Command line messages disappear in a flash

Question

A while back I started using guioptions +=k to (from help guioptions):

Keep the GUI window size when adding/removing a scrollbar, or toolbar, tabline, etc. Instead, the behavior is similar to when the window is maximized and will adjust 'lines' and 'columns' to fit to the window. Without the 'k' flag Vim will try to keep 'lines' and 'columns' the same when adding and removing GUI components.

However, now I can't seem to turn it off, and it may (or may not) be responsible for a problem: If I use a command such as :pwd the response immediately disappears as the bottom of the window does a little spasm and replaces the command output with the line that ends, e.g., "1,0-1 All" (dunno what that is called).

The same goes for things such as error messages -- all I see is a red flash and there is no time to read them. Fortunately, :messages works, so I can find out what they were.

I notice help error mentions there is a limit to how long some messages will appear, but no means to set that. I don't have this problem in non-GUI vim, in which case the output remains visible until I access the command line again.

Answer 1

So the issue wasn't guioptions, it was guiheadroom; I finally noticed this because while I keep my config files synced, the stub ~/.vimrc which sources them isn't, to accomodate local settings. One of which, on another system where I do not have the problem, is:

set guiheadroom=0

I added this here, restarted gvim and problem solved. From :help guiheadroom:

'guiheadroom' 'ghr' number (default 50) global

{not in Vi} {only for GTK and X11 GUI}

The number of pixels subtracted from the screen height when fitting the GUI window on the screen. Set this before the GUI is started, e.g., in your gvimrc file. When zero, the whole screen height will be used by the window. When positive, the specified number of pixel lines will be left for window decorations and other items on the screen. Set it to a negative value to allow windows taller than the screen.

Note that this didn't actually change the base appearance; the window still fills the screen exactly like before and the titlebar and decorations are evident. However, messages at the bottom no longer disappear in a blur.