Vim_diff
Nvim :help pages, generated
from source
using the tree-sitter-vimdoc parser.
Differences between Nvim and Vim
Nvim differs from Vim in many ways, although editor and Vimscript (not
Vim9script) features are mostly identical. This document is a complete and
centralized reference of the differences.
Configuration nvim-config
Use
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nvim/init.vim instead of
.vimrc for your
config.
Use $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nvim instead of .vim to store configuration files.
Use
$XDG_STATE_HOME/nvim/shada/main.shada instead of
.viminfo for persistent
session information.
shada
Filetype detection is enabled by default. This can be disabled by adding
":filetype off" to
init.vim.
Syntax highlighting is enabled by default. This can be disabled by adding
":syntax off" to
init.vim.
'background' defaults to "dark" (unless set automatically by the terminal/UI)
'backupdir' defaults to .,~/.local/state/nvim/backup// (
xdg), auto-created
'directory' defaults to ~/.local/state/nvim/swap// (
xdg), auto-created
'fillchars' defaults (in effect) to "vert:│,fold:·,sep:│"
'tags' defaults to "./tags;,tags"
'undodir' defaults to ~/.local/state/nvim/undo// (
xdg), auto-created
editorconfig plugin is enabled, .editorconfig settings are applied.
man.lua plugin is enabled, so
:Man is available by default.
matchit plugin is enabled. To disable it in your config:
:let loaded_matchit = 1
DEFAULT MOUSE
default-mouse disable-mouse
By default the mouse is enabled, and
<RightMouse> opens a
popup-menu with
standard actions ("Cut", "Copy", "Paste", …). Mouse is NOT enabled in
command-mode or the
more-prompt, so you can temporarily disable it just by
typing ":".
If you don't like this you can disable the mouse in your
config using any of
the following:
Disable mouse completely by unsetting the
'mouse' option:
set mouse=
Pressing
<RightMouse> extends selection instead of showing popup-menu:
set mousemodel=extend
Pressing
<A-LeftMouse> releases mouse until the cursor moves:
nnoremap <A-LeftMouse> <Cmd>
\ set mouse=<Bar>
\ echo 'mouse OFF until next cursor-move'<Bar>
\ autocmd CursorMoved * ++once set mouse&<Bar>
\ echo 'mouse ON'<CR>
To remove the "How-to disable mouse" menu item and the separator above it:
aunmenu PopUp.How-to\ disable\ mouse
aunmenu PopUp.-1-
DEFAULT MAPPINGS
default-mappings
Nvim creates the following default mappings at
startup. You can disable any
of these in your config by simply removing the mapping, e.g. ":unmap Y".
nnoremap Y y$
nnoremap <C-L> <Cmd>nohlsearch<Bar>diffupdate<Bar>normal! <C-L><CR>
inoremap <C-U> <C-G>u<C-U>
inoremap <C-W> <C-G>u<C-W>
xnoremap * y/\V<C-R>"<CR>
xnoremap # y?\V<C-R>"<CR>
nnoremap & :&&<CR>
DEFAULT AUTOCOMMANDS
default-autocmds
Default autocommands exist in the following groups. Use ":autocmd!
{group}" to
remove them and ":autocmd
{group}" to see how they're defined.
nvim_cmdwin:
CmdwinEnter: Limits syntax sync to maxlines=1 in the
cmdwin.
New Features nvim-features
Working intuitively and consistently is a major goal of Nvim.
feature-compile
Nvim always includes ALL features, in contrast to Vim (which ships various
combinations of 100+ optional features).
feature-compile Think of it as
a leaner version of Vim's "HUGE" build. This reduces surface area for bugs,
and removes a common source of confusion and friction for users.
Nvim avoids features that cannot be provided on all platforms; instead that
is delegated to external plugins/extensions. E.g. the
-X platform-specific
option is "sometimes" available in Vim (with potential surprises:
https://stackoverflow.com/q/14635295).
Vim's internal test functions (test_autochdir(), test_settime(), etc.) are
not exposed (nor implemented); instead Nvim has a robust API.
Behaviors, options, documentation are removed if they cost users more time
than they save.
Usability details have been improved where the benefit outweighs any
backwards-compatibility cost. Some examples:
Terminal features such as
'guicursor' are enabled where possible.
Some features are built in that otherwise required external plugins:
The Nvim UI is "decoupled" from the core editor: all UIs, including the
builtin
TUI are just plugins that connect to a Nvim server (via
--server
or
--embed). Multiple Nvim UI clients can connect to the same Nvim editor
server.
External plugins run in separate processes.
remote-plugin This improves
stability and allows those plugins to work without blocking the editor. Even
"legacy" Python and Ruby plugins which use the old Vim interfaces (
if_pyth,
if_ruby) run out-of-process.
Platform and I/O facilities are built upon libuv. Nvim benefits from libuv
features and bug fixes, and other projects benefit from improvements to libuv
by Nvim developers.
Command-line:
The expression prompt (
@=,
c_CTRL-R_=,
i_CTRL-R_=) is highlighted
using a built-in Vimscript expression parser.
expr-highlight
E5408 E5409
input(),
inputdialog() support custom highlighting.
input()-highlight
g:Nvim_color_cmdline
(Experimental) Command-line (
:) is colored by callback defined in
g:Nvim_color_cmdline (this callback is for testing only, and will be
removed in the future).
Commands:
:checkhealth
:drop is always available
:Man is available by default, with many improvements such as completion
:match can be invoked before highlight group is defined
:source works with Lua
User commands can support
:command-preview to show results as you type
:write with "++p" flag creates parent directories.
Input/Mappings:
ALT (
META) chords always work (even in the
TUI). Map |<M-| with any key:
<M-1>,
<M-BS>,
<M-Del>,
<M-Ins>,
<M-/>,
<M-\>,
<M-Space>,
<M-Enter>, etc.
Case-sensitive:
<M-a> and
<M-A> are two different keycodes.
Normal commands:
gO shows a filetype-defined "outline" of the current buffer.
Q replays the last recorded macro instead of switching to Ex mode (
gQ).
Options:
'cpoptions' flags:
cpo-_
'diffopt' "linematch" feature
'exrc' searches for ".nvim.lua", ".nvimrc", or ".exrc" files. The
user is prompted whether to trust the file.
'fillchars' flags: "msgsep", "horiz", "horizup",
"horizdown", "vertleft", "vertright", "verthoriz"
'foldcolumn' supports up to 9 dynamic/fixed columns
'guicursor' works in the terminal (TUI)
'inccommand' shows interactive results for
:substitute-like commands
and
:command-preview commands
'jumpoptions' "stack" behavior
'jumpoptions' "view" tries to restore the
mark-view when moving through
the
jumplist,
changelist,
alternate-file or using
mark-motions.
'laststatus' global statusline support
'mousescroll' amount to scroll by when scrolling with a mouse
'pumblend' pseudo-transparent popupmenu
'scrollback'
'shortmess' "F" flag does not affect output from autocommands
'signcolumn' supports up to 9 dynamic/fixed columns
'statuscolumn' full control of columns using
'statusline' format
'statusline' supports unlimited alignment sections
'tabline' %@
[email protected]%X can call any function on mouse-click
'ttimeout',
'ttimeoutlen' behavior was simplified
'winblend' pseudo-transparency in floating windows
api-floatwin
'winhighlight' window-local highlights
Shell:
Shell output (
:!,
:make, …) is always routed through the UI, so it
cannot "mess up" the screen. (You can still use "chansend(v:stderr,…)" if
you want to mess up the screen :)
Nvim throttles (skips) messages from shell commands (
:!,
:grep,
:make)
if there is too much output. No data is lost, this only affects display and
improves performance.
:terminal output is never throttled.
:! does not support "interactive" commands. Use
:terminal instead.
(GUI Vim has a similar limitation, see ":help gui-pty" in Vim.)
:!start is not special-cased on Windows.
system() does not support writing/reading "backgrounded" commands.
E5677
Signs:
Signs are removed if the associated line is deleted.
Startup:
-e and
-es invoke the same "improved Ex mode" as -E and -Es.
-E and
-Es read stdin as text (into buffer 1).
-es and
-Es have improved behavior:
Quits automatically, don't need "-c qa!".
Skips swap-file dialog.
-s reads Normal commands from stdin if the script name is "-".
Reading text (instead of commands) from stdin
--:
works by default: "-" file is optional
works in more cases:
-Es, file args
TUI:
:set-termcap
Start Nvim with
'verbose' level 3 to show terminal capabilities:
nvim -V3
'term' E529 E530 E531
'term' reflects the terminal type derived from
$TERM and other environment
checks. For debugging only; not reliable during startup.
:echo &term
"builtin_x" means one of the
builtin-terms was chosen, because the expected
terminfo file was not found on the system.
Nvim will use 256-colour capability on Linux virtual terminals. Vim uses
only 8 colours plus bright foreground on Linux VTs.
Vim combines what is in its
builtin-terms with what it reads from terminfo,
and has a
'ttybuiltin' setting to control how that combination works. Nvim
uses one or the other, it does not attempt to merge the two.
messages: When showing messages longer than
'cmdheight', only
scroll the message lines, not the entire screen. The
separator line is decorated by
hl-MsgSeparator and
the "msgsep" flag of
'fillchars'.
msgsepVariables:
v:progpath is always absolute ("full")
v:windowid is always available (for use by external UIs)
Upstreamed features nvim-upstreamed
These Nvim features were later integrated into Vim.
'wildoptions' flags: "pum" enables popupmenu for wildmode completion
:source works with anonymous (no file) scripts
Changed features nvim-changed
This section lists various low-level details about other behavior changes.
mkdir() behaviour changed:
1. Assuming /tmp/foo does not exist and /tmp can be written to
mkdir('/tmp/foo/bar', 'p', 0700) will create both /tmp/foo and /tmp/foo/bar
with 0700 permissions. Vim mkdir will create /tmp/foo with 0755.
2. If you try to create an existing directory with
'p' (e.g. mkdir('/',
'p')) mkdir() will silently exit. In Vim this was an error.
3. mkdir() error messages now include strerror() text when mkdir fails.
string() and
:echo behaviour changed:
1. No maximum recursion depth limit is applied to nested container
structures.
2.
string() fails immediately on nested containers, not when recursion limit
was exceeded.
2. When
:echo encounters duplicate containers like
let l = []
echo [l, l]
it does not use "[...]" (was: "[[], [...]]", now: "[[], []]"). "..." is
only used for recursive containers.
3.
:echo printing nested containers adds "@level" after "..." designating
the level at which recursive container was printed:
:echo-self-refer.
Same thing applies to
string() (though it uses construct like
"{
[email protected]}"), but this is not reliable because
string() continues to
error out.
4. Stringifyed infinite and NaN values now use
str2float() and can be evaled
back.
5. (internal) Trying to print or stringify VAR_UNKNOWN in Vim results in
nothing, E908, in Nvim it is internal error.
Viminfo text files were replaced with binary (messagepack)
shada files.
Additional differences:
shada-s now limits size of every item and not just registers.
'viminfo' option got renamed to
'shada'. Old option is kept as an alias for
compatibility reasons.
ShaDa file format was designed with forward and backward compatibility in
mind.
shada-compatibility
Some errors make ShaDa code keep temporary file in-place for user to decide
what to do with it. Vim deletes temporary file in these cases.
shada-error-handling
printf() returns something meaningful when used with
%p argument: in Vim
it used to return useless address of the string (strings are copied to the
newly allocated memory all over the place) and fail on types which cannot be
coerced to strings. See
id() for more details, currently it uses
printf("%p", {expr}) internally.
CursorMoved always triggers when moving between windows.
:lua print("a\0b") will print a^@b, like with :echomsg "a\nb" . In Vim
that prints a and b on separate lines, exactly like
:lua print("a\nb") .
:lua error('TEST') emits the error “E5105: Error while calling lua chunk:
[string "<VimL compiled string>"]:1: TEST”, whereas Vim emits only “TEST”.
Lua has direct access to Nvim
API via
vim.api.
Commands:
:doautocmd does not warn about "No matching autocommands".
:wincmd accepts a count.
:write! does not show a prompt if the file was updated externally.
:= does not accept
ex-flags. With an arg it is equivalent to
:lua=Command-line:
The meanings of arrow keys do not change depending on
'wildoptions'.
Functions:
input() and
inputdialog() support for each other’s features (return on
cancel and completion respectively) via dictionary argument (replaces all
other arguments if used), and "cancelreturn" can have any type if passed in
a dictionary.
input() and
inputdialog() support user-defined cmdline highlighting.
Highlight groups:
hl-ColorColumn,
hl-CursorColumn are lower priority than most other
groups
hl-CurSearch highlights match under cursor instead of last match found
using
n or
N
hl-CursorLine is low-priority unless foreground color is set
hl-VertSplit superseded by
hl-WinSeparator
Highlight groups names are allowed to contain the characters
. and
@.
It is an error to define a highlight group with a name that doesn't match
the regexp
[a-zA-Z0-9_.@]* (see
group-name).
Macro/|recording| behavior
Replay of a macro recorded during :lmap produces the same actions as when it
was recorded. In Vim if a macro is recorded while using :lmap'ped keys then
the behaviour during record and replay differs.
'keymap' is implemented via :lmap instead of :lnoremap so that you can use
macros and
'keymap' at the same time. This also means you can use
:imap on
the results of keys from
'keymap'.
Mappings:
Creating a mapping for a simplifiable key (e.g. <C-I>) doesn't replace an
existing mapping for its simplified form (e.g. <Tab>).
"#" followed by a digit doesn't stand for a function key at the start of the
lhs of a mapping.
Motion:
The
jumplist avoids useless/phantom jumps.
Syntax highlighting:
syncolor.vim has been removed. Nvim now sets up default highlighting groups
automatically for both light and dark backgrounds, regardless of whether or
not syntax highlighting is enabled. This means that
:syntax-on and
:syntax-enable are now identical. Users who previously used an
after/syntax/syncolor.vim file should transition that file into a
colorscheme.
:colorschemeWorking directory (Vim implemented some of these after Nvim):
haslocaldir() checks for tab-local directory if and only if -1 is passed as
window number, and its only possible returns values are 0 and 1.
getcwd(-1) is equivalent to getcwd(-1, 0) instead of returning the global
working directory. Use getcwd(-1, -1) to get the global working directory.
Missing legacy features nvim-missing
These legacy Vim features are not yet implemented:
Removed legacy features nvim-removed
These Vim features were intentionally removed from Nvim.
Aliases:
ex (alias for "nvim -e")
exim (alias for "nvim -E")
gex (GUI)
gview (GUI)
gvim (GUI)
gvimdiff (GUI)
rgview (GUI)
rgvim (GUI)
rview
rvim
view (alias for "nvim -R")
vimdiff (alias for "nvim -d"
diff-mode)
Commands:
:behave
:fixdel
:hardcopy
:helpfind
:mode (no longer accepts an argument)
:open
:Print
:promptfind
:promptrepl
:scriptversion (always version 1)
:shell
:sleep! (does not hide the cursor; same as :sleep)
:smile
:tearoff
:cstag
:cscope
:lcscope
:scscope
:Vimuntar
Compile-time features:
Emacs tags support
X11 integration (see
x11-selection)
Eval:
Vim9script
cscope_connection()
js_encode()
js_decode()
v:none (used by Vim to represent JavaScript "undefined"); use
v:null instead.
v:sizeofint
v:sizeoflong
v:sizeofpointerEvents:
SigUSR1 Use
Signal to detect
SIGUSR1 signal instead.
Highlight groups:
hl-StatusLineTerm hl-StatusLineTermNC are unnecessary because Nvim
supports
'winhighlight' window-local highlights.
For example, to mimic Vim's StatusLineTerm:
hi StatusLineTerm ctermfg=black ctermbg=green
hi StatusLineTermNC ctermfg=green
autocmd TermOpen,WinEnter * if &buftype=='terminal'
\|setlocal winhighlight=StatusLine:StatusLineTerm,StatusLineNC:StatusLineTermNC
\|else|setlocal winhighlight=|endif
Options:
'aleph' 'al'
antialias
'balloondelay' 'bdlay'
'ballooneval' 'beval' 'noballooneval' 'nobeval'
'balloonexpr' 'bexpr'
bioskey (MS-DOS)
conskey (MS-DOS)
'cp' 'nocompatible' 'nocp' 'compatible' (Nvim is always "nocompatible".)
'cpoptions' (gjkHw<*- and all POSIX flags were removed)
'cryptmethod' 'cm' 'key' (Vim encryption implementation)
cscopepathcomp
cscopeprg
cscopequickfix
cscoperelative
cscopetag
cscopetagorder
cscopeverbose
'ed' 'edcompatible' 'noed' 'noedcompatible'
'encoding' ("utf-8" is always used)
esckeys
'guioptions' "t" flag was removed
'guifontset' 'gfs' (Use
'guifont' instead.)
'guipty' (Nvim uses pipes and PTYs consistently on all platforms.)
'highlight' (Names of builtin
highlight-groups cannot be changed.)
'hkmap' 'hk' use
set keymap=hebrew instead.
'hkmapp' 'hkp' use
set keymap=hebrewp instead.
'pastetoggle' 'pt' 'imactivatefunc' 'imaf'
'imactivatekey' 'imak'
'imstatusfunc' 'imsf'
'insertmode' 'im' Use the following script to emulate
'insertmode':
autocmd BufWinEnter * startinsert
inoremap <Esc> <C-X><C-Z><C-]>
inoremap <C-C> <C-X><C-Z>
inoremap <C-L> <C-X><C-Z><C-]><Esc>
inoremap <C-Z> <C-X><C-Z><Cmd>suspend<CR>
noremap <C-C> <Esc>
snoremap <C-C> <Esc>
noremap <C-\><C-G> <C-\><C-N><Cmd>startinsert<CR>
cnoremap <C-\><C-G> <C-\><C-N><Cmd>startinsert<CR>
inoremap <C-\><C-G> <C-X><C-Z>
autocmd CmdWinEnter * noremap <buffer> <C-C> <C-C>
autocmd CmdWinEnter * inoremap <buffer> <C-C> <C-C>
lua << EOF
vim.on_key(function(c)
if c == '\27' then
local mode = vim.api.nvim_get_mode().mode
if mode:find('^[nvV\22sS\19]') and vim.fn.getcmdtype() == '' then
vim.schedule(function()
vim.cmd('startinsert')
end)
end
end
end)
EOF
'macatsui'
'maxcombine' 'mco'
Nvim always displays up to 6 combining characters. You can still edit
text with more than 6 combining characters, you just can't see them.
Use
g8 or
ga. See
mbyte-combining.
'maxmem' Nvim delegates memory-management to the OS.
'maxmemtot' Nvim delegates memory-management to the OS.
'printdevice'
'printencoding'
'printexpr'
'printfont'
'printheader'
'printmbcharset'
'prompt' 'noprompt'
'remap' 'noremap'
'restorescreen' 'rs' 'norestorescreen' 'nors'
'secure'
Everything is allowed in
'exrc' files since they must be explicitly marked
trusted.
'shelltype'
'shortname' 'sn' 'noshortname' 'nosn'
'swapsync' 'sws'
'termencoding' 'tenc' (Vim 7.4.852 also removed this for Windows)
'terse' 'noterse' (Add "s" to
'shortmess' instead)
textauto
textmode
'toolbar' 'tb'
'toolbariconsize' 'tbis'
'ttybuiltin' 'tbi' 'nottybuiltin' 'notbi'
'ttyfast' 'tf' 'nottyfast' 'notf'
'ttymouse' 'ttym'
'ttyscroll' 'tsl'
'ttytype' 'tty'
weirdinvert
Performance:
Folds are not updated during insert-mode.
Providers:
if_lua : Nvim
Lua API is not compatible with Vim's "if_lua".
if_pyth:
python-bindeval python-Function are not supported.
Startup:
--literal (file args are always literal; to expand wildcards on Windows, use
:n e.g.
nvim +"n *")
Easy mode: eview, evim, nvim -y
Restricted mode: rview, rvim, nvim -Z
Vi mode: nvim -v
Test functions:
test_alloc_fail()
test_autochdir()
test_disable_char_avail()
test_feedinput()
test_garbagecollect_soon
test_getvalue()
test_ignore_error()
test_null_blob()
test_null_channel()
test_null_dict()
test_null_function()
test_null_job()
test_null_list()
test_null_partial()
test_null_string()
test_option_not_set()
test_override()
test_refcount()
test_scrollbar()
test_setmouse()
test_settime()
test_srand_seed()
TUI:
t_xx termcap-options t_AB t_Sb t_vb t_SI
Nvim does not have special
t_XX options nor
<t_XX> keycodes to configure
terminal capabilities. Instead Nvim treats the terminal as any other UI,
e.g.
'guicursor' sets the terminal cursor style if possible.
xterm-8bit xterm-8-bit
Xterm can be run in a mode where it uses true 8-bit CSI. Supporting this
requires autodetection of whether the terminal is in UTF-8 mode or non-UTF-8
mode, as the 8-bit CSI character has to be written differently in each case.
Vim issues a "request version" sequence to the terminal at startup and looks
at how the terminal is sending CSI. Nvim does not issue such a sequence and
always uses 7-bit control sequences.
Cscope:
cscope
Cscope support has been removed in favour of LSP based solutions.
Hardcopy:
hardcopy
:hardcopy was removed. Instead, use
:TOhtml and print the resulting HTML
using a web browser or some other HTML viewer.
Bundled plugins:
vimball
vimball