Vim documentation: various
main help file*various.txt* For Vim version 7.2. Last change: 2008 Aug 06 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar Various commands *various* 1. Various commands |various-cmds| 2. Online help |online-help| 3. Using Vim like less or more |less|
1. Various commands *various-cmds* *CTRL-L* CTRL-L Clear and redraw the screen. The redraw may happen later, after processing typeahead. *:redr* *:redraw* :redr[aw][!] Redraw the screen right now. When ! is included it is cleared first. Useful to update the screen halfway executing a script or function. Also when halfway a mapping and 'lazyredraw' is set. *:redraws* *:redrawstatus* :redraws[tatus][!] Redraw the status line of the current window. When ! is included all status lines are redrawn. Useful to update the status line(s) when 'statusline' includes an item that doesn't cause automatic updating. *N<Del>* <Del> When entering a number: Remove the last digit. Note: if you like to use <BS> for this, add this mapping to your .vimrc: :map CTRL-V <BS> CTRL-V <Del> See |:fixdel| if your <Del> key does not do what you want. :as[cii] or *ga* *:as* *:ascii* ga Print the ascii value of the character under the cursor in decimal, hexadecimal and octal. For example, when the cursor is on a 'R': <R> 82, Hex 52, Octal 122 When the character is a non-standard ASCII character, but printable according to the 'isprint' option, the non-printable version is also given. When the character is larger than 127, the <M-x> form is also printed. For example: <~A> <M-^A> 129, Hex 81, Octal 201 <p> <|~> <M-~> 254, Hex fe, Octal 376 (where <p> is a special character) The <Nul> character in a file is stored internally as <NL>, but it will be shown as: <^@> 0, Hex 00, Octal 000 If the character has composing characters these are also shown. The value of 'maxcombine' doesn't matter. Mnemonic: Get Ascii value. {not in Vi} *g8* g8 Print the hex values of the bytes used in the character under the cursor, assuming it is in |UTF-8| encoding. This also shows composing characters. The value of 'maxcombine' doesn't matter. Example of a character with two composing characters: e0 b8 81 + e0 b8 b9 + e0 b9 89 {not in Vi} {only when compiled with the |+multi_byte| feature} *8g8* 8g8 Find an illegal UTF-8 byte sequence at or after the cursor. This works in two situations: 1. when 'encoding' is any 8-bit encoding 2. when 'encoding' is "utf-8" and 'fileencoding' is any 8-bit encoding Thus it can be used when editing a file that was supposed to be UTF-8 but was read as if it is an 8-bit encoding because it contains illegal bytes. Does not wrap around the end of the file. Note that when the cursor is on an illegal byte or the cursor is halfway a multi-byte character the command won't move the cursor. {not in Vi} {only when compiled with the |+multi_byte| feature} *:p* *:pr* *:print* *E749* :[range]p[rint] [flags] Print [range] lines (default current line). Note: If you are looking for a way to print your text on paper see |:hardcopy|. In the GUI you can use the File.Print menu entry. See |ex-flags| for [flags]. :[range]p[rint] {count} [flags] Print {count} lines, starting with [range] (default current line |cmdline-ranges|). See |ex-flags| for [flags]. *:P* *:Print* :[range]P[rint] [count] [flags] Just as ":print". Was apparently added to Vi for people that keep the shift key pressed too long... See |ex-flags| for [flags]. *:l* *:list* :[range]l[ist] [count] [flags] Same as :print, but display unprintable characters with '^' and put $ after the line. See |ex-flags| for [flags]. *:nu* *:number* :[range]nu[mber] [count] [flags] Same as :print, but precede each line with its line number. (See also 'highlight' and 'numberwidth' option). See |ex-flags| for [flags]. *:#* :[range]# [count] [flags] synonym for :number. *:#!* :#!{anything} Ignored, so that you can start a Vim script with: #!vim -S echo "this is a Vim script" quit *:z* *E144* :{range}z[+-^.=]{count} Display several lines of text surrounding the line specified with {range}, or around the current line if there is no {range}. If there is a {count}, that's how many lines you'll see; if there is only one window then the 'window' option is used, otherwise the current window size is used. :z can be used either alone or followed by any of several punctuation marks. These have the following effect: mark first line last line new location ---- ---------- --------- ------------ + current line 1 scr forward 1 scr forward - 1 scr back current line current line ^ 2 scr back 1 scr back 1 scr back . 1/2 scr back 1/2 scr fwd 1/2 scr fwd = 1/2 scr back 1/2 scr fwd current line Specifying no mark at all is the same as "+". If the mark is "=", a line of dashes is printed around the current line. :{range}z#[+-^.=]{count} *:z#* Like ":z", but number the lines. {not in all versions of Vi, not with these arguments} *:=* := [flags] Print the last line number. See |ex-flags| for [flags]. :{range}= [flags] Prints the last line number in {range}. For example, this prints the current line number: :.= See |ex-flags| for [flags]. :norm[al][!] {commands} *:norm* *:normal* Execute Normal mode commands {commands}. This makes it possible to execute Normal mode commands typed on the command-line. {commands} is executed like it is typed. For undo all commands are undone together. Execution stops when an error is encountered. If the [!] is given, mappings will not be used. {commands} should be a complete command. If {commands} does not finish a command, the last one will be aborted as if <Esc> or <C-C> was typed. The display isn't updated while ":normal" is busy. This implies that an insert command must be completed (to start Insert mode, see |:startinsert|). A ":" command must be completed as well. And you can't use "Q" or "gQ" to start Ex mode. {commands} cannot start with a space. Put a 1 (one) before it, 1 space is one space. The 'insertmode' option is ignored for {commands}. This command cannot be followed by another command, since any '|' is considered part of the command. This command can be used recursively, but the depth is limited by 'maxmapdepth'. When this command is called from a non-remappable mapping |:noremap|, the argument can be mapped anyway. An alternative is to use |:execute|, which uses an expression as argument. This allows the use of printable characters. Example: :exe "normal \<c-w>\<c-w>" {not in Vi, of course} {not available when the |+ex_extra| feature was disabled at compile time} :{range}norm[al][!] {commands} *:normal-range* Execute Normal mode commands {commands} for each line in the {range}. Before executing the {commands}, the cursor is positioned in the first column of the range, for each line. Otherwise it's the same as the ":normal" command without a range. {not in Vi} Not available when |+ex_extra| feature was disabled at compile time. *:sh* *:shell* *E371* :sh[ell] This command starts a shell. When the shell exits (after the "exit" command) you return to Vim. The name for the shell command comes from 'shell' option. *E360* Note: This doesn't work when Vim on the Amiga was started in QuickFix mode from a compiler, because the compiler will have set stdin to a non-interactive mode. *:!cmd* *:!* *E34* :!{cmd} Execute {cmd} with the shell. See also the 'shell' and 'shelltype' option. Any '!' in {cmd} is replaced with the previous external command (see also 'cpoptions'). But not when there is a backslash before the '!', then that backslash is removed. Example: ":!ls" followed by ":!echo ! \! \\!" executes "echo ls ! \!". After the command has been executed, the timestamp of the current file is checked |timestamp|. A '|' in {cmd} is passed to the shell, you cannot use it to append a Vim command. See |:bar|. A newline character ends {cmd}, what follows is interpreted as a following ":" command. However, if there is a backslash before the newline it is removed and {cmd} continues. It doesn't matter how many backslashes are before the newline, only one is removed. On Unix the command normally runs in a non-interactive shell. If you want an interactive shell to be used (to use aliases) set 'shellcmdflag' to "-ic". For Win32 also see |:!start|. Vim redraws the screen after the command is finished, because it may have printed any text. This requires a hit-enter prompt, so that you can read any messages. To avoid this use: :silent !{cmd} The screen is not redrawn then, thus you have to use CTRL-L or ":redraw!" if the command did display something. Also see |shell-window|. *:!!* :!! Repeat last ":!{cmd}". *:ve* *:version* :ve[rsion] Print the version number of the editor. If the compiler used understands "__DATE__" the compilation date is mentioned. Otherwise a fixed release-date is shown. The following lines contain information about which features were enabled when Vim was compiled. When there is a preceding '+', the feature is included, when there is a '-' it is excluded. To change this, you have to edit feature.h and recompile Vim. To check for this in an expression, see |has()|. Here is an overview of the features. The first column shows the smallest version in which they are included: T tiny S small N normal B big H huge m manually enabled or depends on other features (none) system dependent Thus if a feature is marked with "N", it is included in the normal, big and huge versions of Vim. *+feature-list* *+ARP* Amiga only: ARP support included B *+arabic* |Arabic| language support N *+autocmd* |:autocmd|, automatic commands m *+balloon_eval* |balloon-eval| support. Included when compiling with supported GUI (Motif, GTK, GUI) and either Netbeans/Sun Workshop integration or |+eval| feature. N *+browse* |:browse| command N *+builtin_terms* some terminals builtin |builtin-terms| B *++builtin_terms* maximal terminals builtin |builtin-terms| N *+byte_offset* support for 'o' flag in 'statusline' option, "go" and ":goto" commands. N *+cindent* |'cindent'|, C indenting N *+clientserver* Unix and Win32: Remote invocation |clientserver| *+clipboard* |clipboard| support N *+cmdline_compl* command line completion |cmdline-completion| N *+cmdline_hist* command line history |cmdline-history| N *+cmdline_info* |'showcmd'| and |'ruler'| N *+comments* |'comments'| support N *+cryptv* encryption support |encryption| B *+cscope* |cscope| support m *+cursorshape* |termcap-cursor-shape| support m *+debug* Compiled for debugging. N *+dialog_gui* Support for |:confirm| with GUI dialog. N *+dialog_con* Support for |:confirm| with console dialog. N *+dialog_con_gui* Support for |:confirm| with GUI and console dialog. N *+diff* |vimdiff| and 'diff' N *+digraphs* |digraphs| *E196* *+dnd* Support for DnD into the "~ register |quote_~|. B *+emacs_tags* |emacs-tags| files N *+eval* expression evaluation |eval.txt| N *+ex_extra* Vim's extra Ex commands: |:center|, |:left|, |:normal|, |:retab| and |:right| N *+extra_search* |'hlsearch'| and |'incsearch'| options. B *+farsi* |farsi| language N *+file_in_path* |gf|, |CTRL-W_f| and |<cfile>| N *+find_in_path* include file searches: |[I|, |:isearch|, |CTRL-W_CTRL-I|, |:checkpath|, etc. N *+folding* |folding| *+footer* |gui-footer| *+fork* Unix only: |fork| shell commands *+float* Floating point support N *+gettext* message translations |multi-lang| *+GUI_Athena* Unix only: Athena |GUI| *+GUI_neXtaw* Unix only: neXtaw |GUI| *+GUI_GTK* Unix only: GTK+ |GUI| *+GUI_Motif* Unix only: Motif |GUI| *+GUI_Photon* QNX only: Photon |GUI| m *+hangul_input* Hangul input support |hangul| *+iconv* Compiled with the |iconv()| function *+iconv/dyn* Likewise |iconv-dynamic| |/dyn| N *+insert_expand* |insert_expand| Insert mode completion N *+jumplist* |jumplist| B *+keymap* |'keymap'| B *+langmap* |'langmap'| N *+libcall* |libcall()| N *+linebreak* |'linebreak'|, |'breakat'| and |'showbreak'| N *+lispindent* |'lisp'| N *+listcmds* Vim commands for the list of buffers |buffer-hidden| and argument list |:argdelete| N *+localmap* Support for mappings local to a buffer |:map-local| N *+menu* |:menu| N *+mksession* |:mksession| N *+modify_fname* |filename-modifiers| N *+mouse* Mouse handling |mouse-using| N *+mouseshape* |'mouseshape'| B *+mouse_dec* Unix only: Dec terminal mouse handling |dec-mouse| N *+mouse_gpm* Unix only: Linux console mouse handling |gpm-mouse| B *+mouse_netterm* Unix only: netterm mouse handling |netterm-mouse| N *+mouse_pterm* QNX only: pterm mouse handling |qnx-terminal| N *+mouse_sysmouse* Unix only: *BSD console mouse handling |sysmouse| N *+mouse_xterm* Unix only: xterm mouse handling |xterm-mouse| B *+multi_byte* Korean and other languages |multibyte| *+multi_byte_ime* Win32 input method for multibyte chars |multibyte-ime| N *+multi_lang* non-English language support |multi-lang| m *+mzscheme* Mzscheme interface |mzscheme| m *+mzscheme/dyn* Mzscheme interface |mzscheme-dynamic| |/dyn| m *+netbeans_intg* |netbeans| m *+ole* Win32 GUI only: |ole-interface| *+osfiletype* Support for the 'osfiletype' option and filetype checking in automatic commands. |autocmd-osfiletypes| N *+path_extra* Up/downwards search in 'path' and 'tags' m *+perl* Perl interface |perl| m *+perl/dyn* Perl interface |perl-dynamic| |/dyn| *+postscript* |:hardcopy| writes a PostScript file N *+printer* |:hardcopy| command H *+profile* |:profile| command m *+python* Python interface |python| m *+python/dyn* Python interface |python-dynamic| |/dyn| N *+quickfix* |:make| and |quickfix| commands N *+reltime* |reltime()| function, 'hlsearch'/'incsearch' timeout, 'redrawtime' option B *+rightleft* Right to left typing |'rightleft'| m *+ruby* Ruby interface |ruby| m *+ruby/dyn* Ruby interface |ruby-dynamic| |/dyn| N *+scrollbind* |'scrollbind'| B *+signs* |:sign| N *+smartindent* |'smartindent'| m *+sniff* SniFF interface |sniff| N *+statusline* Options 'statusline', 'rulerformat' and special formats of 'titlestring' and 'iconstring' m *+sun_workshop* |workshop| N *+syntax* Syntax highlighting |syntax| *+system()* Unix only: opposite of |+fork| N *+tag_binary* binary searching in tags file |tag-binary-search| N *+tag_old_static* old method for static tags |tag-old-static| m *+tag_any_white* any white space allowed in tags file |tag-any-white| m *+tcl* Tcl interface |tcl| m *+tcl/dyn* Tcl interface |tcl-dynamic| |/dyn| *+terminfo* uses |terminfo| instead of termcap N *+termresponse* support for |t_RV| and |v:termresponse| N *+textobjects* |text-objects| selection *+tgetent* non-Unix only: able to use external termcap N *+title* Setting the window 'title' and 'icon' N *+toolbar* |gui-toolbar| N *+user_commands* User-defined commands. |user-commands| N *+viminfo* |'viminfo'| N *+vertsplit* Vertically split windows |:vsplit| N *+virtualedit* |'virtualedit'| S *+visual* Visual mode |Visual-mode| N *+visualextra* extra Visual mode commands |blockwise-operators| N *+vreplace* |gR| and |gr| N *+wildignore* |'wildignore'| N *+wildmenu* |'wildmenu'| S *+windows* more than one window m *+writebackup* |'writebackup'| is default on m *+xim* X input method |xim| *+xfontset* X fontset support |xfontset| *+xsmp* XSMP (X session management) support *+xsmp_interact* interactive XSMP (X session management) support N *+xterm_clipboard* Unix only: xterm clipboard handling m *+xterm_save* save and restore xterm screen |xterm-screens| N *+X11* Unix only: can restore window title |X11| */dyn* *E370* *E448* To some of the features "/dyn" is added when the feature is only available when the related library can be dynamically loaded. :ve[rsion] {nr} Is now ignored. This was previously used to check the version number of a .vimrc file. It was removed, because you can now use the ":if" command for version-dependent behavior. {not in Vi} *:redi* *:redir* :redi[r][!] > {file} Redirect messages to file {file}. The messages which are the output of commands are written to that file, until redirection ends. The messages are also still shown on the screen. When [!] is included, an existing file is overwritten. When [!] is omitted, and {file} exists, this command fails. Only one ":redir" can be active at a time. Calls to ":redir" will close any active redirection before starting redirection to the new target. To stop the messages and commands from being echoed to the screen, put the commands in a function and call it with ":silent call Function()". An alternative is to use the 'verbosefile' option, this can be used in combination with ":redir". {not in Vi} :redi[r] >> {file} Redirect messages to file {file}. Append if {file} already exists. {not in Vi} :redi[r] @{a-zA-Z} :redi[r] @{a-zA-Z}> Redirect messages to register {a-z}. Append to the contents of the register if its name is given uppercase {A-Z}. The ">" after the register name is optional. {not in Vi} :redi[r] @{a-z}>> Append messages to register {a-z}. {not in Vi} :redi[r] @*> :redi[r] @+> Redirect messages to the selection or clipboard. For backward compatibility, the ">" after the register name can be omitted. See |quotestar| and |quoteplus|. {not in Vi} :redi[r] @*>> :redi[r] @+>> Append messages to the selection or clipboard. {not in Vi} :redi[r] @"> Redirect messages to the unnamed register. For backward compatibility, the ">" after the register name can be omitted. {not in Vi} :redi[r] @">> Append messages to the unnamed register. {not in Vi} :redi[r] => {var} Redirect messages to a variable. If the variable doesn't exist, then it is created. If the variable exists, then it is initialized to an empty string. The variable will remain empty until redirection ends. Only string variables can be used. After the redirection starts, if the variable is removed or locked or the variable type is changed, then further command output messages will cause errors. {not in Vi} :redi[r] =>> {var} Append messages to an existing variable. Only string variables can be used. {not in Vi} :redi[r] END End redirecting messages. {not in Vi} *:sil* *:silent* :sil[ent][!] {command} Execute {command} silently. Normal messages will not be given or added to the message history. When [!] is added, error messages will also be skipped, and commands and mappings will not be aborted when an error is detected. |v:errmsg| is still set. When [!] is not used, an error message will cause further messages to be displayed normally. Redirection, started with |:redir|, will continue as usual, although there might be small differences. This will allow redirecting the output of a command without seeing it on the screen. Example: :redir >/tmp/foobar :silent g/Aap/p :redir END To execute a Normal mode command silently, use the |:normal| command. For example, to search for a string without messages: :silent exe "normal /path\<CR>" ":silent!" is useful to execute a command that may fail, but the failure is to be ignored. Example: :let v:errmsg = "" :silent! /^begin :if v:errmsg != "" : ... pattern was not found ":silent" will also avoid the hit-enter prompt. When using this for an external command, this may cause the screen to be messed up. Use |CTRL-L| to clean it up then. ":silent menu ..." defines a menu that will not echo a Command-line command. The command will still produce messages though. Use ":silent" in the command itself to avoid that: ":silent menu .... :silent command". *:uns* *:unsilent* :uns[ilent] {command} Execute {command} not silently. Only makes a difference when |:silent| was used to get to this command. Use this for giving a message even when |:silent| was used. In this example |:silent| is used to avoid the message about reading the file and |:unsilent| to be able to list the first line of each file. :silent argdo unsilent echo expand('%') . ": " . getline(1) *:verb* *:verbose* :[count]verb[ose] {command} Execute {command} with 'verbose' set to [count]. If [count] is omitted one is used. ":0verbose" can be used to set 'verbose' to zero. The additional use of ":silent" makes messages generated but not displayed. The combination of ":silent" and ":verbose" can be used to generate messages and check them with |v:statusmsg| and friends. For example: :let v:statusmsg = "" :silent verbose runtime foobar.vim :if v:statusmsg != "" : " foobar.vim could not be found :endif When concatenating another command, the ":verbose" only applies to the first one: :4verbose set verbose | set verbose verbose=4 verbose=0 For logging verbose messages in a file use the 'verbosefile' option. *:verbose-cmd* When 'verbose' is non-zero, listing the value of a Vim option or a key map or an abbreviation or a user-defined function or a command or a highlight group or an autocommand will also display where it was last defined. If it was defined manually then there will be no "Last set" message. When it was defined while executing a function, user command or autocommand, the script in which it was defined is reported. {not available when compiled without the +eval feature} *K* K Run a program to lookup the keyword under the cursor. The name of the program is given with the 'keywordprg' (kp) option (default is "man"). The keyword is formed of letters, numbers and the characters in 'iskeyword'. The keyword under or right of the cursor is used. The same can be done with the command :!{program} {keyword} There is an example of a program to use in the tools directory of Vim. It is called 'ref' and does a simple spelling check. Special cases: - If 'keywordprg' is empty, the ":help" command is used. It's a good idea to include more characters in 'iskeyword' then, to be able to find more help. - When 'keywordprg' is equal to "man", a count before "K" is inserted after the "man" command and before the keyword. For example, using "2K" while the cursor is on "mkdir", results in: !man 2 mkdir - When 'keywordprg' is equal to "man -s", a count before "K" is inserted after the "-s". If there is no count, the "-s" is removed. {not in Vi} *v_K* {Visual}K Like "K", but use the visually highlighted text for the keyword. Only works when the highlighted text is not more than one line. {not in Vi} [N]gs *gs* *:sl* *:sleep* :[N]sl[eep] [N] [m] Do nothing for [N] seconds. When [m] is included, sleep for [N] milliseconds. The count for "gs" always uses seconds. The default is one second. :sleep "sleep for one second :5sleep "sleep for five seconds :sleep 100m "sleep for a hundred milliseconds 10gs "sleep for ten seconds Can be interrupted with CTRL-C (CTRL-Break on MS-DOS). "gs" stands for "goto sleep". While sleeping the cursor is positioned in the text, if at a visible position. {not in Vi} *g_CTRL-A* g CTRL-A Only when Vim was compiled with MEM_PROFILING defined (which is very rare): print memory usage statistics. Only useful for debugging Vim.
2. Online help *online-help* *help* *<Help>* *:h* *:help* *<F1>* *i_<F1>* *i_<Help>* <Help> or :h[elp] Open a window and display the help file in read-only mode. If there is a help window open already, use that one. Otherwise, if the current window uses the full width of the screen or is at least 80 characters wide, the help window will appear just above the current window. Otherwise the new window is put at the very top. The 'helplang' option is used to select a language, if the main help file is available in several languages. {not in Vi} *{subject}* *E149* *E661* :h[elp] {subject} Like ":help", additionally jump to the tag {subject}. {subject} can include wildcards like "*", "?" and "[a-z]": :help z? jump to help for any "z" command :help z. jump to the help for "z." If there is no full match for the pattern, or there are several matches, the "best" match will be used. A sophisticated algorithm is used to decide which match is better than another one. These items are considered in the computation: - A match with same case is much better than a match with different case. - A match that starts after a non-alphanumeric character is better than a match in the middle of a word. - A match at or near the beginning of the tag is better than a match further on. - The more alphanumeric characters match, the better. - The shorter the length of the match, the better. The 'helplang' option is used to select a language, if the {subject} is available in several languages. To find a tag in a specific language, append "@ab", where "ab" is the two-letter language code. See |help-translated|. Note that the longer the {subject} you give, the less matches will be found. You can get an idea how this all works by using commandline completion (type CTRL-D after ":help subject"). If there are several matches, you can have them listed by hitting CTRL-D. Example: :help cont<Ctrl-D> To use a regexp |pattern|, first do ":help" and then use ":tag {pattern}" in the help window. The ":tnext" command can then be used to jump to other matches, "tselect" to list matches and choose one. :help index| :tse z. When there is no argument you will see matches for "help", to avoid listing all possible matches (that would be very slow). The number of matches displayed is limited to 300. This command can be followed by '|' and another command, but you don't need to escape the '|' inside a help command. So these both work: :help | :help k| only Note that a space before the '|' is seen as part of the ":help" argument. You can also use <LF> or <CR> to separate the help command from a following command. You need to type CTRL-V first to insert the <LF> or <CR>. Example: :help so<C-V><CR>only {not in Vi} :h[elp]! [subject] Like ":help", but in non-English help files prefer to find a tag in a file with the same language as the current file. See |help-translated|. *:helpg* *:helpgrep* :helpg[rep] {pattern}[@xx] Search all help text files and make a list of lines in which {pattern} matches. Jumps to the first match. The optional [@xx] specifies that only matches in the "xx" language are to be found. You can navigate through the matches with the |quickfix| commands, e.g., |:cnext| to jump to the next one. Or use |:cwindow| to get the list of matches in the quickfix window. {pattern} is used as a Vim regexp |pattern|. 'ignorecase' is not used, add "\c" to ignore case. Example for case sensitive search: :helpgrep Uganda Example for case ignoring search: :helpgrep uganda\c Example for searching in French help: :helpgrep backspace@fr The pattern does not support line breaks, it must match within one line. You can use |:grep| instead, but then you need to get the list of help files in a complicated way. Cannot be followed by another command, everything is used as part of the pattern. But you can use |:execute| when needed. Compressed help files will not be searched (Fedora compresses the help files). {not in Vi} *:lh* *:lhelpgrep* :lh[elpgrep] {pattern}[@xx] Same as ":helpgrep", except the location list is used instead of the quickfix list. If the help window is already opened, then the location list for that window is used. Otherwise, a new help window is opened and the location list for that window is set. The location list for the current window is not changed. *:exu* *:exusage* :exu[sage] Show help on Ex commands. Added to simulate the Nvi command. {not in Vi} *:viu* *:viusage* :viu[sage] Show help on Normal mode commands. Added to simulate the Nvi command. {not in Vi} When no argument is given to |:help| the file given with the 'helpfile' option will be opened. Otherwise the specified tag is searched for in all "doc/tags" files in the directories specified in the 'runtimepath' option. The initial height of the help window can be set with the 'helpheight' option (default 20). Jump to specific subjects by using tags. This can be done in two ways: - Use the "CTRL-]" command while standing on the name of a command or option. This only works when the tag is a keyword. "<C-Leftmouse>" and "g<LeftMouse>" work just like "CTRL-]". - use the ":ta {subject}" command. This also works with non-keyword characters. Use CTRL-T or CTRL-O to jump back. Use ":q" to close the help window. If there are several matches for an item you are looking for, this is how you can jump to each one of them: 1. Open a help window 2. Use the ":tag" command with a slash prepended to the tag. E.g.: :tag /min 3. Use ":tnext" to jump to the next matching tag. It is possible to add help files for plugins and other items. You don't need to change the distributed help files for that. See |add-local-help|. To write a local help file, see |write-local-help|. Note that the title lines from the local help files are automagically added to the "LOCAL ADDITIONS" section in the "help.txt" help file |local-additions|. This is done when viewing the file in Vim, the file itself is not changed. It is done by going through all help files and obtaining the first line of each file. The files in $VIMRUNTIME/doc are skipped. *help-xterm-window* If you want to have the help in another xterm window, you could use this command: :!xterm -e vim +help & *:helpfind* *:helpf* :helpf[ind] Like |:help|, but use a dialog to enter the argument. Only for backwards compatibility. It now executes the ToolBar.FindHelp menu entry instead of using a builtin dialog. {only when compiled with YXXY+GUI_GTK|} < {not in Vi} *:helpt* *:helptags* *E154* *E150* *E151* *E152* *E153* *E670* :helpt[ags] [++t] {dir} Generate the help tags file(s) for directory {dir}. All "*.txt" and "*.??x" files in the directory are scanned for a help tag definition in between stars. The "*.??x" files are for translated docs, they generate the "tags-??" file, see |help-translated|. The generated tags files are sorted. When there are duplicates an error message is given. An existing tags file is silently overwritten. The optional "++t" argument forces adding the "help-tags" tag. This is also done when the {dir} is equal to $VIMRUNTIME/doc. To rebuild the help tags in the runtime directory (requires write permission there): :helptags $VIMRUNTIME/doc {not in Vi} TRANSLATED HELP *help-translated* It is possible to add translated help files, next to the original English help files. Vim will search for all help in "doc" directories in 'runtimepath'. This is only available when compiled with the |+multi_lang| feature. At this moment translations are available for: Chinese - multiple authors French - translated by David Blanchet Italian - translated by Antonio Colombo Polish - translated by Mikolaj Machowski Russian - translated by Vassily Ragosin See the Vim website to find them: http://www.vim.org/translations.php A set of translated help files consists of these files: help.abx howto.abx ... tags-ab "ab" is the two-letter language code. Thus for Italian the names are: help.itx howto.itx ... tags-it The 'helplang' option can be set to the preferred language(s). The default is set according to the environment. Vim will first try to find a matching tag in the preferred language(s). English is used when it cannot be found. To find a tag in a specific language, append "@ab" to a tag, where "ab" is the two-letter language code. Example: :he user-manual@it :he user-manual@en The first one finds the Italian user manual, even when 'helplang' is empty. The second one finds the English user manual, even when 'helplang' is set to "it". When using command-line completion for the ":help" command, the "@en" extension is only shown when a tag exists for multiple languages. When the tag only exists for English "@en" is omitted. When using |CTRL-]| or ":help!" in a non-English help file Vim will try to find the tag in the same language. If not found then 'helplang' will be used to select a language. Help files must use latin1 or utf-8 encoding. Vim assumes the encoding is utf-8 when finding non-ASCII characters in the first line. Thus you must translate the header with "For Vim version". The same encoding must be used for the help files of one language in one directory. You can use a different encoding for different languages and use a different encoding for help files of the same language but in a different directory. Hints for translators: - Do not translate the tags. This makes it possible to use 'helplang' to specify the preferred language. You may add new tags in your language. - When you do not translate a part of a file, add tags to the English version, using the "tag@en" notation. - Make a package with all the files and the tags file available for download. Users can drop it in one of the "doc" directories and start use it. Report this to Bram, so that he can add a link on www.vim.org. - Use the |:helptags| command to generate the tags files. It will find all languages in the specified directory.
3. Using Vim like less or more *less* If you use the less or more program to view a file, you don't get syntax highlighting. Thus you would like to use Vim instead. You can do this by using the shell script "$VIMRUNTIME/macros/less.sh". This shell script uses the Vim script "$VIMRUNTIME/macros/less.vim". It sets up mappings to simulate the commands that less supports. Otherwise, you can still use the Vim commands. This isn't perfect. For example, when viewing a short file Vim will still use the whole screen. But it works good enough for most uses, and you get syntax highlighting. The "h" key will give you a short overview of the available commands. top - main help file