1NVIM(1) BSD General Commands Manual NVIM(1)
2
4 nvim — edit text
5
7 nvim [options] [file ...]
8 nvim [options] -
9 nvim [options] -t tag
10 nvim [options] -q [errorfile]
11
13 nvim is a text editor based on Vim. Start nvim followed by any number of
14 options and/or files:
15 nvim [options] [file ...]
17 Commands in nvim begin with colon (‘:’). Type ":help subject" to get
19 help on a specific subject. Use <Tab> and CTRL-D to complete subjects
20 (":help cmdline-completion").
21 The "quickref" help section is a condensed reference of editor features:
23 :help quickref
24 If you are new to Vim/Nvim, start with the 30-minute tutorial:
26 :Tutor
27 After installing/updating Nvim, it's a good idea to run the self-check:
29 :checkhealth
30 file ... File(s) to edit. Opens one buffer per file. To switch
32 between buffers, use the :next and :previous commands.
33 - Reads text from standard input until EOF, then opens a buffer
35 with that text. User input is read from standard error,
36 which should be a terminal.
37
39 -t tag Finds tag in the tags file, the associated file becomes the
40 current file and the associated command is executed. Cursor
41 is positioned at the tag location in the file. :help tag-
42 commands
43 -q [errorfile]
45 QuickFix mode. Display the first error in errorfile. If
46 errorfile is omitted, the value of the 'errorfile' option is
47 used (defaults to errors.err). Further errors can be jumped
48 to with the :cnext command. :help quickfix
49 -- End of options. Remaining arguments are treated as literal
51 file names, including filenames starting with hyphen (‘-’).
52 -e Ex mode, reading stdin as Ex commands. :help Ex-mode
54 -E Ex mode, reading stdin as text. :help Ex-mode
56 -es Silent (non-interactive) Ex mode, reading stdin as Ex com‐
58 mands. Useful for scripting because it does NOT start a UI,
59 unlike -e. :help silent-mode
60 -Es Silent (non-interactive) Ex mode, reading stdin as text.
62 Useful for scripting because it does NOT start a UI, unlike
63 -E. :help silent-mode
64 -d Diff mode. Show the difference between two to four files,
66 similar to sdiff(1). :help diff
67 -R Read-only mode. Sets the 'readonly' option. Implies -n.
69 Buffers can still be edited, but cannot be written to disk if
70 already associated with a file. To overwrite a file, add an
71 exclamation mark to the relevant Ex command, such as :w!.
72 :help 'readonly'
73 -Z Restricted mode. Disable commands that make use of an exter‐
75 nal shell.
76 -m Resets the 'write' option, to disable file modifications.
78 Writing to a file is disabled, but buffers can still be modi‐
79 fied.
80 -M Resets the 'write' and 'modifiable' options, to disable file
82 and buffer modifications.
83 -b Binary mode. :help edit-binary
85 -l Lisp mode. Sets the 'lisp' and 'showmatch' options.
87 -A Arabic mode. Sets the 'arabic' option.
89 -H Hebrew mode. Sets the 'hkmap' and 'rightleft' options.
91 -V[N][file]
93 Verbose mode. Prints debug messages. N is the 'verbose'
94 level, defaults to 10. If file is specified, append messages
95 to file instead of printing them. :help 'verbose'
96 -D Debug mode for VimL (Vim script). Started when executing the
98 first command from a script. :help debug-mode
99 -n Disable the use of swap files. Sets the 'updatecount' option
101 to 0. Can be useful for editing files on a slow medium.
102 -r [file] Recovery mode. If file is omitted then list swap files with
104 recovery information. Otherwise the swap file file is used
105 to recover a crashed session. The swap file has the same
106 name as the file it's associated with, but with ‘.swp’
107 appended. :help recovery
108 -L [file] Alias for -r.
110 -u vimrc Use vimrc instead of the default ~/.config/nvim/init.vim. If
112 vimrc is NORC, do not load any initialization files (except
113 plugins), and do not attempt to parse environment variables.
114 If vimrc is NONE, loading plugins is also skipped. :help
115 initialization
116 -i shada Use shada instead of the default
118 ~/.local/share/nvim/shada/main.shada. If shada is NONE, do
119 not read or write a ShaDa file. :help shada
120 --noplugin Skip loading plugins. Implied by -u NONE.
122 --clean Skip loading plugins and shada (viminfo) file.
124 -o[N] Open N windows stacked horizontally. If N is omitted, open
126 one window for each file. If N is less than the number of
127 file arguments, allocate windows for the first N files and
128 hide the rest.
129 -O[N] Like -o, but tile windows vertically.
131 -p[N] Like -o, but for tab pages.
133 +[linenum] For the first file, position the cursor on line linenum. If
135 linenum is omitted, position the cursor on the last line of
136 the file. +5 and -c 5 on the command-line are equivalent to
137 :5 inside nvim.
138 +/[pattern]
140 For the first file, position the cursor on the first occur‐
141 rence of pattern. If pattern is omitted, the most recent
142 search pattern is used (if any). +/foo and -c /foo on the
143 command-line are equivalent to /foo and :/foo inside nvim.
144 :help search-pattern
145 +command, -c command
147 Execute command after reading the first file. Up to 10
148 instances allowed. "+foo" and -c "foo" are equivalent.
149 --cmd command
151 Like -c, but execute command before processing any vimrc. Up
152 to 10 instances of these can be used independently from
153 instances of -c.
154 -S [session]
156 Source session after the first file argument has been read.
157 Equivalent to -c "source session". session cannot start with
158 a hyphen (‘-’). If session is omitted then Session.vim is
159 used, if found. :help session-file
160 -s scriptin
162 Read normal mode commands from scriptin. The same can be
163 done with the command :source! scriptin. If the end of the
164 file is reached before nvim exits, further characters are
165 read from the keyboard.
166 -w scriptout
168 Append all typed characters to scriptout. Can be used for
169 creating a script to be used with -s or :source!.
170 -W scriptout
172 Like -w, but truncate scriptout.
173 --startuptime file
175 During startup, append timing messages to file. Can be used
176 to diagnose slow startup times.
177 --api-info Dump API metadata serialized to msgpack and exit.
179 --embed Use standard input and standard output as a msgpack-rpc chan‐
181 nel. :help --embed
182 --headless Do not start a UI. When supplied with --embed this implies
184 that the embedding application does not intend to (immedi‐
185 ately) start a UI. Also useful for "scraping" messages in a
186 pipe. :help --headless
187 --listen address
189 Start RPC server on this pipe or TCP socket.
190 -h, --help Print usage information and exit.
192 -v, --version
194 Print version information and exit.
195
197 NVIM_LOG_FILE
198 Low-level log file, usually found at ~/.local/share/nvim/log.
199 :help $NVIM_LOG_FILE
200 VIM Used to locate user files, such as init.vim. System-depen‐
202 dent. :help $VIM
203 VIMRUNTIME Used to locate runtime files (documentation, syntax high‐
205 lighting, etc.).
206 XDG_CONFIG_HOME
208 Path to the user-local configuration directory, see FILES.
209 Defaults to ~/.config. :help xdg
210 XDG_DATA_HOME
212 Like XDG_CONFIG_HOME, but used to store data not generally
213 edited by the user, namely swap, backup, and ShaDa files.
214 Defaults to ~/.local/share. :help xdg
215 VIMINIT Ex commands to be executed at startup. :help VIMINIT
217 SHELL Used to initialize the 'shell' option, which decides the
219 default shell used by features like :terminal, :!, and
220 system().
221
223 ~/.config/nvim/init.vim User-local nvim configuration file.
224 ~/.config/nvim User-local nvim configuration directory. See
226 also XDG_CONFIG_HOME.
227 $VIM/sysinit.vim System-global nvim configuration file.
229 /usr/local/share/nvim System-global nvim runtime directory.
231
233 Nvim was started by Thiago de Arruda. Most of Vim was written by Bram
234 Moolenaar. Vim is based on Stevie, worked on by Tim Thompson, Tony
235 Andrews, and G.R. (Fred) Walter. :help credits
236BSD December 17, 2017 BSD