vim_diff.txt Nvim
NVIM REFERENCE MANUAL
Differences between Nvim and Vim vim-differences
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.
Type gO to see the table of contents.
==============================================================================
Configuration nvim-config
User configuration and data files are found in standard base-directories
(see also $NVIM_APPNAME). Note in particular:
- 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
==============================================================================
Defaults defaults nvim-defaults
- 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.
- 'autoindent' is enabled
- '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
- 'belloff' defaults to "all"
- 'comments' includes "fb:•"
- 'commentstring' defaults to ""
- 'compatible' is always disabled
- 'complete' excludes "i"
- 'completeopt' defaults to "menu,popup"
- 'define' defaults to "". The C ftplugin sets it to "^\\s*#\\s*define"
- 'diffopt' defaults to "internal,filler,closeoff,linematch:40"
- 'directory' defaults to ~/.local/state/nvim/swap// (xdg), auto-created
- 'display' defaults to "lastline"
- 'encoding' is UTF-8 (cf. 'fileencoding' for file-content encoding)
- 'fillchars' defaults (in effect) to "vert:│,fold:·,foldsep:│"
- 'formatoptions' defaults to "tcqj"
- 'grepprg' uses the -H and -I flags for regular grep,
and defaults to using ripgrep if available
- 'hidden' is enabled
- 'history' defaults to 10000 (the maximum)
- 'hlsearch' is enabled
- 'include' defaults to "". The C ftplugin sets it to "^\\s*#\\s*include"
- 'incsearch' is enabled
- 'isfname' does not include ":" (on Windows). Drive letters are handled
correctly without it. (Use gF for filepaths suffixed with ":line:col").
- 'joinspaces' is disabled
- 'jumpoptions' defaults to "clean"
- 'langnoremap' is enabled
- 'langremap' is disabled
- 'laststatus' defaults to 2 (statusline is always shown)
- 'listchars' defaults to "tab:> ,trail:-,nbsp:+"
- 'mouse' defaults to "nvi", see default-mouse for details
- 'mousemodel' defaults to "popup_setpos"
- 'nrformats' defaults to "bin,hex"
- 'path' defaults to ".,,". The C ftplugin adds "/usr/include" if it exists.
- 'ruler' is enabled
- 'sessionoptions' includes "unix,slash", excludes "options"
- 'shortmess' includes "CF", excludes "S"
- 'showcmd' is enabled
- 'sidescroll' defaults to 1
- 'smarttab' is enabled
- 'startofline' is disabled
- 'switchbuf' defaults to "uselast"
- 'tabpagemax' defaults to 50
- 'tags' defaults to "./tags;,tags"
- 'termguicolors' is enabled by default if Nvim can detect support from the
host terminal
- 'ttimeout' is enabled
- 'ttimeoutlen' defaults to 50
- 'ttyfast' is always set
- 'undodir' defaults to ~/.local/state/nvim/undo// (xdg), auto-created
- 'viewoptions' includes "unix,slash", excludes "options"
- 'viminfo' includes "!"
- 'wildoptions' defaults to "pum,tagfile"
- 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
- g:vimsyn_embed defaults to "l" to enable Lua highlighting
DEFAULT MOUSE
default-mouse disable-mouse
By default the mouse is enabled. This means scroll-mouse-wheel will scroll
the window instead of moving the cursor; <LeftMouse> click places the cursor;
and <RightMouse> click opens the default popup-menu with standard actions.
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".
- Y Y-default
- <C-U> i_CTRL-U-default
- <C-W> i_CTRL-W-default
- <C-L> CTRL-L-default
- & &-default
- Q v_Q-default
- @ v_@-default
- # v_#-default
- * v_star-default
- gc gc-default v_gc-default o_gc-default
- gcc gcc-default
- gr prefix gr-default
- grn
- grr
- gra
- gri
- gO
- <C-S> i_CTRL-S
- ]d ]d-default
- [d [d-default
- [D [D-default
- ]D ]D-default
- <C-W>d CTRL-W_d-default
- [q, ]q, [Q, ]Q, [CTRL-Q, ]CTRL-Q
- [l, ]l, [L, ]L, [CTRL-L, ]CTRL-L
- [t, ]t, [T, ]T, [CTRL-T, ]CTRL-T
- [a, ]a, [A, ]A
- [b, ]b, [B, ]B
- [<Space>, ]<Space>
- Nvim LSP client defaults lsp-defaults
- K K-lsp-default
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:
- BufReadCmd: Treats "term://" buffers as terminal buffers. terminal-start
- 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:
- 'nomodifiable'
- 'undolevels' set to -1
- 'textwidth' set to 0
- 'nowrap'
- 'nolist'
- 'nonumber'
- 'norelativenumber'
- 'signcolumn' set to "no"
- 'foldcolumn' set to "0"
- 'winhighlight' uses hl-StatusLineTerm and hl-StatusLineTermNC in
place of hl-StatusLine and hl-StatusLineNC
- [[ 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.
==============================================================================
New Features nvim-features
MAJOR COMPONENTS
- API API
- Job control job-control
- LSP framework lsp
- Lua scripting lua
- Parsing engine treesitter
- Providers
- Clipboard provider-clipboard
- Node.js plugins provider-nodejs
- Python plugins provider-python
- Ruby plugins provider-ruby
- Remote plugins remote-plugin
- Shared data shada
- Terminal emulator terminal
- UI ui --listen --server
- Vimscript parser nvim_parse_expression()
- XDG base directories xdg
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:
- Directories for 'directory' and 'undodir' are auto-created.
- Terminal features such as 'guicursor' are enabled where possible.
- Various "nvim" cli-arguments were redesigned.
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:
- 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
- (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:
- :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.
Events (autocommands):
- Fixed inconsistent behavior in execution of nested autocommands #23368
- RecordingEnter
- RecordingLeave
- SearchWrapped
- Signal
- TabNewEntered
- TermClose
- TermOpen
- TermResponse is fired for any OSC sequence received from the terminal,
instead of the Primary Device Attributes response. v:termresponse
- UIEnter
- UILeave
Functions:
- dictwatcheradd() notifies a callback whenever a Dict is modified
- dictwatcherdel()
- menu_get()
- msgpackdump(), msgpackparse() provide msgpack de/serialization
- stdpath()
- system(), systemlist() can run {cmd} directly (without 'shell')
- matchadd() can be called before highlight group is defined
- tempname() tries to recover if the Nvim tempdir disappears.
- writefile() with "p" flag creates parent directories.
Highlight groups:
- highlight-blend controls blend level for a highlight group
- expr-highlight highlight groups (prefixed with "Nvim")
- hl-NormalFloat highlights floating window
- hl-FloatBorder highlights border of a floating window
- hl-FloatTitle highlights title of a floating window
- hl-FloatFooter highlights footer of a floating window
- hl-NormalNC highlights non-current windows
- hl-MsgArea highlights messages/cmdline area
- hl-MsgSeparator highlights separator for scrolled messages
- hl-Substitute
- hl-TermCursor
- hl-WinSeparator highlights window separators
- hl-Whitespace highlights 'listchars' whitespace
- hl-WinBar highlights 'winbar'
- hl-WinBarNC highlights non-current window 'winbar'
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.
- ALT may behave like <Esc> if not mapped. i_ALT v_ALT c_ALT
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.
- 'ambiwidth' cannot be set to empty.
- 'autoread' works in the terminal (if it supports "focus" events)
- 'background' cannot be set to empty.
- 'cpoptions' flags: cpo-_
- 'eadirection' cannot be set to empty.
- 'exrc' searches for ".nvim.lua", ".nvimrc", or ".exrc" files. The
user is prompted whether to trust the file.
- 'fileformat' cannot be set to empty.
- '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'
- "view" tries to restore mark-view when moving through the jumplist.
- "clean" removes unloaded buffers from the jumplist.
- the jumplist, changelist, alternate-file or using mark-motions.
- 'laststatus' global statusline support
- 'mousemodel' cannot be set to empty.
- 'mousescroll' amount to scroll by when scrolling with a mouse
- 'pumblend' pseudo-transparent popupmenu
- 'scrollback'
- 'shortmess'
- "F" flag does not affect output from autocommands.
- "q" flag fully hides macro recording message.
- 'showcmdloc' cannot be set to empty.
- 'signcolumn' can show multiple signs (dynamic or fixed columns)
- 'statuscolumn' full control of columns using 'statusline' format
- 'statusline' default is exposed as a statusline expression.
- 'splitkeep' cannot be set to empty.
- 'tabline' middle-click on tabpage label closes tabpage,
and %@Func@foo%X can call any function on mouse-click
- 'termpastefilter'
- 'ttimeout', 'ttimeoutlen' behavior was simplified
- 'winblend' pseudo-transparency in floating windows api-floatwin
- 'winhighlight' window-local highlights
Performance:
- Signs are implemented using Nvim's internal "marktree" (btree) structure.
- Folds are not updated during insert-mode.
Providers:
- If a Python interpreter is available on your $PATH, :python and
:python3 are always available. See provider-python.
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:
- 'signcolumn' can show multiple 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
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. 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.
UI/Display:
- Visual selection highlights the character at cursor. visual-use
- 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'. msgsep
Variables:
- v:progpath is always absolute ("full")
- v:windowid is always available (for use by external UIs)
- OptionSet autocommand args v:option_new, v:option_old,
- v:option_oldlocal, v:option_oldglobal have the type of the option
instead of always being strings. v:option_old is now the old global value
for all global-local options, instead of just string global-local options.
Vimscript:
- :redir nested in execute() works.
==============================================================================
Upstreamed features nvim-upstreamed
These Nvim features were later integrated into Vim.
- 'diffopt' "linematch" feature
- 'fillchars' flags: "eob"
- 'jumpoptions' "stack" behavior
- 'wildoptions' flags: "pum" enables popupmenu for wildmode completion
- <Cmd>
- WinClosed
- WinScrolled
- :sign-define "numhl" argument
- :source works with anonymous (no file) scripts
- 'statusline' supports unlimited alignment sections
==============================================================================
Other changes nvim-changed
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:
- 1. It may output msgpack-special-dict.
- 2. msgpack-special-dict is emitted also in case of duplicate keys, while
in Vim it errors out.
- 3. It accepts only valid JSON. Trailing commas are not accepted.
json_encode() behaviour slightly changed: now msgpack-special-dict values
are accepted, but v:none is not.
Viminfo text files were replaced with binary (messagepack) shada files.
Additional differences:
- shada-c has no effect.
- 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.
- :wviminfo was renamed to :wshada, :rviminfo to :rshada. Old
commands are still kept.
- 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
- ShaDa file keeps search direction (v:searchforward), viminfo does not.
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.
c_CTRL-R pasting a non-special register into cmdline omits the last <CR>.
CursorMoved triggers when moving between windows.
Lua interface (lua.txt):
- `: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: Error executing lua: [string "<Vimscript compiled string>"]:1: TEST
whereas Vim emits only "TEST".
- Lua has direct access to Nvim API via vim.api.
- Lua package.path and package.cpath are automatically updated according to
'runtimepath'. lua-module-load
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-CursorLine is low-priority unless foreground color is set
- hl-VertSplit superseded by hl-WinSeparator
- 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).
- hl-StatusLineTerm hl-StatusLineTermNC are implemented as 'winhighlight'
window-local highlights which are set by the default TermOpen handler.
- The ins-completion-menu has cascading highlight styles. hl-PmenuSel and
hl-PmenuMatch both inherit from hl-Pmenu, and hl-PmenuMatchSel
inherits highlights from both hl-PmenuSel and hl-PmenuMatch.
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
Vimscript compatibility:
- count does not alias to v:count
- errmsg does not alias to v:errmsg
- shell_error does not alias to v:shell_error
- this_session does not alias to v:this_session
Working directory (Vim implemented some of these after Nvim):
- DirChanged and DirChangedPre can be triggered when switching to another
window or tab.
- getcwd() and haslocaldir() may throw errors if the tab page or window
cannot be found. E5000 E5001 E5002
- 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`.
==============================================================================
Missing features nvim-missing
These legacy Vim features are not yet implemented:
- :gui
- :gvim
- 'browsedir' 'bsdir'
-
- 'guioptions' 'go'
- 'guitablabel' 'gtl'
- 'guitabtooltip' 'gtt'
- 'mouseshape' 'mouses'
-
==============================================================================
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 :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
- X11 integration (see x11-selection)
Cscope:
cscope
- Cscope support was removed in favour of plugin-based solutions such as:
https://github.com/dhananjaylatkar/cscope_maps.nvim
Eval:
- Vim9script (the Vim 9+ flavor of Vimscript) is not supported.
- cscope_connection()
- err_teapot()
- js_encode()
- js_decode()
- v:none (used by Vim to represent JavaScript "undefined"); use v:null instead.
- v:sizeofint
- v:sizeoflong
- v:sizeofpointer
Events:
- SafeStateAgain
- SigUSR1 Use Signal to detect SIGUSR1 signal instead.
Options:
- 'aleph' 'al'
- antialias
- 'backspace' no longer supports number values. Instead:
- 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
- 'balloondelay' 'bdlay'
- 'ballooneval' 'beval' 'noballooneval' 'nobeval'
- 'balloonexpr' 'bexpr'
- bioskey (MS-DOS)
- conskey (MS-DOS)
- 'cp' 'nocompatible' 'nocp' 'compatible' (Nvim is always "nocompatible".)
- 'cpoptions' (gjpkHw<*- 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.
- 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, …).
- 'imactivatefunc' 'imaf'
- 'imactivatekey' 'imak'
- 'imcmdline' 'imc' 'noimcmdline' 'noimc'
- 'imdisable' 'imd' 'noimdisable' 'noimd'
- '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 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.
- 'opendevice' 'odev' 'noopendevice' 'noodev'
- printoptions
- 'printdevice'
- 'printencoding'
- 'printexpr'
- 'printfont'
-
- 'printmbcharset'
- 'prompt' 'noprompt'
- 'remap' 'noremap'
- 'restorescreen' 'rs' 'norestorescreen' 'nors'
- 'secure' : Everything is allowed in 'exrc' files, because they must be
explicitly marked as "trusted".
- 'shelltype'
- 'shortmess' flags: shm-f shm-n shm-x shm-i (behave like always on)
- '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
Plugins:
- logiPat
- rrhelper
- vimball
- 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".
- if_mzscheme
- if_pyth: python-bindeval python-Function are not supported.
- if_tcl
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.
termcap
- Nvim never uses the termcap database, only terminfo and builtin-terms.
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.
==============================================================================
vim:tw=78:ts=8:sw=2:et:ft=help:norl: