Frequently asked Questions faq

Rustvim :help pages, generated from source using the tree-sitter-vimdoc parser.

General Questions faq-general

WHERE SHOULD I PUT MY CONFIG (VIMRC)?

See config; you can copy (or symlink) your existing vimrc. nvim-from-vim

HOW STABLE IS THE DEVELOPMENT (PRE-RELEASE) VERSION?

The unstable (pre-release) https://github.com/neovim/neovim/releases/tag/nightly version of Nvim ("HEAD", i.e. the master branch) is used to aggressively stage new features and changes. It's usually stable, but will occasionally break your workflow. We depend on HEAD users to report "blind spots" that were not caught by automated tests.

Use the stable (release) https://github.com/neovim/neovim/releases/latest version for a more predictable experience.

CAN I USE LUA-BASED VIM PLUGINS (E.G. NEOCOMPLETE)?

No. Starting with Nvim 0.2 PR #4411 https://github.com/neovim/neovim/pull/4411 Lua is built-in, but the legacy Vim if_lua interface is not supported.

HOW CAN I USE "TRUE COLOR" IN THE TERMINAL?

Truecolor (24bit colors) are enabled by default if a supporting terminal is detected. If your terminal is not detected but you are sure it supports truecolor, add this to your init.vim:

set termguicolors

NVIM SHOWS WEIRD SYMBOLS (`�[2 q`) WHEN CHANGING MODES

This is a bug in your terminal emulator. It happens because Nvim sends cursor-shape termcodes by default, if the terminal appears to be xterm-compatible (TERM=xterm-256color).

To workaround the issue, you can:

Use a different terminal emulator

Disable 'guicursor' in your Nvim config:


:set guicursor=
" Workaround some broken plugins which set guicursor indiscriminately.
:autocmd OptionSet guicursor noautocmd set guicursor=

See also $TERM for recommended values of $TERM.

HOW TO CHANGE CURSOR SHAPE IN THE TERMINAL?

For Nvim 0.1.7 or older: see the note about NVIM_TUI_ENABLE_CURSOR_SHAPE in man nvim.

For Nvim 0.2 or newer: cursor styling is controlled by the 'guicursor' option.

To _disable_ cursor-styling, set 'guicursor' to empty:


:set guicursor=
" Workaround some broken plugins which set guicursor indiscriminately.
:autocmd OptionSet guicursor noautocmd set guicursor=

If you want a non-blinking cursor, use blinkon0. See 'guicursor'.

'guicursor' is enabled by default, unless Nvim thinks your terminal doesn't support it. If you're sure that your terminal supports cursor-shaping, set 'guicursor' in your init.vim, as described in 'guicursor'.

The Vim terminal options t_SI and t_EI are ignored, like all other t_xx options.

Old versions of libvte (gnome-terminal, roxterm, terminator, ...) do not support cursor style control codes. #2537 https://github.com/neovim/neovim/issues/2537

HOW TO CHANGE CURSOR COLOR IN THE TERMINAL?

Cursor styling (shape, color, behavior) is controlled by 'guicursor', even in the terminal. Cursor color (as opposed to shape) only works if 'termguicolors' is set.

'guicursor' gives an example, but here's a more complicated example which sets different colors in insert-mode and normal-mode:

:set termguicolors
:hi Cursor guifg=green guibg=green
:hi Cursor2 guifg=red guibg=red
:set guicursor=n-v-c:block-Cursor/lCursor,i-ci-ve:ver25-Cursor2/lCursor2,r-cr:hor20,o:hor50

CURSOR STYLE ISN'T RESTORED AFTER EXITING OR SUSPENDING AND RESUMING NVIM

Nvim uses the "Se" terminfo capability to reset the cursor style on exit. If your terminal's terminfo does not define this capability, use autocommands to manage the cursor style:

au VimEnter,VimResume * set guicursor=n-v-c:block,i-ci-ve:ver25,r-cr:hor20,o:hor50
  \,a:blinkwait700-blinkoff400-blinkon250-Cursor/lCursor
  \,sm:block-blinkwait175-blinkoff150-blinkon175

au VimLeave,VimSuspend * set guicursor=a:block-blinkon0

Alternatively, consider setting the desired cursor shape in your shell (e.g. with PROMPT_COMMAND in bash).

CURSOR SHAPE DOESN'T CHANGE IN TMUX

tmux decides that, not Nvim. See tui-cursor-shape for a fix.

See #3165 https://github.com/neovim/neovim/pull/3165 for discussion.

CURSOR FLICKER IN TMUX?

If cursor _ appears and disappears very quickly when opening nvim without a document under tmux, and you set ctermbg in EndOfBuffer and Normal, try setting these to NONE:

hi EndOfBuffer ctermbg=NONE ctermfg=200 cterm=NONE
hi Normal ctermbg=NONE ctermfg=200 cterm=NONE

WHAT HAPPENED TO --remote AND FRIENDS?

--remote is partly supported. clientserver

If you require flags from Vim that are missing in Nvim, you can use https://github.com/mhinz/neovim-remote instead.

Runtime issues faq-runtime

COPYING TO X11 PRIMARY SELECTION WITH THE MOUSE DOESN'T WORK

clipboard=autoselect is not implemented yet https://github.com/neovim/neovim/issues/2325. You may find this workaround to be useful:

vnoremap <LeftRelease> "*ygv
vnoremap <2-LeftRelease> "*ygv

MY `CTRL-H` MAPPING DOESN'T WORK

This was fixed in Nvim 0.2. If you are running Nvim 0.1.7 or older, adjust your terminal's "kbs" (key_backspace) terminfo entry:

infocmp $TERM | sed 's/kbs=^[hH]/kbs=\\177/' > $TERM.ti
tic $TERM.ti

(Feel free to delete the temporary *.ti file created after running the above commands).

`<HOME>` OR SOME OTHER "SPECIAL" KEY DOESN'T WORK

Make sure $TERM is set correctly.

For screen or tmux, $TERM should be screen-256color (not xterm-256color!)

In other cases if "256" does not appear in the string it's probably wrong. Try TERM=xterm-256color.

:! AND SYSTEM() DO WEIRD THINGS WITH INTERACTIVE PROCESSES

Interactive commands are supported by :terminal in Nvim. But :! and system() do not support interactive commands, primarily because Nvim UIs use stdio for msgpack communication, but also for performance, reliability, and consistency across platforms (see https://vimhelp.org/gui_x11.txt.html#gui-pty).

PYTHON SUPPORT ISN'T WORKING

Run :checkhealth in Nvim for automatic diagnosis.

Other hints:

Read provider-python to learn how to install pynvim.

Be sure you have the latest version of the pynvim Python module:


uv tool install --upgrade pynvim

See provider-python for other installation options.

If you're manually creating a Python virtual environment for the pynvim module https://pypi.org/project/pynvim/, you must set g:python3_host_prog to the virtualenv's interpreter path.

Try with nvim -u NORC to make sure your config (init.vim) isn't causing a problem. If you get E117: Unknown function, that means there's a runtime issue: faq-runtime.

The python neovim module was renamed to pynvim (long ago).

:CHECKHEALTH REPORTS E5009: INVALID $VIMRUNTIME

This means $VIMRUNTIME or 'runtimepath' is broken.

$VIMRUNTIME must point to Nvim's runtime files, not Vim's.

The $VIMRUNTIME directory contents should be readable by the current user.

Verify that :echo &runtimepath contains the $VIMRUNTIME path.

NEOVIM CAN'T FIND ITS RUNTIME

This is the case if :help nvim shows E149: No help for nvim.

Make sure that $VIM and $VIMRUNTIME point to Nvim's (as opposed to Vim's) runtime by checking :echo $VIM and :echo $VIMRUNTIME. This should give something like /usr/share/nvim resp. /usr/share/nvim/runtime.

Also make sure that you don't accidentally overwrite your runtimepath (:set runtimepath?), which includes the above $VIMRUNTIME by default (see 'runtimepath').

NEOVIM IS SLOW

Use a fast terminal emulator:

kitty https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty

alacritty https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty

Use an optimized build:

:version should report one of these "build types":

Build type: RelWithDebInfo
Build type: MinSizeRel
Build type: Release

If it reports Build type: Debug and you're building Nvim from source, see https://github.com/neovim/neovim/blob/master/BUILD.md.

COLORS AREN'T DISPLAYED CORRECTLY

Ensure that $TERM is set correctly.

From a shell, run TERM=xterm-256color nvim. If colors are displayed correctly, then export that value of TERM in your user profile (usually ~/.profile):

export TERM=xterm-256color

If you're using tmux, instead add this to your tmux.conf:

set -g default-terminal "tmux-256color"

For GNU screen, configure your .screenrc <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GNU_Screen#Use_256_colors>:

term screen-256color

NOTE: Nvim ignores t_Co and other t_xx terminal codes.

NEOVIM CAN'T READ UTF-8 CHARACTERS

Run the following from the command line:

locale | grep -E '(LANG|LC_CTYPE|LC_ALL)=(.*\.)?(UTF|utf)-?8'

If there's no results, you might not be using a UTF-8 locale. See these issues:

https://github.com/neovim/neovim/issues/1601

https://github.com/neovim/neovim/issues/1858

https://github.com/neovim/neovim/issues/2386

ESC IN TMUX OR GNU SCREEN IS DELAYED

This is a common problem https://www.google.com/?q=tmux%20vim%20escape%20delay in tmux / screen (see also https://github.com/tmux/tmux/issues/131#issuecomment-145853211). The corresponding timeout needs to be tweaked to a low value (10-20ms).

.tmux.conf:

set -g escape-time 10
# Or for tmux >= 2.6
set -sg escape-time 10

.screenrc:

maptimeout 10

"WHY DOESN'T THIS HAPPEN IN VIM?"

It does happen (try vim -N -u NONE), but if you hit a key quickly after ESC then Vim interprets the ESC as ESC instead of ALT (META). You won't notice the delay unless you closely observe the cursor. The tradeoff is that Vim won't understand ALT (META) key-chords, so for example nnoremap <M-a> won't work. ALT (META) key-chords always work in Nvim. See also :help xterm-cursor-keys in Vim.

Nvim 0.3 mimics the Vim behavior while still fully supporting ALT mappings. See i_ALT.

ESC IN GNU SCREEN IS LOST WHEN MOUSE MODE IS ENABLED

This happens because of a bug in screen https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?60196 : in mouse mode, screen assumes that ESC is part of a mouse sequence and will wait an unlimited time for the rest of the sequence, regardless of maptimeout. Until it's fixed in screen, there's no known workaround for this other than double-pressing escape, which causes a single escape to be passed through to Nvim.

CALLING INPUTLIST(), ECHOMSG, ... IN FILETYPE PLUGINS AND AUTOCMD DOES NOT WORK

https://github.com/neovim/neovim/issues/10008

https://github.com/neovim/neovim/issues/10116

https://github.com/neovim/neovim/issues/12288

https://github.com/vim/vim/issues/4379

This is because Nvim sets shortmess+=F by default. Vim behaves the same way with set shortmess+=F. There are plans to improve this, but meanwhile as a workaround, use set shortmess-=F or use unsilent as follows.

unsilent let var = inputlist(['1. item1', '2. item2'])
autocmd BufNewFile * unsilent echomsg 'The autocmd has been fired.'

G:CLIPBOARD SETTINGS ARE NOT USED.

If the clipboard provider is already loaded, you will need to reload it after configuration. Use the following configuration.

let g:clipboard = { 'name' : ... }
if exists('g:loaded_clipboard_provider')
  unlet g:loaded_clipboard_provider
  runtime autoload/provider/clipboard.vim
endif

Or, if you want automatic reloading when assigning to g:clipboard, set init.vim as follows.

function! s:clipboard_changed(...) abort
  if exists('g:loaded_clipboard_provider')
    unlet g:loaded_clipboard_provider
  endif
  runtime autoload/provider/clipboard.vim
endfunction

if !exists('s:loaded')
  call dictwatcheradd(g:, 'clipboard', function('s:clipboard_changed'))
endif
let s:loaded = v:true

Build issues faq-build

GENERAL BUILD ISSUES

Run make distclean && make to rule out a stale build environment causing the failure.

SETTINGS IN LOCAL.MK DON'T TAKE EFFECT

CMake caches build settings, so you might need to run rm -r build && make after modifying local.mk.

CMAKE ERRORS

configure_file Problem configuring file

This is probably a permissions issue, which can happen if you run make as the root user, then later run an unprivileged make. To fix this, run rm -rf build and try again.

GENERATING HELPTAGS FAILED

If re-installation fails with "Generating helptags failed", try removing the previously installed runtime directory (if CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX is not set during building, the default is /usr/local/share/nvim):

rm -r /usr/local/share/nvim

Design faq-design

WHY NOT USE JSON FOR RPC?

JSON cannot easily/efficiently handle binary data

JSON specification is ambiguous: https://seriot.ch/parsing_json.php

WHY EMBED LUA INSTEAD OF X?

Lua is a very small language, ideal for embedding. The biggest advantage of Python/Ruby/etc is their huge collection of libraries, but that isn't relevant for Nvim, where Nvim is the "batteries included" library: introducing another stdlib would be redundant.

Lua 5.1 is a complete language: the syntax is frozen. This is great for backwards compatibility.

Nvim also uses Lua internally as an alternative to C. Extra performance is useful there, as opposed to a slow language like Python or Vim9script.

LuaJIT is one of the fastest runtimes on the planet, 10x faster than Python and "Vim9script" https://vimhelp.org/vim9.txt.html , 100x faster than Vimscript.

Python/JS cost more than Lua in terms of size and portability, and there are already numerous Python/JS-based editors. So Python/JS would make Nvim bigger and less portable, in exchange for a non-differentiating feature.

WHY LUA 5.1 INSTEAD OF LUA 5.3+?

Lua 5.1 is a different language than 5.3. The Lua org makes breaking changes with every new version, so even if we switched (not upgraded, but switched) to 5.3 we gain nothing when they create the next new language in 5.4, 5.5, etc. And we would lose LuaJIT, which is far more valuable than Lua 5.3+.

Lua 5.1 is a complete language. To "upgrade" it, add libraries, not syntax. Nvim itself already is a pretty good "stdlib" for Lua, and we will continue to grow and enhance it. Changing the rules of Lua gains nothing in this context.

WILL NEOVIM TRANSLATE VIMSCRIPT TO LUA, INSTEAD OF EXECUTING VIMSCRIPT DIRECTLY?

We have no plans for transpiling Vimscript. It was explored in https://github.com/tjdevries/vim9jit

ARE PLUGIN AUTHORS ENCOURAGED TO PORT THEIR PLUGINS FROM VIMSCRIPT TO LUA? DO YOU PLAN ON SUPPORTING VIMSCRIPT INDEFINITELY?

We don't anticipate any reason to deprecate Vimscript, which is a valuable DSL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain-specific_language for text-editing tasks. Maintaining Vimscript compatibility is less costly than a mass migration of existing Vim plugins.

Porting from Vimscript to Lua just for the heck of it gains nothing. Nvim is emphatically a fork of Vim in order to leverage the work already spent on thousands of Vim plugins, while enabling new types of plugins and integrations.

That being said, reimplementing legacy plugins in Lua in order to make use of Nvim API and to integrate with Nvim-specific features such as treesitter can be worthwhile.