Notable changes since Nvim 0.9 news-0.10

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

For changes in the previous release, see news-0.9.

BREAKING CHANGES

These changes may require adaptations in your config or plugins.

API:

nvim_open_win() now blocks all autocommands when noautocmd is set, rather than just those from setting the buffer to display in the window.

Defaults:

Default color scheme has been updated to be "Nvim branded" and accessible. Use :colorscheme vim to revert to the old legacy color scheme.

These Nvim specific highlight groups are now defined in a meaningfully different way and might need an update:

hl-FloatBorder is linked to hl-NormalFloat instead of hl-WinSeparator.

hl-NormalFloat is not linked to hl-Pmenu.

hl-WinBar has different background.

hl-WinBarNC is similar to hl-WinBar but not bold.

hl-WinSeparator is linked to hl-Normal instead of hl-VertSplit.

This also might result into some color schemes looking differently due to them relying on implicit assumptions about how highlight groups are defined by default. To account for this, define all attributes of highlight groups explicitly. Alternatively, use :colorscheme vim or :source $VIMRUNTIME/colors/vim.lua to restore previous definitions.

'termguicolors' is enabled by default when Nvim is able to determine that the host terminal emulator supports 24-bit color.

Editor:

When switching windows, CursorMoved autocommands trigger when Nvim is back on the main loop rather than immediately. This is more compatible with Vim.

"#" followed by a digit no longer stands for a function key at the start of the lhs of a mapping.

shm-q now fully hides macro recording message instead of only shortening it.

Signs placed through the legacy sign-commands are now stored and displayed as extmarks internally. Along with the following changes:

A sign placed twice in the same group with the same identifier will be moved.

Legacy signs are always deleted along with the line it is placed on.

Legacy and extmark signs will show up in both :sign-place-list and nvim_buf_get_extmarks().

Legacy and extmark signs are displayed and listed with the same priority: line number -> priority -> sign id -> recently placed

:behave was removed.

If you used :behave xterm, the following is equivalent:


set mousemodel=extend

If you used :behave mswin, the following is equivalent:


set selection=exclusive
set selectmode=mouse,key
set mousemodel=popup
set keymodel=startsel,stopsel

Events:

Returning any truthy value from a callback passed to nvim_create_autocmd() (rather than just true) will delete the autocommand.

LSP:

LanguageTree:parse() will no longer parse injections by default and now requires an explicit range argument to be passed. If injections are required, provide an explicit range via parser:parse({ start_row, end_row }).

vim.lsp.util.parse_snippet() will now strictly follow the snippet grammar defined by LSP, and hence previously parsed snippets might now be considered invalid input.

vim.lsp.codelens.refresh() now takes an opts argument. With this change, the default behavior of just refreshing the current buffer has been replaced by refreshing all buffers.

vim.lsp.util.extract_completion_items() will no longer return reliable results, since it does not apply itemDefaults when its input is a CompletionList. Moreover, since support for LSP completionList.itemDefaults was added, some third party plugins might be negatively impacted in case the language servers support the feature but the plugin does not. If necessary, the respective capability can be removed when calling vim.lsp.protocol.make_client_capabilities().

LspRequest and LspProgressUpdate (renamed to LspProgress) autocmds were promoted from User autocmds to first class citizens.

Lua:

-l ensures output ends with a newline if the script prints messages and doesn't cause Nvim to exit.

Removed functions from the vim.json module:

Unnecessary, undocumented functions which caused global side-effects.

vim.json.null is redundant with vim.NIL.

vim.json.array_mt (and related) is redundant with vim.empty_dict().

vim.islist() now checks whether a table is actually list-like (i.e., has integer keys without gaps and starting from 1). For the previous behavior (only check for integer keys, allow gaps or not starting with 1), use vim.isarray().

Renamed vim.treesitter.playground to vim.treesitter.dev.

Options:

Removed some Vim 5.0<= option compatibilities:

'backspace' no longer supports number values. Instead:

for backspace=0 set backspace= (empty)

for backspace=1 set backspace=indent,eol

for backspace=2 set backspace=indent,eol,start (default behavior in Nvim)

for backspace=3 set backspace=indent,eol,nostop

'backupdir' and 'directory' will no longer remove a > at the start of the option.

OptionSet autocommand args v:option_new, v:option_old, v:option_oldlocal, v:option_oldglobal now have the type of the option instead of always being strings. v:option_old is now the old global value for all global-local options, instead of just string global-local options.

Local value for a global-local number/boolean option is now unset when the option is set (e.g. using :set or nvim_set_option_value()) without a scope, which means they now behave the same way as string options.

Plugins:

:TOhtml has been rewritten in Lua to support Nvim-specific decorations, and many options have been removed.

Treesitter:

Treesitter highlight groups have been renamed to be more in line with upstream tree-sitter and Helix to make it easier to share queries. The full list is documented in treesitter-highlight-groups.

TUI:

In some cases, the cursor in the Nvim TUI used to blink even without configuring 'guicursor' as mentioned in cursor-blinking. This was a bug that has now been fixed. If your cursor has stopped blinking, add the following (or similar, adapted to user preference) to your config file:

set guicursor+=n-v-c:blinkon500-blinkoff500

NEW FEATURES

The following new features were added.

API:

Passing 0 to nvim_get_chan_info() gets info about the current channel.

nvim_buf_set_extmark() supports inline virtual text.

nvim_win_text_height() computes the number of screen lines occupied by a range of text in a given window.

New RPC client type msgpack-rpc is added for nvim_set_client_info() to support fully MessagePack-RPC compliant clients.

Floating windows can now be hidden by setting hide in nvim_open_win() or nvim_win_set_config().

nvim_input_mouse() supports mouse buttons "x1" and "x2".

Added "force_crlf" option field in nvim_open_term().

Added nvim_tabpage_set_win() to set the current window of a tabpage.

Mapping APIs now support abbreviations when mode short-name has suffix "a".

Floating windows can now show footer with new footer and footer_pos config fields. Uses hl-FloatFooter by default.

extmarks can set a "url" highlight attribute, so the text region can become a clickable hyperlink (assuming UI support). The TUI renders URLs using the OSC 8 control sequence, enabling clickable text in supporting terminals.

nvim_open_win() and nvim_win_set_config() now support opening normal (split) windows, moving floating windows into split windows, and opening windows in non-current tabpages.

Flags added to nvim_buf_set_extmark():

"undo_restore": opt-out extmarks of precise undo tracking.

"invalidate": automatically hide or delete extmarks.

"virt_text_repeat_linebreak": repeat virtual text on wrapped lines.

Extmarks now fully support multi-line ranges, and a single extmark can be used to highlight a range of arbitrary length. The nvim_buf_set_extmark() API function already allowed you to define such ranges, but highlight regions were not rendered consistently for a range that covers more than one line break. This has now been fixed. Signs defined as part of a multi-line extmark also apply to every line in the range, not just the first. In addition, nvim_buf_get_extmarks() has gained an "overlap" option to return such ranges even if they started before the specified position.

Defaults:

The workspace/didChangeWatchedFiles LSP client capability is now enabled by default on Mac and Windows. Disabled on Linux since there currently isn't a viable backend for watching files that scales well for large directories.

On Windows 'isfname' does not include ":". Drive letters are handled correctly without it. (Use gF for filepaths suffixed with ":line:col").

'comments' includes "fb:•".

'shortmess' includes the "C" flag.

'grepprg' uses the -H and -I flags for grep by default, and defaults to using ripgrep if available.

"]d" and "[d" in Normal mode map to vim.diagnostic.goto_next() and vim.diagnostic.goto_prev(), respectively. ]d-default [d-default

<C-W>d (and <C-W><C-D>) map to vim.diagnostic.open_float() CTRL-W_d-default

vim.lsp.start() sets the following default keymaps (assuming server support):

K in Normal mode maps to vim.lsp.buf.hover(), unless 'keywordprg' was customized before calling vim.lsp.start().

Automatic linting of treesitter query files (see ft-query-plugin). Can be disabled via:

vim.g.query_lint_on = {}

Enabled treesitter highlighting for:

Treesitter query files

Vim help files

Lua files

Editor:

Better cmdline completion for string option value. complete-set-option

Try it with :set listchars=<Tab>

By default, the swapfile "ATTENTION" E325 dialog is skipped if the swapfile is owned by a running Nvim process, instead of prompting. If you always want the swapfile dialog, delete the default SwapExists handler: autocmd! nvim.swapfile. default-autocmds

Navigating the jumplist with CTRL+O, CTRL+I behaves more intuitively when deleting buffers, and avoids "invalid buffer" cases. #25461

:fclose command.

v_Q-default and v_@-default repeat a register for each line of a linewise visual selection.

Clicking on a tabpage in the tabline with the middle mouse button closes it.

:checkhealth buffer can be opened in a split window using modifiers like :vertical, :horizontal and :botright.

Events:

vim.on_key() callbacks receive a second argument for keys typed before mappings are applied.

LSP:

LSP method names are available in vim.lsp.protocol.Methods.

Implemented LSP inlay hints: lsp-inlay_hint https://microsoft.github.io/language-server-protocol/specification/#textDocument_inlayHint

Implemented pull diagnostic textDocument/diagnostic: vim.lsp.diagnostic.on_diagnostic() https://microsoft.github.io/language-server-protocol/specification/#textDocument_diagnostic

Implemented LSP type hierarchy: vim.lsp.buf.typehierarchy() https://microsoft.github.io/language-server-protocol/specification/#textDocument_prepareTypeHierarchy

vim.lsp.status() consumes the last progress messages as a string.

LSP client now always saves and restores named buffer marks when applying text edits.

LSP client now supports the positionEncoding server capability. If a server responds with the positionEncoding capability in its initialization response, Nvim automatically sets the client's offset_encoding field.

Dynamic registration of LSP capabilities. An implication of this change is that checking a client's server_capabilities is no longer a sufficient indicator to see if a server supports a feature. Instead use client.supports_method(<method>). It considers both the dynamic capabilities and static server_capabilities.

anchor_bias option to lsp-handlers aids in positioning of floating windows.

vim.lsp.util.locations_to_items() sets the user_data of each item to the original LSP Location or LocationLink.

Added support for connecting to servers using named pipes (Windows) or Unix domain sockets (Unix) via vim.lsp.rpc.connect().

Added support for completionList.itemDefaults, reducing overhead when computing completion items where properties often share the same value (e.g. commitCharacters). Note that this might affect plugins and language servers that don't support the feature, and in such cases the respective capability can be unset.

vim.lsp.start() accepts a "silent" option for suppressing messages if an LSP server failed to start.

vim.lsp.buf.definition(), vim.lsp.buf.declaration(), vim.lsp.buf.type_definition(), and vim.lsp.buf.implementation() now support the loclist field of vim.lsp.ListOpts.

Lua:

:lua with a [range] executes that range as Lua code, in any buffer.

:source without arguments treats a buffer with 'filetype' of "lua" as Lua code regardless of its extension.

Vimscript function exists() supports checking v:lua functions.

vim.iter() is a generic interface for all iterable objects (tables, iterators).

vim.snippet provides a mode for expanding and navigating snippets.

vim.ringbuf() is a generic ring buffer (data structure).

vim.deepcopy() gained a noref argument to avoid hashing table values.

vim.keycode() translates keycodes in a string.

vim.system() runs commands / starts processes.

vim.lpeg and vim.re expose the bundled Lpeg expression grammar parser and its regex interface.

vim.base64.encode() and vim.base64.decode() encode and decode strings using Base64 encoding.

vim.text.hexencode() and vim.text.hexdecode() convert strings to and from byte representations.

vim.ui.open() opens URIs using the system default handler (macOS open, Windows explorer, Linux xdg-open, etc.)

vim.wo can now be double indexed for :setlocal behaviour. Currently only 0 for the buffer index is supported.

Improved messages for type errors in vim.api.* calls (including opts params).

Lua type annotations for:

vim.*

vim.fn.*

vim.api.*

vim.v.*

Functions that take a severity as an optional parameter (e.g. vim.diagnostic.get()) now also accept a list of severities vim.diagnostic.severity

vim.diagnostic.count() returns the number of diagnostics for a given buffer and/or namespace, by severity. This is a faster alternative to vim.diagnostic.get() when only the number of diagnostics is needed, but not the diagnostics themselves.

vim.diagnostic.is_enabled()

vim.version.le(), vim.version.ge()

vim.fs.root() finds project root directories from a list of "root markers".

vim.tbl_contains() now works for general tables and allows specifying a predicate function that is checked for each value. (Use vim.list_contains() for checking list-like tables (integer keys without gaps) for literal values.)

vim.region() can use a string accepted by getpos() as position.

Options:

'winfixbuf' keeps a window focused onto a specific buffer

'smoothscroll' option to scroll by screen line rather than by text line when 'wrap' is set.

'foldtext' now supports virtual text format. fold-foldtext

'foldtext' can be set to an empty string to disable and render the line: as normal with regular highlighting and no line wrapping.

'complete' option supports "f" flag for completing buffer names.

'completeopt' option supports "popup" flag to show extra information in a floating window.

'errorfile' (-q) accepts - as an alias for stdin.

Performance:

'diffopt' "linematch" scoring algorithm now favours larger and less groups https://github.com/neovim/neovim/pull/23611

Treesitter highlighting now parses injections incrementally during screen redraws only for the line range being rendered. This significantly improves performance in large files with many injections.

'breakindent' performance is significantly improved for wrapped lines.

Cursor movement, insertion with [count] and screenpos() are now faster.

Plugins:

Nvim now includes commenting support.

:Man supports the :hide modifier to open page in the current window.

:Man respects 'wrapmargin'

Startup:

$NVIM_APPNAME can be set to a relative path instead of only a name.

--startuptime reports startup times for both processes (TUI + server) as separate sections.

Terminal:

:terminal accepts some :command-modifiers (specifically :horizontal and those that affect splitting a window).

Terminal buffers emit a TermRequest autocommand event when the child process emits an OSC or DCS control sequence.

Terminal buffers respond to OSC background and foreground requests. default-autocmds

Treesitter:

Bundled parser and queries (highlight, folds) for Markdown (used for LSP hover).

:InspectTree shows root nodes.

:InspectTree now supports folding.

:InspectTree shows node ranges in 0-based instead of 1-based indexing.

vim.treesitter.foldexpr() now recognizes folds captured using a quantified query pattern.

vim.treesitter.query.omnifunc() provides completion in treesitter query files (set by default).

vim.treesitter.query.edit() provides live editing of treesitter queries.

Query:iter_matches() now has the ability to set the maximum start depth for matches.

@injection.language now has smarter resolution and will fall back to language aliases (e.g., filetype or custom shorthands) registered via vim.treesitter.language.register() and/or attempt lower case variants of the text.

@injection.filename will try to match the node text via vim.filetype.match() and treat the result as a language name in the same way as @injection.language.

The #set! directive supports injection.self and injection.parent for injecting either the current node's language or the parent LanguageTree's language, respectively.

The #set! directive can set the "url" property of a node to have the node emit a hyperlink. Hyperlinks are UI specific: in the TUI, the OSC 8 control sequence is used.

Improved error messages for query parsing.

TUI:

Builtin TUI can now recognize "super" (<D-) and "meta" (<T-) modifiers in a terminal emulator that supports tui-csiu.

The TermResponse event can be used with v:termresponse to read escape sequence responses from the host terminal.

A clipboard provider which uses OSC 52 to copy the selection to the system clipboard is now bundled by default and will be automatically enabled under certain conditions. clipboard-osc52

'termsync' option asks the host terminal to buffer screen updates until the redraw cycle is complete. Requires support from the host terminal.

UI:

Enhanced support for rendering multibyte characters using composing characters: the maximum limit was increased from 1+6 codepoints to 31 bytes, which is guaranteed to fit all chars from before but often more.

NOTE: the regexp engine still has a hard-coded limit of considering 6 composing chars only.

CHANGED FEATURES

These existing features changed their behavior.

API:

nvim_buf_call() and nvim_win_call() now preserve any return value (NB: not multiple return values)

Editor:

gx now uses vim.ui.open() and not netrw. To customize, you can redefine vim.ui.open or remap gx. To continue using netrw (deprecated):

:packadd netrw
:call netrw#BrowseX(expand(exists("g:netrw_gx") ? g:netrw_gx : '<cfile>'), netrw#CheckIfRemote())<CR>

LSP:

LSP hover and signature help now use Treesitter for highlighting of Markdown content. Note that highlighting of code examples requires a matching parser and may be affected by custom queries.

LspRequest autocmd callbacks contain more information about the LSP request status update that occurred.

Lua:

vim.wait() cannot be called in api-fast.

vim.diagnostic.config() now accepts virtual text relevant options to nvim_buf_set_extmark() (e.g. "virt_text_pos" and "hl_mode") in its "virtual_text" table, which gives users more control over how diagnostic virtual text is displayed.

vim.diagnostic.get() and vim.diagnostic.count() accept multiple namespaces rather than just a single namespace.

vim.diagnostic.enable() gained new parameters, and the old signature is deprecated.

vim.diagnostic.config() now accepts a function for the virtual_text.prefix option, which allows for rendering e.g., diagnostic severities differently.

Options:

Attempting to set an invalid keycode option (e.g. set t_foo=123) no longer gives an error.

Terminal:

Terminal buffers started with no arguments (and use 'shell') close automatically if the job exited without error, eliminating the (often unwanted) "[Process exited 0]" message. default-autocmds

Treesitter:

Query:iter_matches(), vim.treesitter.query.add_predicate(), and vim.treesitter.query.add_directive() accept a new all option which ensures that all matching nodes are returned as a table. The default option all=false returns only a single node, breaking captures with quantifiers like (comment)+ @comment; it is only provided for backward compatibility and will be removed after Nvim 0.10.

vim.treesitter.query.add_predicate() and vim.treesitter.query.add_directive() now accept an options table rather than a boolean "force" argument. To force a predicate or directive to override an existing predicate or directive, use { force = true }.