Setting Options: Appendix B - Learning the vi and Vim Editors, Seventh Edition

In insert mode, indents each line to the same level as the line above or below. Use with the shiftwidth option.

Display changes after each editor command. (For global replacement, display last replacement.)

Automatically write (save) the file if changed before opening another file with :n or before giving a Unix command with :!.

Ignore all control characters during input (except tab, newline, or form feed).

Names directory in which ex/vi stores buffer files. (Directory must be writable.)

Remember the flags used with the most recent substitute command (global, confirming), and use them for the next substitute command. Despite the name, no version of ed actually does this.

Allow the execution of .exrc files that reside outside the user’s home directory.

flash (fp)

Flash the screen instead of ringing the bell.

Define boundaries for terminal hardware tabs.

Disregard case during a search.

Insert indents in appropriate Lisp format. ( ), { }, [[, and ]] are modified to have meaning for Lisp.

Print tabs as ^I; mark ends of lines with $. (Use list to tell whether end character is a tab or a space.)

Wildcard characters . (dot), * (asterisk), and [] (brackets) have special meaning in patterns.

Permit system messages to display on terminal while editing in vi.

Require the use of long ex command names, such as copy or read.

Display line numbers on left of screen during editing session.

Allow entry to open or visual mode from ex. Although not in Solaris vi, this option has traditionally been in vi, and may be in your Unix’s version of vi.

Abolish carriage returns at the end of lines when printing multiple lines; this speeds output on dumb terminals when printing lines with leading whitespace (spaces or tabs).

Define paragraph delimiters for movement by { or }. The pairs of characters in the value are the names of troff macros that begin paragraphs.

Display the ex prompt (:) when vi’s Q command is given.

Any writes (saves) of a file fail unless you use ! after the write (works with w, ZZ, or autowrite).

vi redraws the screen whenever edits are made (in other words, insert mode pushes over existing characters, and deleted lines immediately close up). Default depends on line speed and terminal type. noredraw is useful at slow speeds on a dumb terminal: deleted lines show up as @, and inserted text appears to overwrite existing text until you press ESC.

Allow nested map sequences.

Display a message on the status line whenever you make an edit that affects at least a certain number of lines. For example, 6dd reports the message “6 lines deleted.”

Number of lines to scroll with ^D and ^U commands.

Define section delimiters for [[ and ]] movement. The pairs of characters in the value are the names of troff macros that begin sections.

Pathname of shell used for shell escape (:!) and shell command (:sh). Default value is derived from shell environment, which varies on different systems.

Define number of spaces in backward (^D) tabs when using the autoindent option, and for the << and >> commands.

In vi, when ) or } is entered, cursor moves briefly to matching ( or {. (If no match, ring the error message bell.) Very useful for programming.

In insert mode, display a message on the prompt line indicating the type of insert you are making, for example, “OPEN MODE” or “APPEND MODE.”

Hold off display during insert. Default depends on line speed and terminal type.

Define number of spaces that a tab indents during editing session. (Printer still uses system tab of 8.)

Define number of characters that are significant for tags. Default (zero) means that all characters are significant.

tags /usr/lib/tags

Define pathname of files containing tags. (See the Unix ctags command.) By default, vi searches the file tags in the current directory and /usr/lib/tags.

Enable stacking of tag locations on a stack.

Display shorter error messages.

Keyboard maps time out after 1 second.^[a]

Set terminal type. This is just another name for term.

Display the warning message, “No write since last change.”

Show a certain number of lines of the file on the screen. Default depends on line speed and terminal type.

Define right margin. If greater than zero, automatically inserts carriage returns to break lines.

Searches wrap around either end of file.

A string describing a backup filename to use. The current contents of a file are saved in this file before writing the new data out. A first character of N causes nvi to include a version number at the end of the file; version numbers are always incremented. "N%.bak" is a reasonable example.

Environment variable CDPATH, or current directory

A search path for the :cd command.

When the first character of this string is entered on the colon command line, nvi opens a new window on the command history that you can then edit. Hitting ENTER on any given line executes that line. ESC is a good choice for this option. (Use ^V ^[ to enter it.)

If the first nonempty line begins with /*, //, or #, nvi skips the comment text before displaying the file. This avoids displaying long, boring legal notices.

Environment variable TMPDIR, or /tmp

The directory where nvi puts its temporary files.

Searches use egrep-style extended regular expressions.

When the first character of this string is entered on the colon command line, nvi treats the blank delimited word in front of the cursor as if it had an * appended to it and does shell-style filename expansion. ESC is also a good choice for this option. (Use ^V ^[ to enter it.) When this character is the same as for the cedit option, command-line editing is performed only when the character is entered as the first character on the colon command line.

Make all regular expression searches case-insensitive, as long as the search pattern contains no uppercase letters.

Long lines scroll the screen left to right, instead of wrapping.

nvi attempts to get an exclusive lock on the file. Editing a file that cannot be locked creates a read-only session.

Display unknown characters in octal, instead of in hexadecimal.

A colon-separated list of directories in which nvi will look for the file to be edited.

The directory where recovery files are stored.

Displays the row and column of the cursor.

Searches are done incrementally.

Turn off access to external programs via text filtering (:r!, :w!), disable the vi mode ! and ^Z commands, and the ex mode !, shell, stop, and suspend commands. Once set, it cannot be changed.

When any of these characters appear in a filename argument to an ex command, the argument is expanded by the program named by the shell option.

Display a string in the status line showing the current mode. Display an * if the file has been modified.

The number of columns by which the screen is shifted left or right when leftright is true.

Defines number of characters that are significant for tags. Default (zero) means that all characters are significant.

tags /var/db/libc.tags /sys/kern/tags

The list of possible tag files.

The ~ command takes an associated motion, not just a preceding count.

Identical to the wrapmargin option, except that it specifies the number of characters from the left margin at which the line will be split. The value of wrapmargin overrides wraplen.

Iconify the old window when de-iconifying a new one. X11 only.

Make a backup file (xxx.bak) before writing the current file out to disk.

The buffer’s data is not text. This option is set automatically.

The name of the bold font. X11 only.

The default display mode for the buffer (hex, html, man, normal, syntax, or tex).

The shell command for :cc.

Where to store temporary files. The default is system-dependent.

The name of current display mode, set by the :display command.

A list of directories in which to search for configuration files. The default is system-dependent.

Force keyboard focus into the new window. X11 only.

The name of the normal font, for the Windows and X11 interfaces.

Cause the substitute command to change all instances.

The home directory for ~ in filenames.

The name of the italic font. X11 only.

Make the buffer read-only and cause most commands that would modify the buffer to fail. Usually set automatically for read-only HTML files.

Use color when printing; for :lpr.

The width of a printer page; for :lpr.

The printer needs CR/LF for newline in the file; for :lpr.

Send a form feed after the last page; for :lpr.

Print a header at the top of the page; for :lpr.

The length of a printer page; for :lpr.

The printer file or filter, for :lpr. A typical value might be !lpr. The default is system-dependent.

The printer type, for :lpr. The value should be one of: ps, ps2, epson, pana, ibm, hp, cr, bs, dumb, html, or ansi.

Simulate line wrap; for :lpr.

The shell command for :make.

Control use of syntax mode. Useful for HTML and manpages to show the input instead of the formatted contents. With a value of never, never use syntax mode. With writable, do so for writable files. With local, do so for files in the current directory. With always, always use syntax mode.

Display the cursor’s line and column.

One of normal (standard vi behavior), safer (attempt to prevent writing malicious scripts), or restricted (try to make elvis safe for use as a restricted editor). In general, use the :safely command to set this; don’t do it directly.

For the man and html modes, show the markup at the cursor position, but not elsewhere.

The sideways scrolling amount. Zero mimics vi, making lines wrap.

Place the arguments for a function on the screen based on a tags file lookup after typing the function name and the function character (usually a left parenthesis).

Highlight misspelled words. This also works with programs, based on lookups in a tags file.

Defines the number of characters that are significant for tags. Default (zero) means that all characters are significant.

The list of possible tag files.

Remember the origin of tag searches on a stack.

The number of undoable commands. Zero mimics vi. You probably want to set this to a bigger number.

Upon exit, move the pointer back to the xterm that started elvis. X11 only.

How ^W ^W forces pointer movement: don't for no movement, scrollbar moves the pointer to the scrollbar, origin moves the pointer to the upper left corner, and corners moves it to the corners furthest from and nearest to the current cursor position. This forces the X display to pan, to make sure the window is entirely onscreen.

dark or light

Vim tries to use background and foreground colors that are appropriate to the particular terminal. The default depends on the current terminal or windowing system.

backspace (bs)

0

Control whether you can backspace over a newline and/or over the start of insert. Values are: 0 for vi compatibility; 1 to backspace over newlines; and 2 to backspace over the start of insert. Using a value of 3 allows both.

backup (bk)

nobackup

Make a backup before overwriting a file, then leave it around after the file has been successfully written. To have a backup file just while the file is being written, use the writebackup option.

backupdir (bdir)

A list of directories for the backup file, separated with commas. The backup file is created in the first directory in the list where this is possible. If empty, you cannot create a backup file. The name . (dot) means the same directory as where the edited file is.

backupext (bex)

~

The string that is appended to a filename to make the name of the backup file.

binary (bin)

nobinary

Change a number of other options to make it easier to edit binary files. The previous values of these options are remembered and restored when bin is switched back off. Each buffer has its own set of saved option values. This option should be set before editing a binary file. You can also use the -b command-line option.

cindent (cin)

nocindent

Enable automatic smart C program indenting.

cinkeys (cink)

0{,0},:,0#,!^F, o,O,e

A list of keys that, when typed in insert mode, cause reindenting of the current line. Only happens if cindent is on.

cinoptions (cino)

Affects the way cindent reindents lines in a C program. See the online help for details.

cinwords (cinw)

if, else, while, do, for, switch

These keywords start an extra indent in the next line when smartindent or cindent is set. For cindent this is done only at an appropriate place (inside {...}).

comments (com)

A comma-separated list of strings that can start a comment line. See the online help for details.

compatible (cp)

cp; nocp when a .vimrcfile is found

Makes Vim behave more like vi in too many ways to describe here. It is on by default, to avoid surprises. Having a .vimrc turns off the vi compatibility; usually this is a desirable side effect.

cpoptions (cpo)

aABceFs

A sequence of single character flags, each one indicating a different way in which Vim will or will not exactly mimic vi. When empty, the Vim defaults are used. See the online help for details.

define (def)

^#\s*define

A search pattern that describes macro definitions. The default value is for C programs. For C++, use ^\(#\s*define\ |[a-z]*\s*const\s*[a-z]*\). When using the :set command, you need to double the backslashes.

directory (dir)

., ~/tmp, /tmp

A list of directory names for the swap file, separated with commas. The swap file will be created in the first directory where this is possible. If empty, no swap file will be used and recovery is impossible! The name . (dot) means to put the swap file in the same directory as the edited file. Using . first in the list is recommended so that editing the same file twice will result in a warning.

equalprg (ep)

External program to use for = command. When this option is empty, the internal formatting functions are used.

errorfile (ef)

errors.err

Name of the error file for the quickfix mode. When the -q command-line argument is used, errorfile is set to the following argument.

errorformat (efm)

(Too long to print)

Scanf-like description of the format for the lines in the error file.

expandtab (et)

noexpandtab

When inserting a tab, expand it to the appropriate number of spaces.

fileformat (ff)

unix

Describes the convention to terminate lines when reading/writing the current buffer. Possible values are dos (CR/LF), unix (LF), and mac (CR). Vim usually sets this automatically.

fileformats (ffs)

dos,unix

List the line-terminating conventions that Vim tries to apply to a file when reading. Multiple names enable automatic end-of-line detection when reading a file.

formatoptions (fo)

Vim default: tcq; vi default: vt

A sequence of letters that describes how automatic formatting is to be done. See the online help for details.

gdefault (gd)

nogdefault

Cause the substitute command to change all instances.

guifont (gfn)

A comma-separated list of fonts to try when starting the GUI version of Vim.

hidden (hid)

nohidden

Hide the current buffer when it is unloaded from a window, instead of abandoning it.

history (hi)

Vim default: 20; vi default: 0

Control how many ex commands, search strings, and expressions are remembered in the command history.

hlsearch (hls)

nohlsearch

Highlight all matches of the most recent search pattern.

icon

noicon

Vim attempts to change the name of the icon associated with the window where it is running. Overridden by the iconstring option.

iconstring

String value used for the icon name of the window.

include (inc)

^#\s*include

Define a search pattern for finding include commands. The default value is for C programs.

incsearch (is)

noincsearch

Enable incremental searching.

isfname (isf)

@,48-57,/,.,-,_, +,,,$,:,~

A list of characters that can be included in file and path names. Non-Unix systems have different default values. The @ character stands for any alphabetic character. It is also used in the other is XXX options, described next.

isident (isi)

@,48-57,_,192-255

A list of characters that can be included in identifiers. Non-Unix systems may have different default values.

iskeyword (isk)

@,48-57,_,192-255

A list of characters that can be included in keywords. Non-Unix systems may have different default values. Keywords are used in searching and recognizing with many commands, such as w, [i, and many more.

isprint (isp)

@,161-255

A list of characters that can be displayed directly to the screen. Non-Unix systems may have different default values.

makeef (mef)

/tmp/vim##.err

The error file name for the :make command. Non-Unix systems have different default values. The ## is replaced by a number to make the name unique.

makeprg (mp)

make

The program to use for the :make command. % and # in the value are expanded.

mouse

Enable the mouse in non-GUI versions of Vim. This works for MS-DOS, Win32, QNX pterm, and xterm. See the online help for details.

mousehide (mh)

nomousehide

Hide the mouse pointer during typing. Restores the pointer when the mouse is moved.

paste

nopaste

Change a large number of options so that pasting into a Vim window with a mouse does not mangle the pasted text. Turning it off restores those options to their previous values. See the online help for details.

ruler (ru)

noruler

Show the line and column number of the cursor position.

secure

nosecure

Disable certain kinds of commands in the startup file. Automatically enabled if you don’t own the .vimrc and .exrc files.

shellpipe (sp)

The shell string to use for capturing the output from :make into a file. The default value depends upon the shell.

shellredir (srr)

The shell string for capturing the output of a filter into a temporary file. The default value depends upon the shell.

showmode (smd)

Vim default: smd; vi default: nosmd

Put a message in the status line for insert, replace, and visual modes.

sidescroll (ss)

0

How many columns to scroll horizontally. The value zero puts the cursor in the middle of the screen.

smartcase (scs)

nosmartcase

Override the ignorecase option if the search pattern contains uppercase characters.

suffixes

*.bak,~,.o,.h,.info,.swp

When multiple files match a pattern during filename completion, the value of this variable sets a priority among them, in order to pick the one Vim will use.

taglength (tl)

0

Define number of characters that are significant for tags. Default (zero) means that all characters are significant.

tagrelative (tr)

Vim default: tr; vi default: notr

Filenames in a tags file from another directory are taken to be relative to the directory where the tags file is.

tags (tag)

./tags,tags

Filenames for the :tag command, separated by spaces or commas. The leading ./ is replaced with the full path to the current file.

tildeop (top)

notildeop

Make the ~ command behave like an operator.

undolevels (ul)

1000

The maximum number of changes that can be undone. A value of 0 means vi compatibility: one level of undo and u undoes itself. Non-Unix systems may have different default values.

viminfo (vi)

Read the viminfo file upon startup, and write it upon exiting. The value is complex; it controls the different kinds of information that Vim will store in the file. See the online help for details.

writebackup (wb)

writebackup

Make a backup before overwriting a file. The backup is removed after the file is successfully written, unless the backup option is also on.

Controls whether the cursor sits at the left or right end of the whitespace representing a tab character.

Automatically updates the contents of scratch buffers when their contents change.

Uses “most-recently-used” style buffering; the buffers are sorted in order of use. Otherwise, buffers remain in the order in which they were edited.

Automatic syntax coloring. If set to zero, automatic syntax coloring is disabled. Otherwise, it should be set to a small positive integer that represents the number of milliseconds to wait for a “quiet interval” before invoking the autocolor-hook hook.

Automatic file saving. Writes the file after every autosavecnt characters of inserted text.

Specifies after how many inserted characters automatic saves take place.

If disabled, then in insert mode you can backspace past the point at which the insert began.

Controls how backup files are created when writing a file. Possible values are off, .bak for DOS-style backups, and tilde for Emacs-style hello.c~ backups under Unix.

Sets the background color on systems that support it.

Controls the check for a prefix used to distinguish different types of UTF encoding. The default value auto tells vile to inspect the file; specific values tell it to use that value.

Issues a “file newer than buffer” warning if the file has changed since it was last read or written, and prompts for confirmation.

Enable C-style indentation, which helps maintain current indentation level automatically during insert, like autoindent.

The list of characters interpreted by the cindent mode. These include # to indent to column 1, and : to indent further, as after a label. Listing a pair of characters that are also in fence-pairs causes text enclosed by the pair to be further indented.

A built-in major mode for C code.

Specify by name an aggregate of fcolor, bcolor, video-attrs, and $palette defined via the define-color-scheme command.

Describes the leading part of a line that should be left alone when reformatting comments. The default value is good for Makefile, shell and C comments, and email.

A regular expression defining commented paragraph delimiters. Its purpose is to preserve paragraphs inside comments when reformatting.

Controls whether vile uses regular expressions or character classes for parsing tokens from the screen for various commands. This uses an enumeration: both, cclass, and regex.

vile checks each name when scanning directories for filename completion. This allows you to distinguish between directory names and filenames in the prompt.

Strips out the CR from CR/LF pairs when reading files, and puts them back when writing. New buffers for nonexistent files inherit the line style of the operating system, whatever the value of dos.

Sets the foreground color on systems that support it.

Regular expressions for the start and end of simple non-nestable fences, such as C comments.

Regular expressions marking the start, “else if”, “else”, and end of line-oriented, nested fences, such as C-preprocessor control lines.

Each pair of characters denotes a set of “fences” that should be matched with %.

Specifies the character encoding of the buffer contents, e.g., one of 8bit, ascii, auto, utf-8, utf-16, or utf-32.

Specifies a syntax-highlighting filter, for a given major mode.

Specifies whether globbing or regular expressions are used to select buffer names in the for-buffers and kill-buffer commands.

Controls how wildcard characters (e.g., * and ?) are treated in prompts for filenames. A value of off disables expansion, and on uses the internal globber, which can handle normal shell wildcards and ~ notation. The default value for Unix guarantees compatibility with your shell.

Enables or disables syntax highlighting in the corresponding buffers.

Logs commands from the colon command line (minibuffer) in the [History] buffer.

Moving off the end of a long line shifts the whole screen sideways. If not set, only the current line shifts.

Strips the given pattern from a filename before matching it for major mode suffixes.

Wraps long logical lines onto multiple screen lines.

The map facility matches against the longest possible mapped sequence, not the shortest.

Controls behavior of 8-bit characters during insert. Normally, key bindings are operational only when in command mode; when in insert mode, all characters are self-inserting. If this mode is on, and a metacharacter (i.e., a character with the eighth bit set) is typed that is bound to a function, then that function binding will be honored and executed from within insert mode. Any unbound metacharacters will remain self-inserting.

Defines the highlight attribute to use when the user toggles the editing mode in the minibuffer.

Controls whether a vi-like mode line feature is enabled.

Controls the number of lines from each end of the buffer to scan for vi-like mode lines.

Modifies the highlighting shown by visual-matches to control whether overlapping matches are shown.

Percentage of total lines that must end with CR/LF for vile to automatically convert buffer’s recordseparator to crlf.

Percentage of total characters that contain embedded nulls, making them look like UTF-16 or UTF-32 encodings. If the file-encoding option is set to auto and the match is higher than this threshold, vile will load the buffer data as UTF-8.

Controls the use of a pop-up window for help in doing completion. The value is either off for no window, immediate for an immediate pop up, or delayed to wait for a second Tab key.

When enabled, vile pops up the [Messages] buffer, showing the text that was written to the message line.

Specify format of files that vile reads and writes. Formats are lf (for Unix), crlf (for DOS), cr (for Macintosh), and default (lf or crlf, depending on the platform).

If set, vile fully resolves filenames in case some path components are symbolic links. This helps avoid multiple unintentional edits of the same physical file via different pathnames.

Shows the current line and column in the status line, as well as what percentage of the current buffer’s lines are in front of the cursor.

Shows the value of the current character in the status line.

Controls when/whether recordseparator information is shown in the status line. Values are: always, differs (to show when the local mode differs from the global), local (to show whenever a local mode is set), foreign (to show when the recordseparator differs from the native default), and never.

Displays an indicator on the status line for insert and replace modes.

Controls by how many characters the screen scrolls to the left or right. The value of 0 moves the screen by one-third.

Allows the physical insertion of tab characters into the buffer. If turned off (notabinsert), vile will never insert a tab into a buffer; instead it will always insert the appropriate number of spaces.

Makes tag searches ignore case.

Defines the number of characters that are significant for tags. Default (zero) means that all characters are significant. This does not affect tags picked up from the cursor; they are always matched exactly. (This is different from the other editors).

When using a tags file in another directory, filenames in that tags file are considered to be relative to the directory where the tags file is.

A space-separated list of files in which to look up tag references.

Use the whole word under the cursor for the tag lookup, not just the subword starting at the current cursor position.

Limits how many changes may be undone. The value zero means “no limit.”

If displaying a buffer whose file encoding says it is one of the Unicode flavors (e.g., utf-8, utf-16, or utf-32), shows the values that are non-ASCII in \uXXXX format even if the display is capable of showing these as regular characters.

Displays nonprinting characters with the eighth bit set in octal. Otherwise, uses hexadecimal. Nonprinting characters whose eighth bit is not set are always displayed in control character notation.

Controls highlighting of all matching occurrences of a search pattern. The possible values are none for no highlighting, or underline, bold, and reverse for those kinds of highlighting. Colors may also be used on systems that support it.

Supports xterm’s modified function keys by generating system bindings for the Shift-, Ctrl-, and Alt- modifiers of each function key listed in the terminal description.

Allows use of the mouse from inside an xterm. See the online help for details.

Enables title bar updates if you are running within an xterm. Each time you switch to a different buffer, vile can update the title. This uses the same tests of the TERM variable as the xterm-mouse mode.