nvim - Man Page

• Open a file: nvim path/to/file

• Enter text editing mode (insert mode): <Esc>i

• Copy ("yank") or cut ("delete") the current line (paste it with P): <Esc>yy|dd

• Enter normal mode and undo the last operation: <Esc>u

• Search for a pattern in the file (press n/N to go to next/previous match): <Esc>/search_pattern<Enter>

• Perform a regular expression substitution in the whole file: <Esc>:%s/regular_expression/replacement/g<Enter>

• Enter normal mode and save (write) the file, and quit: <Esc>ZZ|<Esc>:x<Enter>|<Esc>:wq<Enter>

• Quit without saving: <Esc>:q!<Enter>

tldr.sh

nvim is a text editor based on Vim. Start nvim followed by any number of options and/or files:

nvim [options] [file ...]

Commands in nvim begin with colon (‘:’). Type ":help subject" to get help on a specific subject. Use <Tab> and CTRL-D to complete subjects (":help cmdline-completion").

The "quickref" help section is a condensed reference of editor features:

:help quickref

If you are new to Vim/Nvim, start with the 30-minute tutorial:

:Tutor

After installing/updating Nvim, it's a good idea to run the self-check:

:checkhealth

file ...

File(s) to edit. Opens one buffer per file. To switch between buffers, use the :next and :previous commands.

-

Reads text from standard input until EOF, then opens a buffer with that text. User input is read from standard error, which should be a terminal.

-t tag

Finds tag in the tags file, the associated file becomes the current file and the associated command is executed. Cursor is positioned at the tag location in the file. :help tag-commands

-q [errorfile]

QuickFix mode. Display the first error in errorfile. If errorfile is omitted, the value of the 'errorfile' option is used (defaults to errors.err). Further errors can be jumped to with the :cnext command. :help quickfix

--

End of options. Remaining arguments are treated as literal file names, including filenames starting with hyphen (‘-’).

-e

Ex mode, reading stdin as Ex commands. :help Ex-mode

-E

Ex mode, reading stdin as text. :help Ex-mode

-es

Silent (non-interactive) Ex mode, reading stdin as Ex commands. Useful for scripting because it does NOT start a UI, unlike -e. :help silent-mode

-Es

Silent (non-interactive) Ex mode, reading stdin as text. Useful for scripting because it does NOT start a UI, unlike -E. :help silent-mode

-d

Diff mode. Show the difference between two to eight files, similar to sdiff(1). :help diff

-R

Read-only mode. Sets the 'readonly' option. Implies -n. Buffers can still be edited, but cannot be written to disk if already associated with a file. To overwrite a file, add an exclamation mark to the relevant Ex command, such as :w!. :help 'readonly'

-m

Resets the 'write' option, to disable file modifications. Writing to a file is disabled, but buffers can still be modified.

-M

Resets the 'write' and 'modifiable' options, to disable file and buffer modifications.

-b

Binary mode. :help edit-binary

-A

Arabic mode. Sets the 'arabic' option.

-H

Hebrew mode. Sets the 'hkmap' and 'rightleft' options.

-V[N][file]

Verbose mode. Prints debug messages. N is the 'verbose' level, defaults to 10. If file is specified, append messages to file instead of printing them. :help 'verbose'

-D

Vimscript debug mode. Started when executing the first command from a script. :help debug-mode

-n

Disable the use of swap files. Sets the 'updatecount' option to 0. Can be useful for editing files on a slow medium.

-r [file]

Recovery mode. If file is omitted then list swap files with recovery information. Otherwise the swap file file is used to recover a crashed session. The swap file has the same name as the file it's associated with, but with ‘.swp’ appended. :help recovery

-L [file]

Alias for -r.

-u vimrc

Use vimrc instead of the default ~/.config/nvim/init.vim. If vimrc is NORC, do not load any initialization files (except plugins). If vimrc is NONE, loading plugins is also skipped. :help initialization

-i shada

Use shada instead of the default ~/.local/state/nvim/shada/main.shada. If shada is NONE, do not read or write a ShaDa file. :help shada

--noplugin

Skip loading plugins (by setting the 'noloadplugins' option). Implied by -u NONE.

--clean

Start Nvim with "factory defaults" (no user config and plugins, no shada). :help --clean

-o[N]

Open N windows stacked horizontally. If N is omitted, open one window for each file. If N is less than the number of file arguments, allocate windows for the first N files and hide the rest.

-O[N]

Like -o, but tile windows vertically.

-p[N]

Like -o, but for tab pages.

+[linenum]

For the first file, position the cursor on line linenum. If linenum is omitted, position the cursor on the last line of the file. +5 and -c 5 on the command-line are equivalent to :5 inside nvim.

+/[pattern]

For the first file, position the cursor on the first occurrence of pattern. If pattern is omitted, the most recent search pattern is used (if any). +/foo and -c /foo on the command-line are equivalent to /foo and :/foo inside nvim. :help search-pattern

+command, -c command

Execute command after reading the first file. Up to 10 instances allowed. "+foo" and -c "foo" are equivalent.

--cmd command

Like -c, but execute command before processing any vimrc. Up to 10 instances of these can be used independently from instances of -c.

-l script [args]

Execute Lua script with optional [args] after processing any preceding Nvim startup arguments. All [args] are treated as script arguments and are passed literally to Lua, that is, -l stops processing of Nvim arguments. :help -l

-S [session]

Execute session after the first file argument has been read. If session filename ends with .lua it is executed as Lua instead of Vimscript. Equivalent to -c "source session". session cannot start with a hyphen (‘-’). If session is omitted then Session.vim is used, if found. :help session-file

-s scriptin

Read normal mode commands from scriptin. The same can be done with the command :source! scriptin. If the end of the file is reached before nvim exits, further characters are read from the keyboard.

-w scriptout

Append all typed characters to scriptout. Can be used for creating a script to be used with -s or :source!.

-W scriptout

Like -w, but truncate scriptout.

--startuptime file

During startup, append timing messages to file. Can be used to diagnose slow startup times.

--api-info

Dump API metadata serialized to msgpack and exit.

--embed

Use standard input and standard output as a msgpack-rpc channel. :help --embed

--headless

Do not start a UI. When supplied with --embed this implies that the embedding application does not intend to (immediately) start a UI. Also useful for "scraping" messages in a pipe. :help --headless

--listen address

Start RPC server on this pipe or TCP socket.

-h, --help

Print usage information and exit.

-v, --version

Print version information and exit.

NVIM_APPNAME

The name of sub-directories used within each XDG user directory. Defaults to nvim. :help $NVIM_APPNAME

NVIM_LOG_FILE

Low-level log file, usually found at ~/.local/state/nvim/log. :help $NVIM_LOG_FILE

VIM

Used to locate user files, such as init.vim. System-dependent. :help $VIM

VIMRUNTIME

Used to locate runtime files (documentation, syntax highlighting, etc.).

XDG_CONFIG_HOME

Path to the user-local configuration directory, see Files. Defaults to ~/.config. :help xdg

XDG_STATE_HOME

Like XDG_CONFIG_HOME, but used to store data not generally edited by the user, namely swap, backup, and ShaDa files. Defaults to ~/.local/state. :help xdg

XDG_DATA_HOME

Like XDG_CONFIG_HOME, but used to store data not generally edited by the user, things like runtime files. Defaults to ~/.local/share. :help xdg

VIMINIT

Ex commands to be executed at startup. :help VIMINIT

SHELL

Used to initialize the 'shell' option, which decides the default shell used by features like :terminal, :!, and system().

~/.config/nvim/init.vim

User-local nvim configuration file.

~/.config/nvim

User-local nvim configuration directory. See also XDG_CONFIG_HOME.

$VIM/sysinit.vim

System-global nvim configuration file.

$VIM

System-global nvim runtime directory.

Nvim was started by Thiago de Arruda. Most of Vim was written by Bram Moolenaar. Vim is based on Stevie, worked on by Tim Thompson, Tony Andrews, and G.R. (Fred) Walter. :help credits