1*intro.txt* For Vim version 7.0aa. Last change: 2004 Oct 08 2 3 4 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar 5 6 7Introduction to Vim *ref* *reference* 8 91. Introduction |intro| 102. Vim on the internet |internet| 113. Credits |credits| 124. Notation |notation| 135. Modes, introduction |vim-modes-intro| 146. Switching from mode to mode |mode-switching| 157. The window contents |window-contents| 168. Definitions |definitions| 17 18============================================================================== 191. Introduction *intro* 20 21Vim stands for Vi IMproved. It used to be Vi IMitation, but there are so many 22improvements that a name change was appropriate. Vim is a text editor which 23includes almost all the commands from the Unix program "Vi" and a lot of new 24ones. It is very useful for editing programs and other plain text. 25 All commands are given with the keyboard. This has the advantage that you 26can keep your fingers on the keyboard and your eyes on the screen. For those 27who want it, there is mouse support and a GUI version with scrollbars and 28menus (see |gui.txt|). 29 30An overview of this manual can be found in the file "help.txt", |help.txt|. 31It can be accessed from within Vim with the <Help> or <F1> key and with the 32|:help| command (just type ":help", without the bars or quotes). 33 The 'helpfile' option can be set to the name of the help file, in case it 34is not located in the default place. You can jump to subjects like with tags: 35Use CTRL-] to jump to a subject under the cursor, use CTRL-T to jump back. 36 37Throughout this manual the differences between Vi and Vim are mentioned in 38curly braces, like this: {Vi does not have on-line help}. See |vi_diff.txt| 39for a summary of the differences between Vim and Vi. 40 41This manual refers to Vim on various machines. There may be small differences 42between different computers and terminals. Besides the remarks given in this 43document, there is a separate document for each supported system, see 44|sys-file-list|. 45 46This manual is a reference for all the Vim commands and options. This is not 47an introduction to the use of Vi or Vim, it gets a bit complicated here and 48there. For beginners, there is a hands-on |tutor|. To learn using Vim, read 49the user manual |usr_toc.txt|. 50 51 *book* 52There are many books on Vi that contain a section for beginners. There are 53two books I can recommend: 54 55 "Vim - Vi Improved" by Steve Oualline 56 57This is the very first book completely dedicated to Vim. It is very good for 58beginners. The most often used commands are explained with pictures and 59examples. The less often used commands are also explained, the more advanced 60features are summarized. There is a comprehensive index and a quick 61reference. Parts of this book have been included in the user manual 62|frombook|. 63Published by New Riders Publishing. ISBN: 0735710015 64For more information try one of these: 65 http://iccf-holland.org/click5.html 66 http://www.vim.org/iccf/click5.html 67 68 "Learning the Vi editor" by Linda Lamb and Arnold Robbins 69 70This is a book about Vi that includes a chapter on Vim (in the sixth edition). 71The first steps in Vi are explained very well. The commands that Vim adds are 72only briefly mentioned. There is also a German translation. 73Published by O'Reilly. ISBN: 1-56592-426-6. 74 75============================================================================== 762. Vim on the internet *internet* 77 78 *www* *faq* *FAQ* *distribution* *download* 79The Vim pages contain the most recent information about Vim. They also 80contain links to the most recent version of Vim. The FAQ is a list of 81Frequently Asked Questions. Read this if you have problems. 82 83 VIM home page: http://www.vim.org/ 84 VIM FAQ: http://vimdoc.sf.net/ 85 Downloading: ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/MIRRORS 86 87 88Usenet News group where Vim is discussed: *news* *usenet* 89 comp.editors 90This group is also for other editors. If you write about Vim, don't forget to 91mention that. 92 93 *mail-list* *maillist* 94There are several mailing lists for Vim: 95<[email protected]> 96 For discussions about using existing versions of Vim: Useful mappings, 97 questions, answers, where to get a specific version, etc. 98<[email protected]> *vim-dev* *vimdev* 99 For discussions about changing Vim: New features, porting, patches, 100 beta-test versions, etc. 101<[email protected]> *vim-announce* 102 Announcements about new versions of Vim; also for beta-test versions 103 and ports to different systems. 104<[email protected]> *vim-multibyte* 105 For discussions about using and improving the multi-byte aspects of 106 Vim. 107<[email protected]> *vim-mac* 108 For discussions about using and improving the Macintosh version of 109 Vim. 110 111See http://www.vim.org/maillist.php for the latest information. 112 113NOTE: 114- You can only send messages to these lists if you have subscribed! 115- You need to send the messages from the same location as where you subscribed 116 from (to avoid spam mail). 117- Maximum message size is 40000 characters. 118 119 *subscribe-maillist* 120If you want to join, send a message to 121 <[email protected]> 122Make sure that your "From:" address is correct. Then the list server will 123give you help on how to subscribe. 124 125You can retrieve old messages from the maillist software, and an index of 126messages. Ask vim-help for instructions. 127 128Archives are kept at: *maillist-archive* 129http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vim 130http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vimdev 131http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vimannounce 132http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vim-multibyte 133http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vim-mac 134 135 136Additional maillists: 137 138<[email protected]> *french-maillist* 139 Vim list in the French language. Subscribe by sending a message to 140 <[email protected]> 141 Or go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vim-fr. 142 143 144Bug reports: *bugs* *bug-reports* *bugreport.vim* 145 146Send bug reports to: Vim bugs <[email protected]> 147This is not a maillist but the message is redirected to the Vim maintainer. 148Please be brief; all the time that is spent on answering mail is subtracted 149from the time that is spent on improving Vim! Always give a reproducible 150example and try to find out which settings or other things influence the 151appearance of the bug. Try different machines, if possible. Send me patches 152if you can! 153 154In case of doubt, use: > 155 :so $VIMRUNTIME/bugreport.vim 156This will create a file "bugreport.txt" in the current directory, with a lot 157of information of your environment. Before sending this out, check if it 158doesn't contain any confidential information! 159 160 *debug-vim* 161When Vim crashes in one of the test files, and you are using gcc for 162compilation, here is what you can do to find out exactly where Vim crashes: 163 1641. Compile Vim with the "-g" option (there is a line in the Makefile for this, 165 which you can uncomment). 166 1672. Execute these commands (replace "11" with the test that fails): > 168 cd testdir 169 gdb ../vim 170 run -u unix.vim -U NONE -s dotest.in test11.in 171 1723. Check where Vim crashes, gdb should give a message for this. 173 1744. Get a stack trace from gdb with this command: > 175 where 176< You can check out different places in the stack trace with: > 177 frame 3 178< Replace "3" with one of the numbers in the stack trace. 179 180 *year-2000* *Y2K* 181Since Vim internally doesn't use dates for editing, there is no year 2000 182problem to worry about. Vim does use the time in the form of seconds since 183January 1st 1970. It is used for a time-stamp check of the edited file and 184the swap file, which is not critical and should only cause warning messages. 185 186There might be a year 2038 problem, when the seconds don't fit in a 32 bit int 187anymore. This depends on the compiler, libraries and operating system. 188Specifically, time_t and the ctime() function are used. And the time_t is 189stored in four bytes in the swap file. But that's only used for printing a 190file date/time for recovery, it will never affect normal editing. 191 192The Vim strftime() function directly uses the strftime() system function. 193localtime() uses the time() system function. getftime() uses the time 194returned by the stat() system function. If your system libraries are year 1952000 compliant, Vim is too. 196 197The user may create scripts for Vim that use external commands. These might 198introduce Y2K problems, but those are not really part of Vim itself. 199 200============================================================================== 2013. Credits *credits* *author* 202 203Most of Vim was written by Bram Moolenaar <[email protected]>. 204 205Parts of the documentation come from several Vi manuals, written by: 206 W.N. Joy 207 Alan P.W. Hewett 208 Mark Horton 209 210The Vim editor is based on Stevie and includes (ideas from) other software, 211worked on by the people mentioned here. Other people helped by sending me 212patches, suggestions and giving feedback about what is good and bad in Vim. 213 214Vim would never have become what it is now, without the help of these people! 215 216 Ron Aaron Win32 GUI changes 217 Zoltan Arpadffy work on VMS port 218 Tony Andrews Stevie 219 Gert van Antwerpen changes for DJGPP on MS-DOS 220 Berkeley DB(3) ideas for swap file implementation 221 Keith Bostic Nvi 222 Walter Briscoe Makefile updates, various patches 223 Ralf Brown SPAWNO library for MS-DOS 224 Robert Colon many useful remarks 225 Marcin Dalecki GTK+ GUI port, toolbar icons, gettext() 226 Kayhan Demirel sent me news in Uganda 227 Chris & John Downey xvi (ideas for multi-windows version) 228 Henk Elbers first VMS port 229 Daniel Elstner GTK+ 2 port 230 Eric Fischer Mac port, 'cindent', and other improvements 231 Benji Fisher Answering lots of user questions 232 Bill Foster Athena GUI port 233 Loic Grenie xvim (ideas for multi windows version) 234 Sven Guckes Vim promotor and previous WWW page maintainer 235 Darren Hiebert Exuberant ctags 236 Jason Hildebrand GTK+ 2 port 237 Bruce Hunsaker improvements for VMS port 238 Andy Kahn Cscope support, GTK+ GUI port 239 Oezguer Kesim Maintainer of Vim Mailing Lists 240 Axel Kielhorn work on the Macintosh port 241 Steve Kirkendall Elvis 242 Roger Knobbe original port to Windows NT 243 Sergey Laskavy Vim's help from Moscow 244 Felix von Leitner Maintainer of Vim Mailing Lists 245 David Leonard Port of Python extensions to Unix 246 Avner Lottem Edit in right-to-left windows 247 Flemming Madsen X11 client-server, various features and patches 248 MicroSoft Gave me a copy of DevStudio to compile Vim with 249 Paul Moore Python interface extensions, many patches 250 Katsuhito Nagano Work on multi-byte versions 251 Sung-Hyun Nam Work on multi-byte versions 252 Vince Negri Win32 GUI and generic console enhancements 253 Steve Oualline Author of the first Vim book |frombook| 254 George V. Reilly Win32 port, Win32 GUI start-off 255 Stephen Riehm bug collector 256 Stefan Roemer various patches and help to users 257 Ralf Schandl IBM OS/390 port 258 Olaf Seibert DICE and BeBox version, regexp improvements 259 Mortaza Shiran Farsi patches 260 Peter da Silva termlib 261 Paul Slootman OS/2 port 262 Henry Spencer regular expressions 263 Dany St-Amant Macintosh port 264 Tim Thompson Stevie 265 G. R. (Fred) Walter Stevie 266 Sven Verdoolaege Perl interface 267 Robert Webb Command-line completion, GUI versions, and 268 lots of patches 269 Ingo Wilken Tcl interface 270 Mike Williams PostScript printing 271 Juergen Weigert Lattice version, AUX improvements, UNIX and 272 MS-DOS ports, autoconf 273 Stefan 'Sec' Zehl Maintainer of vim.org 274 275I wish to thank all the people that sent me bug reports and suggestions. The 276list is too long to mention them all here. Vim would not be the same without 277the ideas from all these people: They keep Vim alive! 278 279 280In this documentation there are several references to other versions of Vi: 281 *Vi* 282Vi "the original". Without further remarks this is the version 283 of Vi that appeared in Sun OS 4.x. ":version" returns 284 "Version 3.7, 6/7/85". Sometimes other versions are referred 285 to. Only runs under Unix. Source code only available with a 286 license. More information on Vi can be found through: 287 http://vi-editor.org [doesn't currently work...] 288 *Posix* 289Posix From the IEEE standard 1003.2, Part 2: Shell and utilities. 290 Generally known as "Posix". This is a textual description of 291 how Vi is supposed to work. 292 The version used is a draft from beginning 1996, so all remarks are 293 "expected to comply to" this. Anything can change though... 294 *Nvi* 295Nvi The "New" Vi. The version of Vi that comes with BSD 4.4 and FreeBSD. 296 Very good compatibility with the original Vi, with a few extensions. 297 The version used is 1.79. ":version" returns "Version 1.79 298 (10/23/96)". There has been no release the last few years, although 299 there is a development version 1.81. 300 Source code is freely available. 301 *Elvis* 302Elvis Another Vi clone, made by Steve Kirkendall. Very compact but isn't 303 as flexible as Vim. 304 The version used is 2.1. It is still being developed. Source code is 305 freely available. 306 307============================================================================== 3084. Notation *notation* 309 310When syntax highlighting is used to read this, text that is not typed 311literally is often highlighted with the Special group. These are items in [], 312{} and <>, and CTRL-X. 313 314Note that Vim uses all possible characters in commands. Sometimes the [], {} 315and <> are part of what you type, the context should make this clear. 316 317 318[] Characters in square brackets are optional. 319 320 *count* *[count]* *E489* 321[count] An optional number that may precede the command to multiply 322 or iterate the command. If no number is given, a count of one 323 is used, unless otherwise noted. Note that in this manual the 324 [count] is not mentioned in the description of the command, 325 but only in the explanation. This was done to make the 326 commands easier to look up. If the 'showcmd' option is on, 327 the (partially) entered count is shown at the bottom of the 328 window. You can use <Del> to erase the last digit (|N<Del>|). 329 330 *[quotex]* 331["x] An optional register designation where text can be stored. 332 See |registers|. The x is a single character between 'a' and 333 'z' or 'A' and 'Z' or '"', and in some cases (with the put 334 command) between '0' and '9', '%', '#', or others. The 335 uppercase and lowercase letter designate the same register, 336 but the lowercase letter is used to overwrite the previous 337 register contents, while the uppercase letter is used to 338 append to the previous register contents. Without the ""x" or 339 with """" the stored text is put into the unnamed register. 340 341 *{}* 342{} Curly braces denote parts of the command which must appear, 343 but which can take a number of different values. The 344 differences between Vim and Vi are also given in curly braces 345 (this will be clear from the context). 346 347 *{char1-char2}* 348{char1-char2} A single character from the range char1 to char2. For 349 example: {a-z} is a lowercase letter. Multiple ranges may be 350 concatenated. For example, {a-zA-Z0-9} is any alphanumeric 351 character. 352 353 *{motion}* 354{motion} A command that moves the cursor. These are explained in 355 |motion.txt|. Examples: 356 w to start of next word 357 b to begin of current word 358 4j four lines down 359 /The<CR> to next occurrence of "The" 360 This is used after an |operator| command to move over the text 361 that is to be operated upon. 362 - If the motion includes a count and the operator also has a 363 count, the two counts are multiplied. For example: "2d3w" 364 deletes six words. 365 - The motion can be backwards, e.g. "db" to delete to the 366 start of the word. 367 - The motion can also be a mouse click. The mouse is not 368 supported in every terminal though. 369 - The ":omap" command can be used to map characters while an 370 operator is pending. 371 - Ex commands can be used to move the cursor. This can be 372 used to call a function that does some complicated motion. 373 The motion is always characterwise exclusive, no matter 374 what ":" command is used. This means it's impossible to 375 include the last character of a line without the line break 376 (unless 'virtualedit' is set). 377 If the Ex command changes the text before where the operator 378 starts or jumps to another buffer the result is 379 unpredictable. It is possible to change the text further 380 down. Jumping to another buffer is possible if the current 381 buffer is not unloaded. 382 383 *{Visual}* 384{Visual} A selected text area. It is started with the "v", "V", or 385 CTRL-V command, then any cursor movement command can be used 386 to change the end of the selected text. 387 This is used before an |operator| command to highlight the 388 text that is to be operated upon. 389 See |Visual-mode|. 390 391 *<character>* 392<character> A special character from the table below, optionally with 393 modifiers, or a single ASCII character with modifiers. 394 395 *'character'* 396'c' A single ASCII character. 397 398 *CTRL-{char}* 399CTRL-{char} {char} typed as a control character; that is, typing {char} 400 while holding the CTRL key down. The case of {char} does not 401 matter; thus CTRL-A and CTRL-a are equivalent. But on some 402 terminals, using the SHIFT key will produce another code, 403 don't use it then. 404 405 *'option'* 406'option' An option, or parameter, that can be set to a value, is 407 enclosed in single quotes. See |options|. 408 409 *quotecommandquote* 410"command" A reference to a command that you can type is enclosed in 411 double quotes. 412 413 *key-notation* *key-codes* *keycodes* 414These names for keys are used in the documentation. They can also be used 415with the ":map" command (insert the key name by pressing CTRL-K and then the 416key you want the name for). 417 418notation meaning equivalent decimal value(s) ~ 419----------------------------------------------------------------------- 420<Nul> zero CTRL-@ 0 (stored as 10) *<Nul>* 421<BS> backspace CTRL-H 8 *backspace* 422<Tab> tab CTRL-I 9 *tab* *Tab* 423 *linefeed* 424<NL> linefeed CTRL-J 10 (used for <Nul>) 425<FF> formfeed CTRL-L 12 *formfeed* 426<CR> carriage return CTRL-M 13 *carriage-return* 427<Return> same as <CR> *<Return>* 428<Enter> same as <CR> *<Enter>* 429<Esc> escape CTRL-[ 27 *escape* *<Esc>* 430<Space> space 32 *space* 431<lt> less-than < 60 *<lt>* 432<Bslash> backslash \ 92 *backslash* *<Bslash>* 433<Bar> vertical bar | 124 *<Bar>* 434<Del> delete 127 435<CSI> command sequence intro ALT-Esc 155 *<CSI>* 436<xCSI> CSI when typed in the GUI *<xCSI>* 437 438<EOL> end-of-line (can be <CR>, <LF> or <CR><LF>, 439 depends on system and 'fileformat') *<EOL>* 440 441<Up> cursor-up *cursor-up* *cursor_up* 442<Down> cursor-down *cursor-down* *cursor_down* 443<Left> cursor-left *cursor-left* *cursor_left* 444<Right> cursor-right *cursor-right* *cursor_right* 445<S-Up> shift-cursor-up 446<S-Down> shift-cursor-down 447<S-Left> shift-cursor-left 448<S-Right> shift-cursor-right 449<C-Left> control-cursor-left 450<C-Right> control-cursor-right 451<F1> - <F12> function keys 1 to 12 *function_key* *function-key* 452<S-F1> - <S-F12> shift-function keys 1 to 12 *<S-F1>* 453<Help> help key 454<Undo> undo key 455<Insert> insert key 456<Home> home *home* 457<End> end *end* 458<PageUp> page-up *page_up* *page-up* 459<PageDown> page-down *page_down* *page-down* 460<kHome> keypad home (upper left) *keypad-home* 461<kEnd> keypad end (lower left) *keypad-end* 462<kPageUp> keypad page-up (upper right) *keypad-page-up* 463<kPageDown> keypad page-down (lower right) *keypad-page-down* 464<kPlus> keypad + *keypad-plus* 465<kMinus> keypad - *keypad-minus* 466<kMultiply> keypad * *keypad-multiply* 467<kDivide> keypad / *keypad-divide* 468<kEnter> keypad Enter *keypad-enter* 469<kPoint> keypad Decimal point *keypad-point* 470<k0> - <k9> keypad 0 to 9 *keypad-0* *keypad-9* 471<S-...> shift-key *shift* *<S-* 472<C-...> control-key *control* *ctrl* *<C-* 473<M-...> alt-key or meta-key *meta* *alt* *<M-* 474<A-...> same as <M-...> *<A-* 475<D-...> command-key (Macintosh only) *<D-* 476<t_xx> key with "xx" entry in termcap 477----------------------------------------------------------------------- 478 479Note: The shifted cursor keys, the help key, and the undo key are only 480available on a few terminals. On the Amiga, shifted function key 10 produces 481a code (CSI) that is also used by key sequences. It will be recognized only 482after typing another key. 483 484Note: There are two codes for the delete key. 127 is the decimal ASCII value 485for the delete key, which is always recognized. Some delete keys send another 486value, in which case this value is obtained from the termcap entry "kD". Both 487values have the same effect. Also see |:fixdel|. 488 489Note: The keypad keys are used in the same way as the corresponding "normal" 490keys. For example, <kHome> has the same effect as <Home>. If a keypad key 491sends the same raw key code as its non-keypad equivalent, it will be 492recognized as the non-keypad code. For example, when <kHome> sends the same 493code as <Home>, when pressing <kHome> Vim will think <Home> was pressed. 494Mapping <kHome> will not work then. 495 496 *<>* 497Examples are often given in the <> notation. Sometimes this is just to make 498clear what you need to type, but often it can be typed literally, e.g., with 499the ":map" command. The rules are: 500 1. Any printable characters are typed directly, except backslash and '<' 501 2. A backslash is represented with "\\", double backslash, or "<Bslash>". 502 3. A real '<' is represented with "\<" or "<lt>". When there is no 503 confusion possible, a '<' can be used directly. 504 4. "<key>" means the special key typed. This is the notation explained in 505 the table above. A few examples: 506 <Esc> Escape key 507 <C-G> CTRL-G 508 <Up> cursor up key 509 <C-LeftMouse> Control- left mouse click 510 <S-F11> Shifted function key 11 511 <M-a> Meta- a ('a' with bit 8 set) 512 <M-A> Meta- A ('A' with bit 8 set) 513 <t_kd> "kd" termcap entry (cursor down key) 514 515If you want to use the full <> notation in Vim, you have to make sure the '<' 516flag is excluded from 'cpoptions' (when 'compatible' is not set, it already is 517by default). > 518 :set cpo-=< 519The <> notation uses <lt> to escape the special meaning of key names. Using a 520backslash also works, but only when 'cpoptions' does not include the 'B' flag. 521 522Examples for mapping CTRL-H to the six characters "<Home>": > 523 :imap <C-H> \<Home> 524 :imap <C-H> <lt>Home> 525The first one only works when the 'B' flag is not in 'cpoptions'. The second 526one always works. 527To get a literal "<lt>" in a mapping: > 528 :map <C-L> <lt>lt> 529 530For mapping, abbreviation and menu commands you can then copy-paste the 531examples and use them directly. Or type them literally, including the '<' and 532'>' characters. This does NOT work for other commands, like ":set" and 533":autocmd"! 534 535============================================================================== 5365. Modes, introduction *vim-modes-intro* *vim-modes* 537 538Vim has six BASIC modes: 539 540 *Normal* *Normal-mode* *command-mode* 541Normal mode In Normal mode you can enter all the normal editor 542 commands. If you start the editor you are in this 543 mode (unless you have set the 'insertmode' option, 544 see below). This is also known as command mode. 545 546Visual mode This is like Normal mode, but the movement commands 547 extend a highlighted area. When a non-movement 548 command is used, it is executed for the highlighted 549 area. See |Visual-mode|. 550 If the 'showmode' option is on "-- VISUAL --" is shown 551 at the bottom of the window. 552 553Select mode This looks most like the MS-Windows selection mode. 554 Typing a printable character deletes the selection 555 and starts Insert mode. See |Select-mode|. 556 If the 'showmode' option is on "-- SELECT --" is shown 557 at the bottom of the window. 558 559Insert mode In Insert mode the text you type is inserted into the 560 buffer. See |Insert-mode|. 561 If the 'showmode' option is on "-- INSERT --" is shown 562 at the bottom of the window. 563 564Command-line mode In Command-line mode (also called Cmdline mode) you 565Cmdline mode can enter one line of text at the bottom of the 566 window. This is for the Ex commands, ":", the pattern 567 search commands, "?" and "/", and the filter command, 568 "!". |Cmdline-mode| 569 570Ex mode Like Command-line mode, but after entering a command 571 you remain in Ex mode. Very limited editing of the 572 command line. |Ex-mode| 573 574There are five ADDITIONAL modes. These are variants of the BASIC modes: 575 576 *Operator-pending* *Operator-pending-mode* 577Operator-pending mode This is like Normal mode, but after an operator 578 command has started, and Vim is waiting for a {motion} 579 to specify the text that the operator will work on. 580 581Replace mode Replace mode is a special case of Insert mode. You 582 can do the same things as in Insert mode, but for 583 each character you enter, one character of the existing 584 text is deleted. See |Replace-mode|. 585 If the 'showmode' option is on "-- REPLACE --" is 586 shown at the bottom of the window. 587 588Insert Normal mode Entered when CTRL-O given in Insert mode. This is 589 like Normal mode, but after executing one command Vim 590 returns to Insert mode. 591 If the 'showmode' option is on "-- (insert) --" is 592 shown at the bottom of the window. 593 594Insert Visual mode Entered when starting a Visual selection from Insert 595 mode, e.g., by using CTRL-O and then "v", "V" or 596 CTRL-V. When the Visual selection ends, Vim returns 597 to Insert mode. 598 If the 'showmode' option is on "-- (insert) VISUAL --" 599 is shown at the bottom of the window. 600 601Insert Select mode Entered when starting Select mode from Insert mode. 602 E.g., by dragging the mouse or <S-Right>. 603 When the Select mode ends, Vim returns to Insert mode. 604 If the 'showmode' option is on "-- (insert) SELECT --" 605 is shown at the bottom of the window. 606 607============================================================================== 6086. Switching from mode to mode *mode-switching* 609 610If for any reason you do not know which mode you are in, you can always get 611back to Normal mode by typing <Esc> twice. This doesn't work for Ex mode 612though, use ":visual". 613You will know you are back in Normal mode when you see the screen flash or 614hear the bell after you type <Esc>. However, when pressing <Esc> after using 615CTRL-O in Insert mode you get a beep but you are still in Insert mode, type 616<Esc> again. 617 618 *i_esc* 619 TO mode ~ 620 Normal Visual Select Insert Replace Cmd-line Ex ~ 621FROM mode ~ 622Normal v V ^V *4 *1 R : / ? ! Q 623Visual *2 ^G c C -- : -- 624Select *5 ^O ^G *6 -- -- -- 625Insert <Esc> -- -- <Insert> -- -- 626Replace <Esc> -- -- <Insert> -- -- 627Command-line *3 -- -- :start -- -- 628Ex :vi -- -- -- -- -- 629 630- NA 631-- not possible 632 633*1 Go from Normal mode to Insert mode by giving the command "i", "I", "a", 634 "A", "o", "O", "c", "C", "s" or S". 635*2 Go from Visual mode to Normal mode by giving a non-movement command, which 636 causes the command to be executed, or by hitting <Esc> "v", "V" or "CTRL-V" 637 (see |v_v|), which just stops Visual mode without side effects. 638*3 Go from Command-line mode to Normal mode by: 639 - Hitting <CR> or <NL>, which causes the entered command to be executed. 640 - Deleting the complete line (e.g., with CTRL-U) and giving a final <BS>. 641 - Hitting CTRL-C or <Esc>, which quits the command-line without executing 642 the command. 643 In the last case <Esc> may be the character defined with the 'wildchar' 644 option, in which case it will start command-line completion. You can 645 ignore that and type <Esc> again. {Vi: when hitting <Esc> the command-line 646 is executed. This is unexpected for most people; therefore it was changed 647 in Vim. But when the <Esc> is part of a mapping, the command-line is 648 executed. If you want the Vi behaviour also when typing <Esc>, use ":cmap 649 ^V<Esc> ^V^M"} 650*4 Go from Normal to Select mode by: 651 - use the mouse to select text while 'selectmode' contains "mouse" 652 - use a non-printable command to move the cursor while keeping the Shift 653 key pressed, and the 'selectmode' option contains "key" 654 - use "v", "V" or "CTRL-V" while 'selectmode' contains "cmd" 655 - use "gh", "gH" or "g CTRL-H" |g_CTRL-H| 656*5 Go from Select mode to Normal mode by using a non-printable command to move 657 the cursor, without keeping the Shift key pressed. 658*6 Go from Select mode to Insert mode by typing a printable character. The 659 selection is deleted and the character is inserted. 660 661If the 'insertmode' option is on, editing a file will start in Insert mode. 662 663 *CTRL-\_CTRL-N* *i_CTRL-\_CTRL-N* *c_CTRL-\_CTRL-N* *v_CTRL-\_CTRL-N* 664Additionally the command CTRL-\ CTRL-N or <C-\><C-N> can be used to go to 665Normal mode from any other mode. This can be used to make sure Vim is in 666Normal mode, without causing a beep like <Esc> would. However, this does not 667work in Ex mode. When used after a command that takes an argument, such as 668|f| or |m|, the timeout set with 'ttimeoutlen' applies. 669 670 *CTRL-\_CTRL-G* *i_CTRL-\_CTRL-G* *c_CTRL-\_CTRL-G* *v_CTRL-\_CTRL-G* 671The command CTRL-\ CTRL-G or <C-\><C-G> can be used to go to Insert mode when 672'insertmode' is set. Otherwise it goes to Normal mode. This can be used to 673make sure Vim is in the mode indicated by 'insertmode', without knowing in 674what mode Vim currently is. 675 676 *Q* *mode-Ex* *Ex-mode* *Ex* *EX* *E501* 677Q Switch to "Ex" mode. This is a bit like typing ":" 678 commands one after another, except: 679 - You don't have to keep pressing ":". 680 - The screen doesn't get updated after each command. 681 - There is no normal command-line editing. 682 - Mappings and abbreviations are not used. 683 In fact, you are editing the lines with the "standard" 684 line-input editing commands (<Del> or <BS> to erase, 685 CTRL-U to kill the whole line). 686 Vim will enter this mode by default if it's invoked as 687 "ex" on the command-line. 688 Use the ":vi" command |:visual| to exit "Ex" mode. 689 Note: In older versions of Vim "Q" formatted text, 690 that is now done with |gq|. But if you use the 691 |vimrc_example.vim| script "Q" works like "gq". 692 693 *gQ* 694gQ Switch to "Ex" mode, but really behave like typing ":" 695 commands after another. All command line editing, 696 completion etc. is available. 697 Use the ":vi" command |:visual| to exit "Ex" mode. 698 {not in Vi} 699 700============================================================================== 7017. The window contents *window-contents* 702 703In Normal mode and Insert/Replace mode the screen window will show the current 704contents of the buffer: What You See Is What You Get. There are two 705exceptions: 706- When the 'cpoptions' option contains '$', and the change is within one line, 707 the text is not directly deleted, but a '$' is put at the last deleted 708 character. 709- When inserting text in one window, other windows on the same text are not 710 updated until the insert is finished. 711{Vi: The screen is not always updated on slow terminals} 712 713Lines longer than the window width will wrap, unless the 'wrap' option is off 714(see below). The 'linebreak' option can be set to wrap at a blank character. 715 716If the window has room after the last line of the buffer, Vim will show '~' in 717the first column of the last lines in the window, like this: > 718 719 +-----------------------+ 720 |some line | 721 |last line | 722 |~ | 723 |~ | 724 +-----------------------+ 725 726Thus the '~' lines indicate that the end of the buffer was reached. 727 728If the last line in a window doesn't fit, Vim will indicate this with a '@' in 729the first column of the last lines in the window, like this: > 730 731 +-----------------------+ 732 |first line | 733 |second line | 734 |@ | 735 |@ | 736 +-----------------------+ 737 738Thus the '@' lines indicate that there is a line that doesn't fit in the 739window. 740 741When the "lastline" flag is present in the 'display' option, you will not see 742'@' characters at the left side of window. If the last line doesn't fit 743completely, only the part that fits is shown, and the last three characters of 744the last line are replaced with "@@@", like this: > 745 746 +-----------------------+ 747 |first line | 748 |second line | 749 |a very long line that d| 750 |oesn't fit in the wi@@@| 751 +-----------------------+ 752 753If there is a single line that is too long to fit in the window, this is a 754special situation. Vim will show only part of the line, around where the 755cursor is. There are no special characters shown, so that you can edit all 756parts of this line. 757{Vi: gives an "internal error" on lines that do not fit in the window} 758 759The '@' occasion in the 'highlight' option can be used to set special 760highlighting for the '@' and '~' characters. This makes it possible to 761distinguish them from real characters in the buffer. 762 763The 'showbreak' option contains the string to put in front of wrapped lines. 764 765 *wrap-off* 766If the 'wrap' option is off, long lines will not wrap. Only the part that 767fits on the screen is shown. If the cursor is moved to a part of the line 768that is not shown, the screen is scrolled horizontally. The advantage of 769this method is that columns are shown as they are and lines that cannot fit 770on the screen can be edited. The disadvantage is that you cannot see all the 771characters of a line at once. The 'sidescroll' option can be set to the 772minimal number of columns to scroll. {Vi: has no 'wrap' option} 773 774All normal ASCII characters are displayed directly on the screen. The <Tab> 775is replaced with the number of spaces that it represents. Other non-printing 776characters are replaced with "^{char}", where {char} is the non-printing 777character with 64 added. Thus character 7 (bell) will be shown as "^G". 778Characters between 127 and 160 are replaced with "~{char}", where {char} is 779the character with 64 subtracted. These characters occupy more than one 780position on the screen. The cursor can only be positioned on the first one. 781 782If you set the 'number' option, all lines will be preceded with their 783number. Tip: If you don't like wrapping lines to mix with the line numbers, 784set the 'showbreak' option to eight spaces: 785 ":set showbreak=\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ " 786 787If you set the 'list' option, <Tab> characters will not be shown as several 788spaces, but as "^I". A '$' will be placed at the end of the line, so you can 789find trailing blanks. 790 791In Command-line mode only the command-line itself is shown correctly. The 792display of the buffer contents is updated as soon as you go back to Command 793mode. 794 795The last line of the window is used for status and other messages. The 796status messages will only be used if an option is on: 797 798status message option default Unix default ~ 799current mode 'showmode' on on 800command characters 'showcmd' on off 801cursor position 'ruler' off off 802 803The current mode is "-- INSERT --" or "-- REPLACE --", see |'showmode'|. The 804command characters are those that you typed but were not used yet. {Vi: does 805not show the characters you typed or the cursor position} 806 807If you have a slow terminal you can switch off the status messages to speed 808up editing: 809 :set nosc noru nosm 810 811If there is an error, an error message will be shown for at least one second 812(in reverse video). {Vi: error messages may be overwritten with other 813messages before you have a chance to read them} 814 815Some commands show how many lines were affected. Above which threshold this 816happens can be controlled with the 'report' option (default 2). 817 818On the Amiga Vim will run in a CLI window. The name Vim and the full name of 819the current file name will be shown in the title bar. When the window is 820resized, Vim will automatically redraw the window. You may make the window as 821small as you like, but if it gets too small not a single line will fit in it. 822Make it at least 40 characters wide to be able to read most messages on the 823last line. 824 825On most Unix systems, resizing the window is recognized and handled correctly 826by Vim. {Vi: not ok} 827 828============================================================================== 8298. Definitions *definitions* 830 831 screen The whole area that Vim uses to work in. This can be 832 a terminal emulator window. Also called "the Vim 833 window". 834 window A view on a buffer. 835 836A screen contains one or more windows, separated by status lines and with the 837command line at the bottom. 838 839 +-------------------------------+ 840screen | window 1 | window 2 | 841 | | | 842 | | | 843 |= status line =|= status line =| 844 | window 3 | 845 | | 846 | | 847 |==== status line ==============| 848 |command line | 849 +-------------------------------+ 850 851The command line is also used for messages. It scrolls up the screen when 852there is not enough room in the command line. 853 854A difference is made between four types of lines: 855 856 buffer lines The lines in the buffer. This is the same as the 857 lines as they are read from/written to a file. They 858 can be thousands of characters long. 859 logical lines The buffer lines with folding applied. Buffer lines 860 in a closed fold are changed to a single logical line: 861 "+-- 99 lines folded". They can be thousands of 862 characters long. 863 window lines The lines displayed in a window: A range of logical 864 lines with wrapping, line breaks, etc. applied. They 865 can only be as long as the width of the window allows, 866 longer lines are wrapped or truncated. 867 screen lines The lines of the screen that Vim uses. Consists of 868 the window lines of all windows, with status lines 869 and the command line added. They can only be as long 870 as the width of the screen allows. When the command 871 line gets longer it wraps and lines are scrolled to 872 make room. 873 874buffer lines logical lines window lines screen lines ~ 875 8761. one 1. one 1. +-- folded 1. +-- folded 8772. two 2. +-- folded 2. five 2. five 8783. three 3. five 3. six 3. six 8794. four 4. six 4. seven 4. seven 8805. five 5. seven 5. === status line === 8816. six 6. aaa 8827. seven 7. bbb 883 8. ccc ccc c 8841. aaa 1. aaa 1. aaa 9. cc 8852. bbb 2. bbb 2. bbb 10. ddd 8863. ccc ccc ccc 3. ccc ccc ccc 3. ccc ccc c 11. ~ 8874. ddd 4. ddd 4. cc 12. === status line === 888 5. ddd 13. (command line) 889 6. ~ 890 891============================================================================== 892 vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: 893