special
key code <SNR>, followed by a number that's unique for the script, and an
underscore. Example:
:map <SID>Add
could define a mapping "<SNR>23_Add".
When defining a function in a script, "s:" can be prepended to the name to
make it local to the script. But when a mapping is executed from outside of
the script, it doesn't know in which script the function was defined. To
avoid this problem, use "<SID>" instead of "s:". The same translation is done
as for mappings. This makes it possible to define a call to the function in
a mapping.

When a local function is executed, it runs in the context of the script it was
defined in. This means that new functions and mappings it defines can also
use "s:" or "<SID>" and it will use the same unique number as when the
function itself was defined. Also, the "s:var" local script variables can be
used.
When executing an autocommand or a user command, it will run in the context of
the script it was defined in. This makes it possible that the command calls a
local function or uses a local mapping.
Otherwise, using "<SID>" outside of a script context is an error.
If you need to get the script number to use in a complicated script, you can
use this function:
function s:SID()
return matchstr(expand('<sfile>'), '<SNR>\zs\d\+\ze_SID$')
endfun
The "<SNR>" will be shown when listing functions and mappings. This is useful
to find out what they are defined to.
The |:scriptnames| command can be used to see which scripts have been sourced
and what their <SNR> number is.
This is all {not in Vi} and {not available when compiled without the |+eval|
feature}.
==============================================================================
4. User-defined commands *user-commands*
It is possible to define your own Ex commands. A user-defined command can act
just like a built-in command (it can have a range or arguments, arguments can
be completed as filenames or buffer names, etc), except that when the command
is executed, it is transformed into a normal Ex command and then executed.
For starters: See section |40.2| in the user manual.
*E183* *E841* *user-cmd-ambiguous*

All user defined commands must start with an uppercase letter, to avoid
confusion with builtin commands. Exceptions are these builtin commands:
:Next
:X
They cannot be used for a user defined command. ":Print" is also an existing
command, but it is deprecated and can be overruled.
The other characters of the user command can be uppercase letters, lowercase
letters or digits. When using digits, note that other commands that take a
numeric argument may become ambiguous. For example, the command ":Cc2" could
be the user command ":Cc2" without an argument, or the command ":Cc" with
argument "2". It is advised to put a space between the command name and the
argument to avoid these problems.
When using a user-defined command, the command can be abbreviated. However, if
an abbreviation is not unique, an error will be issued. Furthermore, a
built-in command will always take precedence.
Example:
:command Rename ...
:command Renumber ...
:Rena " Means "Rename"
:Renu " Means "Renumber"
:Ren " Error - ambiguous
:command Paste ...
:P " The built-in :Print
It is recommended that full names for user-defined commands are used in
scripts.
:com[mand] *:com* *:command*

List all user-defined commands. When listing commands,
the characters in the first two columns are
! Command has the -bang attribute
" Command has the -register attribute
b Command is local to current buffer
(see below for details on attributes)

:com[mand] {cmd} List the user-defined commands that start with {cmd}
*:command-verbose*
When 'verbose' is non-zero, listing a command will also display where it was
:verbose command TOhtml
Name Args Range Complete Definition
TOhtml 0 % :call Convert2HTML(<line1>, <line2>)
Last set from /usr/share/vim/vim-7.0/plugin/tohtml.vim
*E174* *E182*
:com[mand][!] [{attr}...] {cmd} {rep}
Define a user command. The name of the command is
{cmd} and its replacement text is {rep}. The command's
attributes (see below) are {attr}. If the command
already exists, an error is reported, unless a ! is
specified, in which case the command is redefined.
:delc[ommand] {cmd} *:delc* *:delcommand* *E184*

Delete the user-defined command {cmd}.
:comc[lear] *:comc* *:comclear*

Delete all user-defined commands.
Command attributes
User-defined commands are treated by Vim just like any other Ex commands. They
can have arguments, or have a range specified. Arguments are subject to
completion as filenames, buffers, etc. Exactly how this works depends upon the
command's attributes, which are specified when the command is defined.
There are a number of attributes, split into four categories: argument
handling, completion behavior, range handling, and special cases. The
attributes are described below, by category.
Argument handling *E175* *E176* *:command-nargs*

By default, a user defined command will take no arguments (and an error is
reported if any are supplied). However, it is possible to specify that the
command can take arguments, using the -nargs attribute. Valid cases are:
-nargs=0 No arguments are allowed (the default)
-nargs=1 Exactly one argument is required
-nargs=* Any number of arguments are allowed (0, 1, or many)
-nargs=? 0 or 1 arguments are allowed
-nargs=+ Arguments must be supplied, but any number are allowed
Arguments are considered to be separated by (unescaped) spaces or tabs in this
context.
Note that arguments are used as text, not as expressions. Specifically,
"s:var" will use the script-local variable in the script where the command was
defined, not where it is invoked! Example:
script1.vim:
:let s:error = "None"
:command -nargs=1 Error echoerr <args>
script2.vim:
:source script1.vim
:let s:error = "Wrong!"
:Error s:error
Executing script2.vim will result in "None" being echoed. Not what you
intended! Calling a function may be an alternative.
Completion behavior *:command-completion* *E179*

*E180* *E181* *:command-complete*
By default, the arguments of user defined commands do not undergo completion.
However, by specifying one or the other of the following attributes, argument
completion can be enabled:

-complete=augroup autocmd groups

-complete=buffer buffer names
-complete=command Ex command (and arguments)
-complete=cscope |:cscope| suboptions
-complete=dir directory names
-complete=environment environment variable names
-complete=event autocommand events
-complete=expression Vim expression
-complete=file file and directory names
-complete=filetype filetype names |'filetype'|
-complete=function function name
-complete=help help subjects
-complete=highlight highlight groups
-complete=mapping mapping name
-complete=menu menus
-complete=option options
-complete=shellcmd Shell command
-complete=sign |:sign| suboptions
-complete=syntax syntax file names |'syntax'|
-complete=tag tags
-complete=tag_listfiles tags, file names are shown when CTRL-D is hit
-complete=var user variables
-complete=custom,{func} custom completion, defined via {func}
-complete=customlist,{func} custom completion, defined via {func}
Custom completion *:command-completion-custom*

*:command-completion-customlist*
*E467* *E468*
It is possible to define customized completion schemes via the "custom,{func}"
or the "customlist,{func}" completion argument. The {func} part should be a
function with the following signature:
:function {func}(ArgLead, CmdLine, CursorPos)
The function need not use all these arguments. The function should provide the
completion candidates as the return value.
For the "custom" argument, the function should return the completion
candidates one per line in a newline separated string.
For the "customlist" argument, the function should return the completion
candidates as a Vim List. Non-string items in the list are ignored.
The function arguments are:
ArgLead the leading portion of the argument currently being
completed on
CmdLine the entire command line
CursorPos the cursor position in it (byte index)
The function may use these for determining context. For the "custom"
argument, it is not necessary to filter candidates against the (implicit
pattern in) ArgLead. Vim will filter the candidates with its regexp engine
after function return, and this is probably more efficient in most cases. For
the "customlist" argument, Vim will not filter the returned completion
candidates and the user supplied function should filter the candidates.
The following example lists user names to a Finger command
:com -complete=custom,ListUsers -nargs=1 Finger !finger <args>
:fun ListUsers(A,L,P)
: return system("cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd")
:endfun
The following example completes filenames from the directories specified in
the 'path' option:
:com -nargs=1 -bang -complete=customlist,EditFileComplete
\ EditFile edit<bang> <args>
:fun EditFileComplete(A,L,P)
: return split(globpath(&path, a:A), "\n")
:endfun
This example does not work for file names with spaces!
Range handling *E177* *E178* *:command-range*

*:command-count*
By default, user-defined commands do not accept a line number range. However,
it is possible to specify that the command does take a range (the -range
attribute), or that it takes an arbitrary count value, either in the line
number position (-range=N, like the |:split| command) or as a "count"
argument (-count=N, like the |:Next| command). The count will then be
available in the argument with |<count>|.
Possible attributes are:
-range Range allowed, default is current line
-range=% Range allowed, default is whole file (1,$)
-range=N A count (default N) which is specified in the line
number position (like |:split|)
-count=N A count (default N) which is specified either in the line
number position, or as an initial argument (like |:Next|).
Specifying -count (without a default) acts like -count=0
Note that -range=N and -count=N are mutually exclusive - only one should be
specified.
Special cases *:command-bang* *:command-bar*

*:command-register* *:command-buffer*
There are some special cases as well:
-bang The command can take a ! modifier (like :q or :w)
-bar The command can be followed by a "|" and another command.
A "|" inside the command argument is not allowed then.
Also checks for a " to start a comment.
-register The first argument to the command can be an optional
register name (like :del, :put, :yank).
-buffer The command will only be available in the current buffer.
In the cases of the -count and -register attributes, if the optional argument
is supplied, it is removed from the argument list and is available to the
replacement text separately.
Replacement text
The replacement text for a user defined command is scanned for special escape
sequences, using <...> notation. Escape sequences are replaced with values
from the entered command line, and all other text is copied unchanged. The
resulting string is executed as an Ex command. To avoid the replacement use
<lt> in place of the initial <. Thus to include "<bang>" literally use
"<lt>bang>".
The valid escape sequences are
*<line1>*
<line1> The starting line of the command range.
*<line2>*
<line2> The final line of the command range.
*<count>*
<count> Any count supplied (as described for the '-range'
and '-count' attributes).
*<bang>*
<bang> (See the '-bang' attribute) Expands to a ! if the
command was executed with a ! modifier, otherwise
expands to nothing.
*<reg>* *<register>*
<reg> (See the '-register' attribute) The optional register,
if specified. Otherwise, expands to nothing. <register>
is a synonym for this.
*<args>*
<args> The command arguments, exactly as supplied (but as
noted above, any count or register can consume some
of the arguments, which are then not part of <args>).
<lt> A single '<' (Less-Than) character. This is needed if you
want to get a literal copy of one of these escape sequences
into the expansion - for example, to get <bang>, use
<lt>bang>.

*<q-args>*
If the first two characters of an escape sequence are "q-" (for example,
<q-args>) then the value is quoted in such a way as to make it a valid value
for use in an expression. This uses the argument as one single value.
When there is no argument <q-args> is an empty string.
*<f-args>*
To allow commands to pass their arguments on to a user-defined function, there
is a special form <f-args> ("function args"). This splits the command
arguments at spaces and tabs, quotes each argument individually, and the
<f-args> sequence is replaced by the comma-separated list of quoted arguments.
See the Mycmd example below. If no arguments are given <f-args> is removed.
To embed whitespace into an argument of <f-args>, prepend a backslash.
<f-args> replaces every pair of backslashes (\\) with one backslash. A
backslash followed by a character other than white space or a backslash
remains unmodified. Overview:
command <f-args>
XX ab 'ab'
XX a\b 'a\b'
XX a\ b 'a b'
XX a\ b 'a '', 'b'
XX a\\b 'a\b'
XX a\\ b 'a\', 'b'
XX a\\\b 'a\\b'
XX a\\\ b 'a\ b'
XX a\\\\b 'a\\b'
XX a\\\\ b 'a\\', 'b'
Examples
" Delete everything after here to the end
:com Ddel +,$d
" Rename the current buffer
:com -nargs=1 -bang -complete=file Ren f <args>|w<bang>
" Replace a range with the contents of a file
" (Enter this all as one line)
:com -range -nargs=1 -complete=file
Replace <line1>-pu_|<line1>,<line2>d|r <args>|<line1>d
" Count the number of lines in the range
:com! -range -nargs=0 Lines echo <line2> - <line1> + 1 "lines"
" Call a user function (example of <f-args>)
:com -nargs=* Mycmd call Myfunc(<f-args>)
When executed as:
:Mycmd arg1 arg2
This will invoke:
:call Myfunc("arg1","arg2")
:" A more substantial example
:function Allargs(command)
: let i = 0
: while i < argc()
: if filereadable(argv(i))
: execute "e " . argv(i)
: execute a:command
: endif
: let i = i + 1
: endwhile
:endfunction
:command -nargs=+ -complete=command Allargs call Allargs(<q-args>)
The command Allargs takes any Vim command(s) as argument and executes it on all
files in the argument list. Usage example (note use of the "e" flag to ignore
errors and the "update" command to write modified buffers):
:Allargs %s/foo/bar/ge|update
This will invoke:
:call Allargs("%s/foo/bar/ge|update")
When defining a user command in a script, it will be able to call functions
local to the script and use mappings local to the script. When the user
invokes the user command, it will run in the context of the script it was
defined in. This matters if |<SID>| is used in a command.

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Vim documentation: farsi
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main help file
*farsi.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Aug 07
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Mortaza Ghassab Shiran
Right to Left and Farsi Mapping for Vim *farsi* *Farsi*

*E27*
In order to use right-to-left and Farsi mapping support, it is necessary to
compile Vim with the |+farsi| feature.
These functions have been made by Mortaza G. Shiran <shiran@jps.net>
Introduction
In right-to-left oriented files the characters appear on the screen from right
to left. This kind of file is most useful when writing Farsi documents,
composing faxes or writing Farsi memos.
The commands, prompts and help files are not in Farsi, therefore the user
interface remains the standard Vi interface.
Highlights
o Editing left-to-right files as in the original Vim, no change.
o Viewing and editing files in right-to-left windows. File orientation is
per window, so it is possible to view the same file in right-to-left and
left-to-right modes, simultaneously.
o Compatibility to the original Vim. Almost all features work in
right-to-left mode (see bugs below).
o Changing keyboard mapping and reverse insert modes using a single
command.
o Backing from reverse insert mode to the correct place in the file
(if possible).
o While in Farsi mode, numbers are entered from left to right. Upon entering
a none number character, that character will be inserted just into the
left of the last number.
o No special terminal with right-to-left capabilities is required. The
right-to-left changes are completely hardware independent. Only
Farsi font is necessary.
o Farsi keymapping on the command line in reverse insert mode.
o Toggling between left-to-right and right-to-left via F8 function key.
o Toggling between Farsi ISIR-3342 standard encoding and Vim Farsi via F9
function key. Since this makes sense only for the text written in
right-to-left mode, this function is also supported only in right-to-left
mode.
Farsi Fonts *farsi fonts*
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/farsi.html[2019/03/05 11:42:02 AM]

The following files are found in the subdirectories of the '$VIM/farsi/fonts'

directory:
+ far-a01.pcf X Windows fonts for Unix including Linux systems
+ far-a01.bf X Windows fonts for SunOS
+ far-a01.f16 a screen fonts for Unix including Linux systems
+ far-a01.fon a monospaced fonts for Windows NT/95/98
+ far-a01.com a screen fonts for DOS
Font Installation
o Installation of fonts for MS Window systems (NT/95/98)
From 'Control Panel' folder, start the 'Fonts' program. Then from 'file'
menu item select 'Install New Fonts ...'. Browse and select the
'far-a01.fon', then follow the installation guide.
NOTE: several people have reported that this does not work. The solution
is unknown.
o Installation of fonts for X Window systems (Unix/Linux)
Depending on your system, copy far-a01.pcf.Z or far-a01.pcf.gz into a
directory of your choice. Change to the directory containing the Farsi
fonts and execute the following commands:
> mkfontdir
> xset +fp path_name_of_farsi_fonts_directory
o Installation of fonts for X Window systems (SunOS)
Copy far-a01.bf font into a directory of your choice.
Change to the directory containing the far-a01.fb fonts and
execute the following commands:
> fldfamily
> xset +fp path_name_of_fonts_directory
o Installation of ASCII screen fonts (Unix/Linux)
For Linux system, copy the far-a01.f16 fonts into /usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts
directory and execute the setfont program as "setfont far-a01.f16". For
other systems (e.g. SCO Unix), please refer to the fonts installation
section of your system administration manuals.
o Installation of ASCII screen fonts (DOS)
After system power on, prior to the first use of Vim, upload the Farsi
fonts by executing the far-a01.com font uploading program.
Usage
Prior to starting Vim, the environment in which Vim can run in Farsi mode,
must be set. In addition to installation of Farsi fonts, following points
refer to some of the system environments, which you may need to set:
Key code mapping, loading graphic card in ASCII screen mode, setting the IO
driver in 8 bit clean mode ... .
o Setting the Farsi fonts
+ For Vim GUI set the 'guifont' to far-a01. This is done by entering
':set guifont=far-a01' in the Vim window.
You can have 'guifont' set to far-a01 by Vim during the Vim startup
by appending the ':set guifont=far-a01' into your .vimrc file
(in case of NT/95/98 platforms _vimrc).
Under the X Window environment, you can also start Vim with the
'-fn far-a01' option.
+ For Vim within a xterm, start a xterm with the Farsi fonts (e.g.
kterm -fn far-a01). Then start Vim inside the kterm.
+ For Vim under DOS, prior to the first usage of Vim, upload the Farsi
fonts by executing the far-a01.com fonts uploading program.
o Farsi Keymapping Activation
To activate the Farsi keymapping, set either 'altkeymap' or 'fkmap'.
This is done by entering ':set akm' or ':set fk' in the Vim window.
You can have 'altkeymap' or 'fkmap' set as default by appending ':set akm'

or ':set fk' in your .vimrc file or _vimrc in case of NT/95/98 platforms.

To turn off the Farsi keymapping as a default second language keymapping,
reset the 'altkeymap' by entering ':set noakm'.
o right-to-left Farsi Mode
By default Vim starts in Left-to-right mode. Following are ways to change
the window orientation:
+ Start Vim with the -F option (e.g. vim -F ...).
+ Use the F8 function key to toggle between left-to-right and right-to-left.
+ While in Left-to-right mode, enter 'set rl' in the command line ('rl' is
the abbreviation for rightleft).
+ Put the 'set rl' line in your '.vimrc' file to start Vim in
right-to-left mode permanently.
Encoding
The letter encoding used is the Vim extended ISIR-3342 standard with a built
in function to convert between Vim extended ISIR-3342 and ISIR-3342 standard.
For document portability reasons, the letter encoding is kept the same across
different platforms (i.e. UNIX's, NT/95/98, MS DOS, ...).
o Keyboard
+ CTRL-_ in insert/replace modes toggles between Farsi(akm)/Latin
mode as follows:
+ CTRL-_ moves the cursor to the end of the typed text in edit mode.
+ CTRL-_ in command mode only toggles keyboard mapping between Farsi(akm)/
Latin. The Farsi text is then entered in reverse insert mode.
+ F8 - Toggles between left-to-right and right-to-left.
+ F9 - Toggles the encoding between ISIR-3342 standard and Vim extended
ISIR-3342 (supported only in right-to-left mode).
+ Keyboard mapping is based on the Iranian ISIRI-2901 standard.
Following table shows the keyboard mapping while Farsi(akm) mode set:
-------------------------------------
` 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =
¢ ± ² ³ ´ µ ¶ · ¸ ¹ ° ½
-------------------------------------
~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ +
~ £ § ® ¤ ¥ ª ¬ è ¨ © é «
-------------------------------------
q w e r t z u i o p [ ]
Ó Ò Æ Ù Ø Õ Ö à Ê É Ç ˆ
-------------------------------------
Q W E R T Z U I O P { }
÷ õ ô ó ò ý ð ö [ ] { }
-------------------------------------
a s d f g h j k l ; '' \
Ñ Ð á Ã Ü Á Å Þ Ý Ú Û ë
-------------------------------------
A S D F G H J K L : " |
ù û þ ú ø À ü æ ç º » ê
-------------------------------------
< y x c v b n m , . /
¾ × Ô Î Í Ì Ë Ä ß ¦ ¯
-------------------------------------
> Y X C V B N M < > ?
¼ ñ Ô Ï Í ¡ Ë Â ¾ ¼ ¿
-------------------------------------
Note:
¡ stands for Farsi PSP (break without space)
¢ stands for Farsi PCN (for HAMZE attribute )
Restrictions
o In insert/replace mode and fkmap (Farsi mode) set, CTRL-B is not

supported.
o If you change the character mapping between Latin/Farsi, the redo buffer
will be reset (emptied). That is, redo is valid and will function (using
'.') only within the mode you are in.
o While numbers are entered in Farsi mode, the redo buffer will be reset
(emptied). That is, you cannot redo the last changes (using '.') after
entering numbers.
o While in left-to-right mode and Farsi mode set, CTRL-R is not supported.
o While in right-to-left mode, the search on 'Latin' pattern does not work,
except if you enter the Latin search pattern in reverse.
o In command mode there is no support for entering numbers from left
to right and also for the sake of flexibility the keymapping logic is
restricted.
o Under the X Window environment, if you want to run Vim within a xterm
terminal emulator and Farsi mode set, you need to have an ANSI compatible
xterm terminal emulator. This is because the letter codes above 128 decimal
have certain meanings in the standard xterm terminal emulator.
Note: Under X Window environment, Vim GUI works fine in Farsi mode.
This eliminates the need of any xterm terminal emulator.
Bugs
While in insert/replace and Farsi mode set, if you repeatedly change the
cursor position (via cursor movement) and enter new text and then try to undo
the last change, the undo will lag one change behind. But as you continue to
undo, you will reach the original line of text. You can also use U to undo all
changes made in the current line.
For more information about the bugs refer to rileft.txt.
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Vim documentation: various
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main help file
*various.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Mar 03
Various commands *various*

1. Various commands |various-cmds|
2. Using Vim like less or more |less|
==============================================================================
1. Various commands *various-cmds*
*CTRL-L*
CTRL-L Clear and redraw the screen. The redraw may happen
later, after processing typeahead.
*:redr* *:redraw*
:redr[aw][!] Redraw the screen right now. When ! is included it is
cleared first.
Useful to update the screen halfway executing a script
or function. Also when halfway a mapping and
'lazyredraw' is set.
*:redraws* *:redrawstatus*
:redraws[tatus][!] Redraw the status line of the current window. When !
is included all status lines are redrawn.
Useful to update the status line(s) when 'statusline'
includes an item that doesn't cause automatic
updating.
*N<Del>*
<Del> When entering a number: Remove the last digit.
Note: if you like to use <BS> for this, add this
mapping to your .vimrc:
:map CTRL-V <BS> CTRL-V <Del>
See |:fixdel| if your <Del> key does not do what you
want.
:as[cii] or *ga* *:as* *:ascii*

ga Print the ascii value of the character under the
cursor in decimal, hexadecimal and octal. For
example, when the cursor is on a 'R':
<R> 82, Hex 52, Octal 122
When the character is a non-standard ASCII character,
but printable according to the 'isprint' option, the
non-printable version is also given. When the
character is larger than 127, the <M-x> form is also
printed. For example:
<~A> <M-Â> 129, Hex 81, Octal 201
<p> <|~> <M-~> 254, Hex fe, Octal 376
(where <p> is a special character)
The <Nul> character in a file is stored internally as
<NL>, but it will be shown as:
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/various.html[2019/03/05 11:42:03 AM]

<^@> 0, Hex 00, Octal 000

If the character has composing characters these are
also shown. The value of 'maxcombine' doesn't matter.
Mnemonic: Get Ascii value. {not in Vi}
*g8*
g8 Print the hex values of the bytes used in the
character under the cursor, assuming it is in |UTF-8|
encoding. This also shows composing characters. The
value of 'maxcombine' doesn't matter.
Example of a character with two composing characters:
e0 b8 81 + e0 b8 b9 + e0 b9 89
{not in Vi} {only when compiled with the |+multi_byte|
feature}
*8g8*
8g8 Find an illegal UTF-8 byte sequence at or after the
cursor. This works in two situations:
1. when 'encoding' is any 8-bit encoding
2. when 'encoding' is "utf-8" and 'fileencoding' is
any 8-bit encoding
Thus it can be used when editing a file that was
supposed to be UTF-8 but was read as if it is an 8-bit
encoding because it contains illegal bytes.
Does not wrap around the end of the file.
Note that when the cursor is on an illegal byte or the
cursor is halfway a multi-byte character the command
won't move the cursor.
{not in Vi} {only when compiled with the |+multi_byte|
feature}
*:p* *:pr* *:print* *E749*

:[range]p[rint] [flags]
Print [range] lines (default current line).
Note: If you are looking for a way to print your text
on paper see |:hardcopy|. In the GUI you can use the
File.Print menu entry.
:[range]p[rint] {count} [flags]
Print {count} lines, starting with [range] (default
current line |cmdline-ranges|).
*:P* *:Print*
:[range]P[rint] [count] [flags]
Just as ":print". Was apparently added to Vi for
people that keep the shift key pressed too long...
Note: A user command can overrule this command.
*:l* *:list*
:[range]l[ist] [count] [flags]
Same as :print, but display unprintable characters
with '^' and put $ after the line. This can be
further changed with the 'listchars' option.
*:nu* *:number*
:[range]nu[mber] [count] [flags]
Same as :print, but precede each line with its line
number. (See also 'highlight' and 'numberwidth'
option).
*:#*
:[range]# [count] [flags]
synonym for :number.
*:#!*
:#!{anything} Ignored, so that you can start a Vim script with:
#!vim -S

echo "this is a Vim script"

quit
*:z* *E144*
:{range}z[+-^.=]{count} Display several lines of text surrounding the line
specified with {range}, or around the current line
if there is no {range}. If there is a {count}, that's
how many lines you'll see; if there is only one window
then twice the value of the 'scroll' option is used,
otherwise the current window height minus 3 is used.
:z can be used either alone or followed by any of
several punctuation marks. These have the following
effect:
mark first line last line new cursor line
---- ---------- --------- ------------
+ current line 1 scr forward 1 scr forward
- 1 scr back current line current line
^ 2 scr back 1 scr back 1 scr back
. 1/2 scr back 1/2 scr fwd 1/2 scr fwd
= 1/2 scr back 1/2 scr fwd current line
Specifying no mark at all is the same as "+".
If the mark is "=", a line of dashes is printed
around the current line.
:{range}z#[+-^.=]{count} *:z#*
Like ":z", but number the lines.
{not in all versions of Vi, not with these arguments}
*:=*
:= [flags] Print the last line number.
:{range}= [flags] Prints the last line number in {range}. For example,
this prints the current line number:
:.=
:norm[al][!] {commands} *:norm* *:normal*

Execute Normal mode commands {commands}. This makes
it possible to execute Normal mode commands typed on
the command-line. {commands} are executed like they
are typed. For undo all commands are undone together.
Execution stops when an error is encountered.
If the [!] is given, mappings will not be used.
{commands} should be a complete command. If
{commands} does not finish a command, the last one
will be aborted as if <Esc> or <C-C> was typed.
The display isn't updated while ":normal" is busy.
This implies that an insert command must be completed
(to start Insert mode, see |:startinsert|). A ":"
command must be completed as well. And you can't use
"Q" or "gQ" to start Ex mode.
{commands} cannot start with a space. Put a count of
1 (one) before it, "1 " is one space.
The 'insertmode' option is ignored for {commands}.
This command cannot be followed by another command,
since any '|' is considered part of the command.
This command can be used recursively, but the depth is
limited by 'maxmapdepth'.
When this command is called from a non-remappable
mapping |:noremap|, the argument can be mapped anyway.
An alternative is to use |:execute|, which uses an
expression as argument. This allows the use of
printable characters to represent special characters.
Example:
:exe "normal \<c-w>\<c-w>"
{not in Vi, of course}
{not available when the |+ex_extra| feature was
disabled at compile time}
:{range}norm[al][!] {commands} *:normal-range*

Execute Normal mode commands {commands} for each line

in the {range}. Before executing the {commands}, the

cursor is positioned in the first column of the range,
for each line. Otherwise it's the same as the
":normal" command without a range.
{not in Vi}
{not available when |+ex_extra| feature was disabled
at compile time}
*:sh* *:shell* *E371*

:sh[ell] This command starts a shell. When the shell exits
(after the "exit" command) you return to Vim. The
name for the shell command comes from 'shell' option.
*E360*
Note: This doesn't work when Vim on the Amiga was
started in QuickFix mode from a compiler, because the
compiler will have set stdin to a non-interactive
mode.
*:!cmd* *:!* *E34*

:!{cmd} Execute {cmd} with the shell. See also the 'shell'
and 'shelltype' option.
Any '!' in {cmd} is replaced with the previous
external command (see also 'cpoptions'). But not when
there is a backslash before the '!', then that
backslash is removed. Example: ":!ls" followed by
":!echo ! \! \\!" executes "echo ls ! \!".
After the command has been executed, the timestamp of
the current file is checked |timestamp|.
A '|' in {cmd} is passed to the shell, you cannot use
it to append a Vim command. See |:bar|.
A newline character ends {cmd}, what follows is
interpreted as a following ":" command. However, if
there is a backslash before the newline it is removed
and {cmd} continues. It doesn't matter how many
backslashes are before the newline, only one is
removed.
On Unix the command normally runs in a non-interactive
shell. If you want an interactive shell to be used
(to use aliases) set 'shellcmdflag' to "-ic".
For Win32 also see |:!start|.
Vim redraws the screen after the command is finished,
because it may have printed any text. This requires a
hit-enter prompt, so that you can read any messages.
To avoid this use:
:silent !{cmd}
The screen is not redrawn then, thus you have to use
CTRL-L or ":redraw!" if the command did display
something.
Also see |shell-window|.
*:!!*
:!! Repeat last ":!{cmd}".
*:ve* *:version*
:ve[rsion] Print the version number of the editor. If the
compiler used understands "__DATE__" the compilation
date is mentioned. Otherwise a fixed release-date is
shown.
The following lines contain information about which
features were enabled when Vim was compiled. When
there is a preceding '+', the feature is included,
when there is a '-' it is excluded. To change this,
you have to edit feature.h and recompile Vim.
To check for this in an expression, see |has()|.
Here is an overview of the features.
The first column shows the smallest version in which
they are included:
T tiny
S small
N normal
B big
H huge
m manually enabled or depends on other features
(none) system dependent
Thus if a feature is marked with "N", it is included

in the normal, big and huge versions of Vim.
*+feature-list*
*+ARP* Amiga only: ARP support included
B *+arabic* |Arabic| language support
N *+autocmd* |:autocmd|, automatic commands
m *+balloon_eval* |balloon-eval| support. Included when compiling with
supported GUI (Motif, GTK, GUI) and either
Netbeans/Sun Workshop integration or |+eval| feature.
N *+browse* |:browse| command
N *+builtin_terms* some terminals builtin |builtin-terms|
B *++builtin_terms* maximal terminals builtin |builtin-terms|
N *+byte_offset* support for 'o' flag in 'statusline' option, "go"
and ":goto" commands.
N *+cindent* |'cindent'|, C indenting
N *+clientserver* Unix and Win32: Remote invocation |clientserver|
*+clipboard* |clipboard| support
N *+cmdline_compl* command line completion |cmdline-completion|
N *+cmdline_hist* command line history |cmdline-history|
N *+cmdline_info* |'showcmd'| and |'ruler'|
N *+comments* |'comments'| support
B *+conceal* "conceal" support, see |conceal| |:syn-conceal| etc.
N *+cryptv* encryption support |encryption|
B *+cscope* |cscope| support
m *+cursorbind* |'cursorbind'| support
m *+cursorshape* |termcap-cursor-shape| support
m *+debug* Compiled for debugging.
N *+dialog_gui* Support for |:confirm| with GUI dialog.
N *+dialog_con* Support for |:confirm| with console dialog.
N *+dialog_con_gui* Support for |:confirm| with GUI and console dialog.
N *+diff* |vimdiff| and 'diff'
N *+digraphs* |digraphs| *E196*
*+dnd* Support for DnD into the "~ register |quote_~|.
B *+emacs_tags* |emacs-tags| files
N *+eval* expression evaluation |eval.txt|
N *+ex_extra* Vim's extra Ex commands: |:center|, |:left|,
|:normal|, |:retab| and |:right|
N *+extra_search* |'hlsearch'| and |'incsearch'| options.
B *+farsi* |farsi| language
N *+file_in_path* |gf|, |CTRL-W_f| and |<cfile>|
N *+find_in_path* include file searches: |[I|, |:isearch|,
|CTRL-W_CTRL-I|, |:checkpath|, etc.

N *+folding* |folding|
*+footer* |gui-footer|
*+fork* Unix only: |fork| shell commands
*+float* Floating point support
N *+gettext* message translations |multi-lang|
*+GUI_Athena* Unix only: Athena |GUI|
*+GUI_neXtaw* Unix only: neXtaw |GUI|
*+GUI_GTK* Unix only: GTK+ |GUI|
*+GUI_Motif* Unix only: Motif |GUI|
*+GUI_Photon* QNX only: Photon |GUI|
m *+hangul_input* Hangul input support |hangul|
*+iconv* Compiled with the |iconv()| function
*+iconv/dyn* Likewise |iconv-dynamic| |/dyn|
N *+insert_expand* |insert_expand| Insert mode completion
N *+jumplist* |jumplist|
B *+keymap* |'keymap'|
B *+langmap* |'langmap'|
N *+libcall* |libcall()|
N *+linebreak* |'linebreak'|, |'breakat'| and |'showbreak'|
N *+lispindent* |'lisp'|
N *+listcmds* Vim commands for the list of buffers |buffer-hidden|
and argument list |:argdelete|
N *+localmap* Support for mappings local to a buffer |:map-local|
m *+lua* |Lua| interface
m *+lua/dyn* |Lua| interface |/dyn|
N *+menu* |:menu|
N *+mksession* |:mksession|
N *+modify_fname* |filename-modifiers|
N *+mouse* Mouse handling |mouse-using|
N *+mouseshape* |'mouseshape'|
B *+mouse_dec* Unix only: Dec terminal mouse handling |dec-mouse|
N *+mouse_gpm* Unix only: Linux console mouse handling |gpm-mouse|
B *+mouse_netterm* Unix only: netterm mouse handling |netterm-mouse|
N *+mouse_pterm* QNX only: pterm mouse handling |qnx-terminal|
N *+mouse_sysmouse* Unix only: *BSD console mouse handling |sysmouse|
N *+mouse_xterm* Unix only: xterm mouse handling |xterm-mouse|
B *+multi_byte* 16 and 32 bit characters |multibyte|
*+multi_byte_ime* Win32 input method for multibyte chars |multibyte-ime|
N *+multi_lang* non-English language support |multi-lang|
m *+mzscheme* Mzscheme interface |mzscheme|

m *+mzscheme/dyn* Mzscheme interface |mzscheme-dynamic| |/dyn|

m *+netbeans_intg* |netbeans|
m *+ole* Win32 GUI only: |ole-interface|
*+osfiletype* Support for the 'osfiletype' option and filetype
checking in automatic commands. |autocmd-osfiletypes|
N *+path_extra* Up/downwards search in 'path' and 'tags'
m *+perl* Perl interface |perl|
m *+perl/dyn* Perl interface |perl-dynamic| |/dyn|
N *+persistent_undo* Persistent undo |undo-persistence|
*+postscript* |:hardcopy| writes a PostScript file
N *+printer* |:hardcopy| command
H *+profile* |:profile| command
m *+python* Python 2 interface |python|
m *+python/dyn* Python 2 interface |python-dynamic| |/dyn|
m *+python3* Python 3 interface |python|
m *+python3/dyn* Python 3 interface |python-dynamic| |/dyn|
N *+quickfix* |:make| and |quickfix| commands
N *+reltime* |reltime()| function, 'hlsearch'/'incsearch' timeout,
'redrawtime' option
B *+rightleft* Right to left typing |'rightleft'|
m *+ruby* Ruby interface |ruby|
m *+ruby/dyn* Ruby interface |ruby-dynamic| |/dyn|
N *+scrollbind* |'scrollbind'|
B *+signs* |:sign|
N *+smartindent* |'smartindent'|
m *+sniff* SniFF interface |sniff|
N *+startuptime* |--startuptime| argument
N *+statusline* Options 'statusline', 'rulerformat' and special
formats of 'titlestring' and 'iconstring'
m *+sun_workshop* |workshop|
N *+syntax* Syntax highlighting |syntax|
*+system()* Unix only: opposite of |+fork|
N *+tag_binary* binary searching in tags file |tag-binary-search|
N *+tag_old_static* old method for static tags |tag-old-static|
m *+tag_any_white* any white space allowed in tags file |tag-any-white|
m *+tcl* Tcl interface |tcl|
m *+tcl/dyn* Tcl interface |tcl-dynamic| |/dyn|
*+terminfo* uses |terminfo| instead of termcap
N *+termresponse* support for |t_RV| and |v:termresponse|
N *+textobjects* |text-objects| selection

*+tgetent* non-Unix only: able to use external termcap

N *+title* Setting the window 'title' and 'icon'
N *+toolbar* |gui-toolbar|
N *+user_commands* User-defined commands. |user-commands|
N *+viminfo* |'viminfo'|
N *+vertsplit* Vertically split windows |:vsplit|
N *+virtualedit* |'virtualedit'|
S *+visual* Visual mode |Visual-mode|
N *+visualextra* extra Visual mode commands |blockwise-operators|
N *+vreplace* |gR| and |gr|
N *+wildignore* |'wildignore'|
N *+wildmenu* |'wildmenu'|
S *+windows* more than one window
m *+writebackup* |'writebackup'| is default on
m *+xim* X input method |xim|
*+xfontset* X fontset support |xfontset|
*+xsmp* XSMP (X session management) support
*+xsmp_interact* interactive XSMP (X session management) support
N *+xterm_clipboard* Unix only: xterm clipboard handling
m *+xterm_save* save and restore xterm screen |xterm-screens|
N *+X11* Unix only: can restore window title |X11|
*/dyn* *E370* *E448*

To some of the features "/dyn" is added when the
feature is only available when the related library can
be dynamically loaded.
:ve[rsion] {nr} Is now ignored. This was previously used to check the
version number of a .vimrc file. It was removed,
because you can now use the ":if" command for
version-dependent behavior. {not in Vi}
*:redi* *:redir*
:redi[r][!] > {file} Redirect messages to file {file}. The messages which
are the output of commands are written to that file,
until redirection ends. The messages are also still
shown on the screen. When [!] is included, an
existing file is overwritten. When [!] is omitted,
and {file} exists, this command fails.
Only one ":redir" can be active at a time. Calls to
":redir" will close any active redirection before
starting redirection to the new target.
To stop the messages and commands from being echoed to
the screen, put the commands in a function and call it
with ":silent call Function()".
An alternative is to use the 'verbosefile' option,
this can be used in combination with ":redir".
{not in Vi}
:redi[r] >> {file} Redirect messages to file {file}. Append if {file}
already exists. {not in Vi}
:redi[r] @{a-zA-Z}
:redi[r] @{a-zA-Z}> Redirect messages to register {a-z}. Append to the
contents of the register if its name is given
uppercase {A-Z}. The ">" after the register name is

optional. {not in Vi}

:redi[r] @{a-z}>> Append messages to register {a-z}. {not in Vi}
:redi[r] @*>
:redi[r] @+> Redirect messages to the selection or clipboard. For
backward compatibility, the ">" after the register
name can be omitted. See |quotestar| and |quoteplus|.
{not in Vi}
:redi[r] @*>>
:redi[r] @+>> Append messages to the selection or clipboard.
{not in Vi}
:redi[r] @"> Redirect messages to the unnamed register. For
backward compatibility, the ">" after the register
name can be omitted. {not in Vi}
:redi[r] @">> Append messages to the unnamed register. {not in Vi}
:redi[r] => {var} Redirect messages to a variable. If the variable
doesn't exist, then it is created. If the variable
exists, then it is initialized to an empty string.
The variable will remain empty until redirection ends.
Only string variables can be used. After the
redirection starts, if the variable is removed or
locked or the variable type is changed, then further
command output messages will cause errors. {not in Vi}
:redi[r] =>> {var} Append messages to an existing variable. Only string
variables can be used. {not in Vi}
:redi[r] END End redirecting messages. {not in Vi}
*:sil* *:silent*
:sil[ent][!] {command} Execute {command} silently. Normal messages will not
be given or added to the message history.
When [!] is added, error messages will also be
skipped, and commands and mappings will not be aborted
when an error is detected. |v:errmsg| is still set.
When [!] is not used, an error message will cause
further messages to be displayed normally.
Redirection, started with |:redir|, will continue as
usual, although there might be small differences.
This will allow redirecting the output of a command
without seeing it on the screen. Example:
:redir >/tmp/foobar
:silent g/Aap/p
:redir END
To execute a Normal mode command silently, use the
|:normal| command. For example, to search for a
string without messages:
:silent exe "normal /path\<CR>"
":silent!" is useful to execute a command that may
fail, but the failure is to be ignored. Example:
:let v:errmsg = ""
:silent! /^begin
:if v:errmsg != ""
: ... pattern was not found
":silent" will also avoid the hit-enter prompt. When
using this for an external command, this may cause the
screen to be messed up. Use |CTRL-L| to clean it up
then.
":silent menu ..." defines a menu that will not echo a
Command-line command. The command will still produce
messages though. Use ":silent" in the command itself
to avoid that: ":silent menu .... :silent command".
*:uns* *:unsilent*
:uns[ilent] {command} Execute {command} not silently. Only makes a
difference when |:silent| was used to get to this
command.
Use this for giving a message even when |:silent| was
used. In this example |:silent| is used to avoid the
message about reading the file and |:unsilent| to be
able to list the first line of each file.
:silent argdo unsilent echo expand('%') . ": " . getline(1)
*:verb* *:verbose*

:[count]verb[ose] {command}
Execute {command} with 'verbose' set to [count]. If
[count] is omitted one is used. ":0verbose" can be
used to set 'verbose' to zero.
The additional use of ":silent" makes messages
generated but not displayed.
The combination of ":silent" and ":verbose" can be
used to generate messages and check them with
|v:statusmsg| and friends. For example:
:let v:statusmsg = ""
:silent verbose runtime foobar.vim
:if v:statusmsg != ""
: " foobar.vim could not be found
:endif
When concatenating another command, the ":verbose"
only applies to the first one:
:4verbose set verbose | set verbose
verbose=4
verbose=0
For logging verbose messages in a file use the
'verbosefile' option.
*:verbose-cmd*
When 'verbose' is non-zero, listing the value of a Vim option or a key map or
an abbreviation or a user-defined function or a command or a highlight group
or an autocommand will also display where it was last defined. If it was
defined manually then there will be no "Last set" message. When it was
defined while executing a function, user command or autocommand, the script in
which it was defined is reported.
*K*
K Run a program to lookup the keyword under the
cursor. The name of the program is given with the
'keywordprg' (kp) option (default is "man"). The
keyword is formed of letters, numbers and the
characters in 'iskeyword'. The keyword under or
right of the cursor is used. The same can be done
with the command
:!{program} {keyword}
There is an example of a program to use in the tools
directory of Vim. It is called 'ref' and does a
simple spelling check.
Special cases:
- If 'keywordprg' is empty, the ":help" command is
used. It's a good idea to include more characters
in 'iskeyword' then, to be able to find more help.
- When 'keywordprg' is equal to "man", a count before
"K" is inserted after the "man" command and before
the keyword. For example, using "2K" while the
cursor is on "mkdir", results in:
!man 2 mkdir
- When 'keywordprg' is equal to "man -s", a count
before "K" is inserted after the "-s". If there is
no count, the "-s" is removed.
{not in Vi}
*v_K*
{Visual}K Like "K", but use the visually highlighted text for
the keyword. Only works when the highlighted text is
not more than one line. {not in Vi}
[N]gs *gs* *:sl* *:sleep*

:[N]sl[eep] [N] [m] Do nothing for [N] seconds. When [m] is included,
sleep for [N] milliseconds. The count for "gs" always
uses seconds. The default is one second.
:sleep "sleep for one second
:5sleep "sleep for five seconds
:sleep 100m "sleep for a hundred milliseconds
10gs "sleep for ten seconds
Can be interrupted with CTRL-C (CTRL-Break on MS-DOS).
"gs" stands for "goto sleep".
While sleeping the cursor is positioned in the text,
if at a visible position. {not in Vi}

*g_CTRL-A*
g CTRL-A Only when Vim was compiled with MEM_PROFILING defined
(which is very rare): print memory usage statistics.
Only useful for debugging Vim.
==============================================================================
2. Using Vim like less or more *less*
If you use the less or more program to view a file, you don't get syntax
highlighting. Thus you would like to use Vim instead. You can do this by
using the shell script "$VIMRUNTIME/macros/less.sh".
This shell script uses the Vim script "$VIMRUNTIME/macros/less.vim". It sets
up mappings to simulate the commands that less supports. Otherwise, you can
still use the Vim commands.
This isn't perfect. For example, when viewing a short file Vim will still use
the whole screen. But it works good enough for most uses, and you get syntax
highlighting.
The "h" key will give you a short overview of the available commands.
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: windows
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*windows.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Aug 15
Editing with multiple windows and buffers. *windows* *buffers*

The commands which have been added to use multiple windows and buffers are
explained here. Additionally, there are explanations for commands that work
differently when used in combination with more than one window.
The basics are explained in chapter 7 and 8 of the user manual |usr_07.txt|
|usr_08.txt|.
1. Introduction |windows-intro|
2. Starting Vim |windows-starting|
3. Opening and closing a window |opening-window|
4. Moving cursor to other windows |window-move-cursor|
5. Moving windows around |window-moving|
6. Window resizing |window-resize|
7. Argument and buffer list commands |buffer-list|
8. Do a command in all buffers or windows |list-repeat|
9. Tag or file name under the cursor |window-tag|
10. The preview window |preview-window|
11. Using hidden buffers |buffer-hidden|
12. Special kinds of buffers |special-buffers|
{not able to use multiple windows when the |+windows| feature was disabled at
compile time}
{not able to use vertically split windows when the |+vertsplit| feature was
==============================================================================
1. Introduction *windows-intro* *window*
Summary:
A buffer is the in-memory text of a file.
A window is a viewport on a buffer.
A tab page is a collection of windows.
A window is a viewport onto a buffer. You can use multiple windows on one
buffer, or several windows on different buffers.
A buffer is a file loaded into memory for editing. The original file remains
unchanged until you write the buffer to the file.
A buffer can be in one of three states:
*active-buffer*
active: The buffer is displayed in a window. If there is a file for this
buffer, it has been read into the buffer. The buffer may have been
modified since then and thus be different from the file.
*hidden-buffer*
hidden: The buffer is not displayed. If there is a file for this buffer, it
has been read into the buffer. Otherwise it's the same as an active
buffer, you just can't see it.
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/windows.html[2019/03/05 11:42:05 AM]

*inactive-buffer*
inactive: The buffer is not displayed and does not contain anything. Options
for the buffer are remembered if the file was once loaded. It can
contain marks from the |viminfo| file. But the buffer doesn't
contain text.
In a table:
state displayed loaded ":buffers"
in window shows
active yes yes 'a'
hidden no yes 'h'
inactive no no '' ''
Note: All CTRL-W commands can also be executed with |:wincmd|, for those
places where a Normal mode command can't be used or is inconvenient.
The main Vim window can hold several split windows. There are also tab pages
|tab-page|, each of which can hold multiple windows.
==============================================================================
2. Starting Vim *windows-starting*
By default, Vim starts with one window, just like Vi.
The "-o" and "-O" arguments to Vim can be used to open a window for each file
in the argument list. The "-o" argument will split the windows horizontally;
the "-O" argument will split the windows vertically. If both "-o" and "-O"
are given, the last one encountered will be used to determine the split
orientation. For example, this will open three windows, split horizontally:
vim -o file1 file2 file3
"-oN", where N is a decimal number, opens N windows split horizontally. If
there are more file names than windows, only N windows are opened and some
files do not get a window. If there are more windows than file names, the
last few windows will be editing empty buffers. Similarly, "-ON" opens N
windows split vertically, with the same restrictions.
If there are many file names, the windows will become very small. You might
want to set the 'winheight' and/or 'winwidth' options to create a workable
situation.
Buf/Win Enter/Leave |autocommand|s are not executed when opening the new
windows and reading the files, that's only done when they are really entered.
*status-line*
A status line will be used to separate windows. The 'laststatus' option tells
when the last window also has a status line:
'laststatus' = 0 never a status line
'laststatus' = 1 status line if there is more than one window
'laststatus' = 2 always a status line
You can change the contents of the status line with the 'statusline' option.
This option can be local to the window, so that you can have a different
status line in each window.
Normally, inversion is used to display the status line. This can be changed
with the 's' character in the 'highlight' option. For example, "sb" sets it to
bold characters. If no highlighting is used for the status line ("sn"), the
'^' character is used for the current window, and '=' for other windows. If
the mouse is supported and enabled with the 'mouse' option, a status line can
be dragged to resize windows.
Note: If you expect your status line to be in reverse video and it isn't,
check if the 'highlight' option contains "si". In version 3.0, this meant to
invert the status line. Now it should be "sr", reverse the status line, as
"si" now stands for italic! If italic is not available on your terminal, the
status line is inverted anyway; you will only see this problem on terminals
that have termcap codes for italics.
==============================================================================
3. Opening and closing a window *opening-window* *E36*
CTRL-W s *CTRL-W_s*
CTRL-W S *CTRL-W_S*

CTRL-W CTRL-S *CTRL-W_CTRL-S*

:[N]sp[lit] [++opt] [+cmd] *:sp* *:split*
Split current window in two. The result is two viewports on
the same file. Make new window N high (default is to use half
the height of the current window). Reduces the current window
height to create room (and others, if the 'equalalways' option
is set, 'eadirection' isn't "hor", and one of them is higher
than the current or the new window).
Note: CTRL-S does not work on all terminals and might block
further input, use CTRL-Q to get going again.
Also see |++opt| and |+cmd|.
CTRL-W CTRL-V *CTRL-W_CTRL-V*

CTRL-W v *CTRL-W_v*
:[N]vs[plit] [++opt] [+cmd] [file] *:vs* *:vsplit*
Like |:split|, but split vertically. The windows will be
spread out horizontally if
1. a width was not specified,
2. 'equalalways' is set,
3. 'eadirection' isn't "ver", and
4. one of the other windows is wider than the current or new
window.
Note: In other places CTRL-Q does the same as CTRL-V, but here
it doesn't!
CTRL-W n *CTRL-W_n*
CTRL-W CTRL_N *CTRL-W_CTRL-N*
:[N]new [++opt] [+cmd] *:new*
Create a new window and start editing an empty file in it.
Make new window N high (default is to use half the existing
height). Reduces the current window height to create room (and
others, if the 'equalalways' option is set and 'eadirection'
isn't "hor").
If 'fileformats' is not empty, the first format given will be
used for the new buffer. If 'fileformats' is empty, the
'fileformat' of the current buffer is used. This can be
overridden with the |++opt| argument.
Autocommands are executed in this order:
1. WinLeave for the current window
2. WinEnter for the new window
3. BufLeave for the current buffer
4. BufEnter for the new buffer
This behaves like a ":split" first, and then a ":e" command.
:[N]vne[w] [++opt] [+cmd] [file] *:vne* *:vnew*

Like |:new|, but split vertically. If 'equalalways' is set
and 'eadirection' isn't "ver" the windows will be spread out
horizontally, unless a width was specified.
:[N]new [++opt] [+cmd] {file}
:[N]sp[lit] [++opt] [+cmd] {file} *:split_f*
Create a new window and start editing file {file} in it.
If [+cmd] is given, execute the command when the file has been
loaded |+cmd|.
Also see |++opt|.
Make new window N high (default is to use half the existing
height). Reduces the current window height to create room
(and others, if the 'equalalways' option is set).
:[N]sv[iew] [++opt] [+cmd] {file} *:sv* *:sview* *splitview*

Same as ":split", but set 'readonly' option for this buffer.
:[N]sf[ind] [++opt] [+cmd] {file} *:sf* *:sfind* *splitfind*

Same as ":split", but search for {file} in 'path' like in
|:find|. Doesn't split if {file} is not found.

CTRL-W CTRL-^ *CTRL-W_CTRL-^* *CTRL-W_^*

CTRL-W ^ Does ":split #", split window in two and edit alternate file.
When a count is given, it becomes ":split #N", split window
and edit buffer N.
Note that the 'splitbelow' and 'splitright' options influence where a new
window will appear.
*:vert* *:vertical*
:vert[ical] {cmd}
Execute {cmd}. If it contains a command that splits a window,
it will be split vertically.
Doesn't work for |:execute| and |:normal|.
:lefta[bove] {cmd} *:lefta* *:leftabove*

:abo[veleft] {cmd} *:abo* *:aboveleft*
it will be opened left (vertical split) or above (horizontal
split) the current window. Overrules 'splitbelow' and
'splitright'.
:rightb[elow] {cmd} *:rightb* *:rightbelow*

:bel[owright] {cmd} *:bel* *:belowright*
it will be opened right (vertical split) or below (horizontal
split) the current window. Overrules 'splitbelow' and
'splitright'.
*:topleft* *E442*
:to[pleft] {cmd}
it will appear at the top and occupy the full width of the Vim
window. When the split is vertical the window appears at the
far left and occupies the full height of the Vim window.
*:botright*
:bo[tright] {cmd}
it will appear at the bottom and occupy the full width of the
Vim window. When the split is vertical the window appears at
the far right and occupies the full height of the Vim window.
These command modifiers can be combined to make a vertically split window
occupy the full height. Example:
:vertical topleft edit tags
Opens a vertically split, full-height window on the "tags" file at the far
left of the Vim window.
Closing a window
CTRL-W q *CTRL-W_q*
CTRL-W CTRL-Q *CTRL-W_CTRL-Q*
:q[uit] Quit current window. When quitting the last window (not
counting a help window), exit Vim.
When 'hidden' is set, and there is only one window for the
current buffer, it becomes hidden.
When 'hidden' is not set, and there is only one window for the
current buffer, and the buffer was changed, the command fails.
(Note: CTRL-Q does not work on all terminals)
:q[uit]! Quit current window. If this was the last window for a buffer,
any changes to that buffer are lost. When quitting the last
window (not counting help windows), exit Vim. The contents of
the buffer are lost, even when 'hidden' is set.

CTRL-W c *CTRL-W_c* *:clo* *:close*

:clo[se][!] Close current window. When the 'hidden' option is set, or
when the buffer was changed and the [!] is used, the buffer
becomes hidden (unless there is another window editing it).
When there is only one window in the current tab page and
there is another tab page, this closes the current tab page.
|tab-page|.
This command fails when: *E444*
- There is only one window on the screen.
- When 'hidden' is not set, [!] is not used, the buffer has
changes, and there is no other window on this buffer.
Changes to the buffer are not written and won't get lost, so
this is a "safe" command.
CTRL-W CTRL-C *CTRL-W_CTRL-C*

You might have expected that CTRL-W CTRL-C closes the current
window, but that does not work, because the CTRL-C cancels the
command.
*:hide*
:hid[e] Quit current window, unless it is the last window on the
screen. The buffer becomes hidden (unless there is another
window editing it or 'bufhidden' is "unload" or "delete").
If the window is the last one in the current tab page the tab
page is closed. |tab-page|
The value of 'hidden' is irrelevant for this command.
:hid[e] {cmd} Execute {cmd} with 'hidden' is set. The previous value of
'hidden' is restored after {cmd} has been executed.
Example:
:hide edit Makefile
This will edit "Makefile", and hide the current buffer if it
has any changes.
CTRL-W o *CTRL-W_o* *E445*

CTRL-W CTRL-O *CTRL-W_CTRL-O* *:on* *:only*
:on[ly][!] Make the current window the only one on the screen. All other
windows are closed.
When the 'hidden' option is set, all buffers in closed windows
become hidden.
When 'hidden' is not set, and the 'autowrite' option is set,
modified buffers are written. Otherwise, windows that have
buffers that are modified are not removed, unless the [!] is
given, then they become hidden. But modified buffers are
never abandoned, so changes cannot get lost.
==============================================================================
4. Moving cursor to other windows *window-move-cursor*
CTRL-W <Down> *CTRL-W_<Down>*

CTRL-W CTRL-J *CTRL-W_CTRL-J* *CTRL-W_j*
CTRL-W j Move cursor to Nth window below current one. Uses the cursor
position to select between alternatives.
CTRL-W <Up> *CTRL-W_<Up>*

CTRL-W CTRL-K *CTRL-W_CTRL-K* *CTRL-W_k*
CTRL-W k Move cursor to Nth window above current one. Uses the cursor
position to select between alternatives.
CTRL-W <Left> *CTRL-W_<Left>*

CTRL-W CTRL-H *CTRL-W_CTRL-H*
CTRL-W <BS> *CTRL-W_<BS>* *CTRL-W_h*
CTRL-W h Move cursor to Nth window left of current one. Uses the
cursor position to select between alternatives.

CTRL-W <Right> *CTRL-W_<Right>*

CTRL-W CTRL-L *CTRL-W_CTRL-L* *CTRL-W_l*
CTRL-W l Move cursor to Nth window right of current one. Uses the
cursor position to select between alternatives.
CTRL-W w *CTRL-W_w* *CTRL-W_CTRL-W*

CTRL-W CTRL-W Without count: move cursor to window below/right of the
current one. If there is no window below or right, go to
top-left window.
With count: go to Nth window (windows are numbered from
top-left to bottom-right). To obtain the window number see
|bufwinnr()| and |winnr()|. When N is larger than the number
of windows go to the last window.
*CTRL-W_W*
CTRL-W W Without count: move cursor to window above/left of current
one. If there is no window above or left, go to bottom-right
window. With count: go to Nth window, like with CTRL-W w.
CTRL-W t *CTRL-W_t* *CTRL-W_CTRL-T*

CTRL-W CTRL-T Move cursor to top-left window.
CTRL-W b *CTRL-W_b* *CTRL-W_CTRL-B*

CTRL-W CTRL-B Move cursor to bottom-right window.
CTRL-W p *CTRL-W_p* *CTRL-W_CTRL-P*

CTRL-W CTRL-P Go to previous (last accessed) window.
*CTRL-W_P* *E441*
CTRL-W P Go to preview window. When there is no preview window this is
an error.
If Visual mode is active and the new window is not for the same buffer, the
Visual mode is ended. If the window is on the same buffer, the cursor
position is set to keep the same Visual area selected.
*:winc* *:wincmd*
These commands can also be executed with ":wincmd":
:[count]winc[md] {arg}
Like executing CTRL-W [count] {arg}. Example:
:wincmd j
Moves to the window below the current one.
This command is useful when a Normal mode cannot be used (for
the |CursorHold| autocommand event). Or when a Normal mode
command is inconvenient.
The count can also be a window number. Example:
:exe nr . "wincmd w"
This goes to window "nr".
==============================================================================
5. Moving windows around *window-moving*
CTRL-W r *CTRL-W_r* *CTRL-W_CTRL-R* *E443*

CTRL-W CTRL-R Rotate windows downwards/rightwards. The first window becomes
the second one, the second one becomes the third one, etc.
The last window becomes the first window. The cursor remains
in the same window.
This only works within the row or column of windows that the
current window is in.
*CTRL-W_R*
CTRL-W R Rotate windows upwards/leftwards. The second window becomes
the first one, the third one becomes the second one, etc. The
first window becomes the last window. The cursor remains in

the same window.

This only works within the row or column of windows that the
CTRL-W x *CTRL-W_x* *CTRL-W_CTRL-X*

CTRL-W CTRL-X Without count: Exchange current window with next one. If there
is no next window, exchange with previous window.
With count: Exchange current window with Nth window (first
window is 1). The cursor is put in the other window.
When vertical and horizontal window splits are mixed, the
exchange is only done in the row or column of windows that the
The following commands can be used to change the window layout. For example,
when there are two vertically split windows, CTRL-W K will change that in
horizontally split windows. CTRL-W H does it the other way around.
*CTRL-W_K*
CTRL-W K Move the current window to be at the very top, using the full
width of the screen. This works like closing the current
window and then creating another one with ":topleft split",
except that the current window contents is used for the new
window.
*CTRL-W_J*
CTRL-W J Move the current window to be at the very bottom, using the
full width of the screen. This works like closing the current
window and then creating another one with ":botright split",
except that the current window contents is used for the new
window.
*CTRL-W_H*
CTRL-W H Move the current window to be at the far left, using the
full height of the screen. This works like closing the
current window and then creating another one with
":vert topleft split", except that the current window contents
is used for the new window.
{not available when compiled without the |+vertsplit| feature}
*CTRL-W_L*
CTRL-W L Move the current window to be at the far right, using the full
height of the screen. This works like closing the
current window and then creating another one with
":vert botright split", except that the current window
contents is used for the new window.
{not available when compiled without the |+vertsplit| feature}
*CTRL-W_T*
CTRL-W T Move the current window to a new tab page. This fails if
there is only one window in the current tab page.
When a count is specified the new tab page will be opened
before the tab page with this index. Otherwise it comes after
the current tab page.
==============================================================================
6. Window resizing *window-resize*
*CTRL-W_=*
CTRL-W = Make all windows (almost) equally high and wide, but use
'winheight' and 'winwidth' for the current window.
Windows with 'winfixheight' set keep their height and windows
with 'winfixwidth' set keep their width.
:res[ize] -N *:res* *:resize* *CTRL-W_-*

CTRL-W - Decrease current window height by N (default 1).
If used after |:vertical|: decrease width by N.
:res[ize] +N *CTRL-W_+*
CTRL-W + Increase current window height by N (default 1).
If used after |:vertical|: increase width by N.

:res[ize] [N]
CTRL-W CTRL-_ *CTRL-W_CTRL-_* *CTRL-W__*
CTRL-W _ Set current window height to N (default: highest possible).
z{nr}<CR> Set current window height to {nr}.
*CTRL-W_<*
CTRL-W < Decrease current window width by N (default 1).
*CTRL-W_>*
CTRL-W > Increase current window width by N (default 1).
:vertical res[ize] [N] *:vertical-resize* *CTRL-W_bar*

CTRL-W | Set current window width to N (default: widest possible).
You can also resize a window by dragging a status line up or down with the
mouse. Or by dragging a vertical separator line left or right. This only
works if the version of Vim that is being used supports the mouse and the
'mouse' option has been set to enable it.
The option 'winheight' ('wh') is used to set the minimal window height of the
current window. This option is used each time another window becomes the
current window. If the option is '0', it is disabled. Set 'winheight' to a
very large value, e.g., '9999', to make the current window always fill all
available space. Set it to a reasonable value, e.g., '10', to make editing in
the current window comfortable.
The equivalent 'winwidth' ('wiw') option is used to set the minimal width of
the current window.
When the option 'equalalways' ('ea') is set, all the windows are automatically
made the same size after splitting or closing a window. If you don't set this
option, splitting a window will reduce the size of the current window and
leave the other windows the same. When closing a window, the extra lines are
given to the window above it.
The 'eadirection' option limits the direction in which the 'equalalways'
option is applied. The default "both" resizes in both directions. When the
value is "ver" only the heights of windows are equalized. Use this when you
have manually resized a vertically split window and want to keep this width.
Likewise, "hor" causes only the widths of windows to be equalized.
The option 'cmdheight' ('ch') is used to set the height of the command-line.
If you are annoyed by the |hit-enter| prompt for long messages, set this
option to 2 or 3.
If there is only one window, resizing that window will also change the command
line height. If there are several windows, resizing the current window will
also change the height of the window below it (and sometimes the window above
it).
The minimal height and width of a window is set with 'winminheight' and
'winminwidth'. These are hard values, a window will never become smaller.
==============================================================================
7. Argument and buffer list commands *buffer-list*
args list buffer list meaning
1. :[N]argument [N] 11. :[N]buffer [N] to arg/buf N
2. :[N]next [file ..] 12. :[N]bnext [N] to Nth next arg/buf
3. :[N]Next [N] 13. :[N]bNext [N] to Nth previous arg/buf
4. :[N]previous [N] 14. :[N]bprevious [N] to Nth previous arg/buf
5. :rewind / :first 15. :brewind / :bfirst to first arg/buf
6. :last 16. :blast to last arg/buf
7. :all 17. :ball edit all args/buffers
18. :unhide edit all loaded buffers
19. :[N]bmod [N] to Nth modified buf
split & args list split & buffer list meaning
21. :[N]sargument [N] 31. :[N]sbuffer [N] split + to arg/buf N
22. :[N]snext [file ..] 32. :[N]sbnext [N] split + to Nth next arg/buf
23. :[N]sNext [N] 33. :[N]sbNext [N] split + to Nth previous arg/buf
24. :[N]sprevious [N] 34. :[N]sbprevious [N] split + to Nth previous arg/buf
25. :srewind / :sfirst 35. :sbrewind / :sbfirst split + to first arg/buf

26. :slast 36. :sblast split + to last arg/buf

27. :sall 37. :sball edit all args/buffers
38. :sunhide edit all loaded buffers
39. :[N]sbmod [N] split + to Nth modified buf
40. :args list of arguments
41. :buffers list of buffers
The meaning of [N] depends on the command:
[N] is number of buffers to go forward/backward on ?2, ?3, and ?4
[N] is an argument number, defaulting to current argument, for 1 and 21
[N] is a buffer number, defaulting to current buffer, for 11 and 31
[N] is a count for 19 and 39
Note: ":next" is an exception, because it must accept a list of file names
for compatibility with Vi.
The argument list and multiple windows

The current position in the argument list can be different for each window.
Remember that when doing ":e file", the position in the argument list stays
the same, but you are not editing the file at that position. To indicate
this, the file message (and the title, if you have one) shows
"(file (N) of M)", where "(N)" is the current position in the file list, and
"M" the number of files in the file list.
All the entries in the argument list are added to the buffer list. Thus, you
can also get to them with the buffer list commands, like ":bnext".
:[N]al[l][!] [N] *:al* *:all* *:sal* *:sall*

:[N]sal[l][!] [N]
Rearrange the screen to open one window for each argument.
All other windows are closed. When a count is given, this is
the maximum number of windows to open.
With the |:tab| modifier open a tab page for each argument.
When there are more arguments than 'tabpagemax' further ones
become split windows in the last tab page.
become hidden.
[N] is the maximum number of windows to open. 'winheight'
also limits the number of windows opened ('winwidth' if
|:vertical| was prepended).
Buf/Win Enter/Leave autocommands are not executed for the new
windows here, that's only done when they are really entered.
:[N]sa[rgument][!] [++opt] [+cmd] [N] *:sa* *:sargument*

Short for ":split | argument [N]": split window and go to Nth
argument. But when there is no such argument, the window is
not split. Also see |++opt| and |+cmd|.
:[N]sn[ext][!] [++opt] [+cmd] [file ..] *:sn* *:snext*

Short for ":split | [N]next": split window and go to Nth next
argument. But when there is no next file, the window is not
split. Also see |++opt| and |+cmd|.
:[N]spr[evious][!] [++opt] [+cmd] [N] *:spr* *:sprevious*

:[N]sN[ext][!] [++opt] [+cmd] [N] *:sN* *:sNext*
Short for ":split | [N]Next": split window and go to Nth
previous argument. But when there is no previous file, the
window is not split. Also see |++opt| and |+cmd|.
*:sre* *:srewind*
:sre[wind][!] [++opt] [+cmd]
Short for ":split | rewind": split window and go to first
argument. But when there is no argument list, the window is

*:sfir* *:sfirst*
:sfir[st] [++opt] [+cmd]
Same as ":srewind".
*:sla* *:slast*
:sla[st][!] [++opt] [+cmd]
Short for ":split | last": split window and go to last
argument. But when there is no argument list, the window is
*:dr* *:drop*
:dr[op] [++opt] [+cmd] {file} ..
Edit the first {file} in a window.
- If the file is already open in a window change to that
window.
- If the file is not open in a window edit the file in the
current window. If the current buffer can't be YXXYabandon|ed,
the window is split first.
The |argument-list| is set, like with the |:next| command.
The purpose of this command is that it can be used from a
program that wants Vim to edit another file, e.g., a debugger.
When using the |:tab| modifier each argument is opened in a
tab page. The last window is used if it's empty.
{only available when compiled with a GUI}
==============================================================================
8. Do a command in all buffers or windows *list-repeat*
*:windo*
:windo {cmd} Execute {cmd} in each window.
It works like doing this:
CTRL-W t
:{cmd}
CTRL-W w
:{cmd}
etc.
This only operates in the current tab page.
When an error is detected on one window, further
windows will not be visited.
The last window (or where an error occurred) becomes
the current window.
{cmd} can contain '|' to concatenate several commands.
{cmd} must not open or close windows or reorder them.
{not in Vi} {not available when compiled without the
|+listcmds| feature}
Also see |:tabdo|, |:argdo| and |:bufdo|.
*:bufdo*
:bufdo[!] {cmd} Execute {cmd} in each buffer in the buffer list.
:bfirst
:{cmd}
:bnext
:{cmd}
etc.
When the current file can't be |abandon|ed and the [!]
is not present, the command fails.
When an error is detected on one buffer, further
buffers will not be visited.
Unlisted buffers are skipped.
The last buffer (or where an error occurred) becomes
the current buffer.
{cmd} must not delete buffers or add buffers to the
buffer list.
Note: While this command is executing, the Syntax
autocommand event is disabled by adding it to
'eventignore'. This considerably speeds up editing
each buffer.
Also see |:tabdo|, |:argdo| and |:windo|.

Examples:
:windo set nolist nofoldcolumn | normal zn
This resets the 'list' option and disables folding in all windows.
:bufdo set fileencoding= | update
This resets the 'fileencoding' in each buffer and writes it if this changed
the buffer. The result is that all buffers will use the 'encoding' encoding
(if conversion works properly).
==============================================================================
9. Tag or file name under the cursor *window-tag*
*:sta* *:stag*
:sta[g][!] [tagname]
Does ":tag[!] [tagname]" and splits the window for the found
tag. See also |:tag|.
CTRL-W ] *CTRL-W_]* *CTRL-W_CTRL-]*

CTRL-W CTRL-] Split current window in two. Use identifier under cursor as a
tag and jump to it in the new upper window. Make new window N
high.
*CTRL-W_g]*
CTRL-W g ] Split current window in two. Use identifier under cursor as a
tag and perform ":tselect" on it in the new upper window.
Make new window N high.
*CTRL-W_g_CTRL-]*
CTRL-W g CTRL-] Split current window in two. Use identifier under cursor as a
tag and perform ":tjump" on it in the new upper window. Make
new window N high.
CTRL-W f *CTRL-W_f* *CTRL-W_CTRL-F*

CTRL-W CTRL-F Split current window in two. Edit file name under cursor.
Like ":split gf", but window isn't split if the file does not
exist.
Uses the 'path' variable as a list of directory names where to
look for the file. Also the path for current file is
used to search for the file name.
If the name is a hypertext link that looks like
"type://machine/path", only "/path" is used.
If a count is given, the count'th matching file is edited.
{not available when the |+file_in_path| feature was disabled
at compile time}
CTRL-W F *CTRL-W_F*
Split current window in two. Edit file name under cursor and
jump to the line number following the file name. See |gF| for
details on how the line number is obtained.
at compile time}
CTRL-W gf *CTRL-W_gf*
Open a new tab page and edit the file name under the cursor.
Like "tab split" and "gf", but the new tab page isn't created
if the file does not exist.
at compile time}
CTRL-W gF *CTRL-W_gF*
Open a new tab page and edit the file name under the cursor
and jump to the line number following the file name. Like
"tab split" and "gF", but the new tab page isn't created if
the file does not exist.
at compile time}
Also see |CTRL-W CTRL-I|: open window for an included file that includes

the keyword under the cursor.

==============================================================================
10. The preview window *preview-window*
The preview window is a special window to show (preview) another file. It is
normally a small window used to show an include file or definition of a
function.
There can be only one preview window (per tab page). It is created with one
of the commands below. The 'previewheight' option can be set to specify the
height of the preview window when it's opened. The 'previewwindow' option is
set in the preview window to be able to recognize it. The 'winfixheight'
option is set to have it keep the same height when opening/closing other
windows.
*:pta* *:ptag*
:pta[g][!] [tagname]
Does ":tag[!] [tagname]" and shows the found tag in a
"Preview" window without changing the current buffer or cursor
position. If a "Preview" window already exists, it is re-used
(like a help window is). If a new one is opened,
'previewheight' is used for the height of the window. See
also |:tag|.
See below for an example. |CursorHold-example|
Small difference from |:tag|: When [tagname] is equal to the
already displayed tag, the position in the matching tag list
is not reset. This makes the CursorHold example work after a
|:ptnext|.
CTRL-W z *CTRL-W_z*
CTRL-W CTRL-Z *CTRL-W_CTRL-Z* *:pc* *:pclose*
:pc[lose][!] Close any "Preview" window currently open. When the 'hidden'
option is set, or when the buffer was changed and the [!] is
used, the buffer becomes hidden (unless there is another
window editing it). The command fails if any "Preview" buffer
cannot be closed. See also |:close|.
*:pp* *:ppop*
:[count]pp[op][!]
Does ":[count]pop[!]" in the preview window. See |:pop| and
|:ptag|. {not in Vi}
CTRL-W } *CTRL-W_}*
Use identifier under cursor as a tag and perform a :ptag on
it. Make the new Preview window (if required) N high. If N is
not given, 'previewheight' is used.
CTRL-W g } *CTRL-W_g}*
Use identifier under cursor as a tag and perform a :ptjump on
it. Make the new Preview window (if required) N high. If N is
not given, 'previewheight' is used.
*:ped* *:pedit*
:ped[it][!] [++opt] [+cmd] {file}
Edit {file} in the preview window. The preview window is
opened like with |:ptag|. The current window and cursor
position isn't changed. Useful example:
:pedit +/fputc /usr/include/stdio.h
*:ps* *:psearch*
:[range]ps[earch][!] [count] [/]pattern[/]
Works like |:ijump| but shows the found match in the preview
window. The preview window is opened like with |:ptag|. The
current window and cursor position isn't changed. Useful
example:
:psearch popen
Like with the |:ptag| command, you can use this to
automatically show information about the word under the
cursor. This is less clever than using |:ptag|, but you don't

need a tags file and it will also find matches in system

include files. Example:
:au! CursorHold *.[ch] nested exe "silent! psearch " . expand("<cword>")
Warning: This can be slow.
Example *CursorHold-example*
:au! CursorHold *.[ch] nested exe "silent! ptag " . expand("<cword>")
This will cause a ":ptag" to be executed for the keyword under the cursor,
when the cursor hasn't moved for the time set with 'updatetime'. The "nested"
makes other autocommands be executed, so that syntax highlighting works in the
preview window. The "silent!" avoids an error message when the tag could not
be found. Also see |CursorHold|. To disable this again:
:au! CursorHold
A nice addition is to highlight the found tag, avoid the ":ptag" when there
is no word under the cursor, and a few other things:
:au! CursorHold *.[ch] nested call PreviewWord()
:func PreviewWord()
: if &previewwindow " don't do this in the preview window
: return
: endif
: let w = expand("<cword>") " get the word under cursor
: if w =~ '\a' " if the word contains a letter
:
: " Delete any existing highlight before showing another tag
: silent! wincmd P " jump to preview window
: if &previewwindow " if we really get there...
: match none " delete existing highlight
: wincmd p " back to old window
: endif
:
: " Try displaying a matching tag for the word under the cursor
: try
: exe "ptag " . w
: catch
: return
: endtry
:
: silent! wincmd P " jump to preview window
: if &previewwindow " if we really get there...
: if has("folding")
: silent! .foldopen " don't want a closed fold
: endif
: call search("$", "b") " to end of previous line
: let w = substitute(w, '\\', '\\\\', "")
: call search('\<\V' . w . '\>') " position cursor on match
: " Add a match highlight to the word at this position
: hi previewWord term=bold ctermbg=green guibg=green
: exe 'match previewWord "\%' . line(".") . 'l\%' . col(".") . 'c\k*"'
: wincmd p " back to old window
: endif
: endif
:endfun
==============================================================================
11. Using hidden buffers *buffer-hidden*
A hidden buffer is not displayed in a window, but is still loaded into memory.
This makes it possible to jump from file to file, without the need to read or
write the file every time you get another buffer in a window.
{not available when compiled without the |+listcmds| feature}
*:buffer-!*
If the option 'hidden' ('hid') is set, abandoned buffers are kept for all
commands that start editing another file: ":edit", ":next", ":tag", etc. The
commands that move through the buffer list sometimes make the current buffer
hidden although the 'hidden' option is not set. This happens when a buffer is
modified, but is forced (with '!') to be removed from a window, and
'autowrite' is off or the buffer can't be written.

You can make a hidden buffer not hidden by starting to edit it with any
command. Or by deleting it with the ":bdelete" command.
The 'hidden' is global, it is used for all buffers. The 'bufhidden' option
can be used to make an exception for a specific buffer. It can take these
values:
<empty> Use the value of 'hidden'.
hide Hide this buffer, also when 'hidden' is not set.
unload Don't hide but unload this buffer, also when 'hidden'
is set.
delete Delete the buffer.
*hidden-quit*
When you try to quit Vim while there is a hidden, modified buffer, you will
get an error message and Vim will make that buffer the current buffer. You
can then decide to write this buffer (":wq") or quit without writing (":q!").
Be careful: there may be more hidden, modified buffers!
A buffer can also be unlisted. This means it exists, but it is not in the
list of buffers. |unlisted-buffer|
:files[!] *:files*
:buffers[!] *:buffers* *:ls*
:ls[!] Show all buffers. Example:
1 #h "/test/text" line 1
2u "asdf" line 0
3 %a+ "version.c" line 1
When the [!] is included the list will show unlisted buffers
(the term "unlisted" is a bit confusing then...).
Each buffer has a unique number. That number will not change,
so you can always go to a specific buffer with ":buffer N" or
"N CTRL-^", where N is the buffer number.
Indicators (chars in the same column are mutually exclusive):
u an unlisted buffer (only displayed when [!] is used)
|unlisted-buffer|
% the buffer in the current window
# the alternate buffer for ":e #" and CTRL-^
a an active buffer: it is loaded and visible
h a hidden buffer: It is loaded, but currently not
displayed in a window |hidden-buffer|
- a buffer with 'modifiable' off
= a readonly buffer
+ a modified buffer
x a buffer with read errors
*:bad* *:badd*
:bad[d] [+lnum] {fname}
Add file name {fname} to the buffer list, without loading it.
If "lnum" is specified, the cursor will be positioned at that
line when the buffer is first entered. Note that other
commands after the + will be ignored.
:[N]bd[elete][!] *:bd* *:bdel* *:bdelete* *E516*

:bd[elete][!] [N]
Unload buffer [N] (default: current buffer) and delete it from
the buffer list. If the buffer was changed, this fails,
unless when [!] is specified, in which case changes are lost.
The file remains unaffected. Any windows for this buffer are
closed. If buffer [N] is the current buffer, another buffer
will be displayed instead. This is the most recent entry in
the jump list that points into a loaded buffer.
Actually, the buffer isn't completely deleted, it is removed
from the buffer list |unlisted-buffer| and option values,
variables and mappings/abbreviations for the buffer are
cleared.
:bdelete[!] {bufname} *E93* *E94*

Like ":bdelete[!] [N]", but buffer given by name. Note that a
buffer whose name is a number cannot be referenced by that

name; use the buffer number instead. Insert a backslash

before a space in a buffer name.
:bdelete[!] N1 N2 ...
Do ":bdelete[!]" for buffer N1, N2, etc. The arguments can be
buffer numbers or buffer names (but not buffer names that are
a number). Insert a backslash before a space in a buffer
name.
:N,Mbdelete[!] Do ":bdelete[!]" for all buffers in the range N to M
|inclusive|.
:[N]bw[ipeout][!] *:bw* *:bwipe* *:bwipeout* *E517*

:bw[ipeout][!] {bufname}
:N,Mbw[ipeout][!]
:bw[ipeout][!] N1 N2 ...
Like |:bdelete|, but really delete the buffer. Everything
related to the buffer is lost. All marks in this buffer
become invalid, option settings are lost, etc. Don't use this
unless you know what you are doing.
:[N]bun[load][!] *:bun* *:bunload* *E515*

:bun[load][!] [N]
Unload buffer [N] (default: current buffer). The memory
allocated for this buffer will be freed. The buffer remains
in the buffer list.
If the buffer was changed, this fails, unless when [!] is
specified, in which case the changes are lost.
Any windows for this buffer are closed. If buffer [N] is the
current buffer, another buffer will be displayed instead.
This is the most recent entry in the jump list that points
into a loaded buffer.
:bunload[!] {bufname}
Like ":bunload[!] [N]", but buffer given by name. Note that a
buffer whose name is a number cannot be referenced by that
name; use the buffer number instead. Insert a backslash
before a space in a buffer name.
:N,Mbunload[!] Do ":bunload[!]" for all buffers in the range N to M
|inclusive|.
:bunload[!] N1 N2 ...
Do ":bunload[!]" for buffer N1, N2, etc. The arguments can be
buffer numbers or buffer names (but not buffer names that are
a number). Insert a backslash before a space in a buffer
name.
:[N]b[uffer][!] [N] *:b* *:bu* *:buf* *:buffer* *E86*

Edit buffer [N] from the buffer list. If [N] is not given,
the current buffer remains being edited. See |:buffer-!| for
[!]. This will also edit a buffer that is not in the buffer
list, without setting the 'buflisted' flag.
:[N]b[uffer][!] {bufname}
Edit buffer for {bufname} from the buffer list. See
|:buffer-!| for [!]. This will also edit a buffer that is not
in the buffer list, without setting the 'buflisted' flag.
:[N]sb[uffer] [N] *:sb* *:sbuffer*

Split window and edit buffer [N] from the buffer list. If [N]
is not given, the current buffer is edited. Respects the
"useopen" setting of 'switchbuf' when splitting. This will
also edit a buffer that is not in the buffer list, without
setting the 'buflisted' flag.
:[N]sb[uffer] {bufname}
Split window and edit buffer for {bufname} from the buffer
list. This will also edit a buffer that is not in the buffer
list, without setting the 'buflisted' flag.
Note: If what you want to do is split the buffer, make a copy
under another name, you can do it this way:
:w foobar | sp #
:[N]bn[ext][!] [N] *:bn* *:bnext* *E87*

Go to [N]th next buffer in buffer list. [N] defaults to one.

Wraps around the end of the buffer list.
See |:buffer-!| for [!].
If you are in a help buffer, this takes you to the next help
buffer (if there is one). Similarly, if you are in a normal
(non-help) buffer, this takes you to the next normal buffer.
This is so that if you have invoked help, it doesn't get in
the way when you're browsing code/text buffers. The next three
commands also work like this.
*:sbn* *:sbnext*
:[N]sbn[ext] [N]
Split window and go to [N]th next buffer in buffer list.
Wraps around the end of the buffer list. Uses 'switchbuf'
:[N]bN[ext][!] [N] *:bN* *:bNext* *:bp* *:bprevious* *E88*

:[N]bp[revious][!] [N]
Go to [N]th previous buffer in buffer list. [N] defaults to
one. Wraps around the start of the buffer list.
See |:buffer-!| for [!] and 'switchbuf'.
:[N]sbN[ext] [N] *:sbN* *:sbNext* *:sbp* *:sbprevious*

:[N]sbp[revious] [N]
Split window and go to [N]th previous buffer in buffer list.
Wraps around the start of the buffer list.
Uses 'switchbuf'.
*:br* *:brewind*
:br[ewind][!] Go to first buffer in buffer list. If the buffer list is
empty, go to the first unlisted buffer.
*:bf* *:bfirst*
:bf[irst] Same as ":brewind".
*:sbr* *:sbrewind*
:sbr[ewind] Split window and go to first buffer in buffer list. If the
buffer list is empty, go to the first unlisted buffer.
Respects the 'switchbuf' option.
*:sbf* *:sbfirst*
:sbf[irst] Same as ":sbrewind".
*:bl* *:blast*
:bl[ast][!] Go to last buffer in buffer list. If the buffer list is
empty, go to the last unlisted buffer.
*:sbl* *:sblast*
:sbl[ast] Split window and go to last buffer in buffer list. If the
buffer list is empty, go to the last unlisted buffer.
Respects 'switchbuf' option.
:[N]bm[odified][!] [N] *:bm* *:bmodified* *E84*

Go to [N]th next modified buffer. Note: this command also
finds unlisted buffers. If there is no modified buffer the
command fails.
:[N]sbm[odified] [N] *:sbm* *:sbmodified*

Split window and go to [N]th next modified buffer.
Respects 'switchbuf' option.
Note: this command also finds buffers not in the buffer list.
:[N]unh[ide] [N] *:unh* *:unhide* *:sun* *:sunhide*

:[N]sun[hide] [N]
Rearrange the screen to open one window for each loaded buffer
in the buffer list. When a count is given, this is the
maximum number of windows to open.

:[N]ba[ll] [N] *:ba* *:ball* *:sba* *:sball*

:[N]sba[ll] [N] Rearrange the screen to open one window for each buffer in
the buffer list. When a count is given, this is the maximum
number of windows to open. 'winheight' also limits the number
of windows opened ('winwidth' if |:vertical| was prepended).
Buf/Win Enter/Leave autocommands are not executed for the new
windows here, that's only done when they are really entered.
When the |:tab| modifier is used new windows are opened in a
new tab, up to 'tabpagemax'.
Note: All the commands above that start editing another buffer, keep the
'readonly' flag as it was. This differs from the ":edit" command, which sets
the 'readonly' flag each time the file is read.
==============================================================================
12. Special kinds of buffers *special-buffers*
Instead of containing the text of a file, buffers can also be used for other
purposes. A few options can be set to change the behavior of a buffer:
'bufhidden' what happens when the buffer is no longer displayed
in a window.
'buftype' what kind of a buffer this is
'swapfile' whether the buffer will have a swap file
'buflisted' buffer shows up in the buffer list
A few useful kinds of a buffer:
quickfix Used to contain the error list or the location list. See
|:cwindow| and |:lwindow|. This command sets the 'buftype'
option to "quickfix". You are not supposed to change this!
'swapfile' is off.
help Contains a help file. Will only be created with the |:help|
command. The flag that indicates a help buffer is internal
and can't be changed. The 'buflisted' option will be reset
for a help buffer.
directory Displays directory contents. Can be used by a file explorer
plugin. The buffer is created with these settings:
:setlocal buftype=nowrite
:setlocal bufhidden=delete
:setlocal noswapfile
The buffer name is the name of the directory and is adjusted
when using the |:cd| command.
scratch Contains text that can be discarded at any time. It is kept
when closing the window, it must be deleted explicitly.
Settings:
:setlocal buftype=nofile
:setlocal bufhidden=hide
The buffer name can be used to identify the buffer, if you
give it a meaningful name.
*unlisted-buffer*
unlisted The buffer is not in the buffer list. It is not used for
normal editing, but to show a help file, remember a file name
or marks. The ":bdelete" command will also set this option,
thus it doesn't completely delete the buffer. Settings:
:setlocal nobuflisted
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: pattern
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*pattern.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Feb 25
Patterns and search commands *pattern-searches*

The very basics can be found in section |03.9| of the user manual. A few more
explanations are in chapter 27 |usr_27.txt|.
1. Search commands |search-commands|
2. The definition of a pattern |search-pattern|
3. Magic |/magic|
4. Overview of pattern items |pattern-overview|
5. Multi items |pattern-multi-items|
6. Ordinary atoms |pattern-atoms|
7. Ignoring case in a pattern |/ignorecase|
8. Composing characters |patterns-composing|
9. Compare with Perl patterns |perl-patterns|
10. Highlighting matches |match-highlight|
==============================================================================
1. Search commands *search-commands* *E486*
*/*
/{pattern}[/]<CR> Search forward for the [count]'th occurrence of
{pattern} |exclusive|.
/{pattern}/{offset}<CR> Search forward for the [count]'th occurrence of
{pattern} and go |{offset}| lines up or down.
|linewise|.
*/<CR>*
/<CR> Search forward for the [count]'th occurrence of the
latest used pattern |last-pattern| with latest used
|{offset}|.
//{offset}<CR> Search forward for the [count]'th occurrence of the
latest used pattern |last-pattern| with new
|{offset}|. If {offset} is empty no offset is used.
*?*
?{pattern}[?]<CR> Search backward for the [count]'th previous
occurrence of {pattern} |exclusive|.
?{pattern}?{offset}<CR> Search backward for the [count]'th previous
occurrence of {pattern} and go |{offset}| lines up or
down |linewise|.
*?<CR>*
?<CR> Search backward for the [count]'th occurrence of the
latest used pattern |last-pattern| with latest used
|{offset}|.
??{offset}<CR> Search backward for the [count]'th occurrence of the
latest used pattern |last-pattern| with new
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/pattern.html[2019/03/05 11:42:06 AM]

|{offset}|. If {offset} is empty no offset is used.
*n*
n Repeat the latest "/" or "?" [count] times.
|last-pattern| {Vi: no count}
*N*
N Repeat the latest "/" or "?" [count] times in
opposite direction. |last-pattern| {Vi: no count}
*star* *E348* *E349*

* Search forward for the [count]'th occurrence of the
word nearest to the cursor. The word used for the
search is the first of:
1. the keyword under the cursor |'iskeyword'|
2. the first keyword after the cursor, in the
current line
3. the non-blank word under the cursor
4. the first non-blank word after the cursor,
in the current line
Only whole keywords are searched for, like with the
command "/\<keyword\>". |exclusive| {not in Vi}
'ignorecase' is used, 'smartcase' is not.
*#*
# Same as "*", but search backward. The pound sign
(character 163) also works. If the "#" key works as
backspace, try using "stty erase <BS>" before starting
Vim (<BS> is CTRL-H or a real backspace). {not in Vi}
*gstar*
g* Like "*", but don't put "\<" and "\>" around the word.
This makes the search also find matches that are not a
whole word. {not in Vi}
*g#*
g# Like "#", but don't put "\<" and "\>" around the word.
This makes the search also find matches that are not a
whole word. {not in Vi}
*gd*
gd Goto local Declaration. When the cursor is on a local
variable, this command will jump to its declaration.
First Vim searches for the start of the current
function, just like "[[". If it is not found the
search stops in line 1. If it is found, Vim goes back
until a blank line is found. From this position Vim
searches for the keyword under the cursor, like with
"*", but lines that look like a comment are ignored
(see 'comments' option).
Note that this is not guaranteed to work, Vim does not
really check the syntax, it only searches for a match
with the keyword. If included files also need to be
searched use the commands listed in |include-search|.
After this command |n| searches forward for the next
match (not backward).
{not in Vi}
*gD*
gD Goto global Declaration. When the cursor is on a
global variable that is defined in the file, this
command will jump to its declaration. This works just
like "gd", except that the search for the keyword
always starts in line 1. {not in Vi}
*1gd*
1gd Like "gd", but ignore matches inside a {} block that
ends before the cursor position. {not in Vi}
*1gD*

1gD Like "gD", but ignore matches inside a {} block that

ends before the cursor position. {not in Vi}
*CTRL-C*
CTRL-C Interrupt current (search) command. Use CTRL-Break on
MS-DOS |dos-CTRL-Break|.
In Normal mode, any pending command is aborted.
*:noh* *:nohlsearch*
:noh[lsearch] Stop the highlighting for the 'hlsearch' option. It
is automatically turned back on when using a search
command, or setting the 'hlsearch' option.
This command doesn't work in an autocommand, because
the highlighting state is saved and restored when
executing autocommands |autocmd-searchpat|.
Same thing for when invoking a user function.
While typing the search pattern the current match will be shown if the
'incsearch' option is on. Remember that you still have to finish the search
command with <CR> to actually position the cursor at the displayed match. Or
use <Esc> to abandon the search.
All matches for the last used search pattern will be highlighted if you set
the 'hlsearch' option. This can be suspended with the |:nohlsearch| command.
*search-offset* *{offset}*
These commands search for the specified pattern. With "/" and "?" an
additional offset may be given. There are two types of offsets: line offsets
and character offsets. {the character offsets are not in Vi}
The offset gives the cursor position relative to the found match:
[num] [num] lines downwards, in column 1
+[num] [num] lines downwards, in column 1
-[num] [num] lines upwards, in column 1
e[+num] [num] characters to the right of the end of the match
e[-num] [num] characters to the left of the end of the match
s[+num] [num] characters to the right of the start of the match
s[-num] [num] characters to the left of the start of the match
b[+num] [num] identical to s[+num] above (mnemonic: begin)
b[-num] [num] identical to s[-num] above (mnemonic: begin)
;{pattern} perform another search, see |//;|
If a '-' or '+' is given but [num] is omitted, a count of one will be used.
When including an offset with 'e', the search becomes inclusive (the
character the cursor lands on is included in operations).
Examples:
pattern cursor position
/test/+1 one line below "test", in column 1
/test/e on the last t of "test"
/test/s+2 on the 's' of "test"
/test/b-3 three characters before "test"
If one of these commands is used after an operator, the characters between
the cursor position before and after the search is affected. However, if a
line offset is given, the whole lines between the two cursor positions are
affected.
An example of how to search for matches with a pattern and change the match
with another word:
/foo<CR> find "foo"
c//e change until end of match
bar<Esc> type replacement
//<CR> go to start of next match
c//e change until end of match
beep<Esc> type another replacement
etc.
*//;* *E386*
A very special offset is ';' followed by another search command. For example:
/test 1/;/test
/test.*/+1;?ing?

The first one first finds the next occurrence of "test 1", and then the first
occurrence of "test" after that.
This is like executing two search commands after each other, except that:
- It can be used as a single motion command after an operator.
- The direction for a following "n" or "N" command comes from the first
search command.
- When an error occurs the cursor is not moved at all.
*last-pattern*
The last used pattern and offset are remembered. They can be used to repeat
the search, possibly in another direction or with another count. Note that
two patterns are remembered: One for 'normal' search commands and one for the
substitute command ":s". Each time an empty pattern is given, the previously
used pattern is used. However, if there is no previous search command, a
previous substitute pattern is used, if possible.
The 'magic' option sticks with the last used pattern. If you change 'magic',
this will not change how the last used pattern will be interpreted.
The 'ignorecase' option does not do this. When 'ignorecase' is changed, it
will result in the pattern to match other text.
All matches for the last used search pattern will be highlighted if you set
the 'hlsearch' option.
To clear the last used search pattern:
:let @/ = ""
This will not set the pattern to an empty string, because that would match
everywhere. The pattern is really cleared, like when starting Vim.
The search usually skips matches that don't move the cursor. Whether the next
match is found at the next character or after the skipped match depends on the
'c' flag in 'cpoptions'. See |cpo-c|.
with 'c' flag: "/..." advances 1 to 3 characters
without 'c' flag: "/..." advances 1 character
The unpredictability with the 'c' flag is caused by starting the search in the
first column, skipping matches until one is found past the cursor position.
When searching backwards, searching starts at the start of the line, using the
'c' flag in 'cpoptions' as described above. Then the last match before the
cursor position is used.
In Vi the ":tag" command sets the last search pattern when the tag is searched
for. In Vim this is not done, the previous search pattern is still remembered,
unless the 't' flag is present in 'cpoptions'. The search pattern is always
put in the search history.
If the 'wrapscan' option is on (which is the default), searches wrap around
the end of the buffer. If 'wrapscan' is not set, the backward search stops
at the beginning and the forward search stops at the end of the buffer. If
'wrapscan' is set and the pattern was not found the error message "pattern
not found" is given, and the cursor will not be moved. If 'wrapscan' is not
set the message becomes "search hit BOTTOM without match" when searching
forward, or "search hit TOP without match" when searching backward. If
wrapscan is set and the search wraps around the end of the file the message
"search hit TOP, continuing at BOTTOM" or "search hit BOTTOM, continuing at
TOP" is given when searching backwards or forwards respectively. This can be
switched off by setting the 's' flag in the 'shortmess' option. The highlight
method 'w' is used for this message (default: standout).
*search-range*
You can limit the search command "/" to a certain range of lines by including
\%>l items. For example, to match the word "limit" below line 199 and above
line 300:
/\%>199l\%<300llimit
Also see |/\%>l|.
Another way is to use the ":substitute" command with the 'c' flag. Example:
:.,300s/Pattern//gc
This command will search from the cursor position until line 300 for
"Pattern". At the match, you will be asked to type a character. Type 'q' to
stop at this match, type 'n' to find the next match.
The "*", "#", "g*" and "g#" commands look for a word near the cursor in this
order, the first one that is found is used:
- The keyword currently under the cursor.
- The first keyword to the right of the cursor, in the same line.
- The WORD currently under the cursor.

- The first WORD to the right of the cursor, in the same line.
The keyword may only contain letters and characters in 'iskeyword'.
The WORD may contain any non-blanks (<Tab>s and/or <Space>s).
Note that if you type with ten fingers, the characters are easy to remember:
the "#" is under your left hand middle finger (search to the left and up) and
the "*" is under your right hand middle finger (search to the right and down).
(this depends on your keyboard layout though).
==============================================================================
2. The definition of a pattern *search-pattern* *pattern* *[pattern]*
*regular-expression* *regexp* *Pattern*
*E76* *E383* *E476*
For starters, read chapter 27 of the user manual |usr_27.txt|.
*/bar* */\bar* */pattern*

1. A pattern is one or more branches, separated by "\|". It matches anything
that matches one of the branches. Example: "foo\|beep" matches "foo" and
matches "beep". If more than one branch matches, the first one is used.
pattern ::= branch
or branch \| branch
or branch \| branch \| branch
etc.
*/branch* */\&*
2. A branch is one or more concats, separated by "\&". It matches the last
concat, but only if all the preceding concats also match at the same
position. Examples:
"foobeep\&..." matches "foo" in "foobeep".
".*Peter\&.*Bob" matches in a line containing both "Peter" and "Bob"
branch ::= concat
or concat \& concat
or concat \& concat \& concat
etc.
*/concat*
3. A concat is one or more pieces, concatenated. It matches a match for the
first piece, followed by a match for the second piece, etc. Example:
"f[0-9]b", first matches "f", then a digit and then "b".
concat ::= piece
or piece piece
or piece piece piece
etc.
*/piece*
4. A piece is an atom, possibly followed by a multi, an indication of how many
times the atom can be matched. Example: "a*" matches any sequence of "a"
characters: "", "a", "aa", etc. See |/multi|.
piece ::= atom
or atom multi
*/atom*
5. An atom can be one of a long list of items. Many atoms match one character
in the text. It is often an ordinary character or a character class.
Braces can be used to make a pattern into an atom. The "\z(\)" construct
is only for syntax highlighting.
atom ::= ordinary-atom |/ordinary-atom|
or $ pattern $ |/$|
or \%( pattern $ |/\%(|
or \z( pattern \) |/\z(|
==============================================================================
3. Magic */magic*
Some characters in the pattern are taken literally. They match with the same

character in the text. When preceded with a backslash however, these

characters get a special meaning.
Other characters have a special meaning without a backslash. They need to be
preceded with a backslash to match literally.
If a character is taken literally or not depends on the 'magic' option and the
items mentioned next.
*/\m* */\M*
Use of "\m" makes the pattern after it be interpreted as if 'magic' is set,
ignoring the actual value of the 'magic' option.
Use of "\M" makes the pattern after it be interpreted as if 'nomagic' is used.
*/\v* */\V*
Use of "\v" means that in the pattern after it all ASCII characters except
'0'-'9', 'a'-'z', 'A'-'Z' and '_' have a special meaning. "very magic"
Use of "\V" means that in the pattern after it only the backslash has a
special meaning. "very nomagic"
Examples:
after: \v \m \M \V matches
'magic' 'nomagic'
$ $ $ \$ matches end-of-line
. . \. \. matches any character
* * \* \* any number of the previous atom
()    grouping into an atom
| \| \| \| separating alternatives
\a \a \a \a alphabetic character
\\ \\ \\ \\ literal backslash
\. \. . . literal dot
\{ { { { literal '{'
a a a a literal 'a'
{only Vim supports \m, \M, \v and \V}
It is recommended to always keep the 'magic' option at the default setting,
which is 'magic'. This avoids portability problems. To make a pattern immune
to the 'magic' option being set or not, put "\m" or "\M" at the start of the
pattern.
==============================================================================
4. Overview of pattern items *pattern-overview*
Overview of multi items. */multi* *E61* *E62*

More explanation and examples below, follow the links. *E64*
multi
'magic' 'nomagic' matches of the preceding atom
|/star| * \* 0 or more as many as possible
|/\+| \+ \+ 1 or more as many as possible (*)
|/\=| \= \= 0 or 1 as many as possible (*)
|/\?| \? \? 0 or 1 as many as possible (*)
|/\{| \{n,m} \{n,m} n to m as many as possible (*)
\{n} \{n} n exactly (*)
\{n,} \{n,} at least n as many as possible (*)
\{,m} \{,m} 0 to m as many as possible (*)
\{} \{} 0 or more as many as possible (same as *) (*)
|/\{-| \{-n,m} \{-n,m} n to m as few as possible (*)
\{-n} \{-n} n exactly (*)
\{-n,} \{-n,} at least n as few as possible (*)
\{-,m} \{-,m} 0 to m as few as possible (*)
\{-} \{-} 0 or more as few as possible (*)
*E59*
|/\@>| \@> \@> 1, like matching a whole pattern (*)
|/\@=| \@= \@= nothing, requires a match |/zero-width| (*)
|/\@!| \@! \@! nothing, requires NO match |/zero-width| (*)
|/\@<=| \@<= \@<= nothing, requires a match behind |/zero-width| (*)
|/\@<!| \@<! \@<! nothing, requires NO match behind |/zero-width| (*)
(*) {not in Vi}

Overview of ordinary atoms. */ordinary-atom*

More explanation and examples below, follow the links.
ordinary atom
magic nomagic matches
|/^| ^ ^ start-of-line (at start of pattern) |/zero-width|
|/\^| \^ \^ literal '^'
|/\_^| \_^ \_^ start-of-line (used anywhere) |/zero-width|
|/$| $ $ end-of-line (at end of pattern) |/zero-width|
|/\$| \$ \$ literal '$'
|/\_$| \_$ \_$ end-of-line (used anywhere) |/zero-width|
|/.| . \. any single character (not an end-of-line)
|/\_.| \_. \_. any single character or end-of-line
|/\<| \< \< beginning of a word |/zero-width|
|/\>| \> \> end of a word |/zero-width|
|/\zs| \zs \zs anything, sets start of match
|/\ze| \ze \ze anything, sets end of match
|/\%^| \%^ \%^ beginning of file |/zero-width| *E71*
|/\%$| \%$ \%$ end of file |/zero-width|
|/\%V| \%V \%V inside Visual area |/zero-width|
|/\%#| \%# \%# cursor position |/zero-width|
|/\%'m| \%'m \%'m mark m position |/zero-width|
|/\%l| \%23l \%23l in line 23 |/zero-width|
|/\%c| \%23c \%23c in column 23 |/zero-width|
|/\%v| \%23v \%23v in virtual column 23 |/zero-width|
Character classes {not in Vi}: */character-classes*

|/\i| \i \i identifier character (see 'isident' option)
|/\I| \I \I like "\i", but excluding digits
|/\k| \k \k keyword character (see 'iskeyword' option)
|/\K| \K \K like "\k", but excluding digits
|/\f| \f \f file name character (see 'isfname' option)
|/\F| \F \F like "\f", but excluding digits
|/\p| \p \p printable character (see 'isprint' option)
|/\P| \P \P like "\p", but excluding digits
|/\s| \s \s whitespace character: <Space> and <Tab>
|/\S| \S \S non-whitespace character; opposite of \s
|/\d| \d \d digit: [0-9]
|/\D| \D \D non-digit: [^0-9]
|/\x| \x \x hex digit: [0-9A-Fa-f]
|/\X| \X \X non-hex digit: [^0-9A-Fa-f]
|/\o| \o \o octal digit: [0-7]
|/\O| \O \O non-octal digit: [^0-7]
|/\w| \w \w word character: [0-9A-Za-z_]
|/\W| \W \W non-word character: [^0-9A-Za-z_]
|/\h| \h \h head of word character: [A-Za-z_]
|/\H| \H \H non-head of word character: [Â-Za-z_]
|/\a| \a \a alphabetic character: [A-Za-z]
|/\A| \A \A non-alphabetic character: [Â-Za-z]
|/\l| \l \l lowercase character: [a-z]
|/\L| \L \L non-lowercase character: [â-z]
|/\u| \u \u uppercase character: [A-Z]
|/\U| \U \U non-uppercase character [Â-Z]
|/\_| \_x \_x where x is any of the characters above: character
class with end-of-line included
(end of character classes)
|/\e| \e \e <Esc>
|/\t| \t \t <Tab>
|/\r| \r \r <CR>
|/\b| \b \b <BS>
|/\n| \n \n end-of-line
|/~| ~ \~ last given substitute string
|/\1| \1 \1 same string as matched by first  {not in Vi}
|/\2| \2 \2 Like "\1", but uses second 
...
|/\9| \9 \9 Like "\1", but uses ninth 
*E68*
|/\z1| \z1 \z1 only for syntax highlighting, see |:syn-ext-match|
...
|/\z1| \z9 \z9 only for syntax highlighting, see |:syn-ext-match|
x x a character with no special meaning matches itself
|/[]| [] \[] any character specified inside the []

|/\%[]| \%[] \%[] a sequence of optionally matched atoms

|/\c| \c \c ignore case, do not use the 'ignorecase' option
|/\C| \C \C match case, do not use the 'ignorecase' option
|/\m| \m \m 'magic' on for the following chars in the pattern
|/\M| \M \M 'magic' off for the following chars in the pattern
|/\v| \v \v the following chars in the pattern are "very magic"
|/\V| \V \V the following chars in the pattern are "very nomagic"
|/\Z| \Z \Z ignore differences in Unicode "combining characters".
Useful when searching voweled Hebrew or Arabic text.
|/\%d| \%d \%d match specified decimal character (eg \%d123)
|/\%x| \%x \%x match specified hex character (eg \%x2a)
|/\%o| \%o \%o match specified octal character (eg \%o040)
|/\%u| \%u \%u match specified multibyte character (eg \%u20ac)
|/\%U| \%U \%U match specified large multibyte character (eg
\%U12345678)
Example matches
\<\I\i* or
\<\h\w*
\<[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*
An identifier (e.g., in a C program).
$\.$\|\. $ A period followed by <EOL> or a space.
[.!?][])"']*$$\|[ ]$ A search pattern that finds the end of a sentence,
with almost the same definition as the ")" command.
cat\Z Both "cat" and "caÌ€t" ("a" followed by 0x0300)
Does not match "cÃ t" (character 0x00e0), even
though it may look the same.
==============================================================================
5. Multi items *pattern-multi-items*
An atom can be followed by an indication of how many times the atom can be
matched and in what way. This is called a multi. See |/multi| for an
overview.
*/star* */\star* *E56*

* (use \* when 'magic' is not set)
Matches 0 or more of the preceding atom, as many as possible.
Example 'nomagic' matches
a* a\* "", "a", "aa", "aaa", etc.
.* \.\* anything, also an empty string, no end-of-line
\_.* \_.\* everything up to the end of the buffer
\_.*END \_.\*END everything up to and including the last "END"
in the buffer
Exception: When "*" is used at the start of the pattern or just after
"^" it matches the star character.
Be aware that repeating "\_." can match a lot of text and take a long
time. For example, "\_.*END" matches all text from the current
position to the last occurrence of "END" in the file. Since the "*"
will match as many as possible, this first skips over all lines until
the end of the file and then tries matching "END", backing up one
character at a time.
*/\+* *E57*
\+ Matches 1 or more of the preceding atom, as many as possible. {not in
Vi}
Example matches
^.\+$ any non-empty line
\s\+ white space of at least one character
*/\=*
\= Matches 0 or 1 of the preceding atom, as many as possible. {not in Vi}
Example matches
foo\= "fo" and "foo"
*/\?*
\? Just like \=. Cannot be used when searching backwards with the "?"

*/\{* *E58* *E60* *E554*

\{n,m} Matches n to m of the preceding atom, as many as possible
\{n} Matches n of the preceding atom
\{n,} Matches at least n of the preceding atom, as many as possible
\{,m} Matches 0 to m of the preceding atom, as many as possible
\{} Matches 0 or more of the preceding atom, as many as possible (like *)
*/\{-*
\{-n,m} matches n to m of the preceding atom, as few as possible
\{-n} matches n of the preceding atom
\{-n,} matches at least n of the preceding atom, as few as possible
\{-,m} matches 0 to m of the preceding atom, as few as possible
\{-} matches 0 or more of the preceding atom, as few as possible
{Vi does not have any of these}
n and m are positive decimal numbers or zero
*non-greedy*
If a "-" appears immediately after the "{", then a shortest match
first algorithm is used (see example below). In particular, "\{-}" is
the same as "*" but uses the shortest match first algorithm. BUT: A
match that starts earlier is preferred over a shorter match: "a\{-}b"
matches "aaab" in "xaaab".
Example matches
ab\{2,3}c "abbc" or "abbbc"
a\{5} "aaaaa"
ab\{2,}c "abbc", "abbbc", "abbbbc", etc.
ab\{,3}c "ac", "abc", "abbc" or "abbbc"
a[bc]\{3}d "abbbd", "abbcd", "acbcd", "acccd", etc.
a$bc$\{1,2}d "abcd" or "abcbcd"
a[bc]\{-}[cd] "abc" in "abcd"
a[bc]*[cd] "abcd" in "abcd"
The } may optionally be preceded with a backslash: \{n,m\}.
*/\@=*
\@= Matches the preceding atom with zero width. {not in Vi}
Like "(?=pattern)" in Perl.
Example matches
foo$bar$\@= "foo" in "foobar"
foo$bar$\@=foo nothing
*/zero-width*
When using "\@=" (or "^", "$", "\<", "\>") no characters are included
in the match. These items are only used to check if a match can be
made. This can be tricky, because a match with following items will
be done in the same position. The last example above will not match
"foobarfoo", because it tries match "foo" in the same position where
"bar" matched.
Note that using "\&" works the same as using "\@=": "foo\&.." is the
same as "$foo$\@=..". But using "\&" is easier, you don't need the
braces.
*/\@!*
\@! Matches with zero width if the preceding atom does NOT match at the
current position. |/zero-width| {not in Vi}
Like '(?!pattern)" in Perl.
Example matches
foo$bar$\@! any "foo" not followed by "bar"
a.\{-}p\@! "a", "ap", "app", etc. not followed by a "p"
if $\(then$\@!.\)*$ "if " not followed by "then"
Using "\@!" is tricky, because there are many places where a pattern
does not match. "a.*p\@!" will match from an "a" to the end of the
line, because ".*" can match all characters in the line and the "p"
doesn't match at the end of the line. "a.\{-}p\@!" will match any
"a", "ap", "aap", etc. that isn't followed by a "p", because the "."
can match a "p" and "p\@!" doesn't match after that.
You can't use "\@!" to look for a non-match before the matching
position: "$foo$\@!bar" will match "bar" in "foobar", because at the
position where "bar" matches, "foo" does not match. To avoid matching

"foobar" you could use "$foo$\@!...bar", but that doesn't match a

bar at the start of a line. Use "$foo$\@<!bar".
*/\@<=*
\@<= Matches with zero width if the preceding atom matches just before what
follows. |/zero-width| {not in Vi}
Like '(?<=pattern)" in Perl, but Vim allows non-fixed-width patterns.
Example matches
$an\_s\+$\@<=file "file" after "an" and white space or an
end-of-line
For speed it's often much better to avoid this multi. Try using "\zs"
instead |/\zs|. To match the same as the above example:
an\_s\+\zsfile
"\@<=" and "\@<!" check for matches just before what follows.
Theoretically these matches could start anywhere before this position.
But to limit the time needed, only the line where what follows matches
is searched, and one line before that (if there is one). This should
be sufficient to match most things and not be too slow.
The part of the pattern after "\@<=" and "\@<!" are checked for a
match first, thus things like "\1" don't work to reference  inside
the preceding atom. It does work the other way around:
Example matches
\1\@<=,$[a-z]\+$ ",abc" in "abc,abc"
*/\@<!*
\@<! Matches with zero width if the preceding atom does NOT match just
before what follows. Thus this matches if there is no position in the
current or previous line where the atom matches such that it ends just
before what follows. |/zero-width| {not in Vi}
Like '(?<!pattern)" in Perl, but Vim allows non-fixed-width patterns.
The match with the preceding atom is made to end just before the match
with what follows, thus an atom that ends in ".*" will work.
Warning: This can be slow (because many positions need to be checked
for a match).
Example matches
$foo$\@<!bar any "bar" that's not in "foobar"
$\/\/.*$\@<!in "in" which is not after "//"
*/\@>*
\@> Matches the preceding atom like matching a whole pattern. {not in Vi}
Like "(?>pattern)" in Perl.
Example matches
$a*$\@>a nothing (the "a*" takes all the "a"'s, there can't be
another one following)
This matches the preceding atom as if it was a pattern by itself. If
it doesn't match, there is no retry with shorter sub-matches or
anything. Observe this difference: "a*b" and "a*ab" both match
"aaab", but in the second case the "a*" matches only the first two
"a"s. "$a*$\@>ab" will not match "aaab", because the "a*" matches
the "aaa" (as many "a"s as possible), thus the "ab" can't match.
==============================================================================
6. Ordinary atoms *pattern-atoms*
An ordinary atom can be:
*/^*
^ At beginning of pattern or after "\|", "$", "\%(" or "\n": matches
start-of-line; at other positions, matches literal '^'. |/zero-width|
Example matches
^beep( the start of the C function "beep" (probably).
*/\^*
\^ Matches literal '^'. Can be used at any position in the pattern.
*/\_^*
\_^ Matches start-of-line. |/zero-width| Can be used at any position in
the pattern.
Example matches

\_s*\_^foo white space and blank lines and then "foo" at

start-of-line
*/$*
$ At end of pattern or in front of "\|", "$" or "\n" ('magic' on):
matches end-of-line <EOL>; at other positions, matches literal '$'.
|/zero-width|
*/\$*
\$ Matches literal '$'. Can be used at any position in the pattern.
*/\_$*
\_$ Matches end-of-line. |/zero-width| Can be used at any position in the
pattern. Note that "a\_$b" never matches, since "b" cannot match an
end-of-line. Use "a\nb" instead |/\n|.
Example matches
foo\_$\_s* "foo" at end-of-line and following white space and
blank lines
. (with 'nomagic': \.) */.* */\.*

Matches any single character, but not an end-of-line.
*/\_.*
\_. Matches any single character or end-of-line.
Careful: "\_.*" matches all text to the end of the buffer!
*/\<*
\< Matches the beginning of a word: The next char is the first char of a
word. The 'iskeyword' option specifies what is a word character.
|/zero-width|
*/\>*
\> Matches the end of a word: The previous char is the last char of a
word. The 'iskeyword' option specifies what is a word character.
|/zero-width|
*/\zs*
\zs Matches at any position, and sets the start of the match there: The
next char is the first char of the whole match. |/zero-width|
Example:
/^\s*\zsif
matches an "if" at the start of a line, ignoring white space.
Can be used multiple times, the last one encountered in a matching
branch is used. Example:
/$.\{-}\zsFab$\{3}
Finds the third occurrence of "Fab".
{not in Vi} {not available when compiled without the |+syntax| feature}
*/\ze*
\ze Matches at any position, and sets the end of the match there: The
previous char is the last char of the whole match. |/zero-width|
Can be used multiple times, the last one encountered in a matching
branch is used.
Example: "end\ze$if\|for$" matches the "end" in "endif" and
"endfor".
{not in Vi} {not available when compiled without the |+syntax| feature}
*/\%^* *start-of-file*
\%^ Matches start of the file. When matching with a string, matches the
start of the string. {not in Vi}
For example, to find the first "VIM" in a file:
/\%^\_.\{-}\zsVIM
*/\%$* *end-of-file*
\%$ Matches end of the file. When matching with a string, matches the
end of the string. {not in Vi}
Note that this does NOT find the last "VIM" in a file:
/VIM\_.\{-}\%$
It will find the next VIM, because the part after it will always

match. This one will find the last "VIM" in the file:
/VIM\ze$\(VIM$\@!\_.\)*\%$
This uses |/\@!| to ascertain that "VIM" does NOT match in any
position after the first "VIM".
Searching from the end of the file backwards is easier!
*/\%V*
\%V Match inside the Visual area. When Visual mode has already been
stopped match in the area that |gv| would reselect.
This is a |/zero-width| match. To make sure the whole pattern is
inside the Visual area put it at the start and end of the pattern,
e.g.:
/\%Vfoo.*bar\%V
Only works for the current buffer.
*/\%#* *cursor-position*
\%# Matches with the cursor position. Only works when matching in a
buffer displayed in a window. {not in Vi}
WARNING: When the cursor is moved after the pattern was used, the
result becomes invalid. Vim doesn't automatically update the matches.
This is especially relevant for syntax highlighting and 'hlsearch'.
In other words: When the cursor moves the display isn't updated for
this change. An update is done for lines which are changed (the whole
line is updated) or when using the |CTRL-L| command (the whole screen
is updated). Example, to highlight the word under the cursor:
/\k*\%#\k*
When 'hlsearch' is set and you move the cursor around and make changes
this will clearly show when the match is updated or not.
*/\%'m* */\%<'m* */\%>'m*

\%'m Matches with the position of mark m.
\%<'m Matches before the position of mark m.
\%>'m Matches after the position of mark m.
Example, to highlight the text from mark 's to 'e:
/.\%>'s.*\%<'e..
Note that two dots are required to include mark 'e in the match. That
is because "\%<'e" matches at the character before the 'e mark, and
since it's a |/zero-width| match it doesn't include that character.
{not in Vi}
WARNING: When the mark is moved after the pattern was used, the result
becomes invalid. Vim doesn't automatically update the matches.
Similar to moving the cursor for "\%#" |/\%#|.
*/\%l* */\%>l* */\%<l*

\%23l Matches in a specific line.
\%<23l Matches above a specific line (lower line number).
\%>23l Matches below a specific line (higher line number).
These three can be used to match specific lines in a buffer. The "23"
can be any line number. The first line is 1. {not in Vi}
WARNING: When inserting or deleting lines Vim does not automatically
update the matches. This means Syntax highlighting quickly becomes
wrong.
Example, to highlight the line where the cursor currently is:
:exe '/\%' . line(".") . 'l.*'
*/\%c* */\%>c* */\%<c*

\%23c Matches in a specific column.
\%<23c Matches before a specific column.
\%>23c Matches after a specific column.
These three can be used to match specific columns in a buffer or
string. The "23" can be any column number. The first column is 1.
Actually, the column is the byte number (thus it's not exactly right
for multi-byte characters). {not in Vi}
WARNING: When inserting or deleting text Vim does not automatically
update the matches. This means Syntax highlighting quickly becomes
wrong.
Example, to highlight the column where the cursor currently is:
:exe '/\%' . col(".") . 'c'
Example for matching a single byte in column 44:
/\%>43c.\%<46c
Note that "\%<46c" matches in column 45 when the "." matches a byte in

column 44.
*/\%v* */\%>v* */\%<v*
\%23v Matches in a specific virtual column.
\%<23v Matches before a specific virtual column.
\%>23v Matches after a specific virtual column.
These three can be used to match specific virtual columns in a buffer
or string. When not matching with a buffer in a window, the option
values of the current window are used (e.g., 'tabstop').
The "23" can be any column number. The first column is 1.
Note that some virtual column positions will never match, because they
are halfway through a tab or other character that occupies more than
one screen character. {not in Vi}
WARNING: When inserting or deleting text Vim does not automatically
update highlighted matches. This means Syntax highlighting quickly
becomes wrong.
Example, to highlight all the characters after virtual column 72:
/\%>72v.*
To match the text up to column 17:
/.*\%17v
Column 17 is included, because that's where the "\%17v" matches,
even though this is a |/zero-width| match. Adding a dot to match the
next character has the same result:
/.*\%17v.
This command does the same thing, but also matches when there is no
character in column 17:
/.*\%<18v.
Character classes: {not in Vi}

\i identifier character (see 'isident' option) */\i*
\I like "\i", but excluding digits */\I*
\k keyword character (see 'iskeyword' option) */\k*
\K like "\k", but excluding digits */\K*
\f file name character (see 'isfname' option) */\f*
\F like "\f", but excluding digits */\F*
\p printable character (see 'isprint' option) */\p*
\P like "\p", but excluding digits */\P*
NOTE: the above also work for multi-byte characters. The ones below only
match ASCII characters, as indicated by the range.
*whitespace* *white-space*
\s whitespace character: <Space> and <Tab> */\s*
\S non-whitespace character; opposite of \s */\S*
\d digit: [0-9] */\d*
\D non-digit: [^0-9] */\D*
\x hex digit: [0-9A-Fa-f] */\x*
\X non-hex digit: [^0-9A-Fa-f] */\X*
\o octal digit: [0-7] */\o*
\O non-octal digit: [^0-7] */\O*
\w word character: [0-9A-Za-z_] */\w*
\W non-word character: [^0-9A-Za-z_] */\W*
\h head of word character: [A-Za-z_] */\h*
\H non-head of word character: [Â-Za-z_] */\H*

\a alphabetic character: [A-Za-z] */\a*

\A non-alphabetic character: [Â-Za-z] */\A*
\l lowercase character: [a-z] */\l*
\L non-lowercase character: [â-z] */\L*
\u uppercase character: [A-Z] */\u*
\U non-uppercase character [Â-Z] */\U*
NOTE: Using the atom is faster than the [] form.
NOTE: 'ignorecase', "\c" and "\C" are not used by character classes.
*/\_* *E63* */\_i* */\_I* */\_k* */\_K* */\_f* */\_F*

*/\_p* */\_P* */\_s* */\_S* */\_d* */\_D* */\_x* */\_X*
*/\_o* */\_O* */\_w* */\_W* */\_h* */\_H* */\_a* */\_A*
*/\_l* */\_L* */\_u* */\_U*
\_x Where "x" is any of the characters above: The character class with
end-of-line added
(end of character classes)
\e matches <Esc> */\e*

\t matches <Tab> */\t*
\r matches <CR> */\r*
\b matches <BS> */\b*
\n matches an end-of-line */\n*
When matching in a string instead of buffer text a literal newline
character is matched.
~ matches the last given substitute string */~* */\~*
 A pattern enclosed by escaped parentheses. */$* */\($* */\)*

E.g., "$â$" matches 'a' at the start of a line. *E51* *E54* *E55*
\1 Matches the same string that was matched by */\1* *E65*

the first sub-expression in $ and $. {not in Vi}
Example: "$[a-z]$.\1" matches "ata", "ehe", "tot", etc.
\2 Like "\1", but uses second sub-expression, */\2*
... */\3*
\9 Like "\1", but uses ninth sub-expression. */\9*
Note: The numbering of groups is done based on which "$" comes first
in the pattern (going left to right), NOT based on what is matched
first.
\%($ A pattern enclosed by escaped parentheses. */\%(\)* */\%(* *E53*

Just like , but without counting it as a sub-expression. This
allows using more groups and it's a little bit faster.
{not in Vi}
x A single character, with no special meaning, matches itself
*/\* */\\*
\x A backslash followed by a single character, with no special meaning,
is reserved for future expansions
[] (with 'nomagic': \[]) * * * * * * * *

/[] /\[] /\_[] /collection

\_[]
A collection. This is a sequence of characters enclosed in brackets.
It matches any single character in the collection.
Example matches
[xyz] any 'x', 'y' or 'z'
[a-zA-Z]$ any alphabetic character at the end of a line
\c[a-z]$ same
*/[\n]*
With "\_" prepended the collection also includes the end-of-line.
The same can be done by including "\n" in the collection. The
end-of-line is also matched when the collection starts with "^"! Thus
"\_[âb]" matches the end-of-line and any character but "a" and "b".
This makes it Vi compatible: Without the "\_" or "\n" the collection
does not match an end-of-line.
*E769*
When the ']' is not there Vim will not give an error message but
assume no collection is used. Useful to search for '['. However, you
do get E769 for internal searching.
If the sequence begins with "^", it matches any single character NOT
in the collection: "[^xyz]" matches anything but 'x', 'y' and 'z'.
- If two characters in the sequence are separated by '-', this is
shorthand for the full list of ASCII characters between them. E.g.,
"[0-9]" matches any decimal digit. Non-ASCII characters can be
used, but the character values must not be more than 256 apart.
- A character class expression is evaluated to the set of characters
belonging to that character class. The following character classes
are supported:
Name Contents
*[:alnum:]* [:alnum:] letters and digits
*[:alpha:]* [:alpha:] letters
*[:blank:]* [:blank:] space and tab characters
*[:cntrl:]* [:cntrl:] control characters
*[:digit:]* [:digit:] decimal digits
*[:graph:]* [:graph:] printable characters excluding space
*[:lower:]* [:lower:] lowercase letters (all letters when
'ignorecase' is used)
*[:print:]* [:print:] printable characters including space
*[:punct:]* [:punct:] punctuation characters
*[:space:]* [:space:] whitespace characters
*[:upper:]* [:upper:] uppercase letters (all letters when
'ignorecase' is used)
*[:xdigit:]* [:xdigit:] hexadecimal digits
*[:return:]* [:return:] the <CR> character
*[:tab:]* [:tab:] the <Tab> character
*[:escape:]* [:escape:] the <Esc> character
*[:backspace:]* [:backspace:] the <BS> character
The brackets in character class expressions are additional to the
brackets delimiting a collection. For example, the following is a
plausible pattern for a UNIX filename: "[-./[:alnum:]_~]\+" That is,
a list of at least one character, each of which is either '-', '.',
'/', alphabetic, numeric, '_' or '~'.
These items only work for 8-bit characters.
*/[[=* *[==]*
- An equivalence class. This means that characters are matched that
have almost the same meaning, e.g., when ignoring accents. The form
is:
[=a=]
Currently this is only implemented for latin1. Also works for the

latin1 characters in utf-8 and latin9.

*/[[.* *[..]*
- A collation element. This currently simply accepts a single
character in the form:
[.a.]
*/\]*
- To include a literal ']', '^', '-' or '\' in the collection, put a
backslash before it: "[xyz\]]", "[\^xyz]", "[xy\-z]" and "[xyz\\]".
(Note: POSIX does not support the use of a backslash this way). For
']' you can also make it the first character (following a possible
"^"): "[]xyz]" or "[^]xyz]" {not in Vi}.
For '-' you can also make it the first or last character: "[-xyz]",
"[^-xyz]" or "[xyz-]". For '\' you can also let it be followed by
any character that's not in "^]-\bdertnoUux". "[\xyz]" matches '\',
'x', 'y' and 'z'. It's better to use "\\" though, future expansions
may use other characters after '\'.
- The following translations are accepted when the 'l' flag is not
included in 'cpoptions' {not in Vi}:
\e <Esc>
\t <Tab>
\r <CR> (NOT end-of-line!)
\b <BS>
\n line break, see above |/[\n]|
\d123 decimal number of character
\o40 octal number of character up to 0377
\x20 hexadecimal number of character up to 0xff
\u20AC hex. number of multibyte character up to 0xffff
\U1234 hex. number of multibyte character up to 0xffffffff
NOTE: The other backslash codes mentioned above do not work inside
[]!
- Matching with a collection can be slow, because each character in
the text has to be compared with each character in the collection.
Use one of the other atoms above when possible. Example: "\d" is
much faster than "[0-9]" and matches the same characters.
*/\%[]* *E69* *E70* *E369*

\%[] A sequence of optionally matched atoms. This always matches.
It matches as much of the list of atoms it contains as possible. Thus
it stops at the first atom that doesn't match. For example:
/r\%[ead]
matches "r", "re", "rea" or "read". The longest that matches is used.
To match the Ex command "function", where "fu" is required and
"nction" is optional, this would work:
/\<fu\%[nction]\>
The end-of-word atom "\>" is used to avoid matching "fu" in "full".
It gets more complicated when the atoms are not ordinary characters.
You don't often have to use it, but it is possible. Example:
/\<r\%[[eo]ad]\>
Matches the words "r", "re", "ro", "rea", "roa", "read" and "road".
There can be no , \%(\) or \z(\) items inside the [] and \%[] does
not nest.
To include a "[" use "[[]" and for "]" use []]", e.g.,:
/index\%[[[]0[]]]
matches "index" "index[", "index[0" and "index[0]".
{not available when compiled without the |+syntax| feature}
*/\%d* */\%x* */\%o* */\%u* */\%U* *E678*

\%d123 Matches the character specified with a decimal number. Must be
followed by a non-digit.
\%o40 Matches the character specified with an octal number up to 0377.
Numbers below 040 must be followed by a non-octal digit or a non-digit.
\%x2a Matches the character specified with up to two hexadecimal characters.
\%u20AC Matches the character specified with up to four hexadecimal
characters.
\%U1234abcd Matches the character specified with up to eight hexadecimal
characters.
==============================================================================
7. Ignoring case in a pattern */ignorecase*
If the 'ignorecase' option is on, the case of normal letters is ignored.
'smartcase' can be set to ignore case when the pattern contains lowercase
letters only.

*/\c* */\C*
When "\c" appears anywhere in the pattern, the whole pattern is handled like
'ignorecase' is on. The actual value of 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase' is
ignored. "\C" does the opposite: Force matching case for the whole pattern.
{only Vim supports \c and \C}
Note that 'ignorecase', "\c" and "\C" are not used for the character classes.
Examples:
pattern 'ignorecase' 'smartcase' matches
foo off - foo
foo on - foo Foo FOO
Foo on off foo Foo FOO
Foo on on Foo
\cfoo - - foo Foo FOO
foo\C - - foo
Technical detail: *NL-used-for-Nul*

<Nul> characters in the file are stored as <NL> in memory. In the display
they are shown as "^@". The translation is done when reading and writing
files. To match a <Nul> with a search pattern you can just enter CTRL-@ or
"CTRL-V 000". This is probably just what you expect. Internally the
character is replaced with a <NL> in the search pattern. What is unusual is
that typing CTRL-V CTRL-J also inserts a <NL>, thus also searches for a <Nul>
in the file. {Vi cannot handle <Nul> characters in the file at all}
*CR-used-for-NL*
When 'fileformat' is "mac", <NL> characters in the file are stored as <CR>
characters internally. In the text they are shown as "^J". Otherwise this
works similar to the usage of <NL> for a <Nul>.
When working with expression evaluation, a <NL> character in the pattern
matches a <NL> in the string. The use of "\n" (backslash n) to match a <NL>
doesn't work there, it only works to match text in the buffer.
*pattern-multi-byte*
Patterns will also work with multi-byte characters, mostly as you would
expect. But invalid bytes may cause trouble, a pattern with an invalid byte
will probably never match.
==============================================================================
8. Composing characters *patterns-composing*
*/\Z*
When "\Z" appears anywhere in the pattern, composing characters are ignored.
Thus only the base characters need to match, the composing characters may be
different and the number of composing characters may differ. Only relevant
when 'encoding' is "utf-8".
When a composing character appears at the start of the pattern of after an
item that doesn't include the composing character, a match is found at any
character that includes this composing character.
When using a dot and a composing character, this works the same as the
composing character by itself, except that it doesn't matter what comes before
this.
The order of composing characters matters, even though changing the order
doesn't change what a character looks like. This may change in the future.
==============================================================================
9. Compare with Perl patterns *perl-patterns*
Vim's regexes are most similar to Perl's, in terms of what you can do. The
difference between them is mostly just notation; here's a summary of where
they differ:
Capability in Vimspeak in Perlspeak
force case insensitivity \c (?i)
force case sensitivity \C (?-i)
backref-less grouping \%(atom\) (?:atom)
conservative quantifiers \{-n,m} *?, +?, ??, {}?
0-width match atom\@= (?=atom)
0-width non-match atom\@! (?!atom)
0-width preceding match atom\@<= (?<=atom)

0-width preceding non-match atom\@<! (?<!atom)

match without retry atom\@> (?>atom)
Vim and Perl handle newline characters inside a string a bit differently:
In Perl, ^ and $ only match at the very beginning and end of the text,
by default, but you can set the 'm' flag, which lets them match at
embedded newlines as well. You can also set the 's' flag, which causes
a . to match newlines as well. (Both these flags can be changed inside
a pattern using the same syntax used for the i flag above, BTW.)
On the other hand, Vim's ^ and $ always match at embedded newlines, and
you get two separate atoms, \%^ and \%$, which only match at the very
start and end of the text, respectively. Vim solves the second problem
by giving you the \_ "modifier": put it in front of a . or a character
class, and they will match newlines as well.
Finally, these constructs are unique to Perl:
- execution of arbitrary code in the regex: (?{perl code})
- conditional expressions: (?(condition)true-expr|false-expr)
...and these are unique to Vim:
- changing the magic-ness of a pattern: \v \V \m \M
(very useful for avoiding backslashitis)
- sequence of optionally matching atoms: \%[atoms]
- \& (which is to \| what "and" is to "or"; it forces several branches
to match at one spot)
- matching lines/columns by number: \%5l \%5c \%5v
- setting the start and end of the match: \zs \ze
==============================================================================
10. Highlighting matches *match-highlight*
*:mat* *:match*
:mat[ch] {group} /{pattern}/
Define a pattern to highlight in the current window. It will
be highlighted with {group}. Example:
:highlight MyGroup ctermbg=green guibg=green
:match MyGroup /TODO/
Instead of // any character can be used to mark the start and
end of the {pattern}. Watch out for using special characters,
such as '"'' and '|'.
{group} must exist at the moment this command is executed.
The {group} highlighting still applies when a character is
to be highlighted for 'hlsearch', as the highlighting for
matches is given higher priority than that of 'hlsearch'.
Syntax highlighting (see 'syntax') is also overruled by
matches.
Note that highlighting the last used search pattern with
'hlsearch' is used in all windows, while the pattern defined
with ":match" only exists in the current window. It is kept
when switching to another buffer.
'ignorecase' does not apply, use |/\c| in the pattern to
ignore case. Otherwise case is not ignored.
'redrawtime' defines the maximum time searched for pattern
matches.
When matching end-of-line and Vim redraws only part of the
display you may get unexpected results. That is because Vim
looks for a match in the line where redrawing starts.
Also see |matcharg()| and |getmatches()|. The former returns
the highlight group and pattern of a previous |:match|
command. The latter returns a list with highlight groups and
patterns defined by both |matchadd()| and |:match|.
Highlighting matches using |:match| are limited to three
matches (aside from |:match|, |:2match| and |:3match|are
available). |matchadd()| does not have this limitation and in
addition makes it possible to prioritize matches.
Another example, which highlights all characters in virtual
column 72 and more:

:highlight rightMargin term=bold ctermfg=blue guifg=blue

:match rightMargin /.\%>72v/
To highlight all character that are in virtual column 7:
:highlight col8 ctermbg=grey guibg=grey
:match col8 /\%<8v.\%>7v/
Note the use of two items to also match a character that
occupies more than one virtual column, such as a TAB.
:mat[ch]
:mat[ch] none
Clear a previously defined match pattern.
:2mat[ch] {group} /{pattern}/ *:2match*

:2mat[ch]
:2mat[ch] none
:3mat[ch] {group} /{pattern}/ *:3match*
:3mat[ch]
:3mat[ch] none
Just like |:match| above, but set a separate match. Thus
there can be three matches active at the same time. The match
with the lowest number has priority if several match at the
same position.
The ":3match" command is used by the |matchparen| plugin. You
are suggested to use ":match" for manual matching and
":2match" for another plugin.
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: editing
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*editing.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Feb 26
Editing files *edit-files*

1. Introduction |edit-intro|
2. Editing a file |edit-a-file|
3. The argument list |argument-list|
4. Writing |writing|
5. Writing and quitting |write-quit|
6. Dialogs |edit-dialogs|
7. The current directory |current-directory|
8. Editing binary files |edit-binary|
9. Encryption |encryption|
10. Timestamps |timestamps|
11. File Searching |file-searching|
==============================================================================
1. Introduction *edit-intro*
Editing a file with Vim means:
1. reading the file into a buffer
2. changing the buffer with editor commands
3. writing the buffer into a file
*current-file*
As long as you don't write the buffer, the original file remains unchanged.
If you start editing a file (read a file into the buffer), the file name is
remembered as the "current file name". This is also known as the name of the
current buffer. It can be used with "%" on the command line |:_%|.
*alternate-file*
If there already was a current file name, then that one becomes the alternate
file name. It can be used with "#" on the command line |:_#| and you can use
the |CTRL-^| command to toggle between the current and the alternate file.
However, the alternate file name is not changed when |:keepalt| is used.
*:keepalt* *:keepa*
:keepalt {cmd} Execute {cmd} while keeping the current alternate file
name. Note that commands invoked indirectly (e.g.,
with a function) may still set the alternate file
name. {not in Vi}
All file names are remembered in the buffer list. When you enter a file name,
for editing (e.g., with ":e filename") or writing (e.g., with ":w filename"),
the file name is added to the list. You can use the buffer list to remember
which files you edited and to quickly switch from one file to another (e.g.,
to copy text) with the |CTRL-^| command. First type the number of the file
and then hit CTRL-^. {Vi: only one alternate file name is remembered}
CTRL-G or *CTRL-G* *:f* *:fi* *:file*

:f[ile] Prints the current file name (as typed, unless ":cd"
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/editing.html[2019/03/05 11:42:08 AM]

was used), the cursor position (unless the 'ruler'

option is set), and the file status (readonly,
modified, read errors, new file). See the 'shortmess'
option about how to make this message shorter.
{Vi does not include column number}
:f[ile]! like |:file|, but don't truncate the name even when
'shortmess' indicates this.
{count}CTRL-G Like CTRL-G, but prints the current file name with
full path. If the count is higher than 1 the current
buffer number is also given. {not in Vi}
*g_CTRL-G* *word-count* *byte-count*

g CTRL-G Prints the current position of the cursor in five
ways: Column, Line, Word, Character and Byte. If the
number of Characters and Bytes is the same then the
Character position is omitted.
If there are characters in the line that take more
than one position on the screen (<Tab> or special
character), both the "real" column and the screen
column are shown, separated with a dash.
See also 'ruler' option. {not in Vi}
*v_g_CTRL-G*
{Visual}g CTRL-G Similar to "g CTRL-G", but Word, Character, Line, and
Byte counts for the visually selected region are
displayed.
In Blockwise mode, Column count is also shown. (For
{Visual} see |Visual-mode|.)
{not in VI}
*:file_f*
:f[ile][!] {name} Sets the current file name to {name}. The optional !
avoids truncating the message, as with |:file|.
If the buffer did have a name, that name becomes the
|alternate-file| name. An unlisted buffer is created
to hold the old name.
*:0file*
:0f[ile][!] Remove the name of the current buffer. The optional !
avoids truncating the message, as with |:file|. {not
in Vi}
:buffers
:files
:ls List all the currently known file names. See
'windows.txt' |:files| |:buffers| |:ls|. {not in
Vi}
Vim will remember the full path name of a file name that you enter. In most
cases when the file name is displayed only the name you typed is shown, but
the full path name is being used if you used the ":cd" command |:cd|.
*home-replace*
If the environment variable $HOME is set, and the file name starts with that
string, it is often displayed with HOME replaced with "~". This was done to
keep file names short. When reading or writing files the full name is still
used, the "~" is only used when displaying file names. When replacing the
file name would result in just "~", "~/" is used instead (to avoid confusion
between options set to $HOME with 'backupext' set to "~").
When writing the buffer, the default is to use the current file name. Thus
when you give the "ZZ" or ":wq" command, the original file will be
overwritten. If you do not want this, the buffer can be written into another
file by giving a file name argument to the ":write" command. For example:
vim testfile
[change the buffer with editor commands]
:w newfile
:q
This will create a file "newfile", that is a modified copy of "testfile".
The file "testfile" will remain unchanged. Anyway, if the 'backup' option is
set, Vim renames or copies the original file before it will be overwritten.
You can use this file if you discover that you need the original file. See

also the 'patchmode' option. The name of the backup file is normally the same
as the original file with 'backupext' appended. The default "~" is a bit
strange to avoid accidentally overwriting existing files. If you prefer ".bak"
change the 'backupext' option. Extra dots are replaced with '_' on MS-DOS
machines, when Vim has detected that an MS-DOS-like filesystem is being used
(e.g., messydos or crossdos) or when the 'shortname' option is on. The
backup file can be placed in another directory by setting 'backupdir'.
*auto-shortname*
Technical: On the Amiga you can use 30 characters for a file name. But on an
MS-DOS-compatible filesystem only 8 plus 3 characters are
available. Vim tries to detect the type of filesystem when it is
creating the .swp file. If an MS-DOS-like filesystem is suspected,
a flag is set that has the same effect as setting the 'shortname'
option. This flag will be reset as soon as you start editing a
new file. The flag will be used when making the file name for the
".swp" and ".~" files for the current file. But when you are
editing a file in a normal filesystem and write to an MS-DOS-like
filesystem the flag will not have been set. In that case the
creation of the ".~" file may fail and you will get an error
message. Use the 'shortname' option in this case.
When you started editing without giving a file name, "No File" is displayed in
messages. If the ":write" command is used with a file name argument, the file
name for the current file is set to that file name. This only happens when
the 'F' flag is included in 'cpoptions' (by default it is included) |cpo-F|.
This is useful when entering text in an empty buffer and then writing it to a
file. If 'cpoptions' contains the 'f' flag (by default it is NOT included)
|cpo-f| the file name is set for the ":read file" command. This is useful
when starting Vim without an argument and then doing ":read file" to start
editing a file.
When the file name was set and 'filetype' is empty the filetype detection
autocommands will be triggered.
*not-edited*
Because the file name was set without really starting to edit that file, you
are protected from overwriting that file. This is done by setting the
"notedited" flag. You can see if this flag is set with the CTRL-G or ":file"
command. It will include "[Not edited]" when the "notedited" flag is set.
When writing the buffer to the current file name (with ":w!"), the "notedited"
flag is reset.
*abandon*
Vim remembers whether you have changed the buffer. You are protected from
losing the changes you made. If you try to quit without writing, or want to
start editing another file, Vim will refuse this. In order to overrule this
protection, add a '!' to the command. The changes will then be lost. For
example: ":q" will not work if the buffer was changed, but ":q!" will. To see
whether the buffer was changed use the "CTRL-G" command. The message includes
the string "[Modified]" if the buffer has been changed.
If you want to automatically save the changes without asking, switch on the
'autowriteall' option. 'autowrite' is the associated Vi-compatible option
that does not work for all commands.
If you want to keep the changed buffer without saving it, switch on the
'hidden' option. See |hidden-buffer|.
==============================================================================
2. Editing a file *edit-a-file*
*:e* *:edit*
:e[dit] [++opt] [+cmd] Edit the current file. This is useful to re-edit the
current file, when it has been changed outside of Vim.
This fails when changes have been made to the current
buffer and 'autowriteall' isn't set or the file can't
be written.
{Vi: no ++opt}
*:edit!*
:e[dit]! [++opt] [+cmd]
Edit the current file always. Discard any changes to
the current buffer. This is useful if you want to
start all over again.


{Vi: no ++opt}
*:edit_f*
:e[dit] [++opt] [+cmd] {file}
Edit {file}.
This fails when changes have been made to the current
buffer, unless 'hidden' is set or 'autowriteall' is
set and the file can be written.
{Vi: no ++opt}
*:edit!_f*
:e[dit]! [++opt] [+cmd] {file}
Edit {file} always. Discard any changes to the
current buffer.
{Vi: no ++opt}
:e[dit] [++opt] [+cmd] #[count]
Edit the [count]th buffer (as shown by |:files|).
This command does the same as [count] CTRL-^. But ":e
#" doesn't work if the alternate buffer doesn't have a
file name, while CTRL-^ still works then.
{Vi: no ++opt}
*:ene* *:enew*
:ene[w] Edit a new, unnamed buffer. This fails when changes
have been made to the current buffer, unless 'hidden'
is set or 'autowriteall' is set and the file can be
written.
If 'fileformats' is not empty, the first format given
will be used for the new buffer. If 'fileformats' is
empty, the 'fileformat' of the current buffer is used.
{not in Vi}
*:ene!* *:enew!*
:ene[w]! Edit a new, unnamed buffer. Discard any changes to
the current buffer.
Set 'fileformat' like |:enew|.
{not in Vi}
*:fin* *:find*
:fin[d][!] [++opt] [+cmd] {file}
Find {file} in 'path' and then |:edit| it.
{not in Vi} {not available when the |+file_in_path|
feature was disabled at compile time}
:{count}fin[d][!] [++opt] [+cmd] {file}
Just like ":find", but use the {count} match in
'path'. Thus ":2find file" will find the second
"file" found in 'path'. When there are fewer matches
for the file in 'path' than asked for, you get an
error message.
*:ex*
:ex [++opt] [+cmd] [file]
Same as |:edit|.
*:vi* *:visual*
:vi[sual][!] [++opt] [+cmd] [file]
When used in Ex mode: Leave |Ex-mode|, go back to
Normal mode. Otherwise same as |:edit|.
*:vie* *:view*
:vie[w][!] [++opt] [+cmd] file
When used in Ex mode: Leave |Ex mode|, go back to
Normal mode. Otherwise same as |:edit|, but set
'readonly' option for this buffer. {not in Vi}

*CTRL-^* *CTRL-6*
CTRL-^ Edit the alternate file. Mostly the alternate file is
the previously edited file. This is a quick way to
toggle between two files. It is equivalent to ":e #",
except that it also works when there is no file name.
If the 'autowrite' or 'autowriteall' option is on and
the buffer was changed, write it.
Mostly the ^ character is positioned on the 6 key,
pressing CTRL and 6 then gets you what we call CTRL-^.
But on some non-US keyboards CTRL-^ is produced in
another way.
{count}CTRL-^ Edit [count]th file in the buffer list (equivalent to
":e #[count]"). This is a quick way to switch between
files.
See |CTRL-^| above for further details.
{not in Vi}
[count]]f *]f* *[f*

[count][f Same as "gf". Deprecated.
*gf* *E446* *E447*

[count]gf Edit the file whose name is under or after the cursor.
Mnemonic: "goto file".
Uses the 'isfname' option to find out which characters
are supposed to be in a file name. Trailing
punctuation characters ".,:;!" are ignored.
Uses the 'path' option as a list of directory names to
look for the file. See the 'path' option for details
about relative directories and wildcards.
Uses the 'suffixesadd' option to check for file names
with a suffix added.
If the file can't be found, 'includeexpr' is used to
modify the name and another attempt is done.
If a [count] is given, the count'th file that is found
in the 'path' is edited.
This command fails if Vim refuses to |abandon| the
current file.
If you want to edit the file in a new window use
|CTRL-W_CTRL-F|.
If you do want to edit a new file, use:
:e <cfile>
To make gf always work like that:
:map gf :e <cfile><CR>
If the name is a hypertext link, that looks like
"type://machine/path", you need the |netrw| plugin.
For Unix the '~' character is expanded, like in
"~user/file". Environment variables are expanded too
|expand-env|.
{not in Vi}
{not available when the |+file_in_path| feature was
*v_gf*
{Visual}[count]gf Same as "gf", but the highlighted text is used as the
name of the file to edit. 'isfname' is ignored.
Leading blanks are skipped, otherwise all blanks and
special characters are included in the file name.
(For {Visual} see |Visual-mode|.)
{not in VI}
*gF*
[count]gF Same as "gf", except if a number follows the file
name, then the cursor is positioned on that line in
the file. The file name and the number must be
separated by a non-filename (see 'isfname') and
non-numeric character. White space between the
filename, the separator and the number are ignored.
Examples:
eval.c:10
eval.c @ 20
eval.c (30)
eval.c 40

*v_gF*
{Visual}[count]gF Same as "v_gf".
These commands are used to start editing a single file. This means that the
file is read into the buffer and the current file name is set. The file that
is opened depends on the current directory, see |:cd|.
See |read-messages| for an explanation of the message that is given after the
file has been read.
You can use the ":e!" command if you messed up the buffer and want to start
all over again. The ":e" command is only useful if you have changed the
current file name.
*:filename* *{file}*
Besides the things mentioned here, more special items for where a filename is
expected are mentioned at |cmdline-special|.
Note for systems other than Unix: When using a command that accepts a single
file name (like ":edit file") spaces in the file name are allowed, but
trailing spaces are ignored. This is useful on systems that regularly embed
spaces in file names (like MS-Windows and the Amiga). Example: The command
":e Long File Name " will edit the file "Long File Name". When using a
command that accepts more than one file name (like ":next file1 file2")
embedded spaces must be escaped with a backslash.
*wildcard* *wildcards*
Wildcards in {file} are expanded. Which wildcards are supported depends on
the system. These are the common ones:
? matches one character
* matches anything, including nothing
** matches anything, including nothing, recurses into directories
[abc] match 'a', 'b' or 'c'
To avoid the special meaning of the wildcards prepend a backslash. However,
on MS-Windows the backslash is a path separator and "path\[abc]" is still seen
as a wildcard when "[" is in the 'isfname' option. A simple way to avoid this
is to use "path\[[]abc]". Then the file "path[abc]" literally.
*starstar-wildcard*
Expanding "**" is possible on Unix, Win32, Mac OS/X and a few other systems.
This allows searching a directory tree. This goes up to 100 directories deep.
Note there are some commands where this works slightly different, see
|file-searching|.
Example:
:n **/*.txt
Finds files:
ttt.txt
subdir/ttt.txt
a/b/c/d/ttt.txt
When non-wildcard characters are used these are only matched in the first
directory. Example:
:n /usr/inc**/*.h
Finds files:
/usr/include/types.h
/usr/include/sys/types.h
/usr/inc_old/types.h
*backtick-expansion* *`-expansion*
On Unix and a few other systems you can also use backticks in the file name,
for example:
:e `find . -name ver\\*.c -print`
The backslashes before the star are required to prevent "ver*.c" to be
expanded by the shell before executing the find program.
This also works for most other systems, with the restriction that the
backticks must be around the whole item. It is not possible to have text
directly before the first or just after the last backtick.
*`=*
You can have the backticks expanded as a Vim expression, instead of an
external command, by using the syntax `={expr}` e.g.:
:e `=tempname()`
The expression can contain just about anything, thus this can also be used to
avoid the special meaning of '"'', '|', '%' and '#'. Names are to be separated
with line breaks. When the result is a |List| then each item is used as a

name. Line breaks also separate names.
*++opt* *[++opt]*
The [++opt] argument can be used to force the value of 'fileformat',
'fileencoding' or 'binary' to a value for one command, and to specify the
behavior for bad characters. The form is:
++{optname}
Or:
++{optname}={value}
Where {optname} is one of: *++ff* *++enc* *++bin* *++nobin* *++edit*

ff or fileformat overrides 'fileformat'
enc or encoding overrides 'fileencoding'
bin or binary sets 'binary'
nobin or nobinary resets 'binary'
bad specifies behavior for bad characters
edit for |:read| only: keep option values as if editing
a file
{value} cannot contain white space. It can be any valid value for these
options. Examples:
:e ++ff=unix
This edits the same file again with 'fileformat' set to "unix".
:w ++enc=latin1 newfile
This writes the current buffer to "newfile" in latin1 format.
There may be several ++opt arguments, separated by white space. They must all
appear before any |+cmd| argument.
*++bad*
The argument of "++bad=" specifies what happens with characters that can't be
converted and illegal bytes. It can be one of three things:
++bad=X A single-byte character that replaces each bad character.
++bad=keep Keep bad characters without conversion. Note that this may
result in illegal bytes in your text!
++bad=drop Remove the bad characters.
The default is like "++bad=?": Replace each bad character with a question
mark. In some places an inverted question mark is used (0xBF).
Note that not all commands use the ++bad argument, even though they do not
give an error when you add it. E.g. |:write|.
Note that when reading, the 'fileformat' and 'fileencoding' options will be
set to the used format. When writing this doesn't happen, thus a next write
will use the old value of the option. Same for the 'binary' option.
*+cmd* *[+cmd]*
The [+cmd] argument can be used to position the cursor in the newly opened
file, or execute any other command:
+ Start at the last line.
+{num} Start at line {num}.
+/{pat} Start at first line containing {pat}.
+{command} Execute {command} after opening the new file.
{command} is any Ex command.
To include a white space in the {pat} or {command}, precede it with a
backslash. Double the number of backslashes.
:edit +/The\ book file
:edit +/dir\ dirname\\ file
:edit +set\ dir=c:\\\\temp file
Note that in the last example the number of backslashes is halved twice: Once
for the "+cmd" argument and once for the ":set" command.
*file-formats*
The 'fileformat' option sets the <EOL> style for a file:
'fileformat' characters name
"dos" <CR><NL> or <NL> DOS format *DOS-format*
"unix" <NL> Unix format *Unix-format*
"mac" <CR> Mac format *Mac-format*

Previously 'textmode' was used. It is obsolete now.

When reading a file, the mentioned characters are interpreted as the <EOL>.
In DOS format (default for MS-DOS, OS/2 and Win32), <CR><NL> and <NL> are both
interpreted as the <EOL>. Note that when writing the file in DOS format,
<CR> characters will be added for each single <NL>. Also see |file-read|.
When writing a file, the mentioned characters are used for <EOL>. For DOS
format <CR><NL> is used. Also see |DOS-format-write|.
You can read a file in DOS format and write it in Unix format. This will
replace all <CR><NL> pairs by <NL> (assuming 'fileformats' includes "dos"):
:e file
:set fileformat=unix
:w
If you read a file in Unix format and write with DOS format, all <NL>
characters will be replaced with <CR><NL> (assuming 'fileformats' includes
"unix"):
:e file
:set fileformat=dos
:w
If you start editing a new file and the 'fileformats' option is not empty
(which is the default), Vim will try to detect whether the lines in the file
are separated by the specified formats. When set to "unix,dos", Vim will
check for lines with a single <NL> (as used on Unix and Amiga) or by a <CR>
<NL> pair (MS-DOS). Only when ALL lines end in <CR><NL>, 'fileformat' is set
to "dos", otherwise it is set to "unix". When 'fileformats' includes "mac",
and no <NL> characters are found in the file, 'fileformat' is set to "mac".
If the 'fileformat' option is set to "dos" on non-MS-DOS systems the message
"[dos format]" is shown to remind you that something unusual is happening. On
MS-DOS systems you get the message "[unix format]" if 'fileformat' is set to
"unix". On all systems but the Macintosh you get the message "[mac format]"
if 'fileformat' is set to "mac".
If the 'fileformats' option is empty and DOS format is used, but while reading
a file some lines did not end in <CR><NL>, "[CR missing]" will be included in
the file message.
If the 'fileformats' option is empty and Mac format is used, but while reading
a file a <NL> was found, "[NL missing]" will be included in the file message.
If the new file does not exist, the 'fileformat' of the current buffer is used
when 'fileformats' is empty. Otherwise the first format from 'fileformats' is
used for the new file.
Before editing binary, executable or Vim script files you should set the
'binary' option. A simple way to do this is by starting Vim with the "-b"
option. This will avoid the use of 'fileformat'. Without this you risk that
single <NL> characters are unexpectedly replaced with <CR><NL>.
You can encrypt files that are written by setting the 'key' option. This
provides some security against others reading your files. |encryption|
==============================================================================
3. The argument list *argument-list* *arglist*
If you give more than one file name when starting Vim, this list is remembered
as the argument list. You can jump to each file in this list.
Do not confuse this with the buffer list, which you can see with the
|:buffers| command. The argument list was already present in Vi, the buffer
list is new in Vim. Every file name in the argument list will also be present
in the buffer list (unless it was deleted with |:bdel| or |:bwipe|). But it's
common that names in the buffer list are not in the argument list.
This subject is introduced in section |07.2| of the user manual.
There is one global argument list, which is used for all windows by default.
It is possible to create a new argument list local to a window, see
|:arglocal|.
You can use the argument list with the following commands, and with the
expression functions |argc()| and |argv()|. These all work on the argument
list of the current window.
*:ar* *:args*

:ar[gs] Print the argument list, with the current file in

square brackets.
:ar[gs] [++opt] [+cmd] {arglist} *:args_f*

Define {arglist} as the new argument list and edit
the first one. This fails when changes have been made
and Vim does not want to |abandon| the current buffer.
{Vi: no ++opt}
:ar[gs]! [++opt] [+cmd] {arglist} *:args_f!*

Define {arglist} as the new argument list and edit
the first one. Discard any changes to the current
buffer.
{Vi: no ++opt}
:[count]arge[dit][!] [++opt] [+cmd] {name} *:arge* *:argedit*

Add {name} to the argument list and edit it.
When {name} already exists in the argument list, this
entry is edited.
This is like using |:argadd| and then |:edit|.
Note that only one file name is allowed, and spaces
inside the file name are allowed, like with |:edit|.
[count] is used like with |:argadd|.
[!] is required if the current file cannot be
YXXYabandon|ed.
{not in Vi}
:[count]arga[dd] {name} .. *:arga* *:argadd* *E479*

Add the {name}s to the argument list.
If [count] is omitted, the {name}s are added just
after the current entry in the argument list.
Otherwise they are added after the [count]'th file.
If the argument list is "a b c", and "b" is the
current argument, then these commands result in:
command new argument list
:argadd x a b x c
:0argadd x x a b c
:1argadd x a x b c
:99argadd x a b c x
There is no check for duplicates, it is possible to
add a file to the argument list twice.
The currently edited file is not changed.
Note: you can also use this method:
:args ## x
This will add the "x" item and sort the new list.
:argd[elete] {pattern} .. *:argd* *:argdelete* *E480*

Delete files from the argument list that match the
{pattern}s. {pattern} is used like a file pattern,
see |file-pattern|. "%" can be used to delete the
current entry.
This command keeps the currently edited file, also
when it's deleted from the argument list.
Example:
:argdel *.obj
:{range}argd[elete] Delete the {range} files from the argument list.
When the last number in the range is too high, up to
the last argument is deleted. Example:
:10,1000argdel
Deletes arguments 10 and further, keeping 1-9.
*:argu* *:argument*
:[count]argu[ment] [count] [++opt] [+cmd]
Edit file [count] in the argument list. When [count]

is omitted the current entry is used. This fails

when changes have been made and Vim does not want to
|abandon| the current buffer.
:[count]argu[ment]! [count] [++opt] [+cmd]
Edit file [count] in the argument list, discard any
changes to the current buffer. When [count] is
omitted the current entry is used.
:[count]n[ext] [++opt] [+cmd] *:n* *:ne* *:next* *E165* *E163*

Edit [count] next file. This fails when changes have
been made and Vim does not want to |abandon| the
current buffer. Also see |++opt| and |+cmd|. {Vi: no
count or ++opt}.
:[count]n[ext]! [++opt] [+cmd]
Edit [count] next file, discard any changes to the
buffer. Also see |++opt| and |+cmd|. {Vi: no count
or ++opt}.
:n[ext] [++opt] [+cmd] {arglist} *:next_f*

Same as |:args_f|.
:n[ext]! [++opt] [+cmd] {arglist}
Same as |:args_f!|.
:[count]N[ext] [count] [++opt] [+cmd] *:Next* *:N* *E164*

Edit [count] previous file in argument list. This
fails when changes have been made and Vim does not
want to |abandon| the current buffer.
Also see |++opt| and |+cmd|. {Vi: no count or ++opt}.
:[count]N[ext]! [count] [++opt] [+cmd]
Edit [count] previous file in argument list. Discard
any changes to the buffer. Also see |++opt| and
|+cmd|. {Vi: no count or ++opt}.
:[count]prev[ious] [count] [++opt] [+cmd] *:prev* *:previous*

Same as :Next. Also see |++opt| and |+cmd|. {Vi:
only in some versions}
*:rew* *:rewind*
:rew[ind] [++opt] [+cmd]
Start editing the first file in the argument list.
This fails when changes have been made and Vim does
not want to |abandon| the current buffer.
Also see |++opt| and |+cmd|. {Vi: no ++opt}
:rew[ind]! [++opt] [+cmd]
Start editing the first file in the argument list.
Discard any changes to the buffer. Also see |++opt|
and |+cmd|. {Vi: no ++opt}
*:fir* *:first*
:fir[st][!] [++opt] [+cmd]
Other name for ":rewind". {not in Vi}
*:la* *:last*
:la[st] [++opt] [+cmd]
Start editing the last file in the argument list.
This fails when changes have been made and Vim does
not want to |abandon| the current buffer.
Also see |++opt| and |+cmd|. {not in Vi}
:la[st]! [++opt] [+cmd]
Start editing the last file in the argument list.
Discard any changes to the buffer. Also see |++opt|

and |+cmd|. {not in Vi}
*:wn* *:wnext*
:[count]wn[ext] [++opt]
Write current file and start editing the [count]
next file. Also see |++opt| and |+cmd|. {not in Vi}
:[count]wn[ext] [++opt] {file}
Write current file to {file} and start editing the
[count] next file, unless {file} already exists and
the 'writeany' option is off. Also see |++opt| and
|+cmd|. {not in Vi}
:[count]wn[ext]! [++opt] {file}
Write current file to {file} and start editing the
[count] next file. Also see |++opt| and |+cmd|. {not
in Vi}
:[count]wN[ext][!] [++opt] [file] *:wN* *:wNext*

:[count]wp[revious][!] [++opt] [file] *:wp* *:wprevious*
Same as :wnext, but go to previous file instead of
next. {not in Vi}
The [count] in the commands above defaults to one. For some commands it is
possible to use two counts. The last one (rightmost one) is used.
If no [+cmd] argument is present, the cursor is positioned at the last known
cursor position for the file. If 'startofline' is set, the cursor will be
positioned at the first non-blank in the line, otherwise the last know column
is used. If there is no last known cursor position the cursor will be in the
first line (the last line in Ex mode).
*{arglist}*
The wildcards in the argument list are expanded and the file names are sorted.
Thus you can use the command "vim *.c" to edit all the C files. From within
Vim the command ":n *.c" does the same.
White space is used to separate file names. Put a backslash before a space or
tab to include it in a file name. E.g., to edit the single file "foo bar":
:next foo\ bar
On Unix and a few other systems you can also use backticks, for example:
:next `find . -name \\*.c -print`
The backslashes before the star are required to prevent "*.c" to be expanded
by the shell before executing the find program.
*arglist-position*
When there is an argument list you can see which file you are editing in the
title of the window (if there is one and 'title' is on) and with the file
message you get with the "CTRL-G" command. You will see something like
(file 4 of 11)
If 'shortmess' contains 'f' it will be
(4 of 11)
If you are not really editing the file at the current position in the argument
list it will be
(file (4) of 11)
This means that you are position 4 in the argument list, but not editing the
fourth file in the argument list. This happens when you do ":e file".
LOCAL ARGUMENT LIST

{not in Vi}
{not available when compiled without the |+windows| or |+listcmds| features}
*:arglocal*
:argl[ocal] Make a local copy of the global argument list.
Doesn't start editing another file.
:argl[ocal][!] [++opt] [+cmd] {arglist}
Define a new argument list, which is local to the
current window. Works like |:args_f| otherwise.

*:argglobal*
:argg[lobal] Use the global argument list for the current window.
Doesn't start editing another file.
:argg[lobal][!] [++opt] [+cmd] {arglist}
Use the global argument list for the current window.
Define a new global argument list like |:args_f|.
All windows using the global argument list will see
this new list.
There can be several argument lists. They can be shared between windows.
When they are shared, changing the argument list in one window will also
change it in the other window.
When a window is split the new window inherits the argument list from the
current window. The two windows then share this list, until one of them uses
|:arglocal| or |:argglobal| to use another argument list.
USING THE ARGUMENT LIST
*:argdo*
:argdo[!] {cmd} Execute {cmd} for each file in the argument list.
:rewind
:{cmd}
:next
:{cmd}
etc.
When the current file can't be |abandon|ed and the [!]
is not present, the command fails.
When an error is detected on one file, further files
in the argument list will not be visited.
The last file in the argument list (or where an error
occurred) becomes the current file.
{cmd} must not change the argument list.
Note: While this command is executing, the Syntax
autocommand event is disabled by adding it to
'eventignore'. This considerably speeds up editing
each file.
Also see |:windo|, |:tabdo| and |:bufdo|.
Example:
:args *.c
:argdo set ff=unix | update
This sets the 'fileformat' option to "unix" and writes the file if it is now
changed. This is done for all *.c files.
Example:
:args *.[ch]
:argdo %s/\<my_foo\>/My_Foo/ge | update
This changes the word "my_foo" to "My_Foo" in all *.c and *.h files. The "e"
flag is used for the ":substitute" command to avoid an error for files where
"my_foo" isn't used. ":update" writes the file only if changes were made.
==============================================================================
4. Writing *writing* *save-file*
Note: When the 'write' option is off, you are not able to write any file.
*:w* *:write*
*E502* *E503* *E504* *E505*
*E512* *E514* *E667* *E796*
:w[rite] [++opt] Write the whole buffer to the current file. This is
the normal way to save changes to a file. It fails
when the 'readonly' option is set or when there is
another reason why the file can't be written.
For ++opt see |++opt|, but only ++bin, ++nobin, ++ff
and ++enc are effective.
:w[rite]! [++opt] Like ":write", but forcefully write when 'readonly' is

set or there is another reason why writing was

refused.
Note: This may change the permission and ownership of
the file and break (symbolic) links. Add the 'W' flag
to 'cpoptions' to avoid this.
:[range]w[rite][!] [++opt]
Write the specified lines to the current file. This
is unusual, because the file will not contain all
lines in the buffer.
*:w_f* *:write_f*
:[range]w[rite] [++opt] {file}
Write the specified lines to {file}, unless it
already exists and the 'writeany' option is off.
*:w!*
:[range]w[rite]! [++opt] {file}
Write the specified lines to {file}. Overwrite an
existing file.
*:w_a* *:write_a* *E494*

:[range]w[rite][!] [++opt] >>
Append the specified lines to the current file.
:[range]w[rite][!] [++opt] >> {file}
Append the specified lines to {file}. '!' forces the
write even if file does not exist.
*:w_c* *:write_c*
:[range]w[rite] [++opt] !{cmd}
Execute {cmd} with [range] lines as standard input
(note the space in front of the '!'). {cmd} is
executed like with ":!{cmd}", any '!' is replaced with
the previous command |:!|.
The default [range] for the ":w" command is the whole buffer (1,$). If you
write the whole buffer, it is no longer considered changed. When you
write it to a different file with ":w somefile" it depends on the "+" flag in
'cpoptions'. When included, the write command will reset the 'modified' flag,
even though the buffer itself may still be different from its file.
If a file name is given with ":w" it becomes the alternate file. This can be
used, for example, when the write fails and you want to try again later with
":w #". This can be switched off by removing the 'A' flag from the
'cpoptions' option.
*:sav* *:saveas*
:sav[eas][!] [++opt] {file}
Save the current buffer under the name {file} and set
the filename of the current buffer to {file}. The
previous name is used for the alternate file name.
The [!] is needed to overwrite an existing file.
When 'filetype' is empty filetype detection is done
with the new name, before the file is written.
When the write was successful 'readonly' is reset.
{not in Vi}
*:up* *:update*
:[range]up[date][!] [++opt] [>>] [file]
Like ":write", but only write when the buffer has been
modified. {not in Vi}
WRITING WITH MULTIPLE BUFFERS *buffer-write*
*:wa* *:wall*
:wa[ll] Write all changed buffers. Buffers without a file
name or which are readonly are not written. {not in
Vi}
:wa[ll]! Write all changed buffers, even the ones that are

readonly. Buffers without a file name are not

written. {not in Vi}
Vim will warn you if you try to overwrite a file that has been changed
elsewhere. See |timestamp|.
*backup* *E207* *E506* *E507* *E508* *E509* *E510*

If you write to an existing file (but do not append) while the 'backup',
'writebackup' or 'patchmode' option is on, a backup of the original file is
made. The file is either copied or renamed (see 'backupcopy'). After the
file has been successfully written and when the 'writebackup' option is on and
the 'backup' option is off, the backup file is deleted. When the 'patchmode'
option is on the backup file may be renamed.
*backup-table*
'backup' 'writebackup' action
off off no backup made
off on backup current file, deleted afterwards (default)
on off delete old backup, backup current file
on on delete old backup, backup current file
When the 'backupskip' pattern matches with the name of the file which is
written, no backup file is made. The values of 'backup' and 'writebackup' are
ignored then.
When the 'backup' option is on, an old backup file (with the same name as the
new backup file) will be deleted. If 'backup' is not set, but 'writebackup'
is set, an existing backup file will not be deleted. The backup file that is
made while the file is being written will have a different name.
On some filesystems it's possible that in a crash you lose both the backup and
the newly written file (it might be there but contain bogus data). In that
case try recovery, because the swap file is synced to disk and might still be
there. |:recover|
The directories given with the 'backupdir' option is used to put the backup
file in. (default: same directory as the written file).
Whether the backup is a new file, which is a copy of the original file, or the
original file renamed depends on the 'backupcopy' option. See there for an
explanation of when the copy is made and when the file is renamed.
If the creation of a backup file fails, the write is not done. If you want
to write anyway add a '!' to the command.
*write-permissions*
When writing a new file the permissions are read-write. For unix the mask is
0666 with additionally umask applied. When writing a file that was read Vim
will preserve the permissions, but clear the s-bit.
*write-readonly*
When the 'cpoptions' option contains 'W', Vim will refuse to overwrite a
readonly file. When 'W' is not present, ":w!" will overwrite a readonly file,
if the system allows it (the directory must be writable).
*write-fail*
If the writing of the new file fails, you have to be careful not to lose
your changes AND the original file. If there is no backup file and writing
the new file failed, you have already lost the original file! DON'T EXIT VIM
UNTIL YOU WRITE OUT THE FILE! If a backup was made, it is put back in place
of the original file (if possible). If you exit Vim, and lose the changes
you made, the original file will mostly still be there. If putting back the
original file fails, there will be an error message telling you that you
lost the original file.
*DOS-format-write*
If the 'fileformat' is "dos", <CR> <NL> is used for <EOL>. This is default
for MS-DOS, Win32 and OS/2. On other systems the message "[dos format]" is
shown to remind you that an unusual <EOL> was used.
*Unix-format-write*
If the 'fileformat' is "unix", <NL> is used for <EOL>. On MS-DOS, Win32 and
OS/2 the message "[unix format]" is shown.

*Mac-format-write*
If the 'fileformat' is "mac", <CR> is used for <EOL>. On non-Mac systems the
message "[mac format]" is shown.
See also |file-formats| and the 'fileformat' and 'fileformats' options.
*ACL*
ACL stands for Access Control List. It is an advanced way to control access
rights for a file. It is used on new MS-Windows and Unix systems, but only
when the filesystem supports it.
Vim attempts to preserve the ACL info when writing a file. The backup file
will get the ACL info of the original file.
The ACL info is also used to check if a file is read-only (when opening the
file).
*read-only-share*
When MS-Windows shares a drive on the network it can be marked as read-only.
This means that even if the file read-only attribute is absent, and the ACL
settings on NT network shared drives allow writing to the file, you can still
not write to the file. Vim on Win32 platforms will detect read-only network
drives and will mark the file as read-only. You will not be able to override
it with |:write|.
*write-device*
When the file name is actually a device name, Vim will not make a backup (that
would be impossible). You need to use "!", since the device already exists.
Example for Unix:
:w! /dev/lpt0
and for MS-DOS or MS-Windows:
:w! lpt0
For Unix a device is detected when the name doesn't refer to a normal file or
a directory. A fifo or named pipe also looks like a device to Vim.
For MS-DOS and MS-Windows the device is detected by its name:
AUX
CON
CLOCK$
NUL
PRN
COMn n=1,2,3... etc
LPTn n=1,2,3... etc
The names can be in upper- or lowercase.
==============================================================================
5. Writing and quitting *write-quit*
*:q* *:quit*
:q[uit] Quit the current window. Quit Vim if this is the last
window. This fails when changes have been made and
Vim refuses to |abandon| the current buffer, and when
the last file in the argument list has not been
edited.
If there are other tab pages and quitting the last
window in the current tab page the current tab page is
closed |tab-page|.
:conf[irm] q[uit] Quit, but give prompt when changes have been made, or
the last file in the argument list has not been
edited. See |:confirm| and 'confirm'. {not in Vi}
:q[uit]! Quit without writing, also when visible buffers have
changes. Does not exit when there are changed hidden
buffers. Use ":qall!" to exit always.
:cq[uit] Quit always, without writing, and return an error
code. See |:cq|. Used for Manx's QuickFix mode (see
|quickfix|). {not in Vi}
*:wq*
:wq [++opt] Write the current file and quit. Writing fails when
the file is read-only or the buffer does not have a
name. Quitting fails when the last file in the
argument list has not been edited.

:wq! [++opt] Write the current file and quit. Writing fails when
the current buffer does not have a name.
:wq [++opt] {file} Write to {file} and quit. Quitting fails when the
last file in the argument list has not been edited.
:wq! [++opt] {file} Write to {file} and quit.
:[range]wq[!] [++opt] [file]
Same as above, but only write the lines in [range].
*:x* *:xit*
:[range]x[it][!] [++opt] [file]
Like ":wq", but write only when changes have been
made.
When 'hidden' is set and there are more windows, the
current buffer becomes hidden, after writing the file.
*:exi* *:exit*
:[range]exi[t][!] [++opt] [file]
Same as :xit.
*ZZ*
ZZ Write current file, if modified, and quit (same as
":x"). (Note: If there are several windows for the
current file, the file is written if it was modified
and the window is closed).
*ZQ*
ZQ Quit without checking for changes (same as ":q!").
{not in Vi}
MULTIPLE WINDOWS AND BUFFERS *window-exit*
*:qa* *:qall*
:qa[ll] Exit Vim, unless there are some buffers which have been
changed. (Use ":bmod" to go to the next modified buffer).
When 'autowriteall' is set all changed buffers will be
written, like |:wqall|. {not in Vi}
:conf[irm] qa[ll]
Exit Vim. Bring up a prompt when some buffers have been
changed. See |:confirm|. {not in Vi}
:qa[ll]! Exit Vim. Any changes to buffers are lost. {not in Vi}
Also see |:cquit|, it does the same but exits with a non-zero
value.
*:quita* *:quitall*
:quita[ll][!] Same as ":qall". {not in Vi}
:wqa[ll] [++opt] *:wqa* *:wqall* *:xa* *:xall*

:xa[ll] Write all changed buffers and exit Vim. If there are buffers
without a file name, which are readonly or which cannot be
written for another reason, Vim will not quit. {not in Vi}
:conf[irm] wqa[ll] [++opt]
:conf[irm] xa[ll]
Write all changed buffers and exit Vim. Bring up a prompt
when some buffers are readonly or cannot be written for
another reason. See |:confirm|. {not in Vi}
:wqa[ll]! [++opt]
:xa[ll]! Write all changed buffers, even the ones that are readonly,
and exit Vim. If there are buffers without a file name or
which cannot be written for another reason, Vim will not quit.
{not in Vi}
==============================================================================
6. Dialogs *edit-dialogs*

*:confirm* *:conf*
:conf[irm] {command} Execute {command}, and use a dialog when an
operation has to be confirmed. Can be used on the
":q", ":qa" and ":w" commands (the latter to over-ride
a read-only setting).
Examples:
:confirm w foo
Will ask for confirmation when "foo" already exists.
:confirm q
Will ask for confirmation when there are changes.
:confirm qa
If any modified, unsaved buffers exist, you will be prompted to save
or abandon each one. There are also choices to "save all" or "abandon
all".
If you want to always use ":confirm", set the 'confirm' option.
*:browse* *:bro* *E338* *E614* *E615* *E616* *E578*

:bro[wse] {command} Open a file selection dialog for an argument to
{command}. At present this works for |:e|, |:w|,
|:wall|, |:wq|, |:wqall|, |:x|, |:xall|, |:exit|,
|:view|, |:sview|, |:r|, |:saveas|, |:sp|, |:mkexrc|,
|:mkvimrc|, |:mksession|, |:mkview|, |:split|,
|:vsplit|, |:tabe|, |:tabnew|, |:cfile|, |:cgetfile|,
|:caddfile|, |:lfile|, |:lgetfile|, |:laddfile|,
|:diffsplit|, |:diffpatch|, |:open|, |:pedit|,
|:redir|, |:source|, |:update|, |:visual|, |:vsplit|,
and |:qall| if 'confirm' is set.
{only in Win32, Athena, Motif, GTK and Mac GUI}
When ":browse" is not possible you get an error
message. If the |+browse| feature is missing or the
{command} doesn't support browsing, the {command} is
executed without a dialog.
":browse set" works like |:options|.
See also |:oldfiles| for ":browse oldfiles".
The syntax is best shown via some examples:
:browse e $vim/foo
Open the browser in the $vim/foo directory, and edit the
file chosen.
:browse e
Open the browser in the directory specified with 'browsedir',
and edit the file chosen.
:browse w
Open the browser in the directory of the current buffer,
with the current buffer filename as default, and save the
buffer under the filename chosen.
:browse w C:/bar
Open the browser in the C:/bar directory, with the current
buffer filename as default, and save the buffer under the
filename chosen.
Also see the |'browsedir'| option.
For versions of Vim where browsing is not supported, the command is executed
unmodified.
*browsefilter*
For MS Windows, you can modify the filters that are used in the browse dialog.
By setting the g:browsefilter or b:browsefilter variables, you can change the
filters globally or locally to the buffer. The variable is set to a string in
the format "{filter label}\t{pattern};{pattern}\n" where {filter label} is the
text that appears in the "Files of Type" comboBox, and {pattern} is the
pattern which filters the filenames. Several patterns can be given, separated
by ';'.
For Motif the same format is used, but only the very first pattern is actually
used (Motif only offers one pattern, but you can edit it).
For example, to have only Vim files in the dialog, you could use the following
command:
let g:browsefilter="Vim Scripts\t*.vim\nVim Startup Files\t*vimrc\n"
You can override the filter setting on a per-buffer basis by setting the
b:browsefilter variable. You would most likely set b:browsefilter in a
filetype plugin, so that the browse dialog would contain entries related to
the type of file you are currently editing. Disadvantage: This makes it

difficult to start editing a file of a different type. To overcome this, you

may want to add "All Files\t*.*\n" as the final filter, so that the user can
still access any desired file.
==============================================================================
7. The current directory *current-directory*
You may use the |:cd| and |:lcd| commands to change to another directory, so
you will not have to type that directory name in front of the file names. It
also makes a difference for executing external commands, e.g. ":!ls".
Changing directory fails when the current buffer is modified, the '.' flag is
present in 'cpoptions' and "!" is not used in the command.
*:cd* *E747* *E472*

:cd[!] On non-Unix systems: Print the current directory
name. On Unix systems: Change the current directory
to the home directory. Use |:pwd| to print the
current directory on all systems.
:cd[!] {path} Change the current directory to {path}.
If {path} is relative, it is searched for in the
directories listed in |'cdpath'|.
Does not change the meaning of an already opened file,
because its full path name is remembered. Files from
the |arglist| may change though!
On MS-DOS this also changes the active drive.
To change to the directory of the current file:
:cd %:h
*:cd-* *E186*
:cd[!] - Change to the previous current directory (before the
previous ":cd {path}" command). {not in Vi}
*:chd* *:chdir*
:chd[ir][!] [path] Same as |:cd|.
*:lc* *:lcd*
:lc[d][!] {path} Like |:cd|, but only set the current directory for the
current window. The current directory for other
windows is not changed. {not in Vi}
*:lch* *:lchdir*
:lch[dir][!] Same as |:lcd|. {not in Vi}
*:pw* *:pwd* *E187*

:pw[d] Print the current directory name. {Vi: no pwd}
Also see |getcwd()|.
So long as no |:lcd| command has been used, all windows share the same current
directory. Using a command to jump to another window doesn't change anything
for the current directory.
When a |:lcd| command has been used for a window, the specified directory
becomes the current directory for that window. Windows where the |:lcd|
command has not been used stick to the global current directory. When jumping
to another window the current directory will become the last specified local
current directory. If none was specified, the global current directory is
used.
When a |:cd| command is used, the current window will lose his local current
directory and will use the global current directory from now on.
After using |:cd| the full path name will be used for reading and writing
files. On some networked file systems this may cause problems. The result of
using the full path name is that the file names currently in use will remain
referring to the same file. Example: If you have a file a:test and a
directory a:vim the commands ":e test" ":cd vim" ":w" will overwrite the file
a:test and not write a:vim/test. But if you do ":w test" the file a:vim/test
will be written, because you gave a new file name and did not refer to a
filename before the ":cd".
==============================================================================
8. Editing binary files *edit-binary*

Although Vim was made to edit text files, it is possible to edit binary
files. The |-b| Vim argument (b for binary) makes Vim do file I/O in binary
mode, and sets some options for editing binary files ('binary' on, 'textwidth'
to 0, 'modeline' off, 'expandtab' off). Setting the 'binary' option has the
same effect. Don't forget to do this before reading the file.
There are a few things to remember when editing binary files:
- When editing executable files the number of characters must not change.
Use only the "R" or "r" command to change text. Do not delete characters
with "x" or by backspacing.
- Set the 'textwidth' option to 0. Otherwise lines will unexpectedly be
split in two.
- When there are not many <EOL>s, the lines will become very long. If you
want to edit a line that does not fit on the screen reset the 'wrap' option.
Horizontal scrolling is used then. If a line becomes too long (more than
about 32767 characters on the Amiga, much more on 32-bit systems, see
|limits|) you cannot edit that line. The line will be split when reading
the file. It is also possible that you get an "out of memory" error when
reading the file.
- Make sure the 'binary' option is set BEFORE loading the
file. Otherwise both <CR> <NL> and <NL> are considered to end a line
and when the file is written the <NL> will be replaced with <CR> <NL>.
- <Nul> characters are shown on the screen as ^@. You can enter them with
"CTRL-V CTRL-@" or "CTRL-V 000" {Vi cannot handle <Nul> characters in the
file}
- To insert a <NL> character in the file split up a line. When writing the
buffer to a file a <NL> will be written for the <EOL>.
- Vim normally appends an <EOL> at the end of the file if there is none.
Setting the 'binary' option prevents this. If you want to add the final
<EOL>, set the 'endofline' option. You can also read the value of this
option to see if there was an <EOL> for the last line (you cannot see this
in the text).
==============================================================================
9. Encryption *encryption*
Vim is able to write files encrypted, and read them back. The encrypted text
cannot be read without the right key.
{only available when compiled with the |+cryptv| feature} *E833*
The text in the swap file and the undo file is also encrypted. *E843*
Note: The text in memory is not encrypted. A system administrator may be able
to see your text while you are editing it. When filtering text with
":!filter" or using ":w !command" the text is not encrypted, this may reveal
it to others. The 'viminfo' file is not encrypted.
WARNING: If you make a typo when entering the key and then write the file and
exit, the text will be lost!
The normal way to work with encryption, is to use the ":X" command, which will
ask you to enter a key. A following write command will use that key to
encrypt the file. If you later edit the same file, Vim will ask you to enter
a key. If you type the same key as that was used for writing, the text will
be readable again. If you use a wrong key, it will be a mess.
*:X*
:X Prompt for an encryption key. The typing is done without showing the
actual text, so that someone looking at the display won't see it.
The typed key is stored in the 'key' option, which is used to encrypt
the file when it is written. The file will remain unchanged until you
write it. See also |-x|.
The value of the 'key' options is used when text is written. When the option
is not empty, the written file will be encrypted, using the value as the
encryption key. A magic number is prepended, so that Vim can recognize that
the file is encrypted.
To disable the encryption, reset the 'key' option to an empty value:
:set key=
You can use the 'cryptmethod' option to select the type of encryption, use one
of these two:
:setlocal cm=zip " weak method, backwards compatible
:setlocal cm=blowfish " strong method

Do this before writing the file. When reading an encrypted file it will be
set automatically to the method used when that file was written. You can
change 'cryptmethod' before writing that file to change the method.
To set the default method, used for new files, use one of these in your
|vimrc| file:
set cm=zip
set cm=blowfish
The message given for reading and writing a file will show "[crypted]" when
using zip, "[blowfish]" when using blowfish.
When writing an undo file, the same key and method will be used for the text
in the undo file. |persistent-undo|.
*E817* *E818* *E819* *E820*

When encryption does not work properly, you would be able to write your text
to a file and never be able to read it back. Therefore a test is performed to
check if the encryption works as expected. If you get one of these errors
don't write the file encrypted! You need to rebuild the Vim binary to fix
this.
*E831* This is an internal error, "cannot happen". If you can reproduce it,
please report to the developers.
When reading a file that has been encrypted and the 'key' option is not empty,
it will be used for decryption. If the value is empty, you will be prompted
to enter the key. If you don't enter a key, or you enter the wrong key, the
file is edited without being decrypted. There is no warning about using the
wrong key (this makes brute force methods to find the key more difficult).
If want to start reading a file that uses a different key, set the 'key'
option to an empty string, so that Vim will prompt for a new one. Don't use
the ":set" command to enter the value, other people can read the command over
your shoulder.
Since the value of the 'key' option is supposed to be a secret, its value can
never be viewed. You should not set this option in a vimrc file.
An encrypted file can be recognized by the "file" command, if you add these
lines to "/etc/magic", "/usr/share/misc/magic" or wherever your system has the
"magic" file:
0 string VimCrypt~ Vim encrypted file
>9 string 01 - "zip" cryptmethod
>9 string 02 - "blowfish" cryptmethod
Notes:
- Encryption is not possible when doing conversion with 'charconvert'.
- Text you copy or delete goes to the numbered registers. The registers can
be saved in the .viminfo file, where they could be read. Change your
'viminfo' option to be safe.
- Someone can type commands in Vim when you walk away for a moment, he should
not be able to get the key.
- If you make a typing mistake when entering the key, you might not be able to
get your text back!
- If you type the key with a ":set key=value" command, it can be kept in the
history, showing the 'key' value in a viminfo file.
- There is never 100% safety. The encryption in Vim has not been tested for
robustness.
- The algorithm used for 'cryptmethod' "zip" is breakable. A 4 character key
in about one hour, a 6 character key in one day (on a Pentium 133 PC). This
requires that you know some text that must appear in the file. An expert
can break it for any key. When the text has been decrypted, this also means
that the key can be revealed, and other files encrypted with the same key
can be decrypted.
- Pkzip uses the same encryption as 'cryptmethod' "zip", and US Govt has no
objection to its export. Pkzip's public file APPNOTE.TXT describes this
algorithm in detail.
- Vim originates from the Netherlands. That is where the sources come from.
Thus the encryption code is not exported from the USA.
==============================================================================
10. Timestamps *timestamp* *timestamps*
Vim remembers the modification timestamp of a file when you begin editing it.
This is used to avoid that you have two different versions of the same file
(without you knowing this).

After a shell command is run (|:!cmd| |suspend| |:read!| |K|) timestamps are
compared for all buffers in a window. Vim will run any associated
|FileChangedShell| autocommands or display a warning for any files that have
changed. In the GUI this happens when Vim regains input focus.
*E321* *E462*
If you want to automatically reload a file when it has been changed outside of
Vim, set the 'autoread' option. This doesn't work at the moment you write the
file though, only when the file wasn't changed inside of Vim.
Note that if a FileChangedShell autocommand is defined you will not get a
warning message or prompt. The autocommand is expected to handle this.
There is no warning for a directory (e.g., with |netrw-browse|). But you do
get warned if you started editing a new file and it was created as a directory
later.
When Vim notices the timestamp of a file has changed, and the file is being
edited in a buffer but has not changed, Vim checks if the contents of the file
is equal. This is done by reading the file again (into a hidden buffer, which
is immediately deleted again) and comparing the text. If the text is equal,
you will get no warning.
If you don't get warned often enough you can use the following command.
*:checkt* *:checktime*
:checkt[ime] Check if any buffers were changed outside of Vim.
This checks and warns you if you would end up with two
versions of a file.
If this is called from an autocommand, a ":global"
command or is not typed the actual check is postponed
until a moment the side effects (reloading the file)
would be harmless.
Each loaded buffer is checked for its associated file
being changed. If the file was changed Vim will take
action. If there are no changes in the buffer and
'autoread' is set, the buffer is reloaded. Otherwise,
you are offered the choice of reloading the file. If
the file was deleted you get an error message.
If the file previously didn't exist you get a warning
if it exists now.
Once a file has been checked the timestamp is reset,
you will not be warned again.
:[N]checkt[ime] {filename}
:[N]checkt[ime] [N]
Check the timestamp of a specific buffer. The buffer
may be specified by name, number or with a pattern.
*E813* *E814*
Vim will reload the buffer if you chose to. If a window is visible that
contains this buffer, the reloading will happen in the context of this window.
Otherwise a special window is used, so that most autocommands will work. You
can't close this window. A few other restrictions apply. Best is to make
sure nothing happens outside of the current buffer. E.g., setting
window-local options may end up in the wrong window. Splitting the window,
doing something there and closing it should be OK (if there are no side
effects from other autocommands). Closing unrelated windows and buffers will
get you into trouble.
Before writing a file the timestamp is checked. If it has changed, Vim will
ask if you really want to overwrite the file:
WARNING: The file has been changed since reading it!!!
Do you really want to write to it (y/n)?
If you hit 'y' Vim will continue writing the file. If you hit 'n' the write is
aborted. If you used ":wq" or "ZZ" Vim will not exit, you will get another
chance to write the file.
The message would normally mean that somebody has written to the file after
the edit session started. This could be another person, in which case you
probably want to check if your changes to the file and the changes from the
other person should be merged. Write the file under another name and check for
differences (the "diff" program can be used for this).

It is also possible that you modified the file yourself, from another edit
session or with another command (e.g., a filter command). Then you will know
which version of the file you want to keep.
There is one situation where you get the message while there is nothing wrong:
On a Win32 system on the day daylight saving time starts. There is something
in the Win32 libraries that confuses Vim about the hour time difference. The
problem goes away the next day.
==============================================================================
11. File Searching *file-searching*
{not available when compiled without the |+path_extra| feature}
The file searching is currently used for the 'path', 'cdpath' and 'tags'
options, for |finddir()| and |findfile()|. Other commands use |wildcards|
which is slightly different.
There are three different types of searching:
1) Downward search: *starstar*

Downward search uses the wildcards '*', '**' and possibly others
supported by your operating system. '*' and '**' are handled inside Vim,
so they work on all operating systems. Note that "**" only acts as a
special wildcard when it is at the start of a name.
The usage of '*' is quite simple: It matches 0 or more characters. In a
search pattern this would be ".*". Note that the "." is not used for file
searching.
'**' is more sophisticated:
- It ONLY matches directories.
- It matches up to 30 directories deep by default, so you can use it to
search an entire directory tree
- The maximum number of levels matched can be given by appending a number
to '**'.
Thus '/usr/**2' can match:
/usr
/usr/include
/usr/include/sys
/usr/include/g++
/usr/lib
/usr/lib/X11
....
It does NOT match '/usr/include/g++/std' as this would be three
levels.
The allowed number range is 0 ('**0' is removed) to 100
If the given number is smaller than 0 it defaults to 30, if it's
bigger than 100 then 100 is used. The system also has a limit on the
path length, usually 256 or 1024 bytes.
- '**' can only be at the end of the path or be followed by a path
separator or by a number and a path separator.
You can combine '*' and '**' in any order:
/usr/**/sys/*
/usr/*tory/sys/**
/usr/**2/sys/*
2) Upward search:
Here you can give a directory and then search the directory tree upward for
a file. You could give stop-directories to limit the upward search. The
stop-directories are appended to the path (for the 'path' option) or to
the filename (for the 'tags' option) with a ';'. If you want several
stop-directories separate them with ';'. If you want no stop-directory
("search upward till the root directory) just use ';'.
/usr/include/sys;/usr
will search in:
/usr/include/sys
/usr/include
/usr
If you use a relative path the upward search is started in Vim's current
directory or in the directory of the current file (if the relative path
starts with './' and 'd' is not included in 'cpoptions').
If Vim's current path is /u/user_x/work/release and you do
:set path=include;/u/user_x

and then search for a file with |gf| the file is searched in:
/u/user_x/work/release/include
/u/user_x/work/include
/u/user_x/include
3) Combined up/downward search:
If Vim's current path is /u/user_x/work/release and you do
set path=**;/u/user_x
and then search for a file with |gf| the file is searched in:
/u/user_x/work/release/**
/u/user_x/work/**
/u/user_x/**
BE CAREFUL! This might consume a lot of time, as the search of
'/u/user_x/**' includes '/u/user_x/work/**' and
'/u/user_x/work/release/**'. So '/u/user_x/work/release/**' is searched
three times and '/u/user_x/work/**' is searched twice.
In the above example you might want to set path to:
:set path=**,/u/user_x/**
This searches:
/u/user_x/work/release/**
/u/user_x/**
This searches the same directories, but in a different order.
Note that completion for ":find", ":sfind", and ":tabfind" commands do not
currently work with 'path' items that contain a url or use the double star
(/usr/**2) or upward search (;) notations.
vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl:
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: gui_w32
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*gui_w32.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Dec 19
Vim's Win32 Graphical User Interface *gui-w32* *win32-gui*

1. Starting the GUI |gui-w32-start|
2. Vim as default editor |vim-default-editor|
3. Using the clipboard |gui-clipboard|
4. Shell Commands |gui-shell-win32|
5. Special colors |win32-colors|
6. Windows dialogs & browsers |gui-w32-dialogs|
7. Command line arguments |gui-w32-cmdargs|
8. Various |gui-w32-various|
Other relevant documentation:
|gui.txt| For generic items of the GUI.
|os_win32.txt| For Win32 specific items.
{Vi does not have a Windows GUI}
==============================================================================
1. Starting the GUI *gui-w32-start*
The Win32 GUI version of Vim will always start the GUI, no matter how you
start it or what it's called.
The GUI will always run in the Windows subsystem. Mostly shells automatically
return with a command prompt after starting gvim. If not, you should use the
"start" command:
start gvim [options] file ..
Note: All fonts (bold, italic) must be of the same size!!! If you don't do
this, text will disappear or mess up the display. Vim does not check the font
sizes. It's the size in screen pixels that must be the same. Note that some
fonts that have the same point size don't have the same pixel size!
Additionally, the positioning of the fonts must be the same (ascent and
descent).
The Win32 GUI has an extra menu item: "Edit/Select Font". It brings up the
standard Windows font selector.
Setting the menu height doesn't work for the Win32 GUI.
*gui-win32-maximized*
If you want Vim to start with a maximized window, add this command to your
vimrc or gvimrc file:
au GUIEnter * simalt ~x
*gui-w32s*
There is a specific version of gvim.exe that runs under the Win32s subsystem
of Windows 3.1 or 3.11. See |win32s|.
Using Vim as a plugin *gui-w32-windowid*
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/gui_w32.html[2019/03/05 11:42:10 AM]

When gvim starts up normally, it creates its own top level window. If you
pass Vim the command-line option |--windowid| with a decimal or hexadecimal
value, Vim will create a window that is a child of the window with the given
ID. This enables Vim to act as a plugin in another application. This really
is a programmer's interface, and is of no use without a supporting application
to spawn Vim correctly.
==============================================================================
2. Vim as default editor *vim-default-editor*
To set Vim as the default editor for a file type:
1. Start a Windows Explorer
2. Choose View/Options -> File Types
3. Select the path to gvim for every file type that you want to use it for.
(you can also use three spaces in the file type field, for files without an
extension).
In the "open" action, use:
gvim "%1"
The quotes are required for using file names with embedded spaces.
You can also use this:
gvim "%L"
This should avoid short (8.3 character) file names in some situations. But
I'm not sure if this works everywhere.
When you open a file in Vim by double clicking it, Vim changes to that
file's directory.
If you want Vim to start full-screen, use this for the Open action:
gvim -c "simalt ~x" "%1"
Another method, which also works when you put Vim in another directory (e.g.,
when you have got a new version):
1. select a file you want to use Vim with
2. <Shift-F10>
3. select "Open With..." menu entry
4. click "Other..."
5. browse to the (new) location of Vim and click "Open"
6. make "Always Use this program..." checked
7. <OK>
*send-to-menu* *sendto*
You can also install Vim in the "Send To" menu:
1. Start a Windows Explorer
2. Navigate to your sendto directory:
Windows 95: %windir%\sendto (e.g. "c:\windows\sendto")
Windows NT: %windir%\profiles\%user%\sendto (e.g.
"c:\winnt\profiles\mattha\sendto").
3. Right-click in the file pane and select New->Shortcut
4. Follow the shortcut wizard, using the full path to VIM/GVIM.
When you 'send a file to Vim', Vim changes to that file's directory. Note,
however, that any long directory names will appear in their short (MS-DOS)
form. This is a limitation of the Windows "Send To" mechanism.
*notepad*
You could replace notepad.exe with gvim.exe, but that has a few side effects.
Some programs rely on notepad arguments, which are not recognized by Vim. For
example "notepad -p" is used by some applications to print a file. It's
better to leave notepad where it is and use another way to start Vim.
*win32-popup-menu*
A more drastic approach is to install an "Edit with Vim" entry in the popup
menu for the right mouse button. With this you can edit any file with Vim.
This can co-exist with the file associations mentioned above. The difference
is that the file associations will make starting Vim the default action. With
the "Edit with Vim" menu entry you can keep the existing file association for
double clicking on the file, and edit the file with Vim when you want. For
example, you can associate "*.mak" with your make program. You can execute
the makefile by double clicking it and use the "Edit with Vim" entry to edit
the makefile.
You can select any files and right-click to see a menu option called "Edit
with gvim". Choosing this menu option will invoke gvim with the file you have
selected. If you select multiple files, you will find two gvim-related menu
options:

"Edit with multiple gvims" -- one gvim for each file in the selection
"Edit with single gvim" -- one gvim for all the files in the selection
And if there already is a gvim running:
"Edit with existing gvim" -- edit the file with the running gvim
*install-registry*
You can add the "Edit with Vim" menu entry in an easy way by using the
"install.exe" program. It will add several registry entries for you.
You can also do this by hand. This is complicated! Use the install.exe if
you can.
1. Start the registry editor with "regedit".
2. Add these keys:
key value name value
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{51EEE242-AD87-11d3-9C1E-0090278BBD99}
{default} Vim Shell Extension
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{51EEE242-AD87-11d3-9C1E-0090278BBD99}\InProcServer32
{default} {path}\gvimext.dll
ThreadingModel Apartment
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\gvim
{default} {51EEE242-AD87-11d3-9C1E-0090278BBD99}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Approved
{51EEE242-AD87-11d3-9C1E-0090278BBD99}
Vim Shell Extension
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Vim\Gvim
path {path}\gvim.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\vim 5.6
DisplayName Vim 5.6: Edit with Vim popup menu entry
UninstallString {path}\uninstal.exe
Replace {path} with the path that leads to the executable.
Don't type {default}, this is the value for the key itself.
To remove "Edit with Vim" from the popup menu, just remove the registry
entries mentioned above. The "uninstal.exe" program can do this for you. You
can also use the entry in the Windows standard "Add/Remove Programs" list.
If you notice that this entry overrules other file type associations, set
those associations again by hand (using Windows Explorer, see above). This
only seems to happen on some Windows NT versions (Windows bug?). Procedure:
1. Find the name of the file type. This can be done by starting the registry
editor, and searching for the extension in \\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
2. In a Windows Explorer, use View/Options/File Types. Search for the file
type in the list and click "Edit". In the actions list, you can select on
to be used as the default (normally the "open" action) and click on the
"Set Default" button.
Vim in the "Open With..." context menu *win32-open-with-menu*

If you use the Vim install program you have the choice to add Vim to the "Open
With..." menu. This means you can use Vim to edit many files. Not every file
(for unclear reasons...), thus the "Edit with Vim" menu entry is still useful.
One reason to add this is to be able to edit HTML files directly from Internet
Explorer. To enable this use the "Tools" menu, "Internet Options..." entry.
In the dialog select the "Programs" tab and select Vim in the "HTML editor"
choice. If it's not there than installing didn't work properly.
Doing this manually can be done with this script:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\gvim.exe]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\gvim.exe\shell]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\gvim.exe\shell\edit]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\gvim.exe\shell\edit\command]
@="c:\\vim\\vim62\\gvim.exe \"%1\""
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm\OpenWithList\gvim.exe]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\OpenWithList\gvim.exe]

Change the "c:\\vim\\vim62" bit to where gvim.exe is actually located.

To uninstall this run the Vim uninstall program or manually delete the
registry entries with "regedit".
==============================================================================
3. Using the clipboard *gui-clipboard*
Windows has a clipboard, where you can copy text to, and paste text from. Vim
supports this in several ways. For other systems see |gui-selections|.
The "* register reflects the contents of the clipboard. |quotestar|
When the "unnamed" string is included in the 'clipboard' option, the unnamed
register is the same. Thus you can yank to and paste from the clipboard
without prepending "* to commands.
The 'a' flag in 'guioptions' is not included by default. This means that text
is only put on the clipboard when an operation is performed on it. Just
Visually selecting text doesn't put it on the clipboard. When the 'a' flag is
included, the text is copied to the clipboard even when it is not operated
upon.
*mswin.vim*
To use the standard MS-Windows way of CTRL-X, CTRL-C and CTRL-V, use the
$VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim script. You could add this line to your _vimrc file:
source $VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim
Since CTRL-C is used to copy the text to the clipboard, it can't be used to
cancel an operation. Use CTRL-Break for that.
CTRL-Z is used for undo. This means you can't suspend Vim with this key, use
|:suspend| instead (if it's supported at all).
*CTRL-V-alternative* *CTRL-Q*
Since CTRL-V is used to paste, you can't use it to start a blockwise Visual
selection. You can use CTRL-Q instead. You can also use CTRL-Q in Insert
mode and Command-line mode to get the old meaning of CTRL-V. But CTRL-Q
doesn't work for terminals when it's used for control flow.
NOTE: The clipboard support still has a number of bugs. See |todo|.
==============================================================================
4. Shell Commands *gui-shell-win32*
Vim uses another window for external commands, to make it possible to run any
command. The external command gets its own environment for running, just like
it was started from a DOS prompt.
*win32-vimrun*
Executing an external command is done indirectly by the "vimrun" command. The
"vimrun.exe" must be in the path for this to work. Or it must be in the same
directory as the Vim executable. If "vimrun" cannot be found, the command is
executed directly, but then the DOS window closes immediately after the
external command has finished.
WARNING: If you close this window with the "X" button, and confirm the
question if you really want to kill the application, Vim may be killed too!
(This does not apply to commands run asynchronously with ":!start".)
In Windows 95, the window in which the commands are executed is always 25x80
characters, to be as DOS compatible as possible (this matters!). The default
system font is used. On NT, the window will be the default you have set up for
"Console" in Control Panel. On Win32s, the properties of the DOS box are
determined by _default.pif in the windows directory.
*msdos-mode*
If you get a dialog that says "This program is set to run in MS-DOS mode..."
when you run an external program, you can solve this by changing the
properties of the associated shortcut:
- Use a Windows Explorer to find the command.com that is used. It can be
c:\command.com, c:\dos\command.com, c:\windows\command.com, etc.
- With the right mouse button, select properties of this command.com.
- In the Program tab select "Advanced".
- Unselect "MS-DOS mode".

- Click "OK" twice.
*win32-!start*
Normally, Vim waits for a command to complete before continuing (this makes
sense for most shell commands which produce output for Vim to use). If you
want Vim to start a program and return immediately, you can use the following
syntax on W95 & NT:
:!start [/min] {command}
The optional "/min" causes the window to be minimized.
On Win32s, you will have to go to another window instead. Don't forget that
you must tell Windows 3.1x to keep executing a DOS command in the background
while you switch back to Vim.
==============================================================================
5. Special colors *win32-colors*
On Win32, the normal DOS colors can be used. See |dos-colors|.
Additionally the system configured colors can also be used. These are known
by the names Sys_XXX, where XXX is the appropriate system color name, from the
following list (see the Win32 documentation for full descriptions). Case is
ignored. Note: On Win32s not all of these colors are supported.
Sys_3DDKShadow Sys_3DFace Sys_BTNFace
Sys_3DHilight Sys_3DHighlight Sys_BTNHilight
Sys_BTNHighlight Sys_3DLight Sys_3DShadow
Sys_BTNShadow Sys_ActiveBorder Sys_ActiveCaption
Sys_AppWorkspace Sys_Background Sys_Desktop
Sys_BTNText Sys_CaptionText Sys_GrayText
Sys_Highlight Sys_HighlightText Sys_InactiveBorder
Sys_InactiveCaption Sys_InactiveCaptionText Sys_InfoBK
Sys_InfoText Sys_Menu Sys_MenuText
Sys_ScrollBar Sys_Window Sys_WindowFrame
Sys_WindowText
Probably the most useful values are
Sys_Window Normal window background
Sys_WindowText Normal window text
Sys_Highlight Highlighted background
Sys_HighlightText Highlighted text
These extra colors are also available:
Gray, Grey, LightYellow, SeaGreen, Orange, Purple, SlateBlue, Violet,
*rgb.txt*
Additionally, colors defined by a "rgb.txt" file can be used. This file is
well known from X11. A few lines from it:
255 218 185 peach puff
205 133 63 peru
255 181 197 pink
This shows the layout of the file: First the R, G and B value as a decimal
number, followed by the name of the color. The four fields are separated by
spaces.
You can get an rgb.txt file from any X11 distribution. It is located in a
directory like "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/". For Vim it must be located in the
$VIMRUNTIME directory. Thus the file can be found with "$VIMRUNTIME/rgb.txt".
==============================================================================
*gui-w32-dialogs* *dialog*
6. Windows dialogs & browsers
The Win32 GUI can use familiar Windows components for some operations, as well
as the traditional interface shared with the console version.
6.1 Dialogs
The dialogs displayed by the "confirm" family (i.e. the 'confirm' option,
|:confirm| command and |confirm()| function) are GUI-based rather than the
console-based ones used by other versions. The 'c' flag in 'guioptions'
changes this.

6.2 File Browsers

When prepending ":browse" before file editing commands, a file requester is
used to allow you to select an existing file. See |:browse|.
6.3 Tearoff Menus

The Win32 GUI emulates Motif's tear-off menus. At the top of each menu you
will see a small graphic "rip here" sign. Selecting it will cause a floating
window to be created with the same menu entries on it. The floating menu can
then be accessed just as if it was the original (including sub-menus), but
without having to go to the menu bar each time.
This is most useful if you find yourself using a command buried in a sub-menu
over and over again.
The tearoff menus can be positioned where you like, and always stay just above
the Main Vim window. You can get rid of them by closing them as usual; they
also of course close when you exit Vim.
*:tearoff* *:te*
:te[aroff] {name} Tear-off the menu {name}. The menu named must have at
least one subentry, but need not appear on the
menu-bar (see |win32-hidden-menus|).
Example:
:tearoff File
will make the "File" menu (if there is one) appear as a tearoff menu.
:amenu ]Toolbar.Make :make<CR>
:tearoff ]Toolbar
This creates a floating menu that doesn't exist on the main menu-bar.
Note that a menu that starts with ']' will not be displayed.
==============================================================================
7. Command line arguments *gui-w32-cmdargs*
Analysis of a command line into parameters is not standardised in MS Windows.
Gvim has to provide logic to analyse a command line. This logic is likely to
be different from the default logic provided by a compilation system used to
build vim. The differences relate to unusual double quote (") usage.
The arguments "C:\My Music\freude.txt" and "+/Sch\"iller" are handled in the
same way. The argument "+/Sch""iller" may be handled different by gvim and
vim, depending what it was compiled with.
The rules are:
a) A parameter is a sequence of graphic characters.
b) Parameters are separated by white space.
c) A parameter can be enclosed in double quotes to include white space.
d) A sequence of zero or more backslashes (\) and a double quote (")
is special. The effective number of backslashes is halved, rounded
down. An even number of backslashes reverses the acceptability of
spaces and tabs, an odd number of backslashes produces a literal
double quote.
So:
" is a special double quote
\" is a literal double quote
\\" is a literal backslash and a special double quote
\\\" is a literal backslash and a literal double quote
\\\\" is 2 literal backslashes and a special double quote
\\\\\" is 2 literal backslashes and a literal double quote
etc.
Example:
gvim "C:\My Music\freude" +"set ignorecase" +/"\"foo\\" +\"bar\\\"
opens "C:\My Music\freude" and executes the line mode commands:
set ignorecase; /"foo\ and /bar\"
==============================================================================
8. Various *gui-w32-various*
*gui-w32-printing*
The "File/Print" menu prints the text with syntax highlighting, see

|:hardcopy|. If you just want to print the raw text and have a default
printer installed this should also work:
:w >>prn
Vim supports a number of standard MS Windows features. Some of these are
detailed elsewhere: see |'mouse'|, |win32-hidden-menus|.
*drag-n-drop-win32*
You can drag and drop one or more files into the Vim window, where they will
be opened as normal. See |drag-n-drop|.
*:simalt* *:si*
:sim[alt] {key} simulate pressing {key} while holding Alt pressed.
{not in Vi} {only for Win32 versions}
Normally, Vim takes control of all Alt-<Key> combinations, to increase the
number of possible mappings. This clashes with the standard use of Alt as the
key for accessing menus.
The quick way of getting standard behavior is to set the 'winaltkeys' option
to "yes". This however prevents you from mapping Alt keys at all.
Another way is to set 'winaltkeys' to "menu". Menu shortcut keys are then
handled by windows, other ALT keys can be mapped. This doesn't allow a
dependency on the current state though.
To get round this, the :simalt command allows Vim (when 'winaltkeys' is not
"yes") to fake a Windows-style Alt keypress. You can use this to map Alt key
combinations (or anything else for that matter) to produce standard Windows
actions. Here are some examples:
:map <M-f> :simalt f<CR>
This makes Alt-F pop down the 'File' menu (with the stock Menu.vim) by
simulating the keystrokes Alt, F.
:map <M-Space> :simalt ~<CR>
This maps Alt-Space to pop down the system menu for the Vim window. Note that
~ is used by simalt to represent the <Space> character.
:map <C-n> :simalt ~n<CR>
Maps Control-N to produce the keys Alt-Space followed by N. This minimizes the
Vim window via the system menu.
Note that the key changes depending on the language you are using.
*intellimouse-wheel-problems*
When using the Intellimouse mouse wheel causes Vim to stop accepting input, go
to:
ControlPanel - Mouse - Wheel - UniversalScrolling - Exceptions
And add gvim to the list of applications. This problem only appears to happen
with the Intellimouse driver 2.2 and when "Universal Scrolling" is turned on.
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: undo
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*undo.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Dec 19
Undo and redo *undo-redo*

1. Undo and redo commands |undo-commands|
2. Two ways of undo |undo-two-ways|
3. Undo blocks |undo-blocks|
4. Undo branches |undo-branches|
5. Undo persistence |undo-persistence|
6. Remarks about undo |undo-remarks|
==============================================================================
1. Undo and redo commands *undo-commands*
<Undo> or *undo* *<Undo>* *u*

u Undo [count] changes. {Vi: only one level}
*:u* *:un* *:undo*

:u[ndo] Undo one change. {Vi: only one level}
*E830*
:u[ndo] {N} Jump to after change number {N}. See |undo-branches|
for the meaning of {N}. {not in Vi}
*CTRL-R*
CTRL-R Redo [count] changes which were undone. {Vi: redraw
screen}
*:red* *:redo* *redo*

:red[o] Redo one change which was undone. {Vi: no redo}
*U*
U Undo all latest changes on one line. {Vi: while not
moved off of it}
The last changes are remembered. You can use the undo and redo commands above
to revert the text to how it was before each change. You can also apply the
changes again, getting back the text before the undo.
The "U" command is treated by undo/redo just like any other command. Thus a
"u" command undoes a "U" command and a 'CTRL-R' command redoes it again. When
mixing "U", "u" and 'CTRL-R' you will notice that the "U" command will
restore the situation of a line to before the previous "U" command. This may
be confusing. Try it out to get used to it.
The "U" command will always mark the buffer as changed. When "U" changes the
buffer back to how it was without changes, it is still considered changed.
Use "u" to undo changes until the buffer becomes unchanged.
==============================================================================
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/undo.html[2019/03/05 11:42:12 AM]

2. Two ways of undo *undo-two-ways*

How undo and redo commands work depends on the 'u' flag in 'cpoptions'.
There is the Vim way ('u' excluded) and the vi-compatible way ('u' included).
In the Vim way, "uu" undoes two changes. In the Vi-compatible way, "uu" does
nothing (undoes an undo).
'u' excluded, the Vim way:
You can go back in time with the undo command. You can then go forward again
with the redo command. If you make a new change after the undo command,
the redo will not be possible anymore.
'u' included, the Vi-compatible way:
The undo command undoes the previous change, and also the previous undo command.
The redo command repeats the previous undo command. It does NOT repeat a
change command, use "." for that.
Examples Vim way Vi-compatible way
"uu" two times undo no-op
"u CTRL-R" no-op two times undo
Rationale: Nvi uses the "." command instead of CTRL-R. Unfortunately, this
is not Vi compatible. For example "dwdwu." in Vi deletes two
words, in Nvi it does nothing.
==============================================================================
3. Undo blocks *undo-blocks*
One undo command normally undoes a typed command, no matter how many changes
that command makes. This sequence of undo-able changes forms an undo block.
Thus if the typed key(s) call a function, all the commands in the function are
undone together.
If you want to write a function or script that doesn't create a new undoable
change but joins in with the previous change use this command:
*:undoj* *:undojoin* *E790*

:undoj[oin] Join further changes with the previous undo block.
Warning: Use with care, it may prevent the user from
properly undoing changes. Don't use this after undo
or redo.
{not in Vi}
This is most useful when you need to prompt the user halfway a change. For
example in a function that calls |getchar()|. Do make sure that there was a
related change before this that you must join with.
This doesn't work by itself, because the next key press will start a new
change again. But you can do something like this:
:undojoin | delete
After this an "u" command will undo the delete command and the previous
change.
To do the opposite, break a change into two undo blocks, in Insert mode use
CTRL-G u. This is useful if you want an insert command to be undoable in
parts. E.g., for each sentence. |i_CTRL-G_u|
Setting the value of 'undolevels' also breaks undo. Even when the new value
is equal to the old value.
==============================================================================
4. Undo branches *undo-branches* *undo-tree*
Above we only discussed one line of undo/redo. But it is also possible to
branch off. This happens when you undo a few changes and then make a new
change. The undone changes become a branch. You can go to that branch with
the following commands.
This is explained in the user manual: |usr_32.txt|.
*:undol* *:undolist*
:undol[ist] List the leafs in the tree of changes. Example:
number changes when saved
88 88 2010/01/04 14:25:53
108 107 08/07 12:47:51

136 46 13:33:01 7
166 164 3 seconds ago
The "number" column is the change number. This number
continuously increases and can be used to identify a
specific undo-able change, see |:undo|.
The "changes" column is the number of changes to this
leaf from the root of the tree.
The "when" column is the date and time when this
change was made. The four possible formats are:
N seconds ago
HH:MM:SS hour, minute, seconds
MM/DD HH:MM:SS idem, with month and day
YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM:SS idem, with year
The "saved" column specifies, if this change was
written to disk and which file write it was. This can
be used with the |:later| and |:earlier| commands.
For more details use the |undotree()| function.
*g-*
g- Go to older text state. With a count repeat that many
times. {not in Vi}
*:ea* *:earlier*
:earlier {count} Go to older text state {count} times.
:earlier {N}s Go to older text state about {N} seconds before.
:earlier {N}m Go to older text state about {N} minutes before.
:earlier {N}h Go to older text state about {N} hours before.
:earlier {N}d Go to older text state about {N} days before.
:earlier {N}f Go to older text state {N} file writes before.
When changes were made since the last write
":earlier 1f" will revert the text to the state when
it was written. Otherwise it will go to the write
before that.
When at the state of the first file write, or when
the file was not written, ":earlier 1f" will go to
before the first change.
*g+*
g+ Go to newer text state. With a count repeat that many
times. {not in Vi}
*:lat* *:later*
:later {count} Go to newer text state {count} times.
:later {N}s Go to newer text state about {N} seconds later.
:later {N}m Go to newer text state about {N} minutes later.
:later {N}h Go to newer text state about {N} hours later.
:later {N}d Go to newer text state about {N} days later.
:later {N}f Go to newer text state {N} file writes later.
When at the state of the last file write, ":later 1f"
will go to the newest text state.
Note that text states will become unreachable when undo information is cleared
for 'undolevels'.
Don't be surprised when moving through time shows multiple changes to take
place at a time. This happens when moving through the undo tree and then
making a new change.
EXAMPLE
Start with this text:
one two three
Delete the first word by pressing "x" three times:
ne two three
e two three
two three
Now undo that by pressing "u" three times:
e two three
ne two three
one two three
Delete the second word by pressing "x" three times:

one wo three
one o three
one three
Now undo that by using "g-" three times:
one o three
one wo three
two three
You are now back in the first undo branch, after deleting "one". Repeating
"g-" will now bring you back to the original text:
e two three
ne two three
one two three
Jump to the last change with ":later 1h":
one three
And back to the start again with ":earlier 1h":
one two three
Note that using "u" and CTRL-R will not get you to all possible text states
while repeating "g-" and "g+" does.
==============================================================================
5. Undo persistence *undo-persistence* *persistent-undo*
When unloading a buffer Vim normally destroys the tree of undos created for
that buffer. By setting the 'undofile' option, Vim will automatically save
your undo history when you write a file and restore undo history when you edit
the file again.
The 'undofile' option is checked after writing a file, before the BufWritePost
autocommands. If you want to control what files to write undo information
for, you can use a BufWritePre autocommand:
au BufWritePre /tmp/* setlocal noundofile
Vim saves undo trees in a separate undo file, one for each edited file, using
a simple scheme that maps filesystem paths directly to undo files. Vim will
detect if an undo file is no longer synchronized with the file it was written
for (with a hash of the file contents) and ignore it when the file was changed
after the undo file was written, to prevent corruption. An undo file is also
ignored if its owner differs from the owner of the edited file. Set 'verbose'
to get a message about that.
Undo files are normally saved in the same directory as the file. This can be
changed with the 'undodir' option.
When the file is encrypted, the text in the undo file is also crypted. The
same key and method is used. |encryption|
You can also save and restore undo histories by using ":wundo" and ":rundo"
respectively:
*:wundo* *:rundo*
:wundo[!] {file}
Write undo history to {file}.
When {file} exists and it does not look like an undo file
(the magic number at the start of the file is wrong), then
this fails, unless the ! was added.
If it exists and does look like an undo file it is
overwritten.
{not in Vi}
:rundo {file} Read undo history from {file}.
{not in Vi}
You can use these in autocommands to explicitly specify the name of the
history file. E.g.:
au BufReadPost * call ReadUndo()
au BufWritePost * call WriteUndo()
func ReadUndo()
if filereadable(expand('%:h'). '/UNDO/' . expand('%:t'))
rundo %:h/UNDO/%:t
endif
endfunc

func WriteUndo()
let dirname = expand('%:h') . '/UNDO'
if !isdirectory(dirname)
call mkdir(dirname)
endif
wundo %:h/UNDO/%:t
endfunc
You should keep 'undofile' off, otherwise you end up with two undo files for
every write.
You can use the |undofile()| function to find out the file name that Vim would
use.
Note that while reading/writing files and 'undofile' is set most errors will
be silent, unless 'verbose' is set. With :wundo and :rundo you will get more
error messages, e.g., when the file cannot be read or written.
NOTE: undo files are never deleted by Vim. You need to delete them yourself.
Reading an existing undo file may fail for several reasons:
*E822* It cannot be opened, because the file permissions don't allow it.
*E823* The magic number at the start of the file doesn't match. This usually
means it is not an undo file.
*E824* The version number of the undo file indicates that it's written by a
newer version of Vim. You need that newer version to open it. Don't
write the buffer if you want to keep the undo info in the file.
"File contents changed, cannot use undo info"
The file text differs from when the undo file was written. This means
the undo file cannot be used, it would corrupt the text. This also
happens when 'encoding' differs from when the undo file was written.
*E825* The undo file does not contain valid contents and cannot be used.
*E826* The undo file is encrypted but decryption failed.
*E827* The undo file is encrypted but this version of Vim does not support
encryption. Open the file with another Vim.
*E832* The undo file is encrypted but 'key' is not set, the text file is not
encrypted. This would happen if the text file was written by Vim
encrypted at first, and later overwritten by not encrypted text.
You probably want to delete this undo file.
"Not reading undo file, owner differs"
The undo file is owned by someone else than the owner of the text
file. For safety the undo file is not used.
Writing an undo file may fail for these reasons:
*E828* The file to be written cannot be created. Perhaps you do not have
write permissions in the directory.
"Cannot write undo file in any directory in 'undodir'"'
None of the directories in 'undodir' can be used.
"Will not overwrite with undo file, cannot read"
A file exists with the name of the undo file to be written, but it
cannot be read. You may want to delete this file or rename it.
"Will not overwrite, this is not an undo file"
A file exists with the name of the undo file to be written, but it
does not start with the right magic number. You may want to delete
this file or rename it.
"Skipping undo file write, nothing to undo"
There is no undo information to be written, nothing has been changed
or 'undolevels' is negative.
*E829* An error occurred while writing the undo file. You may want to try
again.
==============================================================================
6. Remarks about undo *undo-remarks*
The number of changes that are remembered is set with the 'undolevels' option.
If it is zero, the Vi-compatible way is always used. If it is negative no
undo is possible. Use this if you are running out of memory.

*clear-undo*
When you set 'undolevels' to -1 the undo information is not immediately
cleared, this happens at the next change. To force clearing the undo
information you can use these commands:
:let old_undolevels = &undolevels
:set undolevels=-1
:exe "normal a \<BS>\<Esc>"
:let &undolevels = old_undolevels
:unlet old_undolevels
Marks for the buffer ('a to 'z) are also saved and restored, together with the
text. {Vi does this a little bit different}
When all changes have been undone, the buffer is not considered to be changed.
It is then possible to exit Vim with ":q" instead of ":q!" {not in Vi}. Note
that this is relative to the last write of the file. Typing "u" after ":w"
actually changes the buffer, compared to what was written, so the buffer is
considered changed then.
When manual |folding| is being used, the folds are not saved and restored.
Only changes completely within a fold will keep the fold as it was, because
the first and last line of the fold don't change.
The numbered registers can also be used for undoing deletes. Each time you
delete text, it is put into register "1. The contents of register "1 are
shifted to "2, etc. The contents of register "9 are lost. You can now get
back the most recent deleted text with the put command: '"'1P'. (also, if the
deleted text was the result of the last delete or copy operation, 'P' or 'p'
also works as this puts the contents of the unnamed register). You can get
back the text of three deletes ago with '"'3P'.
*redo-register*
If you want to get back more than one part of deleted text, you can use a
special feature of the repeat command ".". It will increase the number of the
register used. So if you first do ""1P", the following "." will result in a
'"'2P'. Repeating this will result in all numbered registers being inserted.
Example: If you deleted text with 'dd....' it can be restored with
'"'1P....'.
If you don't know in which register the deleted text is, you can use the
:display command. An alternative is to try the first register with '"'1P', and
if it is not what you want do 'u.'. This will remove the contents of the
first put, and repeat the put command for the second register. Repeat the
'u.' until you got what you want.
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: repeat
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*repeat.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Jan 06
Repeating commands, Vim scripts and debugging *repeating*

Chapter 26 of the user manual introduces repeating |usr_26.txt|.
1. Single repeats |single-repeat|
2. Multiple repeats |multi-repeat|
3. Complex repeats |complex-repeat|
4. Using Vim scripts |using-scripts|
5. Debugging scripts |debug-scripts|
6. Profiling |profiling|
==============================================================================
1. Single repeats *single-repeat*
*.*
. Repeat last change, with count replaced with [count].
Also repeat a yank command, when the 'y' flag is
included in 'cpoptions'. Does not repeat a
command-line command.
Simple changes can be repeated with the "." command. Without a count, the
count of the last change is used. If you enter a count, it will replace the
last one. If the last change included a specification of a numbered register,
the register number will be incremented. See |redo-register| for an example
how to use this. Note that when repeating a command that used a Visual
selection, the same SIZE of area is used, see |visual-repeat|.
*@:*
@: Repeat last command-line [count] times.
|+cmdline_hist| feature}
==============================================================================
2. Multiple repeats *multi-repeat*
*:g* *:global* *E147* *E148*

:[range]g[lobal]/{pattern}/[cmd]
Execute the Ex command [cmd] (default ":p") on the
lines within [range] where {pattern} matches.
:[range]g[lobal]!/{pattern}/[cmd]
Execute the Ex command [cmd] (default ":p") on the
lines within [range] where {pattern} does NOT match.
*:v* *:vglobal*
:[range]v[global]/{pattern}/[cmd]
Same as :g!.
Instead of the '/' which surrounds the {pattern}, you can use any other
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/repeat.html[2019/03/05 11:42:13 AM]

single byte character, but not an alphanumeric character, '\', '"'' or '|'.
This is useful if you want to include a '/' in the search pattern or
replacement string.
For the definition of a pattern, see |pattern|.
The global commands work by first scanning through the [range] lines and
marking each line where a match occurs (for a multi-line pattern, only the
start of the match matters).
In a second scan the [cmd] is executed for each marked line with its line
number prepended. For ":v" and ":g!" the command is executed for each not
marked line. If a line is deleted its mark disappears.
The default for [range] is the whole buffer (1,$). Use "CTRL-C" to interrupt
the command. If an error message is given for a line, the command for that
line is aborted and the global command continues with the next marked or
unmarked line.
To repeat a non-Ex command, you can use the ":normal" command:
:g/pat/normal {commands}
Make sure that {commands} ends with a whole command, otherwise Vim will wait
for you to type the rest of the command for each match. The screen will not
have been updated, so you don't know what you are doing. See |:normal|.
The undo/redo command will undo/redo the whole global command at once.
The previous context mark will only be set once (with "''"' you go back to
where the cursor was before the global command).
The global command sets both the last used search pattern and the last used
substitute pattern (this is vi compatible). This makes it easy to globally
replace a string:
:g/pat/s//PAT/g
This replaces all occurrences of "pat" with "PAT". The same can be done with:
:%s/pat/PAT/g
Which is two characters shorter!
When using "global" in Ex mode, a special case is using ":visual" as a
command. This will move to a matching line, go to Normal mode to let you
execute commands there until you use |Q| to return to Ex mode. This will be
repeated for each matching line. While doing this you cannot use ":global".
To abort this type CTRL-C twice.
==============================================================================
3. Complex repeats *complex-repeat*
*q* *recording*
q{0-9a-zA-Z"} Record typed characters into register {0-9a-zA-Z"}
(uppercase to append). The 'q' command is disabled
while executing a register, and it doesn't work inside
a mapping and |:normal|. {Vi: no recording}
q Stops recording. (Implementation note: The 'q' that
stops recording is not stored in the register, unless
it was the result of a mapping) {Vi: no recording}
*@*
@{0-9a-z".=*} Execute the contents of register {0-9a-z".=*} [count]
times. Note that register '%' (name of the current
file) and '#' (name of the alternate file) cannot be
used.
The register is executed like a mapping, that means
that the difference between 'wildchar' and 'wildcharm'
applies.
For "@=" you are prompted to enter an expression. The
result of the expression is then executed.
See also |@:|. {Vi: only named registers}
*@@* *E748*
@@ Repeat the previous @{0-9a-z":*} [count] times.
:[addr]*{0-9a-z".=} *:@* *:star*
:[addr]@{0-9a-z".=*} Execute the contents of register {0-9a-z".=*} as an Ex
command. First set cursor at line [addr] (default is
current line). When the last line in the register does
not have a <CR> it will be added automatically when
the 'e' flag is present in 'cpoptions'.
Note that the ":*" command is only recognized when the

'*' flag is present in 'cpoptions'. This is NOT the

default when 'nocompatible' is used.
For ":@=" the last used expression is used. The
result of evaluating the expression is executed as an
Ex command.
Mappings are not recognized in these commands.
{Vi: only in some versions} Future: Will execute the
register for each line in the address range.
*:@:*
:[addr]@: Repeat last command-line. First set cursor at line
[addr] (default is current line). {not in Vi}
*:@@*
:[addr]@@ Repeat the previous :@{0-9a-z"}. First set cursor at
line [addr] (default is current line). {Vi: only in
some versions}
==============================================================================
4. Using Vim scripts *using-scripts*
For writing a Vim script, see chapter 41 of the user manual |usr_41.txt|.
*:so* *:source* *load-vim-script*

:so[urce] {file} Read Ex commands from {file}. These are commands that
start with a ":".
Triggers the |SourcePre| autocommand.
:so[urce]! {file} Read Vim commands from {file}. These are commands
that are executed from Normal mode, like you type
them.
When used after |:global|, |:argdo|, |:windo|,
|:bufdo|, in a loop or when another command follows
the display won't be updated while executing the
commands.
{not in Vi}
*:ru* *:runtime*
:ru[ntime][!] {file} ..
Read Ex commands from {file} in each directory given
by 'runtimepath'. There is no error for non-existing
files. Example:
:runtime syntax/c.vim
There can be multiple {file} arguments, separated by
spaces. Each {file} is searched for in the first
directory from 'runtimepath', then in the second
directory, etc. Use a backslash to include a space
inside {file} (although it's better not to use spaces
in file names, it causes trouble).
When [!] is included, all found files are sourced.
When it is not included only the first found file is
sourced.
When {file} contains wildcards it is expanded to all
matching files. Example:
:runtime! plugin/*.vim
This is what Vim uses to load the plugin files when
starting up. This similar command:
:runtime plugin/*.vim
would source the first file only.
When 'verbose' is one or higher, there is a message
when no file could be found.
When 'verbose' is two or higher, there is a message
about each searched file.
{not in Vi}
:scripte[ncoding] [encoding] *:scripte* *:scriptencoding* *E167*

Specify the character encoding used in the script.
The following lines will be converted from [encoding]
to the value of the 'encoding' option, if they are
different. Examples:

scriptencoding iso-8859-5
scriptencoding cp932
When [encoding] is empty, no conversion is done. This
can be used to restrict conversion to a sequence of
lines:
scriptencoding euc-jp
... lines to be converted ...
scriptencoding
... not converted ...
When conversion isn't supported by the system, there
is no error message and no conversion is done.
Don't use "ucs-2" or "ucs-4", scripts cannot be in
these encodings (they would contain NUL bytes).
When a sourced script starts with a BOM (Byte Order
Mark) in utf-8 format Vim will recognize it, no need
to use ":scriptencoding utf-8" then.
When compiled without the |+multi_byte| feature this
command is ignored.
{not in Vi}
*:scrip* *:scriptnames*
:scrip[tnames] List all sourced script names, in the order they were
first sourced. The number is used for the script ID
|<SID>|.
|+eval| feature}
*:fini* *:finish* *E168*

:fini[sh] Stop sourcing a script. Can only be used in a Vim
script file. This is a quick way to skip the rest of
the file. If it is used after a |:try| but before the
matching |:finally| (if present), the commands
following the ":finally" up to the matching |:endtry|
are executed first. This process applies to all
nested ":try"s in the script. The outermost ":endtry"
then stops sourcing the script. {not in Vi}
All commands and command sequences can be repeated by putting them in a named
register and then executing it. There are two ways to get the commands in the
register:
- Use the record command "q". You type the commands once, and while they are
being executed they are stored in a register. Easy, because you can see
what you are doing. If you make a mistake, "p"ut the register into the
file, edit the command sequence, and then delete it into the register
again. You can continue recording by appending to the register (use an
uppercase letter).
- Delete or yank the command sequence into the register.
Often used command sequences can be put under a function key with the ':map'
command.
An alternative is to put the commands in a file, and execute them with the
':source!' command. Useful for long command sequences. Can be combined with
the ':map' command to put complicated commands under a function key.
The ':source' command reads Ex commands from a file line by line. You will
have to type any needed keyboard input. The ':source!' command reads from a
script file character by character, interpreting each character as if you
typed it.
Example: When you give the ":!ls" command you get the |hit-enter| prompt. If
you ':source' a file with the line "!ls" in it, you will have to type the
<Enter> yourself. But if you ':source!' a file with the line ":!ls" in it,
the next characters from that file are read until a <CR> is found. You will
not have to type <CR> yourself, unless ":!ls" was the last line in the file.
It is possible to put ':source[!]' commands in the script file, so you can
make a top-down hierarchy of script files. The ':source' command can be
nested as deep as the number of files that can be opened at one time (about
15). The ':source!' command can be nested up to 15 levels deep.
You can use the "<sfile>" string (literally, this is not a special key) inside
of the sourced file, in places where a file name is expected. It will be
replaced by the file name of the sourced file. For example, if you have a

"other.vimrc" file in the same directory as your ".vimrc" file, you can source
it from your ".vimrc" file with this command:
:source <sfile>:h/other.vimrc
In script files terminal-dependent key codes are represented by
terminal-independent two character codes. This means that they can be used
in the same way on different kinds of terminals. The first character of a
key code is 0x80 or 128, shown on the screen as "~@". The second one can be
found in the list |key-notation|. Any of these codes can also be entered
with CTRL-V followed by the three digit decimal code. This does NOT work for
the <t_xx> termcap codes, these can only be used in mappings.
*:source_crnl* *W15*
MS-DOS, Win32 and OS/2: Files that are read with ":source" normally have
<CR><NL> <EOL>s. These always work. If you are using a file with <NL> <EOL>s
(for example, a file made on Unix), this will be recognized if 'fileformats'
is not empty and the first line does not end in a <CR>. This fails if the
first line has something like ":map <F1> :help^M", where "^M" is a <CR>. If
the first line ends in a <CR>, but following ones don't, you will get an error
message, because the <CR> from the first lines will be lost.
Mac Classic: Files that are read with ":source" normally have <CR> <EOL>s.
These always work. If you are using a file with <NL> <EOL>s (for example, a
file made on Unix), this will be recognized if 'fileformats' is not empty and
the first line does not end in a <CR>. Be careful not to use a file with <NL>
linebreaks which has a <CR> in first line.
On other systems, Vim expects ":source"ed files to end in a <NL>. These
always work. If you are using a file with <CR><NL> <EOL>s (for example, a
file made on MS-DOS), all lines will have a trailing <CR>. This may cause
problems for some commands (e.g., mappings). There is no automatic <EOL>
detection, because it's common to start with a line that defines a mapping
that ends in a <CR>, which will confuse the automaton.
*line-continuation*
Long lines in a ":source"d Ex command script file can be split by inserting
a line continuation symbol "\" (backslash) at the start of the next line.
There can be white space before the backslash, which is ignored.
Example: the lines
:set comments=sr:/*,mb:*,el:*/,
\://,
\b:#,
\:%,
\n:>,
\fb:-
are interpreted as if they were given in one line:
:set comments=sr:/*,mb:*,el:*/,://,b:#,:%,n:>,fb:-
All leading whitespace characters in the line before a backslash are ignored.
Note however that trailing whitespace in the line before it cannot be
inserted freely; it depends on the position where a command is split up
whether additional whitespace is allowed or not.
When a space is required it's best to put it right after the backslash. A
space at the end of a line is hard to see and may be accidentally deleted.
:syn match Comment
\ "very long regexp"
\ keepend
There is a problem with the ":append" and ":insert" commands:
:1append
\asdf
.
The backslash is seen as a line-continuation symbol, thus this results in the
command:
:1appendasdf
.
To avoid this, add the 'C' flag to the 'cpoptions' option:
:set cpo+=C
:1append
\asdf
.
:set cpo-=C
Note that when the commands are inside a function, you need to add the 'C'
flag when defining the function, it is not relevant when executing it.

:set cpo+=C
:function Foo()
:1append
\asdf
.
:endfunction
:set cpo-=C
Rationale:
Most programs work with a trailing backslash to indicate line
continuation. Using this in Vim would cause incompatibility with Vi.
For example for this Vi mapping:
:map xx asdf\
Therefore the unusual leading backslash is used.
==============================================================================
5. Debugging scripts *debug-scripts*
Besides the obvious messages that you can add to your scripts to find out what
they are doing, Vim offers a debug mode. This allows you to step through a
sourced file or user function and set breakpoints.
NOTE: The debugging mode is far from perfect. Debugging will have side
effects on how Vim works. You cannot use it to debug everything. For
example, the display is messed up by the debugging messages.
{Vi does not have a debug mode}
An alternative to debug mode is setting the 'verbose' option. With a bigger
number it will give more verbose messages about what Vim is doing.
STARTING DEBUG MODE *debug-mode*

To enter debugging mode use one of these methods:
1. Start Vim with the |-D| argument:
vim -D file.txt
Debugging will start as soon as the first vimrc file is sourced. This is
useful to find out what is happening when Vim is starting up. A side
effect is that Vim will switch the terminal mode before initialisations
have finished, with unpredictable results.
For a GUI-only version (Windows, Macintosh) the debugging will start as
soon as the GUI window has been opened. To make this happen early, add a
":gui" command in the vimrc file.
*:debug*
2. Run a command with ":debug" prepended. Debugging will only be done while
this command executes. Useful for debugging a specific script or user
function. And for scripts and functions used by autocommands. Example:
:debug edit test.txt.gz
3. Set a breakpoint in a sourced file or user function. You could do this in
the command line:
vim -c "breakadd file */explorer.vim" .
This will run Vim and stop in the first line of the "explorer.vim" script.
Breakpoints can also be set while in debugging mode.
In debugging mode every executed command is displayed before it is executed.
Comment lines, empty lines and lines that are not executed are skipped. When
a line contains two commands, separated by "|", each command will be displayed
separately.
DEBUG MODE
Once in debugging mode, the usual Ex commands can be used. For example, to
inspect the value of a variable:
echo idx
When inside a user function, this will print the value of the local variable
"idx". Prepend "g:" to get the value of a global variable:
echo g:idx
All commands are executed in the context of the current function or script.
You can also set options, for example setting or resetting 'verbose' will show
what happens, but you might want to set it just before executing the lines you
are interested in:
:set verbose=20
Commands that require updating the screen should be avoided, because their

effect won't be noticed until after leaving debug mode. For example:
:help
won't be very helpful.
There is a separate command-line history for debug mode.
The line number for a function line is relative to the start of the function.
If you have trouble figuring out where you are, edit the file that defines
the function in another Vim, search for the start of the function and do
"99j". Replace "99" with the line number.
Additionally, these commands can be used:
*>cont*
cont Continue execution until the next breakpoint is hit.
*>quit*
quit Abort execution. This is like using CTRL-C, some
things might still be executed, doesn't abort
everything. Still stops at the next breakpoint.
*>next*
next Execute the command and come back to debug mode when
it's finished. This steps over user function calls
and sourced files.
*>step*
step Execute the command and come back to debug mode for
the next command. This steps into called user
functions and sourced files.
*>interrupt*
interrupt This is like using CTRL-C, but unlike ">quit" comes
back to debug mode for the next command that is
executed. Useful for testing |:finally| and |:catch|
on interrupt exceptions.
*>finish*
finish Finish the current script or user function and come
back to debug mode for the command after the one that
sourced or called it.
About the additional commands in debug mode:
- There is no command-line completion for them, you get the completion for the
normal Ex commands only.
- You can shorten them, up to a single character: "c", "n", "s" and "f".
- Hitting <CR> will repeat the previous one. When doing another command, this
is reset (because it's not clear what you want to repeat).
- When you want to use the Ex command with the same name, prepend a colon:
":cont", ":next", ":finish" (or shorter).
DEFINING BREAKPOINTS
*:breaka* *:breakadd*
:breaka[dd] func [lnum] {name}
Set a breakpoint in a function. Example:
:breakadd func Explore
Doesn't check for a valid function name, thus the breakpoint
can be set before the function is defined.
:breaka[dd] file [lnum] {name}
Set a breakpoint in a sourced file. Example:
:breakadd file 43 .vimrc
:breaka[dd] here
Set a breakpoint in the current line of the current file.
Like doing:
:breakadd file <cursor-line> <current-file>
Note that this only works for commands that are executed when
sourcing the file, not for a function defined in that file.
The [lnum] is the line number of the breakpoint. Vim will stop at or after
this line. When omitted line 1 is used.
*:debug-name*
{name} is a pattern that is matched with the file or function name. The
pattern is like what is used for autocommands. There must be a full match (as
if the pattern starts with "^" and ends in "$"). A "*" matches any sequence

of characters. 'ignorecase' is not used, but "\c" can be used in the pattern
to ignore case |/\c|. Don't include the () for the function name!
The match for sourced scripts is done against the full file name. If no path
is specified the current directory is used. Examples:
breakadd file explorer.vim
matches "explorer.vim" in the current directory.
breakadd file *explorer.vim
matches ".../plugin/explorer.vim", ".../plugin/iexplorer.vim", etc.
breakadd file */explorer.vim
matches ".../plugin/explorer.vim" and "explorer.vim" in any other directory.
The match for functions is done against the name as it's shown in the output
of ":function". For local functions this means that something like "<SNR>99_"
is prepended.
Note that functions are first loaded and later executed. When they are loaded
the "file" breakpoints are checked, when they are executed the "func"
breakpoints.
DELETING BREAKPOINTS
*:breakd* *:breakdel* *E161*
:breakd[el] {nr}
Delete breakpoint {nr}. Use |:breaklist| to see the number of
each breakpoint.
:breakd[el] *
Delete all breakpoints.
:breakd[el] func [lnum] {name}
Delete a breakpoint in a function.
:breakd[el] file [lnum] {name}
Delete a breakpoint in a sourced file.
:breakd[el] here
Delete a breakpoint at the current line of the current file.
When [lnum] is omitted, the first breakpoint in the function or file is
deleted.
The {name} must be exactly the same as what was typed for the ":breakadd"
command. "explorer", "*explorer.vim" and "*explorer*" are different.
LISTING BREAKPOINTS
*:breakl* *:breaklist*
:breakl[ist]
List all breakpoints.
OBSCURE
*:debugg* *:debuggreedy*
:debugg[reedy]
Read debug mode commands from the normal input stream, instead
of getting them directly from the user. Only useful for test
scripts. Example:
echo 'q^Mq' | vim -e -s -c debuggreedy -c 'breakadd file script.vim' -S
script.vim
:0debugg[reedy]
Undo ":debuggreedy": get debug mode commands directly from the
user, don't use typeahead for debug commands.
==============================================================================
6. Profiling *profile* *profiling*
Profiling means that Vim measures the time that is spent on executing
functions and/or scripts. The |+profile| feature is required for this.
It is only included when Vim was compiled with "huge" features.
{Vi does not have profiling}
You can also use the |reltime()| function to measure time. This only requires
the |+reltime| feature, which is present more often.

:prof[ile] start {fname} *:prof* *:profile* *E750*

Start profiling, write the output in {fname} upon exit.
If {fname} already exists it will be silently overwritten.
The variable |v:profiling| is set to one.
:prof[ile] pause
Don't profile until the following ":profile continue". Can be
used when doing something that should not be counted (e.g., an
external command). Does not nest.
:prof[ile] continue
Continue profiling after ":profile pause".
:prof[ile] func {pattern}
Profile function that matches the pattern {pattern}.
See |:debug-name| for how {pattern} is used.
:prof[ile][!] file {pattern}
Profile script file that matches the pattern {pattern}.
See |:debug-name| for how {pattern} is used.
This only profiles the script itself, not the functions
defined in it.
When the [!] is added then all functions defined in the script
will also be profiled. But only if the script is loaded after
this command.
:profd[el] ... *:profd* *:profdel*

Stop profiling for the arguments specified. See |:breakdel|
for the arguments.
You must always start with a ":profile start fname" command. The resulting
file is written when Vim exits. Here is an example of the output, with line
numbers prepended for the explanation:
1 FUNCTION Test2()
2 Called 1 time
3 Total time: 0.155251
4 Self time: 0.002006
5
6 count total (s) self (s)
7 9 0.000096 for i in range(8)
8 8 0.153655 0.000410 call Test3()
9 8 0.000070 endfor
10 " Ask a question
11 1 0.001341 echo input("give me an answer: ")
The header (lines 1-4) gives the time for the whole function. The "Total"
time is the time passed while the function was executing. The "Self" time is
the "Total" time reduced by time spent in:
- other user defined functions
- sourced scripts
- executed autocommands
- external (shell) commands
Lines 7-11 show the time spent in each executed line. Lines that are not
executed do not count. Thus a comment line is never counted.
The Count column shows how many times a line was executed. Note that the
"for" command in line 7 is executed one more time as the following lines.
That is because the line is also executed to detect the end of the loop.
The time Vim spends waiting for user input isn't counted at all. Thus how
long you take to respond to the input() prompt is irrelevant.
Profiling should give a good indication of where time is spent, but keep in
mind there are various things that may clobber the results:
- The accuracy of the time measured depends on the gettimeofday() system
function. It may only be as accurate as 1/100 second, even though the times
are displayed in micro seconds.
- Real elapsed time is measured, if other processes are busy they may cause
delays at unpredictable moments. You may want to run the profiling several
times and use the lowest results.

- If you have several commands in one line you only get one time. Split the
line to see the time for the individual commands.
- The time of the lines added up is mostly less than the time of the whole
function. There is some overhead in between.
- Functions that are deleted before Vim exits will not produce profiling
information. You can check the |v:profiling| variable if needed:
:if !v:profiling
: delfunc MyFunc
:endif
- Profiling may give weird results on multi-processor systems, when sleep
mode kicks in or the processor frequency is reduced to save power.
- The "self" time is wrong when a function is used recursively.
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: diff
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*diff.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Dec 08
*diff* *vimdiff* *gvimdiff* *diff-mode*

This file describes the |+diff| feature: Showing differences between two,
three or four versions of the same file.
1. Starting diff mode |vimdiff|
2. Viewing diffs |view-diffs|
3. Jumping to diffs |jumpto-diffs|
4. Copying diffs |copy-diffs|
5. Diff options |diff-options|
{not in Vi}
==============================================================================
1. Starting diff mode
The easiest way to start editing in diff mode is with the "vimdiff" command.
This starts Vim as usual, and additionally sets up for viewing the differences
between the arguments.
vimdiff file1 file2 [file3 [file4]]
This is equivalent to:
vim -d file1 file2 [file3 [file4]]
You may also use "gvimdiff" or "vim -d -g". The GUI is started then.
You may also use "viewdiff" or "gviewdiff". Vim starts in readonly mode then.
"r" may be prepended for restricted mode (see |-Z|).
The second and following arguments may also be a directory name. Vim will
then append the file name of the first argument to the directory name to find
the file.
This only works when a standard "diff" command is available. See 'diffexpr'.
Diffs are local to the current tab page |tab-page|. You can't see diffs with
a window in another tab page. This does make it possible to have several
diffs at the same time, each in their own tab page.
What happens is that Vim opens a window for each of the files. This is like
using the |-O| argument. This uses vertical splits. If you prefer horizontal
splits add the |-o| argument:
vimdiff -o file1 file2 [file3 [file4]]
If you always prefer horizontal splits include "horizontal" in 'diffopt'.
In each of the edited files these options are set:
'diff' on
'scrollbind' on
'cursorbind' on
'scrollopt' includes "hor"
'wrap' off
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/diff.html[2019/03/05 11:42:15 AM]

'foldmethod' "diff"
'foldcolumn' value from 'diffopt', default is 2
These options are set local to the window. When editing another file they are
reset to the global value.
The options can still be overruled from a modeline when re-editing the file.
However, 'foldmethod' and 'wrap' won't be set from a modeline when 'diff' is
set.
The differences shown are actually the differences in the buffer. Thus if you
make changes after loading a file, these will be included in the displayed
diffs. You might have to do ":diffupdate" now and then, not all changes are
immediately taken into account.
In your .vimrc file you could do something special when Vim was started in
diff mode. You could use a construct like this:
if &diff
setup for diff mode
else
setup for non-diff mode
endif
While already in Vim you can start diff mode in three ways.
*E98*
:diffsplit {filename} *:diffs* *:diffsplit*
Open a new window on the file {filename}. The options are set
as for "vimdiff" for the current and the newly opened window.
Also see 'diffexpr'.
*:difft* *:diffthis*
:diffthis Make the current window part of the diff windows. This sets
the options like for "vimdiff".
:diffpatch {patchfile} *E816* *:diffp* *:diffpatch*

Use the current buffer, patch it with the diff found in
{patchfile} and open a buffer on the result. The options are
set as for "vimdiff".
{patchfile} can be in any format that the "patch" program
understands or 'patchexpr' can handle.
Note that {patchfile} should only contain a diff for one file,
the current file. If {patchfile} contains diffs for other
files as well, the results are unpredictable. Vim changes
directory to /tmp to avoid files in the current directory
accidentally being patched. But it may still result in
various ".rej" files to be created. And when absolute path
names are present these files may get patched anyway.
To make these commands use a vertical split, prepend |:vertical|. Examples:
:vert diffsplit main.c~
:vert diffpatch /tmp/diff
If you always prefer a vertical split include "vertical" in 'diffopt'.
*E96*
There can be up to four buffers with 'diff' set.
Since the option values are remembered with the buffer, you can edit another
file for a moment and come back to the same file and be in diff mode again.
*:diffo* *:diffoff*
:diffoff Switch off diff mode for the current window.
:diffoff! Switch off diff mode for the current window and in all windows
in the current tab page where 'diff' is set.
The ":diffoff" command resets the relevant options to their default value.
This may be different from what the values were before diff mode was started,
the old values are not remembered.
'diff' off

'scrollbind' off
'cursorbind' off
'scrollopt' without "hor"
'wrap' on
'foldmethod' "manual"
'foldcolumn' 0
==============================================================================
2. Viewing diffs *view-diffs*
The effect is that the diff windows show the same text, with the differences
highlighted. When scrolling the text, the 'scrollbind' option will make the
text in other windows to be scrolled as well. With vertical splits the text
should be aligned properly.
The alignment of text will go wrong when:
- 'wrap' is on, some lines will be wrapped and occupy two or more screen
lines
- folds are open in one window but not another
- 'scrollbind' is off
- changes have been made to the text
- "filler" is not present in 'diffopt', deleted/inserted lines makes the
alignment go wrong
All the buffers edited in a window where the 'diff' option is set will join in
the diff. This is also possible for hidden buffers. They must have been
edited in a window first for this to be possible.
*:DiffOrig* *diff-original-file*
Since 'diff' is a window-local option, it's possible to view the same buffer
in diff mode in one window and "normal" in another window. It is also
possible to view the changes you have made to a buffer since the file was
loaded. Since Vim doesn't allow having two buffers for the same file, you
need another buffer. This command is useful:
command DiffOrig vert new | set bt=nofile | r # | 0d_ | diffthis
\ | wincmd p | diffthis
(this is in |vimrc_example.vim|). Use ":DiffOrig" to see the differences
between the current buffer and the file it was loaded from.
A buffer that is unloaded cannot be used for the diff. But it does work for
hidden buffers. You can use ":hide" to close a window without unloading the
buffer. If you don't want a buffer to remain used for the diff do ":set
nodiff" before hiding it.
*:diffu* *:diffupdate*
:diffu[pdate] Update the diff highlighting and folds.
Vim attempts to keep the differences updated when you make changes to the
text. This mostly takes care of inserted and deleted lines. Changes within a
line and more complicated changes do not cause the differences to be updated.
To force the differences to be updated use:
:diffupdate
Vim will show filler lines for lines that are missing in one window but are
present in another. These lines were inserted in another file or deleted in
this file. Removing "filler" from the 'diffopt' option will make Vim not
display these filler lines.
Folds are used to hide the text that wasn't changed. See |folding| for all
the commands that can be used with folds.
The context of lines above a difference that are not included in the fold can
be set with the 'diffopt' option. For example, to set the context to three
lines:
The diffs are highlighted with these groups:

|hl-DiffAdd| DiffAdd Added (inserted) lines. These lines exist in
this buffer but not in another.
|hl-DiffChange| DiffChange Changed lines.
|hl-DiffText| DiffText Changed text inside a Changed line. Vim

finds the first character that is different,

and the last character that is different
(searching from the end of the line). The
text in between is highlighted. This means
that parts in the middle that are still the
same are highlighted anyway. Only "iwhite" of
'diffopt' is used here.
|hl-DiffDelete| DiffDelete Deleted lines. Also called filler lines,
because they don't really exist in this
buffer.
==============================================================================
3. Jumping to diffs *jumpto-diffs*
Two commands can be used to jump to diffs:
*[c*
[c Jump backwards to the previous start of a change.
When a count is used, do it that many times.
*]c*
]c Jump forwards to the next start of a change.
When a count is used, do it that many times.
It is an error if there is no change for the cursor to move to.
==============================================================================
4. Diff copying *copy-diffs* *E99* *E100* *E101* *E102* *E103*
*merge*
There are two commands to copy text from one buffer to another. The result is
that the buffers will be equal within the specified range.
*:diffg* *:diffget*
:[range]diffg[et] [bufspec]
Modify the current buffer to undo difference with another
buffer. If [bufspec] is given, that buffer is used. If
[bufspec] refers to the current buffer then nothing happens.
Otherwise this only works if there is one other buffer in diff
mode.
See below for [range].
*:diffpu* *:diffput* *E793*

:[range]diffpu[t] [bufspec]
Modify another buffer to undo difference with the current
buffer. Just like ":diffget" but the other buffer is modified
instead of the current one.
When [bufspec] is omitted and there is more than one other
buffer in diff mode where 'modifiable' is set this fails.
See below for [range].
*do*
do Same as ":diffget" without argument or range. The "o" stands
for "obtain" ("dg" can't be used, it could be the start of
"dgg"!). Note: this doesn't work in Visual mode.
*dp*
dp Same as ":diffput" without argument or range.
Note: this doesn't work in Visual mode.
When no [range] is given, the diff at the cursor position or just above it is
affected. When [range] is used, Vim tries to only put or get the specified
lines. When there are deleted lines, this may not always be possible.
There can be deleted lines below the last line of the buffer. When the cursor
is on the last line in the buffer and there is no diff above this line, the
":diffget" and "do" commands will obtain lines from the other buffer.
To be able to get those lines from another buffer in a [range] it's allowed to
use the last line number plus one. This command gets all diffs from the other
buffer:
:1,$+1diffget

Note that deleted lines are displayed, but not counted as text lines. You
can't move the cursor into them. To fill the deleted lines with the lines
from another buffer use ":diffget" on the line below them.
*E787*
When the buffer that is about to be modified is read-only and the autocommand
that is triggered by |FileChangedRO| changes buffers the command will fail.
The autocommand must not change buffers.
The [bufspec] argument above can be a buffer number, a pattern for a buffer
name or a part of a buffer name. Examples:
:diffget Use the other buffer which is in diff mode
:diffget 3 Use buffer 3
:diffget v2 Use the buffer which matches "v2" and is in
diff mode (e.g., "file.c.v2")
==============================================================================
5. Diff options *diff-options*
Also see |'diffopt'| and the "diff" item of |'fillchars'|.
FINDING THE DIFFERENCES *diff-diffexpr*

The 'diffexpr' option can be set to use something else than the standard
"diff" program to compare two files and find the differences.
When 'diffexpr' is empty, Vim uses this command to find the differences
between file1 and file2:
diff file1 file2 > outfile
The ">" is replaced with the value of 'shellredir'.
The output of "diff" must be a normal "ed" style diff. Do NOT use a context
diff. This example explains the format that Vim expects:
1a2
> bbb
4d4
< 111
7c7
< GGG
---
> ggg
The "1a2" item appends the line "bbb".
The "4d4" item deletes the line "111".
The '7c7" item replaces the line "GGG" with "ggg".
When 'diffexpr' is not empty, Vim evaluates it to obtain a diff file in the
format mentioned. These variables are set to the file names used:
v:fname_in original file
v:fname_new new version of the same file
v:fname_out resulting diff file
Additionally, 'diffexpr' should take care of "icase" and "iwhite" in the
'diffopt' option. 'diffexpr' cannot change the value of 'lines' and
'columns'.
Example (this does almost the same as 'diffexpr' being empty):
set diffexpr=MyDiff()
function MyDiff()
let opt = ""
if &diffopt =~ "icase"
let opt = opt . "-i "
endif
if &diffopt =~ "iwhite"
let opt = opt . "-b "
endif
silent execute "!diff -a --binary " . opt . v:fname_in . " " . v:fname_new .
\ " > " . v:fname_out
endfunction

The "-a" argument is used to force comparing the files as text, comparing as
binaries isn't useful. The "--binary" argument makes the files read in binary
mode, so that a CTRL-Z doesn't end the text on DOS.
*E810* *E97*
Vim will do a test if the diff output looks alright. If it doesn't, you will
get an error message. Possible causes:
- The "diff" program cannot be executed.
- The "diff" program doesn't produce normal "ed" style diffs (see above).
- The 'shell' and associated options are not set correctly. Try if filtering
works with a command like ":!sort".
- You are using 'diffexpr' and it doesn't work.
If it's not clear what the problem is set the 'verbose' option to one or more
to see more messages.
The self-installing Vim for MS-Windows includes a diff program. If you don't
have it you might want to download a diff.exe. For example from
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/diffutils.htm.
USING PATCHES *diff-patchexpr*

The 'patchexpr' option can be set to use something else than the standard
"patch" program.
When 'patchexpr' is empty, Vim will call the "patch" program like this:
patch -o outfile origfile < patchfile
This should work fine with most versions of the "patch" program. Note that a
CR in the middle of a line may cause problems, it is seen as a line break.
If the default doesn't work for you, set the 'patchexpr' to an expression that
will have the same effect. These variables are set to the file names used:
v:fname_in original file
v:fname_diff patch file
v:fname_out resulting patched file
Example (this does the same as 'patchexpr' being empty):
set patchexpr=MyPatch()
function MyPatch()
:call system("patch -o " . v:fname_out . " " . v:fname_in .
\ " < " . v:fname_diff)
endfunction
Make sure that using the "patch" program doesn't have unwanted side effects.
For example, watch out for additionally generated files, which should be
deleted. It should just patch the file and nothing else.
Vim will change directory to "/tmp" or another temp directory before
evaluating 'patchexpr'. This hopefully avoids that files in the current
directory are accidentally patched. Vim will also delete files starting with
v:fname_in and ending in ".rej" and ".orig".
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: quotes
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*quotes.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Nov 03
*quotes*
Here are some nice quotes about Vim that I collected from news and mail.
vim (vim) noun - Ebullient vitality and energy. [Latin, accusative of vis,
strength] (Dictionary)
Vim is so much better than vi that a great many of my old vi :map's became
immediately obsolete! (Tony Nugent, Australia)
Coming with a very GUI mindset from Windows, I always thought of people using
Vi as some kind of outer space alien in human clothes. Once I tried I really
got addicted by its power and now I found myself typing Vim keypresses in the
oddest places! That's why I would like to see Vim embedded in every
application which deals with text editing. (José Fonseca)
I was a 12-year emacs user who switched to Vim about a year ago after finally
giving up on the multiple incompatible versions, flaky contributed packages,
disorganized keystrokes, etc. And it was one of the best moves I ever made.
(Joel Burton)
Although all of the programs were used during the preparation of the new and
revised material, most of the editing was done with Vim versions 4.5 and 5.0
under GNU-Linux (Redhat 4.2). (Arnold Robbins, Israel, author of "Learning
the Vi editor")
Out of all the open software i've ever seen and used, and i've seen a lot, Vim
is the best, most useful and highest quality to work with, second only to the
linux kernel itself. (Peter Jay Salzman)
It's well worth noting that the _entirety_ of SourceForge was written using
Vim and its nifty PHP syntax highlighting. I think the entire SF.net tech
staff uses Vim and we're all excited to have you aboard! (Tim Perdue)
Vim is one of a select bunch of tools for which I have no substitute. It is
a brilliant piece of work! (Biju Chacko)
A previous girlfriend of mine switched to emacs. Needless to say, the
relationship went nowhere. (Geoffrey Mann)
I rarely think about Vim, in the same way that I guess a fish rarely thinks
about water. It's the environment in which everything else happens. I'm a
fairly busy system administrator working on a lot of different platforms. Vim
is the only thing that's consistent across all my systems, and it's just about
the only thing that doesn't break from time to time. When a new system comes
in the door without Vim, I install it right away. Great to have a tool that's
the same everywhere, that's completely reliable, so I can ignore it and think
about other things. (Pete Schaeffer)
Having recently succeeded in running Vim via telnet through a Nokia
Communicator, I can now report that it works nicely on a Palm Pilot too.
(Allan Kelly, Scotland)
You've done a tremendous job with 'VIM', Bram! The more I use it, the more
impressed I get (I am an old 'vi' die hard who once started out with early
versions of 'emacs' in the late 1970's and was relieved by finding 'vi' in the
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/quotes.html[2019/03/05 11:42:16 AM]

first UNIX I came across in 1983). In my opinion, it's about time 'VIM'
replace 'emacs' as the standard for top editors. (Bo Thide', Sweden)
I love and use VIM heavily too. (Larry Wall)
Vi is like a Ferrari, if you're a beginner, it handles like a bitch, but once
you get the hang of it, it's small, powerful and FAST! (Unknown)
VIM is like a new model Ferrari, and sounds like one too - "VIIIIIIMMM!"
(Stephen Riehm, Germany)
Schon bei Nutzung eines Bruchteils der VIM-Funktionen wird der Benutzer recht
schnell die Vorzuege dieses Editors kennen- und schaetzenlernen.
Translated: Even when only using a fraction of VIM-functions, the user will
quickly get used to and appreciate the advantages of this editor. (Garry
Glendown, conclusion of an article on VIM in iX magazine 9/1998)
I've recently acquired the O'Reilly book on VI (it also discusses VIM
in-depth), and I'm amazed at just how powerful this application is. (Jeffrey
Rankin)
This guide was written using the Windows 9.x distribution of GVIM, which is
quite possibly the greatest thing to come along since God created the naked
girl. (Michael DiBernardo)
Boy, I thought I knew almost everything about VIM, but every time I browse the
online documentation, I hit upon a minor but cool aspect of a VIM feature that
I didn't know before! I must say the documentation is one the finest I've
ever seen in a product -- even better than most commercial products.
(Gautam Mudunuri)
VIM 4.5 is really a fantastic editor. It has sooooo many features and more
importantly, the defaults are so well thought out that you really don't have
to change anything!! Words cannot express my amazement and gratitude to the
creators of VIM. Keep it up. (Vikas, USA)
I wonder how long it will be before people will refer to other Vi editors as
VIM clones? (Darren Hiebert)
I read about [auto-positioning-in-file-based-on-the-errors-from-make] in one
of those "Perfect Programmer's Editor" threads and was delighted to discover
that VIM already supports it. (Brendan Macmillan, Australia)
I just discovered VIM (5.0) and I'm telling everyone I know about it!
I tell them VIM stands for VI for the new (M)illenium. Thanks so much!
(Matt F. Valentine)
I think from now on "vi" should be called "Vim Imitation", not the other way
around. (Rungun Ramanathan)
The Law of VIM:
For each member b of the possible behaviour space B of program P, there exists
a finite time t before which at least one user u in the total user space U of
program P will request b becomes a member of the allowed behaviour space B'
(B' <= B).
In other words: Sooner or later everyone wants everything as an option.
(Negri)
Whenever I move to a new computing platform, the first thing I do is to port
VIM. Lately, I am simply stunned by its ease of compilation using the
configure facility. (A.M. Sabuncu, Turkey)
The options are really excellent and very powerful. (Anish Maharaj)
The Spring user-interface designs are in, and word from the boutiques is that
80x24 text-only mode is back with a *vengeance! Vi editor clone VIM burst onto
March desk-tops with a dazzling show of pastel syntax highlights for its 5.0
look. Strident and customizable, VIM raises eyebrows with its interpretation
of the classic Vi single-key macro collection.
http://www.ntk.net/index.cgi?back=archive98/now0327.txt&line=179#l
I just wanted to take this opportunity to let you know that VIM 5 ROCKS!
Syntax highlighting: how did I survive without it?! Thank you for creating
mankind's best editor! (Mun Johl, USA)
Thanks again for VIM. I use it every day on Linux. (Eric Foster-Johnson,
author of the book "UNIX Programming Tools")
The BEST EDITOR EVER (Stuart Woolford)
I have used most of VIM's fancy features at least once, many frequently, and I
can honestly say that I couldn't live with anything less anymore. My

productivity has easily doubled compared to what it was when I used vi.
(Sitaram Chamarty)
I luv VIM. It is incredible. I'm naming my first-born Vimberly. (Jose
Unpingco, USA)
Hint: "VIM" is "vi improved" - much better! (Sven Guckes, Germany)
I use VIM every day. I spend more time in VIM than in any other program...
It's the best vi clone there is. I think it's great. (Craig Sanders,
Australia)
I strongly advise using VIM--its infinite undo/redo saved me much grief.
(Terry Brown)
Thanks very much for writing what in my opinion is the finest text editor on
the planet. If I were to get another cat, I would name it "Vim".
(Bob Sheehan, USA)
I typed :set all and the screen FILLED up with options. A whole screen of
things to be set and unset. I saw some of my old friends like wrapmargin,
modelines and showmode, but the screen was FILLED with new friends! I love
them all! I love VIM! I'm so happy that I've found this editor! I feel
like how I once felt when I started using vi after a couple of years of using
ed. I never thought I'd forsake my beloved ed, but vi ... oh god, vi was
great. And now, VIM. (Peter Jay Salzman, USA)
I am really happy with such a wonderful software package. Much better than
almost any expensive, off the shelf program. (Jeff Walker)
Whenever I reread the VIM documentation I'm overcome with excitement at the
power of the editor. (William Edward Webber, Australia)
Hurrah for VIM!! It is "at your fingertips" like vi, and has the extensions
that vi sorely needs: highlighting for executing commands on blocks, an easily
navigable and digestible help screen, and more. (Paul Pax)
The reason WHY I don't have this amazingly useful macro any more, is that I
now use VIM - and this is built in!! (Stephen Riehm, Germany)
I am a user of VIM and I love it. I use it to do all my programming, C,
C++, HTML what ever. (Tim Allwine)
I discovered VIM after years of struggling with the original vi, and I just
can't live without it any more. (Emmanuel Mogenet, USA)
Emacs has not a bit of chance to survive so long as VIM is around. Besides,
it also has the most detailed software documentation I have ever seen---much
better than most commercial software! (Leiming Qian)
This version of VIM will just blow people apart when they discover just how
fantastic it is! (Tony Nugent, Australia)
I took your advice & finally got VIM & I'm really impressed. Instant convert.
(Patrick Killelea, USA)
VIM is by far my favorite piece of shareware and I have been particularly
pleased with version 3.0. This is really a solid piece of work. (Robert
Colon, USA)
VIM is a joy to use, it is so well thought and practical that I wonder why
anybody would use visual development tools. VIM is powerful and elegant, it
looks deceptively simple but is almost as complex as a 747 (especially when I
look at my growing .vimrc), keep up that wonderful job, VIM is a centerpiece
of the free software world. (Louis-David Mitterand, USA)
I cannot believe how great it is to use VIM. I think the guys at work are
getting tired of hearing me bragging about it. Others eyes are lighting up.
(Rick Croote)
Emacs takes way too much time to start up and run, it is too big and bulky for
effective use and the interface is more confusing than it is of any help. VIM
however is short, it is fast, it is powerful, it has a good interface and it
is all purpose. (Paal Ditlefsen Ekran)
From the first time I got VIM3.0, I was very enthusiastic. It has almost no
problems. The swapfile handling and the backup possibilities are robust, also
the protection against editing one file twice. It is very compatible to the
real VI (and that is a MUST, because my brain is trained over years in using
it). (Gert van Antwerpen, Holland)

Visual mode in VIM is a very powerful thing! (Tony Nugent, Australia)

I have to say that VIM is =THE= single greatest piece of source code to ever
come across the net (Jim Battle, USA).
In fact, if you do want to get a new vi I'd suggest VIM-3.0. This is, by
far, the best version of vi I've ever seen (Albert W. Schueller).
I should mention that VIM is a very good editor and can compete with anything
(Ilya Beloozerov).
To tell the truth sometimes I used elvis, vile, xvi, calvin, etc. And this is
the reason that I can state that VIM is the best! (Ferenc Deak, Hungary)
VIM is by far the best editor that I have used in a long time, and I have
looked at just about every thing that is available for every platform that I
use. VIM is the best on all of them. (Guy L. Oliver)
VIM is the greatest editor since the stone chisel. (Jose Unpingco, USA)
I would like to say that with VIM I am finally making the 'emacs to vi'
transition - as an Editor it is so much better in many ways: keyboard layout,
memory usage, text alteration to name 3. (Mark Adam)
In fact, now if I want to know what a particular setting does in vi, I fire up
VIM and check out its help! (Nikhil Patel, USA)
As a vi user, VIM has made working with text a far more pleasant task than
before I encountered this program. (Steinar Knutsen, Norway)
I use VIM since version 3.0. Since that time, it is the ONLY editor I use,
with Solaris, Linux and OS/2 Warp. I suggest all my friends to use VIM, they
try, and they continue using it. VIM is really the best software I have ever
downloaded from the Internet, and the best editor I know of. (Marco
Eccettuato, Italy)
In summary:
__ ___ _ _ _ ___ _____ `
\ \ / (_)_ __ ___ (_)___ | | | |/ _ \_ _| `
\ \ / /| | '_ ` _ \ | / __| | |_| | | | || | `
\ V / | | | | | | | | \__ \ | _ | |_| || | `
\_/ |_|_| |_| |_| |_|___/ |_| |_|\___/ |_| `
____ _____ _ _ _____ _____ _ _ `
/ ___|_ _| | | | ___| ___| | | `
\___ \ | | | | | | |_ | |_ | | | `
___) || | | |_| | _| | _| |_|_| `
|____/ |_| \___/|_| |_| (_|_) (Tony Nugent, Australia) `
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: spell
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*spell.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Feb 01
Spell checking *spell*

1. Quick start |spell-quickstart|
2. Remarks on spell checking |spell-remarks|
3. Generating a spell file |spell-mkspell|
4. Spell file format |spell-file-format|
Spell checking is not available when the |+syntax| feature has been disabled
at compile time.
Note: There also is a vimspell plugin. If you have it you can do ":help
vimspell" to find about it. But you will probably want to get rid of the
plugin and use the 'spell' option instead, it works better.
==============================================================================
1. Quick start *spell-quickstart* *E756*
This command switches on spell checking:
:setlocal spell spelllang=en_us
This switches on the 'spell' option and specifies to check for US English.
The words that are not recognized are highlighted with one of these:
SpellBad word not recognized |hl-SpellBad|
SpellCap word not capitalised |hl-SpellCap|
SpellRare rare word |hl-SpellRare|
SpellLocal wrong spelling for selected region |hl-SpellLocal|
Vim only checks words for spelling, there is no grammar check.
If the 'mousemodel' option is set to "popup" and the cursor is on a badly
spelled word or it is "popup_setpos" and the mouse pointer is on a badly
spelled word, then the popup menu will contain a submenu to replace the bad
word. Note: this slows down the appearance of the popup menu. Note for GTK:
don't release the right mouse button until the menu appears, otherwise it
won't work.
To search for the next misspelled word:
*]s*
]s Move to next misspelled word after the cursor.
A count before the command can be used to repeat.
'wrapscan' applies.
*[s*
[s Like "]s" but search backwards, find the misspelled
word before the cursor. Doesn't recognize words
split over two lines, thus may stop at words that are
not highlighted as bad. Does not stop at word with
missing capital at the start of a line.
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/spell.html[2019/03/05 11:42:17 AM]

*]S*
]S Like "]s" but only stop at bad words, not at rare
words or words for another region.
*[S*
[S Like "]S" but search backwards.
To add words to your own word list:
*zg*
zg Add word under the cursor as a good word to the first
name in 'spellfile'. A count may precede the command
to indicate the entry in 'spellfile' to be used. A
count of two uses the second entry.
In Visual mode the selected characters are added as a
word (including white space!).
When the cursor is on text that is marked as badly
spelled then the marked text is used.
Otherwise the word under the cursor, separated by
non-word characters, is used.
If the word is explicitly marked as bad word in
another spell file the result is unpredictable.
*zG*
zG Like "zg" but add the word to the internal word list
|internal-wordlist|.
*zw*
zw Like "zg" but mark the word as a wrong (bad) word.
If the word already appears in 'spellfile' it is
turned into a comment line. See |spellfile-cleanup|
for getting rid of those.
*zW*
zW Like "zw" but add the word to the internal word list
|internal-wordlist|.
zuw *zug* *zuw*

zug Undo |zw| and |zg|, remove the word from the entry in
'spellfile'. Count used as with |zg|.
zuW *zuG* *zuW*

zuG Undo |zW| and |zG|, remove the word from the internal
word list. Count used as with |zg|.
*:spe* *:spellgood*
:[count]spe[llgood] {word}
Add {word} as a good word to 'spellfile', like with
|zg|. Without count the first name is used, with a
count of two the second entry, etc.
:spe[llgood]! {word} Add {word} as a good word to the internal word list,
like with |zG|.
*:spellw* *:spellwrong*
:[count]spellw[rong] {word}
Add {word} as a wrong (bad) word to 'spellfile', as
with |zw|. Without count the first name is used, with
a count of two the second entry, etc.
:spellw[rong]! {word} Add {word} as a wrong (bad) word to the internal word
list, like with |zW|.
:[count]spellu[ndo] {word} *:spellu* *:spellundo*

Like |zuw|. [count] used as with |:spellgood|.

:spellu[ndo]! {word} Like |zuW|. [count] used as with |:spellgood|.
After adding a word to 'spellfile' with the above commands its associated
".spl" file will automatically be updated and reloaded. If you change
'spellfile' manually you need to use the |:mkspell| command. This sequence of
commands mostly works well:
:edit <file in 'spellfile'>
(make changes to the spell file)
:mkspell! %
More details about the 'spellfile' format below |spell-wordlist-format|.
*internal-wordlist*
The internal word list is used for all buffers where 'spell' is set. It is
not stored, it is lost when you exit Vim. It is also cleared when 'encoding'
is set.
Finding suggestions for bad words:

*z=*
z= For the word under/after the cursor suggest correctly
spelled words. This also works to find alternatives
for a word that is not highlighted as a bad word,
e.g., when the word after it is bad.
In Visual mode the highlighted text is taken as the
word to be replaced.
The results are sorted on similarity to the word being
replaced.
This may take a long time. Hit CTRL-C when you get
bored.
If the command is used without a count the
alternatives are listed and you can enter the number
of your choice or press <Enter> if you don't want to
replace. You can also use the mouse to click on your
choice (only works if the mouse can be used in Normal
mode and when there are no line wraps). Click on the
first line (the header) to cancel.
The suggestions listed normally replace a highlighted
bad word. Sometimes they include other text, in that
case the replaced text is also listed after a "<".
If a count is used that suggestion is used, without
prompting. For example, "1z=" always takes the first
suggestion.
If 'verbose' is non-zero a score will be displayed
with the suggestions to indicate the likeliness to the
badly spelled word (the higher the score the more
different).
When a word was replaced the redo command "." will
repeat the word replacement. This works like "ciw",
the good word and <Esc>. This does NOT work for Thai
and other languages without spaces between words.
*:spellr* *:spellrepall* *E752* *E753*

:spellr[epall] Repeat the replacement done by |z=| for all matches
with the replaced word in the current window.
In Insert mode, when the cursor is after a badly spelled word, you can use
CTRL-X s to find suggestions. This works like Insert mode completion. Use
CTRL-N to use the next suggestion, CTRL-P to go back. |i_CTRL-X_s|
The 'spellsuggest' option influences how the list of suggestions is generated
and sorted. See |'spellsuggest'|.
The 'spellcapcheck' option is used to check the first word of a sentence
starts with a capital. This doesn't work for the first word in the file.
When there is a line break right after a sentence the highlighting of the next
line may be postponed. Use |CTRL-L| when needed. Also see |set-spc-auto| for
how it can be set automatically when 'spelllang' is set.
Vim counts the number of times a good word is encountered. This is used to
sort the suggestions: words that have been seen before get a small bonus,

words that have been seen often get a bigger bonus. The COMMON item in the
affix file can be used to define common words, so that this mechanism also
works in a new or short file |spell-COMMON|.
==============================================================================
2. Remarks on spell checking *spell-remarks*
PERFORMANCE
Vim does on-the-fly spell checking. To make this work fast the word list is
loaded in memory. Thus this uses a lot of memory (1 Mbyte or more). There
might also be a noticeable delay when the word list is loaded, which happens
when 'spell' is set and when 'spelllang' is set while 'spell' was already set.
To minimize the delay each word list is only loaded once, it is not deleted
when 'spelllang' is made empty or 'spell' is reset. When 'encoding' is set
all the word lists are reloaded, thus you may notice a delay then too.
REGIONS
A word may be spelled differently in various regions. For example, English
comes in (at least) these variants:
en all regions
en_au Australia
en_ca Canada
en_gb Great Britain
en_nz New Zealand
en_us USA
Words that are not used in one region but are used in another region are
highlighted with SpellLocal |hl-SpellLocal|.
Always use lowercase letters for the language and region names.
When adding a word with |zg| or another command it's always added for all
regions. You can change that by manually editing the 'spellfile'. See
|spell-wordlist-format|. Note that the regions as specified in the files in
'spellfile' are only used when all entries in 'spelllang' specify the same
region (not counting files specified by their .spl name).
*spell-german*
Specific exception: For German these special regions are used:
de all German words accepted
de_de old and new spelling
de_19 old spelling
de_20 new spelling
de_at Austria
de_ch Switzerland
*spell-russian*
Specific exception: For Russian these special regions are used:
ru all Russian words accepted
ru_ru "IE" letter spelling
ru_yo "YO" letter spelling
*spell-yiddish*
Yiddish requires using "utf-8" encoding, because of the special characters
used. If you are using latin1 Vim will use transliterated (romanized) Yiddish
instead. If you want to use transliterated Yiddish with utf-8 use "yi-tr".
In a table:
'encoding' 'spelllang'
utf-8 yi Yiddish
latin1 yi transliterated Yiddish
utf-8 yi-tr transliterated Yiddish
SPELL FILES *spell-load*

Vim searches for spell files in the "spell" subdirectory of the directories in
'runtimepath'. The name is: LL.EEE.spl, where:
LL the language name
EEE the value of 'encoding'
The value for "LL" comes from 'spelllang', but excludes the region name.

Examples:
'spelllang' LL
en_us en
en-rare en-rare
medical_ca medical
Only the first file is loaded, the one that is first in 'runtimepath'. If
this succeeds then additionally files with the name LL.EEE.add.spl are loaded.
All the ones that are found are used.
If no spell file is found the |SpellFileMissing| autocommand event is
triggered. This may trigger the |spellfile.vim| plugin to offer you
downloading the spell file.
Additionally, the files related to the names in 'spellfile' are loaded. These
are the files that |zg| and |zw| add good and wrong words to.
Exceptions:
- Vim uses "latin1" when 'encoding' is "iso-8859-15". The euro sign doesn't
matter for spelling.
- When no spell file for 'encoding' is found "ascii" is tried. This only
works for languages where nearly all words are ASCII, such as English. It
helps when 'encoding' is not "latin1", such as iso-8859-2, and English text
is being edited. For the ".add" files the same name as the found main
spell file is used.
For example, with these values:
'runtimepath' is "~/.vim,/usr/share/vim70,~/.vim/after"
'encoding' is "iso-8859-2"
'spelllang' is "pl"
Vim will look for:
1. ~/.vim/spell/pl.iso-8859-2.spl
2. /usr/share/vim70/spell/pl.iso-8859-2.spl
3. ~/.vim/spell/pl.iso-8859-2.add.spl
4. /usr/share/vim70/spell/pl.iso-8859-2.add.spl
5. ~/.vim/after/spell/pl.iso-8859-2.add.spl
This assumes 1. is not found and 2. is found.
If 'encoding' is "latin1" Vim will look for:
1. ~/.vim/spell/pl.latin1.spl
2. /usr/share/vim70/spell/pl.latin1.spl
3. ~/.vim/after/spell/pl.latin1.spl
4. ~/.vim/spell/pl.ascii.spl
5. /usr/share/vim70/spell/pl.ascii.spl
6. ~/.vim/after/spell/pl.ascii.spl
This assumes none of them are found (Polish doesn't make sense when leaving
out the non-ASCII characters).
Spelling for EBCDIC is currently not supported.
A spell file might not be available in the current 'encoding'. See
|spell-mkspell| about how to create a spell file. Converting a spell file
with "iconv" will NOT work!
Note: on VMS ".{enc}.spl" is changed to "_{enc}.spl" to avoid trouble with
filenames.
*spell-sug-file* *E781*
If there is a file with exactly the same name as the ".spl" file but ending in
".sug", that file will be used for giving better suggestions. It isn't loaded
before suggestions are made to reduce memory use.
*E758* *E759* *E778* *E779* *E780* *E782*

When loading a spell file Vim checks that it is properly formatted. If you
get an error the file may be truncated, modified or intended for another Vim
version.
SPELLFILE CLEANUP *spellfile-cleanup*

The |zw| command turns existing entries in 'spellfile' into comment lines.
This avoids having to write a new file every time, but results in the file
only getting longer, never shorter. To clean up the comment lines in all
".add" spell files do this:

:runtime spell/cleanadd.vim
This deletes all comment lines, except the ones that start with "##". Use
"##" lines to add comments that you want to keep.
You can invoke this script as often as you like. A variable is provided to
skip updating files that have been changed recently. Set it to the number of
seconds that has passed since a file was changed before it will be cleaned.
For example, to clean only files that were not changed in the last hour:
let g:spell_clean_limit = 60 * 60
The default is one second.
WORDS
Vim uses a fixed method to recognize a word. This is independent of
'iskeyword', so that it also works in help files and for languages that
include characters like '-' in 'iskeyword'. The word characters do depend on
'encoding'.
The table with word characters is stored in the main .spl file. Therefore it
matters what the current locale is when generating it! A .add.spl file does
not contain a word table though.
For a word that starts with a digit the digit is ignored, unless the word as a
whole is recognized. Thus if "3D" is a word and "D" is not then "3D" is
recognized as a word, but if "3D" is not a word then only the "D" is marked as
bad. Hex numbers in the form 0x12ab and 0X12AB are recognized.
WORD COMBINATIONS
It is possible to spell-check words that include a space. This is used to
recognize words that are invalid when used by themselves, e.g. for "et al.".
It can also be used to recognize "the the" and highlight it.
The number of spaces is irrelevant. In most cases a line break may also
appear. However, this makes it difficult to find out where to start checking
for spelling mistakes. When you make a change to one line and only that line
is redrawn Vim won't look in the previous line, thus when "et" is at the end
of the previous line "al." will be flagged as an error. And when you type
"the<CR>the" the highlighting doesn't appear until the first line is redrawn.
Use |CTRL-L| to redraw right away. "[s" will also stop at a word combination
with a line break.
When encountering a line break Vim skips characters such as '*', '>' and '"'',
so that comments in C, shell and Vim code can be spell checked.
SYNTAX HIGHLIGHTING *spell-syntax*

Files that use syntax highlighting can specify where spell checking should be
done:
1. everywhere default
2. in specific items use "contains=@Spell"
3. everywhere but specific items use "contains=@NoSpell"
For the second method adding the @NoSpell cluster will disable spell checking
again. This can be used, for example, to add @Spell to the comments of a
program, and add @NoSpell for items that shouldn't be checked.
Also see |:syn-spell| for text that is not in a syntax item.
VIM SCRIPTS
If you want to write a Vim script that does something with spelling, you may
find these functions useful:
spellbadword() find badly spelled word at the cursor
spellsuggest() get list of spelling suggestions
soundfold() get the sound-a-like version of a word
SETTING 'spellcapcheck' AUTOMATICALLY *set-spc-auto*

After the 'spelllang' option has been set successfully, Vim will source the
files "spell/LANG.vim" in 'runtimepath'. "LANG" is the value of 'spelllang'

up to the first comma, dot or underscore. This can be used to set options
specifically for the language, especially 'spellcapcheck'.
The distribution includes a few of these files. Use this command to see what
they do:
:next $VIMRUNTIME/spell/*.vim
Note that the default scripts don't set 'spellcapcheck' if it was changed from
the default value. This assumes the user prefers another value then.
DOUBLE SCORING *spell-double-scoring*

The 'spellsuggest' option can be used to select "double" scoring. This
mechanism is based on the principle that there are two kinds of spelling
mistakes:
1. You know how to spell the word, but mistype something. This results in a
small editing distance (character swapped/omitted/inserted) and possibly a
word that sounds completely different.
2. You don't know how to spell the word and type something that sounds right.
The edit distance can be big but the word is similar after sound-folding.
Since scores for these two mistakes will be very different we use a list
for each and mix them.
The sound-folding is slow and people that know the language won't make the
second kind of mistakes. Therefore 'spellsuggest' can be set to select the
preferred method for scoring the suggestions.
==============================================================================
3. Generating a spell file *spell-mkspell*
Vim uses a binary file format for spelling. This greatly speeds up loading
the word list and keeps it small.
*.aff* *.dic* *Myspell*
You can create a Vim spell file from the .aff and .dic files that Myspell
uses. Myspell is used by OpenOffice.org and Mozilla. The OpenOffice .oxt
files are zip files which contain the .aff and .dic files. You should be able
to find them here:
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/dictionary
The older, OpenOffice 2 files may be used if this doesn't work:
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Dictionaries
You can also use a plain word list. The results are the same, the choice
depends on what word lists you can find.
If you install Aap (from www.a-a-p.org) you can use the recipes in the
runtime/spell/??/ directories. Aap will take care of downloading the files,
apply patches needed for Vim and build the .spl file.
Make sure your current locale is set properly, otherwise Vim doesn't know what
characters are upper/lower case letters. If the locale isn't available (e.g.,
when using an MS-Windows codepage on Unix) add tables to the .aff file
|spell-affix-chars|. If the .aff file doesn't define a table then the word
table of the currently active spelling is used. If spelling is not active
then Vim will try to guess.
*:mksp* *:mkspell*
:mksp[ell][!] [-ascii] {outname} {inname} ...
Generate a Vim spell file from word lists. Example:
:mkspell /tmp/nl nl_NL.words
*E751*
When {outname} ends in ".spl" it is used as the output
file name. Otherwise it should be a language name,
such as "en", without the region name. The file
written will be "{outname}.{encoding}.spl", where
{encoding} is the value of the 'encoding' option.
When the output file already exists [!] must be used
to overwrite it.
When the [-ascii] argument is present, words with
non-ascii characters are skipped. The resulting file
ends in "ascii.spl".

The input can be the Myspell format files {inname}.aff

and {inname}.dic. If {inname}.aff does not exist then
{inname} is used as the file name of a plain word
list.
Multiple {inname} arguments can be given to combine
regions into one Vim spell file. Example:
:mkspell ~/.vim/spell/en /tmp/en_US /tmp/en_CA /tmp/en_AU
This combines the English word lists for US, CA and AU
into one en.spl file.
Up to eight regions can be combined. *E754* *E755*
The REP and SAL items of the first .aff file where
they appear are used. |spell-REP| |spell-SAL|
*E845*
This command uses a lot of memory, required to find
the optimal word tree (Polish, Italian and Hungarian
require several hundred Mbyte). The final result will
be much smaller, because compression is used. To
avoid running out of memory compression will be done
now and then. This can be tuned with the 'mkspellmem'
option.
After the spell file was written and it was being used
in a buffer it will be reloaded automatically.
:mksp[ell] [-ascii] {name}.{enc}.add
Like ":mkspell" above, using {name}.{enc}.add as the
input file and producing an output file in the same
directory that has ".spl" appended.
:mksp[ell] [-ascii] {name}
Like ":mkspell" above, using {name} as the input file
and producing an output file in the same directory
that has ".{enc}.spl" appended.
Vim will report the number of duplicate words. This might be a mistake in the
list of words. But sometimes it is used to have different prefixes and
suffixes for the same basic word to avoid them combining (e.g. Czech uses
this). If you want Vim to report all duplicate words set the 'verbose'
option.
Since you might want to change a Myspell word list for use with Vim the
following procedure is recommended:
1. Obtain the xx_YY.aff and xx_YY.dic files from Myspell.
2. Make a copy of these files to xx_YY.orig.aff and xx_YY.orig.dic.
3. Change the xx_YY.aff and xx_YY.dic files to remove bad words, add missing
words, define word characters with FOL/LOW/UPP, etc. The distributed
"*.diff" files can be used.
4. Start Vim with the right locale and use |:mkspell| to generate the Vim
spell file.
5. Try out the spell file with ":set spell spelllang=xx" if you wrote it in
a spell directory in 'runtimepath', or ":set spelllang=xx.enc.spl" if you
wrote it somewhere else.
When the Myspell files are updated you can merge the differences:
1. Obtain the new Myspell files as xx_YY.new.aff and xx_UU.new.dic.
2. Use Vimdiff to see what changed:
vimdiff xx_YY.orig.dic xx_YY.new.dic
3. Take over the changes you like in xx_YY.dic.
You may also need to change xx_YY.aff.
4. Rename xx_YY.new.dic to xx_YY.orig.dic and xx_YY.new.aff to xx_YY.new.aff.
SPELL FILE VERSIONS *E770* *E771* *E772*

Spell checking is a relatively new feature in Vim, thus it's possible that the
.spl file format will be changed to support more languages. Vim will check
the validity of the spell file and report anything wrong.
E771: Old spell file, needs to be updated
This spell file is older than your Vim. You need to update the .spl file.
E772: Spell file is for newer version of Vim
This means the spell file was made for a later version of Vim. You need to
update Vim.

E770: Unsupported section in spell file

This means the spell file was made for a later version of Vim and contains a
section that is required for the spell file to work. In this case it's
probably a good idea to upgrade your Vim.
SPELL FILE DUMP

If for some reason you want to check what words are supported by the currently
used spelling files, use this command:
*:spelldump* *:spelld*
:spelld[ump] Open a new window and fill it with all currently valid
words. Compound words are not included.
Note: For some languages the result may be enormous,
causing Vim to run out of memory.
:spelld[ump]! Like ":spelldump" and include the word count. This is
the number of times the word was found while
updating the screen. Words that are in COMMON items
get a starting count of 10.
The format of the word list is used |spell-wordlist-format|. You should be
able to read it with ":mkspell" to generate one .spl file that includes all
the words.
When all entries to 'spelllang' use the same regions or no regions at all then
the region information is included in the dumped words. Otherwise only words
for the current region are included and no "/regions" line is generated.
Comment lines with the name of the .spl file are used as a header above the
words that were generated from that .spl file.
SPELL FILE MISSING *spell-SpellFileMissing* *spellfile.vim*

If the spell file for the language you are using is not available, you will
get an error message. But if the "spellfile.vim" plugin is active it will
offer you to download the spell file. Just follow the instructions, it will
ask you where to write the file (there must be a writable directory in
'runtimepath' for this).
The plugin has a default place where to look for spell files, on the Vim ftp
server. If you want to use another location or another protocol, set the
g:spellfile_URL variable to the directory that holds the spell files. The
|netrw| plugin is used for getting the file, look there for the specific
syntax of the URL. Example:
let g:spellfile_URL = 'http://ftp.vim.org/vim/runtime/spell'
You may need to escape special characters.
The plugin will only ask about downloading a language once. If you want to
try again anyway restart Vim, or set g:spellfile_URL to another value (e.g.,
prepend a space).
To avoid using the "spellfile.vim" plugin do this in your vimrc file:
let loaded_spellfile_plugin = 1
Instead of using the plugin you can define a |SpellFileMissing| autocommand to
handle the missing file yourself. You can use it like this:
:au SpellFileMissing * call Download_spell_file(expand('<amatch>'))
Thus the <amatch> item contains the name of the language. Another important
value is 'encoding', since every encoding has its own spell file. With two
exceptions:
- For ISO-8859-15 (latin9) the name "latin1" is used (the encodings only
differ in characters not used in dictionary words).
- The name "ascii" may also be used for some languages where the words use
only ASCII letters for most of the words.
The default "spellfile.vim" plugin uses this autocommand, if you define your
autocommand afterwards you may want to use ":au! SpellFileMissing" to overrule
it. If you define your autocommand before the plugin is loaded it will notice
this and not do anything.
*E797*

Note that the SpellFileMissing autocommand must not change or destroy the
buffer the user was editing.
==============================================================================
4. Spell file format *spell-file-format*
This is the format of the files that are used by the person who creates and
maintains a word list.
Note that we avoid the word "dictionary" here. That is because the goal of
spell checking differs from writing a dictionary (as in the book). For
spelling we need a list of words that are OK, thus should not be highlighted.
Person and company names will not appear in a dictionary, but do appear in a
word list. And some old words are rarely used while they are common
misspellings. These do appear in a dictionary but not in a word list.
There are two formats: A straight list of words and a list using affix
compression. The files with affix compression are used by Myspell (Mozilla
and OpenOffice.org). This requires two files, one with .aff and one with .dic
extension.
FORMAT OF STRAIGHT WORD LIST *spell-wordlist-format*

The words must appear one per line. That is all that is required.
Additionally the following items are recognized:
- Empty and blank lines are ignored.
# comment
- Lines starting with a # are ignored (comment lines).
/encoding=utf-8
- A line starting with "/encoding=", before any word, specifies the encoding
of the file. After the second '=' comes an encoding name. This tells Vim
to setup conversion from the specified encoding to 'encoding'. Thus you can
use one word list for several target encodings.
/regions=usca
- A line starting with "/regions=" specifies the region names that are
supported. Each region name must be two ASCII letters. The first one is
region 1. Thus "/regions=usca" has region 1 "us" and region 2 "ca".
In an addition word list the region names should be equal to the main word
list!
- Other lines starting with '/' are reserved for future use. The ones that
are not recognized are ignored. You do get a warning message, so that you
know something won't work.
- A "/" may follow the word with the following items:
= Case must match exactly.
? Rare word.
! Bad (wrong) word.
digit A region in which the word is valid. If no regions are
specified the word is valid in all regions.
Example:
# This is an example word list comment
/encoding=latin1 encoding of the file
/regions=uscagb regions "us", "ca" and "gb"
example word for all regions
blah/12 word for regions "us" and "ca"
vim/! bad word
Campbell/?3 rare word in region 3 "gb"
's mornings/= keep-case word
Note that when "/=" is used the same word with all upper-case letters is not
accepted. This is different from a word with mixed case that is automatically
marked as keep-case, those words may appear in all upper-case letters.
FORMAT WITH .AFF AND .DIC FILES *aff-dic-format*

There are two files: the basic word list and an affix file. The affix file
specifies settings for the language and can contain affixes. The affixes are

used to modify the basic words to get the full word list. This significantly
reduces the number of words, especially for a language like Polish. This is
called affix compression.
The basic word list and the affix file are combined with the ":mkspell"
command and results in a binary spell file. All the preprocessing has been
done, thus this file loads fast. The binary spell file format is described in
the source code (src/spell.c). But only developers need to know about it.
The preprocessing also allows us to take the Myspell language files and modify
them before the Vim word list is made. The tools for this can be found in the
"src/spell" directory.
The format for the affix and word list files is based on what Myspell uses
(the spell checker of Mozilla and OpenOffice.org). A description can be found
here:
http://lingucomponent.openoffice.org/affix.readme
Note that affixes are case sensitive, this isn't obvious from the description.
Vim supports quite a few extras. They are described below |spell-affix-vim|.
Attempts have been made to keep this compatible with other spell checkers, so
that the same files can often be used. One other project that offers more
than Myspell is Hunspell http://hunspell.sf.net .
WORD LIST FORMAT *spell-dic-format*

A short example, with line numbers:
1 1234
2 aan
3 Als
4 Etten-Leur
5 et al.
6 's-Gravenhage
7 's-Gravenhaags
8 # word that differs between regions
9 kado/1
10 cadeau/2
11 TCP,IP
12 /the S affix may add a 's'
13 bedel/S
The first line contains the number of words. Vim ignores it, but you do get
an error message if it's not there. *E760*
What follows is one word per line. White space at the end of the line is
ignored, all other white space matters. The encoding is specified in the
affix file |spell-SET|.
Comment lines start with '#' or '/'. See the example lines 8 and 12. Note
that putting a comment after a word is NOT allowed:
someword # comment that causes an error!
After the word there is an optional slash and flags. Most of these flags are
letters that indicate the affixes that can be used with this word. These are
specified with SFX and PFX lines in the .aff file, see |spell-SFX| and
|spell-PFX|. Vim allows using other flag types with the FLAG item in the
affix file |spell-FLAG|.
When the word only has lower-case letters it will also match with the word
starting with an upper-case letter.
When the word includes an upper-case letter, this means the upper-case letter
is required at this position. The same word with a lower-case letter at this
position will not match. When some of the other letters are upper-case it will
not match either.
The word with all upper-case characters will always be OK,
word list matches does not match
als als Als ALS ALs AlS aLs aLS
Als Als ALS als ALs AlS aLs aLS
ALS ALS als Als ALs AlS aLs aLS
AlS AlS ALS als Als ALs aLs aLS

The KEEPCASE affix ID can be used to specifically match a word with identical
case only, see below |spell-KEEPCASE|.
Note: in line 5 to 7 non-word characters are used. You can include any
character in a word. When checking the text a word still only matches when it
appears with a non-word character before and after it. For Myspell a word
starting with a non-word character probably won't work.
In line 12 the word "TCP/IP" is defined. Since the slash has a special
meaning the comma is used instead. This is defined with the SLASH item in the
affix file, see |spell-SLASH|. Note that without this SLASH item the word
will be "TCP,IP".
AFFIX FILE FORMAT *spell-aff-format* *spell-affix-vim*
*spell-affix-comment*
Comment lines in the .aff file start with a '#':
# comment line
Items with a fixed number of arguments can be followed by a comment. But only
if none of the arguments can contain white space. The comment must start with
a "#" character. Example:
KEEPCASE = # fix case for words with this flag
ENCODING *spell-SET*
The affix file can be in any encoding that is supported by "iconv". However,
in some cases the current locale should also be set properly at the time
|:mkspell| is invoked. Adding FOL/LOW/UPP lines removes this requirement
|spell-FOL|.
The encoding should be specified before anything where the encoding matters.
The encoding applies both to the affix file and the dictionary file. It is
done with a SET line:
SET utf-8
The encoding can be different from the value of the 'encoding' option at the
time ":mkspell" is used. Vim will then convert everything to 'encoding' and
generate a spell file for 'encoding'. If some of the used characters to not
fit in 'encoding' you will get an error message.
*spell-affix-mbyte*
When using a multi-byte encoding it's possible to use more different affix
flags. But Myspell doesn't support that, thus you may not want to use it
anyway. For compatibility use an 8-bit encoding.
INFORMATION
These entries in the affix file can be used to add information to the spell
file. There are no restrictions on the format, but they should be in the
right encoding.
*spell-NAME* *spell-VERSION* *spell-HOME*

*spell-AUTHOR* *spell-EMAIL* *spell-COPYRIGHT*
NAME Name of the language
VERSION 1.0.1 with fixes
HOME http://www.myhome.eu
AUTHOR John Doe
EMAIL john AT Doe DOT net
COPYRIGHT LGPL
These fields are put in the .spl file as-is. The |:spellinfo| command can be
used to view the info.
*:spellinfo* *:spelli*
:spelli[nfo] Display the information for the spell file(s) used for
the current buffer.

CHARACTER TABLES
*spell-affix-chars*
When using an 8-bit encoding the affix file should define what characters are
word characters. This is because the system where ":mkspell" is used may not
support a locale with this encoding and isalpha() won't work. For example
when using "cp1250" on Unix.
*E761* *E762* *spell-FOL*
*spell-LOW* *spell-UPP*
Three lines in the affix file are needed. Simplistic example:
FOL áëñ
LOW áëñ
UPP ÁËÑ
All three lines must have exactly the same number of characters.
The "FOL" line specifies the case-folded characters. These are used to
compare words while ignoring case. For most encodings this is identical to
the lower case line.
The "LOW" line specifies the characters in lower-case. Mostly it's equal to
the "FOL" line.
The "UPP" line specifies the characters with upper-case. That is, a character
is upper-case where it's different from the character at the same position in
"FOL".
An exception is made for the German sharp s ß. The upper-case version is
"SS". In the FOL/LOW/UPP lines it should be included, so that it's recognized
as a word character, but use the ß character in all three.
ASCII characters should be omitted, Vim always handles these in the same way.
When the encoding is UTF-8 no word characters need to be specified.
*E763*
Vim allows you to use spell checking for several languages in the same file.
You can list them in the 'spelllang' option. As a consequence all spell files
for the same encoding must use the same word characters, otherwise they can't
be combined without errors. If you get a warning that the word tables differ
you may need to generate the .spl file again with |:mkspell|. Check the FOL,
LOW and UPP lines in the used .aff file.
The XX.ascii.spl spell file generated with the "-ascii" argument will not
contain the table with characters, so that it can be combine with spell files
for any encoding. The .add.spl files also do not contain the table.
MID-WORD CHARACTERS
*spell-midword*
Some characters are only to be considered word characters if they are used in
between two ordinary word characters. An example is the single quote: It is
often used to put text in quotes, thus it can't be recognized as a word
character, but when it appears in between word characters it must be part of
the word. This is needed to detect a spelling error such as they'are. That
should be they're, but since "they" and "are" are words themselves that would
go unnoticed.
These characters are defined with MIDWORD in the .aff file. Example:
MIDWORD '-
FLAG TYPES *spell-FLAG*

Flags are used to specify the affixes that can be used with a word and for
other properties of the word. Normally single-character flags are used. This
limits the number of possible flags, especially for 8-bit encodings. The FLAG
item can be used if more affixes are to be used. Possible values:
FLAG long use two-character flags
FLAG num use numbers, from 1 up to 65000
FLAG caplong use one-character flags without A-Z and two-character
flags that start with A-Z

With "FLAG num" the numbers in a list of affixes need to be separated with a
comma: "234,2143,1435". This method is inefficient, but useful if the file is
generated with a program.
When using "caplong" the two-character flags all start with a capital: "Aa",
"B1", "BB", etc. This is useful to use one-character flags for the most
common items and two-character flags for uncommon items.
Note: When using utf-8 only characters up to 65000 may be used for flags.
Note: even when using "num" or "long" the number of flags available to
compounding and prefixes is limited to about 250.
AFFIXES
*spell-PFX* *spell-SFX*
The usual PFX (prefix) and SFX (suffix) lines are supported (see the Myspell
documentation or the Aspell manual:
http://aspell.net/man-html/Affix-Compression.html.
Summary:
SFX L Y 2
SFX L 0 re [^x]
SFX L 0 ro x
The first line is a header and has four fields:
SFX {flag} {combine} {count}
{flag} The name used for the suffix. Mostly it's a single letter,
but other characters can be used, see |spell-FLAG|.
{combine} Can be 'Y' or 'N'. When 'Y' then the word plus suffix can
also have a prefix. When 'N' then a prefix is not allowed.
{count} The number of lines following. If this is wrong you will get
an error message.
For PFX the fields are exactly the same.
The basic format for the following lines is:
SFX {flag} {strip} {add} {condition} {extra}
{flag} Must be the same as the {flag} used in the first line.
{strip} Characters removed from the basic word. There is no check if
the characters are actually there, only the length is used (in
bytes). This better match the {condition}, otherwise strange
things may happen. If the {strip} length is equal to or
longer than the basic word the suffix won't be used.
When {strip} is 0 (zero) then nothing is stripped.
{add} Characters added to the basic word, after removing {strip}.
Optionally there is a '/' followed by flags. The flags apply
to the word plus affix. See |spell-affix-flags|
{condition} A simplistic pattern. Only when this matches with a basic
word will the suffix be used for that word. This is normally
for using one suffix letter with different {add} and {strip}
fields for words with different endings.
When {condition} is a . (dot) there is no condition.
The pattern may contain:
- Literal characters.
- A set of characters in []. [abc] matches a, b and c.
A dash is allowed for a range [a-c], but this is
Vim-specific.
- A set of characters that starts with a ^, meaning the
complement of the specified characters. [âbc] matches any
character but a, b and c.
{extra} Optional extra text:
# comment Comment is ignored
- Hunspell uses this, ignored
For PFX the fields are the same, but the {strip}, {add} and {condition} apply
to the start of the word.
Note: Myspell ignores any extra text after the relevant info. Vim requires
this text to start with a "#" so that mistakes don't go unnoticed. Example:

SFX F 0 in [î]n # Spion > Spionin

SFX F 0 nen in # Bauerin > Bauerinnen
Apparently Myspell allows an affix name to appear more than once. Since this
might also be a mistake, Vim checks for an extra "S". The affix files for
Myspell that use this feature apparently have this flag. Example:
SFX a Y 1 S
SFX a 0 an .
SFX a Y 2 S
SFX a 0 en .
SFX a 0 on .
AFFIX FLAGS *spell-affix-flags*

This is a feature that comes from Hunspell: The affix may specify flags. This
works similar to flags specified on a basic word. The flags apply to the
basic word plus the affix (but there are restrictions). Example:
SFX S Y 1
SFX S 0 s .
SFX A Y 1
SFX A 0 able/S .
When the dictionary file contains "drink/AS" then these words are possible:
drink
drinks uses S suffix
drinkable uses A suffix
drinkables uses A suffix and then S suffix
Generally the flags of the suffix are added to the flags of the basic word,
both are used for the word plus suffix. But the flags of the basic word are
only used once for affixes, except that both one prefix and one suffix can be
used when both support combining.
Specifically, the affix flags can be used for:
- Suffixes on suffixes, as in the example above. This works once, thus you
can have two suffixes on a word (plus one prefix).
- Making the word with the affix rare, by using the |spell-RARE| flag.
- Exclude the word with the affix from compounding, by using the
|spell-COMPOUNDFORBIDFLAG| flag.
- Allow the word with the affix to be part of a compound word on the side of
the affix with the |spell-COMPOUNDPERMITFLAG|.
- Use the NEEDCOMPOUND flag: word plus affix can only be used as part of a
compound word. |spell-NEEDCOMPOUND|
- Compound flags: word plus affix can be part of a compound word at the end,
middle, start, etc. The flags are combined with the flags of the basic
word. |spell-compound|
- NEEDAFFIX: another affix is needed to make a valid word.
- CIRCUMFIX, as explained just below.
CIRCUMFIX *spell-CIRCUMFIX*
The CIRCUMFIX flag means a prefix and suffix must be added at the same time.
If a prefix has the CIRCUMFIX flag than only suffixes with the CIRCUMFIX flag
can be added, and the other way around.
An alternative is to only specify the suffix, and give the that suffix two
flags: The required prefix and the NEEDAFFIX flag. |spell-NEEDAFFIX|
PFXPOSTPONE *spell-PFXPOSTPONE*
When an affix file has very many prefixes that apply to many words it's not
possible to build the whole word list in memory. This applies to Hebrew (a
list with all words is over a Gbyte). In that case applying prefixes must be
postponed. This makes spell checking slower. It is indicated by this keyword
in the .aff file:
PFXPOSTPONE

Only prefixes without a chop string and without flags can be postponed.
Prefixes with a chop string or with flags will still be included in the word
list. An exception if the chop string is one character and equal to the last
character of the added string, but in lower case. Thus when the chop string
is used to allow the following word to start with an upper case letter.
WORDS WITH A SLASH *spell-SLASH*

The slash is used in the .dic file to separate the basic word from the affix
letters and other flags. Unfortunately, this means you cannot use a slash in
a word. Thus "TCP/IP" is not a word but "TCP with the flags "IP". To include
a slash in the word put a backslash before it: "TCP\/IP". In the rare case
you want to use a backslash inside a word you need to use two backslashes.
Any other use of the backslash is reserved for future expansion.
KEEP-CASE WORDS *spell-KEEPCASE*

In the affix file a KEEPCASE line can be used to define the affix name used
for keep-case words. Example:
KEEPCASE =
This flag is not supported by Myspell. It has the meaning that case matters.
This can be used if the word does not have the first letter in upper case at
the start of a sentence. Example:
word list matches does not match
's morgens/= 's morgens 'S morgens 's Morgens 'S MORGENS
's Morgens 's Morgens 'S MORGENS 'S morgens 's morgens
The flag can also be used to avoid that the word matches when it is in all
upper-case letters.
RARE WORDS *spell-RARE*

In the affix file a RARE line can be used to define the affix name used for
rare words. Example:
RARE ?
Rare words are highlighted differently from bad words. This is to be used for
words that are correct for the language, but are hardly ever used and could be
a typing mistake anyway. When the same word is found as good it won't be
highlighted as rare.
This flag can also be used on an affix, so that a basic word is not rare but
the basic word plus affix is rare |spell-affix-flags|. However, if the word
also appears as a good word in another way (e.g., in another region) it won't
be marked as rare.
BAD WORDS *spell-BAD*

In the affix file a BAD line can be used to define the affix name used for
bad words. Example:
BAD !
This can be used to exclude words that would otherwise be good. For example
"the the" in the .dic file:
the the/!
Once a word has been marked as bad it won't be undone by encountering the same
word as good.
The flag also applies to the word with affixes, thus this can be used to mark
a whole bunch of related words as bad.
*spell-FORBIDDENWORD*
FORBIDDENWORD can be used just like BAD. For compatibility with Hunspell.

*spell-NEEDAFFIX*
The NEEDAFFIX flag is used to require that a word is used with an affix. The
word itself is not a good word (unless there is an empty affix). Example:
NEEDAFFIX +
COMPOUND WORDS *spell-compound*

A compound word is a longer word made by concatenating words that appear in
the .dic file. To specify which words may be concatenated a character is
used. This character is put in the list of affixes after the word. We will
call this character a flag here. Obviously these flags must be different from
any affix IDs used.
*spell-COMPOUNDFLAG*
The Myspell compatible method uses one flag, specified with COMPOUNDFLAG. All
words with this flag combine in any order. This means there is no control
over which word comes first. Example:
COMPOUNDFLAG c
*spell-COMPOUNDRULE*
A more advanced method to specify how compound words can be formed uses
multiple items with multiple flags. This is not compatible with Myspell 3.0.
Let's start with an example:
COMPOUNDRULE c+
COMPOUNDRULE se
The first line defines that words with the "c" flag can be concatenated in any
order. The second line defines compound words that are made of one word with
the "s" flag and one word with the "e" flag. With this dictionary:
bork/c
onion/s
soup/e
You can make these words:
bork
borkbork
borkborkbork
(etc.)
onion
soup
onionsoup
The COMPOUNDRULE item may appear multiple times. The argument is made out of
one or more groups, where each group can be:
one flag e.g., c
alternate flags inside [] e.g., [abc]
Optionally this may be followed by:
* the group appears zero or more times, e.g., sm*e
+ the group appears one or more times, e.g., c+
This is similar to the regexp pattern syntax (but not the same!). A few
examples with the sequence of word flags they require:
COMPOUNDRULE x+ x xx xxx etc.
COMPOUNDRULE yz yz
COMPOUNDRULE x+z xz xxz xxxz etc.
COMPOUNDRULE yx+ yx yxx yxxx etc.
COMPOUNDRULE [abc]z az bz cz
COMPOUNDRULE [abc]+z az aaz abaz bz baz bcbz cz caz cbaz etc.
COMPOUNDRULE a[xyz]+ ax axx axyz ay ayx ayzz az azy azxy etc.
COMPOUNDRULE sm*e se sme smme smmme etc.
COMPOUNDRULE s[xyz]*e se sxe sxye sxyxe sye syze sze szye szyxe etc.
A specific example: Allow a compound to be made of two words and a dash:
In the .aff file:
COMPOUNDRULE sde
NEEDAFFIX x
COMPOUNDWORDMAX 3
COMPOUNDMIN 1
In the .dic file:
start/s
end/e
-/xd

This allows for the word "start-end", but not "startend".

An additional implied rule is that, without further flags, a word with a
prefix cannot be compounded after another word, and a word with a suffix
cannot be compounded with a following word. Thus the affix cannot appear
on the inside of a compound word. This can be changed with the
|spell-COMPOUNDPERMITFLAG|.
*spell-NEEDCOMPOUND*
The NEEDCOMPOUND flag is used to require that a word is used as part of a
compound word. The word itself is not a good word. Example:
NEEDCOMPOUND &
*spell-ONLYINCOMPOUND*
The ONLYINCOMPOUND does exactly the same as NEEDCOMPOUND. Supported for
compatibility with Hunspell.
*spell-COMPOUNDMIN*
The minimal character length of a word used for compounding is specified with
COMPOUNDMIN. Example:
COMPOUNDMIN 5
When omitted there is no minimal length. Obviously you could just leave out
the compound flag from short words instead, this feature is present for
compatibility with Myspell.
*spell-COMPOUNDWORDMAX*
The maximum number of words that can be concatenated into a compound word is
specified with COMPOUNDWORDMAX. Example:
COMPOUNDWORDMAX 3
When omitted there is no maximum. It applies to all compound words.
To set a limit for words with specific flags make sure the items in
COMPOUNDRULE where they appear don't allow too many words.
*spell-COMPOUNDSYLMAX*
The maximum number of syllables that a compound word may contain is specified
with COMPOUNDSYLMAX. Example:
COMPOUNDSYLMAX 6
This has no effect if there is no SYLLABLE item. Without COMPOUNDSYLMAX there
is no limit on the number of syllables.
If both COMPOUNDWORDMAX and COMPOUNDSYLMAX are defined, a compound word is
accepted if it fits one of the criteria, thus is either made from up to
COMPOUNDWORDMAX words or contains up to COMPOUNDSYLMAX syllables.
*spell-COMPOUNDFORBIDFLAG*
The COMPOUNDFORBIDFLAG specifies a flag that can be used on an affix. It
means that the word plus affix cannot be used in a compound word. Example:
affix file:
COMPOUNDFLAG c
COMPOUNDFORBIDFLAG x
SFX a Y 2
SFX a 0 s .
SFX a 0 ize/x .
dictionary:
word/c
util/ac
This allows for "wordutil" and "wordutils" but not "wordutilize".
Note: this doesn't work for postponed prefixes yet.
*spell-COMPOUNDPERMITFLAG*
The COMPOUNDPERMITFLAG specifies a flag that can be used on an affix. It
means that the word plus affix can also be used in a compound word in a way
where the affix ends up halfway the word. Without this flag that is not
allowed.
Note: this doesn't work for postponed prefixes yet.

*spell-COMPOUNDROOT*
The COMPOUNDROOT flag is used for words in the dictionary that are already a
compound. This means it counts for two words when checking the compounding
rules. Can also be used for an affix to count the affix as a compounding
word.
*spell-CHECKCOMPOUNDPATTERN*
CHECKCOMPOUNDPATTERN is used to define patterns that, when matching at the
position where two words are compounded together forbids the compound.
For example:
CHECKCOMPOUNDPATTERN o e
This forbids compounding if the first word ends in "o" and the second word
starts with "e".
The arguments must be plain text, no patterns are actually supported, despite
the item name. Case is always ignored.
The Hunspell feature to use three arguments and flags is not supported.
*spell-SYLLABLE*
The SYLLABLE item defines characters or character sequences that are used to
count the number of syllables in a word. Example:
SYLLABLE aáeéiíoóöõuúüûy/aa/au/ea/ee/ei/ie/oa/oe/oo/ou/uu/ui
Before the first slash is the set of characters that are counted for one
syllable, also when repeated and mixed, until the next character that is not
in this set. After the slash come sequences of characters that are counted
for one syllable. These are preferred over using characters from the set.
With the example "ideeen" has three syllables, counted by "i", "ee" and "e".
Only case-folded letters need to be included.
Another way to restrict compounding was mentioned above: Adding the
|spell-COMPOUNDFORBIDFLAG| flag to an affix causes all words that are made
with that affix not be be used for compounding.
UNLIMITED COMPOUNDING *spell-NOBREAK*

For some languages, such as Thai, there is no space in between words. This
looks like all words are compounded. To specify this use the NOBREAK item in
the affix file, without arguments:
NOBREAK
Vim will try to figure out where one word ends and a next starts. When there
are spelling mistakes this may not be quite right.
*spell-COMMON*
Common words can be specified with the COMMON item. This will give better
suggestions when editing a short file. Example:
COMMON the of to and a in is it you that he was for on are
The words must be separated by white space, up to 25 per line.
When multiple regions are specified in a ":mkspell" command the common words
for all regions are combined and used for all regions.
*spell-NOSPLITSUGS*
This item indicates that splitting a word to make suggestions is not a good
idea. Split-word suggestions will appear only when there are few similar
words.
NOSPLITSUGS
*spell-NOSUGGEST*
The flag specified with NOSUGGEST can be used for words that will not be
suggested. Can be used for obscene words.
NOSUGGEST %

REPLACEMENTS *spell-REP*
In the affix file REP items can be used to define common mistakes. This is
used to make spelling suggestions. The items define the "from" text and the
"to" replacement. Example:
REP 4
REP f ph
REP ph f
REP k ch
REP ch k
The first line specifies the number of REP lines following. Vim ignores the
number, but it must be there (for compatibility with Myspell).
Don't include simple one-character replacements or swaps. Vim will try these
anyway. You can include whole words if you want to, but you might want to use
the "file:" item in 'spellsuggest' instead.
You can include a space by using an underscore:
REP the_the the
SIMILAR CHARACTERS *spell-MAP* *E783*

In the affix file MAP items can be used to define letters that are very much
alike. This is mostly used for a letter with different accents. This is used
to prefer suggestions with these letters substituted. Example:
MAP 2
MAP eéëêè
MAP uüùúû
The first line specifies the number of MAP lines following. Vim ignores the
number, but the line must be there.
Each letter must appear in only one of the MAP items. It's a bit more
efficient if the first letter is ASCII or at least one without accents.
.SUG FILE *spell-NOSUGFILE*

When soundfolding is specified in the affix file then ":mkspell" will normally
produce a .sug file next to the .spl file. This file is used to find
suggestions by their sound-a-like form quickly. At the cost of a lot of
memory (the amount depends on the number of words, |:mkspell| will display an
estimate when it's done).
To avoid producing a .sug file use this item in the affix file:
NOSUGFILE
Users can simply omit the .sug file if they don't want to use it.
SOUND-A-LIKE *spell-SAL*
In the affix file SAL items can be used to define the sounds-a-like mechanism
to be used. The main items define the "from" text and the "to" replacement.
Simplistic example:
SAL CIA X
SAL CH X
SAL C K
SAL K K
There are a few rules and this can become quite complicated. An explanation
how it works can be found in the Aspell manual:
http://aspell.net/man-html/Phonetic-Code.html.
There are a few special items:

SAL followup true

SAL collapse_result true
SAL remove_accents true
"1" has the same meaning as "true". Any other value means "false".
SIMPLE SOUNDFOLDING *spell-SOFOFROM* *spell-SOFOTO*

The SAL mechanism is complex and slow. A simpler mechanism is mapping all
characters to another character, mapping similar sounding characters to the
same character. At the same time this does case folding. You can not have
both SAL items and simple soundfolding.
There are two items required: one to specify the characters that are mapped
and one that specifies the characters they are mapped to. They must have
exactly the same number of characters. Example:
SOFOFROM abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
SOFOTO ebctefghejklnnepkrstevvkesebctefghejklnnepkrstevvkes
In the example all vowels are mapped to the same character 'e'. Another
method would be to leave out all vowels. Some characters that sound nearly
the same and are often mixed up, such as 'm' and 'n', are mapped to the same
character. Don't do this too much, all words will start looking alike.
Characters that do not appear in SOFOFROM will be left out, except that all
white space is replaced by one space. Sequences of the same character in
SOFOFROM are replaced by one.
You can use the |soundfold()| function to try out the results. Or set the
'verbose' option to see the score in the output of the |z=| command.
UNSUPPORTED ITEMS *spell-affix-not-supported*

These items appear in the affix file of other spell checkers. In Vim they are
ignored, not supported or defined in another way.
ACCENT (Hunspell) *spell-ACCENT*

Use MAP instead. |spell-MAP|
BREAK (Hunspell) *spell-BREAK*

Define break points. Unclear how it works exactly.
Not supported.
CHECKCOMPOUNDCASE (Hunspell) *spell-CHECKCOMPOUNDCASE*

Disallow uppercase letters at compound word boundaries.
Not supported.
CHECKCOMPOUNDDUP (Hunspell) *spell-CHECKCOMPOUNDDUP*

Disallow using the same word twice in a compound. Not
supported.
CHECKCOMPOUNDREP (Hunspell) *spell-CHECKCOMPOUNDREP*

Something about using REP items and compound words. Not
supported.
CHECKCOMPOUNDTRIPLE (Hunspell) *spell-CHECKCOMPOUNDTRIPLE*

Forbid three identical characters when compounding. Not
supported.
COMPLEXPREFIXES (Hunspell) *spell-COMPLEXPREFIXES*

Enables using two prefixes. Not supported.
COMPOUND (Hunspell) *spell-COMPOUND*

This is one line with the count of COMPOUND items, followed by
that many COMPOUND lines with a pattern.
Remove the first line with the count and rename the other

items to COMPOUNDRULE |spell-COMPOUNDRULE|
COMPOUNDFIRST (Hunspell) *spell-COMPOUNDFIRST*

Use COMPOUNDRULE instead. |spell-COMPOUNDRULE|
COMPOUNDBEGIN (Hunspell) *spell-COMPOUNDBEGIN*

COMPOUNDEND (Hunspell) *spell-COMPOUNDEND*

COMPOUNDMIDDLE (Hunspell) *spell-COMPOUNDMIDDLE*

COMPOUNDRULES (Hunspell) *spell-COMPOUNDRULES*

Number of COMPOUNDRULE lines following. Ignored, but the
argument must be a number.
COMPOUNDSYLLABLE (Hunspell) *spell-COMPOUNDSYLLABLE*

Use SYLLABLE and COMPOUNDSYLMAX instead. |spell-SYLLABLE|
|spell-COMPOUNDSYLMAX|
KEY (Hunspell) *spell-KEY*

Define characters that are close together on the keyboard.
Used to give better suggestions. Not supported.
LANG (Hunspell) *spell-LANG*

This specifies language-specific behavior. This actually
moves part of the language knowledge into the program,
therefore Vim does not support it. Each language property
must be specified separately.
LEMMA_PRESENT (Hunspell) *spell-LEMMA_PRESENT*

Only needed for morphological analysis.
MAXNGRAMSUGS (Hunspell) *spell-MAXNGRAMSUGS*

Set number of n-gram suggestions. Not supported.
PSEUDOROOT (Hunspell) *spell-PSEUDOROOT*

Use NEEDAFFIX instead. |spell-NEEDAFFIX|
SUGSWITHDOTS (Hunspell) *spell-SUGSWITHDOTS*

Adds dots to suggestions. Vim doesn't need this.
SYLLABLENUM (Hunspell) *spell-SYLLABLENUM*

Not supported.
TRY (Myspell, Hunspell, others) *spell-TRY*

Vim does not use the TRY item, it is ignored. For making
suggestions the actual characters in the words are used, that
is much more efficient.
WORDCHARS (Hunspell) *spell-WORDCHARS*

Used to recognize words. Vim doesn't need it, because there
is no need to separate words before checking them (using a
trie instead of a hashtable).
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both


Vim documentation: fold
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*fold.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 May 13
Folding *Folding* *folding* *folds*

You can find an introduction on folding in chapter 28 of the user manual.
|usr_28.txt|
1. Fold methods |fold-methods|
2. Fold commands |fold-commands|
3. Fold options |fold-options|
4. Behavior of folds |fold-behavior|
{Vi has no Folding}
==============================================================================
1. Fold methods *fold-methods*
The folding method can be set with the 'foldmethod' option.
When setting 'foldmethod' to a value other than "manual", all folds are
deleted and new ones created. Switching to the "manual" method doesn't remove
the existing folds. This can be used to first define the folds automatically
and then change them manually.
There are six methods to select folds:
manual manually define folds
indent more indent means a higher fold level
expr specify an expression to define folds
syntax folds defined by syntax highlighting
diff folds for unchanged text
marker folds defined by markers in the text
MANUAL *fold-manual*
Use commands to manually define the fold regions. This can also be used by a
script that parses text to find folds.
The level of a fold is only defined by its nesting. To increase the fold
level of a fold for a range of lines, define a fold inside it that has the
same lines.
The manual folds are lost when you abandon the file. To save the folds use
the |:mkview| command. The view can be restored later with |:loadview|.
INDENT *fold-indent*
The folds are automatically defined by the indent of the lines.
The foldlevel is computed from the indent of the line, divided by the
'shiftwidth' (rounded down). A sequence of lines with the same or higher fold
level form a fold, with the lines with a higher level forming a nested fold.
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/fold.html[2019/03/05 11:42:18 AM]

The nesting of folds is limited with 'foldnestmax'.

Some lines are ignored and get the fold level of the line above or below it,
whatever is the lowest. These are empty or white lines and lines starting
with a character in 'foldignore'. White space is skipped before checking for
characters in 'foldignore'. For C use "#" to ignore preprocessor lines.
When you want to ignore lines in another way, use the 'expr' method. The
|indent()| function can be used in 'foldexpr' to get the indent of a line.
EXPR *fold-expr*
The folds are automatically defined by their foldlevel, like with the "indent"
method. The value of the 'foldexpr' option is evaluated to get the foldlevel
of a line. Examples:
This will create a fold for all consecutive lines that start with a tab:
:set foldexpr=getline(v:lnum)[0]==\"\\t\"
This will call a function to compute the fold level:
:set foldexpr=MyFoldLevel(v:lnum)
This will make a fold out of paragraphs separated by blank lines:
:set foldexpr=getline(v:lnum)=~'^\\s*$'&&getline(v:lnum+1)=~'\\S'?'<1':1
this does the same:
:set foldexpr=getline(v:lnum-1)=~'^\\s*$'&&getline(v:lnum)=~'\\S'?'>1':1
Note that backslashes must be used to escape characters that ":set" handles
differently (space, backslash, double quote, etc., see |option-backslash|).
These are the conditions with which the expression is evaluated:
- The current buffer and window are set for the line.
- The variable "v:lnum" is set to the line number.
- The result is used for the fold level in this way:
value meaning
0 the line is not in a fold
1, 2, .. the line is in a fold with this level
-1 the fold level is undefined, use the fold level of a
line before or after this line, whichever is the
lowest.
"=" use fold level from the previous line
"a1", "a2", .. add one, two, .. to the fold level of the previous
line
"s1", "s2", .. subtract one, two, .. from the fold level of the
previous line
"<1", "<2", .. a fold with this level ends at this line
">1", ">2", .. a fold with this level starts at this line
It is not required to mark the start (end) of a fold with ">1" ("<1"), a fold
will also start (end) when the fold level is higher (lower) than the fold
level of the previous line.
There must be no side effects from the expression. The text in the buffer,
cursor position, the search patterns, options etc. must not be changed.
You can change and restore them if you are careful.
If there is some error in the expression, or the resulting value isn't
recognized, there is no error message and the fold level will be zero.
For debugging the 'debug' option can be set to "msg", the error messages will
be visible then.
Note: Since the expression has to be evaluated for every line, this fold
method can be very slow!
Try to avoid the "=", "a" and "s" return values, since Vim often has to search
backwards for a line for which the fold level is defined. This can be slow.
|foldlevel()| can be useful to compute a fold level relative to a previous
fold level. But note that foldlevel() may return -1 if the level is not known
yet. And it returns the level at the start of the line, while a fold might
end in that line.
It may happened that folds are not updated properly. You can use |zx| or |zX|
to force updating folds.
SYNTAX *fold-syntax*
A fold is defined by syntax items that have the "fold" argument. |:syn-fold|

The fold level is defined by nesting folds. The nesting of folds is limited
with 'foldnestmax'.
Be careful to specify proper syntax syncing. If this is not done right, folds
may differ from the displayed highlighting. This is especially relevant when
using patterns that match more than one line. In case of doubt, try using
brute-force syncing:
:syn sync fromstart
DIFF *fold-diff*
The folds are automatically defined for text that is not part of a change or
close to a change.
This method only works properly when the 'diff' option is set for the current
window and changes are being displayed. Otherwise the whole buffer will be
one big fold.
The 'diffopt' option can be used to specify the context. That is, the number
of lines between the fold and a change that are not included in the fold. For
example, to use a context of 8 lines:
The default context is six lines.
When 'scrollbind' is also set, Vim will attempt to keep the same folds open in
other diff windows, so that the same text is visible.
MARKER *fold-marker*
Markers in the text tell where folds start and end. This allows you to
precisely specify the folds. This will allow deleting and putting a fold,
without the risk of including the wrong lines. The 'foldtext' option is
normally set such that the text before the marker shows up in the folded line.
This makes it possible to give a name to the fold.
Markers can have a level included, or can use matching pairs. Including a
level is easier, you don't have to add end markers and avoid problems with
non-matching marker pairs. Example:
/* global variables {{{1 */
int varA, varB;
/* functions {{{1 */
/* funcA() {{{2 */
void funcA() {}
/* funcB() {{{2 */
void funcB() {}
A fold starts at a "{{{" marker. The following number specifies the fold
level. What happens depends on the difference between the current fold level
and the level given by the marker:
1. If a marker with the same fold level is encountered, the previous fold
ends and another fold with the same level starts.
2. If a marker with a higher fold level is found, a nested fold is started.
3. if a marker with a lower fold level is found, all folds up to and including
this level end and a fold with the specified level starts.
The number indicates the fold level. A zero cannot be used (a marker with
level zero is ignored). You can use "}}}" with a digit to indicate the level
of the fold that ends. The fold level of the following line will be one less
than the indicated level. Note that Vim doesn't look back to the level of the
matching marker (that would take too much time). Example:
{{{1
fold level here is 1
{{{3
}}}3
You can also use matching pairs of "{{{" and "}}}" markers to define folds.
Each "{{{" increases the fold level by one, each "}}}" decreases the fold
level by one. Be careful to keep the markers matching! Example:
{{{


{{{
}}}
You can mix using markers with a number and without a number. A useful way of
doing this is to use numbered markers for large folds, and unnumbered markers
locally in a function. For example use level one folds for the sections of
your file like "structure definitions", "local variables" and "functions".
Use level 2 markers for each definition and function, Use unnumbered markers
inside functions. When you make changes in a function to split up folds, you
don't have to renumber the markers.
The markers can be set with the 'foldmarker' option. It is recommended to
keep this at the default value of "{{{,}}}", so that files can be exchanged
between Vim users. Only change it when it is required for the file (e.g., it
contains markers from another folding editor, or the default markers cause
trouble for the language of the file).
*fold-create-marker*
"zf" can be used to create a fold defined by markers. Vim will insert the
markers for you. Vim will append the start and end marker, as specified with
'foldmarker'. The markers are appended to the end of the line.
'commentstring' is used if it isn't empty.
This does not work properly when:
- The line already contains a marker with a level number. Vim then doesn't
know what to do.
- Folds nearby use a level number in their marker which gets in the way.
- The line is inside a comment, 'commentstring' isn't empty and nested
comments don't work. For example with C: adding /* {{{ */ inside a comment
will truncate the existing comment. Either put the marker before or after
the comment, or add the marker manually.
Generally it's not a good idea to let Vim create markers when you already have
markers with a level number.
*fold-delete-marker*
"zd" can be used to delete a fold defined by markers. Vim will delete the
markers for you. Vim will search for the start and end markers, as specified
with 'foldmarker', at the start and end of the fold. When the text around the
marker matches with 'commentstring', that text is deleted as well.
This does not work properly when:
- A line contains more than one marker and one of them specifies a level.
Only the first one is removed, without checking if this will have the
desired effect of deleting the fold.
- The marker contains a level number and is used to start or end several folds
at the same time.
==============================================================================
2. Fold commands *fold-commands* *E490*
All folding commands start with "z". Hint: the "z" looks like a folded piece
of paper, if you look at it from the side.
CREATING AND DELETING FOLDS

*zf* *E350*
zf{motion} or
{Visual}zf Operator to create a fold.
This only works when 'foldmethod' is "manual" or "marker".
The new fold will be closed for the "manual" method.
'foldenable' will be set.
Also see |fold-create-marker|.
*zF*
zF Create a fold for [count] lines. Works like "zf".
:{range}fo[ld] *:fold* *:fo*

Create a fold for the lines in {range}. Works like "zf".
*zd* *E351*
zd Delete one fold at the cursor. When the cursor is on a folded

line, that fold is deleted. Nested folds are moved one level
up. In Visual mode all folds (partially) in the selected area
are deleted. Careful: This easily deletes more folds than you
expect and there is no undo.
Also see |fold-delete-marker|.
*zD*
zD Delete folds recursively at the cursor. In Visual mode all
folds (partially) in the selected area and all nested folds in
them are deleted.
*zE* *E352*
zE Eliminate all folds in the window.
OPENING AND CLOSING FOLDS

A fold smaller than 'foldminlines' will always be displayed like it was open.
Therefore the commands below may work differently on small folds.
*zo*
zo Open one fold under the cursor. When a count is given, that
many folds deep will be opened. In Visual mode one level of
folds is opened for all lines in the selected area.
*zO*
zO Open all folds under the cursor recursively. Folds that don't
contain the cursor line are unchanged.
In Visual mode it opens all folds that are in the selected
area, also those that are only partly selected.
*zc*
zc Close one fold under the cursor. When a count is given, that
many folds deep are closed. In Visual mode one level of folds
is closed for all lines in the selected area.
*zC*
zC Close all folds under the cursor recursively. Folds that
don't contain the cursor line are unchanged.
In Visual mode it closes all folds that are in the selected
area, also those that are only partly selected.
*za*
za When on a closed fold: open it. When folds are nested, you
may have to use "za" several times. When a count is given,
that many closed folds are opened.
When on an open fold: close it and set 'foldenable'. This
will only close one level, since using "za" again will open
the fold. When a count is given that many folds will be
closed (that's not the same as repeating "za" that many
times).
*zA*
zA When on a closed fold: open it recursively.
When on an open fold: close it recursively and set
'foldenable'.
*zv*
zv View cursor line: Open just enough folds to make the line in
which the cursor is located not folded.
*zx*
zx Update folds: Undo manually opened and closed folds: re-apply

'foldlevel', then do "zv": View cursor line.

Also forces recomputing folds. This is useful when using
'foldexpr' and the buffer is changed in a way that results in
folds not to be updated properly.
*zX*
zX Undo manually opened and closed folds: re-apply 'foldlevel'.
Also forces recomputing folds, like |zx|.
*zm*
zm Fold more: Subtract one from 'foldlevel'. If 'foldlevel' was
already zero nothing happens.
*zM*
zM Close all folds: set 'foldlevel' to 0.
*zr*
zr Reduce folding: Add one to 'foldlevel'.
*zR*
zR Open all folds. This sets 'foldlevel' to highest fold level.
*:foldo* *:foldopen*
:{range}foldo[pen][!]
Open folds in {range}. When [!] is added all folds are
opened. Useful to see all the text in {range}. Without [!]
one level of folds is opened.
*:foldc* *:foldclose*
:{range}foldc[lose][!]
Close folds in {range}. When [!] is added all folds are
closed. Useful to hide all the text in {range}. Without [!]
one level of folds is closed.
*zn*
zn Fold none: reset 'foldenable'. All folds will be open.
*zN*
zN Fold normal: set 'foldenable'. All folds will be as they
were before.
*zi*
zi Invert 'foldenable'.
MOVING OVER FOLDS

*[z*
[z Move to the start of the current open fold. If already at the
start, move to the start of the fold that contains it. If
there is no containing fold, the command fails.
When a count is used, repeats the command [count] times.
*]z*
]z Move to the end of the current open fold. If already at the
end, move to the end of the fold that contains it. If there
is no containing fold, the command fails.
*zj*
zj Move downwards to the start of the next fold. A closed fold
is counted as one fold.
This command can be used after an |operator|.

*zk*
zk Move upwards to the end of the previous fold. A closed fold
is counted as one fold.
This command can be used after an |operator|.
EXECUTING COMMANDS ON FOLDS
:[range]foldd[oopen] {cmd} *:foldd* *:folddoopen*

Execute {cmd} on all lines that are not in a closed fold.
When [range] is given, only these lines are used.
Each time {cmd} is executed the cursor is positioned on the
line it is executed for.
This works like the ":global" command: First all lines that
are not in a closed fold are marked. Then the {cmd} is
executed for all marked lines. Thus when {cmd} changes the
folds, this has no influence on where it is executed (except
when lines are deleted, of course).
Example:
:folddoopen s/end/loop_end/ge
Note the use of the "e" flag to avoid getting an error message
where "end" doesn't match.
:[range]folddoc[losed] {cmd} *:folddoc* *:folddoclosed*

Execute {cmd} on all lines that are in a closed fold.
Otherwise like ":folddoopen".
==============================================================================
3. Fold options *fold-options*
COLORS *fold-colors*
The colors of a closed fold are set with the Folded group |hl-Folded|. The
colors of the fold column are set with the FoldColumn group |hl-FoldColumn|.
Example to set the colors:
:highlight Folded guibg=grey guifg=blue
:highlight FoldColumn guibg=darkgrey guifg=white
FOLDLEVEL *fold-foldlevel*
'foldlevel' is a number option: The higher the more folded regions are open.
When 'foldlevel' is 0, all folds are closed.
When 'foldlevel' is positive, some folds are closed.
When 'foldlevel' is very high, all folds are open.
'foldlevel' is applied when it is changed. After that manually folds can be
opened and closed.
When increased, folds above the new level are opened. No manually opened
folds will be closed.
When decreased, folds above the new level are closed. No manually closed
folds will be opened.
FOLDTEXT *fold-foldtext*
'foldtext' is a string option that specifies an expression. This expression
is evaluated to obtain the text displayed for a closed fold. Example:
:set foldtext=v:folddashes.substitute(getline(v:foldstart),'/\\*\\\|\\*/\\\|{{{\\d\\=','','g')
This shows the first line of the fold, with "/*", "*/" and "{{{" removed.
Note the use of backslashes to avoid some characters to be interpreted by the
":set" command. It's simpler to define a function and call that:
:set foldtext=MyFoldText()
:function MyFoldText()
: let line = getline(v:foldstart)
: let sub = substitute(line, '/\*\|\*/\|{{{\d\=', '', 'g')
: return v:folddashes . sub
:endfunction

Evaluating 'foldtext' is done in the |sandbox|. The current window is set to

the window that displays the line. Errors are ignored.
The default value is |foldtext()|. This returns a reasonable text for most
types of folding. If you don't like it, you can specify your own 'foldtext'
expression. It can use these special Vim variables:
v:foldstart line number of first line in the fold
v:foldend line number of last line in the fold
v:folddashes a string that contains dashes to represent the
foldlevel.
v:foldlevel the foldlevel of the fold
In the result a TAB is replaced with a space and unprintable characters are
made into printable characters.
The resulting line is truncated to fit in the window, it never wraps.
When there is room after the text, it is filled with the character specified
by 'fillchars'.
Note that backslashes need to be used for characters that the ":set" command
handles differently: Space, backslash and double-quote. |option-backslash|
FOLDCOLUMN *fold-foldcolumn*
'foldcolumn' is a number, which sets the width for a column on the side of the
window to indicate folds. When it is zero, there is no foldcolumn. A normal
value is 4 or 5. The minimal useful value is 2, although 1 still provides
some information. The maximum is 12.
An open fold is indicated with a column that has a '-' at the top and '|'
characters below it. This column stops where the open fold stops. When folds
nest, the nested fold is one character right of the fold it's contained in.
A closed fold is indicated with a '+'.
Where the fold column is too narrow to display all nested folds, digits are
shown to indicate the nesting level.
The mouse can also be used to open and close folds by clicking in the
fold column:
- Click on a '+' to open the closed fold at this row.
- Click on any other non-blank character to close the open fold at this row.
OTHER OPTIONS
'foldenable' 'fen': Open all folds while not set.
'foldexpr' 'fde': Expression used for "expr" folding.
'foldignore' 'fdi': Characters used for "indent" folding.
'foldmarker' 'fmr': Defined markers used for "marker" folding.
'foldmethod' 'fdm': Name of the current folding method.
'foldminlines' 'fml': Minimum number of screen lines for a fold to be
displayed closed.
'foldnestmax' 'fdn': Maximum nesting for "indent" and "syntax" folding.
'foldopen' 'fdo': Which kinds of commands open closed folds.
'foldclose' 'fcl': When the folds not under the cursor are closed.
==============================================================================
4. Behavior of folds *fold-behavior*
When moving the cursor upwards or downwards and when scrolling, the cursor
will move to the first line of a sequence of folded lines. When the cursor is
already on a folded line, it moves to the next unfolded line or the next
closed fold.
While the cursor is on folded lines, the cursor is always displayed in the
first column. The ruler does show the actual cursor position, but since the
line is folded, it cannot be displayed there.
Many movement commands handle a sequence of folded lines like an empty line.
For example, the "w" command stops once in the first column.
When in Insert mode, the cursor line is never folded. That allows you to see
what you type!
When using an operator, a closed fold is included as a whole. Thus "dl"

deletes the whole closed fold under the cursor.

For Ex commands the range is adjusted to always start at the first line of a
closed fold and end at the last line of a closed fold. Thus this command:
:s/foo/bar/g
when used with the cursor on a closed fold, will replace "foo" with "bar" in
all lines of the fold.
This does not happen for |:folddoopen| and |:folddoclosed|.
When editing a buffer that has been edited before, the last used folding
settings are used again. For manual folding the defined folds are restored.
For all folding methods the manually opened and closed folds are restored.
If this buffer has been edited in this window, the values from back then are
used. Otherwise the values from the window where the buffer was edited last
are used.
==============================================================================
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: mbyte
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*mbyte.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Feb 01
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar et al.
Multi-byte support *multibyte* *multi-byte*

*Chinese* *Japanese* *Korean*
This is about editing text in languages which have many characters that can
not be represented using one byte (one octet). Examples are Chinese, Japanese
and Korean. Unicode is also covered here.
For an introduction to the most common features, see |usr_45.txt| in the user
manual.
For changing the language of messages and menus see |mlang.txt|.
{not available when compiled without the |+multi_byte| feature}
1. Getting started |mbyte-first|

2. Locale |mbyte-locale|
3. Encoding |mbyte-encoding|
4. Using a terminal |mbyte-terminal|
5. Fonts on X11 |mbyte-fonts-X11|
6. Fonts on MS-Windows |mbyte-fonts-MSwin|
7. Input on X11 |mbyte-XIM|
8. Input on MS-Windows |mbyte-IME|
9. Input with a keymap |mbyte-keymap|
10. Using UTF-8 |mbyte-utf8|
11. Overview of options |mbyte-options|
NOTE: This file contains UTF-8 characters. These may show up as strange
characters or boxes when using another encoding.
==============================================================================
1. Getting started *mbyte-first*
This is a summary of the multibyte features in Vim. If you are lucky it works
as described and you can start using Vim without much trouble. If something
doesn't work you will have to read the rest. Don't be surprised if it takes
quite a bit of work and experimenting to make Vim use all the multi-byte
features. Unfortunately, every system has its own way to deal with multibyte
languages and it is quite complicated.
COMPILING
If you already have a compiled Vim program, check if the |+multi_byte| feature
is included. The |:version| command can be used for this.
If +multi_byte is not included, you should compile Vim with "big" features.
You can further tune what features are included. See the INSTALL files in the
source directory.
LOCALE
First of all, you must make sure your current locale is set correctly. If
your system has been installed to use the language, it probably works right
away. If not, you can often make it work by setting the $LANG environment
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/mbyte.html[2019/03/05 11:42:20 AM]

variable in your shell:

setenv LANG ja_JP.EUC
Unfortunately, the name of the locale depends on your system. Japanese might
also be called "ja_JP.EUCjp" or just "ja". To see what is currently used:
:language
To change the locale inside Vim use:
:language ja_JP.EUC
Vim will give an error message if this doesn't work. This is a good way to
experiment and find the locale name you want to use. But it's always better
to set the locale in the shell, so that it is used right from the start.
See |mbyte-locale| for details.
ENCODING
If your locale works properly, Vim will try to set the 'encoding' option
accordingly. If this doesn't work you can overrule its value:
:set encoding=utf-8
See |encoding-values| for a list of acceptable values.
The result is that all the text that is used inside Vim will be in this
encoding. Not only the text in the buffers, but also in registers, variables,
etc. This also means that changing the value of 'encoding' makes the existing
text invalid! The text doesn't change, but it will be displayed wrong.
You can edit files in another encoding than what 'encoding' is set to. Vim
will convert the file when you read it and convert it back when you write it.
See 'fileencoding', 'fileencodings' and |++enc|.
DISPLAY AND FONTS

If you are working in a terminal (emulator) you must make sure it accepts the
same encoding as which Vim is working with. If this is not the case, you can
use the 'termencoding' option to make Vim convert text automatically.
For the GUI you must select fonts that work with the current 'encoding'. This
is the difficult part. It depends on the system you are using, the locale and
a few other things. See the chapters on fonts: |mbyte-fonts-X11| for
X-Windows and |mbyte-fonts-MSwin| for MS-Windows.
For GTK+ 2, you can skip most of this section. The option 'guifontset' does
no longer exist. You only need to set 'guifont' and everything should "just
work". If your system comes with Xft2 and fontconfig and the current font
does not contain a certain glyph, a different font will be used automatically
if available. The 'guifontwide' option is still supported but usually you do
not need to set it. It is only necessary if the automatic font selection does
not suit your needs.
For X11 you can set the 'guifontset' option to a list of fonts that together
cover the characters that are used. Example for Korean:
:set guifontset=k12,r12
Alternatively, you can set 'guifont' and 'guifontwide'. 'guifont' is used for
the single-width characters, 'guifontwide' for the double-width characters.
Thus the 'guifontwide' font must be exactly twice as wide as 'guifont'.
Example for UTF-8:
:set guifont=-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-18-120-100-100-c-90-iso10646-1
:set guifontwide=-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-18-120-100-100-c-180-iso10646-1
You can also set 'guifont' alone, Vim will try to find a matching
'guifontwide' for you.
INPUT
There are several ways to enter multi-byte characters:
- For X11 XIM can be used. See |XIM|.
- For MS-Windows IME can be used. See |IME|.

- For all systems keymaps can be used. See |mbyte-keymap|.

The options 'iminsert', 'imsearch' and 'imcmdline' can be used to chose
the different input methods or disable them temporarily.
==============================================================================
2. Locale *mbyte-locale*
The easiest setup is when your whole system uses the locale you want to work
in. But it's also possible to set the locale for one shell you are working
in, or just use a certain locale inside Vim.
WHAT IS A LOCALE? *locale*

There are many of languages in the world. And there are different cultures
and environments at least as much as the number of languages. A linguistic
environment corresponding to an area is called "locale". This includes
information about the used language, the charset, collating order for sorting,
date format, currency format and so on. For Vim only the language and charset
really matter.
You can only use a locale if your system has support for it. Some systems
have only a few locales, especially in the USA. The language which you want
to use may not be on your system. In that case you might be able to install
it as an extra package. Check your system documentation for how to do that.
The location in which the locales are installed varies from system to system.
For example, "/usr/share/locale" or "/usr/lib/locale". See your system's
setlocale() man page.
Looking in these directories will show you the exact name of each locale.
Mostly upper/lowercase matters, thus "ja_JP.EUC" and "ja_jp.euc" are
different. Some systems have a locale.alias file, which allows translation
from a short name like "nl" to the full name "nl_NL.ISO_8859-1".
Note that X-windows has its own locale stuff. And unfortunately uses locale
names different from what is used elsewhere. This is confusing! For Vim it
matters what the setlocale() function uses, which is generally NOT the
X-windows stuff. You might have to do some experiments to find out what
really works.
*locale-name*
The (simplified) format of |locale| name is:
language
or language_territory
or language_territory.codeset
Territory means the country (or part of it), codeset means the |charset|. For
example, the locale name "ja_JP.eucJP" means:
ja the language is Japanese
JP the country is Japan
eucJP the codeset is EUC-JP
But it also could be "ja", "ja_JP.EUC", "ja_JP.ujis", etc. And unfortunately,
the locale name for a specific language, territory and codeset is not unified
and depends on your system.
Examples of locale name:
charset language locale name
GB2312 Chinese (simplified) zh_CN.EUC, zh_CN.GB2312
Big5 Chinese (traditional) zh_TW.BIG5, zh_TW.Big5
CNS-11643 Chinese (traditional) zh_TW
EUC-JP Japanese ja, ja_JP.EUC, ja_JP.ujis, ja_JP.eucJP
Shift_JIS Japanese ja_JP.SJIS, ja_JP.Shift_JIS
EUC-KR Korean ko, ko_KR.EUC
USING A LOCALE
To start using a locale for the whole system, see the documentation of your
system. Mostly you need to set it in a configuration file in "/etc".
To use a locale in a shell, set the $LANG environment value. When you want to
use Korean and the |locale| name is "ko", do this:
sh: export LANG=ko

csh: setenv LANG ko

You can put this in your ~/.profile or ~/.cshrc file to always use it.
To use a locale in Vim only, use the |:language| command:
:language ko
Put this in your ~/.vimrc file to use it always.
Or specify $LANG when starting Vim:
sh: LANG=ko vim {vim-arguments}
csh: env LANG=ko vim {vim-arguments}
You could make a small shell script for this.
==============================================================================
3. Encoding *mbyte-encoding*
Vim uses the 'encoding' option to specify how characters are identified and
encoded when they are used inside Vim. This applies to all the places where
text is used, including buffers (files loaded into memory), registers and
variables.
*charset* *codeset*
Charset is another name for encoding. There are subtle differences, but these
don't matter when using Vim. "codeset" is another similar name.
Each character is encoded as one or more bytes. When all characters are
encoded with one byte, we call this a single-byte encoding. The most often
used one is called "latin1". This limits the number of characters to 256.
Some of these are control characters, thus even fewer can be used for text.
When some characters use two or more bytes, we call this a multi-byte
encoding. This allows using much more than 256 characters, which is required
for most East Asian languages.
Most multi-byte encodings use one byte for the first 127 characters. These
are equal to ASCII, which makes it easy to exchange plain-ASCII text, no
matter what language is used. Thus you might see the right text even when the
encoding was set wrong.
*encoding-names*
Vim can use many different character encodings. There are three major groups:
1 8bit Single-byte encodings, 256 different characters. Mostly used
in USA and Europe. Example: ISO-8859-1 (Latin1). All
characters occupy one screen cell only.
2 2byte Double-byte encodings, over 10000 different characters.
Mostly used in Asian countries. Example: euc-kr (Korean)
The number of screen cells is equal to the number of bytes
(except for euc-jp when the first byte is 0x8e).
u Unicode Universal encoding, can replace all others. ISO 10646.
Millions of different characters. Example: UTF-8. The
relation between bytes and screen cells is complex.
Other encodings cannot be used by Vim internally. But files in other
encodings can be edited by using conversion, see 'fileencoding'.
Note that all encodings must use ASCII for the characters up to 128 (except
when compiled for EBCDIC).
Supported 'encoding' values are: *encoding-values*

1 latin1 8-bit characters (ISO 8859-1, also used for cp1252)
1 iso-8859-n ISO_8859 variant (n = 2 to 15)
1 koi8-r Russian
1 koi8-u Ukrainian
1 macroman MacRoman (Macintosh encoding)
1 8bit-{name} any 8-bit encoding (Vim specific name)
1 cp437 similar to iso-8859-1
1 cp775 Baltic


1 cp874 Thai
1 cp1250 Czech, Polish, etc.
1 cp1251 Cyrillic
1 cp1253 Greek
1 cp1254 Turkish
1 cp1255 Hebrew
1 cp1256 Arabic
1 cp1257 Baltic
1 cp1258 Vietnamese
1 cp{number} MS-Windows: any installed single-byte codepage
2 cp932 Japanese (Windows only)
2 euc-jp Japanese (Unix only)
2 sjis Japanese (Unix only)
2 cp949 Korean (Unix and Windows)
2 euc-kr Korean (Unix only)
2 cp936 simplified Chinese (Windows only)
2 euc-cn simplified Chinese (Unix only)
2 cp950 traditional Chinese (on Unix alias for big5)
2 big5 traditional Chinese (on Windows alias for cp950)
2 euc-tw traditional Chinese (Unix only)
2 2byte-{name} Unix: any double-byte encoding (Vim specific name)
2 cp{number} MS-Windows: any installed double-byte codepage
u utf-8 32 bit UTF-8 encoded Unicode (ISO/IEC 10646-1)
u ucs-2 16 bit UCS-2 encoded Unicode (ISO/IEC 10646-1)
u ucs-2le like ucs-2, little endian
u utf-16 ucs-2 extended with double-words for more characters
u utf-16le like utf-16, little endian
u ucs-4 32 bit UCS-4 encoded Unicode (ISO/IEC 10646-1)
u ucs-4le like ucs-4, little endian
The {name} can be any encoding name that your system supports. It is passed
to iconv() to convert between the encoding of the file and the current locale.
For MS-Windows "cp{number}" means using codepage {number}.
Examples:
:set encoding=8bit-cp1252
:set encoding=2byte-cp932
The MS-Windows codepage 1252 is very similar to latin1. For practical reasons
the same encoding is used and it's called latin1. 'isprint' can be used to
display the characters 0x80 - 0xA0 or not.
Several aliases can be used, they are translated to one of the names above.
An incomplete list:
1 ansi same as latin1 (obsolete, for backward compatibility)
2 japan Japanese: on Unix "euc-jp", on MS-Windows cp932
2 korea Korean: on Unix "euc-kr", on MS-Windows cp949
2 prc simplified Chinese: on Unix "euc-cn", on MS-Windows cp936
2 chinese same as "prc"
2 taiwan traditional Chinese: on Unix "euc-tw", on MS-Windows cp950
u utf8 same as utf-8
u unicode same as ucs-2
u ucs2be same as ucs-2 (big endian)
u ucs-2be same as ucs-2 (big endian)
u ucs-4be same as ucs-4 (big endian)
u utf-32 same as ucs-4
u utf-32le same as ucs-4le
default stands for the default value of 'encoding', depends on the
environment
For the UCS codes the byte order matters. This is tricky, use UTF-8 whenever
you can. The default is to use big-endian (most significant byte comes
first):
name bytes char
ucs-2 11 22 1122
ucs-2le 22 11 1122
ucs-4 11 22 33 44 11223344
ucs-4le 44 33 22 11 11223344
On MS-Windows systems you often want to use "ucs-2le", because it uses little
endian UCS-2.

There are a few encodings which are similar, but not exactly the same. Vim
treats them as if they were different encodings, so that conversion will be
done when needed. You might want to use the similar name to avoid conversion
or when conversion is not possible:
cp932, shift-jis, sjis
cp936, euc-cn
*encoding-table*
Normally 'encoding' is equal to your current locale and 'termencoding' is
empty. This means that your keyboard and display work with characters encoded
in your current locale, and Vim uses the same characters internally.
You can make Vim use characters in a different encoding by setting the
'encoding' option to a different value. Since the keyboard and display still
use the current locale, conversion needs to be done. The 'termencoding' then
takes over the value of the current locale, so Vim converts between 'encoding'
and 'termencoding'. Example:
:set encoding=utf-8
However, not all combinations of values are possible. The table below tells
you how each of the nine combinations works. This is further restricted by
not all conversions being possible, iconv() being present, etc. Since this
depends on the system used, no detailed list can be given.
('tenc' is the short name for 'termencoding' and 'enc' short for 'encoding')
'tenc' 'enc' remark
8bit 8bit Works. When 'termencoding' is different from
'encoding' typing and displaying may be wrong for some
characters, Vim does NOT perform conversion (set
'encoding' to "utf-8" to get this).
8bit 2byte MS-Windows: works for all codepages installed on your
system; you can only type 8bit characters;
Other systems: does NOT work.
8bit Unicode Works, but only 8bit characters can be typed directly
(others through digraphs, keymaps, etc.); in a
terminal you can only see 8bit characters; the GUI can
show all characters that the 'guifont' supports.
2byte 8bit Works, but typing non-ASCII characters might
be a problem.
2byte 2byte MS-Windows: works for all codepages installed on your
system; typing characters might be a problem when
locale is different from 'encoding'.
Other systems: Only works when 'termencoding' is equal
to 'encoding', you might as well leave it empty.
2byte Unicode works, Vim will translate typed characters.
Unicode 8bit works (unusual)
Unicode 2byte does NOT work
Unicode Unicode works very well (leaving 'termencoding' empty works
the same way, because all Unicode is handled
internally as UTF-8)
CONVERSION *charset-conversion*
Vim will automatically convert from one to another encoding in several places:
- When reading a file and 'fileencoding' is different from 'encoding'
- When writing a file and 'fileencoding' is different from 'encoding'
- When displaying characters and 'termencoding' is different from 'encoding'
- When reading input and 'termencoding' is different from 'encoding'
- When displaying messages and the encoding used for LC_MESSAGES differs from
'encoding' (requires a gettext version that supports this).
- When reading a Vim script where |:scriptencoding| is different from
'encoding'.
- When reading or writing a |viminfo| file.
Most of these require the |+iconv| feature. Conversion for reading and
writing files may also be specified with the 'charconvert' option.
Useful utilities for converting the charset:
All: iconv
GNU iconv can convert most encodings. Unicode is used as the
intermediate encoding, which allows conversion from and to all other
encodings. See http://www.gnu.org/directory/libiconv.html.

Japanese: nkf
Nkf is "Network Kanji code conversion Filter". One of the most unique
facility of nkf is the guess of the input Kanji code. So, you don't
need to know what the inputting file's |charset| is. When convert to
EUC-JP from ISO-2022-JP or Shift_JIS, simply do the following command
in Vim:
:%!nkf -e
Nkf can be found at:
http://www.sfc.wide.ad.jp/~max/FreeBSD/ports/distfiles/nkf-1.62.tar.gz
Chinese: hc
Hc is "Hanzi Converter". Hc convert a GB file to a Big5 file, or Big5
file to GB file. Hc can be found at:
ftp://ftp.cuhk.hk/pub/chinese/ifcss/software/unix/convert/hc-30.tar.gz
Korean: hmconv
Hmconv is Korean code conversion utility especially for E-mail. It can
convert between EUC-KR and ISO-2022-KR. Hmconv can be found at:
ftp://ftp.kaist.ac.kr/pub/hangul/code/hmconv/
Multilingual: lv
Lv is a Powerful Multilingual File Viewer. And it can be worked as
|charset| converter. Supported |charset|: ISO-2022-CN, ISO-2022-JP,
ISO-2022-KR, EUC-CN, EUC-JP, EUC-KR, EUC-TW, UTF-7, UTF-8, ISO-8859
series, Shift_JIS, Big5 and HZ. Lv can be found at:
http://www.ff.iij4u.or.jp/~nrt/freeware/lv4495.tar.gz
*mbyte-conversion*
When reading and writing files in an encoding different from 'encoding',
conversion needs to be done. These conversions are supported:
- All conversions between Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1), UTF-8, UCS-2 and UCS-4 are
handled internally.
- For MS-Windows, when 'encoding' is a Unicode encoding, conversion from and
to any codepage should work.
- Conversion specified with 'charconvert'
- Conversion with the iconv library, if it is available.
Old versions of GNU iconv() may cause the conversion to fail (they
request a very large buffer, more than Vim is willing to provide).
Try getting another iconv() implementation.
*iconv-dynamic*
On MS-Windows Vim can be compiled with the |+iconv/dyn| feature. This means
Vim will search for the "iconv.dll" and "libiconv.dll" libraries. When
neither of them can be found Vim will still work but some conversions won't be
possible.
==============================================================================
4. Using a terminal *mbyte-terminal*
The GUI fully supports multi-byte characters. It is also possible in a
terminal, if the terminal supports the same encoding that Vim uses. Thus this
is less flexible.
For example, you can run Vim in a xterm with added multi-byte support and/or
|XIM|. Examples are kterm (Kanji term) and hanterm (for Korean), Eterm
(Enlightened terminal) and rxvt.
If your terminal does not support the right encoding, you can set the
'termencoding' option. Vim will then convert the typed characters from
'termencoding' to 'encoding'. And displayed text will be converted from
'encoding' to 'termencoding'. If the encoding supported by the terminal
doesn't include all the characters that Vim uses, this leads to lost
characters. This may mess up the display. If you use a terminal that
supports Unicode, such as the xterm mentioned below, it should work just fine,
since nearly every character set can be converted to Unicode without loss of
information.
UTF-8 IN XFREE86 XTERM *UTF8-xterm*

This is a short explanation of how to use UTF-8 character encoding in the
xterm that comes with XFree86 by Thomas Dickey (text by Markus Kuhn).
Get the latest xterm version which has now UTF-8 support:

http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.html
Compile it with "./configure --enable-wide-chars ; make"
Also get the ISO 10646-1 version of various fonts, which is available on
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/download/ucs-fonts.tar.gz
and install the font as described in the README file.
Now start xterm with
xterm -u8 -fn -misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-120-75-75-c-60-iso10646-1
or, for bigger character:
xterm -u8 -fn -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1
and you will have a working UTF-8 terminal emulator. Try both
cat utf-8-demo.txt
vim utf-8-demo.txt
with the demo text that comes with ucs-fonts.tar.gz in order to see
whether there are any problems with UTF-8 in your xterm.
For Vim you may need to set 'encoding' to "utf-8".
==============================================================================
5. Fonts on X11 *mbyte-fonts-X11*
Unfortunately, using fonts in X11 is complicated. The name of a single-byte
font is a long string. For multi-byte fonts we need several of these...
Note: Most of this is no longer relevant for GTK+ 2. Selecting a font via
its XLFD is not supported; see 'guifont' for an example of how to
set the font. Do yourself a favor and ignore the |XLFD| and |xfontset|
sections below.
First of all, Vim only accepts fixed-width fonts for displaying text. You
cannot use proportionally spaced fonts. This excludes many of the available
(and nicer looking) fonts. However, for menus and tooltips any font can be
used.
Note that Display and Input are independent. It is possible to see your
language even though you have no input method for it.
You should get a default font for menus and tooltips that works, but it might
be ugly. Read the following to find out how to select a better font.
X LOGICAL FONT DESCRIPTION (XLFD)

*XLFD*
XLFD is the X font name and contains the information about the font size,
charset, etc. The name is in this format:
FOUNDRY-FAMILY-WEIGHT-SLANT-WIDTH-STYLE-PIXEL-POINT-X-Y-SPACE-AVE-CR-CE
Each field means:
- FOUNDRY: FOUNDRY field. The company that created the font.
- FAMILY: FAMILY_NAME field. Basic font family name. (helvetica, gothic,
times, etc)
- WEIGHT: WEIGHT_NAME field. How thick the letters are. (light, medium,
bold, etc)
- SLANT: SLANT field.
r: Roman (no slant)
i: Italic
o: Oblique
ri: Reverse Italic
ro: Reverse Oblique
ot: Other
number: Scaled font
- WIDTH: SETWIDTH_NAME field. Width of characters. (normal, condensed,
narrow, double wide)
- STYLE: ADD_STYLE_NAME field. Extra info to describe font. (Serif, Sans
Serif, Informal, Decorated, etc)
- PIXEL: PIXEL_SIZE field. Height, in pixels, of characters.
- POINT: POINT_SIZE field. Ten times height of characters in points.

- X: RESOLUTION_X field. X resolution (dots per inch).

- Y: RESOLUTION_Y field. Y resolution (dots per inch).
- SPACE: SPACING field.
p: Proportional
m: Monospaced
c: CharCell
- AVE: AVERAGE_WIDTH field. Ten times average width in pixels.
- CR: CHARSET_REGISTRY field. The name of the charset group.
- CE: CHARSET_ENCODING field. The rest of the charset name. For some
charsets, such as JIS X 0208, if this field is 0, code points has
the same value as GL, and GR if 1.
For example, in case of a 14 dots font corresponding to JIS X 0208, it is
written like:
-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--16-110-100-100-c-160-jisx0208.1990-0
X FONTSET
*fontset* *xfontset*
A single-byte charset is typically associated with one font. For multi-byte
charsets a combination of fonts is often used. This means that one group of
characters are used from one font and another group from another font (which
might be double wide). This collection of fonts is called a fontset.
Which fonts are required in a fontset depends on the current locale. X
windows maintains a table of which groups of characters are required for a
locale. You have to specify all the fonts that a locale requires in the
'guifontset' option.
NOTE: The fontset always uses the current locale, even though 'encoding' may
be set to use a different charset. In that situation you might want to use
'guifont' and 'guifontwide' instead of 'guifontset'.
Example:
|charset| language "groups of characters"
GB2312 Chinese (simplified) ISO-8859-1 and GB 2312
Big5 Chinese (traditional) ISO-8859-1 and Big5
CNS-11643 Chinese (traditional) ISO-8859-1, CNS 11643-1 and CNS 11643-2
EUC-JP Japanese JIS X 0201 and JIS X 0208
EUC-KR Korean ISO-8859-1 and KS C 5601 (KS X 1001)
You can search for fonts using the xlsfonts command. For example, when you're
searching for a font for KS C 5601:
xlsfonts | grep ksc5601
This is complicated and confusing. You might want to consult the X-Windows
documentation if there is something you don't understand.
*base_font_name_list*
When you have found the names of the fonts you want to use, you need to set
the 'guifontset' option. You specify the list by concatenating the font names
and putting a comma in between them.
For example, when you use the ja_JP.eucJP locale, this requires JIS X 0201
and JIS X 0208. You could supply a list of fonts that explicitly specifies
the charsets, like:
:set guifontset=-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-130-75-75-c-140-jisx0208.1983-0,
\-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-130-75-75-c-70-jisx0201.1976-0
Alternatively, you can supply a base font name list that omits the charset
name, letting X-Windows select font characters required for the locale. For
example:
:set guifontset=-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-130-75-75-c-140,
\-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-130-75-75-c-70
Alternatively, you can supply a single base font name that allows X-Windows to
select from all available fonts. For example:
:set guifontset=-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-*
Alternatively, you can specify alias names. See the fonts.alias file in the
fonts directory (e.g., /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/). For example:
:set guifontset=k14,r14

*E253*
Note that in East Asian fonts, the standard character cell is square. When
mixing a Latin font and an East Asian font, the East Asian font width should
be twice the Latin font width.
If 'guifontset' is not empty, the "font" argument of the |:highlight| command
is also interpreted as a fontset. For example, you should use for
highlighting:
:hi Comment font=english_font,your_font
If you use a wrong "font" argument you will get an error message.
Also make sure that you set 'guifontset' before setting fonts for highlight
groups.
USING RESOURCE FILES

Instead of specifying 'guifontset', you can set X11 resources and Vim will
pick them up. This is only for people who know how X resource files work.
For Motif and Athena insert these three lines in your $HOME/.Xdefaults file:
Vim.font: |base_font_name_list|
Vim*fontSet: |base_font_name_list|
Vim*fontList: your_language_font
Note: Vim.font is for text area.
Vim*fontSet is for menu.
Vim*fontList is for menu (for Motif GUI)
For example, when you are using Japanese and a 14 dots font,
Vim.font: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-*
Vim*fontSet: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-*
Vim*fontList: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-*
or:
Vim*font: k14,r14
Vim*fontSet: k14,r14
Vim*fontList: k14,r14
To have them take effect immediately you will have to do
xrdb -merge ~/.Xdefaults
Otherwise you will have to stop and restart the X server before the changes
take effect.
The GTK+ version of GUI Vim does not use .Xdefaults, use ~/.gtkrc instead.
The default mostly works OK. But for the menus you might have to change
it. Example:
style "default"
{
fontset="-*-*-medium-r-normal--14-*-*-*-c-*-*-*"
}
widget_class "*" style "default"
==============================================================================
6. Fonts on MS-Windows *mbyte-fonts-MSwin*
The simplest is to use the font dialog to select fonts and try them out. You
can find this at the "Edit/Select Font..." menu. Once you find a font name
that works well you can use this command to see its name:
:set guifont
Then add a command to your |gvimrc| file to set 'guifont':
:set guifont=courier_new:h12
==============================================================================
7. Input on X11 *mbyte-XIM*
X INPUT METHOD (XIM) BACKGROUND *XIM* *xim* *x-input-method*

XIM is an international input module for X. There are two kinds of structures,
Xlib unit type and |IM-server| (Input-Method server) type. |IM-server| type
is suitable for complex input, such as CJK.
- IM-server
*IM-server*
In |IM-server| type input structures, the input event is handled by either
of the two ways: FrontEnd system and BackEnd system. In the FrontEnd
system, input events are snatched by the |IM-server| first, then |IM-server|
give the application the result of input. On the other hand, the BackEnd
system works reverse order. MS Windows adopt BackEnd system. In X, most of
|IM-server|s adopt FrontEnd system. The demerit of BackEnd system is the
large overhead in communication, but it provides safe synchronization with
no restrictions on applications.
For example, there are xwnmo and kinput2 Japanese |IM-server|, both are
FrontEnd system. Xwnmo is distributed with Wnn (see below), kinput2 can be
found at: ftp://ftp.sra.co.jp/pub/x11/kinput2/
For Chinese, there's a great XIM server named "xcin", you can input both
Traditional and Simplified Chinese characters. And it can accept other
locale if you make a correct input table. Xcin can be found at:
http://cle.linux.org.tw/xcin/
Others are scim: http://scim.freedesktop.org/ and fcitx:
http://www.fcitx.org/
- Conversion Server
*conversion-server*
Some system needs additional server: conversion server. Most of Japanese
|IM-server|s need it, Kana-Kanji conversion server. For Chinese inputting,
it depends on the method of inputting, in some methods, PinYin or ZhuYin to
HanZi conversion server is needed. For Korean inputting, if you want to
input Hanja, Hangul-Hanja conversion server is needed.
For example, the Japanese inputting process is divided into 2 steps. First
we pre-input Hira-gana, second Kana-Kanji conversion. There are so many
Kanji characters (6349 Kanji characters are defined in JIS X 0208) and the
number of Hira-gana characters are 76. So, first, we pre-input text as
pronounced in Hira-gana, second, we convert Hira-gana to Kanji or Kata-Kana,
if needed. There are some Kana-Kanji conversion server: jserver
(distributed with Wnn, see below) and canna. Canna could be found at:
ftp://ftp.nec.co.jp/pub/Canna/ no longer works.
There is a good input system: Wnn4.2. Wnn 4.2 contains,
xwnmo (|IM-server|)
jserver (Japanese Kana-Kanji conversion server)
cserver (Chinese PinYin or ZhuYin to simplified HanZi conversion server)
tserver (Chinese PinYin or ZhuYin to traditional HanZi conversion server)
kserver (Hangul-Hanja conversion server)
Wnn 4.2 for several systems can be found at various places on the internet.
Use the RPM or port for your system.
- Input Style
*xim-input-style*
When inputting CJK, there are four areas:
1. The area to display of the input while it is being composed
2. The area to display the currently active input mode.
3. The area to display the next candidate for the selection.
4. The area to display other tools.
The third area is needed when converting. For example, in Japanese
inputting, multiple Kanji characters could have the same pronunciation, so
a sequence of Hira-gana characters could map to a distinct sequence of Kanji
characters.
The first and second areas are defined in international input of X with the
names of "Preedit Area", "Status Area" respectively. The third and fourth
areas are not defined and are left to be managed by the |IM-server|. In the
international input, four input styles have been defined using combinations
of Preedit Area and Status Area: |OnTheSpot|, |OffTheSpot|, |OverTheSpot|
and |Root|.
Currently, GUI Vim supports three styles, |OverTheSpot|, |OffTheSpot| and
|Root|.

*. on-the-spot *OnTheSpot*
Preedit Area and Status Area are performed by the client application in
the area of application. The client application is directed by the
|IM-server| to display all pre-edit data at the location of text
insertion. The client registers callbacks invoked by the input method
during pre-editing.
*. over-the-spot *OverTheSpot*
Status Area is created in a fixed position within the area of application,
in case of Vim, the position is the additional status line. Preedit Area
is made at present input position of application. The input method
displays pre-edit data in a window which it brings up directly over the
text insertion position.
*. off-the-spot *OffTheSpot*
Preedit Area and Status Area are performed in the area of application, in
case of Vim, the area is additional status line. The client application
provides display windows for the pre-edit data to the input method which
displays into them directly.
*. root-window *Root*
Preedit Area and Status Area are outside of the application. The input
method displays all pre-edit data in a separate area of the screen in a
window specific to the input method.
USING XIM *multibyte-input* *E284* *E286* *E287* *E288*

*E285* *E291* *E292* *E290* *E289*
Note that Display and Input are independent. It is possible to see your
language even though you have no input method for it. But when your Display
method doesn't match your Input method, the text will be displayed wrong.
Note: You can not use IM unless you specify 'guifontset'.
Therefore, Latin users, you have to also use 'guifontset'
if you use IM.
To input your language you should run the |IM-server| which supports your
language and |conversion-server| if needed.
The next 3 lines should be put in your ~/.Xdefaults file. They are common for
all X applications which uses |XIM|. If you already use |XIM|, you can skip
this.
*international: True
*.inputMethod: your_input_server_name
*.preeditType: your_input_style
input_server_name is your |IM-server| name (check your |IM-server|
manual).
your_input_style is one of |OverTheSpot|, |OffTheSpot|, |Root|. See
also |xim-input-style|.
*international may not necessary if you use X11R6.
*.inputMethod and *.preeditType are optional if you use X11R6.
For example, when you are using kinput2 as |IM-server|,
*international: True
*.inputMethod: kinput2
*.preeditType: OverTheSpot
When using |OverTheSpot|, GUI Vim always connects to the IM Server even in
Normal mode, so you can input your language with commands like "f" and "r".
But when using one of the other two methods, GUI Vim connects to the IM Server
only if it is not in Normal mode.
If your IM Server does not support |OverTheSpot|, and if you want to use your
language with some Normal mode command like "f" or "r", then you should use a
localized xterm or an xterm which supports |XIM|
If needed, you can set the XMODIFIERS environment variable:
sh: export XMODIFIERS="@im=input_server_name"
csh: setenv XMODIFIERS "@im=input_server_name"
For example, when you are using kinput2 as |IM-server| and sh,
export XMODIFIERS="@im=kinput2"

FULLY CONTROLLED XIM

You can fully control XIM, like with IME of MS-Windows (see |multibyte-ime|).
This is currently only available for the GTK GUI.
Before using fully controlled XIM, one setting is required. Set the
'imactivatekey' option to the key that is used for the activation of the input
method. For example, when you are using kinput2 + canna as IM Server, the
activation key is probably Shift+Space:
:set imactivatekey=S-space
See 'imactivatekey' for the format.
==============================================================================
8. Input on MS-Windows *mbyte-IME*
(Windows IME support) *multibyte-ime* *IME*

{only works Windows GUI and compiled with the |+multi_byte_ime| feature}
To input multibyte characters on Windows, you can use an Input Method Editor
(IME). In process of your editing text, you must switch status (on/off) of
IME many many many times. Because IME with status on is hooking all of your
key inputs, you cannot input 'j', 'k', or almost all of keys to Vim directly.
This |+multi_byte_ime| feature help this. It reduce times of switch status of
IME manually. In normal mode, there are almost no need working IME, even
editing multibyte text. So exiting insert mode with ESC, Vim memorize last
status of IME and force turn off IME. When re-enter insert mode, Vim revert
IME status to that memorized automatically.
This works on not only insert-normal mode, but also search-command input and
replace mode.
The options 'iminsert', 'imsearch' and 'imcmdline' can be used to chose
the different input methods or disable them temporarily.
WHAT IS IME
IME is a part of East asian version Windows. That helps you to input
multibyte character. English and other language version Windows does not
have any IME. (Also there is no need usually.) But there is one that
called Microsoft Global IME. Global IME is a part of Internet Explorer
4.0 or above. You can get more information about Global IME, at below
URL.
WHAT IS GLOBAL IME *global-ime*

Global IME makes capability to input Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text
into Vim buffer on any language version of Windows 98, Windows 95, and
Windows NT 4.0.
On Windows 2000 and XP it should work as well (without downloading). On
Windows 2000 Professional, Global IME is built in, and the Input Locales
can be added through Control Panel/Regional Options/Input Locales.
Please see below URL for detail of Global IME. You can also find various
language version of Global IME at same place.
- Global IME detailed information.
http://search.microsoft.com/results.aspx?q=global+ime
- Active Input Method Manager (Global IME)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa741221v=VS.85.aspx
Support for Global IME is an experimental feature.
NOTE: For IME to work you must make sure the input locales of your language
are added to your system. The exact location of this depends on the version
of Windows you use. For example, on my Windows 2000 box:
1. Control Panel
2. Regional Options
3. Input Locales Tab
4. Add Installed input locales -> Chinese(PRC)
The default is still English (United Stated)
Cursor color when IME or XIM is on *CursorIM*

There is a little cute feature for IME. Cursor can indicate status of IME
by changing its color. Usually status of IME was indicated by little icon

at a corner of desktop (or taskbar). It is not easy to verify status of

IME. But this feature help this.
This works in the same way when using XIM.
You can select cursor color when status is on by using highlight group
CursorIM. For example, add these lines to your YXXYgvimrc|:
if has('multi_byte_ime')
highlight Cursor guifg=NONE guibg=Green
highlight CursorIM guifg=NONE guibg=Purple
endif
Cursor color with off IME is green. And purple cursor indicates that
status is on.
==============================================================================
9. Input with a keymap *mbyte-keymap*
When the keyboard doesn't produce the characters you want to enter in your
text, you can use the 'keymap' option. This will translate one or more
(English) characters to another (non-English) character. This only happens
when typing text, not when typing Vim commands. This avoids having to switch
between two keyboard settings.
The value of the 'keymap' option specifies a keymap file to use. The name of
this file is one of these two:
keymap/{keymap}_{encoding}.vim
keymap/{keymap}.vim
Here {keymap} is the value of the 'keymap' option and {encoding} of the
'encoding' option. The file name with the {encoding} included is tried first.
'runtimepath' is used to find these files. To see an overview of all
available keymap files, use this:
:echo globpath(&rtp, "keymap/*.vim")
In Insert and Command-line mode you can use CTRL-^ to toggle between using the
keyboard map or not. |i_CTRL-^| |c_CTRL-^|
This flag is remembered for Insert mode with the 'iminsert' option. When
leaving and entering Insert mode the previous value is used. The same value
is also used for commands that take a single character argument, like |f| and
|r|.
For Command-line mode the flag is NOT remembered. You are expected to type an
Ex command first, which is ASCII.
For typing search patterns the 'imsearch' option is used. It can be set to
use the same value as for 'iminsert'.
*lCursor*
It is possible to give the GUI cursor another color when the language mappings
are being used. This is disabled by default, to avoid that the cursor becomes
invisible when you use a non-standard background color. Here is an example to
use a brightly colored cursor:
:highlight Cursor guifg=NONE guibg=Green
:highlight lCursor guifg=NONE guibg=Cyan
*keymap-file-format* *:loadk* *:loadkeymap* *E105* *E791*

The keymap file looks something like this:
" Maintainer: name <email@address>
" Last Changed: 2001 Jan 1
let b:keymap_name = "short"
loadkeymap
a A
b B comment
The lines starting with a " are comments and will be ignored. Blank lines are
also ignored. The lines with the mappings may have a comment after the useful
text.
The "b:keymap_name" can be set to a short name, which will be shown in the
status line. The idea is that this takes less room than the value of
'keymap', which might be long to distinguish between different languages,
keyboards and encodings.

The actual mappings are in the lines below "loadkeymap". In the example "a"
is mapped to "A" and "b" to "B". Thus the first item is mapped to the second
item. This is done for each line, until the end of the file.
These items are exactly the same as what can be used in a |:lnoremap| command,
using "<buffer>" to make the mappings local to the buffer..
You can check the result with this command:
:lmap
The two items must be separated by white space. You cannot include white
space inside an item, use the special names "<Tab>" and "<Space>" instead.
The length of the two items together must not exceed 200 bytes.
It's possible to have more than one character in the first column. This works
like a dead key. Example:
'a á
Since Vim doesn't know if the next character after a quote is really an "a",
it will wait for the next character. To be able to insert a single quote,
also add this line:
'' '
Since the mapping is defined with |:lnoremap| the resulting quote will not be
used for the start of another character.
The "accents" keymap uses this. *keymap-accents*
Although it's possible to have more than one character in the second column,
this is unusual. But you can use various ways to specify the character:
A a literal character
A <char-97> decimal value
A <char-0x61> hexadecimal value
A <char-0141> octal value
x <Space> special key name
The characters are assumed to be encoded for the current value of 'encoding'.
It's possible to use ":scriptencoding" when all characters are given
literally. That doesn't work when using the <char-> construct, because the
conversion is done on the keymap file, not on the resulting character.
The lines after "loadkeymap" are interpreted with 'cpoptions' set to "C".
This means that continuation lines are not used and a backslash has a special
meaning in the mappings. Examples:
" a comment line
\" x maps " to x
\\ y maps \ to y
If you write a keymap file that will be useful for others, consider submitting
it to the Vim maintainer for inclusion in the distribution:
<maintainer@vim.org>
HEBREW KEYMAP *keymap-hebrew*

This file explains what characters are available in UTF-8 and CP1255 encodings,
and what the keymaps are to get those characters:
glyph encoding keymap
Char utf-8 cp1255 hebrew hebrewp name
0 ‫א‬x5d0 0xe0 t a 'alef
0 ‫ב‬x5d1 0xe1 c b bet
0 ‫ג‬x5d2 0xe2 d g gimel
0 ‫ד‬x5d3 0xe3 s d dalet
0 ‫ה‬x5d4 0xe4 v h he
0 ‫ו‬x5d5 0xe5 u v vav
0 ‫ז‬x5d6 0xe6 z z zayin
0 ‫ח‬x5d7 0xe7 j j het
0 ‫ט‬x5d8 0xe8 y T tet
0 ‫י‬x5d9 0xe9 h y yod
0 ‫ך‬x5da 0xea l K kaf sofit
0 ‫כ‬x5db 0xeb f k kaf
0 ‫ל‬x5dc 0xec k l lamed
0 ‫ם‬x5dd 0xed o M mem sofit
0 ‫מ‬x5de 0xee n m mem
0 ‫ן‬x5df 0xef i N nun sofit
0 ‫נ‬x5e0 0xf0 b n nun
0 ‫ס‬x5e1 0xf1 x s samech
0 ‫ע‬x5e2 0xf2 g u àyin
0 ‫ף‬x5e3 0xf3 ; P pe sofit
0 ‫פ‬x5e4 0xf4 p p pe
0 ‫ץ‬x5e5 0xf5 . X tsadi sofit

0 ‫צ‬x5e6 0xf6 m x tsadi

0 ‫ק‬x5e7 0xf7 e q qof
0 ‫ר‬x5e8 0xf8 r r resh
0 ‫ש‬x5e9 0xf9 a w shin
0 ‫ת‬x5ea 0xfa , t tav
Vowel marks and special punctuation:
0x5b0 0xc0 A: A: sheva
0x5b1 0xc1 HE HE hataf segol
0x5b2 0xc2 HA HA hataf patah
0x5b3 0xc3 HO HO hataf qamats
0x5b4 0xc4 I I hiriq
0x5b5 0xc5 AY AY tsere
0x5b6 0xc6 E E segol
0x5b7 0xc7 AA AA patah
0x5b8 0xc8 AO AO qamats
0x5b9 0xc9 O O holam
0x5bb 0xcb U U qubuts
0x5bc 0xcc D D dagesh
0x5bd 0xcd ]T ]T meteg
0 ‫ה־‬x5be 0xce ]Q ]Q maqaf
0x5bf 0xcf ]R ]R rafe
0x5c0 0xd0 ]p ]p paseq
0x5c1 0xd1 SR SR shin-dot
0x5c2 0xd2 SL SL sin-dot
0x5c3 0xd3 ]P ]P sof-pasuq
0 ‫װ‬x5f0 0xd4 VV VV double-vav
0 ‫ױ‬x5f1 0xd5 VY VY vav-yod
0 ‫ײ‬x5f2 0xd6 YY YY yod-yod
The following are only available in utf-8
Cantillation marks:
glyph
Char utf-8 hebrew name
0x591 C: etnahta
0x592 Cs segol
0x593 CS shalshelet
0x594 Cz zaqef qatan
0x595 CZ zaqef gadol
0x596 Ct tipeha
0x597 Cr revia
0x598 Cq zarqa
0x599 Cp pashta
0x59a C! yetiv
0x59b Cv tevir
0x59c Cg geresh
0x59d C* geresh qadim
0x59e CG gershayim
0x59f CP qarnei-parah
0x5aa Cy yerach-ben-yomo
0x5ab Co ole
0x5ac Ci iluy
0x5ad Cd dehi
0x5ae Cn zinor
0x5af CC masora circle
Combining forms:
0 ‫ﬠ‬xfb20 X` Alternative àyin
0 ‫ﬡ‬xfb21 X' Alternative 'alef
0 ‫ﬢ‬xfb22 X-d Alternative dalet
0 ‫ﬣ‬xfb23 X-h Alternative he
0 ‫ﬤ‬xfb24 X-k Alternative kaf
0 ‫ﬥ‬xfb25 X-l Alternative lamed
0 ‫ﬦ‬xfb26 X-m Alternative mem-sofit
0 ‫ﬧ‬xfb27 X-r Alternative resh
0 ‫ﬨ‬xfb28 X-t Alternative tav
﬩ 0xfb29 X-+ Alternative plus
0 ‫שׁ‬xfb2a XW shin+shin-dot
0 ‫שׂ‬xfb2b Xw shin+sin-dot
0 ‫שּׁ‬xfb2c X..W shin+shin-dot+dagesh
0 ‫שּׂ‬xfb2d X..w shin+sin-dot+dagesh
0 ‫אַ‬xfb2e XA alef+patah
0 ‫אָ‬xfb2f XO alef+qamats
0 ‫אּ‬xfb30 XI alef+hiriq (mapiq)
0 ‫בּ‬xfb31 X.b bet+dagesh
0 ‫גּ‬xfb32 X.g gimel+dagesh
0 ‫דּ‬xfb33 X.d dalet+dagesh
0 ‫הּ‬xfb34 X.h he+dagesh
0 ‫וּ‬xfb35 Xu vav+dagesh
0 ‫זּ‬xfb36 X.z zayin+dagesh

0 ‫טּ‬xfb38 X.T tet+dagesh

0 ‫יּ‬xfb39 X.y yud+dagesh
0 ‫ךּ‬xfb3a X.K kaf sofit+dagesh
0 ‫כּ‬xfb3b X.k kaf+dagesh
0 ‫לּ‬xfb3c X.l lamed+dagesh
0 ‫מּ‬xfb3e X.m mem+dagesh
0 ‫נּ‬xfb40 X.n nun+dagesh
0 ‫סּ‬xfb41 X.s samech+dagesh
0 ‫ףּ‬xfb43 X.P pe sofit+dagesh
0 ‫פּ‬xfb44 X.p pe+dagesh
0 ‫צּ‬xfb46 X.x tsadi+dagesh
0 ‫קּ‬xfb47 X.q qof+dagesh
0 ‫רּ‬xfb48 X.r resh+dagesh
0 ‫שּ‬xfb49 X.w shin+dagesh
0 ‫תּ‬xfb4a X.t tav+dagesh
0 ‫וֹ‬xfb4b Xo vav+holam
0 ‫בֿ‬xfb4c XRb bet+rafe
0 ‫כֿ‬xfb4d XRk kaf+rafe
0 ‫פֿ‬xfb4e XRp pe+rafe
0 ‫ﭏ‬xfb4f Xal alef-lamed
==============================================================================
10. Using UTF-8 *mbyte-utf8* *UTF-8* *utf-8* *utf8*
*Unicode* *unicode*
The Unicode character set was designed to include all characters from other
character sets. Therefore it is possible to write text in any language using
Unicode (with a few rarely used languages excluded). And it's mostly possible
to mix these languages in one file, which is impossible with other encodings.
Unicode can be encoded in several ways. The most popular one is UTF-8, which
uses one or more bytes for each character and is backwards compatible with
ASCII. On MS-Windows UTF-16 is also used (previously UCS-2), which uses
16-bit words. Vim can support all of these encodings, but always uses UTF-8
internally.
Vim has comprehensive UTF-8 support. It works well in:
- xterm with utf-8 support enabled
- Athena, Motif and GTK GUI
- MS-Windows GUI
- several other platforms
Double-width characters are supported. This works best with 'guifontwide' or
'guifontset'. When using only 'guifont' the wide characters are drawn in the
normal width and a space to fill the gap. Note that the 'guifontset' option
is no longer relevant in the GTK+ 2 GUI.
*bom-bytes*
When reading a file a BOM (Byte Order Mark) can be used to recognize the
Unicode encoding:
EF BB BF utf-8
FE FF utf-16 big endian
FF FE utf-16 little endian
00 00 FE FF utf-32 big endian
FF FE 00 00 utf-32 little endian
Utf-8 is the recommended encoding. Note that it's difficult to tell utf-16
and utf-32 apart. Utf-16 is often used on MS-Windows, utf-32 is not
widespread as file format.
*mbyte-combining* *mbyte-composing*
A composing or combining character is used to change the meaning of the
character before it. The combining characters are drawn on top of the
preceding character.
Up to two combining characters can be used by default. This can be changed
with the 'maxcombine' option.
When editing text a composing character is mostly considered part of the
preceding character. For example "x" will delete a character and its
following composing characters by default.
If the 'delcombine' option is on, then pressing 'x' will delete the combining
characters, one at a time, then the base character. But when inserting, you
type the first character and the following composing characters separately,
after which they will be joined. The "r" command will not allow you to type a
combining character, because it doesn't know one is coming. Use "R" instead.
Bytes which are not part of a valid UTF-8 byte sequence are handled like a

single character and displayed as <xx>, where "xx" is the hex value of the
byte.
Overlong sequences are not handled specially and displayed like a valid
character. However, search patterns may not match on an overlong sequence.
(an overlong sequence is where more bytes are used than required for the
character.) An exception is NUL (zero) which is displayed as "<00>".
In the file and buffer the full range of Unicode characters can be used (31
bits). However, displaying only works for 16 bit characters, and only for the
characters present in the selected font.
Useful commands:
- "ga" shows the decimal, hexadecimal and octal value of the character under
the cursor. If there are composing characters these are shown too. (If the
message is truncated, use ":messages").
- "g8" shows the bytes used in a UTF-8 character, also the composing
characters, as hex numbers.
- ":set encoding=utf-8 fileencodings=" forces using UTF-8 for all files. The
default is to use the current locale for 'encoding' and set 'fileencodings'
to automatically detect the encoding of a file.
STARTING VIM
If your current locale is in an utf-8 encoding, Vim will automatically start
in utf-8 mode.
If you are using another locale:
set encoding=utf-8
You might also want to select the font used for the menus. Unfortunately this
doesn't always work. See the system specific remarks below, and 'langmenu'.
USING UTF-8 IN X-Windows *utf-8-in-xwindows*

Note: This section does not apply to the GTK+ 2 GUI.
You need to specify a font to be used. For double-wide characters another
font is required, which is exactly twice as wide. There are three ways to do
this:
1. Set 'guifont' and let Vim find a matching 'guifontwide'
2. Set 'guifont' and 'guifontwide'
3. Set 'guifontset'
See the documentation for each option for details. Example:
:set guifont=-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1
You might also want to set the font used for the menus. This only works for
Motif. Use the ":hi Menu font={fontname}" command for this. |:highlight|
TYPING UTF-8 *utf-8-typing*

If you are using X-Windows, you should find an input method that supports
utf-8.
If your system does not provide support for typing utf-8, you can use the
'keymap' feature. This allows writing a keymap file, which defines a utf-8
character as a sequence of ASCII characters. See |mbyte-keymap|.
Another method is to set the current locale to the language you want to use
and for which you have a XIM available. Then set 'termencoding' to that
language and Vim will convert the typed characters to 'encoding' for you.
If everything else fails, you can type any character as four hex bytes:
CTRL-V u 1234
"1234" is interpreted as a hex number. You must type four characters, prepend
a zero if necessary.

COMMAND ARGUMENTS *utf-8-char-arg*

Commands like |f|, |F|, |t| and |r| take an argument of one character. For
UTF-8 this argument may include one or two composing characters. These need
to be produced together with the base character, Vim doesn't wait for the next
character to be typed to find out if it is a composing character or not.
Using 'keymap' or |:lmap| is a nice way to type these characters.
The commands that search for a character in a line handle composing characters
as follows. When searching for a character without a composing character,
this will find matches in the text with or without composing characters. When
searching for a character with a composing character, this will only find
matches with that composing character. It was implemented this way, because
not everybody is able to type a composing character.
==============================================================================
11. Overview of options *mbyte-options*
These options are relevant for editing multi-byte files. Check the help in
options.txt for detailed information.
'encoding' Encoding used for the keyboard and display. It is also the
default encoding for files.
'fileencoding' Encoding of a file. When it's different from 'encoding'
conversion is done when reading or writing the file.
'fileencodings' List of possible encodings of a file. When opening a file
these will be tried and the first one that doesn't cause an
error is used for 'fileencoding'.
'charconvert' Expression used to convert files from one encoding to another.
'formatoptions' The 'm' flag can be included to have formatting break a line
at a multibyte character of 256 or higher. Thus is useful for
languages where a sequence of characters can be broken
anywhere.
'guifontset' The list of font names used for a multi-byte encoding. When
this option is not empty, it replaces 'guifont'.
'keymap' Specify the name of a keyboard mapping.
==============================================================================
Contributions specifically for the multi-byte features by:
Chi-Deok Hwang <hwang@mizi.co.kr>
SungHyun Nam <goweol@gmail.com>
K.Nagano <nagano@atese.advantest.co.jp>
Taro Muraoka <koron@tka.att.ne.jp>
Yasuhiro Matsumoto <mattn@mail.goo.ne.jp>
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: pi_netrw
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*pi_netrw.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Apr 01

-----------------------------------------------------
NETRW REFERENCE MANUAL by Charles E. Campbell, Jr.
-----------------------------------------------------
Author: Charles E. Campbell, Jr. <NdrOchip@ScampbellPfamily.AbizM>
(remove NOSPAM from Campbell's email first)
Copyright: Copyright (C) 1999-2011 Charles E Campbell, Jr *netrw-copyright*

Permission is hereby granted to use and distribute this code, with
or without modifications, provided that this copyright notice is
copied with it. Like anything else that's free, netrw.vim,
netrwPlugin.vim, netrwFileHandlers.vim, netrwSettings.vim,
syntax/netrw.vim, and pi_netrw.txt are provided *as is* and comes
with no warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. No
guarantees of merchantability. No guarantees of suitability for
any purpose. By using this plugin, you agree that in no event will
the copyright holder be liable for any damages resulting from the
use of this software.
*dav* *ftp* *netrw-file* *rcp* *scp*

*davs* *http* *netrw.vim* *rsync* *sftp*
*fetch* *netrw* *network*
==============================================================================
1. Contents *netrw-contents* {{{1
1. Contents.............................................|netrw-contentsYXXY
2. Starting With Netrw..................................|netrw-startYXXY
3. Netrw Reference......................................|netrw-refYXXY
EXTERNAL APPLICATIONS AND PROTOCOLS................|netrw-externappYXXY
READING............................................|netrw-readYXXY
WRITING............................................|netrw-writeYXXY
SOURCING...........................................|netrw-sourceYXXY
DIRECTORY LISTING..................................|netrw-dirlistYXXY
CHANGING THE USERID AND PASSWORD...................|netrw-chgupYXXY
VARIABLES AND SETTINGS.............................|netrw-variablesYXXY
PATHS..............................................|netrw-pathYXXY
4. Network-Oriented File Transfer.......................|netrw-xferYXXY
NETRC..............................................|netrw-netrcYXXY
PASSWORD...........................................|netrw-passwdYXXY
5. Activation...........................................|netrw-activateYXXY
6. Transparent Remote File Editing......................|netrw-transparentYXXY
7. Ex Commands..........................................|netrw-exYXXY
8. Variables and Options................................|netrw-varYXXY
9. Browsing.............................................|netrw-browseYXXY
Introduction To Browsing...........................|netrw-intro-browseYXXY
Quick Reference: Maps..............................|netrw-browse-mapsYXXY
Quick Reference: Commands..........................|netrw-browse-cmdsYXXY
Bookmarking A Directory............................|netrw-mbYXXY
Browsing...........................................|netrw-crYXXY
Browsing With A Horizontally Split Window..........|netrw-oYXXY
Browsing With A New Tab............................|netrw-tYXXY
Browsing With A Vertically Split Window............|netrw-vYXXY
Change Listing Style.(thin wide long tree).........|netrw-iYXXY
Changing To A Bookmarked Directory.................|netrw-gbYXXY
Changing To A Predecessor Directory................|netrw-uYXXY
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/pi_netrw.html[2019/03/05 11:42:23 AM]

Changing To A Successor Directory..................|netrw-UYXXY

Customizing Browsing With A User Function..........|netrw-xYXXY
Deleting Bookmarks.................................|netrw-mBYXXY
Deleting Files Or Directories......................|netrw-DYXXY
Directory Exploring Commands.......................|netrw-exploreYXXY
Exploring With Stars and Patterns..................|netrw-starYXXY
Displaying Information About File..................|netrw-qfYXXY
Edit File Or Directory Hiding List.................|netrw-ctrl-hYXXY
Editing The Sorting Sequence.......................|netrw-SYXXY
Forcing treatment as a file or directory...........|netrw-gd| |netrw-gf|
Going Up...........................................|netrw--YXXY
Hiding Files Or Directories........................|netrw-aYXXY
Improving Browsing.................................|netrw-ssh-hackYXXY
Listing Bookmarks And History......................|netrw-qbYXXY
Making A New Directory.............................|netrw-dYXXY
Making The Browsing Directory The Current Directory|netrw-cYXXY
Marking Files......................................|netrw-mfYXXY
Marking Files By Regular Expression................|netrw-mrYXXY
Marked Files: Arbitrary Command....................|netrw-mxYXXY
Marked Files: Compression And Decompression........|netrw-mzYXXY
Marked Files: Copying..............................|netrw-mcYXXY
Marked Files: Diff.................................|netrw-mdYXXY
Marked Files: Editing..............................|netrw-meYXXY
Marked Files: Grep.................................|netrw-mgYXXY
Marked Files: Hiding and Unhiding by Suffix........|netrw-mhYXXY
Marked Files: Moving...............................|netrw-mmYXXY
Marked Files: Printing.............................|netrw-mpYXXY
Marked Files: Sourcing.............................|netrw-msYXXY
Marked Files: Tagging..............................|netrw-mTYXXY
Marked Files: Setting the Target Directory.........|netrw-mtYXXY
Marked Files: Unmarking............................|netrw-muYXXY
Netrw Browser Variables............................|netrw-browser-varYXXY
Netrw Browsing And Option Incompatibilities........|netrw-incompatibleYXXY
Netrw Settings.....................................|netrw-settingsYXXY
Obtaining A File...................................|netrw-OYXXY
Preview Window.....................................|netrw-pYXXY
Previous Window....................................|netrw-PYXXY
Refreshing The Listing.............................|netrw-ctrl-lYXXY
Renaming Files Or Directories......................|netrw-moveYXXY
Reversing Sorting Order............................|netrw-rYXXY
Selecting Sorting Style............................|netrw-sYXXY
Setting Editing Window.............................|netrw-CYXXY
10. Problems and Fixes...................................|netrw-problemsYXXY
11. Debugging Netrw Itself...............................|netrw-debugYXXY
12. History..............................................|netrw-historyYXXY
13. Todo.................................................|netrw-todoYXXY
14. Credits..............................................|netrw-creditsYXXY
{Vi does not have any of this}
==============================================================================
2. Starting With Netrw *netrw-start* {{{1
Netrw makes reading files, writing files, browsing over a network, and
local browsing easy! First, make sure that you have plugins enabled, so
you'll need to have at least the following in your <.vimrc>:
(or see |netrw-activate|)
set nocp " 'compatible' is not set
filetype plugin on " plugins are enabled
(see |'cp'| and |:filetype-plugin-on|)
Netrw supports "transparent" editing of files on other machines using urls
(see |netrw-transparent|). As an example of this, let's assume you have an
account on some other machine; if you can use scp, try:
vim scp://hostname/path/to/file
Want to make ssh/scp easier to use? Check out YXXYnetrw-ssh-hack|!
So, what if you have ftp, not ssh/scp? That's easy, too; try
vim ftp://hostname/path/to/file
Want to make ftp simpler to use? See if your ftp supports a file called
<.netrc> -- typically it goes in your home directory, has read/write
permissions for only the user to read (ie. not group, world, other, etc),
and has lines resembling

machine HOSTNAME login USERID password "PASSWORD"

machine HOSTNAME login USERID password "PASSWORD"
...
default login USERID password "PASSWORD"
Now about browsing -- when you just want to look around before editing a
file. For browsing on your current host, just "edit" a directory:
vim .
vim /home/userid/path
For browsing on a remote host, "edit" a directory (but make sure that
the directory name is followed by a "/"):
vim scp://hostname/
vim ftp://hostname/path/to/dir/
See |netrw-browse| for more!
There are more protocols supported by netrw than just scp and ftp, too: see the
next section, |netrw-externapp|, on how to use these external applications with
netrw and vim.
PREVENTING LOADING *netrw-noload*

If you want to use plugins, but for some reason don't wish to use netrw, then
you need to avoid loading both the plugin and the autoload portions of netrw.
You may do so by placing the following two lines in your <.vimrc>:
:let g:loaded_netrw = 1
:let g:loaded_netrwPlugin = 1
==============================================================================
3. Netrw Reference *netrw-ref* {{{1
Netrw supports several protocols in addition to scp and ftp as mentioned
in |netrw-start|. These include dav, fetch, http,... well, just look
at the list in |netrw-externapp|. Each protocol is associated with a
variable which holds the default command supporting that protocol.
EXTERNAL APPLICATIONS AND PROTOCOLS *netrw-externapp* {{{2

Protocol Variable Default Value
-------- ---------------- -------------
dav: *g:netrw_dav_cmd* = "cadaver" if cadaver is executable
dav: g:netrw_dav_cmd = "curl -o" elseif curl is available
fetch: *g:netrw_fetch_cmd* = "fetch -o" if fetch is available
ftp: *g:netrw_ftp_cmd* = "ftp"
http: *g:netrw_http_cmd* = "elinks" if elinks is available
http: g:netrw_http_cmd = "links" elseif links is available
http: g:netrw_http_cmd = "curl" elseif curl is available
http: g:netrw_http_cmd = "wget" elseif wget is available
http: g:netrw_http_cmd = "fetch" elseif fetch is available
rcp: *g:netrw_rcp_cmd* = "rcp"
rsync: *g:netrw_rsync_cmd* = "rsync -a"
scp: *g:netrw_scp_cmd* = "scp -q"
sftp: *g:netrw_sftp_cmd* = "sftp"
*g:netrw_http_xcmd* : the option string for http://... protocols are

specified via this variable and may be independently overridden. By
default, the option arguments for the http-handling commands are:
elinks : "-source >"
links : "-source >"

curl : "-o"
wget : "-q -O"
fetch : "-o"
For example, if your system has elinks, and you'd rather see the
page using an attempt at rendering the text, you may wish to have
let g:netrw_http_xcmd= "-dump >"
in your .vimrc.
READING *netrw-read* *netrw-nread* {{{2

Generally, one may just use the url notation with a normal editing
command, such as
:e ftp://[user@]machine/path
Netrw also provides the Nread command:
:Nread ? give help
:Nread "machine:path" uses rcp
:Nread "machine path" uses ftp w/ <.netrc>
:Nread "machine id password path" uses ftp
:Nread "dav://machine[:port]/path" uses cadaver
:Nread "fetch://[user@]machine/path" uses fetch
:Nread "ftp://[user@]machine[[:#]port]/path" uses ftp w/ .netrc
:Nread "http://[user@]machine/path" uses http uses wget
:Nread "rcp://[user@]machine/path" uses rcp
:Nread "rsync://[user@]machine[:port]/path" uses rsync
:Nread "scp://[user@]machine[[:#]port]/path" uses scp
:Nread "sftp://[user@]machine/path" uses sftp
WRITING *netrw-write* *netrw-nwrite* {{{2

One may just use the url notation with a normal file writing
command, such as
:w ftp://[user@]machine/path
Netrw also provides the Nwrite command:
:Nwrite ? give help
:Nwrite "machine:path" uses rcp
:Nwrite "machine path" uses ftp w/ <.netrc>
:Nwrite "machine id password path" uses ftp
:Nwrite "dav://machine[:port]/path" uses cadaver
:Nwrite "ftp://[user@]machine[[:#]port]/path" uses ftp w/ .netrc
:Nwrite "rcp://[user@]machine/path" uses rcp
:Nwrite "rsync://[user@]machine[:port]/path" uses rsync
:Nwrite "scp://[user@]machine[[:#]port]/path" uses scp
:Nwrite "sftp://[user@]machine/path" uses sftp
http: not supported!
SOURCING *netrw-source* {{{2

One may just use the url notation with the normal file sourcing
command, such as
:so ftp://[user@]machine/path
Netrw also provides the Nsource command:
:Nsource ? give help
:Nsource "dav://machine[:port]/path" uses cadaver
:Nsource "fetch://[user@]machine/path" uses fetch
:Nsource "ftp://[user@]machine[[:#]port]/path" uses ftp w/ .netrc
:Nsource "http://[user@]machine/path" uses http uses wget
:Nsource "rcp://[user@]machine/path" uses rcp
:Nsource "rsync://[user@]machine[:port]/path" uses rsync
:Nsource "scp://[user@]machine[[:#]port]/path" uses scp
:Nsource "sftp://[user@]machine/path" uses sftp
DIRECTORY LISTING *netrw-dirlist* {{{2

One may browse a directory to get a listing by simply attempting to
edit the directory:

:e scp://[user]@hostname/path/
:e ftp://[user]@hostname/path/
For remote directories (ie. those using scp or ftp), that trailing
"/" is necessary (the slash tells netrw to treat the argument as a
directory to browse instead of a file to download).
However, the Nread command can also be used to accomplish this:
:Nread [protocol]://[user]@hostname/path/
*netrw-login* *netrw-password*
CHANGING USERID AND PASSWORD *netrw-chgup* *netrw-userpass* {{{2
Attempts to use ftp will prompt you for a user-id and a password.
These will be saved in global variables g:netrw_uid and
s:netrw_passwd; subsequent uses of ftp will re-use those two items to
simplify the further use of ftp. However, if you need to use a
different user id and/or password, you'll want to call NetUserPass()
first. To work around the need to enter passwords, check if your ftp
supports a <.netrc> file in your home directory. Also see
|netrw-passwd| (and if you're using ssh/scp hoping to figure out how
to not need to use passwords, look at |netrw-ssh-hack|).
:NetUserPass [uid [password]] -- prompts as needed
:call NetUserPass() -- prompts for uid and password
:call NetUserPass("uid") -- prompts for password
:call NetUserPass("uid","password") -- sets global uid and password
NETRW VARIABLES AND SETTINGS *netrw-variables* {{{2

(also see: |netrw-browser-var| |netrw-protocol| |netrw-settings| |netrw-var|)
Netrw provides a lot of variables which allow you to customize netrw to your
preferences. One way to look at them is via the command :NetrwSettings (see
|netrw-settings|) which will display your current netrw settings. Most such
settings are described below, in |netrw-browser-options|, and in
YXXYnetrw-externapp|:
*b:netrw_lastfile* last file Network-read/written retained on a

per-buffer basis (supports plain :Nw )
*g:netrw_bufsettings* the settings that netrw buffers have

(default) noma nomod nonu nowrap ro nobl
*g:netrw_chgwin* specifies a window number where file edits will take

place. (also see |netrw-C|)
(default) not defined
*g:Netrw_funcref* specifies a function (or functions) to be called when

netrw edits a file. The file is first edited, and
then the function reference (|Funcref|) is called.
This variable may also hold a |List| of Funcrefs.
(default) not defined
Example: place in .vimrc; affects all file opening
fun! MyFuncRef()
endfun
let g:Netrw_funcref= function("MyFuncRef")
*g:netrw_ftp* if it doesn't exist, use default ftp

=0 use default ftp (uid password)
=1 use alternate ftp method (user uid password)
If you're having trouble with ftp, try changing the
value of this variable to see if the alternate ftp
method works for your setup.
*g:netrw_ftpextracmd* default: doesn't exist

If this variable exists, then any string it contains
will be placed into the commands set to your ftp

client. As an example:
="passive"
*g:netrw_ftpmode* ="binary" (default)

="ascii"
*g:netrw_ignorenetrc* =0 (default for linux, cygwin)

=1 If you have a <.netrc> file but it doesn't work and
you want it ignored, then set this variable as
shown. (default for Windows + cmd.exe)
*g:netrw_menu* =0 disable netrw's menu

=1 (default) netrw's menu enabled
*g:netrw_nogx* if this variable exists, then the "gx" map will not
be available (see |netrw-gx|)
*g:netrw_uid* (ftp) user-id, retained on a per-vim-session basis

*s:netrw_passwd* (ftp) password, retained on a per-vim-session basis
*g:netrw_preview* =0 (default) preview window shown in a horizontally

split window
=1 preview window shown in a vertically split window.
Also affects the "previous window" (see |netrw-P|) in
the same way.
*g:netrw_scpport* = "-P" : option to use to set port for scp

*g:netrw_sshport* = "-p" : option to use to set port for ssh
*g:netrw_sepchr* =\0xff
=\0x01 for enc == euc-jp (and perhaps it should be for
others, too, please let me
know)
Separates priority codes from filenames internally.
See |netrw-p12|.
*g:netrw_silent* =0 : transfers done normally

=1 : transfers done silently
*g:netrw_use_errorwindow* =1 : messages from netrw will use a separate one

line window. This window provides reliable
delivery of messages. (default)
=0 : messages from netrw will use echoerr ;
messages don't always seem to show up this
way, but one doesn't have to quit the window.
*g:netrw_win95ftp* =1 if using Win95, will remove four trailing blank

lines that o/s's ftp "provides" on transfers
=0 force normal ftp behavior (no trailing line removal)
*g:netrw_cygwin* =1 assume scp under windows is from cygwin. Also

permits network browsing to use ls with time and
size sorting (default if windows)
=0 assume Windows' scp accepts windows-style paths
Network browsing uses dir instead of ls
This option is ignored if you're using unix
*g:netrw_use_nt_rcp* =0 don't use the rcp of WinNT, Win2000 and WinXP

=1 use WinNT's rcp in binary mode (default)
PATHS *netrw-path* {{{2

Paths to files are generally user-directory relative for most protocols.

It is possible that some protocol will make paths relative to some

associated directory, however.
example: vim scp://user@host/somefile
example: vim scp://user@host/subdir1/subdir2/somefile
where "somefile" is in the "user"'s home directory. If you wish to get a
file using root-relative paths, use the full path:
example: vim scp://user@host//somefile
example: vim scp://user@host//subdir1/subdir2/somefile
==============================================================================
4. Network-Oriented File Transfer *netrw-xfer* {{{1
Network-oriented file transfer under Vim is implemented by a VimL-based script
(<netrw.vim>) using plugin techniques. It currently supports both reading and
writing across networks using rcp, scp, ftp or ftp+<.netrc>, scp, fetch,
dav/cadaver, rsync, or sftp.
http is currently supported read-only via use of wget or fetch.
<netrw.vim> is a standard plugin which acts as glue between Vim and the
various file transfer programs. It uses autocommand events (BufReadCmd,
FileReadCmd, BufWriteCmd) to intercept reads/writes with url-like filenames.
ex. vim ftp://hostname/path/to/file
The characters preceding the colon specify the protocol to use; in the
example, it's ftp. The <netrw.vim> script then formulates a command or a
series of commands (typically ftp) which it issues to an external program
(ftp, scp, etc) which does the actual file transfer/protocol. Files are read
from/written to a temporary file (under Unix/Linux, /tmp/...) which the
<netrw.vim> script will clean up.
Now, a word about Jan MinÃ¡Å™'s "FTP User Name and Password Disclosure"; first,
ftp is not a secure protocol. User names and passwords are transmitted "in
the clear" over the internet; any snooper tool can pick these up; this is not
a netrw thing, this is a ftp thing. If you're concerned about this, please
try to use scp or sftp instead.
Netrw re-uses the user id and password during the same vim session and so long
as the remote hostname remains the same.
Jan seems to be a bit confused about how netrw handles ftp; normally multiple
commands are performed in a "ftp session", and he seems to feel that the
uid/password should only be retained over one ftp session. However, netrw
does every ftp operation in a separate "ftp session"; so remembering the
uid/password for just one "ftp session" would be the same as not remembering
the uid/password at all. IMHO this would rapidly grow tiresome as one
browsed remote directories, for example.
On the other hand, thanks go to Jan M. for pointing out the many
vulnerabilities that netrw (and vim itself) had had in handling "crafted"
filenames. The |shellescape()| and |fnameescape()| functions were written in
response by Bram Moolenaar to handle these sort of problems, and netrw has
been modified to use them. Still, my advice is, if the "filename" looks like
a vim command that you aren't comfortable with having executed, don't open it.
*netrw-putty* *netrw-pscp* *netrw-psftp*

One may modify any protocol's implementing external application by setting a
variable (ex. scp uses the variable g:netrw_scp_cmd, which is defaulted to
"scp -q"). As an example, consider using PuTTY:
let g:netrw_scp_cmd = '"c:\Program Files\PuTTY\pscp.exe" -q -batch'
let g:netrw_sftp_cmd= '"c:\Program Files\PuTTY\psftp.exe"'
See |netrw-p8| for more about putty, pscp, psftp, etc.
Ftp, an old protocol, seems to be blessed by numerous implementations.
Unfortunately, some implementations are noisy (ie., add junk to the end of the
file). Thus, concerned users may decide to write a NetReadFixup() function
that will clean up after reading with their ftp. Some Unix systems (ie.,
FreeBSD) provide a utility called "fetch" which uses the ftp protocol but is
not noisy and more convenient, actually, for <netrw.vim> to use.
Consequently, if "fetch" is available (ie. executable), it may be preferable
to use it for ftp://... based transfers.

For rcp, scp, sftp, and http, one may use network-oriented file transfers
transparently; ie.
vim rcp://[user@]machine/path
vim scp://[user@]machine/path
If your ftp supports <.netrc>, then it too can be transparently used
if the needed triad of machine name, user id, and password are present in
that file. Your ftp must be able to use the <.netrc> file on its own, however.
vim ftp://[user@]machine[[:#]portnumber]/path
Windows provides an ftp (typically c:\Windows\System32\ftp.exe) which uses
an option, -s:filename (filename can and probably should be a full path)
which contains ftp commands which will be automatically run whenever ftp
starts. You may use this feature to enter a user and password for one site:
userid
password
If |g:netrw_ftp_cmd| contains -s:[path/]MACHINE, then (on Windows machines only)
netrw will substitute the current machine name requested for ftp connection
for MACHINE. Hence one can have multiple machine.ftp files containing login
and password for ftp. Example:
g:netrw_ftp_cmd= 'c:\Windows\System32\ftp -s:C:\Users\Myself\MACHINE'
vim ftp://myhost.somewhere.net/
will use a file
C:\Users\Myself\myhost.ftp
Often, ftp will need to query the user for the userid and password.
The latter will be done "silently"; ie. asterisks will show up instead of
the actually-typed-in password. Netrw will retain the userid and password
for subsequent read/writes from the most recent transfer so subsequent
transfers (read/write) to or from that machine will take place without
additional prompting.
*netrw-urls*
+=================================+============================+============+
| Reading | Writing | Uses |
+=================================+============================+============+
| DAV: | | |
| dav://host/path | | cadaver |
| :Nread dav://host/path | :Nwrite dav://host/path | cadaver |
+---------------------------------+----------------------------+------------+
| DAV + SSL: | | |
| davs://host/path | | cadaver |
| :Nread davs://host/path | :Nwrite davs://host/path | cadaver |
+---------------------------------+----------------------------+------------+
| FETCH: | | |
| fetch://[user@]host/path | | |
| fetch://[user@]host:http/path | Not Available | fetch |
| :Nread fetch://[user@]host/path| | |
+---------------------------------+----------------------------+------------+
| FILE: | | |
| file:///* | file:///* | |
| file://localhost/* | file://localhost/* | |
+---------------------------------+----------------------------+------------+
| FTP: (*3) | (*3) | |
| ftp://[user@]host/path | ftp://[user@]host/path | ftp *2 |
| :Nread ftp://host/path | :Nwrite ftp://host/path | ftp+.netrc |
| :Nread host path | :Nwrite host path | ftp+.netrc |
| :Nread host uid pass path | :Nwrite host uid pass path | ftp |
+---------------------------------+----------------------------+------------+
| HTTP: wget is executable: (*4) | | |
| http://[user@]host/path | Not Available | wget |
+---------------------------------+----------------------------+------------+
| HTTP: fetch is executable (*4) | | |
| http://[user@]host/path | Not Available | fetch |
+---------------------------------+----------------------------+------------+
| RCP: | | |
| rcp://[user@]host/path | rcp://[user@]host/path | rcp |
+---------------------------------+----------------------------+------------+
| RSYNC: | | |
| rsync://[user@]host/path | rsync://[user@]host/path | rsync |
| :Nread rsync://host/path | :Nwrite rsync://host/path | rsync |
| :Nread rcp://host/path | :Nwrite rcp://host/path | rcp |
+---------------------------------+----------------------------+------------+
| SCP: | | |
| scp://[user@]host/path | scp://[user@]host/path | scp |

| :Nread scp://host/path | :Nwrite scp://host/path | scp (*1) |

+---------------------------------+----------------------------+------------+
| SFTP: | | |
| sftp://[user@]host/path | sftp://[user@]host/path | sftp |
| :Nread sftp://host/path | :Nwrite sftp://host/path | sftp *1 |
+=================================+============================+============+
(*1) For an absolute path use scp://machine//path.
(*2) if <.netrc> is present, it is assumed that it will
work with your ftp client. Otherwise the script will
prompt for user-id and password.
(*3) for ftp, "machine" may be machine#port or machine:port
if a different port is needed than the standard ftp port
(*4) for http:..., if wget is available it will be used. Otherwise,
if fetch is available it will be used.
Both the :Nread and the :Nwrite ex-commands can accept multiple filenames.
NETRC *netrw-netrc*
The <.netrc> file, typically located in your home directory, contains lines
therein which map a hostname (machine name) to the user id and password you
prefer to use with it.
The typical syntax for lines in a <.netrc> file is given as shown below.
Ftp under Unix usually supports <.netrc>; ftp under Windows usually doesn't.
machine {full machine name} login {user-id} password "{password}"
default login {user-id} password "{password}"
Your ftp client must handle the use of <.netrc> on its own, but if the
<.netrc> file exists, an ftp transfer will not ask for the user-id or
password.
Note:
Since this file contains passwords, make very sure nobody else can
read this file! Most programs will refuse to use a .netrc that is
readable for others. Don't forget that the system administrator can
still read the file! Ie. for Linux/Unix: chmod 600 .netrc
PASSWORD *netrw-passwd*
The script attempts to get passwords for ftp invisibly using |inputsecret()|,
a built-in Vim function. See |netrw-userpass| for how to change the password
after one has set it.
Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be a way for netrw to feed a password to
scp. Thus every transfer via scp will require re-entry of the password.
However, |netrw-ssh-hack| can help with this problem.
==============================================================================
5. Activation *netrw-activate* {{{1
Network-oriented file transfers are available by default whenever Vim's
|'nocompatible'| mode is enabled. Netrw's script files reside in your
system's plugin, autoload, and syntax directories; just the
plugin/netrwPlugin.vim script is sourced automatically whenever you bring up
vim. The main script in autoload/netrw.vim is only loaded when you actually
use netrw. I suggest that, at a minimum, you have at least the following in
your <.vimrc> customization file:
set nocp
if version >= 600
filetype plugin indent on
endif
==============================================================================
6. Transparent Remote File Editing *netrw-transparent* {{{1

Transparent file transfers occur whenever a regular file read or write

(invoked via an |:autocmd| for |BufReadCmd|, |BufWriteCmd|, or |SourceCmd|
events) is made. Thus one may read, write, or source files across networks
just as easily as if they were local files!
vim ftp://[user@]machine/path
...
:wq
See |netrw-activate| for more on how to encourage your vim to use plugins
such as netrw.
==============================================================================
7. Ex Commands *netrw-ex* {{{1
The usual read/write commands are supported. There are also a few
additional commands available. Often you won't need to use Nwrite or
Nread as shown in |netrw-transparent| (ie. simply use
:e url
:r url
:w url
instead, as appropriate) -- see |netrw-urls|. In the explanations
below, a {netfile} is an url to a remote file.
*:Nwrite* *:Nw*
:[range]Nw[rite] Write the specified lines to the current
file as specified in b:netrw_lastfile.
(related: |netrw-nwrite|)
:[range]Nw[rite] {netfile} [{netfile}]...
Write the specified lines to the {netfile}.
*:Nread* *:Nr*
:Nr[ead] Read the lines from the file specified in b:netrw_lastfile
into the current buffer. (related: |netrw-nread|)
:Nr[ead] {netfile} {netfile}...
Read the {netfile} after the current line.
*:Nsource* *:Ns*
:Ns[ource] {netfile}
Source the {netfile}.
To start up vim using a remote .vimrc, one may use
the following (all on one line) (tnx to Antoine Mechelynck)
vim -u NORC -N
--cmd "runtime plugin/netrwPlugin.vim"
--cmd "source scp://HOSTNAME/.vimrc"
(related: |netrw-source|)
:call NetUserPass() *NetUserPass()*

If g:netrw_uid and s:netrw_passwd don't exist,
this function will query the user for them.
(related: |netrw-userpass|)
:call NetUserPass("userid")
This call will set the g:netrw_uid and, if
the password doesn't exist, will query the user for it.
:call NetUserPass("userid","passwd")
This call will set both the g:netrw_uid and s:netrw_passwd.
The user-id and password are used by ftp transfers. One may
effectively remove the user-id and password by using empty
strings (ie. "").
:NetrwSettings This command is described in |netrw-settings| -- used to
display netrw settings and change netrw behavior.
==============================================================================
8. Variables and Options *netrw-options* *netrw-var* {{{1

(if you're interested in the netrw browser settings, see: |netrw-browser-var|)

The <netrw.vim> script provides several variables which act as options to
affect <netrw.vim>'s file transfer behavior. These variables typically may be
set in the user's <.vimrc> file: (see also |netrw-settings| |netrw-protocol|)
-------------
Netrw Options
-------------
Option Meaning
-------------- -----------------------------------------------
b:netrw_col Holds current cursor position (during NetWrite)
g:netrw_cygwin =1 assume scp under windows is from cygwin
(default/windows)
=0 assume scp under windows accepts windows
style paths (default/else)
g:netrw_ftp =0 use default ftp (uid password)
g:netrw_ftpmode ="binary" (default)
="ascii" (your choice)
g:netrw_ignorenetrc =1 (default)
if you have a <.netrc> file but you don't
want it used, then set this variable. Its
mere existence is enough to cause <.netrc>
to be ignored.
b:netrw_lastfile Holds latest method/machine/path.
b:netrw_line Holds current line number (during NetWrite)
g:netrw_silent =0 transfers done normally
=1 transfers done silently
g:netrw_uid Holds current user-id for ftp.
g:netrw_use_nt_rcp =0 don't use WinNT/2K/XP's rcp (default)
=1 use WinNT/2K/XP's rcp, binary mode
g:netrw_win95ftp =0 use unix-style ftp even if win95/98/ME/etc
=1 use default method to do ftp
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The script will also make use of the following variables internally, albeit
temporarily.
-------------------
Temporary Variables
-------------------
Variable Meaning
-------- ------------------------------------
b:netrw_method Index indicating rcp/ftp+.netrc/ftp
w:netrw_method (same as b:netrw_method)
g:netrw_machine Holds machine name parsed from input
b:netrw_fname Holds filename being accessed
------------------------------------------------------------
*netrw-protocol*
Netrw supports a number of protocols. These protocols are invoked using the
variables listed below, and may be modified by the user.
------------------------
Protocol Control Options
------------------------
Option Type Setting Meaning
--------- -------- -------------- ---------------------------
netrw_ftp variable =doesn't exist userid set by "user userid"
=0 userid set by "user userid"
=1 userid set by "userid"
NetReadFixup function =doesn't exist no change
=exists Allows user to have files
read via ftp automatically
transformed however they wish
by NetReadFixup()
g:netrw_dav_cmd variable ="cadaver" if cadaver is executable
g:netrw_dav_cmd variable ="curl -o" elseif curl is executable
g:netrw_fetch_cmd variable ="fetch -o" if fetch is available
g:netrw_ftp_cmd variable ="ftp"
g:netrw_http_cmd variable ="fetch -o" if fetch is available
g:netrw_http_cmd variable ="wget -O" else if wget is available
g:netrw_list_cmd variable ="ssh USEPORT HOSTNAME ls -Fa"

g:netrw_rcp_cmd variable ="rcp"

g:netrw_rsync_cmd variable ="rsync -a"
g:netrw_scp_cmd variable ="scp -q"
g:netrw_sftp_cmd variable ="sftp"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
*netrw-ftp*
The g:netrw_..._cmd options (|g:netrw_ftp_cmd| and |g:netrw_sftp_cmd|)
specify the external program to use handle the ftp protocol. They may
include command line options (such as -p for passive mode). Example:
let g:netrw_ftp_cmd= "ftp -p"
Browsing is supported by using the |g:netrw_list_cmd|; the substring
"HOSTNAME" will be changed via substitution with whatever the current request
is for a hostname.
Two options (|g:netrw_ftp| and |netrw-fixup|) both help with certain ftp's
that give trouble . In order to best understand how to use these options if
ftp is giving you troubles, a bit of discussion is provided on how netrw does
ftp reads.
For ftp, netrw typically builds up lines of one of the following formats in a
temporary file:
IF g:netrw_ftp !exists or is not 1 IF g:netrw_ftp exists and is 1
---------------------------------- ------------------------------
open machine [port] open machine [port]
user userid password userid password
[g:netrw_ftpmode] password
[g:netrw_ftpextracmd] [g:netrw_ftpmode]
get filename tempfile [g:netrw_extracmd]
get filename tempfile
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The |g:netrw_ftpmode| and |g:netrw_ftpextracmd| are optional.
Netrw then executes the lines above by use of a filter:
:%! {g:netrw_ftp_cmd} -i [-n]
where
g:netrw_ftp_cmd is usually "ftp",
-i tells ftp not to be interactive
-n means don't use netrc and is used for Method #3 (ftp w/o <.netrc>)
If <.netrc> exists it will be used to avoid having to query the user for
userid and password. The transferred file is put into a temporary file.
The temporary file is then read into the main editing session window that
requested it and the temporary file deleted.
If your ftp doesn't accept the "user" command and immediately just demands a
userid, then try putting "let netrw_ftp=1" in your <.vimrc>.
*netrw-cadaver*
To handle the SSL certificate dialog for untrusted servers, one may pull
down the certificate and place it into /usr/ssl/cert.pem. This operation
renders the server treatment as "trusted".
*netrw-fixup* *netreadfixup*
If your ftp for whatever reason generates unwanted lines (such as AUTH
messages) you may write a NetReadFixup() function:
function! NetReadFixup(method,line1,line2)
" a:line1: first new line in current file
" a:line2: last new line in current file
if a:method == 1 "rcp
elseif a:method == 2 "ftp + <.netrc>
elseif a:method == 3 "ftp + machine,uid,password,filename
elseif a:method == 4 "scp
elseif a:method == 5 "http/wget
elseif a:method == 6 "dav/cadaver
elseif a:method == 7 "rsync
elseif a:method == 8 "fetch

elseif a:method == 9 "sftp

else " complain
endif
endfunction
The NetReadFixup() function will be called if it exists and thus allows you to
customize your reading process. As a further example, <netrw.vim> contains
just such a function to handle Windows 95 ftp. For whatever reason, Windows
95's ftp dumps four blank lines at the end of a transfer, and so it is
desirable to automate their removal. Here's some code taken from <netrw.vim>
itself:
if has("win95") && g:netrw_win95ftp
fun! NetReadFixup(method, line1, line2)
if method == 3 " ftp (no <.netrc>)
let fourblanklines= line2 - 3
silent fourblanklines.",".line2."g/^\s*/d"
endif
endfunction
endif
==============================================================================
9. Browsing *netrw-browsing* *netrw-browse* *netrw-help* {{{1
*netrw-browser* *netrw-dir* *netrw-list*
INTRODUCTION TO BROWSING *netrw-intro-browse* {{{2

(Quick References: |netrw-quickmaps| |netrw-quickcoms|)
Netrw supports the browsing of directories on your local system and on remote
hosts; browsing includes listing files and directories, entering directories,
editing files therein, deleting files/directories, making new directories,
moving (renaming) files and directories, copying files and directories, etc.
One may mark files and execute any system command on them! The Netrw browser
generally implements the previous explorer's maps and commands for remote
directories, although details (such as pertinent global variable names)
necessarily differ. To browse a directory, simply "edit" it!
vim /your/directory/
vim .
vim c:\your\directory\
(Related topics: |netrw-cr| |netrw-o| |netrw-p| |netrw-P| |netrw-t|
|netrw-mf| |netrw-mx| |netrw-D| |netrw-R| |netrw-v| )
The Netrw remote file and directory browser handles two protocols: ssh and
ftp. The protocol in the url, if it is ftp, will cause netrw also to use ftp
in its remote browsing. Specifying any other protocol will cause it to be
used for file transfers; but the ssh protocol will be used to do remote
browsing.
To use Netrw's remote directory browser, simply attempt to read a "file" with
a trailing slash and it will be interpreted as a request to list a directory:
vim [protocol]://[user@]hostname/path/
where [protocol] is typically scp or ftp. As an example, try:
vim ftp://ftp.home.vim.org/pub/vim/
For local directories, the trailing slash is not required. Again, because it's
easy to miss: to browse remote directories, the url must terminate with a
slash!
If you'd like to avoid entering the password repeatedly for remote directory
listings with ssh or scp, see |netrw-ssh-hack|. To avoid password entry with
ftp, see |netrw-netrc| (if your ftp supports it).
There are several things you can do to affect the browser's display of files:
* To change the listing style, press the "i" key (|netrw-i|).
Currently there are four styles: thin, long, wide, and tree.
To make that change "permanent", see |g:netrw_liststyle|.
* To hide files (don't want to see those xyz~ files anymore?) see
|netrw-ctrl-h|.

* Press s to sort files by name, time, or size.

See |netrw-browse-cmds| for all the things you can do with netrw!
*netrw-getftype* *netrw-filigree* *netrw-ftype*

The |getftype()| function is used to append a bit of filigree to indicate
filetype to locally listed files:
directory : /
executable : *
fifo : |
links : @
sockets : =
The filigree also affects the |g:netrw_sort_sequence|.
QUICK HELP *netrw-quickhelp* {{{2

(Use ctrl-] to select a topic)
Intro to Browsing...............................|netrw-intro-browseYXXY
Quick Reference: Maps.........................|netrw-quickmapYXXY
Quick Reference: Commands.....................|netrw-browse-cmdsYXXY
Hiding
Edit hiding list..............................|netrw-ctrl-hYXXY
Hiding Files or Directories...................|netrw-aYXXY
Hiding/Unhiding by suffix.....................|netrw-mhYXXY
Hiding dot-files.............................|netrw-ghYXXY
Listing Style
Select listing style (thin/long/wide/tree)....|netrw-iYXXY
Associated setting variable...................|g:netrw_liststyleYXXY
Shell command used to perform listing.........|g:netrw_list_cmdYXXY
Quick file info...............................|netrw-qfYXXY
Sorted by
Select sorting style (name/time/size).........|netrw-sYXXY
Editing the sorting sequence..................|netrw-SYXXY
Sorting options...............................|g:netrw_sort_optionsYXXY
Associated setting variable...................|g:netrw_sort_sequenceYXXY
Reverse sorting order.........................|netrw-rYXXY
*netrw-quickmap* *netrw-quickmaps*
QUICK REFERENCE: MAPS *netrw-browse-maps* {{{2
--- ----------------- ----
Map Quick Explanation Link
--- ----------------- ----
<F1> Causes Netrw to issue help
<cr> Netrw will enter the directory or read the file |netrw-cr|
<del> Netrw will attempt to remove the file/directory |netrw-del|
- Makes Netrw go up one directory |netrw--|
a Toggles between normal display, |netrw-a|
hiding (suppress display of files matching g:netrw_list_hide)
showing (display only files which match g:netrw_list_hide)
c Make browsing directory the current directory |netrw-c|
C Setting the editing window |netrw-C|
d Make a directory |netrw-d|
D Attempt to remove the file(s)/directory(ies) |netrw-D|
gb Go to previous bookmarked directory |netrw-gb|
gh Quick hide/unhide of dot-files |netrw-gh|
<c-h> Edit file hiding list |netrw-ctrl-h|
i Cycle between thin, long, wide, and tree listings |netrw-i|
<c-l> Causes Netrw to refresh the directory listing |netrw-ctrl-l|
mb Bookmark current directory |netrw-mb|
mc Copy marked files to marked-file target directory |netrw-mc|
md Apply diff to marked files (up to 3) |netrw-md|
me Place marked files on arg list and edit them |netrw-me|
mf Mark a file |netrw-mf|
mh Toggle marked file suffices' presence on hiding list |netrw-mh|
mm Move marked files to marked-file target directory |netrw-mm|
mp Print marked files |netrw-mp|
mr Mark files satisfying a shell-style |regexp| |netrw-mr|
mt Current browsing directory becomes markfile target |netrw-mt|
mT Apply ctags to marked files |netrw-mT|
mu Unmark all marked files |netrw-mu|
mx Apply arbitrary shell command to marked files |netrw-mx|

mz Compress/decompress marked files |netrw-mz|

o Enter the file/directory under the cursor in a new |netrw-o|
browser window. A horizontal split is used.
O Obtain a file specified by cursor |netrw-O|
p Preview the file |netrw-p|
P Browse in the previously used window |netrw-P|
qb List bookmarked directories and history |netrw-qb|
qf Display information on file |netrw-qf|
r Reverse sorting order |netrw-r|
R Rename the designed file(s)/directory(ies) |netrw-R|
s Select sorting style: by name, time, or file size |netrw-s|
S Specify suffix priority for name-sorting |netrw-S|
t Enter the file/directory under the cursor in a new tab|netrw-tYXXY
u Change to recently-visited directory |netrw-u|
U Change to subsequently-visited directory |netrw-U|
v Enter the file/directory under the cursor in a new |netrw-v|
browser window. A vertical split is used.
x View file with an associated program |netrw-x|
% Open a new file in netrw's current directory |netrw-%|
*netrw-mouse* *netrw-leftmouse* *netrw-middlemouse* *netrw-rightmouse*

<leftmouse> (gvim only) selects word under mouse as if a <cr>
had been pressed (ie. edit file, change directory)
<middlemouse> (gvim only) same as P selecting word under mouse;
see |netrw-P|
<rightmouse> (gvim only) delete file/directory using word under
mouse
<2-leftmouse> (gvim only) when:
* in a netrw-selected file, AND
* |g:netrw_retmap| == 1 AND
* the user doesn't already have a <2-leftmouse> mapping
defined before netrw is autoloaded,
then a double clicked leftmouse button will return
to the netrw browser window. See |g:netrw_retmap|.
<s-leftmouse> (gvim only) like mf, will mark files
(to disable mouse buttons while browsing: |g:netrw_mousemaps|)
*netrw-quickcom* *netrw-quickcoms*
QUICK REFERENCE: COMMANDS *netrw-explore-cmds* *netrw-browse-cmds* {{{2
:NetrwClean[!] ...........................................|netrw-cleanYXXY
:NetrwSettings ...........................................|netrw-settingsYXXY
:Explore[!] [dir] Explore directory of current file......|netrw-exploreYXXY
:Hexplore[!] [dir] Horizontal Split & Explore.............|netrw-exploreYXXY
:Nexplore[!] [dir] Vertical Split & Explore...............|netrw-exploreYXXY
:Pexplore[!] [dir] Vertical Split & Explore...............|netrw-exploreYXXY
:Rexplore Return to Explorer.....................|netrw-exploreYXXY
:Sexplore[!] [dir] Split & Explore directory .............|netrw-exploreYXXY
:Texplore[!] [dir] Tab & Explore..........................|netrw-exploreYXXY
:Vexplore[!] [dir] Vertical Split & Explore...............|netrw-exploreYXXY
BOOKMARKING A DIRECTORY *netrw-mb* *netrw-bookmark* *netrw-bookmarks* {{{2

One may easily "bookmark" a directory by using
mb
Bookmarks are retained in between sessions in a $HOME/.netrwbook file, and are
kept in sorted order.
Related Topics:
|netrw-gb| how to return (go) to a bookmark
|netrw-mB| how to delete bookmarks
|netrw-qb| how to list bookmarks
BROWSING *netrw-cr* {{{2

Browsing is simple: move the cursor onto a file or directory of interest.
Hitting the <cr> (the return key) will select the file or directory.
Directories will themselves be listed, and files will be opened using the
protocol given in the original read request.
CAVEAT: There are four forms of listing (see |netrw-i|). Netrw assumes that

two or more spaces delimit filenames and directory names for the long and
wide listing formats. Thus, if your filename or directory name has two or
more sequential spaces embedded in it, or any trailing spaces, then you'll
need to use the "thin" format to select it.
The |g:netrw_browse_split| option, which is zero by default, may be used to
cause the opening of files to be done in a new window or tab instead of the
default. When the option is one or two, the splitting will be taken
horizontally or vertically, respectively. When the option is set to three, a
<cr> will cause the file to appear in a new tab.
When using the gui (gvim), one may select a file by pressing the <leftmouse>
button. In addition, if
*|g:netrw_retmap| == 1 AND (its default value is 0)
* in a netrw-selected file, AND
* the user doesn't already have a <2-leftmouse> mapping defined before
netrw is loaded
then a doubly-clicked leftmouse button will return to the netrw browser
window.
Netrw attempts to speed up browsing, especially for remote browsing where one
may have to enter passwords, by keeping and re-using previously obtained
directory listing buffers. The |g:netrw_fastbrowse| variable is used to
control this behavior; one may have slow browsing (no buffer re-use), medium
speed browsing (re-use directory buffer listings only for remote directories),
and fast browsing (re-use directory buffer listings as often as possible).
The price for such re-use is that when changes are made (such as new files
are introduced into a directory), the listing may become out-of-date. One may
always refresh directory listing buffers by pressing ctrl-L (see
|netrw-ctrl-l|).
Related topics: |netrw-o| |netrw-p| |netrw-P| |netrw-t| |netrw-v|

Associated setting variables: |g:netrw_browse_split| |g:netrw_fastbrowse|
|g:netrw_ftp_list_cmd| |g:netrw_ftp_sizelist_cmd|
|g:netrw_ftp_timelist_cmd| |g:netrw_ssh_cmd|
|g:netrw_ssh_browse_reject| |g:netrw_use_noswf|
BROWSING WITH A HORIZONTALLY SPLIT WINDOW *netrw-o* *netrw-horiz* {{{2

Normally one enters a file or directory using the <cr>. However, the "o" map
allows one to open a new window to hold the new directory listing or file. A
horizontal split is used. (for vertical splitting, see |netrw-v|)
Normally, the o key splits the window horizontally with the new window and
cursor at the top. To change to splitting the window horizontally with the
new window and cursor at the bottom, have
let g:netrw_alto = 1
in your <.vimrc>. (also see |netrw-t| |netrw-T| |netrw-v|)
Associated setting variables: |g:netrw_alto| |g:netrw_winsize|
BROWSING WITH A NEW TAB *netrw-t* *netrw-T* {{{2

Normally one enters a file or directory using the <cr>. The "t" map
allows one to open a new window holding the new directory listing or file in
a new tab. The "T" version puts the file or directory into a background tab
(see |gT|)
Related actions: |netrw-o| |netrw-v|
BROWSING WITH A VERTICALLY SPLIT WINDOW *netrw-v* {{{2

Normally one enters a file or directory using the <cr>. However, the "v" map
allows one to open a new window to hold the new directory listing or file. A
vertical split is used. (for horizontal splitting, see |netrw-o|)
Normally, the v key splits the window vertically with the new window and
cursor at the left. To change to splitting the window vertically with the new

window and cursor at the right, have

let g:netrw_altv = 1
in your <.vimrc>. (also see: |netrw-o| |netrw-t| |netrw-T|)
There is only one tree listing buffer; using "v" on a displayed subdirectory
will split the screen, but the same buffer will be shown twice.
Associated setting variable: |g:netrw_altv| |g:netrw_winsize|
CHANGE LISTING STYLE (THIN LONG WIDE TREE) *netrw-i* {{{2

The "i" map cycles between the thin, long, wide, and tree listing formats.
The thin listing format gives just the files' and directories' names.
The long listing is either based on the "ls" command via ssh for remote
directories or displays the filename, file size (in bytes), and the time and
date of last modification for local directories. With the long listing
format, netrw is not able to recognize filenames which have trailing spaces.
Use the thin listing format for such files.
The wide listing format uses two or more contiguous spaces to delineate
filenames; when using that format, netrw won't be able to recognize or use
filenames which have two or more contiguous spaces embedded in the name or any
trailing spaces. The thin listing format will, however, work with such files.
This listing format is the most compact.
The tree listing format has a top directory followed by files and directories
preceded by a "|". One may open and close directories by pressing the <cr>
key while atop the directory name.
One may make a preferred listing style your default; see |g:netrw_liststyle|.
As an example, by putting the following line in your .vimrc,
let g:netrw_liststyle= 4
the tree style will become your default listing style.
Associated setting variables: |g:netrw_liststyle| |g:netrw_maxfilenamelen|
|g:netrw_timefmt| |g:netrw_list_cmd|
CHANGE FILE PERMISSION *netrw-gp* {{{2

"gp" will ask you for a new permission for the file named under the cursor.
Currently, this only works for local files.
Associated setting variables: |g:netrw_chgperm|
CHANGING TO A BOOKMARKED DIRECTORY *netrw-gb* {{{2

To change directory back to a bookmarked directory, use
{cnt}gb
Any count may be used to reference any of the bookmarks.
Related Topics:
|netrw-mb| how to make a bookmark
CHANGING TO A PREDECESSOR DIRECTORY *netrw-u* *netrw-updir* {{{2

Every time you change to a new directory (new for the current session),
netrw will save the directory in a recently-visited directory history
list (unless |g:netrw_dirhistmax| is zero; by default, it's ten). With the
"u" map, one can change to an earlier directory (predecessor). To do
the opposite, see |netrw-U|.
CHANGING TO A SUCCESSOR DIRECTORY *netrw-U* *netrw-downdir* {{{2

With the "U" map, one can change to a later directory (successor).
This map is the opposite of the "u" map. (see |netrw-u|) Use the
q map to list both the bookmarks and history. (see |netrw-qb|)
NETRW CLEAN *netrw-clean* *:NetrwClean*

With :NetrwClean one may easily remove netrw from one's home directory;
more precisely, from the first directory on your |'runtimepath'|.
With :NetrwClean!, netrw will remove netrw from all directories on your
|'runtimepath'|.
With either form of the command, netrw will first ask for confirmation
that the removal is in fact what you want to do. If netrw doesn't have
permission to remove a file, it will issue an error message.
*netrw-gx*
CUSTOMIZING BROWSING WITH A USER FUNCTION *netrw-x* *netrw-handler* {{{2
(also see |netrw_filehandler|)
Certain files, such as html, gif, jpeg, (word/office) doc, etc, files, are
best seen with a special handler (ie. a tool provided with your computer).
Netrw allows one to invoke such special handlers by:
* when Exploring, hit the "x" key
* when editing, hit gx with the cursor atop the special filename
(not available if the |g:netrw_nogx| variable exists)
Netrw determines which special handler by the following method:
* if |g:netrw_browsex_viewer| exists, then it will be used to attempt to
view files. Examples of useful settings (place into your <.vimrc>):
:let g:netrw_browsex_viewer= "kfmclient exec"
or
:let g:netrw_browsex_viewer= "gnome-open"
If g:netrw_browsex_viewer == '-', then netrwFileHandler() will be
invoked first (see |netrw_filehandler|).
* for Windows 32 or 64, the url and FileProtocolHandler dlls are used.
* for Gnome (with gnome-open): gnome-open is used.
* for KDE (with kfmclient) : kfmclient is used.
* for Mac OS X : open is used.
* otherwise the netrwFileHandler plugin is used.
The file's suffix is used by these various approaches to determine an
appropriate application to use to "handle" these files. Such things as
OpenOffice (*.sfx), visualization (*.jpg, *.gif, etc), and PostScript (*.ps,
*.eps) can be handled.
*netrw_filehandler*
The "x" map applies a function to a file, based on its extension. Of course,
the handler function must exist for it to be called!
Ex. mypgm.html x ->
NFH_html("scp://user@host/some/path/mypgm.html")
Users may write their own netrw File Handler functions to support more
suffixes with special handling. See <autoload/netrwFileHandlers.vim> for
examples on how to make file handler functions. As an example:
" NFH_suffix(filename)
fun! NFH_suffix(filename)
..do something special with filename..
endfun
These functions need to be defined in some file in your .vim/plugin
(vimfiles\plugin) directory. Vim's function names may not have punctuation
characters (except for the underscore) in them. To support suffices that
contain such characters, netrw will first convert the suffix using the
following table:

@ -> AT ! -> EXCLAMATION % -> PERCENT

: -> COLON = -> EQUAL ? -> QUESTION
, -> COMMA - -> MINUS ; -> SEMICOLON
$ -> DOLLAR + -> PLUS ~ -> TILDE
So, for example:
file.rcs,v -> NFH_rcsCOMMAv()
If more such translations are necessary, please send me email:
NdrOchip at ScampbellPfamily.AbizM - NOSPAM
with a request.
Associated setting variable: |g:netrw_browsex_viewer|
*netrw-curdir*
DELETING BOOKMARKS *netrw-mB* {{{2
To delete a bookmark, use
{cnt}mB
Related Topics:
DELETING FILES OR DIRECTORIES *netrw-delete* *netrw-D* *netrw-del* {{{2

If files have not been marked with |netrw-mf|: (local marked file list)
Deleting/removing files and directories involves moving the cursor to the
file/directory to be deleted and pressing "D". Directories must be empty
first before they can be successfully removed. If the directory is a
softlink to a directory, then netrw will make two requests to remove the
directory before succeeding. Netrw will ask for confirmation before doing
the removal(s). You may select a range of lines with the "V" command
(visual selection), and then pressing "D".
If files have been marked with |netrw-mf|: (local marked file list)
Marked files (and empty directories) will be deleted; again, you'll be
asked to confirm the deletion before it actually takes place.
The |g:netrw_rm_cmd|, |g:netrw_rmf_cmd|, and |g:netrw_rmdir_cmd| variables are
used to control the attempts to remove files and directories. The
g:netrw_rm_cmd is used with files, and its default value is:
g:netrw_rm_cmd: ssh HOSTNAME rm
The g:netrw_rmdir_cmd variable is used to support the removal of directories.
Its default value is:
g:netrw_rmdir_cmd: ssh HOSTNAME rmdir
If removing a directory fails with g:netrw_rmdir_cmd, netrw then will attempt
to remove it again using the g:netrw_rmf_cmd variable. Its default value is:
g:netrw_rmf_cmd: ssh HOSTNAME rm -f
Associated setting variable: |g:netrw_local_rmdir| |g:netrw_rm_cmd|
|g:netrw_rmdir_cmd| |g:netrw_ssh_cmd|
*netrw-explore* *netrw-hexplore* *netrw-nexplore* *netrw-pexplore*

*netrw-rexplore* *netrw-sexplore* *netrw-texplore* *netrw-vexplore*
DIRECTORY EXPLORATION COMMANDS {{{2
:[N]Explore[!] [dir]... Explore directory of current file *:Explore*

:[N]Hexplore[!] [dir]... Horizontal Split & Explore *:Hexplore*

:Rexplore ... Return to Explorer *:Rexplore*

:[N]Sexplore[!] [dir]... Split&Explore current file's directory *:Sexplore*
:Texplore [dir]... Tab & Explore *:Texplore*
:[N]Vexplore[!] [dir]... Vertical Split & Explore *:Vexplore*
Used with :Explore **/pattern : (also see |netrw-starstar|)
:Nexplore............. go to next matching file *:Nexplore*
:Pexplore............. go to previous matching file *:Pexplore*
:Explore will open the local-directory browser on the current file's
directory (or on directory [dir] if specified). The window will be
split only if the file has been modified, otherwise the browsing
window will take over that window. Normally the splitting is taken
horizontally.
:Explore! is like :Explore, but will use vertical splitting.
:Sexplore will always split the window before invoking the local-directory
browser. As with Explore, the splitting is normally done
horizontally.
:Sexplore! [dir] is like :Sexplore, but the splitting will be done vertically.
:Hexplore [dir] does an :Explore with |:belowright| horizontal splitting.
:Hexplore! [dir] does an :Explore with |:aboveleft| horizontal splitting.
:Vexplore [dir] does an :Explore with |:leftabove| vertical splitting.
:Vexplore! [dir] does an :Explore with |:rightbelow| vertical splitting.
:Texplore [dir] does a tabnew before generating the browser window
By default, these commands use the current file's directory. However, one may
explicitly provide a directory (path) to use.
The [N] will override |g:netrw_winsize| to specify the quantity of rows and/or
columns the new explorer window should have.
Otherwise, the |g:netrw_winsize| variable, if it has been specified by the
user, is used to control the quantity of rows and/or columns new explorer
windows should have.
:Rexplore This command is a little different from the others. When one
edits a file, for example by pressing <cr> when atop a file in
a netrw browser window, :Rexplore will return the display to
that of the last netrw browser window. It is a command version
of the <2-leftmouse> map (which is only available under gvim and
cooperative terms).
*netrw-star* *netrw-starpat* *netrw-starstar* *netrw-starstarpat*

EXPLORING WITH STARS AND PATTERNS
When Explore, Sexplore, Hexplore, or Vexplore are used with one of the
following four styles, Explore generates a list of files which satisfy
the request.
*/filepat files in current directory which satisfy filepat
**/filepat files in current directory or below which satisfy the
file pattern
*//pattern files in the current directory which contain the
pattern (vimgrep is used)
**//pattern files in the current directory or below which contain
the pattern (vimgrep is used)
The cursor will be placed on the first file in the list. One may then
continue to go to subsequent files on that list via |:Nexplore| or to
preceding files on that list with |:Pexplore|. Explore will update the
directory and place the cursor appropriately.
A plain
:Explore
will clear the explore list.
If your console or gui produces recognizable shift-up or shift-down sequences,
then you'll likely find using shift-downarrow and shift-uparrow convenient.
They're mapped by netrw:
<s-down> == Nexplore, and
<s-up> == Pexplore.

As an example, consider
:Explore */*.c
:Nexplore
:Nexplore
:Pexplore
The status line will show, on the right hand side of the status line, a
message like "Match 3 of 20".
Associated setting variables: |g:netrw_keepdir| |g:netrw_browse_split|
|g:netrw_fastbrowse| |g:netrw_ftp_browse_reject|
|g:netrw_ftp_list_cmd| |g:netrw_ftp_sizelist_cmd|
|g:netrw_ftp_timelist_cmd| |g:netrw_list_cmd|
|g:netrw_liststyle|
DISPLAYING INFORMATION ABOUT FILE *netrw-qf* {{{2

With the cursor atop a filename, pressing "qf" will reveal the file's size
and last modification timestamp. Currently this capability is only available
for local files.
EDIT FILE OR DIRECTORY HIDING LIST *netrw-ctrl-h* *netrw-edithide* {{{2

The "<ctrl-h>" map brings up a requestor allowing the user to change the
file/directory hiding list contained in |g:netrw_list_hide|. The hiding list
consists of one or more patterns delimited by commas. Files and/or
directories satisfying these patterns will either be hidden (ie. not shown) or
be the only ones displayed (see |netrw-a|).
The "gh" mapping (see |netrw-gh|) quickly alternates between the usual
hiding list and the hiding of files or directories that begin with ".".
As an example,
let g:netrw_list_hide= '$^\|\s\s$\zs\.\S\+'
Effectively, this makes the effect of a |netrw-gh| command the initial setting.
What it means:
$^\|\s\s$ : if the line begins with the following, -or-
two consecutive spaces are encountered
\zs : start the hiding match now
\. : if it now begins with a dot
\S\+ : and is followed by one or more non-whitespace
characters
Associated setting variables: |g:netrw_hide| |g:netrw_list_hide|
Associated topics: |netrw-a| |netrw-gh| |netrw-mh|
EDITING THE SORTING SEQUENCE *netrw-S* *netrw-sortsequence* {{{2

When "Sorted by" is name, one may specify priority via the sorting sequence
(g:netrw_sort_sequence). The sorting sequence typically prioritizes the
name-listing by suffix, although any pattern will do. Patterns are delimited
by commas. The default sorting sequence is (all one line):
For Unix:
'[\/]$,\<core\%(\.\d\+\)\=,\.[a-np-z]$,\.h$,\.c$,\.cpp$,*,\.o$,\.obj$,
\.info$,\.swp$,\.bak$,\~$'
Otherwise:
'[\/]$,\.[a-np-z]$,\.h$,\.c$,\.cpp$,*,\.o$,\.obj$,\.info$,
\.swp$,\.bak$,\~$'
The lone * is where all filenames not covered by one of the other patterns
will end up. One may change the sorting sequence by modifying the
g:netrw_sort_sequence variable (either manually or in your <.vimrc>) or by
using the "S" map.
Related topics: |netrw-s| |netrw-S|
Associated setting variables: |g:netrw_sort_sequence| |g:netrw_sort_options|

FORCING TREATMENT AS A FILE OR DIRECTORY *netrw-gd* *netrw-gf* {{{2

Remote symbolic links (ie. those listed via ssh or ftp) are problematic
in that it is difficult to tell whether they link to a file or to a
directory.
To force treatment as a file: use
gd
To force treatment as a directory: use
gf
GOING UP *netrw--* {{{2

To go up a directory, press "-" or press the <cr> when atop the ../ directory
entry in the listing.
Netrw will use the command in |g:netrw_list_cmd| to perform the directory
listing operation after changing HOSTNAME to the host specified by the
user-provided url. By default netrw provides the command as:
ssh HOSTNAME ls -FLa
where the HOSTNAME becomes the [user@]hostname as requested by the attempt to
read. Naturally, the user may override this command with whatever is
preferred. The NetList function which implements remote browsing
expects that directories will be flagged by a trailing slash.
HIDING FILES OR DIRECTORIES *netrw-a* *netrw-hiding* {{{2

Netrw's browsing facility allows one to use the hiding list in one of three
ways: ignore it, hide files which match, and show only those files which
match.
If no files have been marked via YXXYnetrw-mf|:
The "a" map allows the user to cycle through the three hiding modes.
The |g:netrw_list_hide| variable holds a comma delimited list of patterns
based on regular expressions (ex. ^.*\.obj$,^\.) which specify the hiding list.
(also see |netrw-ctrl-h|) To set the hiding list, use the <c-h> map. As an
example, to hide files which begin with a ".", one may use the <c-h> map to
set the hiding list to '^\..*' (or one may put let g:netrw_list_hide= '^\..*'
in one's <.vimrc>). One may then use the "a" key to show all files, hide
matching files, or to show only the matching files.
Example: \.[ch]$
This hiding list command will hide/show all *.c and *.h files.
Example: \.c$,\.h$
This hiding list command will also hide/show all *.c and *.h
files.
Don't forget to use the "a" map to select the mode (normal/hiding/show) you
want!
If files have been marked using |netrw-mf|, then this command will:
if showing all files or non-hidden files:
modify the g:netrw_list_hide list by appending the marked files to it
and showing only non-hidden files.
else if showing hidden files only:
modify the g:netrw_list_hide list by removing the marked files from it
and showing only non-hidden files.
endif
*netrw-gh* *netrw-hide*
As a quick shortcut, one may press
gh
to toggle between hiding files which begin with a period (dot) and not hiding
them.
Associated setting variable: |g:netrw_list_hide|
Associated topics: |netrw-a| |netrw-ctrl-h| |netrw-mh|

IMPROVING BROWSING *netrw-listhack* *netrw-ssh-hack* {{{2

Especially with the remote directory browser, constantly entering the password
is tedious.
For Linux/Unix systems, the book "Linux Server Hacks - 100 industrial strength
tips & tools" by Rob Flickenger (O'Reilly, ISBN 0-596-00461-3) gives a tip
for setting up no-password ssh and scp and discusses associated security
issues. It used to be available at http://hacks.oreilly.com/pub/h/66 ,
but apparently that address is now being redirected to some "hackzine".
I'll attempt a summary based on that article and on a communication from
Ben Schmidt:
1. Generate a public/private key pair on the local machine
(ssh client):
ssh-keygen -t rsa
(saving the file in ~/.ssh/id_rsa as prompted)
2. Just hit the <CR> when asked for passphrase (twice) for no
passphrase. If you do use a passphrase, you will also need to use
ssh-agent so you only have to type the passphrase once per session.
If you don't use a passphrase, simply logging onto your local
computer or getting access to the keyfile in any way will suffice
to access any ssh servers which have that key authorized for login.
3. This creates two files:
~/.ssh/id_rsa
~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
4. On the target machine (ssh server):
cd
mkdir -p .ssh
chmod 0700 .ssh
5. On your local machine (ssh client): (one line)
ssh {serverhostname}
cat '>>' '~/.ssh/authorized_keys2' < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
or, for OpenSSH, (one line)
cat '>>' '~/.ssh/authorized_keys' < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
You can test it out with
and you should be log onto the server machine without further need to type
anything.
If you decided to use a passphrase, do:
ssh-agent $SHELL
ssh-add
You will be prompted for your key passphrase when you use ssh-add, but not
subsequently when you use ssh. For use with vim, you can use
ssh-agent vim
and, when next within vim, use
:!ssh-add
Alternatively, you can apply ssh-agent to the terminal you're planning on
running vim in:
ssh-agent xterm &
and do ssh-add whenever you need.
For Windows, folks on the vim mailing list have mentioned that Pageant helps
with avoiding the constant need to enter the password.
Kingston Fung wrote about another way to avoid constantly needing to enter
passwords:
In order to avoid the need to type in the password for scp each time, you
provide a hack in the docs to set up a non password ssh account. I found a
better way to do that: I can use a regular ssh account which uses a
password to access the material without the need to key-in the password
each time. It's good for security and convenience. I tried ssh public key
authorization + ssh-agent, implementing this, and it works! Here are two
links with instructions:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-keyc2/
http://sial.org/howto/openssh/publickey-auth/

LISTING BOOKMARKS AND HISTORY *netrw-qb* *netrw-listbookmark* {{{2

Pressing "qb" (query bookmarks) will list both the bookmarked directories and
directory traversal history.
Related Topics:
|netrw-u| change to a predecessor directory via the history stack
|netrw-U| change to a successor directory via the history stack
MAKING A NEW DIRECTORY *netrw-d* {{{2

With the "d" map one may make a new directory either remotely (which depends
on the global variable g:netrw_mkdir_cmd) or locally (which depends on the
global variable g:netrw_local_mkdir). Netrw will issue a request for the new
directory's name. A bare <CR> at that point will abort the making of the
directory. Attempts to make a local directory that already exists (as either
a file or a directory) will be detected, reported on, and ignored.
Currently, making a directory via ftp is not supported.
Associated setting variable: |g:netrw_local_mkdir| |g:netrw_mkdir_cmd|
MAKING THE BROWSING DIRECTORY THE CURRENT DIRECTORY *netrw-c* {{{2

By default, |g:netrw_keepdir| is 1. This setting means that the current
directory will not track the browsing directory.
Setting g:netrw_keepdir to 0 tells netrw to make vim's current directory to
track netrw's browsing directory.
However, given the default setting for g:netrw_keepdir of 1 where netrw
maintains its own separate notion of the current directory, in order to make
the two directories the same, use the "c" map (just type c). That map will
set Vim's notion of the current directory to netrw's current browsing
directory.
Associated setting variable: |g:netrw_keepdir|
MARKING FILES *netrw-mf* {{{2

(also see |netrw-mr|)
One may mark files with the cursor atop a filename and then pressing "mf".
With gvim, one may also mark files with <s-leftmouse>. The following netrw
maps make use of marked files:
|netrw-a| Hide marked files/directories
|netrw-D| Delete marked files/directories
|netrw-mc| Copy marked files to target
|netrw-md| Apply vimdiff to marked files
|netrw-me| Edit marked files
|netrw-mg| Apply vimgrep to marked files
|netrw-mm| Move marked files
|netrw-mp| Print marked files
|netrw-mt| Set target for |netrw-mm| and |netrw-mc|
|netrw-mT| Generate tags using marked files
|netrw-mx| Apply shell command to marked files
|netrw-mz| Compress/Decompress marked files
|netrw-O| Obtain marked files
|netrw-R| Rename marked files
One may unmark files one at a time the same way one marks them; ie. place
the cursor atop a marked file and press "mf". This process also works
with <s-leftmouse> using gvim. One may unmark all files by pressing
"mu" (see |netrw-mu|).
Marked files are highlighted using the "netrwMarkFile" highlighting group,
which by default is linked to "Identifier" (see Identifier under
|group-name|). You may change the highlighting group by putting something
like

highlight clear netrwMarkFile

hi link netrwMarkFile ..whatever..
into $HOME/.vim/after/syntax/netrw.vim .
*markfilelist* *global_markfilelist* *local_markfilelist*

All marked files are entered onto the global marked file list; there is only
one such list. In addition, every netrw buffer also has its own local marked
file list; since netrw buffers are associated with specific directories, this
means that each directory has its own local marked file list. The various
commands which operate on marked files use one or the other of the marked file
lists.
MARKING FILES BY REGULAR EXPRESSION *netrw-mr* {{{2

(also see |netrw-mf|)
One may also mark files by pressing "mr"; netrw will then issue a prompt,
"Enter regexp: ". You may then enter a shell-style regular expression such
as *.c$ (see |glob()|). For remote systems, glob() doesn't work -- so netrw
converts "*" into ".*" (see |regexp|) and marks files based on that. In the
future I may make it possible to use |regexp|s instead of glob()-style
expressions (yet-another-option).
MARKED FILES: ARBITRARY COMMAND *netrw-mx* {{{2

(See |netrw-mf| and |netrw-mr| for how to mark files)
(uses the local marked-file list)
Upon activation of the "mx" map, netrw will query the user for some (external)
command to be applied to all marked files. All "%"s in the command will be
substituted with the name of each marked file in turn. If no "%"s are in the
command, then the command will be followed by a space and a marked filename.
MARKED FILES: COMPRESSION AND DECOMPRESSION *netrw-mz* {{{2

(uses the local marked file list)
If any marked files are compressed, then "mz" will decompress them.
If any marked files are decompressed, then "mz" will compress them
using the command specified by |g:netrw_compress|; by default,
that's "gzip".
For decompression, netrw provides a |Dictionary| of suffices and their
associated decompressing utilities; see |g:netrw_decompress|.
Associated setting variables: |g:netrw_compress| |g:netrw_decompress|
MARKED FILES: COPYING *netrw-mc* {{{2

(Uses the global marked file list)
Select a target directory with mt (|netrw-mt|). Then change directory,
select file(s) (see |netrw-mf|), and press "mc". The copy is done
from the current window (where one does the mf) to the target.
Associated setting variable: |g:netrw_localcopycmd| |g:netrw_ssh_cmd|
MARKED FILES: DIFF *netrw-md* {{{2

(uses the global marked file list)
Use |vimdiff| to visualize difference between selected files (two or
three may be selected for this). Uses the global marked file list.
MARKED FILES: EDITING *netrw-me* {{{2

This command will place the marked files on the |arglist| and commence
editing them. One may return the to explorer window with |:Rexplore|.

MARKED FILES: GREP *netrw-mg* {{{2

This command will apply |:vimgrep| to the marked files. The command will ask
for the requested pattern; one may enter:
/pattern/[g][j]
! /pattern/[g][j]
pattern
MARKED FILES: HIDING AND UNHIDING BY SUFFIX *netrw-mh* {{{2

This command extracts the suffices of the marked files and toggles their
presence on the hiding list. Please note that marking the same suffix
this way multiple times will result in the suffix's presence being toggled
for each file (so an even quantity of marked files having the same suffix
is the same as not having bothered to select them at all).
Related topics: |netrw-a| |g:netrw_list_hide|
MARKED FILES: MOVING *netrw-mm* {{{2

WARNING: moving files is more dangerous than copying them.
A file being moved is first copied and then deleted; if the
copy operation fails and the delete succeeds, you will lose
the file. Either try things out with unimportant files
first or do the copy and then delete yourself using mc and D.
Use at your own risk!
Select a target directory with mt (|netrw-mt|). Then change directory,
select file(s) (see |netrw-mf|), and press "mm". The move is done
from the current window (where one does the mf) to the target.
Associated setting variable: |g:netrw_localmovecmd| |g:netrw_ssh_cmd|
MARKED FILES: PRINTING *netrw-mp* {{{2

Netrw will apply the |:hardcopy| command to marked files. What it does
is open each file in a one-line window, execute hardcopy, then close the
one-line window.
MARKED FILES: SOURCING *netrw-ms* {{{2

Netrw will source the marked files (using vim's |:source| command)
MARKED FILES: TAGGING *netrw-mT* {{{2

The "mT" mapping will apply the command in |g:netrw_ctags| (by default, it is
"ctags") to marked files. For remote browsing, in order to create a tags file
netrw will use ssh (see |g:netrw_ssh_cmd|), and so ssh must be available for
this to work on remote systems. For your local system, see |ctags| on how to
get a version. I myself use hdrtags, currently available at
http://mysite.verizon.net/astronaut/src/index.html , and have
let g:netrw_ctags= "hdrtag"
in my <.vimrc>.
When a remote set of files are tagged, the resulting tags file is "obtained";
ie. a copy is transferred to the local system's directory. The local tags
file is then modified so that one may use it through the network. The
modification is concerns the names of the files in the tags; each filename is

preceded by the netrw-compatible url used to obtain it. When one subsequently
uses one of the go to tag actions (|tags|), the url will be used by netrw to
edit the desired file and go to the tag.
Associated setting variables: |g:netrw_ctags| |g:netrw_ssh_cmd|
MARKED FILES: SETTING THE TARGET DIRECTORY *netrw-mt* {{{2

Set the marked file copy/move-to target (see |netrw-mc| and |netrw-mm|):
* if the cursor is atop a file name, then the netrw window's currently
displayed directory is used for the copy/move-to target.
* also, if the cursor is in the banner, then the netrw window's currently
displayed directory is used for the copy/move-to target.
* however, if the cursor is atop a directory name, then that directory is
used for the copy/move-to target
There is only one copy/move-to target per vim session; ie. the target is a
script variable (see |s:var|) and is shared between all netrw windows (in an
instance of vim).
MARKED FILES: UNMARKING *netrw-mu* {{{2

The "mu" mapping will unmark all currently marked files.
NETRW BROWSER VARIABLES *netrw-browser-options* *netrw-browser-var* {{{2

(if you're interested in the netrw file transfer settings, see |netrw-options|)
The <netrw.vim> browser provides settings in the form of variables which
you may modify; by placing these settings in your <.vimrc>, you may customize
your browsing preferences. (see also: |netrw-settings|)
--- -----------
Var Explanation
--- -----------
*g:netrw_alto* change from above splitting to below splitting
by setting this variable (see |netrw-o|)
default: =&sb (see |'sb'|)
*g:netrw_altv* change from left splitting to right splitting

by setting this variable (see |netrw-v|)
default: =&spr (see |'spr'|)
*g:netrw_banner* enable/suppress the banner

=0: suppress the banner
=1: banner is enabled (default)
NOTE: suppressing the banner is a new feature
which may cause problems.
*g:netrw_browse_split* when browsing, <cr> will open the file by:

=0: re-using the same window
=1: horizontally splitting the window first
=2: vertically splitting the window first
=3: open file in new tab
=4: act like "P" (ie. open previous window)
Note that |g:netrw_preview| may be used
to get vertical splitting instead of
horizontal splitting.
*g:netrw_browsex_viewer* specify user's preference for a viewer:

"kfmclient exec"
"gnome-open"
If
"-"

is used, then netrwFileHandler() will look for

a script/function to handle the given
extension. (see |netrw_filehandler|).
*g:netrw_chgperm* Unix/Linux: "chmod PERM FILENAME"

Windows: "cacls FILENAME /e /p PERM"
Used to change access permission for a file.
*g:netrw_compress* ="gzip"
Will compress marked files with this
command
*g:netrw_ctags* ="ctags"
The default external program used to create tags
*g:netrw_cursor* = 2 (default)
This option controls the use of the
|'cursorline'| (cul) and |'cursorcolumn'|
(cuc) settings by netrw:
Value Thin-Long-Tree Wide
=0 u-cul u-cuc u-cul u-cuc
=1 u-cul u-cuc cul u-cuc
=2 cul u-cuc cul u-cuc
=3 cul u-cuc cul cuc
=4 cul cuc cul cuc
Where
u-cul : user's |'cursorline'| setting used
u-cuc : user's |'cursorcolumn'| setting used
cul : |'cursorline'| locally set
cuc : |'cursorcolumn'| locally set
*g:netrw_decompress* = { ".gz" : "gunzip" ,

".bz2" : "bunzip2" ,
".zip" : "unzip" ,
".tar" : "tar -xf"}
A dictionary mapping suffices to
decompression programs.
*g:netrw_dirhistmax* =10: controls maximum quantity of past

history. May be zero to supppress
history.
(related: |netrw-qb| |netrw-u| |netrw-U|)
*g:netrw_fastbrowse* =0: slow speed directory browsing;

never re-uses directory listings,
always obtains directory listings.
=1: medium speed directory browsing;
re-use directory listings only
when remote directory browsing.
(default value)
=2: fast directory browsing;
only obtains directory listings when the
directory hasn't been seen before
(or |netrw-ctrl-l| is used).
Fast browsing retains old directory listing
buffers so that they don't need to be
re-acquired. This feature is especially
important for remote browsing. However, if
a file is introduced or deleted into or from
such directories, the old directory buffer
becomes out-of-date. One may always refresh
such a directory listing with |netrw-ctrl-l|.
This option gives the user the choice of
trading off accuracy (ie. up-to-date listing)
versus speed.
*g:netrw_fname_escape* =' ?&;%'

Used on filenames before remote reading/writing

*g:netrw_ftp_browse_reject* ftp can produce a number of errors and warnings

that can show up as "directories" and "files"
in the listing. This pattern is used to
remove such embedded messages. By default its
value is:
'^total\s\+\d\+$\YXXY
^Trying\s\+\d\+.*$\YXXY
^KERBEROS_V\d rejected\YXXY
^Security extensions not\YXXY
No such file\YXXY
: connect to address [0-9a-fA-F:]*
: No route to host$'
*g:netrw_ftp_list_cmd* options for passing along to ftp for directory

listing. Defaults:
unix or g:netrw_cygwin set: : "ls -lF"
otherwise "dir"
*g:netrw_ftp_sizelist_cmd* options for passing along to ftp for directory

listing, sorted by size of file.
Defaults:
unix or g:netrw_cygwin set: : "ls -slF"
otherwise "dir"
*g:netrw_ftp_timelist_cmd* options for passing along to ftp for directory

listing, sorted by time of last modification.
Defaults:
unix or g:netrw_cygwin set: : "ls -tlF"
otherwise "dir"
*g:netrw_glob_escape* ='[]*?`{~$' (unix)
='[]*?`{$' (windows
These characters in directory names are
escaped before applying glob()
*g:netrw_hide* if true, the hiding list is used

default: =0
*g:netrw_home* The home directory for where bookmarks and

history are saved (as .netrwbook and
.netrwhist).
default: the first directory on the
|'runtimepath'|
*g:netrw_keepdir* =1 (default) keep current directory immune from

the browsing directory.
=0 keep the current directory the same as the
browsing directory.
The current browsing directory is contained in
b:netrw_curdir (also see |netrw-c|)
*g:netrw_list_cmd* command for listing remote directories

default: (if ssh is executable)
"ssh HOSTNAME ls -FLa"
*g:netrw_liststyle* Set the default listing style:

= 0: thin listing (one file per line)
= 1: long listing (one file per line with time
stamp information and file size)
= 2: wide listing (multiple files in columns)
= 3: tree style listing
*g:netrw_list_hide* comma separated pattern list for hiding files
Patterns are regular expressions (see |regexp|)
Example: let g:netrw_list_hide= '.*\.swp$'
default: ""
*g:netrw_localcopycmd* ="cp" Linux/Unix/MacOS/Cygwin

="copy" Windows

Copies marked files (|netrw-mf|) to target

directory (|netrw-mt|, |netrw-mc|)
*g:netrw_localmovecmd* ="mv" Linux/Unix/MacOS/Cygwin

="move" Windows
Moves marked files (|netrw-mf|) to target
directory (|netrw-mt|, |netrw-mm|)
*g:netrw_local_mkdir* command for making a local directory

default: "mkdir"
*g:netrw_local_rmdir* remove directory command (rmdir)

default: "rmdir"
*g:netrw_maxfilenamelen* =32 by default, selected so as to make long

listings fit on 80 column displays.
If your screen is wider, and you have file
or directory names longer than 32 bytes,
you may set this option to keep listings
columnar.
*g:netrw_mkdir_cmd* command for making a remote directory

default: "ssh USEPORT HOSTNAME mkdir"
*g:netrw_mousemaps* =1 (default) enables the mouse buttons

while browsing:
leftmouse : open file/directory
shift-leftmouse : mark file
middlemouse : same as P
rightmouse : remove file/directory
=0: disables mouse maps
*g:netrw_retmap* if it exists and is set to one, then:

* if in a netrw-selected file, AND
* no normal-mode <2-leftmouse> mapping exists,
then the <2-leftmouse> will be mapped for easy
return to the netrw browser window.
example: click once to select and open a file,
double-click to return.
Note that one may instead choose to:
* let g:netrw_retmap= 1, AND
* nmap <silent> YourChoice <Plug>NetrwReturn
and have another mapping instead of
<2-leftmouse> to invoke the return.
You may also use the |:Rexplore| command to do
the same thing.
default: =0
*g:netrw_rm_cmd* command for removing files

default: "ssh USEPORT HOSTNAME rm"
*g:netrw_rmdir_cmd* command for removing directories

default: "ssh USEPORT HOSTNAME rmdir"
*g:netrw_rmf_cmd* command for removing softlinks

default: "ssh USEPORT HOSTNAME rm -f"
*g:netrw_sort_by* sort by "name", "time", or "size"

default: "name"
*g:netrw_sort_direction* sorting direction: "normal" or "reverse"

default: "normal"
* * sorting is done using |:sort|; this

g:netrw_sort_options
variable's value is appended to the
sort command. Thus one may ignore case,
for example, with the following in your
.vimrc:
let g:netrw_sort_options="i"
default: ""
*g:netrw_sort_sequence* when sorting by name, first sort by the

comma-separated pattern sequence. Note that
the filigree added to indicate filetypes
should be accounted for in your pattern.
default: '[\/]$,*,\.bak$,\.o$,\.h$,
\.info$,\.swp$,\.obj$'
*g:netrw_special_syntax* If true, then certain files will be shown

in special syntax in the browser:
netrwBak : *.bak
netrwCompress: *.gz *.bz2 *.Z *.zip
netrwData : *.dat
netrwHdr : *.h
netrwLib : *.a *.so *.lib *.dll
netrwMakefile: [mM]akefile *.mak
netrwObj : *.o *.obj
netrwTags : tags ANmenu ANtags
netrwTilde : *
netrwTmp : tmp* *tmp
These syntax highlighting groups are linked
to Folded or DiffChange by default
(see |hl-Folded| and |hl-DiffChange|), but
one may put lines like
hi link netrwCompress Visual
into one's <.vimrc> to use one's own
preferences.
*g:netrw_ssh_cmd* One may specify an executable command

to use instead of ssh for remote actions
such as listing, file removal, etc.
default: ssh
*g:netrw_ssh_browse_reject* ssh can sometimes produce unwanted lines,

messages, banners, and whatnot that one doesn't
want masquerading as "directories" and "files".
Use this pattern to remove such embedded
messages. By default its value is:
'^total\s\+\d\+$'
*g:netrw_tmpfile_escape* =' &;'

escape() is applied to all temporary files
to escape these characters.
*g:netrw_timefmt* specify format string to vim's strftime().

The default, "%c", is "the preferred date
and time representation for the current
locale" according to my manpage entry for
strftime(); however, not all are satisfied
with it. Some alternatives:
"%a %d %b %Y %T",
" %a %Y-%m-%d %I-%M-%S %p"
default: "%c"
*g:netrw_use_noswf* netrw normally avoids writing swapfiles

for browser buffers. However, under some
systems this apparently is causing nasty
ml_get errors to appear; if you're getting
ml_get errors, try putting
let g:netrw_use_noswf= 0
in your .vimrc.

*g:netrw_winsize* specify initial size of new windows made with

"o" (see |netrw-o|), "v" (see |netrw-v|),
|:Hexplore| or |:Vexplore|.
default: ""
*g:netrw_xstrlen* Controls how netrw computes string lengths,

including multi-byte characters' string
length. (thanks to N Weibull, T Mechelynck)
=0: uses Vim's built-in strlen()
=1: number of codepoints (Latin a + combining
circumflex is two codepoints) (DEFAULT)
=2: number of spacing codepoints (Latin a +
combining circumflex is one spacing
codepoint; a hard tab is one; wide and
narrow CJK are one each; etc.)
=3: virtual length (counting tabs as anything
between 1 and |'tabstop'|, wide CJK as 2
rather than 1, Arabic alif as zero when
immediately preceded by lam, one
otherwise, etc)
*g:NetrwTopLvlMenu* This variable specifies the top level

menu name; by default, it's "Netrw.". If
you wish to change this, do so in your
.vimrc.
NETRW BROWSING AND OPTION INCOMPATIBILITIES *netrw-incompatible* {{{2

Netrw has been designed to handle user options by saving them, setting the
options to something that's compatible with netrw's needs, and then restoring
them. However, the autochdir option:
:set acd
is problematical. Autochdir sets the current directory to that containing the
file you edit; this apparently also applies to directories. In other words,
autochdir sets the current directory to that containing the "file" (even if
that "file" is itself a directory).
NETRW BROWSER SETTINGS *netrw-settings* {{{2

With the NetrwSettings.vim plugin,
:NetrwSettings
will bring up a window with the many variables that netrw uses for its
settings. You may change any of their values; when you save the file, the
settings therein will be used. One may also press "?" on any of the lines for
help on what each of the variables do.
(also see: |netrw-browser-var| |netrw-protocol| |netrw-var| |netrw-variables|)
==============================================================================
OBTAINING A FILE *netrw-O* {{{2
If there are no marked files:
When browsing a remote directory, one may obtain a file under the cursor
(ie. get a copy on your local machine, but not edit it) by pressing the O
key.
If there are marked files:
The marked files will be obtained (ie. a copy will be transferred to your
local machine, but not set up for editing).
Only ftp and scp are supported for this operation (but since these two are
available for browsing, that shouldn't be a problem). The status bar will
then show, on its right hand side, a message like "Obtaining filename". The
statusline will be restored after the transfer is complete.
Netrw can also "obtain" a file using the local browser. Netrw's display
of a directory is not necessarily the same as Vim's "current directory",
unless |g:netrw_keepdir| is set to 0 in the user's <.vimrc>. One may select
a file using the local browser (by putting the cursor on it) and pressing
"O" will then "obtain" the file; ie. copy it to Vim's current directory.
Related topics:

* To see what the current directory is, use |:pwd|

* To make the currently browsed directory the current directory, see |netrw-c|
* To automatically make the currently browsed directory the current
directory, see |g:netrw_keepdir|.
*netrw-createfile*
OPEN A NEW FILE IN NETRW'S CURRENT DIRECTORY *netrw-%*
To open a file in netrw's current directory, press "%". This map will
query the user for a new filename; an empty file by that name will be
placed in the netrw's current directory (ie. b:netrw_curdir).
PREVIEW WINDOW *netrw-p* *netrw-preview* {{{2

One may use a preview window by using the "p" key when the cursor is atop the
desired filename to be previewed. The display will then split to show both
the browser (where the cursor will remain) and the file (see |:pedit|).
By default, the split will be taken horizontally; one may use vertical
splitting if one has set |g:netrw_preview| first.
An interesting set of netrw settings is:
let g:netrw_preview = 1
let g:netrw_liststyle = 3
let g:netrw_winsize = 30
These will:
1. Make vertical splitting the default for previewing files
2. Make the default listing style "tree"
3. When a vertical preview window is opened, the directory listing
will use only 30 columns; the rest of the window is used for the
preview window.
PREVIOUS WINDOW *netrw-P* *netrw-prvwin* {{{2

To edit a file or directory in the previously used (last accessed) window (see
:he |CTRL-W_p|), press a "P". If there's only one window, then the one window
will be horizontally split (above/below splitting is controlled by
|g:netrw_alto|, and its initial size is controlled by |g:netrw_winsize|).
If there's more than one window, the previous window will be re-used on
the selected file/directory. If the previous window's associated buffer
has been modified, and there's only one window with that buffer, then
the user will be asked if s/he wishes to save the buffer first (yes,
no, or cancel).
REFRESHING THE LISTING *netrw-ctrl-l* *netrw-ctrl_l* {{{2

To refresh either a local or remote directory listing, press ctrl-l (<c-l>) or
hit the <cr> when atop the ./ directory entry in the listing. One may also
refresh a local directory by using ":e .".
RENAMING FILES OR DIRECTORIES *netrw-move* *netrw-rename* *netrw-R* {{{2

If there are no marked files: (see |netrw-mf|)
Renaming/moving files and directories involves moving the cursor to the
file/directory to be moved (renamed) and pressing "R". You will then be
queried for where you want the file/directory to be moved. You may select
a range of lines with the "V" command (visual selection), and then
pressing "R".
If there are marked files: (see |netrw-mf|)
Marked files will be renamed (moved). You will be queried as above in
order to specify where you want the file/directory to be moved.
WARNING:
Note that moving files is a dangerous operation; copies are safer. That's

because a "move" for remote files is actually a copy + delete -- and if

the copy fails and the delete does not, you may lose the file.
The g:netrw_rename_cmd variable is used to implement renaming. By default its
value is:
ssh HOSTNAME mv
One may rename a block of files and directories by selecting them with
the V (|linewise-visual|).
REVERSING SORTING ORDER *netrw-r* *netrw-reverse* {{{2

One may toggle between normal and reverse sorting order by pressing the
"r" key.
Related topics: |netrw-s|
Associated setting variable: |g:netrw_sort_direction|
SELECTING SORTING STYLE *netrw-s* *netrw-sort* {{{2

One may select the sorting style by name, time, or (file) size. The "s" map
allows one to circulate amongst the three choices; the directory listing will
automatically be refreshed to reflect the selected style.
Related topics: |netrw-r| |netrw-S|
Associated setting variables: |g:netrw_sort_by| |g:netrw_sort_sequence|
SETTING EDITING WINDOW *netrw-C* {{{2

One may select a netrw window for editing with the "C" mapping, or by setting
g:netrw_chgwin to the selected window number. Subsequent selection of a file
to edit (|netrw-cr|) will use that window.
Related topics: |netrw-cr|
Associated setting variables: |g:netrw_chgwin|
10. Problems and Fixes *netrw-problems* {{{1

(This section is likely to grow as I get feedback)
(also see |netrw-debug|)
*netrw-p1*
P1. I use windows 95, and my ftp dumps four blank lines at the
end of every read.
See |netrw-fixup|, and put the following into your
<.vimrc> file:
let g:netrw_win95ftp= 1
*netrw-p2*
P2. I use Windows, and my network browsing with ftp doesn't sort by
time or size! -or- The remote system is a Windows server; why
don't I get sorts by time or size?
Windows' ftp has a minimal support for ls (ie. it doesn't
accept sorting options). It doesn't support the -F which
gives an explanatory character (ABC/ for "ABC is a directory").
Netrw then uses "dir" to get both its thin and long listings.
If you think your ftp does support a full-up ls, put the
following into your <.vimrc>:
let g:netrw_ftp_list_cmd = "ls -lF"
let g:netrw_ftp_timelist_cmd= "ls -tlF"
let g:netrw_ftp_sizelist_cmd= "ls -slF"
Alternatively, if you have cygwin on your Windows box, put
into your <.vimrc>:
let g:netrw_cygwin= 1

This problem also occurs when the remote system is Windows.

In this situation, the various g:netrw_ftp_[timeYXXYsize]list_cmds
are as shown above, but the remote system will not correctly
modify its listing behavior.
*netrw-p3*
P3. I tried rcp://user@host/ (or protocol other than ftp) and netrw
used ssh! That wasn't what I asked for...
Netrw has two methods for browsing remote directories: ssh
and ftp. Unless you specify ftp specifically, ssh is used.
When it comes time to do download a file (not just a directory
listing), netrw will use the given protocol to do so.
*netrw-p4*
P4. I would like long listings to be the default.
Put the following statement into your YXXY.vimrc|:
let g:netrw_liststyle= 1
Check out |netrw-browser-var| for more customizations that
you can set.
*netrw-p5*
P5. My times come up oddly in local browsing
Does your system's strftime() accept the "%c" to yield dates
such as "Sun Apr 27 11:49:23 1997"? If not, do a "man strftime"
and find out what option should be used. Then put it into
your YXXY.vimrc|:
let g:netrw_timefmt= "%X" (where X is the option)
*netrw-p6*
P6. I want my current directory to track my browsing.
How do I do that?
Put the following line in your YXXY.vimrc|:
let g:netrw_keepdir= 0
*netrw-p7*
P7. I use Chinese (or other non-ascii) characters in my filenames, and
netrw (Explore, Sexplore, Hexplore, etc) doesn't display them!
(taken from an answer provided by Wu Yongwei on the vim
mailing list)
I now see the problem. You code page is not 936, right? Vim
seems only able to open files with names that are valid in the
current code page, as are many other applications that do not
use the Unicode version of Windows APIs. This is an OS-related
issue. You should not have such problems when the system
locale uses UTF-8, such as modern Linux distros.
(...it is one more reason to recommend that people use utf-8!)
*netrw-p8*
P8. I'm getting "ssh is not executable on your system" -- what do I
do?
(Dudley Fox) Most people I know use putty for windows ssh. It
is a free ssh/telnet application. You can read more about it
here:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ Also:
(Marlin Unruh) This program also works for me. It's a single
executable, so he/she can copy it into the Windows\System32
folder and create a shortcut to it.
(Dudley Fox) You might also wish to consider plink, as it

sounds most similar to what you are looking for. plink is an

application in the putty suite.
http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/0.58/htmldoc/Chapter7.html#plink
(Vissale Neang) Maybe you can try OpenSSH for windows, which
can be obtained from:
http://sshwindows.sourceforge.net/
It doesn't need the full Cygwin package.
(Antoine Mechelynck) For individual Unix-like programs needed
for work in a native-Windows environment, I recommend getting
them from the GnuWin32 project on sourceforge if it has them:
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/
Unlike Cygwin, which sets up a Unix-like virtual machine on
top of Windows, GnuWin32 is a rewrite of Unix utilities with
Windows system calls, and its programs works quite well in the
cmd.exe "Dos box".
(dave) Download WinSCP and use that to connect to the server.
In Preferences > Editors, set gvim as your editor:
- Click "Add..."
- Set External Editor (adjust path as needed, include
the quotes and !.! at the end):
"c:\Program Files\Vim\vim70\gvim.exe" !.!
- Check that the filetype in the box below is
{asterisk}.{asterisk} (all files), or whatever types
you want (cec: change {asterisk} to * ; I had to
write it that way because otherwise the helptags
system thinks it's a tag)
- Make sure it's at the top of the listbox (click it,
then click "Up" if it's not)
If using the Norton Commander style, you just have to hit <F4>
to edit a file in a local copy of gvim.
(Vit Gottwald) How to generate public/private key and save
public key it on server:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/0.60/htmldoc/Chapter8.html#pubkey-gettingready
(8.3 Getting ready for public key authentication)
How to use a private key with 'pscp':
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/0.60/htmldoc/Chapter5.html
(5.2.4 Using public key authentication with PSCP)
(Ben Schmidt) I find the ssh included with cwRsync is
brilliant, and install cwRsync or cwRsyncServer on most
Windows systems I come across these days. I guess COPSSH,
packed by the same person, is probably even better for use as
just ssh on Windows, and probably includes sftp, etc. which I
suspect the cwRsync doesn't, though it might
(cec) To make proper use of these suggestions above, you will
need to modify the following user-settable variables in your
.vimrc:
|g:netrw_ssh_cmd| |g:netrw_list_cmd| |g:netrw_mkdir_cmd|
|g:netrw_rm_cmd| |g:netrw_rmdir_cmd| |g:netrw_rmf_cmd|
The first one (|g:netrw_ssh_cmd|) is the most important; most
of the others will use the string in g:netrw_ssh_cmd by
default.
*netrw-p9* *netrw-ml_get*
P9. I'm browsing, changing directory, and bang! ml_get errors
appear and I have to kill vim. Any way around this?
Normally netrw attempts to avoid writing swapfiles for
its temporary directory buffers. However, on some systems
this attempt appears to be causing ml_get errors to
appear. Please try setting |g:netrw_use_noswf| to 0
in your <.vimrc>:
let g:netrw_use_noswf= 0

*netrw-p10*
P10. I'm being pestered with "[something] is a directory" and
"Press ENTER or type command to continue" prompts...
The "[something] is a directory" prompt is issued by Vim,
not by netrw, and there appears to be no way to work around
it. Coupled with the default cmdheight of 1, this message
causes the "Press ENTER..." prompt. So: read |hit-enter|;
I also suggest that you set your |'cmdheight'| to 2 (or more) in
your <.vimrc> file.
*netrw-p11*
P11. I want to have two windows; a thin one on the left and my editing
window on the right. How can I do this?
* Put the following line in your <.vimrc>:
let g:netrw_altv = 1
* Edit the current directory: :e .
* Select some file, press v
* Resize the windows as you wish (see |CTRL-W_<| and
|CTRL-W_>|). If you're using gvim, you can drag
the separating bar with your mouse.
* When you want a new file, use ctrl-w h to go back to the
netrw browser, select a file, then press P (see |CTRL-W_h|
and |netrw-P|). If you're using gvim, you can press
<leftmouse> in the browser window and then press the
<middlemouse> to select the file.
*netrw-p12*
P12. My directory isn't sorting correctly, or unwanted letters are
appearing in the listed filenames, or things aren't lining
up properly in the wide listing, ...
This may be due to an encoding problem. I myself usually use
utf-8, but really only use ascii (ie. bytes from 32-126).
Multibyte encodings use two (or more) bytes per character.
You may need to change |g:netrw_sepchr| and/or |g:netrw_xstrlen|.
*netrw-p13*
P13. I'm a Windows + putty + ssh user, and when I attempt to browse,
the directories are missing trailing "/"s so netrw treats them
as file transfers instead of as attempts to browse
subdirectories. How may I fix this?
(mikeyao) If you want to use vim via ssh and putty under Windows,
try combining the use of pscp/psftp with plink. pscp/psftp will
be used to connect and plink will be used to execute commands on
the server, for example: list files and directory using 'ls'.
These are the settings I use to do this:
" list files, it's the key setting, if you haven't set,
" you will get a blank buffer
let g:netrw_list_cmd = "plink HOSTNAME ls -Fa"
" if you haven't add putty directory in system path, you should
" specify scp/sftp command. For examples:
"let g:netrw_sftp_cmd = "d:\\dev\\putty\\PSFTP.exe"
"let g:netrw_scp_cmd = "d:\\dev\\putty\\PSCP.exe"
==============================================================================
11. Debugging Netrw Itself *netrw-debug* {{{1
The <netrw.vim> script is typically available as something like:
/usr/local/share/vim/vim7x/plugin/netrwPlugin.vim
/usr/local/share/vim/vim7x/autoload/netrw.vim
-or-
/usr/local/share/vim/vim6x/plugin/netrwPlugin.vim
/usr/local/share/vim/vim6x/autoload/netrw.vim
which is loaded automatically at startup (assuming :set nocp).
1. Get the <Decho.vim> script, available as:

http://mysite.verizon.net/astronaut/vim/index.html#DECHO
or
http://vim.sourceforge.net/scripts/script.php?script_id=120
It now comes as a "vimball"; if you're using vim 7.0 or earlier,
you'll need to update vimball, too. See
http://mysite.verizon.net/astronaut/vim/index.html#VIMBALL
2. Edit the <netrw.vim> file by typing:
vim netrw.vim
:DechoOn
:wq
To restore to normal non-debugging behavior, re-edit <netrw.vim>
and type
vim netrw.vim
:DechoOff
:wq
This command, provided by <Decho.vim>, will comment out all
Decho-debugging statements (Dfunc(), Dret(), Decho(), Dredir()).
3. Then bring up vim and attempt to evoke the problem by doing a
transfer or doing some browsing. A set of messages should appear
concerning the steps that <netrw.vim> took in attempting to
read/write your file over the network in a separate tab.
To save the file, use
:tabnext
:set bt=
:w! DBG
Please send that information to <netrw.vim>'s maintainer,
NdrOchip at ScampbellPfamily.AbizM - NOSPAM
==============================================================================
12. History *netrw-history* {{{1
v141: Aug 28, 2010 * added -s:... support for Windows ftp
* restored 2-leftmouse for :Rex-like return
* added balloon help for banner
Oct 26, 2010 * :Texplore changed to start from netrw's idea
of the current directory, not pwd's
Feb 10, 2011 * netrwPlugin modified to use BufReadCmd
when the "filename" ends with a "/" or a "\"
Avoids "... is a directory" message, works
inside a try-catch-endtry clause.
Feb 22, 2011 * for menus, &go =~# used to insure correct case
v140: Jul 27, 2010 * (Lech Lorens) unexpected change of window
v139: May 14, 2010 * when viewing remote directory listings and
changing listing style, going to tree listing
mode was issuing two rather useless messages
about the buffer name. They have now been
silenced.
* (Jean Johner) with "behave mswin", clicking
on a filename in wide mode opened a new file
with a missing first letter
* (Britton Kerin) wanted netrw listings to be
buflisted; the |g:netrw_bufsettings| option
permits that.
Jun 18, 2010 * (Jan Steffens) added support for xz compression
Jun 23, 2010 * vimdiff dir1 dir2 now works
Jul 27, 2010 * (John Orr) pointed out that the intended maparg
test for gx was actually testing for g rather
than gx. Fixed.
v138: May 01, 2010 * added the bomb setting to the Save-Set-Restore
option handling (for Tony M)
May 14, 2010 * (Bram Moolenaar) netrw optionally sets cursorline
(and sometimes cursorcolumn) for its display.
This option setting was leaking through with
remote file handling.
v137: Dec 28, 2009 * modified the preview window handling for
vertically split windows. The preview
window will take up all but g:netrw_winsize
columns of the original window; those
g:netrw_winsize columns will be used for
the netrw listing.

* (Simon Dambe) removed "~" from

|g:netrw_glob_escape| under Windows
* (Bram Moolenaar) modified test for status bar
click with leftmouse. Moved code to
s:NetrwLeftmouse().
Feb 24, 2010 * (for Jean Johner) added insert-mode maps; one
can get into insert mode with netrw via
ctrl-o :e .
Mar 15, 2010 * (Dominique PellÃ©) Directory with backslashes such
as foo\bar were not being entered/left properly
Mar 15, 2010 * Using :Explore .. and causing two FocusGained
events caused the directory to change. Fixed.
Mar 22, 2010 * Last fix caused problems for *//pat and */filepat
searches.
Mar 30, 2010 * With :set hidden and changing listing styles 8
times, the tree listing buffer was being marked
as modified upon exit. Fixed.
v136: Jan 14, 2009 * extended |g:Netrw_funcref| to also handle lists
of function references
Jan 14, 2009 * (reported by Marvin Renich) with spell check
enabled, some filenamess will still being
displayed as spelling errors.
Apr 13, 2009 * (BjÃ¶rn Winckler) writing a file using
remote scp caused syntax highlighting problem.
Solution: avoid syntax/syntax.vim's
au Filetype * syntax setting autocommand by
checking that the current buffer has the
netrw filetype before attempting a doau
in s:NetrwSafeOptions().
Apr 14, 2009 * (asgeo1) suggested the "T" map (|netrw-T|)
Apr 14, 2009 * marking wasn't working on executable and
other special filenames
Apr 20, 2009 * (Dennis Benzinger) files opened via http have
their syntax filetype auto-detected
Jun 19, 2009 * (Yukihiro Nakadaira) help document improvements
Jul 22, 2009 * g:netrw_browse_split will honor the
|'equalalways'| setting.
Jul 29, 2009 * implemented "I" mapping to toggle banner
(this is experimental and still being debugged)
Sep 19, 2009 * (Mike McEwan) writes via ftp now send both
g:netrw_ftpmode and g:netrw_ftpextracmd (if the
latter exists)
Dec 02, 2009 * netrw uses vimgrep several places; it now uses
"noautocmd vimgrep" (should be speedier).
Dec 03, 2009 * changed back to using -source instead of -dump
for elinks-using commands. (requested by James
Vega and Karsten Hopp)
v135: Oct 29, 2008 * using |simplify()| on directory names
(supporting handling ".."s in directory names)
Oct 31, 2008 * added special file highlighting for core dumps
under Unix/Linux. The default sorting sequence
now also gives core dumps priority.
Nov 10, 2008 * uses a call to netrw#Nread() instead of Nread
to avoid having to use fnameescape()
* fixed a tree redrawing problem (open directory,
open subdir, close subdir, close dir)
Nov 19, 2008 * sprinkled some histdel("/",-1)s through the code
in an attempt to prevent netrw from changing
the search history.
Jan 02, 2009 * |g:Netrw_funcref| included
Jan 05, 2009 * Explore */ **/ *// **// all clear explorer
variables
Jan 05, 2009 * (Panagiotis Louridas) extended s:WinPath()
to remove cygdrive from non-cygwin Windows
paths. Improved the determination as to
whether or not to do so.
Jan 13, 2009 * included contains=@NoSpell in every syntax
group for syntax/netrw.vim .
v134: Sep 30, 2008 * (Sander Marechal) provided a bugfix involving
the use of the |netrw-t| command with a remote
directory.
Sep 30, 2008 * using "x" on a remote jpg was failing; fixed.
Oct 03, 2008 * bookmarks now go on a list and are stored to
the first directory on the |'runtimepath'| in
the hopes of making their retention reliable.
History now also goes to that directory.
Oct 07, 2008 * Included check that vim 7.0 or later is in use.
Oct 07, 2008 * Improved |g:netrw_retmap| handling.
Oct 12, 2008 * Based upon SÃ©bastien Migniot's suggestion, if
cadaver isn't available then netrw will try to
use curl for the dav://... protocol.

Oct 13, 2008 * added @*/ to netrw buffers' |'iskeyword'|setting

This lets mf (|netrw-mf|) mark directories, links
and executables.
Oct 13, 2008 * avoids a second NetrwBrowse() refresh when
g:netrw_fastbrowse is <= 1 (slow, medium speed)
Oct 22, 2008 * |g:netrw_http_xcmd| may now be overridden
independently of |g:netrw_http_cmd|.
Oct 23, 2008 * [N] added to the various Explore commands to
let users specify the width/height of new
explorer windows, overriding |g:netrw_winsize|.
v133: Aug 10, 2008 * NetReadFixup() for win95 was missing some "a:"s
Aug 12, 2008 * (Jan MinÃ¡Å™) an error condition in NetrwMethod()
wasn't being used, resulting in "b:netrw_fname
undefined" errors
Aug 12, 2008 * (FranÃ§ois Ingeirest) asked that "hi link" be
changed to hi default link in the netrw syntax
files.
Aug 12, 2008 * using s:NetrwUnmarkList() more often. Filenames
were being left on the global list when removed
from the buffer-local lists.
Aug 14, 2008 * (Joshua Clayton) an errant extra ")" was left in
the rcp-handling portion of NetRead().
Sep 03, 2008 * added |'cursorline'| highlighting to thin, long,
and tree displays.
v132: Aug 06, 2008 * Fixed marked file-based obtain
Aug 08, 2008 * sourcing a file via ftp from a netrw-generated
buffer (or any buffer with |'nobl'|) left an
empty no-name buffer in its wake. Fixed.
v130: Jul 31, 2008 * trying out elinks/links for http://host/
requests. One problem: in-page links
(such as with ...#LABEL) are not supported
* verified that Bram's modified netrwPlugin works
Aug 01, 2008 * fixed a bug: when sourcing a file via ftp, the
"filter window" was left behind.
v129: Jul 31, 2008 * bug found in non-mouse enabled vim and some
local maps
v128: Jul 30, 2008 * much work done in using shellescape() and
fnameescape()
v126: Jun 30, 2008 * after having gone to a remote directory,
<f1> was no longer taking one to the correct
entry in the help (|netrw-quickhelp|). Fixed.
Jul 01, 2008 * extracting the last filename from a wide listing
missed the last letter when |'virtualedit'| not
enabled.
Jul 01, 2008 * vim foo/bar was creating [Scratch] buffers,
where bar was also a directory
Jul 01, 2008 * numerous additional changes were made to netrw
to use fnameescape() and shellescape() instead
of escape(). Not all changes have been tested
as yet...
Jul 01, 2008 * (James Vega reported) some problems with
:NetrwSettings (due to no longer used setting
variables).
Jul 07, 2008 * Additional numerous changes to support security;
shellescape(arg,1), etc.
v125: Apr 07, 2008 * (Cristian Rigamonti) CR provides a patch; he
noted that gx was failing since its call to
netrw#NetBrowseX() wasn't updated to
netrw#NetrwBrowseX().
* (Stanis Trendelenburg) ST provides a patch to
supports davs: (dav + ssl)
* (Rick Choi) noted that directory names comprised
of three digits were not being displayed by
the internal browser. Fixed.
* (Erik Falor) provided a patch to handle problems
with changing directory and |'acd'| option.
* (James Vega, Teemu Likonen) noted that netrw
wasn't handling multi-byte filenames/directories
correctly. Fixed.
* (Rick) found problem with g:netrw_maxfilenamelen
being overridden.
* (James Vega) pointed out that netrw was
misidentifying all files in a symbolically linked
directory as being symbolically linked
themselves. This particular problem was fixed;
however, there are now situations where
symbolically linked files will not be detected.
Really need an internal vim function to do this
identification.
Apr 17, 2008 * When g:netrw_keepdir==0, current directory
doesn't necessarily equal b:netrw curdir

initially. Problem is due to the patch directly

above.
* Fixed qf to handle case where b:netrw_curdir
isn't the same as the current directory under
linux/macosx.
* New: |netrw-mg| (apply vimgrep to marked files)
May 05, 2008 * (Rick) pointed out that a "setlocal ts=32" was
interfering with g:netrw_maxfilenamelen
May 05, 2008 * (James Vega) a file inside a linked directory
was showing up as a symbolic link itself.
May 22, 2008 * symbolic links, fifos, and sockets are now
indicated by a trailing @, |, or =, respectively.
Jun 06, 2008 * Removed numerous bugs from the marked file
move and copy. Tested these changes under
Unix only thus far.
* :Rexplore returns to the screen position in the
netrw listing from whence the file was edited
v124: Apr 02, 2008 * (Adrian Rollett) change the line supporting the
"x" action for mac to use g:netrw_shq
v123: Feb 27, 2008 * Marked files now keeps a "global" marked file
list. The global marked file list is used to
support tag processing and vimdiff'ing
(|netrw-md| |netrw-mt|)
* Been insuring that mm and mc works with various
combinations of local and remote directories
* Stefan Bittner http://.../ should always have
filetype "html" -- fixed.
* Stefan Bittner a "?" in a http://.../ request
wasn't being handled correctly. Fixed by
removing ? from default |g:netrw_tmpfile_escape|.
* Nico Weber % codes in http://.../ requests
weren't being handled correctly. Fixed by
including % in default |g:netrw_fname_escape|.
* (Stefan Bittner) attempts to update Buffers.Refresh
were failing because locale use changed the menu
names. I implemented a workaround.
v122: Feb 12, 2008 * bugfix - first sorting sequence match now has
priority
Feb 14, 2008 * bugfix - sorting sequence was effectively ignoring
sequencing priority of anything following '*'
* toggling a marked file was showing incorrect list
(list was correct, but displayed matches weren't)
* |g:netrw_special_syntax| implemented
v121: Feb 11, 2008 * Bram M reported that :e file ... :e . would not
retain the alternate file. Fixed -- I hope!
* bugfix -- apparently v120 broke an explicit
:Explore dirname
v120: Jan 21, 2008 * |netrw-mt| changed to allow for target selection
based on whether or not word under cursor is a
directory or file, or if cursor is in banner
area.
* |netrw-mh| included (hiding by marked-file suffix)
* functions moved about a bit (improved
categorization)
* executable files now displayed with trailing (*)
* symbolically linked files now displayed with
trailing (@)
* Somewhen, s:NetrwMarkFileMove() got damaged. It
* is now restored (missing an endif, for example).
* |netrw-mu| implemented (unmarking marked files)
* many bugs have been removed from the marked file
system (tnx to Mark S. for feedback)
* |netrw-ms| implemented (sourcing marked files)
* fixed use of P with tree listing style
* multiple tree listing now supported
* ./ suppressed
* changed q -> qb (query bookmarks)
* implemented |netrw-qf|
* Explore now has four special list-generation
modes: */filepat **/filepat
*//pattern **//pattern
* gh (|netrw-gh|) is a shortcut for toggling the
hiding of files and directories beginning with a
dot
v119: Jan 10, 2008 * When g:netrw_keepdir is false,
NetrwOptionsRestore() had a problem
(Bill McCarthy)
Jan 11, 2008 * Netrw now shows symbolic links with a trailing
"@" and special highlighting.
Jan 15, 2008 * Changed g:netrw_noretmap -> |g:netrw_retmap|.
Changed: disabled by default at Bram's

preference.
v118: Jan 02, 2008 * Fixed a problem with Windows;
:Explore c:/path/ would not work,
but :Explore c:/path would.
* Fixed a bug in s:NetrwOptionRestore() - lcd's
argument wasn't being properly escaped so it
wouldn't handle spaces in directory names.
(Gary Johnson)
v117: Jan 02, 2008 * Fixed a problem with P; had to include
a b:netrw_curdir bypass (Bram Moolenaar)
v116: Nov 27, 2007 * netrw#LocalBrowseCheck() has &ft=="netrw"
check to prevent doing a directory listing
(was getting unexpected directory refreshes
in the middle of some function calls)
* NetrwOptionRestore moved after e! filename
in order to retain user options for editing
in s:NetrwBrowseChgDir()
Dec 12, 2007 * Bug fix -- netrw does a better job of retaining
user options when editing files under the aegis
of the browser
v115: Oct 04, 2007 * Erik Remmelzwaal pointed out that the use of
shellslash in s:GetTempfile() was incorrect
Oct 11, 2007 * Tracked down and eliminated a bug with editing
remote *.tar.gz and *.tar.bz2 files
Oct 11, 2007 * g:netrw_localmovecmd wasn't being initialized
properly, and g:netrw_localcopycmd was being
overwritten.
Oct 12, 2007 * Placed all :Rexplore and <2-leftmouse> setup
in a new support function (s:SetRexDir()).
Oct 15, 2007 * new: g:netrw_browse_split == 4; means <cr>
based selection will use previous window
Oct 20, 2007 * also checks on |'shellxquote'| to set g:netrw_shq
Oct 24, 2007 * Explore handles path/**/filename
Oct 27, 2007 * sourcing remote files often didn't work with ftp,
turns out that b:netrw_method was undefined, so
s:SaveBufVars and s:RestoreBufVars() fixed it.
v114: Sep 28, 2007 * mT, the map that invokes tags, has been improved
to support use of remote tags files.
Oct 02, 2007 * changed Netrw menu to use more submenus
v113: Sep 07, 2007 * worked out why the cursor position wasn't being
saved and restored as intended after doing such
things as deleting and renaming files.
Sep 11, 2007 * Fixed bug which effectively disabled <c-l> and
<c-h> maps
Sep 18, 2007 * there used to be one NetrwOptionRestore() call at
the end of the s:NetrwBrowseChgDir() function;
they're now at the end of every if..elseif..else
block. The edit-a-file one is not quite at the end
of its block; instead, it's just before the edit.
Restores user options, then this new placement
allows ftplugins, autocmds, etc to change settings
(ex. ftplugin/cpp.vim sets cindent).
Sep 19, 2007 * changed all strlen() calls to use s:Strlen(), a
function which handles utf-8 wide characters
correctly.
Sep 20, 2007 * (Nico Weber) the "x" command has been extended
to Mac's OS/X (macunix); it now uses open to
handle |netrw-x| browsing with special files.
Sep 22, 2007 * Added g:netrw_noretmap to netrw at Tony M's
request.
* Included path to NetrwRemoteRmFile()
v112: Aug 18, 2007 * added mx (|netrw-mx|) for executing arbitrary
commands on marked files
Aug 22, 2007 * more option save/restore work for
s:NetrwBrowseChgDir(); s:NetrwOptionSave()
and s:NetrwOptionRestore() now take a parameter
specifying the type of variables to be used for
saving and restoring (either "w:" or "s:")
Sep 04, 2007 * added the :NetrwClean[!] command
v111: Jul 25, 2007 * using Windows but not using Cygwin, netrw does a
"file bufname" where the bufname uses /s
instead of \s; Vim "fixes" it by changing the
bufname to use \s anyway. This meant that
NetrwGetBuffer() didn't find the appropriately
named buffer, and so would generate a new
buffer listing; hence the cursor would appear
to have been moved when doing a preview.
* added <2-leftmouse> map to return to netrw's
browser display
Aug 16, 2007 * added the mark-file system, including
maps for mf mp mt mz and mu. Modifications

made to maps for a D O and R to support

marked files.
v110: May 10, 2007 * added [ and ] maps to NetrwTreeListing
May 25, 2007 * |g:netrw_preview| included
May 29, 2007 * modified netrw#NetBrowseX to consistently use
g:netrw_shq instead of hardcoded quotes,
and modified the snippet that sets up redir
so Windows machines use "nul" instead of
"/dev/null".
Jun 01, 2007 * fixed bug -- NetGetBuffer() wasn't always
recognizing a buffer name match when it should,
thus resulting in [Scratch] buffers.
Jun 04, 2007 * Gary Johnson found a bugfix for the "c" mapping
when the directory is to be made current but
the name contains spaces.
v109: Mar 26, 2007 * if a directory name includes a "$" character,
Explore() will use expand() in an attempt to
decipher the name.
May 07, 2007 * g:netrw_use_errorwindow now allows one to
have error messages go to a reliable window
or to use a less reliable but recallable
echoerr method
May 07, 2007 * g:netrw_scpport and g:netrw_sshport support
use of -P and -p, respectively, to set port
for scp/ssh.
v108: Jan 03, 2007 * included preview map (|netrw-p|), supporting
remote browsing
* netrw can now source remote files
Jan 26, 2007 * Colton Jamieson noted that remote directory
browsing did not support alternate port
selection. This feature has now been extended
to apply to all remote browsing commands via ssh.
(list, remove/delete, rename)
Jan 31, 2007 * Luis Florit reported that @* was an invalid
register. The @* register is now only saved and
restored if |'guioptions'| contains "a".
Feb 02, 2007 * Fixed a bug that cropped up when writing files
via scp using cygwin
Feb 08, 2007 * tree listing mode managed to stop working again;
fixed again!
Feb 15, 2007 * Guido Van Hoecke reported that netrw didn't
handle browsing well with M$ ftp servers. He even
set up a temporary account for me to test with
(thanks!). Netrw now can browse M$ ftp servers.
v107: Oct 12, 2006 * bypassed the autowrite option
Oct 24, 2006 * handles automatic decompression of *.gz and *.bz2
files
Nov 03, 2006 * Explore will highlight matching files when
**/pattern is used (and if the |'hls'| option
is set)
Nov 09, 2006 * a debugging line, when enabled, was inadvertently
bringing up help instead of simply reporting on
list contents
Nov 21, 2006 * tree listing improved (cursor remains put)
Nov 27, 2006 * fixed b:netrw_curdir bug when repeated "i"s were
pressed.
Dec 15, 2006 * considerable qty of changes, mostly to share more
code between local and remote browsing. Includes
support for tree-style listing for both remote
and local browsing.
Dec 15, 2006 * Included Peter Bengtsson's modifications to
support the Amiga.
v106: Sep 21, 2006 * removed old v:version<700 code as netrw now
requires vim 7.0
* worked around a bug where register * was
overwritten during local browsing
v104: Sep 05, 2006 * as suggested by Rodolfo Borges, :Explore and
variants will position the cursor on the file
just having been edited
* changed default |g:netrw_sort_sequence| order
* changed b, Nb to simply mb (see |netrw-mb|)
* changed B, NB to simply gb (see |netrw-gb|)
* tree listing style (see |g:netrw_liststyle|)
* attempts to retain the alternate file
v103: Jul 26, 2006 * used Yakov Lerner's tip#1289 to improve netrw
error message display
* wide listings didn't handle files with backslashes
in their names properly. A symptom was an
inability to open files.
Aug 09, 2006 * included "t" mapping for opening tabbed windows,
both for remote and local browsing

* changed netrw_longlist to netrw_liststyle

Aug 15, 2006 * fixed one of the NB maps
Aug 22, 2006 * changed *Explore commands to use -nargs=* instead
of -nargs=?. Allows both -complete=dir _and_ the
starstar arguments to work (-nargs=? seems to
require one or the other).
Aug 23, 2006 * copied all w:.. variables across splits to
new windows
Aug 25, 2006 * when g:netrw_browsex_viewer was '-'
(see |g:netrw_browsex_viewer|) it wasn't causing
netrwFileHandlers#Invoke() to be called as it
was expected to. (tnx Steve Dugaro)
Aug 29, 2006 * changed NetBrowseX() to use "setlocal ... noswf"
instead of "set ... noswf" (tnx Benji Fisher)
Aug 31, 2006 * tabs and fastbrowse<=1 didn't work together.
v102: Jun 15, 2006 * chgd netrwPlugin to call netrw#LocalBrowseCheck()
* bugfix: g:netrw_keepdir==0 had stopped working
Jul 06, 2006 * bugfix: NetOptionSave/Restore now saves/restores
the unnamed register (|registers|)
Jul 07, 2006 * |g:netrw_menu| support included
Jul 13, 2006 * :Texplore command implemented
Jul 17, 2006 * NetSplit and (Local|Net)BrowseChgDir() were both
splitting windows. This affected o, v, and
g:netrw_browse_split.
Jul 20, 2006 * works around wildignore setting (was causing
netrw's local browser not to list wildignore'd
files)
Jul 24, 2006 * <leftmouse> acts as a <cr> for selecting a file
<rightmouse> acts as a <del> for deleting a file
v100: May 14, 2006 * when using Windows and shell==cmd.exe, the
default for g:netrw_ignorenetrc is now 1
* bugfix: unwanted ^Ms now removed
(affected shell==cmd.exe - Windows)
* added Bookmarks and History to the menu
* an error message about non-existing
w:netrw_longlist was appearing during attempts to
Explore (fixed)
* g:netrw_shq now available to make netrw use
specified style of quotes for commands
May 29, 2006 * user NFH_*() functions were inadvertently being
ignored
* fixed a Windows non-cygwin ftp handling problem.
* hiding pattern candidate separators included some
characters it shouldn't have (tnx to Osei Poku)
Jun 01, 2006 * for browsing, netrw was supposed to use "dir"
instead of "ls -lF" when using
ftp+non-cygwin+windows. Fixed.
* an inadvertently left-in-place debugging statement
was preventing use of the "x" key with browsing.
Jun 05, 2006 * g:netrw_nogx available to prevent making the gx
map (see |g:netrw_nogx|)
* bugfix, Explore wouldn't change directory
properly (vim ., :Explore subdirname)
Jun 06, 2006 * moved history to 2nd line in Netrw menu
* fixed delete for unix-based systems
Jun 07, 2006 * x key now works for windows-noncygwin-ftp
Jun 08, 2006 * Explore */pat and **//pat now wraps
v99: May 09, 2006 * g:netrw_browse_split=3 for opening files in new
tabs implemented.
May 12, 2006 * deletes temporary file at end of NetRead()
* visual mode based Obtain implemented
* added -complete=dir to the various Explore
commands
v98: May 02, 2006 * the "p" key didn't work properly when the browsing
directory name had spaces in it.
v97: May 01, 2006 * exists("&acd") now used to determine if
the 'acd' option exists
* "obtain" now works again under Windows
v96: * bugfix - the |'acd'| option is not always defined
but is now bypassed only when it is
v95: * bugfix - Hiding mode worked correctly (don't show
any file matching any of the g:netrw_hide
patterns), but showing mode was showing only those
files that didn't match any of the g:netrw_hide
patterns. Instead, it now shows all files that
match any of the g:netrw_hide patterns (the
difference between a logical and and logical or).
v94: * bugfix - a Decho() had a missing quote; only
affects things when debugging was enabled.
v93: * bugfix - removed FocusGained event from causing a
slow-browser refresh for Windows

v92: * :Explore **//pattern implemented

(**/filepattern was already taken)
v91: * :Explore */pattern implemented
* |'acd'| option bypassed
v90: * mark '', as suggested by Yegappan Lakshmanan, used
to help guarantee entry into the jump list when
appropriate.
* <s-down> and <s-up> are no longer defined until a
:Explore **/pattern is used (if the user already
has a map for them). They will be defined for new
browser windows from that point forward.
v89: * A <s-down>, <s-up>, :Nexplore, or a :Pexplore
without having first done an :Explore **/pattern
(see |netrw-starstar|) caused
a lot of unhelpful error messages to appear
v88: * moved DrChip.Netrw menu to Netrw. Now has
priority 80 by default.
g:NetrwTopLvlMenu == "Netrw" and can be changed
by the user to suit. The priority is given by
g:NetrwMenuPriority.
* Changed filetype for browser displays from
netrwlist to netrw.
v87: * bug fix -- menus were partially disappearing
v85: * bug fix -- missing an endif
* bug fix -- handles spaces in names and directories
when using ftp-based browsing
v83: * disabled stop-acd handling; the change in directory
handling may allow acd to be used again.
* D was refusing to delete remote files/directories
in wide listing mode.
v81: * FocusGained also used to refresh/wipe local browser
directory buffers
* (bugfix) netrw was leaving [Scratch] buffers behind
when the user had the "hidden" option set. The
'hidden' option is now bypassed.
v80: * ShellCmdPost event used in conjunction with
g:netrw_fastbrowse to refresh/wipe local browser
directory buffers.
v79: * directories are now displayed with nowrap
* (bugfix) if the column width was smaller than the
largest file's name, then netrw would hang when
using wide-listing mode - fixed
* g:netrw_fastbrowse introduced
v78: * progress has been made on allowing spaces inside
directory names for remote work (reading, writing,
browsing). (scp)
v77: * Mikolaj Machowski fixed a bug in a substitute cmd
* g:netrw_browsex_viewer implemented
* Mikolaj Machowski pointed out that gnome-open is
often executable under KDE systems, although it is
effectively not functional. NetBrowseX now looks
for "kicker" as a running process to determine if
KDE is actually running.
* Explorer's O functionality was inadvertently left
out. Netrw now does the same thing, but with the
"P" key.
* added g:netrw_browse_split option
* fixed a bug where the directory contained a "." but
the file didn't (was treating the dirname from "."
onwards as a suffix)
v76: * "directory is missing" error message now restores
echo highlighting
v75: * file://... now conforms to RFC2396 (thanks to
S. Zacchiroli)
* if the binary option is set, then NetWrite() will
only write the whole file (line numbers don't make
sense with this). Supports writing of tar and zip
files.
v74: * bugfix (vim, then :Explore) now works
* ctrl-L keeps cursor at same screen location (both
local and remote browsing)
* netrw now can read remote zip and tar files
* Obtain now uses WinXP ftp+.netrc successfully
v73: * bugfix -- scp://host/path/file was getting named
incorrectly
* netrw detects use of earlier-than-7.0 version of
vim and issues a pertinent error message.
* netrwSettings.vim is now uses autoloading. Only
<netrwPlugin.vim> is needed as a pure plugin
(ie. always loaded).
v72: * bugfix -- formerly, one could prevent the loading

of netrw by "let g:loaded_netrw=1"; when

autoloading became supported, this feature was
lost. It is now restored.
v71: * bugfix -- made some "set nomodifiable"s into
setlocal variants (allows :e somenewfile to be
modifiable as usual)
* NetrwSettings calls a netrw function, thereby
assuring that netrw has loaded. However, if netrw
does not load for whatever reason, then
NetrwSettings will now issue a warning message.
* For what reason I don't recall, when wget and fetch
are both not present, and an attempt to read a
http://... url is made, netrw exited. It now only
returns.
* When ch=1, on the second and subsequent uses of
browsing Netrw would issue a blank line to clear
the echo'd messages. This caused an annoying
"Hit-Enter" prompt; now a blank line message
is echo'd only if &ch>1.
v70: * when using |netrw-O|, the "Obtaining filename"
message is now shown using |hl-User9|. If User9
has not been defined, netrw itself will define it.
v69: * Bugfix: win95/98 machines were experiencing a
"E121: Undefined variable: g:netrw_win95ftp"
message
v68: * double-click-leftmouse selects word under mouse
v67: * Passwords which contain blanks will now be
surrounded by double-quotes automatically (Yongwei)
v66: * Netrw now seems to work with a few more Windows
situations
* O now obtains a file: remote browsing
file -> local copy, locally browsing
file -> current directory (see :pwd)
* i now cycles between thin, long, and wide listing
styles
* NB and Nb are maps that are always available;
corresponding B and b maps are only available when
not using wide listing in order to allow them to
be used for motions
v65: * Browser functions now use NetOptionSave/Restore; in
particular, netrw now works around the report
setting
v64: * Bugfix - browsing a "/" directory (Unix) yielded
buffers named "[Scratch]" instead of "/"
* Bugfix - remote browsing with ftp was omitting
the ./ and ../
v63: * netrw now takes advantage of autoload (needs 7.0)
* Bugfix - using r (to reverse sort) working again
v62: * Bugfix - spaces allowed again in directory names
with g:netrw_keepdir=0. In fact, I've tested netrw
with most ANSI punctuation marks for directory
names.
* Bugfix - NetrwSettings gave errors when
g:netrw_silent had not be set.
v61: * Document upgrade -- netrw variable-based settings
all should have tags. Supports NetrwSettings cmd.
* Several important variables are window-oriented.
Netrw has to transfer these across a window split.
See s:BufWinVars() and s:UseBufWinVars().
v60: * When using the i map to switch between long and
short listings, netrw will now keep cursor on same
line
* "Match # of #" now uses status line
* :Explore **/*.c will now work from a
non-netrw-browser window
* :Explore **/patterns can now be run in separate
browser windows
* active banner (hit <cr> will cause various things
to happen)
v59: * bugfix -- another keepalt work-around installed
(for vim6.3)
* "Match # of #" for Explore **/pattern matches
v58: * Explore and relatives can now handle
**/somefilepattern (v7)
* Nexplore and Pexplore introduced (v7). shift-down
and shift-up cursor keys will invoke Nexplore and
Pexplore, respectively.
* bug fixed with o and v
* autochdir only worked around for vim when it has
been compiled with either
|+netbeans intg| or |+sun workshop|

* Under Windows, all directories and files were

being preceded with a "/" when local browsing.
Fixed.
* When: syntax highlighting is off, laststatus=2, and
remote browsing is used, sometimes the laststatus
highlighting bleeds into the entire display. Work
around - do an extra redraw in that case.
* Bugfix: when g:netrw_keepdir=0, due to re-use of
buffers, netrw didn't change the directory when it
should've
* Bugfix: D and R commands work again
v57: * Explore and relatives can now handle RO files
* reverse sort restored with vim7's sort command
* g:netrw_keepdir now being used to keep the current
directory unchanged as intended (sense change)
* vim 6.3 still supported
v56: * LocalBrowse now saves autochdir setting, unsets it,
and restores it before returning.
* using vim's rename() instead of system +
local_rename variable
* avoids changing directory when g:netrw_keepdir is
false
v55: * -bar used with :Explore :Sexplore etc to allow
multiple commands to be separated by YXXYs
* browser listings now use the "nowrap" option
* browser: some unuseful error messages now
suppressed
v54: * For backwards compatibility, Explore and Sexplore
have been implemented. In addition, Hexplore and
Vexplore commands are available, too.
* <amatch> used instead of <afile> in the
transparency support (BufReadCmd, FileReadCmd,
FileWriteCmd)
* ***netrw*** prepended to various error messages
netrw may emit
* g:netrw_port used instead of b:netrw_port for scp
* any leading [:#] is removed from port numbers
v53: * backslashes as well as slashes placed in various
patterns (ex. g:netrw_sort_sequence) to better
support Windows
v52: * nonumber'ing now set for browsing buffers
* when the hiding list hid all files, error messages
ensued. Fixed
* when browsing, swf is set, but directory is not
set, when netrw was attempting to restore options,
vim wanted to save a swapfile to a local directory
using an url-style path. Fixed
v51: * cygwin detection now automated
(using windows and &shell is bash)
* customizable browser "file" rejection patterns
* directory history
* :[range]w url now supported (ie. netrw uses a
FileWriteCmd event)
* error messages have a "Press <cr> to continue" to
allow them to be seen
* directory browser displays no longer bother the
swapfile
* u/U commands to go up and down the history stack
* history stack may be saved with viminfo with it's
"!" option
* bugfixes associated with unwanted [No Files]
entries
v50: * directories now displayed using buftype=nofile;
should keep the directory names as-is
* attempts to remove empty "[No File]" buffers
leftover from :file ..name.. commands
* bugfix: a "caps-lock" editing difficulty left in
v49 was fixed
* syntax highlighting for "Showing:" the hiding list
included
* bookmarks can now be retained if "!" is in the
viminfo option
v49: * will use ftp for http://.../ browsing
v48: * One may use ftp to do remote host file browsing
* (windows and !cygwin) remote browsing with ftp can
now use the "dir" command internally to provide
listings
* g:netrw_keepdir now allows one to keep the initial
current directory as the current directory

(normally the local file browser makes the

currently viewed directory the current directory)
* g:netrw_alto and g:netrw_altv now support
alternate placement of windows started with o or v
* Nread ? and Nwrite ? now uses echomsg (instead of
echo) so :messages can repeat showing the help
* bugfix: avoids problems with partial matches of
directory names to prior buffers with longer names
* one can suppress error messages with g:netrw_quiet
ctrl-h used
* instead of <Leader>h for editing hiding list one
may edit the sorting sequence with the S map, which
now allows confirmation of deletion with
[y(es) n(o) a(ll) q(uit)]
* the "x" map now handles special file viewing with:
(windows) rundll32 url.dll (gnome) gnome-open (kde)
kfmclient If none of these are on the executable
path, then netrwFileHandlers.vim is used.
* directory bookmarking during both local and remote
browsing implemented
* one may view all, use the hiding list to suppress,
or use the hiding list to show-only remote and
local file/directory listings
* improved unusual file and directory name handling
preview window support
v47: * now handles local browsing.
v46: * now handles remote browsing
* g:netrw_silent (if 1) will cause all transfers to
be silent
v45: * made the [user@]hostname:path form a bit more
restrictive to better handle errors in using
protocols (e.g. scp:usr@host:file was being
recognized as an rcp request)
v44: * changed from "rsync -a" to just "rsync"
* somehow an editing error messed up the test to
recognize use of the fetch method for NetRead.
* more debugging statements included
v43: * moved "Explanation" comments to <pi_netrw.txt> help
file as "Network Reference" (|netrw-ref|)
* <netrw.vim> now uses Dfunc() Decho() and Dret() for
debugging
* removed superfluous NetRestorePosn() calls
v42: * now does BufReadPre and BufReadPost events on
file:///* and file://localhost/*
v41: * installed file:///* and file://localhost/* handling
v40: * prevents redraw when a protocol error occurs so
that the user may see it
v39: * sftp support
v38: * Now uses NetRestorePosn() calls with Nread/Nwrite
commands
* Temporary files now removed via bwipe! instead of
bwipe (thanks to Dave Roberts)
v37: * Claar's modifications which test if ftp is
successful, otherwise give an error message
* After a read, the alternate file was pointing to
the temp file. The temp file buffer is now wiped
out.
* removed silent from transfer methods so user can
see what's happening
==============================================================================
13. Todo *netrw-todo* {{{1
07/29/09 : banner :|g:netrw_banner| can be used to suppress the
suppression banner. This feature is new and experimental,
so its in the process of being debugged.
09/04/09 : "gp" : See if it can be made to work for remote systems.
: See if it can be made to work with marked files.
==============================================================================
14. Credits *netrw-credits* {{{1
Vim editor by Bram Moolenaar (Thanks, Bram!)
dav support by C Campbell
fetch support by Bram Moolenaar and C Campbell
ftp support by C Campbell <NdrOchip@ScampbellPfamily.AbizM>
http support by Bram Moolenaar <bram@moolenaar.net>

rcp
rsync support by C Campbell (suggested by Erik Warendorph)
scp support by raf <raf@comdyn.com.au>
sftp support by C Campbell
inputsecret(), BufReadCmd, BufWriteCmd contributed by C Campbell
JÃ©rÃ´me AugÃ© -- also using new buffer method with ftp+.netrc
Bram Moolenaar -- obviously vim itself, :e and v:cmdarg use,
fetch,...
Yasuhiro Matsumoto -- pointing out undo+0r problem and a solution
Erik Warendorph -- for several suggestions (g:netrw_..._cmd
variables, rsync etc)
Doug Claar -- modifications to test for success with ftp
operation
==============================================================================
Modelines: {{{1
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: usr_05
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*usr_05.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2009 Jun 04

VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar
Set your settings
Vim can be tuned to work like you want it to. This chapter shows you how to
make Vim start with options set to different values. Add plugins to extend
Vim's capabilities. Or define your own macros.
|05.1| The vimrc file
|05.2| The example vimrc file explained
|05.3| Simple mappings
|05.4| Adding a plugin
|05.5| Adding a help file
|05.6| The option window
|05.7| Often used options
Next chapter: |usr_06.txt| Using syntax highlighting
Previous chapter: |usr_04.txt| Making small changes
Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt|
==============================================================================
*05.1* The vimrc file *vimrc-intro*
You probably got tired of typing commands that you use very often. To start
Vim with all your favorite option settings and mappings, you write them in
what is called the vimrc file. Vim executes the commands in this file when it
starts up.
If you already have a vimrc file (e.g., when your sysadmin has one setup for
you), you can edit it this way:
:edit $MYVIMRC
If you don't have a vimrc file yet, see |vimrc| to find out where you can
create a vimrc file. Also, the ":version" command mentions the name of the
"user vimrc file" Vim looks for.
For Unix and Macintosh this file is always used and is recommended:
~/.vimrc
For MS-DOS and MS-Windows you can use one of these:
$HOME/_vimrc
$VIM/_vimrc
The vimrc file can contain all the commands that you type after a colon. The
most simple ones are for setting options. For example, if you want Vim to
always start with the 'incsearch' option on, add this line you your vimrc
file:
set incsearch
For this new line to take effect you need to exit Vim and start it again.
Later you will learn how to do this without exiting Vim.
This chapter only explains the most basic items. For more information on how
to write a Vim script file: |usr_41.txt|.
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/usr_05.html[2019/03/05 11:42:27 AM]

==============================================================================
*05.2* The example vimrc file explained *vimrc_example.vim*
In the first chapter was explained how the example vimrc (included in the
Vim distribution) file can be used to make Vim startup in not-compatible mode
(see |not-compatible|). The file can be found here:
$VIMRUNTIME/vimrc_example.vim
In this section we will explain the various commands used in this file. This
will give you hints about how to set up your own preferences. Not everything
will be explained though. Use the ":help" command to find out more.
set nocompatible
As mentioned in the first chapter, these manuals explain Vim working in an
improved way, thus not completely Vi compatible. Setting the 'compatible'
option off, thus 'nocompatible' takes care of this.
set backspace=indent,eol,start
This specifies where in Insert mode the <BS> is allowed to delete the
character in front of the cursor. The three items, separated by commas, tell
Vim to delete the white space at the start of the line, a line break and the
character before where Insert mode started.
set autoindent
This makes Vim use the indent of the previous line for a newly created line.
Thus there is the same amount of white space before the new line. For example
when pressing <Enter> in Insert mode, and when using the "o" command to open a
new line.
if has("vms")
set nobackup
else
set backup
endif
This tells Vim to keep a backup copy of a file when overwriting it. But not
on the VMS system, since it keeps old versions of files already. The backup
file will have the same name as the original file with "~" added. See |07.4|
set history=50
Keep 50 commands and 50 search patterns in the history. Use another number if
you want to remember fewer or more lines.
set ruler
Always display the current cursor position in the lower right corner of the
Vim window.
set showcmd
Display an incomplete command in the lower right corner of the Vim window,
left of the ruler. For example, when you type "2f", Vim is waiting for you to
type the character to find and "2f" is displayed. When you press "w" next,
the "2fw" command is executed and the displayed "2f" is removed.
+-------------------------------------------------+
|text in the Vim window |
|~ |
|~ |
|-- VISUAL -- 2f 43,8 17% |
+-------------------------------------------------+
^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^
'showmode' 'showcmd' 'ruler'
set incsearch

Display the match for a search pattern when halfway typing it.
map Q gq
This defines a key mapping. More about that in the next section. This
defines the "Q" command to do formatting with the "gq" operator. This is how
it worked before Vim 5.0. Otherwise the "Q" command starts Ex mode, but you
will not need it.
vnoremap _g y:exe "grep /" . escape(@", '\\/') . "/ *.c *.h"<CR>

This mapping yanks the visually selected text and searches for it in C files.
This is a complicated mapping. You can see that mappings can be used to do
quite complicated things. Still, it is just a sequence of commands that are
executed like you typed them.
if &t_Co > 2 || has("gui_running")

syntax on
set hlsearch
endif
This switches on syntax highlighting, but only if colors are available. And
the 'hlsearch' option tells Vim to highlight matches with the last used search
pattern. The "if" command is very useful to set options only when some
condition is met. More about that in |usr_41.txt|.
*vimrc-filetype*
This switches on three very clever mechanisms:
1. Filetype detection.
Whenever you start editing a file, Vim will try to figure out what kind of
file this is. When you edit "main.c", Vim will see the ".c" extension and
recognize this as a "c" filetype. When you edit a file that starts with
"#!/bin/sh", Vim will recognize it as a "sh" filetype.
The filetype detection is used for syntax highlighting and the other two
items below.
See |filetypes|.
2. Using filetype plugin files
Many different filetypes are edited with different options. For example,
when you edit a "c" file, it's very useful to set the 'cindent' option to
automatically indent the lines. These commonly useful option settings are
included with Vim in filetype plugins. You can also add your own, see
|write-filetype-plugin|.
3. Using indent files
When editing programs, the indent of a line can often be computed
automatically. Vim comes with these indent rules for a number of
filetypes. See |:filetype-indent-on| and 'indentexpr'.
autocmd FileType text setlocal textwidth=78

This makes Vim break text to avoid lines getting longer than 78 characters.
But only for files that have been detected to be plain text. There are
actually two parts here. "autocmd FileType text" is an autocommand. This
defines that when the file type is set to "text" the following command is
automatically executed. "setlocal textwidth=78" sets the 'textwidth' option
to 78, but only locally in one file.
*restore-cursor*
autocmd BufReadPost *
\ if line("'\"") > 1 && line("'\"") <= line("$") |
\ exe "normal! g`\"" |
\ endif
Another autocommand. This time it is used after reading any file. The
complicated stuff after it checks if the '"' mark is defined, and jumps to it
if so. The backslash at the start of a line is used to continue the command
from the previous line. That avoids a line getting very long.
See |line-continuation|. This only works in a Vim script file, not when
typing commands at the command-line.

==============================================================================
*05.3* Simple mappings
A mapping enables you to bind a set of Vim commands to a single key. Suppose,
for example, that you need to surround certain words with curly braces. In
other words, you need to change a word such as "amount" into "{amount}". With
the :map command, you can tell Vim that the F5 key does this job. The command
is as follows:
:map <F5> i{<Esc>ea}<Esc>
Note:
When entering this command, you must enter <F5> by typing four
characters. Similarly, <Esc> is not entered by pressing the <Esc>
key, but by typing five characters. Watch out for this difference
when reading the manual!
Let's break this down:
<F5> The F5 function key. This is the trigger key that causes the
command to be executed as the key is pressed.
i{<Esc> Insert the { character. The <Esc> key ends Insert mode.
e Move to the end of the word.
a}<Esc> Append the } to the word.
After you execute the ":map" command, all you have to do to put {} around a
word is to put the cursor on the first character and press F5.
In this example, the trigger is a single key; it can be any string. But when
you use an existing Vim command, that command will no longer be available.
You better avoid that.
One key that can be used with mappings is the backslash. Since you
probably want to define more than one mapping, add another character. You
could map "\p" to add parentheses around a word, and "\c" to add curly braces,
for example:
:map \p i(<Esc>ea)<Esc>
:map \c i{<Esc>ea}<Esc>
You need to type the \ and the p quickly after another, so that Vim knows they
belong together.
The ":map" command (with no arguments) lists your current mappings. At
least the ones for Normal mode. More about mappings in section |40.1|.
==============================================================================
*05.4* Adding a plugin *add-plugin* *plugin*
Vim's functionality can be extended by adding plugins. A plugin is nothing
more than a Vim script file that is loaded automatically when Vim starts. You
can add a plugin very easily by dropping it in your plugin directory.
{not available when Vim was compiled without the |+eval| feature}
There are two types of plugins:
global plugin: Used for all kinds of files
filetype plugin: Only used for a specific type of file
The global plugins will be discussed first, then the filetype ones
|add-filetype-plugin|.
GLOBAL PLUGINS *standard-plugin*

When you start Vim, it will automatically load a number of global plugins.
You don't have to do anything for this. They add functionality that most
people will want to use, but which was implemented as a Vim script instead of
being compiled into Vim. You can find them listed in the help index
|standard-plugin-list|. Also see |load-plugins|.
*add-global-plugin*
You can add a global plugin to add functionality that will always be present
when you use Vim. There are only two steps for adding a global plugin:

1. Get a copy of the plugin.

2. Drop it in the right directory.
GETTING A GLOBAL PLUGIN

Where can you find plugins?
- Some come with Vim. You can find them in the directory $VIMRUNTIME/macros
and its sub-directories.
- Download from the net. There is a large collection on http://www.vim.org.
- They are sometimes posted in a Vim |maillist|.
- You could write one yourself, see |write-plugin|.
Some plugins come as a vimball archive, see |vimball|.
Some plugins can be updated automatically, see |getscript|.
USING A GLOBAL PLUGIN

First read the text in the plugin itself to check for any special conditions.
Then copy the file to your plugin directory:
system plugin directory
Unix ~/.vim/plugin/
PC and OS/2 $HOME/vimfiles/plugin or $VIM/vimfiles/plugin
Amiga s:vimfiles/plugin
Macintosh $VIM:vimfiles:plugin
Mac OS X ~/.vim/plugin/
RISC-OS Choices:vimfiles.plugin
Example for Unix (assuming you didn't have a plugin directory yet):
mkdir ~/.vim
mkdir ~/.vim/plugin
cp /usr/local/share/vim/vim60/macros/justify.vim ~/.vim/plugin
That's all! Now you can use the commands defined in this plugin to justify
text.
Instead of putting plugins directly into the plugin/ directory, you may
better organize them by putting them into subdirectories under plugin/.
As an example, consider using "~/.vim/plugin/perl/*.vim" for all your Perl
plugins.
FILETYPE PLUGINS *add-filetype-plugin* *ftplugins*

The Vim distribution comes with a set of plugins for different filetypes that
you can start using with this command:
:filetype plugin on
That's all! See |vimrc-filetype|.
If you are missing a plugin for a filetype you are using, or you found a
better one, you can add it. There are two steps for adding a filetype plugin:
1. Get a copy of the plugin.
2. Drop it in the right directory.
GETTING A FILETYPE PLUGIN

You can find them in the same places as the global plugins. Watch out if the
type of file is mentioned, then you know if the plugin is a global or a
filetype one. The scripts in $VIMRUNTIME/macros are global ones, the filetype
plugins are in $VIMRUNTIME/ftplugin.
USING A FILETYPE PLUGIN *ftplugin-name*

You can add a filetype plugin by dropping it in the right directory. The
name of this directory is in the same directory mentioned above for global
plugins, but the last part is "ftplugin". Suppose you have found a plugin for
the "stuff" filetype, and you are on Unix. Then you can move this file to the
ftplugin directory:
mv thefile ~/.vim/ftplugin/stuff.vim

If that file already exists you already have a plugin for "stuff". You might
want to check if the existing plugin doesn't conflict with the one you are
adding. If it's OK, you can give the new one another name:
mv thefile ~/.vim/ftplugin/stuff_too.vim
The underscore is used to separate the name of the filetype from the rest,
which can be anything. If you use "otherstuff.vim" it wouldn't work, it would
be loaded for the "otherstuff" filetype.
On MS-DOS you cannot use long filenames. You would run into trouble if you
add a second plugin and the filetype has more than six characters. You can
use an extra directory to get around this:
mkdir $VIM/vimfiles/ftplugin/fortran
copy thefile $VIM/vimfiles/ftplugin/fortran/too.vim
The generic names for the filetype plugins are:
ftplugin/<filetype>.vim
ftplugin/<filetype>_<name>.vim
ftplugin/<filetype>/<name>.vim
Here "<name>" can be any name that you prefer.
Examples for the "stuff" filetype on Unix:
~/.vim/ftplugin/stuff.vim
~/.vim/ftplugin/stuff_def.vim
~/.vim/ftplugin/stuff/header.vim
The <filetype> part is the name of the filetype the plugin is to be used for.
Only files of this filetype will use the settings from the plugin. The <name>
part of the plugin file doesn't matter, you can use it to have several plugins
for the same filetype. Note that it must end in ".vim".
Further reading:
|filetype-plugins| Documentation for the filetype plugins and information
about how to avoid that mappings cause problems.
|load-plugins| When the global plugins are loaded during startup.
|ftplugin-overrule| Overruling the settings from a global plugin.
|write-plugin| How to write a plugin script.
|plugin-details| For more information about using plugins or when your
plugin doesn't work.
|new-filetype| How to detect a new file type.
==============================================================================
*05.5* Adding a help file *add-local-help* *matchit-install*
If you are lucky, the plugin you installed also comes with a help file. We
will explain how to install the help file, so that you can easily find help
for your new plugin.
Let us use the "matchit.vim" plugin as an example (it is included with
Vim). This plugin makes the "%" command jump to matching HTML tags,
if/else/endif in Vim scripts, etc. Very useful, although it's not backwards
compatible (that's why it is not enabled by default).
This plugin comes with documentation: "matchit.txt". Let's first copy the
plugin to the right directory. This time we will do it from inside Vim, so
that we can use $VIMRUNTIME. (You may skip some of the "mkdir" commands if
you already have the directory.)
:!mkdir ~/.vim
:!mkdir ~/.vim/plugin
:!cp $VIMRUNTIME/macros/matchit.vim ~/.vim/plugin
The "cp" command is for Unix, on MS-DOS you can use "copy".
Now create a "doc" directory in one of the directories in 'runtimepath'.
:!mkdir ~/.vim/doc
Copy the help file to the "doc" directory.
:!cp $VIMRUNTIME/macros/matchit.txt ~/.vim/doc
Now comes the trick, which allows you to jump to the subjects in the new help
file: Generate the local tags file with the |:helptags| command.

:helptags ~/.vim/doc
Now you can use the
:help g%
command to find help for "g%" in the help file you just added. You can see an
entry for the local help file when you do:
:help local-additions
The title lines from the local help files are automagically added to this
section. There you can see which local help files have been added and jump to
them through the tag.
For writing a local help file, see |write-local-help|.
==============================================================================
*05.6* The option window
If you are looking for an option that does what you want, you can search in
the help files here: |options|. Another way is by using this command:
:options
This opens a new window, with a list of options with a one-line explanation.
The options are grouped by subject. Move the cursor to a subject and press
<Enter> to jump there. Press <Enter> again to jump back. Or use CTRL-O.
You can change the value of an option. For example, move to the "displaying
text" subject. Then move the cursor down to this line:
set wrap nowrap
When you hit <Enter>, the line will change to:
set nowrap wrap
The option has now been switched off.
Just above this line is a short description of the 'wrap' option. Move the
cursor one line up to place it in this line. Now hit <Enter> and you jump to
the full help on the 'wrap' option.
For options that take a number or string argument you can edit the value.
Then press <Enter> to apply the new value. For example, move the cursor a few
lines up to this line:
set so=0
Position the cursor on the zero with "$". Change it into a five with "r5".
Then press <Enter> to apply the new value. When you now move the cursor
around you will notice that the text starts scrolling before you reach the
border. This is what the 'scrolloff' option does, it specifies an offset
from the window border where scrolling starts.
==============================================================================
*05.7* Often used options
There are an awful lot of options. Most of them you will hardly ever use.
Some of the more useful ones will be mentioned here. Don't forget you can
find more help on these options with the ":help" command, with single quotes
before and after the option name. For example:
:help 'wrap'
In case you have messed up an option value, you can set it back to the
default by putting an ampersand (&) after the option name. Example:
:set iskeyword&
NOT WRAPPING LINES

Vim normally wraps long lines, so that you can see all of the text. Sometimes
it's better to let the text continue right of the window. Then you need to
scroll the text left-right to see all of a long line. Switch wrapping off
with this command:

:set nowrap
Vim will automatically scroll the text when you move to text that is not
displayed. To see a context of ten characters, do this:
:set sidescroll=10
This doesn't change the text in the file, only the way it is displayed.
WRAPPING MOVEMENT COMMANDS

Most commands for moving around will stop moving at the start and end of a
line. You can change that with the 'whichwrap' option. This sets it to the
default value:
:set whichwrap=b,s
This allows the <BS> key, when used in the first position of a line, to move
the cursor to the end of the previous line. And the <Space> key moves from
the end of a line to the start of the next one.
To allow the cursor keys <Left> and <Right> to also wrap, use this command:
:set whichwrap=b,s,<,>
This is still only for Normal mode. To let <Left> and <Right> do this in
Insert mode as well:
:set whichwrap=b,s,<,>,[,]
There are a few other flags that can be added, see 'whichwrap'.
VIEWING TABS
When there are tabs in a file, you cannot see where they are. To make them
visible:
:set list
Now every tab is displayed as Î. And a $ is displayed at the end of each
line, so that you can spot trailing spaces that would otherwise go unnoticed.
A disadvantage is that this looks ugly when there are many Tabs in a file.
If you have a color terminal, or are using the GUI, Vim can show the spaces
and tabs as highlighted characters. Use the 'listchars' option:
:set listchars=tab:>-,trail:-
Now every tab will be displayed as ">---" (with more or less "-") and trailing
white space as "-". Looks a lot better, doesn't it?
KEYWORDS
The 'iskeyword' option specifies which characters can appear in a word:
:set iskeyword
iskeyword=@,48-57,_,192-255
The "@" stands for all alphabetic letters. "48-57" stands for ASCII
characters 48 to 57, which are the numbers 0 to 9. "192-255" are the
printable latin characters.
Sometimes you will want to include a dash in keywords, so that commands
like "w" consider "upper-case" to be one word. You can do it like this:
:set iskeyword+=-
:set iskeyword
iskeyword=@,48-57,_,192-255,-
If you look at the new value, you will see that Vim has added a comma for you.
To remove a character use "-=". For example, to remove the underscore:
:set iskeyword-=_
:set iskeyword
iskeyword=@,48-57,192-255,-
This time a comma is automatically deleted.

ROOM FOR MESSAGES

When Vim starts there is one line at the bottom that is used for messages.
When a message is long, it is either truncated, thus you can only see part of
it, or the text scrolls and you have to press <Enter> to continue.
You can set the 'cmdheight' option to the number of lines used for
messages. Example:
:set cmdheight=3
This does mean there is less room to edit text, thus it's a compromise.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_06.txt| Using syntax highlighting
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Vim documentation: gui
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main help file
*gui.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Nov 03
Vim's Graphical User Interface *gui* *GUI*

1. Starting the GUI |gui-start|
2. Scrollbars |gui-scrollbars|
3. Mouse Control |gui-mouse|
4. Making GUI Selections |gui-selections|
5. Menus |menus|
6. Extras |gui-extras|
7. Shell Commands |gui-shell|
Other GUI documentation:
|gui_x11.txt| For specific items of the X11 GUI.
|gui_w32.txt| For specific items of the Win32 GUI.
==============================================================================
1. Starting the GUI *gui-start* *E229* *E233*
First you must make sure you actually have a version of Vim with the GUI code
included. You can check this with the ":version" command, it says "with xxx
GUI", where "xxx" is X11-Motif, X11-Athena, Photon, GTK, GTK2, etc., or
"MS-Windows 32 bit GUI version".
How to start the GUI depends on the system used. Mostly you can run the
GUI version of Vim with:
gvim [options] [files...]
The X11 version of Vim can run both in GUI and in non-GUI mode. See
|gui-x11-start|.
*gui-init* *gvimrc* *.gvimrc* *_gvimrc* *$MYGVIMRC*

The gvimrc file is where GUI-specific startup commands should be placed. It
is always sourced after the |vimrc| file. If you have one then the $MYGVIMRC
environment variable has its name.
When the GUI starts up initializations are carried out, in this order:
- The 'term' option is set to "builtin_gui" and terminal options are reset to
their default value for the GUI |terminal-options|.
- If the system menu file exists, it is sourced. The name of this file is
normally "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim". You can check this with ":version". Also
see |$VIMRUNTIME|. To skip loading the system menu include 'M' in
'guioptions'. *buffers-menu* *no_buffers_menu*
The system menu file includes a "Buffers" menu. If you don't want this, set
the "no_buffers_menu" variable in your .vimrc (not .gvimrc!):
:let no_buffers_menu = 1
NOTE: Switching on syntax highlighting also loads the menu file, thus
disabling the Buffers menu must be done before ":syntax on".
The path names are truncated to 35 characters. You can truncate them at a
different length, for example 50, like this:
:let bmenu_max_pathlen = 50
- If the "-U {gvimrc}" command-line option has been used when starting Vim,
the {gvimrc} file will be read for initializations. The following
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/gui.html[2019/03/05 11:42:28 AM]

initializations are skipped. When {gvimrc} is "NONE" no file will be read

for initializations.
- For Unix and MS-Windows, if the system gvimrc exists, it is sourced. The
name of this file is normally "$VIM/gvimrc". You can check this with
":version". Also see |$VIM|.
- The following are tried, and only the first one that exists is used:
- If the GVIMINIT environment variable exists and is not empty, it is
executed as an Ex command.
- If the user gvimrc file exists, it is sourced. The name of this file is
normally "$HOME/.gvimrc". You can check this with ":version".
- For Win32, when $HOME is not set, "$VIM\_gvimrc" is used.
- When a "_gvimrc" file is not found, ".gvimrc" is tried too. And vice
versa.
The name of the first file found is stored in $MYGVIMRC, unless it was
already set.
- If the 'exrc' option is set (which is NOT the default) the file ./.gvimrc
is sourced, if it exists and isn't the same file as the system or user
gvimrc file. If this file is not owned by you, some security restrictions
apply. When ".gvimrc" is not found, "_gvimrc" is tried too. For Macintosh
and DOS/Win32 "_gvimrc" is tried first.
NOTE: All but the first one are not carried out if Vim was started with
"-u NONE" and no "-U" argument was given, or when started with "-U NONE".
All this happens AFTER the normal Vim initializations, like reading your
.vimrc file. See |initialization|.
But the GUI window is only opened after all the initializations have been
carried out. If you want some commands to be executed just after opening the
GUI window, use the |GUIEnter| autocommand event. Example:
:autocmd GUIEnter * winpos 100 50
You can use the gvimrc files to set up your own customized menus (see |:menu|)
and initialize other things that you may want to set up differently from the
terminal version.
Recommended place for your personal GUI initializations:
Unix $HOME/.gvimrc
OS/2 $HOME/.gvimrc or $VIM/.gvimrc
MS-DOS and Win32 $HOME/_gvimrc or $VIM/_gvimrc
Amiga s:.gvimrc or $VIM/.gvimrc
There are a number of options which only have meaning in the GUI version of
Vim. These are 'guicursor', 'guifont', 'guipty' and 'guioptions'. They are
documented in |options.txt| with all the other options.
If using the Motif or Athena version of the GUI (but not for the GTK+ or
Win32 version), a number of X resources are available. See |gui-resources|.
Another way to set the colors for different occasions is with highlight
groups. The "Normal" group is used to set the background and foreground
colors. Example (which looks nice):
:highlight Normal guibg=grey90
The "guibg" and "guifg" settings override the normal background and
foreground settings. The other settings for the Normal highlight group are
not used. Use the 'guifont' option to set the font.
Also check out the 'guicursor' option, to set the colors for the cursor in
various modes.
Vim tries to make the window fit on the screen when it starts up. This avoids
that you can't see part of it. On the X Window System this requires a bit of
guesswork. You can change the height that is used for the window title and a
task bar with the 'guiheadroom' option.
*:winp* *:winpos* *E188*

:winp[os]
Display current position of the top left corner of the GUI vim
window in pixels. Does not work in all versions.
:winp[os] {X} {Y} *E466*

Put the GUI vim window at the given {X} and {Y} coordinates.
The coordinates should specify the position in pixels of the
top left corner of the window. Does not work in all versions.
Does work in an (new) xterm |xterm-color|.
When the GUI window has not been opened yet, the values are
remembered until the window is opened. The position is

adjusted to make the window fit on the screen (if possible).
*:win* *:winsize* *E465*

:win[size] {width} {height}
Set the window height to {width} by {height} characters.
Obsolete, use ":set lines=11 columns=22".
If you get less lines than expected, check the 'guiheadroom'
option.
If you are running the X Window System, you can get information about the
window Vim is running in with this command:
:!xwininfo -id $WINDOWID
==============================================================================
2. Scrollbars *gui-scrollbars*
There are vertical scrollbars and a horizontal scrollbar. You may
configure which ones appear with the 'guioptions' option.
The interface looks like this (with ":set guioptions=mlrb"):
+------------------------------+ `
| File Edit Help | <- Menu bar (m) `
+-+--------------------------+-+ `
|^| |^| `
|#| Text area. |#| `
| | | | `
|v|__________________________|v| `
Normal status line -> |-+ File.c 5,2 +-| `
between Vim windows |^|""""""""""""""""""""""""""|^| `
| | | | `
| | Another file buffer. | | `
| | | | `
|#| |#| `
Left scrollbar (l) -> |#| |#| <- Right `
|#| |#| scrollbar (r) `
| | | | `
|v| |v| `
+-+--------------------------+-+ `
| |< #### >| | <- Bottom `
+-+--------------------------+-+ scrollbar (b) `
Any of the scrollbar or menu components may be turned off by not putting the
appropriate letter in the 'guioptions' string. The bottom scrollbar is
only useful when 'nowrap' is set.
VERTICAL SCROLLBARS *gui-vert-scroll*

Each Vim window has a scrollbar next to it which may be scrolled up and down
to move through the text in that buffer. The size of the scrollbar-thumb
indicates the fraction of the buffer which can be seen in the window.
When the scrollbar is dragged all the way down, the last line of the file
will appear in the top of the window.
If a window is shrunk to zero height (by the growth of another window) its
scrollbar disappears. It reappears when the window is restored.
If a window is vertically split, it will get a scrollbar when it is the
current window and when, taking the middle of the current window and drawing a
vertical line, this line goes through the window.
When there are scrollbars on both sides, and the middle of the current window
is on the left half, the right scrollbar column will contain scrollbars for
the rightmost windows. The same happens on the other side.
HORIZONTAL SCROLLBARS *gui-horiz-scroll*

The horizontal scrollbar (at the bottom of the Vim GUI) may be used to
scroll text sideways when the 'wrap' option is turned off. The
scrollbar-thumb size is such that the text of the longest visible line may be
scrolled as far as possible left and right. The cursor is moved when
necessary, it must remain on a visible character (unless 'virtualedit' is
set).
Computing the length of the longest visible line takes quite a bit of

computation, and it has to be done every time something changes. If this

takes too much time or you don't like the cursor jumping to another line,
include the 'h' flag in 'guioptions'. Then the scrolling is limited by the
text of the current cursor line.
*athena-intellimouse*
If you have an Intellimouse and an X server that supports using the wheel,
then you can use the wheel to scroll the text up and down in gvim. This works
with XFree86 4.0 and later, and with some older versions when you add patches.
See |scroll-mouse-wheel|.
For older versions of XFree86 you must patch your X server. The following
page has a bit of information about using the Intellimouse on Linux as well as
links to the patches and X server binaries (may not have the one you need
though):
http://www.inria.fr/koala/colas/mouse-wheel-scroll/
==============================================================================
3. Mouse Control *gui-mouse*
The mouse only works if the appropriate flag in the 'mouse' option is set.
When the GUI is switched on, and 'mouse' wasn't set yet, the 'mouse' option is
automatically set to "a", enabling it for all modes except for the
|hit-enter| prompt. If you don't want this, a good place to change the
'mouse' option is the "gvimrc" file.
Other options that are relevant:
'mousefocus' window focus follows mouse pointer |gui-mouse-focus|
'mousemodel' what mouse button does which action
'mousehide' hide mouse pointer while typing text
'selectmode' whether to start Select mode or Visual mode
A quick way to set these is with the ":behave" command.
*:behave* *:be*
:be[have] {model} Set behavior for mouse and selection. Valid
arguments are:
mswin MS-Windows behavior
xterm Xterm behavior
Using ":behave" changes these options:
option mswin xterm
'selectmode' "mouse,key" ""
'mousemodel' "popup" "extend"
'keymodel' "startsel,stopsel" ""
'selection' "exclusive" "inclusive"
In the $VIMRUNTIME directory, there is a script called |mswin.vim|, which will
also map a few keys to the MS-Windows cut/copy/paste commands. This is NOT
compatible, since it uses the CTRL-V, CTRL-X and CTRL-C keys. If you don't
mind, use this command:
:so $VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim
For scrolling with a wheel on a mouse, see |scroll-mouse-wheel|.
3.1 Moving Cursor with Mouse *gui-mouse-move*

Click the left mouse button somewhere in a text buffer where you want the
cursor to go, and it does!
This works in when 'mouse' contains
Normal mode 'n' or 'a'
Visual mode 'v' or 'a'
Insert mode 'i' or 'a'
Select mode is handled like Visual mode.
You may use this with an operator such as 'd' to delete text from the current
cursor position to the position you point to with the mouse. That is, you hit
'd' and then click the mouse somewhere.
*gui-mouse-focus*
The 'mousefocus' option can be set to make the keyboard focus follow the
mouse pointer. This means that the window where the mouse pointer is, is the
active window. Warning: this doesn't work very well when using a menu,
because the menu command will always be applied to the top window.

If you are on the ':' line (or '/' or '?'), then clicking the left or right
mouse button will position the cursor on the ':' line (if 'mouse' contains
'c', 'a' or 'A').
In any situation the middle mouse button may be clicked to paste the current
selection.
3.2 Selection with Mouse *gui-mouse-select*

The mouse can be used to start a selection. How depends on the 'mousemodel'
option:
'mousemodel' is "extend": use the right mouse button
'mousemodel' is "popup": use the left mouse button, while keeping the Shift
key pressed.
If there was no selection yet, this starts a selection from the old cursor
position to the position pointed to with the mouse. If there already is a
selection then the closest end will be extended.
If 'selectmode' contains "mouse", then the selection will be in Select mode.
This means that typing normal text will replace the selection. See
|Select-mode|. Otherwise, the selection will be in Visual mode.
Double clicking may be done to make the selection word-wise, triple clicking
makes it line-wise, and quadruple clicking makes it rectangular block-wise.
See |gui-selections| on how the selection is used.
3.3 Other Text Selection with Mouse *gui-mouse-modeless*

*modeless-selection*
A different kind of selection is used when:
- in Command-line mode
- in the Command-line window and pointing in another window
- at the |hit-enter| prompt
- whenever the current mode is not in the 'mouse' option
- when holding the CTRL and SHIFT keys in the GUI
Since Vim continues like the selection isn't there, and there is no mode
associated with the selection, this is called modeless selection. Any text in
the Vim window can be selected. Select the text by pressing the left mouse
button at the start, drag to the end and release. To extend the selection,
use the right mouse button when 'mousemodel' is "extend", or the left mouse
button with the shift key pressed when 'mousemodel' is "popup".
The selection is removed when the selected text is scrolled or changed.
On the command line CTRL-Y can be used to copy the selection into the
clipboard. To do this from Insert mode, use CTRL-O : CTRL-Y <CR>. When
'guioptions' contains a or A (default on X11), the selection is automatically
copied to the "* register.
The middle mouse button can then paste the text. On non-X11 systems, you can
use CTRL-R +.
3.4 Using Mouse on Status Lines *gui-mouse-status*

Clicking the left or right mouse button on the status line below a Vim
window makes that window the current window. This actually happens on button
release (to be able to distinguish a click from a drag action).
With the left mouse button a status line can be dragged up and down, thus
resizing the windows above and below it. This does not change window focus.
The same can be used on the vertical separator: click to give the window left
of it focus, drag left and right to make windows wider and narrower.
3.5 Various Mouse Clicks *gui-mouse-various*

<S-LeftMouse> Search forward for the word under the mouse click.
When 'mousemodel' is "popup" this starts or extends a
selection.

<S-RightMouse> Search backward for the word under the mouse click.
<C-LeftMouse> Jump to the tag name under the mouse click.
<C-RightMouse> Jump back to position before the previous tag jump
(same as "CTRL-T")
3.6 Mouse Mappings *gui-mouse-mapping*

The mouse events, complete with modifiers, may be mapped. Eg:
:map <S-LeftMouse> <RightMouse>
:map <S-LeftDrag> <RightDrag>
:map <S-LeftRelease> <RightRelease>
:map <2-S-LeftMouse> <2-RightMouse>
:map <2-S-LeftDrag> <2-RightDrag>
:map <2-S-LeftRelease> <2-RightRelease>
These mappings make selection work the way it probably should in a Motif
application, with shift-left mouse allowing for extending the visual area
rather than the right mouse button.
Mouse mapping with modifiers does not work for modeless selection.
3.7 Drag and drop *drag-n-drop*

You can drag and drop one or more files into the Vim window, where they will
be opened as if a |:drop| command was used.
If you hold down Shift while doing this, Vim changes to the first dropped
file's directory. If you hold Ctrl Vim will always split a new window for the
file. Otherwise it's only done if the current buffer has been changed.
You can also drop a directory on Vim. This starts the explorer plugin for
that directory (assuming it was enabled, otherwise you'll get an error
message). Keep Shift pressed to change to the directory instead.
If Vim happens to be editing a command line, the names of the dropped files
and directories will be inserted at the cursor. This allows you to use these
names with any Ex command. Special characters (space, tab, double quote and
'|'; backslash on non-MS-Windows systems) will be escaped.
==============================================================================
4. Making GUI Selections *gui-selections*
*quotestar*
You may make selections with the mouse (see |gui-mouse-select|), or by using
Vim's Visual mode (see |v|). If 'a' is present in 'guioptions', then
whenever a selection is started (Visual or Select mode), or when the selection
is changed, Vim becomes the owner of the windowing system's primary selection
(on MS-Windows the |gui-clipboard| is used; under X11, the |x11-selection| is
used - you should read whichever of these is appropriate now).
*clipboard*
There is a special register for storing this selection, it is the "*
register. Nothing is put in here unless the information about what text is
selected is about to change (e.g. with a left mouse click somewhere), or when
another application wants to paste the selected text. Then the text is put
in the "* register. For example, to cut a line and make it the current
selection/put it on the clipboard:
"*dd
Similarly, when you want to paste a selection from another application, e.g.,
by clicking the middle mouse button, the selection is put in the "* register
first, and then 'put' like any other register. For example, to put the
selection (contents of the clipboard):
"*p

When using this register under X11, also see |x11-selection|. This also
explains the related "+ register.
Note that when pasting text from one Vim into another separate Vim, the type
of selection (character, line, or block) will also be copied. For other
applications the type is always character. However, if the text gets
transferred via the |x11-cut-buffer|, the selection type is ALWAYS lost.
When the "unnamed" string is included in the 'clipboard' option, the unnamed
register is the same as the "* register. Thus you can yank to and paste the
selection without prepending "* to commands.
==============================================================================
5. Menus *menus*
For an introduction see |usr_42.txt| in the user manual.
5.1 Using Menus *using-menus*

Basically, menus can be used just like mappings. You can define your own
menus, as many as you like.
Long-time Vim users won't use menus much. But the power is in adding your own
menus and menu items. They are most useful for things that you can't remember
what the key sequence was.
For creating menus in a different language, see |:menutrans|.
*menu.vim*
The default menus are read from the file "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim". See
|$VIMRUNTIME| for where the path comes from. You can set up your own menus.
Starting off with the default set is a good idea. You can add more items, or,
if you don't like the defaults at all, start with removing all menus
|:unmenu-all|. You can also avoid the default menus being loaded by adding
this line to your .vimrc file (NOT your .gvimrc file!):
:let did_install_default_menus = 1
If you also want to avoid the Syntax menu:
:let did_install_syntax_menu = 1
The first item in the Syntax menu can be used to show all available filetypes
in the menu (which can take a bit of time to load). If you want to have all
filetypes already present at startup, add:
:let do_syntax_sel_menu = 1
*console-menus*
Although this documentation is in the GUI section, you can actually use menus
in console mode too. You will have to load |menu.vim| explicitly then, it is
not done by default. You can use the |:emenu| command and command-line
completion with 'wildmenu' to access the menu entries almost like a real menu
system. To do this, put these commands in your .vimrc file:
:set wildmenu
:set cpo-=<
:set wcm=<C-Z>
:map <F4> :emenu <C-Z>
Pressing <F4> will start the menu. You can now use the cursor keys to select
a menu entry. Hit <Enter> to execute it. Hit <Esc> if you want to cancel.
This does require the |+menu| feature enabled at compile time.
*tear-off-menus*
GTK+ and Motif support Tear-off menus. These are sort of sticky menus or
pop-up menus that are present all the time. If the resizing does not work
correctly, this may be caused by using something like "Vim*geometry" in the
defaults. Use "Vim.geometry" instead.
The Win32 GUI version emulates Motif's tear-off menus. Actually, a Motif user
will spot the differences easily, but hopefully they're just as useful. You
can also use the |:tearoff| command together with |hidden-menus| to create
floating menus that do not appear on the main menu bar.
5.2 Creating New Menus *creating-menus*

*:me* *:menu* *:noreme* *:noremenu*

*:am* *:amenu* *:an* *:anoremenu*
*:nme* *:nmenu* *:nnoreme* *:nnoremenu*
*:ome* *:omenu* *:onoreme* *:onoremenu*
*:vme* *:vmenu* *:vnoreme* *:vnoremenu*
*:xme* *:xmenu* *:xnoreme* *:xnoremenu*
*:sme* *:smenu* *:snoreme* *:snoremenu*
*:ime* *:imenu* *:inoreme* *:inoremenu*
*:cme* *:cmenu* *:cnoreme* *:cnoremenu*
*E330* *E327* *E331* *E336* *E333*
*E328* *E329* *E337* *E792*
To create a new menu item, use the ":menu" commands. They are mostly like
the ":map" set of commands but the first argument is a menu item name, given
as a path of menus and submenus with a '.' between them, e.g.:
:menu File.Save :w<CR>
:inoremenu File.Save <C-O>:w<CR>
:menu Edit.Big\ Changes.Delete\ All\ Spaces :%s/[ Î]//g<CR>
This last one will create a new item in the menu bar called "Edit", holding
the mouse button down on this will pop up a menu containing the item
"Big Changes", which is a sub-menu containing the item "Delete All Spaces",
which when selected, performs the operation.
Special characters in a menu name:
& The next character is the shortcut key. Make sure each
shortcut key is only used once in a (sub)menu. If you want to
insert a literal "&" in the menu name use "&&".
<Tab> Separates the menu name from right-aligned text. This can be
used to show the equivalent typed command. The text "<Tab>"
can be used here for convenience. If you are using a real
tab, don't forget to put a backslash before it!
Example:
:amenu &File.&Open<Tab>:e :browse e<CR>
[typed literally]
With the shortcut "F" (while keeping the <Alt> key pressed), and then "O",
this menu can be used. The second part is shown as "Open :e". The ":e"
is right aligned, and the "O" is underlined, to indicate it is the shortcut.
The ":amenu" command can be used to define menu entries for all modes at once.
To make the command work correctly, a character is automatically inserted for
some modes:
mode inserted appended
Normal nothing nothing
Visual <C-C> <C-\><C-G>
Insert <C-\><C-O>
Cmdline <C-C> <C-\><C-G>
Op-pending <C-C> <C-\><C-G>
Appending CTRL-\ CTRL-G is for going back to insert mode when 'insertmode' is
set. |CTRL-\_CTRL-G|
Example:
:amenu File.Next :next^M
is equal to:
:nmenu File.Next :next^M
:vmenu File.Next ^C:next^M^\^G
:imenu File.Next ^\Ô:next^M
:cmenu File.Next ^C:next^M^\^G
:omenu File.Next ^C:next^M^\^G
Careful: In Insert mode this only works for a SINGLE Normal mode command,

because of the CTRL-O. If you have two or more commands, you will need to use
the ":imenu" command. For inserting text in any mode, you can use the
expression register:
:amenu Insert.foobar "='foobar'<CR>P
Note that the '<' and 'k' flags in 'cpoptions' also apply here (when
included they make the <> form and raw key codes not being recognized).
Note that <Esc> in Cmdline mode executes the command, like in a mapping. This
is Vi compatible. Use CTRL-C to quit Cmdline mode.
*:menu-<silent>* *:menu-silent*
To define a menu which will not be echoed on the command line, add
"<silent>" as the first argument. Example:
:menu <silent> Settings.Ignore\ case :set ic<CR>
The ":set ic" will not be echoed when using this menu. Messages from the
executed command are still given though. To shut them up too, add a ":silent"
in the executed command:
:menu <silent> Search.Header :exe ":silent normal /Header\r"<CR>
"<silent>" may also appear just after "<special>" or "<script>".
*:menu-<special>* *:menu-special*
Define a menu with <> notation for special keys, even though the "<" flag
may appear in 'cpoptions'. This is useful if the side effect of setting
'cpoptions' is not desired. Example:
:menu <special> Search.Header /Header<CR>
"<special>" must appear as the very first argument to the ":menu" command or
just after "<silent>" or "<script>".
*:menu-<script>* *:menu-script*
The "to" part of the menu will be inspected for mappings. If you don't want
this, use the ":noremenu" command (or the similar one for a specific mode).
If you do want to use script-local mappings, add "<script>" as the very first
argument to the ":menu" command or just after "<silent>" or "<special>".
*menu-priority*
You can give a priority to a menu. Menus with a higher priority go more to
the right. The priority is given as a number before the ":menu" command.
Example:
:80menu Buffer.next :bn<CR>
The default menus have these priorities:
File 10
Edit 20
Tools 40
Syntax 50
Buffers 60
Window 70
Help 9999
When no or zero priority is given, 500 is used.
The priority for the PopUp menu is not used.
The Help menu will be placed on the far right side of the menu bar on systems
which support this (Motif and GTK+). For GTK+ 2, this is not done anymore
because right-aligning the Help menu is now discouraged UI design.
You can use a priority higher than 9999, to make it go after the Help menu,
but that is non-standard and is discouraged. The highest possible priority is
about 32000. The lowest is 1.
*sub-menu-priority*
The same mechanism can be used to position a sub-menu. The priority is then
given as a dot-separated list of priorities, before the menu name:
:menu 80.500 Buffer.next :bn<CR>
Giving the sub-menu priority is only needed when the item is not to be put
in a normal position. For example, to put a sub-menu before the other items:
:menu 80.100 Buffer.first :brew<CR>
Or to put a sub-menu after the other items, and further items with default
priority will be put before it:
:menu 80.900 Buffer.last :blast<CR>
When a number is missing, the default value 500 will be used:
:menu .900 myMenu.test :echo "text"<CR>

The menu priority is only used when creating a new menu. When it already
existed, e.g., in another mode, the priority will not change. Thus, the
priority only needs to be given the first time a menu is used.
An exception is the PopUp menu. There is a separate menu for each mode
(Normal, Op-pending, Visual, Insert, Cmdline). The order in each of these
menus can be different. This is different from menu-bar menus, which have
the same order for all modes.
NOTE: sub-menu priorities currently don't work for all versions of the GUI.
*menu-separator* *E332*
Menu items can be separated by a special item that inserts some space between
items. Depending on the system this is displayed as a line or a dotted line.
These items must start with a '-' and end in a '-'. The part in between is
used to give it a unique name. Priorities can be used as with normal items.
Example:
:menu Example.item1 :do something
:menu Example.-Sep- :
:menu Example.item2 :do something different
Note that the separator also requires a rhs. It doesn't matter what it is,
because the item will never be selected. Use a single colon to keep it
simple.
*gui-toolbar*
The toolbar is currently available in the Win32, Athena, Motif, GTK+ (X11),
and Photon GUI. It should turn up in other GUIs in due course. The
default toolbar is setup in menu.vim.
The display of the toolbar is controlled by the 'guioptions' letter 'T'. You
can thus have menu & toolbar together, or either on its own, or neither.
The appearance is controlled by the 'toolbar' option. You can choose between
an image, text or both.
*toolbar-icon*
The toolbar is defined as a special menu called ToolBar, which only has one
level. Vim interprets the items in this menu as follows:
1) If an "icon=" argument was specified, the file with this name is used.
The file can either be specified with the full path or with the base name.
In the last case it is searched for in the "bitmaps" directory in
'runtimepath', like in point 3. Examples:
:amenu icon=/usr/local/pixmaps/foo_icon.xpm ToolBar.Foo :echo "Foo"<CR>
:amenu icon=FooIcon ToolBar.Foo :echo "Foo"<CR>
Note that in the first case the extension is included, while in the second
case it is omitted.
If the file cannot be opened the next points are tried.
A space in the file name must be escaped with a backslash.
A menu priority must come _after_ the icon argument:
:amenu icon=foo 1.42 ToolBar.Foo :echo "42!"<CR>
2) An item called 'BuiltIn##', where ## is a number, is taken as number ## of
the built-in bitmaps available in Vim. Currently there are 31 numbered
from 0 to 30 which cover most common editing operations |builtin-tools|.
:amenu ToolBar.BuiltIn22 :call SearchNext("back")<CR>
3) An item with another name is first searched for in the directory
"bitmaps" in 'runtimepath'. If found, the bitmap file is used as the
toolbar button image. Note that the exact filename is OS-specific: For
example, under Win32 the command
:amenu ToolBar.Hello :echo "hello"<CR>
would find the file 'hello.bmp'. Under GTK+/X11 it is 'Hello.xpm'. With
GTK+ 2 the files 'Hello.png', 'Hello.xpm' and 'Hello.bmp' are checked for
existence, and the first one found would be used.
For MS-Windows and GTK+ 2 the bitmap is scaled to fit the button. For
MS-Windows a size of 18 by 18 pixels works best.
For MS-Windows the bitmap should have 16 colors with the standard palette.
The light grey pixels will be changed to the Window frame color and the
dark grey pixels to the window shadow color. More colors might also work,
depending on your system.
4) If the bitmap is still not found, Vim checks for a match against its list
of built-in names. Each built-in button image has a name.
So the command
:amenu ToolBar.Open :e
will show the built-in "open a file" button image if no open.bmp exists.
All the built-in names can be seen used in menu.vim.
5) If all else fails, a blank, but functioning, button is displayed.
*builtin-tools*
nr Name Normal action
00 New open new window

01 Open browse for file to open in current window

02 Save write buffer to file
03 Undo undo last change
04 Redo redo last undone change
05 Cut delete selected text to clipboard
06 Copy copy selected text to clipboard
07 Paste paste text from clipboard
08 Print print current buffer
09 Help open a buffer on Vim's builtin help
10 Find start a search command
11 SaveAll write all modified buffers to file
12 SaveSesn write session file for current situation
13 NewSesn write new session file
14 LoadSesn load session file
15 RunScript browse for file to run as a Vim script
16 Replace prompt for substitute command
17 WinClose close current window
18 WinMax make current window use many lines
19 WinMin make current window use few lines
20 WinSplit split current window
21 Shell start a shell
22 FindPrev search again, backward
23 FindNext search again, forward
24 FindHelp prompt for word to search help for
25 Make run make and jump to first error
26 TagJump jump to tag under the cursor
27 RunCtags build tags for files in current directory
28 WinVSplit split current window vertically
29 WinMaxWidth make current window use many columns
30 WinMinWidth make current window use few columns
*hidden-menus* *win32-hidden-menus*
In the Win32 and GTK+ GUI, starting a menu name with ']' excludes that menu
from the main menu bar. You must then use the |:popup| or |:tearoff| command
to display it.
*popup-menu*
In the Win32, GTK+, Motif, Athena and Photon GUI, you can define the
special menu "PopUp". This is the menu that is displayed when the right mouse
button is pressed, if 'mousemodel' is set to popup or popup_setpos.
5.3 Showing What Menus Are Mapped To *showing-menus*

To see what an existing menu is mapped to, use just one argument after the
menu commands (just like you would with the ":map" commands). If the menu
specified is a submenu, then all menus under that hierarchy will be shown.
If no argument is given after :menu at all, then ALL menu items are shown
for the appropriate mode (e.g., Command-line mode for :cmenu).
Special characters in the list, just before the rhs:
* The menu was defined with "nore" to disallow remapping.
& The menu was defined with "<script>" to allow remapping script-local
mappings only.
- The menu was disabled.
Note that hitting <Tab> while entering a menu name after a menu command may
be used to complete the name of the menu item.
5.4 Executing Menus *execute-menus*
*:em* *:emenu* *E334* *E335*

:[range]em[enu] {menu} Execute {menu} from the command line.
The default is to execute the Normal mode
menu. If a range is specified, it executes
the Visual mode menu.
If used from <c-o>, it executes the
insert-mode menu Eg:
:emenu File.Exit
If the console-mode vim has been compiled with WANT_MENU defined, you can
use :emenu to access useful menu items you may have got used to from GUI
mode. See 'wildmenu' for an option that works well with this. See
|console-menus| for an example.

When using a range, if the lines match with '<,'>, then the menu is executed
using the last visual selection.
5.5 Deleting Menus *delete-menus*
*:unme* *:unmenu*
*:aun* *:aunmenu*
*:nunme* *:nunmenu*
*:ounme* *:ounmenu*
*:vunme* *:vunmenu*
*:xunme* *:xunmenu*
*:sunme* *:sunmenu*
*:iunme* *:iunmenu*
*:cunme* *:cunmenu*
To delete a menu item or a whole submenu, use the unmenu commands, which are
analogous to the unmap commands. Eg:
:unmenu! Edit.Paste
This will remove the Paste item from the Edit menu for Insert and
Command-line modes.
Note that hitting <Tab> while entering a menu name after an umenu command
may be used to complete the name of the menu item for the appropriate mode.
To remove all menus use: *:unmenu-all*

:unmenu * " remove all menus in Normal and visual mode
:unmenu! * " remove all menus in Insert and Command-line mode
:aunmenu * " remove all menus in all modes
If you want to get rid of the menu bar:
:set guioptions-=m
5.6 Disabling Menus *disable-menus*
*:menu-disable* *:menu-enable*
If you do not want to remove a menu, but disable it for a moment, this can be
done by adding the "enable" or "disable" keyword to a ":menu" command.
Examples:
:menu disable &File.&Open\.\.\.
:amenu enable *
:amenu disable &Tools.*
The command applies to the modes as used with all menu commands. Note that
characters like "&" need to be included for translated names to be found.
When the argument is "*", all menus are affected. Otherwise the given menu
name and all existing submenus below it are affected.
5.7 Examples for Menus *menu-examples*

Here is an example on how to add menu items with menu's! You can add a menu
item for the keyword under the cursor. The register "z" is used.
:nmenu Words.Add\ Var wb"zye:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z<CR>
:nmenu Words.Remove\ Var wb"zye:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR>
:vmenu Words.Add\ Var "zy:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z <CR>
:vmenu Words.Remove\ Var "zy:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR>
:imenu Words.Add\ Var <Esc>wb"zye:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z<CR>a
:imenu Words.Remove\ Var <Esc>wb"zye:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR>a
(the rhs is in <> notation, you can copy/paste this text to try out the

mappings, or put these lines in your gvimrc; "<C-R>" is CTRL-R, "<CR>" is

the <CR> key. |<>|)
5.8 Tooltips & Menu tips

See section |42.4| in the user manual.
*:tmenu* *:tm*
:tm[enu] {menupath} {rhs} Define a tip for a menu or tool. {only in
X11 and Win32 GUI}
:tm[enu] [menupath] List menu tips. {only in X11 and Win32 GUI}
*:tunmenu* *:tu*
:tu[nmenu] {menupath} Remove a tip for a menu or tool.
{only in X11 and Win32 GUI}
When a tip is defined for a menu item, it appears in the command-line area
when the mouse is over that item, much like a standard Windows menu hint in
the status bar. (Except when Vim is in Command-line mode, when of course
nothing is displayed.)
When a tip is defined for a ToolBar item, it appears as a tooltip when the
mouse pauses over that button, in the usual fashion. Use the |hl-Tooltip|
highlight group to change its colors.
A "tip" can be defined for each menu item. For example, when defining a menu
item like this:
:amenu MyMenu.Hello :echo "Hello"<CR>
The tip is defined like this:
:tmenu MyMenu.Hello Displays a greeting.
And delete it with:
:tunmenu MyMenu.Hello
Tooltips are currently only supported for the X11 and Win32 GUI. However, they
should appear for the other gui platforms in the not too distant future.
The ":tmenu" command works just like other menu commands, it uses the same
arguments. ":tunmenu" deletes an existing menu tip, in the same way as the
other unmenu commands.
If a menu item becomes invalid (i.e. its actions in all modes are deleted) Vim
deletes the menu tip (and the item) for you. This means that :aunmenu deletes
a menu item - you don't need to do a :tunmenu as well.
5.9 Popup Menus

In the Win32 and GTK+ GUI, you can cause a menu to popup at the cursor.
This behaves similarly to the PopUp menus except that any menu tree can
be popped up.
This command is for backwards compatibility, using it is discouraged, because
it behaves in a strange way.
*:popup* *:popu*
:popu[p] {name} Popup the menu {name}. The menu named must
have at least one subentry, but need not
appear on the menu-bar (see |hidden-menus|).
{only available for Win32 and GTK GUI}
:popu[p]! {name} Like above, but use the position of the mouse
pointer instead of the cursor.
Example:
:popup File
will make the "File" menu (if there is one) appear at the text cursor (mouse
pointer if ! was used).
:amenu ]Toolbar.Make :make<CR>
:popup ]Toolbar
This creates a popup menu that doesn't exist on the main menu-bar.
Note that a menu that starts with ']' will not be displayed.
==============================================================================

6. Extras *gui-extras*
This section describes other features which are related to the GUI.
- With the GUI, there is no wait for one second after hitting escape, because
the key codes don't start with <Esc>.
- Typing ^V followed by a special key in the GUI will insert "<Key>", since
the internal string used is meaningless. Modifiers may also be held down to
get "<Modifiers-Key>".
- In the GUI, the modifiers SHIFT, CTRL, and ALT (or META) may be used within
mappings of special keys and mouse events. E.g.: :map <M-LeftDrag> <LeftDrag>
- In the GUI, several normal keys may have modifiers in mappings etc, these
are <Space>, <Tab>, <NL>, <CR>, <Esc>.
- To check in a Vim script if the GUI is being used, you can use something
like this:
if has("gui_running")
echo "yes, we have a GUI"
else
echo "Boring old console"
endif
*setting-guifont*
- When you use the same vimrc file on various systems, you can use something
like this to set options specifically for each type of GUI:
if has("gui_running")
if has("gui_gtk2")
:set guifont=Luxi\ Mono\ 12
elseif has("x11")
" Also for GTK 1
:set guifont=*-lucidatypewriter-medium-r-normal-*-*-180-*-*-m-*-*
elseif has("gui_win32")
:set guifont=Luxi_Mono:h12:cANSI
endif
endif
A recommended Japanese font is MS Mincho. You can find info here:
http://www.lexikan.com/mincho.htm
==============================================================================
7. Shell Commands *gui-shell*
For the X11 GUI the external commands are executed inside the gvim window.
See |gui-pty|.
WARNING: Executing an external command from the X11 GUI will not always
work. "normal" commands like "ls", "grep" and "make" mostly work fine.
Commands that require an intelligent terminal like "less" and "ispell" won't
work. Some may even hang and need to be killed from another terminal. So be
careful!
For the Win32 GUI the external commands are executed in a separate window.
See |gui-shell-win32|.
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: autocmd
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*autocmd.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Jul 22
Automatic commands *autocommand*

For a basic explanation, see section |40.3| in the user manual.
1. Introduction |autocmd-intro|
2. Defining autocommands |autocmd-define|
3. Removing autocommands |autocmd-remove|
4. Listing autocommands |autocmd-list|
5. Events |autocmd-events|
6. Patterns |autocmd-patterns|
7. Buffer-local autocommands |autocmd-buflocal|
8. Groups |autocmd-groups|
9. Executing autocommands |autocmd-execute|
10. Using autocommands |autocmd-use|
11. Disabling autocommands |autocmd-disable|
{only when the |+autocmd| feature has not been disabled at compile time}
==============================================================================
1. Introduction *autocmd-intro*
You can specify commands to be executed automatically when reading or writing
a file, when entering or leaving a buffer or window, and when exiting Vim.
For example, you can create an autocommand to set the 'cindent' option for
files matching *.c. You can also use autocommands to implement advanced
features, such as editing compressed files (see |gzip-example|). The usual
place to put autocommands is in your .vimrc or .exrc file.
*E203* *E204* *E143*

WARNING: Using autocommands is very powerful, and may lead to unexpected side
effects. Be careful not to destroy your text.
- It's a good idea to do some testing on an expendable copy of a file first.
For example: If you use autocommands to decompress a file when starting to
edit it, make sure that the autocommands for compressing when writing work
correctly.
- Be prepared for an error halfway through (e.g., disk full). Vim will mostly
be able to undo the changes to the buffer, but you may have to clean up the
changes to other files by hand (e.g., compress a file that has been
decompressed).
- If the BufRead* events allow you to edit a compressed file, the FileRead*
events should do the same (this makes recovery possible in some rare cases).
It's a good idea to use the same autocommands for the File* and Buf* events
when possible.
==============================================================================
2. Defining autocommands *autocmd-define*
Note: The ":autocmd" command cannot be followed by another command, since any
'|' is considered part of the command.
*:au* *:autocmd*
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/autocmd.html[2019/03/05 11:42:30 AM]

:au[tocmd] [group] {event} {pat} [nested] {cmd}

Add {cmd} to the list of commands that Vim will
execute automatically on {event} for a file matching
{pat} |autocmd-patterns|.
Vim always adds the {cmd} after existing autocommands,
so that the autocommands execute in the order in which
they were given. See |autocmd-nested| for [nested].
The special pattern <buffer> or <buffer=N> defines a buffer-local autocommand.
See |autocmd-buflocal|.
Note that special characters (e.g., "%", "<cword>") in the ":autocmd"
arguments are not expanded when the autocommand is defined. These will be
expanded when the Event is recognized, and the {cmd} is executed. The only
exception is that "<sfile>" is expanded when the autocmd is defined. Example:
:au BufNewFile,BufRead *.html so <sfile>:h/html.vim
Here Vim expands <sfile> to the name of the file containing this line.
When your .vimrc file is sourced twice, the autocommands will appear twice.
To avoid this, put this command in your .vimrc file, before defining
autocommands:
:autocmd! " Remove ALL autocommands for the current group.
If you don't want to remove all autocommands, you can instead use a variable
to ensure that Vim includes the autocommands only once:
:if !exists("autocommands_loaded")
: let autocommands_loaded = 1
: au ...
:endif
When the [group] argument is not given, Vim uses the current group (as defined
with ":augroup"); otherwise, Vim uses the group defined with [group]. Note
that [group] must have been defined before. You cannot define a new group
with ":au group ..."; use ":augroup" for that.
While testing autocommands, you might find the 'verbose' option to be useful:
:set verbose=9
This setting makes Vim echo the autocommands as it executes them.
When defining an autocommand in a script, it will be able to call functions
local to the script and use mappings local to the script. When the event is
triggered and the command executed, it will run in the context of the script
it was defined in. This matters if |<SID>| is used in a command.
When executing the commands, the message from one command overwrites a
previous message. This is different from when executing the commands
manually. Mostly the screen will not scroll up, thus there is no hit-enter
prompt. When one command outputs two messages this can happen anyway.
==============================================================================
3. Removing autocommands *autocmd-remove*
:au[tocmd]! [group] {event} {pat} [nested] {cmd}
Remove all autocommands associated with {event} and
{pat}, and add the command {cmd}. See
|autocmd-nested| for [nested].
:au[tocmd]! [group] {event} {pat}
Remove all autocommands associated with {event} and
{pat}.
:au[tocmd]! [group] * {pat}
Remove all autocommands associated with {pat} for all
events.
:au[tocmd]! [group] {event}
Remove ALL autocommands for {event}.
:au[tocmd]! [group] Remove ALL autocommands.
When the [group] argument is not given, Vim uses the current group (as defined
with ":augroup"); otherwise, Vim uses the group defined with [group].
==============================================================================

4. Listing autocommands *autocmd-list*

:au[tocmd] [group] {event} {pat}
Show the autocommands associated with {event} and
{pat}.
:au[tocmd] [group] * {pat}
Show the autocommands associated with {pat} for all
events.
:au[tocmd] [group] {event}
Show all autocommands for {event}.
:au[tocmd] [group] Show all autocommands.
If you provide the [group] argument, Vim lists only the autocommands for
[group]; otherwise, Vim lists the autocommands for ALL groups. Note that this
argument behavior differs from that for defining and removing autocommands.
In order to list buffer-local autocommands, use a pattern in the form <buffer>
or <buffer=N>. See |autocmd-buflocal|.
*:autocmd-verbose*
When 'verbose' is non-zero, listing an autocommand will also display where it
was last defined. Example:
:verbose autocmd BufEnter
FileExplorer BufEnter
* call s:LocalBrowse(expand("<amatch>"))
Last set from /usr/share/vim/vim-7.0/plugin/NetrwPlugin.vim
==============================================================================
5. Events *autocmd-events* *E215* *E216*
You can specify a comma-separated list of event names. No white space can be
used in this list. The command applies to all the events in the list.
For READING FILES there are four kinds of events possible:
BufNewFile starting to edit a non-existent file
BufReadPre BufReadPost starting to edit an existing file
FilterReadPre FilterReadPost read the temp file with filter output
FileReadPre FileReadPost any other file read
Vim uses only one of these four kinds when reading a file. The "Pre" and
"Post" events are both triggered, before and after reading the file.
Note that the autocommands for the *ReadPre events and all the Filter events
are not allowed to change the current buffer (you will get an error message if
this happens). This is to prevent the file to be read into the wrong buffer.
Note that the 'modified' flag is reset AFTER executing the BufReadPost
and BufNewFile autocommands. But when the 'modified' option was set by the
autocommands, this doesn't happen.
You can use the 'eventignore' option to ignore a number of events or all
events.
*autocommand-events* *{event}*
Vim recognizes the following events. Vim ignores the case of event names
(e.g., you can use "BUFread" or "bufread" instead of "BufRead").
First an overview by function with a short explanation. Then the list
alphabetically with full explanations |autocmd-events-abc|.
Name triggered by
Reading
|BufNewFile| starting to edit a file that doesn't exist
|BufReadPre| starting to edit a new buffer, before reading the file
|BufRead| starting to edit a new buffer, after reading the file
|BufReadPost| starting to edit a new buffer, after reading the file
|BufReadCmd| before starting to edit a new buffer |Cmd-event|
|FileReadPre| before reading a file with a ":read" command
|FileReadPost| after reading a file with a ":read" command
|FileReadCmd| before reading a file with a ":read" command |Cmd-event|

|FilterReadPre| before reading a file from a filter command

|FilterReadPost| after reading a file from a filter command
|StdinReadPre| before reading from stdin into the buffer
|StdinReadPost| After reading from the stdin into the buffer
Writing
|BufWrite| starting to write the whole buffer to a file
|BufWritePre| starting to write the whole buffer to a file
|BufWritePost| after writing the whole buffer to a file
|BufWriteCmd| before writing the whole buffer to a file |Cmd-event|
|FileWritePre| starting to write part of a buffer to a file
|FileWritePost| after writing part of a buffer to a file
|FileWriteCmd| before writing part of a buffer to a file |Cmd-event|
|FileAppendPre| starting to append to a file
|FileAppendPost| after appending to a file
|FileAppendCmd| before appending to a file |Cmd-event|
|FilterWritePre| starting to write a file for a filter command or diff
|FilterWritePost| after writing a file for a filter command or diff
Buffers
|BufAdd| just after adding a buffer to the buffer list
|BufCreate| just after adding a buffer to the buffer list
|BufDelete| before deleting a buffer from the buffer list
|BufWipeout| before completely deleting a buffer
|BufFilePre| before changing the name of the current buffer
|BufFilePost| after changing the name of the current buffer
|BufEnter| after entering a buffer
|BufLeave| before leaving to another buffer
|BufWinEnter| after a buffer is displayed in a window
|BufWinLeave| before a buffer is removed from a window
|BufUnload| before unloading a buffer
|BufHidden| just after a buffer has become hidden
|BufNew| just after creating a new buffer
|SwapExists| detected an existing swap file
Options
|FileType| when the 'filetype' option has been set
|Syntax| when the 'syntax' option has been set
|EncodingChanged| after the 'encoding' option has been changed
|TermChanged| after the value of 'term' has changed
Startup and exit
|VimEnter| after doing all the startup stuff
|GUIEnter| after starting the GUI successfully
|TermResponse| after the terminal response to |t_RV| is received
|VimLeavePre| before exiting Vim, before writing the viminfo file
|VimLeave| before exiting Vim, after writing the viminfo file
Various
|FileChangedShell| Vim notices that a file changed since editing started
|FileChangedShellPost| After handling a file changed since editing started
|FileChangedRO| before making the first change to a read-only file
|ShellCmdPost| after executing a shell command
|ShellFilterPost| after filtering with a shell command
|FuncUndefined| a user function is used but it isn't defined
|SpellFileMissing| a spell file is used but it can't be found
|SourcePre| before sourcing a Vim script
|SourceCmd| before sourcing a Vim script |Cmd-event|
|VimResized| after the Vim window size changed
|FocusGained| Vim got input focus
|FocusLost| Vim lost input focus
|CursorHold| the user doesn't press a key for a while
|CursorHoldI| the user doesn't press a key for a while in Insert mode
|CursorMoved| the cursor was moved in Normal mode
|CursorMovedI| the cursor was moved in Insert mode
|WinEnter| after entering another window
|WinLeave| before leaving a window
|TabEnter| after entering another tab page

|TabLeave| before leaving a tab page

|CmdwinEnter| after entering the command-line window
|CmdwinLeave| before leaving the command-line window
|InsertEnter| starting Insert mode
|InsertChange| when typing <Insert> while in Insert or Replace mode
|InsertLeave| when leaving Insert mode
|ColorScheme| after loading a color scheme
|RemoteReply| a reply from a server Vim was received
|QuickFixCmdPre| before a quickfix command is run
|QuickFixCmdPost| after a quickfix command is run
|SessionLoadPost| after loading a session file
|MenuPopup| just before showing the popup menu
|User| to be used in combination with ":doautocmd"
The alphabetical list of autocommand events: *autocmd-events-abc*
*BufCreate* *BufAdd*
BufAdd or BufCreate Just after creating a new buffer which is
added to the buffer list, or adding a buffer
to the buffer list.
Also used just after a buffer in the buffer
list has been renamed.
The BufCreate event is for historic reasons.
NOTE: When this autocommand is executed, the
current buffer "%" may be different from the
buffer being created "<afile>".
*BufDelete*
BufDelete Before deleting a buffer from the buffer list.
The BufUnload may be called first (if the
buffer was loaded).
Also used just before a buffer in the buffer
list is renamed.
buffer being deleted "<afile>" and "<abuf>".
Don't change to another buffer, it will cause
problems.
*BufEnter*
BufEnter After entering a buffer. Useful for setting
options for a file type. Also executed when
starting to edit a buffer, after the
BufReadPost autocommands.
*BufFilePost*
BufFilePost After changing the name of the current buffer
with the ":file" or ":saveas" command.
*BufFilePre*
BufFilePre Before changing the name of the current buffer
with the ":file" or ":saveas" command.
*BufHidden*
BufHidden Just after a buffer has become hidden. That
is, when there are no longer windows that show
the buffer, but the buffer is not unloaded or
deleted. Not used for ":qa" or ":q" when
exiting Vim.
buffer being unloaded "<afile>".
*BufLeave*
BufLeave Before leaving to another buffer. Also when
leaving or closing the current window and the
new current window is not for the same buffer.
Not used for ":qa" or ":q" when exiting Vim.
*BufNew*

BufNew Just after creating a new buffer. Also used

just after a buffer has been renamed. When
the buffer is added to the buffer list BufAdd
will be triggered too.
buffer being created "<afile>".
*BufNewFile*
BufNewFile When starting to edit a file that doesn't
exist. Can be used to read in a skeleton
file.
*BufRead* *BufReadPost*
BufRead or BufReadPost When starting to edit a new buffer, after
reading the file into the buffer, before
executing the modelines. See |BufWinEnter|
for when you need to do something after
processing the modelines.
This does NOT work for ":r file". Not used
when the file doesn't exist. Also used after
successfully recovering a file.
*BufReadCmd*
BufReadCmd Before starting to edit a new buffer. Should
read the file into the buffer. |Cmd-event|
*BufReadPre* *E200* *E201*
BufReadPre When starting to edit a new buffer, before
reading the file into the buffer. Not used
if the file doesn't exist.
*BufUnload*
BufUnload Before unloading a buffer. This is when the
text in the buffer is going to be freed. This
may be after a BufWritePost and before a
BufDelete. Also used for all buffers that are
loaded when Vim is going to exit.
problems.
When exiting and v:dying is 2 or more this
event is not triggered.
*BufWinEnter*
BufWinEnter After a buffer is displayed in a window. This
can be when the buffer is loaded (after
processing the modelines) or when a hidden
buffer is displayed in a window (and is no
longer hidden).
Does not happen for |:split| without
arguments, since you keep editing the same
buffer, or ":split" with a file that's already
open in a window, because it re-uses an
existing buffer. But it does happen for a
":split" with the name of the current buffer,
since it reloads that buffer.
*BufWinLeave*
BufWinLeave Before a buffer is removed from a window.
Not when it's still visible in another window.
Also triggered when exiting. It's triggered
before BufUnload or BufHidden.
When exiting and v:dying is 2 or more this
event is not triggered.
*BufWipeout*
BufWipeout Before completely deleting a buffer. The
BufUnload and BufDelete events may be called
first (if the buffer was loaded and was in the
buffer list). Also used just before a buffer
is renamed (also when it's not in the buffer
list).

buffer being deleted "<afile>".

problems.
*BufWrite* *BufWritePre*
BufWrite or BufWritePre Before writing the whole buffer to a file.
*BufWriteCmd*
BufWriteCmd Before writing the whole buffer to a file.
Should do the writing of the file and reset
'modified' if successful, unless '+' is in
'cpo' and writing to another file |cpo-+|.
The buffer contents should not be changed.
|Cmd-event|
*BufWritePost*
BufWritePost After writing the whole buffer to a file
(should undo the commands for BufWritePre).
*CmdwinEnter*
CmdwinEnter After entering the command-line window.
Useful for setting options specifically for
this special type of window. This is
triggered _instead_ of BufEnter and WinEnter.
<afile> is set to a single character,
indicating the type of command-line.
|cmdwin-char|
*CmdwinLeave*
CmdwinLeave Before leaving the command-line window.
Useful to clean up any global setting done
with CmdwinEnter. This is triggered _instead_
of BufLeave and WinLeave.
<afile> is set to a single character,
indicating the type of command-line.
|cmdwin-char|
*ColorScheme*
ColorScheme After loading a color scheme. |:colorscheme|
*CursorHold*
CursorHold When the user doesn't press a key for the time
specified with 'updatetime'. Not re-triggered
until the user has pressed a key (i.e. doesn't
fire every 'updatetime' ms if you leave Vim to
make some coffee. :) See |CursorHold-example|
for previewing tags.
This event is only triggered in Normal mode.
It is not triggered when waiting for a command
argument to be typed, or a movement after an
operator.
While recording the CursorHold event is not
triggered. |q|
Note: Interactive commands cannot be used for
this event. There is no hit-enter prompt,
the screen is updated directly (when needed).
Note: In the future there will probably be
another option to set the time.
Hint: to force an update of the status lines
use:
:let &ro = &ro
{only on Amiga, Unix, Win32, MSDOS and all GUI
versions}
*CursorHoldI*
CursorHoldI Just like CursorHold, but in Insert mode.
*CursorMoved*
CursorMoved After the cursor was moved in Normal mode.
Also when the text of the cursor line has been
changed, e.g., with "x", "rx" or "p".
Not triggered when there is typeahead or when
an operator is pending.
For an example see |match-parens|.
Careful: Don't do anything that the user does
not expect or that is slow.
*CursorMovedI*

CursorMovedI After the cursor was moved in Insert mode.

Otherwise the same as CursorMoved.
*EncodingChanged*
EncodingChanged Fires off after the 'encoding' option has been
changed. Useful to set up fonts, for example.
*FileAppendCmd*
FileAppendCmd Before appending to a file. Should do the
appending to the file. Use the '[ and ']
marks for the range of lines.|Cmd-eventYXXY
*FileAppendPost*
FileAppendPost After appending to a file.
*FileAppendPre*
FileAppendPre Before appending to a file. Use the '[ and ']
marks for the range of lines.
*FileChangedRO*
FileChangedRO Before making the first change to a read-only
file. Can be used to check-out the file from
a source control system. Not triggered when
the change was caused by an autocommand.
This event is triggered when making the first
change in a buffer or the first change after
'readonly' was set, just before the change is
applied to the text.
WARNING: If the autocommand moves the cursor
the effect of the change is undefined.
*E788*
It is not allowed to change to another buffer
here. You can reload the buffer but not edit
another one.
*FileChangedShell*
FileChangedShell When Vim notices that the modification time of
a file has changed since editing started.
Also when the file attributes of the file
change. |timestamp|
Mostly triggered after executing a shell
command, but also with a |:checktime| command
or when Gvim regains input focus.
This autocommand is triggered for each changed
file. It is not used when 'autoread' is set
and the buffer was not changed. If a
FileChangedShell autocommand is present the
warning message and prompt is not given.
The |v:fcs_reason| variable is set to indicate
what happened and |v:fcs_choice| can be used
to tell Vim what to do next.
buffer that was changed "<afile>".
NOTE: The commands must not change the current
buffer, jump to another buffer or delete a
buffer. *E246* *E811*
NOTE: This event never nests, to avoid an
endless loop. This means that while executing
commands for the FileChangedShell event no
other FileChangedShell event will be
triggered.
*FileChangedShellPost*
FileChangedShellPost After handling a file that was changed outside
of Vim. Can be used to update the statusline.
*FileEncoding*
FileEncoding Obsolete. It still works and is equivalent
to |EncodingChanged|.
*FileReadCmd*
FileReadCmd Before reading a file with a ":read" command.
Should do the reading of the file. |Cmd-event|
*FileReadPost*
FileReadPost After reading a file with a ":read" command.
Note that Vim sets the '[ and '] marks to the

first and last line of the read. This can be

used to operate on the lines just read.
*FileReadPre*
FileReadPre Before reading a file with a ":read" command.
*FileType*
FileType When the 'filetype' option has been set. The
pattern is matched against the filetype.
<afile> can be used for the name of the file
where this option was set, and <amatch> for
the new value of 'filetype'.
See |filetypes|.
*FileWriteCmd*
FileWriteCmd Before writing to a file, when not writing the
whole buffer. Should do the writing to the
file. Should not change the buffer. Use the
'[ and '] marks for the range of lines.
|Cmd-event|
*FileWritePost*
FileWritePost After writing to a file, when not writing the
whole buffer.
*FileWritePre*
FileWritePre Before writing to a file, when not writing the
whole buffer. Use the '[ and '] marks for the
range of lines.
*FilterReadPost*
FilterReadPost After reading a file from a filter command.
Vim checks the pattern against the name of
the current buffer as with FilterReadPre.
Not triggered when 'shelltemp' is off.
*FilterReadPre* *E135*
FilterReadPre Before reading a file from a filter command.
the current buffer, not the name of the
temporary file that is the output of the
filter command.
*FilterWritePost*
FilterWritePost After writing a file for a filter command or
making a diff.
the current buffer as with FilterWritePre.
*FilterWritePre*
FilterWritePre Before writing a file for a filter command or
making a diff.
the current buffer, not the name of the
temporary file that is the output of the
filter command.
*FocusGained*
FocusGained When Vim got input focus. Only for the GUI
version and a few console versions where this
can be detected.
*FocusLost*
FocusLost When Vim lost input focus. Only for the GUI
version and a few console versions where this
can be detected. May also happen when a
dialog pops up.
*FuncUndefined*
FuncUndefined When a user function is used but it isn't
defined. Useful for defining a function only
when it's used. The pattern is matched
against the function name. Both <amatch> and
<afile> are set to the name of the function.
See |autoload-functions|.
*GUIEnter*

GUIEnter After starting the GUI successfully, and after

opening the window. It is triggered before
VimEnter when using gvim. Can be used to
position the window from a .gvimrc file:
:autocmd GUIEnter * winpos 100 50
*GUIFailed*
GUIFailed After starting the GUI failed. Vim may
continue to run in the terminal, if possible
(only on Unix and alikes, when connecting the
X server fails). You may want to quit Vim:
:autocmd GUIFailed * qall
*InsertChange*
InsertChange When typing <Insert> while in Insert or
Replace mode. The |v:insertmode| variable
indicates the new mode.
Be careful not to move the cursor or do
anything else that the user does not expect.
*InsertEnter*
InsertEnter Just before starting Insert mode. Also for
Replace mode and Virtual Replace mode. The
|v:insertmode| variable indicates the mode.
Be careful not to move the cursor or do
anything else that the user does not expect.
*InsertLeave*
InsertLeave When leaving Insert mode. Also when using
CTRL-O |i_CTRL-O|. But not for |i_CTRL-C|.
*MenuPopup*
MenuPopup Just before showing the popup menu (under the
right mouse button). Useful for adjusting the
menu for what is under the cursor or mouse
pointer.
The pattern is matched against a single
character representing the mode:
n Normal
v Visual
o Operator-pending
i Insert
c Command line
*QuickFixCmdPre*
QuickFixCmdPre Before a quickfix command is run (|:make|,
|:lmake|, |:grep|, |:lgrep|, |:grepadd|,
|:lgrepadd|, |:vimgrep|, |:lvimgrep|,
|:vimgrepadd|, |:lvimgrepadd|, |:cscope|).
The pattern is matched against the command
being run. When |:grep| is used but 'grepprg'
is set to "internal" it still matches "grep".
This command cannot be used to set the
'makeprg' and 'grepprg' variables.
If this command causes an error, the quickfix
command is not executed.
*QuickFixCmdPost*
QuickFixCmdPost Like QuickFixCmdPre, but after a quickfix
command is run, before jumping to the first
location. See |QuickFixCmdPost-example|.
*RemoteReply*
RemoteReply When a reply from a Vim that functions as
server was received |server2client()|. The
pattern is matched against the {serverid}.
<amatch> is equal to the {serverid} from which
the reply was sent, and <afile> is the actual
reply string.
Note that even if an autocommand is defined,
the reply should be read with |remote_read()|
to consume it.
*SessionLoadPost*
SessionLoadPost After loading the session file created using
the |:mksession| command.
*ShellCmdPost*
ShellCmdPost After executing a shell command with |:!cmd|,
|:shell|, |:make| and |:grep|. Can be used to

check for any changed files.

*ShellFilterPost*
ShellFilterPost After executing a shell command with
":{range}!cmd", ":w !cmd" or ":r !cmd".
Can be used to check for any changed files.
*SourcePre*
SourcePre Before sourcing a Vim script. |:source|
<afile> is the name of the file being sourced.
*SourceCmd*
SourceCmd When sourcing a Vim script. |:source|
<afile> is the name of the file being sourced.
The autocommand must source this file.
|Cmd-event|
*SpellFileMissing*
SpellFileMissing When trying to load a spell checking file and
it can't be found. The pattern is matched
against the language. <amatch> is the
language, 'encoding' also matters. See
|spell-SpellFileMissing|.
*StdinReadPost*
StdinReadPost After reading from the stdin into the buffer,
before executing the modelines. Only used
when the "-" argument was used when Vim was
started |--|.
*StdinReadPre*
StdinReadPre Before reading from stdin into the buffer.
Only used when the "-" argument was used when
Vim was started |--|.
*SwapExists*
SwapExists Detected an existing swap file when starting
to edit a file. Only when it is possible to
select a way to handle the situation, when Vim
would ask the user what to do.
The |v:swapname| variable holds the name of
the swap file found, <afile> the file being
edited. |v:swapcommand| may contain a command
to be executed in the opened file.
The commands should set the |v:swapchoice|
variable to a string with one character to
tell Vim what should be done next:
'o' open read-only
'e' edit the file anyway
'r' recover
'd' delete the swap file
'q' quit, don't edit the file
'a' abort, like hitting CTRL-C
When set to an empty string the user will be
asked, as if there was no SwapExists autocmd.
*E812*
It is not allowed to change to another buffer,
change a buffer name or change directory
here.
*Syntax*
Syntax When the 'syntax' option has been set. The
pattern is matched against the syntax name.
<afile> can be used for the name of the file
where this option was set, and <amatch> for
the new value of 'syntax'.
See |:syn-on|.
*TabEnter*
TabEnter Just after entering a tab page. |tab-page|
After triggering the WinEnter and before
triggering the BufEnter event.
*TabLeave*
TabLeave Just before leaving a tab page. |tab-page|
A WinLeave event will have been triggered
first.
*TermChanged*

TermChanged After the value of 'term' has changed. Useful

for re-loading the syntax file to update the
colors, fonts and other terminal-dependent
settings. Executed for all loaded buffers.
*TermResponse*
TermResponse After the response to |t_RV| is received from
the terminal. The value of |v:termresponse|
can be used to do things depending on the
terminal version.
*User*
User Never executed automatically. To be used for
autocommands that are only executed with
":doautocmd".
*UserGettingBored*
UserGettingBored When the user hits CTRL-C. Just kidding! :-)
*VimEnter*
VimEnter After doing all the startup stuff, including
loading .vimrc files, executing the "-c cmd"
arguments, creating all windows and loading
the buffers in them.
*VimLeave*
VimLeave Before exiting Vim, just after writing the
.viminfo file. Executed only once, like
VimLeavePre.
To detect an abnormal exit use |v:dying|.
When v:dying is 2 or more this event is not
triggered.
*VimLeavePre*
VimLeavePre Before exiting Vim, just before writing the
.viminfo file. This is executed only once,
if there is a match with the name of what
happens to be the current buffer when exiting.
Mostly useful with a "*" pattern.
:autocmd VimLeavePre * call CleanupStuff()
To detect an abnormal exit use |v:dying|.
When v:dying is 2 or more this event is not
triggered.
*VimResized*
VimResized After the Vim window was resized, thus 'lines'
and/or 'columns' changed. Not when starting
up though.
*WinEnter*
WinEnter After entering another window. Not done for
the first window, when Vim has just started.
Useful for setting the window height.
If the window is for another buffer, Vim
executes the BufEnter autocommands after the
WinEnter autocommands.
Note: When using ":split fname" the WinEnter
event is triggered after the split but before
the file "fname" is loaded.
*WinLeave*
WinLeave Before leaving a window. If the window to be
entered next is for a different buffer, Vim
executes the BufLeave autocommands before the
WinLeave autocommands (but not for ":new").
Not used for ":qa" or ":q" when exiting Vim.
==============================================================================
6. Patterns *autocmd-patterns* *{pat}*
The file pattern {pat} is tested for a match against the file name in one of
two ways:
1. When there is no '/' in the pattern, Vim checks for a match against only
the tail part of the file name (without its leading directory path).
2. When there is a '/' in the pattern, Vim checks for a match against both the
short file name (as you typed it) and the full file name (after expanding
it to a full path and resolving symbolic links).
The special pattern <buffer> or <buffer=N> is used for buffer-local

autocommands |autocmd-buflocal|. This pattern is not matched against the name

of a buffer.
Examples:
:autocmd BufRead *.txt set et
Set the 'et' option for all text files.
:autocmd BufRead /vim/src/*.c set cindent
Set the 'cindent' option for C files in the /vim/src directory.
:autocmd BufRead /tmp/*.c set ts=5
If you have a link from "/tmp/test.c" to "/home/nobody/vim/src/test.c", and
you start editing "/tmp/test.c", this autocommand will match.
Note: To match part of a path, but not from the root directory, use a '*' as
the first character. Example:
:autocmd BufRead */doc/*.txt set tw=78
This autocommand will for example be executed for "/tmp/doc/xx.txt" and
"/usr/home/piet/doc/yy.txt". The number of directories does not matter here.
The file name that the pattern is matched against is after expanding
wildcards. Thus if you issue this command:
:e $ROOTDIR/main.$EXT
The argument is first expanded to:
/usr/root/main.py
Before it's matched with the pattern of the autocommand. Careful with this
when using events like FileReadCmd, the value of <amatch> may not be what you
expect.
Environment variables can be used in a pattern:

:autocmd BufRead $VIMRUNTIME/doc/*.txt set expandtab
And ~ can be used for the home directory (if $HOME is defined):
:autocmd BufWritePost ~/.vimrc so ~/.vimrc
:autocmd BufRead ~archive/* set readonly
The environment variable is expanded when the autocommand is defined, not when
the autocommand is executed. This is different from the command!
*file-pattern*
The pattern is interpreted like mostly used in file names:
* matches any sequence of characters
? matches any single character
\? matches a '?'
. matches a '.'
~ matches a '~'
, separates patterns
\, matches a ','
{ } like  in a |pattern|
, inside { }: like \| in a |pattern||||
\ special meaning like in a |pattern|
[ch] matches 'c' or 'h'
[^ch] match any character but 'c' and 'h'
Note that for all systems the '/' character is used for path separator (even
MS-DOS and OS/2). This was done because the backslash is difficult to use
in a pattern and to make the autocommands portable across different systems.
*autocmd-changes*
Matching with the pattern is done when an event is triggered. Changing the
buffer name in one of the autocommands, or even deleting the buffer, does not
change which autocommands will be executed. Example:
au BufEnter *.foo bdel
au BufEnter *.foo set modified
This will delete the current buffer and then set 'modified' in what has become
the current buffer instead. Vim doesn't take into account that "*.foo"
doesn't match with that buffer name. It matches "*.foo" with the name of the
buffer at the moment the event was triggered.
However, buffer-local autocommands will not be executed for a buffer that has
been wiped out with |:bwipe|. After deleting the buffer with |:bdel| the
buffer actually still exists (it becomes unlisted), thus the autocommands are
still executed.
==============================================================================

7. Buffer-local autocommands *autocmd-buflocal* *autocmd-buffer-local*

*<buffer=N>* *<buffer=abuf>* *E680*
Buffer-local autocommands are attached to a specific buffer. They are useful
if the buffer does not have a name and when the name does not match a specific
pattern. But it also means they must be explicitly added to each buffer.
Instead of a pattern buffer-local autocommands use one of these forms:
<buffer> current buffer
<buffer=99> buffer number 99
<buffer=abuf> using <abuf> (only when executing autocommands)
|<abuf>|
Examples:
:au CursorHold <buffer> echo 'hold'
:au CursorHold <buffer=33> echo 'hold'
:au CursorHold <buffer=abuf> echo 'hold'
All the commands for autocommands also work with buffer-local autocommands,
simply use the special string instead of the pattern. Examples:
:au! * <buffer> " remove buffer-local autocommands for
" current buffer
:au! * <buffer=33> " remove buffer-local autocommands for
" buffer #33
:bufdo :au! CursorHold <buffer> " remove autocmd for given event for all
" buffers
:au * <buffer> " list buffer-local autocommands for
" current buffer
Note that when an autocommand is defined for the current buffer, it is stored
with the buffer number. Thus it uses the form "<buffer=12>", where 12 is the
number of the current buffer. You will see this when listing autocommands,
for example.
To test for presence of buffer-local autocommands use the |exists()| function
as follows:
:if exists("#CursorHold#<buffer=12>") | ... | endif
:if exists("#CursorHold#<buffer>") | ... | endif " for current buffer
When a buffer is wiped out its buffer-local autocommands are also gone, of
course. Note that when deleting a buffer, e.g., with ":bdel", it is only
unlisted, the autocommands are still present. In order to see the removal of
buffer-local autocommands:
:set verbose=6
It is not possible to define buffer-local autocommands for a non-existent
buffer.
==============================================================================
8. Groups *autocmd-groups*
Autocommands can be put together in a group. This is useful for removing or
executing a group of autocommands. For example, all the autocommands for
syntax highlighting are put in the "highlight" group, to be able to execute
":doautoall highlight BufRead" when the GUI starts.
When no specific group is selected, Vim uses the default group. The default
group does not have a name. You cannot execute the autocommands from the
default group separately; you can execute them only by executing autocommands
for all groups.
Normally, when executing autocommands automatically, Vim uses the autocommands
for all groups. The group only matters when executing autocommands with
":doautocmd" or ":doautoall", or when defining or deleting autocommands.
The group name can contain any characters except white space. The group name
"end" is reserved (also in uppercase).
The group name is case sensitive. Note that this is different from the event
name!
*:aug* *:augroup*
:aug[roup] {name} Define the autocmd group name for the
following ":autocmd" commands. The name "end"
or "END" selects the default group.

*:augroup-delete* *E367*
:aug[roup]! {name} Delete the autocmd group {name}. Don't use
this if there is still an autocommand using
this group! This is not checked.
To enter autocommands for a specific group, use this method:
1. Select the group with ":augroup {name}".
2. Delete any old autocommands with ":au!".
3. Define the autocommands.
4. Go back to the default group with "augroup END".
Example:
:augroup uncompress
: au!
: au BufEnter *.gz %!gunzip
:augroup END
This prevents having the autocommands defined twice (e.g., after sourcing the
.vimrc file again).
==============================================================================
9. Executing autocommands *autocmd-execute*
Vim can also execute Autocommands non-automatically. This is useful if you
have changed autocommands, or when Vim has executed the wrong autocommands
(e.g., the file pattern match was wrong).
Note that the 'eventignore' option applies here too. Events listed in this
option will not cause any commands to be executed.
*:do* *:doau* *:doautocmd* *E217*

:do[autocmd] [group] {event} [fname]
Apply the autocommands matching [fname] (default:
current file name) for {event} to the current buffer.
You can use this when the current file name does not
match the right pattern, after changing settings, or
to execute autocommands for a certain event.
It's possible to use this inside an autocommand too,
so you can base the autocommands for one extension on
another extension. Example:
:au Bufenter *.cpp so ~/.vimrc_cpp
:au Bufenter *.cpp doau BufEnter x.c
Be careful to avoid endless loops. See
|autocmd-nested|.
When the [group] argument is not given, Vim executes
the autocommands for all groups. When the [group]
argument is included, Vim executes only the matching
autocommands for that group. Note: if you use an
undefined group name, Vim gives you an error message.
After applying the autocommands the modelines are
processed, so that their settings overrule the
settings from autocommands, like what happens when
editing a file.
*:doautoa* *:doautoall*
:doautoa[ll] [group] {event} [fname]
Like ":doautocmd", but apply the autocommands to each
loaded buffer. Note that [fname] is used to select
the autocommands, not the buffers to which they are
applied.
Careful: Don't use this for autocommands that delete a
buffer, change to another buffer or change the
contents of a buffer; the result is unpredictable.
This command is intended for autocommands that set
options, change highlighting, and things like that.
==============================================================================
10. Using autocommands *autocmd-use*
For WRITING FILES there are four possible sets of events. Vim uses only one
of these sets for a write command:

BufWriteCmd BufWritePre BufWritePost writing the whole buffer

FilterWritePre FilterWritePost writing to filter temp file
FileAppendCmd FileAppendPre FileAppendPost appending to a file
FileWriteCmd FileWritePre FileWritePost any other file write
When there is a matching "*Cmd" autocommand, it is assumed it will do the
writing. No further writing is done and the other events are not triggered.
|Cmd-event|
Note that the *WritePost commands should undo any changes to the buffer that
were caused by the *WritePre commands; otherwise, writing the file will have
the side effect of changing the buffer.
Before executing the autocommands, the buffer from which the lines are to be
written temporarily becomes the current buffer. Unless the autocommands
change the current buffer or delete the previously current buffer, the
previously current buffer is made the current buffer again.
The *WritePre and *AppendPre autocommands must not delete the buffer from
which the lines are to be written.
The '[ and '] marks have a special position:
- Before the *ReadPre event the '[ mark is set to the line just above where
the new lines will be inserted.
- Before the *ReadPost event the '[ mark is set to the first line that was
just read, the '] mark to the last line.
- Before executing the *WriteCmd, *WritePre and *AppendPre autocommands the '[
mark is set to the first line that will be written, the '] mark to the last
line.
Careful: '[ and '] change when using commands that change the buffer.
In commands which expect a file name, you can use "<afile>" for the file name
that is being read |:<afile>| (you can also use "%" for the current file
name). "<abuf>" can be used for the buffer number of the currently effective
buffer. This also works for buffers that doesn't have a name. But it doesn't
work for files without a buffer (e.g., with ":r file").
*gzip-example*
Examples for reading and writing compressed files:
:augroup gzip
: autocmd!
: autocmd BufReadPre,FileReadPre *.gz set bin
: autocmd BufReadPost,FileReadPost *.gz '[,']!gunzip
: autocmd BufReadPost,FileReadPost *.gz set nobin
: autocmd BufReadPost,FileReadPost *.gz execute ":doautocmd BufReadPost " . expand("%:r")
: autocmd BufWritePost,FileWritePost *.gz !mv <afile> <afile>:r
: autocmd BufWritePost,FileWritePost *.gz !gzip <afile>:r
: autocmd FileAppendPre *.gz !gunzip <afile>
: autocmd FileAppendPre *.gz !mv <afile>:r <afile>
: autocmd FileAppendPost *.gz !mv <afile> <afile>:r
: autocmd FileAppendPost *.gz !gzip <afile>:r
:augroup END
The "gzip" group is used to be able to delete any existing autocommands with
":autocmd!", for when the file is sourced twice.
("<afile>:r" is the file name without the extension, see |:_%:|)
The commands executed for the BufNewFile, BufRead/BufReadPost, BufWritePost,
FileAppendPost and VimLeave events do not set or reset the changed flag of the
buffer. When you decompress the buffer with the BufReadPost autocommands, you
can still exit with ":q". When you use ":undo" in BufWritePost to undo the
changes made by BufWritePre commands, you can still do ":q" (this also makes
"ZZ" work). If you do want the buffer to be marked as modified, set the
'modified' option.
To execute Normal mode commands from an autocommand, use the ":normal"
command. Use with care! If the Normal mode command is not finished, the user
needs to type characters (e.g., after ":normal m" you need to type a mark
name).
If you want the buffer to be unmodified after changing it, reset the
'modified' option. This makes it possible to exit the buffer with ":q"
instead of ":q!".
*autocmd-nested* *E218*

By default, autocommands do not nest. If you use ":e" or ":w" in an

autocommand, Vim does not execute the BufRead and BufWrite autocommands for
those commands. If you do want this, use the "nested" flag for those commands
in which you want nesting. For example:
:autocmd FileChangedShell *.c nested e!
The nesting is limited to 10 levels to get out of recursive loops.
It's possible to use the ":au" command in an autocommand. This can be a
self-modifying command! This can be useful for an autocommand that should
execute only once.
If you want to skip autocommands for one command, use the |:noautocmd| command
modifier or the 'eventignore' option.
Note: When reading a file (with ":read file" or with a filter command) and the
last line in the file does not have an <EOL>, Vim remembers this. At the next
write (with ":write file" or with a filter command), if the same line is
written again as the last line in a file AND 'binary' is set, Vim does not
supply an <EOL>. This makes a filter command on the just read lines write the
same file as was read, and makes a write command on just filtered lines write
the same file as was read from the filter. For example, another way to write
a compressed file:
:autocmd FileWritePre *.gz set bin|'[,']!gzip
:autocmd FileWritePost *.gz undo|set nobin
*autocommand-pattern*
You can specify multiple patterns, separated by commas. Here are some
examples:
:autocmd BufRead * set tw=79 nocin ic infercase fo=2croq
:autocmd BufRead .letter set tw=72 fo=2tcrq
:autocmd BufEnter .letter set dict=/usr/lib/dict/words
:autocmd BufLeave .letter set dict=
:autocmd BufRead,BufNewFile *.c,*.h set tw=0 cin noic
:autocmd BufEnter *.c,*.h abbr FOR for (i = 0; i < 3; ++i)<CR>{<CR>}<Esc>O
:autocmd BufLeave *.c,*.h unabbr FOR
For makefiles (makefile, Makefile, imakefile, makefile.unix, etc.):
:autocmd BufEnter ?akefile* set include=^s\=include
:autocmd BufLeave ?akefile* set include&
To always start editing C files at the first function:
:autocmd BufRead *.c,*.h 1;/^{
Without the "1;" above, the search would start from wherever the file was
entered, rather than from the start of the file.
*skeleton* *template*
To read a skeleton (template) file when opening a new file:
:autocmd BufNewFile *.c 0r ~/vim/skeleton.c
:autocmd BufNewFile *.h 0r ~/vim/skeleton.h
:autocmd BufNewFile *.java 0r ~/vim/skeleton.java
To insert the current date and time in a *.html file when writing it:
:autocmd BufWritePre,FileWritePre *.html ks|call LastMod()|'s
:fun LastMod()
: if line("$") > 20
: let l = 20
: else
: let l = line("$")
: endif
: exe "1," . l . "g/Last modified: /s/Last modified: .*/Last modified: " .
: \ strftime("%Y %b %d")
:endfun
You need to have a line "Last modified: <date time>" in the first 20 lines
of the file for this to work. Vim replaces <date time> (and anything in the
same line after it) with the current date and time. Explanation:
ks mark current position with mark 's'
call LastMod() call the LastMod() function to do the work
's return the cursor to the old position

The LastMod() function checks if the file is shorter than 20 lines, and then
uses the ":g" command to find lines that contain "Last modified: ". For those
lines the ":s" command is executed to replace the existing date with the
current one. The ":execute" command is used to be able to use an expression
for the ":g" and ":s" commands. The date is obtained with the strftime()
function. You can change its argument to get another date string.
When entering :autocmd on the command-line, completion of events and command
names may be done (with <Tab>, CTRL-D, etc.) where appropriate.
Vim executes all matching autocommands in the order that you specify them.
It is recommended that your first autocommand be used for all files by using
"*" as the file pattern. This means that you can define defaults you like
here for any settings, and if there is another matching autocommand it will
override these. But if there is no other matching autocommand, then at least
your default settings are recovered (if entering this file from another for
which autocommands did match). Note that "*" will also match files starting
with ".", unlike Unix shells.
*autocmd-searchpat*
Autocommands do not change the current search patterns. Vim saves the current
search patterns before executing autocommands then restores them after the
autocommands finish. This means that autocommands do not affect the strings
highlighted with the 'hlsearch' option. Within autocommands, you can still
use search patterns normally, e.g., with the "n" command.
If you want an autocommand to set the search pattern, such that it is used
after the autocommand finishes, use the ":let @/ =" command.
The search-highlighting cannot be switched off with ":nohlsearch" in an
autocommand. Use the 'h' flag in the 'viminfo' option to disable search-
highlighting when starting Vim.
*Cmd-event*
When using one of the "*Cmd" events, the matching autocommands are expected to
do the file reading, writing or sourcing. This can be used when working with
a special kind of file, for example on a remote system.
CAREFUL: If you use these events in a wrong way, it may have the effect of
making it impossible to read or write the matching files! Make sure you test
your autocommands properly. Best is to use a pattern that will never match a
normal file name, for example "ftp://*".
When defining a BufReadCmd it will be difficult for Vim to recover a crashed
editing session. When recovering from the original file, Vim reads only those
parts of a file that are not found in the swap file. Since that is not
possible with a BufReadCmd, use the |:preserve| command to make sure the
original file isn't needed for recovery. You might want to do this only when
you expect the file to be modified.
For file read and write commands the |v:cmdarg| variable holds the "++enc="
and "++ff=" argument that are effective. These should be used for the command
that reads/writes the file. The |v:cmdbang| variable is one when "!" was
used, zero otherwise.
See the $VIMRUNTIME/plugin/netrwPlugin.vim for examples.
==============================================================================
11. Disabling autocommands *autocmd-disable*
To disable autocommands for some time use the 'eventignore' option. Note that
this may cause unexpected behavior, make sure you restore 'eventignore'
afterwards, using a |:try| block with |:finally|.
*:noautocmd* *:noa*
To disable autocommands for just one command use the ":noautocmd" command
modifier. This will set 'eventignore' to "all" for the duration of the
following command. Example:
:noautocmd w fname.gz
This will write the file without triggering the autocommands defined by the
gzip plugin.

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: quickfix
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*quickfix.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Feb 01
This subject is introduced in section |30.1| of the user manual.

1. Using QuickFix commands |quickfix|
2. The error window |quickfix-window|
3. Using more than one list of errors |quickfix-error-lists|
4. Using :make |:make_makeprg|
5. Using :grep |grep|
6. Selecting a compiler |compiler-select|
7. The error format |error-file-format|
8. The directory stack |quickfix-directory-stack|
9. Specific error file formats |errorformats|
The quickfix commands are not available when the |+quickfix| feature was
=============================================================================
1. Using QuickFix commands *quickfix* *Quickfix* *E42*
Vim has a special mode to speedup the edit-compile-edit cycle. This is
inspired by the quickfix option of the Manx's Aztec C compiler on the Amiga.
The idea is to save the error messages from the compiler in a file and use Vim
to jump to the errors one by one. You can examine each problem and fix it,
without having to remember all the error messages.
In Vim the quickfix commands are used more generally to find a list of
positions in files. For example, |:vimgrep| finds pattern matches. You can
use the positions in a script with the |getqflist()| function. Thus you can
do a lot more than the edit/compile/fix cycle!
If you are using Manx's Aztec C compiler on the Amiga look here for how to use
it with Vim: |quickfix-manx|. If you are using another compiler you should
save the error messages in a file and start Vim with "vim -q filename". An
easy way to do this is with the |:make| command (see below). The
'errorformat' option should be set to match the error messages from your
compiler (see |errorformat| below).
*location-list* *E776*
A location list is similar to a quickfix list and contains a list of positions
in files. A location list is associated with a window and each window can
have a separate location list. A location list can be associated with only
one window. The location list is independent of the quickfix list.
When a window with a location list is split, the new window gets a copy of the
location list. When there are no references to a location list, the location
list is destroyed.
The following quickfix commands can be used. The location list commands are
similar to the quickfix commands, replacing the 'c' prefix in the quickfix
command with 'l'.
*:cc*
:cc[!] [nr] Display error [nr]. If [nr] is omitted, the same
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/quickfix.html[2019/03/05 11:42:33 AM]

error is displayed again. Without [!] this doesn't

work when jumping to another buffer, the current buffer
has been changed, there is the only window for the
buffer and both 'hidden' and 'autowrite' are off.
When jumping to another buffer with [!] any changes to
the current buffer are lost, unless 'hidden' is set or
there is another window for this buffer.
The 'switchbuf' settings are respected when jumping
to a buffer.
*:ll*
:ll[!] [nr] Same as ":cc", except the location list for the
current window is used instead of the quickfix list.
*:cn* *:cnext* *E553*

:[count]cn[ext][!] Display the [count] next error in the list that
includes a file name. If there are no file names at
all, go to the [count] next error. See |:cc| for
[!] and 'switchbuf'.
*:lne* *:lnext*
:[count]lne[xt][!] Same as ":cnext", except the location list for the
:[count]cN[ext][!] *:cp* *:cprevious* *:cN* *:cNext*

:[count]cp[revious][!] Display the [count] previous error in the list that
includes a file name. If there are no file names at
all, go to the [count] previous error. See |:cc| for
[!] and 'switchbuf'.
:[count]lN[ext][!] *:lp* *:lprevious* *:lN* *:lNext*

:[count]lp[revious][!] Same as ":cNext" and ":cprevious", except the location
list for the current window is used instead of the
quickfix list.
*:cnf* *:cnfile*
:[count]cnf[ile][!] Display the first error in the [count] next file in
the list that includes a file name. If there are no
file names at all or if there is no next file, go to
the [count] next error. See |:cc| for [!] and
'switchbuf'.
*:lnf* *:lnfile*
:[count]lnf[ile][!] Same as ":cnfile", except the location list for the
:[count]cNf[ile][!] *:cpf* *:cpfile* *:cNf* *:cNfile*

:[count]cpf[ile][!] Display the last error in the [count] previous file in
the list that includes a file name. If there are no
file names at all or if there is no next file, go to
the [count] previous error. See |:cc| for [!] and
'switchbuf'.
:[count]lNf[ile][!] *:lpf* *:lpfile* *:lNf* *:lNfile*

:[count]lpf[ile][!] Same as ":cNfile" and ":cpfile", except the location
list for the current window is used instead of the
quickfix list.
*:crewind* *:cr*
:cr[ewind][!] [nr] Display error [nr]. If [nr] is omitted, the FIRST
error is displayed. See |:cc|.
*:lrewind* *:lr*
:lr[ewind][!] [nr] Same as ":crewind", except the location list for the

*:cfirst* *:cfir*
:cfir[st][!] [nr] Same as ":crewind".
*:lfirst* *:lfir*
:lfir[st][!] [nr] Same as ":lrewind".
*:clast* *:cla*
:cla[st][!] [nr] Display error [nr]. If [nr] is omitted, the LAST
error is displayed. See |:cc|.
*:llast* *:lla*
:lla[st][!] [nr] Same as ":clast", except the location list for the
*:cq* *:cquit*
:cq[uit][!] Quit Vim with an error code, so that the compiler
will not compile the same file again.
WARNING: All changes in files are lost! Also when the
[!] is not used. It works like ":qall!" |:qall|,
except that Vim returns a non-zero exit code.
*:cf* *:cfile*
:cf[ile][!] [errorfile] Read the error file and jump to the first error.
This is done automatically when Vim is started with
the -q option. You can use this command when you
keep Vim running while compiling. If you give the
name of the errorfile, the 'errorfile' option will
be set to [errorfile]. See |:cc| for [!].
*:lf* *:lfile*
:lf[ile][!] [errorfile] Same as ":cfile", except the location list for the
You can not use the -q command-line option to set
the location list.
:cg[etfile] [errorfile] *:cg* *:cgetfile*

Read the error file. Just like ":cfile" but don't
jump to the first error.
:lg[etfile] [errorfile] *:lg* *:lgetfile*

Same as ":cgetfile", except the location list for the
*:caddf* *:caddfile*
:caddf[ile] [errorfile] Read the error file and add the errors from the
errorfile to the current quickfix list. If a quickfix
list is not present, then a new list is created.
*:laddf* *:laddfile*
:laddf[ile] [errorfile] Same as ":caddfile", except the location list for the
*:cb* *:cbuffer* *E681*

:cb[uffer][!] [bufnr] Read the error list from the current buffer.
When [bufnr] is given it must be the number of a
loaded buffer. That buffer will then be used instead
of the current buffer.
A range can be specified for the lines to be used.
Otherwise all lines in the buffer are used.
See |:cc| for [!].
*:lb* *:lbuffer*
:lb[uffer][!] [bufnr] Same as ":cbuffer", except the location list for the

*:cgetb* *:cgetbuffer*
:cgetb[uffer] [bufnr] Read the error list from the current buffer. Just
like ":cbuffer" but don't jump to the first error.
*:lgetb* *:lgetbuffer*
:lgetb[uffer] [bufnr] Same as ":cgetbuffer", except the location list for
the current window is used instead of the quickfix
list.
*:caddb* *:caddbuffer*
:caddb[uffer] [bufnr] Read the error list from the current buffer and add
the errors to the current quickfix list. If a
quickfix list is not present, then a new list is
created. Otherwise, same as ":cbuffer".
*:laddb* *:laddbuffer*
:laddb[uffer] [bufnr] Same as ":caddbuffer", except the location list for
list.
*:cex* *:cexpr* *E777*

:cex[pr][!] {expr} Create a quickfix list using the result of {expr} and
jump to the first error. If {expr} is a String, then
each new-line terminated line in the String is
processed using 'errorformat' and the result is added
to the quickfix list. If {expr} is a List, then each
String item in the list is processed and added to the
quickfix list. Non String items in the List are
ignored. See |:cc|
for [!].
Examples:
:cexpr system('grep -n xyz *')
:cexpr getline(1, '$')
*:lex* *:lexpr*
:lex[pr][!] {expr} Same as ":cexpr", except the location list for the
*:cgete* *:cgetexpr*
:cgete[xpr] {expr} Create a quickfix list using the result of {expr}.
Just like ":cexpr", but don't jump to the first error.
*:lgete* *:lgetexpr*
:lgete[xpr] {expr} Same as ":cgetexpr", except the location list for the
*:cad* *:caddexpr*
:cad[dexpr] {expr} Evaluate {expr} and add the resulting lines to the
current quickfix list. If a quickfix list is not
present, then a new list is created. The current
cursor position will not be changed. See |:cexpr| for
more information.
Example:
:g/mypattern/caddexpr expand("%") . ":" . line(".") . ":" . getline(".")
*:lad* *:laddexpr*
:lad[dexpr] {expr} Same as ":caddexpr", except the location list for the
*:cl* *:clist*
:cl[ist] [from] [, [to]]
List all errors that are valid |quickfix-valid|.
If numbers [from] and/or [to] are given, the respective
range of errors is listed. A negative number counts
from the last error backwards, -1 being the last error.
The 'switchbuf' settings are respected when jumping
to a buffer.

:cl[ist]! [from] [, [to]]

List all errors.
*:lli* *:llist*
:lli[st] [from] [, [to]]
Same as ":clist", except the location list for the
:lli[st]! [from] [, [to]]
List all the entries in the location list for the
current window.
If you insert or delete lines, mostly the correct error location is still
found because hidden marks are used. Sometimes, when the mark has been
deleted for some reason, the message "line changed" is shown to warn you that
the error location may not be correct. If you quit Vim and start again the
marks are lost and the error locations may not be correct anymore.
If vim is built with |+autocmd| support, two autocommands are available for
running commands before and after a quickfix command (':make', ':grep' and so
on) is executed. See |QuickFixCmdPre| and |QuickFixCmdPost| for details.
*QuickFixCmdPost-example*
When 'encoding' differs from the locale, the error messages may have a
different encoding from what Vim is using. To convert the messages you can
use this code:
function QfMakeConv()
let qflist = getqflist()
for i in qflist
let i.text = iconv(i.text, "cp936", "utf-8")
endfor
call setqflist(qflist)
endfunction
au QuickfixCmdPost make call QfMakeConv()
=============================================================================
2. The error window *quickfix-window*
*:cope* *:copen* *w:quickfix_title*

:cope[n] [height] Open a window to show the current list of errors.
When [height] is given, the window becomes that high
(if there is room). Otherwise the window is made ten
lines high.
The window will contain a special buffer, with
'buftype' equal to "quickfix". Don't change this!
If there already is a quickfix window, it will be made
the current window. It is not possible to open a
second quickfix window. The window will have the
w:quickfix_title variable set which will indicate the
command that produced the quickfix list. This can be
used to compose a custom status line if the value of
'statusline' is adjusted properly.
*:lop* *:lopen*
:lop[en] [height] Open a window to show the location list for the
current window. Works only when the location list for
the current window is present. You can have more than
one location window opened at a time. Otherwise, it
acts the same as ":copen".
*:ccl* *:cclose*
:ccl[ose] Close the quickfix window.
*:lcl* *:lclose*
:lcl[ose] Close the window showing the location list for the
current window.
*:cw* *:cwindow*
:cw[indow] [height] Open the quickfix window when there are recognized

errors. If the window is already open and there are

no recognized errors, close the window.
*:lw* *:lwindow*
:lw[indow] [height] Same as ":cwindow", except use the window showing the
location list for the current window.
Normally the quickfix window is at the bottom of the screen. If there are
vertical splits, it's at the bottom of the rightmost column of windows. To
make it always occupy the full width:
:botright cwindow
You can move the window around with |window-moving| commands.
For example, to move it to the top: CTRL-W K
The 'winfixheight' option will be set, which means that the window will mostly
keep its height, ignoring 'winheight' and 'equalalways'. You can change the
height manually (e.g., by dragging the status line above it with the mouse).
In the quickfix window, each line is one error. The line number is equal to
the error number. You can use ":.cc" to jump to the error under the cursor.
Hitting the <Enter> key or double-clicking the mouse on a line has the same
effect. The file containing the error is opened in the window above the
quickfix window. If there already is a window for that file, it is used
instead. If the buffer in the used window has changed, and the error is in
another file, jumping to the error will fail. You will first have to make
sure the window contains a buffer which can be abandoned.
*CTRL-W_<Enter>* *CTRL-W_<CR>*
You can use CTRL-W <Enter> to open a new window and jump to the error there.
When the quickfix window has been filled, two autocommand events are
triggered. First the 'filetype' option is set to "qf", which triggers the
FileType event. Then the BufReadPost event is triggered, using "quickfix" for
the buffer name. This can be used to perform some action on the listed
errors. Example:
au BufReadPost quickfix setlocal modifiable
\ | silent exe 'g/^/s//\=line(".")." "/'
\ | setlocal nomodifiable
This prepends the line number to each line. Note the use of "\=" in the
substitute string of the ":s" command, which is used to evaluate an
expression.
The BufWinEnter event is also triggered, again using "quickfix" for the buffer
name.
Note: Making changes in the quickfix window has no effect on the list of
errors. 'modifiable' is off to avoid making changes. If you delete or insert
lines anyway, the relation between the text and the error number is messed up.
If you really want to do this, you could write the contents of the quickfix
window to a file and use ":cfile" to have it parsed and used as the new error
list.
*location-list-window*
The location list window displays the entries in a location list. When you
open a location list window, it is created below the current window and
displays the location list for the current window. The location list window
is similar to the quickfix window, except that you can have more than one
location list window open at a time. When you use a location list command in
this window, the displayed location list is used.
When you select a file from the location list window, the following steps are
used to find a window to edit the file:
1. If a window with the location list displayed in the location list window is
present, then the file is opened in that window.
2. If the above step fails and if the file is already opened in another
window, then that window is used.
3. If the above step fails then an existing window showing a buffer with
'buftype' not set is used.
4. If the above step fails, then the file is edited in a new window.
In all of the above cases, if the location list for the selected window is not
yet set, then it is set to the location list displayed in the location list
window.
=============================================================================
3. Using more than one list of errors *quickfix-error-lists*
So far has been assumed that there is only one list of errors. Actually the

ten last used lists are remembered. When starting a new list, the previous
ones are automatically kept. Two commands can be used to access older error
lists. They set one of the existing error lists as the current one.
*:colder* *:col* *E380*

:col[der] [count] Go to older error list. When [count] is given, do
this [count] times. When already at the oldest error
list, an error message is given.
*:lolder* *:lol*
:lol[der] [count] Same as ":colder", except use the location list for
the current window instead of the quickfix list.
*:cnewer* *:cnew* *E381*

:cnew[er] [count] Go to newer error list. When [count] is given, do
this [count] times. When already at the newest error
list, an error message is given.
*:lnewer* *:lnew*
:lnew[er] [count] Same as ":cnewer", except use the location list for
the current window instead of the quickfix list.
When adding a new error list, it becomes the current list.
When ":colder" has been used and ":make" or ":grep" is used to add a new error
list, one newer list is overwritten. This is especially useful if you are
browsing with ":grep" |grep|. If you want to keep the more recent error
lists, use ":cnewer 99" first.
=============================================================================
4. Using :make *:make_makeprg*
*:mak* *:make*
:mak[e][!] [arguments] 1. If vim was built with |+autocmd|, all relevant
|QuickFixCmdPre| autocommands are executed.
2. If the 'autowrite' option is on, write any changed
buffers
3. An errorfile name is made from 'makeef'. If
'makeef' doesn't contain "##", and a file with this
name already exists, it is deleted.
4. The program given with the 'makeprg' option is
started (default "make") with the optional
[arguments] and the output is saved in the
errorfile (for Unix it is also echoed on the
screen).
5. The errorfile is read using 'errorformat'.
6. If vim was built with |+autocmd|, all relevant
|QuickFixCmdPost| autocommands are executed.
See example below.
7. If [!] is not given the first error is jumped to.
8. The errorfile is deleted.
9. You can now move through the errors with commands
like |:cnext| and |:cprevious|, see above.
This command does not accept a comment, any "
characters are considered part of the arguments.
*:lmak* *:lmake*
:lmak[e][!] [arguments]
Same as ":make", except the location list for the
The ":make" command executes the command given with the 'makeprg' option.
This is done by passing the command to the shell given with the 'shell'
option. This works almost like typing
":!{makeprg} [arguments] {shellpipe} {errorfile}".
{makeprg} is the string given with the 'makeprg' option. Any command can be
used, not just "make". Characters '%' and '#' are expanded as usual on a
command-line. You can use "%<" to insert the current file name without
extension, or "#<" to insert the alternate file name without extension, for
example:
:set makeprg=make\ #<.o

[arguments] is anything that is typed after ":make".

{shellpipe} is the 'shellpipe' option.
{errorfile} is the 'makeef' option, with ## replaced to make it unique.
The placeholder "$*" can be used for the argument list in {makeprg} if the
command needs some additional characters after its arguments. The $* is
replaced then by all arguments. Example:
or simpler
:let &mp = 'latex \\nonstopmode \\input\{$*}'
"$*" can be given multiple times, for example:
:set makeprg=gcc\ -o\ $*\ $*
The 'shellpipe' option defaults to ">" for the Amiga, MS-DOS and Win32. This
means that the output of the compiler is saved in a file and not shown on the
screen directly. For Unix "| tee" is used. The compiler output is shown on
the screen and saved in a file the same time. Depending on the shell used
"|& tee" or "2>&1| tee" is the default, so stderr output will be included.
If 'shellpipe' is empty, the {errorfile} part will be omitted. This is useful
for compilers that write to an errorfile themselves (e.g., Manx's Amiga C).
Using QuickFixCmdPost to fix the encoding

It may be that 'encoding' is set to an encoding that differs from the messages
your build program produces. This example shows how to fix this after Vim has
read the error messages:
function QfMakeConv()
let qflist = getqflist()
for i in qflist
let i.text = iconv(i.text, "cp936", "utf-8")
endfor
call setqflist(qflist)
endfunction
au QuickfixCmdPost make call QfMakeConv()
(Example by Faque Cheng)
==============================================================================
5. Using :vimgrep and :grep *grep* *lid*
Vim has two ways to find matches for a pattern: Internal and external. The
advantage of the internal grep is that it works on all systems and uses the
powerful Vim search patterns. An external grep program can be used when the
Vim grep does not do what you want.
The internal method will be slower, because files are read into memory. The
advantages are:
- Line separators and encoding are automatically recognized, as if a file is
being edited.
- Uses Vim search patterns. Multi-line patterns can be used.
- When plugins are enabled: compressed and remote files can be searched.
|gzip| |netrw|
To be able to do this Vim loads each file as if it is being edited. When
there is no match in the file the associated buffer is wiped out again. The
'hidden' option is ignored here to avoid running out of memory or file
descriptors when searching many files. However, when the |:hide| command
modifier is used the buffers are kept loaded. This makes following searches
in the same files a lot faster.
Note that |:copen| (or |:lopen| for |:lgrep|) may be used to open a buffer
containing the search results in linked form. The |:silent| command may be
used to suppress the default full screen grep output. The ":grep!" form of
the |:grep| command doesn't jump to the first match automatically. These
commands can be combined to create a NewGrep command:
command! -nargs=+ NewGrep execute 'silent grep! <args>' | copen 42
5.1 using Vim's internal grep
*:vim* *:vimgrep* *E682* *E683*

:vim[grep][!] /{pattern}/[g][j] {file} ...

Search for {pattern} in the files {file} ... and set
the error list to the matches.
Without the 'g' flag each line is added only once.
With 'g' every match is added.
{pattern} is a Vim search pattern. Instead of
enclosing it in / any non-ID character (see
|'isident'|) can be used, so long as it does not
appear in {pattern}.
'ignorecase' applies. To overrule it put |/\c| in the
pattern to ignore case or |/\C| to match case.
'smartcase' is not used.
When a number is put before the command this is used
as the maximum number of matches to find. Use
":1vimgrep pattern file" to find only the first.
Useful if you only want to check if there is a match
and quit quickly when it's found.
Without the 'j' flag Vim jumps to the first match.
With 'j' only the quickfix list is updated.
With the [!] any changes in the current buffer are
abandoned.
Every second or so the searched file name is displayed
to give you an idea of the progress made.
Examples:
:vimgrep /an error/ *.c
:vimgrep /\<FileName\>/ *.h include/*
:vimgrep /myfunc/ **/*.c
For the use of "**" see |starstar-wildcard|.
:vim[grep][!] {pattern} {file} ...
Like above, but instead of enclosing the pattern in a
non-ID character use a white-separated pattern. The
pattern must start with an ID character.
Example:
:vimgrep Error *.c
*:lv* *:lvimgrep*
:lv[imgrep][!] /{pattern}/[g][j] {file} ...
:lv[imgrep][!] {pattern} {file} ...
Same as ":vimgrep", except the location list for the
*:vimgrepa* *:vimgrepadd*
:vimgrepa[dd][!] /{pattern}/[g][j] {file} ...
:vimgrepa[dd][!] {pattern} {file} ...
Just like ":vimgrep", but instead of making a new list
of errors the matches are appended to the current
list.
*:lvimgrepa* *:lvimgrepadd*
:lvimgrepa[dd][!] /{pattern}/[g][j] {file} ...
:lvimgrepa[dd][!] {pattern} {file} ...
Same as ":vimgrepadd", except the location list for
list.
5.2 External grep
Vim can interface with "grep" and grep-like programs (such as the GNU
id-utils) in a similar way to its compiler integration (see |:make| above).
[Unix trivia: The name for the Unix "grep" command comes from ":g/re/p", where
"re" stands for Regular Expression.]
*:gr* *:grep*
:gr[ep][!] [arguments] Just like ":make", but use 'grepprg' instead of
'makeprg' and 'grepformat' instead of 'errorformat'.
When 'grepprg' is "internal" this works like
|:vimgrep|. Note that the pattern needs to be
enclosed in separator characters then.

*:lgr* *:lgrep*
:lgr[ep][!] [arguments] Same as ":grep", except the location list for the
*:grepa* *:grepadd*
:grepa[dd][!] [arguments]
Just like ":grep", but instead of making a new list of
errors the matches are appended to the current list.
Example:
:call setqflist([])
:bufdo grepadd! something %
The first command makes a new error list which is
empty. The second command executes "grepadd" for each
listed buffer. Note the use of ! to avoid that
":grepadd" jumps to the first error, which is not
allowed with |:bufdo|.
An example that uses the argument list and avoids
errors for files without matches:
:silent argdo try
\ | grepadd! something %
\ | catch /E480:/
\ | endtry"
*:lgrepa* *:lgrepadd*
:lgrepa[dd][!] [arguments]
Same as ":grepadd", except the location list for the
5.3 Setting up external grep
If you have a standard "grep" program installed, the :grep command may work
well with the defaults. The syntax is very similar to the standard command:
:grep foo *.c
Will search all files with the .c extension for the substring "foo". The
arguments to :grep are passed straight to the "grep" program, so you can use
whatever options your "grep" supports.
By default, :grep invokes grep with the -n option (show file and line
numbers). You can change this with the 'grepprg' option. You will need to set
'grepprg' if:
a) You are using a program that isn't called "grep"
b) You have to call grep with a full path
c) You want to pass other options automatically (e.g. case insensitive
search.)
Once "grep" has executed, Vim parses the results using the 'grepformat'
option. This option works in the same way as the 'errorformat' option - see
that for details. You may need to change 'grepformat' from the default if
your grep outputs in a non-standard format, or you are using some other
program with a special format.
Once the results are parsed, Vim loads the first file containing a match and
jumps to the appropriate line, in the same way that it jumps to a compiler
error in |quickfix| mode. You can then use the |:cnext|, |:clist|, etc.
commands to see the other matches.
5.4 Using :grep with id-utils

You can set up :grep to work with the GNU id-utils like this:
:set grepprg=lid\ -Rgrep\ -s
:set grepformat=%f:%l:%m
then
:grep (regexp)
works just as you'd expect.
(provided you remembered to mkid first :)
5.5 Browsing source code with :vimgrep or :grep

Using the stack of error lists that Vim keeps, you can browse your files to

look for functions and the functions they call. For example, suppose that you
have to add an argument to the read_file() function. You enter this command:
:vimgrep /\<read_file\>/ *.c
You use ":cn" to go along the list of matches and add the argument. At one
place you have to get the new argument from a higher level function msg(), and
need to change that one too. Thus you use:
:vimgrep /\<msg\>/ *.c
While changing the msg() functions, you find another function that needs to
get the argument from a higher level. You can again use ":vimgrep" to find
these functions. Once you are finished with one function, you can use
:colder
to go back to the previous one.
This works like browsing a tree: ":vimgrep" goes one level deeper, creating a
list of branches. ":colder" goes back to the previous level. You can mix
this use of ":vimgrep" and "colder" to browse all the locations in a tree-like
way. If you do this consistently, you will find all locations without the
need to write down a "todo" list.
=============================================================================
6. Selecting a compiler *compiler-select*
*:comp* *:compiler* *E666*

:comp[iler][!] {name} Set options to work with compiler {name}.
Without the "!" options are set for the
current buffer. With "!" global options are
set.
If you use ":compiler foo" in "file.foo" and
then ":compiler! bar" in another buffer, Vim
will keep on using "foo" in "file.foo".
|+eval| feature}
The Vim plugins in the "compiler" directory will set options to use the
selected compiler. For ":compiler" local options are set, for ":compiler!"
global options.
*current_compiler*
To support older Vim versions, the plugins always use "current_compiler" and
not "b:current_compiler". What the command actually does is the following:
- Delete the "current_compiler" and "b:current_compiler" variables.
- Define the "CompilerSet" user command. With "!" it does ":set", without "!"
it does ":setlocal".
- Execute ":runtime! compiler/{name}.vim". The plugins are expected to set
options with "CompilerSet" and set the "current_compiler" variable to the
name of the compiler.
- Delete the "CompilerSet" user command.
- Set "b:current_compiler" to the value of "current_compiler".
- Without "!" the old value of "current_compiler" is restored.
For writing a compiler plugin, see |write-compiler-plugin|.
GCC *quickfix-gcc* *compiler-gcc*

There's one variable you can set for the GCC compiler:
g:compiler_gcc_ignore_unmatched_lines
Ignore lines that don't match any patterns
defined for GCC. Useful if output from
commands run from make are generating false
positives.
MANX AZTEC C *quickfix-manx* *compiler-manx*

To use Vim with Manx's Aztec C compiler on the Amiga you should do the

following:
- Set the CCEDIT environment variable with the command:
mset "CCEDIT=vim -q"
- Compile with the -qf option. If the compiler finds any errors, Vim is
started and the cursor is positioned on the first error. The error message
will be displayed on the last line. You can go to other errors with the
commands mentioned above. You can fix the errors and write the file(s).
- If you exit Vim normally the compiler will re-compile the same file. If you
exit with the :cq command, the compiler will terminate. Do this if you
cannot fix the error, or if another file needs to be compiled first.
There are some restrictions to the Quickfix mode on the Amiga. The
compiler only writes the first 25 errors to the errorfile (Manx's
documentation does not say how to get more). If you want to find the others,
you will have to fix a few errors and exit the editor. After recompiling,
up to 25 remaining errors will be found.
If Vim was started from the compiler, the :sh and some :! commands will not
work, because Vim is then running in the same process as the compiler and
stdin (standard input) will not be interactive.
PERL *quickfix-perl* *compiler-perl*

The Perl compiler plugin doesn't actually compile, but invokes Perl's internal
syntax checking feature and parses the output for possible errors so you can
correct them in quick-fix mode.
Warnings are forced regardless of "no warnings" or "$^W = 0" within the file
being checked. To disable this set g:perl_compiler_force_warnings to a zero
value. For example:
let g:perl_compiler_force_warnings = 0
PYUNIT COMPILER *compiler-pyunit*

This is not actually a compiler, but a unit testing framework for the
Python language. It is included into standard Python distribution
starting from version 2.0. For older versions, you can get it from
http://pyunit.sourceforge.net.
When you run your tests with the help of the framework, possible errors
are parsed by Vim and presented for you in quick-fix mode.
Unfortunately, there is no standard way to run the tests.
The alltests.py script seems to be used quite often, that's all.
Useful values for the 'makeprg' options therefore are:
setlocal makeprg=./alltests.py " Run a testsuite
setlocal makeprg=python % " Run a single testcase
Also see http://vim.sourceforge.net/tip_view.php?tip_id=280.
TEX COMPILER *compiler-tex*

Included in the distribution compiler for TeX ($VIMRUNTIME/compiler/tex.vim)
uses make command if possible. If the compiler finds a file named "Makefile"
or "makefile" in the current directory, it supposes that you want to process
your *TeX files with make, and the makefile does the right work. In this case
compiler sets 'errorformat' for *TeX output and leaves 'makeprg' untouched. If
neither "Makefile" nor "makefile" is found, the compiler will not use make.
You can force the compiler to ignore makefiles by defining
b:tex_ignore_makefile or g:tex_ignore_makefile variable (they are checked for
existence only).
If the compiler chose not to use make, it need to choose a right program for
processing your input. If b:tex_flavor or g:tex_flavor (in this precedence)
variable exists, it defines TeX flavor for :make (actually, this is the name
of executed command), and if both variables do not exist, it defaults to
"latex". For example, while editing chapter2.tex \input-ed from mypaper.tex
written in AMS-TeX:
:let b:tex_flavor = 'amstex'
:compiler tex
[editing...]
:make mypaper

Note that you must specify a name of the file to process as an argument (to
process the right file when editing \input-ed or \include-ed file; portable
solution for substituting % for no arguments is welcome). This is not in the
semantics of make, where you specify a target, not source, but you may specify
filename without extension ".tex" and mean this as "make filename.dvi or
filename.pdf or filename.some_result_extension according to compiler".
Note: tex command line syntax is set to usable both for MikTeX (suggestion
by Srinath Avadhanula) and teTeX (checked by Artem Chuprina). Suggestion
from |errorformat-LaTeX| is too complex to keep it working for different
shells and OSes and also does not allow to use other available TeX options,
if any. If your TeX doesn't support "-interaction=nonstopmode", please
report it with different means to express \nonstopmode from the command line.
=============================================================================
7. The error format *error-file-format*
*errorformat* *E372* *E373* *E374*

*E375* *E376* *E377* *E378*
The 'errorformat' option specifies a list of formats that are recognized. The
first format that matches with an error message is used. You can add several
formats for different messages your compiler produces, or even entries for
multiple compilers. See |efm-entries|.
Each entry in 'errorformat' is a scanf-like string that describes the format.
First, you need to know how scanf works. Look in the documentation of your
C compiler. Below you find the % items that Vim understands. Others are
invalid.
Special characters in 'errorformat' are comma and backslash. See
|efm-entries| for how to deal with them. Note that a literal "%" is matched
by "%%", thus it is not escaped with a backslash.
Note: By default the difference between upper and lowercase is ignored. If
you want to match case, add "\C" to the pattern |/\C|.
Basic items
%f file name (finds a string)
%l line number (finds a number)
%c column number (finds a number representing character
column of the error, (1 <tab> == 1 character column))
%v virtual column number (finds a number representing
screen column of the error (1 <tab> == 8 screen
columns))
%t error type (finds a single character)
%n error number (finds a number)
%m error message (finds a string)
%r matches the "rest" of a single-line file message %O/P/Q
%p pointer line (finds a sequence of '-', '.' or '' '' and
uses the length for the column number)
%*{conv} any scanf non-assignable conversion
%% the single '%' character
%s search text (finds a string)
The "%f" conversion may depend on the current 'isfname' setting. "~/" is
expanded to the home directory and environment variables are expanded.
The "%f" and "%m" conversions have to detect the end of the string. This
normally happens by matching following characters and items. When nothing is
following the rest of the line is matched. If "%f" is followed by a '%' or a
backslash, it will look for a sequence of 'isfname' characters.
On MS-DOS, MS-Windows and OS/2 a leading "C:" will be included in "%f", even
when using "%f:". This means that a file name which is a single alphabetical
letter will not be detected.
The "%p" conversion is normally followed by a "^". It's used for compilers
that output a line like:
^
or
---------^
to indicate the column of the error. This is to be used in a multi-line error
message. See |errorformat-javac| for a useful example.
The "%s" conversion specifies the text to search for to locate the error line.

The text is used as a literal string. The anchors "^" and "$" are added to
the text to locate the error line exactly matching the search text and the
text is prefixed with the "\V" atom to make it "very nomagic". The "%s"
conversion can be used to locate lines without a line number in the error
output. Like the output of the "grep" shell command.
When the pattern is present the line number will not be used.
Changing directory
The following uppercase conversion characters specify the type of special
format strings. At most one of them may be given as a prefix at the begin
of a single comma-separated format pattern.
Some compilers produce messages that consist of directory names that have to
be prepended to each file name read by %f (example: GNU make). The following
codes can be used to scan these directory names; they will be stored in an
internal directory stack. *E379*
%D "enter directory" format string; expects a following
%f that finds the directory name
%X "leave directory" format string; expects following %f
When defining an "enter directory" or "leave directory" format, the "%D" or
"%X" has to be given at the start of that substring. Vim tracks the directory
changes and prepends the current directory to each erroneous file found with a
relative path. See |quickfix-directory-stack| for details, tips and
limitations.
Multi-line messages *errorformat-multi-line*

It is possible to read the output of programs that produce multi-line
messages, i.e. error strings that consume more than one line. Possible
prefixes are:
%E start of a multi-line error message
%W start of a multi-line warning message
%I start of a multi-line informational message
%A start of a multi-line message (unspecified type)
%> for next line start with current pattern again |efm-%>|
%C continuation of a multi-line message
%Z end of a multi-line message
These can be used with '+' and '-', see |efm-ignore| below.
Using "\n" in the pattern won't work to match multi-line messages.
Example: Your compiler happens to write out errors in the following format
(leading line numbers not being part of the actual output):
1 Error 275
2 line 42
3 column 3
4 ' ' expected after '--'
The appropriate error format string has to look like this:
:set efm=%EError\ %n,%Cline\ %l,%Ccolumn\ %c,%Z%m
And the |:clist| error message generated for this error is:
1:42 col 3 error 275: '' '' expected after '--'
Another example: Think of a Python interpreter that produces the following
error message (line numbers are not part of the actual output):
1 ==============================================================
2 FAIL: testGetTypeIdCachesResult (dbfacadeTest.DjsDBFacadeTest)
3 --------------------------------------------------------------
4 Traceback (most recent call last):
5 File "unittests/dbfacadeTest.py", line 89, in testFoo
6 self.assertEquals(34, dtid)
7 File "/usr/lib/python2.2/unittest.py", line 286, in
8 failUnlessEqual
9 raise self.failureException, \
10 AssertionError: 34 != 33
11
12 --------------------------------------------------------------
13 Ran 27 tests in 0.063s
Say you want |:clist| write the relevant information of this message only,
namely:
5 unittests/dbfacadeTest.py:89: AssertionError: 34 != 33

Then the error format string could be defined as follows:

:set efm=%C\ %.%#,%A\ \ File\ \"%f\"\\,\ line\ %l%.%#,%Z%[%^\ ]%\\@=%m
Note that the %C string is given before the %A here: since the expression
'' %.%#' (which stands for the regular expression '' .*') matches every line
starting with a space, followed by any characters to the end of the line,
it also hides line 7 which would trigger a separate error message otherwise.
Error format strings are always parsed pattern by pattern until the first
match occurs.
*efm-%>*
The %> item can be used to avoid trying patterns that appear earlier in
'errorformat'. This is useful for patterns that match just about anything.
For example, if the error looks like this:
Error in line 123 of foo.c:
unknown variable "i"
This can be found with:
:set efm=xxx,%E%>Error in line %l of %f:,%Z%m
Where "xxx" has a pattern that would also match the second line.
Important: There is no memory of what part of the errorformat matched before;
every line in the error file gets a complete new run through the error format
lines. For example, if one has:
setlocal efm=aa,bb,cc,dd,ee
Where aa, bb, etc. are error format strings. Each line of the error file will
be matched to the pattern aa, then bb, then cc, etc. Just because cc matched
the previous error line does _not_ mean that dd will be tried first on the
current line, even if cc and dd are multi-line errorformat strings.
Separate file name *errorformat-separate-filename*

These prefixes are useful if the file name is given once and multiple messages
follow that refer to this file name.
%O single-line file message: overread the matched part
%P single-line file message: push file %f onto the stack
%Q single-line file message: pop the last file from stack
Example: Given a compiler that produces the following error logfile (without
leading line numbers):
1 [a1.tt]
2 (1,17) error: ';' missing
3 (21,2) warning: variable 'z' not defined
4 (67,3) error: end of file found before string ended
5
6 [a2.tt]
7
8 [a3.tt]
9 NEW compiler v1.1
10 (2,2) warning: variable 'x' not defined
11 (67,3) warning: 's' already defined
This logfile lists several messages for each file enclosed in [...] which are
properly parsed by an error format like this:
:set efm=%+P[%f],(%l\\,%c)%*[\ ]%t%*[^:]:\ %m,%-Q
A call of |:clist| writes them accordingly with their correct filenames:
2 a1.tt:1 col 17 error: ';' missing
3 a1.tt:21 col 2 warning: variable 'z' not defined
4 a1.tt:67 col 3 error: end of file found before string ended
8 a3.tt:2 col 2 warning: variable 'x' not defined
9 a3.tt:67 col 3 warning: 's' already defined
Unlike the other prefixes that all match against whole lines, %P, %Q and %O
can be used to match several patterns in the same line. Thus it is possible
to parse even nested files like in the following line:
{"file1" {"file2" error1} error2 {"file3" error3 {"file4" error4 error5}}}
The %O then parses over strings that do not contain any push/pop file name
information. See |errorformat-LaTeX| for an extended example.
Ignoring and using whole messages *efm-ignore*

The codes '+' or '-' can be combined with the uppercase codes above; in that
case they have to precede the letter, e.g. '%+A' or '%-G':
%- do not include the matching multi-line in any output
%+ include the whole matching line in the %m error string
One prefix is only useful in combination with '+' or '-', namely %G. It parses
over lines containing general information like compiler version strings or
other headers that can be skipped.
%-G ignore this message
%+G general message
Pattern matching
The scanf()-like "%*[]" notation is supported for backward-compatibility
with previous versions of Vim. However, it is also possible to specify
(nearly) any Vim supported regular expression in format strings.
Since meta characters of the regular expression language can be part of
ordinary matching strings or file names (and therefore internally have to
be escaped), meta symbols have to be written with leading '%':
%\ The single '\' character. Note that this has to be
escaped ("%\\") in ":set errorformat=" definitions.
%. The single '.' character.
%# The single '*'(!) character.
%^ The single '^' character. Note that this is not
useful, the pattern already matches start of line.
%$ The single '$' character. Note that this is not
useful, the pattern already matches end of line.
%[ The single '[' character for a [] character range.
%~ The single '~' character.
When using character classes in expressions (see |/\i| for an overview),
terms containing the "\+" quantifier can be written in the scanf() "%*"
notation. Example: "%\\d%\\+" ("\d\+", "any number") is equivalent to "%*\\d".
Important note: The $...$ grouping of sub-matches can not be used in format
specifications because it is reserved for internal conversions.
Multiple entries in 'errorformat' *efm-entries*

To be able to detect output from several compilers, several format patterns
may be put in 'errorformat', separated by commas (note: blanks after the comma
are ignored). The first pattern that has a complete match is used. If no
match is found, matching parts from the last one will be used, although the
file name is removed and the error message is set to the whole message. If
there is a pattern that may match output from several compilers (but not in a
right way), put it after one that is more restrictive.
To include a comma in a pattern precede it with a backslash (you have to type
two in a ":set" command). To include a backslash itself give two backslashes
(you have to type four in a ":set" command). You also need to put a backslash
before a space for ":set".
Valid matches *quickfix-valid*

If a line does not completely match one of the entries in 'errorformat', the
whole line is put in the error message and the entry is marked "not valid"
These lines are skipped with the ":cn" and ":cp" commands (unless there is
no valid line at all). You can use ":cl!" to display all the error messages.
If the error format does not contain a file name Vim cannot switch to the
correct file. You will have to do this by hand.
Examples
The format of the file from the Amiga Aztec compiler is:
filename>linenumber:columnnumber:errortype:errornumber:errormessage
filename name of the file in which the error was detected
linenumber line number where the error was detected
columnnumber column number where the error was detected
errortype type of the error, normally a single 'E' or 'W'
errornumber number of the error (for lookup in the manual)
errormessage description of the error

This can be matched with this 'errorformat' entry:

%f>%l:%c:%t:%n:%m
Some examples for C compilers that produce single-line error outputs:
%f:%l:\ %t%*[^0123456789]%n:\ %m for Manx/Aztec C error messages
(scanf() doesn't understand [0-9])
%f\ %l\ %t%*[^0-9]%n:\ %m for SAS C
\"%f\"\\,%*[^0-9]%l:\ %m for generic C compilers
%f:%l:\ %m for GCC
%f:%l:\ %m,%Dgmake[%*\\d]:\ Entering\ directory\ `%f',
%Dgmake[%*\\d]:\ Leaving\ directory\ `%f'
for GCC with gmake (concat the lines!)
%f(%l)\ :\ %*[^:]:\ %m old SCO C compiler (pre-OS5)
%f(%l)\ :\ %t%*[^0-9]%n:\ %m idem, with error type and number
%f:%l:\ %m,In\ file\ included\ from\ %f:%l:,\Î\Îfrom\ %f:%l%m
for GCC, with some extras
Extended examples for the handling of multi-line messages are given below,
see |errorformat-Jikes| and |errorformat-LaTeX|.
Note the backslash in front of a space and double quote. It is required for
the :set command. There are two backslashes in front of a comma, one for the
:set command and one to avoid recognizing the comma as a separator of error
formats.
Filtering messages
If you have a compiler that produces error messages that do not fit in the
format string, you could write a program that translates the error messages
into this format. You can use this program with the ":make" command by
changing the 'makeprg' option. For example:
:set mp=make\ \\\|&\ error_filter
The backslashes before the pipe character are required to avoid it to be
recognized as a command separator. The backslash before each space is
required for the set command.
=============================================================================
8. The directory stack *quickfix-directory-stack*
Quickfix maintains a stack for saving all used directories parsed from the
make output. For GNU-make this is rather simple, as it always prints the
absolute path of all directories it enters and leaves. Regardless if this is
done via a 'cd' command in the makefile or with the parameter "-C dir" (change
to directory before reading the makefile). It may be useful to use the switch
"-w" to force GNU-make to print out the working directory before and after
processing.
Maintaining the correct directory is more complicated if you don't use
GNU-make. AIX-make for example doesn't print any information about its
working directory. Then you need to enhance the makefile. In the makefile of
LessTif there is a command which echoes "Making {target} in {dir}". The
special problem here is that it doesn't print information on leaving the
directory and that it doesn't print the absolute path.
To solve the problem with relative paths and missing "leave directory"
messages Vim uses following algorithm:
1) Check if the given directory is a subdirectory of the current directory.
If this is true, store it as the current directory.
2) If it is not a subdir of the current directory, try if this is a
subdirectory of one of the upper directories.
3) If the directory still isn't found, it is assumed to be a subdirectory
of Vim's current directory.
Additionally it is checked for every file, if it really exists in the
identified directory. If not, it is searched in all other directories of the
directory stack (NOT the directory subtree!). If it is still not found, it is
assumed that it is in Vim's current directory.
There are limitations in this algorithm. These examples assume that make just
prints information about entering a directory in the form "Making all in dir".
1) Assume you have following directories and files:
./dir1
./dir1/file1.c
./file1.c
If make processes the directory "./dir1" before the current directory and

there is an error in the file "./file1.c", you will end up with the file
"./dir1/file.c" loaded by Vim.
This can only be solved with a "leave directory" message.
2) Assume you have following directories and files:
./dir1
./dir1/dir2
./dir2
You get the following:
Make output Directory interpreted by Vim
------------------------ ----------------------------
Making all in dir1 ./dir1
Making all in dir2 ./dir1/dir2
Making all in dir2 ./dir1/dir2
This can be solved by printing absolute directories in the "enter directory"
message or by printing "leave directory" messages..
To avoid this problem, ensure to print absolute directory names and "leave
directory" messages.
Examples for Makefiles:
Unix:
libs:
for dn in $(LIBDIRS); do \
(cd $$dn; echo "Entering dir '$$(pwd)'"'; make); \
echo "Leaving dir"; \
done
Add
%DEntering\ dir\ '%f',%XLeaving\ dir
to your 'errorformat' to handle the above output.
Note that Vim doesn't check if the directory name in a "leave directory"
messages is the current directory. This is why you could just use the message
"Leaving dir".
=============================================================================
9. Specific error file formats *errorformats*
*errorformat-Jikes*
Jikes(TM), a source-to-bytecode Java compiler published by IBM Research,
produces simple multi-line error messages.
An 'errorformat' string matching the produced messages is shown below.
The following lines can be placed in the user's |vimrc| to overwrite Vim's
recognized default formats, or see |:set+=| how to install this format
additionally to the default.
:set efm=%A%f:%l:%c:%*\\d:%*\\d:,
\%C%*\\s%trror:%m,
\%+C%*[^:]%trror:%m,
\%C%*\\s%tarning:%m,
\%C%m
Jikes(TM) produces a single-line error message when invoked with the option
"+E", and can be matched with the following:
:setl efm=%f:%l:%v:%*\\d:%*\\d:%*\\s%m
*errorformat-javac*
This 'errorformat' has been reported to work well for javac, which outputs a
line with "^" to indicate the column of the error:
:setl efm=%A%f:%l:\ %m,%-Z%p^,%-C%.%#
or:
:setl efm=%A%f:%l:\ %m,%+Z%p^,%+C%.%#,%-G%.%#
Here is an alternative from Michael F. Lamb for Unix that filters the errors
first:
:setl errorformat=%Z%f:%l:\ %m,%A%p^,%-G%*[^sl]%.%#
:setl makeprg=javac\ %\ 2>&1\ \\\|\ vim-javac-filter

You need to put the following in "vim-javac-filter" somewhere in your path

(e.g., in ~/bin) and make it executable:
#!/bin/sed -f
/\^$/s/\t/\ /g;/:[0-9]\+:/{h;d};/^[ \t]*\^/G;
In English, that sed script:
- Changes single tabs to single spaces and
- Moves the line with the filename, line number, error message to just after
the pointer line. That way, the unused error text between doesn't break
vim's notion of a "multi-line message" and also doesn't force us to include
it as a "continuation of a multi-line message."
*errorformat-ant*
For ant http://jakarta.apache.org/ the above errorformat has to be modified
to honour the leading [javac] in front of each javac output line:
:set efm=%A\ %#[javac]\ %f:%l:\ %m,%-Z\ %#[javac]\ %p^,%-C%.%#
The 'errorformat' can also be configured to handle ant together with either
javac or jikes. If you're using jikes, you should tell ant to use jikes' +E
command line switch which forces jikes to generate one-line error messages.
This is what the second line (of a build.xml file) below does:
<property name = "build.compiler" value = "jikes"/>
<property name = "build.compiler.emacs" value = "true"/>
The 'errorformat' which handles ant with both javac and jikes is:
:set efm=\ %#[javac]\ %#%f:%l:%c:%*\\d:%*\\d:\ %t%[%^:]%#:%m,
\%A\ %#[javac]\ %f:%l:\ %m,%-Z\ %#[javac]\ %p^,%-C%.%#
*errorformat-jade*
parsing jade see http://www.jclark.com/ errors is simple:
:set efm=jade:%f:%l:%c:%t:%m
*errorformat-LaTeX*
The following is an example how an 'errorformat' string can be specified
for the (La)TeX typesetting system which displays error messages over
multiple lines. The output of ":clist" and ":cc" etc. commands displays
multi-lines in a single line, leading white space is removed.
It should be easy to adopt the above LaTeX errorformat to any compiler output
consisting of multi-line errors.
The commands can be placed in a |vimrc| file or some other Vim script file,
e.g. a script containing LaTeX related stuff which is loaded only when editing
LaTeX sources.
Make sure to copy all lines of the example (in the given order), afterwards
remove the comment lines. For the '\' notation at the start of some lines see
|line-continuation|.
First prepare 'makeprg' such that LaTeX will report multiple
errors; do not stop when the first error has occurred:
Start of multi-line error messages:
:set efm=%E!\ LaTeX\ %trror:\ %m,
\%E!\ %m,
Start of multi-line warning messages; the first two also
include the line number. Meaning of some regular expressions:
- "%.%#" (".*") matches a (possibly empty) string
- "%*\\d" ("\d\+") matches a number
\%+WLaTeX\ %.%#Warning:\ %.%#line\ %l%.%#,
\%+W%.%#\ at\ lines\ %l--%*\\d,
\%WLaTeX\ %.%#Warning:\ %m,
Possible continuations of error/warning messages; the first
one also includes the line number:
\%Cl.%l\ %m,
\%+C\ \ %m.,
\%+C%.%#-%.%#,
\%+C%.%#[]%.%#,
\%+C[]%.%#,
\%+C%.%#%[{}\\]%.%#,
\%+C<%.%#>%.%#,
\%C\ \ %m,
Lines that match the following patterns do not contain any
important information; do not include them in messages:
\%-GSee\ the\ LaTeX%m,
\%-GType\ \ H\ <return>%m,

\%-G\ ...%.%#,
\%-G%.%#\ (C)\ %.%#,
\%-G(see\ the\ transcript%.%#),
Generally exclude any empty or whitespace-only line from
being displayed:
\%-G\\s%#,
The LaTeX output log does not specify the names of erroneous
source files per line; rather they are given globally,
enclosed in parentheses.
The following patterns try to match these names and store
them in an internal stack. The patterns possibly scan over
the same input line (one after another), the trailing "%r"
conversion indicates the "rest" of the line that will be
parsed in the next go until the end of line is reached.
Overread a file name enclosed in '('...')'; do not push it
on a stack since the file apparently does not contain any
error:
\%+O(%f)%r,
Push a file name onto the stack. The name is given after '(':
\%+P(%f%r,
\%+P\ %\\=(%f%r,
\%+P%*[^()](%f%r,
\%+P[%\\d%[^()]%#(%f%r,
Pop the last stored file name when a ')' is scanned:
\%+Q)%r,
\%+Q%*[^()])%r,
\%+Q[%\\d%*[^()])%r
Note that in some cases file names in the LaTeX output log cannot be parsed
properly. The parser might have been messed up by unbalanced parentheses
then. The above example tries to catch the most relevant cases only.
You can customize the given setting to suit your own purposes, for example,
all the annoying "Overfull ..." warnings could be excluded from being
recognized as an error.
Alternatively to filtering the LaTeX compiler output, it is also possible
to directly read the *.log file that is produced by the [La]TeX compiler.
This contains even more useful information about possible error causes.
However, to properly parse such a complex file, an external filter should
be used. See the description further above how to make such a filter known
by Vim.
*errorformat-Perl*
In $VIMRUNTIME/tools you can find the efm_perl.pl script, which filters Perl
error messages into a format that quickfix mode will understand. See the
start of the file about how to use it. (This script is deprecated, see
|compiler-perl|.)
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: message
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*message.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Jan 30
This file contains an alphabetical list of messages and error messages that
Vim produces. You can use this if you don't understand what the message
means. It is not complete though.
1. Old messages |:messages|
2. Error messages |error-messages|
3. Messages |messages|
==============================================================================
1. Old messages *:messages* *:mes* *message-history*
The ":messages" command can be used to view previously given messages. This
is especially useful when messages have been overwritten or truncated. This
depends on the 'shortmess' option.
The number of remembered messages is fixed at 20 for the tiny version and 200
for other versions.
*g<*
The "g<" command can be used to see the last page of previous command output.
This is especially useful if you accidentally typed <Space> at the hit-enter
prompt. You are then back at the hit-enter prompt and can then scroll further
back.
Note: when you stopped the output with "q" at the more prompt only up to that
point will be displayed.
The previous command output is cleared when another command produces output.
If you are using translated messages, the first printed line tells who
maintains the messages or the translations. You can use this to contact the
maintainer when you spot a mistake.
If you want to find help on a specific (error) message, use the ID at the
start of the message. For example, to get help on the message:
E72: Close error on swap file
or (translated):
E72: Errore durante chiusura swap file
Use:
:help E72
If you are lazy, it also works without the shift key:
:help e72
==============================================================================
2. Error messages *error-messages* *errors*
When an error message is displayed, but it is removed before you could read
it, you can see it again with:
:echo errmsg
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/message.html[2019/03/05 11:42:35 AM]

or view a list of recent messages with:

:messages
LIST OF MESSAGES
*E222* *E228* *E232* *E256* *E293* *E298* *E304* *E317*
*E318* *E356* *E438* *E439* *E440* *E316* *E320* *E322*
*E323* *E341* *E473* *E570* *E685*
Add to read buffer
makemap: Illegal mode
Cannot create BalloonEval with both message and callback
Hangul automata ERROR
block was not locked
Didn't get block nr {N}?
ml_upd_block0(): Didn't get block 0??
pointer block id wrong {N}
Updated too many blocks?
get_varp ERROR
u_undo: line numbers wrong
undo list corrupt
undo line missing
ml_get: cannot find line {N}
cannot find line {N}
line number out of range: {N} past the end
line count wrong in block {N}
Internal error
Internal error: {function}
fatal error in cs_manage_matches
This is an internal error. If you can reproduce it, please send in a bug
report. |bugs|
ATTENTION
Found a swap file by the name ...
See |ATTENTION|.
*E92*
Buffer {N} not found
The buffer you requested does not exist. This can also happen when you have
wiped out a buffer which contains a mark or is referenced in another way.
|:bwipeout|
*E95*
Buffer with this name already exists
You cannot have two buffers with the same name.
*E72*
Close error on swap file
The |swap-file|, that is used to keep a copy of the edited text, could not be
closed properly. Mostly harmless.
*E169*
Command too recursive
This happens when an Ex command executes an Ex command that executes an Ex
command, etc. This is only allowed 200 times. When it's more there probably
is an endless loop. Probably a |:execute| or |:source| command is involved.
*E254*
Cannot allocate color {name}
The color name {name} is unknown. See |gui-colors| for a list of colors that
are available on most systems.

*E458*
Cannot allocate colormap entry, some colors may be incorrect
This means that there are not enough colors available for Vim. It will still
run, but some of the colors will not appear in the specified color. Try
stopping other applications that use many colors, or start them after starting
gvim.
Browsers are known to consume a lot of colors. You can avoid this with
netscape by telling it to use its own colormap:
netscape -install
Or tell it to limit to a certain number of colors (64 should work well):
netscape -ncols 64
This can also be done with a line in your Xdefaults file:
Netscape*installColormap: Yes
or
Netscape*maxImageColors: 64
*E79*
Cannot expand wildcards
A filename contains a strange combination of characters, which causes Vim to
attempt expanding wildcards but this fails. This does NOT mean that no
matching file names could be found, but that the pattern was illegal.
*E459*
Cannot go back to previous directory
While expanding a file name, Vim failed to go back to the previously used
directory. All file names being used may be invalid now! You need to have
execute permission on the current directory.
*E190* *E212*
Cannot open "{filename}" for writing
Can't open file for writing
For some reason the file you are writing to cannot be created or overwritten.
The reason could be that you do not have permission to write in the directory
or the file name is not valid.
*E166*
Can't open linked file for writing
You are trying to write to a file which can't be overwritten, and the file is
a link (either a hard link or a symbolic link). Writing might still be
possible if the directory that contains the link or the file is writable, but
Vim now doesn't know if you want to delete the link and write the file in its
place, or if you want to delete the file itself and write the new file in its
place. If you really want to write the file under this name, you have to
manually delete the link or the file, or change the permissions so that Vim
can overwrite.
*E46*
Cannot change read-only variable "{name}"
You are trying to assign a value to an argument of a function |a:var| or a Vim
internal variable |v:var| which is read-only.
*E90*
Cannot unload last buffer
Vim always requires one buffer to be loaded, otherwise there would be nothing
to display in the window.
*E40*
Can't open errorfile <filename>
When using the ":make" or ":grep" commands: The file used to save the error
messages or grep output cannot be opened. This can have several causes:
- 'shellredir' has a wrong value.
- The shell changes directory, causing the error file to be written in another
directory. This could be fixed by changing 'makeef', but then the make
command is still executed in the wrong directory.

- 'makeef' has a wrong value.

- The 'grepprg' or 'makeprg' could not be executed. This cannot always be
detected (especially on MS-Windows). Check your $PATH.
Can't open file C:\TEMP\VIoD243.TMP

On MS-Windows, this message appears when the output of an external command was
to be read, but the command didn't run successfully. This can be caused by
many things. Check the 'shell', 'shellquote', 'shellxquote', 'shellslash' and
related options. It might also be that the external command was not found,
there is no different error message for that.
*E12*
Command not allowed from exrc/vimrc in current dir or tag search
Some commands are not allowed for security reasons. These commands mostly
come from a .exrc or .vimrc file in the current directory, or from a tags
file. Also see 'secure'.
*E74*
Command too complex
A mapping resulted in a very long command string. Could be caused by a
mapping that indirectly calls itself.
CONVERSION ERROR
When writing a file and the text "CONVERSION ERROR" appears, this means that
some bits were lost when converting text from the internally used UTF-8 to the
format of the file. The file will not be marked unmodified. If you care
about the loss of information, set the 'fileencoding' option to another value
that can handle the characters in the buffer and write again. If you don't
care, you can abandon the buffer or reset the 'modified' option.
*E302*
Could not rename swap file
When the file name changes, Vim tries to rename the |swap-file| as well.
This failed and the old swap file is now still used. Mostly harmless.
*E43* *E44*
Damaged match string
Corrupted regexp program
Something inside Vim went wrong and resulted in a corrupted regexp. If you
know how to reproduce this problem, please report it. |bugs|
*E208* *E209* *E210*

Error writing to "{filename}"
Error closing "{filename}"
Error reading "{filename}"
This occurs when Vim is trying to rename a file, but a simple change of file
name doesn't work. Then the file will be copied, but somehow this failed.
The result may be that both the original file and the destination file exist
and the destination file may be incomplete.
Vim: Error reading input, exiting...

This occurs when Vim cannot read typed characters while input is required.
Vim got stuck, the only thing it can do is exit. This can happen when both
stdin and stderr are redirected and executing a script that doesn't exit Vim.
*E47*
Error while reading errorfile
Reading the error file was not possible. This is NOT caused by an error
message that was not recognized.

*E80*
Error while writing
Writing a file was not completed successfully. The file is probably
incomplete.
*E13* *E189*
File exists (add ! to override)
"{filename}" exists (add ! to override)
You are protected from accidentally overwriting a file. When you want to
write anyway, use the same command, but add a "!" just after the command.
Example:
:w /tmp/test
changes to:
:w! /tmp/test
*E768*
Swap file exists: {filename} (:silent! overrides)
You are protected from overwriting a file that is being edited by Vim. This
happens when you use ":w! filename" and a swapfile is found.
- If the swapfile was left over from an old crashed edit session you may want
to delete the swapfile. Edit {filename} to find out information about the
swapfile.
- If you want to write anyway prepend ":silent!" to the command. For example:
:silent! w! /tmp/test
The special command is needed, since you already added the ! for overwriting
an existing file.
*E139*
File is loaded in another buffer
You are trying to write a file under a name which is also used in another
buffer. This would result in two versions of the same file.
*E142*
File not written: Writing is disabled by 'write' option
The 'write' option is off. This makes all commands that try to write a file
generate this message. This could be caused by a |-m| commandline argument.
You can switch the 'write' option on with ":set write"
*E25*
GUI cannot be used: Not enabled at compile time
You are running a version of Vim that doesn't include the GUI code. Therefore
"gvim" and ":gui" don't work.
*E49*
Invalid scroll size
This is caused by setting an invalid value for the 'scroll', 'scrolljump' or
'scrolloff' options.
*E17*
"{filename}" is a directory
You tried to write a file with the name of a directory. This is not possible.
You probably need to append a file name.
*E19*
Mark has invalid line number
You are using a mark that has a line number that doesn't exist. This can
happen when you have a mark in another file, and some other program has
deleted lines from it.
*E219* *E220*
Missing {.

Missing }.
Using a {} construct in a file name, but there is a { without a matching } or
the other way around. It should be used like this: {foo,bar}. This matches
"foo" and "bar".
*E315*
ml_get: invalid lnum: {number}
This is an internal Vim error. Please try to find out how it can be
reproduced, and submit a bug report |bugreport.vim|.
*E173*
{number} more files to edit
You are trying to exit, while the last item in the argument list has not been
edited. This protects you from accidentally exiting when you still have more
files to work on. See |argument-list|. If you do want to exit, just do it
again and it will work.
*E23* *E194*
No alternate file
No alternate file name to substitute for '#'
The alternate file is not defined yet. See |alternate-file|.
*E32*
No file name
The current buffer has no name. To write it, use ":w fname". Or give the
buffer a name with ":file fname".
*E141*
No file name for buffer {number}
One of the buffers that was changed does not have a file name. Therefore it
cannot be written. You need to give the buffer a file name:
:buffer {number}
:file {filename}
*E33*
No previous substitute regular expression
When using the '~' character in a pattern, it is replaced with the previously
used pattern in a ":substitute" command. This fails when no such command has
been used yet. See |/~|. This also happens when using ":s/pat/%/", where the
"%" stands for the previous substitute string.
*E35*
No previous regular expression
When using an empty search pattern, the previous search pattern is used. But
that is not possible if there was no previous search.
*E24*
No such abbreviation
You have used an ":unabbreviate" command with an argument which is not an
existing abbreviation. All variations of this command give the same message:
":cunabbrev", ":iunabbrev", etc. Check for trailing white space.
/dev/dsp: No such file or directory

Only given for GTK GUI with Gnome support. Gnome tries to use the audio
device and it isn't present. You can ignore this error.
*E31*
No such mapping

You have used an ":unmap" command with an argument which is not an existing
mapping. All variations of this command give the same message: ":cunmap",
":unmap!", etc. A few hints:
- Check for trailing white space.
- If the mapping is buffer-local you need to use ":unmap <buffer>".
|:map-<buffer>|
*E37* *E89*
No write since last change (add ! to override)
No write since last change for buffer {N} (add ! to override)
You are trying to |abandon| a file that has changes. Vim protects you from
losing your work. You can either write the changed file with ":w", or, if you
are sure, |abandon| it anyway, and lose all the changes. This can be done by
adding a '!' character just after the command you used. Example:
:e other_file
changes to:
:e! other_file
*E162*
No write since last change for buffer "{name}"
This appears when you try to exit Vim while some buffers are changed. You
will either have to write the changed buffer (with |:w|), or use a command to
abandon the buffer forcefully, e.g., with ":qa!". Careful, make sure you
don't throw away changes you really want to keep. You might have forgotten
about a buffer, especially when 'hidden' is set.
[No write since last change]

This appears when executing a shell command while at least one buffer was
changed. To avoid the message reset the 'warn' option.
*E38*
Null argument
Something inside Vim went wrong and resulted in a NULL pointer. If you know
how to reproduce this problem, please report it. |bugs|
*E172*
Only one file name allowed
The ":edit" command only accepts one file name. When you want to specify
several files for editing use ":next" |:next|.
*E41* *E82* *E83* *E342*

Out of memory!
Out of memory! (allocating {number} bytes)
Cannot allocate any buffer, exiting...
Cannot allocate buffer, using other one...
Oh, oh. You must have been doing something complicated, or some other program
is consuming your memory. Be careful! Vim is not completely prepared for an
out-of-memory situation. First make sure that any changes are saved. Then
try to solve the memory shortage. To stay on the safe side, exit Vim and
start again.
Buffers are only partly kept in memory, thus editing a very large file is
unlikely to cause an out-of-memory situation. Undo information is completely
in memory, you can reduce that with these options:
- 'undolevels' Set to a low value, or to -1 to disable undo completely. This
helps for a change that affects all lines.
- 'undoreload' Set to zero to disable.
Also see |msdos-limitations|.
*E339*
Pattern too long
This happens on systems with 16 bit ints: The compiled regexp pattern is
longer than about 65000 characters. Try using a shorter pattern.
It also happens when the offset of a rule doesn't fit in the space available.

Try simplifying the pattern.
*E45*
'readonly' option is set (add ! to override)
You are trying to write a file that was marked as read-only. To write the
file anyway, either reset the 'readonly' option, or add a '!' character just
after the command you used. Example:
:w
changes to:
:w!
*E294* *E295* *E301*

Read error in swap file
Seek error in swap file read
Oops, lost the swap file!!!
Vim tried to read text from the |swap-file|, but something went wrong. The
text in the related buffer may now be corrupted! Check carefully before you
write a buffer. You may want to write it in another file and check for
differences.
*E192*
Recursive use of :normal too deep
You are using a ":normal" command, whose argument again uses a ":normal"
command in a recursive way. This is restricted to 'maxmapdepth' levels. This
example illustrates how to get this message:
:map gq :normal gq<CR>
If you type "gq", it will execute this mapping, which will call "gq" again.
*E22*
Scripts nested too deep
Scripts can be read with the "-s" command-line argument and with the ":source"
command. The script can then again read another script. This can continue
for about 14 levels. When more nesting is done, Vim assumes that there is a
recursive loop somewhere and stops with this error message.
*E319*
Sorry, the command is not available in this version
You have used a command that is not present in the version of Vim you are
using. When compiling Vim, many different features can be enabled or
disabled. This depends on how big Vim has chosen to be and the operating
system. See |+feature-list| for when which feature is available. The
|:version| command shows which feature Vim was compiled with.
*E300*
Swap file already exists (symlink attack?)
This message appears when Vim is trying to open a swap file and finds it
already exists or finds a symbolic link in its place. This shouldn't happen,
because Vim already checked that the file doesn't exist. Either someone else
opened the same file at exactly the same moment (very unlikely) or someone is
attempting a symlink attack (could happen when editing a file in /tmp or when
'directory' starts with "/tmp", which is a bad choice).
*E432*
Tags file not sorted: {file name}
Vim (and Vi) expect tags files to be sorted in ASCII order. Binary searching
can then be used, which is a lot faster than a linear search. If your tags
files are not properly sorted, reset the |'tagbsearch'| option.
This message is only given when Vim detects a problem when searching for a
tag. Sometimes this message is not given, even though the tags file is not
properly sorted.
*E460*
The resource fork would be lost (add ! to override)

On the Macintosh (classic), when writing a file, Vim attempts to preserve all
info about a file, including its resource fork. If this is not possible you
get this error message. Append "!" to the command name to write anyway (and
lose the info).
*E424*
Too many different highlighting attributes in use
Vim can only handle about 223 different kinds of highlighting. If you run
into this limit, you have used too many |:highlight| commands with different
arguments. A ":highlight link" is not counted.
*E77*
Too many file names
When expanding file names, more than one match was found. Only one match is
allowed for the command that was used.
*E303*
Unable to open swap file for "{filename}", recovery impossible
Vim was not able to create a swap file. You can still edit the file, but if
Vim unexpectedly exits the changes will be lost. And Vim may consume a lot of
memory when editing a big file. You may want to change the 'directory' option
to avoid this error. See |swap-file|.
*E140*
Use ! to write partial buffer
When using a range to write part of a buffer, it is unusual to overwrite the
original file. It is probably a mistake (e.g., when Visual mode was active
when using ":w"), therefore Vim requires using a ! after the command, e.g.:
":3,10w!".
Warning: Cannot convert string "<Key>Escape,_Key_Cancel" to type

VirtualBinding
Messages like this appear when starting up. This is not a Vim problem, your
X11 configuration is wrong. You can find a hint on how to solve this here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solarisonintel/message/12179.
[this URL is no longer valid]
*W10*
Warning: Changing a readonly file
The file is read-only and you are making a change to it anyway. You can use
the |FileChangedRO| autocommand event to avoid this message (the autocommand
must reset the 'readonly' option). See 'modifiable' to completely disallow
making changes to a file.
This message is only given for the first change after 'readonly' has been set.
*W13*
Warning: File "{filename}" has been created after editing started
You are editing a file in Vim when it didn't exist, but it does exist now.
You will have to decide if you want to keep the version in Vim or the newly
created file. This message is not given when 'buftype' is not empty.
*W11*
Warning: File "{filename}" has changed since editing started
The file which you have started editing has got another timestamp and the
contents changed (more precisely: When reading the file again with the current
option settings and autocommands you would end up with different text). This
probably means that some other program changed the file. You will have to
find out what happened, and decide which version of the file you want to keep.
Set the 'autoread' option if you want to do this automatically.
This message is not given when 'buftype' is not empty.
There is one situation where you get this message even though there is nothing
wrong: If you save a file in Windows on the day the daylight saving time

starts. It can be fixed in one of these ways:

- Add this line in your autoexec.bat:
SET TZ=-1
Adjust the "-1" for your time zone.
- Disable "automatically adjust clock for daylight saving changes".
- Just write the file again the next day. Or set your clock to the next day,
write the file twice and set the clock back.
*W12*
Warning: File "{filename}" has changed and the buffer was changed in Vim as well
Like the above, and the buffer for the file was changed in this Vim as well.
You will have to decide if you want to keep the version in this Vim or the one
on disk. This message is not given when 'buftype' is not empty.
*W16*
Warning: Mode of file "{filename}" has changed since editing started
When the timestamp for a buffer was changed and the contents are still the
same but the mode (permissions) have changed. This usually occurs when
checking out a file from a version control system, which causes the read-only
bit to be reset. It should be safe to reload the file. Set 'autoread' to
automatically reload the file.
*E211*
File "{filename}" no longer available
The file which you have started editing has disappeared, or is no longer
accessible. Make sure you write the buffer somewhere to avoid losing
changes. This message is not given when 'buftype' is not empty.
*W14*
Warning: List of file names overflow
You must be using an awful lot of buffers. It's now possible that two buffers
have the same number, which causes various problems. You might want to exit
Vim and restart it.
*E296* *E297*
Seek error in swap file write
Write error in swap file
This mostly happens when the disk is full. Vim could not write text into the
|swap-file|. It's not directly harmful, but when Vim unexpectedly exits some
text may be lost without recovery being possible. Vim might run out of memory
when this problem persists.
*connection-refused*
Xlib: connection to "<machine-name:0.0" refused by server
This happens when Vim tries to connect to the X server, but the X server does
not allow a connection. The connection to the X server is needed to be able
to restore the title and for the xterm clipboard support. Unfortunately this
error message cannot be avoided, except by disabling the |+xterm_clipboard|
and |+X11| features.
*E10*
\\ should be followed by /, ? or &
A command line started with a backslash or the range of a command contained a
backslash in a wrong place. This is often caused by command-line continuation
being disabled. Remove the 'C' flag from the 'cpoptions' option to enable it.
Or use ":set nocp"
*E471*
Argument required
This happens when an Ex command with mandatory argument(s) was executed, but
no argument has been specified.

*E474* *E475*
Invalid argument
Invalid argument: {arg}
An Ex command has been executed, but an invalid argument has been specified.
*E488*
Trailing characters
An argument has been added to an Ex command that does not permit one.
*E477* *E478*
No ! allowed
Don't panic!
You have added a "!" after an Ex command that doesn't permit one.
*E481*
No range allowed
A range was specified for an Ex command that doesn't permit one. See
|cmdline-ranges|.
*E482* *E483*
Can't create file {filename}
Can't get temp file name
Vim cannot create a temporary file.
*E484* *E485*
Can't open file {filename}
Can't read file {filename}
Vim cannot read a temporary file.
*E464*
Ambiguous use of user-defined command
There are two user-defined commands with a common name prefix, and you used
Command-line completion to execute one of them. |user-cmd-ambiguous|
Example:
:command MyCommand1 echo "one"
:command MyCommand2 echo "two"
:MyCommand
*E492*
Not an editor command
You tried to execute a command that is neither an Ex command nor
a user-defined command.
==============================================================================
3. Messages *messages*
This is an (incomplete) overview of various messages that Vim gives:
*hit-enter* *press-enter* *hit-return*

*press-return* *hit-enter-prompt*
Press ENTER or type command to continue
This message is given when there is something on the screen for you to read,
and the screen is about to be redrawn:
- After executing an external command (e.g., ":!ls" and "=").
- Something is displayed on the status line that is longer than the width of
the window, or runs into the 'showcmd' or 'ruler' output.
-> Press <Enter> or <Space> to redraw the screen and continue, without that

key being used otherwise.

-> Press ':' or any other Normal mode command character to start that command.
-> Press 'k', <Up>, 'u', 'b' or 'g' to scroll back in the messages. This
works the same way as at the |more-prompt|. Only works when 'compatible'
is off and 'more' is on.
-> Pressing 'j', 'f', 'd' or <Down> is ignored when messages scrolled off the
top of the screen, 'compatible' is off and 'more' is on, to avoid that
typing one 'j' or 'f' too many causes the messages to disappear.
-> Press <C-Y> to copy (yank) a modeless selection to the clipboard register.
-> Use a menu. The characters defined for Cmdline-mode are used.
-> When 'mouse' contains the 'r' flag, clicking the left mouse button works
like pressing <Space>. This makes it impossible to select text though.
-> For the GUI clicking the left mouse button in the last line works like
pressing <Space>.
{Vi: only ":" commands are interpreted}
If you accidentally hit <Enter> or <Space> and you want to see the displayed
text then use |g<|. This only works when 'more' is set.
To reduce the number of hit-enter prompts:
- Set 'cmdheight' to 2 or higher.
- Add flags to 'shortmess'.
- Reset 'showcmd' and/or 'ruler'.
If your script causes the hit-enter prompt and you don't know why, you may
find the |v:scrollstart| variable useful.
Also see 'mouse'. The hit-enter message is highlighted with the |hl-Question|
group.
*more-prompt* *pager*
-- More --
-- More -- SPACE/d/j: screen/page/line down, b/u/k: up, q: quit
This message is given when the screen is filled with messages. It is only
given when the 'more' option is on. It is highlighted with the |hl-MoreMsg|
group.
Type effect
<CR> or <NL> or j or <Down> one more line
d down a page (half a screen)
<Space> or f or <PageDown> down a screen
G down all the way, until the hit-enter
prompt
<BS> or k or <Up> one line back (*)
u up a page (half a screen) (*)
b or <PageUp> back a screen (*)
g back to the start (*)
q, <Esc> or CTRL-C stop the listing
: stop the listing and enter a
command-line
<C-Y> yank (copy) a modeless selection to
the clipboard ("* and "+ registers)
{menu-entry} what the menu is defined to in
Cmdline-mode.
<LeftMouse> (**) next page
Any other key causes the meaning of the keys to be displayed.
(*) backwards scrolling is {not in Vi}. Only scrolls back to where messages
started to scroll.
(**) Clicking the left mouse button only works:
- For the GUI: in the last line of the screen.
- When 'r' is included in 'mouse' (but then selecting text won't work).
Note: The typed key is directly obtained from the terminal, it is not mapped
and typeahead is ignored.
The |g<| command can be used to see the last page of previous command output.
This is especially useful if you accidentally typed <Space> at the hit-enter
prompt.

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: syntax
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*syntax.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Apr 01
Syntax highlighting *syntax* *syntax-highlighting* *coloring*

Syntax highlighting enables Vim to show parts of the text in another font or
color. Those parts can be specific keywords or text matching a pattern. Vim
doesn't parse the whole file (to keep it fast), so the highlighting has its
limitations. Lexical highlighting might be a better name, but since everybody
calls it syntax highlighting we'll stick with that.
Vim supports syntax highlighting on all terminals. But since most ordinary
terminals have very limited highlighting possibilities, it works best in the
GUI version, gvim.
In the User Manual:
|usr_06.txt| introduces syntax highlighting.
|usr_44.txt| introduces writing a syntax file.
1. Quick start |:syn-qstart|
2. Syntax files |:syn-files|
3. Syntax loading procedure |syntax-loading|
4. Syntax file remarks |:syn-file-remarks|
5. Defining a syntax |:syn-define|
6. :syntax arguments |:syn-arguments|
7. Syntax patterns |:syn-pattern|
8. Syntax clusters |:syn-cluster|
9. Including syntax files |:syn-include|
10. Synchronizing |:syn-sync|
11. Listing syntax items |:syntax|
12. Highlight command |:highlight|
13. Linking groups |:highlight-link|
14. Cleaning up |:syn-clear|
15. Highlighting tags |tag-highlight|
16. Window-local syntax |:ownsyntax|
17. Color xterms |xterm-color|
Syntax highlighting is not available when the |+syntax| feature has been
==============================================================================
1. Quick start *:syn-qstart*
*:syn-enable* *:syntax-enable*
This command switches on syntax highlighting:
:syntax enable
What this command actually does is to execute the command
:source $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syntax.vim
If the VIM environment variable is not set, Vim will try to find
the path in another way (see |$VIMRUNTIME|). Usually this works just
fine. If it doesn't, try setting the VIM environment variable to the
directory where the Vim stuff is located. For example, if your syntax files
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/syntax.html[2019/03/05 11:42:40 AM]

are in the "/usr/vim/vim50/syntax" directory, set $VIMRUNTIME to

"/usr/vim/vim50". You must do this in the shell, before starting Vim.
*:syn-on* *:syntax-on*
The ":syntax enable" command will keep your current color settings. This
allows using ":highlight" commands to set your preferred colors before or
after using this command. If you want Vim to overrule your settings with the
defaults, use:
:syntax on
*:hi-normal* *:highlight-normal*
If you are running in the GUI, you can get white text on a black background
with:
:highlight Normal guibg=Black guifg=White
For a color terminal see |:hi-normal-cterm|.
For setting up your own colors syntax highlighting see |syncolor|.
NOTE: The syntax files on MS-DOS and Windows have lines that end in <CR><NL>.
The files for Unix end in <NL>. This means you should use the right type of
file for your system. Although on MS-DOS and Windows the right format is
automatically selected if the 'fileformats' option is not empty.
NOTE: When using reverse video ("gvim -fg white -bg black"), the default value
of 'background' will not be set until the GUI window is opened, which is after
reading the |gvimrc|. This will cause the wrong default highlighting to be
used. To set the default value of 'background' before switching on
highlighting, include the ":gui" command in the YXXYgvimrc|:
:gui " open window and set default for 'background'
:syntax on " start highlighting, use 'background' to set colors
NOTE: Using ":gui" in the |gvimrc| means that "gvim -f" won't start in the
foreground! Use ":gui -f" then.
*g:syntax_on*
You can toggle the syntax on/off with this command:
:if exists("g:syntax_on") | syntax off | else | syntax enable | endif
To put this into a mapping, you can use:
:map <F7> :if exists("g:syntax_on") <Bar>
\ syntax off <Bar>
\ else <Bar>
\ syntax enable <Bar>
\ endif <CR>
[using the |<>| notation, type this literally]
Details:
The ":syntax" commands are implemented by sourcing a file. To see exactly how
this works, look in the file:
command file
:syntax enable $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syntax.vim
:syntax on $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syntax.vim
:syntax manual $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/manual.vim
:syntax off $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/nosyntax.vim
Also see |syntax-loading|.
NOTE: If displaying long lines is slow and switching off syntax highlighting
makes it fast, consider setting the 'synmaxcol' option to a lower value.
==============================================================================
2. Syntax files *:syn-files*
The syntax and highlighting commands for one language are normally stored in
a syntax file. The name convention is: "{name}.vim". Where {name} is the
name of the language, or an abbreviation (to fit the name in 8.3 characters,
a requirement in case the file is used on a DOS filesystem).
Examples:
c.vim perl.vim java.vim html.vim
cpp.vim sh.vim csh.vim
The syntax file can contain any Ex commands, just like a vimrc file. But
the idea is that only commands for a specific language are included. When a
language is a superset of another language, it may include the other one,
for example, the cpp.vim file could include the c.vim file:
:so $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/c.vim

The .vim files are normally loaded with an autocommand. For example:
:au Syntax c runtime! syntax/c.vim
:au Syntax cpp runtime! syntax/cpp.vim
These commands are normally in the file $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/synload.vim.
MAKING YOUR OWN SYNTAX FILES *mysyntaxfile*

When you create your own syntax files, and you want to have Vim use these
automatically with ":syntax enable", do this:
1. Create your user runtime directory. You would normally use the first item
of the 'runtimepath' option. Example for Unix:
mkdir ~/.vim
2. Create a directory in there called "syntax". For Unix:
mkdir ~/.vim/syntax
3. Write the Vim syntax file. Or download one from the internet. Then write
it in your syntax directory. For example, for the "mine" syntax:
:w ~/.vim/syntax/mine.vim
Now you can start using your syntax file manually:
:set syntax=mine
You don't have to exit Vim to use this.
If you also want Vim to detect the type of file, see |new-filetype|.
If you are setting up a system with many users and you don't want each user
to add the same syntax file, you can use another directory from 'runtimepath'.
ADDING TO AN EXISTING SYNTAX FILE *mysyntaxfile-add*

If you are mostly satisfied with an existing syntax file, but would like to
add a few items or change the highlighting, follow these steps:
1. Create your user directory from 'runtimepath', see above.
2. Create a directory in there called "after/syntax". For Unix:
mkdir ~/.vim/after
mkdir ~/.vim/after/syntax
3. Write a Vim script that contains the commands you want to use. For
example, to change the colors for the C syntax:
highlight cComment ctermfg=Green guifg=Green
4. Write that file in the "after/syntax" directory. Use the name of the
syntax, with ".vim" added. For our C syntax:
:w ~/.vim/after/syntax/c.vim
That's it. The next time you edit a C file the Comment color will be
different. You don't even have to restart Vim.
If you have multiple files, you can use the filetype as the directory name.
All the "*.vim" files in this directory will be used, for example:
~/.vim/after/syntax/c/one.vim
~/.vim/after/syntax/c/two.vim
REPLACING AN EXISTING SYNTAX FILE *mysyntaxfile-replace*

If you don't like a distributed syntax file, or you have downloaded a new
version, follow the same steps as for |mysyntaxfile| above. Just make sure
that you write the syntax file in a directory that is early in 'runtimepath'.
Vim will only load the first syntax file found.
NAMING CONVENTIONS *group-name* *{group-name}* *E669* *W18*

A syntax group name is to be used for syntax items that match the same kind of
thing. These are then linked to a highlight group that specifies the color.
A syntax group name doesn't specify any color or attributes itself.

The name for a highlight or syntax group must consist of ASCII letters, digits
and the underscore. As a regexp: "[a-zA-Z0-9_]*"
To be able to allow each user to pick his favorite set of colors, there must
be preferred names for highlight groups that are common for many languages.
These are the suggested group names (if syntax highlighting works properly
you can see the actual color, except for "Ignore"):
*Comment any comment
*Constant any constant
String a string constant: "this is a string"
Character a character constant: 'c', '\n'
Number a number constant: 234, 0xff
Boolean a boolean constant: TRUE, false
Float a floating point constant: 2.3e10
*Identifier any variable name
Function function name (also: methods for classes)
*Statement any statement
Conditional if, then, else, endif, switch, etc.
Repeat for, do, while, etc.
Label case, default, etc.
Operator "sizeof", "+", "*", etc.
Keyword any other keyword
Exception try, catch, throw
*PreProc generic Preprocessor
Include preprocessor #include
Define preprocessor #define
Macro same as Define
PreCondit preprocessor #if, #else, #endif, etc.
*Type int, long, char, etc.
StorageClass static, register, volatile, etc.
Structure struct, union, enum, etc.
Typedef A typedef
*Special any special symbol
SpecialChar special character in a constant
Tag you can use CTRL-] on this
Delimiter character that needs attention
SpecialComment special things inside a comment
Debug debugging statements
*Underlined text that stands out, HTML links
*Ignore left blank, hidden |hl-Ignore|
*Error any erroneous construct
*Todo anything that needs extra attention; mostly the
keywords TODO FIXME and XXX
The names marked with * are the preferred groups; the others are minor groups.
For the preferred groups, the "syntax.vim" file contains default highlighting.
The minor groups are linked to the preferred groups, so they get the same
highlighting. You can override these defaults by using ":highlight" commands
after sourcing the "syntax.vim" file.
Note that highlight group names are not case sensitive. "String" and "string"
can be used for the same group.
The following names are reserved and cannot be used as a group name:
NONE ALL ALLBUT contains contained
*hl-Ignore*
When using the Ignore group, you may also consider using the conceal
mechanism. See |conceal|.
==============================================================================
3. Syntax loading procedure *syntax-loading*
This explains the details that happen when the command ":syntax enable" is
issued. When Vim initializes itself, it finds out where the runtime files are
located. This is used here as the variable |$VIMRUNTIME|.

":syntax enable" and ":syntax on" do the following:

Source $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syntax.vim
|
+- Clear out any old syntax by sourcing $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/nosyntax.vim
|
+- Source first syntax/synload.vim in 'runtimepath'
| |
| +- Setup the colors for syntax highlighting. If a color scheme is
| | defined it is loaded again with ":colors {name}". Otherwise
| | ":runtime! syntax/syncolor.vim" is used. ":syntax on" overrules
| | existing colors, ":syntax enable" only sets groups that weren't
| | set yet.
| |
| +- Set up syntax autocmds to load the appropriate syntax file when
| | the 'syntax' option is set. *synload-1*
| |
| +- Source the user's optional file, from the |mysyntaxfile| variable.
| This is for backwards compatibility with Vim 5.x only. *synload-2*
|
+- Do ":filetype on", which does ":runtime! filetype.vim". It loads any
| filetype.vim files found. It should always Source
| $VIMRUNTIME/filetype.vim, which does the following.
| |
| +- Install autocmds based on suffix to set the 'filetype' option
| | This is where the connection between file name and file type is
| | made for known file types. *synload-3*
| |
| +- Source the user's optional file, from the *myfiletypefile*
| | variable. This is for backwards compatibility with Vim 5.x only.
| | *synload-4*
| |
| +- Install one autocommand which sources scripts.vim when no file
| | type was detected yet. *synload-5*
| |
| +- Source $VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim, to setup the Syntax menu. |menu.vim|
|
+- Install a FileType autocommand to set the 'syntax' option when a file
| type has been detected. *synload-6*
|
+- Execute syntax autocommands to start syntax highlighting for each
already loaded buffer.
Upon loading a file, Vim finds the relevant syntax file as follows:
Loading the file triggers the BufReadPost autocommands.
|
+- If there is a match with one of the autocommands from |synload-3|
| (known file types) or |synload-4| (user's file types), the 'filetype'
| option is set to the file type.
|
+- The autocommand at |synload-5| is triggered. If the file type was not
| found yet, then scripts.vim is searched for in 'runtimepath'. This
| should always load $VIMRUNTIME/scripts.vim, which does the following.
| |
| +- Source the user's optional file, from the *myscriptsfile*
| | variable. This is for backwards compatibility with Vim 5.x only.
| |
| +- If the file type is still unknown, check the contents of the file,
| again with checks like "getline(1) =~ pattern" as to whether the
| file type can be recognized, and set 'filetype'.
|
+- When the file type was determined and 'filetype' was set, this
| triggers the FileType autocommand |synload-6| above. It sets
| 'syntax' to the determined file type.
|
+- When the 'syntax' option was set above, this triggers an autocommand
| from |synload-1| (and |synload-2|). This find the main syntax file in
| 'runtimepath', with this command:
| runtime! syntax/<name>.vim
|

+- Any other user installed FileType or Syntax autocommands are

triggered. This can be used to change the highlighting for a specific
syntax.
==============================================================================
4. Syntax file remarks *:syn-file-remarks*
*b:current_syntax-variable*
Vim stores the name of the syntax that has been loaded in the
"b:current_syntax" variable. You can use this if you want to load other
settings, depending on which syntax is active. Example:
:au BufReadPost * if b:current_syntax == "csh"
:au BufReadPost * do-some-things
:au BufReadPost * endif
2HTML *2html.vim* *convert-to-HTML*

This is not a syntax file itself, but a script that converts the current
window into HTML. Vim opens a new window in which it builds the HTML file.
You are not supposed to set the 'filetype' or 'syntax' option to "2html"!
Source the script to convert the current file:
:runtime! syntax/2html.vim
*:TOhtml*
Or use the ":TOhtml" user command. It is defined in a standard plugin.
":TOhtml" also works with a range and in a Visual area:
:10,40TOhtml
Warning: This can be slow! The script must process every character of every
line. Because it can take a long time, by default a progress bar is displayed
in the statusline for each major step in the conversion process. If you don't
like seeing this progress bar, you can disable it and get a very minor speed
improvement with:
let g:html_no_progress = 1
":TOhtml" has another special feature: if the window is in diff mode, it will
generate HTML that shows all the related windows. This can be disabled by
setting the g:html_diff_one_file variable:
let g:html_diff_one_file = 1
After you save the resulting file, you can view it with any browser. The
colors should be exactly the same as you see them in Vim.
To restrict the conversion to a range of lines, use a range with the |:TOhtml|
command, or set "g:html_start_line" and "g:html_end_line" to the first and
last line to be converted. Example, using the last set Visual area:
:let g:html_start_line = line("'<")
:let g:html_end_line = line("'>")
The lines are numbered according to 'number' option and the Number
highlighting. You can force lines to be numbered in the HTML output by
setting "html_number_lines" to non-zero value:
:let g:html_number_lines = 1
Force to omit the line numbers by using a zero value:
:let g:html_number_lines = 0
Go back to the default to use 'number' by deleting the variable:
:unlet g:html_number_lines
By default, valid HTML 4.01 using cascading style sheets (CSS1) is generated.
If you need to generate markup for really old browsers or some other user
agent that lacks basic CSS support, use:
:let g:html_use_css = 0
Concealed text is removed from the HTML and replaced with the appropriate
character from |:syn-cchar| or 'listchars' depending on the current value of
'conceallevel'. If you always want to display all text in your document,
either set 'conceallevel' to zero before invoking 2html, or use:
:let g:html_ignore_conceal = 1

Similarly, closed folds are put in the HTML as they are displayed. If you
don't want this, use the |zR| command before invoking 2html, or use:
:let g:html_ignore_folding = 1
You may want to generate HTML that includes all the data within the folds, and
allow the user to view the folded data similar to how they would in Vim. To
generate this dynamic fold information, use:
:let g:html_dynamic_folds = 1
Using html_dynamic_folds will imply html_use_css, because it would be far too
difficult to do it for old browsers. However, html_ignore_folding overrides
html_dynamic_folds.
Using html_dynamic_folds will default to generating a foldcolumn in the html
similar to Vim's foldcolumn, that will use javascript to open and close the
folds in the HTML document. The width of this foldcolumn starts at the current
setting of |'foldcolumn'| but grows to fit the greatest foldlevel in your
document. If you do not want to show a foldcolumn at all, use:
:let g:html_no_foldcolumn = 1
Using this option, there will be no foldcolumn available to open the folds in
the HTML. For this reason, another option is provided: html_hover_unfold.
Enabling this option will use CSS 2.0 to allow a user to open a fold by
hovering the mouse pointer over it. Note that old browsers (notably Internet
Explorer 6) will not support this feature. Browser-specific markup for IE6 is
included to fall back to the normal CSS1 code so that the folds show up
correctly for this browser, but they will not be openable without a
foldcolumn. Note that using html_hover_unfold will allow modern browsers with
disabled javascript to view closed folds. To use this option, use:
:let g:html_hover_unfold = 1
Setting html_no_foldcolumn with html_dynamic_folds will automatically set
html_hover_unfold, because otherwise the folds wouldn't be dynamic.
By default "<pre>" and "</pre>" is used around the text. This makes it show
up as you see it in Vim, but without wrapping. If you prefer wrapping, at the
risk of making some things look a bit different, use:
:let g:html_no_pre = 1
This will use <br> at the end of each line and use " " for repeated
spaces.
If you do use the "<pre>" tags, <Tab> characters in the text are included in
the generated output if they will have no effect on the appearance of the
text and it looks like they are in the document intentionally. This allows for
the HTML output to be copied and pasted from a browser without losing the
actual whitespace used in the document.
Specifically, <Tab> characters will be included if the 'tabstop' option is set
to the default of 8, 'expandtab' is not set, and if neither the foldcolumn nor
the line numbers are included in the HTML output (see options above). When any
of these conditions are not met, any <Tab> characters in the text are expanded
to the appropriate number of spaces in the HTML output.
When "<pre>" is included, you can force |:TOhtml| to keep the tabs even if the
other conditions are not met with:
:let g:html_expand_tabs = 0
Note that this can easily break text alignment and indentation in the HTML.
Force tabs to be expanded even when they would be kept using:
:let g:html_expand_tabs = 1
For diff mode on a single file (with g:html_diff_one_file) a sequence of more
than 3 filler lines is displayed as three lines with the middle line
mentioning the total number of inserted lines. If you prefer to see all the
inserted lines as with the side-by-side diff, use:
:let g:html_whole_filler = 1
And to go back to displaying up to three lines again:
:unlet g:html_whole_filler
TOhtml uses the current value of 'fileencoding' if set, or 'encoding' if not,
to determine the charset and 'fileencoding' of the HTML file. In general, this
works for the encodings mentioned specifically by name in |encoding-names|, but
TOhtml will only automatically use those encodings which are widely supported.
However, you can override this to support specific encodings that may not be
automatically detected by default.
To overrule all automatic charset detection, set g:html_use_encoding to the
name of the charset to be used. TOhtml will try to determine the appropriate
'fileencoding' setting from the charset, but you may need to set it manually

if TOhtml cannot determine the encoding. It is recommended to set this

variable to something widely supported, like UTF-8, for anything you will be
hosting on a webserver:
:let g:html_use_encoding = "UTF-8"
You can also use this option to omit the line that specifies the charset
entirely, by setting g:html_use_encoding to an empty string:
:let g:html_use_encoding = ""
To go back to the automatic mechanism, delete the g:html_use_encoding
variable:
:unlet g:html_use_encoding
If you specify a charset with g:html_use_encoding for which TOhtml cannot
automatically detect the corresponding 'fileencoding' setting, you can use
g:html_encoding_override to allow TOhtml to detect the correct encoding.
This is a dictionary of charset-encoding pairs that will replace existing
pairs automatically detected by TOhtml, or supplement with new pairs. For
example, to allow TOhtml to detect the HTML charset "windows-1252" properly as
the encoding "8bit-cp1252", use:
:let g:html_encoding_override = {'windows-1252': '8bit-cp1252'}
The g:html_charset_override is similar, it allows TOhtml to detect the HTML
charset for any 'fileencoding' or 'encoding' which is not detected
automatically. You can also use it to override specific existing
encoding-charset pairs. For example, TOhtml will by default use UTF-8 for all
Unicode/UCS encodings. To use UTF-16 and UTF-32 instead, use:
:let g:html_charset_override = {'ucs-4': 'UTF-32', 'utf-16': 'UTF-16'}
Note that documents encoded in either UTF-32 or UTF-16 have known
compatibility problems with at least one major browser.
*convert-to-XML* *convert-to-XHTML*
If you do not like plain HTML, an alternative is to have the script generate
XHTML (XML compliant HTML). To do this set the "html_use_xhtml" variable:
:let g:html_use_xhtml = 1
Any of the on/off options listed above can be enabled or disabled by setting
them explicitly to the desired value, or restored to their default by removing
the variable using |:unlet|.
Remarks:
- Some truly ancient browsers may not show the background colors.
- From most browsers you can also print the file (in color)!
- This version of TOhtml may work with older versions of Vim, but some
features such as conceal support will not function, and the colors may be
incorrect for an old Vim without GUI support compiled in.
Here is an example how to run the script over all .c and .h files from a
Unix shell:
for f in *.[ch]; do gvim -f +"syn on" +"run! syntax/2html.vim" +"wq" +"q" $f; done
ABEL *abel.vim* *ft-abel-syntax*

ABEL highlighting provides some user-defined options. To enable them, assign
any value to the respective variable. Example:
:let abel_obsolete_ok=1
To disable them use ":unlet". Example:
:unlet abel_obsolete_ok
Variable Highlight
abel_obsolete_ok obsolete keywords are statements, not errors
abel_cpp_comments_illegal do not interpret '//' as inline comment leader
ADA
See |ft-ada-syntax|
ANT *ant.vim* *ft-ant-syntax*

The ant syntax file provides syntax highlighting for javascript and python
by default. Syntax highlighting for other script languages can be installed
by the function AntSyntaxScript(), which takes the tag name as first argument
and the script syntax file name as second argument. Example:

:call AntSyntaxScript('perl', 'perl.vim')

will install syntax perl highlighting for the following ant code
<script language = 'perl'><![CDATA[
# everything inside is highlighted as perl
]]></script>
See |mysyntaxfile-add| for installing script languages permanently.
APACHE *apache.vim* *ft-apache-syntax*

The apache syntax file provides syntax highlighting depending on Apache HTTP
server version, by default for 1.3.x. Set "apache_version" to Apache version
(as a string) to get highlighting for another version. Example:
:let apache_version = "2.0"
*asm.vim* *asmh8300.vim* *nasm.vim* *masm.vim* *asm68k*

ASSEMBLY *ft-asm-syntax* *ft-asmh8300-syntax* *ft-nasm-syntax*
*ft-masm-syntax* *ft-asm68k-syntax* *fasm.vim*
Files matching "*.i" could be Progress or Assembly. If the automatic detection
doesn't work for you, or you don't edit Progress at all, use this in your
startup vimrc:
:let filetype_i = "asm"
Replace "asm" with the type of assembly you use.
There are many types of assembly languages that all use the same file name
extensions. Therefore you will have to select the type yourself, or add a
line in the assembly file that Vim will recognize. Currently these syntax
files are included:
asm GNU assembly (the default)
asm68k Motorola 680x0 assembly
asmh8300 Hitachi H-8300 version of GNU assembly
ia64 Intel Itanium 64
fasm Flat assembly http://flatassembler.net
masm Microsoft assembly (probably works for any 80x86)
nasm Netwide assembly
tasm Turbo Assembly (with opcodes 80x86 up to Pentium, and
MMX)
pic PIC assembly (currently for PIC16F84)
The most flexible is to add a line in your assembly file containing:
asmsyntax=nasm
Replace "nasm" with the name of the real assembly syntax. This line must be
one of the first five lines in the file. No non-white text must be
immediately before or after this text.
The syntax type can always be overruled for a specific buffer by setting the
b:asmsyntax variable:
:let b:asmsyntax = "nasm"
If b:asmsyntax is not set, either automatically or by hand, then the value of
the global variable asmsyntax is used. This can be seen as a default assembly
language:
:let asmsyntax = "nasm"
As a last resort, if nothing is defined, the "asm" syntax is used.
Netwide assembler (nasm.vim) optional highlighting

To enable a feature:
:let {variable}=1|set syntax=nasm
To disable a feature:
:unlet {variable} |set syntax=nasm
Variable Highlight
nasm_loose_syntax unofficial parser allowed syntax not as Error
(parser dependent; not recommended)
nasm_ctx_outside_macro contexts outside macro not as Error
nasm_no_warn potentially risky syntax not as ToDo

ASPPERL and ASPVBS *ft-aspperl-syntax* *ft-aspvbs-syntax*

*.asp and *.asa files could be either Perl or Visual Basic script. Since it's
hard to detect this you can set two global variables to tell Vim what you are
using. For Perl script use:
:let g:filetype_asa = "aspperl"
:let g:filetype_asp = "aspperl"
For Visual Basic use:
:let g:filetype_asa = "aspvbs"
:let g:filetype_asp = "aspvbs"
BAAN *baan.vim* *baan-syntax*

The baan.vim gives syntax support for BaanC of release BaanIV upto SSA ERP LN
for both 3 GL and 4 GL programming. Large number of standard defines/constants
are supported.
Some special violation of coding standards will be signalled when one specify
in ones YXXY.vimrc|:
let baan_code_stds=1
*baan-folding*
Syntax folding can be enabled at various levels through the variables
mentioned below (Set those in your |.vimrc|). The more complex folding on
source blocks and SQL can be CPU intensive.
To allow any folding and enable folding at function level use:
let baan_fold=1
Folding can be enabled at source block level as if, while, for ,... The
indentation preceding the begin/end keywords has to match (spaces are not
considered equal to a tab).
let baan_fold_block=1
Folding can be enabled for embedded SQL blocks as SELECT, SELECTDO,
SELECTEMPTY, ... The indentation preceding the begin/end keywords has to
match (spaces are not considered equal to a tab).
let baan_fold_sql=1
Note: Block folding can result in many small folds. It is suggested to |:set|
the options 'foldminlines' and 'foldnestmax' in |.vimrc| or use |:setlocal| in
.../after/syntax/baan.vim (see |after-directory|). Eg:
set foldminlines=5
set foldnestmax=6
BASIC *basic.vim* *vb.vim* *ft-basic-syntax* *ft-vb-syntax*

Both Visual Basic and "normal" basic use the extension ".bas". To detect
which one should be used, Vim checks for the string "VB_Name" in the first
five lines of the file. If it is not found, filetype will be "basic",
otherwise "vb". Files with the ".frm" extension will always be seen as Visual
Basic.
C *c.vim* *ft-c-syntax*
A few things in C highlighting are optional. To enable them assign any value
to the respective variable. Example:
:let c_comment_strings = 1
To disable them use ":unlet". Example:
:unlet c_comment_strings
Variable Highlight
c_gnu GNU gcc specific items
c_comment_strings strings and numbers inside a comment
c_space_errors trailing white space and spaces before a <Tab>
c_no_trail_space_error ... but no trailing spaces
c_no_tab_space_error ... but no spaces before a <Tab>
c_no_bracket_error don't highlight {}; inside [] as errors
c_no_curly_error don't highlight {}; inside [] and () as errors;
except { and } in first column
c_curly_error highlight a missing }; this forces syncing from the

start of the file, can be slow

c_no_ansi don't do standard ANSI types and constants
c_ansi_typedefs ... but do standard ANSI types
c_ansi_constants ... but do standard ANSI constants
c_no_utf don't highlight \u and \U in strings
c_syntax_for_h use C syntax for *.h files, instead of C++
c_no_if0 don't highlight "#if 0" blocks as comments
c_no_cformat don't highlight %-formats in strings
c_no_c99 don't highlight C99 standard items
When 'foldmethod' is set to "syntax" then /* */ comments and { } blocks will
become a fold. If you don't want comments to become a fold use:
:let c_no_comment_fold = 1
"#if 0" blocks are also folded, unless:
:let c_no_if0_fold = 1
If you notice highlighting errors while scrolling backwards, which are fixed
when redrawing with CTRL-L, try setting the "c_minlines" internal variable
to a larger number:
:let c_minlines = 100
This will make the syntax synchronization start 100 lines before the first
displayed line. The default value is 50 (15 when c_no_if0 is set). The
disadvantage of using a larger number is that redrawing can become slow.
When using the "#if 0" / "#endif" comment highlighting, notice that this only
works when the "#if 0" is within "c_minlines" from the top of the window. If
you have a long "#if 0" construct it will not be highlighted correctly.
To match extra items in comments, use the cCommentGroup cluster.
Example:
:au Syntax c call MyCadd()
:function MyCadd()
: syn keyword cMyItem contained Ni
: syn cluster cCommentGroup add=cMyItem
: hi link cMyItem Title
:endfun
ANSI constants will be highlighted with the "cConstant" group. This includes
"NULL", "SIG_IGN" and others. But not "TRUE", for example, because this is
not in the ANSI standard. If you find this confusing, remove the cConstant
highlighting:
:hi link cConstant NONE
If you see '{' and '}' highlighted as an error where they are OK, reset the
highlighting for cErrInParen and cErrInBracket.
If you want to use folding in your C files, you can add these lines in a file
in the "after" directory in 'runtimepath'. For Unix this would be
~/.vim/after/syntax/c.vim.
syn sync fromstart
set foldmethod=syntax
CH *ch.vim* *ft-ch-syntax*
C/C++ interpreter. Ch has similar syntax highlighting to C and builds upon
the C syntax file. See |c.vim| for all the settings that are available for C.
By setting a variable you can tell Vim to use Ch syntax for *.h files, instead
of C or C++:
:let ch_syntax_for_h = 1
CHILL *chill.vim* *ft-chill-syntax*

Chill syntax highlighting is similar to C. See |c.vim| for all the settings
that are available. Additionally there is:
chill_space_errors like c_space_errors
chill_comment_string like c_comment_strings
chill_minlines like c_minlines
CHANGELOG *changelog.vim* *ft-changelog-syntax*

ChangeLog supports highlighting spaces at the start of a line.
If you do not like this, add following line to your .vimrc:

let g:changelog_spacing_errors = 0
This works the next time you edit a changelog file. You can also use
"b:changelog_spacing_errors" to set this per buffer (before loading the syntax
file).
You can change the highlighting used, e.g., to flag the spaces as an error:
:hi link ChangelogError Error
Or to avoid the highlighting:
:hi link ChangelogError NONE
This works immediately.
COBOL *cobol.vim* *ft-cobol-syntax*

COBOL highlighting has different needs for legacy code than it does for fresh
development. This is due to differences in what is being done (maintenance
versus development) and other factors. To enable legacy code highlighting,
add this line to your .vimrc:
:let cobol_legacy_code = 1
To disable it again, use this:
:unlet cobol_legacy_code
COLD FUSION *coldfusion.vim* *ft-coldfusion-syntax*

The ColdFusion has its own version of HTML comments. To turn on ColdFusion
comment highlighting, add the following line to your startup file:
:let html_wrong_comments = 1
The ColdFusion syntax file is based on the HTML syntax file.
CSH *csh.vim* *ft-csh-syntax*

This covers the shell named "csh". Note that on some systems tcsh is actually
used.
Detecting whether a file is csh or tcsh is notoriously hard. Some systems
symlink /bin/csh to /bin/tcsh, making it almost impossible to distinguish
between csh and tcsh. In case VIM guesses wrong you can set the
"filetype_csh" variable. For using csh:
:let filetype_csh = "csh"
For using tcsh:
:let filetype_csh = "tcsh"
Any script with a tcsh extension or a standard tcsh filename (.tcshrc,
tcsh.tcshrc, tcsh.login) will have filetype tcsh. All other tcsh/csh scripts
will be classified as tcsh, UNLESS the "filetype_csh" variable exists. If the
"filetype_csh" variable exists, the filetype will be set to the value of the
variable.
CYNLIB *cynlib.vim* *ft-cynlib-syntax*

Cynlib files are C++ files that use the Cynlib class library to enable
hardware modelling and simulation using C++. Typically Cynlib files have a .cc
or a .cpp extension, which makes it very difficult to distinguish them from a
normal C++ file. Thus, to enable Cynlib highlighting for .cc files, add this
line to your .vimrc file:
:let cynlib_cyntax_for_cc=1
Similarly for cpp files (this extension is only usually used in Windows)
:let cynlib_cyntax_for_cpp=1
To disable these again, use this:
:unlet cynlib_cyntax_for_cc
:unlet cynlib_cyntax_for_cpp

CWEB *cweb.vim* *ft-cweb-syntax*

Files matching "*.w" could be Progress or cweb. If the automatic detection
startup vimrc:
:let filetype_w = "cweb"
DESKTOP *desktop.vim* *ft-desktop-syntax*

Primary goal of this syntax file is to highlight .desktop and .directory files
according to freedesktop.org standard:
http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/
But actually almost none implements this standard fully. Thus it will
highlight all Unix ini files. But you can force strict highlighting according
to standard by placing this in your vimrc file:
:let enforce_freedesktop_standard = 1
DIRCOLORS *dircolors.vim* *ft-dircolors-syntax*

The dircolors utility highlighting definition has one option. It exists to
provide compatibility with the Slackware GNU/Linux distributions version of
the command. It adds a few keywords that are generally ignored by most
versions. On Slackware systems, however, the utility accepts the keywords and
uses them for processing. To enable the Slackware keywords add the following
line to your startup file:
let dircolors_is_slackware = 1
DOCBOOK *docbk.vim* *ft-docbk-syntax* *docbook*

DOCBOOK XML *docbkxml.vim* *ft-docbkxml-syntax*
DOCBOOK SGML *docbksgml.vim* *ft-docbksgml-syntax*
There are two types of DocBook files: SGML and XML. To specify what type you
are using the "b:docbk_type" variable should be set. Vim does this for you
automatically if it can recognize the type. When Vim can't guess it the type
defaults to XML.
You can set the type manually:
:let docbk_type = "sgml"
or:
:let docbk_type = "xml"
You need to do this before loading the syntax file, which is complicated.
Simpler is setting the filetype to "docbkxml" or "docbksgml":
:set filetype=docbksgml
or:
:set filetype=docbkxml
DOSBATCH *dosbatch.vim* *ft-dosbatch-syntax*

There is one option with highlighting DOS batch files. This covers new
extensions to the Command Interpreter introduced with Windows 2000 and
is controlled by the variable dosbatch_cmdextversion. For Windows NT
this should have the value 1, and for Windows 2000 it should be 2.
Select the version you want with the following line:
:let dosbatch_cmdextversion = 1
If this variable is not defined it defaults to a value of 2 to support
Windows 2000.
A second option covers whether *.btm files should be detected as type
"dosbatch" (MS-DOS batch files) or type "btm" (4DOS batch files). The latter
is used by default. You may select the former with the following line:
:let g:dosbatch_syntax_for_btm = 1
If this variable is undefined or zero, btm syntax is selected.

DOXYGEN *doxygen.vim* *doxygen-syntax*

Doxygen generates code documentation using a special documentation format
(similar to Javadoc). This syntax script adds doxygen highlighting to c, cpp,
idl and php files, and should also work with java.
There are a few of ways to turn on doxygen formatting. It can be done
explicitly or in a modeline by appending '.doxygen' to the syntax of the file.
Example:
:set syntax=c.doxygen
or
// vim:syntax=c.doxygen
It can also be done automatically for C, C++, C# and IDL files by setting the
global or buffer-local variable load_doxygen_syntax. This is done by adding
the following to your .vimrc.
:let g:load_doxygen_syntax=1
There are a couple of variables that have an effect on syntax highlighting, and
are to do with non-standard highlighting options.
Variable Default Effect
g:doxygen_enhanced_color
g:doxygen_enhanced_colour 0 Use non-standard highlighting for
doxygen comments.
doxygen_my_rendering 0 Disable rendering of HTML bold, italic
and html_my_rendering underline.
doxygen_javadoc_autobrief 1 Set to 0 to disable javadoc autobrief
colour highlighting.
doxygen_end_punctuation '[.]' Set to regexp match for the ending
punctuation of brief
There are also some hilight groups worth mentioning as they can be useful in
configuration.
Highlight Effect
doxygenErrorComment The colour of an end-comment when missing
punctuation in a code, verbatim or dot section
doxygenLinkError The colour of an end-comment when missing the
\endlink from a \link section.
DTD *dtd.vim* *ft-dtd-syntax*

The DTD syntax highlighting is case sensitive by default. To disable
case-sensitive highlighting, add the following line to your startup file:
:let dtd_ignore_case=1
The DTD syntax file will highlight unknown tags as errors. If
this is annoying, it can be turned off by setting:
:let dtd_no_tag_errors=1
before sourcing the dtd.vim syntax file.
Parameter entity names are highlighted in the definition using the
'Type' highlighting group and 'Comment' for punctuation and '%'.
Parameter entity instances are highlighted using the 'Constant'
highlighting group and the 'Type' highlighting group for the
delimiters % and ;. This can be turned off by setting:
:let dtd_no_param_entities=1
The DTD syntax file is also included by xml.vim to highlight included dtd's.
EIFFEL *eiffel.vim* *ft-eiffel-syntax*

While Eiffel is not case-sensitive, its style guidelines are, and the
syntax highlighting file encourages their use. This also allows to
highlight class names differently. If you want to disable case-sensitive
highlighting, add the following line to your startup file:
:let eiffel_ignore_case=1

Case still matters for class names and TODO marks in comments.
Conversely, for even stricter checks, add one of the following lines:
:let eiffel_strict=1
:let eiffel_pedantic=1
Setting eiffel_strict will only catch improper capitalization for the
five predefined words "Current", "Void", "Result", "Precursor", and
"NONE", to warn against their accidental use as feature or class names.
Setting eiffel_pedantic will enforce adherence to the Eiffel style
guidelines fairly rigorously (like arbitrary mixes of upper- and
lowercase letters as well as outdated ways to capitalize keywords).
If you want to use the lower-case version of "Current", "Void",
"Result", and "Precursor", you can use
:let eiffel_lower_case_predef=1
instead of completely turning case-sensitive highlighting off.
Support for ISE's proposed new creation syntax that is already
experimentally handled by some compilers can be enabled by:
:let eiffel_ise=1
Finally, some vendors support hexadecimal constants. To handle them, add
:let eiffel_hex_constants=1
to your startup file.
ERLANG *erlang.vim* *ft-erlang-syntax*

The erlang highlighting supports Erlang (ERicsson LANGuage).
Erlang is case sensitive and default extension is ".erl".
If you want to disable keywords highlighting, put in your .vimrc:
:let erlang_keywords = 1
If you want to disable built-in-functions highlighting, put in your
.vimrc file:
:let erlang_functions = 1
If you want to disable special characters highlighting, put in
your .vimrc:
:let erlang_characters = 1
FLEXWIKI *flexwiki.vim* *ft-flexwiki-syntax*

FlexWiki is an ASP.NET-based wiki package available at http://www.flexwiki.com
Syntax highlighting is available for the most common elements of FlexWiki
syntax. The associated ftplugin script sets some buffer-local options to make
editing FlexWiki pages more convenient. FlexWiki considers a newline as the
start of a new paragraph, so the ftplugin sets 'tw'=0 (unlimited line length),
'wrap' (wrap long lines instead of using horizontal scrolling), 'linebreak'
(to wrap at a character in 'breakat' instead of at the last char on screen),
and so on. It also includes some keymaps that are disabled by default.
If you want to enable the keymaps that make "j" and "k" and the cursor keys
move up and down by display lines, add this to your .vimrc:
:let flexwiki_maps = 1
FORM *form.vim* *ft-form-syntax*

The coloring scheme for syntax elements in the FORM file uses the default
modes Conditional, Number, Statement, Comment, PreProc, Type, and String,
following the language specifications in 'Symbolic Manipulation with FORM' by
J.A.M. Vermaseren, CAN, Netherlands, 1991.
If you want include your own changes to the default colors, you have to
redefine the following syntax groups:

- formConditional
- formNumber
- formStatement
- formHeaderStatement
- formComment
- formPreProc
- formDirective
- formType
- formString
Note that the form.vim syntax file implements FORM preprocessor commands and
directives per default in the same syntax group.
A predefined enhanced color mode for FORM is available to distinguish between
header statements and statements in the body of a FORM program. To activate
this mode define the following variable in your vimrc file
:let form_enhanced_color=1
The enhanced mode also takes advantage of additional color features for a dark
gvim display. Here, statements are colored LightYellow instead of Yellow, and
conditionals are LightBlue for better distinction.
FORTRAN *fortran.vim* *ft-fortran-syntax*

Default highlighting and dialect
Highlighting appropriate for f95 (Fortran 95) is used by default. This choice
should be appropriate for most users most of the time because Fortran 95 is a
superset of Fortran 90 and almost a superset of Fortran 77. Support for
Fortran 2003 and Fortran 2008 features has been introduced and is
automatically available in the default (f95) highlighting.
Fortran source code form
Fortran 9x code can be in either fixed or free source form. Note that the
syntax highlighting will not be correct if the form is incorrectly set.
When you create a new fortran file, the syntax script assumes fixed source
form. If you always use free source form, then
:let fortran_free_source=1
in your .vimrc prior to the :syntax on command. If you always use fixed source
form, then
:let fortran_fixed_source=1
in your .vimrc prior to the :syntax on command.
If the form of the source code depends upon the file extension, then it is
most convenient to set fortran_free_source in a ftplugin file. For more
information on ftplugin files, see |ftplugin|. For example, if all your
fortran files with an .f90 extension are written in free source form and the
rest in fixed source form, add the following code to your ftplugin file
let s:extfname = expand("%:e")
if s:extfname ==? "f90"
let fortran_free_source=1
unlet! fortran_fixed_source
else
let fortran_fixed_source=1
unlet! fortran_free_source
endif
Note that this will work only if the "filetype plugin indent on" command
precedes the "syntax on" command in your .vimrc file.
When you edit an existing fortran file, the syntax script will assume free
source form if the fortran_free_source variable has been set, and assumes
fixed source form if the fortran_fixed_source variable has been set. If
neither of these variables have been set, the syntax script attempts to
determine which source form has been used by examining the first five columns
of the first 250 lines of your file. If no signs of free source form are
detected, then the file is assumed to be in fixed source form. The algorithm
should work in the vast majority of cases. In some cases, such as a file that
begins with 250 or more full-line comments, the script may incorrectly decide
that the fortran code is in fixed form. If that happens, just add a
non-comment statement beginning anywhere in the first five columns of the
first twenty five lines, save (:w) and then reload (:e!) the file.
Tabs in fortran files
Tabs are not recognized by the Fortran standards. Tabs are not a good idea in
fixed format fortran source code which requires fixed column boundaries.
Therefore, tabs are marked as errors. Nevertheless, some programmers like

using tabs. If your fortran files contain tabs, then you should set the
variable fortran_have_tabs in your .vimrc with a command such as
:let fortran_have_tabs=1
placed prior to the :syntax on command. Unfortunately, the use of tabs will
mean that the syntax file will not be able to detect incorrect margins.
Syntax folding of fortran files
If you wish to use foldmethod=syntax, then you must first set the variable
fortran_fold with a command such as
:let fortran_fold=1
to instruct the syntax script to define fold regions for program units, that
is main programs starting with a program statement, subroutines, function
subprograms, block data subprograms, interface blocks, and modules. If you
also set the variable fortran_fold_conditionals with a command such as
:let fortran_fold_conditionals=1
then fold regions will also be defined for do loops, if blocks, and select
case constructs. If you also set the variable
fortran_fold_multilinecomments with a command such as
:let fortran_fold_multilinecomments=1
then fold regions will also be defined for three or more consecutive comment
lines. Note that defining fold regions can be slow for large files.
If fortran_fold, and possibly fortran_fold_conditionals and/or
fortran_fold_multilinecomments, have been set, then vim will fold your file if
you set foldmethod=syntax. Comments or blank lines placed between two program
units are not folded because they are seen as not belonging to any program
unit.
More precise fortran syntax
If you set the variable fortran_more_precise with a command such as
:let fortran_more_precise=1
then the syntax coloring will be more precise but slower. In particular,
statement labels used in do, goto and arithmetic if statements will be
recognized, as will construct names at the end of a do, if, select or forall
construct.
Non-default fortran dialects
The syntax script supports five Fortran dialects: f95, f90, f77, the Lahey
subset elf90, and the Imagine1 subset F.
If you use f77 with extensions, even common ones like do/enddo loops, do/while
loops and free source form that are supported by most f77 compilers including
g77 (GNU Fortran), then you will probably find the default highlighting
satisfactory. However, if you use strict f77 with no extensions, not even free
source form or the MIL STD 1753 extensions, then the advantages of setting the
dialect to f77 are that names such as SUM are recognized as user variable
names and not highlighted as f9x intrinsic functions, that obsolete constructs
such as ASSIGN statements are not highlighted as todo items, and that fixed
source form will be assumed.
If you use elf90 or F, the advantage of setting the dialect appropriately is
that f90 features excluded from these dialects will be highlighted as todo
items and that free source form will be assumed as required for these
dialects.
The dialect can be selected by setting the variable fortran_dialect. The
permissible values of fortran_dialect are case-sensitive and must be "f95",
"f90", "f77", "elf" or "F". Invalid values of fortran_dialect are ignored.
If all your fortran files use the same dialect, set fortran_dialect in your
.vimrc prior to your syntax on statement. If the dialect depends upon the file
extension, then it is most convenient to set it in a ftplugin file. For more
information on ftplugin files, see |ftplugin|. For example, if all your
fortran files with an .f90 extension are written in the elf subset, your
ftplugin file should contain the code
let s:extfname = expand("%:e")
if s:extfname ==? "f90"
let fortran_dialect="elf"
else
unlet! fortran_dialect
endif
Note that this will work only if the "filetype plugin indent on" command
precedes the "syntax on" command in your .vimrc file.
Finer control is necessary if the file extension does not uniquely identify
the dialect. You can override the default dialect, on a file-by-file basis, by
including a comment with the directive "fortran_dialect=xx" (where xx=f77 or
elf or F or f90 or f95) in one of the first three lines in your file. For
example, your older .f files may be written in extended f77 but your newer

ones may be F codes, and you would identify the latter by including in the
first three lines of those files a Fortran comment of the form
! fortran_dialect=F
F overrides elf if both directives are present.
Limitations
Parenthesis checking does not catch too few closing parentheses. Hollerith
strings are not recognized. Some keywords may be highlighted incorrectly
because Fortran90 has no reserved words.
For further information related to fortran, see |ft-fortran-indent| and
|ft-fortran-plugin|.
FVWM CONFIGURATION FILES *fvwm.vim* *ft-fvwm-syntax*

In order for Vim to recognize Fvwm configuration files that do not match
the patterns *fvwmrc* or *fvwm2rc* , you must put additional patterns
appropriate to your system in your myfiletypes.vim file. For these
patterns, you must set the variable "b:fvwm_version" to the major version
number of Fvwm, and the 'filetype' option to fvwm.
For example, to make Vim identify all files in /etc/X11/fvwm2/
as Fvwm2 configuration files, add the following:
:au! BufNewFile,BufRead /etc/X11/fvwm2/* let b:fvwm_version = 2 |
\ set filetype=fvwm
If you'd like Vim to highlight all valid color names, tell it where to
find the color database (rgb.txt) on your system. Do this by setting
"rgb_file" to its location. Assuming your color database is located
in /usr/X11/lib/X11/, you should add the line
:let rgb_file = "/usr/X11/lib/X11/rgb.txt"
to your .vimrc file.
GSP *gsp.vim* *ft-gsp-syntax*

The default coloring style for GSP pages is defined by |html.vim|, and
the coloring for java code (within java tags or inline between backticks)
is defined by |java.vim|. The following HTML groups defined in |html.vim|
are redefined to incorporate and highlight inline java code:
htmlString
htmlValue
htmlEndTag
htmlTag
htmlTagN
Highlighting should look fine most of the places where you'd see inline
java code, but in some special cases it may not. To add another HTML
group where you will have inline java code where it does not highlight
correctly, just copy the line you want from |html.vim| and add gspJava
to the contains clause.
The backticks for inline java are highlighted according to the htmlError
group to make them easier to see.
GROFF *groff.vim* *ft-groff-syntax*

The groff syntax file is a wrapper for |nroff.vim|, see the notes
under that heading for examples of use and configuration. The purpose
of this wrapper is to set up groff syntax extensions by setting the
filetype from a |modeline| or in a personal filetype definitions file
(see |filetype.txt|).
HASKELL *haskell.vim* *lhaskell.vim* *ft-haskell-syntax*

The Haskell syntax files support plain Haskell code as well as literate
Haskell code, the latter in both Bird style and TeX style. The Haskell
syntax highlighting will also highlight C preprocessor directives.

If you want to highlight delimiter characters (useful if you have a

light-coloured background), add to your .vimrc:
:let hs_highlight_delimiters = 1
To treat True and False as keywords as opposed to ordinary identifiers,
add:
:let hs_highlight_boolean = 1
To also treat the names of primitive types as keywords:
:let hs_highlight_types = 1
And to treat the names of even more relatively common types as keywords:
:let hs_highlight_more_types = 1
If you want to highlight the names of debugging functions, put in
your .vimrc:
:let hs_highlight_debug = 1
The Haskell syntax highlighting also highlights C preprocessor
directives, and flags lines that start with # but are not valid
directives as erroneous. This interferes with Haskell's syntax for
operators, as they may start with #. If you want to highlight those
as operators as opposed to errors, put in your .vimrc:
:let hs_allow_hash_operator = 1
The syntax highlighting for literate Haskell code will try to
automatically guess whether your literate Haskell code contains
TeX markup or not, and correspondingly highlight TeX constructs
or nothing at all. You can override this globally by putting
in your .vimrc
:let lhs_markup = none
for no highlighting at all, or
:let lhs_markup = tex
to force the highlighting to always try to highlight TeX markup.
For more flexibility, you may also use buffer local versions of
this variable, so e.g.
:let b:lhs_markup = tex
will force TeX highlighting for a particular buffer. It has to be
set before turning syntax highlighting on for the buffer or
loading a file.
HTML *html.vim* *ft-html-syntax*

The coloring scheme for tags in the HTML file works as follows.
The <> of opening tags are colored differently than the </> of a closing tag.
This is on purpose! For opening tags the 'Function' color is used, while for
closing tags the 'Type' color is used (See syntax.vim to check how those are
defined for you)
Known tag names are colored the same way as statements in C. Unknown tag
names are colored with the same color as the <> or </> respectively which
makes it easy to spot errors
Note that the same is true for argument (or attribute) names. Known attribute
names are colored differently than unknown ones.
Some HTML tags are used to change the rendering of text. The following tags
are recognized by the html.vim syntax coloring file and change the way normal
text is shown: <B> <I> <U> <EM> <STRONG> (<EM> is used as an alias for <I>,
while <STRONG> as an alias for <B>), <H1> - <H6>, <HEAD>, <TITLE> and <A>, but
only if used as a link (that is, it must include a href as in
<A href="somefile.html">).
If you want to change how such text is rendered, you must redefine the
following syntax groups:
- htmlBold
- htmlBoldUnderline
- htmlBoldUnderlineItalic
- htmlUnderline
- htmlUnderlineItalic
- htmlItalic
- htmlTitle for titles
- htmlH1 - htmlH6 for headings
To make this redefinition work you must redefine them all with the exception
of the last two (htmlTitle and htmlH[1-6], which are optional) and define the
following variable in your vimrc (this is due to the order in which the files
are read during initialization)
:let html_my_rendering=1

If you'd like to see an example download mysyntax.vim at

http://www.fleiner.com/vim/download.html
You can also disable this rendering by adding the following line to your
vimrc file:
:let html_no_rendering=1
HTML comments are rather special (see an HTML reference document for the
details), and the syntax coloring scheme will highlight all errors.
However, if you prefer to use the wrong style (starts with \t" .. line end
*:luafile*
:[range]luafile {file}
Execute Lua script in {file}. {not in Vi}
The whole argument is used as a single file name.
Examples:
:luafile script.lua
:luafile %
All these commands execute a Lua chunk from either the command line (:lua and
:luado) or a file (:luafile) with the given line [range]. Similarly to the Lua
interpreter, each chunk has its own scope and so only global variables are
shared between command calls. Lua default libraries "table", "string", "math",
and "package" are available, "io" and "debug" are not, and "os" is restricted
to functions "date", "clock", "time", "difftime", and "getenv". In addition,
Lua "print" function has its output redirected to the Vim message area, with
arguments separated by a white space instead of a tab.
Lua uses the "vim" module (see |lua-vim|) to issue commands to Vim
and manage buffers (|lua-buffer|) and windows (|lua-window|). However,
procedures that alter buffer content, open new buffers, and change cursor
position are restricted when the command is executed in the |sandbox|.
==============================================================================
2. The vim module *lua-vim*
Lua interfaces Vim through the "vim" module. The first and last line of the
input range are stored in "vim.firstline" and "vim.lastline" respectively. The
module also includes routines for buffer, window, and current line queries,
Vim evaluation and command execution, and others.
vim.isbuffer(value) Returns 'true' (boolean, not string) if
"value" is a buffer userdata and 'false'
otherwise (see |lua-buffer|).
vim.buffer([arg]) If "arg" is a number, returns buffer with
number "arg" in the buffer list or, if "arg"
is a string, returns buffer whose full or short
name is "arg". In both cases, returns 'nil'
(nil value, not string) if the buffer is not
found. Otherwise, if "toboolean(arg)" is
'true' returns the first buffer in the buffer
list or else the current buffer.
vim.iswindow(value) Returns 'true' (boolean, not string) if
"value" is a window userdata and
'false' otherwise (see |lua-window|).
vim.window([arg]) If "arg" is a number, returns window with
number "arg" or 'nil' (nil value, not string)
if not found. Otherwise, if "toboolean(arg)"
is 'true' returns the first window or else the
current window.
vim.command({cmd}) Executes the vim (ex-mode) command {cmd}.
Examples:
:lua vim.command"set tw=60"

:lua vim.command"normal ddp"

vim.eval({expr}) Evaluates expression {expr} (see |expression|),
converts the result to Lua, and returns it.
Vim strings and numbers are directly converted
to Lua strings and numbers respectively. Vim
lists and dictionaries are converted to Lua
tables (lists become integer-keyed tables).
Examples:
:lua tw = vim.eval"&tw"
:lua print(vim.eval"{'a': 'one'}".a)
vim.line() Returns the current line (without the trailing
<EOL>), a Lua string.
vim.beep() Beeps.
vim.open({fname}) Opens a new buffer for file {fname} and
returns it. Note that the buffer is not set as
current.
==============================================================================
3. Buffer userdata *lua-buffer*
Buffer userdata represent vim buffers. A buffer userdata "b" has the following
properties and methods:
Properties
o "b()" sets "b" as the current buffer.
o "#b" is the number of lines in buffer "b".
o "b[k]" represents line number k: "b[k] = newline" replaces line k
with string "newline" and "b[k] = nil" deletes line k.
o "b.name" contains the short name of buffer "b" (read-only).
o "b.fname" contains the full name of buffer "b" (read-only).
o "b.number" contains the position of buffer "b" in the buffer list
(read-only).
Methods
o "b:insert(newline[, pos])" inserts string "newline" at (optional)
position "pos" in the buffer. The default value for "pos" is
"#b + 1". If "pos == 0" then "newline" becomes the first line in
the buffer.
o "b:next()" returns the buffer next to "b" in the buffer list.
o "b:previous()" returns the buffer previous to "b" in the buffer
list.
o "b:isvalid()" returns 'true' (boolean) if buffer "b" corresponds to
a "real" (not freed from memory) Vim buffer.
Examples:
:lua b = vim.buffer() -- current buffer
:lua print(b.name, b.number)
:lua b[1] = "first line"
:lua b:insert("FIRST!", 0)
:lua b[1] = nil -- delete top line
:lua for i=1,3 do b:insert(math.random()) end
:3,4lua for i=vim.lastline,vim.firstline,-1 do b[i] = nil end
:lua vim.open"myfile"() -- open buffer and set it as current
function! ListBuffers()
lua << EOF
local b = vim.buffer(true) -- first buffer in list
while b ~= nil do
print(b.number, b.name, #b)
b = b:next()
end
vim.beep()
EOF
endfunction
==============================================================================
4. Window userdata *lua-window*
Window objects represent vim windows. A window userdata "w" has the following
properties and methods:

Properties
o "w()" sets "w" as the current window.
o "w.buffer" contains the buffer of window "w" (read-only).
o "w.line" represents the cursor line position in window "w".
o "w.col" represents the cursor column position in window "w".
o "w.width" represents the width of window "w".
o "w.height" represents the height of window "w".
Methods
o "w:next()" returns the window next to "w".
o "w:previous()" returns the window previous to "w".
o "w:isvalid()" returns 'true' (boolean) if window "w" corresponds to
a "real" (not freed from memory) Vim window.
Examples:
:lua w = vim.window() -- current window
:lua print(w.buffer.name, w.line, w.col)
:lua w.width = w.width + math.random(10)
:lua w.height = 2 * math.random() * w.height
:lua n,w = 0,vim.window(true) while w~=nil do n,w = n + 1,w:next() end
:lua print("There are " .. n .. " windows")
==============================================================================
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: term
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*term.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Feb 16
Terminal information *terminal-info*

Vim uses information about the terminal you are using to fill the screen and
recognize what keys you hit. If this information is not correct, the screen
may be messed up or keys may not be recognized. The actions which have to be
performed on the screen are accomplished by outputting a string of
characters. Special keys produce a string of characters. These strings are
stored in the terminal options, see |terminal-options|.
NOTE: Most of this is not used when running the |GUI|.
1. Startup |startup-terminal|
2. Terminal options |terminal-options|
3. Window size |window-size|
4. Slow and fast terminals |slow-fast-terminal|
5. Using the mouse |mouse-using|
==============================================================================
1. Startup *startup-terminal*
When Vim is started a default terminal type is assumed. For the Amiga this is
a standard CLI window, for MS-DOS the pc terminal, for Unix an ansi terminal.
A few other terminal types are always available, see below |builtin-terms|.
You can give the terminal name with the '-T' Vim argument. If it is not given
Vim will try to get the name from the TERM environment variable.
*termcap* *terminfo* *E557* *E558* *E559*

On Unix the terminfo database or termcap file is used. This is referred to as
"termcap" in all the documentation. At compile time, when running configure,
the choice whether to use terminfo or termcap is done automatically. When
running Vim the output of ":version" will show |+terminfo| if terminfo is
used. Also see |xterm-screens|.
On non-Unix systems a termcap is only available if Vim was compiled with
TERMCAP defined.
*builtin-terms* *builtin_terms*
Which builtin terminals are available depends on a few defines in feature.h,
which need to be set at compile time:
define output of ":version" terminals builtin
NO_BUILTIN_TCAPS -builtin_terms none
SOME_BUILTIN_TCAPS +builtin_terms most common ones (default)
ALL_BUILTIN_TCAPS ++builtin_terms all available
You can see a list of available builtin terminals with ":set term=xxx" (when
not running the GUI). Also see |+builtin_terms|.
If the termcap code is included Vim will try to get the strings for the
terminal you are using from the termcap file and the builtin termcaps. Both
are always used, if an entry for the terminal you are using is present. Which
one is used first depends on the 'ttybuiltin' option:
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/term.html[2019/03/05 11:42:53 AM]

'ttybuiltin' on 1: builtin termcap 2: external termcap

'ttybuiltin' off 1: external termcap 2: builtin termcap
If an option is missing in one of them, it will be obtained from the other
one. If an option is present in both, the one first encountered is used.
Which external termcap file is used varies from system to system and may
depend on the environment variables "TERMCAP" and "TERMPATH". See "man
tgetent".
Settings depending on terminal *term-dependent-settings*

If you want to set options or mappings, depending on the terminal name, you
can do this best in your .vimrc. Example:
if &term == "xterm"
... xterm maps and settings ...
elseif &term =~ "vt10."
... vt100, vt102 maps and settings ...
endif
*raw-terminal-mode*
For normal editing the terminal will be put into "raw" mode. The strings
defined with 't_ti' and 't_ks' will be sent to the terminal. Normally this
puts the terminal in a state where the termcap codes are valid and activates
the cursor and function keys. When Vim exits the terminal will be put back
into the mode it was before Vim started. The strings defined with 't_te' and
't_ke' will be sent to the terminal. On the Amiga, with commands that execute
an external command (e.g., "!!"), the terminal will be put into Normal mode
for a moment. This means that you can stop the output to the screen by
hitting a printing key. Output resumes when you hit <BS>.
*cs7-problem*
Note: If the terminal settings are changed after running Vim, you might have
an illegal combination of settings. This has been reported on Solaris 2.5
with "stty cs8 parenb", which is restored as "stty cs7 parenb". Use
"stty cs8 -parenb -istrip" instead, this is restored correctly.
Some termcap entries are wrong in the sense that after sending 't_ks' the
cursor keys send codes different from the codes defined in the termcap. To
avoid this you can set 't_ks' (and 't_ke') to empty strings. This must be
done during initialization (see |initialization|), otherwise it's too late.
Some termcap entries assume that the highest bit is always reset. For
example: The cursor-up entry for the Amiga could be ":ku=\E[A:". But the
Amiga really sends "\233A". This works fine if the highest bit is reset,
e.g., when using an Amiga over a serial line. If the cursor keys don't work,
try the entry ":ku=\233A:".
Some termcap entries have the entry ":ku=\E[A:". But the Amiga really sends
"\233A". On output "\E[" and "\233" are often equivalent, on input they
aren't. You will have to change the termcap entry, or change the key code with
the :set command to fix this.
Many cursor key codes start with an <Esc>. Vim must find out if this is a
single hit of the <Esc> key or the start of a cursor key sequence. It waits
for a next character to arrive. If it does not arrive within one second a
single <Esc> is assumed. On very slow systems this may fail, causing cursor
keys not to work sometimes. If you discover this problem reset the 'timeout'
option. Vim will wait for the next character to arrive after an <Esc>. If
you want to enter a single <Esc> you must type it twice. Resetting the
'esckeys' option avoids this problem in Insert mode, but you lose the
possibility to use cursor and function keys in Insert mode.
On the Amiga the recognition of window resizing is activated only when the
terminal name is "amiga" or "builtin_amiga".
Some terminals have confusing codes for the cursor keys. The televideo 925 is
such a terminal. It sends a CTRL-H for cursor-left. This would make it
impossible to distinguish a backspace and cursor-left. To avoid this problem
CTRL-H is never recognized as cursor-left.
*vt100-cursor-keys* *xterm-cursor-keys*
Other terminals (e.g., vt100 and xterm) have cursor keys that send <Esc>OA,
<Esc>OB, etc. Unfortunately these are valid commands in insert mode: Stop
insert, Open a new line above the new one, start inserting 'A', 'B', etc.

Instead of performing these commands Vim will erroneously recognize this typed
key sequence as a cursor key movement. To avoid this and make Vim do what you
want in either case you could use these settings:
:set notimeout " don't timeout on mappings
:set ttimeout " do timeout on terminal key codes
:set timeoutlen=100 " timeout after 100 msec
This requires the key-codes to be sent within 100 msec in order to recognize
them as a cursor key. When you type you normally are not that fast, so they
are recognized as individual typed commands, even though Vim receives the same
sequence of bytes.
*vt100-function-keys* *xterm-function-keys*
An xterm can send function keys F1 to F4 in two modes: vt100 compatible or
not. Because Vim may not know what the xterm is sending, both types of keys
are recognized. The same happens for the <Home> and <End> keys.
normal vt100
<F1> t_k1 <Esc>[11~ <xF1> <Esc>OP *<xF1>-xterm*
<F2> t_k2 <Esc>[12~ <xF2> <Esc>OQ *<xF2>-xterm*
<F3> t_k3 <Esc>[13~ <xF3> <Esc>OR *<xF3>-xterm*
<F4> t_k4 <Esc>[14~ <xF4> <Esc>OS *<xF4>-xterm*
<Home> t_kh <Esc>[7~ <xHome> <Esc>OH *<xHome>-xterm*
<End> t_@7 <Esc>[4~ <xEnd> <Esc>OF *<xEnd>-xterm*
When Vim starts, <xF1> is mapped to <F1>, <xF2> to <F2> etc. This means that
by default both codes do the same thing. If you make a mapping for <xF2>,
because your terminal does have two keys, the default mapping is overwritten,
thus you can use the <F2> and <xF2> keys for something different.
*xterm-shifted-keys*
Newer versions of xterm support shifted function keys and special keys. Vim
recognizes most of them. Use ":set termcap" to check which are supported and
what the codes are. Mostly these are not in a termcap, they are only
supported by the builtin_xterm termcap.
*xterm-modifier-keys*
Newer versions of xterm support Alt and Ctrl for most function keys. To avoid
having to add all combinations of Alt, Ctrl and Shift for every key a special
sequence is recognized at the end of a termcap entry: ";*X". The "X" can be
any character, often '~' is used. The ";*" stands for an optional modifier
argument. ";2" is Shift, ";3" is Alt, ";5" is Ctrl and ";9" is Meta (when
it's different from Alt). They can be combined. Examples:
:set <F8>=^[[19;*~
:set <Home>=^[[1;*H
Another speciality about these codes is that they are not overwritten by
another code. That is to avoid that the codes obtained from xterm directly
|t_RV| overwrite them.
*xterm-scroll-region*
The default termcap entry for xterm on Sun and other platforms does not
contain the entry for scroll regions. Add ":cs=\E[%i%d;%dr:" to the xterm
entry in /etc/termcap and everything should work.
*xterm-end-home-keys*
On some systems (at least on FreeBSD with XFree86 3.1.2) the codes that the
<End> and <Home> keys send contain a <Nul> character. To make these keys send
the proper key code, add these lines to your ~/.Xdefaults file:
*VT100.Translations: #override \n\
<Key>Home: string("0x1b") string("[7~") \n\
<Key>End: string("0x1b") string("[8~")
*xterm-8bit* *xterm-8-bit*
Xterm can be run in a mode where it uses 8-bit escape sequences. The CSI code
is used instead of <Esc>[. The advantage is that an <Esc> can quickly be
recognized in Insert mode, because it can't be confused with the start of a
special key.
For the builtin termcap entries, Vim checks if the 'term' option contains
"8bit" anywhere. It then uses 8-bit characters for the termcap entries, the

mouse and a few other things. You would normally set $TERM in your shell to
"xterm-8bit" and Vim picks this up and adjusts to the 8-bit setting
automatically.
When Vim receives a response to the |t_RV| (request version) sequence and it
starts with CSI, it assumes that the terminal is in 8-bit mode and will
convert all key sequences to their 8-bit variants.
==============================================================================
2. Terminal options *terminal-options* *termcap-options* *E436*
The terminal options can be set just like normal options. But they are not
shown with the ":set all" command. Instead use ":set termcap"
It is always possible to change individual strings by setting the
appropriate option. For example:
:set t_ce=^V^[[K (CTRL-V, <Esc>, [, K)
{Vi: no terminal options. You have to exit Vi, edit the termcap entry and
try again}
The options are listed below. The associated termcap code is always equal to
the last two characters of the option name. Only one termcap code is
required: Cursor motion, 't_cm'.
The options 't_da', 't_db', 't_ms', 't_xs' represent flags in the termcap.
When the termcap flag is present, the option will be set to "y". But any
non-empty string means that the flag is set. An empty string means that the
flag is not set. 't_CS' works like this too, but it isn't a termcap flag.
OUTPUT CODES
option meaning
t_AB set background color (ANSI) *t_AB* *'t_AB'*

t_AF set foreground color (ANSI) *t_AF* *'t_AF'*
t_AL add number of blank lines *t_AL* *'t_AL'*
t_al add new blank line *t_al* *'t_al'*
t_bc backspace character *t_bc* *'t_bc'*
t_cd clear to end of screen *t_cd* *'t_cd'*
t_ce clear to end of line *t_ce* *'t_ce'*
t_cl clear screen *t_cl* *'t_cl'*
t_cm cursor motion (required!) *E437* *t_cm* *'t_cm'*
t_Co number of colors *t_Co* *'t_Co'*
t_CS if non-empty, cursor relative to scroll region *t_CS* *'t_CS'*
t_cs define scrolling region *t_cs* *'t_cs'*
t_CV define vertical scrolling region *t_CV* *'t_CV'*
t_da if non-empty, lines from above scroll down *t_da* *'t_da'*
t_db if non-empty, lines from below scroll up *t_db* *'t_db'*
t_DL delete number of lines *t_DL* *'t_DL'*
t_dl delete line *t_dl* *'t_dl'*
t_fs set window title end (from status line) *t_fs* *'t_fs'*
t_ke exit "keypad transmit" mode *t_ke* *'t_ke'*
t_ks start "keypad transmit" mode *t_ks* *'t_ks'*
t_le move cursor one char left *t_le* *'t_le'*
t_mb blinking mode *t_mb* *'t_mb'*

t_md bold mode *t_md* *'t_md'*

t_me Normal mode (undoes t_mr, t_mb, t_md and color) *t_me* *'t_me'*
t_mr reverse (invert) mode *t_mr* *'t_mr'*
*t_ms* *'t_ms'*
t_ms if non-empty, cursor can be moved in standout/inverse mode
t_nd non destructive space character *t_nd* *'t_nd'*
t_op reset to original color pair *t_op* *'t_op'*
t_RI cursor number of chars right *t_RI* *'t_RI'*
t_Sb set background color *t_Sb* *'t_Sb'*
t_Sf set foreground color *t_Sf* *'t_Sf'*
t_se standout end *t_se* *'t_se'*
t_so standout mode *t_so* *'t_so'*
t_sr scroll reverse (backward) *t_sr* *'t_sr'*
t_te out of "termcap" mode *t_te* *'t_te'*
t_ti put terminal in "termcap" mode *t_ti* *'t_ti'*
t_ts set window title start (to status line) *t_ts* *'t_ts'*
t_ue underline end *t_ue* *'t_ue'*
t_us underline mode *t_us* *'t_us'*
t_Ce undercurl end *t_Ce* *'t_Ce'*
t_Cs undercurl mode *t_Cs* *'t_Cs'*
t_ut clearing uses the current background color *t_ut* *'t_ut'*
t_vb visual bell *t_vb* *'t_vb'*
t_ve cursor visible *t_ve* *'t_ve'*
t_vi cursor invisible *t_vi* *'t_vi'*
t_vs cursor very visible *t_vs* *'t_vs'*
*t_xs* *'t_xs'*
t_xs if non-empty, standout not erased by overwriting (hpterm)
t_ZH italics mode *t_ZH* *'t_ZH'*
t_ZR italics end *t_ZR* *'t_ZR'*
Added by Vim (there are no standard codes for these):
t_IS set icon text start *t_IS* *'t_IS'*
t_IE set icon text end *t_IE* *'t_IE'*
t_WP set window position (Y, X) in pixels *t_WP* *'t_WP'*
t_WS set window size (height, width) in characters *t_WS* *'t_WS'*
t_SI start insert mode (bar cursor shape) *t_SI* *'t_SI'*
t_EI end insert mode (block cursor shape) *t_EI* *'t_EI'*
|termcap-cursor-shape|
t_RV request terminal version string (for xterm) *t_RV* *'t_RV'*
|xterm-8bit| |v:termresponse| |'ttymouse'| |xterm-codes|
KEY CODES
Note: Use the <> form if possible
option name meaning

t_ku <Up> arrow up *t_ku* *'t_ku'*

t_kd <Down> arrow down *t_kd* *'t_kd'*
t_kr <Right> arrow right *t_kr* *'t_kr'*
t_kl <Left> arrow left *t_kl* *'t_kl'*
<xUp> alternate arrow up *<xUp>*
<xDown> alternate arrow down *<xDown>*
<xRight> alternate arrow right *<xRight>*
<xLeft> alternate arrow left *<xLeft>*
<S-Up> shift arrow up
<S-Down> shift arrow down
t_%i <S-Right> shift arrow right *t_%i* *'t_%i'*
t_#4 <S-Left> shift arrow left *t_#4* *'t_#4'*
t_k1 <F1> function key 1 *t_k1* *'t_k1'*
<xF1> alternate F1 *<xF1>*
t_k2 <F2> function key 2 *<F2>* *t_k2* *'t_k2'*
t_k; <F10> function key 10 *<F10>* *t_k;* *'t_k;'*
t_F1 <F11> function key 11 *<F11>* *t_F1* *'t_F1'*
<S-F1> shifted function key 1
<S-xF1> alternate <S-F1> *<S-xF1>*
<S-F2> shifted function key 2 *<S-F2>*
<S-F3> shifted function key 3 * *

<S-F3>
t_%1 <Help> help key *t_%1* *'t_%1'*
t_&8 <Undo> undo key *t_&8* *'t_&8'*
t_kI <Insert> insert key *t_kI* *'t_kI'*
t_kD <Del> delete key *t_kD* *'t_kD'*
t_kb <BS> backspace key *t_kb* *'t_kb'*
t_kB <S-Tab> back-tab (shift-tab) *<S-Tab>* *t_kB* *'t_kB'*
t_kh <Home> home key *t_kh* *'t_kh'*
t_#2 <S-Home> shifted home key *<S-Home>* *t_#2* *'t_#2'*
<xHome> alternate home key *<xHome>*
t_@7 <End> end key *t_@7* *'t_@7'*
t_*7 <S-End> shifted end key *<S-End>* *t_star7* *'t_star7'*
<xEnd> alternate end key *<xEnd>*
t_kP <PageUp> page-up key *t_kP* *'t_kP'*
t_kN <PageDown> page-down key *t_kN* *'t_kN'*
t_K1 <kHome> keypad home key *t_K1* *'t_K1'*
t_K4 <kEnd> keypad end key *t_K4* *'t_K4'*
t_K3 <kPageUp> keypad page-up key *t_K3* *'t_K3'*
t_K5 <kPageDown> keypad page-down key *t_K5* *'t_K5'*
t_K6 <kPlus> keypad plus key *<kPlus>* *t_K6* *'t_K6'*
t_K7 <kMinus> keypad minus key *<kMinus>* *t_K7* *'t_K7'*
t_K8 <kDivide> keypad divide *<kDivide>* *t_K8* *'t_K8'*
t_K9 <kMultiply> keypad multiply *<kMultiply>* *t_K9* *'t_K9'*
t_KA <kEnter> keypad enter key *<kEnter>* *t_KA* *'t_KA'*
t_KB <kPoint> keypad decimal point *<kPoint>* *t_KB* *'t_KB'*
t_KC <k0> keypad 0 *<k0>* *t_KC* *'t_KC'*
t_KD <k1> keypad 1 *<k1>* *t_KD* *'t_KD'*
t_KE <k2> keypad 2 *<k2>* *t_KE* *'t_KE'*

t_KF <k3> keypad 3 *<k3>* *t_KF* *'t_KF'*

t_KG <k4> keypad 4 *<k4>* *t_KG* *'t_KG'*
t_KH <k5> keypad 5 *<k5>* *t_KH* *'t_KH'*
t_KI <k6> keypad 6 *<k6>* *t_KI* *'t_KI'*
t_KJ <k7> keypad 7 *<k7>* *t_KJ* *'t_KJ'*
t_KK <k8> keypad 8 *<k8>* *t_KK* *'t_KK'*
t_KL <k9> keypad 9 *<k9>* *t_KL* *'t_KL'*
<Mouse> leader of mouse code *<Mouse>*
Note about t_so and t_mr: When the termcap entry "so" is not present the
entry for "mr" is used. And vice versa. The same is done for "se" and "me".
If your terminal supports both inversion and standout mode, you can see two
different modes. If your terminal supports only one of the modes, both will
look the same.
*keypad-comma*
The keypad keys, when they are not mapped, behave like the equivalent normal
key. There is one exception: if you have a comma on the keypad instead of a
decimal point, Vim will use a dot anyway. Use these mappings to fix that:
:noremap <kPoint> ,
:noremap! <kPoint> ,
*xterm-codes*
There is a special trick to obtain the key codes which currently only works
for xterm. When |t_RV| is defined and a response is received which indicates
an xterm with patchlevel 141 or higher, Vim uses special escape sequences to
request the key codes directly from the xterm. The responses are used to
adjust the various t_ codes. This avoids the problem that the xterm can
produce different codes, depending on the mode it is in (8-bit, VT102,
VT220, etc.). The result is that codes like <xF1> are no longer needed.
Note: This is only done on startup. If the xterm options are changed after
Vim has started, the escape sequences may not be recognized any more.
*xterm-resize*
Window resizing with xterm only works if the allowWindowOps resource is
enabled. On some systems and versions of xterm it's disabled by default
because someone thought it would be a security issue. It's not clear if this
is actually the case.
To overrule the default, put this line in your ~/.Xdefaults or
~/.Xresources:
XTerm*allowWindowOps: true
And run "xrdb -merge .Xresources" to make it effective. You can check the
value with the context menu (right mouse button while CTRL key is pressed),
there should be a tick at allow-window-ops.
*termcap-colors*
Note about colors: The 't_Co' option tells Vim the number of colors available.
When it is non-zero, the 't_AB' and 't_AF' options are used to set the color.
If one of these is not available, 't_Sb' and 't_Sf' are used. 't_me' is used
to reset to the default colors.
*termcap-cursor-shape* *termcap-cursor-color*
When Vim enters Insert mode the 't_SI' escape sequence is sent. When leaving
Insert mode 't_EI' is used. But only if both are defined. This can be used
to change the shape or color of the cursor in Insert mode. These are not
standard termcap/terminfo entries, you need to set them yourself.
Example for an xterm, this changes the color of the cursor:
if &term =~ "xterm"
let &t_SI = "\<Esc>]12;purple\x7"
let &t_EI = "\<Esc>]12;blue\x7"
endif
NOTE: When Vim exits the shape for Normal mode will remain. The shape from
before Vim started will not be restored.
{not available when compiled without the |+cursorshape| feature}

*termcap-title*
The 't_ts' and 't_fs' options are used to set the window title if the terminal
allows title setting via sending strings. They are sent before and after the
title string, respectively. Similar 't_IS' and 't_IE' are used to set the
icon text. These are Vim-internal extensions of the Unix termcap, so they
cannot be obtained from an external termcap. However, the builtin termcap
contains suitable entries for xterm and iris-ansi, so you don't need to set
them here.
*hpterm*
If inversion or other highlighting does not work correctly, try setting the
't_xs' option to a non-empty string. This makes the 't_ce' code be used to
remove highlighting from a line. This is required for "hpterm". Setting the
'weirdinvert' option has the same effect as making 't_xs' non-empty, and vice
versa.
*scroll-region*
Some termcaps do not include an entry for 'cs' (scroll region), although the
terminal does support it. For example: xterm on a Sun. You can use the
builtin_xterm or define t_cs yourself. For example:
:set t_cs=^V^[[%i%d;%dr
Where ^V is CTRL-V and ^[ is <Esc>.
The vertical scroll region t_CV is not a standard termcap code. Vim uses it
internally in the GUI. But it can also be defined for a terminal, if you can
find one that supports it. The two arguments are the left and right column of
the region which to restrict the scrolling to. Just like t_cs defines the top
and bottom lines. Defining t_CV will make scrolling in vertically split
windows a lot faster. Don't set t_CV when t_da or t_db is set (text isn't
cleared when scrolling).
Unfortunately it is not possible to deduce from the termcap how cursor
positioning should be done when using a scrolling region: Relative to the
beginning of the screen or relative to the beginning of the scrolling region.
Most terminals use the first method. A known exception is the MS-DOS console
(pcterm). The 't_CS' option should be set to any string when cursor
positioning is relative to the start of the scrolling region. It should be
set to an empty string otherwise. It defaults to "yes" when 'term' is
"pcterm".
Note for xterm users: The shifted cursor keys normally don't work. You can
make them work with the xmodmap command and some mappings in Vim.
Give these commands in the xterm:
xmodmap -e "keysym Up = Up F13"
xmodmap -e "keysym Down = Down F16"
xmodmap -e "keysym Left = Left F18"
xmodmap -e "keysym Right = Right F19"
And use these mappings in Vim:
:map <t_F3> <S-Up>
:map! <t_F3> <S-Up>
:map <t_F6> <S-Down>
:map! <t_F6> <S-Down>
:map <t_F8> <S-Left>
:map! <t_F8> <S-Left>
:map <t_F9> <S-Right>
:map! <t_F9> <S-Right>
Instead of, say, <S-Up> you can use any other command that you want to use the
shift-cursor-up key for. (Note: To help people that have a Sun keyboard with
left side keys F14 is not used because it is confused with the undo key; F15
is not used, because it does a window-to-front; F17 is not used, because it
closes the window. On other systems you can probably use them.)
==============================================================================
3. Window size *window-size*
[This is about the size of the whole window Vim is using, not a window that is
created with the ":split" command.]
If you are running Vim on an Amiga and the terminal name is "amiga" or
"builtin_amiga", the amiga-specific window resizing will be enabled. On Unix
systems three methods are tried to get the window size:
- an ioctl call (TIOCGSIZE or TIOCGWINSZ, depends on your system)
- the environment variables "LINES" and "COLUMNS"

- from the termcap entries "li" and "co"

If everything fails a default size of 24 lines and 80 columns is assumed. If
a window-resize signal is received the size will be set again. If the window
size is wrong you can use the 'lines' and 'columns' options to set the
correct values.
One command can be used to set the screen size:
*:mod* *:mode* *E359* *E362*

:mod[e] [mode]
Without argument this only detects the screen size and redraws the screen.
With MS-DOS it is possible to switch screen mode. [mode] can be one of these
values:
"bw40" 40 columns black&white
"c40" 40 columns color
"bw80" 80 columns black&white
"c80" 80 columns color (most people use this)
"mono" 80 columns monochrome
"c4350" 43 or 50 lines EGA/VGA mode
number mode number to use, depends on your video card
==============================================================================
4. Slow and fast terminals *slow-fast-terminal*
*slow-terminal*
If you have a fast terminal you may like to set the 'ruler' option. The
cursor position is shown in the status line. If you are using horizontal
scrolling ('wrap' option off) consider setting 'sidescroll' to a small
number.
If you have a slow terminal you may want to reset the 'showcmd' option.
The command characters will not be shown in the status line. If the terminal
scrolls very slowly, set the 'scrolljump' to 5 or so. If the cursor is moved
off the screen (e.g., with "j") Vim will scroll 5 lines at a time. Another
possibility is to reduce the number of lines that Vim uses with the command
"z{height}<CR>".
If the characters from the terminal are arriving with more than 1 second
between them you might want to set the 'timeout' and/or 'ttimeout' option.
See the "Options" chapter |options|.
If your terminal does not support a scrolling region, but it does support
insert/delete line commands, scrolling with multiple windows may make the
lines jump up and down. If you don't want this set the 'ttyfast' option.
This will redraw the window instead of scroll it.
If your terminal scrolls very slowly, but redrawing is not slow, set the
'ttyscroll' option to a small number, e.g., 3. This will make Vim redraw the
screen instead of scrolling, when there are more than 3 lines to be scrolled.
If you are using a color terminal that is slow, use this command:
hi NonText cterm=NONE ctermfg=NONE
This avoids that spaces are sent when they have different attributes. On most
terminals you can't see this anyway.
If you are using Vim over a slow serial line, you might want to try running
Vim inside the "screen" program. Screen will optimize the terminal I/O quite
a bit.
If you are testing termcap options, but you cannot see what is happening,
you might want to set the 'writedelay' option. When non-zero, one character
is sent to the terminal at a time (does not work for MS-DOS). This makes the
screen updating a lot slower, making it possible to see what is happening.
==============================================================================
5. Using the mouse *mouse-using*
This section is about using the mouse on a terminal or a terminal window. How
to use the mouse in a GUI window is explained in |gui-mouse|. For scrolling
with a mouse wheel see |scroll-mouse-wheel|.
Don't forget to enable the mouse with this command:
:set mouse=a
Otherwise Vim won't recognize the mouse in all modes (See 'mouse').

Currently the mouse is supported for Unix in an xterm window, in a *BSD

console with |sysmouse|, in a Linux console (with GPM |gpm-mouse|), for
MS-DOS and in a Windows console.
Mouse clicks can be used to position the cursor, select an area and paste.
These characters in the 'mouse' option tell in which situations the mouse will
be used by Vim:
n Normal mode
v Visual mode
i Insert mode
c Command-line mode
h all previous modes when in a help file
a all previous modes
r for |hit-enter| prompt
The default for 'mouse' is empty, the mouse is not used. Normally you would
do:
:set mouse=a
to start using the mouse (this is equivalent to setting 'mouse' to "nvich").
If you only want to use the mouse in a few modes or also want to use it for
the two questions you will have to concatenate the letters for those modes.
For example:
:set mouse=nv
Will make the mouse work in Normal mode and Visual mode.
:set mouse=h
Will make the mouse work in help files only (so you can use "g<LeftMouse>" to
jump to tags).
Whether the selection that is started with the mouse is in Visual mode or
Select mode depends on whether "mouse" is included in the 'selectmode'
option.
In an xterm, with the currently active mode included in the 'mouse' option,
normal mouse clicks are used by Vim, mouse clicks with the shift or ctrl key
pressed go to the xterm. With the currently active mode not included in
'mouse' all mouse clicks go to the xterm.
*xterm-clipboard*
In the Athena and Motif GUI versions, when running in a terminal and there is
access to the X-server (DISPLAY is set), the copy and paste will behave like
in the GUI. If not, the middle mouse button will insert the unnamed register.
In that case, here is how you copy and paste a piece of text:
Copy/paste with the mouse and Visual mode ('mouse' option must be set, see
above):
1. Press left mouse button on first letter of text, move mouse pointer to last
letter of the text and release the button. This will start Visual mode and
highlight the selected area.
2. Press "y" to yank the Visual text in the unnamed register.
3. Click the left mouse button at the insert position.
4. Click the middle mouse button.
Shortcut: If the insert position is on the screen at the same time as the
Visual text, you can do 2, 3 and 4 all in one: Click the middle mouse button
at the insert position.
Note: When the |-X| command line argument is used, Vim will not connect to the
X server and copy/paste to the X clipboard (selection) will not work. Use the
shift key with the mouse buttons to let the xterm do the selection.
*xterm-command-server*
When the X-server clipboard is available, the command server described in
|x11-clientserver| can be enabled with the --servername command line argument.
*xterm-copy-paste*
NOTE: In some (older) xterms, it's not possible to move the cursor past column
95. This is an xterm problem, not Vim's. Get a newer xterm |color-xterm|.
Now the limit is 223 columns.
Copy/paste in xterm with (current mode NOT included in 'mouse'):
1. Press left mouse button on first letter of text, move mouse pointer to last
letter of the text and release the button.
2. Use normal Vim commands to put the cursor at the insert position.
3. Press "a" to start Insert mode.
4. Click the middle mouse button.
5. Press ESC to end Insert mode.

(The same can be done with anything in 'mouse' if you keep the shift key
pressed while using the mouse.)
Note: if you lose the 8th bit when pasting (special characters are translated
into other characters), you may have to do "stty cs8 -istrip -parenb" in your
shell before starting Vim.
Thus in an xterm the shift and ctrl keys cannot be used with the mouse. Mouse
commands requiring the CTRL modifier can be simulated by typing the "g" key
before using the mouse:
"g<LeftMouse>" is "<C-LeftMouse> (jump to tag under mouse click)
"g<RightMouse>" is "<C-RightMouse> ("CTRL-T")
*mouse-mode-table* *mouse-overview*
A short overview of what the mouse buttons do, when 'mousemodel' is "extend":
Normal Mode:
event position selection change action
cursor window
<LeftMouse> yes end yes
<C-LeftMouse> yes end yes "CTRL-]" (2)
<S-LeftMouse> yes no change yes "*" (2) *<S-LeftMouse>*
<LeftDrag> yes start or extend (1) no *<LeftDrag>*
<LeftRelease> yes start or extend (1) no
<MiddleMouse> yes if not active no put
<MiddleMouse> yes if active no yank and put
<RightMouse> yes start or extend yes
<A-RightMouse> yes start or extend blockw. yes *<A-RightMouse>*
<S-RightMouse> yes no change yes "#" (2) *<S-RightMouse>*
<C-RightMouse> no no change no "CTRL-T"
<RightDrag> yes extend no *<RightDrag>*
<RightRelease> yes extend no *<RightRelease>*
Insert or Replace Mode:
cursor window
<LeftMouse> yes (cannot be active) yes
<C-LeftMouse> yes (cannot be active) yes "CTRL-O^]" (2)
<S-LeftMouse> yes (cannot be active) yes "CTRL-O*" (2)
<LeftDrag> yes start or extend (1) no like CTRL-O (1)
<LeftRelease> yes start or extend (1) no like CTRL-O (1)
<MiddleMouse> no (cannot be active) no put register
<RightMouse> yes start or extend yes like CTRL-O
<A-RightMouse> yes start or extend blockw. yes
<S-RightMouse> yes (cannot be active) yes "CTRL-O#" (2)
<C-RightMouse> no (cannot be active) no "CTRL-O CTRL-T"
In a help window:
cursor window
<2-LeftMouse> yes (cannot be active) no "^]" (jump to help tag)
When 'mousemodel' is "popup", these are different:
Normal Mode:
cursor window
<S-LeftMouse> yes start or extend (1) no
<A-LeftMouse> yes start or extend blockw. no *<A-LeftMouse>*
<RightMouse> no popup menu no
Insert or Replace Mode:
cursor window
<S-LeftMouse> yes start or extend (1) no like CTRL-O (1)
<A-LeftMouse> yes start or extend blockw. no
<RightMouse> no popup menu no
(1) only if mouse pointer moved since press
(2) only if click is in same buffer

Clicking the left mouse button causes the cursor to be positioned. If the
click is in another window that window is made the active window. When
editing the command-line the cursor can only be positioned on the
command-line. When in Insert mode Vim remains in Insert mode. If 'scrolloff'
is set, and the cursor is positioned within 'scrolloff' lines from the window
border, the text is scrolled.
A selection can be started by pressing the left mouse button on the first
character, moving the mouse to the last character, then releasing the mouse
button. You will not always see the selection until you release the button,
only in some versions (GUI, MS-DOS, WIN32) will the dragging be shown
immediately. Note that you can make the text scroll by moving the mouse at
least one character in the first/last line in the window when 'scrolloff' is
non-zero.
In Normal, Visual and Select mode clicking the right mouse button causes the
Visual area to be extended. When 'mousemodel' is "popup", the left button has
to be used while keeping the shift key pressed. When clicking in a window
which is editing another buffer, the Visual or Select mode is stopped.
In Normal, Visual and Select mode clicking the right mouse button with the alt
key pressed causes the Visual area to become blockwise. When 'mousemodel' is
"popup" the left button has to be used with the alt key. Note that this won't
work on systems where the window manager consumes the mouse events when the
alt key is pressed (it may move the window).
*double-click*
Double, triple and quadruple clicks are supported when the GUI is active,
for MS-DOS and Win32, and for an xterm (if the gettimeofday() function is
available). For selecting text, extra clicks extend the selection:
click select
double word or % match *<2-LeftMouse>*
triple line *<3-LeftMouse>*
quadruple rectangular block *<4-LeftMouse>*
Exception: In a Help window a double click jumps to help for the word that is
clicked on.
A double click on a word selects that word. 'iskeyword' is used to specify
which characters are included in a word. A double click on a character
that has a match selects until that match (like using "v%"). If the match is
an #if/#else/#endif block, the selection becomes linewise.
For MS-DOS and xterm the time for double clicking can be set with the
'mousetime' option. For the other systems this time is defined outside of
Vim.
An example, for using a double click to jump to the tag under the cursor:
:map <2-LeftMouse> :exe "tag ". expand("<cword>")<CR>
Dragging the mouse with a double click (button-down, button-up, button-down
and then drag) will result in whole words to be selected. This continues
until the button is released, at which point the selection is per character
again.
*gpm-mouse*
The GPM mouse is only supported when the |+mouse_gpm| feature was enabled at
compile time. The GPM mouse driver (Linux console) does not support quadruple
clicks.
In Insert mode, when a selection is started, Vim goes into Normal mode
temporarily. When Visual or Select mode ends, it returns to Insert mode.
This is like using CTRL-O in Insert mode. Select mode is used when the
'selectmode' option contains "mouse".
*sysmouse*
The sysmouse is only supported when the |+mouse_sysmouse| feature was enabled
at compile time. The sysmouse driver (*BSD console) does not support keyboard
modifiers.
*drag-status-line*
When working with several windows, the size of the windows can be changed by
dragging the status line with the mouse. Point the mouse at a status line,
press the left button, move the mouse to the new position of the status line,
release the button. Just clicking the mouse in a status line makes that window
the current window, without moving the cursor. If by selecting a window it
will change position or size, the dragging of the status line will look
confusing, but it will work (just try it).

*<MiddleRelease>* *<MiddleDrag>*
Mouse clicks can be mapped. The codes for mouse clicks are:
code mouse button normal action
<LeftMouse> left pressed set cursor position
<LeftDrag> left moved while pressed extend selection
<LeftRelease> left released set selection end
<MiddleMouse> middle pressed paste text at cursor position
<MiddleDrag> middle moved while pressed -
<MiddleRelease> middle released -
<RightMouse> right pressed extend selection
<RightDrag> right moved while pressed extend selection
<RightRelease> right released set selection end
<X1Mouse> X1 button pressed - *X1Mouse*
<X1Drag> X1 moved while pressed - *X1Drag*
<X1Release> X1 button release - *X1Release*
<X2Mouse> X2 button pressed - *X2Mouse*
<X2Drag> X2 moved while pressed - *X2Drag*
<X2Release> X2 button release - *X2Release*
The X1 and X2 buttons refer to the extra buttons found on some mice. The
'Microsoft Explorer' mouse has these buttons available to the right thumb.
Currently X1 and X2 only work on Win32 environments.
Examples:
:noremap <MiddleMouse> <LeftMouse><MiddleMouse>
Paste at the position of the middle mouse button click (otherwise the paste
would be done at the cursor position).
:noremap <LeftRelease> <LeftRelease>y
Immediately yank the selection, when using Visual mode.
Note the use of ":noremap" instead of "map" to avoid a recursive mapping.
:map <X1Mouse> <C-O>
:map <X2Mouse> <C-I>
Map the X1 and X2 buttons to go forwards and backwards in the jump list, see
|CTRL-O| and |CTRL-I|.
*mouse-swap-buttons*
To swap the meaning of the left and right mouse buttons:
:noremap <LeftMouse> <RightMouse>
:noremap <LeftDrag> <RightDrag>
:noremap <LeftRelease> <RightRelease>
:noremap <RightMouse> <LeftMouse>
:noremap <RightDrag> <LeftDrag>
:noremap <RightRelease> <LeftRelease>
:noremap g<LeftMouse> <C-RightMouse>
:noremap g<RightMouse> <C-LeftMouse>
:noremap! <LeftMouse> <RightMouse>
:noremap! <LeftDrag> <RightDrag>
:noremap! <LeftRelease> <RightRelease>
:noremap! <RightMouse> <LeftMouse>
:noremap! <RightDrag> <LeftDrag>
:noremap! <RightRelease> <LeftRelease>
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: if_mzsch
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main help file
*if_mzsch.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Feb 11
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Sergey Khorev
The MzScheme Interface to Vim *mzscheme* *MzScheme*

1. Commands |mzscheme-commands|
2. Examples |mzscheme-examples|
3. Threads |mzscheme-threads|
4. Vim access from MzScheme |mzscheme-vim|
5. mzeval() Vim function |mzscheme-mzeval|
6. Dynamic loading |mzscheme-dynamic|
The MzScheme interface is available only if Vim was compiled with the
|+mzscheme| feature.
Based on the work of Brent Fulgham.
Dynamic loading added by Sergey Khorev
For downloading MzScheme and other info:
http://www.plt-scheme.org/software/mzscheme/
Note: On FreeBSD you should use the "drscheme" port.
==============================================================================
1. Commands *mzscheme-commands*
*:mzscheme* *:mz*
:[range]mz[scheme] {stmt}
Execute MzScheme statement {stmt}. {not in Vi}
:[range]mz[scheme] << {endmarker}
{script}
{endmarker}
Execute inlined MzScheme script {script}.
Note: This command doesn't work if the MzScheme
|script-here|.
*:mzfile* *:mzf*
:[range]mzf[ile] {file} Execute the MzScheme script in {file}. {not in Vi}
All of these commands do essentially the same thing - they execute a piece of
MzScheme code, with the "current range" set to the given line
range.
In the case of :mzscheme, the code to execute is in the command-line.
In the case of :mzfile, the code to execute is the contents of the given file.
MzScheme interface defines exception exn:vim, derived from exn.
It is raised for various Vim errors.
During compilation, the MzScheme interface will remember the current MzScheme
collection path. If you want to specify additional paths use the
'current-library-collection-paths' parameter. E.g., to cons the user-local
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/if_mzsch.html[2019/03/05 11:42:55 AM]

MzScheme collection path:

:mz << EOF
(current-library-collection-paths
(cons
(build-path (find-system-path 'addon-dir) (version) "collects")
(current-library-collection-paths)))
EOF
All functionality is provided through module vimext.

The exn:vim is available without explicit import.
To avoid clashes with MzScheme, consider using prefix when requiring module,
e.g.:
:mzscheme (require (prefix vim- vimext))
All the examples below assume this naming scheme.
*mzscheme-sandbox*
When executed in the |sandbox|, access to some filesystem and Vim interface
procedures is restricted.
==============================================================================
2. Examples *mzscheme-examples*
:mzscheme (display "Hello")
:mz (display (string-append "Using MzScheme version " (version)))
:mzscheme (require (prefix vim- vimext)) ; for MzScheme < 4.x
:mzscheme (require (prefix-in vim- 'vimext)) ; MzScheme 4.x
:mzscheme (vim-set-buff-line 10 "This is line #10")
Inline script usage:
function! <SID>SetFirstLine()
:mz << EOF
(display "!!!")
(require (prefix vim- vimext))
; for newer versions (require (prefix-in vim- 'vimext))
(vim-set-buff-line 1 "This is line #1")
(vim-beep)
EOF
endfunction
nmap <F9> :call <SID>SetFirstLine() <CR>
File execution:
:mzfile supascript.scm
Vim exception handling:
:mz << EOF
(require (prefix vim- vimext))
; for newer versions (require (prefix-in vim- 'vimext))
(with-handlers
([exn:vim? (lambda (e) (display (exn-message e)))])
(vim-eval "nonsense-string"))
EOF
Auto-instantiation of vimext module (can be placed in your |vimrc|):
function! MzRequire()
:redir => l:mzversion
:mz (version)
:redir END
if strpart(l:mzversion, 1, 1) < "4"
" MzScheme versions < 4.x:
:mz (require (prefix vim- vimext))
else
" newer versions:
:mz (require (prefix-in vim- 'vimext))
endif
endfunction
if has("mzscheme")
silent call MzRequire()
endif

==============================================================================
3. Threads *mzscheme-threads*
The MzScheme interface supports threads. They are independent from OS threads,
thus scheduling is required. The option 'mzquantum' determines how often
Vim should poll for available MzScheme threads.
NOTE
Thread scheduling in the console version of Vim is less reliable than in the
GUI version.
==============================================================================
4. Vim access from MzScheme *mzscheme-vim*
*mzscheme-vimext*
The 'vimext' module provides access to procedures defined in the MzScheme
interface.
Common
(command {command-string}) Perform the vim ":Ex" style command.
(eval {expr-string}) Evaluate the vim expression into
respective MzScheme object: |Lists| are
represented as Scheme lists,
|Dictionaries| as hash tables.
NOTE the name clashes with MzScheme eval
(range-start) Start/End of the range passed with
(range-end) the Scheme command.
(beep) beep
(get-option {option-name} [buffer-or-window]) Get Vim option value (either
local or global, see set-option).
(set-option {string} [buffer-or-window])
Set a Vim option. String must have option
setting form (like optname=optval, or
optname+=optval, etc.) When called with
{buffer} or {window} the local option will
be set. The symbol 'global can be passed
as {buffer-or-window}. Then |:setglobal|
will be used.
Buffers *mzscheme-buffer*
(buff? {object}) Is object a buffer?
(buff-valid? {object}) Is object a valid buffer? (i.e.
corresponds to the real Vim buffer)
(get-buff-line {linenr} [buffer])
Get line from a buffer.
(set-buff-line {linenr} {string} [buffer])
Set a line in a buffer. If {string} is #f,
the line gets deleted. The [buffer]
argument is optional. If omitted, the
current buffer will be used.
(get-buff-line-list {start} {end} [buffer])
Get a list of lines in a buffer. {Start}
and {end} are 1-based and inclusive.
(set-buff-line-list {start} {end} {string-list} [buffer])
Set a list of lines in a buffer. If
string-list is #f or null, the lines get
deleted. If a list is shorter than
{end}-{start} the remaining lines will
be deleted.
(get-buff-name [buffer]) Get a buffer's text name.
(get-buff-num [buffer]) Get a buffer's number.
(get-buff-size [buffer]) Get buffer line count.
(insert-buff-line-list {linenr} {string/string-list} [buffer])
Insert a list of lines into a buffer after
{linenr}. If {linenr} is 0, lines will be
inserted at start.
(curr-buff) Get the current buffer. Use other MzScheme
interface procedures to change it.
(buff-count) Get count of total buffers in the editor.
(get-next-buff [buffer]) Get next buffer.
(get-prev-buff [buffer]) Get previous buffer. Return #f when there
are no more buffers.
(open-buff {filename}) Open a new buffer (for file "name")
(get-buff-by-name {buffername}) Get a buffer by its filename or #f
if there is no such buffer.
(get-buff-by-num {buffernum}) Get a buffer by its number (return #f if
there is no buffer with this number).

Windows *mzscheme-window*
(win? {object}) Is object a window?
(win-valid? {object}) Is object a valid window (i.e. corresponds
to the real Vim window)?
(curr-win) Get the current window.
(win-count) Get count of windows.
(get-win-num [window]) Get window number.
(get-win-by-num {windownum}) Get window by its number.
(get-win-buffer [window]) Get the buffer for a given window.
(get-win-height [window])
(set-win-height {height} [window]) Get/Set height of window.
(get-win-width [window])
(set-win-width {width} [window])Get/Set width of window.
(get-win-list [buffer]) Get list of windows for a buffer.
(get-cursor [window]) Get cursor position in a window as
a pair (linenr . column).
(set-cursor (line . col) [window]) Set cursor position.
==============================================================================
5. mzeval() Vim function *mzscheme-mzeval*
To facilitate bi-directional interface, you can use |mzeval()| function to
evaluate MzScheme expressions and pass their values to VimL.
==============================================================================
6. Dynamic loading *mzscheme-dynamic* *E815*
On MS-Windows the MzScheme libraries can be loaded dynamically. The |:version|
output then includes |+mzscheme/dyn|.
This means that Vim will search for the MzScheme DLL files only when needed.
When you don't use the MzScheme interface you don't need them, thus you can
use Vim without these DLL files.
To use the MzScheme interface the MzScheme DLLs must be in your search path.
In a console window type "path" to see what directories are used.
The names of the DLLs must match the MzScheme version Vim was compiled with.
For MzScheme version 209 they will be "libmzsch209_000.dll" and
"libmzgc209_000.dll". To know for sure look at the output of the ":version"
command, look for -DDYNAMIC_MZSCH_DLL="something" and
-DDYNAMIC_MZGC_DLL="something" in the "Compilation" info.
vim:tw=78:ts=8:sts=4:ft=help:norl:
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Vim documentation: netbeans
Search tag (regex)
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main help file
*netbeans.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Sep 29
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Gordon Prieur et al.
*socket-interface* *netbeans* *netbeans-support*

Vim NetBeans Protocol: a socket interface for Vim integration into an IDE.
1. Introduction |netbeans-intro|
2. Integration features |netbeans-integration|
3. Configuring Vim for NetBeans |netbeans-configure|
4. Error Messages |netbeans-messages|
5. Running Vim in NetBeans mode |netbeans-run|
6. NetBeans protocol |netbeans-protocol|
7. NetBeans commands |netbeans-commands|
8. Known problems |netbeans-problems|
9. Debugging NetBeans protocol |netbeans-debugging|
10. NetBeans External Editor
10.1. Downloading NetBeans |netbeans-download|
10.2. NetBeans Key Bindings |netbeans-keybindings|
10.3. Preparing NetBeans for Vim |netbeans-preparation|
10.4. Obtaining the External Editor Module |obtaining-exted|
10.5. Setting up NetBeans to run with Vim |netbeans-setup|
{only available when compiled with the |+netbeans_intg| feature}
==============================================================================
1. Introduction *netbeans-intro*
The NetBeans interface was initially developed to integrate Vim into the
NetBeans Java IDE, using the external editor plugin. This NetBeans plugin no
longer exists for recent versions of NetBeans but the protocol was developed
in such a way that any IDE can use it to integrate Vim.
The NetBeans protocol of Vim is a text based communication protocol, over a
classical TCP socket. There is no dependency on Java or NetBeans. Any language
or environment providing a socket interface can control Vim using this
protocol. There are existing implementations in C, C++, Python and Java. The
name NetBeans is kept today for historical reasons.
Current projects using the NetBeans protocol of Vim are:
- VimIntegration, description of various projects doing Vim Integration:
http://www.freehackers.org/VimIntegration
- Agide, an IDE for the AAP project, written in Python:
http://www.a-a-p.org
- Clewn, a gdb integration into Vim, written in C:
http://clewn.sourceforge.net/
- Pyclewn, a gdb integration into Vim, written in Python:
http://pyclewn.sourceforge.net/
- VimPlugin, integration of Vim inside Eclipse:
http://vimplugin.sourceforge.net/wiki/pmwiki.php
- PIDA, IDE written in Python integrating Vim:
http://pida.co.uk/
- VimWrapper, library to easy Vim integration into IDE:
http://www.freehackers.org/VimWrapper
Check the specific project pages to see how to use Vim with these projects.
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/netbeans.html[2019/03/05 11:42:56 AM]

In the rest of this help page, we will use the term "Vim Controller" to
describe the program controlling Vim through the NetBeans socket interface.
About the NetBeans IDE

NetBeans is an open source Integrated Development Environment developed
jointly by Sun Microsystems, Inc. and the netbeans.org developer community.
Initially just a Java IDE, NetBeans has had C, C++, and Fortran support added
in recent releases.
For more information visit the main NetBeans web site http://www.netbeans.org.
The External Editor is now, unfortunately, declared obsolete. See
http://externaleditor.netbeans.org.
Sun Microsystems, Inc. also ships NetBeans under the name Sun ONE Studio.
Visit http://www.sun.com for more information regarding the Sun ONE Studio
product line.
Current releases of NetBeans provide full support for Java and limited support
for C, C++, and Fortran. Current releases of Sun ONE Studio provide full
support for Java, C, C++, and Fortran.
==============================================================================
2. Integration features *netbeans-integration*
The NetBeans socket interface of Vim allows to get information from Vim or to
ask Vim to perform specific actions:
- get information about buffer: buffer name, cursor position, buffer content,
etc.
- be notified when buffers are open or closed
- be notified of how the buffer content is modified
- load and save files
- modify the buffer content
- installing special key bindings
- raise the window, control the window geometry
For sending key strokes to Vim or for evaluating functions in Vim, you must
use the |clientserver| interface.
==============================================================================
3. Configuring Vim for NetBeans *netbeans-configure*
For more help about installing Vim, please read |usr_90.txt| in the Vim User
Manual.
On Unix:
When running configure without arguments the NetBeans interface should be
included. That is, if the configure check to find out if your system supports
the required features succeeds.
In case you do not want the NetBeans interface you can disable it by
uncommenting a line with "--disable-netbeans" in the Makefile.
Currently the NetBeans interface is supported by Vim running in a terminal and
by GVim when it is run with one of the following GUIs: GTK, GNOME, Windows,
Athena and Motif.
If Motif support is required the user must supply XPM libraries. See
|workshop-xpm| for details on obtaining the latest version of XPM.
On MS-Windows:
The Win32 support is now in beta stage.
To use XPM signs on Win32 (e.g. when using with NetBeans) you can compile
XPM by yourself or use precompiled libraries from http://iamphet.nm.ru/misc/
for MS Visual C++ or http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net for MinGW.
Enable debugging:
To enable debugging of Vim and of the NetBeans protocol, the "NBDEBUG" macro
needs to be defined. Search in the Makefile of the platform you are using for
"NBDEBUG" to see what line needs to be uncommented. This effectively adds

"-DNBDEBUG" to the compile command. Also see |netbeans-debugging|

==============================================================================
4. Error Messages *netbeans-messages*
These error messages are specific to NetBeans socket protocol:
*E463*
Region is guarded, cannot modify
The Vim Controller has defined guarded areas in the text,
which you cannot change. Also sets the current buffer, if
necessary.
*E532*
The defineAnnoType highlighting color name is too long
The maximum length of the "fg" or "bg" color argument in the
defineAnnoType command is 32 characters.
New in version 2.5.
*E656*
Writes of unmodified buffers forbidden
Writes of unmodified buffers that were opened from the
Vim Controller are not possible.
*E657*
Partial writes disallowed
Partial writes for buffers that were opened from the
Vim Controller are not allowed.
*E658*
Connection lost for this buffer
The Vim Controller has become confused about the state of
this file. Rather than risk data corruption, it has severed
the connection for this file. Vim will take over
responsibility for saving changes to this file and the
Vim Controller will no longer know of these changes.
*E744*
Read-only file
Vim normally allows changes to a read-only file and only
enforces the read-only rule if you try to write the file.
However, NetBeans does not let you make changes to a file
which is read-only and becomes confused if Vim does this.
So Vim does not allow modifications to files when run
in NetBeans mode.
==============================================================================
5. Running Vim in NetBeans mode *netbeans-run*
There are two different ways to run Vim in NetBeans mode:
+ an IDE may start Vim with the |-nb| command line argument
+ NetBeans can be started from within Vim with the |:nbstart| command
*netbeans-parameters*
Three forms can be used to setup the NetBeans connection parameters.
When started from the command line, the |-nb| command line argument may be:
-nb={fname} from a file
-nb:{hostname}:{addr}:{password} directly
-nb from a file or environment
When started from within Vim, the |:nbstart| optional argument may be:
={fname} from a file
:{hostname}:{addr}:{password} directly
<MISSING ARGUMENT> from a file or environment
*E660* *E668*
When NetBeans is started from the command line, for security reasons, the best

method is to write the information in a file readable only by the user. The
name of the file can be passed with the "-nb={fname}" argument or, when "-nb"
is used without a parameter, the environment variable "__NETBEANS_CONINFO".
The file must contain these three lines, in any order:
host={hostname}
port={addr}
auth={password}
Other lines are ignored. The Vim Controller is responsible for deleting the
file afterwards.
{hostname} is the name of the machine where Vim Controller is running. When
omitted the environment variable "__NETBEANS_HOST" is used or the default
"localhost".
{addr} is the port number for the NetBeans interface. When omitted the
environment variable "__NETBEANS_SOCKET" is used or the default 3219.
{password} is the password for connecting to NetBeans. When omitted the
environment variable "__NETBEANS_VIM_PASSWORD" is used or "changeme".
Vim will initiate a socket connection (client side) to the specified host and
port upon startup. The password will be sent with the AUTH event when the
connection has been established.
==============================================================================
6. NetBeans protocol *netbeans-protocol*
The communication between the Vim Controller and Vim uses plain text
messages. This protocol was first designed to work with the external editor
module of NetBeans. Later it was extended to work with Agide (A-A-P GUI IDE,
see http://www.a-a-p.org and then with other IDE. The extensions are marked
with "version 2.1".
Version 2.2 of the protocol has several minor changes which should only affect
NetBeans users (ie, not Agide users). However, a bug was fixed which could
cause confusion. The netbeans_saved() function sent a "save" protocol
command. In protocol version 2.1 and earlier this was incorrectly interpreted
as a notification that a write had taken place. In reality, it told NetBeans
to save the file so multiple writes were being done. This caused various
problems and has been fixed in 2.2. To decrease the likelihood of this
confusion happening again, netbeans_saved() has been renamed to
netbeans_save_buffer().
We are now at version 2.5. For the differences between 2.4 and 2.5 search for
"2.5" below.
The messages are currently sent over a socket. Since the messages are in
plain UTF-8 text this protocol could also be used with any other communication
mechanism.
6.1 Kinds of messages |nb-messages|
6.2 Terms |nb-terms|
6.3 Commands |nb-commands|
6.4 Functions and Replies |nb-functions|
6.5 Events |nb-events|
6.6 Special messages |nb-special|
6.7 Protocol errors |nb-protocol_errors|
6.1 Kinds of messages *nb-messages*

There are four kinds of messages:
kind direction comment
Command IDE -> editor no reply necessary
Function IDE -> editor editor must send back a reply
Reply editor -> IDE only in response to a Function
Event editor -> IDE no reply necessary
The messages are sent as a single line with a terminating newline character.
Arguments are separated by a single space. The first item of the message
depends on the kind of message:
kind first item example
Command bufID:name!seqno 11:showBalloon!123 "text"

Function bufID:name/seqno 11:getLength/123

Reply seqno 123 5000
Event bufID:name=seqno 11:keyCommand=123 "S-F2"
6.2 Terms *nb-terms*

bufID Buffer number. A message may be either for a specific buffer
or generic. Generic messages use a bufID of zero. NOTE: this
buffer ID is assigned by the IDE, it is not Vim's buffer
number. The bufID must be a sequentially rising number,
starting at one.
seqno The IDE uses a sequence number for Commands and Functions. A
Reply must use the sequence number of the Function that it is
associated with. A zero sequence number can be used for
Events (the seqno of the last received Command or Function can
also be used).
string Argument in double quotes. Text is in UTF-8 encoding. This
means ASCII is passed as-is. Special characters are
represented with a backslash:
\" double quote
\n newline
\r carriage-return
\t tab (optional, also works literally)
\\ backslash
NUL bytes are not allowed!
boolean Argument with two possible values:
T true
F false
number Argument with a decimal number.
color Argument with either a decimal number, "none" (without the
quotes) or the name of a color (without the quotes) defined
both in the color list in |highlight-ctermfg| and in the color
list in |gui-colors|.
New in version 2.5.
offset A number argument that indicates a byte position in a buffer.
The first byte has offset zero. Line breaks are counted for
how they appear in the file (CR/LF counts for two bytes).
Note that a multi-byte character is counted for the number of
bytes it takes.
lnum/col Argument with a line number and column number position. The
line number starts with one, the column is the byte position,
starting with zero. Note that a multi-byte character counts
for several columns.
pathname String argument: file name with full path.
6.3 Commands *nb-commands*

actionMenuItem Not implemented.
actionSensitivity
Not implemented.
addAnno serNum typeNum off len
Place an annotation in this buffer.
Arguments:
serNum number serial number of this placed
annotation, used to be able to remove
it
typeNum number sequence number of the annotation
defined with defineAnnoType for this
buffer
off number offset where annotation is to be placed
len number not used
In version 2.1 "lnum/col" can be used instead of "off".
balloonResult text
Not implemented.

close Close the buffer. This leaves us without current buffer, very
dangerous to use!
create Creates a buffer without a name. Replaces the current buffer
(it's hidden when it was changed).
The Vim Controller should use this as the first command for a
file that is being opened. The sequence of commands could be:
create
setCaretListener (ignored)
setModified (no effect)
setContentType (ignored)
startDocumentListen
setTitle
setFullName
defineAnnoType typeNum typeName tooltip glyphFile fg bg
Define a type of annotation for this buffer.
Arguments:
typeNum number sequence number (not really used)
typeName string name that identifies this annotation
tooltip string not used
glyphFile string name of icon file
fg color foreground color for line highlighting
bg color background color for line highlighting
Vim will define a sign for the annotation.
When color is a number, this is the "#rrggbb" Red, Green and
Blue values of the color (see |gui-colors|) and the
highlighting is only defined for GVim.
When color is a name, this color is defined both for Vim
running in a color terminal and for GVim.
When both "fg" and "bg" are "none" no line highlighting is
used (new in version 2.1).
When "glyphFile" is empty, no text sign is used (new in
version 2.1).
When "glyphFile" is one or two characters long, a text sign is
defined (new in version 2.1).
Note: the annotations will be defined in sequence, and the
sequence number is later used with addAnno.
editFile pathname
Set the name for the buffer and edit the file "pathname", a
string argument.
Normal way for the IDE to tell the editor to edit a file.
You must set a bufId different of 0 with this command to
assign a bufId to the buffer. It will trigger an event
fileOpened with a bufId of 0 but the buffer has been assigned.
If the IDE is going to pass the file text to the editor use
these commands instead:
setFullName
insert
initDone
New in version 2.1.
enableBalloonEval
Not implemented.
endAtomic End an atomic operation. The changes between "startAtomic"
and "endAtomic" can be undone as one operation. But it's not
implemented yet. Redraw when necessary.
guard off len
Mark an area in the buffer as guarded. This means it cannot
be edited. "off" and "len" are numbers and specify the text
to be guarded.
initDone Mark the buffer as ready for use. Implicitly makes the buffer
the current buffer. Fires the BufReadPost autocommand event.
insertDone
Sent by Vim Controller to tell Vim an initial file insert is
done. This triggers a read message being printed. Prior to
version 2.3, no read messages were displayed after opening a
file. New in version 2.3.
moveAnnoToFront serNum
Not implemented.
netbeansBuffer isNetbeansBuffer

If "isNetbeansBuffer" is "T" then this buffer is "owned" by

NetBeans.
New in version 2.2.
putBufferNumber pathname
Associate a buffer number with the Vim buffer by the name
"pathname", a string argument. To be used when the editor
reported editing another file to the IDE and the IDE needs to
tell the editor what buffer number it will use for this file.
Also marks the buffer as initialized.
New in version 2.1.
raise Bring the editor to the foreground.
Only when Vim is run with a GUI.
New in version 2.1.
removeAnno serNum
Remove a previously place annotation for this buffer.
"serNum" is the same number used in addAnno.
save Save the buffer when it was modified. The other side of the
interface is expected to write the buffer and invoke
"setModified" to reset the "changed" flag of the buffer.
The writing is skipped when one of these conditions is true:
- 'write' is not set
- the buffer is read-only
- the buffer does not have a file name
- 'buftype' disallows writing
New in version 2.2.
saveDone
Sent by Vim Controller to tell Vim a save is done. This
triggers a save message being printed. Prior to version 2.3,
no save messages were displayed after a save.
New in version 2.3.
setAsUser Not implemented.
setBufferNumber pathname
Associate a buffer number with Vim buffer by the name
"pathname". To be used when the editor reported editing
another file to the IDE and the IDE needs to tell the editor
what buffer number it will use for this file.
Has the side effect of making the buffer the current buffer.
See "putBufferNumber" for a more useful command.
setContentType
Not implemented.
setDot off Make the buffer the current buffer and set the cursor at the
specified position. If the buffer is open in another window
than make that window the current window.
If there are folds they are opened to make the cursor line
visible.
In version 2.1 "lnum/col" can be used instead of "off".
setExitDelay seconds
Set the delay for exiting to "seconds", a number.
This delay is used to give the IDE a chance to handle things
before really exiting. The default delay is two seconds.
New in version 2.1.
Obsolete in version 2.3.
setFullName pathname
Set the file name to be used for a buffer to "pathname", a
string argument.
Used when the IDE wants to edit a file under control of the
IDE. This makes the buffer the current buffer, but does not
read the file. "insert" commands will be used next to set the
contents.
setLocAndSize Not implemented.
setMark Not implemented.
setModified modified
When the boolean argument "modified" is "T" mark the buffer as
modified, when it is "F" mark it as unmodified.
setModtime time
Update a buffers modification time after the file has been

saved directly by the Vim Controller.

New in version 2.3.
setReadOnly
Set a file as readonly
Implemented in version 2.3.
setStyle Not implemented.
setTitle name
Set the title for the buffer to "name", a string argument.
The title is only used for the Vim Controller functions, not
by Vim.
setVisible visible
When the boolean argument "visible" is "T", goto the buffer.
The "F" argument does nothing.
showBalloon text
Show a balloon (popup window) at the mouse pointer position,
containing "text", a string argument. The balloon should
disappear when the mouse is moved more than a few pixels.
New in version 2.1.
specialKeys
Map a set of keys (mostly function keys) to be passed back
to the Vim Controller for processing. This lets regular IDE
hotkeys be used from Vim.
Implemented in version 2.3.
startAtomic Begin an atomic operation. The screen will not be updated
until "endAtomic" is given.
startCaretListen
Not implemented.
startDocumentListen
Mark the buffer to report changes to the IDE with the
"insert" and "remove" events. The default is to report
changes.
stopCaretListen
Not implemented.
stopDocumentListen
Mark the buffer to stop reporting changes to the IDE.
Opposite of startDocumentListen.
NOTE: if "netbeansBuffer" was used to mark this buffer as a
NetBeans buffer, then the buffer is deleted in Vim. This is
for compatibility with Sun Studio 10.
unguard off len
Opposite of "guard", remove guarding for a text area.
Also sets the current buffer, if necessary.
version Not implemented.
6.4 Functions and Replies *nb-functions*

getDot Not implemented.
getCursor Return the current buffer and cursor position.
The reply is:
seqno bufID lnum col off
seqno = sequence number of the function
bufID = buffer ID of the current buffer (if this is unknown -1
is used)
lnum = line number of the cursor (first line is one)
col = column number of the cursor (in bytes, zero based)
off = offset of the cursor in the buffer (in bytes)
New in version 2.1.
getLength Return the length of the buffer in bytes.
Reply example for a buffer with 5000 bytes:
123 5000
TODO: explain use of partial line.

getMark Not implemented.

getAnno serNum
Return the line number of the annotation in the buffer.
Argument:
serNum serial number of this placed annotation
The reply is:
123 lnum line number of the annotation
123 0 invalid annotation serial number
New in version 2.4.
getModified When a buffer is specified: Return zero if the buffer does not
have changes, one if it does have changes.
When no buffer is specified (buffer number zero): Return the
number of buffers with changes. When the result is zero it's
safe to tell Vim to exit.
New in version 2.1.
getText Return the contents of the buffer as a string.
Reply example for a buffer with two lines
123 "first line\nsecond line\n"
NOTE: docs indicate an offset and length argument, but this is
not implemented.
insert off text
Insert "text" before position "off". "text" is a string
argument, "off" a number.
"text" should have a "\n" (newline) at the end of each line.
Or "\r\n" when 'fileformat' is "dos". When using "insert" in
an empty buffer Vim will set 'fileformat' accordingly.
When "off" points to the start of a line the text is inserted
above this line. Thus when "off" is zero lines are inserted
before the first line.
When "off" points after the start of a line, possibly on the
NUL at the end of a line, the first line of text is appended
to this line. Further lines come below it.
Possible replies:
123 no problem
123 !message failed
Note that the message in the reply is not quoted.
Does not move the cursor to the changed text.
Resets undo information.
remove off length
Delete "length" bytes of text at position "off". Both
arguments are numbers.
Possible replies:
123 no problem
123 !message failed
Note that the message in the reply is not quoted.
saveAndExit Perform the equivalent of closing Vim: ":confirm qall".
If there are no changed files or the user does not cancel the
operation Vim exits and no result is sent back. The IDE can
consider closing the connection as a successful result.
If the user cancels the operation the number of modified
buffers that remains is returned and Vim does not exit.
New in version 2.1.
6.5 Events *nb-events*

balloonEval off len type
The mouse pointer rests on text for a short while. When "len"
is zero, there is no selection and the pointer is at position
"off". When "len" is non-zero the text from position "off" to
"off" + "len" is selected.
Only sent after "enableBalloonEval" was used for this buffer.
"type" is not yet defined.
Not implemented yet.
balloonText text
Used when 'ballooneval' is set and the mouse pointer rests on
some text for a moment. "text" is a string, the text under
the mouse pointer.
New in version 2.1.

buttonRelease button lnum col

Report which button was pressed and the location of the cursor
at the time of the release. Only for buffers that are owned
by the Vim Controller. This event is not sent if the button
was released while the mouse was in the status line or in a
separator line. If col is less than 1 the button release was
in the sign area.
New in version 2.2.
disconnect
Tell the Vim Controller that Vim is exiting and not to try and
read or write more commands.
New in version 2.3.
fileClosed Not implemented.
fileModified Not implemented.
fileOpened pathname open modified
A file was opened by the user.
Arguments:
pathname string name of the file
open boolean always "T"
modified boolean always "F"
geometry cols rows x y
Report the size and position of the editor window.
Arguments:
cols number number of text columns
rows number number of text rows
x number pixel position on screen
y number pixel position on screen
Only works for Motif.
insert off text
Text "text" has been inserted in Vim at position "off".
Only fired when enabled, see "startDocumentListen".
invokeAction Not implemented.
keyCommand keyName
Reports a special key being pressed with name "keyName", which
is a string.
Supported key names:
F1 function key 1
F2 function key 2
...
F12 function key 12
'' '' space (without the quotes)
! exclamation mark
... any other ASCII printable character
~ tilde
X any unrecognized key
The key may be prepended by "C", "S" and/or "M" for Control,
Shift and Meta (Alt) modifiers. If there is a modifier a dash
is used to separate it from the key name. For example:
"C-F2".
ASCII characters are new in version 2.1.
keyAtPos keyName lnum/col
Like "keyCommand" and also report the line number and column
of the cursor.
New in version 2.1.
killed A file was deleted or wiped out by the user and the buffer
annotations have been removed. The bufID number for this
buffer has become invalid. Only for files that have been
assigned a bufID number by the IDE.
newDotAndMark off off
Reports the position of the cursor being at "off" bytes into
the buffer. Only sent just before a "keyCommand" event.
quit Not implemented.
remove off len
Text was deleted in Vim at position "off" with byte length

"len".
revert Not implemented.
save The buffer has been saved and is now unmodified.
startupDone The editor has finished its startup work and is ready for
editing files.
New in version 2.1.
unmodified The buffer is now unmodified.
version vers Report the version of the interface implementation. Vim
reports "2.4" (including the quotes).
6.6 Special messages *nb-special*

These messages do not follow the style of the messages above. They are
terminated by a newline character.
ACCEPT Not used.
AUTH password editor -> IDE: First message that the editor sends to the IDE.
Must contain the password for the socket server, as specified
with the |-nb| argument. No quotes are used!
DISCONNECT IDE -> editor: break the connection. The editor will exit.
The IDE must only send this message when there are no unsaved
changes!
DETACH IDE -> editor: break the connection without exiting the
editor. Used when the IDE exits without bringing down the
editor as well.
New in version 2.1.
REJECT Not used.
6.7 Protocol errors *nb-protocol_errors*

These errors occur when a message violates the protocol:
*E627* *E628* *E629* *E630* *E631* *E632* *E633* *E634* *E635* *E636*
*E637* *E638* *E639* *E640* *E641* *E642* *E643* *E644* *E645* *E646*
*E647* *E648* *E649* *E650* *E651* *E652* *E653* *E654*
==============================================================================
7. NetBeans commands *netbeans-commands*
*:nbstart* *E511* *E838*

:nbs[tart] {connection} Start a new Netbeans session with {connection} as the
socket connection parameters. The format of
{connection} is described in |netbeans-parameters|.
At any time, one may check if the netbeans socket is
connected by running the command:
':echo has("netbeans_enabled")'
*:nbclose*
:nbc[lose] Close the current NetBeans session. Remove all placed
signs.
*:nbkey*
:nb[key] {key} Pass the {key} to the Vim Controller for processing
When a hot-key has been installed with the specialKeys command, this command
can be used to generate a hotkey messages to the Vim Controller. The events
newDotAndMark, keyCommand and keyAtPos are generated (in this order).

==============================================================================
8. Known problems *netbeans-problems*
NUL bytes are not possible. For editor -> IDE they will appear as NL
characters. For IDE -> editor they cannot be inserted.
A NetBeans session may be initiated with Vim running in a terminal, and
continued later in a GUI environment after running the |:gui| command. In this
case, the highlighting defined for the NetBeans annotations may be cleared
when the ":gui" command sources .gvimrc and this file loads a colorscheme
that runs the command ":highlight clear".
New in version 2.5.
==============================================================================
9. Debugging NetBeans protocol *netbeans-debugging*
To debug the Vim protocol, you must first compile Vim with debugging support
and NetBeans debugging support. See |netbeans-configure| for instructions
about Vim compiling and how to enable debug support.
When running Vim, set the following environment variables:
export SPRO_GVIM_DEBUG=netbeans.log
export SPRO_GVIM_DLEVEL=0xffffffff
Vim will then log all the incoming and outgoing messages of the NetBeans
protocol to the file netbeans.log .
The content of netbeans.log after a session looks like this:
Tue May 20 17:19:27 2008
EVT: 0:startupDone=0
CMD 1: (1) create
CMD 2: (1) setTitle "testfile1.txt"
CMD 3: (1) setFullName "testfile1.txt"
EVT(suppressed): 1:remove=3 0 -1
EVT: 1:fileOpened=0 "d:\\work\\vimWrapper\\vimWrapper2\\pyvimwrapper\\tests\\testfile1.txt" T F
CMD 4: (1) initDone
FUN 5: (0) getCursor
REP 5: 1 1 0 0
CMD 6: (2) create
CMD 7: (2) setTitle "testfile2.txt"
CMD 8: (2) setFullName "testfile2.txt"
EVT(suppressed): 2:remove=8 0 -1
EVT: 2:fileOpened=0 "d:\\work\\vimWrapper\\vimWrapper2\\pyvimwrapper\\tests\\testfile2.txt" T F
CMD 9: (2) initDone
==============================================================================
10. NetBeans External Editor
NOTE: This information is obsolete! Only relevant if you are using an old
version of NetBeans.
10.1. Downloading NetBeans *netbeans-download*

The NetBeans IDE is available for download from netbeans.org. You can download
a released version, download sources, or use CVS to download the current
source tree. If you choose to download sources, follow directions from
netbeans.org on building NetBeans.
Depending on the version of NetBeans you download, you may need to do further
work to get the required External Editor module. This is the module which lets
NetBeans work with gvim or xemacs :-. See http://externaleditor.netbeans.org
for details on downloading this module if your NetBeans release does not have
it.
For C, C++, and Fortran support you will also need the cpp module. See
http://cpp.netbeans.org for information regarding this module.
You can also download Sun ONE Studio from Sun Microsystems, Inc for a 30 day
free trial. See http://www.sun.com for further details.

10.2. NetBeans Key Bindings *netbeans-keybindings*

Vim understands a number of key bindings that execute NetBeans commands.
These are typically all the Function key combinations. To execute a NetBeans
command, the user must press the Pause key followed by a NetBeans key binding.
For example, in order to compile a Java file, the NetBeans key binding is
"F9". So, while in vim, press "Pause F9" to compile a java file. To toggle a
breakpoint at the current line, press "Pause Shift F8".
The Pause key is Function key 21. If you don't have a working Pause key and
want to use F8 instead, use:
:map <F8> <F21>
The External Editor module dynamically reads the NetBeans key bindings so vim
should always have the latest key bindings, even when NetBeans changes them.
10.3. Preparing NetBeans for Vim *netbeans-preparation*

In order for NetBeans to work with vim, the NetBeans External Editor module
must be loaded and enabled. If you have a Sun ONE Studio Enterprise Edition
then this module should be loaded and enabled. If you have a NetBeans release
you may need to find another way of obtaining this open source module.
You can check if you have this module by opening the Tools->Options dialog
and drilling down to the "Modules" list (IDE Configuration->System->Modules).
If your Modules list has an entry for "External Editor" you must make sure
it is enabled (the "Enabled" property should have the value "True"). If your
Modules list has no External Editor see the next section on |obtaining-exted|.
10.4. Obtaining the External Editor Module *obtaining-exted*

There are 2 ways of obtaining the External Editor module. The easiest way
is to use the NetBeans Update Center to download and install the module.
Unfortunately, some versions do not have this module in their update
center. If you cannot download via the update center you will need to
download sources and build the module. I will try and get the module
available from the NetBeans Update Center so building will be unnecessary.
Also check http://externaleditor.netbeans.org for other availability options.
To download the External Editor sources via CVS and build your own module,
see http://externaleditor.netbeans.org and http://www.netbeans.org.
Unfortunately, this is not a trivial procedure.
10.5. Setting up NetBeans to run with Vim *netbeans-setup*

Assuming you have loaded and enabled the NetBeans External Editor module
as described in |netbeans-preparation| all you need to do is verify that
the gvim command line is properly configured for your environment.
Open the Tools->Options dialog and open the Editing category. Select the
External Editor. The right hand pane should contain a Properties tab and
an Expert tab. In the Properties tab make sure the "Editor Type" is set
to "Vim". In the Expert tab make sure the "Vim Command" is correct.
You should be careful if you change the "Vim Command". There are command
line options there which must be there for the connection to be properly
set up. You can change the command name but that's about it. If your gvim
can be found by your $PATH then the VIM Command can start with "gvim". If
you don't want gvim searched from your $PATH then hard code in the full
Unix path name. At this point you should get a gvim for any source file
you open in NetBeans.
If some files come up in gvim and others (with different file suffixes) come
up in the default NetBeans editor you should verify the MIME type in the
Expert tab MIME Type property. NetBeans is MIME oriented and the External
Editor will only open MIME types specified in this property.

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: vi_diff
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*vi_diff.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Oct 11
Differences between Vim and Vi *vi-differences*

Throughout the help files differences between Vim and Vi/Ex are given in
curly braces, like "{not in Vi}". This file only lists what has not been
mentioned in other files and gives an overview.
Vim is mostly POSIX 1003.2-1 compliant. The only command known to be missing
is ":open". There are probably a lot of small differences (either because Vim
is missing something or because Posix is beside the mark).
1. Simulated command |simulated-command|
2. Missing options |missing-options|
3. Limits |limits|
4. The most interesting additions |vim-additions|
5. Other vim features |other-features|
6. Command-line arguments |cmdline-arguments|
7. POSIX compliance |posix-compliance|
==============================================================================
1. Simulated command *simulated-command*
This command is in Vi, but Vim only simulates it:
*:o* *:op* *:open*

:[range]o[pen] Works like |:visual|: end Ex mode.
{Vi: start editing in open mode}
:[range]o[pen] /pattern/ As above, additionally move the cursor to the
column where "pattern" matches in the cursor
line.
Vim does not support open mode, since it's not really useful. For those
situations where ":open" would start open mode Vim will leave Ex mode, which
allows executing the same commands, but updates the whole screen instead of
only one line.
==============================================================================
2. Missing options *missing-options*
These options are in the Unix Vi, but not in Vim. If you try to set one of
them you won't get an error message, but the value is not used and cannot be
printed.
autoprint (ap) boolean (default on) *'autoprint'* *'ap'*

beautify (bf) boolean (default off) *'beautify'* *'bf'*
flash (fl) boolean (default ??) *'flash'* *'fl'*
graphic (gr) boolean (default off) *'graphic'* *'gr'*
hardtabs (ht) number (default 8) * * * *
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/vi_diff.html[2019/03/05 11:42:58 AM]

'hardtabs' 'ht'
number of spaces that a <Tab> moves on the display
mesg boolean (default on) *'mesg'*
novice boolean (default off) *'novice'*
open boolean (default on) *'open'*
optimize (op) boolean (default off) *'optimize'* *'op'*
redraw boolean (default off) *'redraw'*
slowopen (slow) boolean (default off) *'slowopen'* *'slow'*
sourceany boolean (default off) *'sourceany'*
w300 number (default 23) *'w300'*
==============================================================================
3. Limits *limits*
Vim has only a few limits for the files that can be edited {Vi: can not handle
<Nul> characters and characters above 128, has limited line length, many other
limits}.
*E340*
Maximum line length On machines with 16-bit ints (Amiga and MS-DOS real
mode): 32767, otherwise 2147483647 characters.
Longer lines are split.
Maximum number of lines 2147483647 lines.
Maximum file size 2147483647 bytes (2 Gbyte) when a long integer is
32 bits. Much more for 64 bit longs. Also limited
by available disk space for the |swap-file|.
*E75*
Length of a file path Unix and Win32: 1024 characters, otherwise 256
characters (or as much as the system supports).
Length of an expanded string option
Unix and Win32: 1024 characters, otherwise 256
characters
Maximum display width Unix and Win32: 1024 characters, otherwise 255
characters
Maximum lhs of a mapping 50 characters.
Number of different highlighting types: over 30000
Range of a Number variable: -2147483648 to 2147483647 (more on 64 bit
systems)
Maximum length of a line in a tags file: 512 bytes.
Information for undo and text in registers is kept in memory, thus when making
(big) changes the amount of (virtual) memory available limits the number of
undo levels and the text that can be kept in registers. Other things are also
kept in memory: Command-line history, error messages for Quickfix mode, etc.
Memory usage limits
The option 'maxmem' ('mm') is used to set the maximum memory used for one
buffer (in kilobytes). 'maxmemtot' is used to set the maximum memory used for
all buffers (in kilobytes). The defaults depend on the system used. For the
Amiga and MS-DOS, 'maxmemtot' is set depending on the amount of memory
available.
These are not hard limits, but tell Vim when to move text into a swap file.
If you don't like Vim to swap to a file, set 'maxmem' and 'maxmemtot' to a
very large value. The swap file will then only be used for recovery. If you
don't want a swap file at all, set 'updatecount' to 0, or use the "-n"
argument when starting Vim.
==============================================================================
4. The most interesting additions *vim-additions*
Vi compatibility. |'compatible'|
Although Vim is 99% Vi compatible, some things in Vi can be
considered to be a bug, or at least need improvement. But still, Vim

starts in a mode which behaves like the "real" Vi as much as possible.

To make Vim behave a little bit better, try resetting the 'compatible'
option:
:set nocompatible
Or start Vim with the "-N" argument:
vim -N
Vim starts with 'nocompatible' automatically if you have a .vimrc
file. See |startup|.
The 'cpoptions' option can be used to set Vi compatibility on/off for
a number of specific items.
Support for different systems.
Vim can be used on:
- All Unix systems (it works on all systems it was tested on, although
the GUI and Perl interface may not work everywhere).
- Amiga (500, 1000, 1200, 2000, 3000, 4000, ...).
- MS-DOS in real-mode (no additional drivers required).
- In protected mode on Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS (DPMI driver required).
- Windows 95 and Windows NT, with support for long file names.
- OS/2 (needs emx.dll)
- Atari MiNT
- VMS
- BeOS
- Macintosh
- Risc OS
- IBM OS/390
Note that on some systems features need to be disabled to reduce
resource usage, esp. on MS-DOS. For some outdated systems you need to
use an older Vim version.
Multi level undo. |undo|
'u' goes backward in time, 'CTRL-R' goes forward again. Set option
'undolevels' to the number of changes to be remembered (default 1000).
Set 'undolevels' to 0 for a vi-compatible one level undo. Set it to
-1 for no undo at all.
When all changes in a buffer have been undone, the buffer is not
considered changed anymore. You can exit it with :q, without <!>.
When undoing a few changes and then making a new change Vim will
create a branch in the undo tree. This means you can go back to any
state of the text, there is no risk of a change causing text to be
lost forever. |undo-tree|
Graphical User Interface (GUI). |gui|
Included support for GUI: menu's, mouse, scrollbars, etc. You can
define your own menus. Better support for CTRL/SHIFT/ALT keys in
combination with special keys and mouse. Supported for various
platforms, such as X11 (with Motif and Athena interfaces), GTK, Win32
(Windows 95 and later), BeOS, Amiga and Macintosh.
Multiple windows and buffers. |windows.txt|
Vim can split the screen into several windows, each editing a
different buffer or the same buffer at a different location. Buffers
can still be loaded (and changed) but not displayed in a window. This
is called a hidden buffer. Many commands and options have been added
for this facility.
Vim can also use multiple tab pages, each with one or more windows. A
line with tab labels can be used to quickly switch between these pages.
|tab-page|
Syntax highlighting. |:syntax|
Vim can highlight keywords, patterns and other things. This is
defined by a number of |:syntax| commands, and can be made to
highlight most languages and file types. A number of files are
included for highlighting the most common languages, like C, C++,
Java, Pascal, Makefiles, shell scripts, etc. The colors used for
highlighting can be defined for ordinary terminals, color terminals
and the GUI with the |:highlight| command. A convenient way to do
this is using a |:colorscheme| command.
The highlighted text can be exported as HTML. |convert-to-HTML|
Other items that can be highlighted are matches with the search string
|'hlsearch'|, matching parens |matchparen| and the cursor line and
column |'cursorline'| |'cursorcolumn'|.
Spell checking. |spell|
When the 'spell' option is set Vim will highlight spelling mistakes.
About 40 languages are currently supported, selected with the
'spelllang' option. In source code only comments and strings are
checked for spelling.
Folding. |folding|
A range of lines can be shown as one "folded" line. This allows

overviewing a file and moving blocks of text around quickly.

Folds can be created manually, from the syntax of the file, by indent,
etc.
Diff mode. |diff|
Vim can show two versions of a file with the differences highlighted.
Parts of the text that are equal are folded away. Commands can be
used to move text from one version to the other.
Plugins. |add-plugin|
The functionality can be extended by dropping a plugin file in the
right directory. That's an easy way to start using Vim scripts
written by others. Plugins can be for all kind of files, or
specifically for a filetype.
Repeat a series of commands. |q|
"q{c}" starts recording typed characters into named register {c}.
A subsequent "q" stops recording. The register can then be executed
with the "@{c}" command. This is very useful to repeat a complex
action.
Flexible insert mode. |ins-special-special|
The arrow keys can be used in insert mode to move around in the file.
This breaks the insert in two parts as far as undo and redo is
concerned.
CTRL-O can be used to execute a single Normal mode command. This is
almost the same as hitting <Esc>, typing the command and doing |a|.
Visual mode. |Visual-mode|
Visual mode can be used to first highlight a piece of text and then
give a command to do something with it. This is an (easy to use)
alternative to first giving the operator and then moving to the end of
the text to be operated upon.
|v| and |V| are used to start Visual mode. |v| works on characters
and |V| on lines. Move the cursor to extend the Visual area. It is
shown highlighted on the screen. By typing "o" the other end of the
Visual area can be moved. The Visual area can be affected by an
operator:
d delete
c change
y yank
> or < insert or delete indent
! filter through external program
= filter through indent
: start |:| command for the Visual lines.
gq format text to 'textwidth' columns
J join lines
~ swap case
u make lowercase
U make uppercase
Block operators. |visual-block|
With Visual mode a rectangular block of text can be selected. Start
Visual mode with CTRL-V. The block can be deleted ("d"), yanked ("y")
or its case can be changed ("~", "u" and "U"). A deleted or yanked
block can be put into the text with the "p" and "P" commands.
Help system. |:help|
Help is displayed in a window. The usual commands can be used to
move around, search for a string, etc. Tags can be used to jump
around in the help files, just like hypertext links. The |:help|
command takes an argument to quickly jump to the info on a subject.
<F1> is the quick access to the help system. The name of the help
index file can be set with the 'helpfile' option.
Command-line editing and history. |cmdline-editing|
You can insert or delete at any place in the command-line using the
cursor keys. The right/left cursor keys can be used to move
forward/backward one character. The shifted right/left cursor keys
can be used to move forward/backward one word. CTRL-B/CTRL-E can be
used to go to the begin/end of the command-line.
|cmdline-history|
The command-lines are remembered. The up/down cursor keys can be used
to recall previous command-lines. The 'history' option can be set to
the number of lines that will be remembered. There is a separate
history for commands and for search patterns.
Command-line completion. |cmdline-completion|
While entering a command-line (on the bottom line of the screen)
<Tab> can be typed to complete

what example
- command :e<Tab>
- tag :ta scr<Tab>
- option :set sc<Tab>
- option value :set hf=<Tab>
- file name :e ve<Tab>
- etc.
If there are multiple matches, CTRL-N (next) and CTRL-P (previous)
will walk through the matches. <Tab> works like CTRL-N, but wraps
around to the first match.
The 'wildchar' option can be set to the character for command-line
completion, <Tab> is the default. CTRL-D can be typed after an
(incomplete) wildcard; all matches will be listed. CTRL-A will insert
all matches. CTRL-L will insert the longest common part of the
matches.
Insert-mode completion. |ins-completion|
In Insert mode the CTRL-N and CTRL-P keys can be used to complete a
word that appears elsewhere. |i_CTRL-N|
With CTRL-X another mode is entered, through which completion can be
done for:
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-F| file names
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-K| words from 'dictionary' files
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-T| words from 'thesaurus' files
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-I| words from included files
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-L| whole lines
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-]| words from the tags file
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-D| definitions or macros
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-O| Omni completion: clever completion
specifically for a file type
etc.
Long line support. |'wrap'| |'linebreak'|
If the 'wrap' option is off, long lines will not wrap and only part
of them will be shown. When the cursor is moved to a part that is not
shown, the screen will scroll horizontally. The minimum number of
columns to scroll can be set with the 'sidescroll' option. The |zh|
and |zl| commands can be used to scroll sideways.
Alternatively, long lines are broken in between words when the
'linebreak' option is set. This allows editing a single-line
paragraph conveniently (e.g. when the text is later read into a DTP
program). Move the cursor up/down with the |gk| and |gj| commands.
Text formatting. |formatting|
The 'textwidth' option can be used to automatically limit the line
length. This supplements the 'wrapmargin' option of Vi, which was not
very useful. The |gq| operator can be used to format a piece of text
(for example, |gqap| formats the current paragraph). Commands for
text alignment: |:center|, |:left| and |:right|.
Extended search patterns. |pattern|
There are many extra items to match various text items. Examples:
A "\n" can be used in a search pattern to match a line break.
"x\{2,4}" matches "x" 2 to 4 times.
"\s" matches a white space character.
Directory, remote and archive browsing. |netrw|
Vim can browse the file system. Simply edit a directory. Move around
in the list with the usual commands and press <Enter> to go to the
directory or file under the cursor.
This also works for remote files over ftp, http, ssh, etc.
Zip and tar archives can also be browsed. |tar| |zip|
Edit-compile-edit speedup. |quickfix|
The |:make| command can be used to run the compilation and jump to the
first error. A file with compiler error messages is interpreted. Vim
jumps to the first error.
Each line in the error file is scanned for the name of a file, line
number and error message. The 'errorformat' option can be set to a
list of scanf-like strings to handle output from many compilers.
The |:cn| command can be used to jump to the next error.
|:cl| lists all the error messages. Other commands are available.
The 'makeef' option has the name of the file with error messages.
The 'makeprg' option contains the name of the program to be executed
with the |:make| command.
The 'shellpipe' option contains the string to be used to put the

output of the compiler into the errorfile.

Finding matches in files. |:vimgrep|
Vim can search for a pattern in multiple files. This uses the
advanced Vim regexp pattern, works on all systems and also works to
search in compressed files.
Improved indenting for programs. |'cindent'|
When the 'cindent' option is on the indent of each line is
automatically adjusted. C syntax is mostly recognized. The indent
for various styles can be set with 'cinoptions'. The keys to trigger
indenting can be set with 'cinkeys'.
Comments can be automatically formatted. The 'comments' option can be
set to the characters that start and end a comment. This works best
for C code, but also works for e-mail (">" at start of the line) and
other types of text. The |=| operator can be used to re-indent
lines.
For many other languages an indent plugin is present to support
automatic indenting. |30.3|
Searching for words in included files. |include-search|
The |[i| command can be used to search for a match of the word under
the cursor in the current and included files. The 'include' option
can be set to a pattern that describes a command to include a file
(the default is for C programs).
The |[I| command lists all matches, the |[_CTRL-I| command jumps to
a match.
The |[d|, |[D| and |[_CTRL-D| commands do the same, but only for
lines where the pattern given with the 'define' option matches.
Automatic commands. |autocommand|
Commands can be automatically executed when reading a file, writing a
file, jumping to another buffer, etc., depending on the file name.
This is useful to set options and mappings for C programs,
documentation, plain text, e-mail, etc. This also makes it possible
to edit compressed files.
Scripts and Expressions. |expression|
Commands have been added to form up a powerful script language.
|:if| Conditional execution, which can be used for example
to set options depending on the value of $TERM.
|:while| Repeat a number of commands.
|:for| Loop over a list.
|:echo| Print the result of an expression.
|:let| Assign a value to an internal variable, option, etc.
Variable types are Number, String, List and Dictionary.
|:execute| Execute a command formed by an expression.
|:try| Catch exceptions.
etc., etc. See |eval|.
Debugging and profiling are supported. |debug-scripts| |profile|
If this is not enough, an interface is provided to |Python|, |Ruby|,
|Tcl|, |Lua|, |Perl| and |MzScheme|.
Viminfo. |viminfo-file|
The command-line history, marks and registers can be stored in a file
that is read on startup. This can be used to repeat a search command
or command-line command after exiting and restarting Vim. It is also
possible to jump right back to where the last edit stopped with |'0|.
The 'viminfo' option can be set to select which items to store in the
.viminfo file. This is off by default.
Printing. |printing|
The |:hardcopy| command sends text to the printer. This can include
syntax highlighting.
Mouse support. |mouse-using|
The mouse is supported in the GUI version, in an xterm for Unix, for
BSDs with sysmouse, for Linux with gpm, for MS-DOS, and Win32. It
can be used to position the cursor, select the visual area, paste a
register, etc.
Usage of key names. |<>| |key-notation|
Special keys now all have a name like <Up>, <End>, etc.
This name can be used in mappings, to make it easy to edit them.
Editing binary files. |edit-binary|
Vim can edit binary files. You can change a few characters in an
executable file, without corrupting it. Vim doesn't remove NUL
characters (they are represented as <NL> internally).

|-b| command-line argument to start editing a binary file

|'binary'| Option set by |-b|. Prevents adding an <EOL> for the
last line in the file.
Multi-language support. |multi-lang|
Files in double-byte or multi-byte encodings can be edited. There is
UTF-8 support to be able to edit various languages at the same time,
without switching fonts. |UTF-8|
Messages and menus are available in different languages.
Move cursor beyond lines.
When the 'virtualedit' option is set the cursor can move all over the
screen, also where there is no text. This is useful to edit tables
and figures easily.
==============================================================================
5. Other vim features *other-features*
A random collection of nice extra features.
When Vim is started with "-s scriptfile", the characters read from
"scriptfile" are treated as if you typed them. If end of file is reached
before the editor exits, further characters are read from the console.
The "-w" option can be used to record all typed characters in a script file.
This file can then be used to redo the editing, possibly on another file or
after changing some commands in the script file.
The "-o" option opens a window for each argument. "-o4" opens four windows.
Vi requires several termcap entries to be able to work full-screen. Vim only
requires the "cm" entry (cursor motion).
In command mode:
When the 'showcmd' option is set, the command characters are shown in the last
line of the screen. They are removed when the command is finished.
If the 'ruler' option is set, the current cursor position is shown in the
last line of the screen.
"U" still works after having moved off the last changed line and after "u".
Characters with the 8th bit set are displayed. The characters between '~' and
0xa0 are displayed as "~?", "~@", "~A", etc., unless they are included in the
'isprint' option.
"][" goes to the next ending of a C function ('}' in column 1).
"[]" goes to the previous ending of a C function ('}' in column 1).
"]f", "[f" and "gf" start editing the file whose name is under the cursor.
CTRL-W f splits the window and starts editing the file whose name is under
the cursor.
"*" searches forward for the identifier under the cursor, "#" backward.
"K" runs the program defined by the 'keywordprg' option, with the identifier
under the cursor as argument.
"%" can be preceded with a count. The cursor jumps to the line that
percentage down in the file. The normal "%" function to jump to the matching
brace skips braces inside quotes.
With the CTRL-] command, the cursor may be in the middle of the identifier.
The used tags are remembered. Commands that can be used with the tag stack
are CTRL-T, ":pop" and ":tag". ":tags" lists the tag stack.
The 'tags' option can be set to a list of tag file names. Thus multiple
tag files can be used. For file names that start with "./", the "./" is
replaced with the path of the current file. This makes it possible to use a
tags file in the same directory as the file being edited.
Previously used file names are remembered in the alternate file name list.
CTRL-^ accepts a count, which is an index in this list.
":files" command shows the list of alternate file names.
"#<N>" is replaced with the <N>th alternate file name in the list.
"#<" is replaced with the current file name without extension.

Search patterns have more features. The <NL> character is seen as part of the
search pattern and the substitute string of ":s". Vi sees it as the end of
the command.
Searches can put the cursor on the end of a match and may include a character
offset.
Count added to "~", ":next", ":Next", "n" and "N".
The command ":next!" with 'autowrite' set does not write the file. In vi the
file was written, but this is considered to be a bug, because one does not
expect it and the file is not written with ":rewind!".
In Vi when entering a <CR> in replace mode deletes a character only when 'ai'
is set (but does not show it until you hit <Esc>). Vim always deletes a
character (and shows it immediately).
Added :wnext command. Same as ":write" followed by ":next".
The ":w!" command always writes, also when the file is write protected. In Vi
you would have to do ":!chmod +w %" and ":set noro"
When 'tildeop' has been set, "~" is an operator (must be followed by a
movement command).
With the "J" (join) command you can reset the 'joinspaces' option to have only
one space after a period (Vi inserts two spaces).
"cw" can be used to change white space formed by several characters (Vi is
confusing: "cw" only changes one space, while "dw" deletes all white space).
"o" and "O" accept a count for repeating the insert (Vi clears a part of
display).
Flags after Ex commands not supported (no plans to include it).
On non-UNIX systems ":cd" command shows current directory instead of going to
the home directory (there isn't one). ":pwd" prints the current directory on
all systems.
After a ":cd" command the file names (in the argument list, opened files)
still point to the same files. In Vi ":cd" is not allowed in a changed file;
otherwise the meaning of file names change.
":source!" command reads Vi commands from a file.
":mkexrc" command writes current modified options and mappings to a ".exrc"
file. ":mkvimrc" writes to a ".vimrc" file.
No check for "tail recursion" with mappings. This allows things like
":map! foo ^]foo".
When a mapping starts with number, vi loses the count typed before it (e.g.
when using the mapping ":map g 4G" the command "7g" goes to line 4). This is
considered a vi bug. Vim concatenates the counts (in the example it becomes
"74G"), as most people would expect.
The :put! command inserts the contents of a register above the current line.
The "p" and "P" commands of vi cannot be repeated with "." when the putted
text is less than a line. In Vim they can always be repeated.
":noremap" command can be used to enter a mapping that will not be remapped.
This is useful to exchange the meaning of two keys. ":cmap", ":cunmap" and
":cnoremap" can be used for mapping in command-line editing only. ":imap",
":iunmap" and ":inoremap" can be used for mapping in insert mode only.
Similar commands exist for abbreviations: ":noreabbrev", ":iabbrev"
":cabbrev", ":iunabbrev", ":cunabbrev", ":inoreabbrev", ":cnoreabbrev".
In Vi the command ":map foo bar" would remove a previous mapping
":map bug foo". This is considered a bug, so it is not included in Vim.
":unmap! foo" does remove ":map! bug foo", because unmapping would be very
difficult otherwise (this is vi compatible).
The ':' register contains the last command-line.
The '%' register contains the current file name.
The '.' register contains the last inserted text.
":dis" command shows the contents of the yank registers.
CTRL-O/CTRL-I can be used to jump to older/newer positions. These are the

same positions as used with the '' command, but may be in another file. The
":jumps" command lists the older positions.
If the 'shiftround' option is set, an indent is rounded to a multiple of
'shiftwidth' with ">" and "<" commands.
The 'scrolljump' option can be set to the minimum number of lines to scroll
when the cursor gets off the screen. Use this when scrolling is slow.
The 'scrolloff' option can be set to the minimum number of lines to keep
above and below the cursor. This gives some context to where you are
editing. When set to a large number the cursor line is always in the middle
of the window.
Uppercase marks can be used to jump between files. The ":marks" command lists
all currently set marks. The commands "']" and "`]" jump to the end of the
previous operator or end of the text inserted with the put command. "'[" and
"`[" do jump to the start.
The 'shelltype' option can be set to reflect the type of shell used on the
Amiga.
The 'highlight' option can be set for the highlight mode to be used for
several commands.
The CTRL-A (add) and CTRL-X (subtract) commands are new. The count to the
command (default 1) is added to/subtracted from the number at or after the
cursor. That number may be decimal, octal (starts with a '0') or hexadecimal
(starts with '0x'). Very useful in macros.
With the :set command the prefix "inv" can be used to invert boolean options.
In both Vi and Vim you can create a line break with the ":substitute" command
by using a CTRL-M. For Vi this means you cannot insert a real CTRL-M in the
text. With Vim you can put a real CTRL-M in the text by preceding it with a
CTRL-V.
In Insert mode:
If the 'revins' option is set, insert happens backwards. This is for typing
Hebrew. When inserting normal characters the cursor will not be shifted and
the text moves rightwards. Backspace, CTRL-W and CTRL-U will also work in
the opposite direction. CTRL-B toggles the 'revins' option. In replace mode
'revins' has no effect. Only when enabled at compile time.
The backspace key can be used just like CTRL-D to remove auto-indents.
You can backspace, CTRL-U and CTRL-W over line breaks if the 'backspace' (bs)
option includes "eol". You can backspace over the start of insert if the
'backspace' option includes "start".
When the 'paste' option is set, a few option are reset and mapping in insert
mode and abbreviation are disabled. This allows for pasting text in windowing
systems without unexpected results. When the 'paste' option is reset, the old
option values are restored.
CTRL-T/CTRL-D always insert/delete an indent in the current line, no matter
what column the cursor is in.
CTRL-@ (insert previously inserted text) works always (Vi: only when typed as
first character).
CTRL-A works like CTRL-@ but does not leave insert mode.
CTRL-R {0-9a-z..} can be used to insert the contents of a register.
When the 'smartindent' option is set, C programs will be better auto-indented.
With 'cindent' even more.
CTRL-Y and CTRL-E can be used to copy a character from above/below the
current cursor position.
After CTRL-V you can enter a three digit decimal number. This byte value is
inserted in the text as a single character. Useful for international
characters that are not on your keyboard.
When the 'expandtab' (et) option is set, a <Tab> is expanded to the
appropriate number of spaces.
The window always reflects the contents of the buffer (Vi does not do this

when changing text and in some other cases).

If Vim is compiled with DIGRAPHS defined, digraphs are supported. A set of
normal digraphs is included. They are shown with the ":digraph" command.
More can be added with ":digraph {char1}{char2} {number}". A digraph is
entered with "CTRL-K {char1} {char2}" or "{char1} BS {char2}" (only when
'digraph' option is set).
When repeating an insert, e.g. "10atest <Esc>" vi would only handle wrapmargin
for the first insert. Vim does it for all.
A count to the "i" or "a" command is used for all the text. Vi uses the count
only for one line. "3iabc<NL>def<Esc>" would insert "abcabcabc<NL>def" in Vi
but "abc<NL>defabc<NL>defabc<NL>def" in Vim.
In Command-line mode:
<Esc> terminates the command-line without executing it. In vi the command
line would be executed, which is not what most people expect (hitting <Esc>
should always get you back to command mode). To avoid problems with some
obscure macros, an <Esc> in a macro will execute the command. If you want a
typed <Esc> to execute the command like vi does you can fix this with
":cmap ^V<Esc> ^V<CR>"
General:
The 'ttimeout' option is like 'timeout', but only works for cursor and
function keys, not for ordinary mapped characters. The 'timeoutlen' option
gives the number of milliseconds that is waited for. If the 'esckeys' option
is not set, cursor and function keys that start with <Esc> are not recognized
in insert mode.
There is an option for each terminal string. Can be used when termcap is not
supported or to change individual strings.
The 'fileformat' option can be set to select the <EOL>: "dos" <CR><NL>, "unix"
<NL> or "mac" <CR>.
When the 'fileformats' option is not empty, Vim tries to detect the type of
<EOL> automatically. The 'fileformat' option is set accordingly.
On systems that have no job control (older Unix systems and non-Unix systems)
the CTRL-Z, ":stop" or ":suspend" command starts a new shell.
If Vim is started on the Amiga without an interactive window for output, a
window is opened (and :sh still works). You can give a device to use for
editing with the |-d| argument, e.g. "-d con:20/20/600/150".
The 'columns' and 'lines' options are used to set or get the width and height
of the display.
Option settings are read from the first and last few lines of the file.
Option 'modelines' determines how many lines are tried (default is 5). Note
that this is different from the Vi versions that can execute any Ex command
in a modeline (a major security problem). |trojan-horse|
If the 'insertmode' option is set (e.g. in .exrc), Vim starts in insert mode.
And it comes back there, when pressing <Esc>.
Undo information is kept in memory. Available memory limits the number and
size of change that can be undone. This may be a problem with MS-DOS, is
hardly a problem on the Amiga and almost never with Unix and Win32.
If the 'backup' or 'writebackup' option is set: Before a file is overwritten,
a backup file (.bak) is made. If the "backup" option is set it is left
behind.
Vim creates a file ending in ".swp" to store parts of the file that have been
changed or that do not fit in memory. This file can be used to recover from
an aborted editing session with "vim -r file". Using the swap file can be
switched off by setting the 'updatecount' option to 0 or starting Vim with
the "-n" option. Use the 'directory' option for placing the .swp file
somewhere else.
Vim is able to work correctly on filesystems with 8.3 file names, also when
using messydos or crossdos filesystems on the Amiga, or any 8.3 mounted
filesystem under Unix. See |'shortname'|.
Error messages are shown at least one second (Vi overwrites error messages).
If Vim gives the |hit-enter| prompt, you can hit any key. Characters other

than <CR>, <NL> and <Space> are interpreted as the (start of) a command. (Vi
only accepts a command starting with ':').
The contents of the numbered and unnamed registers is remembered when
changing files.
The "No lines in buffer" message is a normal message instead of an error
message, since that may cause a mapping to be aborted.
The AUX: device of the Amiga is supported.
==============================================================================
6. Command-line arguments *cmdline-arguments*
Different versions of Vi have different command-line arguments. This can be
confusing. To help you, this section gives an overview of the differences.
Five variants of Vi will be considered here:
Elvis Elvis version 2.1b
Nvi Nvi version 1.79
Posix Posix 1003.2
Vi Vi version 3.7 (for Sun 4.1.x)
Vile Vile version 7.4 (incomplete)
Vim Vim version 5.2
Only Vim is able to accept options in between and after the file names.
+{command} Elvis, Nvi, Posix, Vi, Vim: Same as "-c {command}".
- Nvi, Posix, Vi: Run Ex in batch mode.
Vim: Read file from stdin (use -s for batch mode).
-- Vim: End of options, only file names are following.
--cmd {command} Vim: execute {command} before sourcing vimrc files.
--echo-wid Vim: GTK+ echoes the Window ID on stdout
--help Vim: show help message and exit.
--literal Vim: take file names literally, don't expand wildcards.
--nofork Vim: same as |-f|
--noplugin[s] Vim: Skip loading plugins.
--remote Vim: edit the files in another Vim server
--remote-expr {expr} Vim: evaluate {expr} in another Vim server
--remote-send {keys} Vim: send {keys} to a Vim server and exit
--remote-silent {file} Vim: edit the files in another Vim server if possible
--remote-wait Vim: edit the files in another Vim server and wait for it
--remote-wait-silent Vim: like --remote-wait, no complaints if not possible
--role {role} Vim: GTK+ 2: set role of main window
--serverlist Vim: Output a list of Vim servers and exit
--servername {name} Vim: Specify Vim server name
--socketid {id} Vim: GTK window socket to run Vim in
--windowid {id} Vim: Win32 window ID to run Vim in
--version Vim: show version message and exit.
-? Vile: print usage summary and exit.
-a Elvis: Load all specified file names into a window (use -o for
Vim).
-A Vim: Start in Arabic mode (when compiled with Arabic).
-b {blksize} Elvis: Use {blksize} blocksize for the session file.
-b Vim: set 'binary' mode.

-C Vim: Compatible mode.

-c {command} Elvis, Nvi, Posix, Vim: run {command} as an Ex command after
loading the edit buffer.
Vim: allow up to 10 "-c" arguments
-d {device} Vim: Use {device} for I/O (Amiga only). {only when compiled
without the |+diff| feature}
-d Vim: start with 'diff' set. |vimdiff|
-dev {device} Vim: Use {device} for I/O (Amiga only).
-D Vim: debug mode.
-e Elvis, Nvi, Vim: Start in Ex mode, as if the executable is
called "ex".
-E Vim: Start in improved Ex mode |gQ|, like "exim".
-f Vim: Run GUI in foreground (Amiga: don't open new window).
-f {session} Elvis: Use {session} as the session file.
-F Vim: Start in Farsi mode (when compiled with Farsi).
Nvi: Fast start, don't read the entire file when editing
starts.
-G {gui} Elvis: Use the {gui} as user interface.
-g Vim: Start GUI.
-g N Vile: start editing at line N
-h Vim: Give help message.
Vile: edit the help file
-H Vim: start Hebrew mode (when compiled with it).
-i Elvis: Start each window in Insert mode.
-i {viminfo} Vim: Use {viminfo} for viminfo file.
-L Vim: Same as "-r" (also in some versions of Vi).
-l Nvi, Vi, Vim: Set 'lisp' and 'showmatch' options.
-m Vim: Modifications not allowed to be written, resets 'write'
option.
-M Vim: Modifications not allowed, resets 'modifiable' and the
'write' option.
-N Vim: No-compatible mode.
-n Vim: No swap file used.
-nb[args] Vim: open a NetBeans interface connection
-O[N] Vim: Like -o, but use vertically split windows.
-o[N] Vim: Open [N] windows, or one for each file.
-p[N] Vim: Open [N] tab pages, or one for each file.
-P {parent-title} Win32 Vim: open Vim inside a parent application window
-q {name} Vim: Use {name} for quickfix error file.
-q{name} Vim: Idem.
-R Elvis, Nvi, Posix, Vile, Vim: Set the 'readonly' option.
-r Elvis, Nvi, Posix, Vi, Vim: Recovery mode.
-S Nvi: Set 'secure' option.
-S {script} Vim: source script after starting up.
-s Nvi, Posix, Vim: Same as "-" (silent mode), when in Ex mode.
Elvis: Sets the 'safer' option.
-s {scriptin} Vim: Read from script file {scriptin}; only when not in Ex
mode.
-s {pattern} Vile: search for {pattern}
-t {tag} Elvis, Nvi, Posix, Vi, Vim: Edit the file containing {tag}.

-t{tag} Vim: Idem.

-T {term} Vim: Set terminal name to {term}.
-u {vimrc} Vim: Read initializations from {vimrc} file.
-U {gvimrc} Vim: Read GUI initializations from {gvimrc} file.
-v Nvi, Posix, Vi, Vim: Begin in Normal mode (visual mode, in Vi
terms).
Vile: View mode, no changes possible.
-V Elvis, Vim: Verbose mode.
-V{nr} Vim: Verbose mode with specified level.
-w {size} Elvis, Posix, Nvi, Vi, Vim: Set value of 'window' to {size}.
-w{size} Nvi, Vi: Same as "-w {size}".
-w {name} Vim: Write to script file {name} (must start with non-digit).
-W {name} Vim: Append to script file {name}.
-x Vi, Vim: Ask for encryption key. See |encryption|.
-X Vim: Don't connect to the X server.
-y Vim: Start in easy mode, like |evim|.
-Z Vim: restricted mode
@{cmdfile} Vile: use {cmdfile} as startup file.
==============================================================================
7. POSIX compliance *posix* *posix-compliance*
In 2005 the POSIX test suite was run to check the compatibility of Vim. Most
of the test was executed properly. There are the few things where Vim
is not POSIX compliant, even when run in Vi compatibility mode.
Set the $VIM_POSIX environment variable to have 'cpoptions' include the POSIX
flags when Vim starts up. This makes Vim run as POSIX as it can. That's
a bit different from being Vi compatible.
This is where Vim does not behave as POSIX specifies and why:
*posix-screen-size*
The $COLUMNS and $LINES environment variables are ignored by Vim if
the size can be obtained from the terminal in a more reliable way.
Add the '|' flag to 'cpoptions' to have $COLUMNS and $LINES overrule
sizes obtained in another way.
The "{" and "}" commands don't stop at a "{" in the original Vi, but
POSIX specifies it does. Add the '{' flag to 'cpoptions' if you want
it the POSIX way.
The "D", "o" and "O" commands accept a count. Also when repeated.
Add the '#' flag to 'cpoptions' if you want to ignore the count.
The ":cd" command fails if the current buffer is modified when the '.'
flag is present in 'cpoptions'.
There is no ATTENTION message, the "A" flag is added to 'shortmess'.
These are remarks about running the POSIX test suite:
- vi test 33 sometimes fails for unknown reasons
- vi test 250 fails; behavior will be changed in a new revision
http://www.opengroup.org/austin/mailarchives/ag-review/msg01710.html
(link no longer works, perhaps it's now:
https://www.opengroup.org/sophocles/show_mail.tpl?
CALLER=show_archive.tpl&source=L&listname=austin-review-l&id=1711)
- vi test 310 fails; exit code non-zero when any error occurred?
- ex test 24 fails because test is wrong. Changed between SUSv2 and SUSv3.
- ex tests 47, 48, 49, 72, 73 fail because .exrc file isn't read in silent
mode and $EXINIT isn't used.
- ex tests 76, 78 fail because echo is used instead of printf. (fixed)
Also: problem with \s not changed to space.
- ex test 355 fails because 'window' isn't used for "30z".
- ex test 368 fails because shell command isn't echoed in silent mode.
- ex test 394 fails because "=" command output isn't visible in silent mode.

- ex test 411 fails because test file is wrong, contains stray ':'.
- ex test 475 and 476 fail because reprint output isn't visible in silent mode.
- ex test 480 and 481 fail because the tags file has spaces instead of a tab.
- ex test 502 fails because .exrc isn't read in silent mode.
- ex test 509 fails because .exrc isn't read in silent mode. and exit code is
1 instead of 2.
- ex test 534 fails because .exrc isn't read in silent mode.
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: if_perl
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*if_perl.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Jul 21
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Sven Verdoolaege

and Matt Gerassimof
Perl and Vim *perl* *Perl*

1. Editing Perl files |perl-editing|
2. Compiling VIM with Perl interface |perl-compiling|
3. Using the Perl interface |perl-using|
4. Dynamic loading |perl-dynamic|
The Perl interface only works when Vim was compiled with the |+perl| feature.
==============================================================================
1. Editing Perl files *perl-editing*
Vim syntax highlighting supports Perl and POD files. Vim assumes a file is
Perl code if the filename has a .pl or .pm suffix. Vim also examines the first
line of a file, regardless of the filename suffix, to check if a file is a
Perl script (see scripts.vim in Vim's syntax directory). Vim assumes a file
is POD text if the filename has a .POD suffix.
To use tags with Perl, you need a recent version of Exuberant ctags. Look
here:
http://ctags.sourceforge.net
Alternatively, you can use the Perl script pltags.pl, which is shipped with
Vim in the $VIMRUNTIME/tools directory. This script has currently more
features than Exuberant ctags' Perl support.
==============================================================================
2. Compiling VIM with Perl interface *perl-compiling*
To compile Vim with Perl interface, you need Perl 5.004 (or later). Perl must
be installed before you compile Vim. Vim's Perl interface does NOT work with
the 5.003 version that has been officially released! It will probably work
with Perl 5.003_05 and later.
The Perl patches for Vim were made by:
Sven Verdoolaege <skimo@breughel.ufsia.ac.be>
Matt Gerassimof
Perl for MS-Windows can be found at:
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/nt/Standard/x86/
==============================================================================
3. Using the Perl interface *perl-using*
*:perl* *:pe*
:pe[rl] {cmd} Execute Perl command {cmd}. The current package
is "main".
:pe[rl] << {endpattern}
{script}
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/if_perl.html[2019/03/05 11:43:00 AM]

{endpattern}
Execute Perl script {script}.
{endpattern} must NOT be preceded by any white space.
If {endpattern} is omitted, it defaults to a dot '.'
like for the |:append| and |:insert| commands. Using
'.' helps when inside a function, because "$i;" looks
like the start of an |:insert| command to Vim.
This form of the |:perl| command is mainly useful for
including perl code in vim scripts.
Note: This command doesn't work when the Perl feature
wasn't compiled in. To avoid errors, see
|script-here|.
Example vim script:

function! WhitePearl()
perl << EOF
VIM::Msg("pearls are nice for necklaces");
VIM::Msg("rubys for rings");
VIM::Msg("pythons for bags");
VIM::Msg("tcls????");
EOF
endfunction
*:perldo* *:perld*
:[range]perld[o] {cmd} Execute Perl command {cmd} for each line in the
[range], with $_ being set to the text of each line in
turn, without a trailing <EOL>. Setting $_ will change
the text, but note that it is not possible to add or
delete lines using this command.
The default for [range] is the whole file: "1,$".
Here are some things you can try:
:perl $a=1
:perldo $_ = reverse($_);1
:perl VIM::Msg("hello")
:perl $line = $curbuf->Get(42)
*E299*
Executing Perl commands in the |sandbox| is limited. ":perldo" will not be
possible at all. ":perl" will be evaluated in the Safe environment, if
possible.
*perl-overview*
Here is an overview of the functions that are available to Perl:
:perl VIM::Msg("Text") # displays a message
:perl VIM::Msg("Error", "ErrorMsg") # displays an error message
:perl VIM::Msg("remark", "Comment") # displays a highlighted message
:perl VIM::SetOption("ai") # sets a vim option
:perl $nbuf = VIM::Buffers() # returns the number of buffers
:perl @buflist = VIM::Buffers() # returns array of all buffers
:perl $mybuf = (VIM::Buffers('qq.c'))[0] # returns buffer object for 'qq.c'
:perl @winlist = VIM::Windows() # returns array of all windows
:perl $nwin = VIM::Windows() # returns the number of windows
:perl ($success, $v) = VIM::Eval('&path') # $v: option 'path', $success: 1
:perl ($success, $v) = VIM::Eval('&xyz') # $v: '' and $success: 0
:perl $v = VIM::Eval('expand("<cfile>")') # expands <cfile>
:perl $curwin->SetHeight(10) # sets the window height
:perl @pos = $curwin->Cursor() # returns (row, col) array
:perl @pos = (10, 10)
:perl $curwin->Cursor(@pos) # sets cursor to @pos
:perl $curwin->Cursor(10,10) # sets cursor to row 10 col 10
:perl $mybuf = $curwin->Buffer() # returns the buffer object for window
:perl $curbuf->Name() # returns buffer name
:perl $curbuf->Number() # returns buffer number
:perl $curbuf->Count() # returns the number of lines
:perl $l = $curbuf->Get(10) # returns line 10
:perl @l = $curbuf->Get(1 .. 5) # returns lines 1 through 5
:perl $curbuf->Delete(10) # deletes line 10

:perl $curbuf->Delete(10, 20) # delete lines 10 through 20

:perl $curbuf->Append(10, "Line") # appends a line
:perl $curbuf->Append(10, "Line1", "Line2", "Line3") # appends 3 lines
:perl @l = ("L1", "L2", "L3")
:perl $curbuf->Append(10, @l) # appends L1, L2 and L3
:perl $curbuf->Set(10, "Line") # replaces line 10
:perl $curbuf->Set(10, "Line1", "Line2") # replaces lines 10 and 11
:perl $curbuf->Set(10, @l) # replaces 3 lines
*perl-Msg*
VIM::Msg({msg}, {group}?)
Displays the message {msg}. The optional {group}
argument specifies a highlight group for Vim to use
for the message.
*perl-SetOption*
VIM::SetOption({arg}) Sets a vim option. {arg} can be any argument that the
":set" command accepts. Note that this means that no
spaces are allowed in the argument! See |:set|.
*perl-Buffers*
VIM::Buffers([{bn}...]) With no arguments, returns a list of all the buffers
in an array context or returns the number of buffers
in a scalar context. For a list of buffer names or
numbers {bn}, returns a list of the buffers matching
{bn}, using the same rules as Vim's internal
|bufname()| function.
WARNING: the list becomes invalid when |:bwipe| is
used. Using it anyway may crash Vim.
*perl-Windows*
VIM::Windows([{wn}...]) With no arguments, returns a list of all the windows
in an array context or returns the number of windows
in a scalar context. For a list of window numbers
{wn}, returns a list of the windows with those
numbers.
WARNING: the list becomes invalid when a window is
closed. Using it anyway may crash Vim.
*perl-DoCommand*
VIM::DoCommand({cmd}) Executes Ex command {cmd}.
*perl-Eval*
VIM::Eval({expr}) Evaluates {expr} and returns (success, val).
success=1 indicates that val contains the value of
{expr}; success=0 indicates a failure to evaluate
the expression. '@x' returns the contents of register
x, '&x' returns the value of option x, 'x' returns the
value of internal |variables| x, and '$x' is equivalent
to perl's $ENV{x}. All |functions| accessible from
the command-line are valid for {expr}.
A |List| is turned into a string by joining the items
and inserting line breaks.
*perl-SetHeight*
Window->SetHeight({height})
Sets the Window height to {height}, within screen
limits.
*perl-GetCursor*
Window->Cursor({row}?, {col}?)
With no arguments, returns a (row, col) array for the
current cursor position in the Window. With {row} and
{col} arguments, sets the Window's cursor position to
{row} and {col}. Note that {col} is numbered from 0,
Perl-fashion, and thus is one less than the value in
Vim's ruler.
Window->Buffer() *perl-Buffer*
Returns the Buffer object corresponding to the given

Window.
*perl-Name*
Buffer->Name() Returns the filename for the Buffer.
*perl-Number*
Buffer->Number() Returns the number of the Buffer.
*perl-Count*
Buffer->Count() Returns the number of lines in the Buffer.
*perl-Get*
Buffer->Get({lnum}, {lnum}?, ...)
Returns a text string of line {lnum} in the Buffer
for each {lnum} specified. An array can be passed
with a list of {lnum}'s specified.
*perl-Delete*
Buffer->Delete({lnum}, {lnum}?)
Deletes line {lnum} in the Buffer. With the second
{lnum}, deletes the range of lines from the first
{lnum} to the second {lnum}.
*perl-Append*
Buffer->Append({lnum}, {line}, {line}?, ...)
Appends each {line} string after Buffer line {lnum}.
The list of {line}s can be an array.
*perl-Set*
Buffer->Set({lnum}, {line}, {line}?, ...)
Replaces one or more Buffer lines with specified
{lines}s, starting at Buffer line {lnum}. The list of
{line}s can be an array. If the arguments are
invalid, replacement does not occur.
$main::curwin
The current window object.
$main::curbuf
The current buffer object.
*script-here*
When using a script language in-line, you might want to skip this when the
language isn't supported. But this mechanism doesn't work:
if has('perl')
perl << EOF
this will NOT work!
EOF
endif
Instead, put the Perl/Python/Ruby/etc. command in a function and call that
function:
if has('perl')
function DefPerl()
perl << EOF
this works
EOF
endfunction
call DefPerl()
endif
Note that "EOF" must be at the start of the line.
==============================================================================
4. Dynamic loading *perl-dynamic*
On MS-Windows and Unix the Perl library can be loaded dynamically. The
|:version| output then includes |+perl/dyn|.
This means that Vim will search for the Perl DLL or shared library file only
when needed. When you don't use the Perl interface you don't need it, thus

you can use Vim without this file.
MS-Windows
You can download Perl from http://www.perl.org. The one from ActiveState was
used for building Vim.
To use the Perl interface the Perl DLL must be in your search path.
If Vim reports it cannot find the perl512.dll, make sure your $PATH includes
the directory where it is located. The Perl installer normally does that.
In a console window type "path" to see what directories are used.
The name of the DLL must match the Perl version Vim was compiled with.
Currently the name is "perl512.dll". That is for Perl 5.12. To know for
sure edit "gvim.exe" and search for "perl\d*.dll\c".
==============================================================================
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: recover
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*recover.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Jul 20
Recovery after a crash *crash-recovery*

You have spent several hours typing in that text that has to be finished
next morning, and then disaster strikes: Your computer crashes.
DON'T PANIC!
You can recover most of your changes from the files that Vim uses to store
the contents of the file. Mostly you can recover your work with one command:
vim -r filename
1. The swap file |swap-file|
2. Recovery |recovery|
==============================================================================
1. The swap file *swap-file*
Vim stores the things you changed in a swap file. Using the original file
you started from plus the swap file you can mostly recover your work.
You can see the name of the current swap file being used with the command:
:sw[apname] *:sw* *:swapname*

The name of the swap file is normally the same as the file you are editing,
with the extension ".swp".
- On Unix, a '.' is prepended to swap file names in the same directory as the
edited file. This avoids that the swap file shows up in a directory
listing.
- On MS-DOS machines and when the 'shortname' option is on, any '.' in the
original file name is replaced with '_'.
- If this file already exists (e.g., when you are recovering from a crash) a
warning is given and another extension is used, ".swo", ".swn", etc.
- An existing file will never be overwritten.
- The swap file is deleted as soon as Vim stops editing the file.
Technical: The replacement of '.' with '_' is done to avoid problems with
MS-DOS compatible filesystems (e.g., crossdos, multidos). If Vim
is able to detect that the file is on an MS-DOS-like filesystem, a
flag is set that has the same effect as the 'shortname' option.
This flag is reset when you start editing another file.
*E326*
If the ".swp" file name already exists, the last character is
decremented until there is no file with that name or ".saa" is
reached. In the last case, no swap file is created.
By setting the 'directory' option you can place the swap file in another place
than where the edited file is.
Advantages:
- You will not pollute the directories with ".swp" files.
- When the 'directory' is on another partition, reduce the risk of damaging
the file system where the file is (in a crash).
Disadvantages:
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/recover.html[2019/03/05 11:43:01 AM]

- You can get name collisions from files with the same name but in different
directories (although Vim tries to avoid that by comparing the path name).
This will result in bogus ATTENTION warning messages.
- When you use your home directory, and somebody else tries to edit the same
file, he will not see your swap file and will not get the ATTENTION warning
message.
On the Amiga you can also use a recoverable ram disk, but there is no 100%
guarantee that this works. Putting swap files in a normal ram disk (like RAM:
on the Amiga) or in a place that is cleared when rebooting (like /tmp on Unix)
makes no sense, you will lose the swap file in a crash.
If you want to put swap files in a fixed place, put a command resembling the
following ones in your .vimrc:
:set dir=dh2:tmp (for Amiga)
:set dir=~/tmp (for Unix)
:set dir=c:\\tmp (for MS-DOS and Win32)
This is also very handy when editing files on floppy. Of course you will have
to create that "tmp" directory for this to work!
For read-only files, a swap file is not used. Unless the file is big, causing
the amount of memory used to be higher than given with 'maxmem' or
'maxmemtot'. And when making a change to a read-only file, the swap file is
created anyway.
The 'swapfile' option can be reset to avoid creating a swapfile.
Detecting an existing swap file

You can find this in the user manual, section |11.3|.
Updating the swapfile

The swap file is updated after typing 200 characters or when you have not
typed anything for four seconds. This only happens if the buffer was
changed, not when you only moved around. The reason why it is not kept up to
date all the time is that this would slow down normal work too much. You can
change the 200 character count with the 'updatecount' option. You can set
the time with the 'updatetime' option. The time is given in milliseconds.
After writing to the swap file Vim syncs the file to disk. This takes some
time, especially on busy Unix systems. If you don't want this you can set the
'swapsync' option to an empty string. The risk of losing work becomes bigger
though. On some non-Unix systems (MS-DOS, Amiga) the swap file won't be
written at all.
If the writing to the swap file is not wanted, it can be switched off by
setting the 'updatecount' option to 0. The same is done when starting Vim
with the "-n" option. Writing can be switched back on by setting the
'updatecount' option to non-zero. Swap files will be created for all buffers
when doing this. But when setting 'updatecount' to zero, the existing swap
files will not be removed, it will only affect files that will be opened
after this.
If you want to make sure that your changes are in the swap file use this
command:
*:pre* *:preserve* *E313* *E314*

:pre[serve] Write all text for all buffers into swap file. The
original file is no longer needed for recovery.
This sets a flag in the current buffer. When the '&'
flag is present in 'cpoptions' the swap file will not
be deleted for this buffer when Vim exits and the
buffer is still loaded |cpo-&|.
{Vi: might also exit}
A Vim swap file can be recognized by the first six characters: "b0VIM ".
After that comes the version number, e.g., "3.0".
Links and symbolic links

On Unix it is possible to have two names for the same file. This can be done
with hard links and with symbolic links (symlinks).
For hard links Vim does not know the other name of the file. Therefore, the
name of the swapfile will be based on the name you used to edit the file.
There is no check for editing the same file by the other name too, because Vim
cannot find the other swapfile (except for searching all of your harddisk,

which would be very slow).

For symbolic links Vim resolves the links to find the name of the actual file.
The swap file name is based on that name. Thus it doesn't matter by what name
you edit the file, the swap file name will normally be the same. However,
there are exceptions:
- When the directory of the actual file is not writable the swapfile is put
elsewhere.
- When the symbolic links somehow create a loop you get an *E773* error
message and the unmodified file name will be used. You won't be able to
save your file normally.
==============================================================================
2. Recovery *recovery* *E308* *E311*
Basic file recovery is explained in the user manual: |usr_11.txt|.
Another way to do recovery is to start Vim and use the ":recover" command.
This is easy when you start Vim to edit a file and you get the "ATTENTION:
Found a swap file ..." message. In this case the single command ":recover"
will do the work. You can also give the name of the file or the swap file to
the recover command:
*:rec* *:recover* *E305* *E306* *E307*
:rec[over] [file] Try to recover [file] from the swap file. If [file]
is not given use the file name for the current
buffer. The current contents of the buffer are lost.
This command fails if the buffer was modified.
:rec[over]! [file] Like ":recover", but any changes in the current
buffer are lost.
*E312* *E309* *E310*

Vim has some intelligence about what to do if the swap file is corrupt in
some way. If Vim has doubt about what it found, it will give an error
message and insert lines with "???" in the text. If you see an error message
while recovering, search in the file for "???" to see what is wrong. You may
want to cut and paste to get the text you need.
The most common remark is "???LINES MISSING". This means that Vim cannot read
the text from the original file. This can happen if the system crashed and
parts of the original file were not written to disk.
Be sure that the recovery was successful before overwriting the original
file or deleting the swap file. It is good practice to write the recovered
file elsewhere and run 'diff' to find out if the changes you want are in the
recovered file. Or use |:DiffOrig|.
Once you are sure the recovery is ok delete the swap file. Otherwise, you
will continue to get warning messages that the ".swp" file already exists.
{Vi: recovers in another way and sends mail if there is something to recover}
ENCRYPTION AND THE SWAP FILE *:recover-crypt*

When the text file is encrypted the swap file is encrypted as well. This
makes recovery a bit more complicated. When recovering from a swap file and
encryption has been used, you will be asked to enter one or two crypt keys.
If the text file does not exist you will only be asked to enter the crypt key
for the swap file.
If the text file does exist, it may be encrypted in a different way than the
swap file. You will be asked for the crypt key twice:
Need encryption key for "/tmp/tt"
Enter encryption key: ******
"/tmp/tt" [crypted] 23200L, 522129C
Using swap file "/tmp/.tt.swp"
Original file "/tmp/tt"
Swap file is encrypted: "/tmp/.tt.swp"
If you entered a new crypt key but did not write the text file,
enter the new crypt key.
If you wrote the text file after changing the crypt key press enter

to use the same key for text file and swap file
Enter encryption key:
You can be in one of these two situations:
1. The encryption key was not changed, or after changing the key the text file
was written. You will be prompted for the crypt key twice. The second
time you can simply press Enter. That means the same key is used for the
text file and the swap file.
2. You entered a new encryption key, but did not save the text file. Vim will
then use the new key for the swap file, and the text file will still be
encrypted with the old key. At the second prompt enter the new key.
Note that after recovery the key of the swap file will be used for the text
file. Thus if you write the text file, you need to use that new key.
Search tag (regex)
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Vim documentation: if_pyth
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main help file
*if_pyth.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Oct 20
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Paul Moore
The Python Interface to Vim *python* *Python*

1. Commands |python-commands|
2. The vim module |python-vim|
3. Buffer objects |python-buffer|
4. Range objects |python-range|
5. Window objects |python-window|
6. Dynamic loading |python-dynamic|
7. Python 3 |python3|
The Python 2.x interface is available only when Vim was compiled with the
|+python| feature.
The Python 3 interface is available only when Vim was compiled with the
|+python3| feature.
==============================================================================
1. Commands *python-commands*
*:python* *:py* *E205* *E263* *E264*

:[range]py[thon] {stmt}
Execute Python statement {stmt}.
:[range]py[thon] << {endmarker}
{script}
{endmarker}
Execute Python script {script}.
Note: This command doesn't work when the Python
|script-here|.
omitted from after the "<<", a dot '.' must be used after {script}, like
for the |:append| and |:insert| commands.
This form of the |:python| command is mainly useful for including python code
in Vim scripts.
Example:
function! IcecreamInitialize()
python << EOF
class StrawberryIcecream:
def __call__(self):
print 'EAT ME'
EOF
endfunction
Note: Python is very sensitive to the indenting. Also make sure the "class"
line and "EOF" do not have any indent.
*:pyfile* *:pyf*
:[range]pyf[ile] {file}
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/if_pyth.html[2019/03/05 11:43:02 AM]

Execute the Python script in {file}. The whole

argument is used as a single file name. {not in Vi}
Both of these commands do essentially the same thing - they execute a piece of
Python code, with the "current range" |python-range| set to the given line
range.
In the case of :python, the code to execute is in the command-line.
In the case of :pyfile, the code to execute is the contents of the given file.
Python commands cannot be used in the |sandbox|.
To pass arguments you need to set sys.argv[] explicitly. Example:
:python import sys
:python sys.argv = ["foo", "bar"]
:pyfile myscript.py
Here are some examples *python-examples*

:python from vim import *
:python from string import upper
:python current.line = upper(current.line)
:python print "Hello"
:python str = current.buffer[42]
(Note that changes - like the imports - persist from one command to the next,
just like in the Python interpreter.)
==============================================================================
2. The vim module *python-vim*
Python code gets all of its access to vim (with one exception - see
|python-output| below) via the "vim" module. The vim module implements two
methods, three constants, and one error object. You need to import the vim
module before using it:
:python import vim
Overview
:py print "Hello" # displays a message
:py vim.command(cmd) # execute an Ex command
:py w = vim.windows[n] # gets window "n"
:py cw = vim.current.window # gets the current window
:py b = vim.buffers[n] # gets buffer "n"
:py cb = vim.current.buffer # gets the current buffer
:py w.height = lines # sets the window height
:py w.cursor = (row, col) # sets the window cursor position
:py pos = w.cursor # gets a tuple (row, col)
:py name = b.name # gets the buffer file name
:py line = b[n] # gets a line from the buffer
:py lines = b[n:m] # gets a list of lines
:py num = len(b) # gets the number of lines
:py b[n] = str # sets a line in the buffer
:py b[n:m] = [str1, str2, str3] # sets a number of lines at once
:py del b[n] # deletes a line
:py del b[n:m] # deletes a number of lines
Methods of the "vim" module
vim.command(str) *python-command*
Executes the vim (ex-mode) command str. Returns None.
Examples:
:py vim.command("set tw=72")
:py vim.command("%s/aaa/bbb/g")
The following definition executes Normal mode commands:
def normal(str):
vim.command("normal "+str)
# Note the use of single quotes to delimit a string containing
# double quotes
normal('"a2dd"aP')
*E659*
The ":python" command cannot be used recursively with Python 2.2 and

older. This only works with Python 2.3 and later:

:py vim.command("python print 'Hello again Python'")
vim.eval(str) *python-eval*
Evaluates the expression str using the vim internal expression
evaluator (see |expression|). Returns the expression result as:
- a string if the Vim expression evaluates to a string or number
- a list if the Vim expression evaluates to a Vim list
- a dictionary if the Vim expression evaluates to a Vim dictionary
Dictionaries and lists are recursively expanded.
Examples:
:py text_width = vim.eval("&tw")
:py str = vim.eval("12+12") # NB result is a string! Use
# string.atoi() to convert to
# a number.
:py tagList = vim.eval('taglist("eval_expr")')
The latter will return a python list of python dicts, for instance:
[{'cmd': '/êval_expr(arg, nextcmd)$/', 'static': 0, 'name':
'eval_expr', 'kind': 'f', 'filename': './src/eval.c'}]
Error object of the "vim" module
vim.error *python-error*
Upon encountering a Vim error, Python raises an exception of type
vim.error.
Example:
try:
vim.command("put a")
except vim.error:
# nothing in register a
Constants of the "vim" module
Note that these are not actually constants - you could reassign them.
But this is silly, as you would then lose access to the vim objects
to which the variables referred.
vim.buffers *python-buffers*
A sequence object providing access to the list of vim buffers. The
object supports the following operations:
:py b = vim.buffers[i] # Indexing (read-only)
:py b in vim.buffers # Membership test
:py n = len(vim.buffers) # Number of elements
:py for b in vim.buffers: # Sequential access
vim.windows *python-windows*
A sequence object providing access to the list of vim windows. The
object supports the following operations:
:py w = vim.windows[i] # Indexing (read-only)
:py w in vim.windows # Membership test
:py n = len(vim.windows) # Number of elements
:py for w in vim.windows: # Sequential access
vim.current *python-current*
An object providing access (via specific attributes) to various
"current" objects available in vim:
vim.current.line The current line (RW) String
vim.current.buffer The current buffer (RO) Buffer
vim.current.window The current window (RO) Window
vim.current.range The current line range (RO) Range
The last case deserves a little explanation. When the :python or
:pyfile command specifies a range, this range of lines becomes the
"current range". A range is a bit like a buffer, but with all access
restricted to a subset of lines. See |python-range| for more details.
Output from Python *python-output*

Vim displays all Python code output in the Vim message area. Normal
output appears as information messages, and error output appears as

error messages.
In implementation terms, this means that all output to sys.stdout
(including the output from print statements) appears as information
messages, and all output to sys.stderr (including error tracebacks)
appears as error messages.
*python-input*
Input (via sys.stdin, including input() and raw_input()) is not
supported, and may cause the program to crash. This should probably be
fixed.
==============================================================================
3. Buffer objects *python-buffer*
Buffer objects represent vim buffers. You can obtain them in a number of ways:
- via vim.current.buffer (|python-current|)
- from indexing vim.buffers (|python-buffers|)
- from the "buffer" attribute of a window (|python-window|)
Buffer objects have one read-only attribute - name - the full file name for
the buffer. They also have three methods (append, mark, and range; see below).
You can also treat buffer objects as sequence objects. In this context, they
act as if they were lists (yes, they are mutable) of strings, with each
element being a line of the buffer. All of the usual sequence operations,
including indexing, index assignment, slicing and slice assignment, work as
you would expect. Note that the result of indexing (slicing) a buffer is a
string (list of strings). This has one unusual consequence - b[:] is different
from b. In particular, "b[:] = None" deletes the whole of the buffer, whereas
"b = None" merely updates the variable b, with no effect on the buffer.
Buffer indexes start at zero, as is normal in Python. This differs from vim
line numbers, which start from 1. This is particularly relevant when dealing
with marks (see below) which use vim line numbers.
The buffer object methods are:
b.append(str) Append a line to the buffer
b.append(str, nr) Idem, below line "nr"
b.append(list) Append a list of lines to the buffer
Note that the option of supplying a list of strings to
the append method differs from the equivalent method
for Python's built-in list objects.
b.append(list, nr) Idem, below line "nr"
b.mark(name) Return a tuple (row,col) representing the position
of the named mark (can also get the []"<> marks)
b.range(s,e) Return a range object (see |python-range|) which
represents the part of the given buffer between line
numbers s and e |inclusive|.
Note that when adding a line it must not contain a line break character '\n'.
A trailing '\n' is allowed and ignored, so that you can do:
:py b.append(f.readlines())
Examples (assume b is the current buffer)
:py print b.name # write the buffer file name
:py b[0] = "hello!!!" # replace the top line
:py b[:] = None # delete the whole buffer
:py del b[:] # delete the whole buffer
:py b[0:0] = [ "a line" ] # add a line at the top
:py del b[2] # delete a line (the third)
:py b.append("bottom") # add a line at the bottom
:py n = len(b) # number of lines
:py (row,col) = b.mark('a') # named mark
:py r = b.range(1,5) # a sub-range of the buffer
==============================================================================
4. Range objects *python-range*
Range objects represent a part of a vim buffer. You can obtain them in a
number of ways:
- via vim.current.range (|python-current|)
- from a buffer's range() method (|python-buffer|)
A range object is almost identical in operation to a buffer object. However,
all operations are restricted to the lines within the range (this line range

can, of course, change as a result of slice assignments, line deletions, or

the range.append() method).
The range object attributes are:
r.start Index of first line into the buffer
r.end Index of last line into the buffer
The range object methods are:
r.append(str) Append a line to the range
r.append(str, nr) Idem, after line "nr"
r.append(list) Append a list of lines to the range
Note that the option of supplying a list of strings to
the append method differs from the equivalent method
for Python's built-in list objects.
r.append(list, nr) Idem, after line "nr"
Example (assume r is the current range):
# Send all lines in a range to the default printer
vim.command("%d,%dhardcopy!" % (r.start+1,r.end+1))
==============================================================================
5. Window objects *python-window*
Window objects represent vim windows. You can obtain them in a number of ways:
- via vim.current.window (|python-current|)
- from indexing vim.windows (|python-windows|)
You can manipulate window objects only through their attributes. They have no
methods, and no sequence or other interface.
Window attributes are:
buffer (read-only) The buffer displayed in this window
cursor (read-write) The current cursor position in the window
This is a tuple, (row,col).
height (read-write) The window height, in rows
width (read-write) The window width, in columns
The height attribute is writable only if the screen is split horizontally.
The width attribute is writable only if the screen is split vertically.
==============================================================================
6. Dynamic loading *python-dynamic*
On MS-Windows the Python library can be loaded dynamically. The |:version|
output then includes |+python/dyn|.
This means that Vim will search for the Python DLL file only when needed.
When you don't use the Python interface you don't need it, thus you can use
Vim without this DLL file.
To use the Python interface the Python DLL must be in your search path. In a
console window type "path" to see what directories are used.
The name of the DLL must match the Python version Vim was compiled with.
Currently the name is "python24.dll". That is for Python 2.4. To know for
sure edit "gvim.exe" and search for "python\d*.dll\c".
==============================================================================
7. Python 3 *python3*
*:py3* *:python3*
The |:py3| and |:python3| commands work similar to |:python|.
*:py3file*
The |:py3file| command works similar to |:pyfile|.
Vim can be built in four ways (:version output):
1. No Python support (-python, -python3)
2. Python 2 support only (+python or +python/dyn, -python3)
3. Python 3 support only (-python, +python3 or +python3/dyn)
4. Python 2 and 3 support (+python/dyn, +python3/dyn)
Some more details on the special case 4:
When Python 2 and Python 3 are both supported they must be loaded dynamically.
When doing this on Linux/Unix systems and importing global symbols, this leads

to a crash when the second Python version is used. So either global symbols
are loaded but only one Python version is activated, or no global symbols are
loaded. The latter makes Python's "import" fail on libraries that expect the
symbols to be provided by Vim.
*E836* *E837*
Vim's configuration script makes a guess for all libraries based on one
standard Python library (termios). If importing this library succeeds for
both Python versions, then both will be made available in Vim at the same
time. If not, only the version first used in a session will be enabled.
When trying to use the other one you will get the E836 or E837 error message.
Here Vim's behavior depends on the system in which it was configured. In a
system where both versions of Python were configured with --enable-shared,
both versions of Python will be activated at the same time. There will still
be problems with other third party libraries that were not linked to
libPython.
To work around such problems there are these options:
1. The problematic library is recompiled to link to the according
libpython.so.
2. Vim is recompiled for only one Python version.
3. You undefine PY_NO_RTLD_GLOBAL in auto/config.h after configuration. This
may crash Vim though.
==============================================================================
Search tag (regex)
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Vim documentation: if_ruby
Search tag (regex)
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main help file
*if_ruby.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Oct 27
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Shugo Maeda
The Ruby Interface to Vim *ruby* *Ruby*
1. Commands |ruby-commands|
2. The VIM module |ruby-vim|
3. VIM::Buffer objects |ruby-buffer|
4. VIM::Window objects |ruby-window|
5. Global variables |ruby-globals|
6. Dynamic loading |ruby-dynamic|
*E266* *E267* *E268* *E269* *E270* *E271* *E272* *E273*
The Ruby interface only works when Vim was compiled with the |+ruby| feature.
The home page for ruby is http://www.ruby-lang.org/. You can find links for
downloading Ruby there.
==============================================================================
1. Commands *ruby-commands*
*:ruby* *:rub*
:rub[y] {cmd} Execute Ruby command {cmd}.
:rub[y] << {endpattern}
{script}
{endpattern}
Execute Ruby script {script}.
{endpattern} must NOT be preceded by any white space.
If {endpattern} is omitted, it defaults to a dot '.'
like for the |:append| and |:insert| commands. This
form of the |:ruby| command is mainly useful for
including ruby code in vim scripts.
Note: This command doesn't work when the Ruby feature
|script-here|.
Command to try it out:
:ruby print "Hello" # this is a comment
Example Vim script:
function! RedGem()
ruby << EOF
class Garnet
def initialize(s)
@buffer = VIM::Buffer.current
vimputs(s)
end
def vimputs(s)
@buffer.append(@buffer.count,s)
end
end
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/if_ruby.html[2019/03/05 11:43:02 AM]

gem = Garnet.new("pretty")
EOF
endfunction
*:rubydo* *:rubyd* *E265*

:[range]rubyd[o] {cmd} Evaluate Ruby command {cmd} for each line in the
[range], with $_ being set to the text of each line in
turn, without a trailing <EOL>. Setting $_ will change
the text, but note that it is not possible to add or
delete lines using this command.
*:rubyfile* *:rubyf*
:rubyf[ile] {file} Execute the Ruby script in {file}. This is the same as
":ruby load 'file'"', but allows file name completion.
Executing Ruby commands is not possible in the |sandbox|.
==============================================================================
2. The VIM module *ruby-vim*
Ruby code gets all of its access to vim via the "VIM" module.
Overview
print "Hello" # displays a message
VIM.command(cmd) # execute an Ex command
num = VIM::Window.count # gets the number of windows
w = VIM::Window[n] # gets window "n"
cw = VIM::Window.current # gets the current window
num = VIM::Buffer.count # gets the number of buffers
b = VIM::Buffer[n] # gets buffer "n"
cb = VIM::Buffer.current # gets the current buffer
w.height = lines # sets the window height
w.cursor = [row, col] # sets the window cursor position
pos = w.cursor # gets an array [row, col]
name = b.name # gets the buffer file name
line = b[n] # gets a line from the buffer
num = b.count # gets the number of lines
b[n] = str # sets a line in the buffer
b.delete(n) # deletes a line
b.append(n, str) # appends a line after n
line = VIM::Buffer.current.line # gets the current line
num = VIM::Buffer.current.line_number # gets the current line number
VIM::Buffer.current.line = "test" # sets the current line number
Module Functions:
*ruby-message*
VIM::message({msg})
Displays the message {msg}.
*ruby-set_option*
VIM::set_option({arg})
Sets a vim option. {arg} can be any argument that the ":set" command
accepts. Note that this means that no spaces are allowed in the
argument! See |:set|.
*ruby-command*
VIM::command({cmd})
Executes Ex command {cmd}.
*ruby-evaluate*
VIM::evaluate({expr})
Evaluates {expr} using the vim internal expression evaluator (see
|expression|). Returns the expression result as a string.
A |List| is turned into a string by joining the items and inserting
line breaks.
==============================================================================

3. VIM::Buffer objects *ruby-buffer*

VIM::Buffer objects represent vim buffers.
Class Methods:
current Returns the current buffer object.
count Returns the number of buffers.
self[{n}] Returns the buffer object for the number {n}. The first number
is 0.
Methods:
name Returns the name of the buffer.
number Returns the number of the buffer.
count Returns the number of lines.
length Returns the number of lines.
self[{n}] Returns a line from the buffer. {n} is the line number.
self[{n}] = {str}
Sets a line in the buffer. {n} is the line number.
delete({n}) Deletes a line from the buffer. {n} is the line number.
append({n}, {str})
Appends a line after the line {n}.
line Returns the current line of the buffer if the buffer is
active.
line = {str} Sets the current line of the buffer if the buffer is active.
line_number Returns the number of the current line if the buffer is
active.
==============================================================================
4. VIM::Window objects *ruby-window*
VIM::Window objects represent vim windows.
Class Methods:
current Returns the current window object.
count Returns the number of windows.
self[{n}] Returns the window object for the number {n}. The first number
is 0.
Methods:
buffer Returns the buffer displayed in the window.
height Returns the height of the window.
height = {n} Sets the window height to {n}.
width Returns the width of the window.
width = {n} Sets the window width to {n}.
cursor Returns a [row, col] array for the cursor position.
cursor = [{row}, {col}]
Sets the cursor position to {row} and {col}.
==============================================================================
5. Global variables *ruby-globals*
There are two global variables.
$curwin The current window object.
$curbuf The current buffer object.
==============================================================================
6. Dynamic loading *ruby-dynamic*
On MS-Windows and Unix the Ruby library can be loaded dynamically. The
|:version| output then includes |+ruby/dyn|.
This means that Vim will search for the Ruby DLL file or shared library only
when needed. When you don't use the Ruby interface you don't need it, thus
you can use Vim even though this library file is not on your system.
You need to install the right version of Ruby for this to work. You can find
the package to download from:
http://www.garbagecollect.jp/ruby/mswin32/en/download/release.html
Currently that is ruby-1.9.1-p429-i386-mswin32.zip
To use the Ruby interface the Ruby DLL must be in your search path. In a


The name of the DLL must match the Ruby version Vim was compiled with.
Currently the name is "msvcrt-ruby191.dll". That is for Ruby 1.9.1. To know
for sure edit "gvim.exe" and search for "ruby\d*.dll\c".
If you want to build Vim with Ruby 1.9.1, you need to edit the config.h file
and comment-out the check for _MSC_VER.
==============================================================================
Search tag (regex)
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Vim documentation: os_win32
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main help file
*os_win32.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Dec 19
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by George Reilly
*win32* *Win32* *MS-Windows*

This file documents the idiosyncrasies of the Win32 version of Vim.
The Win32 version of Vim works on Windows NT, 95, 98, ME, XP, Vista and
Windows 7. There are both console and GUI versions.
The 32 bit version also runs on 64 bit MS-Windows systems.
There is GUI version for use in the Win32s subsystem in Windows 3.1[1]. You
can also use the 32-bit DOS version of Vim instead. See |os_msdos.txt|.
1. Known problems |win32-problems|
2. Startup |win32-startup|
3. Restore screen contents |win32-restore|
4. Using the mouse |win32-mouse|
5. Running under Windows 3.1 |win32-win3.1|
6. Win32 mini FAQ |win32-faq|
Additionally, there are a number of common Win32 and DOS items:
File locations |dos-locations|
Using backslashes |dos-backslash|
Standard mappings |dos-standard-mappings|
Screen output and colors |dos-colors|
File formats |dos-file-formats|
:cd command |dos-:cd|
Interrupting |dos-CTRL-Break|
Temp files |dos-temp-files|
Shell option default |dos-shell|
Win32 GUI |gui-w32|
Credits:
The Win32 version was written by George V. Reilly <george@reilly.org>.
The original Windows NT port was done by Roger Knobbe <RogerK@wonderware.com>.
The GUI version was made by George V. Reilly and Robert Webb.
For compiling see "src/INSTALLpc.txt". *win32-compiling*

==============================================================================
1. Known problems *windows95* *win32-problems*
There are a few known problems with running in a console on Windows 95. As
far as we know, this is the same in Windows 98 and Windows ME.
Comments from somebody working at Microsoft: "Win95 console support has always
been and will always be flaky".
1. Dead key support doesn't work.
2. Resizing the window with ":set columns=nn lines=nn" works, but executing
external commands MAY CAUSE THE SYSTEM TO HANG OR CRASH.
3. Screen updating is slow, unless you change 'columns' or 'lines' to a
non-DOS value. But then the second problem applies!
If this bothers you, use the 32 bit MS-DOS version or the Win32 GUI version.
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/os_win32.html[2019/03/05 11:43:03 AM]

When doing file name completion, Vim also finds matches for the short file
name. But Vim will still find and use the corresponding long file name. For
example, if you have the long file name "this_is_a_test" with the short file
name "this_i~1", the command ":e *1" will start editing "this_is_a_test".
==============================================================================
2. Startup *win32-startup*
Current directory *win32-curdir*

If Vim is started with a single file name argument, and it has a full path
(starts with "x:\"), Vim assumes it was started from the file explorer and
will set the current directory to where that file is. To avoid this when
typing a command to start Vim, use a forward slash instead of a backslash.
Example:
vim c:\text\files\foo.txt
Will change to the "C:\text\files" directory.
vim c:/text\files\foo.txt
Will use the current directory.
Term option *win32-term*

The only kind of terminal type that the Win32 version of Vim understands is
"win32", which is built-in. If you set 'term' to anything else, you will
probably get very strange behavior from Vim. Therefore Vim does not obtain
the default value of 'term' from the environment variable "TERM".
$PATH *win32-PATH*
The directory of the Vim executable is appended to $PATH. This is mostly to
make "!xxd' work, as it is in the Tools menu. And it also means that when
executable() returns 1 the executable can actually be executed.
==============================================================================
3. Restore screen contents *win32-restore*
When 'restorescreen' is set (which is the default), Vim will restore the
original contents of the console when exiting or when executing external
commands. If you don't want this, use ":set nors" |'restorescreen'|
==============================================================================
4. Using the mouse *win32-mouse*
The Win32 version of Vim supports using the mouse. If you have a two-button
mouse, the middle button can be emulated by pressing both left and right
buttons simultaneously - but note that in the Win32 GUI, if you have the right
mouse button pop-up menu enabled (see 'mouse'), you should err on the side of
pressing the left button first. |mouse-using|
When the mouse doesn't work, try disabling the "Quick Edit Mode" feature of
the console.
==============================================================================
5. Running under Windows 3.1 *win32-win3.1*
*win32s* *windows-3.1*
There is a special version of Gvim that runs under Windows 3.1 and 3.11. You
need the gvim.exe that was compiled with Visual C++ 4.1.
To run the Win32 version under Windows 3.1, you need to install Win32s. You
might have it already from another Win32 application which you have installed.
If Vim doesn't seem to be running properly, get the latest version: 1.30c.
You can find it at:
http://support.microsoft.com/download/support/mslfiles/pw1118.exe
(Microsoft moved it again, we don't know where it is now :-( ).

The reason for having two versions of gvim.exe is that the Win32s version was
compiled with VC++ 4.1. This is the last version of VC++ that supports Win32s
programs. VC++ 5.0 is better, so that one was used for the Win32 version.
Apart from that, there is no difference between the programs. If you are in a
mixed environment, you can use the gvim.exe for Win32s on both.
The Win32s version works the same way as the Win32 version under 95/NT. When
running under Win32s the following differences apply:
- You cannot use long file names, because Windows 3.1 doesn't support them!
- When executing an external command, it doesn't return an exit code. After
doing ":make" you have to do ":cn" yourself.
==============================================================================
6. Win32 mini FAQ *win32-faq*
Q. Why does the Win32 version of Vim update the screen so slowly on Windows 95?
A. The support for Win32 console mode applications is very buggy in Win95.
For some unknown reason, the screen updates very slowly when Vim is run at
one of the standard resolutions (80x25, 80x43, or 80x50) and the 16-bit DOS
version updates the screen much more quickly than the Win32 version.
However, if the screen is set to some other resolution, such as by ":set
columns=100" or ":set lines=40", screen updating becomes about as fast as
it is with the 16-bit version.
WARNING: Changing 'columns' may make Windows 95 crash while updating the
window (complaints --> Microsoft). Since this mostly works, this has not
been disabled, but be careful with changing 'columns'.
Changing the screen resolution makes updates faster, but it brings
additional problems. External commands (e.g., ":!dir") can cause Vim to
freeze when the screen is set to a non-standard resolution, particularly
when 'columns' is not equal to 80. It is not possible for Vim to reliably
set the screen resolution back to the value it had upon startup before
running external commands, so if you change the number of 'lines' or
'columns', be very, very careful. In fact, Vim will not allow you to
execute external commands when 'columns' is not equal to 80, because it is
so likely to freeze up afterwards.
None of the above applies on Windows NT. Screen updates are fast, no
matter how many 'lines' or 'columns' the window has, and external commands
do not cause Vim to freeze.
Q. So if the Win32 version updates the screen so slowly on Windows 95 and the
16-bit DOS version updates the screen quickly, why would I want to run the
Win32 version?
A. Firstly, the Win32 version isn't that slow, especially when the screen is
set to some non-standard number of 'lines' or 'columns'. Secondly, the
16-bit DOS version has some severe limitations: It can't do big changes and
it doesn't know about long file names. The Win32 version doesn't have these
limitations and it's faster overall (the same is true for the 32-bit DJGPP
DOS version of Vim). The Win32 version is smarter about handling the
screen, the mouse, and the keyboard than the DJGPP version is.
Q. And what about the 16-bit DOS version versus the Win32 version on NT?
A. There are no good reasons to run the 16-bit DOS version on NT. The Win32
version updates the screen just as fast as the 16-bit version does when
running on NT. All of the above disadvantages apply. Finally, DOS
applications can take a long time to start up and will run more slowly. On
non-Intel NT platforms, the DOS version is almost unusably slow, because it
runs on top of an 80x86 emulator.
Q. How do I change the font?
A. In the GUI version, you can use the 'guifont' option. Example:
:set guifont=Lucida_Console:h15:cDEFAULT
In the console version, you need to set the font of the console itself.
You cannot do this from within Vim.
Q. When I change the size of the console window with ':set lines=xx' or
similar, the font changes! (Win95)
A. You have the console font set to 'Auto' in Vim's (or your MS-DOS prompt's)
properties. This makes W95 guess (badly!) what font is best. Set an explicit
font instead.
Q. Why can't I paste into Vim when running Windows 95?
A. In the properties dialog box for the MS-DOS window, go to "MS-DOS
Prompt/Misc/Fast pasting" and make sure that it is NOT checked. You should
also do ":set paste" in Vim to avoid unexpected effects. |'paste'|

Q. How do I type dead keys on Windows 95, in the console version?

(A dead key is an accent key, such as acute, grave, or umlaut, that doesn't
produce a character by itself, but when followed by another key, produces
an accented character, such as a-acute, e-grave, u-umlaut, n-tilde, and so
on. Very useful for most European languages. English-language keyboard
layouts don't use dead keys, as far as we know.)
A. You don't. The console mode input routines simply do not work correctly in
Windows 95, and I have not been able to work around them. In the words
of a senior developer at Microsoft:
Win95 console support has always been and will always be flaky.
The flakiness is unavoidable because we are stuck between the world of
MS-DOS keyboard TSRs like KEYB (which wants to cook the data;
important for international) and the world of Win32.
So keys that don't "exist" in MS-DOS land (like dead keys) have a
very tenuous existence in Win32 console land. Keys that act
differently between MS-DOS land and Win32 console land (like
capslock) will act flaky.
Don't even _mention_ the problems with multiple language keyboard
layouts...
You may be able to fashion some sort of workaround with the digraphs
mechanism. |digraphs|
The best solution is to use the Win32 GUI version gvim.exe. Alternatively,
you can try one of the DOS versions of Vim where dead keys reportedly do
work.
Q. How do I type dead keys on Windows NT?
A. Dead keys work on NT 3.51. Just type them as you would in any other
application.
On NT 4.0, you need to make sure that the default locale (set in the
Keyboard part of the Control Panel) is the same as the currently active
locale. Otherwise the NT code will get confused and crash! This is a NT
4.0 problem, not really a Vim problem.
Q. I'm using Vim to edit a symbolically linked file on a Unix NFS file server.
When I write the file, Vim does not "write through" the symlink. Instead,
it deletes the symbolic link and creates a new file in its place. Why?
A. On Unix, Vim is prepared for links (symbolic or hard). A backup copy of
the original file is made and then the original file is overwritten. This
assures that all properties of the file remain the same. On non-Unix
systems, the original file is renamed and a new file is written. Only the
protection bits are set like the original file. However, this doesn't work
properly when working on an NFS-mounted file system where links and other
things exist. The only way to fix this in the current version is not
making a backup file, by ":set nobackup nowritebackup" |'writebackup'|
Q. I'm using Vim to edit a file on a Unix file server through Samba. When I
write the file, the owner of the file is changed. Why?
A. When writing a file Vim renames the original file, this is a backup (in
case writing the file fails halfway). Then the file is written as a new
file. Samba then gives it the default owner for the file system, which may
differ from the original owner.
To avoid this set the 'backupcopy' option to "yes". Vim will then make a
copy of the file for the backup, and overwrite the original file. The
owner isn't changed then.
Q. How do I get to see the output of ":make" while it's running?
A. Basically what you need is to put a tee program that will copy its input
(the output from make) to both stdout and to the errorfile. You can find a
copy of tee (and a number of other GNU tools) at
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net or http://unxutils.sourceforge.net
Alternatively, try the more recent Cygnus version of the GNU tools at
http://www.cygwin.com Other Unix-style tools for Win32 are listed at
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Operating_Systems/Unix/Win32/
When you do get a copy of tee, you'll need to add
:set shellpipe=\|\ tee
to your _vimrc.
Q. I'm storing files on a remote machine that works with VisionFS, and files
disappear!
A. VisionFS can't handle certain dot (.) three letter extension file names.
SCO declares this behavior required for backwards compatibility with 16bit
DOS/Windows environments. The two commands below demonstrate the behavior:
echo Hello > file.bat~
dir > file.bat

The result is that the "dir" command updates the "file.bat~" file, instead
of creating a new "file.bat" file. This same behavior is exhibited in Vim
when editing an existing file named "foo.bat" because the default behavior
of Vim is to create a temporary file with a '~' character appended to the
name. When the file is written, it winds up being deleted.
Solution: Add this command to your _vimrc file:
:set backupext=.temporary
Q. How do I change the blink rate of the cursor?
A. You can't! This is a limitation of the NT console. NT 5.0 is reported to
be able to set the blink rate for all console windows at the same time.
*:!start*
Q. How can I run an external command or program asynchronously?
A. When using :! to run an external command, you can run it with "start":
:!start winfile.exe<CR>
Using "start" stops Vim switching to another screen, opening a new console,
or waiting for the program to complete; it indicates that you are running a
program that does not affect the files you are editing. Programs begun
with :!start do not get passed Vim's open file handles, which means they do
not have to be closed before Vim.
To avoid this special treatment, use ":! start".
The optional "/min" argument causes the window to be minimized.
Q. I'm using Win32s, and when I try to run an external command like "make",
Vim doesn't wait for it to finish! Help!
A. The problem is that a 32-bit application (Vim) can't get notification from
Windows that a 16-bit application (your DOS session) has finished. Vim
includes a work-around for this, but you must set up your DOS commands to
run in a window, not full-screen. Unfortunately the default when you
install Windows is full-screen. To change this:
1) Start PIF editor (in the Main program group).
2) Open the file "_DEFAULT.PIF" in your Windows directory.
3) Changes the display option from "Full Screen" to "Windowed".
4) Save and exit.
To test, start Vim and type
:!dir C:\<CR>".
You should see a DOS box window appear briefly with the directory listing.
Q. I use Vim under Win32s and NT. In NT, I can define the console to default to
50 lines, so that I get a 80x50 shell when I ':sh'. Can I do the same in
W3.1x, or am I stuck with 80x25?
A. Edit SYSTEM.INI and add 'ScreenLines=50' to the [NonWindowsApp] section. DOS
prompts and external DOS commands will now run in a 50-line window.
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: sign
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*sign.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Oct 14
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Gordon Prieur

and Bram Moolenaar
Sign Support Features *sign-support*

1. Introduction |sign-intro|
2. Commands |sign-commands|
{only available when compiled with the |+signs| feature}
==============================================================================
1. Introduction *sign-intro* *signs*
When a debugger or other IDE tool is driving an editor it needs to be able
to give specific highlights which quickly tell the user useful information
about the file. One example of this would be a debugger which had an icon
in the left-hand column denoting a breakpoint. Another example might be an
arrow representing the Program Counter (PC). The sign features allow both
placement of a sign, or icon, in the left-hand side of the window and
definition of a highlight which will be applied to that line. Displaying the
sign as an image is most likely only feasible in gvim (although Sun
Microsystem's dtterm does support this it's the only terminal emulator I know
of which does). A text sign and the highlight should be feasible in any color
terminal emulator.
Signs and highlights are not useful just for debuggers. Sun's Visual
WorkShop uses signs and highlights to mark build errors and SourceBrowser
hits. Additionally, the debugger supports 8 to 10 different signs and
highlight colors. |workshop| Same for Netbeans |netbeans|.
There are two steps in using signs:
1. Define the sign. This specifies the image, text and highlighting. For
example, you can define a "break" sign with an image of a stop roadsign and
text "!!".
2. Place the sign. This specifies the file and line number where the sign is
displayed. A defined sign can be placed several times in different lines
and files.
When signs are defined for a file, Vim will automatically add a column of two
characters to display them in. When the last sign is unplaced the column
disappears again. The color of the column is set with the SignColumn group
|hl-SignColumn|. Example to set the color:
:highlight SignColumn guibg=darkgrey
==============================================================================
2. Commands *sign-commands* *:sig* *:sign*
Here is an example that places a sign "piet", displayed with the text ">>", in
line 23 of the current file:
:sign define piet text=>> texthl=Search
:exe ":sign place 2 line=23 name=piet file=" . expand("%:p")
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/sign.html[2019/03/05 11:43:04 AM]

And here is the command to delete it again:

:sign unplace 2
Note that the ":sign" command cannot be followed by another command or a
comment. If you do need that, use the |:execute| command.
DEFINING A SIGN. *:sign-define* *E255* *E160* *E612*

:sign define {name} {argument}...
Define a new sign or set attributes for an existing sign.
The {name} can either be a number (all digits) or a name
starting with a non-digit. Leading digits are ignored, thus
"0012", "012" and "12" are considered the same name.
About 120 different signs can be defined.
Accepted arguments:
icon={pixmap}
Define the file name where the bitmap can be found. Should be
a full path. The bitmap should fit in the place of two
characters. This is not checked. If the bitmap is too big it
will cause redraw problems. Only GTK 2 can scale the bitmap
to fit the space available.
toolkit supports
GTK 1 pixmap (.xpm)
GTK 2 many
Motif pixmap (.xpm)
linehl={group}
Highlighting group used for the whole line the sign is placed
in. Most useful is defining a background color.
text={text} *E239*
Define the text that is displayed when there is no icon or the
GUI is not being used. Only printable characters are allowed
and they must occupy one or two display cells.
texthl={group}
Highlighting group used for the text item.
DELETING A SIGN *:sign-undefine* *E155*

:sign undefine {name}
Deletes a previously defined sign. If signs with this {name}
are still placed this will cause trouble.
LISTING SIGNS *:sign-list* *E156*

:sign list Lists all defined signs and their attributes.
:sign list {name}
Lists one defined sign and its attributes.
PLACING SIGNS *:sign-place* *E158*

:sign place {id} line={lnum} name={name} file={fname}
Place sign defined as {name} at line {lnum} in file {fname}.
*:sign-fname*
The file {fname} must already be loaded in a buffer. The
exact file name must be used, wildcards, $ENV and ~ are not
expanded, white space must not be escaped. Trailing white
space is ignored.
The sign is remembered under {id}, this can be used for
further manipulation. {id} must be a number.
It's up to the user to make sure the {id} is used only once in
each file (if it's used several times unplacing will also have
to be done several times and making changes may not work as
expected).

:sign place {id} line={lnum} name={name} buffer={nr}

Same, but use buffer {nr}.
:sign place {id} name={name} file={fname}
Change the placed sign {id} in file {fname} to use the defined
sign {name}. See remark above about {fname} |:sign-fname|.
This can be used to change the displayed sign without moving
it (e.g., when the debugger has stopped at a breakpoint).
:sign place {id} name={name} buffer={nr}
REMOVING SIGNS *:sign-unplace* *E159*

:sign unplace {id} file={fname}
Remove the previously placed sign {id} from file {fname}.
See remark above about {fname} |:sign-fname|.
:sign unplace {id} buffer={nr}
:sign unplace {id}
Remove the previously placed sign {id} from all files it
appears in.
:sign unplace *
Remove all placed signs.
:sign unplace
Remove the placed sign at the cursor position.
LISTING PLACED SIGNS

:sign place file={fname}
List signs placed in file {fname}.
:sign place buffer={nr}
List signs placed in buffer {nr}.
:sign place List placed signs in all files.
JUMPING TO A SIGN *:sign-jump* *E157*

:sign jump {id} file={fname}
Open the file {fname} or jump to the window that contains
{fname} and position the cursor at sign {id}.
If the file isn't displayed in window and the current file can
not be |abandon|ed this fails.
:sign jump {id} buffer={nr}
Search tag (regex)
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Vim documentation: if_sniff
Search tag (regex)
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main help file
*if_sniff.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2005 Mar 29
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL

by Anton Leherbauer (toni@takefive.co.at)
SNiFF+ and Vim *sniff*

1. Introduction |sniff-intro|
2. Commands |sniff-commands|
3. Compiling Vim with SNiFF+ interface |sniff-compiling|
{Vi does not have any of these commands} *E275* *E274* *E276* *E278* *E279*
The SNiFF+ interface only works, when Vim was compiled with the |+sniff|
feature.
==============================================================================
1. Introduction *sniff-intro*
The following features for the use with SNiFF+ are available:
* Vim can be used for all editing requests
* SNiFF+ recognizes and updates all browsers when a file is saved in Vim
* SNiFF+ commands can be issued directly from Vim
How to use Vim with SNiFF+
1. Make sure SNiFF+ is running.
2. In the Editor view of the Preferences dialog set the Field named
'External Editor' to 'Emacs/Vim'.
4. Start Vim
5. Connect to SNiFF+ (:sniff connect)
Once a connection is established, SNiFF+ uses Vim for all requests to show or
edit source code. On the other hand, you can send queries to SNiFF+ with the
:sniff command.
==============================================================================
2. Commands *sniff-commands*
*:sniff* *:sni*
:sni[ff] request [symbol] Send request to sniff with optional symbol.
{not in Vi}
:sni[ff] Display all possible requests and the connection
status
Most requests require a symbol (identifier) as parameter. If it is omitted,
Vim will use the current word under the cursor.
The available requests are listed below:
request mapping description
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
connect sc Establish connection with SNiFF+.
Make sure SNiFF+ is prepared for this in the
Preferences
disconnect sq Disconnect from SNiFF+. You can reconnect any
time with :sniff connect (or 'sc')
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/if_sniff.html[2019/03/05 11:43:04 AM]

toggle st Toggle between implementation

and definition file
find-symbol sf Load the symbol into a Symbol Browser
browse-class sb Loads the class into a Class Browser
superclass ss Edit superclass of symbol
overridden so Edit overridden method of symbol
retrieve-file srf Retrieve symbol in current file
retrieve-project srp Retrieve symbol in current project
retrieve-all-projects srP Retrieve symbol in all projects
retrieve-next sR Retrieve symbol using current Retriever
settings
goto-symbol sg Goto definition or implementation of symbol
hierarchy sh Load symbol into the Hierarchy Browser
restr-hier sH same as above but show only related classes
xref-to sxt Start a refers-to query on symbol and
load the results into the Cross Referencer
xref-by sxb Start a referred-by query on symbol
xref-has sxh Start a refers-to components query on symbol
xref-used-by sxu Start a referred-by as component query on
symbol
show-docu sd Show documentation of symbol
gen-docu sD Generate documentation of symbol
The mappings are defined in a file 'sniff.vim', which is part of every SNiFF+
product ($SNIFF_DIR/config/sniff.vim). This file is sourced whenever Vim
connects to SNiFF+.
==============================================================================
3. Compiling Vim with SNiFF+ interface *sniff-compiling*
To compile Vim with SNiFF+ support, you need two source files of the extra
archive: if_sniff.c and if_sniff.h.
On Unix: Edit the Makefile and uncomment the line "--enable-sniff". Or run
configure manually with this argument.
On NT: Specify SNIFF=yes with your make command.
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http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/if_sniff.html[2019/03/05 11:43:04 AM]

Vim documentation: tabpage
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Help FAQ Both

main help file
*tabpage.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Jul 31
Editing with windows in multiple tab pages. *tab-page* *tabpage*

The commands which have been added to use multiple tab pages are explained
here. Additionally, there are explanations for commands that work differently
when used in combination with more than one tab page.
1. Introduction |tab-page-intro|
2. Commands |tab-page-commands|
3. Other items |tab-page-other|
4. Setting 'tabline' |setting-tabline|
5. Setting 'guitablabel' |setting-guitablabel|
{not able to use multiple tab pages when the |+windows| feature was disabled
at compile time}
==============================================================================
1. Introduction *tab-page-intro*
A tab page holds one or more windows. You can easily switch between tab
pages, so that you have several collections of windows to work on different
things.
Usually you will see a list of labels at the top of the Vim window, one for
each tab page. With the mouse you can click on the label to jump to that tab
page. There are other ways to move between tab pages, see below.
Most commands work only in the current tab page. That includes the |CTRL-W|
commands, |:windo|, |:all| and |:ball| (when not using the |:tab| modifier).
The commands that are aware of other tab pages than the current one are
mentioned below.
Tabs are also a nice way to edit a buffer temporarily without changing the
current window layout. Open a new tab page, do whatever you want to do and
close the tab page.
==============================================================================
2. Commands *tab-page-commands*
OPENING A NEW TAB PAGE:
When starting Vim "vim -p filename ..." opens each file argument in a separate
tab page (up to 'tabpagemax'). See |-p|
A double click with the mouse in the non-GUI tab pages line opens a new, empty
tab page. It is placed left of the position of the click. The first click
may select another tab page first, causing an extra screen update.
This also works in a few GUI versions, esp. Win32 and Motif. But only when
clicking right of the labels.
In the GUI tab pages line you can use the right mouse button to open menu.
|tabline-menu|.
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/tabpage.html[2019/03/05 11:43:05 AM]

:[count]tabe[dit] *:tabe* *:tabedit* *:tabnew*

:[count]tabnew
Open a new tab page with an empty window, after the current
tab page. For [count] see |:tab| below.
:[count]tabe[dit] [++opt] [+cmd] {file}
:[count]tabnew [++opt] [+cmd] {file}
Open a new tab page and edit {file}, like with |:edit|.
For [count] see |:tab| below.
:[count]tabf[ind] [++opt] [+cmd] {file} *:tabf* *:tabfind*

Open a new tab page and edit {file} in 'path', like with
|:find|. For [count] see |:tab| below.
at compile time}
:[count]tab {cmd} *:tab*

Execute {cmd} and when it opens a new window open a new tab
page instead. Doesn't work for |:diffsplit|, |:diffpatch|,
|:execute| and |:normal|.
When [count] is omitted the tab page appears after the current
one.
When [count] is specified the new tab page comes after tab
page [count]. Use ":0tab cmd" to get the new tab page as the
first one.
Examples:
:tab split " opens current buffer in new tab page
:tab help gt " opens tab page with help for "gt"
CTRL-W gf Open a new tab page and edit the file name under the cursor.
See |CTRL-W_gf|.
CTRL-W gF Open a new tab page and edit the file name under the cursor
and jump to the line number following the file name.
See |CTRL-W_gF|.
CLOSING A TAB PAGE:
Closing the last window of a tab page closes the tab page too, unless there is
only one tab page.
Using the mouse: If the tab page line is displayed you can click in the "X" at
the top right to close the current tab page. A custom |'tabline'| may show
something else.
*:tabc* *:tabclose*
:tabc[lose][!] Close current tab page.
This command fails when:
- There is only one tab page on the screen. *E784*
- When 'hidden' is not set, [!] is not used, a buffer has
changes, and there is no other window on this buffer.
:tabc[lose][!] {count}
Close tab page {count}. Fails in the same way as ':tabclose"
above.
*:tabo* *:tabonly*
:tabo[nly][!] Close all other tab pages.
become hidden.
SWITCHING TO ANOTHER TAB PAGE:

Using the mouse: If the tab page line is displayed you can click in a tab page
label to switch to that tab page. Click where there is no label to go to the
next tab page. |'tabline'|

:tabn[ext] *:tabn* *:tabnext* *gt*

<C-PageDown> *CTRL-<PageDown>* *<C-PageDown>*
gt *i_CTRL-<PageDown>* *i_<C-PageDown>*
Go to the next tab page. Wraps around from the last to the
first one.
:tabn[ext] {count}
{count}<C-PageDown>
{count}gt Go to tab page {count}. The first tab page has number one.
:tabp[revious] *:tabp* *:tabprevious* *gT* *:tabN*

:tabN[ext] *:tabNext* *CTRL-<PageUp>*
<C-PageUp> *<C-PageUp>* *i_CTRL-<PageUp>* *i_<C-PageUp>*
gT Go to the previous tab page. Wraps around from the first one
to the last one.
:tabp[revious] {count}
:tabN[ext] {count}
{count}<C-PageUp>
{count}gT Go {count} tab pages back. Wraps around from the first one
to the last one.
:tabr[ewind] *:tabfir* *:tabfirst* *:tabr* *:tabrewind*

:tabfir[st] Go to the first tab page.
*:tabl* *:tablast*
:tabl[ast] Go to the last tab page.
Other commands:
*:tabs*
:tabs List the tab pages and the windows they contain.
Shows a ">" for the current window.
Shows a "+" for modified buffers.
REORDERING TAB PAGES:
:tabm[ove] [N] *:tabm* *:tabmove*

Move the current tab page to after tab page N. Use zero to
make the current tab page the first one. Without N the tab
page is made the last one.
LOOPING OVER TAB PAGES:
*:tabd* *:tabdo*
:tabd[o] {cmd} Execute {cmd} in each tab page.
:tabfirst
:{cmd}
:tabnext
:{cmd}
etc.
This only operates in the current window of each tab page.
When an error is detected on one tab page, further tab pages
will not be visited.
The last tab page (or where an error occurred) becomes the
current tab page.
{cmd} must not open or close tab pages or reorder them.
Also see |:windo|, |:argdo| and |:bufdo|.
==============================================================================

3. Other items *tab-page-other*
*tabline-menu*
The GUI tab pages line has a popup menu. It is accessed with a right click.
The entries are:
Close Close the tab page under the mouse pointer. The
current one if there is no label under the mouse
pointer.
New Tab Open a tab page, editing an empty buffer. It appears
to the left of the mouse pointer.
Open Tab... Like "New Tab" and additionally use a file selector to
select a file to edit.
Diff mode works per tab page. You can see the diffs between several files
within one tab page. Other tab pages can show differences between other
files.
Variables local to a tab page start with "t:". |tabpage-variable|
Currently there is only one option local to a tab page: 'cmdheight'.
The TabLeave and TabEnter autocommand events can be used to do something when
switching from one tab page to another. The exact order depends on what you
are doing. When creating a new tab page this works as if you create a new
window on the same buffer and then edit another buffer. Thus ":tabnew"
triggers:
WinLeave leave current window
TabLeave leave current tab page
TabEnter enter new tab page
WinEnter enter window in new tab page
BufLeave leave current buffer
BufEnter enter new empty buffer
When switching to another tab page the order is:
BufLeave
WinLeave
TabLeave
TabEnter
WinEnter
BufEnter
==============================================================================
4. Setting 'tabline' *setting-tabline*
The 'tabline' option specifies what the line with tab pages labels looks like.
It is only used when there is no GUI tab line.
You can use the 'showtabline' option to specify when you want the line with
tab page labels to appear: never, when there is more than one tab page or
always.
The highlighting of the tab pages line is set with the groups TabLine
TabLineSel and TabLineFill. |hl-TabLine| |hl-TabLineSel| |hl-TabLineFill|
A "+" will be shown for a tab page that has a modified window. The number of
windows in a tabpage is also shown. Thus "3+" means three windows and one of
them has a modified buffer.
The 'tabline' option allows you to define your preferred way to tab pages
labels. This isn't easy, thus an example will be given here.
For basics see the 'statusline' option. The same items can be used in the
'tabline' option. Additionally, the |tabpagebuflist()|, |tabpagenr()| and
|tabpagewinnr()| functions are useful.
Since the number of tab labels will vary, you need to use an expression for
the whole option. Something like:
:set tabline=%!MyTabLine()
Then define the MyTabLine() function to list all the tab pages labels. A
convenient method is to split it in two parts: First go over all the tab
pages and define labels for them. Then get the label for each tab page.
function MyTabLine()
let s = ''
for i in range(tabpagenr('$'))
" select the highlighting

if i + 1 == tabpagenr()
let s .= '%#TabLineSel#'
else
let s .= '%#TabLine#'
endif
" set the tab page number (for mouse clicks)
let s .= '%' . (i + 1) . 'T'
" the label is made by MyTabLabel()
let s .= ' %{MyTabLabel(' . (i + 1) . ')} '
endfor
" after the last tab fill with TabLineFill and reset tab page nr
let s .= '%#TabLineFill#%T'
" right-align the label to close the current tab page
if tabpagenr('$') > 1
let s .= '%=%#TabLine#%999Xclose'
endif
return s
endfunction
Now the MyTabLabel() function is called for each tab page to get its label.
function MyTabLabel(n)
let buflist = tabpagebuflist(a:n)
let winnr = tabpagewinnr(a:n)
return bufname(buflist[winnr - 1])
endfunction
This is just a simplistic example that results in a tab pages line that
resembles the default, but without adding a + for a modified buffer or
truncating the names. You will want to reduce the width of labels in a
clever way when there is not enough room. Check the 'columns' option for the
space available.
==============================================================================
5. Setting 'guitablabel' *setting-guitablabel*
When the GUI tab pages line is displayed, 'guitablabel' can be used to
specify the label to display for each tab page. Unlike 'tabline', which
specifies the whole tab pages line at once, 'guitablabel' is used for each
label separately.
'guitabtooltip' is very similar and is used for the tooltip of the same label.
This only appears when the mouse pointer hovers over the label, thus it
usually is longer. Only supported on some systems though.
See the 'statusline' option for the format of the value.
The "%N" item can be used for the current tab page number. The |v:lnum|
variable is also set to this number when the option is evaluated.
The items that use a file name refer to the current window of the tab page.
Note that syntax highlighting is not used for the option. The %T and %X
items are also ignored.
A simple example that puts the tab page number and the buffer name in the
label:
:set guitablabel=%N\ %f
An example that resembles the default 'guitablabel': Show the number of
windows in the tab page and a '+' if there is a modified buffer:
function GuiTabLabel()
let label = ''
let bufnrlist = tabpagebuflist(v:lnum)
" Add '+' if one of the buffers in the tab page is modified
for bufnr in bufnrlist
if getbufvar(bufnr, "&modified")
let label = '+'
break
endif
endfor

" Append the number of windows in the tab page if more than one
let wincount = tabpagewinnr(v:lnum, '$')
if wincount > 1
let label .= wincount
endif
if label != ''
let label .= ' '
endif
" Append the buffer name
return label . bufname(bufnrlist[tabpagewinnr(v:lnum) - 1])
endfunction
set guitablabel=%{GuiTabLabel()}
Note that the function must be defined before setting the option, otherwise
you get an error message for the function not being known.
If you want to fall back to the default label, return an empty string.
If you want to show something specific for a tab page, you might want to use a
tab page local variable. |t:var|
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Vim documentation: if_tcl
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main help file
*if_tcl.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2008 Aug 16
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Ingo Wilken
The Tcl Interface to Vim *tcl* *Tcl* *TCL*

1. Commands |tcl-ex-commands|
2. Tcl commands |tcl-commands|
3. Tcl variables |tcl-variables|
4. Tcl window commands |tcl-window-cmds|
5. Tcl buffer commands |tcl-buffer-cmds|
6. Miscellaneous; Output from Tcl |tcl-misc| |tcl-output|
7. Known bugs & problems |tcl-bugs|
8. Examples |tcl-examples|
9. Dynamic loading |tcl-dynamic|
{Vi does not have any of these commands} *E280* *E281*

The Tcl interface only works when Vim was compiled with the |+tcl| feature.
WARNING: There are probably still some bugs. Please send bug reports,
comments, ideas etc to <Ingo.Wilken@informatik.uni-oldenburg.de>
==============================================================================
1. Commands *tcl-ex-commands* *E571* *E572*
*:tcl* *:tc*
:tc[l] {cmd} Execute Tcl command {cmd}.
:[range]tc[l] << {endmarker}
{script}
{endmarker}
Execute Tcl script {script}.
Note: This command doesn't work when the Tcl feature
|script-here|.
omitted from after the "<<", a dot '.' must be used after {script}, like for
the |:append| and |:insert| commands.
This form of the |:tcl| command is mainly useful for including tcl code in Vim
scripts.
Example:
function! DefineDate()
tcl << EOF
proc date {} {
return [clock format [clock seconds]]
}
EOF
endfunction
*:tcldo* *:tcld*
:[range]tcld[o] {cmd} Execute Tcl command {cmd} for each line in [range]
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/if_tcl.html[2019/03/05 11:43:06 AM]

with the variable "line" being set to the text of each

line in turn, and "lnum" to the line number. Setting
"line" will change the text, but note that it is not
possible to add or delete lines using this command.
If {cmd} returns an error, the command is interrupted.
See |tcl-var-line| and |tcl-var-lnum|. {not in Vi}
*:tclfile* *:tclf*
:tclf[ile] {file} Execute the Tcl script in {file}. This is the same as
":tcl source {file}", but allows file name completion.
{not in Vi}
Note that Tcl objects (like variables) persist from one command to the next,
just as in the Tcl shell.
Executing Tcl commands is not possible in the |sandbox|.
==============================================================================
2. Tcl commands *tcl-commands*
Tcl code gets all of its access to vim via commands in the "::vim" namespace.
The following commands are implemented:
::vim::beep # Guess.
::vim::buffer {n} # Create Tcl command for one buffer.
::vim::buffer list # Create Tcl commands for all buffers.
::vim::command [-quiet] {cmd} # Execute an Ex command.
::vim::expr {expr} # Use Vim's expression evaluator.
::vim::option {opt} # Get vim option.
::vim::option {opt} {val} # Set vim option.
::vim::window list # Create Tcl commands for all windows.
Commands:
::vim::beep *tcl-beep*
Honk. Does not return a result.
::vim::buffer {n} *tcl-buffer*

::vim::buffer exists {n}
::vim::buffer list
Provides access to vim buffers. With an integer argument, creates a
buffer command (see |tcl-buffer-cmds|) for the buffer with that
number, and returns its name as the result. Invalid buffer numbers
result in a standard Tcl error. To test for valid buffer numbers,
vim's internal functions can be used:
set nbufs [::vim::expr bufnr("$")]
set isvalid [::vim::expr "bufexists($n)"]
The "list" option creates a buffer command for each valid buffer, and
returns a list of the command names as the result.
Example:
set bufs [::vim::buffer list]
foreach b $bufs { $b append end "The End!" }
The "exists" option checks if a buffer with the given number exists.
Example:
if { [::vim::buffer exists $n] } { ::vim::command ":e #$n" }
This command might be replaced by a variable in future versions.
See also |tcl-var-current| for the current buffer.
::vim::command {cmd} *tcl-command*

::vim::command -quiet {cmd}
Execute the vim (ex-mode) command {cmd}. Any Ex command that affects
a buffer or window uses the current buffer/current window. Does not
return a result other than a standard Tcl error code. After this
command is completed, the "::vim::current" variable is updated.
The "-quiet" flag suppresses any error messages from vim.
Examples:
::vim::command "set ts=8"
::vim::command "%s/foo/bar/g"
To execute normal-mode commands, use "normal" (see |:normal|):
set cmd "jj"
::vim::command "normal $cmd"
See also |tcl-window-command| and |tcl-buffer-command|.

::vim::expr {expr} *tcl-expr*

Evaluates the expression {expr} using vim's internal expression
evaluator (see |expression|). Any expression that queries a buffer
or window property uses the current buffer/current window. Returns
the result as a string. A |List| is turned into a string by joining
the items and inserting line breaks.
Examples:
set perl_available [::vim::expr has("perl")]
See also |tcl-window-expr| and |tcl-buffer-expr|.
::vim::option {opt} *tcl-option*

::vim::option {opt} {value}
Without second argument, queries the value of a vim option. With this
argument, sets the vim option to {value}, and returns the previous
value as the result. Any options that are marked as 'local to buffer'
or 'local to window' affect the current buffer/current window. The
global value is not changed, use the ":set" command for that. For
boolean options, {value} should be "0" or "1", or any of the keywords
"on", "off" or "toggle". See |option-summary| for a list of options.
Example:
::vim::option ts 8
See also |tcl-window-option| and |tcl-buffer-option|.
::vim::window {option} *tcl-window*

Provides access to vim windows. Currently only the "list" option is
implemented. This creates a window command (see |tcl-window-cmds|) for
each window, and returns a list of the command names as the result.
Example:
set wins [::vim::window list]
foreach w $wins { $w height 4 }
This command might be replaced by a variable in future versions.
See also |tcl-var-current| for the current window.
==============================================================================
3. Tcl variables *tcl-variables*
The ::vim namespace contains a few variables. These are created when the Tcl
interpreter is called from vim and set to current values.
::vim::current # array containing "current" objects
::vim::lbase # number of first line
::vim::range # array containing current range numbers
line # current line as a string (:tcldo only)
lnum # current line number (:tcldo only)
Variables:
::vim::current *tcl-var-current*
This is an array providing access to various "current" objects
available in vim. The contents of this array are updated after
"::vim::command" is called, as this might change vim's current
settings (e.g., by deleting the current buffer).
The "buffer" element contains the name of the buffer command for the
current buffer. This can be used directly to invoke buffer commands
(see |tcl-buffer-cmds|). This element is read-only.
Example:
$::vim::current(buffer) insert begin "Hello world"
The "window" element contains the name of the window command for the
current window. This can be used directly to invoke window commands
(see |tcl-window-cmds|). This element is read-only.
Example:
$::vim::current(window) height 10
::vim::lbase *tcl-var-lbase*
This variable controls how Tcl treats line numbers. If it is set to
'1', then lines and columns start at 1. This way, line numbers from
Tcl commands and vim expressions are compatible. If this variable is
set to '0', then line numbers and columns start at 0 in Tcl. This is
useful if you want to treat a buffer as a Tcl list or a line as a Tcl
string and use standard Tcl commands that return an index ("lsort" or
"string first", for example). The default value is '1'. Currently,
any non-zero values is treated as '1', but your scripts should not
rely on this. See also |tcl-linenumbers|.

::vim::range *tcl-var-range*
This is an array with three elements, "start", "begin" and "end". It
contains the line numbers of the start and end row of the current
range. "begin" is the same as "start". This variable is read-only.
See |tcl-examples|.
line *tcl-var-line*
lnum *tcl-var-lnum*
These global variables are only available if the ":tcldo" Ex command
is being executed. They contain the text and line number of the
current line. When the Tcl command invoked by ":tcldo" is completed,
the current line is set to the contents of the "line" variable, unless
the variable was unset by the Tcl command. The "lnum" variable is
read-only. These variables are not in the "::vim" namespace so they
can be used in ":tcldo" without much typing (this might be changed in
future versions). See also |tcl-linenumbers|.
==============================================================================
4. Tcl window commands *tcl-window-cmds*
Window commands represent vim windows. They are created by several commands:
::vim::window list |tcl-window|
"windows" option of a buffer command |tcl-buffer-windows|
The ::vim::current(window) variable contains the name of the window command
for the current window. A window command is automatically deleted when the
corresponding vim window is closed.
Let's assume the name of the window command is stored in the Tcl variable "win",
i.e. "$win" calls the command. The following options are available:
$win buffer # Create Tcl command for window's buffer.
$win command {cmd} # Execute Ex command in windows context.
$win cursor # Get current cursor position.
$win cursor {var} # Set cursor position from array variable.
$win cursor {row} {col} # Set cursor position.
$win delcmd {cmd} # Call Tcl command when window is closed.
$win expr {expr} # Evaluate vim expression in windows context.
$win height # Report the window's height.
$win height {n} # Set the window's height.
$win option {opt} [val] # Get/Set vim option in windows context.
Options:
$win buffer *tcl-window-buffer*
Creates a Tcl command for the window's buffer, and returns its name as
the result. The name should be stored in a variable:
set buf [$win buffer]
$buf is now a valid Tcl command. See |tcl-buffer-cmds| for the
available options.
$win cursor *tcl-window-cursor*

$win cursor {var}
$win cursor {row} {col}
Without argument, reports the current cursor position as a string.
This can be converted to a Tcl array variable:
array set here [$win cursor]
"here(row)" and "here(column)" now contain the cursor position.
With a single argument, the argument is interpreted as the name of a
Tcl array variable, which must contain two elements "row" and "column".
These are used to set the cursor to the new position:
$win cursor here ;# not $here !
With two arguments, sets the cursor to the specified row and column:
$win cursor $here(row) $here(column)
Invalid positions result in a standard Tcl error, which can be caught
with "catch". The row and column values depend on the "::vim::lbase"
variable. See |tcl-var-lbase|.
$win delcmd {cmd} *tcl-window-delcmd*

Registers the Tcl command {cmd} as a deletion callback for the window.
This command is executed (in the global scope) just before the window
is closed. Complex commands should be build with "list":
$win delcmd [list puts vimerr "window deleted"]
See also |tcl-buffer-delcmd|.

$win height *tcl-window-height*

$win height {n}
Without argument, reports the window's current height. With an
argument, tries to set the window's height to {n}, then reports the
new height (which might be different from {n}).
$win command [-quiet] {cmd} *tcl-window-command*

$win expr {expr} *tcl-window-expr*
$win option {opt} [val] *tcl-window-option*
These are similar to "::vim::command" etc., except that everything is
done in the context of the window represented by $win, instead of the
current window. For example, setting an option that is marked 'local
to window' affects the window $win. Anything that affects or queries
a buffer uses the buffer displayed in this window (i.e. the buffer
that is represented by "$win buffer"). See |tcl-command|, |tcl-expr|
and |tcl-option| for more information.
Example:
$win option number on
==============================================================================
5. Tcl buffer commands *tcl-buffer-cmds*
Buffer commands represent vim buffers. They are created by several commands:
::vim::buffer {N} |tcl-buffer|
::vim::buffer list |tcl-buffer|
"buffer" option of a window command |tcl-window-buffer|
The ::vim::current(buffer) variable contains the name of the buffer command
for the current buffer. A buffer command is automatically deleted when the
corresponding vim buffer is destroyed. Whenever the buffer's contents are
changed, all marks in the buffer are automatically adjusted. Any changes to
the buffer's contents made by Tcl commands can be undone with the "undo" vim
command (see |undo|).
Let's assume the name of the buffer command is stored in the Tcl variable "buf",
i.e. "$buf" calls the command. The following options are available:
$buf append {n} {str} # Append a line to buffer, after line {n}.
$buf command {cmd} # Execute Ex command in buffers context.
$buf count # Report number of lines in buffer.
$buf delcmd {cmd} # Call Tcl command when buffer is deleted.
$buf delete {n} # Delete a single line.
$buf delete {n} {m} # Delete several lines.
$buf expr {expr} # Evaluate vim expression in buffers context.
$buf get {n} # Get a single line as a string.
$buf get {n} {m} # Get several lines as a list.
$buf insert {n} {str} # Insert a line in buffer, as line {n}.
$buf last # Report line number of last line in buffer.
$buf mark {mark} # Report position of buffer mark.
$buf name # Report name of file in buffer.
$buf number # Report number of this buffer.
$buf option {opt} [val] # Get/Set vim option in buffers context.
$buf set {n} {text} # Replace a single line.
$buf set {n} {m} {list} # Replace several lines.
$buf windows # Create Tcl commands for buffer's windows.
*tcl-linenumbers*
Most buffer commands take line numbers as arguments. How Tcl treats these
numbers depends on the "::vim::lbase" variable (see |tcl-var-lbase|). Instead
of line numbers, several keywords can be also used: "top", "start", "begin",
"first", "bottom", "end" and "last".
Options:
$buf append {n} {str} *tcl-buffer-append*
$buf insert {n} {str} *tcl-buffer-insert*
Add a line to the buffer. With the "insert" option, the string
becomes the new line {n}, with "append" it is inserted after line {n}.
Example:
$buf insert top "This is the beginning."
$buf append end "This is the end."

To add a list of lines to the buffer, use a loop:

foreach line $list { $buf append $num $line ; incr num }
$buf count *tcl-buffer-count*

Reports the total number of lines in the buffer.
$buf delcmd {cmd} *tcl-buffer-delcmd*

Registers the Tcl command {cmd} as a deletion callback for the buffer.
This command is executed (in the global scope) just before the buffer
is deleted. Complex commands should be build with "list":
$buf delcmd [list puts vimerr "buffer [$buf number] gone"]
See also |tcl-window-delcmd|.
$buf delete {n} *tcl-buffer-delete*

$buf delete {n} {m}
Deletes line {n} or lines {n} through {m} from the buffer.
This example deletes everything except the last line:
$buf delete first [expr [$buf last] - 1]
$buf get {n} *tcl-buffer-get*

$buf get {n} {m}
Gets one or more lines from the buffer. For a single line, the result
is a string; for several lines, a list of strings.
Example:
set topline [$buf get top]
$buf last *tcl-buffer-last*

Reports the line number of the last line. This value depends on the
"::vim::lbase" variable. See |tcl-var-lbase|.
$buf mark {mark} *tcl-buffer-mark*

Reports the position of the named mark as a string, similar to the
cursor position of the "cursor" option of a window command (see
|tcl-window-cursor|). This can be converted to a Tcl array variable:
array set mpos [$buf mark "a"]
"mpos(column)" and "mpos(row)" now contain the position of the mark.
If the mark is not set, a standard Tcl error results.
$buf name
Reports the name of the file in the buffer. For a buffer without a
file, this is an empty string.
$buf number
Reports the number of this buffer. See |:buffers|.
This example deletes a buffer from vim:
::vim::command "bdelete [$buf number]"
$buf set {n} {string} *tcl-buffer-set*

$buf set {n} {m} {list}
Replace one or several lines in the buffer. If the list contains more
elements than there are lines to replace, they are inserted into the
buffer. If the list contains fewer elements, any unreplaced line is
deleted from the buffer.
$buf windows *tcl-buffer-windows*

Creates a window command for each window that displays this buffer, and
returns a list of the command names as the result.
Example:
set winlist [$buf windows]
foreach win $winlist { $win height 4 }
See |tcl-window-cmds| for the available options.
$buf command [-quiet] {cmd} *tcl-buffer-command*

$buf expr {expr} *tcl-buffer-expr*
$buf option {opt} [val] *tcl-buffer-option*
These are similar to "::vim::command" etc., except that everything is
done in the context of the buffer represented by $buf, instead of the
current buffer. For example, setting an option that is marked 'local

to buffer' affects the buffer $buf. Anything that affects or queries

a window uses the first window in vim's window list that displays this
buffer (i.e. the first entry in the list returned by "$buf windows").
See |tcl-command|, |tcl-expr| and |tcl-option| for more information.
Example:
if { [$buf option modified] } { $buf command "w" }
==============================================================================
6. Miscellaneous; Output from Tcl *tcl-misc* *tcl-output*
The standard Tcl commands "exit" and "catch" are replaced by custom versions.
"exit" terminates the current Tcl script and returns to vim, which deletes the
Tcl interpreter. Another call to ":tcl" then creates a new Tcl interpreter.
"exit" does NOT terminate vim! "catch" works as before, except that it does
not prevent script termination from "exit". An exit code != 0 causes the ex
command that invoked the Tcl script to return an error.
Two new I/O streams are available in Tcl, "vimout" and "vimerr". All output
directed to them is displayed in the vim message area, as information messages
and error messages, respectively. The standard Tcl output streams stdout and
stderr are mapped to vimout and vimerr, so that a normal "puts" command can be
used to display messages in vim.
==============================================================================
7. Known bugs & problems *tcl-bugs*
Calling one of the Tcl Ex commands from inside Tcl (via "::vim::command") may
have unexpected side effects. The command creates a new interpreter, which
has the same abilities as the standard interpreter - making "::vim::command"
available in a safe child interpreter therefore makes the child unsafe. (It
would be trivial to block nested :tcl* calls or ensure that such calls from a
safe interpreter create only new safe interpreters, but quite pointless -
depending on vim's configuration, "::vim::command" may execute arbitrary code
in any number of other scripting languages.) A call to "exit" within this new
interpreter does not affect the old interpreter; it only terminates the new
interpreter, then script processing continues normally in the old interpreter.
Input from stdin is currently not supported.
==============================================================================
8. Examples: *tcl-examples*
Here are a few small (and maybe useful) Tcl scripts.
This script sorts the lines of the entire buffer (assume it contains a list
of names or something similar):
set buf $::vim::current(buffer)
set lines [$buf get top bottom]
set lines [lsort -dictionary $lines]
$buf set top bottom $lines
This script reverses the lines in the buffer. Note the use of "::vim::lbase"
and "$buf last" to work with any line number setting.
set t $::vim::lbase
set b [$buf last]
while { $t < $b } {
set tl [$buf get $t]
set bl [$buf get $b]
$buf set $t $bl
$buf set $b $tl
incr t
incr b -1
}
This script adds a consecutive number to each line in the current range:
set i $::vim::range(start)
set n 1
while { $i <= $::vim::range(end) } {
set line [$buf get $i]
$buf set $i "$n\t$line"
incr i ; incr n
}
The same can also be done quickly with two Ex commands, using ":tcldo":
:tcl set n 1

:[range]tcldo set line "$n\t$line" ; incr n

This procedure runs an Ex command on each buffer (idea stolen from Ron Aaron):
proc eachbuf { cmd } {
foreach b [::vim::buffer list] {
$b command $cmd
}
}
Use it like this:
:tcl eachbuf %s/foo/bar/g
Be careful with Tcl's string and backslash substitution, tough. If in doubt,
surround the Ex command with curly braces.
If you want to add some Tcl procedures permanently to vim, just place them in
a file (e.g. "~/.vimrc.tcl" on Unix machines), and add these lines to your
startup file (usually "~/.vimrc" on Unix):
if has("tcl")
tclfile ~/.vimrc.tcl
endif
==============================================================================
9. Dynamic loading *tcl-dynamic*
On MS-Windows the Tcl library can be loaded dynamically. The |:version|
output then includes |+tcl/dyn|.
This means that Vim will search for the Tcl DLL file only when needed. When
you don't use the Tcl interface you don't need it, thus you can use Vim
without this DLL file.
To use the Tcl interface the Tcl DLL must be in your search path. In a
The name of the DLL must match the Tcl version Vim was compiled with.
Currently the name is "tcl83.dll". That is for Tcl 8.3. To know for sure
edit "gvim.exe" and search for "tcl\d*.dll\c".
==============================================================================
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Vim documentation: workshop
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main help file
*workshop.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Jul 20
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Gordon Prieur
Sun Visual WorkShop Features *workshop* *workshop-support*

1. Introduction |workshop-intro|
2. Commands |workshop-commands|
3. Compiling vim/gvim for WorkShop |workshop-compiling|
4. Configuring gvim for a WorkShop release tree |workshop-configure|
5. Obtaining the latest version of the XPM library |workshop-xpm|
{only available when compiled with the |+sun_workshop| feature}
==============================================================================
1. Introduction *workshop-intro*
Sun Visual WorkShop has an "Editor of Choice" feature designed to let users
debug using their favorite editors. For the 6.0 release we have added support
for gvim. A workshop debug session will have a debugging window and an editor
window (possibly others as well). The user can do many debugging operations
from the editor window, minimizing the need to switch from window to window.
The version of vim shipped with Sun Visual WorkShop 6 (also called Forte
Developer 6) is vim 5.3. The features in this release are much more reliable
than the vim/gvim shipped with Visual WorkShop. VWS users wishing to use vim
as their editor should compile these sources and install them in their
workshop release tree.
==============================================================================
2. Commands *workshop-commands*
*:ws* *:wsverb*
:ws[verb] verb Pass the verb to the verb executor
Pass the verb to a workshop function which gathers some arguments and
sends the verb and data to workshop over an IPC connection.
==============================================================================
3. Compiling vim/gvim for WorkShop *workshop-compiling*
Compiling vim with FEAT_SUN_WORKSHOP turns on all compile time flags necessary
for building a vim to work with Visual WorkShop. The features required for VWS
have been built and tested using the Sun compilers from the VWS release. They
have not been built or tested using Gnu compilers. This does not mean the
features won't build and run if compiled with gcc, just that nothing is
guaranteed with gcc!
==============================================================================
4. Configuring gvim for a WorkShop release tree *workshop-configure*
There are several assumptions which must be met in order to compile a gvim for
use with Sun Visual WorkShop 6.
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/workshop.html[2019/03/05 11:43:08 AM]

o You should use the compiler in VWS rather than gcc. We have neither
built nor tested with gcc and cannot guarantee it will build properly.
o You must supply your own XPM library. See |workshop-xpm| below for
details on obtaining the latest version of XPM.
o Edit the Makefile in the src directory and uncomment the lines for Sun
Visual WorkShop. You can easily find these by searching for the string
FEAT_SUN_WORKSHOP
o We also suggest you use Motif for your gui. This will provide gvim with
the same look-and-feel as the rest of Sun Visual WorkShop.
The following configuration line can be used to configure vim to build for use
with Sun Visual WorkShop:
$ CC=cc configure --enable-workshop --enable-gui=motif \
-prefix=<VWS-install-dir>/contrib/contrib6/<vim-version>
The VWS-install-dir should be the base directory where your Sun Visual WorkShop
was installed. By default this is /opt/SUNWspro. It will normally require
root permissions to install the vim release. You will also need to change the
symlink <VWS-install-dir>/bin/gvim to point to the vim in your newly installed
directory. The <vim-version> should be a unique version string. I use "vim"
concatenated with the equivalent of version.h's VIM_VERSION_SHORT.
==============================================================================
5. Obtaining the latest version of the XPM library *workshop-xpm*
The XPM library is required to show images within Vim with Motif or Athena.
Without it the toolbar and signs will be disabled.
The XPM library is provided by Arnaud Le Hors of the French National Institute
for Research in Computer Science and Control. It can be downloaded from
http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/lib/libXpm. The current release, as of this
writing, is xpm-3.4k-solaris.tgz, which is a gzip'ed tar file. If you create
the directory /usr/local/xpm and untar the file there you can use the
uncommented lines in the Makefile without changing them. If you use another
xpm directory you will need to change the XPM_DIR in src/Makefile.
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main help file
*usr_01.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Nov 03

About the manuals
This chapter introduces the manuals available with Vim. Read this to know the
conditions under which the commands are explained.
|01.1| Two manuals
|01.2| Vim installed
|01.3| Using the Vim tutor
|01.4| Copyright
Next chapter: |usr_02.txt| The first steps in Vim
==============================================================================
*01.1* Two manuals
The Vim documentation consists of two parts:
1. The User manual
Task oriented explanations, from simple to complex. Reads from start to
end like a book.
2. The Reference manual
Precise description of how everything in Vim works.
The notation used in these manuals is explained here: |notation|
JUMPING AROUND
The text contains hyperlinks between the two parts, allowing you to quickly
jump between the description of an editing task and a precise explanation of
the commands and options used for it. Use these two commands:
Press CTRL-] to jump to a subject under the cursor.
Press CTRL-O to jump back (repeat to go further back).
Many links are in vertical bars, like this: |bars|. The bars themselves may
be hidden or invisible, see below. An option name, like 'number', a command
in double quotes like ":write" and any other word can also be used as a link.
Try it out: Move the cursor to CTRL-] and press CTRL-] on it.
Other subjects can be found with the ":help" command, see |help.txt|.
The bars and stars are usually hidden with the |conceal| feature. They also
use |hl-Ignore|, using the same color for the text as the background. You can
make them visible with:
:set conceallevel=0
:hi link HelpBar Normal
:hi link HelpStar Normal
==============================================================================
*01.2* Vim installed
Most of the manuals assume that Vim has been properly installed. If you
didn't do that yet, or if Vim doesn't run properly (e.g., files can't be found

or in the GUI the menus do not show up) first read the chapter on
installation: |usr_90.txt|.
*not-compatible*
The manuals often assume you are using Vim with Vi-compatibility switched
off. For most commands this doesn't matter, but sometimes it is important,
e.g., for multi-level undo. An easy way to make sure you are using a nice
setup is to copy the example vimrc file. By doing this inside Vim you don't
have to check out where it is located. How to do this depends on the system
you are using:
Unix:
:!cp -i $VIMRUNTIME/vimrc_example.vim ~/.vimrc
MS-DOS, MS-Windows, OS/2:
:!copy $VIMRUNTIME/vimrc_example.vim $VIM/_vimrc
Amiga:
:!copy $VIMRUNTIME/vimrc_example.vim $VIM/.vimrc
If the file already exists you probably want to keep it.
If you start Vim now, the 'compatible' option should be off. You can check it
with this command:
:set compatible?
If it responds with "nocompatible" you are doing well. If the response is
"compatible" you are in trouble. You will have to find out why the option is
still set. Perhaps the file you wrote above is not found. Use this command
to find out:
:scriptnames
If your file is not in the list, check its location and name. If it is in the
list, there must be some other place where the 'compatible' option is switched
back on.
For more info see |vimrc| and |compatible-default|.
Note:
This manual is about using Vim in the normal way. There is an
alternative called "evim" (easy Vim). This is still Vim, but used in
a way that resembles a click-and-type editor like Notepad. It always
stays in Insert mode, thus it feels very different. It is not
explained in the user manual, since it should be mostly self
explanatory. See |evim-keys| for details.
==============================================================================
*01.3* Using the Vim tutor *tutor* *vimtutor*
Instead of reading the text (boring!) you can use the vimtutor to learn your
first Vim commands. This is a 30 minute tutorial that teaches the most basic
Vim functionality hands-on.
On Unix, if Vim has been properly installed, you can start it from the shell:
vimtutor
On MS-Windows you can find it in the Program/Vim menu. Or execute
vimtutor.bat in the $VIMRUNTIME directory.
This will make a copy of the tutor file, so that you can edit it without
the risk of damaging the original.
There are a few translated versions of the tutor. To find out if yours is
available, use the two-letter language code. For French:
vimtutor fr
On Unix, if you prefer using the GUI version of Vim, use "gvimtutor" or
"vimtutor -g" instead of "vimtutor".
For OpenVMS, if Vim has been properly installed, you can start vimtutor from a
VMS prompt with:
@VIM:vimtutor
Optionally add the two-letter language code as above.
On other systems, you have to do a little work:

1. Copy the tutor file. You can do this with Vim (it knows where to find it):
vim -u NONE -c 'e $VIMRUNTIME/tutor/tutor' -c 'w! TUTORCOPY' -c 'q'
This will write the file "TUTORCOPY" in the current directory. To use a
translated version of the tutor, append the two-letter language code to the
filename. For French:
vim -u NONE -c 'e $VIMRUNTIME/tutor/tutor.fr' -c 'w! TUTORCOPY' -c 'q'
2. Edit the copied file with Vim:
vim -u NONE -c "set nocp" TUTORCOPY
The extra arguments make sure Vim is started in a good mood.
3. Delete the copied file when you are finished with it:
del TUTORCOPY
==============================================================================
*01.4* Copyright *manual-copyright*
The Vim user manual and reference manual are Copyright (c) 1988-2003 by Bram
Moolenaar. This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and
conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, v1.0 or later. The
latest version is presently available at:
http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/
People who contribute to the manuals must agree with the above copyright
notice.
*frombook*
Parts of the user manual come from the book "Vi IMproved - Vim" by Steve
Oualline (published by New Riders Publishing, ISBN: 0735710015). The Open
Publication License applies to this book. Only selected parts are included
and these have been modified (e.g., by removing the pictures, updating the
text for Vim 6.0 and later, fixing mistakes). The omission of the |frombook|
tag does not mean that the text does not come from the book.
Many thanks to Steve Oualline and New Riders for creating this book and
publishing it under the OPL! It has been a great help while writing the user
manual. Not only by providing literal text, but also by setting the tone and
style.
If you make money through selling the manuals, you are strongly encouraged to
donate part of the profit to help AIDS victims in Uganda. See |iccf|.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_02.txt| The first steps in Vim
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Vim documentation: uganda
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*uganda.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Aug 07
*uganda* *Uganda* *copying* *copyright* *license*

SUMMARY
*iccf* *ICCF*
Vim is Charityware. You can use and copy it as much as you like, but you are
encouraged to make a donation for needy children in Uganda. Please see |kcc|
below or visit the ICCF web site, available at these URLs:
http://iccf-holland.org/
http://www.vim.org/iccf/
http://www.iccf.nl/
You can also sponsor the development of Vim. Vim sponsors can vote for
features. See |sponsor|. The money goes to Uganda anyway.
The Open Publication License applies to the Vim documentation, see
|manual-copyright|.
VIM LICENSE
I) There are no restrictions on distributing unmodified copies of Vim except
that they must include this license text. You can also distribute
unmodified parts of Vim, likewise unrestricted except that they must
include this license text. You are also allowed to include executables
that you made from the unmodified Vim sources, plus your own usage
examples and Vim scripts.
II) It is allowed to distribute a modified (or extended) version of Vim,
including executables and/or source code, when the following four
conditions are met:
1) This license text must be included unmodified.
2) The modified Vim must be distributed in one of the following five ways:
a) If you make changes to Vim yourself, you must clearly describe in
the distribution how to contact you. When the maintainer asks you
(in any way) for a copy of the modified Vim you distributed, you
must make your changes, including source code, available to the
maintainer without fee. The maintainer reserves the right to
include your changes in the official version of Vim. What the
maintainer will do with your changes and under what license they
will be distributed is negotiable. If there has been no negotiation
then this license, or a later version, also applies to your changes.
The current maintainer is Bram Moolenaar <Bram@vim.org>. If this
changes it will be announced in appropriate places (most likely
vim.sf.net, www.vim.org and/or comp.editors). When it is completely
impossible to contact the maintainer, the obligation to send him
your changes ceases. Once the maintainer has confirmed that he has
received your changes they will not have to be sent again.
b) If you have received a modified Vim that was distributed as
mentioned under a) you are allowed to further distribute it
unmodified, as mentioned at I). If you make additional changes the
text under a) applies to those changes.
c) Provide all the changes, including source code, with every copy of
the modified Vim you distribute. This may be done in the form of a
context diff. You can choose what license to use for new code you
add. The changes and their license must not restrict others from
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/uganda.html[2019/03/05 11:43:10 AM]

making their own changes to the official version of Vim.

d) When you have a modified Vim which includes changes as mentioned
under c), you can distribute it without the source code for the
changes if the following three conditions are met:
- The license that applies to the changes permits you to distribute
the changes to the Vim maintainer without fee or restriction, and
permits the Vim maintainer to include the changes in the official
version of Vim without fee or restriction.
- You keep the changes for at least three years after last
distributing the corresponding modified Vim. When the maintainer
or someone who you distributed the modified Vim to asks you (in
any way) for the changes within this period, you must make them
available to him.
- You clearly describe in the distribution how to contact you. This
contact information must remain valid for at least three years
after last distributing the corresponding modified Vim, or as long
as possible.
e) When the GNU General Public License (GPL) applies to the changes,
you can distribute the modified Vim under the GNU GPL version 2 or
any later version.
3) A message must be added, at least in the output of the ":version"
command and in the intro screen, such that the user of the modified Vim
is able to see that it was modified. When distributing as mentioned
under 2)e) adding the message is only required for as far as this does
not conflict with the license used for the changes.
4) The contact information as required under 2)a) and 2)d) must not be
removed or changed, except that the person himself can make
corrections.
III) If you distribute a modified version of Vim, you are encouraged to use
the Vim license for your changes and make them available to the
maintainer, including the source code. The preferred way to do this is
by e-mail or by uploading the files to a server and e-mailing the URL.
If the number of changes is small (e.g., a modified Makefile) e-mailing a
context diff will do. The e-mail address to be used is
<maintainer@vim.org>
IV) It is not allowed to remove this license from the distribution of the Vim
sources, parts of it or from a modified version. You may use this
license for previous Vim releases instead of the license that they came
with, at your option.
Note:
- If you are happy with Vim, please express that by reading the rest of this
file and consider helping needy children in Uganda.
- If you want to support further Vim development consider becoming a
|sponsor|. The money goes to Uganda anyway.
- According to Richard Stallman the Vim license is GNU GPL compatible.
A few minor changes have been made since he checked it, but that should not
make a difference.
- If you link Vim with a library that goes under the GNU GPL, this limits
further distribution to the GNU GPL. Also when you didn't actually change
anything in Vim.
- Once a change is included that goes under the GNU GPL, this forces all
further changes to also be made under the GNU GPL or a compatible license.
- If you distribute a modified version of Vim, you can include your name and
contact information with the "--with-modified-by" configure argument or the
MODIFIED_BY define.
==============================================================================
Kibaale Children's Centre *kcc* *Kibaale* *charity*
Kibaale Children's Centre (KCC) is located in Kibaale, a small town in the
south of Uganda, near Tanzania, in East Africa. The area is known as Rakai
District. The population is mostly farmers. Although people are poor, there
is enough food. But this district is suffering from AIDS more than any other
part of the world. Some say that it started there. Estimations are that 10
to 30% of the Ugandans are infected with HIV. Because parents die, there are
many orphans. In this district about 60,000 children have lost one or both
parents, out of a population of 350,000. And this is still continuing.
The children need a lot of help. The KCC is working hard to provide the needy

with food, medical care and education. Food and medical care to keep them
healthy now, and education so that they can take care of themselves in the
future. KCC works on a Christian base, but help is given to children of any
religion.
The key to solving the problems in this area is education. This has been
neglected in the past years with president Idi Amin and the following civil
wars. Now that the government is stable again, the children and parents have
to learn how to take care of themselves and how to avoid infections. There is
also help for people who are ill and hungry, but the primary goal is to
prevent people from getting ill and to teach them how to grow healthy food.
Most of the orphans are living in an extended family. An uncle or older
sister is taking care of them. Because these families are big and the income
(if any) is low, a child is lucky if it gets healthy food. Clothes, medical
care and schooling is beyond its reach. To help these needy children, a
sponsorship program was put into place. A child can be financially adopted.
For a few dollars a month KCC sees to it that the child gets indispensable
items, is healthy, goes to school and KCC takes care of anything else that
needs to be done for the child and the family that supports it.
Besides helping the child directly, the environment where the child grows up
needs to be improved. KCC helps schools to improve their teaching methods.
There is a demonstration school at the centre and teacher trainings are given.
Health workers are being trained, hygiene education is carried out and
households are stimulated to build a proper latrine. I helped setting up a
production site for cement slabs. These are used to build a good latrine.
They are sold below cost price.
There is a small clinic at the project, which provides children and their
family with medical help. When needed, transport to a hospital is offered.
Immunization programs are carried out and help is provided when an epidemic is
breaking out (measles and cholera have been a problem).
*donate*
Summer 1994 to summer 1995 I spent a whole year at the centre, working as a
volunteer. I have helped to expand the centre and worked in the area of water
and sanitation. I learned that the help that the KCC provides really helps.
When I came back to Holland, I wanted to continue supporting KCC. To do this
I'm raising funds and organizing the sponsorship program. Please consider one
of these possibilities:
1. Sponsor a child in primary school: 17 euro a month (or more).
2. Sponsor a child in secondary school: 25 euro a month (or more).
3. Sponsor the clinic: Any amount a month or quarter
4. A one-time donation
Compared with other organizations that do child sponsorship the amounts are
very low. This is because the money goes directly to the centre. Less than
5% is used for administration. This is possible because this is a small
organization that works with volunteers. If you would like to sponsor a
child, you should have the intention to do this for at least one year.
How do you know that the money will be spent right? First of all you have my
personal guarantee as the author of Vim. I trust the people that are working
at the centre, I know them personally. Further more, the centre has been
co-sponsored and inspected by World Vision, Save the Children Fund and is now
under the supervision of Pacific Academy Outreach Society. The centre is
visited about once a year to check the progress (at our own cost). I have
visited the centre myself many times, starting in 1993. The visit reports are
on the ICCF web site.
If you have any further questions, send me e-mail: <Bram@vim.org>.
The address of the centre is:
Kibaale Children's Centre
p.o. box 1658
Masaka, Uganda, East Africa
Sending money: *iccf-donations*

Check the ICCF web site for the latest information! See |iccf| for the URL.
USA: The methods mentioned below can be used.

Sending a check to the Nehemiah Group Outreach Society (NGOS)
is no longer possible, unfortunately. We are looking for
another way to get you an IRS tax receipt.
For sponsoring a child contact KCF in Canada (see below). US

checks can be sent to them to lower banking costs.

Canada: Contact Kibaale Children's Fund (KCF) in Surrey, Canada. They
take care of the Canadian sponsors for the children in
Kibaale. KCF forwards 100% of the money to the project in
Uganda. You can send them a one time donation directly.
Please send me a note so that I know what has been donated
because of Vim. Ask KCF for information about sponsorship.
Kibaale Children's Fund c/o Pacific Academy
10238-168 Street
Surrey, B.C. V4N 1Z4
Canada
Phone: 604-581-5353
If you make a donation to Kibaale Children's Fund (KCF) you
will receive a tax receipt which can be submitted with your
tax return.
Holland: Transfer to the account of "Stichting ICCF Holland" in Lisse.
This will allow for tax deduction if you live in Holland.
Postbank, nr. 4548774
Germany: It is possible to make donations that allow for a tax return.
Check the ICCF web site for the latest information:
http://iccf-holland.org/germany.html
World: Use a postal money order. That should be possible from any
country, mostly from the post office. Use this name (which is
in my passport): "Abraham Moolenaar". Use Euro for the
currency if possible.
Europe: Use a bank transfer if possible. Your bank should have a form
that you can use for this. See "Others" below for the swift
code and IBAN number.
Any other method should work. Ask for information about
sponsorship.
Credit Card: You can use PayPal to send money with a Credit card. This is
the most widely used Internet based payment system. It's
really simple to use. Use this link to find more info:
https://www.paypal.com/en_US/mrb/pal=XAC62PML3GF8Q
The e-mail address for sending the money to is:
Bram@iccf-holland.org
For amounts above 400 Euro ($500) sending a check is
preferred.
Others: Transfer to one of these accounts if possible:
Postbank, account 4548774
Swift code: INGB NL 2A
IBAN: NL47 PSTB 0004 5487 74
under the name "stichting ICCF Holland", Lisse
If that doesn't work:
Rabobank Lisse, account 3765.05.117
Swift code: RABO NL 2U
under the name "Bram Moolenaar", Lisse
Otherwise, send a check in euro or US dollars to the address
below. Minimal amount: $70 (my bank does not accept smaller
amounts for foreign check, sorry)
Address to send checks to:
stichting ICCF Holland
Bram Moolenaar
Finsterruetihof 1
8134 Adliswil
Switzerland
This address is expected to be valid for a long time.
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main help file
*develop.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2008 Dec 17
Development of Vim. *development*

This text is important for those who want to be involved in further developing
Vim.
1. Design goals |design-goals|
2. Coding style |coding-style|
3. Design decisions |design-decisions|
4. Assumptions |design-assumptions|
See the file README.txt in the "src" directory for an overview of the source
code.
Vim is open source software. Everybody is encouraged to contribute to help
improving Vim. For sending patches a context diff "diff -c" is preferred.
Also see http://www.vim.org/tips/tip.php?tip_id=618.
==============================================================================
1. Design goals *design-goals*
Most important things come first (roughly).
Note that quite a few items are contradicting. This is intentional. A
balance must be found between them.
VIM IS... VI COMPATIBLE *design-compatible*

First of all, it should be possible to use Vim as a drop-in replacement for
Vi. When the user wants to, he can use Vim in compatible mode and hardly
notice any difference with the original Vi.
Exceptions:
- We don't reproduce obvious Vi bugs in Vim.
- There are different versions of Vi. I am using Version 3.7 (6/7/85) as a
reference. But support for other versions is also included when possible.
The Vi part of POSIX is not considered a definitive source.
- Vim adds new commands, you cannot rely on some command to fail because it
didn't exist in Vi.
- Vim will have a lot of features that Vi doesn't have. Going back from Vim
to Vi will be a problem, this cannot be avoided.
- Some things are hardly ever used (open mode, sending an e-mail when
crashing, etc.). Those will only be included when someone has a good reason
why it should be included and it's not too much work.
- For some items it is debatable whether Vi compatibility should be
maintained. There will be an option flag for these.
VIM IS... IMPROVED *design-improved*

The IMproved bits of Vim should make it a better Vi, without becoming a
completely different editor. Extensions are done with a "Vi spirit".
- Use the keyboard as much as feasible. The mouse requires a third hand,
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/develop.html[2019/03/05 11:43:11 AM]

which we don't have. Many terminals don't have a mouse.

- When the mouse is used anyway, avoid the need to switch back to the
keyboard. Avoid mixing mouse and keyboard handling.
- Add commands and options in a consistent way. Otherwise people will have a
hard time finding and remembering them. Keep in mind that more commands and
options will be added later.
- A feature that people do not know about is a useless feature. Don't add
obscure features, or at least add hints in documentation that they exist.
- Minimize using CTRL and other modifiers, they are more difficult to type.
- There are many first-time and inexperienced Vim users. Make it easy for
them to start using Vim and learn more over time.
- There is no limit to the features that can be added. Selecting new features
is one based on (1) what users ask for, (2) how much effort it takes to
implement and (3) someone actually implementing it.
VIM IS... MULTI PLATFORM *design-multi-platform*

Vim tries to help as many users on as many platforms as possible.
- Support many kinds of terminals. The minimal demands are cursor positioning
and clear-screen. Commands should only use key strokes that most keyboards
have. Support all the keys on the keyboard for mapping.
- Support many platforms. A condition is that there is someone willing to do
Vim development on that platform, and it doesn't mean messing up the code.
- Support many compilers and libraries. Not everybody is able or allowed to
install another compiler or GUI library.
- People switch from one platform to another, and from GUI to terminal
version. Features should be present in all versions, or at least in as many
as possible with a reasonable effort. Try to avoid that users must switch
between platforms to accomplish their work efficiently.
- That a feature is not possible on some platforms, or only possible on one
platform, does not mean it cannot be implemented. [This intentionally
contradicts the previous item, these two must be balanced.]
VIM IS... WELL DOCUMENTED *design-documented*

- A feature that isn't documented is a useless feature. A patch for a new
feature must include the documentation.
- Documentation should be comprehensive and understandable. Using examples is
recommended.
- Don't make the text unnecessarily long. Less documentation means that an
item is easier to find.
VIM IS... HIGH SPEED AND SMALL IN SIZE *design-speed-size*

Using Vim must not be a big attack on system resources. Keep it small and
fast.
- Computers are becoming faster and bigger each year. Vim can grow too, but
no faster than computers are growing. Keep Vim usable on older systems.
- Many users start Vim from a shell very often. Startup time must be short.
- Commands must work efficiently. The time they consume must be as small as
possible. Useful commands may take longer.
- Don't forget that some people use Vim over a slow connection. Minimize the
communication overhead.
- Items that add considerably to the size and are not used by many people
should be a feature that can be disabled.
- Vim is a component among other components. Don't turn it into a massive
application, but have it work well together with other programs.
VIM IS... MAINTAINABLE *design-maintain*

- The source code should not become a mess. It should be reliable code.
- Use the same layout in all files to make it easy to read |coding-style|.
- Use comments in a useful way! Quoting the function name and argument names
is NOT useful. Do explain what they are for.
- Porting to another platform should be made easy, without having to change
too much platform-independent code.
- Use the object-oriented spirit: Put data and code together. Minimize the
knowledge spread to other parts of the code.
VIM IS... FLEXIBLE *design-flexible*

Vim should make it easy for users to work in their preferred styles rather
than coercing its users into particular patterns of work. This can be for
items with a large impact (e.g., the 'compatible' option) or for details. The
defaults are carefully chosen such that most users will enjoy using Vim as it
is. Commands and options can be used to adjust Vim to the desire of the user
and its environment.
VIM IS... NOT *design-not*

- Vim is not a shell or an Operating System. You will not be able to run a
shell inside Vim or use it to control a debugger. This should work the
other way around: Use Vim as a component from a shell or in an IDE.
A satirical way to say this: "Unlike Emacs, Vim does not attempt to include
everything but the kitchen sink, but some people say that you can clean one
with it. ;-)"
To use Vim with gdb see: http://www.agide.org and http://clewn.sf.net.
- Vim is not a fancy GUI editor that tries to look nice at the cost of
being less consistent over all platforms. But functional GUI features are
welcomed.
==============================================================================
2. Coding style *coding-style*
These are the rules to use when making changes to the Vim source code. Please
stick to these rules, to keep the sources readable and maintainable.
This list is not complete. Look in the source code for more examples.
MAKING CHANGES *style-changes*

The basic steps to make changes to the code:
1. Adjust the documentation. Doing this first gives you an impression of how
your changes affect the user.
2. Make the source code changes.
3. Check ../doc/todo.txt if the change affects any listed item.
4. Make a patch with "diff -c" against the unmodified code and docs.
5. Make a note about what changed and include it with the patch.
USE OF COMMON FUNCTIONS *style-functions*

Some functions that are common to use, have a special Vim version. Always
consider using the Vim version, because they were introduced with a reason.
NORMAL NAME VIM NAME DIFFERENCE OF VIM VERSION
free() vim_free() Checks for freeing NULL
malloc() alloc() Checks for out of memory situation
malloc() lalloc() Like alloc(), but has long argument
strcpy() STRCPY() Includes cast to (char *), for char_u * args
strchr() vim_strchr() Accepts special characters
strrchr() vim_strrchr() Accepts special characters
isspace() vim_isspace() Can handle characters > 128
iswhite() vim_iswhite() Only TRUE for tab and space
memcpy() mch_memmove() Handles overlapped copies
bcopy() mch_memmove() Handles overlapped copies
memset() vim_memset() Uniform for all systems
NAMES *style-names*
Function names can not be more than 31 characters long (because of VMS).
Don't use "delete" as a variable name, C++ doesn't like it.
Because of the requirement that Vim runs on as many systems as possible, we
need to avoid using names that are already defined by the system. This is a
list of names that are known to cause trouble. The name is given as a regexp
pattern.
is.*() POSIX, ctype.h
to.*() POSIX, ctype.h

d_.* POSIX, dirent.h

l_.* POSIX, fcntl.h
gr_.* POSIX, grp.h
pw_.* POSIX, pwd.h
sa_.* POSIX, signal.h
mem.* POSIX, string.h
str.* POSIX, string.h
wcs.* POSIX, string.h
st_.* POSIX, stat.h
tms_.* POSIX, times.h
tm_.* POSIX, time.h
c_.* POSIX, termios.h
MAX.* POSIX, limits.h
__.* POSIX, system
_[A-Z].* POSIX, system
E[A-Z0-9]* POSIX, errno.h
.*_t POSIX, for typedefs. Use .*_T instead.
wait don't use as argument to a function, conflicts with types.h
index shadows global declaration
time shadows global declaration
new C++ reserved keyword
try Borland C++ doesn't like it to be used as a variable.
basename() GNU string function
dirname() GNU string function
get_env_value() Linux system function
VARIOUS *style-various*
Typedef'ed names should end in "_T":
typedef int some_T;
Define'ed names should be uppercase:
#define SOME_THING
Features always start with "FEAT_":
#define FEAT_FOO
Don't use '\"', some compilers can't handle it. '"'' works fine.
Don't use:
#if HAVE_SOME
Some compilers can't handle that and complain that "HAVE_SOME" is not defined.
Use
#ifdef HAVE_SOME
or
#if defined(HAVE_SOME)
STYLE *style-examples*
General rule: One statement per line.
Wrong: if (cond) a = 1;
OK: if (cond)
a = 1;
Wrong: while (cond);
OK: while (cond)
;
Wrong: do a = 1; while (cond);
OK: do
a = 1;
while (cond);
Functions start with:

Wrong: int function_name(int arg1, int arg2)
OK: /*
* Explanation of what this function is used for.
*

* Return value explanation.

*/
int
function_name(arg1, arg2)
int arg1; /* short comment about arg1 */
int arg2; /* short comment about arg2 */
{
int local; /* comment about local */
local = arg1 * arg2;
NOTE: Don't use ANSI style function declarations. A few people still have to
use a compiler that doesn't support it.
SPACES AND PUNCTUATION *style-spaces*

No space between a function name and the bracket:
Wrong: func (arg);
OK: func(arg);
Do use a space after if, while, switch, etc.
Wrong: if(arg) for(;;)
OK: if (arg) for (;;)
Use a space after a comma and semicolon:
Wrong: func(arg1,arg2); for (i = 0;i < 2;++i)
OK: func(arg1, arg2); for (i = 0; i < 2; ++i)
Use a space before and after '=', '+', '/', etc.
Wrong: var=a*5;
OK: var = a * 5;
In general: Use empty lines to group lines of code together. Put a comment
just above the group of lines. This makes it easier to quickly see what is
being done.
OK: /* Prepare for building the table. */
get_first_item();
table_idx = 0;
/* Build the table */
while (has_item())
table[table_idx++] = next_item();
/* Finish up. */
cleanup_items();
generate_hash(table);
==============================================================================
3. Design decisions *design-decisions*
Folding
Several forms of folding should be possible for the same buffer. For example,
have one window that shows the text with function bodies folded, another
window that shows a function body.
Folding is a way to display the text. It should not change the text itself.
Therefore the folding has been implemented as a filter between the text stored
in a buffer (buffer lines) and the text displayed in a window (logical lines).
Naming the window

The word "window" is commonly used for several things: A window on the screen,
the xterm window, a window inside Vim to view a buffer.
To avoid confusion, other items that are sometimes called window have been
given another name. Here is an overview of the related items:
screen The whole display. For the GUI it's something like 1024x768
pixels. The Vim shell can use the whole screen or part of it.
shell The Vim application. This can cover the whole screen (e.g.,
when running in a console) or part of it (xterm or GUI).

window View on a buffer. There can be several windows in Vim,

together with the command line, menubar, toolbar, etc. they
fit in the shell.
Spell checking *develop-spell*

When spell checking was going to be added to Vim a survey was done over the
available spell checking libraries and programs. Unfortunately, the result
was that none of them provided sufficient capabilities to be used as the spell
checking engine in Vim, for various reasons:
- Missing support for multi-byte encodings. At least UTF-8 must be supported,
so that more than one language can be used in the same file.
Doing on-the-fly conversion is not always possible (would require iconv
support).
- For the programs and libraries: Using them as-is would require installing
them separately from Vim. That's mostly not impossible, but a drawback.
- Performance: A few tests showed that it's possible to check spelling on the
fly (while redrawing), just like syntax highlighting. But the mechanisms
used by other code are much slower. Myspell uses a hashtable, for example.
The affix compression that most spell checkers use makes it slower too.
- For using an external program like aspell a communication mechanism would
have to be setup. That's complicated to do in a portable way (Unix-only
would be relatively simple, but that's not good enough). And performance
will become a problem (lots of process switching involved).
- Missing support for words with non-word characters, such as "Etten-Leur" and
"et al.", would require marking the pieces of them OK, lowering the
reliability.
- Missing support for regions or dialects. Makes it difficult to accept
all English words and highlight non-Canadian words differently.
- Missing support for rare words. Many words are correct but hardly ever used
and could be a misspelled often-used word.
- For making suggestions the speed is less important and requiring to install
another program or library would be acceptable. But the word lists probably
differ, the suggestions may be wrong words.
Spelling suggestions *develop-spell-suggestions*

For making suggestions there are two basic mechanisms:
1. Try changing the bad word a little bit and check for a match with a good
word. Or go through the list of good words, change them a little bit and
check for a match with the bad word. The changes are deleting a character,
inserting a character, swapping two characters, etc.
2. Perform soundfolding on both the bad word and the good words and then find
matches, possibly with a few changes like with the first mechanism.
The first is good for finding typing mistakes. After experimenting with
hashtables and looking at solutions from other spell checkers the conclusion
was that a trie (a kind of tree structure) is ideal for this. Both for
reducing memory use and being able to try sensible changes. For example, when
inserting a character only characters that lead to good words need to be
tried. Other mechanisms (with hashtables) need to try all possible letters at
every position in the word. Also, a hashtable has the requirement that word
boundaries are identified separately, while a trie does not require this.
That makes the mechanism a lot simpler.
Soundfolding is useful when someone knows how the words sounds but doesn't
know how it is spelled. For example, the word "dictionary" might be written
as "daktonerie". The number of changes that the first method would need to
try is very big, it's hard to find the good word that way. After soundfolding
the words become "tktnr" and "tkxnry", these differ by only two letters.
To find words by their soundfolded equivalent (soundalike word) we need a list
of all soundfolded words. A few experiments have been done to find out what
the best method is. Alternatives:
1. Do the sound folding on the fly when looking for suggestions. This means
walking through the trie of good words, soundfolding each word and
checking how different it is from the bad word. This is very efficient for
memory use, but takes a long time. On a fast PC it takes a couple of
seconds for English, which can be acceptable for interactive use. But for
some languages it takes more than ten seconds (e.g., German, Catalan),
which is unacceptable slow. For batch processing (automatic corrections)
it's too slow for all languages.
2. Use a trie for the soundfolded words, so that searching can be done just
like how it works without soundfolding. This requires remembering a list
of good words for each soundfolded word. This makes finding matches very

fast but requires quite a lot of memory, in the order of 1 to 10 Mbyte.

For some languages more than the original word list.
3. Like the second alternative, but reduce the amount of memory by using affix
compression and store only the soundfolded basic word. This is what Aspell
does. Disadvantage is that affixes need to be stripped from the bad word
before soundfolding it, which means that mistakes at the start and/or end
of the word will cause the mechanism to fail. Also, this becomes slow when
the bad word is quite different from the good word.
The choice made is to use the second mechanism and use a separate file. This
way a user with sufficient memory can get very good suggestions while a user
who is short of memory or just wants the spell checking and no suggestions
doesn't use so much memory.
Word frequency
For sorting suggestions it helps to know which words are common. In theory we
could store a word frequency with the word in the dictionary. However, this
requires storing a count per word. That degrades word tree compression a lot.
And maintaining the word frequency for all languages will be a heavy task.
Also, it would be nice to prefer words that are already in the text. This way
the words that appear in the specific text are preferred for suggestions.
What has been implemented is to count words that have been seen during
displaying. A hashtable is used to quickly find the word count. The count is
initialized from words listed in COMMON items in the affix file, so that it
also works when starting a new file.
This isn't ideal, because the longer Vim is running the higher the counts
become. But in practice it is a noticeable improvement over not using the word
count.
==============================================================================
4. Assumptions *design-assumptions*
Size of variables:
char 8 bit signed
char_u 8 bit unsigned
int 32 or 64 bit signed (16 might be possible with limited features)
unsigned 32 or 64 bit unsigned (16 as with ints)
long 32 or 64 bit signed, can hold a pointer
Note that some compilers cannot handle long lines or strings. The C89
standard specifies a limit of 509 characters.
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*usr_toc.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Jul 20

Table Of Contents *user-manual*

==============================================================================
Overview
Getting Started
Editing Effectively
Tuning Vim
Making Vim Run
Reference manual
|reference_toc| More detailed information for all commands
The user manual is available as a single, ready to print HTML and PDF file
here:
http://vimdoc.sf.net
==============================================================================
Getting Started
Read this from start to end to learn the essential commands.
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/usr_toc.html[2019/03/05 11:43:12 AM]


|01.1| Two manuals
|01.2| Vim installed
|01.3| Using the Vim tutor
|01.4| Copyright
|02.1| Running Vim for the First Time
|02.2| Inserting text
|02.3| Moving around
|02.4| Deleting characters
|02.5| Undo and Redo
|02.6| Other editing commands
|02.7| Getting out
|02.8| Finding help
|03.1| Word movement
|03.2| Moving to the start or end of a line
|03.3| Moving to a character
|03.4| Matching a paren
|03.5| Moving to a specific line
|03.6| Telling where you are
|03.7| Scrolling around
|03.8| Simple searches
|03.9| Simple search patterns
|03.10| Using marks
|04.1| Operators and motions
|04.2| Changing text
|04.3| Repeating a change
|04.4| Visual mode
|04.5| Moving text
|04.6| Copying text
|04.7| Using the clipboard
|04.8| Text objects
|04.9| Replace mode
|04.10| Conclusion
|05.1| The vimrc file
|05.2| The example vimrc file explained
|05.3| Simple mappings
|05.4| Adding a plugin
|05.5| Adding a help file
|05.6| The option window
|05.7| Often used options
|06.1| Switching it on
|06.2| No or wrong colors?
|06.3| Different colors
|06.4| With colors or without colors
|06.5| Printing with colors
|06.6| Further reading
|07.1| Edit another file
|07.2| A list of files
|07.3| Jumping from file to file
|07.4| Backup files
|07.5| Copy text between files
|07.6| Viewing a file
|07.7| Changing the file name
|08.1| Split a window
|08.2| Split a window on another file
|08.3| Window size
|08.4| Vertical splits
|08.5| Moving windows
|08.6| Commands for all windows
|08.7| Viewing differences with vimdiff
|08.8| Various
|09.1| Parts of the GUI
|09.2| Using the mouse
|09.3| The clipboard
|09.4| Select mode


|10.1| Record and playback commands
|10.2| Substitution
|10.3| Command ranges
|10.4| The global command
|10.5| Visual block mode
|10.6| Reading and writing part of a file
|10.7| Formatting text
|10.8| Changing case
|10.9| Using an external program
|11.1| Basic recovery
|11.2| Where is the swap file?
|11.3| Crashed or not?
|12.1| Replace a word
|12.2| Change "Last, First" to "First Last"
|12.3| Sort a list
|12.4| Reverse line order
|12.5| Count words
|12.6| Find a man page
|12.7| Trim blanks
|12.8| Find where a word is used
==============================================================================
Editing Effectively
Subjects that can be read independently.
|20.1| Command line editing
|20.2| Command line abbreviations
|20.3| Command line completion
|20.4| Command line history
|20.5| Command line window
|21.1| Suspend and resume
|21.2| Executing shell commands
|21.3| Remembering information; viminfo
|21.4| Sessions
|21.5| Views
|21.6| Modelines
|22.1| The file explorer
|22.2| The current directory
|22.3| Finding a file
|22.4| The buffer list
|23.1| DOS, Mac and Unix files
|23.2| Files on the internet
|23.3| Encryption
|23.4| Binary files
|23.5| Compressed files
|24.1| Making corrections
|24.2| Showing matches
|24.3| Completion
|24.4| Repeating an insert
|24.5| Copying from another line
|24.6| Inserting a register
|24.7| Abbreviations
|24.8| Entering special characters
|24.9| Digraphs
|24.10| Normal mode commands
|25.1| Breaking lines
|25.2| Aligning text
|25.3| Indents and tabs
|25.4| Dealing with long lines
|25.5| Editing tables
|usr 26.txt| Repeating

|26.1| Repeating with Visual mode

|26.2| Add and subtract
|26.3| Making a change in many files
|26.4| Using Vim from a shell script
|27.1| Ignoring case
|27.2| Wrapping around the file end
|27.3| Offsets
|27.4| Matching multiple times
|27.5| Alternatives
|27.6| Character ranges
|27.7| Character classes
|27.8| Matching a line break
|27.9| Examples
|28.1| What is folding?
|28.2| Manual folding
|28.3| Working with folds
|28.4| Saving and restoring folds
|28.5| Folding by indent
|28.6| Folding with markers
|28.7| Folding by syntax
|28.8| Folding by expression
|28.9| Folding unchanged lines
|28.10| Which fold method to use?
|29.1| Using tags
|29.2| The preview window
|29.3| Moving through a program
|29.4| Finding global identifiers
|29.5| Finding local identifiers
|30.1| Compiling
|30.2| Indenting C files
|30.3| Automatic indenting
|30.4| Other indenting
|30.5| Tabs and spaces
|30.6| Formatting comments
|31.1| The file browser
|31.2| Confirmation
|31.3| Menu shortcuts
|31.4| Vim window position and size
|31.5| Various
|32.1| Undo up to a file write
|32.2| Numbering changes
|32.3| Jumping around the tree
|32.4| Time travelling
==============================================================================
Tuning Vim
Make Vim work as you like it.
|40.1| Key mapping
|40.2| Defining command-line commands
|40.3| Autocommands
|41.1| Introduction
|41.2| Variables
|41.3| Expressions
|41.4| Conditionals
|41.5| Executing an expression
|41.6| Using functions
|41.7| Defining a function
|41.8| Lists and Dictionaries
|41.9| Exceptions
|41.10| Various remarks
|41.11| Writing a plugin
|41.12| Writing a filetype plugin
|41.13| Writing a compiler plugin
|41.14| Writing a plugin that loads quickly

|41.15| Writing library scripts

|41.16| Distributing Vim scripts
|42.1| Introduction
|42.2| Menu commands
|42.3| Various
|42.4| Toolbar and popup menus
|43.1| Plugins for a filetype
|43.2| Adding a filetype
|44.1| Basic syntax commands
|44.2| Keywords
|44.3| Matches
|44.4| Regions
|44.5| Nested items
|44.6| Following groups
|44.7| Other arguments
|44.8| Clusters
|44.9| Including another syntax file
|44.10| Synchronizing
|44.11| Installing a syntax file
|44.12| Portable syntax file layout
|45.1| Language for Messages
|45.2| Language for Menus
|45.3| Using another encoding
|45.4| Editing files with a different encoding
|45.5| Entering language text
==============================================================================
Making Vim Run
Before you can use Vim.
|90.1| Unix
|90.2| MS-Windows
|90.3| Upgrading
|90.4| Common installation issues
|90.5| Uninstalling Vim
==============================================================================
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*usr_02.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Jul 20

The first steps in Vim
This chapter provides just enough information to edit a file with Vim. Not
well or fast, but you can edit. Take some time to practice with these
commands, they form the base for what follows.
|02.1| Running Vim for the First Time
|02.2| Inserting text
|02.3| Moving around
|02.4| Deleting characters
|02.5| Undo and Redo
|02.6| Other editing commands
|02.7| Getting out
|02.8| Finding help
Next chapter: |usr_03.txt| Moving around
Previous chapter: |usr_01.txt| About the manuals
==============================================================================
*02.1* Running Vim for the First Time
To start Vim, enter this command:
gvim file.txt
In UNIX you can type this at any command prompt. If you are running Microsoft
Windows, open an MS-DOS prompt window and enter the command.
In either case, Vim starts editing a file called file.txt. Because this
is a new file, you get a blank window. This is what your screen will look
like:
+---------------------------------------+
|# |
|~ |
|~ |
|~ |
|~ |
|"file.txt" [New file] |
+---------------------------------------+
('#" is the cursor position.)
The tilde (~) lines indicate lines not in the file. In other words, when Vim
runs out of file to display, it displays tilde lines. At the bottom of the
screen, a message line indicates the file is named file.txt and shows that you
are creating a new file. The message information is temporary and other
information overwrites it.
THE VIM COMMAND

The gvim command causes the editor to create a new window for editing. If you
use this command:
vim file.txt
the editing occurs inside your command window. In other words, if you are

running inside an xterm, the editor uses your xterm window. If you are using
an MS-DOS command prompt window under Microsoft Windows, the editing occurs
inside this window. The text in the window will look the same for both
versions, but with gvim you have extra features, like a menu bar. More about
that later.
==============================================================================
*02.2* Inserting text
The Vim editor is a modal editor. That means that the editor behaves
differently, depending on which mode you are in. The two basic modes are
called Normal mode and Insert mode. In Normal mode the characters you type
are commands. In Insert mode the characters are inserted as text.
Since you have just started Vim it will be in Normal mode. To start Insert
mode you type the "i" command (i for Insert). Then you can enter
the text. It will be inserted into the file. Do not worry if you make
mistakes; you can correct them later. To enter the following programmer's
limerick, this is what you type:
iA very intelligent turtle
Found programming UNIX a hurdle
After typing "turtle" you press the <Enter> key to start a new line. Finally
you press the <Esc> key to stop Insert mode and go back to Normal mode. You
now have two lines of text in your Vim window:
+---------------------------------------+
|A very intelligent turtle |
|Found programming UNIX a hurdle |
|~ |
|~ |
| |
+---------------------------------------+
WHAT IS THE MODE?

To be able to see what mode you are in, type this command:
:set showmode
You will notice that when typing the colon Vim moves the cursor to the last
line of the window. That's where you type colon commands (commands that start
with a colon). Finish this command by pressing the <Enter> key (all commands
that start with a colon are finished this way).
Now, if you type the "i" command Vim will display --INSERT-- at the bottom
of the window. This indicates you are in Insert mode.
+---------------------------------------+
|A very intelligent turtle |
|~ |
|~ |
|-- INSERT -- |
+---------------------------------------+
If you press <Esc> to go back to Normal mode the last line will be made blank.
GETTING OUT OF TROUBLE

One of the problems for Vim novices is mode confusion, which is caused by
forgetting which mode you are in or by accidentally typing a command that
switches modes. To get back to Normal mode, no matter what mode you are in,
press the <Esc> key. Sometimes you have to press it twice. If Vim beeps back
at you, you already are in Normal mode.
==============================================================================
*02.3* Moving around
After you return to Normal mode, you can move around by using these keys:
h left *hjkl*
j down
k up
l right

At first, it may appear that these commands were chosen at random. After all,
who ever heard of using l for right? But actually, there is a very good
reason for these choices: Moving the cursor is the most common thing you do in
an editor, and these keys are on the home row of your right hand. In other
words, these commands are placed where you can type them the fastest
(especially when you type with ten fingers).
Note:
You can also move the cursor by using the arrow keys. If you do,
however, you greatly slow down your editing because to press the arrow
keys, you must move your hand from the text keys to the arrow keys.
Considering that you might be doing it hundreds of times an hour, this
can take a significant amount of time.
Also, there are keyboards which do not have arrow keys, or which
locate them in unusual places; therefore, knowing the use of the hjkl
keys helps in those situations.
One way to remember these commands is that h is on the left, l is on the
right and j points down. In a picture:
k
h l
j
The best way to learn these commands is by using them. Use the "i" command to
insert some more lines of text. Then use the hjkl keys to move around and
insert a word somewhere. Don't forget to press <Esc> to go back to Normal
mode. The |vimtutor| is also a nice way to learn by doing.
For Japanese users, Hiroshi Iwatani suggested using this:
Komsomolsk
^
|
Huan Ho <--- ---> Los Angeles
(Yellow river) |
v
Java (the island, not the programming language)
==============================================================================
*02.4* Deleting characters
To delete a character, move the cursor over it and type "x". (This is a
throwback to the old days of the typewriter, when you deleted things by typing
xxxx over them.) Move the cursor to the beginning of the first line, for
example, and type xxxxxxx (seven x's) to delete "A very ". The result should
look like this:
+---------------------------------------+
|intelligent turtle |
|~ |
|~ |
| |
+---------------------------------------+
Now you can insert new text, for example by typing:
iA young <Esc>
This begins an insert (the i), inserts the words "A young", and then exits
insert mode (the final <Esc>). The result:
+---------------------------------------+
|A young intelligent turtle |
|~ |
|~ |
| |
+---------------------------------------+
DELETING A LINE
To delete a whole line use the "dd" command. The following line will
then move up to fill the gap:
+---------------------------------------+

|~ |
|~ |
|~ |
| |
+---------------------------------------+
DELETING A LINE BREAK

In Vim you can join two lines together, which means that the line break
between them is deleted. The "J" command does this.
Take these two lines:
A young intelligent
turtle
Move the cursor to the first line and press "J":
A young intelligent turtle
==============================================================================
*02.5* Undo and Redo
Suppose you delete too much. Well, you can type it in again, but an easier
way exists. The "u" command undoes the last edit. Take a look at this in
action: After using "dd" to delete the first line, "u" brings it back.
Another one: Move the cursor to the A in the first line:
Now type xxxxxxx to delete "A young". The result is as follows:
intelligent turtle
Type "u" to undo the last delete. That delete removed the g, so the undo
restores the character.
g intelligent turtle
The next u command restores the next-to-last character deleted:
ng intelligent turtle
The next u command gives you the u, and so on:
ung intelligent turtle
oung intelligent turtle
young intelligent turtle
Note:
If you type "u" twice, and the result is that you get the same text
back, you have Vim configured to work Vi compatible. Look here to fix
this: |not-compatible|.
This text assumes you work "The Vim Way". You might prefer to use
the good old Vi way, but you will have to watch out for small
differences in the text then.
REDO
If you undo too many times, you can press CTRL-R (redo) to reverse the
preceding command. In other words, it undoes the undo. To see this in
action, press CTRL-R twice. The character A and the space after it disappear:
There's a special version of the undo command, the "U" (undo line) command.
The undo line command undoes all the changes made on the last line that was
edited. Typing this command twice cancels the preceding "U".
A very intelligent turtle
xxxx Delete very
A intelligent turtle
xxxxxx Delete turtle

A intelligent
Restore line with "U"
Undo "U" with "u"
A intelligent
The "U" command is a change by itself, which the "u" command undoes and CTRL-R
redoes. This might be a bit confusing. Don't worry, with "u" and CTRL-R you
can go to any of the situations you had. More about that in section |32.2|.
==============================================================================
*02.6* Other editing commands
Vim has a large number of commands to change the text. See |Q_in| and below.
Here are a few often used ones.
APPENDING
The "i" command inserts a character before the character under the cursor.
That works fine; but what happens if you want to add stuff to the end of the
line? For that you need to insert text after the cursor. This is done with
the "a" (append) command.
For example, to change the line
and that's not saying much for the turtle.
to
and that's not saying much for the turtle!!!
move the cursor over to the dot at the end of the line. Then type "x" to
delete the period. The cursor is now positioned at the end of the line on the
e in turtle. Now type
a!!!<Esc>
to append three exclamation points after the e in turtle:
and that's not saying much for the turtle!!!
OPENING UP A NEW LINE

The "o" command creates a new, empty line below the cursor and puts Vim in
Insert mode. Then you can type the text for the new line.
Suppose the cursor is somewhere in the first of these two lines:
If you now use the "o" command and type new text:
oThat liked using Vim<Esc>
The result is:
That liked using Vim
The "O" command (uppercase) opens a line above the cursor.
USING A COUNT
Suppose you want to move up nine lines. You can type "kkkkkkkkk" or you can
enter the command "9k". In fact, you can precede many commands with a number.
Earlier in this chapter, for instance, you added three exclamation points to
the end of a line by typing "a!!!<Esc>". Another way to do this is to use the
command "3a!<Esc>". The count of 3 tells the command that follows to triple
its effect. Similarly, to delete three characters, use the command "3x". The
count always comes before the command it applies to.
==============================================================================
*02.7* Getting out
To exit, use the "ZZ" command. This command writes the file and exits.

Note:
Unlike many other editors, Vim does not automatically make a backup
file. If you type "ZZ", your changes are committed and there's no
turning back. You can configure the Vim editor to produce backup
files, see |07.4|.
DISCARDING CHANGES
Sometimes you will make a sequence of changes and suddenly realize you were
better off before you started. Not to worry; Vim has a
quit-and-throw-things-away command. It is:
:q!
Don't forget to press <Enter> to finish the command.
For those of you interested in the details, the three parts of this command
are the colon (:), which enters Command-line mode; the q command, which tells
the editor to quit; and the override command modifier (!).
The override command modifier is needed because Vim is reluctant to throw
away changes. If you were to just type ":q", Vim would display an error
message and refuse to exit:
E37: No write since last change (use ! to override)
By specifying the override, you are in effect telling Vim, "I know that what
I'm doing looks stupid, but I'm a big boy and really want to do this."
If you want to continue editing with Vim: The ":e!" command reloads the
original version of the file.
==============================================================================
*02.8* Finding help
Everything you always wanted to know can be found in the Vim help files.
Don't be afraid to ask!
To get generic help use this command:
:help
You could also use the first function key <F1>. If your keyboard has a <Help>
key it might work as well.
If you don't supply a subject, ":help" displays the general help window.
The creators of Vim did something very clever (or very lazy) with the help
system: They made the help window a normal editing window. You can use all
the normal Vim commands to move through the help information. Therefore h, j,
k, and l move left, down, up and right.
To get out of the help window, use the same command you use to get out of
the editor: "ZZ". This will only close the help window, not exit Vim.
As you read the help text, you will notice some text enclosed in vertical bars
(for example, |help|). This indicates a hyperlink. If you position the
cursor anywhere between the bars and press CTRL-] (jump to tag), the help
system takes you to the indicated subject. (For reasons not discussed here,
the Vim terminology for a hyperlink is tag. So CTRL-] jumps to the location
of the tag given by the word under the cursor.)
After a few jumps, you might want to go back. CTRL-T (pop tag) takes you
back to the preceding position. CTRL-O (jump to older position) also works
nicely here.
At the top of the help screen, there is the notation *help.txt*. This name
between "*" characters is used by the help system to define a tag (hyperlink
destination).
See |29.1| for details about using tags.
To get help on a given subject, use the following command:
:help {subject}
To get help on the "x" command, for example, enter the following:
:help x
To find out how to delete text, use this command:
:help deleting
To get a complete index of all Vim commands, use the following command:

:help index
When you need to get help for a control character command (for example,
CTRL-A), you need to spell it with the prefix "CTRL-".
:help CTRL-A
The Vim editor has many different modes. By default, the help system displays
the normal-mode commands. For example, the following command displays help
for the normal-mode CTRL-H command:
:help CTRL-H
To identify other modes, use a mode prefix. If you want the help for the
insert-mode version of a command, use "i_". For CTRL-H this gives you the
following command:
:help i_CTRL-H
When you start the Vim editor, you can use several command-line arguments.
These all begin with a dash (-). To find what the -t argument does, for
example, use the command:
:help -t
The Vim editor has a number of options that enable you to configure and
customize the editor. If you want help for an option, you need to enclose it
in single quotation marks. To find out what the 'number' option does, for
example, use the following command:
:help 'number'
The table with all mode prefixes can be found here: |help-context|.
Special keys are enclosed in angle brackets. To find help on the up-arrow key
in Insert mode, for instance, use this command:
:help i_<Up>
If you see an error message that you don't understand, for example:
You can use the error ID at the start to find help about it:
:help E37
Summary: *help-summary*
:help
Gives you very general help. Scroll down to see a list of all
helpfiles, including those added locally (i.e. not distributed
with Vim).
:help user-toc.txt
Table of contents of the User Manual.
:help :subject
Ex-command "subject", for instance the following:
:help :help
Help on getting help.
:help abc
normal-mode command "abc".
:help CTRL-B
Control key <C-B> in Normal mode.
:help i_abc
:help i_CTRL-B
The same in Insert mode.
:help v_abc
:help v_CTRL-B
The same in Visual mode.
:help c_abc
:help c_CTRL-B
The same in Command-line mode.
:help 'subject'
Option 'subject'.
:help subject()
Function "subject".
:help -subject

Command-line option "-subject".

:help +subject
Compile-time feature "+subject".
:help EventName
Autocommand event "EventName".
:help digraphs.txt
The top of the helpfile "digraph.txt".
Similarly for any other helpfile.
:help pattern<Tab>
Find a help tag starting with "pattern". Repeat <Tab> for
others.
:help pattern<Ctrl-D>
See all possible help tag matches "pattern" at once.
:helpgrep pattern
Search the whole text of all help files for pattern "pattern".
Jumps to the first match. Jump to other matches with:
:cn
next match
:cprev
:cN
previous match
:cfirst
:clast
first or last match
:copen
:cclose
open/close the quickfix window; press <Enter> to jump
to the item under the cursor
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_03.txt| Moving around
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file

Moving around
Before you can insert or delete text the cursor has to be moved to the right
place. Vim has a large number of commands to position the cursor. This
chapter shows you how to use the most important ones. You can find a list of
these commands below |Q_lr|.
|03.1| Word movement
|03.2| Moving to the start or end of a line
|03.3| Moving to a character
|03.4| Matching a parenthesis
|03.5| Moving to a specific line
|03.6| Telling where you are
|03.7| Scrolling around
|03.8| Simple searches
|03.9| Simple search patterns
|03.10| Using marks
Next chapter: |usr_04.txt| Making small changes
Previous chapter: |usr_02.txt| The first steps in Vim
==============================================================================
*03.1* Word movement
To move the cursor forward one word, use the "w" command. Like most Vim
commands, you can use a numeric prefix to move past multiple words. For
example, "3w" moves three words. This figure shows how it works:
This is a line with example text
--->-->->----------------->
w w w 3w
Notice that "w" moves to the start of the next word if it already is at the
start of a word.
The "b" command moves backward to the start of the previous word:
<----<--<-<---------<---
b b b 2b b
There is also the "e" command that moves to the next end of a word and "ge",
which moves to the previous end of a word:
<- <--- -----> ---->
ge ge e e
If you are at the last word of a line, the "w" command will take you to the
first word in the next line. Thus you can use this to move through a
paragraph, much faster than using "l". "b" does the same in the other
direction.
A word ends at a non-word character, such as a ".", "-" or ")". To change
what Vim considers to be a word, see the 'iskeyword' option.
It is also possible to move by white-space separated WORDs. This is not a
word in the normal sense, that's why the uppercase is used. The commands for

moving by WORDs are also uppercase, as this figure shows:

ge b w e
<- <- ---> --->
This is-a line, with special/separated/words (and some more).
<----- <----- --------------------> ----->
gE B W E
With this mix of lowercase and uppercase commands, you can quickly move
forward and backward through a paragraph.
==============================================================================
*03.2* Moving to the start or end of a line
The "$" command moves the cursor to the end of a line. If your keyboard has
an <End> key it will do the same thing.
The "^" command moves to the first non-blank character of the line. The "0"
command (zero) moves to the very first character of the line. The <Home> key
does the same thing. In a picture:
^
<------------
.....This is a line with example text
<----------------- --------------->
0 $
(the "....." indicates blanks here)
The "$" command takes a count, like most movement commands. But moving to
the end of the line several times doesn't make sense. Therefore it causes the
editor to move to the end of another line. For example, "1$" moves you to
the end of the first line (the one you're on), "2$" to the end of the next
line, and so on.
The "0" command doesn't take a count argument, because the "0" would be
part of the count. Unexpectedly, using a count with "^" doesn't have any
effect.
==============================================================================
*03.3* Moving to a character
One of the most useful movement commands is the single-character search
command. The command "fx" searches forward in the line for the single
character x. Hint: "f" stands for "Find".
For example, you are at the beginning of the following line. Suppose you
want to go to the h of human. Just execute the command "fh" and the cursor
will be positioned over the h:
To err is human. To really foul up you need a computer.
---------->--------------->
fh fy
This also shows that the command "fy" moves to the end of the word really.
You can specify a count; therefore, you can go to the "l" of "foul" with
"3fl":
--------------------->
3fl
The "F" command searches to the left:
<---------------------
Fh
The "tx" command works like the "fx" command, except it stops one character
before the searched character. Hint: "t" stands for "To". The backward
version of this command is "Tx".
<------------ ------------->
Th tn
These four commands can be repeated with ";". "," repeats in the other
direction. The cursor is never moved to another line. Not even when the
sentence continues.

Sometimes you will start a search, only to realize that you have typed the
wrong command. You type "f" to search backward, for example, only to realize
that you really meant "F". To abort a search, press <Esc>. So "f<Esc>" is an
aborted forward search and doesn't do anything. Note: <Esc> cancels most
operations, not just searches.
==============================================================================
*03.4* Matching a parenthesis
When writing a program you often end up with nested () constructs. Then the
"%" command is very handy: It moves to the matching paren. If the cursor is
on a "(" it will move to the matching ")". If it's on a ")" it will move to
the matching "(".
%
<----->
if (a == (b * c) / d)
<---------------->
%
This also works for [] and {} pairs. (This can be defined with the
'matchpairs' option.)
When the cursor is not on a useful character, "%" will search forward to find
one. Thus if the cursor is at the start of the line of the previous example,
"%" will search forward and find the first "(". Then it moves to its match:
if (a == (b * c) / d)
---+---------------->
%
==============================================================================
*03.5* Moving to a specific line
If you are a C or C++ programmer, you are familiar with error messages such as
the following:
prog.c:33: j undeclared (first use in this function)
This tells you that you might want to fix something on line 33. So how do you
find line 33? One way is to do "9999k" to go to the top of the file and "32j"
to go down thirty two lines. It is not a good way, but it works. A much
better way of doing things is to use the "G" command. With a count, this
command positions you at the given line number. For example, "33G" puts you
on line 33. (For a better way of going through a compiler's error list, see
|usr_30.txt|, for information on the :make command.)
With no argument, "G" positions you at the end of the file. A quick way to
go to the start of a file use "gg". "1G" will do the same, but is a tiny bit
more typing.
| first line of a file ^
| text text text text |
| text text text text | gg
7G | text text text text |
| text text text text
| text text text text
V text text text text |
text text text text | G
text text text text |
last line of a file V
Another way to move to a line is using the "%" command with a count. For
example "50%" moves you to halfway the file. "90%" goes to near the end.
The previous assumes that you want to move to a line in the file, no matter if
it's currently visible or not. What if you want to move to one of the lines
you can see? This figure shows the three commands you can use:
+---------------------------+
H --> | text sample text |
| sample text |
| text sample text |
| sample text |
M --> | text sample text |
| sample text |
| text sample text |
| sample text |
L --> | text sample text |

+---------------------------+
Hints: "H" stands for Home, "M" for Middle and "L" for Last.
==============================================================================
*03.6* Telling where you are
To see where you are in a file, there are three ways:
1. Use the CTRL-G command. You get a message like this (assuming the 'ruler'
option is off):
"usr_03.txt" line 233 of 650 --35%-- col 45-52
This shows the name of the file you are editing, the line number where the
cursor is, the total number of lines, the percentage of the way through
the file and the column of the cursor.
Sometimes you will see a split column number. For example, "col 2-9".
This indicates that the cursor is positioned on the second character, but
because character one is a tab, occupying eight spaces worth of columns,
the screen column is 9.
2. Set the 'number' option. This will display a line number in front of
every line:
:set number
To switch this off again:
:set nonumber
Since 'number' is a boolean option, prepending "no" to its name has the
effect of switching it off. A boolean option has only these two values,
it is either on or off.
Vim has many options. Besides the boolean ones there are options with
a numerical value and string options. You will see examples of this where
they are used.
3. Set the 'ruler' option. This will display the cursor position in the
lower right corner of the Vim window:
:set ruler
Using the 'ruler' option has the advantage that it doesn't take much room,
thus there is more space for your text.
==============================================================================
*03.7* Scrolling around
The CTRL-U command scrolls down half a screen of text. Think of looking
through a viewing window at the text and moving this window up by half the
height of the window. Thus the window moves up over the text, which is
backward in the file. Don't worry if you have a little trouble remembering
which end is up. Most users have the same problem.
The CTRL-D command moves the viewing window down half a screen in the file,
thus scrolls the text up half a screen.
+----------------+
| some text |
| some text |
| some text |
+---------------+ | some text |
| some text | CTRL-U --> | |
| | | 123456 |
| 123456 | +----------------+
| 7890 |
| | +----------------+
| example | CTRL-D --> | 7890 |
+---------------+ | |
| example |
| example |
| example |
| example |
+----------------+
To scroll one line at a time use CTRL-E (scroll up) and CTRL-Y (scroll down).
Think of CTRL-E to give you one line Extra. (If you use MS-Windows compatible
key mappings CTRL-Y will redo a change instead of scroll.)

To scroll forward by a whole screen (except for two lines) use CTRL-F. The
other way is backward, CTRL-B is the command to use. Fortunately CTRL-F is
Forward and CTRL-B is Backward, that's easy to remember.
A common issue is that after moving down many lines with "j" your cursor is at
the bottom of the screen. You would like to see the context of the line with
the cursor. That's done with the "zz" command.
+------------------+ +------------------+
| some text | | some text |
| some text | zz --> | line with cursor |
| line with cursor | | some text |
+------------------+ +------------------+
The "zt" command puts the cursor line at the top, "zb" at the bottom. There
are a few more scrolling commands, see |Q_sc|. To always keep a few lines of
context around the cursor, use the 'scrolloff' option.
==============================================================================
*03.8* Simple searches
To search for a string, use the "/string" command. To find the word include,
for example, use the command:
/include
You will notice that when you type the "/" the cursor jumps to the last line
of the Vim window, like with colon commands. That is where you type the word.
You can press the backspace key (backarrow or <BS>) to make corrections. Use
the <Left> and <Right> cursor keys when necessary.
Pressing <Enter> executes the command.
Note:
The characters .*[]^%/\?~$ have special meanings. If you want to use
them in a search you must put a \ in front of them. See below.
To find the next occurrence of the same string use the "n" command. Use this
to find the first #include after the cursor:
/#include
And then type "n" several times. You will move to each #include in the text.
You can also use a count if you know which match you want. Thus "3n" finds
the third match. Using a count with "/" doesn't work.
The "?" command works like "/" but searches backwards:
?word
The "N" command repeats the last search the opposite direction. Thus using
"N" after a "/" command search backwards, using "N" after "?" searches
forward.
IGNORING CASE
Normally you have to type exactly what you want to find. If you don't care
about upper or lowercase in a word, set the 'ignorecase' option:
:set ignorecase
If you now search for "word", it will also match "Word" and "WORD". To match
case again:
:set noignorecase
HISTORY
Suppose you do three searches:
/one
/two
/three

Now let's start searching by typing a simple "/" without pressing <Enter>. If
you press <Up> (the cursor key), Vim puts "/three" on the command line.
Pressing <Enter> at this point searches for three. If you do not press
<Enter>, but press <Up> instead, Vim changes the prompt to "/two". Another
press of <Up> moves you to "/one".
You can also use the <Down> cursor key to move through the history of
search commands in the other direction.
If you know what a previously used pattern starts with, and you want to use it
again, type that character before pressing <Up>. With the previous example,
you can type "/o<Up>" and Vim will put "/one" on the command line.
The commands starting with ":" also have a history. That allows you to recall
a previous command and execute it again. These two histories are separate.
SEARCHING FOR A WORD IN THE TEXT

Suppose you see the word "TheLongFunctionName" in the text and you want to
find the next occurrence of it. You could type "/TheLongFunctionName", but
that's a lot of typing. And when you make a mistake Vim won't find it.
There is an easier way: Position the cursor on the word and use the "*"
command. Vim will grab the word under the cursor and use it as the search
string.
The "#" command does the same in the other direction. You can prepend a
count: "3*" searches for the third occurrence of the word under the cursor.
SEARCHING FOR WHOLE WORDS

If you type "/the" it will also match "there". To only find words that end
in "the" use:
/the\>
The "\>" item is a special marker that only matches at the end of a word.
Similarly "\<" only matches at the begin of a word. Thus to search for the
word "the" only:
/\<the\>
This does not match "there" or "soothe". Notice that the "*" and "#" commands
use these start-of-word and end-of-word markers to only find whole words (you
can use "g*" and "g#" to match partial words).
HIGHLIGHTING MATCHES
While editing a program you see a variable called "nr". You want to check
where it's used. You could move the cursor to "nr" and use the "*" command
and press "n" to go along all the matches.
There is another way. Type this command:
:set hlsearch
If you now search for "nr", Vim will highlight all matches. That is a very
good way to see where the variable is used, without the need to type commands.
To switch this off:
:set nohlsearch
Then you need to switch it on again if you want to use it for the next search
command. If you only want to remove the highlighting, use this command:
:nohlsearch
This doesn't reset the option. Instead, it disables the highlighting. As
soon as you execute a search command, the highlighting will be used again.
Also for the "n" and "N" commands.
TUNING SEARCHES
There are a few options that change how searching works. These are the
essential ones:
:set incsearch
This makes Vim display the match for the string while you are still typing it.

Use this to check if the right match will be found. Then press <Enter> to
really jump to that location. Or type more to change the search string.
:set nowrapscan
This stops the search at the end of the file. Or, when you are searching
backwards, at the start of the file. The 'wrapscan' option is on by default,
thus searching wraps around the end of the file.
INTERMEZZO
If you like one of the options mentioned before, and set it each time you use
Vim, you can put the command in your Vim startup file.
Edit the file, as mentioned at |not-compatible|. Or use this command to
find out where it is:
:scriptnames
Edit the file, for example with:
:edit ~/.vimrc
Then add a line with the command to set the option, just like you typed it in
Vim. Example:
Go:set hlsearch<Esc>
"G" moves to the end of the file. "o" starts a new line, where you type the
":set" command. You end insert mode with <Esc>. Then write the file:
ZZ
If you now start Vim again, the 'hlsearch' option will already be set.
==============================================================================
*03.9* Simple search patterns
The Vim editor uses regular expressions to specify what to search for.
Regular expressions are an extremely powerful and compact way to specify a
search pattern. Unfortunately, this power comes at a price, because regular
expressions are a bit tricky to specify.
In this section we mention only a few essential ones. More about search
patterns and commands in chapter 27 |usr_27.txt|. You can find the full
explanation here: |pattern|.
BEGINNING AND END OF A LINE

The ^ character matches the beginning of a line. On an English-US keyboard
you find it above the 6. The pattern "include" matches the word include
anywhere on the line. But the pattern "înclude" matches the word include
only if it is at the beginning of a line.
The $ character matches the end of a line. Therefore, "was$" matches the
word was only if it is at the end of a line.
Let's mark the places where "the" matches in this example line with "x"s:
the solder holding one of the chips melted and the
xxx xxx xxx
Using "/the$" we find this match:
xxx
And with "/^the" we find this one:
xxx
You can try searching with "/^the$", it will only match a single line
consisting of "the". White space does matter here, thus if a line contains a
space after the word, like "the ", the pattern will not match.
MATCHING ANY SINGLE CHARACTER

The . (dot) character matches any existing character. For example, the
pattern "c.m" matches a string whose first character is a c, whose second

character is anything, and whose the third character is m. Example:

We use a computer that became the cummin winter.
xxx xxx xxx
MATCHING SPECIAL CHARACTERS

If you really want to match a dot, you must avoid its special meaning by
putting a backslash before it.
If you search for "ter.", you will find these matches:
We use a computer that became the cummin winter.
xxxx xxxx
Searching for "ter\." only finds the second match.
==============================================================================
*03.10* Using marks
When you make a jump to a position with the "G" command, Vim remembers the
position from before this jump. This position is called a mark. To go back
where you came from, use this command:
``
This ` is a backtick or open single-quote character.
If you use the same command a second time you will jump back again. That's
because the ` command is a jump itself, and the position from before this jump
is remembered.
Generally, every time you do a command that can move the cursor further than
within the same line, this is called a jump. This includes the search
commands "/" and "n" (it doesn't matter how far away the match is). But not
the character searches with "fx" and "tx" or the word movements "w" and "e".
Also, "j" and "k" are not considered to be a jump. Even when you use a
count to make them move the cursor quite a long way away.
The `` command jumps back and forth, between two points. The CTRL-O command
jumps to older positions (Hint: O for older). CTRL-I then jumps back to newer
positions (Hint: I is just next to O on the keyboard). Consider this sequence
of commands:
33G
/^The
CTRL-O
You first jump to line 33, then search for a line that starts with "The".
Then with CTRL-O you jump back to line 33. Another CTRL-O takes you back to
where you started. If you now use CTRL-I you jump to line 33 again. And
to the match for "The" with another CTRL-I.
| example text ^ |
33G | example text | CTRL-O | CTRL-I
| example text | |
V line 33 text ^ V
| example text | |
/^The | example text | CTRL-O | CTRL-I
V There you are | V
example text
Note:
CTRL-I is the same as <Tab>.
The ":jumps" command gives a list of positions you jumped to. The entry which
you used last is marked with a ">".
NAMED MARKS *bookmark*

Vim enables you to place your own marks in the text. The command "ma" marks
the place under the cursor as mark a. You can place 26 marks (a through z) in
your text. You can't see them, it's just a position that Vim remembers.
To go to a mark, use the command `{mark}, where {mark} is the mark letter.
Thus to move to the a mark:
à

The command 'mark (single quotation mark, or apostrophe) moves you to the
beginning of the line containing the mark. This differs from the `mark
command, which moves you to marked column.
The marks can be very useful when working on two related parts in a file.
Suppose you have some text near the start of the file you need to look at,
while working on some text near the end of the file.
Move to the text at the start and place the s (start) mark there:
ms
Then move to the text you want to work on and put the e (end) mark there:
me
Now you can move around, and when you want to look at the start of the file,
you use this to jump there:
's
Then you can use '' to jump back to where you were, or 'e to jump to the text
you were working on at the end.
There is nothing special about using s for start and e for end, they are
just easy to remember.
You can use this command to get a list of marks:
:marks
You will notice a few special marks. These include:
'' The cursor position before doing a jump
" The cursor position when last editing the file
[ Start of the last change
] End of the last change
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_04.txt| Making small changes
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*usr_04.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2008 Sep 06

Making small changes
This chapter shows you several ways of making corrections and moving text
around. It teaches you the three basic ways to change text: operator-motion,
Visual mode and text objects.
|04.1| Operators and motions
|04.2| Changing text
|04.3| Repeating a change
|04.4| Visual mode
|04.5| Moving text
|04.6| Copying text
|04.7| Using the clipboard
|04.8| Text objects
|04.9| Replace mode
|04.10| Conclusion
Next chapter: |usr_05.txt| Set your settings
Previous chapter: |usr_03.txt| Moving around
==============================================================================
*04.1* Operators and motions
In chapter 2 you learned the "x" command to delete a single character. And
using a count: "4x" deletes four characters.
The "dw" command deletes a word. You may recognize the "w" command as the
move word command. In fact, the "d" command may be followed by any motion
command, and it deletes from the current location to the place where the
cursor winds up.
The "4w" command, for example, moves the cursor over four words. The d4w
command deletes four words.
------------------>
d4w
To err is human. you need a computer.
Vim only deletes up to the position where the motion takes the cursor. That's
because Vim knows that you probably don't want to delete the first character
of a word. If you use the "e" command to move to the end of a word, Vim
guesses that you do want to include that last character:
To err is human. you need a computer.
-------->
d2e
To err is human. a computer.
Whether the character under the cursor is included depends on the command you
used to move to that character. The reference manual calls this "exclusive"
when the character isn't included and "inclusive" when it is.
The "$" command moves to the end of a line. The "d$" command deletes from the
cursor to the end of the line. This is an inclusive motion, thus the last
character of the line is included in the delete operation:

To err is human. a computer.

------------>
d$
To err is human
There is a pattern here: operator-motion. You first type an operator command.
For example, "d" is the delete operator. Then you type a motion command like
"4l" or "w". This way you can operate on any text you can move over.
==============================================================================
*04.2* Changing text
Another operator is "c", change. It acts just like the "d" operator, except
it leaves you in Insert mode. For example, "cw" changes a word. Or more
specifically, it deletes a word and then puts you in Insert mode.
To err is human
------->
c2wbe<Esc>
To be human
This "c2wbe<Esc>" contains these bits:
c the change operator
2w move two words (they are deleted and Insert mode started)
be insert this text
<Esc> back to Normal mode
If you have paid attention, you will have noticed something strange: The space
before "human" isn't deleted. There is a saying that for every problem there
is an answer that is simple, clear, and wrong. That is the case with the
example used here for the "cw" command. The c operator works just like the
d operator, with one exception: "cw". It actually works like "ce", change to
end of word. Thus the space after the word isn't included. This is an
exception that dates back to the old Vi. Since many people are used to it
now, the inconsistency has remained in Vim.
MORE CHANGES
Like "dd" deletes a whole line, "cc" changes a whole line. It keeps the
existing indent (leading white space) though.
Just like "d$" deletes until the end of the line, "c$" changes until the end
of the line. It's like doing "d$" to delete the text and then "a" to start
Insert mode and append new text.
SHORTCUTS
Some operator-motion commands are used so often that they have been given a
single letter command:
x stands for dl (delete character under the cursor)
X stands for dh (delete character left of the cursor)
D stands for d$ (delete to end of the line)
C stands for c$ (change to end of the line)
s stands for cl (change one character)
S stands for cc (change a whole line)
WHERE TO PUT THE COUNT

The commands "3dw" and "d3w" delete three words. If you want to get really
picky about things, the first command, "3dw", deletes one word three times;
the command "d3w" deletes three words once. This is a difference without a
distinction. You can actually put in two counts, however. For example,
"3d2w" deletes two words, repeated three times, for a total of six words.
REPLACING WITH ONE CHARACTER

The "r" command is not an operator. It waits for you to type a character, and
will replace the character under the cursor with it. You could do the same
with "cl" or with the "s" command, but with "r" you don't have to press <Esc>

there is somerhing grong here

rT rt rw
There is something wrong here
Using a count with "r" causes that many characters to be replaced with the
same character. Example:
There is something wrong here
5rx
There is something xxxxx here
To replace a character with a line break use "r<Enter>". This deletes one
character and inserts a line break. Using a count here only applies to the
number of characters deleted: "4r<Enter>" replaces four characters with one
line break.
==============================================================================
*04.3* Repeating a change
The "." command is one of the most simple yet powerful commands in Vim. It
repeats the last change. For instance, suppose you are editing an HTML file
and want to delete all the <B> tags. You position the cursor on the first <
and delete the <B> with the command "df>". You then go to the < of the next
</B> and kill it using the "." command. The "." command executes the last
change command (in this case, "df>"). To delete another tag, position the
cursor on the < and use the "." command.
To <B>generate</B> a table of <B>contents
f< find first < --->
df> delete to > -->
f< find next < --------->
. repeat df> --->
f< find next < ------------->
. repeat df> -->
The "." command works for all changes you make, except for the "u" (undo),
CTRL-R (redo) and commands that start with a colon (:).
Another example: You want to change the word "four" to "five". It appears
several times in your text. You can do this quickly with this sequence of
commands:
/four<Enter> find the first string "four"
cwfive<Esc> change the word to "five"
n find the next "four"
. repeat the change to "five'
n find the next "four"
. repeat the change
etc.
==============================================================================
*04.4* Visual mode
To delete simple items the operator-motion changes work quite well. But often
it's not so easy to decide which command will move over the text you want to
change. Then you can use Visual mode.
You start Visual mode by pressing "v". You move the cursor over the text you
want to work on. While you do this, the text is highlighted. Finally type
the operator command.
For example, to delete from halfway one word to halfway another word:
This is an examination sample of visual mode
---------->
velllld
This is an example of visual mode
When doing this you don't really have to count how many times you have to
press "l" to end up in the right position. You can immediately see what text
will be deleted when you press "d".
If at any time you decide you don't want to do anything with the highlighted
text, just press <Esc> and Visual mode will stop without doing anything.

SELECTING LINES
If you want to work on whole lines, use "V" to start Visual mode. You will
see right away that the whole line is highlighted, without moving around.
When you move left or right nothing changes. When you move up or down the
selection is extended whole lines at a time.
For example, select three lines with "Vjj":
+------------------------+
| text more text |
>> | more text more text | |
selected lines >> | text text text | | Vjj
>> | text more | V
| more text more |
+------------------------+
SELECTING BLOCKS
If you want to work on a rectangular block of characters, use CTRL-V to start
Visual mode. This is very useful when working on tables.
name Q1 Q2 Q3
pierre 123 455 234
john 0 90 39
steve 392 63 334
To delete the middle "Q2" column, move the cursor to the "Q" of "Q2". Press
CTRL-V to start blockwise Visual mode. Now move the cursor three lines down
with "3j" and to the next word with "w". You can see the first character of
the last column is included. To exclude it, use "h". Now press "d" and the
middle column is gone.
GOING TO THE OTHER SIDE

If you have selected some text in Visual mode, and discover that you need to
change the other end of the selection, use the "o" command (Hint: o for other
end). The cursor will go to the other end, and you can move the cursor to
change where the selection starts. Pressing "o" again brings you back to the
other end.
When using blockwise selection, you have four corners. "o" only takes you to
one of the other corners, diagonally. Use "O" to move to the other corner in
the same line.
Note that "o" and "O" in Visual mode work very differently from Normal mode,
where they open a new line below or above the cursor.
==============================================================================
*04.5* Moving text
When you delete something with the "d", "x", or another command, the text is
saved. You can paste it back by using the p command. (The Vim name for
this is put).
Take a look at how this works. First you will delete an entire line, by
putting the cursor on the line you want to delete and typing "dd". Now you
move the cursor to where you want to put the line and use the "p" (put)
command. The line is inserted on the line below the cursor.
a line a line a line
line 2 dd line 3 p line 3
line 3 line 2
Because you deleted an entire line, the "p" command placed the text line below
the cursor. If you delete part of a line (a word, for instance), the "p"
command puts it just after the cursor.
Some more boring try text to out commands.
---->
dw
Some more boring text to out commands.
------->
welp
Some more boring text to try out commands.

MORE ON PUTTING
The "P" command puts text like "p", but before the cursor. When you deleted a
whole line with "dd", "P" will put it back above the cursor. When you deleted
a word with "dw", "P" will put it back just before the cursor.
You can repeat putting as many times as you like. The same text will be used.
You can use a count with "p" and "P". The text will be repeated as many times
as specified with the count. Thus "dd" and then "3p" puts three copies of the
same deleted line.
SWAPPING TWO CHARACTERS

Frequently when you are typing, your fingers get ahead of your brain (or the
other way around?). The result is a typo such as "teh" for "the". Vim
makes it easy to correct such problems. Just put the cursor on the e of "teh"
and execute the command "xp". This works as follows: "x" deletes the
character e and places it in a register. "p" puts the text after the cursor,
which is after the h.
teh th the
x p
==============================================================================
*04.6* Copying text
To copy text from one place to another, you could delete it, use "u" to undo
the deletion and then "p" to put it somewhere else. There is an easier way:
yanking. The "y" operator copies text into a register. Then a "p" command
can be used to put it.
Yanking is just a Vim name for copying. The "c" letter was already used
for the change operator, and "y" was still available. Calling this
operator "yank" made it easier to remember to use the "y" key.
Since "y" is an operator, you use "yw" to yank a word. A count is possible as
usual. To yank two words use "y2w". Example:
let sqr = LongVariable *
-------------->
y2w
let sqr = LongVariable *
p
let sqr = LongVariable * LongVariable
Notice that "yw" includes the white space after a word. If you don't want
this, use "ye".
The "yy" command yanks a whole line, just like "dd" deletes a whole line.
Unexpectedly, while "D" deletes from the cursor to the end of the line, "Y"
works like "yy", it yanks the whole line. Watch out for this inconsistency!
Use "y$" to yank to the end of the line.
a text line yy a text line a text line
line 2 line 2 p line 2
last line last line a text line
last line
==============================================================================
*04.7* Using the clipboard
If you are using the GUI version of Vim (gvim), you can find the "Copy" item
in the "Edit" menu. First select some text with Visual mode, then use the
Edit/Copy menu. The selected text is now copied to the clipboard. You can
paste the text in other programs. In Vim itself too.
If you have copied text to the clipboard in another application, you can paste
it in Vim with the Edit/Paste menu. This works in Normal mode and Insert
mode. In Visual mode the selected text is replaced with the pasted text.
The "Cut" menu item deletes the text before it's put on the clipboard. The
"Copy", "Cut" and "Paste" items are also available in the popup menu (only
when there is a popup menu, of course). If your Vim has a toolbar, you can
also find these items there.

If you are not using the GUI, or if you don't like using a menu, you have to
use another way. You use the normal "y" (yank) and "p" (put) commands, but
prepend "* (double-quote star) before it. To copy a line to the clipboard:
"*yy
To put text from the clipboard back into the text:
"*p
This only works on versions of Vim that include clipboard support. More about
the clipboard in section |09.3| and here: |clipboard|.
==============================================================================
*04.8* Text objects
If the cursor is in the middle of a word and you want to delete that word, you
need to move back to its start before you can do "dw". There is a simpler way
to do this: "daw".
this is some example text.
daw
this is some text.
The "d" of "daw" is the delete operator. "aw" is a text object. Hint: "aw"
stands for "A Word". Thus "daw" is "Delete A Word". To be precise, the white
space after the word is also deleted (the white space before the word at the
end of the line).
Using text objects is the third way to make changes in Vim. We already had
operator-motion and Visual mode. Now we add operator-text object.
It is very similar to operator-motion, but instead of operating on the text
between the cursor position before and after a movement command, the text
object is used as a whole. It doesn't matter where in the object the cursor
was.
To change a whole sentence use "cis". Take this text:
Hello there. This
is an example. Just
some text.
Move to the start of the second line, on "is an". Now use "cis":
Hello there. Just
some text.
The cursor is in between the blanks in the first line. Now you type the new
sentence "Another line.":
Hello there. Another line. Just
some text.
"cis" consists of the "c" (change) operator and the "is" text object. This
stands for "Inner Sentence". There is also the "as" (a sentence) object. The
difference is that "as" includes the white space after the sentence and "is"
doesn't. If you would delete a sentence, you want to delete the white space
at the same time, thus use "das". If you want to type new text the white
space can remain, thus you use "cis".
You can also use text objects in Visual mode. It will include the text object
in the Visual selection. Visual mode continues, thus you can do this several
times. For example, start Visual mode with "v" and select a sentence with
"as". Now you can repeat "as" to include more sentences. Finally you use an
operator to do something with the selected sentences.
You can find a long list of text objects here: |text-objects|.
==============================================================================
*04.9* Replace mode
The "R" command causes Vim to enter replace mode. In this mode, each
character you type replaces the one under the cursor. This continues until
you type <Esc>.
In this example you start Replace mode on the first "t" of "text":

This is text.
Rinteresting.<Esc>
This is interesting.
You may have noticed that this command replaced 5 characters in the line with
twelve others. The "R" command automatically extends the line if it runs out
of characters to replace. It will not continue on the next line.
You can switch between Insert mode and Replace mode with the <Insert> key.
When you use <BS> (backspace) to make correction, you will notice that the
old text is put back. Thus it works like an undo command for the last typed
character.
==============================================================================
*04.10* Conclusion
The operators, movement commands and text objects give you the possibility to
make lots of combinations. Now that you know how it works, you can use N
operators with M movement commands to make N * M commands!
You can find a list of operators here: |operator|
For example, there are many other ways to delete pieces of text. Here are a
few often used ones:
x delete character under the cursor (short for "dl")
X delete character before the cursor (short for "dh")
D delete from cursor to end of line (short for "d$")
dw delete from cursor to next start of word
db delete from cursor to previous start of word
diw delete word under the cursor (excluding white space)
daw delete word under the cursor (including white space)
dG delete until the end of the file
dgg delete until the start of the file
If you use "c" instead of "d" they become change commands. And with "y" you
yank the text. And so forth.
There are a few often used commands to make changes that didn't fit somewhere
else:
~ change case of the character under the cursor, and move the
cursor to the next character. This is not an operator (unless
'tildeop' is set), thus you can't use it with a motion
command. It does work in Visual mode and changes case for
all the selected text then.
I Start Insert mode after moving the cursor to the first
non-blank in the line.
A Start Insert mode after moving the cursor to the end of the
line.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_05.txt| Set your settings
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*usr_06.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2009 Oct 28

Using syntax highlighting
Black and white text is boring. With colors your file comes to life. This
not only looks nice, it also speeds up your work. Change the colors used for
the different sorts of text. Print your text, with the colors you see on the
screen.
|06.1| Switching it on
|06.2| No or wrong colors?
|06.3| Different colors
|06.4| With colors or without colors
|06.5| Printing with colors
Next chapter: |usr_07.txt| Editing more than one file
Previous chapter: |usr_05.txt| Set your settings
==============================================================================
*06.1* Switching it on
It all starts with one simple command:
:syntax enable
That should work in most situations to get color in your files. Vim will
automagically detect the type of file and load the right syntax highlighting.
Suddenly comments are blue, keywords brown and strings red. This makes it
easy to overview the file. After a while you will find that black&white text
slows you down!
If you always want to use syntax highlighting, put the ":syntax enable"
command in your |vimrc| file.
If you want syntax highlighting only when the terminal supports colors, you
can put this in your |vimrc| file:
if &t_Co > 1
syntax enable
endif
If you want syntax highlighting only in the GUI version, put the ":syntax
enable" command in your |gvimrc| file.
==============================================================================
*06.2* No or wrong colors?
There can be a number of reasons why you don't see colors:
- Your terminal does not support colors.
Vim will use bold, italic and underlined text, but this doesn't look
very nice. You probably will want to try to get a terminal with
colors. For Unix, I recommend the xterm from the XFree86 project:
|xfree-xterm|.
- Your terminal does support colors, but Vim doesn't know this.

Make sure your $TERM setting is correct. For example, when using an
xterm that supports colors:
setenv TERM xterm-color
or (depending on your shell):
TERM=xterm-color; export TERM
The terminal name must match the terminal you are using. If it
still doesn't work, have a look at |xterm-color|, which shows a few
ways to make Vim display colors (not only for an xterm).
- The file type is not recognized.
Vim doesn't know all file types, and sometimes it's near to impossible
to tell what language a file uses. Try this command:
:set filetype
If the result is "filetype=" then the problem is indeed that Vim
doesn't know what type of file this is. You can set the type
manually:
:set filetype=fortran
To see which types are available, look in the directory
$VIMRUNTIME/syntax. For the GUI you can use the Syntax menu.
Setting the filetype can also be done with a |modeline|, so that the
file will be highlighted each time you edit it. For example, this
line can be used in a Makefile (put it near the start or end of the
file):
# vim: syntax=make
You might know how to detect the file type yourself. Often the file
name extension (after the dot) can be used.
See |new-filetype| for how to tell Vim to detect that file type.
- There is no highlighting for your file type.
You could try using a similar file type by manually setting it as
mentioned above. If that isn't good enough, you can write your own
syntax file, see |mysyntaxfile|.
Or the colors could be wrong:

- The colored text is very hard to read.
Vim guesses the background color that you are using. If it is black
(or another dark color) it will use light colors for text. If it is
white (or another light color) it will use dark colors for text. If
Vim guessed wrong the text will be hard to read. To solve this, set
the 'background' option. For a dark background:
:set background=dark
And for a light background:
:set background=light
Make sure you put this _before_ the ":syntax enable" command,
otherwise the colors will already have been set. You could do
":syntax reset" after setting 'background' to make Vim set the default
colors again.
- The colors are wrong when scrolling bottom to top.
Vim doesn't read the whole file to parse the text. It starts parsing
wherever you are viewing the file. That saves a lot of time, but
sometimes the colors are wrong. A simple fix is hitting CTRL-L. Or
scroll back a bit and then forward again.
For a real fix, see |:syn-sync|. Some syntax files have a way to make
it look further back, see the help for the specific syntax file. For
example, |tex.vim| for the TeX syntax.
==============================================================================
*06.3* Different colors *:syn-default-override*
If you don't like the default colors, you can select another color scheme. In
the GUI use the Edit/Color Scheme menu. You can also type the command:

:colorscheme evening
"evening" is the name of the color scheme. There are several others you might
want to try out. Look in the directory $VIMRUNTIME/colors.
When you found the color scheme that you like, add the ":colorscheme" command
to your |vimrc| file.
You could also write your own color scheme. This is how you do it:
1. Select a color scheme that comes close. Copy this file to your own Vim
directory. For Unix, this should work:
!mkdir ~/.vim/colors
!cp $VIMRUNTIME/colors/morning.vim ~/.vim/colors/mine.vim
This is done from Vim, because it knows the value of $VIMRUNTIME.
2. Edit the color scheme file. These entries are useful:
term attributes in a B&W terminal
cterm attributes in a color terminal
ctermfg foreground color in a color terminal
ctermbg background color in a color terminal
gui attributes in the GUI
guifg foreground color in the GUI
guibg background color in the GUI
For example, to make comments green:
:highlight Comment ctermfg=green guifg=green
Attributes you can use for "cterm" and "gui" are "bold" and "underline".
If you want both, use "bold,underline". For details see the |:highlight|
command.
3. Tell Vim to always use your color scheme. Put this line in your YXXYvimrc|:
colorscheme mine
If you want to see what the most often used color combinations look like, use
this command:
:runtime syntax/colortest.vim
You will see text in various color combinations. You can check which ones are
readable and look nice.
==============================================================================
*06.4* With colors or without colors
Displaying text in color takes a lot of effort. If you find the displaying
too slow, you might want to disable syntax highlighting for a moment:
:syntax clear
When editing another file (or the same one) the colors will come back.
*:syn-off*
If you want to stop highlighting completely use:
:syntax off
This will completely disable syntax highlighting and remove it immediately for
all buffers.
*:syn-manual*
If you want syntax highlighting only for specific files, use this:
:syntax manual
This will enable the syntax highlighting, but not switch it on automatically
when starting to edit a buffer. To switch highlighting on for the current
buffer, set the 'syntax' option:
:set syntax=ON

==============================================================================
*06.5* Printing with colors *syntax-printing*
In the MS-Windows version you can print the current file with this command:
:hardcopy
You will get the usual printer dialog, where you can select the printer and a
few settings. If you have a color printer, the paper output should look the
same as what you see inside Vim. But when you use a dark background the
colors will be adjusted to look good on white paper.
There are several options that change the way Vim prints:
'printdevice'
'printheader'
'printfont'
'printoptions'
To print only a range of lines, use Visual mode to select the lines and then
type the command:
v100j:hardcopy
"v" starts Visual mode. "100j" moves a hundred lines down, they will be
highlighted. Then ":hardcopy" will print those lines. You can use other
commands to move in Visual mode, of course.
This also works on Unix, if you have a PostScript printer. Otherwise, you
will have to do a bit more work. You need to convert the text to HTML first,
and then print it from a web browser.
Convert the current file to HTML with this command:
:TOhtml
In case that doesn't work:
:source $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/2html.vim
You will see it crunching away, this can take quite a while for a large file.
Some time later another window shows the HTML code. Now write this somewhere
(doesn't matter where, you throw it away later):
:write main.c.html
Open this file in your favorite browser and print it from there. If all goes
well, the output should look exactly as it does in Vim. See |2html.vim| for
details. Don't forget to delete the HTML file when you are done with it.
Instead of printing, you could also put the HTML file on a web server, and let
others look at the colored text.
==============================================================================
*06.6* Further reading
|usr_44.txt| Your own syntax highlighted.
|syntax| All the details.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_07.txt| Editing more than one file
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*usr_07.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2006 Apr 24

Editing more than one file
No matter how many files you have, you can edit them without leaving Vim.
Define a list of files to work on and jump from one to the other. Copy text
from one file and put it in another one.
|07.1| Edit another file
|07.2| A list of files
|07.3| Jumping from file to file
|07.4| Backup files
|07.5| Copy text between files
|07.6| Viewing a file
|07.7| Changing the file name
Next chapter: |usr_08.txt| Splitting windows
Previous chapter: |usr_06.txt| Using syntax highlighting
==============================================================================
*07.1* Edit another file
So far you had to start Vim for every file you wanted to edit. There is a
simpler way. To start editing another file, use this command:
:edit foo.txt
You can use any file name instead of "foo.txt". Vim will close the current
file and open the new one. If the current file has unsaved changes, however,
Vim displays an error message and does not open the new file:
Note:
Vim puts an error ID at the start of each error message. If you do
not understand the message or what caused it, look in the help system
for this ID. In this case:
:help E37
At this point, you have a number of alternatives. You can write the file
using this command:
:write
Or you can force Vim to discard your changes and edit the new file, using the
force (!) character:
:edit! foo.txt
If you want to edit another file, but not write the changes in the current
file yet, you can make it hidden:
:hide edit foo.txt
The text with changes is still there, but you can't see it. This is further
explained in section |22.4|: The buffer list.

==============================================================================
*07.2* A list of files
You can start Vim to edit a sequence of files. For example:
vim one.c two.c three.c
This command starts Vim and tells it that you will be editing three files.
Vim displays just the first file. After you have done your thing in this
file, to edit the next file you use this command:
:next
If you have unsaved changes in the current file, you will get an error
message and the ":next" will not work. This is the same problem as with
":edit" mentioned in the previous section. To abandon the changes:
:next!
But mostly you want to save the changes and move on to the next file. There
is a special command for this:
:wnext
This does the same as using two separate commands:
:write
:next
WHERE AM I?
To see which file in the argument list you are editing, look in the window
title. It should show something like "(2 of 3)". This means you are editing
the second file out of three files.
If you want to see the list of files, use this command:
:args
This is short for "arguments". The output might look like this:
one.c [two.c] three.c
These are the files you started Vim with. The one you are currently editing,
"two.c", is in square brackets.
MOVING TO OTHER ARGUMENTS

To go back one file:
:previous
This is just like the ":next" command, except that it moves in the other
direction. Again, there is a shortcut command for when you want to write the
file first:
:wprevious
To move to the very last file in the list:
:last
And to move back to the first one again:
:first
There is no ":wlast" or ":wfirst" command though!
You can use a count for ":next" and ":previous". To skip two files forward:
:2next
AUTOMATIC WRITING
When moving around the files and making changes, you have to remember to use
":write". Otherwise you will get an error message. If you are sure you

always want to write modified files, you can tell Vim to automatically write
them:
:set autowrite
When you are editing a file which you may not want to write, switch it off
again:
:set noautowrite
EDITING ANOTHER LIST OF FILES

You can redefine the list of files without the need to exit Vim and start it
again. Use this command to edit three other files:
:args five.c six.c seven.h
Or use a wildcard, like it's used in the shell:
:args *.txt
Vim will take you to the first file in the list. Again, if the current file
has changes, you can either write the file first, or use ":args!" (with !
added) to abandon the changes.
DID YOU EDIT THE LAST FILE?

*arglist-quit*
When you use a list of files, Vim assumes you want to edit them all. To
protect you from exiting too early, you will get this error when you didn't
edit the last file in the list yet:
E173: 46 more files to edit
If you really want to exit, just do it again. Then it will work (but not when
you did other commands in between).
==============================================================================
*07.3* Jumping from file to file
To quickly jump between two files, press CTRL-^ (on English-US keyboards the ^
is above the 6 key). Example:
:args one.c two.c three.c
You are now in one.c.
:next
Now you are in two.c. Now use CTRL-^ to go back to one.c. Another CTRL-^ and
you are back in two.c. Another CTRL-^ and you are in one.c again. If you now
do:
:next
You are in three.c. Notice that the CTRL-^ command does not change the idea
of where you are in the list of files. Only commands like ":next" and
":previous" do that.
The file you were previously editing is called the "alternate" file. When you
just started Vim CTRL-^ will not work, since there isn't a previous file.
PREDEFINED MARKS
After jumping to another file, you can use two predefined marks which are very
useful:
`"
This takes you to the position where the cursor was when you left the file.
Another mark that is remembered is the position where you made the last
change:
`.
Suppose you are editing the file "one.txt". Somewhere halfway the file you

use "x" to delete a character. Then you go to the last line with "G" and
write the file with ":w". You edit several other files, and then use ":edit
one.txt" to come back to "one.txt". If you now use `" Vim jumps to the last
line of the file. Using `. takes you to the position where you deleted the
character. Even when you move around in the file `" and `. will take you to
the remembered position. At least until you make another change or leave the
file.
FILE MARKS
In chapter 4 was explained how you can place a mark in a file with "mx" and
jump to that position with "`x". That works within one file. If you edit
another file and place marks there, these are specific for that file. Thus
each file has its own set of marks, they are local to the file.
So far we were using marks with a lowercase letter. There are also marks
with an uppercase letter. These are global, they can be used from any file.
For example suppose that we are editing the file "foo.txt". Go to halfway the
file ("50%") and place the F mark there (F for foo):
50%mF
Now edit the file "bar.txt" and place the B mark (B for bar) at its last line:
GmB
Now you can use the "'F" command to jump back to halfway foo.txt. Or edit yet
another file, type "'B" and you are at the end of bar.txt again.
The file marks are remembered until they are placed somewhere else. Thus you
can place the mark, do hours of editing and still be able to jump back to that
mark.
It's often useful to think of a simple connection between the mark letter
and where it is placed. For example, use the H mark in a header file, M in
a Makefile and C in a C code file.
To see where a specific mark is, give an argument to the ":marks" command:
:marks M
You can also give several arguments:
:marks MCP
Don't forget that you can use CTRL-O and CTRL-I to jump to older and newer
positions without placing marks there.
==============================================================================
*07.4* Backup files
Usually Vim does not produce a backup file. If you want to have one, all you
need to do is execute the following command:
:set backup
The name of the backup file is the original file with a ~ added to the end.
If your file is named data.txt, for example, the backup file name is
data.txt~.
If you do not like the fact that the backup files end with ~, you can
change the extension:
:set backupext=.bak
This will use data.txt.bak instead of data.txt~.
Another option that matters here is 'backupdir'. It specifies where the
backup file is written. The default, to write the backup in the same
directory as the original file, will mostly be the right thing.
Note:
When the 'backup' option isn't set but the 'writebackup' is, Vim will
still create a backup file. However, it is deleted as soon as writing
the file was completed successfully. This functions as a safety
against losing your original file when writing fails in some way (disk
full is the most common cause; being hit by lightning might be
another, although less common).
KEEPING THE ORIGINAL FILE

If you are editing source files, you might want to keep the file before you
make any changes. But the backup file will be overwritten each time you write
the file. Thus it only contains the previous version, not the first one.
To make Vim keep the original file, set the 'patchmode' option. This
specifies the extension used for the first backup of a changed file. Usually
you would do this:
:set patchmode=.orig
When you now edit the file data.txt for the first time, make changes and write
the file, Vim will keep a copy of the unchanged file under the name
"data.txt.orig".
If you make further changes to the file, Vim will notice that
"data.txt.orig" already exists and leave it alone. Further backup files will
then be called "data.txt~" (or whatever you specified with 'backupext').
If you leave 'patchmode' empty (that is the default), the original file
will not be kept.
==============================================================================
*07.5* Copy text between files
This explains how to copy text from one file to another. Let's start with a
simple example. Edit the file that contains the text you want to copy. Move
the cursor to the start of the text and press "v". This starts Visual mode.
Now move the cursor to the end of the text and press "y". This yanks (copies)
the selected text.
To copy the above paragraph, you would do:
:edit thisfile
/This
vjjjj$y
Now edit the file you want to put the text in. Move the cursor to the
character where you want the text to appear after. Use "p" to put the text
there.
:edit otherfile
/There
p
Of course you can use many other commands to yank the text. For example, to
select whole lines start Visual mode with "V". Or use CTRL-V to select a
rectangular block. Or use "Y" to yank a single line, "yaw" to yank-a-word,
etc.
The "p" command puts the text after the cursor. Use "P" to put the text
before the cursor. Notice that Vim remembers if you yanked a whole line or a
block, and puts it back that way.
USING REGISTERS
When you want to copy several pieces of text from one file to another, having
to switch between the files and writing the target file takes a lot of time.
To avoid this, copy each piece of text to its own register.
A register is a place where Vim stores text. Here we will use the
registers named a to z (later you will find out there are others). Let's copy
a sentence to the f register (f for First):
"fyas
The "yas" command yanks a sentence like before. It's the "f that tells Vim
the text should be place in the f register. This must come just before the
yank command.
Now yank three whole lines to the l register (l for line):
"l3Y
The count could be before the "l just as well. To yank a block of text to the
b (for block) register:
CTRL-Vjjww"by
Notice that the register specification "b is just before the "y" command.
This is required. If you would have put it before the "w" command, it would
not have worked.
Now you have three pieces of text in the f, l and b registers. Edit
another file, move around and place the text where you want it:
"fp

Again, the register specification "f comes before the "p" command.
You can put the registers in any order. And the text stays in the register
until you yank something else into it. Thus you can put it as many times as
you like.
When you delete text, you can also specify a register. Use this to move
several pieces of text around. For example, to delete-a-word and write it in
the w register:
"wdaw
Again, the register specification comes before the delete command "d".
APPENDING TO A FILE
When collecting lines of text into one file, you can use this command:
:write >> logfile
This will write the text of the current file to the end of "logfile". Thus it
is appended. This avoids that you have to copy the lines, edit the log file
and put them there. Thus you save two steps. But you can only append to the
end of a file.
To append only a few lines, select them in Visual mode before typing
":write". In chapter 10 you will learn other ways to select a range of lines.
==============================================================================
*07.6* Viewing a file
Sometimes you only want to see what a file contains, without the intention to
ever write it back. There is the risk that you type ":w" without thinking and
overwrite the original file anyway. To avoid this, edit the file read-only.
To start Vim in readonly mode, use this command:
vim -R file
On Unix this command should do the same thing:
view file
You are now editing "file" in read-only mode. When you try using ":w" you
will get an error message and the file won't be written.
When you try to make a change to the file Vim will give you a warning:
W10: Warning: Changing a readonly file
The change will be done though. This allows for formatting the file, for
example, to be able to read it easily.
If you make changes to a file and forgot that it was read-only, you can
still write it. Add the ! to the write command to force writing.
If you really want to forbid making changes in a file, do this:
vim -M file
Now every attempt to change the text will fail. The help files are like this,
for example. If you try to make a change you get this error message:
E21: Cannot make changes, 'modifiable' is off
You could use the -M argument to setup Vim to work in a viewer mode. This is
only voluntary though, since these commands will remove the protection:
:set modifiable
:set write
==============================================================================
*07.7* Changing the file name
A clever way to start editing a new file is by using an existing file that
contains most of what you need. For example, you start writing a new program
to move a file. You know that you already have a program that copies a file,
thus you start with:
:edit copy.c
You can delete the stuff you don't need. Now you need to save the file under

a new name. The ":saveas" command can be used for this:

:saveas move.c
Vim will write the file under the given name, and edit that file. Thus the
next time you do ":write", it will write "move.c". "copy.c" remains
unmodified.
When you want to change the name of the file you are editing, but don't
want to write the file, you can use this command:
:file move.c
Vim will mark the file as "not edited". This means that Vim knows this is not
the file you started editing. When you try to write the file, you might get
this message:
E13: File exists (use ! to override)
This protects you from accidentally overwriting another file.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_08.txt| Splitting windows
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Splitting windows
Display two different files above each other. Or view two locations in the
file at the same time. See the difference between two files by putting them
side by side. All this is possible with split windows.
|08.1| Split a window
|08.2| Split a window on another file
|08.3| Window size
|08.4| Vertical splits
|08.5| Moving windows
|08.6| Commands for all windows
|08.7| Viewing differences with vimdiff
|08.8| Various
|08.9| Tab pages
Next chapter: |usr_09.txt| Using the GUI
Previous chapter: |usr_07.txt| Editing more than one file
==============================================================================
*08.1* Split a window
The easiest way to open a new window is to use the following command:
:split
This command splits the screen into two windows and leaves the cursor in the
top one:
+----------------------------------+
|/* file one.c */ |
|~ |
|~ |
|one.c=============================|
|/* file one.c */ |
|~ |
|one.c=============================|
| |
+----------------------------------+
What you see here is two windows on the same file. The line with "====" is
that status line. It displays information about the window above it. (In
practice the status line will be in reverse video.)
The two windows allow you to view two parts of the same file. For example,
you could make the top window show the variable declarations of a program, and
the bottom one the code that uses these variables.
The CTRL-W w command can be used to jump between the windows. If you are in
the top window, CTRL-W w jumps to the window below it. If you are in the
bottom window it will jump to the first window. (CTRL-W CTRL-W does the same
thing, in case you let go of the CTRL key a bit later.)
CLOSE THE WINDOW

To close a window, use the command:

:close
Actually, any command that quits editing a file works, like ":quit" and "ZZ".
But ":close" prevents you from accidentally exiting Vim when you close the
last window.
CLOSING ALL OTHER WINDOWS

If you have opened a whole bunch of windows, but now want to concentrate on
one of them, this command will be useful:
:only
This closes all windows, except for the current one. If any of the other
windows has changes, you will get an error message and that window won't be
closed.
==============================================================================
*08.2* Split a window on another file
The following command opens a second window and starts editing the given file:
:split two.c
If you were editing one.c, then the result looks like this:
+----------------------------------+
|/* file two.c */ |
|~ |
|~ |
|two.c=============================|
|/* file one.c */ |
|~ |
|one.c=============================|
| |
+----------------------------------+
To open a window on a new, empty file, use this:
:new
You can repeat the ":split" and ":new" commands to create as many windows as
you like.
==============================================================================
*08.3* Window size
The ":split" command can take a number argument. If specified, this will be
the height of the new window. For example, the following opens a new window
three lines high and starts editing the file alpha.c:
:3split alpha.c
For existing windows you can change the size in several ways. When you have a
working mouse, it is easy: Move the mouse pointer to the status line that
separates two windows, and drag it up or down.
To increase the size of a window:
CTRL-W +
To decrease it:
CTRL-W -
Both of these commands take a count and increase or decrease the window size
by that many lines. Thus "4 CTRL-W +" make the window four lines higher.
To set the window height to a specified number of lines:
{height}CTRL-W _
That's: a number {height}, CTRL-W and then an underscore (the - key with Shift
on English-US keyboards).
To make a window as high as it can be, use the CTRL-W _ command without a
count.

USING THE MOUSE

In Vim you can do many things very quickly from the keyboard. Unfortunately,
the window resizing commands require quite a bit of typing. In this case,
using the mouse is faster. Position the mouse pointer on a status line. Now
press the left mouse button and drag. The status line will move, thus making
the window on one side higher and the other smaller.
OPTIONS
The 'winheight' option can be set to a minimal desired height of a window and
'winminheight' to a hard minimum height.
Likewise, there is 'winwidth' for the minimal desired width and
'winminwidth' for the hard minimum width.
The 'equalalways' option, when set, makes Vim equalize the windows sizes
when a window is closed or opened.
==============================================================================
*08.4* Vertical splits
The ":split" command creates the new window above the current one. To make
the window appear at the left side, use:
:vsplit
or:
:vsplit two.c
The result looks something like this:
+--------------------------------------+
|/* file two.c */ |/* file one.c */ ||||
|~ |~ ||||
|~ |~ ||||
|~ |~ ||||
|two.c===============one.c=============|
| |
+--------------------------------------+
Actually, the | lines in the middle will be in reverse video. This is called
the vertical separator. It separates the two windows left and right of it.
There is also the ":vnew" command, to open a vertically split window on a new,
empty file. Another way to do this:
:vertical new
The ":vertical" command can be inserted before another command that splits a
window. This will cause that command to split the window vertically instead
of horizontally. (If the command doesn't split a window, it works
unmodified.)
MOVING BETWEEN WINDOWS

Since you can split windows horizontally and vertically as much as you like,
you can create almost any layout of windows. Then you can use these commands
to move between them:
CTRL-W h move to the window on the left
CTRL-W j move to the window below
CTRL-W k move to the window above
CTRL-W l move to the window on the right
CTRL-W t move to the TOP window
CTRL-W b move to the BOTTOM window
You will notice the same letters as used for moving the cursor. And the
cursor keys can also be used, if you like.
More commands to move to other windows: |Q_wi|.
==============================================================================
*08.5* Moving windows
You have split a few windows, but now they are in the wrong place. Then you

need a command to move the window somewhere else. For example, you have three
windows like this:
+----------------------------------+
|/* file two.c */ |
|~ |
|~ |
|two.c=============================|
|/* file three.c */ |
|~ |
|~ |
|three.c===========================|
|/* file one.c */ |
|~ |
|one.c=============================|
| |
+----------------------------------+
Clearly the last one should be at the top. Go to that window (using CTRL-W w)
and the type this command:
CTRL-W K
This uses the uppercase letter K. What happens is that the window is moved to
the very top. You will notice that K is again used for moving upwards.
When you have vertical splits, CTRL-W K will move the current window to the
top and make it occupy the full width of the Vim window. If this is your
layout:
+-------------------------------------------+
|/* two.c */ |/* three.c */ |/* one.c */ |
|~ |~ |~ |
|~ |~ |~ |
|~ |~ |~ |
|~ |~ |~ |
|~ |~ |~ |
|two.c=========three.c=========one.c========|
| |
+-------------------------------------------+
Then using CTRL-W K in the middle window (three.c) will result in:
+-------------------------------------------+
|/* three.c */ |
|~ |
|~ |
|three.c====================================|
|/* two.c */ |/* one.c */ ||||
|~ |~ ||||
|two.c==================one.c===============|
| |
+-------------------------------------------+
The other three similar commands (you can probably guess these now):
CTRL-W H move window to the far left
CTRL-W J move window to the bottom
CTRL-W L move window to the far right
==============================================================================
*08.6* Commands for all windows
When you have several windows open and you want to quit Vim, you can close
each window separately. A quicker way is using this command:
:qall
This stands for "quit all". If any of the windows contain changes, Vim will
not exit. The cursor will automatically be positioned in a window with
changes. You can then either use ":write" to save the changes, or ":quit!" to
throw them away.
If you know there are windows with changes, and you want to save all these
changes, use this command:
:wall
This stands for "write all". But actually, it only writes files with
changes. Vim knows it doesn't make sense to write files that were not

changed.
And then there is the combination of ":qall" and ":wall": the "write and
quit all" command:
:wqall
This writes all modified files and quits Vim.
Finally, there is a command that quits Vim and throws away all changes:
:qall!
Be careful, there is no way to undo this command!
OPENING A WINDOW FOR ALL ARGUMENTS

To make Vim open a window for each file, start it with the "-o" argument:
vim -o one.txt two.txt three.txt
This results in:
+-------------------------------+
|file one.txt |
|~ |
|one.txt========================|
|file two.txt |
|~ |
|two.txt========================|
|file three.txt |
|~ |
|three.txt======================|
| |
+-------------------------------+
The "-O" argument is used to get vertically split windows.
When Vim is already running, the ":all" command opens a window for each
file in the argument list. ":vertical all" does it with vertical splits.
==============================================================================
*08.7* Viewing differences with vimdiff
There is a special way to start Vim, which shows the differences between two
files. Let's take a file "main.c" and insert a few characters in one line.
Write this file with the 'backup' option set, so that the backup file
"main.c~" will contain the previous version of the file.
Type this command in a shell (not in Vim):
vimdiff main.c~ main.c
Vim will start, with two windows side by side. You will only see the line
in which you added characters, and a few lines above and below it.
VV VV
+-----------------------------------------+
|+ +--123 lines: /* a|+ +--123 lines: /* a| <- fold|||
| text | text |
| text | text |
| text | text |
| text | changed text | <- changed line
| text | text |
| text | ------------------| <- deleted line
| text | text |
| text | text |
| text | text |
|+ +--432 lines: text|+ +--432 lines: text| <- fold|||
| ~ | ~ |
| ~ | ~ |
|main.c~==============main.c==============|
| |
+-----------------------------------------+
(This picture doesn't show the highlighting, use the vimdiff command for a
better look.)
The lines that were not modified have been collapsed into one line. This is
called a closed fold. They are indicated in the picture with "<- fold". Thus
the single fold line at the top stands for 123 text lines. These lines are
equal in both files.

The line marked with "<- changed line" is highlighted, and the inserted
text is displayed with another color. This clearly shows what the difference
is between the two files.
The line that was deleted is displayed with "---" in the main.c window.
See the "<- deleted line" marker in the picture. These characters are not
really there. They just fill up main.c, so that it displays the same number
of lines as the other window.
THE FOLD COLUMN

Each window has a column on the left with a slightly different background. In
the picture above these are indicated with "VV". You notice there is a plus
character there, in front of each closed fold. Move the mouse pointer to that
plus and click the left button. The fold will open, and you can see the text
that it contains.
The fold column contains a minus sign for an open fold. If you click on
this -, the fold will close.
Obviously, this only works when you have a working mouse. You can also use
"zo" to open a fold and "zc" to close it.
DIFFING IN VIM
Another way to start in diff mode can be done from inside Vim. Edit the
"main.c" file, then make a split and show the differences:
:edit main.c
:vertical diffsplit main.c~
The ":vertical" command is used to make the window split vertically. If you
omit this, you will get a horizontal split.
If you have a patch or diff file, you can use the third way to start diff
mode. First edit the file to which the patch applies. Then tell Vim the name
of the patch file:
:edit main.c
:vertical diffpatch main.c.diff
WARNING: The patch file must contain only one patch, for the file you are
editing. Otherwise you will get a lot of error messages, and some files might
be patched unexpectedly.
The patching will only be done to the copy of the file in Vim. The file on
your harddisk will remain unmodified (until you decide to write the file).
SCROLL BINDING
When the files have more changes, you can scroll in the usual way. Vim will
try to keep both the windows start at the same position, so you can easily see
the differences side by side.
When you don't want this for a moment, use this command:
:set noscrollbind
JUMPING TO CHANGES
When you have disabled folding in some way, it may be difficult to find the
changes. Use this command to jump forward to the next change:
]c
To go the other way use:
[c
Prepended a count to jump further away.
REMOVING CHANGES
You can move text from one window to the other. This either removes
differences or adds new ones. Vim doesn't keep the highlighting updated in
all situations. To update it use this command:
:diffupdate
To remove a difference, you can move the text in a highlighted block from one

window to another. Take the "main.c" and "main.c~" example above. Move the
cursor to the left window, on the line that was deleted in the other window.
Now type this command:
dp
The change will be removed by putting the text of the current window in the
other window. "dp" stands for "diff put".
You can also do it the other way around. Move the cursor to the right
window, to the line where "changed" was inserted. Now type this command:
do
The change will now be removed by getting the text from the other window.
Since there are no changes left now, Vim puts all text in a closed fold.
"do" stands for "diff obtain". "dg" would have been better, but that already
has a different meaning ("dgg" deletes from the cursor until the first line).
For details about diff mode, see |vimdiff|.
==============================================================================
*08.8* Various
The 'laststatus' option can be used to specify when the last window has a
statusline:
0 never
1 only when there are split windows (the default)
2 always
Many commands that edit another file have a variant that splits the window.
For Command-line commands this is done by prepending an "s". For example:
":tag" jumps to a tag, ":stag" splits the window and jumps to a
tag.
For Normal mode commands a CTRL-W is prepended. CTRL-^ jumps to the
alternate file, CTRL-W CTRL-^ splits the window and edits the alternate file.
The 'splitbelow' option can be set to make a new window appear below the
current window. The 'splitright' option can be set to make a vertically split
window appear right of the current window.
When splitting a window you can prepend a modifier command to tell where the
window is to appear:
:leftabove {cmd} left or above the current window
:aboveleft {cmd} idem
:rightbelow {cmd} right or below the current window
:belowright {cmd} idem
:topleft {cmd} at the top or left of the Vim window
:botright {cmd} at the bottom or right of the Vim window
==============================================================================
*08.9* Tab pages
You will have noticed that windows never overlap. That means you quickly run
out of screen space. The solution for this is called Tab pages.
Assume you are editing "thisfile". To create a new tab page use this command:
:tabedit thatfile
This will edit the file "thatfile" in a window that occupies the whole Vim
window. And you will notice a bar at the top with the two file names:
+----------------------------------+
| thisfile | /thatfile/ __________X| (thatfile is bold)
|/* thatfile */ |
|that |
|that |
|~ |
|~ |
|~ |
| |
+----------------------------------+
You now have two tab pages. The first one has a window for "thisfile" and the
second one a window for "thatfile". It's like two pages that are on top of

eachother, with a tab sticking out of each page showing the file name.
Now use the mouse to click on "thisfile" in the top line. The result is
+----------------------------------+
| /thisfile/ | thatfile __________X| (thisfile is bold)
|/* thisfile */ |
|this |
|this |
|~ |
|~ |
|~ |
| |
+----------------------------------+
Thus you can switch between tab pages by clicking on the label in the top
line. If you don't have a mouse or don't want to use it, you can use the "gt"
command. Mnemonic: Goto Tab.
Now let's create another tab page with the command:
:tab split
This makes a new tab page with one window that is editing the same buffer as
the window we were in:
+-------------------------------------+
| thisfile | /thisfile/ | thatfile __X| (thisfile is bold)
|/* thisfile */ |
|this |
|this |
|~ |
|~ |
|~ |
| |
+-------------------------------------+
You can put ":tab" before any Ex command that opens a window. The window will
be opened in a new tab page. Another example:
:tab help gt
Will show the help text for "gt" in a new tab page.
A few more things you can do with tab pages:
- click with the mouse in the space after the last label
The next tab page will be selected, like with "gt".
- click with the mouse on the "X" in the top right corner
The current tab page will be closed. Unless there are unsaved
changes in the current tab page.
- double click with the mouse in the top line
A new tab page will be created.
- the "tabonly" command
Closes all tab pages except the current one. Unless there are unsaved
changes in other tab pages.
For more information about tab pages see |tab-page|.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_09.txt| Using the GUI
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Using the GUI
Vim works in an ordinary terminal. GVim can do the same things and a few
more. The GUI offers menus, a toolbar, scrollbars and other items. This
chapter is about these extra things that the GUI offers.
|09.1| Parts of the GUI
|09.2| Using the mouse
|09.3| The clipboard
|09.4| Select mode
Next chapter: |usr_10.txt| Making big changes
Previous chapter: |usr_08.txt| Splitting windows
==============================================================================
*09.1* Parts of the GUI
You might have an icon on your desktop that starts gVim. Otherwise, one of
these commands should do it:
gvim file.txt
vim -g file.txt
If this doesn't work you don't have a version of Vim with GUI support. You
will have to install one first.
Vim will open a window and display "file.txt" in it. What the window looks
like depends on the version of Vim. It should resemble the following picture
(for as far as this can be shown in ASCII!).
+----------------------------------------------------+
| file.txt + (~/dir) - VIM X | <- window title
+----------------------------------------------------+
| File Edit Tools Syntax Buffers Window Help | <- menubar
+----------------------------------------------------+
| aaa bbb ccc ddd eee fff ggg hhh iii jjj | <- toolbar
| aaa bbb ccc ddd eee fff ggg hhh iii jjj |
+----------------------------------------------------+
| file text | ^ |
| ~ | # |
| ~ | # | <- scrollbar
| ~ | # |
| ~ | # |
| ~ | # |
| | V |
+----------------------------------------------------+
The largest space is occupied by the file text. This shows the file in the
same way as in a terminal. With some different colors and another font
perhaps.
THE WINDOW TITLE

At the very top is the window title. This is drawn by your window system.
Vim will set the title to show the name of the current file. First comes the
name of the file. Then some special characters and the directory of the file

in parens. These special character can be present:

- The file cannot be modified (e.g., a help file)
+ The file contains changes
= The file is read-only
=+ The file is read-only, contains changes anyway
If nothing is shown you have an ordinary, unchanged file.
THE MENUBAR
You know how menus work, right? Vim has the usual items, plus a few more.
Browse them to get an idea of what you can use them for. A relevant submenu
is Edit/Global Settings. You will find these entries:
Toggle Toolbar make the toolbar appear/disappear
Toggle Bottom Scrollbar make a scrollbar appear/disappear at the bottom
Toggle Left Scrollbar make a scrollbar appear/disappear at the left
Toggle Right Scrollbar make a scrollbar appear/disappear at the right
On most systems you can tear-off the menus. Select the top item of the menu,
the one that looks like a dashed line. You will get a separate window with
the items of the menu. It will hang around until you close the window.
THE TOOLBAR
This contains icons for the most often used actions. Hopefully the icons are
self-explanatory. There are tooltips to get an extra hint (move the mouse
pointer to the icon without clicking and don't move it for a second).
The "Edit/Global Settings/Toggle Toolbar" menu item can be used to make the
toolbar disappear. If you never want a toolbar, use this command in your
vimrc file:
:set guioptions-=T
This removes the 'T' flag from the 'guioptions' option. Other parts of the
GUI can also be enabled or disabled with this option. See the help for it.
THE SCROLLBARS
By default there is one scrollbar on the right. It does the obvious thing.
When you split the window, each window will get its own scrollbar.
You can make a horizontal scrollbar appear with the menu item
Edit/Global Settings/Toggle Bottom Scrollbar. This is useful in diff mode, or
when the 'wrap' option has been reset (more about that later).
When there are vertically split windows, only the windows on the right side
will have a scrollbar. However, when you move the cursor to a window on the
left, it will be this one the that scrollbar controls. This takes a bit of
time to get used to.
When you work with vertically split windows, consider adding a scrollbar on
the left. This can be done with a menu item, or with the 'guioptions' option:
:set guioptions+=l
This adds the 'l' flag to 'guioptions'.
==============================================================================
*09.2* Using the mouse
Standards are wonderful. In Microsoft Windows, you can use the mouse to
select text in a standard manner. The X Window system also has a standard
system for using the mouse. Unfortunately, these two standards are not the
same.
Fortunately, you can customize Vim. You can make the behavior of the mouse
work like an X Window system mouse or a Microsoft Windows mouse. The following
command makes the mouse behave like an X Window mouse:
:behave xterm
The following command makes the mouse work like a Microsoft Windows mouse:
:behave mswin
The default behavior of the mouse on UNIX systems is xterm. The default

behavior on a Microsoft Windows system is selected during the installation

process. For details about what the two behaviors are, see |:behave|. Here
follows a summary.
XTERM MOUSE BEHAVIOR

Left mouse click position the cursor
Left mouse drag select text in Visual mode
Middle mouse click paste text from the clipboard
Right mouse click extend the selected text until the mouse
pointer
MSWIN MOUSE BEHAVIOR

Left mouse click position the cursor
Left mouse drag select text in Select mode (see |09.4|)
Left mouse click, with Shift extend the selected text until the mouse
pointer
Middle mouse click paste text from the clipboard
Right mouse click display a pop-up menu
The mouse can be further tuned. Check out these options if you want to change
the way how the mouse works:
'mouse' in which mode the mouse is used by Vim
'mousemodel' what effect a mouse click has
'mousetime' time between clicks for a double-click
'mousehide' hide the mouse while typing
'selectmode' whether the mouse starts Visual or Select mode
==============================================================================
*09.3* The clipboard
In section |04.7| the basic use of the clipboard was explained. There is one
essential thing to explain about X-windows: There are actually two places to
exchange text between programs. MS-Windows doesn't have this.
In X-Windows there is the "current selection". This is the text that is
currently highlighted. In Vim this is the Visual area (this assumes you are
using the default option settings). You can paste this selection in another
application without any further action.
For example, in this text select a few words with the mouse. Vim will
switch to Visual mode and highlight the text. Now start another gVim, without
a file name argument, so that it displays an empty window. Click the middle
mouse button. The selected text will be inserted.
The "current selection" will only remain valid until some other text is
selected. After doing the paste in the other gVim, now select some characters
in that window. You will notice that the words that were previously selected
in the other gVim window are displayed differently. This means that it no
longer is the current selection.
You don't need to select text with the mouse, using the keyboard commands for
Visual mode works just as well.
THE REAL CLIPBOARD

Now for the other place with which text can be exchanged. We call this the
"real clipboard", to avoid confusion. Often both the "current selection" and
the "real clipboard" are called clipboard, you'll have to get used to that.
To put text on the real clipboard, select a few different words in one of
the gVims you have running. Then use the Edit/Copy menu entry. Now the text
has been copied to the real clipboard. You can't see this, unless you have
some application that shows the clipboard contents (e.g., KDE's klipper).
Now select the other gVim, position the cursor somewhere and use the
Edit/Paste menu. You will see the text from the real clipboard is inserted.
USING BOTH
This use of both the "current selection" and the "real clipboard" might sound
a bit confusing. But it is very useful. Let's show this with an example.
Use one gVim with a text file and perform these actions:
- Select two words in Visual mode.

- Use the Edit/Copy menu to get these words onto the clipboard.
- Select one other word in Visual mode.
- Use the Edit/Paste menu item. What will happen is that the single selected
word is replaced with the two words from the clipboard.
- Move the mouse pointer somewhere else and click the middle button. You
will see that the word you just overwrote with the clipboard is inserted
here.
If you use the "current selection" and the "real clipboard" with care, you can
do a lot of useful editing with them.
USING THE KEYBOARD

If you don't like using the mouse, you can access the current selection and
the real clipboard with two registers. The "* register is for the current
selection.
To make text become the current selection, use Visual mode. For example,
to select a whole line just press "V".
To insert the current selection before the cursor:
"*P
Notice the uppercase "P". The lowercase "p" puts the text after the cursor.
The "+ register is used for the real clipboard. For example, to copy the text
from the cursor position until the end of the line to the clipboard:
"+y$
Remember, "y" is yank, which is Vim's copy command.
To insert the contents of the real clipboard before the cursor:
"+P
It's the same as for the current selection, but uses the plus (+) register
instead of the star (*) register.
==============================================================================
*09.4* Select mode
And now something that is used more often on MS-Windows than on X-Windows.
But both can do it. You already know about Visual mode. Select mode is like
Visual mode, because it is also used to select text. But there is an obvious
difference: When typing text, the selected text is deleted and the typed text
replaces it.
To start working with Select mode, you must first enable it (for MS-Windows
it is probably already enabled, but you can do this anyway):
:set selectmode+=mouse
Now use the mouse to select some text. It is highlighted like in Visual mode.
Now press a letter. The selected text is deleted, and the single letter
replaces it. You are in Insert mode now, thus you can continue typing.
Since typing normal text causes the selected text to be deleted, you can not
use the normal movement commands "hjkl", "w", etc. Instead, use the shifted
function keys. <S-Left> (shifted cursor left key) moves the cursor left. The
selected text is changed like in Visual mode. The other shifted cursor keys
do what you expect. <S-End> and <S-Home> also work.
You can tune the way Select mode works with the 'selectmode' option.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_10.txt| Making big changes
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Making big changes
In chapter 4 several ways to make small changes were explained. This chapter
goes into making changes that are repeated or can affect a large amount of
text. The Visual mode allows doing various things with blocks of text. Use
an external program to do really complicated things.
|10.1| Record and playback commands
|10.2| Substitution
|10.3| Command ranges
|10.4| The global command
|10.5| Visual block mode
|10.6| Reading and writing part of a file
|10.7| Formatting text
|10.8| Changing case
|10.9| Using an external program
Next chapter: |usr_11.txt| Recovering from a crash
Previous chapter: |usr_09.txt| Using the GUI
==============================================================================
*10.1* Record and playback commands
The "." command repeats the preceding change. But what if you want to do
something more complex than a single change? That's where command recording
comes in. There are three steps:
1. The "q{register}" command starts recording keystrokes into the register
named {register}. The register name must be between a and z.
2. Type your commands.
3. To finish recording, press q (without any extra character).
You can now execute the macro by typing the command "@{register}".
Take a look at how to use these commands in practice. You have a list of
filenames that look like this:
stdio.h
fcntl.h
unistd.h
stdlib.h
And what you want is the following:
#include "stdio.h"
#include "fcntl.h"
#include "unistd.h"
#include "stdlib.h"
You start by moving to the first character of the first line. Next you
execute the following commands:
qa Start recording a macro in register a.
^ Move to the beginning of the line.
i#include "<Esc> Insert the string #include " at the beginning

of the line.
$ Move to the end of the line.
a"<Esc> Append the character double quotation mark (")
to the end of the line.
j Go to the next line.
q Stop recording the macro.
Now that you have done the work once, you can repeat the change by typing the
command "@a" three times.
The "@a" command can be preceded by a count, which will cause the macro to
be executed that number of times. In this case you would type:
3@a
MOVE AND EXECUTE

You might have the lines you want to change in various places. Just move the
cursor to each location and use the "@a" command. If you have done that once,
you can do it again with "@@". That's a bit easier to type. If you now
execute register b with "@b", the next "@@" will use register b.
If you compare the playback method with using ".", there are several
differences. First of all, "." can only repeat one change. As seen in the
example above, "@a" can do several changes, and move around as well.
Secondly, "." can only remember the last change. Executing a register allows
you to make any changes and then still use "@a" to replay the recorded
commands. Finally, you can use 26 different registers. Thus you can remember
26 different command sequences to execute.
USING REGISTERS
The registers used for recording are the same ones you used for yank and
delete commands. This allows you to mix recording with other commands to
manipulate the registers.
Suppose you have recorded a few commands in register n. When you execute
this with "@n" you notice you did something wrong. You could try recording
again, but perhaps you will make another mistake. Instead, use this trick:
G Go to the end of the file.
o<Esc> Create an empty line.
"np Put the text from the n register. You now see
the commands you typed as text in the file.
{edits} Change the commands that were wrong. This is
just like editing text.
0 Go to the start of the line.
"ny$ Yank the corrected commands into the n
register.
dd Delete the scratch line.
Now you can execute the corrected commands with "@n". (If your recorded
commands include line breaks, adjust the last two items in the example to
include all the lines.)
APPENDING TO A REGISTER
So far we have used a lowercase letter for the register name. To append to a
register, use an uppercase letter.
Suppose you have recorded a command to change a word to register c. It
works properly, but you would like to add a search for the next word to
change. This can be done with:
qC/word<Enter>q
You start with "qC", which records to the c register and appends. Thus
writing to an uppercase register name means to append to the register with
the same letter, but lowercase.
This works both with recording and with yank and delete commands. For
example, you want to collect a sequence of lines into the a register. Yank
the first line with:
"aY
Now move to the second line, and type:
"AY
Repeat this command for all lines. The a register now contains all those

lines, in the order you yanked them.

==============================================================================
*10.2* Substitution *find-replace*
The ":substitute" command enables you to perform string replacements on a
whole range of lines. The general form of this command is as follows:
:[range]substitute/from/to/[flags]
This command changes the "from" string to the "to" string in the lines
specified with [range]. For example, you can change "Professor" to "Teacher"
in all lines with the following command:
:%substitute/Professor/Teacher/
Note:
The ":substitute" command is almost never spelled out completely.
Most of the time, people use the abbreviated version ":s". From here
on the abbreviation will be used.
The "%" before the command specifies the command works on all lines. Without
a range, ":s" only works on the current line. More about ranges in the next
section |10.3|.
By default, the ":substitute" command changes only the first occurrence on
each line. For example, the preceding command changes the line:
Professor Smith criticized Professor Johnson today.
to:
Teacher Smith criticized Professor Johnson today.
To change every occurrence on the line, you need to add the g (global) flag.
The command:
:%s/Professor/Teacher/g
results in (starting with the original line):
Teacher Smith criticized Teacher Johnson today.
Other flags include p (print), which causes the ":substitute" command to print
out the last line it changes. The c (confirm) flag tells ":substitute" to ask
you for confirmation before it performs each substitution. Enter the
following:
:%s/Professor/Teacher/c
Vim finds the first occurrence of "Professor" and displays the text it is
about to change. You get the following prompt:
replace with Teacher (y/n/a/q/l/Ê/^Y)?
At this point, you must enter one of the following answers:
y Yes; make this change.
n No; skip this match.
a All; make this change and all remaining ones without
further confirmation.
q Quit; don't make any more changes.
l Last; make this change and then quit.
CTRL-E Scroll the text one line up.
CTRL-Y Scroll the text one line down.
The "from" part of the substitute command is actually a pattern. The same
kind as used for the search command. For example, this command only
substitutes "the" when it appears at the start of a line:
:s/^the/these/
If you are substituting with a "from" or "to" part that includes a slash, you
need to put a backslash before it. A simpler way is to use another character
instead of the slash. A plus, for example:
:s+one/two+one or two+

==============================================================================
*10.3* Command ranges
The ":substitute" command, and many other : commands, can be applied to a
selection of lines. This is called a range.
The simple form of a range is {number},{number}. For example:
:1,5s/this/that/g
Executes the substitute command on the lines 1 to 5. Line 5 is included.
The range is always placed before the command.
A single number can be used to address one specific line:
:54s/President/Fool/
Some commands work on the whole file when you do not specify a range. To make
them work on the current line the "." address is used. The ":write" command
works like that. Without a range, it writes the whole file. To make it write
only the current line into a file:
:.write otherfile
The first line always has number one. How about the last line? The "$"
character is used for this. For example, to substitute in the lines from the
cursor to the end:
:.,$s/yes/no/
The "%" range that we used before, is actually a short way to say "1,$", from
the first to the last line.
USING A PATTERN IN A RANGE

Suppose you are editing a chapter in a book, and want to replace all
occurrences of "grey" with "gray". But only in this chapter, not in the next
one. You know that only chapter boundaries have the word "Chapter" in the
first column. This command will work then:
:?^Chapter?,/^Chapter/s=grey=gray=g
You can see a search pattern is used twice. The first "?^Chapter?" finds the
line above the current position that matches this pattern. Thus the ?pattern?
range is used to search backwards. Similarly, "/^Chapter/" is used to search
forward for the start of the next chapter.
To avoid confusion with the slashes, the "=" character was used in the
substitute command here. A slash or another character would have worked as
well.
ADD AND SUBTRACT

There is a slight error in the above command: If the title of the next chapter
had included "grey" it would be replaced as well. Maybe that's what you
wanted, but what if you didn't? Then you can specify an offset.
To search for a pattern and then use the line above it:
/Chapter/-1
You can use any number instead of the 1. To address the second line below the
match:
/Chapter/+2
The offsets can also be used with the other items in a range. Look at this
one:
:.+3,$-5
This specifies the range that starts three lines below the cursor and ends
five lines before the last line in the file.
USING MARKS
Instead of figuring out the line numbers of certain positions, remembering them
and typing them in a range, you can use marks.
Place the marks as mentioned in chapter 3. For example, use "mt" to mark

the top of an area and "mb" to mark the bottom. Then you can use this range
to specify the lines between the marks (including the lines with the marks):
:'t,'b
VISUAL MODE AND RANGES

You can select text with Visual mode. If you then press ":" to start a colon
command, you will see this:
:'<,'>
Now you can type the command and it will be applied to the range of lines that
was visually selected.
Note:
When using Visual mode to select part of a line, or using CTRL-V to
select a block of text, the colon commands will still apply to whole
lines. This might change in a future version of Vim.
The '< and '> are actually marks, placed at the start and end of the Visual
selection. The marks remain at their position until another Visual selection
is made. Thus you can use the "'<" command to jump to position where the
Visual area started. And you can mix the marks with other items:
:'>,$
This addresses the lines from the end of the Visual area to the end of the
file.
A NUMBER OF LINES
When you know how many lines you want to change, you can type the number and
then ":". For example, when you type "5:", you will get:
:.,.+4
Now you can type the command you want to use. It will use the range "."
(current line) until ".+4" (four lines down). Thus it spans five lines.
==============================================================================
*10.4* The global command
The ":global" command is one of the more powerful features of Vim. It allows
you to find a match for a pattern and execute a command there. The general
form is:
:[range]global/{pattern}/{command}
This is similar to the ":substitute" command. But, instead of replacing the
matched text with other text, the command {command} is executed.
Note:
The command executed for ":global" must be one that starts with a
colon. Normal mode commands can not be used directly. The |:normal|
command can do this for you.
Suppose you want to change "foobar" to "barfoo", but only in C++ style
comments. These comments start with "//". Use this command:
:g+//+s/foobar/barfoo/g
This starts with ":g". That is short for ":global", just like ":s" is short
for ":substitute". Then the pattern, enclosed in plus characters. Since the
pattern we are looking for contains a slash, this uses the plus character to
separate the pattern. Next comes the substitute command that changes "foobar"
into "barfoo".
The default range for the global command is the whole file. Thus no range
was specified in this example. This is different from ":substitute", which
works on one line without a range.
The command isn't perfect, since it also matches lines where "//" appears
halfway a line, and the substitution will also take place before the "//".
Just like with ":substitute", any pattern can be used. When you learn more
complicated patterns later, you can use them here.
==============================================================================

*10.5* Visual block mode

With CTRL-V you can start selection of a rectangular area of text. There are
a few commands that do something special with the text block.
There is something special about using the "$" command in Visual block mode.
When the last motion command used was "$", all lines in the Visual selection
will extend until the end of the line, also when the line with the cursor is
shorter. This remains effective until you use a motion command that moves the
cursor horizontally. Thus using "j" keeps it, "h" stops it.
INSERTING TEXT
The command "I{string}<Esc>" inserts the text {string} in each line, just
left of the visual block. You start by pressing CTRL-V to enter visual block
mode. Now you move the cursor to define your block. Next you type I to enter
Insert mode, followed by the text to insert. As you type, the text appears on
the first line only.
After you press <Esc> to end the insert, the text will magically be
inserted in the rest of the lines contained in the visual selection. Example:
include one
include two
include three
include four
Move the cursor to the "o" of "one" and press CTRL-V. Move it down with "3j"
to "four". You now have a block selection that spans four lines. Now type:
Imain.<Esc>
The result:
include main.one
include main.two
include main.three
include main.four
If the block spans short lines that do not extend into the block, the text is
not inserted in that line. For example, make a Visual block selection that
includes the word "long" in the first and last line of this text, and thus has
no text selected in the second line:
This is a long line
short
Any other long line
^^^^ selected block
Now use the command "Ivery <Esc>". The result is:
This is a very long line
short
Any other very long line
In the short line no text was inserted.
If the string you insert contains a newline, the "I" acts just like a Normal
insert command and affects only the first line of the block.
The "A" command works the same way, except that it appends after the right
side of the block. And it does insert text in a short line. Thus you can
make a choice whether you do or don't want to append text to a short line.
There is one special case for "A": Select a Visual block and then use "$"
to make the block extend to the end of each line. Using "A" now will append
the text to the end of each line.
Using the same example from above, and then typing "$A XXX<Esc>, you get
this result:
This is a long line XXX
short XXX
Any other long line XXX
This really requires using the "$" command. Vim remembers that it was used.
Making the same selection by moving the cursor to the end of the longest line
with other movement commands will not have the same result.

CHANGING TEXT
The Visual block "c" command deletes the block and then throws you into Insert
mode to enable you to type in a string. The string will be inserted in each
line in the block.
Starting with the same selection of the "long" words as above, then typing
"c_LONG_<Esc>", you get this:
This is a _LONG_ line
short
Any other _LONG_ line
Just like with "I" the short line is not changed. Also, you can't enter a
newline in the new text.
The "C" command deletes text from the left edge of the block to the end of
line. It then puts you in Insert mode so that you can type in a string,
which is added to the end of each line.
Starting with the same text again, and typing "Cnew text<Esc>" you get:
This is a new text
short
Any other new text
Notice that, even though only the "long" word was selected, the text after it
is deleted as well. Thus only the location of the left edge of the visual
block really matters.
Again, short lines that do not reach into the block are excluded.
Other commands that change the characters in the block:
~ swap case (a -> A and A -> a)
U make uppercase (a -> A and A -> A)
u make lowercase (a -> a and A -> a)
FILLING WITH A CHARACTER

To fill the whole block with one character, use the "r" command. Again,
starting with the same example text from above, and then typing "rx":
This is a xxxx line
short
Any other xxxx line
Note:
If you want to include characters beyond the end of the line in the
block, check out the 'virtualedit' feature in chapter 25.
SHIFTING
The command ">" shifts the selected text to the right one shift amount,
inserting whitespace. The starting point for this shift is the left edge of
the visual block.
With the same example again, ">" gives this result:
This is a long line
short
Any other long line
The shift amount is specified with the 'shiftwidth' option. To change it to
use 4 spaces:
:set shiftwidth=4
The "<" command removes one shift amount of whitespace at the left
edge of the block. This command is limited by the amount of text that is
there; so if there is less than a shift amount of whitespace available, it
removes what it can.
JOINING LINES
The "J" command joins all selected lines together into one line. Thus it
removes the line breaks. Actually, the line break, leading white space and
trailing white space is replaced by one space. Two spaces are used after a

line ending (that can be changed with the 'joinspaces' option).

Let's use the example that we got so familiar with now. The result of
using the "J" command:
This is a long line short Any other long line
The "J" command doesn't require a blockwise selection. It works with "v" and
"V" selection in exactly the same way.
If you don't want the white space to be changed, use the "gJ" command.
==============================================================================
*10.6* Reading and writing part of a file
When you are writing an e-mail message, you may want to include another file.
This can be done with the ":read {filename}" command. The text of the file is
put below the cursor line.
Starting with this text:
Hi John,
Here is the diff that fixes the bug:
Bye, Pierre.
Move the cursor to the second line and type:
:read patch
The file named "patch" will be inserted, with this result:
Hi John,
Here is the diff that fixes the bug:
2c2
< for (i = 0; i <= length; ++i)
---
> for (i = 0; i < length; ++i)
Bye, Pierre.
The ":read" command accepts a range. The file will be put below the last line
number of this range. Thus ":$r patch" appends the file "patch" at the end of
the file.
What if you want to read the file above the first line? This can be done
with the line number zero. This line doesn't really exist, you will get an
error message when using it with most commands. But this command is allowed:
:0read patch
The file "patch" will be put above the first line of the file.
WRITING A RANGE OF LINES

To write a range of lines to a file, the ":write" command can be used.
Without a range it writes the whole file. With a range only the specified
lines are written:
:.,$write tempo
This writes the lines from the cursor until the end of the file into the file
"tempo". If this file already exists you will get an error message. Vim
protects you from accidentally overwriting an existing file. If you know what
you are doing and want to overwrite the file, append !:
:.,$write! tempo
CAREFUL: The ! must follow the ":write" command immediately, without white
space. Otherwise it becomes a filter command, which is explained later in
this chapter.
APPENDING TO A FILE
In the first section of this chapter was explained how to collect a number of
lines into a register. The same can be done to collect lines in a file.
Write the first line with this command:
:.write collection
Now move the cursor to the second line you want to collect, and type this:

:.write >>collection
The ">>" tells Vim the "collection" file is not to be written as a new file,
but the line must be appended at the end. You can repeat this as many times
as you like.
==============================================================================
*10.7* Formatting text
When you are typing plain text, it's nice if the length of each line is
automatically trimmed to fit in the window. To make this happen while
inserting text, set the 'textwidth' option:
:set textwidth=72
You might remember that in the example vimrc file this command was used for
every text file. Thus if you are using that vimrc file, you were already
using it. To check the current value of 'textwidth':
:set textwidth
Now lines will be broken to take only up to 72 characters. But when you
insert text halfway a line, or when you delete a few words, the lines will get
too long or too short. Vim doesn't automatically reformat the text.
To tell Vim to format the current paragraph:
gqap
This starts with the "gq" command, which is an operator. Following is "ap",
the text object that stands for "a paragraph". A paragraph is separated from
the next paragraph by an empty line.
Note:
A blank line, which contains white space, does NOT separate
paragraphs. This is hard to notice!
Instead of "ap" you could use any motion or text object. If your paragraphs
are properly separated, you can use this command to format the whole file:
gggqG
"gg" takes you to the first line, "gq" is the format operator and "G" the
motion that jumps to the last line.
In case your paragraphs aren't clearly defined, you can format just the lines
you manually select. Move the cursor to the first line you want to format.
Start with the command "gqj". This formats the current line and the one below
it. If the first line was short, words from the next line will be appended.
If it was too long, words will be moved to the next line. The cursor moves to
the second line. Now you can use "." to repeat the command. Keep doing this
until you are at the end of the text you want to format.
==============================================================================
*10.8* Changing case
You have text with section headers in lowercase. You want to make the word
"section" all uppercase. Do this with the "gU" operator. Start with the
cursor in the first column:
gUw
section header ----> SECTION header
The "gu" operator does exactly the opposite:
guw
SECTION header ----> section header
You can also use "g~" to swap case. All these are operators, thus they work
with any motion command, with text objects and in Visual mode.
To make an operator work on lines you double it. The delete operator is
"d", thus to delete a line you use "dd". Similarly, "gugu" makes a whole line
lowercase. This can be shortened to "guu". "gUgU" is shortened to "gUU" and
"g~g~" to "g~~". Example:
g~~
Some GIRLS have Fun ----> sOME girls HAVE fUN

==============================================================================
*10.9* Using an external program
Vim has a very powerful set of commands, it can do anything. But there may
still be something that an external command can do better or faster.
The command "!{motion}{program}" takes a block of text and filters it
through an external program. In other words, it runs the system command
represented by {program}, giving it the block of text represented by {motion}
as input. The output of this command then replaces the selected block.
Because this summarizes badly if you are unfamiliar with UNIX filters, take
a look at an example. The sort command sorts a file. If you execute the
following command, the unsorted file input.txt will be sorted and written to
output.txt. (This works on both UNIX and Microsoft Windows.)
sort <input.txt >output.txt
Now do the same thing in Vim. You want to sort lines 1 through 5 of a file.
You start by putting the cursor on line 1. Next you execute the following
command:
!5G
The "!" tells Vim that you are performing a filter operation. The Vim editor
expects a motion command to follow, indicating which part of the file to
filter. The "5G" command tells Vim to go to line 5, so it now knows that it
is to filter lines 1 (the current line) through 5.
In anticipation of the filtering, the cursor drops to the bottom of the
screen and a ! prompt displays. You can now type in the name of the filter
program, in this case "sort". Therefore, your full command is as follows:
!5Gsort<Enter>
The result is that the sort program is run on the first 5 lines. The output
of the program replaces these lines.
line 55 line 11
line 33 line 22
line 11 --> line 33
line 22 line 44
line 44 line 55
last line last line
The "!!" command filters the current line through a filter. In Unix the "date"
command prints the current time and date. "!!date<Enter>" replaces the current
line with the output of "date". This is useful to add a timestamp to a file.
WHEN IT DOESN'T WORK

Starting a shell, sending it text and capturing the output requires that Vim
knows how the shell works exactly. When you have problems with filtering,
check the values of these options:
'shell' specifies the program that Vim uses to execute
external programs.
'shellcmdflag' argument to pass a command to the shell
'shellquote' quote to be used around the command
'shellxquote' quote to be used around the command and redirection
'shelltype' kind of shell (only for the Amiga)
'shellslash' use forward slashes in the command (only for
MS-Windows and alikes)
'shellredir' string used to write the command output into a file
On Unix this is hardly ever a problem, because there are two kinds of shells:
"sh" like and "csh" like. Vim checks the 'shell' option and sets related
options automatically, depending on whether it sees "csh" somewhere in
'shell'.
On MS-Windows, however, there are many different shells and you might have
to tune the options to make filtering work. Check the help for the options
for more information.
READING COMMAND OUTPUT

To read the contents of the current directory into the file, use this:
on Unix:
:read !ls
on MS-Windows:

:read !dir
The output of the "ls" or "dir" command is captured and inserted in the text,
below the cursor. This is similar to reading a file, except that the "!" is
used to tell Vim that a command follows.
The command may have arguments. And a range can be used to tell where Vim
should put the lines:
:0read !date -u
This inserts the current time and date in UTC format at the top of the file.
(Well, if you have a date command that accepts the "-u" argument.) Note the
difference with using "!!date": that replaced a line, while ":read !date" will
insert a line.
WRITING TEXT TO A COMMAND

The Unix command "wc" counts words. To count the words in the current file:
:write !wc
This is the same write command as before, but instead of a file name the "!"
character is used and the name of an external command. The written text will
be passed to the specified command as its standard input. The output could
look like this:
4 47 249
The "wc" command isn't verbose. This means you have 4 lines, 47 words and 249
characters.
Watch out for this mistake:
:write! wc
This will write the file "wc" in the current directory, with force. White
space is important here!
REDRAWING THE SCREEN

If the external command produced an error message, the display may have been
messed up. Vim is very efficient and only redraws those parts of the screen
that it knows need redrawing. But it can't know about what another program
has written. To tell Vim to redraw the screen:
CTRL-L
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_11.txt| Recovering from a crash
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file

Recovering from a crash
Did your computer crash? And you just spent hours editing? Don't panic! Vim
stores enough information to be able to restore most of your work. This
chapter shows you how to get your work back and explains how the swap file is
used.
|11.1| Basic recovery
|11.2| Where is the swap file?
|11.3| Crashed or not?
Next chapter: |usr_12.txt| Clever tricks
Previous chapter: |usr_10.txt| Making big changes
==============================================================================
*11.1* Basic recovery
In most cases recovering a file is quite simple, assuming you know which file
you were editing (and the harddisk is still working). Start Vim on the file,
with the "-r" argument added:
vim -r help.txt
Vim will read the swap file (used to store text you were editing) and may read
bits and pieces of the original file. If Vim recovered your changes you will
see these messages (with different file names, of course):
Using swap file ".help.txt.swp"
Original file "~/vim/runtime/doc/help.txt"
Recovery completed. You should check if everything is OK.
(You might want to write out this file under another name
and run diff with the original file to check for changes)
You may want to delete the .swp file now.
To be on the safe side, write this file under another name:
:write help.txt.recovered
Compare the file with the original file to check if you ended up with what you
expected. Vimdiff is very useful for this |08.7|. For example:
:write help.txt.recovered
:edit #
:diffsp help.txt
Watch out for the original file to contain a more recent version (you saved
the file just before the computer crashed). And check that no lines are
missing (something went wrong that Vim could not recover).
If Vim produces warning messages when recovering, read them carefully.
This is rare though.
If the recovery resulted in text that is exactly the same as the file
contents, you will get this message:

Using swap file ".help.txt.swp"

Original file "~/vim/runtime/doc/help.txt"
Recovery completed. Buffer contents equals file contents.
You may want to delete the .swp file now.
This usually happens if you already recovered your changes, or you wrote the
file after making changes. It is safe to delete the swap file now.
It is normal that the last few changes can not be recovered. Vim flushes the
changes to disk when you don't type for about four seconds, or after typing
about two hundred characters. This is set with the 'updatetime' and
'updatecount' options. Thus when Vim didn't get a chance to save itself when
the system went down, the changes after the last flush will be lost.
If you were editing without a file name, give an empty string as argument:
vim -r ""
You must be in the right directory, otherwise Vim can't find the swap file.
==============================================================================
*11.2* Where is the swap file?
Vim can store the swap file in several places. Normally it is in the same
directory as the original file. To find it, change to the directory of the
file, and use:
vim -r
Vim will list the swap files that it can find. It will also look in other
directories where the swap file for files in the current directory may be
located. It will not find swap files in any other directories though, it
doesn't search the directory tree.
The output could look like this:
Swap files found:
In current directory:
1. .main.c.swp
owned by: mool dated: Tue May 29 21:00:25 2001
file name: ~mool/vim/vim6/src/main.c
modified: YES
user name: mool host name: masaka.moolenaar.net
process ID: 12525
In directory ~/tmp:
-- none --
In directory /var/tmp:
-- none --
In directory /tmp:
-- none --
If there are several swap files that look like they may be the one you want to
use, a list is given of these swap files and you are requested to enter the
number of the one you want to use. Carefully look at the dates to decide
which one you want to use.
In case you don't know which one to use, just try them one by one and check
the resulting files if they are what you expected.
USING A SPECIFIC SWAP FILE

If you know which swap file needs to be used, you can recover by giving the
swap file name. Vim will then finds out the name of the original file from
the swap file.
Example:
vim -r .help.txt.swo
This is also handy when the swap file is in another directory than expected.
Vim recognizes files with the pattern *.s[uvw][a-z] as swap files.
If this still does not work, see what file names Vim reports and rename the
files accordingly. Check the 'directory' option to see where Vim may have
put the swap file.
Note:
Vim tries to find the swap file by searching the directories in the
'dir' option, looking for files that match "filename.sw?". If
wildcard expansion doesn't work (e.g., when the 'shell' option is

invalid), Vim does a desperate try to find the file "filename.swp".

If that fails too, you will have to give the name of the swapfile
itself to be able to recover the file.
==============================================================================
*11.3* Crashed or not? *ATTENTION* *E325*
Vim tries to protect you from doing stupid things. Suppose you innocently
start editing a file, expecting the contents of the file to show up. Instead,
Vim produces a very long message:
E325: ATTENTION
Found a swap file by the name ".main.c.swp"
owned by: mool dated: Tue May 29 21:09:28 2001
file name: ~mool/vim/vim6/src/main.c
modified: no
user name: mool host name: masaka.moolenaar.net
process ID: 12559 (still running)
While opening file "main.c"
dated: Tue May 29 19:46:12 2001
(1) Another program may be editing the same file.

If this is the case, be careful not to end up with two
different instances of the same file when making changes.
Quit, or continue with caution.
(2) An edit session for this file crashed.
If this is the case, use ":recover" or "vim -r main.c"
to recover the changes (see ":help recovery").
If you did this already, delete the swap file ".main.c.swp"
to avoid this message.
You get this message, because, when starting to edit a file, Vim checks if a
swap file already exists for that file. If there is one, there must be
something wrong. It may be one of these two situations.
1. Another edit session is active on this file. Look in the message for the
line with "process ID". It might look like this:
process ID: 12559 (still running)
The text "(still running)" indicates that the process editing this file
runs on the same computer. When working on a non-Unix system you will not
get this extra hint. When editing a file over a network, you may not see
the hint, because the process might be running on another computer. In
those two cases you must find out what the situation is yourself.
If there is another Vim editing the same file, continuing to edit will
result in two versions of the same file. The one that is written last will
overwrite the other one, resulting in loss of changes. You better quit
this Vim.
2. The swap file might be the result from a previous crash of Vim or the
computer. Check the dates mentioned in the message. If the date of the
swap file is newer than the file you were editing, and this line appears:
modified: YES
Then you very likely have a crashed edit session that is worth recovering.
If the date of the file is newer than the date of the swap file, then
either it was changed after the crash (perhaps you recovered it earlier,
but didn't delete the swap file?), or else the file was saved before the
crash but after the last write of the swap file (then you're lucky: you
don't even need that old swap file). Vim will warn you for this with this
extra line:
NEWER than swap file!
UNREADABLE SWAP FILE

Sometimes the line
[cannot be read]
will appear under the name of the swap file. This can be good or bad,
depending on circumstances.

It is good if a previous editing session crashed without having made any

changes to the file. Then a directory listing of the swap file will show
that it has zero bytes. You may delete it and proceed.
It is slightly bad if you don't have read permission for the swap file. You
may want to view the file read-only, or quit. On multi-user systems, if you
yourself did the last changes under a different login name, a logout
followed by a login under that other name might cure the "read error". Or
else you might want to find out who last edited (or is editing) the file and
have a talk with them.
It is very bad if it means there is a physical read error on the disk
containing the swap file. Fortunately, this almost never happens.
You may want to view the file read-only at first (if you can), to see the
extent of the changes that were "forgotten". If you are the one in charge of
that file, be prepared to redo your last changes.
WHAT TO DO? *swap-exists-choices*

If dialogs are supported you will be asked to select one of five choices:
Swap file ".main.c.swp" already exists!
[O]pen Read-Only, (E)dit anyway, (R)ecover, (Q)uit, (A)bort, (D)elete it:
O Open the file readonly. Use this when you just want to view the file and
don't need to recover it. You might want to use this when you know someone
else is editing the file, but you just want to look in it and not make
changes.
E Edit the file anyway. Use this with caution! If the file is being edited
in another Vim, you might end up with two versions of the file. Vim will
try to warn you when this happens, but better be safe then sorry.
R Recover the file from the swap file. Use this if you know that the swap
file contains changes that you want to recover.
Q Quit. This avoids starting to edit the file. Use this if there is another
Vim editing the same file.
When you just started Vim, this will exit Vim. When starting Vim with
files in several windows, Vim quits only if there is a swap file for the
first one. When using an edit command, the file will not be loaded and you
are taken back to the previously edited file.
A Abort. Like Quit, but also abort further commands. This is useful when
loading a script that edits several files, such as a session with multiple
windows.
D Delete the swap file. Use this when you are sure you no longer need it.
For example, when it doesn't contain changes, or when the file itself is
newer than the swap file.
On Unix this choice is only offered when the process that created the
swap file does not appear to be running.
If you do not get the dialog (you are running a version of Vim that does not
support it), you will have to do it manually. To recover the file, use this
command:
:recover
Vim cannot always detect that a swap file already exists for a file. This is
the case when the other edit session puts the swap files in another directory
or when the path name for the file is different when editing it on different
machines. Therefore, don't rely on Vim always warning you.
If you really don't want to see this message, you can add the 'A' flag to the
'shortmess' option. But it's very unusual that you need this.
For remarks about encryption and the swap file, see |:recover-crypt|.
==============================================================================
*11.4* Further reading
|swap-file| An explanation about where the swap file will be created and
what its name is.
|:preserve| Manually flushing the swap file to disk.
|:swapname| See the name of the swap file for the current file.

'updatecount' Number of key strokes after which the swap file is flushed to
disk.
'updatetime' Timeout after which the swap file is flushed to disk.
'swapsync' Whether the disk is synced when the swap file is flushed.
'directory' List of directory names where to store the swap file.
'maxmem' Limit for memory usage before writing text to the swap file.
'maxmemtot' Same, but for all files in total.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_12.txt| Clever tricks
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main help file
*usr_12.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2007 May 11

Clever tricks
By combining several commands you can make Vim do nearly everything. In this
chapter a number of useful combinations will be presented. This uses the
commands introduced in the previous chapters and a few more.
|12.1| Replace a word
|12.2| Change "Last, First" to "First Last"
|12.3| Sort a list
|12.4| Reverse line order
|12.5| Count words
|12.6| Find a man page
|12.7| Trim blanks
|12.8| Find where a word is used
Next chapter: |usr_20.txt| Typing command-line commands quickly
Previous chapter: |usr_11.txt| Recovering from a crash
==============================================================================
*12.1* Replace a word
The substitute command can be used to replace all occurrences of a word with
another word:
:%s/four/4/g
The "%" range means to replace in all lines. The "g" flag at the end causes
all words in a line to be replaced.
This will not do the right thing if your file also contains "thirtyfour".
It would be replaced with "thirty4". To avoid this, use the "\<" item to
match the start of a word:
:%s/\<four/4/g
Obviously, this still goes wrong on "fourteen". Use "\>" to match the end of
a word:
:%s/\<four\>/4/g
If you are programming, you might want to replace "four" in comments, but not
in the code. Since this is difficult to specify, add the "c" flag to have the
substitute command prompt you for each replacement:
:%s/\<four\>/4/gc
REPLACING IN SEVERAL FILES

Suppose you want to replace a word in more than one file. You could edit each
file and type the command manually. It's a lot faster to use record and
playback.
Let's assume you have a directory with C++ files, all ending in ".cpp".
There is a function called "GetResp" that you want to rename to "GetAnswer".
vim *.cpp Start Vim, defining the argument list to

contain all the C++ files. You are now in the

first file.
qq Start recording into the q register
:%s/\<GetResp\>/GetAnswer/g
Do the replacements in the first file.
:wnext Write this file and move to the next one.
q Stop recording.
@q Execute the q register. This will replay the
substitution and ":wnext". You can verify
that this doesn't produce an error message.
999@q Execute the q register on the remaining files.
At the last file you will get an error message, because ":wnext" cannot move
to the next file. This stops the execution, and everything is done.
Note:
When playing back a recorded sequence, an error stops the execution.
Therefore, make sure you don't get an error message when recording.
There is one catch: If one of the .cpp files does not contain the word
"GetResp", you will get an error and replacing will stop. To avoid this, add
the "e" flag to the substitute command:
:%s/\<GetResp\>/GetAnswer/ge
The "e" flag tells ":substitute" that not finding a match is not an error.
==============================================================================
*12.2* Change "Last, First" to "First Last"
You have a list of names in this form:
Doe, John
Smith, Peter
You want to change that to:
John Doe
Peter Smith
This can be done with just one command:
:%s/$[^,]*$, $.*$/\2 \1/
Let's break this down in parts. Obviously it starts with a substitute
command. The "%" is the line range, which stands for the whole file. Thus
the substitution is done in every line in the file.
The arguments for the substitute command are "/from/to/". The slashes
separate the "from" pattern and the "to" string. This is what the "from"
pattern contains:
$[^,]*$, $.*$
The first part between  matches "Last" 
match anything but a comma [^,]
any number of times *
matches ", " literally ,
The second part between  matches "First" 
any character .
any number of times *
In the "to" part we have "\2" and "\1". These are called backreferences.
They refer to the text matched by the "" parts in the pattern. "\2"
refers to the text matched by the second "", which is the "First" name.
"\1" refers to the first "", which is the "Last" name.
You can use up to nine backreferences in the "to" part of a substitute
command. "\0" stands for the whole matched pattern. There are a few more
special items in a substitute command, see |sub-replace-special|.
==============================================================================
*12.3* Sort a list
In a Makefile you often have a list of files. For example:
OBJS = \
version.o \
pch.o \
getopt.o \

util.o \
getopt1.o \
inp.o \
patch.o \
backup.o
To sort this list, filter the text through the external sort command:
/ÔBJS
j
:.,/^$/-1!sort
This goes to the first line, where "OBJS" is the first thing in the line.
Then it goes one line down and filters the lines until the next empty line.
You could also select the lines in Visual mode and then use "!sort". That's
easier to type, but more work when there are many lines.
The result is this:
OBJS = \
backup.o
getopt.o \
getopt1.o \
inp.o \
patch.o \
pch.o \
util.o \
version.o \
Notice that a backslash at the end of each line is used to indicate the line
continues. After sorting, this is wrong! The "backup.o" line that was at
the end didn't have a backslash. Now that it sorts to another place, it
must have a backslash.
The simplest solution is to add the backslash with "A \<Esc>". You can
keep the backslash in the last line, if you make sure an empty line comes
after it. That way you don't have this problem again.
==============================================================================
*12.4* Reverse line order
The |:global| command can be combined with the |:move| command to move all the
lines before the first line, resulting in a reversed file. The command is:
:global/^/m 0
Abbreviated:
:g/^/m 0
The "^" regular expression matches the beginning of the line (even if the line
is blank). The |:move| command moves the matching line to after the mythical
zeroth line, so the current matching line becomes the first line of the file.
As the |:global| command is not confused by the changing line numbering,
|:global| proceeds to match all remaining lines of the file and puts each as
the first.
This also works on a range of lines. First move to above the first line and
mark it with "mt". Then move the cursor to the last line in the range and
type:
:'t+1,.g/^/m 't
==============================================================================
*12.5* Count words
Sometimes you have to write a text with a maximum number of words. Vim can
count the words for you.
When the whole file is what you want to count the words in, use this
command:
g CTRL-G
Do not type a space after the g, this is just used here to make the command
easy to read.
The output looks like this:
Col 1 of 0; Line 141 of 157; Word 748 of 774; Byte 4489 of 4976

You can see on which word you are (748), and the total number of words in the
file (774).
When the text is only part of a file, you could move to the start of the text,
type "g CTRL-G", move to the end of the text, type "g CTRL-G" again, and then
use your brain to compute the difference in the word position. That's a good
exercise, but there is an easier way. With Visual mode, select the text you
want to count words in. Then type g CTRL-G. The result:
Selected 5 of 293 Lines; 70 of 1884 Words; 359 of 10928 Bytes
For other ways to count words, lines and other items, see |count-items|.
==============================================================================
*12.6* Find a man page *find-manpage*
While editing a shell script or C program, you are using a command or function
that you want to find the man page for (this is on Unix). Let's first use a
simple way: Move the cursor to the word you want to find help on and press
K
Vim will run the external "man" program on the word. If the man page is
found, it is displayed. This uses the normal pager to scroll through the text
(mostly the "more" program). When you get to the end pressing <Enter> will
get you back into Vim.
A disadvantage is that you can't see the man page and the text you are working
on at the same time. There is a trick to make the man page appear in a Vim
window. First, load the man filetype plugin:
:runtime! ftplugin/man.vim
Put this command in your vimrc file if you intend to do this often. Now you
can use the ":Man" command to open a window on a man page:
:Man csh
You can scroll around and the text is highlighted. This allows you to find
the help you were looking for. Use CTRL-W w to jump to the window with the
text you were working on.
To find a man page in a specific section, put the section number first.
For example, to look in section 3 for "echo":
:Man 3 echo
To jump to another man page, which is in the text with the typical form
"word(1)", press CTRL-] on it. Further ":Man" commands will use the same
window.
To display a man page for the word under the cursor, use this:
\K
(If you redefined the <Leader>, use it instead of the backslash).
For example, you want to know the return value of "strstr()" while editing
this line:
if ( strstr (input, "aap") == )
Move the cursor to somewhere on "strstr" and type "\K". A window will open
to display the man page for strstr().
==============================================================================
*12.7* Trim blanks
Some people find spaces and tabs at the end of a line useless, wasteful, and
ugly. To remove whitespace at the end of every line, execute the following
command:
:%s/\s\+$//
The line range "%" is used, thus this works on the whole file. The pattern
that the ":substitute" command matches with is "\s\+$". This finds white
space characters (\s), 1 or more of them (\+), before the end-of-line ($).
Later will be explained how you write patterns like this |usr_27.txt|.
The "to" part of the substitute command is empty: "//". Thus it replaces

with nothing, effectively deleting the matched white space.

Another wasteful use of spaces is placing them before a tab. Often these can
be deleted without changing the amount of white space. But not always!
Therefore, you can best do this manually. Use this search command:
/
You cannot see it, but there is a space before a tab in this command. Thus
it's "/<Space><Tab>". Now use "x" to delete the space and check that the
amount of white space doesn't change. You might have to insert a tab if it
does change. Type "n" to find the next match. Repeat this until no more
matches can be found.
==============================================================================
*12.8* Find where a word is used
If you are a UNIX user, you can use a combination of Vim and the grep command
to edit all the files that contain a given word. This is extremely useful if
you are working on a program and want to view or edit all the files that
contain a specific variable.
For example, suppose you want to edit all the C program files that contain
the word "frame_counter". To do this you use the command:
vim `grep -l frame_counter *.c`
Let's look at this command in detail. The grep command searches through a set
of files for a given word. Because the -l argument is specified, the command
will only list the files containing the word and not print the matching lines.
The word it is searching for is "frame_counter". Actually, this can be any
regular expression. (Note: What grep uses for regular expressions is not
exactly the same as what Vim uses.)
The entire command is enclosed in backticks (`). This tells the UNIX shell
to run this command and pretend that the results were typed on the command
line. So what happens is that the grep command is run and produces a list of
files, these files are put on the Vim command line. This results in Vim
editing the file list that is the output of grep. You can then use commands
like ":next" and ":first" to browse through the files.
FINDING EACH LINE

The above command only finds the files in which the word is found. You still
have to find the word within the files.
Vim has a built-in command that you can use to search a set of files for a
given string. If you want to find all occurrences of "error_string" in all C
program files, for example, enter the following command:
:grep error_string *.c
This causes Vim to search for the string "error_string" in all the specified
files (*.c). The editor will now open the first file where a match is found
and position the cursor on the first matching line. To go to the next
matching line (no matter in what file it is), use the ":cnext" command. To go
to the previous match, use the ":cprev" command. Use ":clist" to see all the
matches and where they are.
The ":grep" command uses the external commands grep (on Unix) or findstr
(on Windows). You can change this by setting the option 'grepprg'.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_20.txt| Typing command-line commands quickly
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main help file

Typing command-line commands quickly
Vim has a few generic features that makes it easier to enter commands. Colon
commands can be abbreviated, edited and repeated. Completion is available for
nearly everything.
|20.1| Command line editing
|20.2| Command line abbreviations
|20.3| Command line completion
|20.4| Command line history
|20.5| Command line window
Next chapter: |usr_21.txt| Go away and come back
Previous chapter: |usr_12.txt| Clever tricks
==============================================================================
*20.1* Command line editing
When you use a colon (:) command or search for a string with / or ?, Vim puts
the cursor on the bottom of the screen. There you type the command or search
pattern. This is called the Command line. Also when it's used for entering a
search command.
The most obvious way to edit the command you type is by pressing the <BS> key.
This erases the character before the cursor. To erase another character,
typed earlier, first move the cursor with the cursor keys.
For example, you have typed this:
:s/col/pig/
Before you hit <Enter>, you notice that "col" should be "cow". To correct
this, you type <Left> five times. The cursor is now just after "col". Type
<BS> and "w" to correct:
:s/cow/pig/
Now you can press <Enter> directly. You don't have to move the cursor to the
end of the line before executing the command.
The most often used keys to move around in the command line:
<Left> one character left
<Right> one character right
<S-Left> or <C-Left> one word left
<S-Right> or <C-Right> one word right
CTRL-B or <Home> to begin of command line
CTRL-E or <End> to end of command line
Note:
<S-Left> (cursor left key with Shift key pressed) and <C-Left> (cursor
left key with Control pressed) will not work on all keyboards. Same
for the other Shift and Control combinations.
You can also use the mouse to move the cursor.

DELETING
As mentioned, <BS> deletes the character before the cursor. To delete a whole
word use CTRL-W.
/the fine pig
CTRL-W
/the fine
CTRL-U removes all text, thus allows you to start all over again.
OVERSTRIKE
The <Insert> key toggles between inserting characters and replacing the
existing ones. Start with this text:
/the fine pig
Move the cursor to the start of "fine" with <S-Left> twice (or <Left> eight
times, if <S-Left> doesn't work). Now press <Insert> to switch to overstrike
and type "great":
/the greatpig
Oops, we lost the space. Now, don't use <BS>, because it would delete the
"t" (this is different from Replace mode). Instead, press <Insert> to switch
from overstrike to inserting, and type the space:
/the great pig
CANCELLING
You thought of executing a : or / command, but changed your mind. To get rid
of what you already typed, without executing it, press CTRL-C or <Esc>.
Note:
<Esc> is the universal "get out" key. Unfortunately, in the good old
Vi pressing <Esc> in a command line executed the command! Since that
might be considered to be a bug, Vim uses <Esc> to cancel the command.
But with the 'cpoptions' option it can be made Vi compatible. And
when using a mapping (which might be written for Vi) <Esc> also works
Vi compatible. Therefore, using CTRL-C is a method that always works.
If you are at the start of the command line, pressing <BS> will cancel the
command. It's like deleting the ":" or "/" that the line starts with.
==============================================================================
*20.2* Command line abbreviations
Some of the ":" commands are really long. We already mentioned that
":substitute" can be abbreviated to ":s". This is a generic mechanism, all
":" commands can be abbreviated.
How short can a command get? There are 26 letters, and many more commands.
For example, ":set" also starts with ":s", but ":s" doesn't start a ":set"
command. Instead ":set" can be abbreviated to ":se".
When the shorter form of a command could be used for two commands, it
stands for only one of them. There is no logic behind which one, you have to
learn them. In the help files the shortest form that works is mentioned. For
example:
:s[ubstitute]
This means that the shortest form of ":substitute" is ":s". The following
characters are optional. Thus ":su" and ":sub" also work.
In the user manual we will either use the full name of command, or a short
version that is still readable. For example, ":function" can be abbreviated
to ":fu". But since most people don't understand what that stands for, we
will use ":fun". (Vim doesn't have a ":funny" command, otherwise ":fun" would
be confusing too.)
It is recommended that in Vim scripts you write the full command name. That
makes it easier to read back when you make later changes. Except for some
often used commands like ":w" (":write") and ":r" (":read").

A particularly confusing one is ":end", which could stand for ":endif",

":endwhile" or ":endfunction". Therefore, always use the full name.
SHORT OPTION NAMES

In the user manual the long version of the option names is used. Many options
also have a short name. Unlike ":" commands, there is only one short name
that works. For example, the short name of 'autoindent' is 'ai'. Thus these
two commands do the same thing:
:set autoindent
:set ai
You can find the full list of long and short names here: |option-list|.
==============================================================================
*20.3* Command line completion
This is one of those Vim features that, by itself, is a reason to switch from
Vi to Vim. Once you have used this, you can't do without.
Suppose you have a directory that contains these files:
info.txt
intro.txt
bodyofthepaper.txt
To edit the last one, you use the command:
:edit bodyofthepaper.txt
It's easy to type this wrong. A much quicker way is:
:edit b<Tab>
Which will result in the same command. What happened? The <Tab> key does
completion of the word before the cursor. In this case "b". Vim looks in the
directory and finds only one file that starts with a "b". That must be the
one you are looking for, thus Vim completes the file name for you.
Now type:
:edit i<Tab>
Vim will beep, and give you:
:edit info.txt
The beep means that Vim has found more than one match. It then uses the first
match it found (alphabetically). If you press <Tab> again, you get:
:edit intro.txt
Thus, if the first <Tab> doesn't give you the file you were looking for, press
it again. If there are more matches, you will see them all, one at a time.
If you press <Tab> on the last matching entry, you will go back to what you
first typed:
:edit i
Then it starts all over again. Thus Vim cycles through the list of matches.
Use CTRL-P to go through the list in the other direction:
<------------------- <Tab> -------------------------+
|
<Tab> --> <Tab> -->
:edit i :edit info.txt :edit intro.txt
<-- CTRL-P <-- CTRL-P
|
+---------------------- CTRL-P ------------------------>
CONTEXT
When you type ":set i" instead of ":edit i" and press <Tab> you get:
:set icon

Hey, why didn't you get ":set info.txt"? That's because Vim has context
sensitive completion. The kind of words Vim will look for depends on the
command before it. Vim knows that you cannot use a file name just after a
":set" command, but you can use an option name.
Again, if you repeat typing the <Tab>, Vim will cycle through all matches.
There are quite a few, it's better to type more characters first:
:set isk<Tab>
Gives:
:set iskeyword
Now type "=" and press <Tab>:
:set iskeyword=@,48-57,_,192-255
What happens here is that Vim inserts the old value of the option. Now you
can edit it.
What is completed with <Tab> is what Vim expects in that place. Just try
it out to see how it works. In some situations you will not get what you
want. That's either because Vim doesn't know what you want, or because
completion was not implemented for that situation. In that case you will get
a <Tab> inserted (displayed as Î).
LIST MATCHES
When there are many matches, you would like to see an overview. Do this by
pressing CTRL-D. For example, pressing CTRL-D after:
:set is
results in:
:set is
incsearch isfname isident iskeyword isprint
:set is
Vim lists the matches and then comes back with the text you typed. You can
now check the list for the item you wanted. If it isn't there, you can use
<BS> to correct the word. If there are many matches, type a few more
characters before pressing <Tab> to complete the rest.
If you have watched carefully, you will have noticed that "incsearch"
doesn't start with "is". In this case "is" stands for the short name of
"incsearch". (Many options have a short and a long name.) Vim is clever
enough to know that you might have wanted to expand the short name of the
option into the long name.
THERE IS MORE
The CTRL-L command completes the word to the longest unambiguous string. If
you type ":edit i" and there are files "info.txt" and "info_backup.txt" you
will get ":edit info".
The 'wildmode' option can be used to change the way completion works.
The 'wildmenu' option can be used to get a menu-like list of matches.
Use the 'suffixes' option to specify files that are less important and appear
at the end of the list of files.
The 'wildignore' option specifies files that are not listed at all.
More about all of this here: |cmdline-completion|
==============================================================================
*20.4* Command line history
In chapter 3 we briefly mentioned the history. The basics are that you can
use the <Up> key to recall an older command line. <Down> then takes you back
to newer commands.
There are actually four histories. The ones we will mention here are for ":"
commands and for "/" and "?" search commands. The "/" and "?" commands share
the same history, because they are both search commands. The two other
histories are for expressions and input lines for the input() function.
|cmdline-history|
Suppose you have done a ":set" command, typed ten more colon commands and then
want to repeat that ":set" command again. You could press ":" and then ten

times <Up>. There is a quicker way:

:se<Up>
Vim will now go back to the previous command that started with "se". You have
a good chance that this is the ":set" command you were looking for. At least
you should not have to press <Up> very often (unless ":set" commands is all
you have done).
The <Up> key will use the text typed so far and compare it with the lines in
the history. Only matching lines will be used.
If you do not find the line you were looking for, use <Down> to go back to
what you typed and correct that. Or use CTRL-U to start all over again.
To see all the lines in the history:
:history
That's the history of ":" commands. The search history is displayed with this
command:
:history /
CTRL-P will work like <Up>, except that it doesn't matter what you already
typed. Similarly for CTRL-N and <Down>. CTRL-P stands for previous, CTRL-N
for next.
==============================================================================
*20.5* Command line window
Typing the text in the command line works different from typing text in Insert
mode. It doesn't allow many commands to change the text. For most commands
that's OK, but sometimes you have to type a complicated command. That's where
the command line window is useful.
Open the command line window with this command:
q:
Vim now opens a (small) window at the bottom. It contains the command line
history, and an empty line at the end:
+-------------------------------------+
|other window |
|~ |
|file.txt=============================|
|:e c |
|:e config.h.in |
|:set path=.,/usr/include,, |
|:set iskeyword=@,48-57,_,192-255 |
|:set is |
|:q |
|: |
|command-line=========================|
| |
+-------------------------------------+
You are now in Normal mode. You can use the "hjkl" keys to move around. For
example, move up with "5k" to the ":e config.h.in" line. Type "$h" to go to
the "i" of "in" and type "cwout". Now you have changed the line to:
:e config.h.out
Now press <Enter> and this command will be executed. The command line window
will close.
The <Enter> command will execute the line under the cursor. It doesn't
matter whether Vim is in Insert mode or in Normal mode.
Changes in the command line window are lost. They do not result in the
history to be changed. Except that the command you execute will be added to
the end of the history, like with all executed commands.
The command line window is very useful when you want to have overview of the
history, lookup a similar command, change it a bit and execute it. A search
command can be used to find something.
In the previous example the "?config" search command could have been used
to find the previous command that contains "config". It's a bit strange,
because you are using a command line to search in the command line window.
While typing that search command you can't open another command line window,
there can be only one.

==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_21.txt| Go away and come back
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main help file

Go away and come back
This chapter goes into mixing the use of other programs with Vim. Either by
executing program from inside Vim or by leaving Vim and coming back later.
Furthermore, this is about the ways to remember the state of Vim and restore
it later.
|21.1| Suspend and resume
|21.2| Executing shell commands
|21.3| Remembering information; viminfo
|21.4| Sessions
|21.5| Views
|21.6| Modelines
Next chapter: |usr_22.txt| Finding the file to edit
Previous chapter: |usr_20.txt| Typing command-line commands quickly
==============================================================================
*21.1* Suspend and resume
Like most Unix programs Vim can be suspended by pressing CTRL-Z. This stops
Vim and takes you back to the shell it was started in. You can then do any
other commands until you are bored with them. Then bring back Vim with the
"fg" command.
CTRL-Z
{any sequence of shell commands}
fg
You are right back where you left Vim, nothing has changed.
In case pressing CTRL-Z doesn't work, you can also use ":suspend".
Don't forget to bring Vim back to the foreground, you would lose any changes
that you made!
Only Unix has support for this. On other systems Vim will start a shell for
you. This also has the functionality of being able to execute shell commands.
But it's a new shell, not the one that you started Vim from.
When you are running the GUI you can't go back to the shell where Vim was
started. CTRL-Z will minimize the Vim window instead.
==============================================================================
*21.2* Executing shell commands
To execute a single shell command from Vim use ":!{command}". For example, to
see a directory listing:
:!ls
:!dir
The first one is for Unix, the second one for MS-Windows.
Vim will execute the program. When it ends you will get a prompt to hit
<Enter>. This allows you to have a look at the output from the command before
returning to the text you were editing.
The "!" is also used in other places where a program is run. Let's take
a look at an overview:

:!{program} execute {program}

:r !{program} execute {program} and read its output
:w !{program} execute {program} and send text to its input
:[range]!{program} filter text through {program}
Notice that the presence of a range before "!{program}" makes a big
difference. Without it executes the program normally, with the range a number
of text lines is filtered through the program.
Executing a whole row of programs this way is possible. But a shell is much
better at it. You can start a new shell this way:
:shell
This is similar to using CTRL-Z to suspend Vim. The difference is that a new
shell is started.
When using the GUI the shell will be using the Vim window for its input and
output. Since Vim is not a terminal emulator, this will not work perfectly.
If you have trouble, try toggling the 'guipty' option. If this still doesn't
work well enough, start a new terminal to run the shell in. For example with:
:!xterm&
==============================================================================
*21.3* Remembering information; viminfo
After editing for a while you will have text in registers, marks in various
files, a command line history filled with carefully crafted commands. When
you exit Vim all of this is lost. But you can get it back!
The viminfo file is designed to store status information:
Command-line and Search pattern history
Text in registers
Marks for various files
The buffer list
Global variables
Each time you exit Vim it will store this information in a file, the viminfo
file. When Vim starts again, the viminfo file is read and the information
restored.
The 'viminfo' option is set by default to restore a limited number of items.
You might want to set it to remember more information. This is done through
the following command:
:set viminfo=string
The string specifies what to save. The syntax of this string is an option
character followed by an argument. The option/argument pairs are separated by
commas.
Take a look at how you can build up your own viminfo string. First, the ''
option is used to specify how many files for which you save marks (a-z). Pick
a nice even number for this option (1000, for instance). Your command now
looks like this:
:set viminfo='1000
The f option controls whether global marks (A-Z and 0-9) are stored. If this
option is 0, none are stored. If it is 1 or you do not specify an f option,
the marks are stored. You want this feature, so now you have this:
:set viminfo='1000,f1
The < option controls how many lines are saved for each of the registers. By
default, all the lines are saved. If 0, nothing is saved. To avoid adding
thousands of lines to your viminfo file (which might never get used and makes
starting Vim slower) you use a maximum of 500 lines:
:set viminfo='1000,f1,<500
Other options you might want to use:
: number of lines to save from the command line history
@ number of lines to save from the input line history
/ number of lines to save from the search history
r removable media, for which no marks will be stored (can be
used several times)

! global variables that start with an uppercase letter and

don't contain lowercase letters
h disable 'hlsearch' highlighting when starting
% the buffer list (only restored when starting Vim without file
arguments)
c convert the text using 'encoding'
n name used for the viminfo file (must be the last option)
See the 'viminfo' option and |viminfo-file| for more information.
When you run Vim multiple times, the last one exiting will store its
information. This may cause information that previously exiting Vims stored
to be lost. Each item can be remembered only once.
GETTING BACK TO WHERE YOU STOPPED VIM

You are halfway editing a file and it's time to leave for holidays. You exit
Vim and go enjoy yourselves, forgetting all about your work. After a couple
of weeks you start Vim, and type:
'0
And you are right back where you left Vim. So you can get on with your work.
Vim creates a mark each time you exit Vim. The last one is '0. The
position that '0 pointed to is made '1. And '1 is made to '2, and so forth.
Mark '9 is lost.
The |:marks| command is useful to find out where '0 to '9 will take you.
GETTING BACK TO SOME FILE

If you want to go back to a file that you edited recently, but not when
exiting Vim, there is a slightly more complicated way. You can see a list of
files by typing the command:
:oldfiles
1: ~/.viminfo
2: ~/text/resume.txt
3: /tmp/draft
Now you would like to edit the second file, which is in the list preceded by
"2:". You type:
:e #<2
Instead of ":e" you can use any command that has a file name argument, the
"#<2" item works in the same place as "%" (current file name) and "#"
(alternate file name). So you can also split the window to edit the third
file:
:split #<3
That #<123 thing is a bit complicated when you just want to edit a file.
Fortunately there is a simpler way:
:browse oldfiles
1: ~/.viminfo
2: ~/text/resume.txt
3: /tmp/draft
-- More --
You get the same list of files as with |:oldfiles|. If you want to edit
"resume.txt" first press "q" to stop the listing. You will get a prompt:
Type number and <Enter> (empty cancels):
Type "2" and press <Enter> to edit the second file.
More info at |:oldfiles|, |v:oldfiles| and |c_#<|.
MOVE INFO FROM ONE VIM TO ANOTHER

You can use the ":wviminfo" and ":rviminfo" commands to save and restore the
information while still running Vim. This is useful for exchanging register
contents between two instances of Vim, for example. In the first Vim do:
:wviminfo! ~/tmp/viminfo

And in the second Vim do:

:rviminfo! ~/tmp/viminfo
Obviously, the "w" stands for "write" and the "r" for "read".
The ! character is used by ":wviminfo" to forcefully overwrite an existing
file. When it is omitted, and the file exists, the information is merged into
the file.
The ! character used for ":rviminfo" means that all the information is
used, this may overwrite existing information. Without the ! only information
that wasn't set is used.
These commands can also be used to store info and use it again later. You
could make a directory full of viminfo files, each containing info for a
different purpose.
==============================================================================
*21.4* Sessions
Suppose you are editing along, and it is the end of the day. You want to quit
work and pick up where you left off the next day. You can do this by saving
your editing session and restoring it the next day.
A Vim session contains all the information about what you are editing.
This includes things such as the file list, window layout, global variables,
options and other information. (Exactly what is remembered is controlled by
the 'sessionoptions' option, described below.)
The following command creates a session file:
:mksession vimbook.vim
Later if you want to restore this session, you can use this command:
:source vimbook.vim
If you want to start Vim and restore a specific session, you can use the
following command:
vim -S vimbook.vim
This tells Vim to read a specific file on startup. The 'S' stands for
session (actually, you can source any Vim script with -S, thus it might as
well stand for "source").
The windows that were open are restored, with the same position and size as
before. Mappings and option values are like before.
What exactly is restored depends on the 'sessionoptions' option. The
default value is "blank,buffers,curdir,folds,help,options,winsize".
blank keep empty windows
buffers all buffers, not only the ones in a window
curdir the current directory
folds folds, also manually created ones
help the help window
options all options and mappings
winsize window sizes
Change this to your liking. To also restore the size of the Vim window, for
example, use:
:set sessionoptions+=resize
SESSION HERE, SESSION THERE

The obvious way to use sessions is when working on different projects.
Suppose you store you session files in the directory "~/.vim". You are
currently working on the "secret" project and have to switch to the "boring"
project:
:wall
:mksession! ~/.vim/secret.vim
:source ~/.vim/boring.vim
This first uses ":wall" to write all modified files. Then the current session
is saved, using ":mksession!". This overwrites the previous session. The
next time you load the secret session you can continue where you were at this
point. And finally you load the new "boring" session.
If you open help windows, split and close various window, and generally mess

up the window layout, you can go back to the last saved session:
:source ~/.vim/boring.vim
Thus you have complete control over whether you want to continue next time
where you are now, by saving the current setup in a session, or keep the
session file as a starting point.
Another way of using sessions is to create a window layout that you like to
use, and save this in a session. Then you can go back to this layout whenever
you want.
For example, this is a nice layout to use:
+----------------------------------------+
| VIM - main help file |
| |
|Move around: Use the cursor keys, or "h|
|help.txt================================|
|explorer | |
|dir |~ ||||
|dir |~ ||||
|file |~ ||||
|file |~ ||||
|file |~ ||||
|file |~ ||||
|~/=========|[No File]===================|
| |
+----------------------------------------+
This has a help window at the top, so that you can read this text. The narrow
vertical window on the left contains a file explorer. This is a Vim plugin
that lists the contents of a directory. You can select files to edit there.
More about this in the next chapter.
Create this from a just started Vim with:
:help
CTRL-W w
:vertical split ~/
You can resize the windows a bit to your liking. Then save the session with:
:mksession ~/.vim/mine.vim
Now you can start Vim with this layout:
vim -S ~/.vim/mine.vim
Hint: To open a file you see listed in the explorer window in the empty
window, move the cursor to the filename and press "O". Double clicking with
the mouse will also do this.
UNIX AND MS-WINDOWS

Some people have to do work on MS-Windows systems one day and on Unix another
day. If you are one of them, consider adding "slash" and "unix" to
'sessionoptions'. The session files will then be written in a format that can
be used on both systems. This is the command to put in your vimrc file:
:set sessionoptions+=unix,slash
Vim will use the Unix format then, because the MS-Windows Vim can read and
write Unix files, but Unix Vim can't read MS-Windows format session files.
Similarly, MS-Windows Vim understands file names with / to separate names, but
Unix Vim doesn't understand \.
SESSIONS AND VIMINFO

Sessions store many things, but not the position of marks, contents of
registers and the command line history. You need to use the viminfo feature
for these things.
In most situations you will want to use sessions separately from viminfo.
This can be used to switch to another session, but keep the command line
history. And yank text into registers in one session, and paste it back in
another session.
You might prefer to keep the info with the session. You will have to do
this yourself then. Example:
:mksession! ~/.vim/secret.vim
:wviminfo! ~/.vim/secret.viminfo

And to restore this again:

:source ~/.vim/secret.vim
:rviminfo! ~/.vim/secret.viminfo
==============================================================================
*21.5* Views
A session stores the looks of the whole of Vim. When you want to store the
properties for one window only, use a view.
The use of a view is for when you want to edit a file in a specific way.
For example, you have line numbers enabled with the 'number' option and
defined a few folds. Just like with sessions, you can remember this view on
the file and restore it later. Actually, when you store a session, it stores
the view of each window.
There are two basic ways to use views. The first is to let Vim pick a name
for the view file. You can restore the view when you later edit the same
file. To store the view for the current window:
:mkview
Vim will decide where to store the view. When you later edit the same file
you get the view back with this command:
:loadview
That's easy, isn't it?
Now you want to view the file without the 'number' option on, or with all
folds open, you can set the options to make the window look that way. Then
store this view with:
:mkview 1
Obviously, you can get this back with:
:loadview 1
Now you can switch between the two views on the file by using ":loadview" with
and without the "1" argument.
You can store up to ten views for the same file this way, one unnumbered
and nine numbered 1 to 9.
A VIEW WITH A NAME

The second basic way to use views is by storing the view in a file with a name
you chose. This view can be loaded while editing another file. Vim will then
switch to editing the file specified in the view. Thus you can use this to
quickly switch to editing another file, with all its options set as you saved
them.
For example, to save the view of the current file:
:mkview ~/.vim/main.vim
You can restore it with:
:source ~/.vim/main.vim
==============================================================================
*21.6* Modelines
When editing a specific file, you might set options specifically for that
file. Typing these commands each time is boring. Using a session or view for
editing a file doesn't work when sharing the file between several people.
The solution for this situation is adding a modeline to the file. This is
a line of text that tells Vim the values of options, to be used in this file
only.
A typical example is a C program where you make indents by a multiple of 4
spaces. This requires setting the 'shiftwidth' option to 4. This modeline
will do that:
/* vim:set shiftwidth=4: */
Put this line as one of the first or last five lines in the file. When
editing the file, you will notice that 'shiftwidth' will have been set to
four. When editing another file, it's set back to the default value of eight.
For some files the modeline fits well in the header, thus it can be put at

the top of the file. For text files and other files where the modeline gets
in the way of the normal contents, put it at the end of the file.
The 'modelines' option specifies how many lines at the start and end of the
file are inspected for containing a modeline. To inspect ten lines:
:set modelines=10
The 'modeline' option can be used to switch this off. Do this when you are
working as root on Unix or Administrator on MS-Windows, or when you don't
trust the files you are editing:
:set nomodeline
Use this format for the modeline:
any-text vim:set {option}={value} ... : any-text
The "any-text" indicates that you can put any text before and after the part
that Vim will use. This allows making it look like a comment, like what was
done above with /* and */.
The " vim:" part is what makes Vim recognize this line. There must be
white space before "vim", or "vim" must be at the start of the line. Thus
using something like "gvim:" will not work.
The part between the colons is a ":set" command. It works the same way as
typing the ":set" command, except that you need to insert a backslash before a
colon (otherwise it would be seen as the end of the modeline).
Another example:
// vim:set textwidth=72 dir=c\:\tmp: use c:\tmp here
There is an extra backslash before the first colon, so that it's included in
the ":set" command. The text after the second colon is ignored, thus a remark
can be placed there.
For more details see |modeline|.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_22.txt| Finding the file to edit
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*usr_22.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Feb 21

Finding the file to edit
Files can be found everywhere. So how do you find them? Vim offers various
ways to browse the directory tree. There are commands to jump to a file that
is mentioned in another. And Vim remembers which files have been edited
before.
|22.2| The current directory
|22.3| Finding a file
|22.4| The buffer list
Next chapter: |usr_23.txt| Editing other files
Previous chapter: |usr_21.txt| Go away and come back
==============================================================================
*22.1* The file browser
Vim has a plugin that makes it possible to edit a directory. Try this:
:edit .
Through the magic of autocommands and Vim scripts, the window will be filled
with the contents of the directory. It looks like this:
" ============================================================================
" Netrw Directory Listing (netrw v109)
" Sorted by name
" Sort sequence: [\/]$,\.h$,\.c$,\.cpp$,*,\.info$,\.swp$,\.o$\.obj$,\.bak$
" Quick Help: <F1>:help -:go up dir D:delete R:rename s:sort-by x:exec
" ============================================================================
../
./
check/
Makefile
autocmd.txt
change.txt
eval.txt~
filetype.txt~
help.txt.info
You can see these items:
1. The name of the browsing tool and its version number
2. The name of the browsing directory
3. The method of sorting (may be by name, time, or size)
4. How names are to be sorted (directories first, then *.h files,
*.c files, etc)
5. How to get help (use the <F1> key), and an abbreviated listing
of available commands
6. A listing of files, including "../", which allows one to list
the parent directory.
If you have syntax highlighting enabled, the different parts are highlighted
so as to make it easier to spot them.

You can use Normal mode Vim commands to move around in the text. For example,
move the cursor atop a file and press <Enter>; you will then be editing that
file. To go back to the browser use ":edit ." again, or use ":Explore".
CTRL-O also works.
Try using <Enter> while the cursor is atop a directory name. The result is
that the file browser moves into that directory and displays the items found
there. Pressing <Enter> on the first directory "../" moves you one level
higher. Pressing "-" does the same thing, without the need to move to the
"../" item first.
You can press <F1> to get help on the things you can do in the netrw file
browser. This is what you get:
9. Directory Browsing netrw-browse netrw-dir netrw-list netrw-help
MAPS netrw-maps
<F1>.............Help.......................................|netrw-help|
<cr>.............Browsing...................................|netrw-cr|
<del>............Deleting Files or Directories..............|netrw-delete|
-................Going Up...................................|netrw--|
a................Hiding Files or Directories................|netrw-a|
mb...............Bookmarking a Directory....................|netrw-mb|
gb...............Changing to a Bookmarked Directory.........|netrw-gb|
c................Make Browsing Directory The Current Dir....|netrw-c|
d................Make A New Directory.......................|netrw-d|
D................Deleting Files or Directories..............|netrw-D|
<c-h>............Edit File/Directory Hiding List............|netrw-ctrl-h|
i................Change Listing Style.......................|netrw-i|
<c-l>............Refreshing the Listing.....................|netrw-ctrl-l|
o................Browsing with a Horizontal Split...........|netrw-o|
p................Use Preview Window.........................|netrw-p|
P................Edit in Previous Window....................|netrw-p|
q................Listing Bookmarks and History..............|netrw-q|
r................Reversing Sorting Order....................|netrw-r|
(etc)
The <F1> key thus brings you to a netrw directory browsing contents help page.
It's a regular help page; use the usual |CTRL-]| to jump to tagged help items
and |CTRL-O| to jump back.
To select files for display and editing: (with the cursor is atop a filename)
<enter> Open the file in the current window. |netrw-cr|
o Horizontally split window and display file |netrw-o|
v Vertically split window and display file |netrw-v|
p Use the |preview-window| |netrw-p|
P Edit in the previous window |netrw-P|
t Open file in a new tab |netrw-t|
The following normal-mode commands may be used to control the browser display:
i Controls listing style (thin, long, wide, and tree).
The long listing includes size and date information.
s Repeatedly pressing s will change the way the files
are sorted; one may sort on name, modification time,
or size.
r Reverse the sorting order.
As a sampling of extra normal-mode commands:
c Change Vim's notion of the current directory to be
the same as the browser directory. (see
|g:netrw_keepdir| to control this, too)
R Rename the file or directory under the cursor; a
prompt will be issued for the new name.
D Delete the file or directory under the cursor; a
confirmation request will be issued.
mb gb Make bookmark/goto bookmark
One may also use command mode; again, just a sampling:

:Explore [directory] Browse specified/current directory
:NetrwSettings A comprehensive list of your current netrw
settings with help linkage.
The netrw browser is not limited to just your local machine; one may use

urls such as: (that trailing / is important)

:Explore ftp://somehost/path/to/dir/
:e scp://somehost/path/to/dir/
See |netrw-browse| for more.
==============================================================================
*22.2* The current directory
Just like the shell, Vim has the concept of a current directory. Suppose you
are in your home directory and want to edit several files in a directory
"VeryLongFileName". You could do:
:edit VeryLongFileName/file1.txt
To avoid much of the typing, do this:
:cd VeryLongFileName
:edit file1.txt
:edit file2.txt
:edit file3.txt
The ":cd" command changes the current directory. You can see what the current
directory is with the ":pwd" command:
:pwd
/home/Bram/VeryLongFileName
Vim remembers the last directory that you used. Use "cd -" to go back to it.
Example:
:pwd
:cd /etc
:pwd
/etc
:cd -
:pwd
:cd -
:pwd
/etc
WINDOW LOCAL DIRECTORY

When you split a window, both windows use the same current directory. When
you want to edit a number of files somewhere else in the new window, you can
make it use a different directory, without changing the current directory in
the other window. This is called a local directory.
:pwd
:split
:lcd /etc
:pwd
/etc
CTRL-W w
:pwd
So long as no ":lcd" command has been used, all windows share the same current
directory. Doing a ":cd" command in one window will also change the current
directory of the other window.
For a window where ":lcd" has been used a different current directory is
remembered. Using ":cd" or ":lcd" in other windows will not change it.
When using a ":cd" command in a window that uses a different current
directory, it will go back to using the shared directory.
==============================================================================
*22.3* Finding a file
You are editing a C program that contains this line:

#include "inits.h"
You want to see what is in that "inits.h" file. Move the cursor on the name
of the file and type:
gf
Vim will find the file and edit it.
What if the file is not in the current directory? Vim will use the 'path'
option to find the file. This option is a list of directory names where to
look for your file.
Suppose you have your include files located in "c:/prog/include". This
command will add it to the 'path' option:
:set path+=c:/prog/include
This directory is an absolute path. No matter where you are, it will be the
same place. What if you have located files in a subdirectory, below where the
file is? Then you can specify a relative path name. This starts with a dot:
:set path+=./proto
This tells Vim to look in the directory "proto", below the directory where the
file in which you use "gf" is. Thus using "gf" on "inits.h" will make Vim
look for "proto/inits.h", starting in the directory of the file.
Without the "./", thus "proto", Vim would look in the "proto" directory
below the current directory. And the current directory might not be where the
file that you are editing is located.
The 'path' option allows specifying the directories where to search for files
in many more ways. See the help on the 'path' option.
The 'isfname' option is used to decide which characters are included in the
file name, and which ones are not (e.g., the " character in the example
above).
When you know the file name, but it's not to be found in the file, you can
type it:
:find inits.h
Vim will then use the 'path' option to try and locate the file. This is the
same as the ":edit" command, except for the use of 'path'.
To open the found file in a new window use CTRL-W f instead of "gf", or use
":sfind" instead of ":find".
A nice way to directly start Vim to edit a file somewhere in the 'path':
vim "+find stdio.h"
This finds the file "stdio.h" in your value of 'path'. The quotes are
necessary to have one argument |-+c|.
==============================================================================
*22.4* The buffer list
The Vim editor uses the term buffer to describe a file being edited.
Actually, a buffer is a copy of the file that you edit. When you finish
changing the buffer, you write the contents of the buffer to the file.
Buffers not only contain file contents, but also all the marks, settings, and
other stuff that goes with it.
HIDDEN BUFFERS
Suppose you are editing the file one.txt and need to edit the file two.txt.
You could simply use ":edit two.txt", but since you made changes to one.txt
that won't work. You also don't want to write one.txt yet. Vim has a
solution for you:
:hide edit two.txt
The buffer "one.txt" disappears from the screen, but Vim still knows that you
are editing this buffer, so it keeps the modified text. This is called a
hidden buffer: The buffer contains text, but you can't see it.
The argument of ":hide" is another command. ":hide" makes that command
behave as if the 'hidden' option was set. You could also set this option

yourself. The effect is that when any buffer is abandoned, it becomes hidden.
Be careful! When you have hidden buffers with changes, don't exit Vim
without making sure you have saved all the buffers.
INACTIVE BUFFERS
When a buffer has been used once, Vim remembers some information about it.
When it is not displayed in a window and it is not hidden, it is still in the
buffer list. This is called an inactive buffer. Overview:
Active Appears in a window, text loaded.
Hidden Not in a window, text loaded.
Inactive Not in a window, no text loaded.
The inactive buffers are remembered, because Vim keeps information about them,
like marks. And remembering the file name is useful too, so that you can see
which files you have edited. And edit them again.
LISTING BUFFERS
View the buffer list with this command:
:buffers
A command which does the same, is not so obvious to list buffers, but is much
shorter to type:
:ls
The output could look like this:
1 #h "help.txt" line 62
2 %a+ "usr_21.txt" line 1
3 "usr_toc.txt" line 1
The first column contains the buffer number. You can use this to edit the
buffer without having to type the name, see below.
After the buffer number come the flags. Then the name of the file
and the line number where the cursor was the last time.
The flags that can appear are these (from left to right):
u Buffer is unlisted |unlisted-buffer|.
% Current buffer.
# Alternate buffer.
a Buffer is loaded and displayed.
h Buffer is loaded but hidden.
= Buffer is read-only.
- Buffer is not modifiable, the 'modifiable' option is off.
+ Buffer has been modified.
EDITING A BUFFER
You can edit a buffer by its number. That avoids having to type the file
name:
:buffer 2
But the only way to know the number is by looking in the buffer list. You can
use the name, or part of it, instead:
:buffer help
Vim will find the best match for the name you type. If there is only one
buffer that matches the name, it will be used. In this case "help.txt".
To open a buffer in a new window:
:sbuffer 3
This works with a name as well.
USING THE BUFFER LIST

You can move around in the buffer list with these commands:
:bnext go to next buffer
:bprevious go to previous buffer

:bfirst go to the first buffer

:blast go to the last buffer
To remove a buffer from the list, use this command:
:bdelete 3
Again, this also works with a name.
If you delete a buffer that was active (visible in a window), that window
will be closed. If you delete the current buffer, the current window will be
closed. If it was the last window, Vim will find another buffer to edit. You
can't be editing nothing!
Note:
Even after removing the buffer with ":bdelete" Vim still remembers it.
It's actually made "unlisted", it no longer appears in the list from
":buffers". The ":buffers!" command will list unlisted buffers (yes,
Vim can do the impossible). To really make Vim forget about a buffer,
use ":bwipe". Also see the 'buflisted' option.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_23.txt| Editing other files
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file

Editing other files
This chapter is about editing files that are not ordinary files. With Vim you
can edit files that are compressed or encrypted. Some files need to be
accessed over the internet. With some restrictions, binary files can be
edited as well.
|23.1| DOS, Mac and Unix files
|23.2| Files on the internet
|23.3| Encryption
|23.4| Binary files
|23.5| Compressed files
Next chapter: |usr_24.txt| Inserting quickly
Previous chapter: |usr_22.txt| Finding the file to edit
==============================================================================
*23.1* DOS, Mac and Unix files
Back in the early days, the old Teletype machines used two characters to
start a new line. One to move the carriage back to the first position
(carriage return, <CR>), another to move the paper up (line feed, <LF>).
When computers came out, storage was expensive. Some people decided that
they did not need two characters for end-of-line. The UNIX people decided
they could use <Line Feed> only for end-of-line. The Apple people
standardized on <CR>. The MS-DOS (and Microsoft Windows) folks decided to
keep the old <CR><LF>.
This means that if you try to move a file from one system to another, you
have line-break problems. The Vim editor automatically recognizes the
different file formats and handles things properly behind your back.
The option 'fileformats' contains the various formats that will be tried
when a new file is edited. The following command, for example, tells Vim to
try UNIX format first and MS-DOS format second:
:set fileformats=unix,dos
You will notice the format in the message you get when editing a file. You
don't see anything if you edit a native file format. Thus editing a Unix file
on Unix won't result in a remark. But when you edit a dos file, Vim will
notify you of this:
"/tmp/test" [dos] 3L, 71C
For a Mac file you would see "[mac]".
The detected file format is stored in the 'fileformat' option. To see
which format you have, execute the following command:
:set fileformat?
The three names that Vim uses are:
unix <LF>
dos <CR><LF>
mac <CR>

USING THE MAC FORMAT

On Unix, <LF> is used to break a line. It's not unusual to have a <CR>
character halfway a line. Incidentally, this happens quite often in Vi (and
Vim) scripts.
On the Macintosh, where <CR> is the line break character, it's possible to
have a <LF> character halfway a line.
The result is that it's not possible to be 100% sure whether a file
containing both <CR> and <LF> characters is a Mac or a Unix file. Therefore,
Vim assumes that on Unix you probably won't edit a Mac file, and doesn't check
for this type of file. To check for this format anyway, add "mac" to
'fileformats':
:set fileformats+=mac
Then Vim will take a guess at the file format. Watch out for situations where
Vim guesses wrong.
OVERRULING THE FORMAT

If you use the good old Vi and try to edit an MS-DOS format file, you will
find that each line ends with a ^M character. (^M is <CR>). The automatic
detection avoids this. Suppose you do want to edit the file that way? Then
you need to overrule the format:
:edit ++ff=unix file.txt
The "++" string is an item that tells Vim that an option name follows, which
overrules the default for this single command. "++ff" is used for
'fileformat'. You could also use "++ff=mac" or "++ff=dos".
This doesn't work for any option, only "++ff" and "++enc" are currently
implemented. The full names "++fileformat" and "++encoding" also work.
CONVERSION
You can use the 'fileformat' option to convert from one file format to
another. Suppose, for example, that you have an MS-DOS file named README.TXT
that you want to convert to UNIX format. Start by editing the MS-DOS format
file:
vim README.TXT
Vim will recognize this as a dos format file. Now change the file format to
UNIX:
:write
The file is written in Unix format.
==============================================================================
*23.2* Files on the internet
Someone sends you an e-mail message, which refers to a file by its URL. For
example:
You can find the information here:
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/README
You could start a program to download the file, save it on your local disk and
then start Vim to edit it.
There is a much simpler way. Move the cursor to any character of the URL.
Then use this command:
gf
With a bit of luck, Vim will figure out which program to use for downloading
the file, download it and edit the copy. To open the file in a new window use
CTRL-W f.
If something goes wrong you will get an error message. It's possible that
the URL is wrong, you don't have permission to read it, the network connection
is down, etc. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell the cause of the error. You
might want to try the manual way of downloading the file.
Accessing files over the internet works with the netrw plugin. Currently URLs
with these formats are recognized:
ftp:// uses ftp

rcp:// uses rcp

scp:// uses scp
http:// uses wget reading only
Vim doesn't do the communication itself, it relies on the mentioned programs
to be available on your computer. On most Unix systems "ftp" and "rcp" will
be present. "scp" and "wget" might need to be installed.
Vim detects these URLs for each command that starts editing a new file, also
with ":edit" and ":split", for example. Write commands also work, except for
http://.
For more information, also about passwords, see |netrw|.
==============================================================================
*23.3* Encryption
Some information you prefer to keep to yourself. For example, when writing
a test on a computer that students also use. You don't want clever students
to figure out a way to read the questions before the exam starts. Vim can
encrypt the file for you, which gives you some protection.
To start editing a new file with encryption, use the "-x" argument to start
Vim. Example:
vim -x exam.txt
Vim prompts you for a key used for encrypting and decrypting the file:
Enter encryption key:
Carefully type the secret key now. You cannot see the characters you type,
they will be replaced by stars. To avoid the situation that a typing mistake
will cause trouble, Vim asks you to enter the key again:
Enter same key again:
You can now edit this file normally and put in all your secrets. When you
finish editing the file and tell Vim to exit, the file is encrypted and
written.
When you edit the file with Vim, it will ask you to enter the same key
again. You don't need to use the "-x" argument. You can also use the normal
":edit" command. Vim adds a magic string to the file by which it recognizes
that the file was encrypted.
If you try to view this file using another program, all you get is garbage.
Also, if you edit the file with Vim and enter the wrong key, you get garbage.
Vim does not have a mechanism to check if the key is the right one (this makes
it much harder to break the key).
SWITCHING ENCRYPTION ON AND OFF

To disable the encryption of a file, set the 'key' option to an empty string:
:set key=
The next time you write the file this will be done without encryption.
Setting the 'key' option to enable encryption is not a good idea, because
the password appears in the clear. Anyone shoulder-surfing can read your
password.
To avoid this problem, the ":X" command was created. It asks you for an
encryption key, just like the "-x" argument did:
:X
Enter encryption key: ******
Enter same key again: ******
LIMITS ON ENCRYPTION
The encryption algorithm used by Vim is weak. It is good enough to keep out
the casual prowler, but not good enough to keep out a cryptology expert with
lots of time on his hands. Also you should be aware that the swap file is not
encrypted; so while you are editing, people with superuser privileges can read
the unencrypted text from this file.
One way to avoid letting people read your swap file is to avoid using one.
If the -n argument is supplied on the command line, no swap file is used
(instead, Vim puts everything in memory). For example, to edit the encrypted
file "file.txt" without a swap file use the following command:

vim -x -n file.txt
When already editing a file, the swapfile can be disabled with:
Since there is no swapfile, recovery will be impossible. Save the file a bit
more often to avoid the risk of losing your changes.
While the file is in memory, it is in plain text. Anyone with privilege can
look in the editor's memory and discover the contents of the file.
If you use a viminfo file, be aware that the contents of text registers are
written out in the clear as well.
If you really want to secure the contents of a file, edit it only on a
portable computer not connected to a network, use good encryption tools, and
keep the computer locked up in a big safe when not in use.
==============================================================================
*23.4* Binary files
You can edit binary files with Vim. Vim wasn't really made for this, thus
there are a few restrictions. But you can read a file, change a character and
write it back, with the result that only that one character was changed and
the file is identical otherwise.
To make sure that Vim does not use its clever tricks in the wrong way, add
the "-b" argument when starting Vim:
vim -b datafile
This sets the 'binary' option. The effect of this is that unexpected side
effects are turned off. For example, 'textwidth' is set to zero, to avoid
automatic formatting of lines. And files are always read in Unix file format.
Binary mode can be used to change a message in a program. Be careful not to
insert or delete any characters, it would stop the program from working. Use
"R" to enter replace mode.
Many characters in the file will be unprintable. To see them in Hex format:
:set display=uhex
Otherwise, the "ga" command can be used to see the value of the character
under the cursor. The output, when the cursor is on an <Esc>, looks like
this:
<^[> 27, Hex 1b, Octal 033
There might not be many line breaks in the file. To get some overview switch
the 'wrap' option off:
:set nowrap
BYTE POSITION
To see on which byte you are in the file use this command:
g CTRL-G
The output is verbose:
Col 9-16 of 9-16; Line 277 of 330; Word 1806 of 2058; Byte 10580 of 12206
The last two numbers are the byte position in the file and the total number of
bytes. This takes into account how 'fileformat' changes the number of bytes
that a line break uses.
To move to a specific byte in the file, use the "go" command. For
example, to move to byte 2345:
2345go
USING XXD
A real binary editor shows the text in two ways: as it is and in hex format.
You can do this in Vim by first converting the file with the "xxd" program.
This comes with Vim.
First edit the file in binary mode:

vim -b datafile
Now convert the file to a hex dump with xxd:
:%!xxd
The text will look like this:
0000000: 1f8b 0808 39d7 173b 0203 7474 002b 4e49 ....9..;..tt.+NI
0000010: 4b2c 8660 eb9c ecac c462 eb94 345e 2e30 K,.`.....b..4^.0
0000020: 373b 2731 0b22 0ca6 c1a2 d669 1035 39d9 7;'1.".....i.59.
You can now view and edit the text as you like. Vim treats the information as
ordinary text. Changing the hex does not cause the printable character to be
changed, or the other way around.
Finally convert it back with:
:%!xxd -r
Only changes in the hex part are used. Changes in the printable text part on
the right are ignored.
See the manual page of xxd for more information.
==============================================================================
*23.5* Compressed files
This is easy: You can edit a compressed file just like any other file. The
"gzip" plugin takes care of decompressing the file when you edit it. And
compressing it again when you write it.
These compression methods are currently supported:
.Z compress
.gz gzip
.bz2 bzip2
Vim uses the mentioned programs to do the actual compression and
decompression. You might need to install the programs first.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_24.txt| Inserting quickly
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file

Inserting quickly
When entering text, Vim offers various ways to reduce the number of keystrokes
and avoid typing mistakes. Use Insert mode completion to repeat previously
typed words. Abbreviate long words to short ones. Type characters that
aren't on your keyboard.
|24.1| Making corrections
|24.2| Showing matches
|24.3| Completion
|24.4| Repeating an insert
|24.5| Copying from another line
|24.6| Inserting a register
|24.7| Abbreviations
|24.8| Entering special characters
|24.9| Digraphs
|24.10| Normal mode commands
Next chapter: |usr_25.txt| Editing formatted text
Previous chapter: |usr_23.txt| Editing other files
==============================================================================
*24.1* Making corrections
The <BS> key was already mentioned. It deletes the character just before the
cursor. The <Del> key does the same for the character under (after) the
cursor.
When you typed a whole word wrong, use CTRL-W:
The horse had fallen to the sky
CTRL-W
The horse had fallen to the
If you really messed up a line and want to start over, use CTRL-U to delete
it. This keeps the text after the cursor and the indent. Only the text from
the first non-blank to the cursor is deleted. With the cursor on the "f" of
"fallen" in the next line pressing CTRL-U does this:
The horse had fallen to the
CTRL-U
fallen to the
When you spot a mistake a few words back, you need to move the cursor there to
correct it. For example, you typed this:
The horse had follen to the ground
You need to change "follen" to "fallen". With the cursor at the end, you
would type this to correct it:
<Esc>4blraA
get out of Insert mode <Esc>
four words back 4b
move on top of the "o" l
replace with "a" ra

restart Insert mode A

Another way to do this:
<C-Left><C-Left><C-Left><C-Left><Right><Del>a<End>
four words back <C-Left><C-Left><C-Left><C-Left>
move on top of the "o" <Right>
delete the "o" <Del>
insert an "a" a
go to end of the line <End>
This uses special keys to move around, while remaining in Insert mode. This
resembles what you would do in a modeless editor. It's easier to remember,
but takes more time (you have to move your hand from the letters to the cursor
keys, and the <End> key is hard to press without looking at the keyboard).
These special keys are most useful when writing a mapping that doesn't
leave Insert mode. The extra typing doesn't matter then.
An overview of the keys you can use in Insert mode:
<C-Home> to start of the file
<PageUp> a whole screenful up
<Home> to start of line
<S-Left> one word left
<C-Left> one word left
<S-Right> one word right
<C-Right> one word right
<End> to end of the line
<PageDown> a whole screenful down
<C-End> to end of the file
There are a few more, see |ins-special-special|.
==============================================================================
*24.2* Showing matches
When you type a ) it would be nice to see with which ( it matches. To make
Vim do that use this command:
:set showmatch
When you now type a text like "(example)", as soon as you type the ) Vim will
briefly move the cursor to the matching (, keep it there for half a second,
and move back to where you were typing.
In case there is no matching (, Vim will beep. Then you know that you
might have forgotten the ( somewhere, or typed a ) too many.
The match will also be shown for [] and {} pairs. You don't have to wait
with typing the next character, as soon as Vim sees it the cursor will move
back and inserting continues as before.
You can change the time Vim waits with the 'matchtime' option. For
example, to make Vim wait one and a half second:
:set matchtime=15
The time is specified in tenths of a second.
==============================================================================
*24.3* Completion
Vim can automatically complete words on insertion. You type the first part of
a word, press CTRL-P, and Vim guesses the rest.
Suppose, for example, that you are creating a C program and want to type in
the following:
total = ch_array[0] + ch_array[1] + ch_array[2];
You start by entering the following:
total = ch_array[0] + ch_
At this point, you tell Vim to complete the word using the command CTRL-P.
Vim searches for a word that starts with what's in front of the cursor. In
this case, it is "ch_", which matches with the word ch_array. So typing
CTRL-P gives you the following:
total = ch_array[0] + ch_array
After a little more typing, you get this (ending in a space):

total = ch_array[0] + ch_array[1] +

If you now type CTRL-P Vim will search again for a word that completes the
word before the cursor. Since there is nothing in front of the cursor, it
finds the first word backwards, which is "ch_array". Typing CTRL-P again
gives you the next word that matches, in this case "total". A third CTRL-P
searches further back. If there is nothing else, it causes the editor to run
out of words, so it returns to the original text, which is nothing. A fourth
CTRL-P causes the editor to start over again with "ch_array".
To search forward, use CTRL-N. Since the search wraps around the end of the
file, CTRL-N and CTRL-P will find the same matches, but in a different
sequence. Hint: CTRL-N is Next-match and CTRL-P is Previous-match.
The Vim editor goes through a lot of effort to find words to complete. By
default, it searches the following places:
1. Current file
2. Files in other windows
3. Other loaded files (hidden buffers)
4. Files which are not loaded (inactive buffers)
5. Tag files
6. All files #included by the current file
OPTIONS
You can customize the search order with the 'complete' option.
The 'ignorecase' option is used. When it is set, case differences are ignored
when searching for matches.
A special option for completion is 'infercase'. This is useful to find
matches while ignoring case ('ignorecase' must be set) but still using the
case of the word typed so far. Thus if you type "For" and Vim finds a match
"fortunately", it will result in "Fortunately".
COMPLETING SPECIFIC ITEMS

If you know what you are looking for, you can use these commands to complete
with a certain type of item:
CTRL-X CTRL-F file names
CTRL-X CTRL-L whole lines
CTRL-X CTRL-D macro definitions (also in included files)
CTRL-X CTRL-I current and included files
CTRL-X CTRL-K words from a dictionary
CTRL-X CTRL-T words from a thesaurus
CTRL-X CTRL-] tags
CTRL-X CTRL-V Vim command line
After each of them CTRL-N can be used to find the next match, CTRL-P to find
the previous match.
More information for each of these commands here: |ins-completion|.
COMPLETING FILE NAMES

Let's take CTRL-X CTRL-F as an example. This will find file names. It scans
the current directory for files and displays each one that matches the word in
front of the cursor.
Suppose, for example, that you have the following files in the current
directory:
main.c sub_count.c sub_done.c sub_exit.c
Now enter Insert mode and start typing:
The exit code is in the file sub
At this point, you enter the command CTRL-X CTRL-F. Vim now completes the
current word "sub" by looking at the files in the current directory. The
first match is sub_count.c. This is not the one you want, so you match the
next file by typing CTRL-N. This match is sub_done.c. Typing CTRL-N again
takes you to sub_exit.c. The results:
The exit code is in the file sub_exit.c

If the file name starts with / (Unix) or C:\ (MS-Windows) you can find all
files in the file system. For example, type "/u" and CTRL-X CTRL-F. This
will match "/usr" (this is on Unix):
the file is found in /usr/
If you now press CTRL-N you go back to "/u". Instead, to accept the "/usr/"
and go one directory level deeper, use CTRL-X CTRL-F again:
the file is found in /usr/X11R6/
The results depend on what is found in your file system, of course. The
matches are sorted alphabetically.
COMPLETING IN SOURCE CODE

Source code files are well structured. That makes it possible to do
completion in an intelligent way. In Vim this is called Omni completion. In
some other editors it's called intellisense, but that is a trademark.
The key to Omni completion is CTRL-X CTRL-O. Obviously the O stands for Omni
here, so that you can remember it easier. Let's use an example for editing C
source:
{
struct foo *p;
p->
The cursor is after "p->". Now type CTRL-X CTRL-O. Vim will offer you a list
of alternatives, which are the items that "struct foo" contains. That is
quite different from using CTRL-P, which would complete any word, while only
members of "struct foo" are valid here.
For Omni completion to work you may need to do some setup. At least make sure
filetype plugins are enabled. Your vimrc file should contain a line like
this:
filetype plugin on
Or:
For C code you need to create a tags file and set the 'tags' option. That is
explained |ft-c-omni|. For other filetypes you may need to do something
similar, look below |compl-omni-filetypes|. It only works for specific
filetypes. Check the value of the 'omnifunc' option to find out if it would
work.
==============================================================================
*24.4* Repeating an insert
If you press CTRL-A, the editor inserts the text you typed the last time you
were in Insert mode.
Assume, for example, that you have a file that begins with the following:
"file.h"
/* Main program begins */
You edit this file by inserting "#include " at the beginning of the first
line:
#include "file.h"
You go down to the beginning of the next line using the commands "j^". You
now start to insert a new "#include" line. So you type:
i CTRL-A
The result is as follows:
#include "file.h"
#include /* Main program begins */
The "#include " was inserted because CTRL-A inserts the text of the previous
insert. Now you type "main.h"<Enter> to finish the line:
#include "file.h"

#include "main.h"
The CTRL-@ command does a CTRL-A and then exits Insert mode. That's a quick
way of doing exactly the same insertion again.
==============================================================================
*24.5* Copying from another line
The CTRL-Y command inserts the character above the cursor. This is useful
when you are duplicating a previous line. For example, you have this line of
C code:
b_array[i]->s_next = a_array[i]->s_next;
Now you need to type the same line, but with "s_prev" instead of "s_next".
Start the new line, and press CTRL-Y 14 times, until you are at the "n" of
"next":
b_array[i]->s_
Now you type "prev":
b_array[i]->s_prev
Continue pressing CTRL-Y until the following "next":
b_array[i]->s_prev = a_array[i]->s_
Now type "prev;" to finish it off.
The CTRL-E command acts like CTRL-Y except it inserts the character below the
cursor.
==============================================================================
*24.6* Inserting a register
The command CTRL-R {register} inserts the contents of the register. This is
useful to avoid having to type a long word. For example, you need to type
this:
r = VeryLongFunction(a) + VeryLongFunction(b) + VeryLongFunction(c)
The function name is defined in a different file. Edit that file and move the
cursor on top of the function name there, and yank it into register v:
"vyiw
"v is the register specification, "yiw" is yank-inner-word. Now edit the file
where the new line is to be inserted, and type the first letters:
r =
Now use CTRL-R v to insert the function name:
r = VeryLongFunction
You continue to type the characters in between the function name, and use
CTRL-R v two times more.
You could have done the same with completion. Using a register is useful
when there are many words that start with the same characters.
If the register contains characters such as <BS> or other special characters,
they are interpreted as if they had been typed from the keyboard. If you do
not want this to happen (you really want the <BS> to be inserted in the text),
use the command CTRL-R CTRL-R {register}.
==============================================================================
*24.7* Abbreviations
An abbreviation is a short word that takes the place of a long one. For
example, "ad" stands for "advertisement". Vim enables you to type an
abbreviation and then will automatically expand it for you.

To tell Vim to expand "ad" into "advertisement" every time you insert it,
use the following command:
:iabbrev ad advertisement
Now, when you type "ad", the whole word "advertisement" will be inserted into
the text. This is triggered by typing a character that can't be part of a
word, for example a space:
What Is Entered What You See
I saw the a I saw the a
I saw the ad I saw the ad
I saw the ad<Space> I saw the advertisement<Space>
The expansion doesn't happen when typing just "ad". That allows you to type a
word like "add", which will not get expanded. Only whole words are checked
for abbreviations.
ABBREVIATING SEVERAL WORDS

It is possible to define an abbreviation that results in multiple words. For
example, to define "JB" as "Jack Benny", use the following command:
:iabbrev JB Jack Benny
As a programmer, I use two rather unusual abbreviations:
:iabbrev #b /****************************************
:iabbrev #e <Space>****************************************/
These are used for creating boxed comments. The comment starts with #b, which
draws the top line. I then type the comment text and use #e to draw the
bottom line.
Notice that the #e abbreviation begins with a space. In other words, the
first two characters are space-star. Usually Vim ignores spaces between the
abbreviation and the expansion. To avoid that problem, I spell space as seven
characters: <, S, p, a, c, e, >.
Note:
":iabbrev" is a long word to type. ":iab" works just as well.
That's abbreviating the abbreviate command!
FIXING TYPING MISTAKES

It's very common to make the same typing mistake every time. For example,
typing "teh" instead of "the". You can fix this with an abbreviation:
:abbreviate teh the
You can add a whole list of these. Add one each time you discover a common
mistake.
LISTING ABBREVIATIONS
The ":abbreviate" command lists the abbreviations:
:abbreviate
i #e ****************************************/
i #b /****************************************
i JB Jack Benny
i ad advertisement
! teh the
The "i" in the first column indicates Insert mode. These abbreviations are
only active in Insert mode. Other possible characters are:
c Command-line mode :cabbrev
! both Insert and Command-line mode :abbreviate
Since abbreviations are not often useful in Command-line mode, you will mostly
use the ":iabbrev" command. That avoids, for example, that "ad" gets expanded
when typing a command like:
:edit ad
DELETING ABBREVIATIONS

To get rid of an abbreviation, use the ":unabbreviate" command. Suppose you

have the following abbreviation:
:abbreviate @f fresh
You can remove it with this command:
:unabbreviate @f
While you type this, you will notice that @f is expanded to "fresh". Don't
worry about this, Vim understands it anyway (except when you have an
abbreviation for "fresh", but that's very unlikely).
To remove all the abbreviations:
:abclear
":unabbreviate" and ":abclear" also come in the variants for Insert mode
(":iunabbreviate and ":iabclear") and Command-line mode (":cunabbreviate" and
":cabclear").
REMAPPING ABBREVIATIONS
There is one thing to watch out for when defining an abbreviation: The
resulting string should not be mapped. For example:
:abbreviate @a adder
:imap dd disk-door
When you now type @a, you will get "adisk-doorer". That's not what you want.
To avoid this, use the ":noreabbrev" command. It does the same as
":abbreviate", but avoids that the resulting string is used for mappings:
:noreabbrev @a adder
Fortunately, it's unlikely that the result of an abbreviation is mapped.
==============================================================================
*24.8* Entering special characters
The CTRL-V command is used to insert the next character literally. In other
words, any special meaning the character has, it will be ignored. For
example:
CTRL-V <Esc>
Inserts an escape character. Thus you don't leave Insert mode. (Don't type
the space after CTRL-V, it's only to make this easier to read).
Note:
On MS-Windows CTRL-V is used to paste text. Use CTRL-Q instead of
CTRL-V. On Unix, on the other hand, CTRL-Q does not work on some
terminals, because it has a special meaning.
You can also use the command CTRL-V {digits} to insert a character with the
decimal number {digits}. For example, the character number 127 is the <Del>
character (but not necessarily the <Del> key!). To insert <Del> type:
CTRL-V 127
You can enter characters up to 255 this way. When you type fewer than two
digits, a non-digit will terminate the command. To avoid the need of typing a
non-digit, prepend one or two zeros to make three digits.
All the next commands insert a <Tab> and then a dot:
CTRL-V 9.
CTRL-V 09.
CTRL-V 009.
To enter a character in hexadecimal, use an "x" after the CTRL-V:
CTRL-V x7f
This also goes up to character 255 (CTRL-V xff). You can use "o" to type a
character as an octal number and two more methods allow you to type up to
a 16 bit and a 32 bit number (e.g., for a Unicode character):
CTRL-V o123

CTRL-V u1234
CTRL-V U12345678
==============================================================================
*24.9* Digraphs
Some characters are not on the keyboard. For example, the copyright character
(©). To type these characters in Vim, you use digraphs, where two characters
represent one. To enter a ©, for example, you press three keys:
CTRL-K Co
To find out what digraphs are available, use the following command:
:digraphs
Vim will display the digraph table. Here are three lines of it:
AC ~_ 159 NS | 160 !I ¡ 161 Ct ¢ 162 Pd £ 163 Cu ¤ 164 Ye ¥ 165
BB ¦ 166 SE § 167 ': ¨ 168 Co © 169 -a ª 170 << « 171 NO ¬ 172
-- 173 Rg ® 174 'm ¯ 175 DG ° 176 +- ± 177 2S ² 178 3S ³ 179
This shows, for example, that the digraph you get by typing CTRL-K Pd is the
character (£). This is character number 163 (decimal).
Pd is short for Pound. Most digraphs are selected to give you a hint about
the character they will produce. If you look through the list you will
understand the logic.
You can exchange the first and second character, if there is no digraph for
that combination. Thus CTRL-K dP also works. Since there is no digraph for
"dP" Vim will also search for a "Pd" digraph.
Note:
The digraphs depend on the character set that Vim assumes you are
using. On MS-DOS they are different from MS-Windows. Always use
":digraphs" to find out which digraphs are currently available.
You can define your own digraphs. Example:
:digraph a" ä
This defines that CTRL-K a" inserts an ä character. You can also specify the
character with a decimal number. This defines the same digraph:
:digraph a" 228
More information about digraphs here: |digraphs|
Another way to insert special characters is with a keymap. More about that
here: |45.5|
==============================================================================
*24.10* Normal mode commands
Insert mode offers a limited number of commands. In Normal mode you have many
more. When you want to use one, you usually leave Insert mode with <Esc>,
execute the Normal mode command, and re-enter Insert mode with "i" or "a".
There is a quicker way. With CTRL-O {command} you can execute any Normal
mode command from Insert mode. For example, to delete from the cursor to the
end of the line:
CTRL-O D
You can execute only one Normal mode command this way. But you can specify a
register or a count. A more complicated example:
CTRL-O "g3dw
This deletes up to the third word into register g.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_25.txt| Editing formatted text

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file

Editing formatted text
Text hardly ever comes in one sentence per line. This chapter is about
breaking sentences to make them fit on a page and other formatting.
Vim also has useful features for editing single-line paragraphs and tables.
|25.1| Breaking lines
|25.2| Aligning text
|25.3| Indents and tabs
|25.4| Dealing with long lines
|25.5| Editing tables
Next chapter: |usr_26.txt| Repeating
Previous chapter: |usr_24.txt| Inserting quickly
==============================================================================
*25.1* Breaking lines
Vim has a number of functions that make dealing with text easier. By default,
the editor does not perform automatic line breaks. In other words, you have
to press <Enter> yourself. This is useful when you are writing programs where
you want to decide where the line ends. It is not so good when you are
creating documentation and want the text to be at most 70 character wide.
If you set the 'textwidth' option, Vim automatically inserts line breaks.
Suppose, for example, that you want a very narrow column of only 30
characters. You need to execute the following command:
:set textwidth=30
Now you start typing (ruler added):
1 2 3
12345678901234567890123456789012345
I taught programming for a whi
If you type "l" next, this makes the line longer than the 30-character limit.
When Vim sees this, it inserts a line break and you get the following:
1 2 3
12345678901234567890123456789012345
I taught programming for a
whil
Continuing on, you can type in the rest of the paragraph:
1 2 3
12345678901234567890123456789012345
I taught programming for a
while. One time, I was stopped
by the Fort Worth police,
because my homework was too
hard. True story.
You do not have to type newlines; Vim puts them in automatically.

Note:
The 'wrap' option makes Vim display lines with a line break, but this
doesn't insert a line break in the file.
REFORMATTING
The Vim editor is not a word processor. In a word processor, if you delete
something at the beginning of the paragraph, the line breaks are reworked. In
Vim they are not; so if you delete the word "programming" from the first line,
all you get is a short line:
1 2 3
12345678901234567890123456789012345
I taught for a
while. One time, I was stopped
by the Fort Worth police,
because my homework was too
hard. True story.
This does not look good. To get the paragraph into shape you use the "gq"
operator.
Let's first use this with a Visual selection. Starting from the first
line, type:
v4jgq
"v" to start Visual mode, "4j' to move to the end of the paragraph and then
the "gq" operator. The result is:
1 2 3
12345678901234567890123456789012345
I taught for a while. One
time, I was stopped by the
Fort Worth police, because my
homework was too hard. True
story.
Note: there is a way to do automatic formatting for specific types of text
layouts, see |auto-format|.
Since "gq" is an operator, you can use one of the three ways to select the
text it works on: With Visual mode, with a movement and with a text object.
The example above could also be done with "gq4j". That's less typing, but
you have to know the line count. A more useful motion command is "}". This
moves to the end of a paragraph. Thus "gq}" formats from the cursor to the
end of the current paragraph.
A very useful text object to use with "gq" is the paragraph. Try this:
gqap
"ap" stands for "a-paragraph". This formats the text of one paragraph
(separated by empty lines). Also the part before the cursor.
If you have your paragraphs separated by empty lines, you can format the
whole file by typing this:
gggqG
"gg" to move to the first line, "gqG" to format until the last line.
Warning: If your paragraphs are not properly separated, they will be joined
together. A common mistake is to have a line with a space or tab. That's a
blank line, but not an empty line.
Vim is able to format more than just plain text. See |fo-table| for how to
change this. See the 'joinspaces' option to change the number of spaces used
after a full stop.
It is possible to use an external program for formatting. This is useful
if your text can't be properly formatted with Vim's builtin command. See the
'formatprg' option.
==============================================================================
*25.2* Aligning text
To center a range of lines, use the following command:
:{range}center [width]
{range} is the usual command-line range. [width] is an optional line width to

use for centering. If [width] is not specified, it defaults to the value of

'textwidth'. (If 'textwidth' is 0, the default is 80.)
For example:
:1,5center 40
results in the following:
story.
RIGHT ALIGNMENT
Similarly, the ":right" command right-justifies the text:
:1,5right 37
gives this result:
story.
LEFT ALIGNMENT
Finally there is this command:
:{range}left [margin]
Unlike ":center" and ":right", however, the argument to ":left" is not the
length of the line. Instead it is the left margin. If it is omitted, the
text will be put against the left side of the screen (using a zero margin
would do the same). If it is 5, the text will be indented 5 spaces. For
example, use these commands:
:1left 5
:2,5left
This results in the following:
story.
JUSTIFYING TEXT
Vim has no built-in way of justifying text. However, there is a neat macro
package that does the job. To use this package, execute the following
command:
:runtime macros/justify.vim
This Vim script file defines a new visual command "_j". To justify a block of
text, highlight the text in Visual mode and then execute "_j".
Look in the file for more explanations. To go there, do "gf" on this name:
$VIMRUNTIME/macros/justify.vim.
An alternative is to filter the text through an external program. Example:
:%!fmt
==============================================================================
*25.3* Indents and tabs
Indents can be used to make text stand out from the rest. The example texts
in this manual, for example, are indented by eight spaces or a tab. You would
normally enter this by typing a tab at the start of each line. Take this
text:
the first line

the second line

This is entered by typing a tab, some text, <Enter>, tab and more text.
The 'autoindent' option inserts indents automatically:
:set autoindent
When a new line is started it gets the same indent as the previous line. In
the above example, the tab after the <Enter> is not needed anymore.
INCREASING INDENT
To increase the amount of indent in a line, use the ">" operator. Often this
is used as ">>", which adds indent to the current line.
The amount of indent added is specified with the 'shiftwidth' option. The
default value is 8. To make ">>" insert four spaces worth of indent, for
example, type this:
:set shiftwidth=4
When used on the second line of the example text, this is what you get:
the first line
the second line
"4>>" will increase the indent of four lines.
TABSTOP
If you want to make indents a multiple of 4, you set 'shiftwidth' to 4. But
when pressing a <Tab> you still get 8 spaces worth of indent. To change this,
set the 'softtabstop' option:
:set softtabstop=4
This will make the <Tab> key insert 4 spaces worth of indent. If there are
already four spaces, a <Tab> character is used (saving seven characters in the
file). (If you always want spaces and no tab characters, set the 'expandtab'
option.)
Note:
You could set the 'tabstop' option to 4. However, if you edit the
file another time, with 'tabstop' set to the default value of 8, it
will look wrong. In other programs and when printing the indent will
also be wrong. Therefore it is recommended to keep 'tabstop' at eight
all the time. That's the standard value everywhere.
CHANGING TABS
You edit a file which was written with a tabstop of 3. In Vim it looks ugly,
because it uses the normal tabstop value of 8. You can fix this by setting
'tabstop' to 3. But you have to do this every time you edit this file.
Vim can change the use of tabstops in your file. First, set 'tabstop' to
make the indents look good, then use the ":retab" command:
:set tabstop=3
:retab 8
The ":retab" command will change 'tabstop' to 8, while changing the text such
that it looks the same. It changes spans of white space into tabs and spaces
for this. You can now write the file. Next time you edit it the indents will
be right without setting an option.
Warning: When using ":retab" on a program, it may change white space inside
a string constant. Therefore it's a good habit to use "\t" instead of a
real tab.
==============================================================================
*25.4* Dealing with long lines
Sometimes you will be editing a file that is wider than the number of columns
in the window. When that occurs, Vim wraps the lines so that everything fits
on the screen.
If you switch the 'wrap' option off, each line in the file shows up as one
line on the screen. Then the ends of the long lines disappear off the screen
to the right.
When you move the cursor to a character that can't be seen, Vim will scroll

the text to show it. This is like moving a viewport over the text in the
horizontal direction.
By default, Vim does not display a horizontal scrollbar in the GUI. If you
want to enable one, use the following command:
:set guioptions+=b
One horizontal scrollbar will appear at the bottom of the Vim window.
If you don't have a scrollbar or don't want to use it, use these commands to
scroll the text. The cursor will stay in the same place, but it's moved back
into the visible text if necessary.
zh scroll right
4zh scroll four characters right
zH scroll half a window width right
ze scroll right to put the cursor at the end
zl scroll left
4zl scroll four characters left
zL scroll half a window width left
zs scroll left to put the cursor at the start
Let's attempt to show this with one line of text. The cursor is on the "w" of
"which". The "current window" above the line indicates the text that is
currently visible. The "window"s below the text indicate the text that is
visible after the command left of it.
|<-- current window -->|
some long text, part of which is visible in the window
ze |<-- window -->|
zH |<-- window -->|
4zh |<-- window -->|
zh |<-- window -->|
zl |<-- window -->|
4zl |<-- window -->|
zL |<-- window -->|
zs |<-- window -->|
MOVING WITH WRAP OFF

When 'wrap' is off and the text has scrolled horizontally, you can use the
following commands to move the cursor to a character you can see. Thus text
left and right of the window is ignored. These never cause the text to
scroll:
g0 to first visible character in this line
g^ to first non-blank visible character in this line
gm to middle of this line
g$ to last visible character in this line
|<-- window -->|
some long text, part of which is visible
g0 g^ gm g$
BREAKING AT WORDS *edit-no-break*

When preparing text for use by another program, you might have to make
paragraphs without a line break. A disadvantage of using 'nowrap' is that you
can't see the whole sentence you are working on. When 'wrap' is on, words are
broken halfway, which makes them hard to read.
A good solution for editing this kind of paragraph is setting the
'linebreak' option. Vim then breaks lines at an appropriate place when
displaying the line. The text in the file remains unchanged.
Without 'linebreak' text might look like this:
+---------------------------------+
|letter generation program for a b|
|ank. They wanted to send out a s|
|pecial, personalized letter to th|
|eir richest 1000 customers. Unfo|
|rtunately for the programmer, he |
+---------------------------------+
After:
:set linebreak
it looks like this:

+---------------------------------+
|letter generation program for a |
|bank. They wanted to send out a |
|special, personalized letter to |
|their richest 1000 customers. |
|Unfortunately for the programmer,|
+---------------------------------+
Related options:
'breakat' specifies the characters where a break can be inserted.
'showbreak' specifies a string to show at the start of broken line.
Set 'textwidth' to zero to avoid a paragraph to be split.
MOVING BY VISIBLE LINES

The "j" and "k" commands move to the next and previous lines. When used on
a long line, this means moving a lot of screen lines at once.
To move only one screen line, use the "gj" and "gk" commands. When a line
doesn't wrap they do the same as "j" and "k". When the line does wrap, they
move to a character displayed one line below or above.
You might like to use these mappings, which bind these movement commands to
the cursor keys:
:map <Up> gk
:map <Down> gj
TURNING A PARAGRAPH INTO ONE LINE

If you want to import text into a program like MS-Word, each paragraph should
be a single line. If your paragraphs are currently separated with empty
lines, this is how you turn each paragraph into a single line:
:g/./,/^$/join
That looks complicated. Let's break it up in pieces:
:g/./ A ":global" command that finds all lines that contain
at least one character.
,/^$/ A range, starting from the current line (the non-empty
line) until an empty line.
join The ":join" command joins the range of lines together
into one line.
Starting with this text, containing eight lines broken at column 30:
+----------------------------------+
|A letter generation program |
|for a bank. They wanted to |
|send out a special, |
|personalized letter. |
| |
|To their richest 1000 |
|customers. Unfortunately for |
|the programmer, |
+----------------------------------+
You end up with two lines:
+----------------------------------+
|A letter generation program for a |
|bank. They wanted to send out a s|
|pecial, personalized letter. |
|To their richest 1000 customers. |
|Unfortunately for the programmer, |
+----------------------------------+
Note that this doesn't work when the separating line is blank but not empty;
when it contains spaces and/or tabs. This command does work with blank lines:
:g/\S/,/^\s*$/join
This still requires a blank or empty line at the end of the file for the last
paragraph to be joined.
==============================================================================
*25.5* Editing tables

Suppose you are editing a table with four columns:

nice table test 1 test 2 test 3
input A 0.534
input B 0.913
You need to enter numbers in the third column. You could move to the second
line, use "A", enter a lot of spaces and type the text.
For this kind of editing there is a special option:
set virtualedit=all
Now you can move the cursor to positions where there isn't any text. This is
called "virtual space". Editing a table is a lot easier this way.
Move the cursor by searching for the header of the last column:
/test 3
Now press "j" and you are right where you can enter the value for "input A".
Typing "0.693" results in:
nice table test 1 test 2 test 3
input A 0.534 0.693
input B 0.913
Vim has automatically filled the gap in front of the new text for you. Now,
to enter the next field in this column use "Bj". "B" moves back to the start
of a white space separated word. Then "j" moves to the place where the next
field can be entered.
Note:
You can move the cursor anywhere in the display, also beyond the end
of a line. But Vim will not insert spaces there, until you insert a
character in that position.
COPYING A COLUMN
You want to add a column, which should be a copy of the third column and
placed before the "test 1" column. Do this in seven steps:
1. Move the cursor to the left upper corner of this column, e.g., with
"/test 3".
2. Press CTRL-V to start blockwise Visual mode.
3. Move the cursor down two lines with "2j". You are now in "virtual space":
the "input B" line of the "test 3" column.
4. Move the cursor right, to include the whole column in the selection, plus
the space that you want between the columns. "9l" should do it.
5. Yank the selected rectangle with "y".
6. Move the cursor to "test 1", where the new column must be placed.
7. Press "P".
The result should be:
nice table test 3 test 1 test 2 test 3
input A 0.693 0.534 0.693
input B 0.913
Notice that the whole "test 1" column was shifted right, also the line where
the "test 3" column didn't have text.
Go back to non-virtual cursor movements with:
:set virtualedit=
VIRTUAL REPLACE MODE

The disadvantage of using 'virtualedit' is that it "feels" different. You
can't recognize tabs or spaces beyond the end of line when moving the cursor
around. Another method can be used: Virtual Replace mode.
Suppose you have a line in a table that contains both tabs and other
characters. Use "rx" on the first tab:
inp 0.693 0.534 0.693
|
rx |
V

inpx0.693 0.534 0.693

The layout is messed up. To avoid that, use the "gr" command:
inp 0.693 0.534 0.693
|
grx |
V
inpx 0.693 0.534 0.693
What happens is that the "gr" command makes sure the new character takes the
right amount of screen space. Extra spaces or tabs are inserted to fill the
gap. Thus what actually happens is that a tab is replaced by "x" and then
blanks added to make the text after it keep its place. In this case a
tab is inserted.
When you need to replace more than one character, you use the "R" command
to go to Replace mode (see |04.9|). This messes up the layout and replaces
the wrong characters:
inp 0 0.534 0.693
|
R0.786 |
V
inp 0.78634 0.693
The "gR" command uses Virtual Replace mode. This preserves the layout:
inp 0 0.534 0.693
|
gR0.786 |
V
inp 0.786 0.534 0.693
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_26.txt| Repeating
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file

Repeating
An editing task is hardly ever unstructured. A change often needs to be made

several times. In this chapter a number of useful ways to repeat a change
will be explained.
|26.1| Repeating with Visual mode
|26.2| Add and subtract
|26.3| Making a change in many files
|26.4| Using Vim from a shell script
Next chapter: |usr_27.txt| Search commands and patterns
Previous chapter: |usr_25.txt| Editing formatted text
==============================================================================
*26.1* Repeating with Visual mode
Visual mode is very handy for making a change in any sequence of lines. You
can see the highlighted text, thus you can check if the correct lines are
changed. But making the selection takes some typing. The "gv" command
selects the same area again. This allows you to do another operation on the
same text.
Suppose you have some lines where you want to change "2001" to "2002" and
"2000" to "2001":
The financial results for 2001 are better
than for 2000. The income increased by 50%,
even though 2001 had more rain than 2000.
2000 2001
income 45,403 66,234
First change "2001" to "2002". Select the lines in Visual mode, and use:
:s/2001/2002/g
Now use "gv" to reselect the same text. It doesn't matter where the cursor
is. Then use ":s/2000/2001/g" to make the second change.
Obviously, you can repeat these changes several times.
==============================================================================
*26.2* Add and subtract
When repeating the change of one number into another, you often have a fixed
offset. In the example above, one was added to each year. Instead of typing
a substitute command for each year that appears, the CTRL-A command can be
used.
Using the same text as above, search for a year:
/19[0-9][0-9]\|20[0-9][0-9]
Now press CTRL-A. The year will be increased by one:
The financial results for 2002 are better
than for 2000. The income increased by 50%,

even though 2001 had more rain than 2000.

2000 2001
income 45,403 66,234
Use "n" to find the next year, and press "." to repeat the CTRL-A ("." is a
bit quicker to type). Repeat "n" and "." for all years that appear.
Hint: set the 'hlsearch' option to see the matches you are going to change,
then you can look ahead and do it faster.
Adding more than one can be done by prepending the number to CTRL-A. Suppose
you have this list:
1. item four
2. item five
3. item six
Move the cursor to "1." and type:
3 CTRL-A
The "1." will change to "4.". Again, you can use "." to repeat this on the
other numbers.
Another example:
006 foo bar
007 foo bar
Using CTRL-A on these numbers results in:
007 foo bar
010 foo bar
7 plus one is 10? What happened here is that Vim recognized "007" as an octal
number, because there is a leading zero. This notation is often used in C
programs. If you do not want a number with leading zeros to be handled as
octal, use this:
:set nrformats-=octal
The CTRL-X command does subtraction in a similar way.
==============================================================================
*26.3* Making a change in many files
Suppose you have a variable called "x_cnt" and you want to change it to
"x_counter". This variable is used in several of your C files. You need to
change it in all files. This is how you do it.
Put all the relevant files in the argument list:
:args *.c
This finds all C files and edits the first one. Now you can perform a
substitution command on all these files:
:argdo %s/\<x_cnt\>/x_counter/ge | update
The ":argdo" command takes an argument that is another command. That command
will be executed on all files in the argument list.
The "%s" substitute command that follows works on all lines. It finds the
word "x_cnt" with "\<x_cnt\>". The "\<" and "\>" are used to match the whole
word only, and not "px_cnt" or "x_cnt2".
The flags for the substitute command include "g" to replace all occurrences
of "x_cnt" in the same line. The "e" flag is used to avoid an error message
when "x_cnt" does not appear in the file. Otherwise ":argdo" would abort on
the first file where "x_cnt" was not found.
The "|" separates two commands. The following "update" command writes the
file only if it was changed. If no "x_cnt" was changed to "x_counter" nothing
happens.
There is also the ":windo" command, which executes its argument in all
windows. And ":bufdo" executes its argument on all buffers. Be careful with
this, because you might have more files in the buffer list than you think.
Check this with the ":buffers" command (or ":ls").
==============================================================================
*26.4* Using Vim from a shell script

Suppose you have a lot of files in which you need to change the string
"-person-" to "Jones" and then print it. How do you do that? One way is to
do a lot of typing. The other is to write a shell script to do the work.
The Vim editor does a superb job as a screen-oriented editor when using
Normal mode commands. For batch processing, however, Normal mode commands do
not result in clear, commented command files; so here you will use Ex mode
instead. This mode gives you a nice command-line interface that makes it easy
to put into a batch file. ("Ex command" is just another name for a
command-line (:) command.)
The Ex mode commands you need are as follows:
%s/-person-/Jones/g
write tempfile
quit
You put these commands in the file "change.vim". Now to run the editor in
batch mode, use this shell script:
for file in *.txt; do
vim -e -s $file < change.vim
lpr -r tempfile
done
The for-done loop is a shell construct to repeat the two lines in between,
while the $file variable is set to a different file name each time.
The second line runs the Vim editor in Ex mode (-e argument) on the file
$file and reads commands from the file "change.vim". The -s argument tells
Vim to operate in silent mode. In other words, do not keep outputting the
:prompt, or any other prompt for that matter.
The "lpr -r tempfile" command prints the resulting "tempfile" and deletes
it (that's what the -r argument does).
READING FROM STDIN

Vim can read text on standard input. Since the normal way is to read commands
there, you must tell Vim to read text instead. This is done by passing the
"-" argument in place of a file. Example:
ls | vim -
This allows you to edit the output of the "ls" command, without first saving
the text in a file.
If you use the standard input to read text from, you can use the "-S"
argument to read a script:
producer | vim -S change.vim -
NORMAL MODE SCRIPTS

If you really want to use Normal mode commands in a script, you can use it
like this:
vim -s script file.txt ...
Note:
"-s" has a different meaning when it is used without "-e". Here it
means to source the "script" as Normal mode commands. When used with
"-e" it means to be silent, and doesn't use the next argument as a
file name.
The commands in "script" are executed like you typed them. Don't forget that
a line break is interpreted as pressing <Enter>. In Normal mode that moves
the cursor to the next line.
To create the script you can edit the script file and type the commands.
You need to imagine what the result would be, which can be a bit difficult.
Another way is to record the commands while you perform them manually. This
is how you do that:
vim -w script file.txt ...
All typed keys will be written to "script". If you make a small mistake you
can just continue and remember to edit the script later.
The "-w" argument appends to an existing script. That is good when you
want to record the script bit by bit. If you want to start from scratch and
start all over, use the "-W" argument. It overwrites any existing file.
==============================================================================

Next chapter: |usr_27.txt| Search commands and patterns

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*usr_27.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Mar 28

Search commands and patterns
In chapter 3 a few simple search patterns were mentioned |03.9|. Vim can do
much more complex searches. This chapter explains the most often used ones.
A detailed specification can be found here: |pattern|
|27.1| Ignoring case
|27.2| Wrapping around the file end
|27.3| Offsets
|27.4| Matching multiple times
|27.5| Alternatives
|27.6| Character ranges
|27.7| Character classes
|27.8| Matching a line break
|27.9| Examples
Next chapter: |usr_28.txt| Folding
Previous chapter: |usr_26.txt| Repeating
==============================================================================
*27.1* Ignoring case
By default, Vim's searches are case sensitive. Therefore, "include",
"INCLUDE", and "Include" are three different words and a search will match
only one of them.
Now switch on the 'ignorecase' option:
:set ignorecase
Search for "include" again, and now it will match "Include", "INCLUDE" and
"InClUDe". (Set the 'hlsearch' option to quickly see where a pattern
matches.)
You can switch this off again with:
:set noignorecase
But let's keep it set, and search for "INCLUDE". It will match exactly the
same text as "include" did. Now set the 'smartcase' option:
:set ignorecase smartcase
If you have a pattern with at least one uppercase character, the search
becomes case sensitive. The idea is that you didn't have to type that
uppercase character, so you must have done it because you wanted case to
match. That's smart!
With these two options set you find the following matches:
pattern matches
word word, Word, WORD, WoRd, etc.
Word Word
WORD WORD
WoRd WoRd
CASE IN ONE PATTERN

If you want to ignore case for one specific pattern, you can do this by
prepending the "\c" string. Using "\C" will make the pattern to match case.
This overrules the 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase' options, when "\c" or "\C" is
used their value doesn't matter.
pattern matches
\Cword word
\CWord Word
\cword word, Word, WORD, WoRd, etc.
\cWord word, Word, WORD, WoRd, etc.
A big advantage of using "\c" and "\C" is that it sticks with the pattern.
Thus if you repeat a pattern from the search history, the same will happen, no
matter if 'ignorecase' or 'smartcase' was changed.
Note:
The use of "\" items in search patterns depends on the 'magic' option.
In this chapter we will assume 'magic' is on, because that is the
standard and recommended setting. If you would change 'magic', many
search patterns would suddenly become invalid.
Note:
If your search takes much longer than you expected, you can interrupt
it with CTRL-C on Unix and CTRL-Break on MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
==============================================================================
*27.2* Wrapping around the file end
By default, a forward search starts searching for the given string at the
current cursor location. It then proceeds to the end of the file. If it has
not found the string by that time, it starts from the beginning and searches
from the start of the file to the cursor location.
Keep in mind that when repeating the "n" command to search for the next
match, you eventually get back to the first match. If you don't notice this
you keep searching forever! To give you a hint, Vim displays this message:
search hit BOTTOM, continuing at TOP
If you use the "?" command, to search in the other direction, you get this
message:
search hit TOP, continuing at BOTTOM
Still, you don't know when you are back at the first match. One way to see
this is by switching on the 'ruler' option:
:set ruler
Vim will display the cursor position in the lower righthand corner of the
window (in the status line if there is one). It looks like this:
101,29 84%
The first number is the line number of the cursor. Remember the line number
where you started, so that you can check if you passed this position again.
NOT WRAPPING
To turn off search wrapping, use the following command:
:set nowrapscan
Now when the search hits the end of the file, an error message displays:
E385: search hit BOTTOM without match for: forever
Thus you can find all matches by going to the start of the file with "gg" and
keep searching until you see this message.
If you search in the other direction, using "?", you get:
E384: search hit TOP without match for: forever
==============================================================================
*27.3* Offsets
By default, the search command leaves the cursor positioned on the beginning
of the pattern. You can tell Vim to leave it some other place by specifying

an offset. For the forward search command "/", the offset is specified by
appending a slash (/) and the offset:
/default/2
This command searches for the pattern "default" and then moves to the
beginning of the second line past the pattern. Using this command on the
paragraph above, Vim finds the word "default" in the first line. Then the
cursor is moved two lines down and lands on "an offset".
If the offset is a simple number, the cursor will be placed at the beginning
of the line that many lines from the match. The offset number can be positive
or negative. If it is positive, the cursor moves down that many lines; if
negative, it moves up.
CHARACTER OFFSETS
The "e" offset indicates an offset from the end of the match. It moves the
cursor onto the last character of the match. The command:
/const/e
puts the cursor on the "t" of "const".
From that position, adding a number moves forward that many characters.
This command moves to the character just after the match:
/const/e+1
A positive number moves the cursor to the right, a negative number moves it to
the left. For example:
/const/e-1
moves the cursor to the "s" of "const".
If the offset begins with "b", the cursor moves to the beginning of the
pattern. That's not very useful, since leaving out the "b" does the same
thing. It does get useful when a number is added or subtracted. The cursor
then goes forward or backward that many characters. For example:
/const/b+2
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the match and then two characters to the
right. Thus it lands on the "n".
REPEATING
To repeat searching for the previously used search pattern, but with a
different offset, leave out the pattern:
/that
//e
Is equal to:
/that/e
To repeat with the same offset:
/
"n" does the same thing. To repeat while removing a previously used offset:
//
SEARCHING BACKWARDS
The "?" command uses offsets in the same way, but you must use "?" to separate
the offset from the pattern, instead of "/":
?const?e-2
The "b" and "e" keep their meaning, they don't change direction with the use
of "?".
START POSITION

When starting a search, it normally starts at the cursor position. When you
specify a line offset, this can cause trouble. For example:
/const/-2
This finds the next word "const" and then moves two lines up. If you
use "n" to search again, Vim could start at the current position and find the same
"const" match. Then using the offset again, you would be back where you started.
You would be stuck!
It could be worse: Suppose there is another match with "const" in the next
line. Then repeating the forward search would find this match and move two
lines up. Thus you would actually move the cursor back!
When you specify a character offset, Vim will compensate for this. Thus the
search starts a few characters forward or backward, so that the same match
isn't found again.
==============================================================================
*27.4* Matching multiple times
The "*" item specifies that the item before it can match any number of times.
Thus:
/a*
matches "a", "aa", "aaa", etc. But also "" (the empty string), because zero
times is included.
The "*" only applies to the item directly before it. Thus "ab*" matches
"a", "ab", "abb", "abbb", etc. To match a whole string multiple times, it
must be grouped into one item. This is done by putting "$" before it and
"$" after it. Thus this command:
/$ab$*
Matches: "ab", "abab", "ababab", etc. And also "".
To avoid matching the empty string, use "\+". This makes the previous item
match one or more times.
/ab\+
Matches "ab", "abb", "abbb", etc. It does not match "a" when no "b" follows.
To match an optional item, use "\=". Example:
/folders\=
Matches "folder" and "folders".
SPECIFIC COUNTS
To match a specific number of items use the form "\{n,m}". "n" and "m" are
numbers. The item before it will be matched "n" to "m" times |inclusive|.
Example:
/ab\{3,5}
matches "abbb", "abbbb" and "abbbbb".
When "n" is omitted, it defaults to zero. When "m" is omitted it defaults
to infinity. When ",m" is omitted, it matches exactly "n" times.
Examples:
pattern match count
\{,4} 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4
\{3,} 3, 4, 5, etc.
\{0,1} 0 or 1, same as \=
\{0,} 0 or more, same as *
\{1,} 1 or more, same as \+
\{3} 3
MATCHING AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE

The items so far match as many characters as they can find. To match as few
as possible, use "\{-n,m}". It works the same as "\{n,m}", except that the
minimal amount possible is used.
For example, use:

/ab\{-1,3}
Will match "ab" in "abbb". Actually, it will never match more than one b,
because there is no reason to match more. It requires something else to force
it to match more than the lower limit.
The same rules apply to removing "n" and "m". It's even possible to remove
both of the numbers, resulting in "\{-}". This matches the item before it
zero or more times, as few as possible. The item by itself always matches
zero times. It is useful when combined with something else. Example:
/a.\{-}b
This matches "axb" in "axbxb". If this pattern would be used:
/a.*b
It would try to match as many characters as possible with ".*", thus it
matches "axbxb" as a whole.
==============================================================================
*27.5* Alternatives
The "or" operator in a pattern is "\|". Example:
/foo\|bar
This matches "foo" or "bar". More alternatives can be concatenated:
/one\|two\|three
Matches "one", "two" and "three".
To match multiple times, the whole thing must be placed in "$" and "$":
/$foo\|bar$\+
This matches "foo", "foobar", "foofoo", "barfoobar", etc.
Another example:
/end$if\|while\|for$
This matches "endif", "endwhile" and "endfor".
A related item is "\&". This requires that both alternatives match in the
same place. The resulting match uses the last alternative. Example:
/forever\&...
This matches "for" in "forever". It will not match "fortuin", for example.
==============================================================================
*27.6* Character ranges
To match "a", "b" or "c" you could use "/a\|b\|c". When you want to match all
letters from "a" to "z" this gets very long. There is a shorter method:
/[a-z]
The [] construct matches a single character. Inside you specify which
characters to match. You can include a list of characters, like this:
/[0123456789abcdef]
This will match any of the characters included. For consecutive characters
you can specify the range. "0-3" stands for "0123". "w-z" stands for "wxyz".
Thus the same command as above can be shortened to:
/[0-9a-f]
To match the "-" character itself make it the first or last one in the range.
These special characters are accepted to make it easier to use them inside a
[] range (they can actually be used anywhere in the search pattern):
\e <Esc>
\t <Tab>
\r <CR>
\b <BS>

There are a few more special cases for [] ranges, see |/[]| for the whole
story.
COMPLEMENTED RANGE
To avoid matching a specific character, use "^" at the start of the range.
The [] item then matches everything but the characters included. Example:
/"[^"]*"
" a double quote
[^"] any character that is not a double quote
* as many as possible
" a double quote again
This matches "foo" and "3!x", including the double quotes.
PREDEFINED RANGES
A number of ranges are used very often. Vim provides a shortcut for these.
For example:
/\a
Finds alphabetic characters. This is equal to using "/[a-zA-Z]". Here are a
few more of these:
item matches equivalent
\d digit [0-9]
\D non-digit [^0-9]
\x hex digit [0-9a-fA-F]
\X non-hex digit [^0-9a-fA-F]
\s white space [ ] (<Tab> and <Space>)
\S non-white characters [^ ] (not <Tab> and <Space>)
\l lowercase alpha [a-z]
\L non-lowercase alpha [â-z]
\u uppercase alpha [A-Z]
\U non-uppercase alpha [Â-Z]
Note:
Using these predefined ranges works a lot faster than the character
range it stands for.
These items can not be used inside []. Thus "[\d\l]" does NOT work to
match a digit or lowercase alpha. Use "$\d\|\l$" instead.
See |/\s| for the whole list of these ranges.
==============================================================================
*27.7* Character classes
The character range matches a fixed set of characters. A character class is
similar, but with an essential difference: The set of characters can be
redefined without changing the search pattern.
For example, search for this pattern:
/\f\+
The "\f" items stands for file name characters. Thus this matches a sequence
of characters that can be a file name.
Which characters can be part of a file name depends on the system you are
using. On MS-Windows, the backslash is included, on Unix it is not. This is
specified with the 'isfname' option. The default value for Unix is:
:set isfname
isfname=@,48-57,/,.,-,_,+,,,#,$,%,~,=
For other systems the default value is different. Thus you can make a search
pattern with "\f" to match a file name, and it will automatically adjust to
the system you are using it on.
Note:
Actually, Unix allows using just about any character in a file name,
including white space. Including these characters in 'isfname' would
be theoretically correct. But it would make it impossible to find the
end of a file name in text. Thus the default value of 'isfname' is a
compromise.

The character classes are:

item matches option
\i identifier characters 'isident'
\I like \i, excluding digits
\k keyword characters 'iskeyword'
\K like \k, excluding digits
\p printable characters 'isprint'
\P like \p, excluding digits
\f file name characters 'isfname'
\F like \f, excluding digits
==============================================================================
*27.8* Matching a line break
Vim can find a pattern that includes a line break. You need to specify where
the line break happens, because all items mentioned so far don't match a line
break.
To check for a line break in a specific place, use the "\n" item:
/the\nword
This will match at a line that ends in "the" and the next line starts with
"word". To match "the word" as well, you need to match a space or a line
break. The item to use for it is "\_s":
/the\_sword
To allow any amount of white space:
/the\_s\+word
This also matches when "the " is at the end of a line and " word" at the
start of the next one.
"\s" matches white space, "\_s" matches white space or a line break.
Similarly, "\a" matches an alphabetic character, and "\_a" matches an
alphabetic character or a line break. The other character classes and ranges
can be modified in the same way by inserting a "_".
Many other items can be made to match a line break by prepending "\_". For
example: "\_." matches any character or a line break.
Note:
"\_.*" matches everything until the end of the file. Be careful with
this, it can make a search command very slow.
Another example is "\_[]", a character range that includes a line break:
/"\_[^"]*"
This finds a text in double quotes that may be split up in several lines.
==============================================================================
*27.9* Examples
Here are a few search patterns you might find useful. This shows how the
items mentioned above can be combined.
FINDING A CALIFORNIA LICENSE PLATE

A sample license plate number is "1MGU103". It has one digit, three uppercase
letters and three digits. Directly putting this into a search pattern:
/\d\u\u\u\d\d\d
Another way is to specify that there are three digits and letters with a
count:
/\d\u\{3}\d\{3}
Using [] ranges instead:
/[0-9][A-Z]\{3}[0-9]\{3}
Which one of these you should use? Whichever one you can remember. The

simple way you can remember is much faster than the fancy way that you can't.
If you can remember them all, then avoid the last one, because it's both more
typing and slower to execute.
FINDING AN IDENTIFIER
In C programs (and many other computer languages) an identifier starts with a
letter and further consists of letters and digits. Underscores can be used
too. This can be found with:
/\<\h\w*\>
"\<" and "\>" are used to find only whole words. "\h" stands for "[A-Za-z_]"
and "\w" for "[0-9A-Za-z_]".
Note:
"\<" and "\>" depend on the 'iskeyword' option. If it includes "-",
for example, then "ident-" is not matched. In this situation use:
/\w\@<!\h\w*\w\@!
This checks if "\w" does not match before or after the identifier.
See |/\@<!| and |/\@!|.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_28.txt| Folding
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file

Folding
Structured text can be separated in sections. And sections in sub-sections.

Folding allows you to display a section as one line, providing an overview.
This chapter explains the different ways this can be done.
|28.1| What is folding?
|28.2| Manual folding
|28.3| Working with folds
|28.4| Saving and restoring folds
|28.5| Folding by indent
|28.6| Folding with markers
|28.7| Folding by syntax
|28.8| Folding by expression
|28.9| Folding unchanged lines
|28.10| Which fold method to use?
Next chapter: |usr_29.txt| Moving through programs
Previous chapter: |usr_27.txt| Search commands and patterns
==============================================================================
*28.1* What is folding?
Folding is used to show a range of lines in the buffer as a single line on the
screen. Like a piece of paper which is folded to make it shorter:
+------------------------+
| line 1 |
| line 2 |
| line 3 |
|_______________________ |
\ \
\________________________\
/ folded lines /
/________________________/
| line 12 |
| line 13 |
| line 14 |
+------------------------+
The text is still in the buffer, unchanged. Only the way lines are displayed
is affected by folding.
The advantage of folding is that you can get a better overview of the
structure of text, by folding lines of a section and replacing it with a line
that indicates that there is a section.
==============================================================================
*28.2* Manual folding
Try it out: Position the cursor in a paragraph and type:
zfap
You will see that the paragraph is replaced by a highlighted line. You have

created a fold. |zf| is an operator and |ap| a text object selection. You
can use the |zf| operator with any movement command to create a fold for the
text that it moved over. |zf| also works in Visual mode.
To view the text again, open the fold by typing:
zo
And you can close the fold again with:
zc
All the folding commands start with "z". With some fantasy, this looks like a
folded piece of paper, seen from the side. The letter after the "z" has a
mnemonic meaning to make it easier to remember the commands:
zf F-old creation
zo O-pen a fold
zc C-lose a fold
Folds can be nested: A region of text that contains folds can be folded
again. For example, you can fold each paragraph in this section, and then
fold all the sections in this chapter. Try it out. You will notice that
opening the fold for the whole chapter will restore the nested folds as they
were, some may be open and some may be closed.
Suppose you have created several folds, and now want to view all the text.
You could go to each fold and type "zo". To do this faster, use this command:
zr
This will R-educe the folding. The opposite is:
zm
This folds M-ore. You can repeat "zr" and "zm" to open and close nested folds
of several levels.
If you have nested several levels deep, you can open all of them with:
zR
This R-educes folds until there are none left. And you can close all folds
with:
zM
This folds M-ore and M-ore.
You can quickly disable the folding with the |zn| command. Then |zN| brings
back the folding as it was. |zi| toggles between the two. This is a useful
way of working:
- create folds to get overview on your file
- move around to where you want to do your work
- do |zi| to look at the text and edit it
- do |zi| again to go back to moving around
More about manual folding in the reference manual: |fold-manual|
==============================================================================
*28.3* Working with folds
When some folds are closed, movement commands like "j" and "k" move over a
fold like it was a single, empty line. This allows you to quickly move around
over folded text.
You can yank, delete and put folds as if it was a single line. This is very
useful if you want to reorder functions in a program. First make sure that
each fold contains a whole function (or a bit less) by selecting the right
'foldmethod'. Then delete the function with "dd", move the cursor and put it
with "p". If some lines of the function are above or below the fold, you can
use Visual selection:
- put the cursor on the first line to be moved
- hit "V" to start Visual mode
- put the cursor on the last line to be moved
- hit "d" to delete the selected lines.
- move the cursor to the new position and "p"ut the lines there.
It is sometimes difficult to see or remember where a fold is located, thus

where a |zo| command would actually work. To see the defined folds:
:set foldcolumn=4
This will show a small column on the left of the window to indicate folds.
A "+" is shown for a closed fold. A "-" is shown at the start of each open
fold and "|" at following lines of the fold.
You can use the mouse to open a fold by clicking on the "+" in the foldcolumn.
Clicking on the "-" or a "|" below it will close an open fold.
To open all folds at the cursor line use |zO|.
To close all folds at the cursor line use |zC|.
To delete a fold at the cursor line use |zd|.
To delete all folds at the cursor line use |zD|.
When in Insert mode, the fold at the cursor line is never closed. That allows
you to see what you type!
Folds are opened automatically when jumping around or moving the cursor left
or right. For example, the "0" command opens the fold under the cursor
(if 'foldopen' contains "hor", which is the default). The 'foldopen' option
can be changed to open folds for specific commands. If you want the line
under the cursor always to be open, do this:
:set foldopen=all
Warning: You won't be able to move onto a closed fold then. You might want to
use this only temporarily and then set it back to the default:
:set foldopen&
You can make folds close automatically when you move out of it:
:set foldclose=all
This will re-apply 'foldlevel' to all folds that don't contain the cursor.
You have to try it out if you like how this feels. Use |zm| to fold more and
|zr| to fold less (reduce folds).
The folding is local to the window. This allows you to open two windows on
the same buffer, one with folds and one without folds. Or one with all folds
closed and one with all folds open.
==============================================================================
*28.4* Saving and restoring folds
When you abandon a file (starting to edit another one), the state of the folds
is lost. If you come back to the same file later, all manually opened and
closed folds are back to their default. When folds have been created
manually, all folds are gone! To save the folds use the |:mkview| command:
:mkview
This will store the settings and other things that influence the view on the
file. You can change what is stored with the 'viewoptions' option.
When you come back to the same file later, you can load the view again:
:loadview
You can store up to ten views on one file. For example, to save the current
setup as the third view and load the second view:
:mkview 3
:loadview 2
Note that when you insert or delete lines the views might become invalid.
Also check out the 'viewdir' option, which specifies where the views are
stored. You might want to delete old views now and then.
==============================================================================
*28.5* Folding by indent
Defining folds with |zf| is a lot of work. If your text is structured by
giving lower level items a larger indent, you can use the indent folding
method. This will create folds for every sequence of lines with the same
indent. Lines with a larger indent will become nested folds. This works well
with many programming languages.

Try this by setting the 'foldmethod' option:

:set foldmethod=indent
Then you can use the |zm| and |zr| commands to fold more and reduce folding.
It's easy to see on this example text:
This line is not indented
This line is indented once
This line is indented twice
This line is indented twice
This line is not indented
Note that the relation between the amount of indent and the fold depth depends
on the 'shiftwidth' option. Each 'shiftwidth' worth of indent adds one to the
depth of the fold. This is called a fold level.
When you use the |zr| and |zm| commands you actually increase or decrease the
'foldlevel' option. You could also set it directly:
:set foldlevel=3
This means that all folds with three times a 'shiftwidth' indent or more will
be closed. The lower the foldlevel, the more folds will be closed. When
'foldlevel' is zero, all folds are closed. |zM| does set 'foldlevel' to zero.
The opposite command |zR| sets 'foldlevel' to the deepest fold level that is
present in the file.
Thus there are two ways to open and close the folds:
(A) By setting the fold level.
This gives a very quick way of "zooming out" to view the structure of the
text, move the cursor, and "zoom in" on the text again.
(B) By using |zo| and |zc| commands to open or close specific folds.
This allows opening only those folds that you want to be open, while other
folds remain closed.
This can be combined: You can first close most folds by using |zm| a few times
and then open a specific fold with |zo|. Or open all folds with |zR| and
then close specific folds with |zc|.
But you cannot manually define folds when 'foldmethod' is "indent", as that
would conflict with the relation between the indent and the fold level.
More about folding by indent in the reference manual: |fold-indent|
==============================================================================
*28.6* Folding with markers
Markers in the text are used to specify the start and end of a fold region.
This gives precise control over which lines are included in a fold. The
disadvantage is that the text needs to be modified.
Try it:
:set foldmethod=marker
Example text, as it could appear in a C program:
/* foobar () {{{ */
int foobar()
{
/* return a value {{{ */
return 42;
/* }}} */
}
/* }}} */
Notice that the folded line will display the text before the marker. This is
very useful to tell what the fold contains.
It's quite annoying when the markers don't pair up correctly after moving some
lines around. This can be avoided by using numbered markers. Example:
/* global variables {{{1 */

int varA, varB;

/* functions {{{1 */
/* funcA() {{{2 */
void funcA() {}
/* funcB() {{{2 */
void funcB() {}
/* }}}1 */
At every numbered marker a fold at the specified level begins. This will make
any fold at a higher level stop here. You can just use numbered start markers
to define all folds. Only when you want to explicitly stop a fold before
another starts you need to add an end marker.
More about folding with markers in the reference manual: |fold-marker|
==============================================================================
*28.7* Folding by syntax
For each language Vim uses a different syntax file. This defines the colors
for various items in the file. If you are reading this in Vim, in a terminal
that supports colors, the colors you see are made with the "help" syntax file.
In the syntax files it is possible to add syntax items that have the "fold"
argument. These define a fold region. This requires writing a syntax file
and adding these items in it. That's not so easy to do. But once it's done,
all folding happens automatically.
Here we'll assume you are using an existing syntax file. Then there is
nothing more to explain. You can open and close folds as explained above.
The folds will be created and deleted automatically when you edit the file.
More about folding by syntax in the reference manual: |fold-syntax|
==============================================================================
*28.8* Folding by expression
This is similar to folding by indent, but instead of using the indent of a
line a user function is called to compute the fold level of a line. You can
use this for text where something in the text indicates which lines belong
together. An example is an e-mail message where the quoted text is indicated
by a ">" before the line. To fold these quotes use this:
:set foldmethod=expr
:set
foldexpr=strlen(substitute(substitute(getline(v:lnum),'\\s','',\"g\"),'[^>].*','',''))
You can try it out on this text:
> quoted text he wrote
> quoted text he wrote
> > double quoted text I wrote
> > double quoted text I wrote
Explanation for the 'foldexpr' used in the example (inside out):
getline(v:lnum) gets the current line
substitute(...,'\\s','','g') removes all white space from the line
substitute(...,'[^>].*','','') removes everything after leading '>'s
strlen(...) counts the length of the string, which
is the number of '>'s found
Note that a backslash must be inserted before every space, double quote and
backslash for the ":set" command. If this confuses you, do
:set foldexpr
to check the actual resulting value. To correct a complicated expression, use
the command-line completion:
:set foldexpr=<Tab>
Where <Tab> is a real Tab. Vim will fill in the previous value, which you can
then edit.
When the expression gets more complicated you should put it in a function and
set 'foldexpr' to call that function.
More about folding by expression in the reference manual: |fold-expr|

==============================================================================
*28.9* Folding unchanged lines
This is useful when you set the 'diff' option in the same window. The
|vimdiff| command does this for you. Example:
:setlocal diff foldmethod=diff scrollbind nowrap foldlevel=1
Do this in every window that shows a different version of the same file. You
will clearly see the differences between the files, while the text that didn't
change is folded.
For more details see |fold-diff|.
==============================================================================
*28.10* Which fold method to use?
All these possibilities make you wonder which method you should choose.
Unfortunately, there is no golden rule. Here are some hints.
If there is a syntax file with folding for the language you are editing, that
is probably the best choice. If there isn't one, you might try to write it.
This requires a good knowledge of search patterns. It's not easy, but when
it's working you will not have to define folds manually.
Typing commands to manually fold regions can be used for unstructured text.
Then use the |:mkview| command to save and restore your folds.
The marker method requires you to change the file. If you are sharing the
files with other people or you have to meet company standards, you might not
be allowed to add them.
The main advantage of markers is that you can put them exactly where you
want them. That avoids that a few lines are missed when you cut and paste
folds. And you can add a comment about what is contained in the fold.
Folding by indent is something that works in many files, but not always very
well. Use it when you can't use one of the other methods. However, it is
very useful for outlining. Then you specifically use one 'shiftwidth' for
each nesting level.
Folding with expressions can make folds in almost any structured text. It is
quite simple to specify, especially if the start and end of a fold can easily
be recognized.
If you use the "expr" method to define folds, but they are not exactly how
you want them, you could switch to the "manual" method. This will not remove
the defined folds. Then you can delete or add folds manually.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_29.txt| Moving through programs
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file

Moving through programs
The creator of Vim is a computer programmer. It's no surprise that Vim

contains many features to aid in writing programs. Jump around to find where
identifiers are defined and used. Preview declarations in a separate window.
There is more in the next chapter.
|29.1| Using tags
|29.2| The preview window
|29.3| Moving through a program
|29.4| Finding global identifiers
|29.5| Finding local identifiers
Next chapter: |usr_30.txt| Editing programs
Previous chapter: |usr_28.txt| Folding
==============================================================================
*29.1* Using tags
What is a tag? It is a location where an identifier is defined. An example
is a function definition in a C or C++ program. A list of tags is kept in a
tags file. This can be used by Vim to directly jump from any place to the
tag, the place where an identifier is defined.
To generate the tags file for all C files in the current directory, use the
following command:
ctags *.c
"ctags" is a separate program. Most Unix systems already have it installed.
If you do not have it yet, you can find Exuberant ctags here:
http://ctags.sf.net
Now when you are in Vim and you want to go to a function definition, you can
jump to it by using the following command:
:tag startlist
This command will find the function "startlist" even if it is in another file.
The CTRL-] command jumps to the tag of the word that is under the cursor.
This makes it easy to explore a tangle of C code. Suppose, for example, that
you are in the function "write_block". You can see that it calls
"write_line". But what does "write_line" do? By placing the cursor on the
call to "write_line" and pressing CTRL-], you jump to the definition of this
function.
The "write_line" function calls "write_char". You need to figure out what
it does. So you position the cursor over the call to "write_char" and press
CTRL-]. Now you are at the definition of "write_char".
+-------------------------------------+
|void write_block(char **s; int cnt) |
|{ |
| int i; |
| for (i = 0; i < cnt; ++i) |
| write_line(s[i]); |
|} | |

+-----------|-------------------------+
|
CTRL-] |
| +----------------------------+
+--> |void write_line(char *s) |
|{ |
| while (*s != 0) |
| write_char(*s++); |
|} | |
+--------|-------------------+
|
CTRL-] |
| +------------------------------------+
+--> |void write_char(char c) |
|{ |
| putchar((int)(unsigned char)c); |
|} |
+------------------------------------+
The ":tags" command shows the list of tags that you traversed through:
:tags
1 1 write_line 8 write_block.c
2 1 write_char 7 write_line.c
>
Now to go back. The CTRL-T command goes to the preceding tag. In the example
above you get back to the "write_line" function, in the call to "write_char".
This command takes a count argument that indicates how many tags to jump
back. You have gone forward, and now back. Let's go forward again. The
following command goes to the tag on top of the list:
:tag
You can prefix it with a count and jump forward that many tags. For example:
":3tag". CTRL-T also can be preceded with a count.
These commands thus allow you to go down a call tree with CTRL-] and back
up again with CTRL-T. Use ":tags" to find out where you are.
SPLIT WINDOWS
The ":tag" command replaces the file in the current window with the one
containing the new function. But suppose you want to see not only the old
function but also the new one? You can split the window using the ":split"
command followed by the ":tag" command. Vim has a shorthand command that does
both:
:stag tagname
To split the current window and jump to the tag under the cursor use this
command:
CTRL-W ]
If a count is specified, the new window will be that many lines high.
MORE TAGS FILES

When you have files in many directories, you can create a tags file in each of
them. Vim will then only be able to jump to tags within that directory.
To find more tags files, set the 'tags' option to include all the relevant
tags files. Example:
:set tags=./tags,./../tags,./*/tags
This finds a tags file in the same directory as the current file, one
directory level higher and in all subdirectories.
This is quite a number of tags files, but it may still not be enough. For
example, when editing a file in "~/proj/src", you will not find the tags file
"~/proj/sub/tags". For this situation Vim offers to search a whole directory
tree for tags files. Example:
:set tags=~/proj/**/tags
ONE TAGS FILE

When Vim has to search many places for tags files, you can hear the disk

rattling. It may get a bit slow. In that case it's better to spend this
time while generating one big tags file. You might do this overnight.
This requires the Exuberant ctags program, mentioned above. It offers an
argument to search a whole directory tree:
cd ~/proj
ctags -R .
The nice thing about this is that Exuberant ctags recognizes various file
types. Thus this doesn't work just for C and C++ programs, also for Eiffel
and even Vim scripts. See the ctags documentation to tune this.
Now you only need to tell Vim where your big tags file is:
:set tags=~/proj/tags
MULTIPLE MATCHES
When a function is defined multiple times (or a method in several classes),
the ":tag" command will jump to the first one. If there is a match in the
current file, that one is used first.
You can now jump to other matches for the same tag with:
:tnext
Repeat this to find further matches. If there are many, you can select which
one to jump to:
:tselect tagname
Vim will present you with a list of choices:
# pri kind tag file
1 F f mch_init os_amiga.c
mch_init()
2 F f mch_init os_mac.c
mch_init()
3 F f mch_init os_msdos.c
mch_init(void)
4 F f mch_init os_riscos.c
mch_init()
You can now enter the number (in the first column) of the match that you would
like to jump to. The information in the other columns give you a good idea of
where the match is defined.
To move between the matching tags, these commands can be used:
:tfirst go to first match
:[count]tprevious go to [count] previous match
:[count]tnext go to [count] next match
:tlast go to last match
If [count] is omitted then one is used.
GUESSING TAG NAMES

Command line completion is a good way to avoid typing a long tag name. Just
type the first bit and press <Tab>:
:tag write_<Tab>
You will get the first match. If it's not the one you want, press <Tab> until
you find the right one.
Sometimes you only know part of the name of a function. Or you have many
tags that start with the same string, but end differently. Then you can tell
Vim to use a pattern to find the tag.
Suppose you want to jump to a tag that contains "block". First type
this:
:tag /block
Now use command line completion: press <Tab>. Vim will find all tags that
contain "block" and use the first match.
The "/" before a tag name tells Vim that what follows is not a literal tag
name, but a pattern. You can use all the items for search patterns here. For
example, suppose you want to select a tag that starts with "write_":

:tselect /^write_
The "^" specifies that the tag starts with "write_". Otherwise it would also
be found halfway a tag name. Similarly "$" at the end makes sure the pattern
matches until the end of a tag.
A TAGS BROWSER
Since CTRL-] takes you to the definition of the identifier under the cursor,
you can use a list of identifier names as a table of contents. Here is an
example.
First create a list of identifiers (this requires Exuberant ctags):
ctags --c-types=f -f functions *.c
Now start Vim without a file, and edit this file in Vim, in a vertically split
window:
vim
:vsplit functions
The window contains a list of all the functions. There is some more stuff,
but you can ignore that. Do ":setlocal ts=99" to clean it up a bit.
In this window, define a mapping:
:nnoremap <buffer> <CR> 0ye<C-W>w:tag <C-R>"<CR>
Move the cursor to the line that contains the function you want to go to.
Now press <Enter>. Vim will go to the other window and jump to the selected
function.
RELATED ITEMS
You can set 'ignorecase' to make case in tag names be ignored.
The 'tagbsearch' option tells if the tags file is sorted or not. The default
is to assume a sorted tags file, which makes a tags search a lot faster, but
doesn't work if the tags file isn't sorted.
The 'taglength' option can be used to tell Vim the number of significant
characters in a tag.
When you use the SNiFF+ program, you can use the Vim interface to it |sniff|.
SNiFF+ is a commercial program.
Cscope is a free program. It does not only find places where an identifier is
declared, but also where it is used. See |cscope|.
==============================================================================
*29.2* The preview window
When you edit code that contains a function call, you need to use the correct
arguments. To know what values to pass you can look at how the function is
defined. The tags mechanism works very well for this. Preferably the
definition is displayed in another window. For this the preview window can be
used.
To open a preview window to display the function "write_char":
:ptag write_char
Vim will open a window, and jumps to the tag "write_char". Then it takes you
back to the original position. Thus you can continue typing without the need
to use a CTRL-W command.
If the name of a function appears in the text, you can get its definition
in the preview window with:
CTRL-W }
There is a script that automatically displays the text where the word under
the cursor was defined. See |CursorHold-example|.
To close the preview window use this command:
:pclose
To edit a specific file in the preview window, use ":pedit". This can be

useful to edit a header file, for example:

:pedit defs.h
Finally, ":psearch" can be used to find a word in the current file and any
included files and display the match in the preview window. This is
especially useful when using library functions, for which you do not have a
tags file. Example:
:psearch popen
This will show the "stdio.h" file in the preview window, with the function
prototype for popen():
FILE *popen __P((const char *, const char *));
You can specify the height of the preview window, when it is opened, with the
'previewheight' option.
==============================================================================
*29.3* Moving through a program
Since a program is structured, Vim can recognize items in it. Specific
commands can be used to move around.
C programs often contain constructs like this:
#ifdef USE_POPEN
fd = popen("ls", "r")
#else
fd = fopen("tmp", "w")
#endif
But then much longer, and possibly nested. Position the cursor on the
"#ifdef" and press %. Vim will jump to the "#else". Pressing % again takes
you to the "#endif". Another % takes you to the "#ifdef" again.
When the construct is nested, Vim will find the matching items. This is a
good way to check if you didn't forget an "#endif".
When you are somewhere inside a "#if" - "#endif", you can jump to the start
of it with:
[#
If you are not after a "#if" or "#ifdef" Vim will beep. To jump forward to
the next "#else" or "#endif" use:
]#
These two commands skip any "#if" - "#endif" blocks that they encounter.
Example:
#if defined(HAS_INC_H)
a = a + inc();
# ifdef USE_THEME
a += 3;
# endif
set_width(a);
With the cursor in the last line, "[#" moves to the first line. The "#ifdef"
- "#endif" block in the middle is skipped.
MOVING IN CODE BLOCKS

In C code blocks are enclosed in {}. These can get pretty long. To move to
the start of the outer block use the "[[" command. Use "][" to find the end.
This assumes that the "{" and "}" are in the first column.
The "[{" command moves to the start of the current block. It skips over
pairs of {} at the same level. "]}" jumps to the end.
An overview:
function(int a)
+-> {
| if (a)
| +-> {
[[ | | for (;;) --+
| | +-> { |
| [{ | | foo(32); | --+
| | [{ | if (bar(a)) --+ | ]} |

+-- | +-- break; | ]} | |

| } <-+ | | ][
+-- foobar(a) | |
} <-+ |
} <-+
When writing C++ or Java, the outer {} block is for the class. The next level
of {} is for a method. When somewhere inside a class use "[m" to find the
previous start of a method. "]m" finds the next start of a method.
Additionally, "[]" moves backward to the end of a function and "]]" moves
forward to the start of the next function. The end of a function is defined
by a "}" in the first column.
int func1(void)
{
return 1;
+----------> }
|
[] | int func2(void)
| +-> {
| [[ | if (flag)
start +-- +-- return flag;
| ][ | return 2;
| +-> }
]] |
| int func3(void)
+----------> {
return 3;
}
Don't forget you can also use "%" to move between matching (), {} and [].
That also works when they are many lines apart.
MOVING IN BRACES
The "[(" and "])" commands work similar to "[{" and "]}", except that they
work on () pairs instead of {} pairs.
[(
<--------------------------------
<-------
if (a == b && (c == d || (e > f)) && x > y)
-------------->
-------------------------------->
])
MOVING IN COMMENTS
To move back to the start of a comment use "[/". Move forward to the end of a
comment with "]/". This only works for /* - */ comments.
+-> +-> /*
| [/ | * A comment about --+
[/ | +-- * wonderful life. | ]/
| */ <-+
|
+-- foo = bar * 3; --+
| ]/
/* a short comment */ <-+
==============================================================================
*29.4* Finding global identifiers
You are editing a C program and wonder if a variable is declared as "int" or
"unsigned". A quick way to find this is with the "[I" command.
Suppose the cursor is on the word "column". Type:
[I
Vim will list the matching lines it can find. Not only in the current file,
but also in all included files (and files included in them, etc.). The result
looks like this:
structs.h
1: 29 unsigned column; /* column number */
The advantage over using tags or the preview window is that included files are

searched. In most cases this results in the right declaration to be found.

Also when the tags file is out of date. Also when you don't have tags for the
included files.
However, a few things must be right for "[I" to do its work. First of all,
the 'include' option must specify how a file is included. The default value
works for C and C++. For other languages you will have to change it.
LOCATING INCLUDED FILES

Vim will find included files in the places specified with the 'path'
option. If a directory is missing, some include files will not be found. You
can discover this with this command:
:checkpath
It will list the include files that could not be found. Also files included
by the files that could be found. An example of the output:
--- Included files not found in path ---
<io.h>
vim.h -->
<functions.h>
<clib/exec_protos.h>
The "io.h" file is included by the current file and can't be found. "vim.h"
can be found, thus ":checkpath" goes into this file and checks what it
includes. The "functions.h" and "clib/exec_protos.h" files, included by
"vim.h" are not found.
Note:
Vim is not a compiler. It does not recognize "#ifdef" statements.
This means every "#include" statement is used, also when it comes
after "#if NEVER".
To fix the files that could not be found, add a directory to the 'path'
option. A good place to find out about this is the Makefile. Look out for
lines that contain "-I" items, like "-I/usr/local/X11". To add this directory
use:
:set path+=/usr/local/X11
When there are many subdirectories, you can use the "*" wildcard. Example:
:set path+=/usr/*/include
This would find files in "/usr/local/include" as well as "/usr/X11/include".
When working on a project with a whole nested tree of included files, the "**"
items is useful. This will search down in all subdirectories. Example:
:set path+=/projects/invent/**/include
This will find files in the directories:
/projects/invent/include
/projects/invent/main/include
/projects/invent/main/os/include
etc.
There are even more possibilities. Check out the 'path' option for info.
If you want to see which included files are actually found, use this
command:
:checkpath!
You will get a (very long) list of included files, the files they include, and
so on. To shorten the list a bit, Vim shows "(Already listed)" for files that
were found before and doesn't list the included files in there again.
JUMPING TO A MATCH
"[I" produces a list with only one line of text. When you want to have a
closer look at the first item, you can jump to that line with the command:
[<Tab>
You can also use "[ CTRL-I", since CTRL-I is the same as pressing <Tab>.

The list that "[I" produces has a number at the start of each line. When you
want to jump to another item than the first one, type the number first:
3[<Tab>
Will jump to the third item in the list. Remember that you can use CTRL-O to
jump back to where you started from.
RELATED COMMANDS
[i only lists the first match
]I only lists items below the cursor
]i only lists the first item below the cursor
FINDING DEFINED IDENTIFIERS

The "[I" command finds any identifier. To find only macros, defined with
"#define" use:
[D
Again, this searches in included files. The 'define' option specifies what a
line looks like that defines the items for "[D". You could change it to make
it work with other languages than C or C++.
The commands related to "[D" are:
[d only lists the first match
]D only lists items below the cursor
]d only lists the first item below the cursor
==============================================================================
*29.5* Finding local identifiers
The "[I" command searches included files. To search in the current file only,
and jump to the first place where the word under the cursor is used:
gD
Hint: Goto Definition. This command is very useful to find a variable or
function that was declared locally ("static", in C terms). Example (cursor on
"counter"):
+-> static int counter = 0;
|
| int get_counter(void)
gD | {
| ++counter;
+-- return counter;
}
To restrict the search even further, and look only in the current function,
use this command:
gd
This will go back to the start of the current function and find the first
occurrence of the word under the cursor. Actually, it searches backwards to
an empty line above a "{" in the first column. From there it searches forward
for the identifier. Example (cursor on "idx"):
int find_entry(char *name)
{
+-> int idx;
|
gd | for (idx = 0; idx < table_len; ++idx)
| if (strcmp(table[idx].name, name) == 0)
+-- return idx;
}
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_30.txt| Editing programs

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file

Editing programs
Vim has various commands that aid in writing computer programs. Compile a
program and directly jump to reported errors. Automatically set the indent
for many languages and format comments.
|30.1| Compiling
|30.2| Indenting C files
|30.3| Automatic indenting
|30.4| Other indenting
|30.5| Tabs and spaces
|30.6| Formatting comments
Next chapter: |usr_31.txt| Exploiting the GUI
Previous chapter: |usr_29.txt| Moving through programs
==============================================================================
*30.1* Compiling
Vim has a set of so called "quickfix" commands. They enable you to compile a
program from within Vim and then go through the errors generated and fix them
(hopefully). You can then recompile and fix any new errors that are found
until finally your program compiles without any error.
The following command runs the program "make" (supplying it with any argument
you give) and captures the results:
:make {arguments}
If errors were generated, they are captured and the editor positions you where
the first error occurred.
Take a look at an example ":make" session. (Typical :make sessions generate
far more errors and fewer stupid ones.) After typing ":make" the screen looks
like this:
:!make | &tee /tmp/vim215953.err
gcc -g -Wall -o prog main.c sub.c
main.c: In function 'main':
main.c:6: too many arguments to function 'do_sub'
main.c: At top level:
main.c:10: parse error before '}'
make: *** [prog] Error 1
2 returned
"main.c" 11L, 111C
(3 of 6): too many arguments to function 'do_sub'
Press ENTER or type command to continue
From this you can see that you have errors in the file "main.c". When you
press <Enter>, Vim displays the file "main.c", with the cursor positioned on
line 6, the first line with an error. You did not need to specify the file or
the line number, Vim knew where to go by looking in the error messages.
+---------------------------------------------------+
|int main() |

|{ |
| int i=3; |
cursor -> | do_sub("foo"); |
| ++i; |
| return (0); |
|} |
|} |
| ~ |
|(3 of 12): too many arguments to function 'do_sub' |
+---------------------------------------------------+
The following command goes to where the next error occurs:
:cnext
Vim jumps to line 10, the last line in the file, where there is an extra '}'.
When there is not enough room, Vim will shorten the error message. To see
the whole message use:
:cc
You can get an overview of all the error messages with the ":clist" command.
The output looks like this:
:clist
3 main.c: 6:too many arguments to function 'do_sub'
5 main.c: 10:parse error before '}'
Only the lines where Vim recognized a file name and line number are listed
here. It assumes those are the interesting lines and the rest is just boring
messages. However, sometimes unrecognized lines do contain something you want
to see. Output from the linker, for example, about an undefined function.
To see all the messages add a "!" to the command:
:clist!
1 gcc -g -Wall -o prog main.c sub.c
2 main.c: In function 'main':
3 main.c:6: too many arguments to function 'do_sub'
4 main.c: At top level:
5 main.c:10: parse error before '}'
6 make: *** [prog] Error 1
Vim will highlight the current error. To go back to the previous error, use:
:cprevious
Other commands to move around in the error list:
:cfirst to first error
:clast to last error
:cc 3 to error nr 3
USING ANOTHER COMPILER

The name of the program to run when the ":make" command is executed is defined
by the 'makeprg' option. Usually this is set to "make", but Visual C++ users
should set this to "nmake" by executing the following command:
:set makeprg=nmake
You can also include arguments in this option. Special characters need to
be escaped with a backslash. Example:
:set makeprg=nmake\ -f\ project.mak
You can include special Vim keywords in the command specification. The %
character expands to the name of the current file. So if you execute the
command:
:set makeprg=make\ %
When you are editing main.c, then ":make" executes the following command:
make main.c
This is not too useful, so you will refine the command a little and use the :r
(root) modifier:
:set makeprg=make\ %:r.o

Now the command executed is as follows:

make main.o
More about these modifiers here: |filename-modifiers|.
OLD ERROR LISTS

Suppose you ":make" a program. There is a warning message in one file and an
error message in another. You fix the error and use ":make" again to check if
it was really fixed. Now you want to look at the warning message. It doesn't
show up in the last error list, since the file with the warning wasn't
compiled again. You can go back to the previous error list with:
:colder
Then use ":clist" and ":cc {nr}" to jump to the place with the warning.
To go forward to the next error list:
:cnewer
Vim remembers ten error lists.
SWITCHING COMPILERS
You have to tell Vim what format the error messages are that your compiler
produces. This is done with the 'errorformat' option. The syntax of this
option is quite complicated and it can be made to fit almost any compiler.
You can find the explanation here: |errorformat|.
You might be using various different compilers. Setting the 'makeprg' option,
and especially the 'errorformat' each time is not easy. Vim offers a simple
method for this. For example, to switch to using the Microsoft Visual C++
compiler:
:compiler msvc
This will find the Vim script for the "msvc" compiler and set the appropriate
options.
You can write your own compiler files. See |write-compiler-plugin|.
OUTPUT REDIRECTION
The ":make" command redirects the output of the executed program to an error
file. How this works depends on various things, such as the 'shell'. If your
":make" command doesn't capture the output, check the 'makeef' and
'shellpipe' options. The 'shellquote' and 'shellxquote' options might also
matter.
In case you can't get ":make" to redirect the file for you, an alternative is
to compile the program in another window and redirect the output into a file.
Then have Vim read this file with:
:cfile {filename}
Jumping to errors will work like with the ":make" command.
==============================================================================
*30.2* Indenting C style text
A program is much easier to understand when the lines have been properly
indented. Vim offers various ways to make this less work. For C or C style
programs like Java or C++, set the 'cindent' option. Vim knows a lot about C
programs and will try very hard to automatically set the indent for you. Set
the 'shiftwidth' option to the amount of spaces you want for a deeper level.
Four spaces will work fine. One ":set" command will do it:
:set cindent shiftwidth=4
With this option enabled, when you type something such as "if (x)", the next
line will automatically be indented an additional level.
if (flag)
Automatic indent ---> do_the_work();
Automatic unindent <-- if (other_flag) {

Automatic indent ---> do_file();

keep indent do_some_more();
Automatic unindent <-- }
When you type something in curly braces ({}), the text will be indented at the
start and unindented at the end. The unindenting will happen after typing the
'}', since Vim can't guess what you are going to type.
One side effect of automatic indentation is that it helps you catch errors in
your code early. When you type a } to finish a function, only to find that
the automatic indentation gives it more indent than what you expected, there
is probably a } missing. Use the "%" command to find out which { matches the
} you typed.
A missing ) and ; also cause extra indent. Thus if you get more white
space than you would expect, check the preceding lines.
When you have code that is badly formatted, or you inserted and deleted lines,
you need to re-indent the lines. The "=" operator does this. The simplest
form is:
==
This indents the current line. Like with all operators, there are three ways
to use it. In Visual mode "=" indents the selected lines. A useful text
object is "a{". This selects the current {} block. Thus, to re-indent the
code block the cursor is in:
=a{
I you have really badly indented code, you can re-indent the whole file with:
gg=G
However, don't do this in files that have been carefully indented manually.
The automatic indenting does a good job, but in some situations you might want
to overrule it.
SETTING INDENT STYLE

Different people have different styles of indentation. By default Vim does a
pretty good job of indenting in a way that 90% of programmers do. There are
different styles, however; so if you want to, you can customize the
indentation style with the 'cinoptions' option.
By default 'cinoptions' is empty and Vim uses the default style. You can
add various items where you want something different. For example, to make
curly braces be placed like this:
if (flag)
{
i = 8;
j = 0;
}
Use this command:
:set cinoptions+={2
There are many of these items. See |cinoptions-values|.
==============================================================================
*30.3* Automatic indenting
You don't want to switch on the 'cindent' option manually every time you edit
a C file. This is how you make it work automatically:
:filetype indent on
Actually, this does a lot more than switching on 'cindent' for C files. First
of all, it enables detecting the type of a file. That's the same as what is
used for syntax highlighting.
When the filetype is known, Vim will search for an indent file for this
type of file. The Vim distribution includes a number of these for various
programming languages. This indent file will then prepare for automatic
indenting specifically for this file.
If you don't like the automatic indenting, you can switch it off again:
:filetype indent off

If you don't like the indenting for one specific type of file, this is how you
avoid it. Create a file with just this one line:
:let b:did_indent = 1
Now you need to write this in a file with a specific name:
{directory}/indent/{filetype}.vim
The {filetype} is the name of the file type, such as "cpp" or "java". You can
see the exact name that Vim detected with this command:
:set filetype
In this file the output is:
filetype=help
Thus you would use "help" for {filetype}.
For the {directory} part you need to use your runtime directory. Look at
the output of this command:
set runtimepath
Now use the first item, the name before the first comma. Thus if the output
looks like this:
runtimepath=~/.vim,/usr/local/share/vim/vim60/runtime,~/.vim/after
You use "~/.vim" for {directory}. Then the resulting file name is:
~/.vim/indent/help.vim
Instead of switching the indenting off, you could write your own indent file.
How to do that is explained here: |indent-expression|.
==============================================================================
*30.4* Other indenting
The most simple form of automatic indenting is with the 'autoindent' option.
It uses the indent from the previous line. A bit smarter is the 'smartindent'
option. This is useful for languages where no indent file is available.
'smartindent' is not as smart as 'cindent', but smarter than 'autoindent'.
With 'smartindent' set, an extra level of indentation is added for each {
and removed for each }. An extra level of indentation will also be added for
any of the words in the 'cinwords' option. Lines that begin with # are
treated specially: all indentation is removed. This is done so that
preprocessor directives will all start in column 1. The indentation is
restored for the next line.
CORRECTING INDENTS
When you are using 'autoindent' or 'smartindent' to get the indent of the
previous line, there will be many times when you need to add or remove one
'shiftwidth' worth of indent. A quick way to do this is using the CTRL-D and
CTRL-T commands in Insert mode.
For example, you are typing a shell script that is supposed to look like
this:
if test -n a; then
echo a
echo "-------"
fi
Start off by setting these options:
:set autoindent shiftwidth=3
You start by typing the first line, <Enter> and the start of the second line:
if test -n a; then
echo
Now you see that you need an extra indent. Type CTRL-T. The result:
if test -n a; then

echo
The CTRL-T command, in Insert mode, adds one 'shiftwidth' to the indent, no
matter where in the line you are.
You continue typing the second line, <Enter> and the third line. This time
the indent is OK. Then <Enter> and the last line. Now you have this:
if test -n a; then
echo a
echo "-------"
fi
To remove the superfluous indent in the last line press CTRL-D. This deletes
one 'shiftwidth' worth of indent, no matter where you are in the line.
When you are in Normal mode, you can use the ">>" and "<<" commands to
shift lines. ">" and "<" are operators, thus you have the usual three ways to
specify the lines you want to indent. A useful combination is:
>i{
This adds one indent to the current block of lines, inside {}. The { and }
lines themselves are left unmodified. ">a{" includes them. In this example
the cursor is on "printf":
original text after ">i{" after ">a{"
if (flag) if (flag) if (flag)
{ { {
printf("yes"); printf("yes"); printf("yes");
flag = 0; flag = 0; flag = 0;
} } }
==============================================================================
*30.5* Tabs and spaces
'tabstop' is set to eight by default. Although you can change it, you quickly
run into trouble later. Other programs won't know what tabstop value you
used. They probably use the default value of eight, and your text suddenly
looks very different. Also, most printers use a fixed tabstop value of eight.
Thus it's best to keep 'tabstop' alone. (If you edit a file which was written
with a different tabstop setting, see |25.3| for how to fix that.)
For indenting lines in a program, using a multiple of eight spaces makes
you quickly run into the right border of the window. Using a single space
doesn't provide enough visual difference. Many people prefer to use four
spaces, a good compromise.
Since a <Tab> is eight spaces and you want to use an indent of four spaces,
you can't use a <Tab> character to make your indent. There are two ways to
handle this:
1. Use a mix of <Tab> and space characters. Since a <Tab> takes the place of
eight spaces, you have fewer characters in your file. Inserting a <Tab>
is quicker than eight spaces. Backspacing works faster as well.
2. Use spaces only. This avoids the trouble with programs that use a
different tabstop value.
Fortunately, Vim supports both methods quite well.
SPACES AND TABS

If you are using a combination of tabs and spaces, you just edit normally.
The Vim defaults do a fine job of handling things.
You can make life a little easier by setting the 'softtabstop' option.
This option tells Vim to make the <Tab> key look and feel as if tabs were set
at the value of 'softtabstop', but actually use a combination of tabs and
spaces.
After you execute the following command, every time you press the <Tab> key
the cursor moves to the next 4-column boundary:
:set softtabstop=4
When you start in the first column and press <Tab>, you get 4 spaces inserted
in your text. The second time, Vim takes out the 4 spaces and puts in a <Tab>
(thus taking you to column 8). Thus Vim uses as many <Tab>s as possible, and
then fills up with spaces.
When backspacing it works the other way around. A <BS> will always delete
the amount specified with 'softtabstop'. Then <Tab>s are used as many as

possible and spaces to fill the gap.

The following shows what happens pressing <Tab> a few times, and then using
<BS>. A "." stands for a space and "------->" for a <Tab>.
type result
<Tab> ....
<Tab><Tab> ------->
<Tab><Tab><Tab> ------->....
<Tab><Tab><Tab><BS> ------->
<Tab><Tab><Tab><BS><BS> ....
An alternative is to use the 'smarttab' option. When it's set, Vim uses
'shiftwidth' for a <Tab> typed in the indent of a line, and a real <Tab> when
typed after the first non-blank character. However, <BS> doesn't work like
with 'softtabstop'.
JUST SPACES
If you want absolutely no tabs in your file, you can set the 'expandtab'
option:
:set expandtab
When this option is set, the <Tab> key inserts a series of spaces. Thus you
get the same amount of white space as if a <Tab> character was inserted, but
there isn't a real <Tab> character in your file.
The backspace key will delete each space by itself. Thus after typing one
<Tab> you have to press the <BS> key up to eight times to undo it. If you are
in the indent, pressing CTRL-D will be a lot quicker.
CHANGING TABS IN SPACES (AND BACK)

Setting 'expandtab' does not affect any existing tabs. In other words, any
tabs in the document remain tabs. If you want to convert tabs to spaces, use
the ":retab" command. Use these commands:
:set expandtab
:%retab
Now Vim will have changed all indents to use spaces instead of tabs. However,
all tabs that come after a non-blank character are kept. If you want these to
be converted as well, add a !:
:%retab!
This is a little bit dangerous, because it can also change tabs inside a
string. To check if these exist, you could use this:
/"[^"\t]*\t[^"]*"
It's recommended not to use hard tabs inside a string. Replace them with
"\t" to avoid trouble.
The other way around works just as well:
:set noexpandtab
:%retab!
==============================================================================
*30.6* Formatting comments
One of the great things about Vim is that it understands comments. You can
ask Vim to format a comment and it will do the right thing.
Suppose, for example, that you have the following comment:
/*
* This is a test
* of the text formatting.
*/
You then ask Vim to format it by positioning the cursor at the start of the
comment and type:
gq]/
"gq" is the operator to format text. "]/" is the motion that takes you to the

end of a comment. The result is:

/*
* This is a test of the text formatting.
*/
Notice that Vim properly handled the beginning of each line.
An alternative is to select the text that is to be formatted in Visual mode
and type "gq".
To add a new line to the comment, position the cursor on the middle line and
press "o". The result looks like this:
/*
*
*/
Vim has automatically inserted a star and a space for you. Now you can type
the comment text. When it gets longer than 'textwidth', Vim will break the
line. Again, the star is inserted automatically:
/*
* Typing a lot of text here will make Vim
* break
*/
For this to work some flags must be present in 'formatoptions':
r insert the star when typing <Enter> in Insert mode
o insert the star when using "o" or "O" in Normal mode
c break comment text according to 'textwidth'
See |fo-table| for more flags.
DEFINING A COMMENT
The 'comments' option defines what a comment looks like. Vim distinguishes
between a single-line comment and a comment that has a different start, end
and middle part.
Many single-line comments start with a specific character. In C++ // is
used, in Makefiles #, in Vim scripts ". For example, to make Vim understand
C++ comments:
:set comments=://
The colon separates the flags of an item from the text by which the comment is
recognized. The general form of an item in 'comments' is:
{flags}:{text}
The {flags} part can be empty, as in this case.
Several of these items can be concatenated, separated by commas. This
allows recognizing different types of comments at the same time. For example,
let's edit an e-mail message. When replying, the text that others wrote is
preceded with ">" and "!" characters. This command would work:
:set comments=n:>,n:!
There are two items, one for comments starting with ">" and one for comments
that start with "!". Both use the flag "n". This means that these comments
nest. Thus a line starting with ">" may have another comment after the ">".
This allows formatting a message like this:
> ! Did you see that site?
> ! It looks really great.
> I don't like it. The
> colors are terrible.
What is the URL of that
site?
Try setting 'textwidth' to a different value, e.g., 80, and format the text by
Visually selecting it and typing "gq". The result is:
> ! Did you see that site? It looks really great.
> I don't like it. The colors are terrible.
What is the URL of that site?

You will notice that Vim did not move text from one type of comment to
another. The "I" in the second line would have fit at the end of the first
line, but since that line starts with "> !" and the second line with ">", Vim
knows that this is a different kind of comment.
A THREE PART COMMENT

A C comment starts with "/*", has "*" in the middle and "*/" at the end. The
entry in 'comments' for this looks like this:
:set comments=s1:/*,mb:*,ex:*/
The start is defined with "s1:/*". The "s" indicates the start of a
three-piece comment. The colon separates the flags from the text by which the
comment is recognized: "/*". There is one flag: "1". This tells Vim that the
middle part has an offset of one space.
The middle part "mb:*" starts with "m", which indicates it is a middle
part. The "b" flag means that a blank must follow the text. Otherwise Vim
would consider text like "*pointer" also to be the middle of a comment.
The end part "ex:*/" has the "e" for identification. The "x" flag has a
special meaning. It means that after Vim automatically inserted a star,
typing / will remove the extra space.
For more details see |format-comments|.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_31.txt| Exploiting the GUI
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Exploiting the GUI
Vim works well in a terminal, but the GUI has a few extra items. A file
browser can be used for commands that use a file. A dialog to make a choice
between alternatives. Use keyboard shortcuts to access menu items quickly.
|31.2| Confirmation
|31.3| Menu shortcuts
|31.4| Vim window position and size
|31.5| Various
Next chapter: |usr_32.txt| The undo tree
Previous chapter: |usr_30.txt| Editing programs
==============================================================================
*31.1* The file browser
When using the File/Open... menu you get a file browser. This makes it easier
to find the file you want to edit. But what if you want to split a window to
edit another file? There is no menu entry for this. You could first use
Window/Split and then File/Open..., but that's more work.
Since you are typing most commands in Vim, opening the file browser with a
typed command is possible as well. To make the split command use the file
browser, prepend "browse":
:browse split
Select a file and then the ":split" command will be executed with it. If you
cancel the file dialog nothing happens, the window isn't split.
You can also specify a file name argument. This is used to tell the file
browser where to start. Example:
:browse split /etc
The file browser will pop up, starting in the directory "/etc".
The ":browse" command can be prepended to just about any command that opens a
file.
If no directory is specified, Vim will decide where to start the file
browser. By default it uses the same directory as the last time. Thus when
you used ":browse split" and selected a file in "/usr/local/share", the next
time you use a ":browse" it will start in "/usr/local/share" again.
This can be changed with the 'browsedir' option. It can have one of three
values:
last Use the last directory browsed (default)
buffer Use the same directory as the current buffer
current use the current directory
For example, when you are in the directory "/usr", editing the file
"/usr/local/share/readme", then the command:
:set browsedir=buffer
:browse edit

Will start the browser in "/usr/local/share". Alternatively:

:set browsedir=current
:browse edit
Will start the browser in "/usr".
Note:
To avoid using the mouse, most file browsers offer using key presses
to navigate. Since this is different for every system, it is not
explained here. Vim uses a standard browser when possible, your
system documentation should contain an explanation on the keyboard
shortcuts somewhere.
When you are not using the GUI version, you could use the file explorer window
to select files like in a file browser. However, this doesn't work for the
":browse" command. See |netrw-browse|.
==============================================================================
*31.2* Confirmation
Vim protects you from accidentally overwriting a file and other ways to lose
changes. If you do something that might be a bad thing to do, Vim produces an
error message and suggests appending ! if you really want to do it.
To avoid retyping the command with the !, you can make Vim give you a
dialog. You can then press "OK" or "Cancel" to tell Vim what you want.
For example, you are editing a file and made changes to it. You start
editing another file with:
:confirm edit foo.txt
Vim will pop up a dialog that looks something like this:
+-----------------------------------+
| |
| ? Save changes to "bar.txt"? |
| |
| YES NO CANCEL |
+-----------------------------------+
Now make your choice. If you do want to save the changes, select "YES". If
you want to lose the changes for ever: "NO". If you forgot what you were
doing and want to check what really changed use "CANCEL". You will be back in
the same file, with the changes still there.
Just like ":browse", the ":confirm" command can be prepended to most commands
that edit another file. They can also be combined:
:confirm browse edit
This will produce a dialog when the current buffer was changed. Then it will
pop up a file browser to select the file to edit.
Note:
In the dialog you can use the keyboard to select the choice.
Typically the <Tab> key and the cursor keys change the choice.
Pressing <Enter> selects the choice. This depends on the system
though.
When you are not using the GUI, the ":confirm" command works as well. Instead
of popping up a dialog, Vim will print the message at the bottom of the Vim
window and ask you to press a key to make a choice.
:confirm edit main.c
Save changes to "Untitled"?
[Y]es, (N)o, (C)ancel:
You can now press the single key for the choice. You don't have to press
<Enter>, unlike other typing on the command line.
==============================================================================
*31.3* Menu shortcuts
The keyboard is used for all Vim commands. The menus provide a simple way to
select commands, without knowing what they are called. But you have to move
your hand from the keyboard and grab the mouse.
Menus can often be selected with keys as well. This depends on your
system, but most often it works this way. Use the <Alt> key in combination

with the underlined letter of a menu. For example, <A-w> (<Alt> and w) pops
up the Window menu.
In the Window menu, the "split" item has the p underlined. To select it,
let go of the <Alt> key and press p.
After the first selection of a menu with the <Alt> key, you can use the cursor
keys to move through the menus. <Right> selects a submenu and <left> closes
it. <Esc> also closes a menu. <Enter> selects a menu item.
There is a conflict between using the <Alt> key to select menu items, and
using <Alt> key combinations for mappings. The 'winaltkeys' option tells Vim
what it should do with the <Alt> key.
The default value "menu" is the smart choice: If the key combination is a
menu shortcut it can't be mapped. All other keys are available for mapping.
The value "no" doesn't use any <Alt> keys for the menus. Thus you must use
the mouse for the menus, and all <Alt> keys can be mapped.
The value "yes" means that Vim will use any <Alt> keys for the menus. Some
<Alt> key combinations may also do other things than selecting a menu.
==============================================================================
*31.4* Vim window position and size
To see the current Vim window position on the screen use:
:winpos
This will only work in the GUI. The output may look like this:
Window position: X 272, Y 103
The position is given in screen pixels. Now you can use the numbers to move
Vim somewhere else. For example, to move it to the left a hundred pixels:
:winpos 172 103
Note:
There may be a small offset between the reported position and where
the window moves. This is because of the border around the window.
This is added by the window manager.
You can use this command in your startup script to position the window at a
specific position.
The size of the Vim window is computed in characters. Thus this depends on
the size of the font being used. You can see the current size with this
command:
:set lines columns
To change the size set the 'lines' and/or 'columns' options to a new value:
:set lines=50
:set columns=80
Obtaining the size works in a terminal just like in the GUI. Setting the size
is not possible in most terminals.
You can start the X-Windows version of gvim with an argument to specify the
size and position of the window:
gvim -geometry {width}x{height}+{x_offset}+{y_offset}
{width} and {height} are in characters, {x_offset} and {y_offset} are in
pixels. Example:
gvim -geometry 80x25+100+300
==============================================================================
*31.5* Various
You can use gvim to edit an e-mail message. In your e-mail program you must
select gvim to be the editor for messages. When you try that, you will
see that it doesn't work: The mail program thinks that editing is finished,
while gvim is still running!
What happens is that gvim disconnects from the shell it was started in.
That is fine when you start gvim in a terminal, so that you can do other work
in that terminal. But when you really want to wait for gvim to finish, you
must prevent it from disconnecting. The "-f" argument does this:

gvim -f file.txt
The "-f" stands for foreground. Now Vim will block the shell it was started
in until you finish editing and exit.
DELAYED START OF THE GUI

On Unix it's possible to first start Vim in a terminal. That's useful if you
do various tasks in the same shell. If you are editing a file and decide you
want to use the GUI after all, you can start it with:
:gui
Vim will open the GUI window and no longer use the terminal. You can continue
using the terminal for something else. The "-f" argument is used here to run
the GUI in the foreground. You can also use ":gui -f".
THE GVIM STARTUP FILE

When gvim starts, it reads the gvimrc file. That's similar to the vimrc file
used when starting Vim. The gvimrc file can be used for settings and commands
that are only to be used when the GUI is going to be started. For example,
you can set the 'lines' option to set a different window size:
:set lines=55
You don't want to do this in a terminal, since its size is fixed (except for
an xterm that supports resizing).
The gvimrc file is searched for in the same locations as the vimrc file.
Normally its name is "~/.gvimrc" for Unix and "$VIM/_gvimrc" for MS-Windows.
The $MYGVIMRC environment variable is set to it, thus you can use this command
to edit the file, if you have one:
:edit $MYGVIMRC
If for some reason you don't want to use the normal gvimrc file, you can
specify another one with the "-U" argument:
gvim -U thisrc ...
That allows starting gvim for different kinds of editing. You could set
another font size, for example.
To completely skip reading a gvimrc file:
gvim -U NONE ...
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_32.txt| The undo tree
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The undo tree
Vim provides multi-level undo. If you undo a few changes and then make a new
change you create a branch in the undo tree. This text is about moving
through the branches.
|32.1| Undo up to a file write
|32.2| Numbering changes
|32.3| Jumping around the tree
|32.4| Time travelling
Next chapter: |usr_40.txt| Make new commands
Previous chapter: |usr_31.txt| Exploiting the GUI
==============================================================================
*32.1* Undo up to a file write
Sometimes you make several changes, and then discover you want to go back to
when you have last written the file. You can do that with this command:
:earlier 1f
The "f" stands for "file" here.
You can repeat this command to go further back in the past. Or use a count
different from 1 to go back faster.
If you go back too far, go forward again with:
:later 1f
Note that these commands really work in time sequence. This matters if you
made changes after undoing some changes. It's explained in the next section.
Also note that we are talking about text writes here. For writing the undo
information in a file see |undo-persistence|.
==============================================================================
*32.2* Numbering changes
In section |02.5| we only discussed one line of undo/redo. But it is also
possible to branch off. This happens when you undo a few changes and then
make a new change. The new changes become a branch in the undo tree.
Let's start with the text "one". The first change to make is to append
" too". And then move to the first 'o' and change it into 'w'. We then have
two changes, numbered 1 and 2, and three states of the text:
one
|
change 1
|
one too
|
change 2

|
one two
If we now undo one change, back to "one too", and change "one" to "me" we
create a branch in the undo tree:
one
|
change 1
|
one too
/ \
change 2 change 3
| |
one two me too
You can now use the |u| command to undo. If you do this twice you get to
"one". Use |CTRL-R| to redo, and you will go to "one too". One more |CTRL-R|
takes you to "me too". Thus undo and redo go up and down in the tree, using
the branch that was last used.
What matters here is the order in which the changes are made. Undo and redo
are not considered changes in this context. After each change you have a new
state of the text.
Note that only the changes are numbered, the text shown in the tree above has
no identifier. They are mostly referred to by the number of the change above
it. But sometimes by the number of one of the changes below it, especially
when moving up in the tree, so that you know which change was just undone.
==============================================================================
*32.3* Jumping around the tree
So how do you get to "one two" now? You can use this command:
:undo 2
The text is now "one two", you are below change 2. You can use the |:undo|
command to jump to below any change in the tree.
Now make another change: change "one" to "not":
one
|
change 1
|
one too
/ \
change 2 change 3
| |
one two me too
|
change 4
|
not two
Now you change your mind and want to go back to "me too". Use the |g-|
command. This moves back in time. Thus it doesn't walk the tree upwards or
downwards, but goes to the change made before.
You can repeat |g-| and you will see the text change:
me too
one two
one too
one
Use |g+| to move forward in time:
one
one too
one two
me too
not two
Using |:undo| is useful if you know what change you want to jump to. |g-| and
|g+| are useful if you don't know exactly what the change number is.
You can type a count before |g-| and |g+| to repeat them.

==============================================================================
*32.4* Time travelling
When you have been working on text for a while the tree grows to become big.
Then you may want to go to the text of some minutes ago.
To see what branches there are in the undo tree use this command:
:undolist
number changes time
3 2 16 seconds ago
4 3 5 seconds ago
Here you can see the number of the leaves in each branch and when the change
was made. Assuming we are below change 4, at "not two", you can go back ten
seconds with this command:
:earlier 10s
Depending on how much time you took for the changes you end up at a certain
position in the tree. The |:earlier| command argument can be "m" for minutes,
"h" for hours and "d" for days. To go all the way back use a big number:
:earlier 100d
To travel forward in time again use the |:later| command:
:later 1m
The arguments are "s", "m" and "h", just like with |:earlier|.
If you want even more details, or want to manipulate the information, you can
use the |undotree()| function. To see what it returns:
:echo undotree()
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_40.txt| Make new commands
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Make new commands
Vim is an extensible editor. You can take a sequence of commands you use
often and turn it into a new command. Or redefine an existing command.
Autocommands make it possible to execute commands automatically.
|40.1| Key mapping
|40.2| Defining command-line commands
|40.3| Autocommands
Next chapter: |usr_41.txt| Write a Vim script
Previous chapter: |usr_32.txt| The undo tree
==============================================================================
*40.1* Key mapping
A simple mapping was explained in section |05.3|. The principle is that one
sequence of key strokes is translated into another sequence of key strokes.
This is a simple, yet powerful mechanism.
The simplest form is that one key is mapped to a sequence of keys. Since
the function keys, except <F1>, have no predefined meaning in Vim, these are
good choices to map. Example:
:map <F2> GoDate: <Esc>:read !date<CR>kJ
This shows how three modes are used. After going to the last line with "G",
the "o" command opens a new line and starts Insert mode. The text "Date: " is
inserted and <Esc> takes you out of insert mode.
Notice the use of special keys inside <>. This is called angle bracket
notation. You type these as separate characters, not by pressing the key
itself. This makes the mappings better readable and you can copy and paste
the text without problems.
The ":" character takes Vim to the command line. The ":read !date" command
reads the output from the "date" command and appends it below the current
line. The <CR> is required to execute the ":read" command.
At this point of execution the text looks like this:
Date:
Fri Jun 15 12:54:34 CEST 2001
Now "kJ" moves the cursor up and joins the lines together.
To decide which key or keys you use for mapping, see |map-which-keys|.
MAPPING AND MODES

The ":map" command defines remapping for keys in Normal mode. You can also
define mappings for other modes. For example, ":imap" applies to Insert mode.
You can use it to insert a date below the cursor:
:imap <F2> <CR>Date: <Esc>:read !date<CR>kJ
It looks a lot like the mapping for <F2> in Normal mode, only the start is
different. The <F2> mapping for Normal mode is still there. Thus you can map
the same key differently for each mode.
Notice that, although this mapping starts in Insert mode, it ends in Normal

mode. If you want it to continue in Insert mode, append an "a" to the

mapping.
Here is an overview of map commands and in which mode they work:
:map Normal, Visual and Operator-pending
:vmap Visual
:nmap Normal
:omap Operator-pending
:map! Insert and Command-line
:imap Insert
:cmap Command-line
Operator-pending mode is when you typed an operator character, such as "d" or
"y", and you are expected to type the motion command or a text object. Thus
when you type "dw", the "w" is entered in operator-pending mode.
Suppose that you want to define <F7> so that the command d<F7> deletes a C
program block (text enclosed in curly braces, {}). Similarly y<F7> would yank
the program block into the unnamed register. Therefore, what you need to do
is to define <F7> to select the current program block. You can do this with
:omap <F7> a{
This causes <F7> to perform a select block "a{" in operator-pending mode, just
like you typed it. This mapping is useful if typing a { on your keyboard is a
bit difficult.
LISTING MAPPINGS
To see the currently defined mappings, use ":map" without arguments. Or one
of the variants that include the mode in which they work. The output could
look like this:
_g :call MyGrep(1)<CR>
v <F2> :s/^/> /<CR>:noh<CR>``
n <F2> :.,$s/^/> /<CR>:noh<CR>``
<xHome> <Home>
<xEnd> <End>
The first column of the list shows in which mode the mapping is effective.
This is "n" for Normal mode, "i" for Insert mode, etc. A blank is used for a
mapping defined with ":map", thus effective in both Normal and Visual mode.
One useful purpose of listing the mapping is to check if special keys in <>
form have been recognized (this only works when color is supported). For
example, when <Esc> is displayed in color, it stands for the escape character.
When it has the same color as the other text, it is five characters.
REMAPPING
The result of a mapping is inspected for other mappings in it. For example,
the mappings for <F2> above could be shortened to:
:map <F2> G<F3>
:imap <F2> <Esc><F3>
:map <F3> oDate: <Esc>:read !date<CR>kJ
For Normal mode <F2> is mapped to go to the last line, and then behave like
<F3> was pressed. In Insert mode <F2> stops Insert mode with <Esc> and then
also uses <F3>. Then <F3> is mapped to do the actual work.
Suppose you hardly ever use Ex mode, and want to use the "Q" command to format
text (this was so in old versions of Vim). This mapping will do it:
:map Q gq
But, in rare cases you need to use Ex mode anyway. Let's map "gQ" to Q, so
that you can still go to Ex mode:
:map gQ Q
What happens now is that when you type "gQ" it is mapped to "Q". So far so
good. But then "Q" is mapped to "gq", thus typing "gQ" results in "gq", and
you don't get to Ex mode at all.
To avoid keys to be mapped again, use the ":noremap" command:

:noremap gQ Q
Now Vim knows that the "Q" is not to be inspected for mappings that apply to
it. There is a similar command for every mode:
:noremap Normal, Visual and Operator-pending
:vnoremap Visual
:nnoremap Normal
:onoremap Operator-pending
:noremap! Insert and Command-line
:inoremap Insert
:cnoremap Command-line
RECURSIVE MAPPING
When a mapping triggers itself, it will run forever. This can be used to
repeat an action an unlimited number of times.
For example, you have a list of files that contain a version number in the
first line. You edit these files with "vim *.txt". You are now editing the
first file. Define this mapping:
:map ,, :s/5.1/5.2/<CR>:wnext<CR>,,
Now you type ",,". This triggers the mapping. It replaces "5.1" with "5.2"
in the first line. Then it does a ":wnext" to write the file and edit the
next one. The mapping ends in ",,". This triggers the same mapping again,
thus doing the substitution, etc.
This continues until there is an error. In this case it could be a file
where the substitute command doesn't find a match for "5.1". You can then
make a change to insert "5.1" and continue by typing ",," again. Or the
":wnext" fails, because you are in the last file in the list.
When a mapping runs into an error halfway, the rest of the mapping is
discarded. CTRL-C interrupts the mapping (CTRL-Break on MS-Windows).
DELETE A MAPPING
To remove a mapping use the ":unmap" command. Again, the mode the unmapping
applies to depends on the command used:
:unmap Normal, Visual and Operator-pending
:vunmap Visual
:nunmap Normal
:ounmap Operator-pending
:unmap! Insert and Command-line
:iunmap Insert
:cunmap Command-line
There is a trick to define a mapping that works in Normal and Operator-pending
mode, but not in Visual mode. First define it for all three modes, then
delete it for Visual mode:
:map <C-A> /---><CR>
:vunmap <C-A>
Notice that the five characters "<C-A>" stand for the single key CTRL-A.
To remove all mappings use the |:mapclear| command. You can guess the
variations for different modes by now. Be careful with this command, it can't
be undone.
SPECIAL CHARACTERS
The ":map" command can be followed by another command. A | character
separates the two commands. This also means that a | character can't be used
inside a map command. To include one, use <Bar> (five characters). Example:
:map <F8> :write <Bar> !checkin %<CR>
The same problem applies to the ":unmap" command, with the addition that you
have to watch out for trailing white space. These two commands are different:
:unmap a | unmap b
:unmap a| unmap b
The first command tries to unmap "a ", with a trailing space.
When using a space inside a mapping, use <Space> (seven characters):

:map <Space> W
This makes the spacebar move a blank-separated word forward.
It is not possible to put a comment directly after a mapping, because the "
character is considered to be part of the mapping. You can use |", this
starts a new, empty command with a comment. Example:
:map <Space> W| " Use spacebar to move forward a word
MAPPINGS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviations are a lot like Insert mode mappings. The arguments are handled
in the same way. The main difference is the way they are triggered. An
abbreviation is triggered by typing a non-word character after the word. A
mapping is triggered when typing the last character.
Another difference is that the characters you type for an abbreviation are
inserted in the text while you type them. When the abbreviation is triggered
these characters are deleted and replaced by what the abbreviation produces.
When typing the characters for a mapping, nothing is inserted until you type
the last character that triggers it. If the 'showcmd' option is set, the
typed characters are displayed in the last line of the Vim window.
An exception is when a mapping is ambiguous. Suppose you have done two
mappings:
:imap aa foo
:imap aaa bar
Now, when you type "aa", Vim doesn't know if it should apply the first or the
second mapping. It waits for another character to be typed. If it is an "a",
the second mapping is applied and results in "bar". If it is a space, for
example, the first mapping is applied, resulting in "foo", and then the space
is inserted.
ADDITIONALLY...
The <script> keyword can be used to make a mapping local to a script. See
|:map-<script>|.
The <buffer> keyword can be used to make a mapping local to a specific buffer.
See |:map-<buffer>|
The <unique> keyword can be used to make defining a new mapping fail when it
already exists. Otherwise a new mapping simply overwrites the old one. See
|:map-<unique>|.
To make a key do nothing, map it to <Nop> (five characters). This will make
the <F7> key do nothing at all:
:map <F7> <Nop>| map! <F7> <Nop>
There must be no space after <Nop>.
==============================================================================
*40.2* Defining command-line commands
The Vim editor enables you to define your own commands. You execute these
commands just like any other Command-line mode command.
To define a command, use the ":command" command, as follows:
:command DeleteFirst 1delete
Now when you execute the command ":DeleteFirst" Vim executes ":1delete", which
deletes the first line.
Note:
User-defined commands must start with a capital letter. You cannot
use ":X", ":Next" and ":Print". The underscore cannot be used! You
can use digits, but this is discouraged.
To list the user-defined commands, execute the following command:
:command
Just like with the builtin commands, the user defined commands can be
abbreviated. You need to type just enough to distinguish the command from

another. Command line completion can be used to get the full name.
NUMBER OF ARGUMENTS
User-defined commands can take a series of arguments. The number of arguments
must be specified by the -nargs option. For instance, the example
:DeleteFirst command takes no arguments, so you could have defined it as
follows:
:command -nargs=0 DeleteFirst 1delete
However, because zero arguments is the default, you do not need to add
"-nargs=0". The other values of -nargs are as follows:
-nargs=0 No arguments
-nargs=1 One argument
-nargs=* Any number of arguments
-nargs=? Zero or one argument
-nargs=+ One or more arguments
USING THE ARGUMENTS

Inside the command definition, the arguments are represented by the
<args> keyword. For example:
:command -nargs=+ Say :echo "<args>"
Now when you type
:Say Hello World
Vim echoes "Hello World". However, if you add a double quote, it won't work.
For example:
:Say he said "hello"
To get special characters turned into a string, properly escaped to use as an
expression, use "<q-args>":
:command -nargs=+ Say :echo <q-args>
Now the above ":Say" command will result in this to be executed:
:echo "he said \"hello\""
The <f-args> keyword contains the same information as the <args> keyword,
except in a format suitable for use as function call arguments. For example:
:command -nargs=* DoIt :call AFunction(<f-args>)
:DoIt a b c
Executes the following command:
:call AFunction("a", "b", "c")
LINE RANGE
Some commands take a range as their argument. To tell Vim that you are
defining such a command, you need to specify a -range option. The values for
this option are as follows:
-range Range is allowed; default is the current line.
-range=% Range is allowed; default is the whole file.
-range={count} Range is allowed; the last number in it is used as a
single number whose default is {count}.
When a range is specified, the keywords <line1> and <line2> get the values of
the first and last line in the range. For example, the following command
defines the SaveIt command, which writes out the specified range to the file
"save_file":
:command -range=% SaveIt :<line1>,<line2>write! save_file
OTHER OPTIONS
Some of the other options and keywords are as follows:

-count={number} The command can take a count whose default is

{number}. The resulting count can be used
through the <count> keyword.
-bang You can use a !. If present, using <bang> will
result in a !.
-register You can specify a register. (The default is
the unnamed register.)
The register specification is available as
<reg> (a.k.a. <register>).
-complete={type} Type of command-line completion used. See
|:command-completion| for the list of possible
values.
-bar The command can be followed by | and another
command, or " and a comment.
-buffer The command is only available for the current
buffer.
Finally, you have the <lt> keyword. It stands for the character <. Use this
to escape the special meaning of the <> items mentioned.
REDEFINING AND DELETING

To redefine the same command use the ! argument:
:command -nargs=+ Say :echo "<args>"
:command! -nargs=+ Say :echo <q-args>
To delete a user command use ":delcommand". It takes a single argument, which
is the name of the command. Example:
:delcommand SaveIt
To delete all the user commands:
:comclear
Careful, this can't be undone!
More details about all this in the reference manual: |user-commands|.
==============================================================================
*40.3* Autocommands
An autocommand is a command that is executed automatically in response to some
event, such as a file being read or written or a buffer change. Through the
use of autocommands you can train Vim to edit compressed files, for example.
That is used in the |gzip| plugin.
Autocommands are very powerful. Use them with care and they will help you
avoid typing many commands. Use them carelessly and they will cause a lot of
trouble.
Suppose you want to replace a datestamp on the end of a file every time it is
written. First you define a function:
:function DateInsert()
: $delete
: read !date
:endfunction
You want this function to be called each time, just before a file is written.
This will make that happen:
:autocmd FileWritePre * call DateInsert()
"FileWritePre" is the event for which this autocommand is triggered: Just
before (pre) writing a file. The "*" is a pattern to match with the file
name. In this case it matches all files.
With this command enabled, when you do a ":write", Vim checks for any
matching FileWritePre autocommands and executes them, and then it
performs the ":write".
The general form of the :autocmd command is as follows:
:autocmd [group] {events} {file_pattern} [nested] {command}
The [group] name is optional. It is used in managing and calling the commands
(more on this later). The {events} parameter is a list of events (comma
separated) that trigger the command.

{file_pattern} is a filename, usually with wildcards. For example, using

"*.txt" makes the autocommand be used for all files whose name end in ".txt".
The optional [nested] flag allows for nesting of autocommands (see below), and
finally, {command} is the command to be executed.
EVENTS
One of the most useful events is BufReadPost. It is triggered after a new
file is being edited. It is commonly used to set option values. For example,
you know that "*.gsm" files are GNU assembly language. To get the syntax file
right, define this autocommand:
:autocmd BufReadPost *.gsm set filetype=asm
If Vim is able to detect the type of file, it will set the 'filetype' option
for you. This triggers the Filetype event. Use this to do something when a
certain type of file is edited. For example, to load a list of abbreviations
for text files:
:autocmd Filetype text source ~/.vim/abbrevs.vim
When starting to edit a new file, you could make Vim insert a skeleton:
:autocmd BufNewFile *.[ch] 0read ~/skeletons/skel.c
See |autocmd-events| for a complete list of events.
PATTERNS
The {file_pattern} argument can actually be a comma-separated list of file
patterns. For example: "*.c,*.h" matches files ending in ".c" and ".h".
The usual file wildcards can be used. Here is a summary of the most often
used ones:
* Match any character any number of times
? Match any character once
[abc] Match the character a, b or c
. Matches a dot
a{b,c} Matches "ab" and "ac"
When the pattern includes a slash (/) Vim will compare directory names.
Without the slash only the last part of a file name is used. For example,
"*.txt" matches "/home/biep/readme.txt". The pattern "/home/biep/*" would
also match it. But "home/foo/*.txt" wouldn't.
When including a slash, Vim matches the pattern against both the full path
of the file ("/home/biep/readme.txt") and the relative path (e.g.,
"biep/readme.txt").
Note:
When working on a system that uses a backslash as file separator, such
as MS-Windows, you still use forward slashes in autocommands. This
makes it easier to write the pattern, since a backslash has a special
meaning. It also makes the autocommands portable.
DELETING
To delete an autocommand, use the same command as what it was defined with,
but leave out the {command} at the end and use a !. Example:
:autocmd! FileWritePre *
This will delete all autocommands for the "FileWritePre" event that use the
"*" pattern.
LISTING
To list all the currently defined autocommands, use this:
:autocmd
The list can be very long, especially when filetype detection is used. To
list only part of the commands, specify the group, event and/or pattern. For
example, to list all BufNewFile autocommands:
:autocmd BufNewFile

To list all autocommands for the pattern "*.c":

:autocmd * *.c
Using "*" for the event will list all the events. To list all autocommands
for the cprograms group:
:autocmd cprograms
GROUPS
The {group} item, used when defining an autocommand, groups related autocommands
together. This can be used to delete all the autocommands in a certain group,
for example.
When defining several autocommands for a certain group, use the ":augroup"
command. For example, let's define autocommands for C programs:
:augroup cprograms
: autocmd BufReadPost *.c,*.h :set sw=4 sts=4
: autocmd BufReadPost *.cpp :set sw=3 sts=3
:augroup END
This will do the same as:
:autocmd cprograms BufReadPost *.c,*.h :set sw=4 sts=4
:autocmd cprograms BufReadPost *.cpp :set sw=3 sts=3
To delete all autocommands in the "cprograms" group:
:autocmd! cprograms
NESTING
Generally, commands executed as the result of an autocommand event will not
trigger any new events. If you read a file in response to a FileChangedShell
event, it will not trigger the autocommands that would set the syntax, for
example. To make the events triggered, add the "nested" argument:
:autocmd FileChangedShell * nested edit
EXECUTING AUTOCOMMANDS
It is possible to trigger an autocommand by pretending an event has occurred.
This is useful to have one autocommand trigger another one. Example:
:autocmd BufReadPost *.new execute "doautocmd BufReadPost " . expand("<afile>:r")
This defines an autocommand that is triggered when a new file has been edited.
The file name must end in ".new". The ":execute" command uses expression
evaluation to form a new command and execute it. When editing the file
"tryout.c.new" the executed command will be:
:doautocmd BufReadPost tryout.c
The expand() function takes the "<afile>" argument, which stands for the file
name the autocommand was executed for, and takes the root of the file name
with ":r".
":doautocmd" executes on the current buffer. The ":doautoall" command works
like "doautocmd" except it executes on all the buffers.
USING NORMAL MODE COMMANDS

The commands executed by an autocommand are Command-line commands. If you
want to use a Normal mode command, the ":normal" command can be used.
Example:
:autocmd BufReadPost *.log normal G
This will make the cursor jump to the last line of *.log files when you start
to edit it.
Using the ":normal" command is a bit tricky. First of all, make sure its
argument is a complete command, including all the arguments. When you use "i"
to go to Insert mode, there must also be a <Esc> to leave Insert mode again.
If you use a "/" to start a search pattern, there must be a <CR> to execute

it.
The ":normal" command uses all the text after it as commands. Thus there
can be no | and another command following. To work around this, put the
":normal" command inside an ":execute" command. This also makes it possible
to pass unprintable characters in a convenient way. Example:
:autocmd BufReadPost *.chg execute "normal ONew entry:\<Esc>" |
\ 1read !date
This also shows the use of a backslash to break a long command into more
lines. This can be used in Vim scripts (not at the command line).
When you want the autocommand do something complicated, which involves jumping
around in the file and then returning to the original position, you may want
to restore the view on the file. See |restore-position| for an example.
IGNORING EVENTS
At times, you will not want to trigger an autocommand. The 'eventignore'
option contains a list of events that will be totally ignored. For example,
the following causes events for entering and leaving a window to be ignored:
:set eventignore=WinEnter,WinLeave
To ignore all events, use the following command:
:set eventignore=all
To set it back to the normal behavior, make 'eventignore' empty:
:set eventignore=
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_41.txt| Write a Vim script
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main help file

Add new menus
By now you know that Vim is very flexible. This includes the menus used in
the GUI. You can define your own menu entries to make certain commands easily
accessible. This is for mouse-happy users only.
|42.1| Introduction
|42.2| Menu commands
|42.3| Various
|42.4| Toolbar and popup menus
Next chapter: |usr_43.txt| Using filetypes
Previous chapter: |usr_41.txt| Write a Vim script
==============================================================================
*42.1* Introduction
The menus that Vim uses are defined in the file "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim". If
you want to write your own menus, you might first want to look through that
file.
To define a menu item, use the ":menu" command. The basic form of this
command is as follows:
:menu {menu-item} {keys}
The {menu-item} describes where on the menu to put the item. A typical
{menu-item} is "File.Save", which represents the item "Save" under the
"File" menu. A dot is used to separate the names. Example:
:menu File.Save :update<CR>
The ":update" command writes the file when it was modified.
You can add another level: "Edit.Settings.Shiftwidth" defines a submenu
"Settings" under the "Edit" menu, with an item "Shiftwidth". You could use
even deeper levels. Don't use this too much, you need to move the mouse quite
a bit to use such an item.
The ":menu" command is very similar to the ":map" command: the left side
specifies how the item is triggered and the right hand side defines the
characters that are executed. {keys} are characters, they are used just like
you would have typed them. Thus in Insert mode, when {keys} is plain text,
that text is inserted.
ACCELERATORS
The ampersand character (&) is used to indicate an accelerator. For instance,
you can use Alt-F to select "File" and S to select "Save". (The 'winaltkeys'
option may disable this though!). Therefore, the {menu-item} looks like
"&File.&Save". The accelerator characters will be underlined in the menu.
You must take care that each key is used only once in each menu. Otherwise
you will not know which of the two will actually be used. Vim doesn't warn
you for this.
PRIORITIES

The actual definition of the File.Save menu item is as follows:

:menu 10.340 &File.&Save<Tab>:w :confirm w<CR>
The number 10.340 is called the priority number. It is used by the editor to
decide where it places the menu item. The first number (10) indicates the
position on the menu bar. Lower numbered menus are positioned to the left,
higher numbers to the right.
These are the priorities used for the standard menus:
10 20 40 50 60 70 9999
+------------------------------------------------------------+
| File Edit Tools Syntax Buffers Window Help |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
Notice that the Help menu is given a very high number, to make it appear on
the far right.
The second number (340) determines the location of the item within the
pull-down menu. Lower numbers go on top, higher number on the bottom. These
are the priorities in the File menu:
+-----------------+
10.310 |Open... |
10.320 |Split-Open... |
10.325 |New |
10.330 |Close |
10.335 |---------------- |
10.340 |Save |
10.350 |Save As... |
10.400 |---------------- |
10.410 |Split Diff with |
10.420 |Split Patched By |
10.500 |---------------- |
10.510 |Print |
10.600 |---------------- |
10.610 |Save-Exit |
10.620 |Exit |
+-----------------+
Notice that there is room in between the numbers. This is where you can
insert your own items, if you really want to (it's often better to leave the
standard menus alone and add a new menu for your own items).
When you create a submenu, you can add another ".number" to the priority.
Thus each name in {menu-item} has its priority number.
SPECIAL CHARACTERS
The {menu-item} in this example is "&File.&Save<Tab>:w". This brings up an
important point: {menu-item} must be one word. If you want to put a dot,
space or tabs in the name, you either use the <> notation (<Space> and <Tab>,
for instance) or use the backslash (\) escape.
:menu 10.305 &File.&Do\ It\.\.\. :exit<CR>
In this example, the name of the menu item "Do It..." contains a space and the
command is ":exit<CR>".
The <Tab> character in a menu name is used to separate the part that defines
the menu name from the part that gives a hint to the user. The part after the
<Tab> is displayed right aligned in the menu. In the File.Save menu the name
used is "&File.&Save<Tab>:w". Thus the menu name is "File.Save" and the hint
is ":w".
SEPARATORS
The separator lines, used to group related menu items together, can be defined
by using a name that starts and ends in a '-'. For example "-sep-". When
using several separators the names must be different. Otherwise the names
don't matter.
The command from a separator will never be executed, but you have to define
one anyway. A single colon will do. Example:
:amenu 20.510 Edit.-sep3- :
==============================================================================
*42.2* Menu commands

You can define menu items that exist for only certain modes. This works just
like the variations on the ":map" command:
:menu Normal, Visual and Operator-pending mode
:nmenu Normal mode
:vmenu Visual mode
:omenu Operator-pending mode
:menu! Insert and Command-line mode
:imenu Insert mode
:cmenu Command-line mode
:amenu All modes
To avoid that the commands of a menu item are being mapped, use the command
":noremenu", ":nnoremenu", ":anoremenu", etc.
USING :AMENU
The ":amenu" command is a bit different. It assumes that the {keys} you
give are to be executed in Normal mode. When Vim is in Visual or Insert mode
when the menu is used, Vim first has to go back to Normal mode. ":amenu"
inserts a CTRL-C or CTRL-O for you. For example, if you use this command:
:amenu 90.100 Mine.Find\ Word *
Then the resulting menu commands will be:
Normal mode: *
Visual mode: CTRL-C *
Operator-pending mode: CTRL-C *
Insert mode: CTRL-O *
Command-line mode: CTRL-C *
When in Command-line mode the CTRL-C will abandon the command typed so far.
In Visual and Operator-pending mode CTRL-C will stop the mode. The CTRL-O in
Insert mode will execute the command and then return to Insert mode.
CTRL-O only works for one command. If you need to use two or more
commands, put them in a function and call that function. Example:
:amenu Mine.Next\ File :call <SID>NextFile()<CR>
:function <SID>NextFile()
: next
: 1/^Code
:endfunction
This menu entry goes to the next file in the argument list with ":next". Then
it searches for the line that starts with "Code".
The <SID> before the function name is the script ID. This makes the
function local to the current Vim script file. This avoids problems when a
function with the same name is defined in another script file. See |<SID>|.
SILENT MENUS
The menu executes the {keys} as if you typed them. For a ":" command this
means you will see the command being echoed on the command line. If it's a
long command, the hit-Enter prompt will appear. That can be very annoying!
To avoid this, make the menu silent. This is done with the <silent>
argument. For example, take the call to NextFile() in the previous example.
When you use this menu, you will see this on the command line:
:call <SNR>34_NextFile()
To avoid this text on the command line, insert "<silent>" as the first
argument:
:amenu <silent> Mine.Next\ File :call <SID>NextFile()<CR>
Don't use "<silent>" too often. It is not needed for short commands. If you
make a menu for someone else, being able the see the executed command will
give him a hint about what he could have typed, instead of using the mouse.
LISTING MENUS
When a menu command is used without a {keys} part, it lists the already
defined menus. You can specify a {menu-item}, or part of it, to list specific
menus. Example:

:amenu
This lists all menus. That's a long list! Better specify the name of a menu
to get a shorter list:
:amenu Edit
This lists only the "Edit" menu items for all modes. To list only one
specific menu item for Insert mode:
:imenu Edit.Undo
Take care that you type exactly the right name. Case matters here. But the
'&' for accelerators can be omitted. The <Tab> and what comes after it can be
left out as well.
DELETING MENUS
To delete a menu, the same command is used as for listing, but with "menu"
changed to "unmenu". Thus ":menu" becomes, ":unmenu", ":nmenu" becomes
":nunmenu", etc. To delete the "Tools.Make" item for Insert mode:
:iunmenu Tools.Make
You can delete a whole menu, with all its items, by using the menu name.
Example:
:aunmenu Syntax
This deletes the Syntax menu and all the items in it.
==============================================================================
*42.3* Various
You can change the appearance of the menus with flags in 'guioptions'. In the
default value they are all included, except "M". You can remove a flag with a
command like:
:set guioptions-=m
m When removed the menubar is not displayed.
M When added the default menus are not loaded.
g When removed the inactive menu items are not made grey
but are completely removed. (Does not work on all
systems.)
t When removed the tearoff feature is not enabled.
The dotted line at the top of a menu is not a separator line. When you select
this item, the menu is "teared-off": It is displayed in a separate window.
This is called a tearoff menu. This is useful when you use the same menu
often.
For translating menu items, see |:menutrans|.
Since the mouse has to be used to select a menu item, it is a good idea to use
the ":browse" command for selecting a file. And ":confirm" to get a dialog
instead of an error message, e.g., when the current buffer contains changes.
These two can be combined:
:amenu File.Open :browse confirm edit<CR>
The ":browse" makes a file browser appear to select the file to edit. The
":confirm" will pop up a dialog when the current buffer has changes. You can
then select to save the changes, throw them away or cancel the command.
For more complicated items, the confirm() and inputdialog() functions can
be used. The default menus contain a few examples.
==============================================================================
*42.4* Toolbar and popup menus
There are two special menus: ToolBar and PopUp. Items that start with these
names do not appear in the normal menu bar.

TOOLBAR
The toolbar appears only when the "T" flag is included in the 'guioptions'
option.
The toolbar uses icons rather than text to represent the command. For
example, the {menu-item} named "ToolBar.New" causes the "New" icon to appear
on the toolbar.
The Vim editor has 28 built-in icons. You can find a table here:
|builtin-tools|. Most of them are used in the default toolbar. You can
redefine what these items do (after the default menus are setup).
You can add another bitmap for a toolbar item. Or define a new toolbar
item with a bitmap. For example, define a new toolbar item with:
:tmenu ToolBar.Compile Compile the current file
:amenu ToolBar.Compile :!cc % -o %:r<CR>
Now you need to create the icon. For MS-Windows it must be in bitmap format,
with the name "Compile.bmp". For Unix XPM format is used, the file name is
"Compile.xpm". The size must be 18 by 18 pixels. On MS-Windows other sizes
can be used as well, but it will look ugly.
Put the bitmap in the directory "bitmaps" in one of the directories from
'runtimepath'. E.g., for Unix "~/.vim/bitmaps/Compile.xpm".
You can define tooltips for the items in the toolbar. A tooltip is a short
text that explains what a toolbar item will do. For example "Open file". It
appears when the mouse pointer is on the item, without moving for a moment.
This is very useful if the meaning of the picture isn't that obvious.
Example:
:tmenu ToolBar.Make Run make in the current directory
Note:
Pay attention to the case used. "Toolbar" and "toolbar" are different
from "ToolBar"!
To remove a tooltip, use the |:tunmenu| command.
The 'toolbar' option can be used to display text instead of a bitmap, or both
text and a bitmap. Most people use just the bitmap, since the text takes
quite a bit of space.
POPUP MENU
The popup menu pops up where the mouse pointer is. On MS-Windows you activate
it by clicking the right mouse button. Then you can select an item with the
left mouse button. On Unix the popup menu is used by pressing and holding the
right mouse button.
The popup menu only appears when the 'mousemodel' has been set to "popup"
or "popup_setpos". The difference between the two is that "popup_setpos"
moves the cursor to the mouse pointer position. When clicking inside a
selection, the selection will be used unmodified. When there is a selection
but you click outside of it, the selection is removed.
There is a separate popup menu for each mode. Thus there are never grey
items like in the normal menus.
What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything? *42*

Douglas Adams, the only person who knew what this question really was about is
now dead, unfortunately. So now you might wonder what the meaning of death
is...
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_43.txt| Using filetypes
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*usr_43.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2008 Dec 28

Using filetypes
When you are editing a file of a certain type, for example a C program or a
shell script, you often use the same option settings and mappings. You
quickly get tired of manually setting these each time. This chapter explains
how to do it automatically.
|43.1| Plugins for a filetype
|43.2| Adding a filetype
Next chapter: |usr_44.txt| Your own syntax highlighted
Previous chapter: |usr_42.txt| Add new menus
==============================================================================
*43.1* Plugins for a filetype *filetype-plugin*
How to start using filetype plugins has already been discussed here:
|add-filetype-plugin|. But you probably are not satisfied with the default
settings, because they have been kept minimal. Suppose that for C files you
want to set the 'softtabstop' option to 4 and define a mapping to insert a
three-line comment. You do this with only two steps:
*your-runtime-dir*
1. Create your own runtime directory. On Unix this usually is "~/.vim". In
this directory create the "ftplugin" directory:
mkdir ~/.vim
mkdir ~/.vim/ftplugin
When you are not on Unix, check the value of the 'runtimepath' option to
see where Vim will look for the "ftplugin" directory:
set runtimepath
You would normally use the first directory name (before the first comma).
You might want to prepend a directory name to the 'runtimepath' option in
your |vimrc| file if you don't like the default value.
2. Create the file "~/.vim/ftplugin/c.vim", with the contents:
setlocal softtabstop=4
noremap <buffer> <LocalLeader>c o/**************<CR><CR>/<Esc>
Try editing a C file. You should notice that the 'softtabstop' option is set
to 4. But when you edit another file it's reset to the default zero. That is
because the ":setlocal" command was used. This sets the 'softtabstop' option
only locally to the buffer. As soon as you edit another buffer, it will be
set to the value set for that buffer. For a new buffer it will get the
default value or the value from the last ":set" command.
Likewise, the mapping for "\c" will disappear when editing another buffer.
The ":map <buffer>" command creates a mapping that is local to the current
buffer. This works with any mapping command: ":map!", ":vmap", etc. The
|<LocalLeader>| in the mapping is replaced with the value of the
"maplocalleader" variable.

You can find examples for filetype plugins in this directory:

$VIMRUNTIME/ftplugin/
More details about writing a filetype plugin can be found here:
|write-plugin|.
==============================================================================
*43.2* Adding a filetype
If you are using a type of file that is not recognized by Vim, this is how to
get it recognized. You need a runtime directory of your own. See
|your-runtime-dir| above.
Create a file "filetype.vim" which contains an autocommand for your filetype.
(Autocommands were explained in section |40.3|.) Example:
au BufNewFile,BufRead *.xyz setf xyz
augroup END
This will recognize all files that end in ".xyz" as the "xyz" filetype. The
":augroup" commands put this autocommand in the "filetypedetect" group. This
allows removing all autocommands for filetype detection when doing ":filetype
off". The "setf" command will set the 'filetype' option to its argument,
unless it was set already. This will make sure that 'filetype' isn't set
twice.
You can use many different patterns to match the name of your file. Directory
names can also be included. See |autocmd-patterns|. For example, the files
under "/usr/share/scripts/" are all "ruby" files, but don't have the expected
file name extension. Adding this to the example above:
au BufNewFile,BufRead *.xyz setf xyz
au BufNewFile,BufRead /usr/share/scripts/* setf ruby
augroup END
However, if you now edit a file /usr/share/scripts/README.txt, this is not a
ruby file. The danger of a pattern ending in "*" is that it quickly matches
too many files. To avoid trouble with this, put the filetype.vim file in
another directory, one that is at the end of 'runtimepath'. For Unix for
example, you could use "~/.vim/after/filetype.vim".
You now put the detection of text files in ~/.vim/filetype.vim:
au BufNewFile,BufRead *.txt setf text
augroup END
That file is found in 'runtimepath' first. Then use this in
~/.vim/after/filetype.vim, which is found last:
au BufNewFile,BufRead /usr/share/scripts/* setf ruby
augroup END
What will happen now is that Vim searches for "filetype.vim" files in each
directory in 'runtimepath'. First ~/.vim/filetype.vim is found. The
autocommand to catch *.txt files is defined there. Then Vim finds the
filetype.vim file in $VIMRUNTIME, which is halfway 'runtimepath'. Finally
~/.vim/after/filetype.vim is found and the autocommand for detecting ruby
files in /usr/share/scripts is added.
When you now edit /usr/share/scripts/README.txt, the autocommands are
checked in the order in which they were defined. The *.txt pattern matches,
thus "setf text" is executed to set the filetype to "text". The pattern for
ruby matches too, and the "setf ruby" is executed. But since 'filetype' was
already set to "text", nothing happens here.
When you edit the file /usr/share/scripts/foobar the same autocommands are
checked. Only the one for ruby matches and "setf ruby" sets 'filetype' to
ruby.
RECOGNIZING BY CONTENTS
If your file cannot be recognized by its file name, you might be able to
recognize it by its contents. For example, many script files start with a
line like:

#!/bin/xyz
To recognize this script create a file "scripts.vim" in your runtime directory
(same place where filetype.vim goes). It might look like this:
if did_filetype()
finish
endif
if getline(1) =~ '^#!.*[/\\]xyz\>'
setf xyz
endif
The first check with did_filetype() is to avoid that you will check the
contents of files for which the filetype was already detected by the file
name. That avoids wasting time on checking the file when the "setf" command
won't do anything.
The scripts.vim file is sourced by an autocommand in the default
filetype.vim file. Therefore, the order of checks is:
1. filetype.vim files before $VIMRUNTIME in 'runtimepath'
2. first part of $VIMRUNTIME/filetype.vim
3. all scripts.vim files in 'runtimepath'
4. remainder of $VIMRUNTIME/filetype.vim
5. filetype.vim files after $VIMRUNTIME in 'runtimepath'
If this is not sufficient for you, add an autocommand that matches all files
and sources a script or executes a function to check the contents of the file.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_44.txt| Your own syntax highlighted
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Your own syntax highlighted
Vim comes with highlighting for a couple of hundred different file types. If
the file you are editing isn't included, read this chapter to find out how to
get this type of file highlighted. Also see |:syn-define| in the reference
manual.
|44.1| Basic syntax commands
|44.2| Keywords
|44.3| Matches
|44.4| Regions
|44.5| Nested items
|44.6| Following groups
|44.7| Other arguments
|44.8| Clusters
|44.9| Including another syntax file
|44.10| Synchronizing
|44.11| Installing a syntax file
|44.12| Portable syntax file layout
Next chapter: |usr_45.txt| Select your language
Previous chapter: |usr_43.txt| Using filetypes
==============================================================================
*44.1* Basic syntax commands
Using an existing syntax file to start with will save you a lot of time. Try
finding a syntax file in $VIMRUNTIME/syntax for a language that is similar.
These files will also show you the normal layout of a syntax file. To
understand it, you need to read the following.
Let's start with the basic arguments. Before we start defining any new
syntax, we need to clear out any old definitions:
:syntax clear
This isn't required in the final syntax file, but very useful when
experimenting.
There are more simplifications in this chapter. If you are writing a syntax
file to be used by others, read all the way through the end to find out the
details.
LISTING DEFINED ITEMS

To check which syntax items are currently defined, use this command:
:syntax
You can use this to check which items have actually been defined. Quite
useful when you are experimenting with a new syntax file. It also shows the
colors used for each item, which helps to find out what is what.
To list the items in a specific syntax group use:
:syntax list {group-name}

This also can be used to list clusters (explained in |44.8|). Just include
the @ in the name.
MATCHING CASE
Some languages are not case sensitive, such as Pascal. Others, such as C, are
case sensitive. You need to tell which type you have with the following
commands:
:syntax case match
:syntax case ignore
The "match" argument means that Vim will match the case of syntax elements.
Therefore, "int" differs from "Int" and "INT". If the "ignore" argument is
used, the following are equivalent: "Procedure", "PROCEDURE" and "procedure".
The ":syntax case" commands can appear anywhere in a syntax file and affect
the syntax definitions that follow. In most cases, you have only one ":syntax
case" command in your syntax file; if you work with an unusual language that
contains both case-sensitive and non-case-sensitive elements, however, you can
scatter the ":syntax case" command throughout the file.
==============================================================================
*44.2* Keywords
The most basic syntax elements are keywords. To define a keyword, use the
following form:
:syntax keyword {group} {keyword} ...
The {group} is the name of a syntax group. With the ":highlight" command you
can assign colors to a {group}. The {keyword} argument is an actual keyword.
Here are a few examples:
:syntax keyword xType int long char
:syntax keyword xStatement if then else endif
This example uses the group names "xType" and "xStatement". By convention,
each group name is prefixed by the filetype for the language being defined.
This example defines syntax for the x language (eXample language without an
interesting name). In a syntax file for "csh" scripts the name "cshType"
would be used. Thus the prefix is equal to the value of 'filetype'.
These commands cause the words "int", "long" and "char" to be highlighted
one way and the words "if", "then", "else" and "endif" to be highlighted
another way. Now you need to connect the x group names to standard Vim
names. You do this with the following commands:
:highlight link xType Type
:highlight link xStatement Statement
This tells Vim to highlight "xType" like "Type" and "xStatement" like
"Statement". See |group-name| for the standard names.
UNUSUAL KEYWORDS
The characters used in a keyword must be in the 'iskeyword' option. If you
use another character, the word will never match. Vim doesn't give a warning
message for this.
The x language uses the '-' character in keywords. This is how it's done:
:setlocal iskeyword+=-
:syntax keyword xStatement when-not
The ":setlocal" command is used to change 'iskeyword' only for the current
buffer. Still it does change the behavior of commands like "w" and "*". If
that is not wanted, don't define a keyword but use a match (explained in the
next section).
The x language allows for abbreviations. For example, "next" can be
abbreviated to "n", "ne" or "nex". You can define them by using this command:
:syntax keyword xStatement n[ext]
This doesn't match "nextone", keywords always match whole words only.
==============================================================================
*44.3* Matches

Consider defining something a bit more complex. You want to match ordinary
identifiers. To do this, you define a match syntax item. This one matches
any word consisting of only lowercase letters:
:syntax match xIdentifier /\<\l\+\>/
Note:
Keywords overrule any other syntax item. Thus the keywords "if",
"then", etc., will be keywords, as defined with the ":syntax keyword"
commands above, even though they also match the pattern for
xIdentifier.
The part at the end is a pattern, like it's used for searching. The // is
used to surround the pattern (like how it's done in a ":substitute" command).
You can use any other character, like a plus or a quote.
Now define a match for a comment. In the x language it is anything from # to
the end of a line:
:syntax match xComment /#.*/
Since you can use any search pattern, you can highlight very complex things
with a match item. See |pattern| for help on search patterns.
==============================================================================
*44.4* Regions
In the example x language, strings are enclosed in double quotation marks (").
To highlight strings you define a region. You need a region start (double
quote) and a region end (double quote). The definition is as follows:
:syntax region xString start=/"/ end=/"/
The "start" and "end" directives define the patterns used to find the start
and end of the region. But what about strings that look like this?
"A string with a double quote (\") in it"
This creates a problem: The double quotation marks in the middle of the string
will end the region. You need to tell Vim to skip over any escaped double
quotes in the string. Do this with the skip keyword:
:syntax region xString start=/"/ skip=/\\"/ end=/"/
The double backslash matches a single backslash, since the backslash is a
special character in search patterns.
When to use a region instead of a match? The main difference is that a match
item is a single pattern, which must match as a whole. A region starts as
soon as the "start" pattern matches. Whether the "end" pattern is found or
not doesn't matter. Thus when the item depends on the "end" pattern to match,
you cannot use a region. Otherwise, regions are often simpler to define. And
it is easier to use nested items, as is explained in the next section.
==============================================================================
*44.5* Nested items
Take a look at this comment:
%Get input TODO: Skip white space
You want to highlight TODO in big yellow letters, even though it is in a
comment that is highlighted blue. To let Vim know about this, you define the
:syntax keyword xTodo TODO contained
:syntax match xComment /%.*/ contains=xTodo
In the first line, the "contained" argument tells Vim that this keyword can
exist only inside another syntax item. The next line has "contains=xTodo".
This indicates that the xTodo syntax element is inside it. The result is that
the comment line as a whole is matched with "xComment" and made blue. The
word TODO inside it is matched by xTodo and highlighted yellow (highlighting
for xTodo was setup for this).
RECURSIVE NESTING

The x language defines code blocks in curly braces. And a code block may
contain other code blocks. This can be defined this way:
:syntax region xBlock start=/{/ end=/}/ contains=xBlock
Suppose you have this text:
while i < b {
if a {
b = c;
}
}
First a xBlock starts at the { in the first line. In the second line another
{ is found. Since we are inside a xBlock item, and it contains itself, a
nested xBlock item will start here. Thus the "b = c" line is inside the
second level xBlock region. Then a } is found in the next line, which matches
with the end pattern of the region. This ends the nested xBlock. Because the
} is included in the nested region, it is hidden from the first xBlock region.
Then at the last } the first xBlock region ends.
KEEPING THE END

Consider the following two syntax items:
:syntax region xComment start=/%/ end=/$/ contained
:syntax region xPreProc start=/#/ end=/$/ contains=xComment
You define a comment as anything from % to the end of the line. A
preprocessor directive is anything from # to the end of the line. Because you
can have a comment on a preprocessor line, the preprocessor definition
includes a "contains=xComment" argument. Now look what happens with this
text:
#define X = Y % Comment text
int foo = 1;
What you see is that the second line is also highlighted as xPreProc. The
preprocessor directive should end at the end of the line. That is why
you have used "end=/$/". So what is going wrong?
The problem is the contained comment. The comment starts with % and ends
at the end of the line. After the comment ends, the preprocessor syntax
continues. This is after the end of the line has been seen, so the next
line is included as well.
To avoid this problem and to avoid a contained syntax item eating a needed
end of line, use the "keepend" argument. This takes care of
the double end-of-line matching:
:syntax region xComment start=/%/ end=/$/ contained
:syntax region xPreProc start=/#/ end=/$/ contains=xComment keepend
CONTAINING MANY ITEMS

You can use the contains argument to specify that everything can be contained.
For example:
:syntax region xList start=/\[/ end=/\]/ contains=ALL
All syntax items will be contained in this one. It also contains itself, but
not at the same position (that would cause an endless loop).
You can specify that some groups are not contained. Thus contain all
groups but the ones that are listed:
:syntax region xList start=/\[/ end=/\]/ contains=ALLBUT,xString
With the "TOP" item you can include all items that don't have a "contained"
argument. "CONTAINED" is used to only include items with a "contained"
argument. See |:syn-contains| for the details.
==============================================================================
*44.6* Following groups
The x language has statements in this form:
if (condition) then

You want to highlight the three items differently. But "(condition)" and
"then" might also appear in other places, where they get different
highlighting. This is how you can do this:
:syntax match xIf /if/ nextgroup=xIfCondition skipwhite
:syntax match xIfCondition /([^)]*)/ contained nextgroup=xThen skipwhite
:syntax match xThen /then/ contained
The "nextgroup" argument specifies which item can come next. This is not
required. If none of the items that are specified are found, nothing happens.
For example, in this text:
if not (condition) then
The "if" is matched by xIf. "not" doesn't match the specified nextgroup
xIfCondition, thus only the "if" is highlighted.
The "skipwhite" argument tells Vim that white space (spaces and tabs) may
appear in between the items. Similar arguments are "skipnl", which allows a
line break in between the items, and "skipempty", which allows empty lines.
Notice that "skipnl" doesn't skip an empty line, something must match after
the line break.
==============================================================================
*44.7* Other arguments
MATCHGROUP
When you define a region, the entire region is highlighted according to the
group name specified. To highlight the text enclosed in parentheses () with
the group xInside, for example, use the following command:
:syntax region xInside start=/(/ end=/)/
Suppose, that you want to highlight the parentheses differently. You can do
this with a lot of convoluted region statements, or you can use the
"matchgroup" argument. This tells Vim to highlight the start and end of a
region with a different highlight group (in this case, the xParen group):
:syntax region xInside matchgroup=xParen start=/(/ end=/)/
The "matchgroup" argument applies to the start or end match that comes after
it. In the previous example both start and end are highlighted with xParen.
To highlight the end with xParenEnd:
:syntax region xInside matchgroup=xParen start=/(/
\ matchgroup=xParenEnd end=/)/
A side effect of using "matchgroup" is that contained items will not match in
the start or end of the region. The example for "transparent" uses this.
TRANSPARENT
In a C language file you would like to highlight the () text after a "while"
differently from the () text after a "for". In both of these there can be
nested () items, which should be highlighted in the same way. You must make
sure the () highlighting stops at the matching ). This is one way to do this:
:syntax region cWhile matchgroup=cWhile start=/while\s*(/ end=/)/
\ contains=cCondNest
:syntax region cFor matchgroup=cFor start=/for\s*(/ end=/)/
\ contains=cCondNest
:syntax region cCondNest start=/(/ end=/)/ contained transparent
Now you can give cWhile and cFor different highlighting. The cCondNest item
can appear in either of them, but take over the highlighting of the item it is
contained in. The "transparent" argument causes this.
Notice that the "matchgroup" argument has the same group as the item
itself. Why define it then? Well, the side effect of using a matchgroup is
that contained items are not found in the match with the start item then.
This avoids that the cCondNest group matches the ( just after the "while" or
"for". If this would happen, it would span the whole text until the matching
) and the region would continue after it. Now cCondNest only matches after
the match with the start pattern, thus after the first (.

OFFSETS
Suppose you want to define a region for the text between ( and ) after an
"if". But you don't want to include the "if" or the ( and ). You can do this
by specifying offsets for the patterns. Example:
:syntax region xCond start=/if\s*(/ms=e+1 end=/)/me=s-1
The offset for the start pattern is "ms=e+1". "ms" stands for Match Start.
This defines an offset for the start of the match. Normally the match starts
where the pattern matches. "e+1" means that the match now starts at the end
of the pattern match, and then one character further.
The offset for the end pattern is "me=s-1". "me" stands for Match End.
"s-1" means the start of the pattern match and then one character back. The
result is that in this text:
if (foo == bar)
Only the text "foo == bar" will be highlighted as xCond.
More about offsets here: |:syn-pattern-offset|.
ONELINE
The "oneline" argument indicates that the region does not cross a line
boundary. For example:
:syntax region xIfThen start=/if/ end=/then/ oneline
This defines a region that starts at "if" and ends at "then". But if there is
no "then" after the "if", the region doesn't match.
Note:
When using "oneline" the region doesn't start if the end pattern
doesn't match in the same line. Without "oneline" Vim does _not_
check if there is a match for the end pattern. The region starts even
when the end pattern doesn't match in the rest of the file.
CONTINUATION LINES AND AVOIDING THEM

Things now become a little more complex. Let's define a preprocessor line.
This starts with a # in the first column and continues until the end of the
line. A line that ends with \ makes the next line a continuation line. The
way you handle this is to allow the syntax item to contain a continuation
pattern:
:syntax region xPreProc start=/^#/ end=/$/ contains=xLineContinue
:syntax match xLineContinue "\\$" contained
In this case, although xPreProc normally matches a single line, the group
contained in it (namely xLineContinue) lets it go on for more than one line.
For example, it would match both of these lines:
#define SPAM spam spam spam \
bacon and spam
In this case, this is what you want. If it is not what you want, you can call
for the region to be on a single line by adding "excludenl" to the contained
pattern. For example, you want to highlight "end" in xPreProc, but only at
the end of the line. To avoid making the xPreProc continue on the next line,
like xLineContinue does, use "excludenl" like this:
:syntax region xPreProc start=/^#/ end=/$/
\ contains=xLineContinue,xPreProcEnd
:syntax match xPreProcEnd excludenl /end$/ contained
:syntax match xLineContinue "\\$" contained
"excludenl" must be placed before the pattern. Since "xLineContinue" doesn't
have "excludenl", a match with it will extend xPreProc to the next line as
before.
==============================================================================
*44.8* Clusters
One of the things you will notice as you start to write a syntax file is that
you wind up generating a lot of syntax groups. Vim enables you to define a
collection of syntax groups called a cluster.

Suppose you have a language that contains for loops, if statements, while
loops, and functions. Each of them contains the same syntax elements: numbers
and identifiers. You define them like this:
:syntax match xFor /^for.*/ contains=xNumber,xIdent
:syntax match xIf /îf.*/ contains=xNumber,xIdent
:syntax match xWhile /^while.*/ contains=xNumber,xIdent
You have to repeat the same "contains=" every time. If you want to add
another contained item, you have to add it three times. Syntax clusters
simplify these definitions by enabling you to have one cluster stand for
several syntax groups.
To define a cluster for the two items that the three groups contain, use
:syntax cluster xState contains=xNumber,xIdent
Clusters are used inside other syntax items just like any syntax group.
Their names start with @. Thus, you can define the three groups like this:
:syntax match xFor /^for.*/ contains=@xState
:syntax match xIf /îf.*/ contains=@xState
:syntax match xWhile /^while.*/ contains=@xState
You can add new group names to this cluster with the "add" argument:
:syntax cluster xState add=xString
You can remove syntax groups from this list as well:
:syntax cluster xState remove=xNumber
==============================================================================
*44.9* Including another syntax file
The C++ language syntax is a superset of the C language. Because you do not
want to write two syntax files, you can have the C++ syntax file read in the
one for C by using the following command:
:runtime! syntax/c.vim
The ":runtime!" command searches 'runtimepath' for all "syntax/c.vim" files.
This makes the C parts of the C++ syntax be defined like for C files. If you
have replaced the c.vim syntax file, or added items with an extra file, these
will be loaded as well.
After loading the C syntax items the specific C++ items can be defined.
For example, add keywords that are not used in C:
:syntax keyword cppStatement new delete this friend using
This works just like in any other syntax file.
Now consider the Perl language. A Perl script consists of two distinct parts:
a documentation section in POD format, and a program written in Perl itself.
The POD section starts with "=head" and ends with "=cut".
You want to define the POD syntax in one file, and use it from the Perl
syntax file. The ":syntax include" command reads in a syntax file and stores
the elements it defined in a syntax cluster. For Perl, the statements are as
follows:
:syntax include @Pod <sfile>:p:h/pod.vim
:syntax region perlPOD start=/^=head/ end=/^=cut/ contains=@Pod
When "=head" is found in a Perl file, the perlPOD region starts. In this
region the @Pod cluster is contained. All the items defined as top-level
items in the pod.vim syntax files will match here. When "=cut" is found, the
region ends and we go back to the items defined in the Perl file.
The ":syntax include" command is clever enough to ignore a ":syntax clear"
command in the included file. And an argument such as "contains=ALL" will
only contain items defined in the included file, not in the file that includes
it.
The "<sfile>:p:h/" part uses the name of the current file (<sfile>),
expands it to a full path (:p) and then takes the head (:h). This results in
the directory name of the file. This causes the pod.vim file in the same
directory to be included.
==============================================================================

*44.10* Synchronizing
Compilers have it easy. They start at the beginning of a file and parse it
straight through. Vim does not have it so easy. It must start in the middle,
where the editing is being done. So how does it tell where it is?
The secret is the ":syntax sync" command. This tells Vim how to figure out
where it is. For example, the following command tells Vim to scan backward
for the beginning or end of a C-style comment and begin syntax coloring from
there:
:syntax sync ccomment
You can tune this processing with some arguments. The "minlines" argument
tells Vim the minimum number of lines to look backward, and "maxlines" tells
the editor the maximum number of lines to scan.
For example, the following command tells Vim to look at least 10 lines
before the top of the screen:
:syntax sync ccomment minlines=10 maxlines=500
If it cannot figure out where it is in that space, it starts looking farther
and farther back until it figures out what to do. But it looks no farther
back than 500 lines. (A large "maxlines" slows down processing. A small one
might cause synchronization to fail.)
To make synchronizing go a bit faster, tell Vim which syntax items can be
skipped. Every match and region that only needs to be used when actually
displaying text can be given the "display" argument.
By default, the comment to be found will be colored as part of the Comment
syntax group. If you want to color things another way, you can specify a
different syntax group:
:syntax sync ccomment xAltComment
If your programming language does not have C-style comments in it, you can try
another method of synchronization. The simplest way is to tell Vim to space
back a number of lines and try to figure out things from there. The following
command tells Vim to go back 150 lines and start parsing from there:
:syntax sync minlines=150
A large "minlines" value can make Vim slower, especially when scrolling
backwards in the file.
Finally, you can specify a syntax group to look for by using this command:
:syntax sync match {sync-group-name}
\ grouphere {group-name} {pattern}
This tells Vim that when it sees {pattern} the syntax group named {group-name}
begins just after the pattern given. The {sync-group-name} is used to give a
name to this synchronization specification. For example, the sh scripting
language begins an if statement with "if" and ends it with "fi":
if [ --f file.txt ] ; then
echo "File exists"
fi
To define a "grouphere" directive for this syntax, you use the following
command:
:syntax sync match shIfSync grouphere shIf "\<if\>"
The "groupthere" argument tells Vim that the pattern ends a group. For
example, the end of the if/fi group is as follows:
:syntax sync match shIfSync groupthere NONE "\<fi\>"
In this example, the NONE tells Vim that you are not in any special syntax
region. In particular, you are not inside an if block.
You also can define matches and regions that are with no "grouphere" or
"groupthere" arguments. These groups are for syntax groups skipped during
synchronization. For example, the following skips over anything inside {},
even if it would normally match another synchronization method:
:syntax sync match xSpecial /{.*}/
More about synchronizing in the reference manual: |:syn-sync|.
==============================================================================

*44.11* Installing a syntax file

When your new syntax file is ready to be used, drop it in a "syntax" directory
in 'runtimepath'. For Unix that would be "~/.vim/syntax".
The name of the syntax file must be equal to the file type, with ".vim"
added. Thus for the x language, the full path of the file would be:
~/.vim/syntax/x.vim
You must also make the file type be recognized. See |43.2|.
If your file works well, you might want to make it available to other Vim
users. First read the next section to make sure your file works well for
others. Then e-mail it to the Vim maintainer: <maintainer@vim.org>. Also
explain how the filetype can be detected. With a bit of luck your file will
be included in the next Vim version!
ADDING TO AN EXISTING SYNTAX FILE

We were assuming you were adding a completely new syntax file. When an existing
syntax file works, but is missing some items, you can add items in a separate
file. That avoids changing the distributed syntax file, which will be lost
when installing a new version of Vim.
Write syntax commands in your file, possibly using group names from the
existing syntax. For example, to add new variable types to the C syntax file:
:syntax keyword cType off_t uint
Write the file with the same name as the original syntax file. In this case
"c.vim". Place it in a directory near the end of 'runtimepath'. This makes
it loaded after the original syntax file. For Unix this would be:
~/.vim/after/syntax/c.vim
==============================================================================
*44.12* Portable syntax file layout
Wouldn't it be nice if all Vim users exchange syntax files? To make this
possible, the syntax file must follow a few guidelines.
Start with a header that explains what the syntax file is for, who maintains
it and when it was last updated. Don't include too much information about
changes history, not many people will read it. Example:
" Vim syntax file
" Language: C
" Maintainer: Bram Moolenaar <Bram@vim.org>
" Last Change: 2001 Jun 18
" Remark: Included by the C++ syntax.
Use the same layout as the other syntax files. Using an existing syntax file
as an example will save you a lot of time.
Choose a good, descriptive name for your syntax file. Use lowercase letters
and digits. Don't make it too long, it is used in many places: The name of
the syntax file "name.vim", 'filetype', b:current_syntax and the start of each
syntax group (nameType, nameStatement, nameString, etc).
Start with a check for "b:current_syntax". If it is defined, some other
syntax file, earlier in 'runtimepath' was already loaded:
if exists("b:current_syntax")
finish
endif
To be compatible with Vim 5.8 use:
if version < 600
syntax clear
elseif exists("b:current_syntax")
finish
endif
Set "b:current_syntax" to the name of the syntax at the end. Don't forget
that included files do this too, you might have to reset "b:current_syntax" if
you include two files.

If you want your syntax file to work with Vim 5.x, add a check for v:version.
See yacc.vim for an example.
Do not include anything that is a user preference. Don't set 'tabstop',
'expandtab', etc. These belong in a filetype plugin.
Do not include mappings or abbreviations. Only include setting 'iskeyword' if
it is really necessary for recognizing keywords.
To allow users select their own preferred colors, make a different group name
for every kind of highlighted item. Then link each of them to one of the
standard highlight groups. That will make it work with every color scheme.
If you select specific colors it will look bad with some color schemes. And
don't forget that some people use a different background color, or have only
eight colors available.
For the linking use "hi def link", so that the user can select different
highlighting before your syntax file is loaded. Example:
hi def link nameString String
hi def link nameNumber Number
hi def link nameCommand Statement
... etc ...
Add the "display" argument to items that are not used when syncing, to speed
up scrolling backwards and CTRL-L.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_45.txt| Select your language
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file

Select your language
The messages in Vim can be given in several languages. This chapter explains
how to change which one is used. Also, the different ways to work with files
in various languages is explained.
|45.1| Language for Messages
|45.2| Language for Menus
|45.3| Using another encoding
|45.4| Editing files with a different encoding
|45.5| Entering language text
Next chapter: |usr_90.txt| Installing Vim
Previous chapter: |usr_44.txt| Your own syntax highlighted
==============================================================================
*45.1* Language for Messages
When you start Vim, it checks the environment to find out what language you
are using. Mostly this should work fine, and you get the messages in your
language (if they are available). To see what the current language is, use
this command:
:language
If it replies with "C", this means the default is being used, which is
English.
Note:
Using different languages only works when Vim was compiled to handle
it. To find out if it works, use the ":version" command and check the
output for "+gettext" and "+multi_lang". If they are there, you are
OK. If you see "-gettext" or "-multi_lang" you will have to find
another Vim.
What if you would like your messages in a different language? There are
several ways. Which one you should use depends on the capabilities of your
system.
The first way is to set the environment to the desired language before
starting Vim. Example for Unix:
env LANG=de_DE.ISO_8859-1 vim
This only works if the language is available on your system. The advantage is
that all the GUI messages and things in libraries will use the right language
as well. A disadvantage is that you must do this before starting Vim. If you
want to change language while Vim is running, you can use the second method:
:language fr_FR.ISO_8859-1
This way you can try out several names for your language. You will get an
error message when it's not supported on your system. You don't get an error
when translated messages are not available. Vim will silently fall back to
using English.
To find out which languages are supported on your system, find the
directory where they are listed. On my system it is "/usr/share/locale". On

some systems it's in "/usr/lib/locale". The manual page for "setlocale"

should give you a hint where it is found on your system.
Be careful to type the name exactly as it should be. Upper and lowercase
matter, and the '-' and '_' characters are easily confused.
You can also set the language separately for messages, edited text and the
time format. See |:language|.
DO-IT-YOURSELF MESSAGE TRANSLATION

If translated messages are not available for your language, you could write
them yourself. To do this, get the source code for Vim and the GNU gettext
package. After unpacking the sources, instructions can be found in the
directory src/po/README.txt.
It's not too difficult to do the translation. You don't need to be a
programmer. You must know both English and the language you are translating
to, of course.
When you are satisfied with the translation, consider making it available
to others. Upload it at vim-online http://vim.sf.net or e-mail it to
the Vim maintainer <maintainer@vim.org>. Or both.
==============================================================================
*45.2* Language for Menus
The default menus are in English. To be able to use your local language, they
must be translated. Normally this is automatically done for you if the
environment is set for your language, just like with messages. You don't need
to do anything extra for this. But it only works if translations for the
language are available.
Suppose you are in Germany, with the language set to German, but prefer to
use "File" instead of "Datei". You can switch back to using the English menus
this way:
:set langmenu=none
It is also possible to specify a language:
:set langmenu=nl_NL.ISO_8859-1
Like above, differences between "-" and "_" matter. However, upper/lowercase
differences are ignored here.
The 'langmenu' option must be set before the menus are loaded. Once the
menus have been defined changing 'langmenu' has no direct effect. Therefore,
put the command to set 'langmenu' in your vimrc file.
If you really want to switch menu language while running Vim, you can do it
this way:
:set langmenu=de_DE.ISO_8859-1
There is one drawback: All menus that you defined yourself will be gone. You
will need to redefine them as well.
DO-IT-YOURSELF MENU TRANSLATION

To see which menu translations are available, look in this directory:
$VIMRUNTIME/lang
The files are called menu_{language}.vim. If you don't see the language you
want to use, you can do your own translations. The simplest way to do this is
by copying one of the existing language files, and change it.
First find out the name of your language with the ":language" command. Use
this name, but with all letters made lowercase. Then copy the file to your
own runtime directory, as found early in 'runtimepath'. For example, for Unix
you would do:
:!cp $VIMRUNTIME/lang/menu_ko_kr.euckr.vim ~/.vim/lang/menu_nl_be.iso_8859-1.vim
You will find hints for the translation in "$VIMRUNTIME/lang/README.txt".
==============================================================================
*45.3* Using another encoding
Vim guesses that the files you are going to edit are encoded for your

language. For many European languages this is "latin1". Then each byte is
one character. That means there are 256 different characters possible. For
Asian languages this is not sufficient. These mostly use a double-byte
encoding, providing for over ten thousand possible characters. This still
isn't enough when a text is to contain several different languages. This is
where Unicode comes in. It was designed to include all characters used in
commonly used languages. This is the "Super encoding that replaces all
others". But it isn't used that much yet.
Fortunately, Vim supports these three kinds of encodings. And, with some
restrictions, you can use them even when your environment uses another
language than the text.
Nevertheless, when you only edit files that are in the encoding of your
language, the default should work fine and you don't need to do anything. The
following is only relevant when you want to edit different languages.
Note:
Using different encodings only works when Vim was compiled to handle
it. To find out if it works, use the ":version" command and check the
output for "+multi_byte". If it's there, you are OK. If you see
"-multi_byte" you will have to find another Vim.
USING UNICODE IN THE GUI

The nice thing about Unicode is that other encodings can be converted to it
and back without losing information. When you make Vim use Unicode
internally, you will be able to edit files in any encoding.
Unfortunately, the number of systems supporting Unicode is still limited.
Thus it's unlikely that your language uses it. You need to tell Vim you want
to use Unicode, and how to handle interfacing with the rest of the system.
Let's start with the GUI version of Vim, which is able to display Unicode
characters. This should work:
:set encoding=utf-8
:set guifont=-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--18-120-100-100-c-90-iso10646-1
The 'encoding' option tells Vim the encoding of the characters that you use.
This applies to the text in buffers (files you are editing), registers, Vim
script files, etc. You can regard 'encoding' as the setting for the internals
of Vim.
This example assumes you have this font on your system. The name in the
example is for the X Window System. This font is in a package that is used to
enhance xterm with Unicode support. If you don't have this font, you might
find it here:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/download/ucs-fonts.tar.gz
For MS-Windows, some fonts have a limited number of Unicode characters. Try
using the "Courier New" font. You can use the Edit/Select Font... menu to
select and try out the fonts available. Only fixed-width fonts can be used
though. Example:
:set guifont=courier_new:h12
If it doesn't work well, try getting a fontpack. If Microsoft didn't move it,
you can find it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/default.aspx
Now you have told Vim to use Unicode internally and display text with a
Unicode font. Typed characters still arrive in the encoding of your original
language. This requires converting them to Unicode. Tell Vim the language
from which to convert with the 'termencoding' option. You can do it like
this:
:set encoding=utf-8
This assigns the old value of 'encoding' to 'termencoding' before setting
'encoding' to utf-8. You will have to try out if this really works for your
setup. It should work especially well when using an input method for an Asian
language, and you want to edit Unicode text.
USING UNICODE IN A UNICODE TERMINAL

There are terminals that support Unicode directly. The standard xterm that
comes with XFree86 is one of them. Let's use that as an example.
First of all, the xterm must have been compiled with Unicode support. See
|UTF8-xterm| how to check that and how to compile it when needed.

Start the xterm with the "-u8" argument. You might also need so specify a
font. Example:
xterm -u8 -fn -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--18-120-100-100-c-90-iso10646-1
Now you can run Vim inside this terminal. Set 'encoding' to "utf-8" as
before. That's all.
USING UNICODE IN AN ORDINARY TERMINAL

Suppose you want to work with Unicode files, but don't have a terminal with
Unicode support. You can do this with Vim, although characters that are not
supported by the terminal will not be displayed. The layout of the text
will be preserved.
:set encoding=utf-8
This is the same as what was used for the GUI. But it works differently: Vim
will convert the displayed text before sending it to the terminal. That
avoids that the display is messed up with strange characters.
For this to work the conversion between 'termencoding' and 'encoding' must
be possible. Vim will convert from latin1 to Unicode, thus that always works.
For other conversions the |+iconv| feature is required.
Try editing a file with Unicode characters in it. You will notice that Vim
will put a question mark (or underscore or some other character) in places
where a character should be that the terminal can't display. Move the cursor
to a question mark and use this command:
ga
Vim will display a line with the code of the character. This gives you a hint
about what character it is. You can look it up in a Unicode table. You could
actually view a file that way, if you have lots of time at hand.
Note:
Since 'encoding' is used for all text inside Vim, changing it makes
all non-ASCII text invalid. You will notice this when using registers
and the 'viminfo' file (e.g., a remembered search pattern). It's
recommended to set 'encoding' in your vimrc file, and leave it alone.
==============================================================================
*45.4* Editing files with a different encoding
Suppose you have setup Vim to use Unicode, and you want to edit a file that is
in 16-bit Unicode. Sounds simple, right? Well, Vim actually uses utf-8
encoding internally, thus the 16-bit encoding must be converted, since there
is a difference between the character set (Unicode) and the encoding (utf-8 or
16-bit).
Vim will try to detect what kind of file you are editing. It uses the
encoding names in the 'fileencodings' option. When using Unicode, the default
value is: "ucs-bom,utf-8,latin1". This means that Vim checks the file to see
if it's one of these encodings:
ucs-bom File must start with a Byte Order Mark (BOM). This
allows detection of 16-bit, 32-bit and utf-8 Unicode
encodings.
utf-8 utf-8 Unicode. This is rejected when a sequence of
bytes is illegal in utf-8.
latin1 The good old 8-bit encoding. Always works.
When you start editing that 16-bit Unicode file, and it has a BOM, Vim will
detect this and convert the file to utf-8 when reading it. The 'fileencoding'
option (without s at the end) is set to the detected value. In this case it
is "utf-16le". That means it's Unicode, 16-bit and little-endian. This
file format is common on MS-Windows (e.g., for registry files).
When writing the file, Vim will compare 'fileencoding' with 'encoding'. If
they are different, the text will be converted.
An empty value for 'fileencoding' means that no conversion is to be done.
Thus the text is assumed to be encoded with 'encoding'.
If the default 'fileencodings' value is not good for you, set it to the
encodings you want Vim to try. Only when a value is found to be invalid will
the next one be used. Putting "latin1" first doesn't work, because it is
never illegal. An example, to fall back to Japanese when the file doesn't
have a BOM and isn't utf-8:
:set fileencodings=ucs-bom,utf-8,sjis

See |encoding-values| for suggested values. Other values may work as well.
This depends on the conversion available.
FORCING AN ENCODING
If the automatic detection doesn't work you must tell Vim what encoding the
file is. Example:
:edit ++enc=koi8-r russian.txt
The "++enc" part specifies the name of the encoding to be used for this file
only. Vim will convert the file from the specified encoding, Russian in this
example, to 'encoding'. 'fileencoding' will also be set to the specified
encoding, so that the reverse conversion can be done when writing the file.
The same argument can be used when writing the file. This way you can
actually use Vim to convert a file. Example:
:write ++enc=utf-8 russian.txt
Note:
Conversion may result in lost characters. Conversion from an encoding
to Unicode and back is mostly free of this problem, unless there are
illegal characters. Conversion from Unicode to other encodings often
loses information when there was more than one language in the file.
==============================================================================
*45.5* Entering language text
Computer keyboards don't have much more than a hundred keys. Some languages
have thousands of characters, Unicode has ten thousands. So how do you type
these characters?
First of all, when you don't use too many of the special characters, you
can use digraphs. This was already explained in |24.9|.
When you use a language that uses many more characters than keys on your
keyboard, you will want to use an Input Method (IM). This requires learning
the translation from typed keys to resulting character. When you need an IM
you probably already have one on your system. It should work with Vim like
with other programs. For details see |mbyte-XIM| for the X Window system and
|mbyte-IME| for MS-Windows.
KEYMAPS
For some languages the character set is different from latin, but uses a
similar number of characters. It's possible to map keys to characters. Vim
uses keymaps for this.
Suppose you want to type Hebrew. You can load the keymap like this:
:set keymap=hebrew
Vim will try to find a keymap file for you. This depends on the value of
'encoding'. If no matching file was found, you will get an error message.
Now you can type Hebrew in Insert mode. In Normal mode, and when typing a ":"
command, Vim automatically switches to English. You can use this command to
switch between Hebrew and English:
CTRL-^
This only works in Insert mode and Command-line mode. In Normal mode it does
something completely different (jumps to alternate file).
The usage of the keymap is indicated in the mode message, if you have the
'showmode' option set. In the GUI Vim will indicate the usage of keymaps with
a different cursor color.
You can also change the usage of the keymap with the 'iminsert' and
'imsearch' options.
To see the list of mappings, use this command:
:lmap
To find out which keymap files are available, in the GUI you can use the
Edit/Keymap menu. Otherwise you can use this command:
:echo globpath(&rtp, "keymap/*.vim")

DO-IT-YOURSELF KEYMAPS
You can create your own keymap file. It's not very difficult. Start with
a keymap file that is similar to the language you want to use. Copy it to the
"keymap" directory in your runtime directory. For example, for Unix, you
would use the directory "~/.vim/keymap".
The name of the keymap file must look like this:
keymap/{name}.vim
or
keymap/{name}_{encoding}.vim
{name} is the name of the keymap. Chose a name that is obvious, but different
from existing keymaps (unless you want to replace an existing keymap file).
{name} cannot contain an underscore. Optionally, add the encoding used after
an underscore. Examples:
keymap/hebrew.vim
keymap/hebrew_utf-8.vim
The contents of the file should be self-explanatory. Look at a few of the
keymaps that are distributed with Vim. For the details, see |mbyte-keymap|.
LAST RESORT
If all other methods fail, you can enter any character with CTRL-V:
encoding type range
8-bit CTRL-V 123 decimal 0-255
8-bit CTRL-V x a1 hexadecimal 00-ff
16-bit CTRL-V u 013b hexadecimal 0000-ffff
31-bit CTRL-V U 001303a4 hexadecimal 00000000-7fffffff
Don't type the spaces. See |i_CTRL-V_digit| for the details.
==============================================================================
Next chapter: |usr_90.txt| Installing Vim
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main help file
*usr_90.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2008 Sep 10

Installing Vim
*install*
Before you can use Vim you have to install it. Depending on your system it's
simple or easy. This chapter gives a few hints and also explains how
upgrading to a new version is done.
|90.1| Unix
|90.2| MS-Windows
|90.3| Upgrading
|90.4| Common installation issues
|90.5| Uninstalling Vim
Previous chapter: |usr_45.txt| Select your language
==============================================================================
*90.1* Unix
First you have to decide if you are going to install Vim system-wide or for a
single user. The installation is almost the same, but the directory where Vim
is installed in differs.
For a system-wide installation the base directory "/usr/local" is often
used. But this may be different for your system. Try finding out where other
packages are installed.
When installing for a single user, you can use your home directory as the
base. The files will be placed in subdirectories like "bin" and "shared/vim".
FROM A PACKAGE
You can get precompiled binaries for many different UNIX systems. There is a
long list with links on this page:
http://www.vim.org/binaries.html
Volunteers maintain the binaries, so they are often out of date. It is a
good idea to compile your own UNIX version from the source. Also, creating
the editor from the source allows you to control which features are compiled.
This does require a compiler though.
If you have a Linux distribution, the "vi" program is probably a minimal
version of Vim. It doesn't do syntax highlighting, for example. Try finding
another Vim package in your distribution, or search on the web site.
FROM SOURCES
To compile and install Vim, you will need the following:
- A C compiler (GCC preferred)
- The GZIP program (you can get it from www.gnu.org)
- The Vim source and runtime archives
To get the Vim archives, look in this file for a mirror near you, this should
provide the fastest download:

ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/MIRRORS
Or use the home site ftp.vim.org, if you think it's fast enough. Go to the
"unix" directory and you'll find a list of files there. The version number is
embedded in the file name. You will want to get the most recent version.
You can get the files for Unix in two ways: One big archive that contains
everything, or four smaller ones that each fit on a floppy disk. For version
6.1 the single big one is called:
vim-6.1.tar.bz2
You need the bzip2 program to uncompress it. If you don't have it, get the
four smaller files, which can be uncompressed with gzip. For Vim 6.1 they are
called:
vim-6.1-src1.tar.gz
vim-6.1-src2.tar.gz
vim-6.1-rt1.tar.gz
vim-6.1-rt2.tar.gz
COMPILING
First create a top directory to work in, for example:
mkdir ~/vim
cd ~/vim
Then unpack the archives there. If you have the one big archive, you unpack
it like this:
bzip2 -d -c path/vim-6.1.tar.bz2 | tar xf -
Change "path" to where you have downloaded the file.
gzip -d -c path/vim-6.1-src1.tar.gz | tar xf -
gzip -d -c path/vim-6.1-src2.tar.gz | tar xf -
gzip -d -c path/vim-6.1-rt1.tar.gz | tar xf -
gzip -d -c path/vim-6.1-rt2.tar.gz | tar xf -
If you are satisfied with getting the default features, and your environment
is setup properly, you should be able to compile Vim with just this:
cd vim61/src
make
The make program will run configure and compile everything. Further on we
will explain how to compile with different features.
If there are errors while compiling, carefully look at the error messages.
There should be a hint about what went wrong. Hopefully you will be able to
correct it. You might have to disable some features to make Vim compile.
Look in the Makefile for specific hints for your system.
TESTING
Now you can check if compiling worked OK:
make test
This will run a sequence of test scripts to verify that Vim works as expected.
Vim will be started many times and all kinds of text and messages flash by.
If it is alright you will finally see:
test results:
ALL DONE
If you get "TEST FAILURE" some test failed. If there are one or two messages
about failed tests, Vim might still work, but not perfectly. If you see a lot
of error messages or Vim doesn't finish until the end, there must be something
wrong. Either try to find out yourself, or find someone who can solve it.
You could look in the |maillist-archive| for a solution. If everything else
fails, you could ask in the vim |maillist| if someone can help you.
INSTALLING
*install-home*
If you want to install in your home directory, edit the Makefile and search

for a line:
#prefix = $(HOME)
Remove the # at the start of the line.
When installing for the whole system, Vim has most likely already selected
a good installation directory for you. You can also specify one, see below.
You need to become root for the following.
To install Vim do:
make install
That should move all the relevant files to the right place. Now you can try
running vim to verify that it works. Use two simple tests to check if Vim can
find its runtime files:
:help
:syntax enable
If this doesn't work, use this command to check where Vim is looking for the
runtime files:
:echo $VIMRUNTIME
You can also start Vim with the "-V" argument to see what happens during
startup:
vim -V
Don't forget that the user manual assumes you Vim in a certain way. After
installing Vim, follow the instructions at |not-compatible| to make Vim work
as assumed in this manual.
SELECTING FEATURES
Vim has many ways to select features. One of the simple ways is to edit the
Makefile. There are many directions and examples. Often you can enable or
disable a feature by uncommenting a line.
An alternative is to run "configure" separately. This allows you to
specify configuration options manually. The disadvantage is that you have to
figure out what exactly to type.
Some of the most interesting configure arguments follow. These can also be
enabled from the Makefile.
--prefix={directory} Top directory where to install Vim.
--with-features=tiny Compile with many features disabled.
--with-features=small Compile with some features disabled.
--with-features=big Compile with more features enabled.
--with-features=huge Compile with most features enabled.
See |+feature-list| for which feature
is enabled in which case.
--enable-perlinterp Enable the Perl interface. There are
similar arguments for ruby, python and
tcl.
--disable-gui Do not compile the GUI interface.
--without-x Do not compile X-windows features.
When both of these are used, Vim will
not connect to the X server, which
makes startup faster.
To see the whole list use:
./configure --help
You can find a bit of explanation for each feature, and links for more
information here: |feature-list|.
For the adventurous, edit the file "feature.h". You can also change the
source code yourself!
==============================================================================
*90.2* MS-Windows
There are two ways to install the Vim program for Microsoft Windows. You can
uncompress several archives, or use a self-installing big archive. Most users

with fairly recent computers will prefer the second method. For the first
one, you will need:
- An archive with binaries for Vim.
- The Vim runtime archive.
- A program to unpack the zip files.
To get the Vim archives, look in this file for a mirror near you, this should
provide the fastest download:
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/MIRRORS
Or use the home site ftp.vim.org, if you think it's fast enough. Go to the
"pc" directory and you'll find a list of files there. The version number is
embedded in the file name. You will want to get the most recent version.
We will use "61" here, which is version 6.1.
gvim61.exe The self-installing archive.
This is all you need for the second method. Just launch the executable, and
follow the prompts.
For the first method you must chose one of the binary archives. These are
available:
gvim61.zip The normal MS-Windows GUI version.
gvim61ole.zip The MS-Windows GUI version with OLE support.
Uses more memory, supports interfacing with
other OLE applications.
vim61w32.zip 32 bit MS-Windows console version. For use in
a Win NT/2000/XP console. Does not work well
on Win 95/98.
vim61d32.zip 32 bit MS-DOS version. For use in the
Win 95/98 console window.
vim61d16.zip 16 bit MS-DOS version. Only for old systems.
Does not support long filenames.
You only need one of them. Although you could install both a GUI and a
console version. You always need to get the archive with runtime files.
vim61rt.zip The runtime files.
Use your un-zip program to unpack the files. For example, using the "unzip"
program:
cd c:\
unzip path\gvim61.zip
unzip path\vim61rt.zip
This will unpack the files in the directory "c:\vim\vim61". If you already
have a "vim" directory somewhere, you will want to move to the directory just
above it.
Now change to the "vim\vim61" directory and run the install program:
install
Carefully look through the messages and select the options you want to use.
If you finally select "do it" the install program will carry out the actions
you selected.
The install program doesn't move the runtime files. They remain where you
unpacked them.
In case you are not satisfied with the features included in the supplied
binaries, you could try compiling Vim yourself. Get the source archive from
the same location as where the binaries are. You need a compiler for which a
makefile exists. Microsoft Visual C works, but is expensive. The Free
Borland command-line compiler 5.5 can be used, as well as the free MingW and
Cygwin compilers. Check the file src/INSTALLpc.txt for hints.
==============================================================================
*90.3* Upgrading
If you are running one version of Vim and want to install another, here is
what to do.
UNIX
When you type "make install" the runtime files will be copied to a directory

which is specific for this version. Thus they will not overwrite a previous
version. This makes it possible to use two or more versions next to
each other.
The executable "vim" will overwrite an older version. If you don't care
about keeping the old version, running "make install" will work fine. You can
delete the old runtime files manually. Just delete the directory with the
version number in it and all files below it. Example:
rm -rf /usr/local/share/vim/vim58
There are normally no changed files below this directory. If you did change
the "filetype.vim" file, for example, you better merge the changes into the
new version before deleting it.
If you are careful and want to try out the new version for a while before
switching to it, install the new version under another name. You need to
specify a configure argument. For example:
./configure --with-vim-name=vim6
Before running "make install", you could use "make -n install" to check that
no valuable existing files are overwritten.
When you finally decide to switch to the new version, all you need to do is
to rename the binary to "vim". For example:
mv /usr/local/bin/vim6 /usr/local/bin/vim
MS-WINDOWS
Upgrading is mostly equal to installing a new version. Just unpack the files
in the same place as the previous version. A new directory will be created,
e.g., "vim61", for the files of the new version. Your runtime files, vimrc
file, viminfo, etc. will be left alone.
If you want to run the new version next to the old one, you will have to do
some handwork. Don't run the install program, it will overwrite a few files
of the old version. Execute the new binaries by specifying the full path.
The program should be able to automatically find the runtime files for the
right version. However, this won't work if you set the $VIMRUNTIME variable
somewhere.
If you are satisfied with the upgrade, you can delete the files of the
previous version. See |90.5|.
==============================================================================
*90.4* Common installation issues
This section describes some of the common problems that occur when installing
Vim and suggests some solutions. It also contains answers to many
installation questions.
Q: I Do Not Have Root Privileges. How Do I Install Vim? (Unix)

Use the following configuration command to install Vim in a directory called
$HOME/vim:
./configure --prefix=$HOME
This gives you a personal copy of Vim. You need to put $HOME/bin in your
path to execute the editor. Also see |install-home|.
Q: The Colors Are Not Right on My Screen. (Unix)

Check your terminal settings by using the following command in a shell:
echo $TERM
If the terminal type listed is not correct, fix it. For more hints, see
|06.2|. Another solution is to always use the GUI version of Vim, called
gvim. This avoids the need for a correct terminal setup.
Q: My Backspace And Delete Keys Don't Work Right

The definition of what key sends what code is very unclear for backspace <BS>
and Delete <Del> keys. First of all, check your $TERM setting. If there is
nothing wrong with it, try this:

:set t_kb=^V<BS>
:set t_kD=^V<Del>
In the first line you need to press CTRL-V and then hit the backspace key.
In the second line you need to press CTRL-V and then hit the Delete key.
You can put these lines in your vimrc file, see |05.1|. A disadvantage is
that it won't work when you use another terminal some day. Look here for
alternate solutions: |:fixdel|.
Q: I Am Using RedHat Linux. Can I Use the Vim That Comes with the System?
By default RedHat installs a minimal version of Vim. Check your RPM packages
for something named "Vim-enhanced-version.rpm" and install that.
Q: How Do I Turn Syntax Coloring On? How do I make plugins work?

Use the example vimrc script. You can find an explanation on how to use it
here: |not-compatible|.
See chapter 6 for information about syntax highlighting: |usr_06.txt|.
Q: What Is a Good vimrc File to Use?

See the www.vim.org Web site for several good examples.
Q: Where Do I Find a Good Vim Plugin?

See the Vim-online site: http://vim.sf.net. Many users have uploaded useful
Vim scripts and plugins there.
Q: Where Do I Find More Tips?

See the Vim-online site: http://vim.sf.net. There is an archive with hints
from Vim users. You might also want to search in the |maillist-archive|.
==============================================================================
*90.5* Uninstalling Vim
In the unlikely event you want to uninstall Vim completely, this is how you do
it.
UNIX
When you installed Vim as a package, check your package manager to find out
how to remove the package again.
If you installed Vim from sources you can use this command:
make uninstall
However, if you have deleted the original files or you used an archive that
someone supplied, you can't do this. Do delete the files manually, here is an
example for when "/usr/local" was used as the root:
rm -rf /usr/local/share/vim/vim61
rm /usr/local/bin/eview
rm /usr/local/bin/evim
rm /usr/local/bin/ex
rm /usr/local/bin/gview
rm /usr/local/bin/gvim
rm /usr/local/bin/gvim
rm /usr/local/bin/gvimdiff
rm /usr/local/bin/rgview
rm /usr/local/bin/rgvim
rm /usr/local/bin/rview
rm /usr/local/bin/rvim
rm /usr/local/bin/rvim
rm /usr/local/bin/view
rm /usr/local/bin/vim
rm /usr/local/bin/vimdiff
rm /usr/local/bin/vimtutor
rm /usr/local/bin/xxd
rm /usr/local/man/man1/eview.1

rm /usr/local/man/man1/evim.1
rm /usr/local/man/man1/ex.1
rm /usr/local/man/man1/gview.1
rm /usr/local/man/man1/gvim.1
rm /usr/local/man/man1/gvimdiff.1
rm /usr/local/man/man1/rgview.1
rm /usr/local/man/man1/rgvim.1
rm /usr/local/man/man1/rview.1
rm /usr/local/man/man1/rvim.1
rm /usr/local/man/man1/view.1
rm /usr/local/man/man1/vim.1
rm /usr/local/man/man1/vimdiff.1
rm /usr/local/man/man1/vimtutor.1
rm /usr/local/man/man1/xxd.1
MS-WINDOWS
If you installed Vim with the self-installing archive you can run
the "uninstall-gui" program located in the same directory as the other Vim
programs, e.g. "c:\vim\vim61". You can also launch it from the Start menu if
installed the Vim entries there. This will remove most of the files, menu
entries and desktop shortcuts. Some files may remain however, as they need a
Windows restart before being deleted.
You will be given the option to remove the whole "vim" directory. It
probably contains your vimrc file and other runtime files that you created, so
be careful.
Else, if you installed Vim with the zip archives, the preferred way is to use
the "uninstal" program (note the missing l at the end). You can find it in
the same directory as the "install" program, e.g., "c:\vim\vim61". This
should also work from the usual "install/remove software" page.
However, this only removes the registry entries for Vim. You have to
delete the files yourself. Simply select the directory "vim\vim61" and delete
it recursively. There should be no files there that you changed, but you
might want to check that first.
The "vim" directory probably contains your vimrc file and other runtime
files that you created. You might want to keep that.
==============================================================================
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*help.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Jul 20

VIM - main help file
k
Move around: Use the cursor keys, or "h" to go left, h l
"j" to go down, "k" to go up, "l" to go right. j
Close this window: Use ":q<Enter>".
Get out of Vim: Use ":qa!<Enter>" (careful, all changes are lost!).
Jump to a subject: Position the cursor on a tag (e.g. |bars|) and hit CTRL-].
With the mouse: ":set mouse=a" to enable the mouse (in xterm or GUI).
Double-click the left mouse button on a tag, e.g. |bars|.
Jump back: Type CTRL-T or CTRL-O (repeat to go further back).
Get specific help: It is possible to go directly to whatever you want help
on, by giving an argument to the |:help| command.
It is possible to further specify the context:
*help-context*
WHAT PREPEND EXAMPLE
Normal mode command (nothing) :help x
Visual mode command v_ :help v_u
Insert mode command i_ :help i_<Esc>
Command-line command : :help :quit
Command-line editing c_ :help c_<Del>
Vim command argument - :help -r
Option '' :help 'textwidth'
Search for help: Type ":help word", then hit CTRL-D to see matching
help entries for "word".
Or use ":helpgrep word". |:helpgrep|
VIM stands for Vi IMproved. Most of VIM was made by Bram Moolenaar, but only
through the help of many others. See |credits|.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*doc-file-list* *Q_ct*
BASIC:
|quickref| Overview of the most common commands you will use
|tutor| 30 minutes training course for beginners
|copying| About copyrights
|iccf| Helping poor children in Uganda
|sponsor| Sponsor Vim development, become a registered Vim user
|www| Vim on the World Wide Web
|bugs| Where to send bug reports
USER MANUAL: These files explain how to accomplish an editing task.
|usr_toc.txt| Table Of Contents
Getting Started
Editing Effectively
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/index.html[2019/03/05 11:43:41 AM]


Tuning Vim
Making Vim Run
REFERENCE MANUAL: These files explain every detail of Vim. *reference_toc*

General subjects
|intro.txt| general introduction to Vim; notation used in help files
|help.txt| overview and quick reference (this file)
|helphelp.txt| about using the help files
|index.txt| alphabetical index of all commands
|help-tags| all the tags you can jump to (index of tags)
|howto.txt| how to do the most common editing tasks
|tips.txt| various tips on using Vim
|message.txt| (error) messages and explanations
|quotes.txt| remarks from users of Vim
|todo.txt| known problems and desired extensions
|develop.txt| development of Vim
|debug.txt| debugging Vim itself
|uganda.txt| Vim distribution conditions and what to do with your money
Basic editing
|starting.txt| starting Vim, Vim command arguments, initialisation
|editing.txt| editing and writing files
|motion.txt| commands for moving around
|scroll.txt| scrolling the text in the window
|insert.txt| Insert and Replace mode
|change.txt| deleting and replacing text
|indent.txt| automatic indenting for C and other languages
|undo.txt| Undo and Redo
|repeat.txt| repeating commands, Vim scripts and debugging
|visual.txt| using the Visual mode (selecting a text area)
|various.txt| various remaining commands
|recover.txt| recovering from a crash
Advanced editing
|cmdline.txt| Command-line editing
|options.txt| description of all options
|pattern.txt| regexp patterns and search commands
|map.txt| key mapping and abbreviations
|tagsrch.txt| tags and special searches
|quickfix.txt| commands for a quick edit-compile-fix cycle
|windows.txt| commands for using multiple windows and buffers
|tabpage.txt| commands for using multiple tab pages
|syntax.txt| syntax highlighting
|spell.txt| spell checking
|diff.txt| working with two to four versions of the same file
|autocmd.txt| automatically executing commands on an event
|filetype.txt| settings done specifically for a type of file
|eval.txt| expression evaluation, conditional commands
|fold.txt| hide (fold) ranges of lines
Special issues
|print.txt| printing
|remote.txt| using Vim as a server or client
|term.txt| using different terminals and mice
|digraph.txt| list of available digraphs

|mbyte.txt| multi-byte text support

|mlang.txt| non-English language support
|arabic.txt| Arabic language support and editing
|farsi.txt| Farsi (Persian) editing
|hebrew.txt| Hebrew language support and editing
|russian.txt| Russian language support and editing
|ft_ada.txt| Ada (the programming language) support
|ft_sql.txt| about the SQL filetype plugin
|hangulin.txt| Hangul (Korean) input mode
|rileft.txt| right-to-left editing mode
GUI
|gui.txt| Graphical User Interface (GUI)
|gui_w16.txt| Windows 3.1 GUI
|gui_w32.txt| Win32 GUI
|gui_x11.txt| X11 GUI
Interfaces
|if_cscop.txt| using Cscope with Vim
|if_lua.txt| Lua interface
|if_mzsch.txt| MzScheme interface
|if_perl.txt| Perl interface
|if_pyth.txt| Python interface
|if_sniff.txt| SNiFF+ interface
|if_tcl.txt| Tcl interface
|if_ole.txt| OLE automation interface for Win32
|if_ruby.txt| Ruby interface
|debugger.txt| Interface with a debugger
|workshop.txt| Sun Visual Workshop interface
|netbeans.txt| NetBeans External Editor interface
|sign.txt| debugging signs
Versions
|vi_diff.txt| Main differences between Vim and Vi
*sys-file-list*
Remarks about specific systems
|os_390.txt| OS/390 Unix
|os_amiga.txt| Amiga
|os_beos.txt| BeOS and BeBox
|os_dos.txt| MS-DOS and MS-Windows NT/95 common items
|os_mac.txt| Macintosh
|os_mint.txt| Atari MiNT
|os_msdos.txt| MS-DOS (plain DOS and DOS box under Windows)
|os_os2.txt| OS/2
|os_qnx.txt| QNX
|os_risc.txt| RISC-OS
|os_unix.txt| Unix
|os_vms.txt| VMS
|os_win32.txt| MS-Windows 95/98/NT
*standard-plugin-list*
Standard plugins
|pi_getscript.txt| Downloading latest version of Vim scripts
|pi_gzip.txt| Reading and writing compressed files
|pi_netrw.txt| Reading and writing files over a network
|pi_paren.txt| Highlight matching parens
|pi_tar.txt| Tar file explorer
|pi_vimball.txt| Create a self-installing Vim script
|pi_zip.txt| Zip archive explorer
LOCAL ADDITIONS: *local-additions*

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*bars* Bars example
Now that you've jumped here with CTRL-] or a double mouse click, you can use
CTRL-T, CTRL-O, g<RightMouse>, or <C-RightMouse> to go back to where you were.
Note that tags are within | characters, but when highlighting is enabled these
characters are hidden. That makes it easier to read a command.
Anyway, you can use CTRL-] on any word, also when it is not within |, and Vim
will try to find help for it. Especially for options in single quotes, e.g.

'compatible'.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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main help file
*howto.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2006 Apr 02
How to ... *howdoi* *how-do-i* *howto* *how-to*

|tutor| get started
|:quit| exit? I'm trapped, help me!
|initialization| initialize Vim
|vimrc-intro| write a Vim script file (vimrc)
|suspend| suspend Vim
|usr_11.txt| recover after a crash
|07.4| keep a backup of my file when writing over it
|usr_07.txt| edit files
|23.4| edit binary files
|usr_24.txt| insert text
|deleting| delete text
|usr_04.txt| change text
|04.5| copy and move text
|usr_25.txt| format text
|30.6| format comments
|30.2| indent C programs
|25.3| automatically set indent
|usr_26.txt| repeat commands
|02.5| undo and redo
|usr_03.txt| move around
|word-motions| word motions
|left-right-motions| left-right motions
|up-down-motions| up-down motions
|object-motions| text-object motions
|various-motions| various motions
|object-select| text-object selection
|'whichwrap'| move over line breaks
|'virtualedit'| move to where there is no text
|usr_27.txt| specify pattern for searches
|tags-and-searches| do tags and special searches
|29.4| search in include'd files used to find
variables, functions, or macros
|K| look up manual for the keyword under cursor
|03.7| scroll
|'sidescroll'| scroll horizontally/sideways
|'scrolloff'| set visible context lines
|mode-switching| change modes
|04.4| use Visual mode
|'insertmode'| start Vim in Insert mode
|40.1| map keys
|24.7| create abbreviations
|ins-expandtab| expand a tab to spaces in Insert mode
|i_CTRL-R| insert contents of a register in Insert mode
|24.3| complete words in Insert mode
|25.1| break a line before it gets too long
|20.1| do command-line editing
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/howto.html[2019/03/05 11:43:42 AM]

|20.3| do command-line completion

|'cmdheight'| increase the height of command-line
|10.3| specify command-line ranges
|40.3| specify commands to be executed automatically
before/after reading/writing entering/leaving a
buffer/window
|'autowrite'| write automatically
|30.1| speedup edit-compile-edit cycle or compile and fix
errors within Vim
|options| set options
|auto-setting| set options automatically
|term-dependent-settings| set options depending on terminal name
|save-settings| save settings
|:quote| comment my .vim files
|'helpheight'| change the default help height
|'highlight'| set various highlighting modes
|'title'| set the window title
|'icon'| set window icon title
|'report'| avoid seeing the change messages on every line
|'shortmess'| avoid |hit-enter| prompts
|mouse-using| use mouse with Vim
|usr_08.txt| manage multiple windows and buffers
|gui.txt| use the gui
|You can't! (yet)| do dishes using Vim
|usr_06.txt| switch on syntax highlighting
|2html.vim| convert a colored file to HTML
|less| use Vim like less or more with syntax highlighting
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/howto.html[2019/03/05 11:43:42 AM]

Vim documentation: tips
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*tips.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2009 Nov 07
Tips and ideas for using Vim *tips*

These are just a few that we thought would be helpful for many users.
You can find many more tips on the wiki. The URL can be found on
http://www.vim.org
Don't forget to browse the user manual, it also contains lots of useful tips
|usr_toc.txt|.
Editing C programs |C-editing|
Finding where identifiers are used |ident-search|
Switching screens in an xterm |xterm-screens|
Scrolling in Insert mode |scroll-insert|
Smooth scrolling |scroll-smooth|
Correcting common typing mistakes |type-mistakes|
Counting words, lines, etc. |count-items|
Restoring the cursor position |restore-position|
Renaming files |rename-files|
Change a name in multiple files |change-name|
Speeding up external commands |speed-up|
Useful mappings |useful-mappings|
Compressing the help files |gzip-helpfile|
Executing shell commands in a window |shell-window|
Hex editing |hex-editing|
Using <> notation in autocommands |autocmd-<>|
Highlighting matching parens |match-parens|
==============================================================================
Editing C programs *C-editing*
There are quite a few features in Vim to help you edit C program files. Here
is an overview with tags to jump to:
|usr_29.txt| Moving through programs chapter in the user manual.
|usr_30.txt| Editing programs chapter in the user manual.
|C-indenting| Automatically set the indent of a line while typing
text.
|=| Re-indent a few lines.
|format-comments| Format comments.
|:checkpath| Show all recursively included files.
|[i| Search for identifier under cursor in current and
included files.
|[_CTRL-I| Jump to match for "[i"
|[I| List all lines in current and included files where
identifier under the cursor matches.
|[d| Search for define under cursor in current and included
files.
|CTRL-]| Jump to tag under cursor (e.g., definition of a
function).
|CTRL-T| Jump back to before a CTRL-] command.
|:tselect| Select one tag out of a list of matching tags.
|gd| Go to Declaration of local variable under cursor.
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/tips.html[2019/03/05 11:43:42 AM]

|gD| Go to Declaration of global variable under cursor.

|gf| Go to file name under the cursor.
|%| Go to matching (), {}, [], /* */, #if, #else, #endif.
|[/| Go to previous start of comment.
|]/| Go to next end of comment.
|[#| Go back to unclosed #if, #ifdef, or #else.
|]#| Go forward to unclosed #else or #endif.
|[(| Go back to unclosed '('
|])| Go forward to unclosed ')'
|[{| Go back to unclosed '{'
|]}| Go forward to unclosed '}'
|v_ab| Select "a block" from "[(" to "])", including braces
|v_ib| Select "inner block" from "[(" to "])"
|v_aB| Select "a block" from "[{" to "]}", including brackets
|v_iB| Select "inner block" from "[{" to "]}"
==============================================================================
Finding where identifiers are used *ident-search*
You probably already know that |tags| can be used to jump to the place where a
function or variable is defined. But sometimes you wish you could jump to all
the places where a function or variable is being used. This is possible in
two ways:
1. Using the |:grep| command. This should work on most Unix systems,
but can be slow (it reads all files) and only searches in one directory.
2. Using ID utils. This is fast and works in multiple directories. It uses a
database to store locations. You will need some additional programs for
this to work. And you need to keep the database up to date.
Using the GNU id-tools:
What you need:
- The GNU id-tools installed (mkid is needed to create ID and lid is needed to
use the macros).
- An identifier database file called "ID" in the current directory. You can
create it with the shell command "mkid file1 file2 ..".
Put this in your .vimrc:
map _u :call ID_search()<Bar>execute "/\\<" . g:word . "\\>"<CR>
map _n :n<Bar>execute "/\\<" . g:word . "\\>"<CR>
function! ID_search()
let g:word = expand("<cword>")
let x = system("lid --key=none ". g:word)
let x = substitute(x, "\n", " ", "g")
execute "next " . x
endfun
To use it, place the cursor on a word, type "_u" and vim will load the file
that contains the word. Search for the next occurrence of the word in the
same file with "n". Go to the next file with "_n".
This has been tested with id-utils-3.2 (which is the name of the id-tools
archive file on your closest gnu-ftp-mirror).
[the idea for this comes from Andreas Kutschera]
==============================================================================
Switching screens in an xterm *xterm-screens* *xterm-save-screen*
(From comp.editors, by Juergen Weigert, in reply to a question)
:> Another question is that after exiting vim, the screen is left as it
:> was, i.e. the contents of the file I was viewing (editing) was left on
:> the screen. The output from my previous like "ls" were lost,
:> ie. no longer in the scrolling buffer. I know that there is a way to
:> restore the screen after exiting vim or other vi like editors,
:> I just don't know how. Helps are appreciated. Thanks.
:
:I imagine someone else can answer this. I assume though that vim and vi do
:the same thing as each other for a given xterm setup.
They not necessarily do the same thing, as this may be a termcap vs.
terminfo problem. You should be aware that there are two databases for
describing attributes of a particular type of terminal: termcap and

terminfo. This can cause differences when the entries differ AND when of
the programs in question one uses terminfo and the other uses termcap
(also see |+terminfo|).
In your particular problem, you are looking for the control sequences
^[[?47h and ^[[?47l. These switch between xterms alternate and main screen
buffer. As a quick workaround a command sequence like
echo -n "^[[?47h"; vim ... ; echo -n "^[[?47l"
may do what you want. (My notation ^[ means the ESC character, further down
you'll see that the databases use \E instead).
On startup, vim echoes the value of the termcap variable ti (terminfo:
smcup) to the terminal. When exiting, it echoes te (terminfo: rmcup). Thus
these two variables are the correct place where the above mentioned control
sequences should go.
Compare your xterm termcap entry (found in /etc/termcap) with your xterm
terminfo entry (retrieved with "infocmp -C xterm"). Both should contain
entries similar to:
:te=\E[2J\E[?47l\E8:ti=\E7\E[?47h:
PS: If you find any difference, someone (your sysadmin?) should better check
the complete termcap and terminfo database for consistency.
NOTE 1: If you recompile Vim with FEAT_XTERM_SAVE defined in feature.h, the
builtin xterm will include the mentioned "te" and "ti" entries.
NOTE 2: If you want to disable the screen switching, and you don't want to
change your termcap, you can add these lines to your .vimrc:
:set t_ti= t_te=
==============================================================================
Scrolling in Insert mode *scroll-insert*
If you are in insert mode and you want to see something that is just off the
screen, you can use CTRL-X CTRL-E and CTRL-X CTRL-Y to scroll the screen.
|i_CTRL-X_CTRL-E|
To make this easier, you could use these mappings:
:inoremap <C-E> <C-X><C-E>
:inoremap <C-Y> <C-X><C-Y>
(Type this literally, make sure the '<' flag is not in 'cpoptions').
You then lose the ability to copy text from the line above/below the cursor
|i_CTRL-E|.
Also consider setting 'scrolloff' to a larger value, so that you can always see
some context around the cursor. If 'scrolloff' is bigger than half the window
height, the cursor will always be in the middle and the text is scrolled when
the cursor is moved up/down.
==============================================================================
Smooth scrolling *scroll-smooth*
If you like the scrolling to go a bit smoother, you can use these mappings:
:map <C-U> <C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-Y><C-
Y><C-Y>
:map <C-D> <C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-E><C-
E><C-E>
(Type this literally, make sure the '<' flag is not in 'cpoptions').
==============================================================================
Correcting common typing mistakes *type-mistakes*
When there are a few words that you keep on typing in the wrong way, make
abbreviations that correct them. For example:
:ab teh the
:ab fro for
==============================================================================
Counting words, lines, etc. *count-items*
To count how often any pattern occurs in the current buffer use the substitute
command and add the 'n' flag to avoid the substitution. The reported number
of substitutions is the number of items. Examples:

:%s/./&/gn characters
:%s/\i\+/&/gn words
:%s/^//n lines
:%s/the/&/gn "the" anywhere
:%s/\<the\>/&/gn "the" as a word
You might want to reset 'hlsearch' or do ":nohlsearch".
Add the 'e' flag if you don't want an error when there are no matches.
An alternative is using |v_g_CTRL-G| in Visual mode.
If you want to find matches in multiple files use |:vimgrep|.
*count-bytes*
If you want to count bytes, you can use this:
Visually select the characters (block is also possible)
Use "y" to yank the characters
Use the strlen() function:
:echo strlen(@")
A line break is counted for one byte.
==============================================================================
Restoring the cursor position *restore-position*
Sometimes you want to write a mapping that makes a change somewhere in the
file and restores the cursor position, without scrolling the text. For
example, to change the date mark in a file:
:map <F2> msHmtgg/Last [cC]hange:\s*/e+1<CR>"_D"=strftime("%Y %b %d")<CR>p'tzt`s
Breaking up saving the position:
ms store cursor position in the 's' mark
H go to the first line in the window
mt store this position in the 't' mark
Breaking up restoring the position:
't go to the line previously at the top of the window
zt scroll to move this line to the top of the window
`s jump to the original position of the cursor
For something more advanced see |winsaveview()| and |winrestview()|.
==============================================================================
Renaming files *rename-files*
Say I have a directory with the following files in them (directory picked at
random :-):
buffer.c
charset.c
digraph.c
...
and I want to rename *.c *.bla. I'd do it like this:
$ vim
:r !ls *.c
:%s/$.*$.c/mv & \1.bla
:w !sh
:q!
==============================================================================
Change a name in multiple files *change-name*
Example for using a script file to change a name in several files:
Create a file "subs.vim" containing substitute commands and a :update
command:
:%s/Jones/Smith/g
:%s/Allen/Peter/g
:update
Execute Vim on all files you want to change, and source the script for
each argument:

vim *.let
argdo source subs.vim
See |:argdo|.
==============================================================================
Speeding up external commands *speed-up*
In some situations, execution of an external command can be very slow. This
can also slow down wildcard expansion on Unix. Here are a few suggestions to
increase the speed.
If your .cshrc (or other file, depending on the shell used) is very long, you
should separate it into a section for interactive use and a section for
non-interactive use (often called secondary shells). When you execute a
command from Vim like ":!ls", you do not need the interactive things (for
example, setting the prompt). Put the stuff that is not needed after these
lines:
if ($?prompt == 0) then
exit 0
endif
Another way is to include the "-f" flag in the 'shell' option, e.g.:
:set shell=csh\ -f
(the backslash is needed to include the space in the option).
This will make csh completely skip the use of the .cshrc file. This may cause
some things to stop working though.
==============================================================================
Useful mappings *useful-mappings*
Here are a few mappings that some people like to use.
*map-backtick*
:map ' `
Make the single quote work like a backtick. Puts the cursor on the column of
a mark, instead of going to the first non-blank character in the line.
*emacs-keys*
For Emacs-style editing on the command-line:
" start of line
:cnoremap <C-A> <Home>
" back one character
:cnoremap <C-B> <Left>
" delete character under cursor
:cnoremap <C-D> <Del>
" end of line
:cnoremap <C-E> <End>
" forward one character
:cnoremap <C-F> <Right>
" recall newer command-line
:cnoremap <C-N> <Down>
" recall previous (older) command-line
:cnoremap <C-P> <Up>
" back one word
:cnoremap <Esc><C-B> <S-Left>
" forward one word
:cnoremap <Esc><C-F> <S-Right>
NOTE: This requires that the '<' flag is excluded from 'cpoptions'. |<>|
*format-bullet-list*
This mapping will format any bullet list. It requires that there is an empty
line above and below each list entry. The expression commands are used to
be able to give comments to the parts of the mapping.
:let m = ":map _f :set ai<CR>" " need 'autoindent' set
:let m = m . "{O<Esc>" " add empty line above item
:let m = m . "}{)^W" " move to text after bullet

:let m = m . "i <CR> <Esc>" " add space for indent

:let m = m . "gq}" " format text after the bullet
:let m = m . "{dd" " remove the empty line
:let m = m . "5lDJ" " put text after bullet
:execute m |" define the mapping
(<> notation |<>|. Note that this is all typed literally. ^W is "^" "W", not
CTRL-W. You can copy/paste this into Vim if '<' is not included in
'cpoptions'.)
Note that the last comment starts with |", because the ":execute" command
doesn't accept a comment directly.
You also need to set 'textwidth' to a non-zero value, e.g.,
:set tw=70
A mapping that does about the same, but takes the indent for the list from the
first line (Note: this mapping is a single long line with a lot of spaces):
:map _f :set ai<CR>}{a
<Esc>WWmmkD`mi<CR><Esc>kkddpJgq}'mJO<Esc>j
*collapse*
These two mappings reduce a sequence of empty (;b) or blank (;n) lines into a
single line
:map ;b GoZ<Esc>:g/^$/.,/./-j<CR>Gdd
:map ;n GoZ<Esc>:g/^[ <Tab>]*$/.,/[^ <Tab>]/-j<CR>Gdd
==============================================================================
Compressing the help files *gzip-helpfile*
For those of you who are really short on disk space, you can compress the help
files and still be able to view them with Vim. This makes accessing the help
files a bit slower and requires the "gzip" program.
(1) Compress all the help files: "gzip doc/*.txt".
(2) Edit "doc/tags" and change the ".txt" to ".txt.gz":
:%s=$\t.*\.txt$\t=\1.gz\t=
(3) Add this line to your vimrc:
set helpfile={dirname}/help.txt.gz
Where {dirname} is the directory where the help files are. The |gzip| plugin
will take care of decompressing the files.
You must make sure that $VIMRUNTIME is set to where the other Vim files are,
when they are not in the same location as the compressed "doc" directory. See
|$VIMRUNTIME|.
==============================================================================
Executing shell commands in a window *shell-window*
There have been questions for the possibility to execute a shell in a window
inside Vim. The answer: you can't! Including this would add a lot of code to
Vim, which is a good reason not to do this. After all, Vim is an editor, it
is not supposed to do non-editing tasks. However, to get something like this,
you might try splitting your terminal screen or display window with the
"splitvt" program. You can probably find it on some ftp server. The person
that knows more about this is Sam Lantinga <slouken@cs.ucdavis.edu>.
An alternative is the "window" command, found on BSD Unix systems, which
supports multiple overlapped windows. Or the "screen" program, found at
www.uni-erlangen.de, which supports a stack of windows.
==============================================================================
Hex editing *hex-editing* *using-xxd*
See section |23.4| of the user manual.
If one has a particular extension that one uses for binary files (such as exe,
bin, etc), you may find it helpful to automate the process with the following
bit of autocmds for your <.vimrc>. Change that "*.bin" to whatever
comma-separated list of extension(s) you find yourself wanting to edit:
" vim -b : edit binary using xxd-format!
augroup Binary
au!

au BufReadPre *.bin let &bin=1

au BufReadPost *.bin if &bin | %!xxd
au BufReadPost *.bin set ft=xxd | endif
au BufWritePre *.bin if &bin | %!xxd -r
au BufWritePre *.bin endif
au BufWritePost *.bin if &bin | %!xxd
au BufWritePost *.bin set nomod | endif
augroup END
==============================================================================
Using <> notation in autocommands *autocmd-<>*
The <> notation is not recognized in the argument of an :autocmd. To avoid
having to use special characters, you could use a self-destroying mapping to
get the <> notation and then call the mapping from the autocmd. Example:
*map-self-destroy*
" This is for automatically adding the name of the file to the menu list.
" It uses a self-destroying mapping!
" 1. use a line in the buffer to convert the 'dots' in the file name to \.
" 2. store that in register '"'
" 3. add that name to the Buffers menu list
" WARNING: this does have some side effects, like overwriting the
" current register contents and removing any mapping for the "i" command.
"
autocmd BufNewFile,BufReadPre * nmap i :nunmap i<CR>O<C-R>%<Esc>:.g/\./s/\./\\./g<CR>0"9y$u:menu
Buffers.<C-R>9 :buffer <C-R>%<C-V><CR><CR>
autocmd BufNewFile,BufReadPre * normal i
Another method, perhaps better, is to use the ":execute" command. In the
string you can use the <> notation by preceding it with a backslash. Don't
forget to double the number of existing backslashes and put a backslash before
'"''.
autocmd BufNewFile,BufReadPre * exe "normal O\<C-R>%\<Esc>:.g/\\./s/\\./\\\\./g\<CR>0\"9y$u:menu
Buffers.\<C-R>9 :buffer \<C-R>%\<C-V>\<CR>\<CR>"
For a real buffer menu, user functions should be used (see |:function|), but
then the <> notation isn't used, which defeats using it as an example here.
==============================================================================
Highlighting matching parens *match-parens*
This example shows the use of a few advanced tricks:
- using the |CursorMoved| autocommand event
- using |searchpairpos()| to find a matching paren
- using |synID()| to detect whether the cursor is in a string or comment
- using |:match| to highlight something
- using a |pattern| to match a specific position in the file.
This should be put in a Vim script file, since it uses script-local variables.
It skips matches in strings or comments, unless the cursor started in string
or comment. This requires syntax highlighting.
A slightly more advanced version is used in the |matchparen| plugin.
let s:paren_hl_on = 0
function s:Highlight_Matching_Paren()
if s:paren_hl_on
match none
endif
let c_lnum = line('.')
let c_col = col('.')
let c = getline(c_lnum)[c_col - 1]
let plist = split(&matchpairs, ':\|,')
let i = index(plist, c)
if i < 0
return
endif
if i % 2 == 0
let s_flags = 'nW'

let c2 = plist[i + 1]
else
let s_flags = 'nbW'
let c2 = c
let c = plist[i - 1]
endif
if c == '['
let c = '\['
let c2 = '\]'
endif
let s_skip ='synIDattr(synID(line("."), col("."), 0), "name") ' .
\ '=~? "string\\|comment"'
execute 'if' s_skip '| let s_skip = 0 | endif'
let [m_lnum, m_col] = searchpairpos(c, '', c2, s_flags, s_skip)
if m_lnum > 0 && m_lnum >= line('w0') && m_lnum <= line('w$')
exe 'match Search /$\%' . c_lnum . 'l\%' . c_col .
\ 'c$\|$\%' . m_lnum . 'l\%' . m_col . 'c$/'
endif
endfunction
autocmd CursorMoved,CursorMovedI * call s:Highlight_Matching_Paren()
autocmd InsertEnter * match none
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: todo
Search tag (regex)
Help FAQ Both

main help file
*todo.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Apr 01
TODO list for Vim *todo*

This is a veeeery long list of known bugs, current work and desired
improvements. To make it a little bit accessible, the items are grouped by
subject. In the first column of the line a classification is used to be able
to look for "the next thing to do":
Priority classification:
9 next point release
8 next release
7 as soon as possible
6 soon
5 should be included
4 nice to have
3 consider including
2 maybe not
1 probably not
- unclassified
*votes-for-changes*
See |develop.txt| for development plans. You can vote for which items should
be worked on, but only if you sponsor Vim development. See |sponsor|.
*known-bugs*
Improvement patch for filetype.vim. (Thilo Six, 2011 Mar 19)
Patch to recognize more files as log files. (Mathieu Parent, 2011 Jan 14)
Two patches for xxd. (Florian Zumbiehl, 2011 Jan 11)
Two updates for second one Jan 12.
Go through new coverity reports.
When 'colorcolumn' is set locally to a window, ":new" opens a window with the
same highlighting but 'colorcolumn' is empty. (Tyru, 2010 Nov 15)
Patch by Christian Brabandt, 2011 Feb 13 (but move further down).
Patch for configure related to Ruby on Mac OS X. (Bjorn Winckler, 2011 Jan 14)
Patch to set v:register on startup. (Ingo Karkat, 2011 Jan 16)
Patch to set v:register default depending on "unnamed" in 'clipboard'. (Ingo
Karkat, 2011 Jan 16)
Patch for:
InsertCharPre - user typed character Insert mode, before inserting the
char. Pattern is matched with text before the cursor.
Set v:char to the character, can be changed.
(not triggered when 'paste' is set).
(Jakson A. Aquino, 2011 Jan 29)
Patch for "No errors" showing up after QuickfixCmdPost. (Mike Lundy, 2011 Feb
3)
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/todo.html[2019/03/05 11:43:45 AM]

Patch for cmdline completion of ":lang". (Dominique Pelle, 2011 Feb 5)

Patch for adding 's' option to 'cino', C++ namespace indenting. (Konstantin
Lepa, 2011 Jan 18)
Patch to support ":!start /b cmd". (Xaizek, 2010 Dec 22)
Patch to build with GTK on Mac. (Ben Schmidt, 2011 Jan 18)
Use another name instead of FEAT_GUI_ELSEWHERE.
Patch for xxd makefile to avoid generating .dSYM files. (Ben Schmidt, 2011 Jan
18)
Patch to show sign for folded text. (Christian Brabandt, 2011 Jan 12)
Method to reproduce it: Jan 16.
Patch to improve optwin.vim. (ZyX, 2011 Jan 29)
Patch for Python 3 support. (lilydjwg, 2011 Feb 24)
Building the MingW version without clipboard but with multi-byte doesn't
work. (Bill Lam, 2010 Sep 18)
Patch for handling of NL in substitute() with \= expression. (Motoya Kurotsu,
2011 Mar 16) Update Mar 24.
Patch to disallow fork() when __APPLE__ is defined. (Hisashi T Fujinaka, 2010
Nov 25)
GTK: Patch to fix menu popping down. (Hong Xu, 2010 Dec 4, Dec 5)
Update 2011 Feb 3.
Patch to use pipes on Win32. (Vincent Berthoux, 2011 Feb 28)
Update Mar 1 using 'shelltemp'.
"gh<Del>" deletes the current line, except when it's the last line.
Hint by Christian Brabandt, 2011 Mar 22
The :z command doesn't work exactly as it should. (ChangZhuo Chen, 2011 Mar 2)
Compare with how old Vi works and with posix spec. terminal is 80 x 24,
'scroll' option set to 11.
'cursorline' is displayed too short when there are concealed characters and
'list' is set. (Dennis Preiser)
Patch 7.3.116 was the wrong solution.
When opening file from windows explorer, characters inside [] cause
problems, even though double quotes are used. (Manuel Stol, 2011 Mar 9)
Patch to change the meaning of \n in substitute(). (motoya kurotsu, 2011 Mar 8)
Help file foldexpr (ZyX)
Syntax region with 'concealends' and a 'cchar' value, 'conceallevel' set to 2,
only one of the two ends gets the cchar displayed. (Brett Stahlman, 2010 Aug
21, Ben Fritz, 2010 Sep 14)
Bug in repeating Visual "u". (Lawrence Kesteloot, 2010 Dec 20)
CursorHold repeats typed key when it's the start of a mapping.
(Will Gray, 2011 Mar 23)
Windows keys not set properly on Windows 7? (cncyber, 2010 Aug 26)
This line hangs Vim, because of syntax HL:
call append(line, "INFO
....12....18....24....30....36....42....48....54....60....66....72....78%$")
When using a Vim server, a # in the path causes an error message.
(Jeff Lanzarotta, 2011 Feb 17)
Bug: E685 error for func_unref(). (ZyX, 2010 Aug 5)
Using ":break" or something else that stops executing commands inside a
":finally" does not rethrow a previously uncaught exception. (ZyX, 2010 Oct
15)
Vim using lots of memory when joining lines. (John Little, 2010 Dec 3)
On 64 bit MS-Windows "long" is only 32 bits, but we sometimes need to store a

64 bits value. Change all number options to use nropt_T and define it to the
right type.
string() can't parse back "inf" and "nan". Fix documentation or fix code?
(ZyX, 2010 Aug 23)
When doing "redir => s:foo" in a script and then "redir END" somewhere else
(e.g. in a function) it can't find s:foo.
maparg() does not show the <script> flag. When temporarily changing a
mapping, how to restore the script ID?
Patch to fix \%V item in regexp. (Christian Brabandt, 2010 Nov 8)
Update Nov 19. James Vega: still not right. Christian: it's difficult.
Patch to add up to 99 match groups. (Christian Brabandt, 2010 Dec 22)
Also add named groups: \%{name}(re) and \%{name}g
Bug in try/catch: return with invalid compare throws error that isn't caught.
(ZyX, 2011 Jan 26)
Highlighting stops working after changing it many times. Script to reproduce
it: Pablo Contreras, 2010 Oct 12 Windows XP and 7. Font is never freed?
After patch 7.3.097 still get E15. (Yukihiro Nakadaira, 2011 Jan 18)
Also for another example (ZyX, 2011 Jan 24)
Build problem with small features on Mac OS X 10.6. (Rainer, 2011 Jan 24)
"0g@$" puts '] on last byte of multi-byte. (ZyX, 2011 Jan 22)
Deleting a linewise selection that includes the last line of the file leaves
an empty line. (Ben Schmidt, 2011 Mar 17)
Patch by Christian Brabandt, 2011 Mar 19.
Patch to support sorting on floating point number. (Alex Jakushev, 2010 Oct
30)
When a script contains "redir => s:foo" but doesn't end redirection, a
following "redir" command gives an error for not being able to access s:foo.
(ZyX, 2011 Mar 27)
Problem with "syn sync gouphere". (Gustavo Niemeyer, 2011 Jan 27)
Loading autoload script even when usage is inside "if 0". (Christian Brabandt,
2010 Dec 18)
In the sandbox it's not allowed to do many things, but it's possible to change
or set variables. Add a way to prevent variables from being changed in the
sandbox? E.g.: ":protect g:restore_settings".
GTK: drawing a double-width combining character over single-width characters
doesn't look right. (Dominique Pelle, 2010 Aug 8)
GTK: tear-off menu does not work. (Kurt Sonnenmoser, 2010 Oct 25)
Win32: tear-off menu does not work when menu language is German. (Markus
Bossler, 2011 Mar 2) Fixed by 7.3.095?
Version of netbeans.c for use with MacVim. (Kazuki Sakamoto, 2010 Nov 18)
7.3.014 changed how backslash at end of line works, but still get a NUL when
there is one backslash. (Ray Frush, 2010 Nov 18) What does the original ex
do?
":find" completion does not escape space in directory name. (Isz, 2010 Nov 2)
Searching mixed with Visual mode doesn't redraw properly. (James Vega, 2010 Nov
22)
New esperanto spell file can't be processed. (Dominique Pelle, 2011 Jan 30)
- move compflags to separate growarray?
- instead of a regexp use a hashtable. Expand '?', '*", '+'. What would be
the maximum repeat for * and +?
"L'Italie" noted as a spell error at start of the sentence. (Dominique Pelle,
2011 Feb 27)
Copy/paste between Vim and Google chrome doesn't work well for multi-byte
characters. (Ben Haskell, 2010 Sep 17)
When putting text in the cut buffer (when exiting) and conversion doesn't work

properly, Prepend "ENC==={value of 'enc'}:" to the text and don't convert?

Then it should at least work from Vim to Vim and in other applications it's
clear why it doesn't work.
Editing a file with a ^M with 'ff' set to "mac", opening a help file, then the
^M is displayed as ^J sometimes. Getting 'ff' value from wrong window/buffer?
When Vim is put in the background (SIGTSTP) and then gets a SIGHUP it doesn't
exit. It exists as soon as back in the foreground. (Stephen Liang, 2011 Jan
9) Caused by vim_handle_signal(SIGNAL_BLOCK); in ui.c.
g` not working correctly when using :edit. It works OK when editing a file on
the command line. (Ingo Karkat, 2011 Jan 25)
Since patch 7.2.46 Yankring plugin has become very slow, eventually make Vim
crash? (Raiwil, 2010 Nov 17)
Python: Adding line to buffer other than the current one doesn't work
correctly. (Rozbujnik, 2010 Dec 19)
Patch to add 'systemencoding', convert between 'encoding' and this for file
names, shell commands and the like. (Kikuchan, 2010 Oct 14)
Assume the system converts between the actual encoding of the filesystem to
the system encoding (usually utf-8).
Problem producing tags file when hebrew.frx is present. It has a BOM.
Results in E670. (Tony Mechelynck, 2010 May 2)
Ruby: ":ruby print $buffer.number" returns zero.
setpos() does not restore cursor position after :normal. (Tyru, 2010 Aug 11)
7 The 'directory' option supports changing path separators to "%" to make
file names unique, also support this for 'backupdir'. (Mikolaj Machowski)
Patch by Christian Brabandt, 2010 Oct 21.
getpos()/setpos() don't include curswant. getpos() could return a fifth
element. setpos() could accept an optional fifth element.
Patch by Christian Brabandt, 2010 Sep 6. Check that new argument is optional
and that it's documented.
With "tw=55 fo+=a" typing space before ) doesn't work well. (Scott Mcdermott,
2010 Oct 24)
Patch to add random number generator. (Hong Xu, 2010 Nov 8, update Nov 10)
Alternative from Christian Brabandt. (2010 Sep 19)
Messages in message.txt are highlighted as examples.
When using cp850 the NBSP (0xff) is not drawn correctly. (Brett Stahlman, 2010
Oct 22) 'isprint' is set to "@,161-255".
Test 73 fails on MS-Windows when compiled with DJGPP and run twice. How to
delete the Xfind directory? Add an rmdir() function, just like we have
mkdir().
":echo "\x85" =~# '[\u0085]'"' returns 1 instead of 0. (ZyX, 2010 Oct 3)
'cindent' not correct when 'list' is set. (Zdravi Korusef, 2010 Apr 15)
When 'paste' is changed with 'pastetoggle', the ruler doesn't reflect this
right away. (Samuel Ferencik, 2010 Dec 7)
Windows installer: licence text should not use indent, causes bad word wrap.
(Benjamin Fritz, 2010 Aug 16)
Mac with X11: clipboard doesn't work properly. (Raf, 2010 Aug 16)
Using CompilerSet doesn't record where an option was set from. E.g., in the
gcc compiler plugin. (Gary Johnson, 2010 Dec 13)
":helpgrep" does not put the cursor in the correct column when preceded by
accented character. (Tony Mechelynck, 2010 Apr 15)
Don't call check_restricted() for histadd(), setbufvar(), settabvar(),
setwinvar().
Echo starts in the wrong column:
while 1 | let s = input('A') | echo 'R' | endw
(Boyko Bantchev, 2010 Aug 9)

Patch for GVimExt to show an icon. (Dominik Riebeling, 2010 Nov 7)

When writing a file > 2Gbyte, the reported number of bytes is negative.
(Antonio Colombo, 2010 Dec 18)
Patch: Let rare word highlighting overrule good word highlighting.
(Jakson A. Aquino, 2010 Jul 30)
Patch to make more characters work in dialogs. (Yankwei Jia, 2010 Aug 4)
Patch for VisVim, pass file name to VimOpenFile. (Jiri Sedlak, 2010 Nov 12)
When 'lines' is 25 and 'scrolloff' is 12, "j" scrolls zero or two lines
instead of one. (Constantin Pan, 2010 Sep 10)
Crash in setqflist(). (Benoit Mortgat, 2010 Nov 18)
Patch to handle resizing when tab is opened, when at full size. (Yukihiro
Nakadaira, 2010 Jan 6)
Writing nested List and Dict in viminfo gives error message and can't be read
back. (Yukihiro Nakadaira, 2010 Nov 13)
Can 'undolevels' be a buffer-local option? Helps for making big changes in
one file only, set 'ul' to -1 only for that buffer.
Patch by Christian Brabandt, 2010 Dec 17. Needs test.
Dos uninstal may delete vim.bat from the wrong directory (e.g., when someone
makes his own wrapper). Add a magic string with the version number to the
.bat file and check for it in the uninstaller. E.g.
# uninstall key: vim7.3*
Problem with cursor in the wrong column. (SungHyun Nam, 2010 Mar 11)
Additional info by Dominique Pelle. (also on 2010 Apr 10)
CreateFile and CreateFileW are used without sharing, filewritable() fails when
the file was already open (e.g. script is being sourced). Add FILE_SHARE_READYXXY
FILE_SHARE_WRITE in mch_access()? (Phillippe Vaucher, 2010 Nov 2)
Is ~/bin (literally) in $PATH supposed to work? (Paul, 2010 March 29)
Looks like only bash can do it. (Yakov Lerner)
8 Add an event like CursorHold that is triggered repeatedly, not just once
after typing something.
Need for CursorHold that retriggers. Use a key that doesn't do anything, or a
function that resets did_cursorhold.
Cscope "cs add" stopped working somewhat before 7.2.438. (Gary Johnson, 2010
Jun 29) Caused by 7.2.433?
I often see pasted text (from Firefox, to Vim in xterm) appear twice.
Also, Vim in xterm sometimes loses copy/paste ability (probably after running
an external command).
Jumplist doesn't work properly in Insert mode? (Jean Johner, 2010 Mar 20)
Problem with transparent cmdline. Also: Terminal title is wrong with
non-ASCII character. (Lily White, 2010 Mar 7)
iconv() doesn't fail on an illegal character, as documented. (Yongwei Wu, 2009
Nov 15, example Nov 26) Add argument to specify whether iconv() should fail
or replace with a character and continue?
Add local time at start of --startuptime output.
Requires configure check for localtime().
Use format year-month-day hr:min:sec.
Shell not recognized properly if it ends in "csh -f". (James Vega, 2009 Nov 3)
Find tail? Might have a / in argument. Find space? Might have space in
path.
":sort n" treats empty line as higher than zero. (Beeyawned, 2010 Oct 13)
Test 51 fails when language set to German. (Marco, 2011 Jan 9)
Dominique can't reproduc it.
":function f(x) keepjumps" creates a function where every command is executed
like it has ":keepjumps" before it.
Coverity: ask someone to create new user: Dominique.
Check if there are new reported defects: http://scan.coverity.com/rung2.html

Patch to support :undo absolute jump to file save number. (Christian Brabandt,
2010 Nov 5)
Patch to use 'foldnextmax' also for "marker" foldmethod. (Arnaud Lacombe, 2011
Jan 7)
When setting 'undofile' while the file is already loaded, but unchanged, try
to read the undo file. Requires computing a checksum of the text. (Andy
Wokula)
Bug with 'incsearch' going to wrong line. (Wolfram Kresse, 2009 Aug 17)
Only with "vim -u NONE".
Problem with editing file in binary mode. (Ingo Krabbe, 2009 Oct 8)
With 'wildmode' set to "longest:full,full" and pressing Tab once the first
entry in wildmenu is highlighted, that shouldn't happen. (Yuki Watanabe, 2011
Feb 12)
Display error when 'tabline' that includes a file name with double-width
characters. (2010 Aug 14, bootleq)
Problem with stop directory in findfile(). (Adam Simpkins, 2009 Aug 26)
Undo problem: line not removed as expected when using setline() from Insert
mode. (Israel Chauca, 2010 May 13, more in second msg)
Break undo when CTRL-R = changes the text? Or save more lines?
Patch for static code analysis errors in riscOS. (Dominique Pelle, 2010 Dec 3)
Patch for better #if 0 syntax highlighting for C code. (Ben Schmidt, 2011 Jan
20)
Change to C syntax folding to make it work much faster, but a bit less
reliable. (Lech Lorens, 2009 Nov 9) Enable with an option?
Most time is spent in in_id_list().
Slow combination of folding and PHP syntax highlighting. Script to reproduce
it. Caused by "syntax sync fromstart" in combination with patch 7.2.274.
(Christian Brabandt, 2010 May 27)
Generally, folding with 'foldmethod' set to "syntax" is slow. Do profiling to
find out why.
When completion inserts the first match, it may trigger the line to be folded.
Disable updating folds while completion is active? (Peter Odding, 2010 Jun 9)
Using ":call foo#d.f()" doesn't autoload the "foo.vim" file. Works OK for
echo, just not for ":call" and ":call call()". (Ted, 2011 Mar 17)
In command line window ":close" doesn't work properly. (Tony Mechelynck, 2009
Jun 1)
Cannot use getchar() inside :normal and using an expression mapping. Is this
supposed to work? (XyX, 2010 Sep 22)
When using an expression mapping with a multi-byte character each byte is
converted to a utf-8 character. (ZyX, 2011 Jan 4)
Patch for possible solution. (Yukihiro Nakadaira, 2011 Jan 5)
When a:base in 'completefunc' starts with a number it's passed as a number,
not a string. (Sean Ma) Need to add flag to call_func_retlist() to force a
string value.
There is no command line completion for ":lmap".
":e ~br<Tab>" does not complete to ":e /home/bram/". Would need to use
getpwent() to find all the matches.
Invalid read error in Farsi mode. (Dominique Pelle, 2009 Aug 2)
For running gvim on an USB stick: avoid the OLE registration. Use a command
line argument -noregister.
When using an expression in 'statusline' leading white space sometimes goes
missing (but not always). (ZyX, 2010 Nov 1)
When a mapping exists both for insert mode and lang-insert mode, the last one
doesn't work. (Tyru, 2010 May 6) Or is this intended?
Still a problem with ":make" in the wrong directory. Caused by ":bufdo".

(Ajit Thakkar, 2009 Jul 1) More information Jul 9, Jul 15.

Caused by "doautoall syntaxset BufEnter *" in syntax/nosyntax.vim ?
There also is a BufLeave/BufEnter aucmd to save/restore view.
Does the patch to save/restore globaldir work?
":bufdo normal gg" while 'hidden' is set leaves buffers without syntax
highlighting. Don't disable Syntax autocommands then? Or add a flag/modifier
to avoid changing 'eventignore'?
Patch for displaying 0x200c and 0x200d. (Ali Gholami Rudi, 2009 May 6)
Probably needs a bit of work.
List of encoding aliases. (Takao Fujiware, 2009 Jul 18)
Are they all OK? Update Jul 22.
Win32: Improved Makefile for MSVC. (Leonardo Valeri Manera, 2010 Aug 18)
Win32: Expanding 'path' runs into a maximum size limit. (bgold12, 2009 Nov 15)
Win32: Patch for enabling quick edit mode in console. (Craig Barkhouse, 2010
Sep 1)
Putting a Visual block while 'visualedit' is "all" does not leave the cursor
on the first character. (John Beckett, 2010 Aug 7)
Setting 'tags' to "tagsdir/*" does not find "tagsdir/tags". (Steven K. Wong,
2009 Jul 18)
Patch to add farsi handling to arabic.c (Ali Gholami Rudi, 2009 May 2)
Added test, updates, June 23.
Patch to add "focusonly" to 'scrollopt', so that scrollbind also applies in
window that doesn't have focus. (Jonathon Mah, 2009 Jan 12)
Needs more work.
Problem with <script> mappings (Andy Wokula, 2009 Mar 8)
When starting Vim with "gvim -f -u non_existent_file > foo.txt" there are a
few control characters in the output. (Dale Wiles, 2009 May 28)
'cmdwinheight is only used in last window when 'winheight' is a large value.
(Tony Mechelynck, 2009 Apr 15)
Status line containing winnr() isn't updated when splitting the window (Clark
J. Wang, 2009 Mar 31)
When $VIMRUNTIME is set in .vimrc, need to reload lang files. Already done
for GTK, how about others? (Ron Aaron, 2010 Apr 10)
Patch for GTK buttons X1Mouse and X2Mouse. (Christian J. Robinson, 2010 Aug 9)
Motif: Build on Ubuntu can't enter any text in dialog text fields.
When 'ft' changes redraw custom status line.
":tab split fname" doesn't set the alternate file in the original window,
because win_valid() always returns FALSE. Below win_new_tabpage() in
ex_docmd.c.
Space before comma in function definition not allowed: "function x(a , b)"
Give a more appropriate error message. Add a remark to the docs.
string_convert() should be able to convert between utf-8 and utf-16le. Used
for GTK clipboard. Avoid requirement for iconv.
Now that colnr_T is int instead of unsigned, more type casts can be removed.
'delcombine' does not work for the command line. (Tony Mechelynck, 2009 Jul
20)
Unwanted file name escaping: ":echo input('file:' , '', 'file')"
And use file name completion on a file with spaces. (Frederic Hardy, 2009 Mar
23)
Don't load macmap.vim on startup, turn it into a plugin. (Ron Aaron,
2009 Apr 7) Reminder Apr 14.
Add "no_hlsearch" to winsaveview().
Cursorline highlighting combines with Search ('hlsearch') but not with
SpellBad. (Jim Karsten, 2009 Mar 18)

When 'foldmethod' is "indent", using >> on a line just above a fold makes the
cursor line folded. (Evan Laforge, 2009 Oct 17)
When 'foldmethod' is "indent", adding an empty line below a fold and then
indented text, creates a new fold instead of joining it with the previous one.
(Evan Laforge, 2009 Oct 17)
Bug: When reloading a buffer changed outside of Vim, BufRead autocommands
are applied to the wrong buffer/window. (Ben Fritz, 2009 Apr 2, May 11)
Ignore window options when not in the right window?
Perhaps we need to use a hidden window for applying autocommands to a buffer
that doesn't have a window.
When "b" is a symlink to directory "a", resolve("b/") doesn't result in "a/".
(ZyX, 2011 Feb 12)
When using "ab foo bar" and mapping <Tab> to <Esc>, pressing <Tab> after foo
doesn't trigger the abbreviation like <Esc> would. (Ramana Kumar, 2009 Sep 6)
getbufvar() to get a window-local option value for a buffer that's not
displayed in a window should return the value that's stored for that buffer.
":he ctrl_u" can be auto-corrected to ":he ctrl-u".
There should be a way after an abbreviation has expanded to go back to what
was typed. CTRL-G h ? Would also undo last word or line break inserted
perhaps. And undo CTRL-W. CTRL-G l would redo.
Diff mode out of sync. (Gary Johnson, 2010 Aug 4)
Support a 'systemencoding' option (for Unix). It specifies the encoding of
file names. (Kikuchan, 2010 Oct 5). Useful on a latin1 or double-byte Asian
system when 'encoding' is "utf-8".
Win32: A --remote command that has a directory name starting with a ( doesn't
work, the backslash is removed, assuming that it escapes the (. (Valery
Kondakoff, 2009 May 13)
Win32 GUI: Changing manifest helps for dpi changes (Joe Castro, 2009 Mar 27)
Win32 GUI: last message from startup doesn't show up when there is an echoerr
command. (Cyril Slobin, 2009 Mar 13)
Win32: use different args for SearchPath()? (Yasuhiro Matsumoto, 2009 Jan 30)
Win32: completion of file name ":e c:\!test" results in ":e c:\\!test", which
does not work. (Nieko Maatjes, 2009 Jan 8, Ingo Karkat, 2009 Jan 22)
opening/closing window causes other window with 'winfixheight' to change
height. Also happens when there is another window in the frame, if it's not
very high. (Yegappan Lakshmanan, 2010 Jul 22, Michael Peeters, 2010 Jul 22)
Directory wrong in session file, caused by ":lcd" in BufEnter autocommand.
(Felix Kater, 2009 Mar 3)
Session file generates error upon loading, cause bu --remote-silent-tab.
(7tommm (ytommm) 2010 Nov 24)
Using ~ works OK on 'a' with composing char, but not on 0x0418 with composing
char 0x0301. (Tony Mechelynck, 2009 Mar 4)
A function on a dictionary is not profiled. (Zyx, 2010 Dec 25)
Inconsistent: starting with $LANG set to es_ES.utf-8 gives Spanish
messages, even though locale is not supported. But ":lang messages
es_ES.utf-8" gives an error and doesn't switch messages. (Dominique Pelle,
2009 Jan 26)
When $HOME contains special characters, such as a comma, escape them when used
in an option. (Michael Hordijk, 2009 May 5)
Turn "esc" argument of expand_env_esc() into string of chars to be escaped.
Should make 'ignorecase' global-local, so that it makes sense setting it from
a modeline.
Add cscope target to Makefile. (Tony Mechelynck, 2009 Jun 18, replies by
Sergey Khorev)
Consider making YankRing or something else that keeps a list of yanked text
part of standard Vim. The "1 to "9 registers are not sufficient.

netrw: dragging status line causes selection of entry. Should check row
number to be below last visible line.
After doing "su" $HOME can be the old user's home, thus ~root/file is not
correct. Don't use it in the swap file.
Completion for ":buf" doesn't work properly on Win32 when 'shellslash' is off.
(Henrik Ohman, 2009, Jan 29)
shellescape() depends on 'shellshash' for quoting. That doesn't work when
'shellslash' is set but using cmd.exe. (Ben Fritz)
Use a different option or let it depend on whether 'shell' looks like a
unix-like shell?
Allow patches to add something to version.c, like with an official patch, so
that :version output shows which patches have been applied.
Bug: in Ex mode (after "Q") backslash before line break, when yanked into a
register and executed, results in <Nul>: instead of line break.
(Konrad Schwarz, 2010 Apr 16)
Have a look at patch for utf-8 line breaking. (Yongwei Wu, 2008 Mar 1, Mar 23)
Now at: http://vimgadgets.sourceforge.net/liblinebreak/
Greek sigma character should be lower cased depending on the context. Can we
make this work? (Dominique Pelle, 2009 Sep 24)
When changing 'encoding' convert all the swap file names, so that we can
still delete them. Also convert all buffer file names?
"gqip" in Insert mode has an off-by-one error, causing it to reflow text.
(Raul Coronado, 2009 Nov 2)
Update src/testdir/main.aap.
"vim -c 'sniff connect'"' hangs Vim. (Dominique Pelle, 2008 Dec 7)
Something wrong with session that has "cd" commands and "badd", in such a way
that Vim doesn't find the edited file in the buffer list, causing the
ATTENTION message? (Tony Mechelynck, 2008 Dec 1)
Also: swap files are in ~/tmp/ One has relative file name ".mozilla/...".
Add v:motion_force. (Kana Natsuno, 2008 Dec 6)
Runtime files for Clojure. (Toralf Wittner, 2008 Jun 25)
MS-Windows: editing the first, empty buffer, 'ffs' set to "unix,dos", ":enew"
doesn't set 'ff' to "unix". (Ben Fritz, 2008 Dec 5) Reusing the old buffer
probably causes this.
'scrollbind' is not respected when deleting lines or undo. (Milan Vancura,
2009 Jan 16)
Document that default font in Athena can be set with resources:
XtDefaultFont: "9x15"
XtDefaultFontSet: "9x15"
(Richard Sherman, 2009 Apr 12)
Having "Syntax" in 'eventignore' for :bufdo may cause problems, e.g. for
":bufdo e" when buffers are open in windows. ex_listdo(eap) could set the
option only for when jumping to another buffer, not when the command argument
is executed.
":pedit %" with a BufReadPre autocommand causes the cursor to move to the
first line. (Ingo Karkat, 2008 Jul 1) Ian Kelling is working on this.
Wildmenu not deleted: "gvim -u NONE", ":set nocp wildmenu cmdheight=3
laststatus=2", CTRL-D CTRL-H CTRL-H CTRL-H. (A.Politz, 2008 April 1)
Works OK with Vim in an xterm.
Cursor line moves in other window when using CTRL-W J that doesn't change
anything. (Dasn, 2009 Apr 7)
On Unix "glob('does not exist~')" returns the string. Without the "~" it
doesn't. (John Little, 2008 Nov 9)
Shell expansion returns unexpanded string?
Don't use shell when "~" is not at the start?
":unlet $VAR" doesn't work.

When using ":e ++enc=foo file" and the file is already loaded with
'fileencoding' set to "bar", then do_ecmd() uses that buffer, even though the
fileencoding differs. Reload the buffer in this situation? Need to check for
the buffer to be unmodified.
Unfinished patch by Ian Kelling, 2008 Jul 11. Followup Jul 14, need to have
another look at it.
Patch for c.vim and cpp.vim syntax files. (Chung-chieh Shan, 2008 Nov 26)
c.vim: XXX in a comment is colored yellow, but not when it's after "#if 0".
(Ilya Dogolazky, 2009 Aug 7)
You can type ":w ++bad=x fname", but the ++bad argument is ignored. Give an
error message? Or is this easy to implement? (Nathan Stratton Treadway, 2008
Aug 20) This is in ucs2bytes(), search for 0xBF. Using the ++bad argument is
at the other match for 0xBF.
Fix for matchparen HL doesn't work. beep.
When adding "-complete=file" to a user command this also changes how the
argument is processed for <f-args>. (Ivan Tishchenko, 2008 Aug 19)
Win32: associating a type with Vim doesn't take care of space after a
backslash? (Robert Vibrant, 2008 Jun 5)
Win32: bold font doesn't work when 'guifontwide' has been set. (Yue Wu, 2010
Aug 23)
When 'rightleft' is set, cursorcolumn isn't highlighted after the end of a
line. It's also wrong in folds. (Dominique Pelle, 2010 Aug 21)
Using an insert mode expression mapping, cursor is not in the expected
position. (ZyX, 2010 Aug 29)
After using <Tab> for command line completion after ":ta blah" and getting E33
(no tags file), further editing the command to e.g., ":echo 'blah'"', the
command is not executed. Fix by Ian Kelling?
":help s/~" jumps to *s/\~*, while ":help s/\~" doesn't find anything. (Tim
Chase) Fix by Ian Kelling, 2008 Jul 14.
Use "\U12345678" for 32 bit Unicode characters? (Tony Mechelynck, 2009
Apr 6) Or use "\u(123456)", similar to Perl.
When mapping : to ; and ; to :, @; doesn't work like @: and @: doesn't work
either. Matt Wozniski: nv_at() calls do_execreg() which uses
put_in_typebuf(). Char mapped twice?
Despite adding save_subexpr() this still doesn't work properly:
Regexp: matchlist('12a4aaa', '^$.\{-}$$\%5c\@<=a\+$$.\+$\?')
Returns ['12a4', 'aaa', '4aaa'], should be ['12a4', 'aaa', '']
Backreference not cleared when retrying after \@<= fails?
(Brett Stahlman, 2008 March 8)
Problem with remote_send(). (Charles Campbell, 2008 Aug 12)
ftplugin for help file should set 'isk' to help file value.
Win32: remote editing fails when the current directory name contains "[".
(Ivan Tishchenko, Liu Yubao) Suggested patch by Chris Lubinski: Avoid
escaping characters where the backslash is not removed later. Asked Chris for
an alternate solution, also for src/ex_getln.c.
This also fails when the file or directory name contains "%". (Thoml, 2008
July 7)
The str2special() function doesn't handle multi-byte characters properly.
Patch from Vladimir Vichniakov, 2007 Apr 24.
Should clean up the whole function. Also allow modifiers like <S-Char-32>?
find_special_key() also has this problem.
Problem with 'langmap' being used on the rhs of a mapping. (Nikolai Weibull,
2008 May 14)
Problem with CTRL-F. (Charles Campbell, 2008 March 21)
Only happens with "gvim -geometry "160x26+4+27" -u NONE -U NONE prop.c".
'lines' is 54. (2008 March 27)
Problem with pointer wrapping around in getvcol(). (Wolfgang Kroworsch, 2008
Oct 19) Check for "col" being "MAXCOL" separately?
Unexpectedly inserting a double quote. (Anton Woellert, 2008 Mar 23)

Works OK when 'cmdheight' is 2.

Test54 should not use shell commands. Make it portable.
The utf class table is missing some entries:
0x2212, minus sign
0x2217, star
0x2500, bar
0x26ab, circle
Visual line mode doesn't highlight properly when 'showbreak' is used and the
line doesn't fit. (Dasn, 2008 May 1)
GUI: In Normal mode can't yank the modeless selection. Make "gy" do this?
Works like CTRL-Y in Command line mode.
Mac: Move Carbon todo items to os_mac.txt. Note that this version is frozen,
try the Cocoa version.
Mac: After a ":vsplit" the left scrollbar doesn't appear until 'columns' is
changed or the window is resized.
GTK: when setting 'columns' in a startup script and doing ":vertical diffsplit"
the window isn't redrawn properly, see two vertical bars.
Mac: Patch for configure: remove arch from ruby link args. (Knezevic, 2008
Mar 5) Alternative: Kazuki Sakamoto, Mar 7.
Mac: trouble compiling with Motif, requires --disable-darwin. (Raf, 2008 Aug
1) Reply by Ben Schmidt.
C't: On utf-8 system, editing file with umlaut through Gnome results in URL
with %nn%nn, which is taken as two characters instead of one.
Try to reproduce at work.
Patch for default choice in file changed dialog. (Bjorn Winckler, 2008 Oct 19)
Is there a way to list all the files first?
When 'smartcase' is set and using CTRL-L to add to the search pattern it may
result in no matches. Convert chars to lower case? (Erik Wognsen, 2009 Apr
16)
Searching for composing char works, but not when inside []. (ZyX, Benjamin R.
Haskell, 2010 Aug 24)
Fail to edit file after failed register access. Error flag remains set?
(Lech Lorens, 2010 Aug 30)
Patch for redo register. (Ben Schmidt, 2007 Oct 19)
Await response to question to make the register writable.
src/testdir/Make_dos.mak: not all tests are included, e.g., test49, without a
remark why.
Problem with 'ts' set to 9 and 'showbreak' to ">>>". (Matthew Winn, 2007 Oct
1)
In the swapfile dialog, add a H(elp) option that gives more info about what
each choice does. Similar to ":help swap-exists-choices"
try/catch not working for argument of return. (Matt Wozniski, 2008 Sep 15)
try/catch not working when inside a for loop. (ZyX, 2011 Jan 25)
Recognize and ignore BOM in error file. (Aleksey Baibarin)
":tab help" always opens a new tab, while ":help" re-uses an existing window.
Would be more consistent when an existing tab is re-used. (Tony Mechelynck)
":tab drop filename" doesn't work nicely when "filename" is open in a window
in another tab. (Tony Mechelynck, 2009 Feb 13)
Add ":nofold". Range will apply without expanding to closed fold.
Including NFA regexp code:
Use "\%#= to set the engine: 0 = automatic, 1 = backtracking, 2 = new.
Useful in tests.
Performance tests:
- ~/vim/test/veryslow.js (file from Daniel Fetchinson)
- ~/vim/test/slowsearch
- ~/vim/test/rgb.vim

- ~/vim/text/FeiqCfg.xml (file from Netjune)

- search for a.*e*exn in the vim executable. Go to last line to use
'hlsearch'.
Using Aap to build Vim: add remarks about how to set personal preferences.
Example on http://www.calmar.ws/tmp/aap.html
Syntax highlighting wrong for transparent region. (Doug Kearns, 2007 Feb 26)
Bug in using a transparent syntax region. (Hanlen in vim-dev maillist, 2007
Jul 31)
C syntax: {} inside () causes following {} to be highlighted as error.
(Michalis Giannakidis, 2006 Jun 1)
Can't easily close the help window, like ":pc" closes the preview window and
":ccl" closes the quickfix window. Add ":hclose". (Chris Gaal)
Patch for :helpclose, Christian Brabandt, 2010 Sep 6.
Patch for :lmake not updating the quickfix window title. (Lech Lorens, 2011
Mar 26)
When 'diffopt' has "context:0" a single deleted line causes two folds to merge
and mess up syncing. (Austin Jennings, 2008 Jan 31)
Gnome improvements: Edward Catmur, 2007 Jan 7
Also use Save/Discard for other GUIs
New PHP syntax file, use it? (Peter Hodge)
'foldcolumn' in modeline applied to wrong window when using a session. (Teemu
Likonen, March 19)
Test 54 uses shell commands, that doesn't work on non-Unix systems. Use some
other way to test buffer-local autocommands.
The documentation mentions the priority for ":2match" and ":3match", but it
appears the last one wins. (John Beckett, 2008 Jul 22) Caused by adding
matchadd()? Suggested patch by John, 2008 Jul 24.
When 'encoding' is utf-8 the command line is redrawn as a whole on every
character typed. (Tyler Spivey, 2008 Sep 3) Only redraw cmdline for
'arabicshape' when there is a character on the command line for which
(ARABIC_CHAR(u8c)) is TRUE.
Cheng Fang made javacomplete. (2007 Aug 11)
Asked about latest version: 0.77.1 is on www.vim.org.
More AmigaOS4 patches. (Peter Bengtsson, Nov 9)
Amiga patches with vbcc. (Adrien Destugues, 2010 Aug 30)
http://pulkomandy.ath.cx/drop/vim73_vbcc_amiga.diff
Insert mode completion: When editing the text and pressing CTRL-N again goes
back to originally completed text, edited text is gone. (Peng Yu, 2008 Jul 24)
Suggestion by Ben Schmidt, 2008 Aug 6.
Problem with compound words? (Bert, 2008 May 6)
No warning for when flags are defined after they are used in an affix.
Screen redrawing when continuously updating the buffer and resizing the
terminal. (Yakov Lerner, 2006 Sept 7)
Add option settings to help ftplugin. (David Eggum, 2006 Dec 18)
Autoconf problem: when checking for iconv library we may add -L/usr/local/lib,
but when compiling further tests -liconv is added without the -L argument,
that may fail (e.g., sizeof(int)). (Blaine, 2007 Aug 21)
When opening quickfix window, disable spell checking?
Problem with ".add" files when using two languages and restarting Vim. (Raul
Coronado, 2008 Oct 30)
Popup menu redraw: Instead of first redrawing the text and then drawing the
popup menu over it, first draw the new popup menu, remember its position and
size and then redraw the text, skipping the characters under the popup menu.
This should avoid flicker. Other solution by A.Politz, 2007 Aug 22.
When the popup menu is close to the edge of the window it is truncated. Patch
to anchor the popup menu in a different way. (James Vega, 2008 Jul 30)

Windows 98: pasting from the clipboard with text from another application has
a trailing NUL. (Joachim Hofmann) Perhaps the length specified for CF_TEXT
isn't right?
When a register contains illegal bytes, writing viminfo in utf-8 and reading
it back doesn't result in utf-8. (Devin Bayer)
Command line completion: Scanning for tags doesn't check for typed key now and
then? Hangs for about 5 seconds. Appears to be caused by finding include
files with "foo/**" in 'path'. (Kalisiak, 2006 July 15)
Additional info: When using the |wildcards| globing, vim hangs
indefinitely on lots of directories. The |file-searching| globing, like in
":set path=/**" does not hang as often as with globing with |wildcards|, like
in ":1find /**/file". This is for a files that unix "find" can find very
quick. Merging the 2 kinds of globing might make this an easier fix. (Ian
Kelling, 2008 July 4)
When the file name has parenthesis, e.g., "foo (bar).txt", ":!ls '%'"' has the
parenthesis escaped but not the space. That's inconsistent. Either escape
neither or both. No escaping might be best, because it doesn't depend on
particularities of the shell. (Zvi Har'El, 2007 Nov 10) (Teemu Likonen, 2008
Jun 3)
However, for backwards compatibility escaping might be necessary. Check if
the user put quotes around the expanded item?
Error E324 can be given when a cron script has wiped out our temp directory.
Give a clear error message about this (and tell them not to wipe out /tmp).
Color for cUserLabel should differ from case label, so that a mistake in a
switch list is noticed:
switch (i)
{
case 1:
foobar:
}
Look at http://www.gtk-server.org/ . It has a Vim script implementation.
Netbeans problem. Use "nc -l 127.0.0.1 55555" for the server, then run gvim
with "gvim -nb:localhost:55555:foo". From nc do: '1:editFile!0 "foo"'. Then
go to Insert mode and add a few lines. Then backspacing every other time
moves the cursor instead of deleting. (Chris Kaiser, 2007 Sep 25)
Patch to use Modern UI 2.0 for the Nsis installer. (Guopeng Wen, 2010 Jul 30)
8 Windows install with NSIS: make it possible to do a silent install, see
http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Docs/Chapter4.html#4.12
Version from Guopeng Wen that does this (2010 Dec 27)
Changes for Win32 makefile. (Mike Williams, 2007 Jan 22, Alexei Alexandrov,
2007 Feb 8)
Patch for Win32 clipboard under Cygwin. (Frodak Baksik, Feb 15)
Sutcliffe says it works well.
Update 2007 May 22 for Vim 7.1
Update 2008 Dec 2008 for Vim 7.2.xx (Sharonov)
Win32: Can't complete shell command names. Why is setting xp_context in
set_one_cmd_context() inside #ifndef BACKSLASH_IN_FILENAME?
Win32: Patch for convert_filterW(). (Taro Muraoka, 2007 Mar 2)
Win32: Patch for cscope external command. (Mike Williams, 2007 Aug 7)
Win32: XPM support only works with path without spaces. Patch by Mathias
Michaelis, 2006 Jun 9. Another patch for more path names, 2006 May 31.
New version: http://members.tcnet.ch/michaelis/vim/patches.zip also for other
patches by Mathias, see mail Feb 22)
Win32: compiling with normal features and OLE fails. Patch by Mathias
Michaelis, 2006 Jun 4.
Win32: echo doesn't work for gvim.exe.mnf. Use inline file. Patch by Mathias
Michaelis. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vimdev/message/43765
Patch that includes this and does more by George Reilly, 2007 Feb 12
Win16: include patches to make Win16 version work. (Vince Negri, 2006 May 22)
Win32: after "[I" showing matches, scroll wheel messes up screen. (Tsakiridis,
2007 Feb 18)
Patch by Alex Dobrynin, 2007 Jun 3. Also fixes other scroll wheel problems.

Win32: using CTRL-S in Insert mode doesn't remove the "+" from the tab pages
label. (Tsakiridis, 2007 Feb 18) Patch from Ian Kelling, 2008 Aug 6.
Win32: using "gvim --remote-tab-silent fname" sometimes gives an empty screen
with the more prompt. Caused by setting the guitablabel? (Thomas Michael
Engelke, 2007 Dec 20 - 2008 Jan 17)
Win64: Seek error in swap file for a very big file (3 Gbyte). Check storing
pointer in long and seek offset in 64 bit var.
Win32: patch for fullscreen mode. (Liushaolin, 2008 April 17)
Win32: When 'shell' is cmd.exe this command fails:
echo system('"'c:/path/echo.exe" "foo bar"')
Should we set the default for 'shellxquote' to a double quote, when 'shell'
contains "cmd" in the tail? (Benjamin Fritz, 2008 Oct 13)
Also set 'shellcmdflag' to include /s.
Win32: When there is 4 Gbyte of memory mch_avail_mem() doesn't work properly.
Unfinished patch by Jelle Geerts, 2008 Aug 24.
Let mch_avail_mem() return Kbyte instead?
Win32: When 'shell' is bash shellescape() doesn't always do the right thing.
Depends on 'shellslash', 'shellquote' and 'shellxquote', but shellescape()
only takes 'shellslash' into account.
Pressing the 'pastetoggle' key doesn't update the statusline. (Jan Christoph
Ebersbach, 2008 Feb 1)
Menu item that does "xxd -r" doesn't work when 'fileencoding' is utf-16.
Check for this and use iconv? (Edward L. Fox, 2007 Sep 12)
Does the conversion in the other direction work when 'filenecodings' is set
properly?
Cursor displayed in the wrong position when using 'numberwidth'. (James Vega,
2007 Jun 21)
When $VAR contains a backslash expand('$VAR') removes it. (Teemu Likonen, 2008
Jun 18)
If the variable "g:x#y#z" exists completion after ":echo g:x#" doesn't work.
Feature request: Command to go to previous tab, like what CTRL-W p does for
windows. (Adam George)
When using input() in a loop and then ":echo" the display column isn't right.
(Benjamin Fritz, 2008 Aug 28) Patch by Ben Schmidt, 2008 Sep 2.
F1 - F4 in an xterm produce a different escape sequence when used with a
modifier key. Need to catch three different sequences. Use K_ZF1, like
K_ZHOME? (Dickey, 2007 Dec 2)
UTF-8: mapping a multi-byte key where the second byte is 0x80 doesn't appear
to work. (Tony Mechelynck, 2007 March 2)
In debug mode, using CTRL-R = to evaluate a function causes stepping through
the function. (Hari Krishna Dara, 2006 Jun 28)
C++ indenting wrong with "=". (James Kanze, 2007 Jan 26)
":lockvar" should use copyID to avoid endless loop.
When using --remote-silent and the file name matches 'wildignore' get an E479
error. without --remote-silent it works fine. (Ben Fritz, 2008 Jun 20)
Gvim: dialog for closing Vim should check if Vim is busy writing a file. Then
use a different dialog: "busy saving, really quit? yes / no".
Check other interfaces for changing curbuf in a wrong way. Patch like for
if_ruby.c.
":helpgrep" should use the directory from 'helpfile'.
Patch to dynamically load Python on Solaris. (Danek Duvall, 2009 Feb 16)
Needs more work.
Python3 interface doesn't handle utf-8 correctly? (Nov 2010, lilydjwg)
The need_fileinfo flag is messy. Instead make the message right away and put
it in keep msg?

Editing a file remotely that matches 'wildignore' results in a "no match"

error. Should only happen when there are wildcards, not when giving the file
name literally, and esp. if there is only one name.
Test 61 fails sometimes. This is a timing problem: "sleep 2" sometimes takes
longer than 2 seconds.
Using ":au CursorMoved * cmd" invokes mch_FullName(), which can be slow.
Can this be avoided? (Thomas Waba, 2008 Aug 24)
Also for ":w" without a file name.
The buffer has the full path in ffname, should pass this to the autocommand.
"vim -C" often has 'nocompatible', because it's set in some startup script.
Set 'compatible' after startup is done? Patch by James Vega, 2008 Feb 7.
VMS: while editing a file found in complex, Vim will save file into the first
directory of the path and not to the original location of the file.
(Zoltan Arpadffy)
VMS: VFC files are in some cases truncated during reading (Zoltan Arpadffy)
input() completion should not insert a backslash to escape a space in a file
name?
Ruby completion is insecure. Can this be fixed?
When 'backupskip' is set from $TEMP special characters need to be escaped.
(patch by Grembowietz, 2007 Feb 26, not quite right)
Another problem is that file_pat_to_reg_pat() doesn't recognize "\\", so "\\("
will be seen as a path separator plus "\(".
gvim d:\path\path\(FILE).xml should not remove the \ before the (.
This also fails with --remote.
When doing ":quit" the Netbeans "killed" event isn't sent. (Xavier de Gaye,
2008 Nov 10) call netbeans_file_closed() at the end of buf_freeall(), or in
all places where buf_freeall() is called?
":python os.chdir('/tmp')" makes short buffer names invalid. (Xavier de Gaye)
Check directory and call shorten_fnames()?
aucmd_prepbuf() should also use a window in another tab page.
When unloading a buffer in a BufHidden autocommand the hidden flag is reset?
(Bob Hiestand, 2008 Aug 26, Aug 27)
Substituting an area with a line break with almost the same area does change
the Visual area. Can this be fixed? (James Vega, 2006 Sept 15)
Windows installer could add a "open in new tab of existing Vim" menu entry.
Gvimext: patch to add "Edit with single Vim &tabbed" menu entry.
Just have two choices, always using one Vim and selecting between using an
argument list or opening each file in a separate tab.
(Erik Falor, 2008 May 21, 2008 Jun 26)
GUI: When combining fg en bg make sure they are not equal.
Spell checking: Add a way to specify punctuation characters. Add the
superscript numbers by default: 0x2070, 0xb9, 0xb2, 0xb3, 0x2074 - 0x2079.
Spell checking in popup menu: If the only problem is the case of the first
character, don't offer "ignore" and "add to word list".
Use different pt_br dictionary for spell checking. (Jackson A. Aquino, 2006
Jun 5)
Use different romanian dictionary for spell checking. (Andrei Popescu, Nov
2008 Use http://downloads.sourceforge.net/rospell/ro_RO.3.2.zip
Or the hunspell-ro.3.2.tar.gz file, it also has a iso-8859-2 list.
In a C file with spell checking, in "% integer" "nteger" is seen as an error,
but "]s" doesn't find it. "nteger" by itself is found. (Ralf Wildenhues, 2008
Jul 22)
There should be something about spell checking in the user manual.
Spell menu: When using the Popup menu to select a replacement word,
":spellrepeat" doesn't work. SpellReplace() uses setline(). Can it use "z="
somehow? Or use a new function.

Mac: Using gvim: netrw window disappears. (Nick Lo, 2006 Jun 21)
Mac: OS/X 10.4 with Python 2.5 installed: configure finds an extra argument
that breaks the build. (Brian Victor, 2008 Sep 1)
Add an option to specify the character to use when a double-width character is
moved to the next line. Default '>', set to a space to blank it out. Check
that char is single width when it's set (compare with 'listchars').
The generated vim.bat can avoid the loop for NT. (Carl Zmola, 2006 Sep 3)
Session file creation: 'autochdir' causes trouble. Keep it off until after
loading all files.
Win32: When 'autochdir' is on and 'encoding' is changed, files on the command
line are opened again, but from the wrong directory. Apply 'autochdir' only
after starting up?
When showing a diff between a non-existent file and an existing one, with the
cursor in the empty buffer, the other buffer only shows the last line. Change
the "insert" into a change from one line to many? (Yakov Lerner, 2008 May 27)
Add autocommand for when a tabpage is being closed. Also for when a tab page
has been created.
Using ":make" blocks Vim. Allow running one make in the background (if the
shell supports it), catch errors in a file and update the error list on the
fly. A bit like "!make > file&" and repeating ":cf file". ":bgmake",
background make. ":bgcancel" interrupts it.
A.Politz may work on this.
These two abbreviations don't give the same result:
let asdfasdf = "xyz\<Left>"
cabbr XXX <C-R>=asdfasdf<CR>
cabbr YYY xyz<Left>
Michael Dietrich: maximized gvim sometimes displays output of external command
partly. (2006 Dec 7)
In FileChangedShell command it's no longer allowed to switch to another
buffer. But the changed buffer may differ from the current buffer, how to
reload it then?
New syntax files for fstab and resolv from Radu Dineiu, David Necas did
previous version.
For Aap: include a config.arg.example file with hints how to use config.arg.
Command line completion when 'cmdheight' is maximum and 'wildmenu' is set,
only one buffer line displayed, causes display errors.
Completing with 'wildmenu' and using <Up> and <Down> to move through directory
tree stops unexpectedly when using ":cd " and entering a directory that
doesn't contain other directories.
Setting 'background' resets the Normal background color:
highlight Normal ctermbg=DarkGray
set background=dark
This is undesired, 'background' is supposed to tell Vim what the background
color is, not reset it.
Linux distributions:
- Suggest compiling xterm with --enable-tcap-query, so that nr of colors is
known to Vim. 88 colors instead of 16 works better. See ":help
xfree-xterm".
- Suggest including bare "vi" and "vim" with X11, syntax, etc.
Completion menu: For a wrapping line, completing a long file name, only the
start of the path is shown in the menu. Should move the menu to the right to
show more text of the completions. Shorten the items that don't fit in the
middle?
When running inside screen it's possible to kill the X server and restart it
(using pty's the program can keep on running). Vim dies because it loses the
connection to the X server. Can Vim simply quit using the X server instead of
dying? Also relevant when running in a console.
Accessing file#var in a function should not need the g: prepended.
When exiting detects a modified buffer, instead of opening the buffer in the
current tab, use an existing tab, if possible. Like finding a window where

the buffer is displayed. (Antonios Tsakiridis)

When ":cn" moves to an error in the same line the message isn't shortened.
Only skip shortening for ":cc"?
Write "making vim work better" for the docs (mostly pointers): *nice*
- sourcing $VIMRUNTIME/vimrc_example.vim
- setting 'mouse' to "a"
- getting colors in xterm
- compiling Vim with X11, GUI, etc.
Problem with ":call" and dictionary function. Hari Krishna Dara, Charles
Campbell 2006 Jul 06.
Syntax HL error caused by "containedin". (Peter Hodge, 2006 Oct 6)
A custom completion function in a ":command" cannot be a Funcref. (Andy
Wokula, 2007 Aug 25)
Problem with using :redir in user command completion function? (Hari Krishna
Dara, 2006 June 21)
Another resizing problem when setting 'columns' and 'lines' to a very large
number. (Tony Mechelynck, 2007 Feb 6)
After starting Vim, using '0 to jump somewhere in a file, ":sp" doesn't center
the cursor line. It works OK after some other commands.
Win32: Is it possible to have both postscript and Win32 printing?
Does multi-byte printing with ":hardcopy" work? Add remark in documentation
about this.
Check: Running Vim in a console and still having connect to the X server for
copy/paste: is stopping the X server handled gracefully? Should catch the X
error and stop using the connection to the server.
Problem with 'cdpath' on MS-Windows when a directory is equal to $HOME. (2006
Jul 26, Gary Johnson)
Using UTF-8 character with ":command" does not work properly. (Matt Wozniski,
2008 Sep 29)
In the Netbeans interface add a "vimeval" function, so that the other side can
check the result of has("patch13").
Cursor line at bottom of window instead of halfway after saving view and
restoring. Only with 'nowrap'. (Robert Webb, 2008 Aug 25)
Netrw has trouble executing autocommands only for a directory. Add <isdir>
and <notisdir> to autocommand patterns? Also <isfile>?
Add command modifier that skips wildcard expansion, so that you don't need to
put backslashes before special chars, only for white space.
Syntax HL: open two windows on the same C code, delete a ")" in one window,
resulting in highlighted "{" in that window, not in the other.
In mswin.vim: Instead of mapping <C-V> for Insert mode in a complicated way,
can it be done like ":imap <C-V> <MiddleMouse>" without negative side effects?
GTK: when the Tab pages bar appears or disappears while the window is
maximized the window is no longer maximized. Patch that has some idea but
doesn't work from Geoffrey Antos, 2008 May 5.
Also: the window may no longer fit on the screen, thus the command line is not
visible.
When right after "vim file", "M" then CTRL-W v the windows are scrolled
differently and unexpectedly. Caused by patch 7.2.398?
The magic clipboard format "VimClipboard2" appears in several places. Should
be only one.
"vim -C" often has 'nocompatible', because it's set somewhere in a startup
script. Do "set compatible" after startup?
It's difficult to debug numbered functions (function in a Dictionary). Print
the function name before resolving it to a number?
let d = {}
fun! d.foo()
echo "here"

endfun
call d.foo(9)
Add a mark for the other end of the Visual area (VIsual pos). '< and '> are
only set after Visual moded is ended.
Also add a variable for the Visual mode. So that this mode and '< '> can be
used to set what "gv" selects. (Ben Schmidt)
Win32: When running ":make" and 'encoding' differs from the system locale, the
output should be converted. Esp. when 'encoding' is "utf-8". (Yongwei Wu)
Should we use 'termencoding' for this?
Win32, NTFS: When editing a specific infostream directly and 'backupcopy' is
"auto" should detect this situation and work like 'backupcopy' is "yes". File
name is something like "c:\path\foo.txt:bar", includes a colon. (Alex
Jakushev, 2008 Feb 1)
Small problem displaying diff filler line when opening windows with a script.
(David Luyer, 2007 Mar 1 ~/Mail/oldmail/mool/in.15872 )
Is it allowed that 'backupext' is empty? Problems when backup is in same dir
as original file? If it's OK don't compare with 'patchmode'. (Thierry Closen)
Patch for supporting count before CR in quickfix window. (AOYAMA Shotaro, 2007
Jan 1)
Patch for adding ":lscscope". (Navdeep Parhar, 2007 Apr 26; update 2008 Apr
23)
":mkview" isn't called with the right buffer argument. Happens when using
tabs and the autocommand "autocmd BufWinLeave * mkview". (James Vega, 2007
Jun 18)
xterm should be able to pass focus changes to Vim, so that Vim can check for
buffers that changed. Perhaps in misc.c, function selectwindow().
Xterm 224 supports it!
When completing from another file that uses a different encoding completion
text has the wrong encoding. E.g., when 'encoding' is utf-8 and file is
latin1. Example from Gombault Damien, 2007 Mar 24.
Is it possible to use "foo#var" instead of "g:foo#var" inside a function?
Syntax HL: When using "nextgroup" and the group has an empty match, there is
no search at that position for another match. (Lukas Mai, 2008 April 11)
In gvim the backspace key produces a backspace character, but on Linux the
VERASE key is Delete. Set VERASE to Backspace? (patch by Stephane Chazelas,
2007 Oct 16)
When entering a C /* comment, after typing <Enter> for 70 times the indent
disappears. (Vincent Beffara, 2008 Jul 3)
TermResponse autocommand isn't always triggered when using vimdiff. (Aron
Griffis, 2007 Sep 19)
Create a gvimtutor.1 file and change Makefiles to install it.
When 'encoding' is utf-8 typing text at the end of the line causes previously
typed characters to be redrawn. Caused by patch 7.1.329. (Tyler Spivey, 2008
Sep 3, 11)
When Vim in an xterm owns the selection and the user does ":shell" Vim doesn't
respond to selection requests. Invoking XtDisownSelection() before executing
the shell doesn't help. Would require forking and doing a message loop, like
what happens for the GUI.
X11: Putting more than about 262040 characters of text on the clipboard and
pasting it in another Vim doesn't work. (Dominique Pelle, 2008 Aug 21-23)
clip_x11_request_selection_cb() is called with zero value and length.
Also: Get an error message from free() in the process that owns the selection.
Seems to happen when the selection is requested the second time, but before
clip_x11_convert_selection_cb() is invoked, thus in X library code.
":vimgrep" does not recognize a recursive symlink. Is it possible to detect
this, at least for Unix (using device/inode)?
When switching between windows the cursor is often put in the middle.
Remember the relative position and restore that, just like lnum and col are
restored. (Luc St-Louis)

Patch to support horizontal scroll wheel in GTK. Untested. (Bjorn Winckler,

2010 Jun 30)
At next release:
- Rename src/Makefile and create a new one like toplevel Makefile that
creates auto/config.mk when it's not there? (Ben Schmidt, 2011 Feb 11)
More patches:
- Another patch for Javascript indenting. (Hari Kumar, 2010 Jul 11)
Needs a few tests.
- Add 'cscopeignorecase' option. (Liang Wenzhi, 2006 Sept 3)
- Argument for feedkeys() to prepend to typeahead (Yakov Lerner, 2006 Oct
21)
- Load intl.dll too, not only libintl.dll. (Mike Williams, 2006 May 9, docs
patch May 10)
- Extra argument to strtrans() to translate special keys to their name (Eric
Arnold, 2006 May 22)
- 'threglookexp' option: only match with first word in thesaurus file.
(Jakson A. Aquino, 2006 Jun 14)
- Mac: indicate whether a buffer was modified. (Nicolas Weber, 2006 Jun 30)
- Allow negative 'nrwidth' for left aligning. (Nathan Laredo, 2006 Aug 16)
- ml_append_string(): efficiently append to an existing line. (Brad
Beveridge, 2006 Aug 26) Use in some situations, e.g., when pasting a
character at a time?
- recognize hex numbers better. (Mark Manning, 2006 Sep 13)
- Add <AbbrExpand> key, to expand an abbreviation in a mapping. (Kana
Natsuno, 2008 Jul 17)
- Add 'wspara' option, also accept blank lines like empty lines for "{" and
"}". (Mark Lundquist, 2008 Jul 18)
- Patch to add CTRL-T to delete part of a path on cmdline. (Adek, 2008 Jul
21)
- Instead of creating a copy of the tutor in all the shell scripts, do it in
vimtutor.vim. (Jan Minar, 2008 Jul 20)
- When fsync() fails there is no hint about what went wrong. Patch by Ben
Schmidt, 2008 Jul 22.
- testdir/Make_dos_sh.mak for running tests with MingW. (Bill Mccarthy, 2008
Sep 13)
- Patch for adding "space" item in 'listchars'. (JÃ©rÃ©mie Roquet, 2009 Oct 29,
Docs patch Oct 30)
- Replace ccomplete.vim by cppcomplete.vim from www.vim.org? script 1520 by
Vissale Neang. (Martin Stubenschrott) Asked Vissale to make the scripts
more friendly for the Vim distribution.
New version received 2008 Jan 6.
No maintenance in two years...
- Patch to access screen under Python. (Marko Mahni, 2010 Jul 18)
- Patch to open dropped files in new tabs. (Michael Trim, 2010 Aug 3)
Awaiting updated patches:
9 Mac unicode patch (Da Woon Jung, Eckehard Berns):
8 Add patch from Muraoka Taro (Mar 16) to support input method on Mac?
New patch 2004 Jun 16
- selecting proportional font breaks display
- UTF-8 text causes display problems. Font replacement causes this.
- Command-key mappings do not work. (Alan Schmitt)
- With 'nopaste' pasting is wrong, with 'paste' Command-V doesn't work.
(Alan Schmitt)
- remove 'macatsui' option when this has been fixed.
- when 'macatsui' is off should we always convert to "macroman" and ignore
'termencoding'?
9 HTML indenting can be slow. Caused by using searchpair(). Can search()
be used instead? A.Politz is looking into a solution.
8 Win32: Add minidump generation. (George Reilly, 2006 Apr 24)
8 Add ":n" to fnamemodify(): normalize path, remove "../" when possible.
Aric Blumer has a patch for this. He will update the patch for 6.3.
7 Completion of network shares, patch by Yasuhiro Matsumoto.
Update 2004 Sep 6.
How does this work? Missing comments.
- Patch for 'breakindent' option: repeat indent for wrapped line. (Vaclav
Smilauer, 2004 Sep 13, fix Oct 31, update 2007 May 30)
Version for latest MacVim: Tobia Conforto, 2009 Nov 23
8 Add a few more command names to the menus. Patch from Jiri Brezina
(28 feb 2002). Will mess the translations...
7 ATTENTION dialog choices are more logical when "Delete it' appears
before "Quit". Patch by Robert Webb, 2004 May 3.
- Include flipcase patch: ~/vim/patches/wall.flipcase2 ? Make it work
for multi-byte characters.
- Win32: add options to print dialog. Patch from Vipin Aravind.
- Patch to add highlighting for whitespace. (Tom Schumm, 2003 Jul 5)
use the patch that keeps using HLF 8 if HLF WS has not

been given values.

Add section in help files for these highlight groups?
8 "fg" and "bg" don't work in an xterm. Get default colors from xterm
with an ESC sequence.
xterm can send colors for many things. E.g. for the cursor:
<Esc>]12;?<Bel>
Can use this to get the background color and restore the colors on exit.
7 Add "DefaultFG" and "DefaultBG" for the colors of the menu. (Marcin
Dalecki has a patch for Motif and Carbon)
- Add possibility to highlight specific columns (for Fortran). Or put a
line in between columns (e.g., for 'textwidth').
Patch to add 'hlcolumn' from Vit Stradal, 2004 May 20.
8 Add functions:
gettext() Translate a message. (Patch from Yasuhiro Matsumoto)
Update 2004 Sep 10
Another patch from Edward L. Fox (2005 Nov 24)
Search in 'runtimepath'?
More docs needed about how to use this.
How to get the messages into the .po files?
strchars() Like strlen() and strwidth() but counting characters
instead of bytes.
confirm() add "flags" argument, with 'v' for vertical
layout and 'c' for console dialog. (Haegg)
Flemming Madsen has a patch for the 'c' flag
(2003 May 13)
raisewin() raise gvim window (see HierAssist patch for
Tcl implementation ~/vim/HierAssist/ )
taglist() add argument to specify maximum number of matches.
useful for interactive things or completion.
col('^') column of first non-white character.
Can use "len(substitute(getline('.'), '\S.*', '', ''))
+ 1", but that's ugly.
7 Add patch from Benoit Cerrina to integrate Vim and Perl functions
better. Now also works for Ruby (2001 Nov 10)
- Patch from Herculano de Lima Einloft Neto for better formatting of the
quickfix window (2004 dec 2)
7 When 'rightleft' is set, the search pattern should be displayed right
to left as well? See patch of Dec 26. (Nadim Shaikli)
8 Option to lock all used memory so that it doesn't get swapped to disk
(uncrypted). Patch by Jason Holt, 2003 May 23. Uses mlock.
7 Add ! register, for shell commands. (patch from Grenie)
8 In the gzip plugin, also recognize *.gz.orig, *.gz.bak, etc. Like it's
done for filetype detection. Patch from Walter Briscoe, 2003 Jul 1.
7 Add a "-@ filelist" argument: read file names from a file. (David
Kotchan has a patch for it)
8 Include a connection to an external program through a pipe? See
patches from Felbinger for a mathematica interface.
Or use emacs server kind of thing?
7 Add ":justify" command. Patch from Vit Stradal 2002 Nov 25.
- findmatch() should be adjusted for Lisp. See remark at
get_lisp_indent(). Esp. $ and $ should be skipped. (Dorai Sitaram,
incomplete patch Mar 18)
- For GUI Find/Replace dialog support using a regexp. Patch for Motif
and GTK by degreneir (nov 10 and nov 18).
- Patch for "paranoid mode" by Kevin Collins, March 7. Needs much more work.
Vi incompatibility:
- Try new POSIX tests, made after my comments. (Geoff Clare, 2005 April 7)
Version 1.5 is in ~/src/posix/1.5. (Lynne Canal)
8 With undo/redo only marks in the changed lines should be changed. Other
marks should be kept. Vi keeps each mark at the same text, even when it
is deleted or restored. (Webb)
Also: A mark is lost after: make change, undo, redo and undo.
Example: "{d''"' then "u" then "d''"': deletes an extra line, because the ''
position is one line down. (Veselinovic)
8 When stdin is not a tty, and Vim reads commands from it, an error should
make Vim exit.
7 Unix Vim (not gvim): Typing CTRL-C in Ex mode should finish the line
(currently you can continue typing, but it's truncated later anyway).
Requires a way to make CTRL-C interrupt select() when in cooked input.
8 When loading a file in the .exrc, Vi loads the argument anyway. Vim skips
loading the argument if there is a file already. When no file argument
given, Vi starts with an empty buffer, Vim keeps the loaded file. (Bearded)
6 In Insert mode, when using <BS> or <Del>, don't wipe out the text, but
only move back the cursor. Behaves like '$' in 'cpoptions'. Use a flag
in 'cpoptions' to switch this on/off.
8 When editing a file which is a symbolic link, and then opening another
symbolic link on the same file, Vim uses the name of the first one.
Adjust the file name in the buffer to the last one used? Use several file
names in one buffer???

Also: When first editing file "test", which is symlink to "test2", and
then editing "test2", you end up editing buffer "test" again. It's not
logical that the name that was first used sticks with the buffer.
7 The ":undo" command works differently in Ex mode. Edit a file, make some
changes, "Q", "undo" and _all_ changes are undone, like the ":visual"
command was one command.
On the other hand, an ":undo" command in an Ex script only undoes the last
change (e.g., use two :append commands, then :undo).
7 The ":map" command output overwrites the command. Perhaps it should keep
the ":map" when it's used without arguments?
7 CTRL-L is not the end of a section? It is for Posix! Make it an option.
7 Implement 'prompt' option. Init to off when stdin is not a tty.
7 CTRL-T in Insert mode inserts 'shiftwidth' of spaces at the cursor. Add a
flag in 'cpoptions' for this.
7 Add a way to send an email for a crashed edit session. Create a file when
making changes (containing name of the swap file), delete it when writing
the file. Supply a program that can check for crashed sessions (either
all, for a system startup, or for one user, for in a .login file).
7 Vi doesn't do autoindenting when input is not from a tty (in Ex mode).
7 "z3<CR>" should still use the whole window, but only redisplay 3 lines.
7 ":tag xx" should move the cursor to the first non-blank. Or should it go
to the match with the tag? Option?
7 Implement 'autoprint'/'ap' option.
7 Add flag in 'cpoptions' that makes <BS> after a count work like <Del>
(Sayre).
7 Add flag in 'cpoptions' that makes operator (yank, filter) not move the
cursor, at least when cancelled. (default Vi compatible).
7 This Vi-trick doesn't work: "Q" to go to Ex mode, then "g/pattern/visual".
In Vi you can edit in visual mode, and when doing "Q" you jump to the next
match. Nvi can do it too.
7 Support '\' for line continuation in Ex mode for these commands: (Luebking)
g/./a\ g/pattern1/ s/pattern2/rep1\\
line 1\ line 2\\
line 2\ line 3\\
. line4/
6 ":e /tmp/$tty" doesn't work. ":e $uid" does. Is $tty not set because of
the way the shell is started?
6 Vi compatibility (optional): make "ia<CR><ESC>10." do the same strange
thing. (only repeat insert for the first line).
GTK+ GUI known bugs:

9 Crash with X command server over ssh. (Ciaran McCreesh, 2006 Feb 6)
8 GTK 2: Combining UTF-8 characters not displayed properly in menus (Mikolaj
Machowski) They are displayed as separate characters. Problem in
creating a label?
8 GTK 2: Combining UTF-8 characters are sometimes not drawn properly.
Depends on the font size, "monospace 13" has the problem. Vim seems to do
everything right, must be a GTK bug. Is there a way to work around it?
9 Can't paste a Visual selection from GTK-gvim to vim in xterm or Motif gvim
when it is longer than 4000 characters. Works OK from gvim to gvim and
vim to vim. Pasting through xterm (using the shift key) also works.
It starts working after GTK gvim loses the selection and gains it again.
- Gnome2: When moving the toolbar out of the dock, so that it becomes
floating, it can no longer be moved. Therefore making it float has been
blocked for now.
Win32 GUI known bugs:

- Win32: tearoff menu window should have a scrollbar when it's taller than
the screen.
8 non-ASCII font names don't work. Need to convert from 'encoding' and use
the wide functions.
8 On Windows 98 the unicows library is needed to support functions with UCS2
file names. Can we load unicows.dll dynamically?
8 Win32: With two monitors, gvim partly on both, and adding/removing a
scrollbar Vim resizes and moves to one of the monitors. (Chris Monkiewicz,
2008 Oct)
8 When the primary monitor is below or right of the secondary monitor and
Vim is on the secondary monitor it will often move to the primary monitor.
Window position coordinates can be negative. (James Harvey)
When the primary monitor is on the right, coordinates on the left monitor
are negative. Clamping to zero means gvim jups to the primary monitor.
(Michael Wookey, 2010 Aug 17)
Probably the same issue: When the GUI tab pages line is displayed Vim
jumps from the secondary to the primary monitor. (Afton Lewis, 2007 Mar 9)
Possible solution using GetSystemMetrics() (Sergey Khorev, 2010 Aug 18)
8 The -P argument doesn't work very well with many MDI applications.
The last argument of CreateWindowEx() should be used, see MSDN docs.
Tutorial: http://win32assembly.online.fr/tut32.html
8 In eval.c, io.h is included when MSWIN32 is defined. Shouldn't this be

WIN32? Or can including io.h be moved to vim.h? (Dan Sharp)

7 Windows XP: When using "ClearType" for text smoothing, a column of yellow
pixels remains when typing spaces in front of a "D" ('guifont' set to
"lucida_console:h8").
6 Win32 GUI: With "-u NONE -U NONE" and doing "CTRL-W v" "CTRL-W o", the ":"
of ":only" is highlighted like the cursor. (Lipelis)
8 When 'encoding' is "utf-8", should use 'guifont' for both normal and wide
characters to make Asian languages work. Win32 fonts contain both
type of characters.
7 When font smoothing is enabled, redrawing can become very slow. The reason
appears to be drawing with a transparent background. Would it be possible
to use an opaque background in most places?
8 Use another default for 'termencoding': the active codepage. Means that
when 'encoding' is changed typing characters still works properly.
Alternative: use the Unicode functions to obtain typed characters.
8 Win32: Multi-byte characters are not displayed, even though the same font
in Notepad can display them. (Srinath Avadhanula) Try with the
UTF-8-demo.txt page with Andale Mono.
7 The cursor color indicating IME mode doesn't work properly. (Shizhu Pan,
2004 May 9)
8 Win32: When clicking on the gvim title bar, which gives it focus, produces
a file-changed dialog, after clicking on a button in that dialog the gvim
window follows the mouse. The button-up event is lost. Only with
MS-Windows 98?
Try this: ":set sw ts", get enter-prompt, then change the file in a
console, go back to Vim and click "reload" in the dialog for the changed
file: Window moves with the cursor!
Put focus event in input buffer and let generic Vim code handle it?
8 Win32: When mouse is hidden and in the toolbar, moving it won't make it
appear. (Sami Salonen)
8 Win32 GUI: With maximized window, ":set go-=r" doesn't use the space that
comes available. (Poucet) It works OK on Win 98 but doesn't work on Win
NT 4.0. Leaves a grey area where the scrollbar was. ":set go+=r" also
doesn't work properly.
8 When Vim is minimized and when maximizing it a file-changed dialog pops
up, Vim isn't maximized. It should be done before the dialog, so that it
appears in the right position. (Webb)
9 When selecting at the more-prompt or hit-enter-prompt, the right mouse
button doesn't give popup menu.
At the hit-enter prompt CTRL-Y doesn't work to copy the modeless
selection.
On the command line, don't get a popup menu for the right mouse button.
Let the middle button paste selected text (not the clipboard but the
non-Visual selection)? Otherwise CTRL-Y has to be used to copy the text.
8 When 'grepprg' doesn't execute, the error only flashes by, the
user can hardly see what is wrong. (Moore)
Could use vimrun with an "-nowait" argument to only wait when an error
occurs, but "command.com" doesn't return an error code.
8 When the 'shell' cannot be executed, should give an appropriate error msg.
Esp. for a filter command, currently it only complains the file could not
be read.
7 Add an option to add one pixel column to the character width? Lucida
Console italic is wider than the normal font ("d" overlaps with next char).
Opposite of 'linespace': 'columnspace'.
7 At the hit-enter prompt scrolling now no longer works. Need to use the
keyboard to get around this. Pretend <CR> was hit when the user tries to
scroll?
7 Scrollbar width doesn't change when selecting other windows appearance.
Also background color of Toolbar and rectangle below vert. scrollbar.
6 Drawing text transparently doesn't seem to work (when drawing part cursor).
8 CTRL key doesn't always work in combination with ALT key. It does work
for function keys, not for alphabetic characters. Perhaps this is because
CTRL-ALT is used by Windows as AltGr?
8 CTRL-- doesn't work for AZERTY, because it's CTRL-[ for QWERTY. How do we
know which keyboard is being used?
7 When scrolling, and a background color is dithered, the dither pattern
doesn't always join correctly between the scrolled area and the new drawn
area (Koloseike).
8 When gui_init_font() is called with "*", p_guifont is freed while it might
still be used somewhere. This is too tricky, do the font selection first,
then set the new font by name (requires putting all logfont parameters in
the font name).
Athena and Motif:

6 New Motif toolbar button from Marcin Dalecki:
- When the mouse pointer is over an Agide button the red becomes black.
Something with the way colors are specified in the .xpm file.
- The pixmap is two pixels smaller than it should be. The gap is filled
with grey instead of the current toolbar background color.
9 Can configure be changed to disable netbeans if the Xpm library is

required and it's missing?

8 When using the resource "Vim*borderwidth 2" the widgets are positioned
wrong.
9 XIM is disabled by default for SGI/IRIX. Fix XIM so that 'imdisable' can
be off by default.
9 XIM doesn't work properly for Athena/Motif. (Yasuhiro Matsumoto) For now,
keep XIM active at all times when the input method has the preediting
flag.
8 X11: A menu that contains an umlaut is truncated at that character.
Happens when the locale is "C", which uses ASCII instead of IS0-8859-1.
Is there a way to use latin1 by default? Gnome_init() seems to do this.
8 Perhaps use fontsets for everything?
6 When starting in English and switching the language to Japanese, setting
the locale with ":lang", 'guifontset' and "hi menu font=", deleting all
menus and setting them again, the menus don't use the new font. Most of
the tooltips work though...
7 Motif: when using a file selection dialog, the specified file name is not
always used (when specifying a filter or another directory).
8 When 'encoding' is different from the current locale (e.g., utf-8) the
menu strings don't work. Requires conversion from 'encoding' to the
current locale. Workaround: set 'langmenu'.
Athena GUI:
9 The first event for any button in the menu or toolbar appears to get lost.
The second click on a menu does work.
9 When dragging the scrollbar thumb very fast, focus is only obtained in
the scrollbar itself. And the thumb is no longer updated when moving
through files.
7 The file selector is not resizable. With a big font it is difficult to
read long file names. (Schroeder)
4 Re-write the widget attachments and code so that we will not have to go
through and calculate the absolute position of every widget every time the
window is refreshed/changes size. This will help the "flashing-widgets"
problem during a refresh.
5 When starting gvim with all the default colors and then typing
":hi Menu guibg=cyan", the menus change color but the background of the
pullright pixmap doesn't change colors.
If you type ":hi Menu guibg=cyan font=anyfont", then the pixmap changes
colors as it should.
Allocating a new pixmap and setting the resource doesn't change the
pullright pixmap's colors. Why? Possible Athena bug?
Motif GUI:
- gui_mch_browsedir() is missing, browsedir() doesn't work nicely.
7 Use XmStringCreateLocalized() instead of XmStringCreateSimple()?
David Harrison says it's OK (it exists in Motif 1.2).
8 Lesstif: When deleting a menu that's torn off, the torn off menu becomes
very small instead of disappearing. When closing it, Vim crashes.
(Phillipps)
GUI:
9 On Solaris, creating the popup menu causes the right mouse button no
longer to work for extending the selection. (Halevy)
9 When running an external program, it can't always be killed with CTRL-C.
e.g., on Solaris 5.5, when using "K" (Keech). Other 'guipty' problems on
Solaris 2.6. (Marley)
9 On Solaris: Using a "-geometry" argument, bigger than the window where Vim
is started from, causes empty lines below the cmdline. (raf)
8 X11 GUI: When menu is disabled by excluding 'm' from 'guioptions', ALT key
should not be used to trigger a menu (like the Win32 version).
8 When setting 'langmenu', it should be effective immediately. Store both
the English and the translated text in the menu structure. Re-generate
the translation when 'langmenu' has changed.
8 Basic flaw in the GUI code: NextScreen is updated before calling
gui_write(), but the GUI code relies on NextScreen to represent the state
of where it is processing the output.
Need better separation of Vim core and GUI code.
8 When fontset support is enabled, setting 'guifont' to a single font
doesn't work.
8 Menu priority for sub-menus for: Amiga, BeOS.
8 When translating menus ignore the part after the Tab, the shortcut. So
that the same menu item with a different shortcut (e.g., for the Mac) are
still translated.
8 Add menu separators for Amiga, RISCOS.
8 Add way to specify the file filter for the browse dialog. At least for
browse().
8 Add dialog for search/replace to other GUIs? Tk has something for this,
use that code? Or use console dialog.

8 When selecting a font with the font dialog and the font is invalid, the
error message disappears too quick.
7 More features in the find/replace dialog:
- regexp on/off
- search in selection/buffer/all buffers/directory
when all buffers/directory is used:
- filter for file name
when directory is used:
- subdirectory on/off
- top directory browser
8 gui_check_colors() is not called at the right moment. Do it much later,
to avoid problems.
8 gui_update_cursor() is called for a cursor shape change, even when there
are mappings to be processed. Only do something when going to wait for
input. Or maybe every 100 ms?
8 X11: When the window size is reduced to fit on screen, there are blank
lines below the text and bottom scrollbar. "gvim -geometry 80x78+0+0".
When the "+0+0" is omitted it works.
8 When starting an external command, and 'guipty' set, BS and DEL are mixed
up. Set erase character somehow?
8 A dead circumflex followed by a space should give the '^' character
(Rommel). Look how xterm does this.
Also: Bednar has some code for dead key handling.
Also: Nedit 5.0.2 with USE_XMIM does it right. (Gaya)
8 The compose key doesn't work properly (Cepas). Both for Win32 and X11.
7 The cursor in an inactive window should be hollow. Currently it's not
visible.
7 GUI on Solaris 2.5.1, using /usr/dt/..: When gvim starts, cursor is
hollow, after window lowered/raised it's OK. (Godfrey)
7 When starting GUI with ":gui", and window is made smaller because it
doesn't fit on the screen, there is an extra redraw.
8 When setting font with .Xdefaults, there is an extra empty line at the
bottom, which disappears when using ":set guifont=<Tab>". (Chadzelek)
8 When font shape changes, but not the size, doing ":set font=" does not
redraw the screen with the new font. Also for Win32.
When the size changes, on Solaris 2.5 there isn't a redraw for the
remaining part of the window (Phillipps).
- Flashes really badly in certain cases when running remotely from a Sun.
4 Re-write the code so that the highlighting isn't changed multiple times
when doing a ":hi clear". The color changes happen three or more times
currently. This is very obvious on a 66Mhz 486.
MSDOS/DJGPP:
9 Pressing CTRL-C often crashes the console Vim runs in. (Ken Liao)
When 'bioskey' isn't set it doesn't happen. Could be a problem with the
BIOS emulation of the console. Version 5.6 already had this problem.
8 DJGPP: "cd c:" can take us to a directory that no longer exists.
change_drive() doesn't check this. How to check for this error?
9 The 16 bit version runs out of memory very quickly. Should find unused
code and reduce static data. Resetting 'writebackup' helps to be able to
write a file.
9 Crash when running on Windows 98 in a console window and pressing CTRL-C.
Happens now and then. When debugging Vim in gdb this also happens. Since
the console crashes, might be a bug in the DOS console. Resetting
'bioskey' avoids it, but then CTRL-C doesn't work.
9 DOS: Make CTRL-Fx and ALT-Fx work.
CTRL-F1 = CE-5E, CTRL-F2 = CE-5F, .., CTRL-F10 = CE-67
ALT-F1 = CE-68, ALT-F2 = CE-69, .., ALT-F10 = CE-71
Shifted cursor keys produce same codes as unshifted keys. Use bioskey(2)
to get modifier mask for <S-C-M-Fx>.
Use K_SPECIAL/KS_MODIFIER codes to insert modifier mask in input stream?
Make this work like in Win32 console.
Mapping things like <M-A> doesn't work, because it generates an extended
key code. Use a translation table?
9 Can't read an opened swap file when the "share" command has not been used.
At least ignore the swap files that Vim has opened itself.
8 Use DJGPP 2.03.
8 The Dos32 version (DJGPP) can't use long file names on Windows NT.
Check if new package can be used (v2misc/ntlfn08[bs].zip).
8 setlocale() is bogus.
8 Vim busy waits for new characters or mouse clicks. Should put in some
sort of sleep, to avoid eating 50% of the CPU time. Test on an unpatched
Windows 95 system!
8 DJGPP: when shell is bash, make fails. (Donahoe)
7 Hitting CTRL-P twice quickly (e.g., in keyword completion) on a 8088
machine, starts printer echo! (John Mullin).
7 MSDOS 16 bit version can't work with COMSPEC that has an argument, e.g.:
COMSPEC=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM /E:4096 (Bradley)
Caused by BCC system() function (Borland "make" has the same problem).
8 Mouse: handle left&right button pressed as middle button pressed. Add

modifier keys shift, ctrl and alt.

7 When too many files are open (depends on FILES), strange things happen.
The Dos16 version runs out of memory, in the Dos32 version "!ls" causes a
crash. Another symptom: .swp files are not deleted, existing files are
"[New file]".
7 DJGPP version doesn't work with graphics display mode. Switch to a mode
that is supported?
8 DJGPP: ":mode" doesn't work for many modes. Disable them.
8 DJGPP: When starting in Ex mode, shouldn't clear the screen. (Walter
Briscoe)
MSDOS, OS/2 and Win32:

8 OS/2: Add backtick expansion. Undefine NO_EXPANDPATH and use
gen_expand_wildcards().
8 OS/2: Add clipboard support? See example clipbrd.exe from Alexander
Wagner.
8 OS/2: Add Extended Attributes support and define HAVE_ACL.
8 OS/2: When editing a file name "foo.txt" that is actually called FOO.txt,
writing uses "foo.txt". Should obtain the real file name.
8 Should $USERPROFILE be preferred above $HOMEDRIVE/$HOMEPATH? No, but it's
a good fallback, thus use:
$HOME
$HOMEDRIVE$HOMEPATH
SHGetSpecialFolderPath(NULL, lpzsPath, CSIDL_APPDATA, FALSE);
$USERPROFILE
SHGetSpecialFolderPath(NULL, lpzsPath, CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA, FALSE);
$ALLUSERSPROFILE
$SYSTEMDRIVE\
C:\
8 Win32 console: <M-Up> and <M-Down> don't work. (Geddes) We don't have
special keys for these. Should use modifier + key.
8 Win32 console: caps-lock makes non-alpha keys work like with shift.
Should work like in the GUI version.
8 Environment variables in DOS are not case sensitive. Make a define for
STRCMP_ENV(), and use it when comparing environment var names.
8 Setting 'shellslash' has no immediate effect. Change all file names when
it is set/reset? Or only use it when actually executing a shell command?
8 When editing a file on a Samba server, case might matter. ":e file"
followed by ":e FILE" will edit "file" again, even though "FILE" might be
another one. Set last used name in buflist_new()? Fix do_ecmd(), etc.
8 When a buffer is editing a file like "ftp://mach/file", which is not going
to be used like a normal file name, don't change the slashes to
backslashes. (Ronald Hoellwarth)
Windows 95:
8 Editing a file by its short file name and writing it, makes the long file
name disappear. Setting 'backupcopy' helps.
Use FindFirstFile()->cAlternateFileName in fname_case() (George Reilly).
8 Doing wildcard expansion, will match the short filename, but result in the
long filename (both DJGPP and Win32).
Win32 console:
9 When editing a file by its short file name, it should be expanded into its
long file name, to avoid problems like these: (Mccollister)
1) Create a file called ".bashrc" using some other editor.
2) Drag that file onto a shortcut or the actual executable.
3) Note that the file name is something like BASHRC~1
4) Go to File->Save As menu item and type ".bashrc" as the file name.
5) Press "Yes" to indicate that I want to overwrite the file.
6) Note that the message "File exists (add ! to override)" is displayed
and the file is not saved.
Use FindFirstFile() to expand a file name and directory in the path to its
long name.
8 Also implement 'conskey' option for the Win32 console version? Look at
how Xvi does console I/O under Windows NT.
7 Re-install the use of $TERM and support the use of different terminals,
besides the console.
8 Use of <altgr> modifier doesn't work? 5.3 was OK. (Garcia-Suarez/Guckes)
9 Mapping <C-S-Tab> doesn't work correctly. How to see the difference with
<C-S-i>?
9 tmpnam() uses file in root of file system: "\asdf". That doesn't work on
a Netware network drive. Use same function as for Win32 GUI?
8 In os_win32.h, HAVE_STRICMP and HAVE_STRNICMP are defined only if __GNUC__
is not defined. Shouldn't that be the other way around?
7 Use SetConsoleCP() and SetConsoleOutputCP() to implement 'termencoding'?
Avoids that input and output work differently. Need to be restored when
exiting.

Amiga:
8 In mch_inchar() should use convert_input_safe() to handle incomplete byte
sequences.
9 In mch_expandpath() a "*" is to be expanded, but "\*" isn't. Remove
backslashes in result.
8 Executing a shell, only one option for 'shell' is separated. Should do
all options, using white space separation.
Macintosh:
- GUI: gui_mch_browsedir() is missing.
7 Loading the Perl library only works on OS/X 10.2 or 10.3, never on both.
Load the Perl library dynamically see Python sources file dynload_mac
(Jack)
dynamic linking: http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2002/tn2064.html
8 inputdialog() doesn't resize when giving more text lines. (David Fishburn,
2006 Sept 28)
8 Define vim_mkdir() for Macintosh.
8 Define mch_writable() for Macintosh.
9 When DiskLock is running, using a swap file causes a crash. Appears to be
a problem with writing a file that starts with a dot. (Giacalone)
9 In mac_expandpath() check that handling of backslashes is done properly.
"Small" problems:
- Can't disable terminal flow control, to enable the use of CTRL-S and
CTRL-Q. Add an option for it?
- When using e_secure in do_one_cmd() mention the command being executed,
otherwise it's not clear where it comes from.
- When the quickfix window is open and executing ":echo 'hello'"' using the
Command-line window, the text is immediately removed by the redrawing.
(Michael Henry, 2008 Nov 1)
Generic solution: When redrawing while there is a message on the
cmdline, don't erase the display but draw over the existing text.
Other solution, redraw after closing the cmdline window, before executing
the command.
9 For Turkish vim_tolower() and vim_toupper() also need to use utf_
functions for characters below 0x80. (Sertacyildiz)
9 When the last edited file is a help file, using '0 in a new Vim doesn't
edit the file as a help file. 'filetype' is OK, but 'iskeyword' isn't,
file isn't readonly, etc.
8 When an ":edit" is inside a try command and the ATTENTION prompt is used,
the :catch commands are always executed, also when the file is edited
normally. Should reset did_emsg and undo side effects. Also make sure
the ATTENTION message shows up. Servatius Brandt works on this.
8 ":g//" gives "Pattern not found error" with E486. Should not use the
error number, it's not a regular error message.
7 Vimtutor leaves escape sequence in terminal. This is the xterm response to
requesting the version number. (Yasuhiro Matsumoto)
8 When redirecting and using ":silent" the current column for displaying and
redirection can be different. Use a separate variable to hold the column
for redirection.
7 The messages for "vim --help" and "vim --version" don't use
'termencoding'.
- Could the hit-enter prompt be avoided when a message only overlaps the
'showcmd' area? Clear that area when the next cmd is typed.
8 When 'scrollbind' is set, a window won't scroll horizontally if the cursor
line is too short. Add a word in 'scrollopt' to allow moving the cursor
to longer line that is visible. A similar thing is done for the GUI when
using the horizontal scrollbar.
7 VisVim can only open one file. Hard to solve: each opened file is passed
with a separate invocation, would need to use timestamps to know the
invocations belong together.
8 When giving a ":bwipeout" command a file-changed dialog may popup for this
buffer, which is pointless. (Mike Williams)
8 On MS-Windows ":make" doesn't show output while it is working. Use the
tee.exe from http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/ ? About 16 Kbyte in the
UnxUtils.zip archive.
Alternate one: http://www.pramodx.20m.com/tee_for_win32.htm, but Walter
Briscoe says it's not as good.
8 "stl" and "stlnc" in 'fillchars' don't work for multi-byte characters.
8 When doing Insert mode completion a mapping cannot recursively call
edit(), because the completion information is global. Put everything in
an allocated structure?
6 Python: ":py raw_input('prompt')" doesn't work. (Manu Hack)
8 Command line completion: buffers "foo.txt" and "../b/foo.txt", completing
":buf foo<Tab>" doesn't find the second one. (George V. Reilly)
7 Output for ":scriptnames" and ":breaklist" should shorten the file names:
use "~/" when possible.
7 mb off2cells() doesn't work correctly on the tail byte of a double-byte

character. (Yasuhiro Matsumoto) It should return 1 when used on a tail

byte, like for utf-8. Store second byte of double-byte in ScreenLines2[]
(like for DBCS_JPNU) and put a zero in the second byte (like for UTF-8).
8 'backupdir' and 'directory' should use $TMPDIR, $TMP and/or $TEMP when
defined.
7 Inside a function with "perl <<EOF" a line with "$i++" is recognized as an
":insert" command, causing the following "endfunction" not to be found.
Add skipping this perl construction inside function definitions.
7 When 'ttimeoutlen' is 10 and 'timeoutlen' is 1000, there is a keycode
"<Esc>a" and a mapping <Esc>x", when typing "<Esc>a" with half a second
delay should not be interpreted as a keycode. (Hans Ginzel)
7 ":botright 1 new" twice causes all window heights to be changed. Make the
bottom window only bigger as much as needed.
7 The Cygwin and MingW makefiles define "PC", but it's not used anywhere.
Remove? (Dan Sharp)
9 User commands use the context of the script they were defined in. This
causes a "s:var" argument to unexpectedly use a variable in the defining
script, not the calling script. Add an argument to ":command":
"-keepcontext". Do replace <SID>, so that a function in the defining
script can be called.
8 The Japanese message translations for MS-Windows are called ja.sjis.po,
but they use encoding cp932. Rename the file and check that it still
works.
8 A very long message in confirm() can't be quit. Make this possible with
CTRL-C.
8 When the clipboard isn't supported: ":yank*" gives a confusing error
message. Specifically mention that the register name is invalid.
8 "gf" always excludes trailing punctuation characters. file_name_in_line()
is currently fixed to use ".,:;!". Add an option to make this
configurable?
8 'hkmap' should probably be global-local.
9 When "$" is in 'cpoptions' and folding is active, a "C" command changes
the folds and resets w_lines_valid. The display updating doesn't work
then. (Pritesh Mistry)
8 Using ":s" in a function changes the previous replacement string. Save
"old_sub" in save_search_patterns()?
8 Should allow multi-byte characters for the delimiter: ":s+a+b+" where "+"
is a multi-byte character.
8 When appending to a file and 'patchmode' isn't empty, a backup file is
always written, even when the original file already exists.
7 When using "daw" on the last word in a file and this is a single letter,
nothing is deleted. Should delete the letter and preceding white space.
9 When getting focus while writing a large file, could warn for this file
being changed outside of Vim. Avoid checking this while the file is being
written.
7 The message in bt_dontwrite_msg() could be clearer.
8 The script ID that is stored with an option and displayed with ":verbose
set" isn't reset when the option is set internally. For example when
'foldlevel' is set from 'foldlevelstart'.
8 Also store the line number with the script ID and use it for ":verbose",
so that "set nocompatible" is found when it changes other option values.
When an option is set indirectly mention the command? E.g. when
":diffsplit" sets 'foldmethod'.
8 In the fileformat dialog, "Cancel" isn't translated. Add a global
variable for this. (Eduardo Fernandez)
9 When editing a file with 'readonly' set, there is no check for an existing
swap file. Then using ":write" (without making any changes) doesn't give
a warning either. Should check for an existing swap file without creating
one. Unfinished patch by Ian Kelling, 2008 July 14.
7 When 'showbreak' is set, the amount of space a Tab occupies changes.
Should work like 'showbreak' is inserted without changing the Tabs.
7 When 'mousefocus' is set and switching to another window with a typed
command, the mouse pointer may be moved to a part of the window that's
covered by another window and we lose focus. Only move in the y
direction, not horizontally?
8 ":hardcopy":
- Using the cterm_color[] table is wrong when t_colors is > 16.
- Need to handle unprintable characters.
- Win32: On a B&W printer syntax highlighting isn't visible. Perform
dithering to make grey text?
- Add a flag in 'printoptions' to add an empty page to make the total
number even. "addempty"? (Mike Williams)
- Respect 'linebreak'. Perhaps also 'showbreak'?
- Should interpret CTRL-L as a page break.
- Grey line numbers are not always readable. Add field in 'printoptions'.
Default to black when no syntax highlighting.
- Be able to print a window in diff mode.
- Be able to specify a colorscheme to use for printing. And a separate
one for B&W printing (if that can be detected).
8 In Visual block mode with 'lbr' set, a change command doesn't insert the
text in following lines where the linebreak changes.

9 dosinst.c: The DJGPP version can't uninstall the Uninstall registry key on
Windows NT. How to install a .inf file on Windows NT and how to detect
that Windows NT is being used?
8 When 'virtualedit' is "block,insert" and encoding is "utf-8", selecting a
block of one double-wide character, then "d" deletes only half of it.
8 When 'virtualedit' is set, should "I" in blockwise visual mode also insert
in lines that don't extend into the block?
8 With 'virtualedit' set, in Insert mode just after the end of line, CTRL-O
yh does not yank the last character of the line. (Pavel Papushev)
Doing "hl" first appears to make it work.
8 With 'virtualedit' set it's possible to move into the blank area from
'linebreak'.
8 With 'virtualedit' set and 'selection' "exclusive", a Visual selection
that ends in or after a tab, "d" doesn't delete (part of) the tab.
(Helmut Stiegler)
9 When jumping to a tag, the search pattern is put in the history. When
'magic' is on, the pattern may not work. Translate the pattern depending
on p_magic when putting it in the history? Alternative: Store value of
'magic' in history. (Margo)
9 optwin.vim: Restoring a mapping for <Space> or <CR> is not correct for
":noremap". Add "mapcmd({string}, {mode})? Use code from ":mkexrc".
9 incsearch is incorrect for "/that/<Return>/this/;//" (last search pattern
isn't updated).
9 term_console is used before it is set (msdos, Amiga).
9 Get out-of-memory for ":g/^/,$s//@/" on 1000 lines, this is not handled
correctly. Get many error messages while redrawing the screen, which
cause another redraw, etc.
8 [<C-I> doesn't work when '*' is in 'iskeyword'. find_pattern_in_path()
must escape special characters in the pattern.
8 Vim can overwrite a read-only file with ":w!". ":w" can't overwrite an
existing file, "w!" can, but perhaps not a read-only file? Then use
":w!!" for that.
Or ask for permission to overwrite it (if file can be made writable) and
restore file to readonly afterwards.
Overwriting a file for which a swap file exists is similar issue.
7 When compiled with "xterm_clipboard", startup can be slower and might get
error message for invalid $DISPLAY. Try connecting to the X server in the
background (forked), so that Vim starts up quicker? Connect as soon as
the clipboard is to be used (Visual select mode starts, paste from
clipboard)
7 X11: Some people prefer to use CLIPBOARD instead of PRIMARY for the normal
selection. Add an "xclipboard" argument to the 'clipboard' option? (Mark
Waggoner)
8 For xterm need to open a connection to the X server to get the window
title, which can be slow. Can also get the title with "<Esc>[21t", no
need to use X11 calls. This returns "<Esc>]l{title}<Esc>\".
6 When the xterm reports the number of colors, a redraw occurs. This is
annoying on a slow connection. Wait for the xterm to report the number of
colors before drawing the screen. With a timeout.
8 When the builtin xterm termcap contains codes that are not wanted, need a
way to avoid using the builtin termcap.
8 Xterm sends ^[[H for <Home> and ^[[F for <End> in some mode. Also
recognize these keys? Mostly useful for xterm simulators, like gnometerm.
See http://dickey.his.com/xterm/xterm.faq.html#xterm_pc_style.
8 For xterm also recognize keypad up/down/left/right and insert.
8 '[ and '] should be set to start/end of line when using a linewise operator
(e.g., ":w").
8 CTRL-A can't handle big "long" numbers, they become negative. Check for
"-" character, if not present, use unsigned long.
8 Make it possible to disable the special meaning of "#" in the first column
for ">>".
8 Add suspending with CTRL-Z at the "more" prompt, and when executing a long
script in do_cmdline().
8 When using 'hidden', many swap files will be open. When Vim runs into the
maximum number of open files, error messages will appear. Detect that
this problem is present, and close any hidden files that don't have
changes.
8 With 'viminfo' set such that the ".viminfo" file is written on a FAT
filesystem, an illegal file name may be created: ".vim".
8 For each buffer that is opened, the viminfo file is opened and read to
check for file marks. This can be slow.
7 In xterm, recognize both vt100 and vt220 cursor keys. Change
add_termcode() to not remove an existing entry for a name, when it's
needed.
Need a generic solution to recognize different codes for the same key.
8 Core dump within signal function: gdb doesn't show stack backtrace! Option
to skip catch_signals()?
9 Repeating a "cw" with "." doesn't work if the text was pasted from the
clipboard. (Thomas Jones) It's because the menu/toolbar item exits Insert
mode and uses "gP". How to fix this without breaking inserting a block of
text?

8 In Replace mode pasting from the clipboard (using menu or toolbar) inserts
all the text. Add ":rmenu"?
8 Pasting with the mouse in Replace mode inserts the text, instead of
overwriting, when it is more than one line. Same for using <C-R>.
9 CTRL-E and CTRL-Y don't work in small window when 'so' is 4 and lines are
wrapping (Acevedo/in.226). E.g., when using CTRL-E, window height 7,
window might actually scroll down when last line of buffer is displayed.
--> Remember if the previous command was "cursor follows screen" or
"screen follow cursor" and use this in cursupdate().
7 tilde_replace() can only handle "~/", should also do "~user/".
Get the list of home directories (from /etc/passwd? Use getpwent()) and
use some clever algorithm to match a path with that. Find common strings
in the list?
8 When dragging status line with mouse, sometimes a jump when first clicking
on the status line (caused by 'winheight'). Select window on button up,
instead of on button down.
8 Dragging the status line doesn't scroll but redraw.
9 Evaluating 'statusline' in build_stl_str_hl() does not properly check for
reaching the end of the available buffer.
Patch to dynamically allocate the buffer for % items. (Eric Arnold, 2006
May 14)
8 When performing incremental search, should abort searching as soon as a
character is typed.
8 When the value of $MAKE contains a path, configure can't handle this.
It's an autoconf bug. Remove the path from $MAKE to work around it.
8 How to set VIMRC_FILE to \"something\" for configure? Why does this not
work: CFLAGS='-DVIMRC_FILE=\"/mydir/myfile\"' ./configure
8 The temporary file is sometimes not writable. Check for this, and use an
alternate name when it isn't. Or add the 'temptemplate' option: template
for the temp file name ":set temptemplate=/usr/tmp/?????.tmp".
Also: Win32 version uses Windows temp directory, which might not work for
cygwin bash.
7 Get error "*, \+ or $ operand could be empty" for pattern "\(.$\1\{3}".
Remember flags for backreferences.
7 When switching to Daylight Saving Time, Vim complains that a file has been
changed since last read. Can we use a function that uses GMT?
7 When completing an environment variable after a '$', check for file names
that contain a '$' after all have been found.
8 When "cm" termcap entry is missing, starting gvim shouldn't complain about
it. (Lohner) Try out with "vt100" entry, cm replaced with cX.
7 When an include file starts with "../", the check for already visiting
this file doesn't work. Need to simplify the file name.
7 The names and comments for the arguments of do_browse() are confusing.
"dflt" isn't the default file name when "initdir" is not NULL and
"initdir" is the default path to be used.
7 When 'scrolloff' is exactly half the window height, "j" causes a scroll of
two lines at a time. "k" doesn't do this. (Cory T. Echols)
8 When write_viminfo() is used while there are many orphaned viminfo
tempfiles writing the viminfo file fails. Give a clear error message so
that the user knows he has to delete the files.
7 It's possible to redefine a script-local function with ":func
<SNR>123_Test()". (Krishna) Disallow this.
I can't reproduce these (if you can, let me know how!):

9 NT 4.0 on NTFS file system: Editing ".bashrc" (drag and drop), file
disappears. Editing ".xyz" is OK. Also, drag&drop only works for three
files. (McCollister)
Problems that will (probably) not be solved:

- GTK: when using the popup menu with spelling suggestions and releasing the
right mouse button before the menu appears selecting an item with the
right mouse button has no effect. GTK does not produce an event for this.
- GTK 2: Cannot use the file selector. When using it many things become
slow. This is caused by some code in GTK that writes
~/.recently-used.xbel every time an event is handled. It assumes the main
loop is never quit, which is a wrong assumption. Also, it overwrites the
file with different file permissions, which is a privacy issue. This
needs to be fixed in GTK. A solution in Vim would be really complicated.
(2008 Jul 31) This appears to be fixed in Vim 7.3.
- xterm title: The following scenario may occur (esp. when running the Vim
test script): Vim 1 sets the title to "file1", then restores the title to
"xterm" with an ESC sequence when exiting. Vim 2 obtains the old title
with an X library call, this may result in "file1", because the window
manager hasn't processed the "xterm" title yet. Can apparently only be
worked around with a delay.
- In a terminal with 'mouse' set such that the mouse is active when entering
a command line, after executing a shell command that scrolls up the
display and then pressing ":": Selecting text with the mouse works like
the display wasn't scrolled. Vim doesn't know how much the external

command scrolled up the display. Use Shift to select text.

- X windows: When $DISPLAY points to a X server where there is no access
permission, trying to connect to the X server causes an error message.
XtOpenDisplay() prints this directly, there is no way to avoid it.
- X windows: Setting 'guifontset' to an illegal value sometimes crashes Vim.
This is caused by a fault in a X library function, can't be solved in Vim.
- Win32 tcl: has("tcl") hangs when the tcl84.dll is from cygwin.
- Motif: When adding a menu item "Find this &Symbol", the "s" in "this" will
be underlined, instead of in "Symbol". Motif doesn't let us specify which
character gets the highlighting.
- Moving the cursor removes color in color-xterm. This is a color-xterm
problem! color-xterm ver. 6.1 beta 3 and later work properly.
- In zsh, "gvim&" changes the terminal settings. This is a zsh problem.
(Jennings)
- Problem with HPterm under X: old contents of window is lost (Cosentino).
- Amiga: When using quickfix with the Manx compiler we only get the first 25
errors. How do we get the rest?
- Amiga: The ":cq" command does not always abort the Manx compiler. Why?
- Linux: A file with protection r--rw-rw- is seen readonly for others. The
access() function in GNU libc is probably wrong.
- MSDOS: When using smartdrive with write-back buffering, writing to a
readonly floppy will cause problems. How to test for a writable floppy
first?
- MSDOS: Both 16 and 32 bit versions: File name expansion doesn't work for
names that start with a dot. These used to be illegal file names.
- When doing a CTRL-Z and typing a command for the shell, while Vim is busy
(e.g. writing a file), the command for the shell is sometimes eaten by Vim,
because the terminal mode is changed from RAW to CBREAK.
- An old version of GNU tgoto can't handle the terminfo code for "AF". The
"%p1" is interpreted as "%p" and "1", causing color not to be working.
Fix: Change the "%p1" in the "AF" and "AB" terminfo entries to "%p".
(Benzinger).
- When running an external command from the GUI, typeahead is going to that
program, not to Vim. It looks like the shell eats the characters, Vim
can't get back what the external command didn't use.
- Win32 GUI: Error code from external command not returned in shell_error.
It appears that cmd.exe and command.com don't return an error code.
- Win32 GUI: The Toolbar is a bit too high when the flat style is being
used. We don't have control over the height of the Toolbar.
- Win32: All files created on the day of switching from winter to summer
time cause "changed since editing started" messages. It goes away when
the file is written again the next day, or the timezone is adjusted.
DJGPP version is OK. (Zaimi) Looks like a problem with the Win32 library.
Rebooting doesn't help. Time stamps look OK in directory. (Penn)
Is this on FAT (stores wall clock time) or NTFS (stores UTS)?
- Win32, MS-Windows XP: $HOME uses the wrong drive when the user profiles
are not on the boot disk. This is caused by a wrong value of $HOMEDRIVE.
This is a bug in XP, see MSKB article 818134.
- Win32, MS-Windows: expanding plugin/**/*.vim also picks up
dir/ctags.vim,v. This is because the short file name is something like
"ctags~1.vim" and that matches the pattern.
- SunOS 5.5.1 with Motif: The file open dialog does not have a horizontal
scroll bar for the "files" selection. This is a problem in the Motif
libraries, get a patch from Sun.
- Solaris 2.6 with GTK and Perl: gvim crashes when started. Problem with X
input method called from GDK code. Without Perl it doesn't crash.
- VMS: Vimdiff doesn't work with the VMS diff, because the output looks
different. This makes test 47 fail. Install a Unix-compatible diff.
- VMS v7.1 and older: Tests 21 and 32 fail. From VMS v7.1-2 and newer Vim
does not have this behavior. (Zoltan Arpadffy)
- Win32 GUI: mouse wheel always scrolls rightmost window. The events arrive
in Vim as if the rightmost scrollbar was used.
- GTK with Gnome: Produces an error message when starting up:
Gdk-WARNING **: locale not supported by C library
This is caused by the gnome library gnome_init() setting $LC_CTYPE to
"en_US". Not all systems support this locale name, thus causing the
error. Hopefully a newer version of GTK/Gnome fixes this problem.
- GTK 2: With this mapping the hit-enter prompt is _sometimes_ below the
screen, at other times there is a grey area below the command line:
:nmap <F11> :if &guioptions=~'m' \| set guioptions-=m \| else \| set guioptions+=m \|
endif<cr>
- GTK: When pasting a selection from Vim to xclipboard gvim crashes with a
ABRT signal. Probably an error in the file gdkselection.c, the assert
always fails when XmbTextListToTextProperty() fails. (Tom Allard)
- GTK 2: gives an assertion error for every non-builtin icon in the toolbar.
This is a GTK 2.4.x bug, fixed in GTK 2.4.2. (Thomas de Grenier de Latour)
- When using an xterm that supports the termresponse feature, and the 't_Co'
termcap option was wrong when Vim started, it will be corrected when the
termresponse is received. Since the number of colors changes, the
highlighting needs to be initialized again. This may cause colors defined
in the vimrc file to be lost.

- On Windows NT 4.0 the number of files passed to Vim with drag&drop and
"Edit with Vim" is limited. The maximum command line length is 255 chars.
*extensions-improvements*
Most interesting new features to be added when all bugs have been fixed:
- Using ":exe edit fname" has escaping problems. Use ":edit ++(fname)".
Thus use "++=" to give arguments as expressions, comma separated as if
calling a function.
With options: ":edit ++(['!', '++enc=abc'], ['+/pat'], fname)".
Alternative: Make a function for Ex commands: cmd_edit().
- Add COLUMN NUMBERS to ":" commands ":line1,line2[col1,col2]cmd". Block
can be selected with CTRL-V. Allow '$' (end of line) for col2.
- Add DEBUGGER INTERFACE. Implementation for gdb by Xavier de Gaye.
Should work like an IDE. Try to keep it generic. Now found here:
http://clewn.sf.net.
And the idevim plugin/script.
To be able to start the debugger from inside Vim: For GUI run a program
with a netbeans connection; for console: start a program that splits the
terminal, runs the debugger in one window and reconnect Vim I/O to the
other window.
Wishes for NetBeans commands:
- make it possible to have 'defineAnnoType' also handle terminal colors.
- send 'balloonText' events for the cursor position (using CursorHold ?)
in terminal mode.
- ECLIPSE plugin. Problem is: the interface is very complicated. Need to
implement part in Java and then connect to Vim. Some hints from Alexandru
Roman, 2004 Dec 15. Should then also work with Oracle Jdeveloper, see JSR
198 standard http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=198.
Eclim does it: http://eclim.sourceforge.net/ Eric Van Dewoestine
Plugin that uses a terminal emulator: http://vimplugin.sf.net
And another one: http://www.satokar.com/viplugin/index.php
- STICKY CURSOR: Add a way of scrolling that leaves the cursor where it is.
Especially when using the scrollbar. Typing a cursor-movement command
scrolls back to where the cursor is.
- Scroll commands by screen line. g CTRL-E and g CTRL-Y ? Requires the
first line to be able to start halfway.
- Running a shell command from the GUI still has limitations. Look into how
the terminal emulator of the Vim shell project can help:
http://vimshell.wana.at
8 Add a command to jump to a certain kind of tag. Allow the user to specify
values for the optional fields. E.g., ":tag size type=m".
Also allow specifying the file and command, so that the result of
taglist() can be used.
- X11: Make it possible to run Vim inside a window of another program.
This can be done with XReparentWindow(). But how exactly?
Documentation:
8 List of Vim runtime directories. dotvim.txt from Charles Campbell, 2007
Feb 20.
8 The GUI help should explain the Find and Find/Replace dialogs. Add a link
to it from ":promptrepl" and ":promptfind".
8 List of options should mention whether environment variables are expanded
or not.
8 Extend usr_27.txt a bit. (Adam Seyfarth)
7 Add a section on debugging scripts in the user manual.
9 Make the Reference Manual more precise. For each command mention:
- change to cursor position and curswant
- if it can be undone (u/CTRL-R) and redone (.)
- how it works for folded lines
- how it works with multi-byte characters
9 In change.txt, remark about Javadoc isn't right. Right alignment would
work too.
8 Spread the windows commands over the other files. For example, ":stag"
should be with ":tag". Cross-link with tags to avoid too much double
text.
8 Add tags for all features, e.g. "gui_running".
7 MS-Windows: When a wrong command is typed with an ALT key, give a hint to
look at the help for 'winaltkeys'.
7 Add a help.vim plugin that maps <Tab> to jump to the next tag in || and
<C-Tab> (and <S-Tab>) to the previous tag.
Patch by Balazs Kezes, 2007 Dec 30. Remark from A. Politz.
- Check text editor compendium for vi and Vim remarks.
Help:
- First try using the ":help" argument literally, before using it as a
pattern. And then match it as part of a tag.

- When a help item has multiple matches make it possible to use ":tn" to go
to the other matches.
- Support a way to view (and edit) .info files.
- Default mapping for help files: <Tab> to position cursor on next |:tag|.
- Implement a "sticky" help window, some help text lines that are always
displayed in a window with fixed height. (Guckes) Use "~/.vimhelp" file,
user can edit it to insert his favorite commands, new account can contain a
default contents.
- Make 'winminheight' a local option, so that the user can set a minimal
height for the help window (and other windows).
- ":help :sÎ" should expand to ":help :substitute".
- Make the help key (<F1>) context sensitive?
- Learn mode: show short help while typing commands.
User Friendlier:
8 Windows install with install.exe: Use .exe instead of .bat files for
links, so that command line arguments are passed on unmodified? (Walter
Briscoe)
8 Windows install: Be able to associate Vim with a selection of file types?
8 Windows uninstall: Have uninstal.c delete the vimfiles directories that
dosinst.c creates. List the contents of the directory (recursively) if
the user asks for it. Requires an implementation of "rm -rf".
8 Remember the name of the vimrc file that was used (~/.vimrc, $VIM/_vimrc,
$HOME/_vimrc, etc.) and add "edit vimrc" to the File menu.
- Add a way to save local settings and mappings into a new plugin file.
":mkplugin <file>"?
8 Add ":plugininstall" command. Can be used to install a plugin file that
includes documentation. Let the user select a directory from
'runtimepath'.
" Vim plugin
<main plugin code>
" >>> plugin help start <<<
<plugin docs>
- Add mappings local to a window: ":map <window> ..."?
9 Add buffer-local menu. Should offer a choice between removing the menu or
disabling it. Be careful that tear-offs don't disappear (keep one empty
item?).
Alternative: use BufEnter and BufLeave autocommands.
8 make a vimtutor script for Amiga and other systems.
7 Add the arguments for configure to the ":version" output?
7 When Vim detects a file is being edited elsewhere and it's a gvim session
of the same user it should offer a "Raise" button, so that the other gvim
window can be displayed. (Eduard)
8 Support saving and restoring session for X windows? It should work to do
":mksession" and use "-S fname" for the restart command. The
gui_x11_wm_protocol_handler() already takes care of the rest.
global_event_filter() for GTK.
Tab pages:
9 GUI implementation for the tab pages line for other systems.
7 GUI: Control over the appearance of the text in the labels (bold, color,
font, etc.)
8 Make GUI menu in tab pages line configurable. Like the popup menu.
8 balloons for the tab page labels that are shortened to show the full path.
8 :tabmove +N move tab page N pages forward
8 :tabmove -N move tab page N pages backward
7 :tabdup duplicate the tab with all its windows.
7 Option to put tab line at the left or right? Need an option to specify
its width. It's like a separate window with ":tabs" output.
7 Add local variables for each tab page?
8 Add local options for each tab page? E.g., 'diffopt' could differ between
tab pages.
7 Add local highlighting for each tab page?
7 Add local directory for tab pages? How would this interfere with
window-local directories?
Spell checking:
- have some way not to give spelling errors for a range of characters.
E.g. for Chinese and other languages with specific characters for which we
don't have a spell file. Useful when there is also text in other
languages in the file.
- Support more regions? Caolan McNamara argues it's needed for es_XX.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=219777
- Unicode defines another quote character: 0x2019. Use it as an equivalent
of a single quote, thus use it as a word character like a quote and match
with words, replacing the curly quote with a single quote.
- Could filter é things for HTML before doing spell checking.
Similarly for TeX.

- The Hungarian spell file uses four extra characters in the FOL/UPP/LOW
items than other spell files with the ISO-8859-2 encoding, that causes
problem when changing 'spelllang'. There is no obvious way to fix this.
- Considering Hunspell 1.1.4:
What does MAXNGRAMSUGS do?
Is COMPLEXPREFIXES necessary when we have flags for affixes?
- Support spelling words in CamelCase as if they were two separate words.
Requires some option to enable it. (Timothy Knox)
- There is no Finnish spell checking file. For openoffice Voikko is now
used, which is based on Malaga: http://home.arcor.de/bjoern-beutel/malaga/
(Teemu Likonen)
8 ":mkspell" still takes much too long in Hungarian dictionary from
hunspell. Only solution appears to be to postpone secondary suffixes.
8 Handle postponed prefix with COMPOUNDPERMITFLAG or COMPOUNDFORBIDFLAG.
WFP_COMPPERMIT and WFP_COMPFORBID
8 implement use of <compoptions> in .spl file:
implement CHECKCOMPOUNDREP: when a compound word seems to be OK apply REP
items and check if the result is a valid word.
implement CHECKCOMPOUNDDUP
implement CHECKCOMPOUNDTRIPLE
Add CHECKCOMPOUNDCASE: when compounding make leading capital lower case.
How is it supposed to work?
- Add a command the repeats ]s and z=, showing the misspelled word in its
context. Thus to spell-check a whole file.
- suggestion for "KG" to "kg" when it's keepcase.
- For flags on affixes: Use a "AFFCOMPSET" flag; means the compound flags of
the word are not used.
- Support breakpoint character ? 0xb7 and ignore it? Makes it possible to
use same wordlist for hyphenation.
- Compound word is accepted if nr of words is <= COMPOUNDWORDMAX OR nr of
syllables <= COMPOUNDSYLMAX. Specify using AND in the affix file?
- NEEDCOMPOUND also used for affix? Or is this called ONLYINCOMPOUND now?
Or is ONLYINCOMPOUND only for inside a compound, not at start or end?
- Do we need a flag for the rule that when compounding is done the following
word doesn't have a capital after a word character, even for Onecap words?
- New hunspell home page: http://hunspell.sourceforge.net/
- Version 1.1.0 is out now, look into that.
- Lots of code depends on LANG, that isn't right. Enable each mechanism
in the affix file separately.
- Example with compounding dash is bad, gets in the way of setting
COMPOUNDMIN and COMPOUNDWORDMAX to a reasonable value.
- PSEUDOROOT == NEEDAFFIX
- COMPOUNDROOT -> COMPOUNDED? For a word that already is a compound word
Or use COMPOUNDED2, COMPOUNDED3, etc.
- CIRCUMFIX: when a word uses a prefix marked with the CIRCUMFIX flag, then
the word must also have a suffix marked with the CIRCUMFIX flag. It's a
bit primitive, since only one flag is used, which doesn't allow matching
specific prefixes with suffixes.
Alternative:
PSFX {flag} {pchop} {padd} {pcond} {schop} {sadd}[/flags] {scond}
We might not need this at all, you can use the NEEDAFFIX flag and the
affix which is required.
- When a suffix has more than one syllable, it may count as a word for
COMPOUNDWORDMAX.
- Add flags to count extra syllables in a word. SYLLABLEADD1 SYLLABLEADD2,
etc.? Or make it possible to specify the syllable count of a word
directly, e.g., after another slash: /abc/3
- MORPHO item in affix file: ignore TAB and morphological field after
word/flags and affix.
- Implement multiple flags for compound words and CMP item?
Await comments from other spell checking authors.
- Also see tklspell: http://tkltrans.sourceforge.net/
8 Charles Campbell asks for method to add "contained" groups to existing
syntax items (to add @Spell).
Add ":syntax contains {pattern} add=@Spell" command? A bit like ":syn
cluster" but change the contains list directly for matching syntax items.
- References: MySpell library (in OpenOffice.org).
http://spellchecker.mozdev.org/source.html
http://whiteboard.openoffice.org/source/browse/whiteboard/lingucomponent/source/spellcheck/myspell/
author: Kevin Hendricks <kevin.hendricks@sympatico.ca>
8 It is currently not possible to mark "can not" as rare, because "can" and
"not" are good words. Find a way to let "rare" overrule "good"?
8 Make "en-rare" spell file? Ask Charles Campbell.
8 The English dictionaries for different regions are not consistent in their
use of words with a dash.
7 Insert mode completion mechanism that uses the spell word lists.
8 Add hl groups to 'spelllang'?
:set spelllang=en_us,en-rare/SpellRare,en-math/SpellMath
More complicated: Regions with different languages? E.g., comments
in English, strings in German (po file).

Diff mode:
9 Instead invoking an external diff program, use builtin code. One can be
found here: http://www.ioplex.com/~miallen/libmba/dl/src/diff.c
It's quite big and badly documented though.
8 Use diff mode to show the changes made in a buffer (compared to the file).
Use an unnamed buffer, like doing:
new | set bt=nofile | r # | 0d_ | diffthis | wincmd p | diffthis
Also show difference with the file when editing started? Should show what
can be undone. (Tom Popovich)
7 Add cursor-binding: when moving the cursor in one diff'ed buffer, also
move it in other diff'ed buffers, so that CTRL-W commands go to the same
location.
Folding:
(commands still available: zI zJ zK zp zP zq zQ zV zy zY;
secondary: zB zS zT zZ, z=)
8 Vertical folds: looks like vertically split windows, but the cursor moves
through the vertical separator, separator moves when scrolling.
8 Add "z/" and "z?" for searching in not folded text only.
9 Add search pattern item to only match in closed or open fold and/or fold
with certain level. Allows doing ":g/pat/cmd" to work on closed folds.
7 Use "++--", "+++--" for different levels instead of "+---" "+----".
8 When a closed fold is displayed open because of 'foldminlines', the
behavior of commands is still like the fold is closed. How to make the
user aware of this?
8 Add an option 'foldskip' with values like 'foldopen' that specifies which
commands skip over a closed fold.
8 "H" and "L" count buffer lines instead of window lines. (Servatius Brandt)
8 Add a way to add fold-plugins. Johannes Zellner has one for VB.
7 When using manual folding, the undo command should also restore folds.
- Allow completely hiding a closed fold. E.g., by setting 'foldtext' to an
empty string. Require showing a character in 'foldcolumn' to avoid the
missing line goes unnoticed.
How to implement this?
- When pressing the down arrow of a scrollbar, a closed fold doesn't scroll
until after a long time. How to make scrolling with closed folds
smoother?
- When creating a session, also store folds for buffers in the buffer list,
using the wininfo in wi_folds.
- When currently editing the first file in the argument list the session
file can contain:
args version.c main.c
edit version.c
Can editing version.c twice be avoided?
- 'foldmethod' "textobject": fold on sections and paragraph text objects.
- "zuf": undo change in manual fold. "zUf" redo change in manual fold. How
to implement this?
- "zJ" command: add the line or fold below the fold in the fold under the
cursor.
- 'foldmethod' "syntax": "fold=3" argument: set fold level for a region or
match.
- Apply a new foldlevel to a range of lines. (Steve Litt)
8 Have some way to restrict commands to not folded text. Also commands like
searches.
Multi-byte characters:
- When editing a file with both utf-8 and latin1 text Vim always falls back
to latin1. Add a command to convert the latin1 characters to utf-8?
:unmix utf-8,latin1 filename
Would only work when 'encoding' is utf-8.
9 When the tail byte of a double-byte character is illegal (e.g., a CR), the
display is messed up (Yasuhiro Matsumoto). Should check for illegal
double-byte characters and display them differently (display each single
byte).
9 'fenc' in modeline problem: add option to reload the file when 'fenc' is
set to a different value in a modeline? Option can be default on. Could
it be done with an autocommand?
8 Add an item in 'fileencodings' to check the first lines of a file for
the encoding. See Python PEP: http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0263.html.
To avoid getting a wrong encoding only accept something Emacs-like:
"-*- coding: enc-na_me.foo -*-" and "-*- coding= enc-na_me.foo -*-"
Match with "-\*-\s*coding[:=]\s*$[::word::-_.]\+$\s*-\*-" and use first
item.
8 Add an item in 'fileencodings' to check the first line of an XML file for
the encoding. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> Or "charset=UTF-8"?
For HTML look for "charset=utf-8".
8 The quickfix file is read without conversion, thus in 'encoding'. Add an

option to specify the encoding of the errorfile and convert it. Also for
":grep" and ":helpgrep".
More generic solution: support a filter (e.g., by calling a function).
8 When a file was converted from 'fileencoding' to 'encoding', a tag search
should also do this on the search pattern. (Andrzej M. Ostruszka)
8 When filtering changes the encoding 'fileencoding' may not work. E.g.,
when using xxd and 'fileencoding' is "utf-16". Add an option to set a
different fileencoding for filter output?
7 When converting a file fails, mention which byte could not be converted,
so that the user can fix the problem.
8 Add configure option to be able to disable using the iconv library. (Udo
Schweigert)
9 'aleph' should be set to 1488 for Unicode. (Zvi Har'El)
8 Should add test for using various commands with multi-byte characters.
8 'infercase' doesn't work with multi-byte characters.
8 toupper() function doesn't handle byte count changes.
7 Searching and composing characters:
When searching, should order of composing characters be ignored?
Add special item to match with a composing character, zero-width, so that
one can replace a base character and keep the composing characters.
Add a special item to match with a composing character, so that composing
characters can be manipulated.
Add a modifier to ignore composing characters, only compare base
characters. Useful for Hebrew (Ron Aaron)
8 Should implement 'delcombine' for command line editing.
8 Detect overlong UTF-8 sequences and handle them like illegal bytes.
8 ":s/x/\u\1/" doesn't work, making uppercase isn't done for multi-byte
characters.
8 UTF-8: "r" in Visual mode doesn't take composing characters.
8 UTF-8: When there is a precomposed character in the font, use it instead
of a character and a composing character. See xterm for an example.
7 When a character can't be displayed, display its digraph instead.
'display' option to specify this.
7 Use ideas for nl_langinfo() from Markus Kuhn in enc_default():
(www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/langinfo.c)
- GTK and Win32: Allow selecting fonts for 'guifontset' with the
fontselector somehow.
- GTK and Win32: make it possible to set the font for the menu to make it
possible to have 'encoding' different from the current locale.
- dbcs_class() only works for Japanese and Korean. Implement this for
other encodings. The "euc-jp" and "euc-kr" choices might be wrong.
- Find some way to automatically select the right GUI font or fontset,
depending on the default value of 'encoding'.
Irrelevant in the GTK+ 2 GUI so long as UTF-8 is used.
For Windows, the charset_pairs[] table could be used. But how do we know
if a font exists?
- Do keyboard conversion from 'termencoding' to 'encoding' with
convert_input() for Mac GUI and RiscOS GUI.
- Add mnemonics from RFC1345 longer than two characters.
Support CTRL-K _{mnemonic}_
7 In "-- INSERT (lang) --" show the name of the keymap used instead of
"lang". (Ilya Dogolazky)
- Make 'breakat' accept multi-byte characters. Problem: can't use a lookup
table anymore (breakat_flags[]).
Simplistic solution: when 'formatoptions' contains "m" also break a line
at a multi-byte character >= 0x100.
- Add the possibility to enter mappings which are used whenever normal text
could be entered. E.g., for "f" command. But not in Normal mode. Sort
of opposite of 'langmap'. Use ":tmap" command?
- When breaking a line, take properties of multi-byte characters into
account. The "linebreak" program from Bruno Haible can do it:
ftp://ftp.ilog.fr/pub/Users/haible/gnu/linebreak-0.1.tar.gz
But it's very complicated...
Printing:
7 Implement "undercurl" for printing.
- Add "page width" to wrap long lines.
- Win32: use a font dialog for setting 'printfont'. Can reuse the code for
the 'guifont' dialog, put the common code in a separate function.
- Add the file timestamp to the page header (with an option). (George
Reilly)
- Win32: when 'printfont' is empty use 'guifont'.
- Unix: Use some dialog box to do the obvious settings (paper size, printer
name, portrait/landscape, etc).
- PostScript: Only works for text that can be converted to an 8-bit
character set. How to support Unicode fully?
- Allow specifying the paper size, instead of using a standard size. Same
units as for the margins.
- Support right-to-left text?
8 Make the foreground color darkening function preserve the hue of the

color.
Syntax highlighting:
8 Make ":syn off" use 'runtimepath' instead of $VIMRUNTIME. (Gary Johnson)
Should do the same for ":syn on" and ":syn manual".
8 Support "containedin" argument for ":syn include", so that the defined
cluster can be added to existing syntax items.
8 C syntax: Don't highlight {} as errors inside () when used like this:
"({ something })", often used in GCC code.
7 Add a "startgroup" to a region. Used like "nextgroup" inside the region,
preferred item at the start of the region. (Charles Campbell)
8 When editing a new file without a name and giving it a name (by writing
it) and 'filetype' is not set, detect the filetype. Avoid doing it for
":wq file".
7 For "nextgroup" we have skipwhite, skipnl and skipempty. It would be
really nice to be able to skip with a pattern. Or skip with a syntax
group. (Nikolai Weibull, 2007 Feb 27)
8 Make conversion to HTML faster (Write it in C or pre-compile the script).
9 There is still a redraw bug somewhere. Probably because a cached state is
used in a wrong way. I can't reproduce it...
7 Be able to change only the background highlighting. Useful for Diff* and
Search highlighting.
7 When 'number' is set highlight the number of the current line.
Must be enabled with an option, because it slows down display updating.
8 Allow the user to add items to the Syntax menu sorted, without having to
change this for each release.
8 Add a "matchcontains" for regions: items contained in the start or end
pattern, but not in the body.
8 Add a "keepend-contained" argument: Don't change the end of an item this
one is contained in. Like "keepend" but specified on the contained item,
instead of the containing item.
8 cpp.vim: In C++ it's allowed to use {} inside ().
8 Some syntax files set 'iskeyword'. When switching to another filetype
this isn't reset. Add a special keyword definition for the syntax rules?
When this is done, use vim.vim syntax highlighting for help file examples,
but without ":" in 'iskeyword' for syntax.
8 Add specific syntax item to match with parens/braces that don't have a
"%" match. :syntax nomatch cMatchError (,{,[,),},] [contained]
8 Highlight the text between two matching parens (e.g., with a grey
background) when on one of the parens or in between them.
Option for the matchparen plugin?
8 Add a command to jump to the next character highlighted with "Error".
8 When using a cterm, and no ctermfg or ctermbg are defined, use start/stop
sequences. Add remark in docs that :if 'term' == "term-name" should be
used.
8 Add @spell cluster to String and Comment groups for many languages. Will
allow spell checking. (Fleiner)
8 When listing syntax items, try to sort the keywords alphabetically. And
re-insert the [] if possible.
8 Make it possible to use color of text for Visual highlight group (like for
the Cursor).
8 It would be useful to make the highlight group name an expression. Then
when there is a match, the expression would be evaluated to find out what
highlight group to use. Could be used to check if the shell used in a
password file appears in /etc/shells. (Nikolai Weibull)
syn match =s:checkShell(v:match) contained 'pattern'
8 Make it possible to only highlight a sub-expression of a match. Like
using "\1" in a ":s" command.
8 Support for deleting syntax items:
:syn keyword cTodo remove this
:syn match cTodo remove "pattern"
:syn region cString remove start="this" end="that"
8 Add possibility to sync on something else, when the syncing in one way
doesn't find match. For HTML: When no {script} is found, try looking for
a '<'. (Fleiner)
7 Replace the synchronizing method with a state machine specification?
Should be able to start at any line in the file, search forwards or
backwards, and use the result of matching a pattern.
7 Use parsing like awk, so that e.g., a ( without a matching ) can be
detected.
8 Make it possible to use "inverted" highlighting, invert the original
character. For Visual mode. (xterm-selection already does this).
8 Highlight non-printable characters with "SpecialChar", linked to
"Special". Display them with the digraph characters, if possible.
8 Highlight the clipboard-selection with a highlight group.
8 Be able to reset highlighting to its original (default) values.
7 Be able to write current highlighting to a file as commands, similar to
":mkvimrc".
8 Improve c.vim:
- Add check for unterminated strings, with a variable to switch it on:

"c_strict_ansi".
- Detect unbalanced "#endif". Requires looking back a long way...
8 Add an option to restrict the updating of syntax highlighting to the
current line while in Insert mode.
8 When guessing value of 'background', the syntax file has already been
loaded (from the .gvimrc). After changing 'background', load it again?
8 Add ":syn resync" command, to re-parse the whole file until the current
display position.
8 Should support "me" offset for a region start pattern. To be used to
allow searching for the end pattern inside the match of the end pattern.
Example: syn region pikeXX start="([^{]" end=")" should work on "()".
8 When using a regexp for "contains=", should delay matching with it until
redrawing happens. Set a flag when a group is added, check this flag when
highlighting starts.
8 Some terminals can display colors like the GUI. Add some setting to use
GUI colors for the terminal? With something to define the escape
sequence.
7 It's possible for an item to be transparent, so that the colors of an item
lower on the stack is used. Also do this with highlighting, so that the
user can set transparent highlighting? E.g. a number in a C comment would
get the color of a comment, a number in an assignment Normal. (Nikolai
Weibull)
7 Add "semitrans": Add highlighting. E.g., make the text bold, but keep the
colors. And add colors, so that Green+Red becomes Yellow.
E.g. for this html:
<B> bold text <I> italic+bold text </B> italic text </I>
7 CTRL-] checks the highlight group for finding out what the tag is.
7 Add an explanation how a list of words can be used to highlight misspelled
words.
8 Add more command line completion for :syntax.
8 Add more command line completion for :highlight.
7 Should find a better way to parse the :syntax and :highlight commands.
Use tables or lists that can be shared by parsing for execution and
completion?
8 Add ColorSchemePost autocommand event, so that scripts can set up their
highlighting. (Salman Halim)
7 Add a few sets of colors (e.g. Borland Turbo C one). With a menu to
select one of the sets.
8 Add offsets to sub-matches: "$a*$ *"he=e1-1
'e' is end of match 'e1' is end of sub-match 1, 's2' is start of submatch
2, etc.
8 In Insert mode, when there are typeahead characters, postpone the
highlighting (for "." command).
8 Syncing on comments isn't 100% correct when / / lines mix with / * and * /.
For example: What about a line that starts with / / and contains * /?
8 Ignore / * and * / inside strings, when syncing.
7 Build a few more syntax files from the file "/usr/share/misc/vgrindefs":
ISP, LDL, Icon, ratfor. And check "nedit/source/highlight.c".
6 Add possibility to have background color continue until the right edge of
the window. Useful for comment blocks and function headings. (Rogall)
- Make it possible to add "contains" items for all items in a group. Useful
when extending an already existing syntax file.
- Add line-continuation pattern for non-syncing items too?
- Add possibility to highlight the whole line, including the right margin
(for comment blocks).
- Add 'hlmatch' option: List of flags:
'c': highlight match for character under the cursor.
'b': highlight the previous (, and its match.
'a': highlight all text from the previous ( until its match.
Also for {}, <>, etc.?
'e': highlight all braces without a match (slow?)
OR: add an argument "cursor" to the syntax command, which means that the
region/match/keyword is only highlighted when the cursor is on it.
(Campbell)

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Vim documentation: index

*index.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Jan 04

VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar

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|i_<CR>| <CR> begin new line

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|i_<S-ScrollWheelLeft>| <S-ScrollWheelLeft> move window one page left

commands in CTRL-X submode *i_CTRL-X_index*

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CTRL-_ not used

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|@| @{a-z} 2 execute the contents of register {a-z}

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included files that contain the word under

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tag char note action in Normal mode

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external command {filter}

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|v_s| s 2 delete highlighted area and start insert

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|c_CTRL-]| CTRL-] trigger abbreviation

You found it, Arthur! *holy-grail*

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|:blast| :bl[ast] go to last buffer in the buffer list

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|:diffpatch| :diffp[atch] apply a patch and show differences

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|:iunmenu| :iunme[nu] remove menu for Insert mode

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|:mzfile| :mzf[ile] execute MzScheme script file

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|:rubydo| :rubyd[o] execute Ruby command for each line

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|:suspend| :sus[pend] same as ":stop"

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top - main help file

Search tag (regex)

Help FAQ Both

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Search tag (regex)

Help FAQ Both

Vim documentation: help

*help.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Jul 20

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|usr_20.txt| Typing command-line commands quickly

REFERENCE MANUAL: These files explain every detail of Vim. *reference_toc*

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|mbyte.txt| multi-byte text support

LOCAL ADDITIONS: *local-additions*

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Search tag (regex)

Help FAQ Both

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Search tag (regex)

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Vim documentation: intro

index.txt For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Jan 04

commands in CTRL-X submode i_CTRL-X_index

You found it, Arthur! holy-grail

help.txt For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Jul 20

REFERENCE MANUAL: These files explain every detail of Vim. reference_toc

LOCAL ADDITIONS: local-additions

intro.txt For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Dec 08

Introduction to Vim ref reference

www WWW faq FAQ distribution download

Usenet News group where Vim is discussed: news usenet

Bug reports: bugs bug-reports bugreport.vim

key-notation key-codes keycodes

<Up> cursor-up cursor-up cursor_up

Normal Normal-mode command-mode

CTRL-\_CTRL-N i_CTRL-\_CTRL-N c_CTRL-\_CTRL-N v_CTRL-\_CTRL-N

CTRL-\_CTRL-G i_CTRL-\_CTRL-G c_CTRL-\_CTRL-G v_CTRL-\_CTRL-G

Q mode-Ex Ex-mode Ex EX E501

tagsrch.txt For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2009 Feb 18

Tags and special searches tags-and-searches

:ta :tag E426 E429

:po :pop E555 E556

emacs-tags emacs_tags E430

CTRL-W CTRL-I CTRL-W_CTRL-I CTRL-W_i

CTRL-W CTRL-D CTRL-W_CTRL-D CTRL-W_d

change.txt For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2011 Feb 25