vim mapping delayed because of plugin

Question

I want to map <leader>h to :bprev<CR>, with my leader key as \<space>, so I wrote the following in my init.vim (I also have nnoremap <space> <Nop> in my init.vim to override the default normal mode behaviour of <space>):

nnoremap <space> <nop>
let mapleader = "\<space>"
nnoremap <leader>h :bprev<CR>

but I have airblade/vim-gitgutter installed which adds a delay to my mapping because of plugin mappings <space>hp, <space>hu, <space>hs:

:verbose noremap <leader>h
n  <Space>hp     <Plug>GitGutterPreviewHunk
    Last set from ~/.config/nvim/bundle/vim-gitgutter/plugin/gitgutter.vim
n  <Space>hu     <Plug>GitGutterUndoHunk
    Last set from ~/.config/nvim/bundle/vim-gitgutter/plugin/gitgutter.vim
n  <Space>hs     <Plug>GitGutterStageHunk
    Last set from ~/.config/nvim/bundle/vim-gitgutter/plugin/gitgutter.vim
n  <Space>h    * :bprev<CR>
    Last set from ~/.config/nvim/init.vim
n  <Space>     * <Nop>
    Last set from ~/.config/nvim/init.vim
Press ENTER or type command to continue

This question indicates that I can remap plugin bindings by writing my custom bindings in a .vim file in .config/nvim/after/plugin, so I tried moving the definition of my mapping there instead along with <Nop> bindings for <space>hp, <space>hu, <space>hs, but that doesn't work because my <Nop> mappings still delay the execution of my <space>h mapping:

:verbose noremap <leader>h
n  <Space>h    * :bprev<CR>
    Last set from ~/.config/nvim/after/plugin/keys.vim
n  <Space>hp     <Nop>
    Last set from ~/.config/nvim/after/plugin/keys.vim
n  <Space>hu     <Nop>
    Last set from ~/.config/nvim/after/plugin/keys.vim
n  <Space>hs     <Nop>
    Last set from ~/.config/nvim/after/plugin/keys.vim
n  <Space>     * <Nop>
    Last set from ~/.config/nvim/init.vim

How can I override these mappings so that they don't interfere? Also, I have yet to find a decent "best practice" to avoid these types of conflicts - does one exist?

EDIT: I have tried putting exe :mapclear at the top of my new .config/nvim/after/plugin/keys.vim, but that clears all keybindings from all my plugins and my init.vim which is ... less than satisfactory - however, I don't think it's a terrible idea to move all my keybindings here and not rely on plugin defaults.

Answer 1

vim-gitgutter follows best practices with respect to mappings. Specifically, before it makes its maps it checks three conditions:

1. The global variable g:gitgutter_map_keys is true.

One option is to let g:gitgutter_map_keys = 0, but then no mappings will be made and you would have to make the ones you use manually.

2. There is not already a <leader>hs map

You can make your own <leader>hs map, but this won't help you because it would still cause a delay.

3. There is not already a mapping to <Plug>GitGutterStageHunk

In my opinion the easiest method is to use your own preferred mapping,

nmap <leader>gsh <Plug>GitGutterStageHunk

This allows you to still use the functionality. Or, you can use a junk mapping;

nmap <plug>(disable-ggsh) <Plug>GitGutterStageHunk

Do this for all the right-hand-side maps you don't want vim-gitgutter to map to.

A different method, used when plugin do not follow mapping best practices, is to manually unmap what you don't like. It is easiest to do this in after/plugin/keys.vim:

nunmap <leader>hs

or within the VimEnter event:

autocmd VimEnter * nunmap <leader>hs