neovim/runtime/doc/vim_diff.txt

*vim_diff.txt*    Nvim


			    NVIM REFERENCE MANUAL


Differences between Nvim and Vim			       *vim-differences*

Throughout the help files, differences between Nvim and Vim are indicated via
the "{Nvim}" tag.  This document is a complete and centralized list of all
these differences.

				      Type <M-]> to see the table of contents.

==============================================================================
1. Configuration					    *nvim-configuration*

- Use `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nvim/init.vim` instead of `.vimrc` for storing
  configuration.
- Use `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nvim` instead of `.vim` to store configuration files.
- Use `$XDG_DATA_HOME/nvim/shada/main.shada` instead of `.viminfo` for persistent
  session information.

==============================================================================
2. Defaults					            *nvim-defaults*

- Syntax highlighting is enabled by default
- ":filetype plugin indent on" is enabled by default

- 'autoindent' is set by default
- 'autoread' is set by default
- 'backspace' defaults to "indent,eol,start"
- 'backupdir' defaults to .,~/.local/share/nvim/backup (|xdg|)
- 'belloff' defaults to "all"
- 'complete' doesn't include "i"
- 'directory' defaults to ~/.local/share/nvim/swap// (|xdg|), auto-created
- 'display' defaults to "lastline"
- 'formatoptions' defaults to "tcqj"
- 'history' defaults to 10000 (the maximum)
- 'hlsearch' is set by default
- 'incsearch' is set by default
- 'langnoremap' is enabled by default
- 'langremap' is disabled by default
- 'laststatus' defaults to 2 (statusline is always shown)
- 'listchars' defaults to "tab:> ,trail:-,nbsp:+"
- 'nocompatible' is always set
- 'nrformats' defaults to "bin,hex"
- 'ruler' is set by default
- 'sessionoptions' doesn't include "options"
- 'showcmd' is set by default
- 'smarttab' is set by default
- 'tabpagemax' defaults to 50
- 'tags' defaults to "./tags;,tags"
- 'ttyfast' is always set
- 'undodir' defaults to ~/.local/share/nvim/undo (|xdg|), auto-created
- 'viminfo' includes "!"
- 'wildmenu' is set by default

==============================================================================
3. New Features						       *nvim-features*

MAJOR COMPONENTS ~

Embedded terminal emulator	|terminal-emulator|
RPC API				|RPC|
Shared data			|shada|
XDG base directories		|xdg|
Job control			|job-control|
Remote plugins			|remote-plugin|
Python plugins			|provider-python|
Clipboard integration		|provider-clipboard|

USER EXPERIENCE  ~

Working intuitively and consistently is a major goal of Nvim. Examples:

- Nvim does not have `-X`, a platform-specific option "sometimes" available in
  Vim (with potential surprises: http://stackoverflow.com/q/14635295). Nvim
  avoids features that cannot be provided on all platforms--instead that is
  delegated to external plugins/extensions.

- Test-only globals and functions such as test_autochdir(), test_settime(),
  etc., are not exposed (because they don't exist).

ARCHITECTURE ~

External plugins run in separate processes. |remote-plugin| This improves
stability and allows those plugins to perform tasks without blocking the
editor. Even "legacy" Python and Ruby plugins which use the old Vim interfaces
(|if_py| and |if_ruby|) run out-of-process.


FEATURES ~

"Outline": Type <M-]> in |:Man| and |:help| pages to see a document outline.

|META| (ALT) chords are recognized, even in the terminal. Any |<M-| mapping
will work. Some examples: <M-1>, <M-2>, <M-BS>, <M-Del>, <M-Ins>, <M-/>,
<M-\>, <M-Space>, <M-Enter>, <M-=>, <M-->, <M-?>, <M-$>, ...
META chords are case-sensitive: <M-a> and <M-A> are two different keycodes.

Some `CTRL-SHIFT-...` key chords are distinguished from `CTRL-...` variants
(even in the terminal). Specifically, the following are known to work:
  <C-Tab>, <C-S-Tab>, <C-BS>, <C-S-BS>, <C-Enter>, <C-S-Enter>

Options:
  'cpoptions' flags: |cpo-_|
  'guicursor' works in the terminal
  'inccommand' shows interactive results for |:substitute|-like commands
  'statusline' supports unlimited alignment sections
  'tabline' %@Func@foo%X can call any function on mouse-click

Variables:
  |v:event|
  |v:exiting|
  |v:progpath| is always absolute ("full")
  |v:windowid| is always available (for use by external UIs)

Commands:
  |:CheckHealth|
  |:drop| is available on all platforms
  |:Man| is available by default, with many improvements such as completion

Functions:
  |dictwatcheradd()| notifies a callback whenever a |Dict| is modified
  |dictwatcherdel()|
  |execute()| works with |:redir|
  |msgpackdump()|, |msgpackparse()| provide msgpack de/serialization

Events:
  |DirChanged|
  |TabNewEntered|
  |TermClose|
  |TermOpen|
  |TextYankPost|

Highlight groups:
  |hl-QuickFixLine|
  |hl-Substitute|
  |hl-TermCursor|
  |hl-TermCursorNC|
  |hl-Whitespace| highlights 'listchars' whitespace

==============================================================================
4. Changed features					 *nvim-features-changed*

Nvim always builds with all features, in contrast to Vim which may have
certain features removed/added at compile-time.  This is like if Vim's "HUGE"
build was the only Vim release type (except Nvim is smaller than Vim's "HUGE"
build).

If a Python interpreter is available on your `$PATH`, |:python| and |:python3|
are always available and may be used simultaneously in separate plugins.  The
`neovim` pip package must be installed to use Python plugins in Nvim (see
|provider-python|).

|:!| does not support "interactive" commands. Use |:terminal| instead.
(GUI Vim has a similar limitation, see ":help gui-pty" in Vim.)

|system()| does not support writing/reading "backgrounded" commands. |E5677|

Nvim may throttle (skip) messages from shell commands (|:!|, |:grep|, |:make|)
if there is too much output. No data is lost, this only affects display and
makes things faster. |:terminal| output is never throttled.

|mkdir()| behaviour changed:
1. Assuming /tmp/foo does not exist and /tmp can be written to
   mkdir('/tmp/foo/bar', 'p', 0700) will create both /tmp/foo and /tmp/foo/bar 
   with 0700 permissions. Vim mkdir will create /tmp/foo with 0755.
2. If you try to create an existing directory with `'p'` (e.g. mkdir('/',
   'p')) mkdir() will silently exit. In Vim this was an error.
3. mkdir() error messages now include strerror() text when mkdir fails.

'encoding' is always "utf-8".

|string()| and |:echo| behaviour changed:
1. No maximum recursion depth limit is applied to nested container
   structures.
2. |string()| fails immediately on nested containers, not when recursion limit
   was exceeded.
2. When |:echo| encounters duplicate containers like >

       let l = []
       echo [l, l]
<
   it does not use "[...]" (was: "[[], [...]]", now: "[[], []]"). "..." is
   only used for recursive containers.
3. |:echo| printing nested containers adds "@level" after "..." designating
   the level at which recursive container was printed: |:echo-self-refer|.
   Same thing applies to |string()| (though it uses construct like
   "{E724@level}"), but this is not reliable because |string()| continues to
   error out.
4. Stringifyed infinite and NaN values now use |str2float()| and can be evaled
   back.
5. (internal) Trying to print or stringify VAR_UNKNOWN in Vim results in 
   nothing, |E908|, in Neovim it is internal error.

|json_decode()| behaviour changed:
1. It may output |msgpack-special-dict|.
2. |msgpack-special-dict| is emitted also in case of duplicate keys, while in 
   Vim it errors out.
3. It accepts only valid JSON.  Trailing commas are not accepted.

|json_encode()| behaviour slightly changed: now |msgpack-special-dict| values 
are accepted, but |v:none| is not.

*v:none* variable is absent.  In Vim it represents “no value” in “js” strings 
like "[,]" parsed as "[v:none]" by |js_decode()|.

*js_encode()* and *js_decode()* functions are also absent.

Viminfo text files were replaced with binary (messagepack) ShaDa files.
Additional differences:

- |shada-c| has no effect.
- |shada-s| now limits size of every item and not just registers.
- When reading ShaDa files items are merged according to the timestamp.
  |shada-merging|
- 'viminfo' option got renamed to 'shada'. Old option is kept as an alias for
  compatibility reasons.
- |:wviminfo| was renamed to |:wshada|, |:rviminfo| to |:rshada|.  Old
  commands are still kept.
- When writing (|:wshada| without bang or at exit) it merges much more data,
  and does this according to the timestamp.  Vim merges only marks.
  |shada-merging|
- ShaDa file format was designed with forward and backward compatibility in
  mind. |shada-compatibility|
- Some errors make ShaDa code keep temporary file in-place for user to decide
  what to do with it.  Vim deletes temporary file in these cases.
  |shada-error-handling|
- Vim keeps no timestamps at all, neither in viminfo file nor in the instance
  itself.
- ShaDa file keeps search direction (|v:searchforward|), viminfo does not.

|printf()| returns something meaningful when used with `%p` argument: in Vim 
it used to return useless address of the string (strings are copied to the 
newly allocated memory all over the place) and fail on types which cannot be 
coerced to strings. See |id()| for more details, currently it uses 
`printf("%p", {expr})` internally.

|c_CTRL-R| pasting a non-special register into |cmdline| omits the last <CR>.

==============================================================================
5. Missing legacy features				 *nvim-features-missing*
				     *if_lua* *if_perl* *if_mzscheme* *if_tcl*

These legacy Vim features may be implemented in the future, but they are not
planned for the current milestone.

- |if_py|: vim.bindeval() and vim.Function() are not supported
- |if_lua|
- |if_perl|
- |if_mzscheme|
- |if_tcl|

==============================================================================
6. Removed features					 *nvim-features-removed*

These features are in Vim, but have been intentionally removed from Nvim.

			*'cp'* *'nocompatible'* *'nocp'* *'compatible'*
Nvim is always "non-compatible" with Vi.
  ":set nocompatible" is ignored
  ":set compatible" is an error

			*'ed'* *'edcompatible'* *'noed'* *'noedcompatible'*
Ed-compatible mode:
  ":set noedcompatible" is ignored
  ":set edcompatible" is an error

	*t_xx* *:set-termcap* *termcap-options* *t_AB* *t_Sb* *t_vb* *t_SI*
Nvim does not have special `t_XX` options nor <t_XX> keycodes to configure
terminal capabilities. Instead Nvim treats the terminal as any other UI. For
example, 'guicursor' sets the terminal cursor style if possible.

'ttyfast':
  ":set ttyfast" is ignored
  ":set nottyfast" is an error

Encryption support:
  *'cryptmethod'* *'cm'*
  *'key'*

MS-DOS support:
  'bioskey'
  'conskey'

Highlight groups:
  |hl-VisualNOS|

Test functions:
  test_alloc_fail()
  test_autochdir()
  test_disable_char_avail()
  test_garbagecollect_now()
  test_null_channel()
  test_null_dict()
  test_null_job()
  test_null_list()
  test_null_partial()
  test_null_string()
  test_settime()

Other options:
  'antialias'
  'cpoptions' ("g", "w", "H", "*", "-", "j", and all POSIX flags were removed)
  'encoding' ("utf-8" is always used)
  'esckeys'
  'guioptions' "t" flag was removed
  *'guipty'* (Nvim uses pipes and PTYs consistently on all platforms.)
  *'imactivatefunc'* *'imaf'*
  *'imactivatekey'* *'imak'*
  *'imstatusfunc'* *'imsf'*
  *'macatsui'*
  *'restorescreen'* *'rs'* *'norestorescreen'* *'nors'*
  'shelltype'
  *'shortname'* *'sn'* *'noshortname'* *'nosn'*
  *'swapsync'* *'sws'*
  *'term'* *E529* *E530* *E531*
  *'termencoding'* *'tenc'* (Vim 7.4.852 also removed this for Windows)
  'textauto'
  'textmode'
  *'toolbar'* *'tb'*
  *'toolbariconsize'* *'tbis'*
  *'ttybuiltin'* *'tbi'* *'nottybuiltin'* *'notbi'*
  *'ttymouse'* *'ttym'*
  *'ttyscroll'* *'tsl'*
  *'ttytype'* *'tty'*
  'weirdinvert'

Other commands:
  :Print
  :fixdel
  :helpfind
  :mode (no longer accepts an argument)
  :open
  :shell
  :smile
  :tearoff

Other compile-time features:
  EBCDIC
  Emacs tags support
  X11 integration (see |x11-selection|)

Nvim does not have a built-in GUI and hence the following aliases have been
removed: gvim, gex, gview, rgvim, rgview

"Easy mode" (eview, evim, nvim -y)
"(g)vimdiff" (alias for "(g)nvim -d" |diff-mode|)
"Vi mode" (nvim -v)

The ability to start nvim via the following aliases has been removed in favor
of just using their command line arguments:

  ex        nvim -e
  exim      nvim -E
  view      nvim -R
  rvim      nvim -Z
  rview     nvim -RZ

==============================================================================
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