1*vi_diff.txt* For Vim version 8.0. Last change: 2016 Aug 16 2 3 4 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar 5 6 7Differences between Vim and Vi *vi-differences* 8 9Throughout the help files differences between Vim and Vi/Ex are given in 10curly braces, like "{not in Vi}". This file only lists what has not been 11mentioned in other files and gives an overview. 12 13Vim is mostly POSIX 1003.2-1 compliant. The only command known to be missing 14is ":open". There are probably a lot of small differences (either because Vim 15is missing something or because Posix is beside the mark). 16 171. Simulated command |simulated-command| 182. Missing options |missing-options| 193. Limits |limits| 204. The most interesting additions |vim-additions| 215. Other vim features |other-features| 226. Command-line arguments |cmdline-arguments| 237. POSIX compliance |posix-compliance| 24 25============================================================================== 261. Simulated command *simulated-command* 27 28This command is in Vi, but Vim only simulates it: 29 30 *:o* *:op* *:open* 31:[range]o[pen] Works like |:visual|: end Ex mode. 32 {Vi: start editing in open mode} 33 34:[range]o[pen] /pattern/ As above, additionally move the cursor to the 35 column where "pattern" matches in the cursor 36 line. 37 38Vim does not support open mode, since it's not really useful. For those 39situations where ":open" would start open mode Vim will leave Ex mode, which 40allows executing the same commands, but updates the whole screen instead of 41only one line. 42 43============================================================================== 442. Missing options *missing-options* 45 46These options are in the Unix Vi, but not in Vim. If you try to set one of 47them you won't get an error message, but the value is not used and cannot be 48printed. 49 50autoprint (ap) boolean (default on) *'autoprint'* *'ap'* 51beautify (bf) boolean (default off) *'beautify'* *'bf'* 52flash (fl) boolean (default ??) *'flash'* *'fl'* 53graphic (gr) boolean (default off) *'graphic'* *'gr'* 54hardtabs (ht) number (default 8) *'hardtabs'* *'ht'* 55 number of spaces that a <Tab> moves on the display 56mesg boolean (default on) *'mesg'* 57novice boolean (default off) *'novice'* 58open boolean (default on) *'open'* 59optimize (op) boolean (default off) *'optimize'* *'op'* 60redraw boolean (default off) *'redraw'* 61slowopen (slow) boolean (default off) *'slowopen'* *'slow'* 62sourceany boolean (default off) *'sourceany'* 63w300 number (default 23) *'w300'* 64w1200 number (default 23) *'w1200'* 65w9600 number (default 23) *'w9600'* 66 67============================================================================== 683. Limits *limits* 69 70Vim has only a few limits for the files that can be edited {Vi: can not handle 71<Nul> characters and characters above 128, has limited line length, many other 72limits}. 73 *E340* 74Maximum line length On machines with 16-bit ints (Amiga and MS-DOS real 75 mode): 32767, otherwise 2147483647 characters. 76 Longer lines are split. 77Maximum number of lines 2147483647 lines. 78Maximum file size 2147483647 bytes (2 Gbyte) when a long integer is 79 32 bits. Much more for 64 bit longs. Also limited 80 by available disk space for the |swap-file|. 81 *E75* 82Length of a file path Unix and Win32: 1024 characters, otherwise 256 83 characters (or as much as the system supports). 84Length of an expanded string option 85 Unix and Win32: 1024 characters, otherwise 256 86 characters 87Maximum display width Unix and Win32: 1024 characters, otherwise 255 88 characters 89Maximum lhs of a mapping 50 characters. 90Number of different highlighting types: over 30000 91Range of a Number variable: -2147483648 to 2147483647 (might be more on 64 92 bit systems) 93Maximum length of a line in a tags file: 512 bytes. 94 95Information for undo and text in registers is kept in memory, thus when making 96(big) changes the amount of (virtual) memory available limits the number of 97undo levels and the text that can be kept in registers. Other things are also 98kept in memory: Command-line history, error messages for Quickfix mode, etc. 99 100Memory usage limits 101------------------- 102 103The option 'maxmem' ('mm') is used to set the maximum memory used for one 104buffer (in kilobytes). 'maxmemtot' is used to set the maximum memory used for 105all buffers (in kilobytes). The defaults depend on the system used. For the 106Amiga and MS-DOS, 'maxmemtot' is set depending on the amount of memory 107available. 108These are not hard limits, but tell Vim when to move text into a swap file. 109If you don't like Vim to swap to a file, set 'maxmem' and 'maxmemtot' to a 110very large value. The swap file will then only be used for recovery. If you 111don't want a swap file at all, set 'updatecount' to 0, or use the "-n" 112argument when starting Vim. 113 114============================================================================== 1154. The most interesting additions *vim-additions* 116 117Vi compatibility. |'compatible'| 118 Although Vim is 99% Vi compatible, some things in Vi can be 119 considered to be a bug, or at least need improvement. But still, Vim 120 starts in a mode which behaves like the "real" Vi as much as possible. 121 To make Vim behave a little bit better, try resetting the 'compatible' 122 option: 123 :set nocompatible 124 Or start Vim with the "-N" argument: 125 vim -N 126 Vim starts with 'nocompatible' automatically if you have a .vimrc 127 file. See |startup|. 128 The 'cpoptions' option can be used to set Vi compatibility on/off for 129 a number of specific items. 130 131Support for different systems. 132 Vim can be used on: 133 - All Unix systems (it works on all systems it was tested on, although 134 the GUI and Perl interface may not work everywhere). 135 - Amiga (500, 1000, 1200, 2000, 3000, 4000, ...). 136 - MS-DOS in real-mode (no additional drivers required). 137 - In protected mode on Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS (DPMI driver required). 138 - Windows 95 and Windows NT, with support for long file names. 139 - OS/2 (needs emx.dll) 140 - Atari MiNT 141 - VMS 142 - BeOS 143 - Macintosh 144 - Risc OS 145 - IBM OS/390 146 Note that on some systems features need to be disabled to reduce 147 resource usage, esp. on MS-DOS. For some outdated systems you need to 148 use an older Vim version. 149 150Multi level persistent undo. |undo| 151 'u' goes backward in time, 'CTRL-R' goes forward again. Set option 152 'undolevels' to the number of changes to be remembered (default 1000). 153 Set 'undolevels' to 0 for a Vi-compatible one level undo. Set it to 154 -1 for no undo at all. 155 When all changes in a buffer have been undone, the buffer is not 156 considered changed anymore. You can exit it with :q, without <!>. 157 When undoing a few changes and then making a new change Vim will 158 create a branch in the undo tree. This means you can go back to any 159 state of the text, there is no risk of a change causing text to be 160 lost forever. |undo-tree| 161 The undo information is stored in a file when the 'undofile' option is 162 set. This means you can exit Vim, start Vim on a previously edited 163 file and undo changes that were made before exiting Vim. 164 165Graphical User Interface (GUI). |gui| 166 Included support for GUI: menu's, mouse, scrollbars, etc. You can 167 define your own menus. Better support for CTRL/SHIFT/ALT keys in 168 combination with special keys and mouse. Supported for various 169 platforms, such as X11 (with Motif and Athena interfaces), GTK, Win32 170 (Windows 95 and later), BeOS, Amiga and Macintosh. 171 172Multiple windows and buffers. |windows.txt| 173 Vim can split the screen into several windows, each editing a 174 different buffer or the same buffer at a different location. Buffers 175 can still be loaded (and changed) but not displayed in a window. This 176 is called a hidden buffer. Many commands and options have been added 177 for this facility. 178 Vim can also use multiple tab pages, each with one or more windows. A 179 line with tab labels can be used to quickly switch between these pages. 180 |tab-page| 181 182Syntax highlighting. |:syntax| 183 Vim can highlight keywords, patterns and other things. This is 184 defined by a number of |:syntax| commands, and can be made to 185 highlight most languages and file types. A number of files are 186 included for highlighting the most common languages, like C, C++, 187 Java, Pascal, Makefiles, shell scripts, etc. The colors used for 188 highlighting can be defined for ordinary terminals, color terminals 189 and the GUI with the |:highlight| command. A convenient way to do 190 this is using a |:colorscheme| command. 191 The highlighted text can be exported as HTML. |convert-to-HTML| 192 Other items that can be highlighted are matches with the search string 193 |'hlsearch'|, matching parens |matchparen| and the cursor line and 194 column |'cursorline'| |'cursorcolumn'|. 195 196Spell checking. |spell| 197 When the 'spell' option is set Vim will highlight spelling mistakes. 198 About 50 languages are currently supported, selected with the 199 'spelllang' option. In source code only comments and strings are 200 checked for spelling. 201 202Folding. |folding| 203 A range of lines can be shown as one "folded" line. This allows 204 overviewing a file and moving blocks of text around quickly. 205 Folds can be created manually, from the syntax of the file, by indent, 206 etc. 207 208Diff mode. |diff| 209 Vim can show two versions of a file with the differences highlighted. 210 Parts of the text that are equal are folded away. Commands can be 211 used to move text from one version to the other. 212 213Plugins. |add-plugin| 214 The functionality can be extended by dropping a plugin file in the 215 right directory. That's an easy way to start using Vim scripts 216 written by others. Plugins can be for all kind of files, or 217 specifically for a filetype. 218 Packages make this even easier. |packages| 219 220Asynchronous communication and timers. |channel| |job| |timer| 221 Vim can exchange messages with other processes in the background. 222 This makes it possible to have servers do work and send back the 223 results to Vim. |channel| 224 Vim can start a job, communicate with it and stop it. |job| 225 Timers can fire once or repeatedly and invoke a function to do any 226 work. |timer| 227 228Repeat a series of commands. |q| 229 "q{c}" starts recording typed characters into named register {c}. 230 A subsequent "q" stops recording. The register can then be executed 231 with the "@{c}" command. This is very useful to repeat a complex 232 action. 233 234Flexible insert mode. |ins-special-special| 235 The arrow keys can be used in insert mode to move around in the file. 236 This breaks the insert in two parts as far as undo and redo is 237 concerned. 238 239 CTRL-O can be used to execute a single Normal mode command. This is 240 almost the same as hitting <Esc>, typing the command and doing |a|. 241 242Visual mode. |Visual-mode| 243 Visual mode can be used to first highlight a piece of text and then 244 give a command to do something with it. This is an (easy to use) 245 alternative to first giving the operator and then moving to the end of 246 the text to be operated upon. 247 |v| and |V| are used to start Visual mode. |v| works on characters 248 and |V| on lines. Move the cursor to extend the Visual area. It is 249 shown highlighted on the screen. By typing "o" the other end of the 250 Visual area can be moved. The Visual area can be affected by an 251 operator: 252 d delete 253 c change 254 y yank 255 > or < insert or delete indent 256 ! filter through external program 257 = filter through indent 258 : start |:| command for the Visual lines. 259 gq format text to 'textwidth' columns 260 J join lines 261 ~ swap case 262 u make lowercase 263 U make uppercase 264 265Block operators. |visual-block| 266 With Visual mode a rectangular block of text can be selected. Start 267 Visual mode with CTRL-V. The block can be deleted ("d"), yanked ("y") 268 or its case can be changed ("~", "u" and "U"). A deleted or yanked 269 block can be put into the text with the "p" and "P" commands. 270 271Help system. |:help| 272 Help is displayed in a window. The usual commands can be used to 273 move around, search for a string, etc. Tags can be used to jump 274 around in the help files, just like hypertext links. The |:help| 275 command takes an argument to quickly jump to the info on a subject. 276 <F1> is the quick access to the help system. The name of the help 277 index file can be set with the 'helpfile' option. 278 279Command-line editing and history. |cmdline-editing| 280 You can insert or delete at any place in the command-line using the 281 cursor keys. The right/left cursor keys can be used to move 282 forward/backward one character. The shifted right/left cursor keys 283 can be used to move forward/backward one word. CTRL-B/CTRL-E can be 284 used to go to the begin/end of the command-line. 285 |cmdline-history| 286 The command-lines are remembered. The up/down cursor keys can be used 287 to recall previous command-lines. The 'history' option can be set to 288 the number of lines that will be remembered. There is a separate 289 history for commands and for search patterns. 290 291Command-line completion. |cmdline-completion| 292 While entering a command-line (on the bottom line of the screen) 293 <Tab> can be typed to complete 294 what example ~ 295 - command :e<Tab> 296 - tag :ta scr<Tab> 297 - option :set sc<Tab> 298 - option value :set hf=<Tab> 299 - file name :e ve<Tab> 300 - etc. 301 302 If there are multiple matches, CTRL-N (next) and CTRL-P (previous) 303 will walk through the matches. <Tab> works like CTRL-N, but wraps 304 around to the first match. 305 306 The 'wildchar' option can be set to the character for command-line 307 completion, <Tab> is the default. CTRL-D can be typed after an 308 (incomplete) wildcard; all matches will be listed. CTRL-A will insert 309 all matches. CTRL-L will insert the longest common part of the 310 matches. 311 312Insert-mode completion. |ins-completion| 313 In Insert mode the CTRL-N and CTRL-P keys can be used to complete a 314 word that appears elsewhere. |i_CTRL-N| 315 With CTRL-X another mode is entered, through which completion can be 316 done for: 317 |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-F| file names 318 |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-K| words from 'dictionary' files 319 |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-T| words from 'thesaurus' files 320 |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-I| words from included files 321 |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-L| whole lines 322 |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-]| words from the tags file 323 |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-D| definitions or macros 324 |i_CTRL-X_CTRL-O| Omni completion: clever completion 325 specifically for a file type 326 etc. 327 328Long line support. |'wrap'| |'linebreak'| 329 If the 'wrap' option is off, long lines will not wrap and only part 330 of them will be shown. When the cursor is moved to a part that is not 331 shown, the screen will scroll horizontally. The minimum number of 332 columns to scroll can be set with the 'sidescroll' option. The |zh| 333 and |zl| commands can be used to scroll sideways. 334 Alternatively, long lines are broken in between words when the 335 'linebreak' option is set. This allows editing a single-line 336 paragraph conveniently (e.g. when the text is later read into a DTP 337 program). Move the cursor up/down with the |gk| and |gj| commands. 338 339Text formatting. |formatting| 340 The 'textwidth' option can be used to automatically limit the line 341 length. This supplements the 'wrapmargin' option of Vi, which was not 342 very useful. The |gq| operator can be used to format a piece of text 343 (for example, |gqap| formats the current paragraph). Commands for 344 text alignment: |:center|, |:left| and |:right|. 345 346Extended search patterns. |pattern| 347 There are many extra items to match various text items. Examples: 348 A "\n" can be used in a search pattern to match a line break. 349 "x\{2,4}" matches "x" 2 to 4 times. 350 "\s" matches a white space character. 351 352Directory, remote and archive browsing. |netrw| 353 Vim can browse the file system. Simply edit a directory. Move around 354 in the list with the usual commands and press <Enter> to go to the 355 directory or file under the cursor. 356 This also works for remote files over ftp, http, ssh, etc. 357 Zip and tar archives can also be browsed. |tar| |zip| 358 359Edit-compile-edit speedup. |quickfix| 360 The |:make| command can be used to run the compilation and jump to the 361 first error. A file with compiler error messages is interpreted. Vim 362 jumps to the first error. 363 364 Each line in the error file is scanned for the name of a file, line 365 number and error message. The 'errorformat' option can be set to a 366 list of scanf-like strings to handle output from many compilers. 367 368 The |:cn| command can be used to jump to the next error. 369 |:cl| lists all the error messages. Other commands are available. 370 The 'makeef' option has the name of the file with error messages. 371 The 'makeprg' option contains the name of the program to be executed 372 with the |:make| command. 373 The 'shellpipe' option contains the string to be used to put the 374 output of the compiler into the errorfile. 375 376Finding matches in files. |:vimgrep| 377 Vim can search for a pattern in multiple files. This uses the 378 advanced Vim regexp pattern, works on all systems and also works to 379 search in compressed files. 380 381Improved indenting for programs. |'cindent'| 382 When the 'cindent' option is on the indent of each line is 383 automatically adjusted. C syntax is mostly recognized. The indent 384 for various styles can be set with 'cinoptions'. The keys to trigger 385 indenting can be set with 'cinkeys'. 386 387 Comments can be automatically formatted. The 'comments' option can be 388 set to the characters that start and end a comment. This works best 389 for C code, but also works for e-mail (">" at start of the line) and 390 other types of text. The |=| operator can be used to re-indent 391 lines. 392 393 For many other languages an indent plugin is present to support 394 automatic indenting. |30.3| 395 396Searching for words in included files. |include-search| 397 The |[i| command can be used to search for a match of the word under 398 the cursor in the current and included files. The 'include' option 399 can be set to a pattern that describes a command to include a file 400 (the default is for C programs). 401 The |[I| command lists all matches, the |[_CTRL-I| command jumps to 402 a match. 403 The |[d|, |[D| and |[_CTRL-D| commands do the same, but only for 404 lines where the pattern given with the 'define' option matches. 405 406Automatic commands. |autocommand| 407 Commands can be automatically executed when reading a file, writing a 408 file, jumping to another buffer, etc., depending on the file name. 409 This is useful to set options and mappings for C programs, 410 documentation, plain text, e-mail, etc. This also makes it possible 411 to edit compressed files. 412 413Scripts and Expressions. |expression| 414 Commands have been added to form up a powerful script language. 415 |:if| Conditional execution, which can be used for example 416 to set options depending on the value of $TERM. 417 |:while| Repeat a number of commands. 418 |:for| Loop over a list. 419 |:echo| Print the result of an expression. 420 |:let| Assign a value to an internal variable, option, etc. 421 Variable types are Number, String, List and Dictionary. 422 |:execute| Execute a command formed by an expression. 423 |:try| Catch exceptions. 424 etc., etc. See |eval|. 425 Debugging and profiling are supported. |debug-scripts| |profile| 426 If this is not enough, an interface is provided to |Python|, |Ruby|, 427 |Tcl|, |Lua|, |Perl| and |MzScheme|. 428 429Viminfo. |viminfo-file| 430 The command-line history, marks and registers can be stored in a file 431 that is read on startup. This can be used to repeat a search command 432 or command-line command after exiting and restarting Vim. It is also 433 possible to jump right back to where the last edit stopped with |'0|. 434 The 'viminfo' option can be set to select which items to store in the 435 .viminfo file. This is off by default. 436 437Printing. |printing| 438 The |:hardcopy| command sends text to the printer. This can include 439 syntax highlighting. 440 441Mouse support. |mouse-using| 442 The mouse is supported in the GUI version, in an xterm for Unix, for 443 BSDs with sysmouse, for Linux with gpm, for MS-DOS, and Win32. It 444 can be used to position the cursor, select the visual area, paste a 445 register, etc. 446 447Usage of key names. |<>| |key-notation| 448 Special keys now all have a name like <Up>, <End>, etc. 449 This name can be used in mappings, to make it easy to edit them. 450 451Editing binary files. |edit-binary| 452 Vim can edit binary files. You can change a few characters in an 453 executable file, without corrupting it. Vim doesn't remove NUL 454 characters (they are represented as <NL> internally). 455 |-b| command-line argument to start editing a binary file 456 |'binary'| Option set by |-b|. Prevents adding an <EOL> for the 457 last line in the file. 458 459Multi-language support. |multi-lang| 460 Files in double-byte or multi-byte encodings can be edited. There is 461 UTF-8 support to be able to edit various languages at the same time, 462 without switching fonts. |UTF-8| 463 Messages and menus are available in different languages. 464 465Move cursor beyond lines. 466 When the 'virtualedit' option is set the cursor can move all over the 467 screen, also where there is no text. This is useful to edit tables 468 and figures easily. 469 470============================================================================== 4715. Other vim features *other-features* 472 473A random collection of nice extra features. 474 475 476When Vim is started with "-s scriptfile", the characters read from 477"scriptfile" are treated as if you typed them. If end of file is reached 478before the editor exits, further characters are read from the console. 479 480The "-w" option can be used to record all typed characters in a script file. 481This file can then be used to redo the editing, possibly on another file or 482after changing some commands in the script file. 483 484The "-o" option opens a window for each argument. "-o4" opens four windows. 485 486Vi requires several termcap entries to be able to work full-screen. Vim only 487requires the "cm" entry (cursor motion). 488 489 490In command mode: 491 492When the 'showcmd' option is set, the command characters are shown in the last 493line of the screen. They are removed when the command is finished. 494 495If the 'ruler' option is set, the current cursor position is shown in the 496last line of the screen. 497 498"U" still works after having moved off the last changed line and after "u". 499 500Characters with the 8th bit set are displayed. The characters between '~' and 5010xa0 are displayed as "~?", "~@", "~A", etc., unless they are included in the 502'isprint' option. 503 504"][" goes to the next ending of a C function ('}' in column 1). 505"[]" goes to the previous ending of a C function ('}' in column 1). 506 507"]f", "[f" and "gf" start editing the file whose name is under the cursor. 508CTRL-W f splits the window and starts editing the file whose name is under 509the cursor. 510 511"*" searches forward for the identifier under the cursor, "#" backward. 512"K" runs the program defined by the 'keywordprg' option, with the identifier 513under the cursor as argument. 514 515"%" can be preceded with a count. The cursor jumps to the line that 516percentage down in the file. The normal "%" function to jump to the matching 517brace skips braces inside quotes. 518 519With the CTRL-] command, the cursor may be in the middle of the identifier. 520 521The used tags are remembered. Commands that can be used with the tag stack 522are CTRL-T, ":pop" and ":tag". ":tags" lists the tag stack. 523 524The 'tags' option can be set to a list of tag file names. Thus multiple 525tag files can be used. For file names that start with "./", the "./" is 526replaced with the path of the current file. This makes it possible to use a 527tags file in the same directory as the file being edited. 528 529Previously used file names are remembered in the alternate file name list. 530CTRL-^ accepts a count, which is an index in this list. 531":files" command shows the list of alternate file names. 532"#<N>" is replaced with the <N>th alternate file name in the list. 533"#<" is replaced with the current file name without extension. 534 535Search patterns have more features. The <NL> character is seen as part of the 536search pattern and the substitute string of ":s". Vi sees it as the end of 537the command. 538 539Searches can put the cursor on the end of a match and may include a character 540offset. 541 542Count added to "~", ":next", ":Next", "n" and "N". 543 544The command ":next!" with 'autowrite' set does not write the file. In vi the 545file was written, but this is considered to be a bug, because one does not 546expect it and the file is not written with ":rewind!". 547 548In Vi when entering a <CR> in replace mode deletes a character only when 'ai' 549is set (but does not show it until you hit <Esc>). Vim always deletes a 550character (and shows it immediately). 551 552Added :wnext command. Same as ":write" followed by ":next". 553 554The ":w!" command always writes, also when the file is write protected. In Vi 555you would have to do ":!chmod +w %:S" and ":set noro". 556 557When 'tildeop' has been set, "~" is an operator (must be followed by a 558movement command). 559 560With the "J" (join) command you can reset the 'joinspaces' option to have only 561one space after a period (Vi inserts two spaces). 562 563"cw" can be used to change white space formed by several characters (Vi is 564confusing: "cw" only changes one space, while "dw" deletes all white space). 565 566"o" and "O" accept a count for repeating the insert (Vi clears a part of 567display). 568 569Flags after Ex commands not supported (no plans to include it). 570 571On non-UNIX systems ":cd" command shows current directory instead of going to 572the home directory (there isn't one). ":pwd" prints the current directory on 573all systems. 574 575After a ":cd" command the file names (in the argument list, opened files) 576still point to the same files. In Vi ":cd" is not allowed in a changed file; 577otherwise the meaning of file names change. 578 579":source!" command reads Vi commands from a file. 580 581":mkexrc" command writes current modified options and mappings to a ".exrc" 582file. ":mkvimrc" writes to a ".vimrc" file. 583 584No check for "tail recursion" with mappings. This allows things like 585":map! foo ^]foo". 586 587When a mapping starts with number, vi loses the count typed before it (e.g. 588when using the mapping ":map g 4G" the command "7g" goes to line 4). This is 589considered a vi bug. Vim concatenates the counts (in the example it becomes 590"74G"), as most people would expect. 591 592The :put! command inserts the contents of a register above the current line. 593 594The "p" and "P" commands of vi cannot be repeated with "." when the putted 595text is less than a line. In Vim they can always be repeated. 596 597":noremap" command can be used to enter a mapping that will not be remapped. 598This is useful to exchange the meaning of two keys. ":cmap", ":cunmap" and 599":cnoremap" can be used for mapping in command-line editing only. ":imap", 600":iunmap" and ":inoremap" can be used for mapping in insert mode only. 601Similar commands exist for abbreviations: ":noreabbrev", ":iabbrev" 602":cabbrev", ":iunabbrev", ":cunabbrev", ":inoreabbrev", ":cnoreabbrev". 603 604In Vi the command ":map foo bar" would remove a previous mapping 605":map bug foo". This is considered a bug, so it is not included in Vim. 606":unmap! foo" does remove ":map! bug foo", because unmapping would be very 607difficult otherwise (this is vi compatible). 608 609The ':' register contains the last command-line. 610The '%' register contains the current file name. 611The '.' register contains the last inserted text. 612 613":dis" command shows the contents of the yank registers. 614 615CTRL-O/CTRL-I can be used to jump to older/newer positions. These are the 616same positions as used with the '' command, but may be in another file. The 617":jumps" command lists the older positions. 618 619If the 'shiftround' option is set, an indent is rounded to a multiple of 620'shiftwidth' with ">" and "<" commands. 621 622The 'scrolljump' option can be set to the minimum number of lines to scroll 623when the cursor gets off the screen. Use this when scrolling is slow. 624 625The 'scrolloff' option can be set to the minimum number of lines to keep 626above and below the cursor. This gives some context to where you are 627editing. When set to a large number the cursor line is always in the middle 628of the window. 629 630Uppercase marks can be used to jump between files. The ":marks" command lists 631all currently set marks. The commands "']" and "`]" jump to the end of the 632previous operator or end of the text inserted with the put command. "'[" and 633"`[" do jump to the start. 634 635The 'shelltype' option can be set to reflect the type of shell used on the 636Amiga. 637 638The 'highlight' option can be set for the highlight mode to be used for 639several commands. 640 641The CTRL-A (add) and CTRL-X (subtract) commands are new. The count to the 642command (default 1) is added to/subtracted from the number at or after the 643cursor. That number may be decimal, octal (starts with a '0') or hexadecimal 644(starts with '0x'). Very useful in macros. 645 646With the :set command the prefix "inv" can be used to invert boolean options. 647 648In both Vi and Vim you can create a line break with the ":substitute" command 649by using a CTRL-M. For Vi this means you cannot insert a real CTRL-M in the 650text. With Vim you can put a real CTRL-M in the text by preceding it with a 651CTRL-V. 652 653 654In Insert mode: 655 656If the 'revins' option is set, insert happens backwards. This is for typing 657Hebrew. When inserting normal characters the cursor will not be shifted and 658the text moves rightwards. Backspace, CTRL-W and CTRL-U will also work in 659the opposite direction. CTRL-B toggles the 'revins' option. In replace mode 660'revins' has no effect. Only when enabled at compile time. 661 662The backspace key can be used just like CTRL-D to remove auto-indents. 663 664You can backspace, CTRL-U and CTRL-W over line breaks if the 'backspace' (bs) 665option includes "eol". You can backspace over the start of insert if the 666'backspace' option includes "start". 667 668When the 'paste' option is set, a few options are reset and mapping in insert 669mode and abbreviation are disabled. This allows for pasting text in windowing 670systems without unexpected results. When the 'paste' option is reset, the old 671option values are restored. 672 673CTRL-T/CTRL-D always insert/delete an indent in the current line, no matter 674what column the cursor is in. 675 676CTRL-@ (insert previously inserted text) works always (Vi: only when typed as 677first character). 678 679CTRL-A works like CTRL-@ but does not leave insert mode. 680 681CTRL-R {0-9a-z..} can be used to insert the contents of a register. 682 683When the 'smartindent' option is set, C programs will be better auto-indented. 684With 'cindent' even more. 685 686CTRL-Y and CTRL-E can be used to copy a character from above/below the 687current cursor position. 688 689After CTRL-V you can enter a three digit decimal number. This byte value is 690inserted in the text as a single character. Useful for international 691characters that are not on your keyboard. 692 693When the 'expandtab' (et) option is set, a <Tab> is expanded to the 694appropriate number of spaces. 695 696The window always reflects the contents of the buffer (Vi does not do this 697when changing text and in some other cases). 698 699If Vim is compiled with DIGRAPHS defined, digraphs are supported. A set of 700normal digraphs is included. They are shown with the ":digraph" command. 701More can be added with ":digraph {char1}{char2} {number}". A digraph is 702entered with "CTRL-K {char1} {char2}" or "{char1} BS {char2}" (only when 703'digraph' option is set). 704 705When repeating an insert, e.g. "10atest <Esc>" vi would only handle wrapmargin 706for the first insert. Vim does it for all. 707 708A count to the "i" or "a" command is used for all the text. Vi uses the count 709only for one line. "3iabc<NL>def<Esc>" would insert "abcabcabc<NL>def" in Vi 710but "abc<NL>defabc<NL>defabc<NL>def" in Vim. 711 712 713In Command-line mode: 714 715<Esc> terminates the command-line without executing it. In vi the command 716line would be executed, which is not what most people expect (hitting <Esc> 717should always get you back to command mode). To avoid problems with some 718obscure macros, an <Esc> in a macro will execute the command. If you want a 719typed <Esc> to execute the command like vi does you can fix this with 720 ":cmap ^V<Esc> ^V<CR>" 721 722General: 723 724The 'ttimeout' option is like 'timeout', but only works for cursor and 725function keys, not for ordinary mapped characters. The 'timeoutlen' option 726gives the number of milliseconds that is waited for. If the 'esckeys' option 727is not set, cursor and function keys that start with <Esc> are not recognized 728in insert mode. 729 730There is an option for each terminal string. Can be used when termcap is not 731supported or to change individual strings. 732 733The 'fileformat' option can be set to select the <EOL>: "dos" <CR><NL>, "unix" 734<NL> or "mac" <CR>. 735When the 'fileformats' option is not empty, Vim tries to detect the type of 736<EOL> automatically. The 'fileformat' option is set accordingly. 737 738On systems that have no job control (older Unix systems and non-Unix systems) 739the CTRL-Z, ":stop" or ":suspend" command starts a new shell. 740 741If Vim is started on the Amiga without an interactive window for output, a 742window is opened (and :sh still works). You can give a device to use for 743editing with the |-d| argument, e.g. "-d con:20/20/600/150". 744 745The 'columns' and 'lines' options are used to set or get the width and height 746of the display. 747 748Option settings are read from the first and last few lines of the file. 749Option 'modelines' determines how many lines are tried (default is 5). Note 750that this is different from the Vi versions that can execute any Ex command 751in a modeline (a major security problem). |trojan-horse| 752 753If the 'insertmode' option is set (e.g. in .exrc), Vim starts in insert mode. 754And it comes back there, when pressing <Esc>. 755 756Undo information is kept in memory. Available memory limits the number and 757size of change that can be undone. This may be a problem with MS-DOS, is 758hardly a problem on the Amiga and almost never with Unix and Win32. 759 760If the 'backup' or 'writebackup' option is set: Before a file is overwritten, 761a backup file (.bak) is made. If the "backup" option is set it is left 762behind. 763 764Vim creates a file ending in ".swp" to store parts of the file that have been 765changed or that do not fit in memory. This file can be used to recover from 766an aborted editing session with "vim -r file". Using the swap file can be 767switched off by setting the 'updatecount' option to 0 or starting Vim with 768the "-n" option. Use the 'directory' option for placing the .swp file 769somewhere else. 770 771Vim is able to work correctly on filesystems with 8.3 file names, also when 772using messydos or crossdos filesystems on the Amiga, or any 8.3 mounted 773filesystem under Unix. See |'shortname'|. 774 775Error messages are shown at least one second (Vi overwrites error messages). 776 777If Vim gives the |hit-enter| prompt, you can hit any key. Characters other 778than <CR>, <NL> and <Space> are interpreted as the (start of) a command. (Vi 779only accepts a command starting with ':'). 780 781The contents of the numbered and unnamed registers is remembered when 782changing files. 783 784The "No lines in buffer" message is a normal message instead of an error 785message, since that may cause a mapping to be aborted. 786 787The AUX: device of the Amiga is supported. 788 789============================================================================== 7906. Command-line arguments *cmdline-arguments* 791 792Different versions of Vi have different command-line arguments. This can be 793confusing. To help you, this section gives an overview of the differences. 794 795Five variants of Vi will be considered here: 796 Elvis Elvis version 2.1b 797 Nvi Nvi version 1.79 798 Posix Posix 1003.2 799 Vi Vi version 3.7 (for Sun 4.1.x) 800 Vile Vile version 7.4 (incomplete) 801 Vim Vim version 5.2 802 803Only Vim is able to accept options in between and after the file names. 804 805+{command} Elvis, Nvi, Posix, Vi, Vim: Same as "-c {command}". 806 807- Nvi, Posix, Vi: Run Ex in batch mode. 808 Vim: Read file from stdin (use -s for batch mode). 809 810-- Vim: End of options, only file names are following. 811 812--cmd {command} Vim: execute {command} before sourcing vimrc files. 813 814--echo-wid Vim: GTK+ echoes the Window ID on stdout 815 816--help Vim: show help message and exit. 817 818--literal Vim: take file names literally, don't expand wildcards. 819 820--nofork Vim: same as |-f| 821 822--noplugin[s] Vim: Skip loading plugins. 823 824--remote Vim: edit the files in another Vim server 825 826--remote-expr {expr} Vim: evaluate {expr} in another Vim server 827 828--remote-send {keys} Vim: send {keys} to a Vim server and exit 829 830--remote-silent {file} Vim: edit the files in another Vim server if possible 831 832--remote-wait Vim: edit the files in another Vim server and wait for it 833 834--remote-wait-silent Vim: like --remote-wait, no complaints if not possible 835 836--role {role} Vim: GTK+ 2: set role of main window 837 838--serverlist Vim: Output a list of Vim servers and exit 839 840--servername {name} Vim: Specify Vim server name 841 842--socketid {id} Vim: GTK window socket to run Vim in 843 844--windowid {id} Vim: Win32 window ID to run Vim in 845 846--version Vim: show version message and exit. 847 848-? Vile: print usage summary and exit. 849 850-a Elvis: Load all specified file names into a window (use -o for 851 Vim). 852 853-A Vim: Start in Arabic mode (when compiled with Arabic). 854 855-b {blksize} Elvis: Use {blksize} blocksize for the session file. 856-b Vim: set 'binary' mode. 857 858-C Vim: Compatible mode. 859 860-c {command} Elvis, Nvi, Posix, Vim: run {command} as an Ex command after 861 loading the edit buffer. 862 Vim: allow up to 10 "-c" arguments 863 864-d {device} Vim: Use {device} for I/O (Amiga only). {only when compiled 865 without the |+diff| feature} 866-d Vim: start with 'diff' set. |vimdiff| 867 868-dev {device} Vim: Use {device} for I/O (Amiga only). 869 870-D Vim: debug mode. 871 872-e Elvis, Nvi, Vim: Start in Ex mode, as if the executable is 873 called "ex". 874 875-E Vim: Start in improved Ex mode |gQ|, like "exim". 876 877-f Vim: Run GUI in foreground (Amiga: don't open new window). 878-f {session} Elvis: Use {session} as the session file. 879 880-F Vim: Start in Farsi mode (when compiled with Farsi). 881 Nvi: Fast start, don't read the entire file when editing 882 starts. 883 884-G {gui} Elvis: Use the {gui} as user interface. 885 886-g Vim: Start GUI. 887-g N Vile: start editing at line N 888 889-h Vim: Give help message. 890 Vile: edit the help file 891 892-H Vim: start Hebrew mode (when compiled with it). 893 894-i Elvis: Start each window in Insert mode. 895-i {viminfo} Vim: Use {viminfo} for viminfo file. 896 897-L Vim: Same as "-r" (also in some versions of Vi). 898 899-l Nvi, Vi, Vim: Set 'lisp' and 'showmatch' options. 900 901-m Vim: Modifications not allowed to be written, resets 'write' 902 option. 903 904-M Vim: Modifications not allowed, resets 'modifiable' and the 905 'write' option. 906 907-N Vim: No-compatible mode. 908 909-n Vim: No swap file used. 910 911-nb[args] Vim: open a NetBeans interface connection 912 913-O[N] Vim: Like -o, but use vertically split windows. 914 915-o[N] Vim: Open [N] windows, or one for each file. 916 917-p[N] Vim: Open [N] tab pages, or one for each file. 918 919-P {parent-title} Win32 Vim: open Vim inside a parent application window 920 921-q {name} Vim: Use {name} for quickfix error file. 922-q{name} Vim: Idem. 923 924-R Elvis, Nvi, Posix, Vile, Vim: Set the 'readonly' option. 925 926-r Elvis, Nvi, Posix, Vi, Vim: Recovery mode. 927 928-S Nvi: Set 'secure' option. 929-S {script} Vim: source script after starting up. 930 931-s Nvi, Posix, Vim: Same as "-" (silent mode), when in Ex mode. 932 Elvis: Sets the 'safer' option. 933-s {scriptin} Vim: Read from script file {scriptin}; only when not in Ex 934 mode. 935-s {pattern} Vile: search for {pattern} 936 937-t {tag} Elvis, Nvi, Posix, Vi, Vim: Edit the file containing {tag}. 938-t{tag} Vim: Idem. 939 940-T {term} Vim: Set terminal name to {term}. 941 942-u {vimrc} Vim: Read initializations from {vimrc} file. 943 944-U {gvimrc} Vim: Read GUI initializations from {gvimrc} file. 945 946-v Nvi, Posix, Vi, Vim: Begin in Normal mode (visual mode, in Vi 947 terms). 948 Vile: View mode, no changes possible. 949 950-V Elvis, Vim: Verbose mode. 951-V{nr} Vim: Verbose mode with specified level. 952 953-w {size} Elvis, Posix, Nvi, Vi, Vim: Set value of 'window' to {size}. 954-w{size} Nvi, Vi: Same as "-w {size}". 955-w {name} Vim: Write to script file {name} (must start with non-digit). 956 957-W {name} Vim: Append to script file {name}. 958 959-x Vi, Vim: Ask for encryption key. See |encryption|. 960 961-X Vim: Don't connect to the X server. 962 963-y Vim: Start in easy mode, like |evim|. 964 965-Z Vim: restricted mode 966 967@{cmdfile} Vile: use {cmdfile} as startup file. 968 969============================================================================== 9707. POSIX compliance *posix* *posix-compliance* 971 972In 2005 the POSIX test suite was run to check the compatibility of Vim. Most 973of the test was executed properly. There are the few things where Vim 974is not POSIX compliant, even when run in Vi compatibility mode. 975 *$VIM_POSIX* 976Set the $VIM_POSIX environment variable to have 'cpoptions' include the POSIX 977flags when Vim starts up. This makes Vim run as POSIX as it can. That's 978a bit different from being Vi compatible. 979 980This is where Vim does not behave as POSIX specifies and why: 981 982 *posix-screen-size* 983 The $COLUMNS and $LINES environment variables are ignored by Vim if 984 the size can be obtained from the terminal in a more reliable way. 985 Add the '|' flag to 'cpoptions' to have $COLUMNS and $LINES overrule 986 sizes obtained in another way. 987 988 The "{" and "}" commands don't stop at a "{" in the original Vi, but 989 POSIX specifies it does. Add the '{' flag to 'cpoptions' if you want 990 it the POSIX way. 991 992 The "D", "o" and "O" commands accept a count. Also when repeated. 993 Add the '#' flag to 'cpoptions' if you want to ignore the count. 994 995 The ":cd" command fails if the current buffer is modified when the '.' 996 flag is present in 'cpoptions'. 997 998 There is no ATTENTION message, the "A" flag is added to 'shortmess'. 999 1000These are remarks about running the POSIX test suite: 1001- vi test 33 sometimes fails for unknown reasons 1002- vi test 250 fails; behavior will be changed in a new revision 1003 http://www.opengroup.org/austin/mailarchives/ag-review/msg01710.html 1004 (link no longer works, perhaps it's now: 1005 https://www.opengroup.org/sophocles/show_mail.tpl?CALLER=show_archive.tpl&source=L&listname=austin-review-l&id=1711) 1006- vi test 310 fails; exit code non-zero when any error occurred? 1007- ex test 24 fails because test is wrong. Changed between SUSv2 and SUSv3. 1008- ex tests 47, 48, 49, 72, 73 fail because .exrc file isn't read in silent 1009 mode and $EXINIT isn't used. 1010- ex tests 76, 78 fail because echo is used instead of printf. (fixed) 1011 Also: problem with \s not changed to space. 1012- ex test 355 fails because 'window' isn't used for "30z". 1013- ex test 368 fails because shell command isn't echoed in silent mode. 1014- ex test 394 fails because "=" command output isn't visible in silent mode. 1015- ex test 411 fails because test file is wrong, contains stray ':'. 1016- ex test 475 and 476 fail because reprint output isn't visible in silent mode. 1017- ex test 480 and 481 fail because the tags file has spaces instead of a tab. 1018- ex test 502 fails because .exrc isn't read in silent mode. 1019- ex test 509 fails because .exrc isn't read in silent mode. and exit code is 1020 1 instead of 2. 1021- ex test 534 fails because .exrc isn't read in silent mode. 1022 1023 1024 vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: 1025