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 -A Arabic mode. Sets the 'arabic' option.
84 -H Hebrew mode. Sets the 'hkmap' and 'rightleft' options.
86 -V[N][file]
88 Verbose mode. Prints debug messages. N is the 'verbose'
89 level, defaults to 10. If file is specified, append messages
90 to file instead of printing them. :help 'verbose'
91 -D Vimscript debug mode. Started when executing the first com‐
93 mand from a script. :help debug-mode
94 -n Disable the use of swap files. Sets the 'updatecount' option
96 to 0. Can be useful for editing files on a slow medium.
97 -r [file] Recovery mode. If file is omitted then list swap files with
99 recovery information. Otherwise the swap file file is used
100 to recover a crashed session. The swap file has the same
101 name as the file it's associated with, but with ‘.swp’ ap‐
102 pended. :help recovery
103 -L [file] Alias for -r.
105 -u vimrc Use vimrc instead of the default ~/.config/nvim/init.vim. If
107 vimrc is NORC, do not load any initialization files (except
108 plugins). If vimrc is NONE, loading plugins is also skipped.
109 :help initialization
110 -i shada Use shada instead of the default
112 ~/.local/state/nvim/shada/main.shada. If shada is NONE, do
113 not read or write a ShaDa file. :help shada
114 --noplugin Skip loading plugins. Implied by -u NONE.
116 --clean Start Nvim with "factory defaults" (no user config and plug‐
118 ins, no shada). :help --clean
119 -o[N] Open N windows stacked horizontally. If N is omitted, open
121 one window for each file. If N is less than the number of
122 file arguments, allocate windows for the first N files and
123 hide the rest.
124 -O[N] Like -o, but tile windows vertically.
126 -p[N] Like -o, but for tab pages.
128 +[linenum] For the first file, position the cursor on line linenum. If
130 linenum is omitted, position the cursor on the last line of
131 the file. +5 and -c 5 on the command-line are equivalent to
132 :5 inside nvim.
133 +/[pattern]
135 For the first file, position the cursor on the first occur‐
136 rence of pattern. If pattern is omitted, the most recent
137 search pattern is used (if any). +/foo and -c /foo on the
138 command-line are equivalent to /foo and :/foo inside nvim.
139 :help search-pattern
140 +command, -c command
142 Execute command after reading the first file. Up to 10 in‐
143 stances allowed. "+foo" and -c "foo" are equivalent.
144 --cmd command
146 Like -c, but execute command before processing any vimrc. Up
147 to 10 instances of these can be used independently from in‐
148 stances of -c.
149 -l script [args]
151 Execute Lua script with optional [args] after processing any
152 preceding Nvim startup arguments. All [args] are treated as
153 script arguments and are passed literally to Lua, that is, -l
154 stops processing of Nvim arguments. :help -l
155 -S [session]
157 Execute session after the first file argument has been read.
158 If session filename ends with .lua it is executed as Lua in‐
159 stead of Vimscript. Equivalent to -c "source session".
160 session cannot start with a hyphen (‘-’). If session is
161 omitted then Session.vim is used, if found. :help session-
162 file
163 -s scriptin
165 Read normal mode commands from scriptin. The same can be
166 done with the command :source! scriptin. If the end of the
167 file is reached before nvim exits, further characters are
168 read from the keyboard.
169 -w scriptout
171 Append all typed characters to scriptout. Can be used for
172 creating a script to be used with -s or :source!.
173 -W scriptout
175 Like -w, but truncate scriptout.
176 --startuptime file
178 During startup, append timing messages to file. Can be used
179 to diagnose slow startup times.
180 --api-info Dump API metadata serialized to msgpack and exit.
182 --embed Use standard input and standard output as a msgpack-rpc chan‐
184 nel. :help --embed
185 --headless Do not start a UI. When supplied with --embed this implies
187 that the embedding application does not intend to (immedi‐
188 ately) start a UI. Also useful for "scraping" messages in a
189 pipe. :help --headless
190 --listen address
192 Start RPC server on this pipe or TCP socket.
193 -h, --help Print usage information and exit.
195 -v, --version
197 Print version information and exit.
198
200 NVIM_LOG_FILE
201 Low-level log file, usually found at ~/.local/state/nvim/log.
202 :help $NVIM_LOG_FILE
203 VIM Used to locate user files, such as init.vim. System-depen‐
205 dent. :help $VIM
206 VIMRUNTIME Used to locate runtime files (documentation, syntax high‐
208 lighting, etc.).
209 XDG_CONFIG_HOME
211 Path to the user-local configuration directory, see FILES.
212 Defaults to ~/.config. :help xdg
213 XDG_STATE_HOME
215 Like XDG_CONFIG_HOME, but used to store data not generally
216 edited by the user, namely swap, backup, and ShaDa files.
217 Defaults to ~/.local/state. :help xdg
218 XDG_DATA_HOME
220 Like XDG_CONFIG_HOME, but used to store data not generally
221 edited by the user, things like runtime files. Defaults to
222 ~/.local/share. :help xdg
223 VIMINIT Ex commands to be executed at startup. :help VIMINIT
225 SHELL Used to initialize the 'shell' option, which decides the de‐
227 fault shell used by features like :terminal, :!, and
228 system().
229
231 ~/.config/nvim/init.vim User-local nvim configuration file.
232 ~/.config/nvim User-local nvim configuration directory. See
234 also XDG_CONFIG_HOME.
235 $VIM/sysinit.vim System-global nvim configuration file.
237 $VIM System-global nvim runtime directory.
239
241 Nvim was started by Thiago de Arruda. Most of Vim was written by Bram
242 Moolenaar. Vim is based on Stevie, worked on by Tim Thompson, Tony
243 Andrews, and G.R. (Fred) Walter. :help credits
244BSD December 17, 2017 BSD