Questions tagged [help-system]

Questions about Vim's built-in help system, which is accessible through the :help command

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
1 vote
2 answers
135 views

Search for all hotkeys starting with "g" in Vim's "quickref.txt"

Within the quickref.txt (which can be reached by typing in :tab help quickref) I can see plainly texts, pages after pages, that look like: h N h left (also: CTRL-H, <BS>, or &...
eliu's user avatar
  • 113
0 votes
0 answers
36 views

How can I stop Vim from quitting when the last buffer is a `:help` buffer?

I think there is an option that governs this behavior, but I cannot find it.
Futarimiti's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
58 views

Why can't I jump to the help files I've written?

I am writing neovim help documentation for a plugin I am developing that reads as follows. project.txt *project* description ... ======================================================================...
aszswaz's user avatar
  • 121
0 votes
1 answer
17 views

Why does the help suggest to end the lhs of a plug mapping with a semicolon?

In :help using-<Plug> a suggestion is given as to how to name the left hand side of a <Plug> mapping: To make it very unlikely that other plugins use the same sequence of characters, use ...
Enlico's user avatar
  • 2,172
0 votes
2 answers
134 views

Open Vim help file directly from terminal

We can get help on Vim functions by typing the following from within Vim. :help somecommand For example, the following sends us to the help text for the unmap functionality.: :help unmap Is there ...
john-jones's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
27 views

How can save help document to a file?

In vim :h UltiSnips-python in ex-mode can display all info on python usage in UltiSnips. I want to save all the output as /tmp/vim.output. :redir > /tmp/vim.output | :h UltiSnips-python | redir ...
newview's user avatar
  • 291
0 votes
0 answers
104 views

Vim displays help at seemingly random moments

I face an issue: When I edit a file in Vim, and while editing/scrolling or even just having the file open, the help screen pops up, and I have to leave the help before I can do something again. It ...
D.Verhoeven's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
56 views

What is the & mark meaning ahead a variable in vim?

I read echo help file and find a command: :echo "the value of 'shell' is" &shell I wonder what is '&shell' here. I check the help file for "&", "variables", &...
lizhe's user avatar
  • 137
1 vote
2 answers
103 views

How to create an index that lists topics from multiple help files?

I started writing a help file for various vim commands that I know I'll forget. Over the last 7+ years it's grown to ~1600 lines and is starting to become unwieldy I've been trying to split it into ...
Steve's user avatar
  • 276
7 votes
1 answer
1k views

How to Interpret Syntax in VIM Help Pages

I have difficulty understanding syntax provided in man pages. I realize that the syntax is trying to tell me the range of things you can do, but I often can't distinguish between characters that are &...
Lonnie Best's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
28 views

How to make VIM Use the Whole Screen While Reading Help? [duplicate]

Why is it, when I search for help, that so much of my screen's vertical space is wasted by default in vim? How can I make it use the whole screen instead. See below:
Lonnie Best's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
19 views

Managing a README.md and vim help for plugins [duplicate]

Is there a way to generate vim help files and a markdown readme for github from the same text file? Or what is the usual strategy for this? I'm maintaining a small plugin that is only used by like ...
fbence's user avatar
  • 603
1 vote
2 answers
40 views

Where's the documentation for Ctrl-C while in [Command Line] buffer?

Long ago I discovered that q: opens a [Command Line] buffer where I can enter and edit an ex command line using all the power of Vim. Next, some time ago, I discovered that I can access that mode even ...
Enlico's user avatar
  • 2,172
4 votes
1 answer
162 views

When was getcharstr() introduced? And how could I have found the answer my self from :help?

Yesterday I made a change to my plugin which essentially consisted in using getcharstr() instead of nr2char(getchar()). That was Vim 8.2.4106. Today at work I updated my plugin and got an error, ...
Enlico's user avatar
  • 2,172
7 votes
2 answers
2k views

Why is Vim9 mentioned at all in the doc of Vim 8?

Looking for lambda in the doc, I've found out (to my surprise) that they do exist in vimscript, and they use the syntax {args -> expr1}. But I've also discovered that there's Vim9, the doc of which ...
Enlico's user avatar
  • 2,172
3 votes
2 answers
2k views

Complete list of all VIM commands

I know the title should have been "God can you share all the knowledge in the Universe please ?" But anyway it doesn't hurt if I ask... Is there any compiled complete list of all VIM ...
Nelson Teixeira's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
15 views

":h command" doesn't work with some commads. How to deal with such cases? [duplicate]

When it comes to some commands, getting help is hard. For example, the display command. I know I can use, for example, set display=truncate or set display=lastline, but when I use :h display to read ...
james's user avatar
  • 129
0 votes
1 answer
25 views

Need an explaination for CTRL-A help doc , "... or alphabetic character"

CTRL-A Add [count] to the number or alphabetic character at or after the cursor. CTRL-X Subtract [count] from the number or alphabetic character at or after ...
Choi's user avatar
  • 1
7 votes
2 answers
1k views

On string concatenation, what's the difference between . and .. (single dot and double dot)?

From the :execute help (:h :exe): *:exe* *:execute* :exe[cute] {expr1} .. Executes the string that results from the evaluation of {expr1} as an Ex command. ...
André Willik Valenti's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
303 views

Make Line Numbers Appear in Documentation

I have set number in my init.vim (I am using neovim) and it works fine for any buffers I'm editing. However, I have to enter :set number into the command line to make line numbers appear in the ...
Jordan Mandel's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
58 views

Disabling Help menu in ubuntu vi

There have been many postings on this issue but none have worked for me. I'm running vim 8.2 on linux ubuntu 20.04, which maybe why some of the postings haven't worked. Like many, I'd like to ...
Leo Simon's user avatar
  • 715
0 votes
1 answer
91 views

What are the E tags in vim help?

I've been browsing vim's help and noticed there are some topics which have multiple E### tags and others with just a single E### tag. I'm curious as to what the significance of these E### tags are. My ...
Kasper-34's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
42 views

"auto-complete" normal mode command?

Once I press g (or anything that enters operator pending mode), is there a way to see what keys could follow (e.g. gf, ga etc)? Alternatively, is there a way to search builtin + mapped keys by regex? ...
usretc's user avatar
  • 355
5 votes
1 answer
315 views

Buffers that are neither active nor hidden

Both :ls and :buffers display a list with buffer information, giving indicators for each buffer. For example, # means the alternate buffer, and % means the current buffer. The meaning of each ...
mgarort's user avatar
  • 275
1 vote
1 answer
89 views

What exactly Ctrl + Shift + Right arrow does? How can I remap it or find help on this key combination?

I've noticed that pressing Ctrl+ Shift+ Right deletes text until some criteria are met but I can't figure out exactly what that is. I'm also unsure how to find help when a character doesn't have a ...
Guilherme Marthe's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
121 views

Automatically resize window based on filetype

I have a nifty autocommand in my vimrc that automatically maximizes any :help window: augroup LargeHelpWindow autocmd! autocmd BufWinEnter * if &l:buftype ==# 'help' | wincmd _ | endif ...
mgarort's user avatar
  • 275
0 votes
1 answer
30 views

Prevent help page folds from being lost

When I open a help page, create a manual fold, set bufhidden=hide and buflisted, then navigate away from that page, the fold is not restored upon returning. $ vim -u NONE :help " create a manual ...
dannyadam's user avatar
  • 482
1 vote
0 answers
52 views

Why some shortcuts aren't listed on index.txt ? Is there a complete list?

The file index.txt is claiming to be a list of all commands, but some keyboard shortcuts are listed on other files and not here. And sometimes, the definition is a bit different in other files. Are ...
ewen-goisot's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
267 views

Is it safe to define more than 120 signs?

I am working on a plugin that could potentially define more than 120 different signs. The vim / neovim documentation specifies that you can define about 120 signs (not sure why this number and why so ...
skamsie's user avatar
  • 235
1 vote
0 answers
263 views

How to find next match by ":help"?

For example, you are using "mattn/emmet.vim", and command :help todo, it shows emmet-todo. Not vim side's todo. I'd like to find vim side's todo, but can't go to next match... how can I go ...
eeeeeeeeengo's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
131 views

CTRL-] keys not working with very specific tags

So, I'm trying to use vim's help tags in my notes files, so that i can easily reach them (without using ex command or making a new keymapping). For that, i used: set tags=$VIMRUNTIME/doc/tags to set ...
Nordine Lotfi's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
34 views

Single page version of docs

I would like to read the Vim user guide and reference docs and man pages on my Kindle Paperwhite. Does anyone know of a single page web readable version of the docs? Or even a PDF? Https://vim.help is ...
xdhmoore's user avatar
  • 123
2 votes
1 answer
81 views

How to add translated help to vim?

I have vim 8.1 installed. I want to use the help files translated into french. The debian package vimhelp-fr is not maintained any more, the compressed tar is unavailable, so I installed the version 6....
Fabien's user avatar
  • 123
1 vote
1 answer
54 views

Where is vim man-page online and within vim help? (e.g., in vimhelp.org, and from :help)

Q1: Where can I find the vim man page online? (an up-to-date version) Q2: Where can I find the vim man page within the vim help system? (i.e., :help) http://vimhelp.org looks like the canonical up-to-...
Rob Bednark's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
737 views

How to list all help subjects and help files?

Q1: How can I list all vim help subjects (topics)? i.e., the {subject} argument for :h[elp] {subject} Q2: How can I list all vim help files? My particular use case is that I want to see help for my ...
Rob Bednark's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
35 views

Where is the help function defined or located?

I'm trying to find where the help function/command is defined. So far I tried: :verbose function help but since the h isn't in uppercase, it doesn't work (not sure if it's even a function at this ...
Nordine Lotfi's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
131 views

How to cycle through all "tags" matching `:h {subject}`?

Suppose :h {subject} results in multiple matches for the tag {subject}. The :h entry says that the "best" match will be used, which is not very useful, If I don't know exactly what to search ...
Shuzheng's user avatar
  • 1,195
1 vote
1 answer
134 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 ...
ysap's user avatar
  • 111
4 votes
0 answers
44 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 ...
petRUShka's user avatar
  • 243
0 votes
1 answer
176 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.
user3203476's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
2k 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 ...
seeker's user avatar
  • 165
2 votes
2 answers
264 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 ...
guntbert's user avatar
  • 1,255
1 vote
1 answer
181 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?
Fangquan Shi's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
767 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 ...
samus's user avatar
  • 121
11 votes
2 answers
2k views

What does `idem` mean in the VIM docs?

One example would be in the List docs: :unlet list[3] "idem
Bashar's user avatar
  • 213
2 votes
1 answer
146 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 ...
Bart's user avatar
  • 305
3 votes
2 answers
695 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 ...
filbranden's user avatar
  • 28.4k
1 vote
0 answers
64 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 ...
Breno Pacheco's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
123 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 ...
Tyler Durden's user avatar
  • 2,083
0 votes
0 answers
187 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 ...
mahbubweb's user avatar
  • 582