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.
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.
Default color scheme has been updated. This can result in color schemes
looking differently due to them relying on how highlight groups are defined
by default. Add ":colorscheme vim" to
init.vim or
":source $VIMRUNTIME/colors/vim.lua" to your color scheme file to restore
the old default links and colors. See
:highlight for a list of highlight
groups colorschemes should set.
'autoread' is enabled (works in all UIs, including terminal)
'background' defaults to "dark" (unless set automatically by the terminal/UI)
'backupdir' defaults to .,~/.local/state/nvim/backup// (
xdg), auto-created
'define' defaults to "". The C ftplugin sets it to "^\\s*#\\s*define"
'diffopt' defaults to "internal,filler,closeoff,inline:simple,linematch:40"
'directory' defaults to ~/.local/state/nvim/swap// (
xdg), auto-created
'fillchars' defaults (in effect) to "vert:│,fold:·,foldsep:│"
'grepprg' uses the -H and -I flags for regular grep,
and defaults to using ripgrep if available
'include' defaults to "". The C ftplugin sets it to "^\\s*#\\s*include"
'isfname' does not include ":" (on Windows). Drive letters are handled
correctly without it. (Use
gF for filepaths suffixed with ":line:col").
'path' defaults to ".,,". The C ftplugin adds "/usr/include" if it exists.
'spellfile' defaults to
stdpath("data").."/site/spell/"
'tags' defaults to "./tags;,tags"
'termguicolors' is enabled by default if Nvim can detect support from the
host terminal
'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
Mouse is NOT enabled in
Cmdline-mode or the
more-prompt, so you can
temporarily disable it just by typing ":". Or if you want to partially or
fully disable the mouse or popup-menu, do any of the following:
Disable mouse completely by unsetting the
'mouse' option:
set mouse=
Change the
'mousemodel', so
<RightMouse> extends selection instead of
showing the popup-menu:
set mousemodel=extend
Map
<A-LeftMouse> so that it temporarily disables 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 default popup-menu without disabling mouse:
aunmenu PopUp
autocmd! nvim.popupmenu
To remove only the "How-to disable mouse" menu item (and its separator):
aunmenu PopUp.How-to\ disable\ mouse
aunmenu PopUp.-2-
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".
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.terminal:
TermClose: A
terminal buffer started with no arguments (which thus uses
'shell') and which exits with no error is closed automatically.
TermRequest: The terminal emulator responds to OSC background and foreground
requests, indicating (1) a black background and white foreground when Nvim
option
'background' is "dark" or (2) a white background and black foreground
when
'background' is "light". While this may not reflect the actual
foreground/background color, it permits
'background' to be retained for a
nested Nvim instance running in the terminal emulator.
TermRequest: Nvim will create extmarks for shells which
annotate their prompts with OSC 133 escape sequences, enabling users to
quickly navigate between prompts using
[[ and
]].
TermOpen: Sets default options and mappings for
terminal buffers:
[[ and
]] to navigate between shell prompts
nvim.cmdwin:
CmdwinEnter: Limits syntax sync to maxlines=1 in the
cmdwin.
nvim.swapfile:
SwapExists: Skips the swapfile prompt (sets
v:swapchoice to "e") when the
swapfile is owned by a running Nvim process. Shows
W325 "Ignoring
swapfile…" message.
nvim.find_exrc:
VimEnter: Extend
'exrc' to also search for project-local configuration files
in all parent directories.
MAJOR COMPONENTS
USER EXPERIENCE
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:
Highlighting the yanked region, see
vim.hl.
ARCHITECTURE
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, so they cannot crash Nvim.
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.
FEATURES
Command-line:
(Experimental)
g:Nvim_color_cmdline 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:
:drop is always available
:Man is available by default, with many improvements such as completion
:match can be invoked before highlight group is defined
:write with "++p" flag creates parent directories.
Events (autocommands):
Fixed inconsistent behavior in execution of nested autocommands #23368
TermResponse is fired for any OSC sequence received from the terminal,
instead of the Primary Device Attributes response.
v:termresponse
Functions:
matchadd() can be called before highlight group is defined
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:
:set {option}< removes local value for all
global-local options.
:setlocal {option}< copies global value to local value for all options.
'autoread' works in the terminal (if it supports "focus" events)
'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"
"view" tries to restore
mark-view when moving through the jumplist.
"clean" removes unloaded buffers from the jumplist.
"F" flag does not affect output from autocommands.
"q" flag fully hides macro recording message.
'signcolumn' can show multiple signs (dynamic or fixed columns)
'tabline' middle-click on tabpage label closes tabpage,
and %@Func@foo%X can call any function on mouse-click
Performance:
Signs are implemented using Nvim's internal "marktree" (btree) structure.
Folds are not updated during insert-mode.
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.
Signs placed twice with the same identifier in the same group are moved.
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.
Optimized for non-interactive scripts: disables swapfile, shada.
-l Executes Lua scripts non-interactively.
-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
'term' E529 E530 E531
'term' reflects the terminal type derived from
$TERM and other environment
checks. Use
:echo &term to get its value. For debugging only; not
reliable during startup.
Note: If you want to detect when Nvim is running in a terminal, use
has('gui_running') has() or see
nvim_list_uis() for an example of
how to inspect the UI channel.
"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.
Variables:
v:windowid is always available (for use by external UIs)
These Nvim features were later integrated into Vim.
'wildoptions' flags: "pum" enables popupmenu for wildmode completion
:source works with anonymous (no file) scripts
This section documents various low-level 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.
3. When
:echo encounters duplicate containers like
let l = []
echo [l, l]
it does not use "[...]" (was: "[[], [...]]", now: "[[], []]"). "..." is
only used for recursive containers.
4.
: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
"{E724@level}"), but this is not reliable because
string() continues to
error out.
5. Stringifyed infinite and NaN values now use
str2float() and can be
evaled back.
6. (internal) Trying to print or stringify VAR_UNKNOWN in Vim results in
nothing, E908, in Nvim it is internal error.
json_decode() behaviour changed:
3. It accepts only valid JSON. Trailing commas are not accepted.
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.
: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:
E5108: Lua: [string "<Vimscript 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".
:write! does not show a prompt if the file was updated externally.
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.
Highlight groups:
Highlight groups names are allowed to contain @ characters.
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.
:colorscheme
Working 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.
Options:
'titlestring' uses printf-style '%' items (see:
'statusline') to implement
the default behaviour. The implementation is equivalent to setting
'titlestring' to
%t%(\ %M%)%(\ \(%{expand(\"%:~:h\")}\)%)%a\ -\ Nvim.
These legacy Vim features are not yet implemented:
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")
Commands:
:behave
:fixdel
hardcopy :hardcopy was removed. Instead, use
:TOhtml and print the
resulting HTML using a web browser or other HTML viewer.
:helpfind
:mode (no longer accepts an argument)
:open
:Print
:promptfind
:promptrepl
:scriptversion (always version 1)
:shell
:smile
:tearoff
:cstag
:cscope
:lcscope
:scscope
:Vimuntar
:TOhtml was replaced by a Lua version (with various differences)
Compile-time features:
Emacs tags support
Eval:
Vim9script (the Vim 9+ flavor of Vimscript) is not supported.
v:none (used by Vim to represent JavaScript "undefined"); use
v:null instead.
Options:
antialias
for backspace=0 set backspace= (empty)
for backspace=1 set backspace=indent,eol
for backspace=2 set backspace=indent,eol,start (default behavior in Nvim)
for backspace=3 set backspace=indent,eol,nostop
bioskey (MS-DOS)
conskey (MS-DOS)
'cpoptions' (gjpkHw<*- and all POSIX flags were removed)
cscopepathcomp
cscopeprg
cscopequickfix
cscoperelative
cscopetag
cscopetagorder
cscopeverbose
esckeys
'guipty' (Nvim uses pipes and PTYs consistently on all platforms.)
keyprotocol
'pastetoggle' 'pt' Just Paste It.™
paste is handled automatically when
you paste text using your terminal's or GUI's paste feature (
CTRL-SHIFT-v,
CMD-v (macOS), middle-click, …).
'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
'maxcombine' 'mco' : Nvim counts maximum character sizes in bytes, not
codepoints. This is guaranteed to be big enough to always fit all chars
properly displayed in vim with
'maxcombine' set to 6.
You can still edit text with larger characters than fits in the screen
buffer, you just can't see them. Use
g8 or
ga. See
mbyte-combining.
NOTE: the rexexp engine still has a hard-coded limit of considering
6 composing chars only.
'maxmem' Nvim delegates memory-management to the OS.
'maxmemtot' Nvim delegates memory-management to the OS.
printoptions
'secure' : Everything is allowed in
'exrc' files, because they must be
explicitly marked as "trusted".
textauto
textmode
weirdinvert
Plugins:
logiPat
rrhelper
macmap.vim
tools/check_colors.vim
macros/{justify,matchit,shellmenu,swapmous}.vim: use packadd! justify etc.
directly
Providers:
if_lua : Nvim
Lua API is not compatible with Vim's "if_lua".
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.