Questions tagged [help-system]
Questions about Vim's built-in help system, which is accessible through the :help command
67
questions
1
vote
1answer
22 views
How to search for documentation on an option which is also a vim command argument? [duplicate]
When a Vim option is also a Vim command argument, :help opens the command argument help page. How can I direct :help to get the option page?
For example, trying :help verbose opens the -V verbose ...
4
votes
0answers
30 views
Convert VIM doc (vim help) to Markdown or vice versa [duplicate]
Suppose you are writing a vim plugin hosted on Github (which seems to be a standard for now). You don't want to maintain two help files: README.md (Markdown) and doc/your_plugin.txt (vim help) with ...
0
votes
1answer
34 views
Help navigating help files
In the case below, how would I find what the definition of [cmd] or [range] or {pattern} is ?
I have tried CTRL-] with my cursor on these, but this does not do anything.
2
votes
1answer
150 views
`:help` returns an “E432: Tags file not sorted” error
I am attempting to use to the :help command in Neovim however the following error is returned:
E432: Tags file not sorted: /Users/seeker/.config/nvim/plugged/nerdtree/doc/tags
E432: Tags file not ...
1
vote
2answers
93 views
:help - is there something like apropos?
A very helpful comment led me to investigate :help mode-switching where after typing :help mode I used autocomplete to explore which additional help topics contained mode.
This was a very large ...
1
vote
1answer
54 views
How to show the name of a help buffer in the tabline of the airline?
I use :h command to open a help buffer. When I switch to other buffers, I can't go back to the opened help buffer. How can I show the name of a help buffer in the tabline of the airline?
2
votes
2answers
80 views
Can the temp gzip decompression location for the integrated help documents be changed from /tmp?
Is it possible to configure vi to use a different location, say my home directory, for the uncompressed help files (or maybe to open them in RO if that's the problem)?
When attempting to open a help ...
11
votes
2answers
2k views
2
votes
1answer
54 views
help {subject} path precedence
:h {subject} reads
If there is no full match for the pattern, or there
are several matches, the "best" match will be used.
A sophisticated algorithm is used to decide which
match is better than ...
1
vote
2answers
171 views
Why are helptags not shipped with plugins?
Part of the job performed by virtually all plugin managers in Vim is to create helptags, which will index the help files shipped with the plugins and will allow searching for commands and mappings ...
1
vote
0answers
33 views
Ctrl-] matching single word in custom tags
When using vim's help I can jump to multi-word tags, but when creating my own tags Ctrl-] tries to match individual words. Consider the following example:
file.txt
|a-tag|
*a-tag*
When ...
0
votes
0answers
61 views
How do I create the help system for Vim?
I built Vim from source and unfortunately when doing this the help system is not created (in other words you get an error if you execute :h). What is the procedure for creating the help system?
This ...
0
votes
0answers
53 views
BufRead autocmd error for “*.*” and E45
I have vim version 7.4.1689. It was running quite smoothly. But recently I noticed a problem that I didn't have before. Whenever I run :help <something> in command mode the following error shows ...
0
votes
0answers
33 views
install / repair help system
I built vim from source on Arch Linux and the help system is not present. I do not see any help-related options when I do vim --version.
I assume it is either broken somehow or not installed. How can ...
0
votes
2answers
29 views
How to go to different matching entry in vim's help [duplicate]
Example: I tried finding out about foldclose because it sounded strange to me that it isn't a binary setting but still only knows the value "all". I typed :h foldclose and landed on a description of ...
1
vote
1answer
105 views
Best practices and tools for documenting vimscript functions?
I have quickly skimmed through :h user-functions and a couple random vim plugins and all I could find were patterns like
" one-line short function description
function foo()
<function body here&...
0
votes
2answers
92 views
Help for filetype specifics
I often find myself jotting notes in Vim using an empty buffer which in this case has 'no ft' (status line).
I know I could set the filetype with :setfiletype text but I honestly wonder what that ...
5
votes
1answer
3k views
Generating help tags for packages that are loaded by Vim 8's package management
I have a few packages installed in my ~/.vim/pack/default/start directory, for example Tabular and Unicode. After starting up vim I can use these packages but cannot access their help information. ...
0
votes
0answers
78 views
How to create man-pages and link them like in vim help system?
I would like to create documentation just like vim-help system . Multiple .txt files with links and cross references and where I can jump foreward CTRL+] and back using CTRL+T. How is it done?
2
votes
1answer
83 views
Where are the French help files?
Background: I'm an english-speaking, francophone student. In an effort to improve my vocabulary, my MacBook has been running in French since January, when I arrived in France. Incidentally, this means ...
0
votes
2answers
79 views
How do you get help with operators?
How can I get help on operators as opposed to normal mode commands? For example, if I type the following:
:h .
Then I will get the help on the normal mode dot command, not on the string ...
2
votes
1answer
141 views
Helptags has unexpected behavior if tag has hyphen
I'm creating a plugin and I'm writing its documentation according to :helptags. However I cannot link my tags if they have an hyphen in them. The strange thing is that help-writing itself has a hyphen ...
1
vote
2answers
496 views
vimscript: get result of cmdline-completion Ctrl-a
Need a function that,
returns a string, which is result of cmdline-completion Ctrl-a, i.e.,
a list of words seperated by space.
given an input string of partial ex-command.
For example,
given :h ...
-5
votes
1answer
89 views
What is the command for indenting code in vim with syntastic plugin? [closed]
I need to know how to reindent the code with syntastic.
I have tried using:
:call Retab() ## it is showing it's invalid
:call GetPythonIndent(v:lnum)
I need a plugin support.Plz don't provide ...
2
votes
2answers
471 views
Piping to vim vs vim -
When I pipe text to vim I discovered that by using:
cat somefile | vim -
it works properly, whereas:
cat somefile | vim
makes a mess of the code. For example, type:
cat test.pl | vim
where test....
5
votes
1answer
507 views
Plugin help files not found
I am on windows 10 and installed pathogen into home/vimfiles/autoload, and as far as I know all went well. Following the directions here, I installed nerdcommenter. I restarted gvim, tried :help ...
2
votes
2answers
524 views
Setting custom statusline for help window
I've been trying to set a custom statusline for help files. I tried:
set statusline=%!StatusLine()
function! StatusLine()
if &ft == 'help'
let b:status = "%#error#[HELP]%*"
else
...
0
votes
2answers
249 views
Is there a help plugin which can behave like guake for vim?
I am new to VIM and have been looking for a feature/plugin like guake for terminals wherein I could open the help functionality in a dropdown box without typing :q to close the vim help menu.
If ...
1
vote
1answer
66 views
Linking to documentation in a comment
I'd like to provide anyone reading my plugin in Vim a direct link to the help article on command-completion
At the moment, I'm simply saying " :help command-completion but i'd love to do something ...
0
votes
0answers
22 views
Invoke vi help from bash without starting Vim [duplicate]
How do I invoke the vi help while I am in bash without starting a vi session?
6
votes
1answer
295 views
What does `*foo* *[foo]*` mean in the vim help system?
When searching the help for "count", :h count I'm shown the help page:
*count* *[count]*
[count] An optional number that may precede the command to multiply
or ...
0
votes
1answer
79 views
Weird text in Vim help files
I found this in my help files. What does it mean? Why is it there?
vim:tw=78:fo=tcq2:isk=!-~,^*,^\|,^\":ts=8:ft=help:norl:
1
vote
2answers
163 views
Full width Vim help text
Is it possible to view the help in Vim at a text width greater than 77 characters? Can Vim reflow the help text?
9
votes
1answer
358 views
reference / documentation in vim
I assume the only documentation that comes with vim are about vim.
If I install plugins there will be documentations of the plugins as well.
But are there documentations for other languages in vim?
...
1
vote
0answers
961 views
How to see the complete default mapping in Vim? [duplicate]
I know about :map but I want to list the complete default mapping list with the associated help for each mapping.
Otherwise I need to test each command manually such as :help CTRL-B
Is there any ...
0
votes
1answer
81 views
How to install vimtex.txt helpfile properly?
I'm using pathogen (from the Ubuntu 16.04 vim-pathogen package) and a git clone of vimtex in ~/.vim/bundle/vimtex/. Now :help vimtex does not work. I can read ~/.vim/bundle/vimtex/doc/vimtex.txt, but ...
8
votes
1answer
2k views
Prevent vim closing the editor when the last window/splits are help pages
When I am working in vim, I often have a split, or splits, open containing a help files.
If I close other windows using :q such that vim would be left in a state with only help windows open, vim ...
5
votes
2answers
152 views
What prevents the cursor from moving to the first column on some help files?
I recently noticed that on some help files it is not possible to move the cursor to the very first column of some lines. To explain it clearly, here is a screenshot where I have done the following:
...
6
votes
2answers
725 views
Jump to next identifier in Vim help files
I regularly find myself in the situation that I am reading a help topic and see an identifier (the blue underlined words) that I want to follow with <C-]>. However, most of the time the ...
5
votes
1answer
147 views
What does “tag” mean in the context of Vim's help window?
I ran :help index to find out about key mappings and it's great, but there's one thing I don't get. At the top it says...
This file contains a list of all commands for each mode, with a tag and a
...
4
votes
0answers
53 views
Is it possible to look up a command that takes no arguments?
Is there a way to use :help to find commands that take arguments vs. no arguments?
For example: :map (w/o arguments) can list the key mappings for various modes. However, :help :map leads me to :map ...
2
votes
0answers
84 views
escaping a character included in a conceal command vimscript
I'm playing with conceal in help files to highlight / colour specific text strings which was working fine until I added the :print: example below.
Using this concealed all the : as expected so I ...
1
vote
1answer
62 views
Folded display of help files?
I often find navigation of :help files to be cumbersome. Given that they are mostly structured information, is there an existing way of using this structure for initially folded display?
E.g. after ...
3
votes
1answer
702 views
Modeline folding not working on help file
I'm writing a helpfile for a plugin, i.e. a foo.txt file that goes in the plugin's doc/ directory. At the bottom of that file I placed the following modeline:
vim: tw=70 ft=help fdm=marker fmr={{{,}}...
2
votes
2answers
125 views
Ctrl-] to open relevant help straight from .vimrc
I am trying to get use the help files more, and therefore I would like to make so I can just put the cursor over a setting in my .vimrc and press Ctrl-] to open the relevant section in the help files.
...
0
votes
1answer
150 views
Is it possible to generate help tags with readonly '/usr'?
I have readonly /usr partition and :helptags returns an error about not being able to write to /usr/share/vim/vim74/doc. Is it possible to specify additional/another directory for help tags?
2
votes
1answer
209 views
Is there a way to disable Vim from creating a new buffer every time I jump to a hyperlinked page within Vim Help pages?
I have setup my Vim Help to appear as a listed buffer for my ease of quick access and return to same page. The problem I face is that every time I jump around in Vim Help page using Ctrl-] a new Vim-...
3
votes
1answer
155 views
What are these `E88` shortcuts in the manual?
I'm using gvim version 7.4.205 for Windows, if that matters.
If I type :help :bp, it shows the help for :bN and :bp:
:[N]bN[ext][!] [N] *:bN* *:bNext* *:bp* *:bprevious* *E88*
:[N]bp[...
21
votes
4answers
4k views
How can I make Vim open help in a vertical split?
I usually work in a drop-down terminal, running about 25 characters high. Since I prefer tabs to windows1, usually a lot of horizontal space is wasted - around half of the terminal width.
On top of ...
5
votes
3answers
179 views
How can I quickly convert a Vim help tag to a vimhelp.appspot.com link?
One thing I often do here is to add links to documentation when writing :he foo, and I usually link to http://vimhelp.appspot.com. The problem is, that site's search is about slightly worse than the ...
