Intro

Nvim :help pages, generated from source using the tree-sitter-vimdoc parser.


Introduction intro

Vim is a text editor which includes most commands from the Unix program "Vi" and many new ones.
An overview of this manual can be found in the file "help.txt", help.txt. It can be accessed from within Vim with the <Help> or <F1> key and with the :help command (just type ":help", without the bars or quotes). The 'helpfile' option can be set to the name of the help file, in case it is not located in the default place. You can jump to subjects like with tags: Use CTRL-] to jump to a subject under the cursor, use CTRL-T to jump back.
pronounce Vim is pronounced as one word, like Jim. So Nvim is "En-Vim", two syllables.
This manual is a reference for all Nvim editor and API features. It is not an introduction; instead for beginners, there is a hands-on tutor and a user manual usr_toc.txt.
book There are many books on Vi and Vim. We recommend:
"Practical Vim" by Drew Neil "Modern Vim" by Drew Neil https://vimcasts.org/publications/
"Practical Vim" is acclaimed for its focus on quickly learning common editing tasks with Vim. "Modern Vim" explores new features in Nvim and Vim 8.
"Vim - Vi Improved" by Steve Oualline
This was the first book dedicated to Vim. Parts of it were included in the user manual. frombook ISBN: 0735710015 For more information try one of these: https://iccf-holland.org/click5.html https://www.vim.org/iccf/click5.html

Nvim on the interwebs internet

bugs bug-report Report bugs and request features here: https://github.com/neovim/neovim/issues
Be brief, yet complete. Always give a reproducible example and try to find out which settings or other things trigger the bug.
If Nvim crashes, try to get a backtrace. See debug.txt.
Fixing bugs and adding new features takes a lot of time and effort. To show your appreciation for the work and motivate Bram and others to continue working on Vim please send a donation.
Since Bram is back to a paid job the money will now be used to help children in Uganda. See uganda. But at the same time donations increase Bram's motivation to keep working on Vim!
For the most recent information about sponsoring look on the Vim web site:
Nvim development is funded separately from Vim:

Credits credits

Most of Vim was written by Bram Moolenaar <[email protected]> Bram-Moolenaar.
Parts of the documentation come from several Vi manuals, written by: W.N. Joy Alan P.W. Hewett Mark Horton
The Vim editor is based on Stevie and includes (ideas from) other software, worked on by the people mentioned here. Other people helped by sending me patches, suggestions and giving feedback about what is good and bad in Vim.
Vim would never have become what it is now, without the help of these people!
Ron Aaron Win32 GUI changes Mohsin Ahmed encryption Zoltan Arpadffy work on VMS port Tony Andrews Stevie Gert van Antwerpen changes for DJGPP on MS-DOS Berkeley DB(3) ideas for swap file implementation Keith Bostic Nvi Walter Briscoe Makefile updates, various patches Ralf Brown SPAWNO library for MS-DOS Robert Colon many useful remarks Marcin Dalecki GTK+ GUI port, toolbar icons, gettext() Kayhan Demirel sent me news in Uganda Chris & John Downey xvi (ideas for multi-windows version) Henk Elbers first VMS port Daniel Elstner GTK+ 2 port Eric Fischer Mac port, 'cindent', and other improvements Benji Fisher Answering lots of user questions Bill Foster Athena GUI port (later removed) Google Let Bram work on Vim one day a week Loic Grenie xvim (ideas for multi windows version) Sven Guckes Vim promoter and previous WWW page maintainer Darren Hiebert Exuberant ctags Jason Hildebrand GTK+ 2 port Bruce Hunsaker improvements for VMS port Andy Kahn Cscope support, GTK+ GUI port Oezguer Kesim Maintainer of Vim Mailing Lists Axel Kielhorn work on the Macintosh port Steve Kirkendall Elvis Roger Knobbe original port to Windows NT Sergey Laskavy Vim's help from Moscow Felix von Leitner Previous maintainer of Vim Mailing Lists David Leonard Port of Python extensions to Unix Avner Lottem Edit in right-to-left windows Flemming Madsen X11 client-server, various features and patches Tony Mechelynck answers many user questions Paul Moore Python interface extensions, many patches Katsuhito Nagano Work on multibyte versions Sung-Hyun Nam Work on multibyte versions Vince Negri Win32 GUI and generic console enhancements Steve Oualline Author of the first Vim book frombook Dominique Pelle Valgrind reports and many fixes A.Politz Many bug reports and some fixes George V. Reilly Win32 port, Win32 GUI start-off Stephen Riehm bug collector Stefan Roemer various patches and help to users Ralf Schandl IBM OS/390 port Olaf Seibert DICE and BeBox version, regexp improvements Mortaza Shiran Farsi patches Peter da Silva termlib Paul Slootman OS/2 port Henry Spencer regular expressions Dany St-Amant Macintosh port Tim Thompson Stevie G. R. (Fred) Walter Stevie Sven Verdoolaege Perl interface Robert Webb Command-line completion, GUI versions, and lots of patches Ingo Wilken Tcl interface Mike Williams PostScript printing Juergen Weigert Lattice version, AUX improvements, Unix and MS-DOS ports, autoconf Stefan 'Sec' Zehl Maintainer of vim.org Yasuhiro Matsumoto many MS-Windows improvements Ken Takata fixes and features Kazunobu Kuriyama GTK 3 Christian Brabandt many fixes, features, user support, etc. Yegappan Lakshmanan many quickfix features
I wish to thank all the people that sent me bug reports and suggestions. The list is too long to mention them all here. Vim would not be the same without the ideas from all these people: They keep Vim alive! love peace friendship gross-national-happiness
Documentation may refer to other versions of Vi: Vi vi Vi "the original". Without further remarks this is the version of Vi that appeared in Sun OS 4.x. ":version" returns "Version 3.7, 6/7/85". Source code only available with a license. Nvi Nvi The "New" Vi. The version of Vi that comes with BSD 4.4 and FreeBSD. Very good compatibility with the original Vi, with a few extensions. The version used is 1.79. ":version" returns "Version 1.79 (10/23/96)". Source code is freely available. Elvis Elvis Another Vi clone, made by Steve Kirkendall. Very compact but isn't as flexible as Vim. Source code is freely available.
Vim Nvim is based on Vim. https://www.vim.org/
Nvim is a fork of the Vim ("Vi IMproved") text editor, which was originally developed by Bram Moolenaar. Searching his name within the source code of Nvim will reveal just how much of his work still remains in Nvim. On August 3, 2023, he passed away at the age of 62. If Vim or Nvim have been of use to you in your life, please read Uganda and consider honoring his memory however you may see fit.

Notation notation

When syntax highlighting is used to read this, text that is not typed literally is often highlighted with the Special group. These are items in [], {} and <>, and CTRL-X.
Note that Vim uses all possible characters in commands. Sometimes the [], {} and <> are part of what you type, the context should make this clear.
[] Characters in square brackets are optional.
count [count] [count] An optional number that may precede the command to multiply or iterate the command. If no number is given, a count of one is used, unless otherwise noted. Note that in this manual the [count] is not mentioned in the description of the command, but only in the explanation. This was done to make the commands easier to look up. If the 'showcmd' option is on, the (partially) entered count is shown at the bottom of the window. You can use <Del> to erase the last digit (N<Del>).
[quotex] ["x] An optional register designation where text can be stored. See registers. The x is a single character between 'a' and 'z' or 'A' and 'Z' or '"', and in some cases (with the put command) between '0' and '9', '%', '#', or others. The uppercase and lowercase letter designate the same register, but the lowercase letter is used to overwrite the previous register contents, while the uppercase letter is used to append to the previous register contents. Without the ""x" or with """" the stored text is put into the unnamed register.
{} {} Curly braces denote parts of the command which must appear, but which can take a number of different values. The differences between Vim and Vi are also given in curly braces (this will be clear from the context).
{char1-char2} {char1-char2} A single character from the range char1 to char2. For example: {a-z} is a lowercase letter. Multiple ranges may be concatenated. For example, {a-zA-Z0-9} is any alphanumeric character.
{motion} movement {motion} A command that moves the cursor. These are explained in motion.txt. Examples: w to start of next word b to begin of current word 4j four lines down /The<CR> to next occurrence of "The" This is used after an operator command to move over the text that is to be operated upon.
If the motion includes a count and the operator also has a count, the two counts are multiplied. For example: "2d3w" deletes six words.
The motion can be backwards, e.g. "db" to delete to the start of the word.
The motion can also be a mouse click. The mouse is not supported in every terminal though.
The ":omap" command can be used to map characters while an operator is pending.
Ex commands can be used to move the cursor. This can be used to call a function that does some complicated motion. The motion is always charwise exclusive, no matter what ":" command is used. This means it's impossible to include the last character of a line without the line break (unless 'virtualedit' is set). If the Ex command changes the text before where the operator starts or jumps to another buffer the result is unpredictable. It is possible to change the text further down. Jumping to another buffer is possible if the current buffer is not unloaded.
{Visual} {Visual} A selected text area. It is started with the "v", "V", or CTRL-V command, then any cursor movement command can be used to change the end of the selected text. This is used before an operator command to highlight the text that is to be operated upon. See Visual-mode.
<character> <character> A special character from the table below, optionally with modifiers, or a single ASCII character with modifiers.
'character' 'c' A single ASCII character.
CTRL-{char} CTRL-{char} {char} typed as a control character; that is, typing {char} while holding the CTRL key down. The case of {char} is ignored; thus CTRL-A and CTRL-a are equivalent. But in some terminals and environments, using the SHIFT key will produce a distinct code (e.g. CTRL-SHIFT-a); in these environments using the SHIFT key will not trigger commands such as CTRL-A.
'option' 'option' An option, or parameter, that can be set to a value, is enclosed in single quotes. See options.
quotecommandquote "command" A reference to a command that you can type is enclosed in double quotes. command New style command, this distinguishes it from other quoted text and strings.
key-notation key-codes keycodes These names for keys are used in the documentation. They can also be used with the ":map" command.
notation meaning equivalent decimal value(s)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
<Nul> zero CTRL-@ 0 (stored as 10) <Nul> <BS> backspace CTRL-H 8 backspace <Tab> tab CTRL-I 9 tab Tab linefeed <NL> linefeed CTRL-J 10 (used for <Nul>) <CR> carriage return CTRL-M 13 carriage-return <Return> same as <CR> <Return> <Enter> same as <CR> <Enter> <Esc> escape CTRL-[ 27 escape <Esc> <Space> space 32 space <lt> less-than < 60 <lt> <Bslash> backslash \ 92 backslash <Bslash> <Bar> vertical bar | 124 <Bar> <Del> delete 127 <CSI> command sequence intro ALT-Esc 155 <CSI>
<EOL> end-of-line (can be <CR>, <NL> or <CR><NL>, depends on system and 'fileformat') <EOL> <Ignore> cancel wait-for-character <Ignore> <NOP> no-op: do nothing (useful in mappings) <Nop>
<Up> cursor-up cursor-up cursor_up <Down> cursor-down cursor-down cursor_down <Left> cursor-left cursor-left cursor_left <Right> cursor-right cursor-right cursor_right <S-Up> shift-cursor-up <S-Down> shift-cursor-down <S-Left> shift-cursor-left <S-Right> shift-cursor-right <C-Left> control-cursor-left <C-Right> control-cursor-right <F1> - <F12> function keys 1 to 12 function_key function-key <S-F1> - <S-F12> shift-function keys 1 to 12 <S-F1> <Help> help key <Undo> undo key <Insert> insert key <Home> home home <End> end end <PageUp> page-up page_up page-up <PageDown> page-down page_down page-down <kUp> keypad cursor-up keypad-cursor-up <kDown> keypad cursor-down keypad-cursor-down <kLeft> keypad cursor-left keypad-cursor-left <kRight> keypad cursor-right keypad-cursor-right <kHome> keypad home (upper left) keypad-home <kEnd> keypad end (lower left) keypad-end <kOrigin> keypad origin (middle) keypad-origin <kPageUp> keypad page-up (upper right) keypad-page-up <kPageDown> keypad page-down (lower right) keypad-page-down <kDel> keypad delete keypad-delete <kPlus> keypad + keypad-plus <kMinus> keypad - keypad-minus <kMultiply> keypad * keypad-multiply <kDivide> keypad / keypad-divide <kPoint> keypad . keypad-point <kComma> keypad , keypad-comma <kEqual> keypad = keypad-equal <kEnter> keypad Enter keypad-enter <k0> - <k9> keypad 0 to 9 keypad-0 keypad-9 <S-…> shift-key shift <S- <C-…> control-key control ctrl <C- <M-…> alt-key or meta-key META ALT <M- <A-…> same as <M-…> <A- <T-…> meta-key when it's not alt <T- <D-…> command-key or "super" key <D-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Availability of some keys (<Help>, <S-Right>, …) depends on the UI or host terminal.
If numlock is on the TUI receives plain ASCII values, so mapping <k0>, <k1>, ..., <k9> and <kPoint> will not work.
Nvim supports mapping multibyte chars with modifiers such as <M-ä>. Which combinations actually work depends on the UI or host terminal.
When a key is pressed using a meta or alt modifier and no mapping exists for that keypress, Nvim may behave as though <Esc> was pressed before the key.
It is possible to notate combined modifiers (e.g. <M-C-T> for CTRL-ALT-T), but your terminal must encode the input for that to work. tui-input
<> Examples are often given in the <> notation. Sometimes this is just to make clear what you need to type, but often it can be typed literally, e.g., with the ":map" command. The rules are: 1. Printable characters are typed directly, except backslash and "<" 2. Backslash is represented with "\\", double backslash, or "<Bslash>". 3. Literal "<" is represented with "\<" or "<lt>". When there is no confusion possible, "<" can be used directly. 4. "<key>" means the special key typed (see the table above). Examples: <Esc> Escape key <C-G> CTRL-G <Up> cursor up key <C-LeftMouse> Control- left mouse click <S-F11> Shifted function key 11 <M-a> Meta- a ('a' with bit 8 set) <M-A> Meta- A ('A' with bit 8 set)
The <> notation uses <lt> to escape the special meaning of key names. Using a backslash also works, but only when 'cpoptions' does not include the 'B' flag.
Examples for mapping CTRL-H to the six characters "<Home>":
:imap <C-H> \<Home>
:imap <C-H> <lt>Home>
The first one only works when the 'B' flag is not in 'cpoptions'. The second one always works. To get a literal "<lt>" in a mapping:
:map <C-L> <lt>lt>
The notation can be used in a double quoted strings, using "\<" at the start, e.g. "\<C-Space>". This results in a special key code. To convert this back to readable text use keytrans().

Modes, introduction vim-modes-intro vim-modes

Vim has seven BASIC modes:
Normal Normal-mode command-mode Normal mode In Normal mode you can enter all the normal editor commands. If you start the editor you are in this mode. This is also known as command mode.
Visual mode This is like Normal mode, but the movement commands extend a highlighted area. When a non-movement command is used, it is executed for the highlighted area. See Visual-mode. If the 'showmode' option is on "-- VISUAL --" is shown at the bottom of the window.
Select mode This looks most like the MS-Windows selection mode. Typing a printable character deletes the selection and starts Insert mode. See Select-mode. If the 'showmode' option is on "-- SELECT --" is shown at the bottom of the window.
Insert mode In Insert mode the text you type is inserted into the buffer. See Insert-mode. If the 'showmode' option is on "-- INSERT --" is shown at the bottom of the window.
Command-line mode In Command-line mode (also called Cmdline mode) you Cmdline mode can enter one line of text at the bottom of the window. This is for the Ex commands, ":", the pattern search commands, "?" and "/", and the filter command, "!". Cmdline-mode
Ex mode Like Command-line mode, but after entering a command you remain in Ex mode. Very limited editing of the command line. Ex-mode
Terminal-mode Terminal mode In Terminal mode all input (except CTRL-\) is sent to the process running in the current terminal buffer. If CTRL-\ is pressed, the next key is sent unless it is CTRL-N (CTRL-\_CTRL-N) or CTRL-O (t_CTRL-\_CTRL-O). If the 'showmode' option is on "-- TERMINAL --" is shown at the bottom of the window.
There are six ADDITIONAL modes. These are variants of the BASIC modes:
Operator-pending Operator-pending-mode Operator-pending mode This is like Normal mode, but after an operator command has started, and Vim is waiting for a {motion} to specify the text that the operator will work on.
Replace mode Replace mode is a special case of Insert mode. You can do the same things as in Insert mode, but for each character you enter, one character of the existing text is deleted. See Replace-mode. If the 'showmode' option is on "-- REPLACE --" is shown at the bottom of the window.
Virtual Replace mode Virtual Replace mode is similar to Replace mode, but instead of file characters you are replacing screen real estate. See Virtual-Replace-mode. If the 'showmode' option is on "-- VREPLACE --" is shown at the bottom of the window.
Insert Normal mode Entered when CTRL-O is typed in Insert mode (see i_CTRL-O). This is like Normal mode, but after executing one command Vim returns to Insert mode. If the 'showmode' option is on "-- (insert) --" is shown at the bottom of the window.
Insert Visual mode Entered when starting a Visual selection from Insert mode, e.g., by using CTRL-O and then "v", "V" or CTRL-V. When the Visual selection ends, Vim returns to Insert mode. If the 'showmode' option is on "-- (insert) VISUAL --" is shown at the bottom of the window.
Insert Select mode Entered when starting Select mode from Insert mode. E.g., by dragging the mouse or <S-Right>. When the Select mode ends, Vim returns to Insert mode. If the 'showmode' option is on "-- (insert) SELECT --" is shown at the bottom of the window.

Switching from mode to mode mode-switching

If for any reason you do not know which mode you are in, you can always get back to Normal mode by typing <Esc> twice. This doesn't work for Ex mode though, use ":visual". You will know you are back in Normal mode when you see the screen flash or hear the bell after you type <Esc>. However, when pressing <Esc> after using CTRL-O in Insert mode you get a beep but you are still in Insert mode, type <Esc> again.
i_esc
FROM mode TO mode
Normal Visual Select Insert Replace Cmd-line Ex
Normal                        v V ^V          *4         *1           R gR     : / ? !   Q
Visual                 *2                  ^G         c C            --              :       --
Select                 *5        ^O ^G                 *6            --              --      --
Insert                 <Esc>          --          --                  <Insert>    --      --
Replace         <Esc>          --          --        <Insert>              --      --
Command-line         `*3`          --          --         :start            --                      --
Ex                 :vi          --          --         --            --              --
-- not possible
* 1 Go from Normal mode to Insert mode by giving the command "i", "I", "a", "A", "o", "O", "c", "C", "s" or S". * 2 Go from Visual mode to Normal mode by giving a non-movement command, which causes the command to be executed, or by hitting <Esc> "v", "V" or "CTRL-V" (see v_v), which just stops Visual mode without side effects. * 3 Go from Command-line mode to Normal mode by:
Hitting <CR> or <NL>, which causes the entered command to be executed.
Deleting the complete line (e.g., with CTRL-U) and giving a final <BS>.
Hitting CTRL-C or <Esc>, which quits the command-line without executing the command. In the last case <Esc> may be the character defined with the 'wildchar' option, in which case it will start command-line completion. You can ignore that and type <Esc> again. * 4 Go from Normal to Select mode by:
use the mouse to select text while 'selectmode' contains "mouse"
use a non-printable command to move the cursor while keeping the Shift key pressed, and the 'selectmode' option contains "key"
use "v", "V" or "CTRL-V" while 'selectmode' contains "cmd"
use "gh", "gH" or "g CTRL-H" g_CTRL-H * 5 Go from Select mode to Normal mode by using a non-printable command to move the cursor, without keeping the Shift key pressed. * 6 Go from Select mode to Insert mode by typing a printable character. The selection is deleted and the character is inserted.
CTRL-\_CTRL-N i_CTRL-\_CTRL-N c_CTRL-\_CTRL-N v_CTRL-\_CTRL-N t_CTRL-\_CTRL-N Additionally the command CTRL-\ CTRL-N or <C-\><C-N> can be used to go to Normal mode from any other mode. This can be used to make sure Vim is in Normal mode, without causing a beep like <Esc> would. However, this does not work in Ex mode. When used after a command that takes an argument, such as f or m, the timeout set with 'ttimeoutlen' applies.
CTRL-\_CTRL-G i_CTRL-\_CTRL-G c_CTRL-\_CTRL-G v_CTRL-\_CTRL-G CTRL-\ CTRL-G works the same as CTRL-\_CTRL-N for backward compatibility.
gQ mode-Ex Ex-mode Ex EX E501 gQ Switch to Ex mode. This is like typing ":" commands one after another, except:
You don't have to keep pressing ":".
The screen doesn't get updated after each command. Use the :vi command (:visual) to exit this mode.

Window contents window-contents

In Normal mode and Insert/Replace mode the screen window will show the current contents of the buffer: What You See Is What You Get. There are two exceptions:
When the 'cpoptions' option contains '$', and the change is within one line, the text is not directly deleted, but a '$' is put at the last deleted character.
When inserting text in one window, other windows on the same text are not updated until the insert is finished.
Lines longer than the window width will wrap, unless the 'wrap' option is off (see below). The 'linebreak' option can be set to wrap at a blank character.
If the window has room after the last line of the buffer, Vim will show '~' in the first column of the last lines in the window, like this:
+-----------------------+
|some line                |
|last line                |
|~                        |
|~                        |
+-----------------------+
Thus the '~' lines indicate that the end of the buffer was reached.
If the last line in a window doesn't fit, Vim will indicate this with a '@' in the first column of the last lines in the window, like this:
+-----------------------+
|first line                |
|second line                |
|@                        |
|@                        |
+-----------------------+
Thus the '@' lines indicate that there is a line that doesn't fit in the window.
When the "lastline" flag is present in the 'display' option, you will not see '@' characters at the left side of window. If the last line doesn't fit completely, only the part that fits is shown, and the last three characters of the last line are replaced with "@@@", like this:
+-----------------------+
|first line                |
|second line                |
|a very long line that d|
|oesn't fit in the wi@@@|
+-----------------------+
If there is a single line that is too long to fit in the window, this is a special situation. Vim will show only part of the line, around where the cursor is. There are no special characters shown, so that you can edit all parts of this line.
The hl-NonText highlight group can be used to set special highlighting for the '@' and '~' characters. This makes it possible to distinguish them from real characters in the buffer.
The 'showbreak' option contains the string to put in front of wrapped lines.
wrap-off If the 'wrap' option is off, long lines will not wrap. Only the part that fits on the screen is shown. If the cursor is moved to a part of the line that is not shown, the screen is scrolled horizontally. The advantage of this method is that columns are shown as they are and lines that cannot fit on the screen can be edited. The disadvantage is that you cannot see all the characters of a line at once. The 'sidescroll' option can be set to the minimal number of columns to scroll.
All normal ASCII characters are displayed directly on the screen. The <Tab> is replaced with the number of spaces that it represents. Other non-printing characters are replaced with "^{char}", where {char} is the non-printing character with 64 added. Thus character 7 (bell) will be shown as "^G". Characters between 127 and 160 are replaced with "~{char}", where {char} is the character with 64 subtracted. These characters occupy more than one position on the screen. The cursor can only be positioned on the first one.
If you set the 'number' option, all lines will be preceded with their number. Tip: If you don't like wrapping lines to mix with the line numbers, set the 'showbreak' option to eight spaces: ":set showbreak=\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ "
If you set the 'list' option, <Tab> characters will not be shown as several spaces, but as "^I". A '$' will be placed at the end of the line, so you can find trailing blanks.
In Command-line mode only the command-line itself is shown correctly. The display of the buffer contents is updated as soon as you go back to Command mode.
The last line of the window is used for status and other messages. The status messages will only be used if an option is on:
status message option default Unix default
current mode 'showmode' on on command characters 'showcmd' on off cursor position 'ruler' off off
The current mode is "-- INSERT --" or "-- REPLACE --", see 'showmode'. The command characters are those that you typed but were not used yet.
If you have a slow terminal you can switch off the status messages to speed up editing: :set nosc noru nosm
If there is an error, an error message will be shown for at least one second (in reverse video).
Some commands show how many lines were affected. Above which threshold this happens can be controlled with the 'report' option (default 2).
The name Vim and the full name of the current file name will be shown in the title bar. When the window is resized, Vim will automatically redraw the window. You may make the window as small as you like, but if it gets too small not a single line will fit in it. Make it at least 40 characters wide to be able to read most messages on the last line.

Definitions definitions jargon

buffer Contains lines of text, usually from a file. screen The whole area that Nvim uses to display things. window A view on a buffer. There can be multiple windows for one buffer. frame Windows are kept in a tree of frames. Each frame contains a column, row, or window ("leaf" frame).
A screen contains one or more windows, separated by status lines and with the command line at the bottom.
       +-------------------------------+
screen        | window 1        | window 2        |
       |                |                |
       |                |                |
       |= status line =|= status line =|
       | window 3                        |
       |                                |
       |                                |
       |==== status line ==============|
       |command line                        |
       +-------------------------------+
The command line is also used for messages. It scrolls up the screen when there is not enough room in the command line.
A difference is made between four types of lines:
buffer lines The lines in the buffer. This is the same as the lines as they are read from/written to a file. They can be thousands of characters long. logical lines The buffer lines with folding applied. Buffer lines in a closed fold are changed to a single logical line: "+-- 99 lines folded". They can be thousands of characters long. window lines The lines displayed in a window: A range of logical lines with wrapping, line breaks, etc. applied. They can only be as long as the width of the window allows, longer lines are wrapped or truncated. screen lines The lines of the screen that Nvim uses. Consists of the window lines of all windows, with status lines and the command line added. They can only be as long as the width of the screen allows. When the command line gets longer it wraps and lines are scrolled to make room.
buffer lines logical lines window lines screen lines
1. one 1. one 1. +-- folded 1. +-- folded 2. two 2. +-- folded 2. five 2. five 3. three 3. five 3. six 3. six 4. four 4. six 4. seven 4. seven 5. five 5. seven 5. === status line === 6. six 6. aaa 7. seven 7. bbb 8. ccc ccc c 1. aaa 1. aaa 1. aaa 9. cc 2. bbb 2. bbb 2. bbb 10. ddd 3. ccc ccc ccc 3. ccc ccc ccc 3. ccc ccc c 11. ~ 4. ddd 4. ddd 4. cc 12. === status line === 5. ddd 13. (command line) 6. ~
API client
All external UIs and remote plugins (as opposed to regular Vim plugins) are "clients" in general; but we call something an "API client" if its purpose is to abstract or wrap the RPC API for the convenience of other applications (just like a REST client or SDK such as boto3 for AWS: you can speak AWS REST using an HTTP client like curl, but boto3 wraps that in a convenient python interface). For example, the Nvim lua-client is an API client: https://github.com/neovim/lua-client
Host
A plugin "host" is both a client (of the Nvim API) and a server (of an external platform, e.g. python). It is a remote plugin that hosts other plugins.
Remote plugin
Arbitrary code registered via :UpdateRemotePlugins, that runs in a separate process and communicates with Nvim via the api.
Main
Commands index
Quick reference