Intro

Nvim reference

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, lua-guide, and user-manual.

Resources resources

internet www distribution

book
There are many resources to learn Vi, Vim, and Nvim. We recommend:

bugs bug-report feature-request 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 crashed, try to get a backtrace (see dev-tools-backtrace).

Installing Nvim install

download upgrade ubuntu To install or upgrade Nvim, you can...

uninstall
To uninstall Nvim:

Sponsor Vim/Nvim development sponsor register

Fixing bugs and adding new features takes a lot of time and effort. To show your appreciation for the work and motivate developers to continue working on Vim please send a donation.

The money you donated will be mainly used to help children in Uganda. See uganda. But at the same time donations increase the development team motivation to keep working on Vim!

For the most recent information about sponsoring look on the Vim web site:

https://www.vim.org/sponsor/

Nvim development is funded separately from Vim:

https://neovim.io/#sponsor

Bram Moolenaar Bram Moolenaar Bram-Moolenaar brammool

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.

count [count]

[quotex]

{}

{char1-char2}

{motion} movement

{Visual}

<character>

'character'

CTRL-{char}

'option'

quotecommandquote

key-notation key-codes keycodes These names for keys are used in the documentation. They can also be used with the ":map" command.

<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-

Note:

<>
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:

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

Terminal-mode

There are six ADDITIONAL modes. These are variants of the BASIC modes:

Operator-pending Operator-pending-mode

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

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:

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:

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

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    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. ~

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 node-client is an API client: https://github.com/neovim/node-client

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.

Arbitrary code registered via :UpdateRemotePlugins, that runs in a separate process and communicates with Nvim via the api.