Differences between Nvim and Vim vim-differences

Use $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nvim/init.vim instead of .vimrc for your config.

Use $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nvim instead of .vim to store configuration files.

Use $XDG_STATE_HOME/nvim/shada/main.shada instead of .viminfo for persistent session information. shada

Filetype detection is enabled by default. This can be disabled by adding ":filetype off" to init.vim.

Syntax highlighting is enabled by default. This can be disabled by adding ":syntax off" to init.vim.

Default color scheme has been updated. This can result in color schemes looking differently due to them relying on how highlight groups are defined by default. Add ":colorscheme vim" to init.vim or ":source $VIMRUNTIME/colors/vim.lua" to your color scheme file to restore the old default links and colors. See :highlight for a list of highlight groups colorschemes should set.

'autoindent' is enabled

'autoread' is enabled (works in all UIs, including terminal)

'background' defaults to "dark" (unless set automatically by the terminal/UI)

'backupdir' defaults to .,~/.local/state/nvim/backup// (xdg), auto-created

'belloff' defaults to "all"

'comments' includes "fb:•"

'commentstring' defaults to ""

'compatible' is always disabled

'complete' excludes "i"

'completeopt' defaults to "menu,popup"

'define' defaults to "". The C ftplugin sets it to "^\\s*#\\s*define"

'diffopt' includes "linematch:40"

'directory' defaults to ~/.local/state/nvim/swap// (xdg), auto-created

'display' defaults to "lastline"

'encoding' is UTF-8 (cf. 'fileencoding' for file-content encoding)

'fillchars' defaults (in effect) to "vert:│,fold:·,foldsep:│"

'formatoptions' defaults to "tcqj"

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

'hidden' is enabled

'history' defaults to 10000 (the maximum)

'hlsearch' is enabled

'include' defaults to "". The C ftplugin sets it to "^\\s*#\\s*include"

'incsearch' is enabled

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

'joinspaces' is disabled

'jumpoptions' defaults to "clean"

'langnoremap' is enabled

'langremap' is disabled

'laststatus' defaults to 2 (statusline is always shown)

'listchars' defaults to "tab:> ,trail:-,nbsp:+"

'maxsearchcount' defaults to 999

'mouse' defaults to "nvi", see default-mouse for details

'mousemodel' defaults to "popup_setpos"

'nrformats' defaults to "bin,hex"

'path' defaults to ".,,". The C ftplugin adds "/usr/include" if it exists.

'sessionoptions' includes "unix,slash", excludes "options"

'shelltemp' is disabled

'shortmess' includes "CF", excludes "S"

'sidescroll' defaults to 1

'smarttab' is enabled

'spellfile' defaults to stdpath("data").."/site/spell/"

'startofline' is disabled

'switchbuf' defaults to "uselast"

'tabpagemax' defaults to 50

'tags' defaults to "./tags;,tags"

'termguicolors' is enabled by default if Nvim can detect support from the host terminal

'ttimeout' is enabled

'ttimeoutlen' defaults to 50

'ttyfast' is set by default, but it can be unset during startup by setting the environment variable NVIM_NOTTYFAST to adjust the startup sequence for slow environments (such as ssh).

'undodir' defaults to ~/.local/state/nvim/undo// (xdg), auto-created

'viewoptions' includes "unix,slash", excludes "options"

'viminfo' includes "!"

'wildoptions' defaults to "pum,tagfile"

dir plugin is enabled, so editing a directory shows its contents in a buffer with 'filetype' set to "directory".

editorconfig plugin is enabled, .editorconfig settings are applied.

man.lua plugin is enabled, so :Man is available by default.

|matchit| plugin is enabled. To disable it in your config:

:let loaded_matchit = 1

package-spellfile plugin is enabled, spellfiles are installed by default if missing.

g:vimsyn_embed defaults to "l" to enable Lua highlighting

Disable mouse completely by unsetting the 'mouse' option:

set mouse=

Change the 'mousemodel', so <RightMouse> extends selection instead of showing the popup-menu:

set mousemodel=extend

Map <A-LeftMouse> so that it temporarily disables mouse until the cursor moves:

nnoremap <A-LeftMouse> <Cmd>
  \ set mouse=<Bar>
  \ echo 'mouse OFF until next cursor-move'<Bar>
  \ autocmd CursorMoved * ++once set mouse&<Bar>
  \ echo 'mouse ON'<CR>

Y Y-default

<C-U> i_CTRL-U-default

<C-W> i_CTRL-W-default

<C-L> CTRL-L-default

& &-default

@ v_@-default

# v_#-default

* v_star-default

gc gc-default v_gc-default o_gc-default

gcc gcc-default

gO

]d ]d-default

[d [d-default

[D [D-default

]D ]D-default

<C-W>d CTRL-W_d-default

[q ]q [Q ]Q [_CTRL-Q ]_CTRL-Q

[l ]l [L ]L [_CTRL-L ]_CTRL-L

[t ]t [T ]T [_CTRL-T ]_CTRL-T

[a ]a [A ]A

[b ]b [B ]B

[<Space> ]<Space>

LSP defaults lsp-defaults

K K-lsp-default

gr prefix gr-default

gra gri grn grr grt

<C-S> i_CTRL-S

Treesitter defaults treesitter-defaults

v_an v_in

v_]n v_[n

BufReadCmd: Treats "term://" buffers as terminal buffers. terminal-start

TermClose: A terminal buffer started with no arguments (which thus uses 'shell') and which exits with no error is closed automatically.

TermClose: Displays the "[Process exited]" virtual text.

TermRequest: The terminal emulator responds to OSC background and foreground requests, indicating (1) a black background and white foreground when Nvim option 'background' is "dark" or (2) a white background and black foreground when 'background' is "light". While this may not reflect the actual foreground/background color, it permits 'background' to be retained for a nested Nvim instance running in the terminal emulator.

TermRequest: Nvim will create extmarks for shells which annotate their prompts with OSC 133 escape sequences, enabling users to quickly navigate between prompts using [[ and ]].

TermOpen: Sets default options and mappings for terminal buffers:

'nomodifiable'

'undolevels' set to -1

'textwidth' set to 0

'nowrap'

'nolist'

'nonumber'

'norelativenumber'

'signcolumn' set to "no"

'foldcolumn' set to "0"

'winhighlight' uses hl-StatusLineTerm and hl-StatusLineTermNC in place of hl-StatusLine and hl-StatusLineNC

[[ and ]] to navigate between shell prompts

CmdwinEnter: Limits syntax sync to maxlines=1 in the cmdwin.

SwapExists: Skips the swapfile prompt (sets v:swapchoice to "e") when the swapfile is owned by a running Nvim process. Shows W325 "Ignoring swapfile…" message.

VimEnter: Extend 'exrc' to also search for project-local configuration files in all parent directories.

Progress: Display native progress bars in the TUI using the OSC 9;4 escape sequence.

API API

Command atoms CmdAtom

Job control job-control

LSP framework lsp

Lua scripting lua -l

Multicursor multicursor

Parsing engine treesitter

Plugin manager vim.pack

Providers

Clipboard provider-clipboard

Node.js plugins provider-nodejs

Python plugins provider-python

Ruby plugins provider-ruby

Remote --remote-ui :connect :detach

Remote plugins remote-plugin

Shared data shada

Terminal emulator terminal

UI ui --listen --server

Vimscript parser nvim_parse_expression()

XDG base directories xdg

Nvim always includes ALL features, in contrast to Vim (which ships various combinations of 100+ optional features). feature-compile Think of it as a leaner version of Vim's "HUGE" build. This reduces surface area for bugs, and removes a common source of confusion and friction for users.

Nvim avoids features that cannot be provided on all platforms; instead that is delegated to external plugins/extensions. E.g. the -X platform-specific option is "sometimes" available in Vim (with potential surprises: https://stackoverflow.com/q/14635295).

Vim's internal test functions (test_autochdir(), test_settime(), etc.) are not exposed (nor implemented); instead Nvim has a robust API.

Behaviors, options, documentation are removed if they cost users more time than they save.

Directories for 'directory' and 'undodir' are auto-created.

Terminal features such as 'guicursor' are enabled where possible.

Various "nvim" cli-arguments were redesigned.

Highlighting the yanked region, see vim.hl.

The expression prompt (@=, c_CTRL-R_=, i_CTRL-R_=) is highlighted using a built-in Vimscript expression parser. expr-highlight

E5408 E5409 input(), inputdialog() support custom highlighting. input()-highlight

(Experimental) g:Nvim_color_cmdline Command-line (:) is colored by callback defined in g:Nvim_color_cmdline (this callback is for testing only, and will be removed in the future).

cmdwin (q:, q/, q?, c_CTRL-F) is a "normal" buffer+window, instead of a nested modal loop. API and Lua callbacks can run while it is open. The cmdwin-char is shown via 'statuscolumn'.

:bcd

:checkhealth

:connect

:detach

:diffget, :diffput (do, dp) can be . repeated.

:drop is always available

:EditQuery

:Inspect

:InspectTree

:log

:lsp

:Man is available by default, with many improvements such as completion

:match can be invoked before highlight group is defined

:packdel

:packupdate

:restart

:source works with Lua

:trust

User commands can support :command-preview to show results as you type

:write with "++p" flag creates parent directories.

:update command writes new file buffers even when unmodified.

:uptime

ins-repeat replays the full Insert session, including cursor-moves: "iab<Left>c<Esc>." produces "acb", not "c".

visual-repeat is "semantic" instead of "fixed-size". If you prefer Vim's "fixed-size" Visual-repeat, see visual-fixed-size.

Interactive Ex-mode is implemented as persistent, insert-mode cmdwin.

prompt-buffer supports multiline input/paste, undo/redo, and o/O normal commands.

i_CTRL-R inserts named/clipboard registers (A-Z,a-z,0-9+) literally, like pasting instead of like user input. Improves performance, avoids broken formatting. To get the old behavior you can use <C-R>=@x.

Fixed inconsistent behavior in execution of nested autocommands #23368

InsertCharPre is not triggered for stuffed text (. redo, i_CTRL-R, i_CTRL-A), which also skips mappings and abbreviations.

OptionSet is triggered for 'modified' when writing a file, undoing changes, or using :set modified.

Progress

RecordingEnter

RecordingLeave

SearchWrapped

Signal

TabMoved

TabNewEntered

TermClose

TermOpen

TermRequest

TermResponse is fired for DCS, OSC, and APC sequences received from the terminal, in addition to the Primary Device Attributes response. v:termresponse

UIEnter

UILeave

dictwatcheradd() notifies a callback whenever a Dict is modified

dictwatcherdel()

menu_get()

msgpackdump(), msgpackparse() provide msgpack de/serialization

stdpath()

system(), systemlist() can run {cmd} directly (without 'shell')

matchadd() can be called before highlight group is defined

tempname() tries to recover if the Nvim tempdir disappears.

writefile() with "p" flag creates parent directories.

prompt_getinput()

prompt_appendbuf()

highlight-blend controls blend level for a highlight group

expr-highlight highlight groups (prefixed with "Nvim")

hl-NormalFloat highlights floating window

hl-FloatBorder highlights border of a floating window

hl-FloatTitle highlights title of a floating window

hl-FloatFooter highlights footer of a floating window

hl-NormalNC highlights non-current windows

hl-MsgArea highlights messages/cmdline area

hl-MsgSeparator highlights separator for scrolled messages

hl-OkMsg

hl-StderrMsg

hl-StdoutMsg

hl-Substitute

hl-TermCursor

hl-WinSeparator highlights window separators

hl-Whitespace highlights 'listchars' whitespace

hl-WinBar highlights 'winbar'

hl-WinBarNC highlights non-current window 'winbar'

ALT (META) chords always work (even in the TUI). Map <M- with any key: <M-1>, <M-BS>, <M-Del>, <M-Ins>, <M-/>, <M-\>, <M-Space>, <M-Enter>, etc.

Case-sensitive: <M-a> and <M-A> are two different keycodes.

ALT may behave like <Esc> if not mapped. i_ALT v_ALT c_ALT

gO shows a filetype-defined "outline" of the current buffer.

gQ restores multicursors.

Q adds a multicursor instead of switching to Ex mode.

[count]q: enters Ex-mode.

ZR performs :restart

v_al selects the whole buffer; v_il selects the current line without leading or trailing white space.

:set {option}< removes local value for all global-local options.

:setlocal {option}< copies global value to local value for all options.

'ambiwidth' cannot be set to empty.

'autoread' works in the terminal (if it supports "focus" events)

'background' cannot be set to empty.

'completeopt' flag "preselect" selects first completion item that has the "preselect" attribute set.

'cpoptions' flags: cpo-_

'eadirection' cannot be set to empty.

'exrc' searches for ".nvim.lua", ".nvimrc", or ".exrc" files. The user is prompted whether to trust the file.

'fileformat' cannot be set to empty.

'fillchars' flags: "msgsep", "horiz", "horizup", "horizdown", "vertleft", "vertright", "verthoriz"

'foldcolumn' supports up to 9 dynamic/fixed columns

'guicursor' works in the terminal (TUI)

'inccommand' shows interactive results for :substitute-like commands and :command-preview commands

'isident' does not affect environment variable name parsing. expr-env

'jumpoptions'

"view" tries to restore mark-view when moving through the jumplist, changelist, alternate-file, and mark-motions.

"clean" removes unloaded buffers from the jumplist.

'langmap' supports multibyte chars.

'laststatus' global statusline support

'mousemodel' cannot be set to empty.

'mousescroll' amount to scroll by when scrolling with a mouse

'pumblend' pseudo-transparent popupmenu

'scrollback'

'shortmess'

"F" flag does not affect output from autocommands.

"q" flag fully hides macro recording message.

'showcmdloc' cannot be set to empty.

'signcolumn' can show multiple signs (dynamic or fixed columns)

'statuscolumn' full control of columns using 'statusline' format

'statusline' default is exposed as a statusline expression.

'statusline' and related options apply %= and %< to item groups.

'splitkeep' cannot be set to empty.

'tabline' middle-click on tabpage label closes tabpage, and %@Func@foo%X can call any function on mouse-click

'termpastefilter'

'ttimeout', 'ttimeoutlen' behavior was simplified

'winblend' pseudo-transparency in floating windows api-floatwin

'winhighlight' window-local highlights

'busy' busy status for buffers

'messagesopt' added progress:c to control if progress messages are shown in cmdline

Signs are implemented using Nvim's internal "marktree" (btree) structure.

Folds are not updated during insert-mode.

If a Python interpreter is available on your $PATH, :python and :python3 are always available. See provider-python.

Shell output (:!, :make, …) is always routed through the UI, so it cannot "mess up" the screen. (You can still use "chansend(v:stderr,…)" if you want to mess up the screen :)

Nvim throttles (skips) messages from shell commands (:!, :grep, :make) if there is too much output. No data is lost, this only affects display and improves performance. :terminal output is never throttled.

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

:!start is not special-cased on Windows.

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

'signcolumn' can show multiple signs.

Signs are removed if the associated line is deleted.

Signs placed twice with the same identifier in the same group are moved.

-e and -es invoke the same "improved Ex mode" as -E and -Es.

-E and -Es read stdin as text (into buffer 1).

-es and -Es act as a generic "script mode":

Exits automatically, don't need "-c qa!".

Skips swap-file dialog.

Disables swapfile, shada.

Various "POSIX Ex" quirks were dropped.

-l Executes Lua scripts non-interactively.

-s reads Normal commands from stdin if the script name is "-".

Reading text (instead of commands) from stdin --:

works by default: "-" file is optional

works in more cases: -Es, file args

Start Nvim with 'verbose' level 3 to show terminal capabilities:

nvim -V3

'term' reflects the terminal type derived from $TERM and other environment checks. Use :echo &term to get its value. For debugging only; not reliable during startup.

Note: If you want to detect when Nvim is running in a terminal, use has('gui_running') has() or see nvim_list_uis() for an example of how to inspect the UI channel.

Nvim might optionally be compiled with unibilium, in which case the terminfo database will be used. Otherwise, or if the terminal was not found in the database, a table of builtin terminal definitions will be used.

Nvim will use 256-colour capability on Linux virtual terminals. Vim uses only 8 colours plus bright foreground on Linux VTs.

Vim combines what is in its builtin-terms with what it reads from terminfo, and has a 'ttybuiltin' setting to control how that combination works. Nvim uses one or the other, it does not attempt to merge the two.

messages: When showing messages longer than 'cmdheight', only scroll the message lines, not the entire screen. The separator line is decorated by hl-MsgSeparator and the "msgsep" flag of 'fillchars'. msgsep

v:progpath is always absolute ("full")

v:windowid is always available (for use by external UIs)

OptionSet autocommand args v:option_new, v:option_old,

v:option_oldlocal, v:option_oldglobal 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.

:redir nested in execute() works.

'diffopt' "linematch" feature

'fillchars' flags: "eob"

'jumpoptions' "stack" behavior

'wildoptions' flags: "pum" enables popupmenu for wildmode completion

<Cmd>

WinClosed

WinScrolled

:sign-define "numhl" argument

:source works with anonymous (no file) scripts

'statusline' supports unlimited alignment sections

vim-tutor-mode

Lua: require() also searches for modules in 'runtimepath'.

Lua: vim.g, vim.w, vim.b, vim.t, vim.v, vim.fn, vim.call()

Visual selection highlights the character at cursor. visual-use

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.

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.

3. When :echo encounters duplicate containers like

let l = []
echo [l, l]

it does not use "[...]" (was: "[[], [...]]", now: "[[], []]"). "..." is only used for recursive containers.

4. :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.

5. Stringifyed infinite and NaN values now use str2float() and can be evaled back.

6. (internal) Trying to print or stringify VAR_UNKNOWN in Vim results in nothing, E908, in Nvim it is internal error.

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.

shada-c has no effect.

shada-s now limits size of every item and not just registers.

'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.

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

A damaged ShaDa file (e.g. truncated by a crash) is repaired on the next write and keeps any valid entries. shada-error-handling

ShaDa file keeps search direction (v:searchforward), viminfo does not.

:lua print("a\0b") will print a^@b, like with :echomsg "a\nb" . In Vim that prints a and b on separate lines, exactly like :lua print("a\nb") .

:lua error('TEST') emits the error:

E5108: Lua: [string "<Vimscript compiled string>"]:1: TEST

whereas Vim emits only "TEST".

Lua has direct access to Nvim API via vim.api.

:doautocmd does not warn about "No matching autocommands".

:wincmd accepts a count.

:write! does not show a prompt if the file was updated externally.

:= does not accept ex-flags. With an arg it is equivalent to :lua=

The meanings of arrow keys do not change depending on 'wildoptions'.

input() and inputdialog() support for each other’s features (return on cancel and completion respectively) via dictionary argument (replaces all other arguments if used), and "cancelreturn" can have any type if passed in a dictionary.

input() and inputdialog() support user-defined cmdline highlighting.

hl-ColorColumn, hl-CursorColumn are lower priority than most other groups

hl-CursorLine is low-priority unless foreground color is set

hl-VertSplit superseded by hl-WinSeparator

Highlight groups names are allowed to contain @ characters.

It is an error to define a highlight group with a name that doesn't match the regexp [a-zA-Z0-9_.@-]* (see group-name).

hl-StatusLineTerm hl-StatusLineTermNC are implemented as 'winhighlight' window-local highlights which are set by the default TermOpen handler.

The ins-completion-menu has cascading highlight styles. hl-PmenuSel and hl-PmenuMatch both inherit from hl-Pmenu, and hl-PmenuMatchSel inherits highlights from both hl-PmenuSel and hl-PmenuMatch.

Replay of a macro recorded during :lmap produces the same actions as when it was recorded. In Vim if a macro is recorded while using :lmap'ped keys then the behaviour during record and replay differs.

'keymap' is implemented via :lmap instead of :lnoremap so that you can use macros and 'keymap' at the same time. This also means you can use :imap on the results of keys from 'keymap'.

Creating a mapping for a simplifiable key (e.g. <C-I>) doesn't replace an existing mapping for its simplified form (e.g. <Tab>).

"#" followed by a digit doesn't stand for a function key at the start of the lhs of a mapping.

undo does not restore a mark that you moved (m, :mark) after the change being undone; the mark shifts with the text it was moved to, the same as a mark the change never touched. Vim restores its old (wrong) position. Marks moved by the change itself are still restored.

An operator on a target that creates a Visual selection ("cgn") does not change '< '>. gv

The jumplist avoids useless/phantom jumps.

syncolor.vim has been removed. Nvim now sets up default highlighting groups automatically for both light and dark backgrounds, regardless of whether or not syntax highlighting is enabled. This means that :syntax-on and :syntax-enable are now identical. Users who previously used an after/syntax/syncolor.vim file should transition that file into a colorscheme. :colorscheme

count does not alias to v:count

errmsg does not alias to v:errmsg

shell_error does not alias to v:shell_error

this_session does not alias to v:this_session

DirChanged and DirChangedPre can be triggered when switching to another window or tab.

getcwd() and haslocaldir() may throw errors if the tabpage, window, or buffer cannot be found.

haslocaldir() checks for tab-local directory if and only if -1 is passed as window number, and its only possible returns values are 0 and 1.

getcwd(-1) is equivalent to getcwd(-1, 0) instead of returning the global working directory. Use getcwd(-1, -1) to get the global working directory.

'titlestring' uses printf-style '%' items (see: 'statusline') to implement the default behaviour. The implementation is equivalent to setting 'titlestring' to %t%(\ %M%)%(\ \(%{expand(\"%:~:h\")}\)%)%a\ -\ Nvim.

"start" packages are not explicitly reported in 'runtimepath' (though they are still searched for runtime files). See runtime-search-path

:gui

'browsedir' 'bsdir'

'completepopup'

'guioptions' 'go'

'guitablabel' 'gtl'

'guitabtooltip' 'gtt'

'mouseshape' 'mouses'

ex (alias for "nvim -e")

exim (alias for "nvim -E")

gex (GUI)

gview (GUI)

gvim (GUI)

gvimdiff (GUI)

rgview (GUI)

rgvim (GUI)

rview

rvim

view (alias for "nvim -R")

vimdiff (alias for "nvim -d" diff-mode)

:behave

:fixdel

:gvim

hardcopy :hardcopy was removed. Instead, use :TOhtml and print the resulting HTML using a web browser or other HTML viewer.

:helpfind

:mode (no longer accepts an argument)

:open

:Print

:promptfind

:promptrepl

:scriptversion (always version 1)

:shell

:smile

:tearoff

:cstag

:cscope

:lcscope

:scscope

:Vimuntar

:TOhtml was replaced by a Lua version (with various differences)

Emacs tags support

X11 integration (see x11-selection)

c_CTRL-F cannot enter cmdwin from the expr-register prompt.

cscope support was removed in favour of plugin-based solutions such as: https://github.com/dhananjaylatkar/cscope_maps.nvim

popup-window : Use floating-windows instead.

spellfile.vim : Replaced by package-spellfile.

textprop : Use extmarks instead.

Vim9script (the Vim 9+ flavor of Vimscript) is not supported.

cscope_connection()

err_teapot()

js_encode()

js_decode()

listener_add() , etc: use api-buffer-updates-lua instead.

redraw_listener_add() , etc: use nvim_set_decoration_provider() instead.

v:none (used by Vim to represent JavaScript "undefined"); use v:null instead.

v:sizeofint

v:sizeoflong

v:sizeofpointer

SafeStateAgain

SigUSR1 Use Signal to detect SIGUSR1 signal instead.

'aleph' 'al'

antialias

'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

'balloondelay' 'bdlay'

'ballooneval' 'beval' 'noballooneval' 'nobeval'

'balloonexpr' 'bexpr'

bioskey (MS-DOS)

conskey (MS-DOS)

'cp' 'nocompatible' 'nocp' 'compatible' (Nvim is always "nocompatible".)

'cpoptions' (gjpkHw<*- and all POSIX flags were removed)

'cryptmethod' 'cm' 'key' (Vim encryption implementation)

cscopepathcomp

cscopeprg

cscopequickfix

cscoperelative

cscopetag

cscopetagorder

cscopeverbose

'ed' 'edcompatible' 'noed' 'noedcompatible'

'encoding' ("utf-8" is always used)

esckeys

'guioptions' "t" flag was removed

'guifontset' 'gfs' (Use 'guifont' instead.)

'guipty' (Nvim uses pipes and PTYs consistently on all platforms.)

'highlight' (Names of builtin highlight-groups cannot be changed.)

'hkmap' 'hk' use set keymap=hebrew instead.

'hkmapp' 'hkp' use set keymap=hebrewp instead.

keyprotocol

'pastetoggle' 'pt' Just Paste It.™ paste is handled automatically when you paste text using your terminal's or GUI's paste feature (CTRL-SHIFT-v, CMD-v (macOS), middle-click, …).

'imactivatefunc' 'imaf'

'imactivatekey' 'imak'

'imcmdline' 'imc' 'noimcmdline' 'noimc'

'imdisable' 'imd' 'noimdisable' 'noimd'

'imstatusfunc' 'imsf'

'insertmode' 'im' Use the following script to emulate 'insertmode':

autocmd BufWinEnter * startinsert
inoremap <Esc> <C-X><C-Z><C-]>
inoremap <C-C> <C-X><C-Z>
inoremap <C-L> <C-X><C-Z><C-]><Esc>
inoremap <C-Z> <C-X><C-Z><Cmd>suspend<CR>
noremap <C-C> <Esc>
snoremap <C-C> <Esc>
noremap <C-\><C-G> <C-\><C-N><Cmd>startinsert<CR>
cnoremap <C-\><C-G> <C-\><C-N><Cmd>startinsert<CR>
inoremap <C-\><C-G> <C-X><C-Z>
autocmd CmdwinEnter * noremap <buffer> <C-C> <C-C>
autocmd CmdwinEnter * inoremap <buffer> <C-C> <C-C>

lua << EOF
  vim.on_key(function(c)
    if c == '\27' then
      local mode = vim.api.nvim_get_mode().mode
      if mode:find('^[nvV\22sS\19]') and vim.fn.getcmdtype() == '' then
        vim.schedule(function()
          vim.cmd('startinsert')
        end)
      end
    end
  end)
EOF

'macatsui'

'maxcombine' 'mco' : Nvim counts maximum character sizes in bytes, not codepoints. This is guaranteed to be big enough to always fit all chars properly displayed in vim with 'maxcombine' set to 6.

You can still edit text with larger characters than fits in the screen buffer, you just can't see them. Use g8 or ga. See mbyte-combining.

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

'maxmem' Nvim delegates memory-management to the OS.

'maxmemtot' Nvim delegates memory-management to the OS.

'opendevice' 'odev' 'noopendevice' 'noodev'

printoptions

'printdevice'

'printencoding'

'printexpr'

'printfont'

'printheader'

'printmbcharset'

'prompt' 'noprompt'

'remap' 'noremap'

'restorescreen' 'rs' 'norestorescreen' 'nors'

'secure' : Everything is allowed in 'exrc' files, because they must be explicitly marked as "trusted".

'shelltype'

'shortmess' flags: shm-f shm-n shm-x shm-i (behave like always on)

'shortname' 'sn' 'noshortname' 'nosn'

'swapsync' 'sws'

'termencoding' 'tenc' (Vim 7.4.852 also removed this for Windows)

'terse' 'noterse' (Add "s" to 'shortmess' instead)

textauto

textmode

'toolbar' 'tb'

'toolbariconsize' 'tbis'

'ttybuiltin' 'tbi' 'nottybuiltin' 'notbi'

'ttymouse' 'ttym'

'ttyscroll' 'tsl'

'ttytype' 'tty'

weirdinvert

logiPat

rrhelper

vimball

shellmenu

macmap.vim

tools/check_colors.vim

macros/{justify,matchit,swapmous}.vim: use packadd! justify etc. directly

HelpToc: Use gO instead.

if_lua : Nvim Lua API is not compatible with Vim's "if_lua".

if_mzscheme

if_pyth: python-bindeval python-Function are not supported.

if_tcl

--literal: File args are always literal; to expand wildcards on Windows, use :n e.g. nvim +"n *"

--serverlist Use instead: nvim -es -V1 +'echo serverlist()'

--servername Use instead: --server or :connect.

Easy mode: eview, evim, nvim -y

Restricted mode: rview, rvim, nvim -Z

Vi mode: nvim -v

test_alloc_fail()

test_autochdir()

test_feedinput()

test_garbagecollect_soon()

test_getvalue()

test_ignore_error()

test_null_blob()

test_null_channel()

test_null_dict()

test_null_function()

test_null_job()

test_null_list()

test_null_partial()

test_null_string()

test_option_not_set()

test_override()

test_refcount()

test_scrollbar()

test_setmouse()

test_settime()

test_srand_seed()

test_unknown()

test_void()

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, e.g. 'guicursor' sets the terminal cursor style if possible. You can use $NVIM_TERMDEFS if you still need to override the builtin definitions.

Nvim never uses the termcap database, only terminfo and builtin-terms.

Xterm can be run in a mode where it uses true 8-bit CSI. Supporting this requires autodetection of whether the terminal is in UTF-8 mode or non-UTF-8 mode, as the 8-bit CSI character has to be written differently in each case. Vim issues a "request version" sequence to the terminal at startup and looks at how the terminal is sending CSI. Nvim does not issue such a sequence and always uses 7-bit control sequences.