.Dd December 17, 2017
.Dt NVIM 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm nvim
.Nd edit text
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Ar options
.Op Ar file ...
.Nm
.Op Ar options
.Fl
.Nm
.Op Ar options
.Fl t Ar tag
.Nm
.Op Ar options
.Fl q Op Ar errorfile
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
is a text editor based on Vim.
Start
.Nm
followed by any number of options and/or files:
.Pp
.Dl nvim [options] [file ...]
.Pp
Commands in
.Nm
begin with colon
.Pq Sq \&: .
Type ":help subject" to get help on a specific subject.
Use <Tab> and CTRL-D to complete subjects (":help cmdline\-completion").
.Pp
The "quickref" help section is a condensed reference of editor features:
.Dl :help quickref
.Pp
If you are new to Vim/Nvim, start with the 30-minute tutorial:
.Dl :Tutor
.Pp
After installing/updating Nvim, it's a good idea to run the self-check:
.Dl :checkhealth
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl
.It Ar file ...
File(s) to edit.
Opens one buffer per file.
To switch between buffers, use the
.Ic :next
and
.Ic :previous
commands.
.It Fl
Reads text from standard input until
.Dv EOF ,
then opens a buffer with that text.
User input is read from standard error, which should be a terminal.
.El
.Sh OPTIONS
.Bl -tag -width Fl
.It Fl t Ar tag
Finds
.Ar tag
in the tags file, the associated file becomes the current
file and the associated command is executed.
Cursor is positioned at the tag location in the file.
.Ic ":help tag-commands"
.It Fl q Op Ar errorfile
QuickFix mode.
Display the first error in
.Ar errorfile .
If
.Ar errorfile
is omitted, the value of the 'errorfile' option is used (defaults to
.Cm errors.err ) .
Further errors can be jumped to with the
.Ic :cnext
command.
.Ic ":help quickfix"
.It Fl -
End of options.
Remaining arguments are treated as literal file names, including filenames starting with hyphen
.Pq Sq - .
.It Fl e
Ex mode, reading stdin as Ex commands.
.Ic ":help Ex-mode"
.It Fl E
Ex mode, reading stdin as text.
.Ic :help Ex-mode
.It Fl es
Silent (non-interactive) Ex mode, reading stdin as Ex commands.
Useful for scripting because it does NOT start a UI, unlike
.Fl e .
.Ic :help silent-mode
.It Fl \&Es
Silent (non-interactive) Ex mode, reading stdin as text.
Useful for scripting because it does NOT start a UI, unlike
.Fl E .
.Ic :help silent-mode
.It Fl d
Diff mode.
Show the difference between two to eight files, similar to
.Xr sdiff 1 .
.Ic ":help diff"
.It Fl R
Read-only mode.
Sets the 'readonly' option.
Implies
.Fl n .
Buffers can still be edited, but cannot be written to disk if already
associated with a file.
To overwrite a file, add an exclamation mark to the relevant Ex command, such as
.Ic :w! .
.Ic ":help 'readonly'"
.It Fl m
Resets the 'write' option, to disable file modifications.
Writing to a file is disabled, but buffers can still be modified.
.It Fl M
Resets the 'write' and 'modifiable' options, to disable file and buffer
modifications.
.It Fl b
Binary mode.
.Ic ":help edit-binary"
.It Fl l
Lisp mode.
Sets the 'lisp' and 'showmatch' options.
.It Fl A
Arabic mode.
Sets the 'arabic' option.
.It Fl H
Hebrew mode.
Sets the 'hkmap' and 'rightleft' options.
.It Fl V Ns Oo Ar N Oc Ns Op Ar file
Verbose mode.
Prints debug messages.
.Ar N
is the 'verbose' level, defaults to
.Cm 10 .
If
.Ar file
is specified, append messages to
.Ar file
instead of printing them.
.Ic ":help 'verbose'"
.It Fl D
Debug mode for VimL (Vim script).
Started when executing the first command from a script.
:help debug-mode
.It Fl n
Disable the use of swap files.
Sets the 'updatecount' option to
.Cm 0 .
Can be useful for editing files on a slow medium.
.It Fl r Op Ar file
Recovery mode.
If
.Ar file
is omitted
then list swap files with recovery information.
Otherwise the swap file
.Ar file
is used to recover a crashed session.
The swap file has the same name as the file it's associated with, but with
.Sq .swp
appended.
.Ic ":help recovery"
.It Fl L Op Ar file
Alias for
.Fl r .
.It Fl u Ar vimrc
Use
.Ar vimrc
instead of the default
.Pa ~/.config/nvim/init.vim .
If
.Ar vimrc
is
.Cm NORC ,
do not load any initialization files (except plugins).
If
.Ar vimrc
is
.Cm NONE ,
loading plugins is also skipped.
.Ic ":help initialization"
.It Fl i Ar shada
Use
.Ar shada
instead of the default
.Pa ~/.local/state/nvim/shada/main.shada .
If
.Ar shada
is
.Cm NONE ,
do not read or write a ShaDa file.
.Ic ":help shada"
.It Fl -noplugin
Skip loading plugins.
Implied by
.Cm -u NONE .
.It Fl -clean
Mimic a fresh install of Nvim. Skip loading non-builtin plugins and shada (viminfo) file.
.It Fl o Ns Op Ar N
Open
.Ar N
windows stacked horizontally.
If
.Ar N
is omitted, open one window for each file.
If
.Ar N
is less than the number of file arguments, allocate windows for the first
.Ar N
files and hide the rest.
.It Fl O Ns Op Ar N
Like
.Fl o ,
but tile windows vertically.
.It Fl p Ns Op Ar N
Like
.Fl o ,
but for tab pages.
.It Cm + Ns Op Ar linenum
For the first file, position the cursor on line
.Ar linenum .
If
.Ar linenum
is omitted, position the cursor on the last line of the file.
.Cm +5
and
.Cm -c 5
on the command-line are equivalent to
.Ic :5
inside
.Nm .
.It Cm +/ Ns Op Ar pattern
For the first file, position the cursor on the first occurrence of
.Ar pattern .
If
.Ar pattern
is omitted, the most recent search pattern is used (if any).
.Cm +/foo
and
.Cm -c /foo
on the command-line are equivalent to
.Ic /foo
and
.Ic :/foo
inside
.Nm .
.Ic ":help search-pattern"
.It \fB\+\fR\fI\,command\/\fR , Fl c Ar command
Execute
.Ar command
after reading the first file.
Up to 10 instances allowed.
.Qq Cm +foo
and
.Cm -c \(dqfoo\(dq
are equivalent.
.It Fl -cmd Ar command
Like
.Fl c ,
but execute
.Ar command
before processing any vimrc.
Up to 10 instances of these can be used independently from instances of
.Fl c .
.It Fl S Op Ar session
Source
.Ar session
after the first file argument has been read.
Equivalent to
.Cm -c \(dqsource session\(dq .
.Ar session
cannot start with a hyphen
.Pq Sq - .
If
.Ar session
is omitted then
.Pa Session.vim
is used, if found.
.Ic ":help session-file"
.It Fl s Ar scriptin
Read normal mode commands from
.Ar scriptin .
The same can be done with the command
.Ic ":source! scriptin" .
If the end of the file is reached before
.Nm
exits, further characters are read from the keyboard.
.It Fl w Ar scriptout
Append all typed characters to
.Ar scriptout .
Can be used for creating a script to be used with
.Fl s
or
.Ic :source! .
.It Fl W Ar scriptout
Like
.Fl w ,
but truncate
.Ar scriptout .
.It Fl -startuptime Ar file
During startup, append timing messages to
.Ar file .
Can be used to diagnose slow startup times.
.It Fl -api-info
Dump API metadata serialized to msgpack and exit.
.It Fl -embed
Use standard input and standard output as a msgpack-rpc channel.
:help --embed
.It Fl -headless
Do not start a UI.
When supplied with --embed this implies that the embedding application does not intend to (immediately) start a UI.
Also useful for "scraping" messages in a pipe.
:help --headless
.It Fl -listen Ar address
Start RPC server on this pipe or TCP socket.
.It Fl h , -help
Print usage information and exit.
.It Fl v , -version
Print version information and exit.
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
.Bl -tag -width Fl
.It Ev NVIM_LOG_FILE
Low-level log file, usually found at ~/.local/state/nvim/log.
:help $NVIM_LOG_FILE
.It Ev VIM
Used to locate user files, such as init.vim.
System-dependent.
:help $VIM
.It Ev VIMRUNTIME
Used to locate runtime files (documentation, syntax highlighting, etc.).
.It Ev XDG_CONFIG_HOME
Path to the user-local configuration directory, see
.Sx FILES .
Defaults to
.Pa ~/.config .
:help xdg
.It Ev XDG_STATE_HOME
Like
.Ev XDG_CONFIG_HOME ,
but used to store data not generally edited by the user,
namely swap, backup, and ShaDa files.
Defaults to
.Pa ~/.local/state .
:help xdg
.It Ev XDG_DATA_HOME
Like
.Ev XDG_CONFIG_HOME ,
but used to store data not generally edited by the user,
things like runtime files.
Defaults to
.Pa ~/.local/share .
:help xdg
.It Ev VIMINIT
Ex commands to be executed at startup.
.Ic ":help VIMINIT"
.It Ev SHELL
Used to initialize the 'shell' option, which decides the default shell used by
features like
.Ic :terminal ,
.Ic :! , and
.Ic system() .
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width "~/.config/nvim/init.vim"
.It Pa ~/.config/nvim/init.vim
User-local
.Nm
configuration file.
.It Pa ~/.config/nvim
User-local
.Nm
configuration directory.
See also
.Ev XDG_CONFIG_HOME .
.It Pa $VIM/sysinit.vim
System-global
.Nm
configuration file.
.It Pa $VIM
System-global
.Nm
runtime directory.
.El
.Sh AUTHORS
Nvim was started by
.An Thiago de Arruda .
Most of Vim was written by
.An -nosplit
.An Bram Moolenaar .
Vim is based on Stevie, worked on by
.An Tim Thompson ,
.An Tony Andrews ,
and
.An G.R. (Fred) Walter .
.Ic ":help credits"