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 be‐
32 tween 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 eight 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 -m Resets the 'write' option, to disable file modifications.
75 Writing to a file is disabled, but buffers can still be modi‐
76 fied.
77 -M Resets the 'write' and 'modifiable' options, to disable file
79 and buffer modifications.
80 -b Binary mode. :help edit-binary
82 -l Lisp mode. Sets the 'lisp' and 'showmatch' options.
84 -A Arabic mode. Sets the 'arabic' option.
86 -H Hebrew mode. Sets the 'hkmap' and 'rightleft' options.
88 -V[N][file]
90 Verbose mode. Prints debug messages. N is the 'verbose'
91 level, defaults to 10. If file is specified, append messages
92 to file instead of printing them. :help 'verbose'
93 -D Debug mode for VimL (Vim script). Started when executing the
95 first command from a script. :help debug-mode
96 -n Disable the use of swap files. Sets the 'updatecount' option
98 to 0. Can be useful for editing files on a slow medium.
99 -r [file] Recovery mode. If file is omitted then list swap files with
101 recovery information. Otherwise the swap file file is used
102 to recover a crashed session. The swap file has the same
103 name as the file it's associated with, but with ‘.swp’ ap‐
104 pended. :help recovery
105 -L [file] Alias for -r.
107 -u vimrc Use vimrc instead of the default ~/.config/nvim/init.vim. If
109 vimrc is NORC, do not load any initialization files (except
110 plugins). If vimrc is NONE, loading plugins is also skipped.
111 :help initialization
112 -i shada Use shada instead of the default
114 ~/.local/state/nvim/shada/main.shada. If shada is NONE, do
115 not read or write a ShaDa file. :help shada
116 --noplugin Skip loading plugins. Implied by -u NONE.
118 --clean Start Nvim with "factory defaults" (no user config and plug‐
120 ins, no shada). :help --clean
121 -o[N] Open N windows stacked horizontally. If N is omitted, open
123 one window for each file. If N is less than the number of
124 file arguments, allocate windows for the first N files and
125 hide the rest.
126 -O[N] Like -o, but tile windows vertically.
128 -p[N] Like -o, but for tab pages.
130 +[linenum] For the first file, position the cursor on line linenum. If
132 linenum is omitted, position the cursor on the last line of
133 the file. +5 and -c 5 on the command-line are equivalent to
134 :5 inside nvim.
135 +/[pattern]
137 For the first file, position the cursor on the first occur‐
138 rence of pattern. If pattern is omitted, the most recent
139 search pattern is used (if any). +/foo and -c /foo on the
140 command-line are equivalent to /foo and :/foo inside nvim.
141 :help search-pattern
142 +command, -c command
144 Execute command after reading the first file. Up to 10 in‐
145 stances allowed. "+foo" and -c "foo" are equivalent.
146 --cmd command
148 Like -c, but execute command before processing any vimrc. Up
149 to 10 instances of these can be used independently from in‐
150 stances of -c.
151 -S [session]
153 Source session after the first file argument has been read.
154 Equivalent to -c "source session". session cannot start with
155 a hyphen (‘-’). If session is omitted then Session.vim is
156 used, if found. :help session-file
157 -s scriptin
159 Read normal mode commands from scriptin. The same can be
160 done with the command :source! scriptin. If the end of the
161 file is reached before nvim exits, further characters are
162 read from the keyboard.
163 -w scriptout
165 Append all typed characters to scriptout. Can be used for
166 creating a script to be used with -s or :source!.
167 -W scriptout
169 Like -w, but truncate scriptout.
170 --startuptime file
172 During startup, append timing messages to file. Can be used
173 to diagnose slow startup times.
174 --api-info Dump API metadata serialized to msgpack and exit.
176 --embed Use standard input and standard output as a msgpack-rpc chan‐
178 nel. :help --embed
179 --headless Do not start a UI. When supplied with --embed this implies
181 that the embedding application does not intend to (immedi‐
182 ately) start a UI. Also useful for "scraping" messages in a
183 pipe. :help --headless
184 --listen address
186 Start RPC server on this pipe or TCP socket.
187 -h, --help Print usage information and exit.
189 -v, --version
191 Print version information and exit.
192
194 NVIM_LOG_FILE
195 Low-level log file, usually found at ~/.local/state/nvim/log.
196 :help $NVIM_LOG_FILE
197 VIM Used to locate user files, such as init.vim. System-depen‐
199 dent. :help $VIM
200 VIMRUNTIME Used to locate runtime files (documentation, syntax high‐
202 lighting, etc.).
203 XDG_CONFIG_HOME
205 Path to the user-local configuration directory, see FILES.
206 Defaults to ~/.config. :help xdg
207 XDG_STATE_HOME
209 Like XDG_CONFIG_HOME, but used to store data not generally
210 edited by the user, namely swap, backup, and ShaDa files.
211 Defaults to ~/.local/state. :help xdg
212 XDG_DATA_HOME
214 Like XDG_CONFIG_HOME, but used to store data not generally
215 edited by the user, things like runtime files. Defaults to
216 ~/.local/share. :help xdg
217 VIMINIT Ex commands to be executed at startup. :help VIMINIT
219 SHELL Used to initialize the 'shell' option, which decides the de‐
221 fault shell used by features like :terminal, :!, and
222 system().
223
225 ~/.config/nvim/init.vim User-local nvim configuration file.
226 ~/.config/nvim User-local nvim configuration directory. See
228 also XDG_CONFIG_HOME.
229 $VIM/sysinit.vim System-global nvim configuration file.
231 $VIM System-global nvim runtime directory.
233
235 Nvim was started by Thiago de Arruda. Most of Vim was written by Bram
236 Moolenaar. Vim is based on Stevie, worked on by Tim Thompson, Tony
237 Andrews, and G.R. (Fred) Walter. :help credits
238BSD December 17, 2017 BSD