1*helphelp.txt* For Vim version 7.4. Last change: 2014 Sep 19 2 3 4 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar 5 6 7Help on help files *helphelp* 8 91. Help commands |online-help| 102. Translated help files |help-translated| 113. Writing help files |help-writing| 12 13============================================================================== 141. Help commands *online-help* 15 16 *help* *<Help>* *:h* *:help* *<F1>* *i_<F1>* *i_<Help>* 17<Help> or 18:h[elp] Open a window and display the help file in read-only 19 mode. If there is a help window open already, use 20 that one. Otherwise, if the current window uses the 21 full width of the screen or is at least 80 characters 22 wide, the help window will appear just above the 23 current window. Otherwise the new window is put at 24 the very top. 25 The 'helplang' option is used to select a language, if 26 the main help file is available in several languages. 27 {not in Vi} 28 29 *{subject}* *E149* *E661* 30:h[elp] {subject} Like ":help", additionally jump to the tag {subject}. 31 {subject} can include wildcards like "*", "?" and 32 "[a-z]": 33 :help z? jump to help for any "z" command 34 :help z. jump to the help for "z." 35 If there is no full match for the pattern, or there 36 are several matches, the "best" match will be used. 37 A sophisticated algorithm is used to decide which 38 match is better than another one. These items are 39 considered in the computation: 40 - A match with same case is much better than a match 41 with different case. 42 - A match that starts after a non-alphanumeric 43 character is better than a match in the middle of a 44 word. 45 - A match at or near the beginning of the tag is 46 better than a match further on. 47 - The more alphanumeric characters match, the better. 48 - The shorter the length of the match, the better. 49 50 The 'helplang' option is used to select a language, if 51 the {subject} is available in several languages. 52 To find a tag in a specific language, append "@ab", 53 where "ab" is the two-letter language code. See 54 |help-translated|. 55 56 Note that the longer the {subject} you give, the less 57 matches will be found. You can get an idea how this 58 all works by using commandline completion (type CTRL-D 59 after ":help subject" |c_CTRL-D|). 60 If there are several matches, you can have them listed 61 by hitting CTRL-D. Example: > 62 :help cont<Ctrl-D> 63 64< Instead of typing ":help CTRL-V" to search for help 65 for CTRL-V you can type: > 66 :help ^V 67< This also works together with other characters, for 68 example to find help for CTRL-V in Insert mode: > 69 :help i^V 70< 71 To use a regexp |pattern|, first do ":help" and then 72 use ":tag {pattern}" in the help window. The 73 ":tnext" command can then be used to jump to other 74 matches, "tselect" to list matches and choose one. > 75 :help index| :tse z. 76 77< When there is no argument you will see matches for 78 "help", to avoid listing all possible matches (that 79 would be very slow). 80 The number of matches displayed is limited to 300. 81 82 This command can be followed by '|' and another 83 command, but you don't need to escape the '|' inside a 84 help command. So these both work: > 85 :help | 86 :help k| only 87< Note that a space before the '|' is seen as part of 88 the ":help" argument. 89 You can also use <LF> or <CR> to separate the help 90 command from a following command. You need to type 91 CTRL-V first to insert the <LF> or <CR>. Example: > 92 :help so<C-V><CR>only 93< {not in Vi} 94 95:h[elp]! [subject] Like ":help", but in non-English help files prefer to 96 find a tag in a file with the same language as the 97 current file. See |help-translated|. 98 99 *:helpc* *:helpclose* 100:helpc[lose] Close one help window, if there is one. 101 102 *:helpg* *:helpgrep* 103:helpg[rep] {pattern}[@xx] 104 Search all help text files and make a list of lines 105 in which {pattern} matches. Jumps to the first match. 106 The optional [@xx] specifies that only matches in the 107 "xx" language are to be found. 108 You can navigate through the matches with the 109 |quickfix| commands, e.g., |:cnext| to jump to the 110 next one. Or use |:cwindow| to get the list of 111 matches in the quickfix window. 112 {pattern} is used as a Vim regexp |pattern|. 113 'ignorecase' is not used, add "\c" to ignore case. 114 Example for case sensitive search: > 115 :helpgrep Uganda 116< Example for case ignoring search: > 117 :helpgrep uganda\c 118< Example for searching in French help: > 119 :helpgrep backspace@fr 120< The pattern does not support line breaks, it must 121 match within one line. You can use |:grep| instead, 122 but then you need to get the list of help files in a 123 complicated way. 124 Cannot be followed by another command, everything is 125 used as part of the pattern. But you can use 126 |:execute| when needed. 127 Compressed help files will not be searched (Fedora 128 compresses the help files). 129 {not in Vi} 130 131 *:lh* *:lhelpgrep* 132:lh[elpgrep] {pattern}[@xx] 133 Same as ":helpgrep", except the location list is used 134 instead of the quickfix list. If the help window is 135 already opened, then the location list for that window 136 is used. Otherwise, a new help window is opened and 137 the location list for that window is set. The 138 location list for the current window is not changed. 139 140 *:exu* *:exusage* 141:exu[sage] Show help on Ex commands. Added to simulate the Nvi 142 command. {not in Vi} 143 144 *:viu* *:viusage* 145:viu[sage] Show help on Normal mode commands. Added to simulate 146 the Nvi command. {not in Vi} 147 148When no argument is given to |:help| the file given with the 'helpfile' option 149will be opened. Otherwise the specified tag is searched for in all "doc/tags" 150files in the directories specified in the 'runtimepath' option. 151 152The initial height of the help window can be set with the 'helpheight' option 153(default 20). 154 155Jump to specific subjects by using tags. This can be done in two ways: 156- Use the "CTRL-]" command while standing on the name of a command or option. 157 This only works when the tag is a keyword. "<C-Leftmouse>" and 158 "g<LeftMouse>" work just like "CTRL-]". 159- use the ":ta {subject}" command. This also works with non-keyword 160 characters. 161 162Use CTRL-T or CTRL-O to jump back. 163Use ":q" to close the help window. 164 165If there are several matches for an item you are looking for, this is how you 166can jump to each one of them: 1671. Open a help window 1682. Use the ":tag" command with a slash prepended to the tag. E.g.: > 169 :tag /min 1703. Use ":tnext" to jump to the next matching tag. 171 172It is possible to add help files for plugins and other items. You don't need 173to change the distributed help files for that. See |add-local-help|. 174 175To write a local help file, see |write-local-help|. 176 177Note that the title lines from the local help files are automagically added to 178the "LOCAL ADDITIONS" section in the "help.txt" help file |local-additions|. 179This is done when viewing the file in Vim, the file itself is not changed. It 180is done by going through all help files and obtaining the first line of each 181file. The files in $VIMRUNTIME/doc are skipped. 182 183 *help-xterm-window* 184If you want to have the help in another xterm window, you could use this 185command: > 186 :!xterm -e vim +help & 187< 188 189 *:helpfind* *:helpf* 190:helpf[ind] Like |:help|, but use a dialog to enter the argument. 191 Only for backwards compatibility. It now executes the 192 ToolBar.FindHelp menu entry instead of using a builtin 193 dialog. {only when compiled with |+GUI_GTK|} 194 {not in Vi} 195 196 *:helpt* *:helptags* 197 *E154* *E150* *E151* *E152* *E153* *E670* 198:helpt[ags] [++t] {dir} 199 Generate the help tags file(s) for directory {dir}. 200 All "*.txt" and "*.??x" files in the directory and 201 sub-directories are scanned for a help tag definition 202 in between stars. The "*.??x" files are for 203 translated docs, they generate the "tags-??" file, see 204 |help-translated|. The generated tags files are 205 sorted. 206 When there are duplicates an error message is given. 207 An existing tags file is silently overwritten. 208 The optional "++t" argument forces adding the 209 "help-tags" tag. This is also done when the {dir} is 210 equal to $VIMRUNTIME/doc. 211 To rebuild the help tags in the runtime directory 212 (requires write permission there): > 213 :helptags $VIMRUNTIME/doc 214< {not in Vi} 215 216 217============================================================================== 2182. Translated help files *help-translated* 219 220It is possible to add translated help files, next to the original English help 221files. Vim will search for all help in "doc" directories in 'runtimepath'. 222This is only available when compiled with the |+multi_lang| feature. 223 224At this moment translations are available for: 225 Chinese - multiple authors 226 French - translated by David Blanchet 227 Italian - translated by Antonio Colombo 228 Japanese - multiple authors 229 Polish - translated by Mikolaj Machowski 230 Russian - translated by Vassily Ragosin 231See the Vim website to find them: http://www.vim.org/translations.php 232 233A set of translated help files consists of these files: 234 235 help.abx 236 howto.abx 237 ... 238 tags-ab 239 240"ab" is the two-letter language code. Thus for Italian the names are: 241 242 help.itx 243 howto.itx 244 ... 245 tags-it 246 247The 'helplang' option can be set to the preferred language(s). The default is 248set according to the environment. Vim will first try to find a matching tag 249in the preferred language(s). English is used when it cannot be found. 250 251To find a tag in a specific language, append "@ab" to a tag, where "ab" is the 252two-letter language code. Example: > 253 :he user-manual@it 254 :he user-manual@en 255The first one finds the Italian user manual, even when 'helplang' is empty. 256The second one finds the English user manual, even when 'helplang' is set to 257"it". 258 259When using command-line completion for the ":help" command, the "@en" 260extension is only shown when a tag exists for multiple languages. When the 261tag only exists for English "@en" is omitted. 262 263When using |CTRL-]| or ":help!" in a non-English help file Vim will try to 264find the tag in the same language. If not found then 'helplang' will be used 265to select a language. 266 267Help files must use latin1 or utf-8 encoding. Vim assumes the encoding is 268utf-8 when finding non-ASCII characters in the first line. Thus you must 269translate the header with "For Vim version". 270 271The same encoding must be used for the help files of one language in one 272directory. You can use a different encoding for different languages and use 273a different encoding for help files of the same language but in a different 274directory. 275 276Hints for translators: 277- Do not translate the tags. This makes it possible to use 'helplang' to 278 specify the preferred language. You may add new tags in your language. 279- When you do not translate a part of a file, add tags to the English version, 280 using the "tag@en" notation. 281- Make a package with all the files and the tags file available for download. 282 Users can drop it in one of the "doc" directories and start use it. 283 Report this to Bram, so that he can add a link on www.vim.org. 284- Use the |:helptags| command to generate the tags files. It will find all 285 languages in the specified directory. 286 287============================================================================== 2883. Writing help files *help-writing* 289 290For ease of use, a Vim help file for a plugin should follow the format of the 291standard Vim help files. If you are writing a new help file it's best to copy 292one of the existing files and use it as a template. 293 294The first line in a help file should have the following format: 295 296*helpfile_name.txt* For Vim version 7.3 Last change: 2010 June 4 297 298The first field is a link to the help file name. The second field describes 299the applicable Vim version. The last field specifies the last modification 300date of the file. Each field is separated by a tab. 301 302At the bottom of the help file, place a Vim modeline to set the 'textwidth' 303and 'tabstop' options and the 'filetype' to 'help'. Never set a global option 304in such a modeline, that can have consequences undesired by whoever reads that 305help. 306 307 308TAGS 309 310To define a help tag, place the name between asterisks (*tag-name*). The 311tag-name should be different from all the Vim help tag names and ideally 312should begin with the name of the Vim plugin. The tag name is usually right 313aligned on a line. 314 315When referring to an existing help tag and to create a hot-link, place the 316name between two bars (|) eg. |help-writing|. 317 318When referring to a Vim option in the help file, place the option name between 319two single quotes, eg. 'statusline' 320 321 322HIGHLIGHTING 323 324To define a column heading, use a tilde character at the end of the line. 325This will highlight the column heading in a different color. E.g. 326 327Column heading~ 328 329To separate sections in a help file, place a series of '=' characters in a 330line starting from the first column. The section separator line is highlighted 331differently. 332 333To quote a block of ex-commands verbatim, place a greater than (>) character 334at the end of the line before the block and a less than (<) character as the 335first non-blank on a line following the block. Any line starting in column 1 336also implicitly stops the block of ex-commands before it. E.g. > 337 function Example_Func() 338 echo "Example" 339 endfunction 340< 341 342The following are highlighted differently in a Vim help file: 343 - a special key name expressed either in <> notation as in <PageDown>, or 344 as a Ctrl character as in CTRL-X 345 - anything between {braces}, e.g. {lhs} and {rhs} 346 347The word "Note", "Notes" and similar automagically receive distinctive 348highlighting. So do these: 349 *Todo something to do 350 *Error something wrong 351 352You can find the details in $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/help.vim 353 354 vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: 355