I'm looking for a way to highlight ^M(CR) in vim.
Make sure fileformat is set=unix or mac mine is:
set fileformats=unix,mac
If it is DOS you will not see it
I have a mapping in my .vimrc that will remove them, but this response here explains it best.
https://stackoverflow.com/a/3852892/2869058
You can view all terminal line endings and characters by enabling
:set list
one way you can highlight them is like this in your .vimrc:
syntax on
set list listchars=trail:_
set listchars=tab:·\ ,trail:·,extends:»,precedes:«
:highlight SpecialKey ctermfg=darkgrey ctermbg=yellow
In the vim help, there is a suggestion to use highlight groups for highlighting text greater than the textwidth:
Another example, which highlights all characters in virtual column
72 and more:
:highlight rightMargin term=bold ctermfg=blue guifg=blue
:match rightMargin /.\%>72v/
I would like this to always reflect the value of texwidth setup. Something like:
match rightMargin /%\=&textwidthv.*/
But this doesn't give me what is expected. Can you help me to parameterize OverLength with the actual value of textwitdh.
NB: I plan to put this in a filetype autocommand block , inside which, there would be a set to textwidth option and redefinition of the rightMargin highlight group.
I realize that this parameterization will not save me any lines of code, but I just want to know if this is possible at all in vim.
One way to do it:
call matchadd('rightMargin', '\%'. &tw .'v')
You should probably put this in a ftplugin (see :help ftplugin) rather than an autocmd.
I'm using the code suggested here in my vimrc to highlight lines over 80 columns.
highlight OverLength ctermbg=gray ctermfg=white guibg=#592929
match OverLength /\%81v.\+/
This works great for code-related files, but it's annoying for me in markdown. Is there a way to turn off highlighting by file type in my vimrc?
To turn off the highlighting for the markdown filetype, add the following to your ~/.vimrc:
autocmd FileType markdown match none
This turns off the :match highlighting for that filetype.
(Alternatively, I would recommend putting that into ~/.vim/after/ftplugin/markdown.vim instead of defining lots of :autocmd FileType {filetype}; this requires that you have :filetype plugin on.)
Note that :match is window-local, so your original code already has issues when working with window splits and switching buffers; this solution inherits this.
Also note that there is 'colorcolumn' built-in in Vim 7.3+.
I have a syntax rule that highlights trailing whitespace:
highlight Badspace ctermfg=red ctermbg=red
match Badspace /\s\+$/
This is in my .vimrc. It works fine, but the problem is I use splits a lot, and it seems that the match is only run on the first file you open, as well it should because the .vimrc should only run once.
Anyway, how can I get the above syntax to match any file that is opened? Is there a "general" syntax file? Is there any other way to run match each time a file opens rather than just once? I'd like to know both because I could end up using either one in the future.
The :match command applies the highlighting to a window, so you can use the WinEnter event to define an :autocmd.
:autocmd WinEnter * match Badspace /\s\+$/
Note that there are already a number of plugins for this purpose, most based on this VimTip: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Highlight_unwanted_spaces
They handle all that for you, and turn off the highlighting in insert mode; some can also automatically delete the whitespace. In fact, I have written a set of plugins for that, too: ShowTrailingWhitespace plugin.
You could accomplish this by using an autocmd:
highlight Badspace ctermfg=red ctermbg=red
autocmd BufEnter * match Badspace /\s\+$/
However, there's another way to accomplish your specific goal of marking trailing whitespace. Vim has a built-in feature for highlighting "special" whitespace, which includes tabs (to differentiate from spaces), trailing whitespace, and non-breaking spaces (character 160, which looks like a normal space but isn't).
See :help list and :help listchars. Here's what I use:
set list listchars=tab:>·,trail:·,nbsp:·,extends:>
listchars has the benefit of working with any file type, and marking up multiple whitespace types that are of interest. It is also a lot faster (match will be noticeably slow on giant files) and built-in already.
(Note that those are funky non-ASCII dot characters, which should work fine for you if you cut-and-paste into a UTF8-capable Vim. If they don't work for you, you can use any characters you like there, such as periods or underscores).
Here's what it looks like for me:
The correct approach to this problem is actually to use :syntax to define a custom syn-match.
Try putting this in your vimrc:
augroup BadWhitespace
au!
au Syntax * syn match customBadWhitespace /\s\+$/ containedin=ALL | hi link customBadWhitespace Error
augroup END
Edit: It should also be noted that there is built-in support for highlighting trailing whitespace with the 'list' option; see :help 'listchars' and :h hl-SpecialKey (SpecialKey is the highlight group used to highlight trailing whitespace characters when 'list' is on).
This is accomplished using autocmd. The events you're looking for are BufWinEnter and VimEnter. From the Vim manual:
BufWinEnter
After a buffer is displayed in a window. This
can be when the buffer is loaded (after
processing the modelines) or when a hidden
buffer is displayed in a window (and is no
longer hidden).
Does not happen for |:split| without
arguments, since you keep editing the same
buffer, or ":split" with a file that's already
open in a window, because it re-uses an
existing buffer. But it does happen for a
":split" with the name of the current buffer,
since it reloads that buffer.
VimEnter
After doing all the startup stuff, including
loading .vimrc files, executing the "-c cmd"
arguments, creating all windows and loading
the buffers in them.
Try putting this in your vimrc:
augroup BadWhitespace
au!
au VimEnter,BufWinEnter * match Badspace /\s\+$/
augroup END
Do :help autocmd for more info.
This is completely wrong because :match is window-local, not buffer-local. Ingo Karkat has the right idea. Unfortunately, there is no good way to avoid triggering the autocmd every time you enter the window.
More to the point, though, this is a job for a custom syntax, not match.
I am using mvim. I have following lines in my vimrc .
"highlight text that goes over 80 columns
highlight OverLength ctermbg=red ctermfg=white guibg=#592929
match OverLength /\%81v.*/
Sometimes in my project I see the extra characters highlighted and sometimes I don't . I mean once vim is displaying extra characters then it will continue to display extra characters. However if I get out of vim and start vim instance it might not highlight extra characters. To fix that I type
match OverLength /\%81v.*/
I am puzzled by why it is happening. Is it possible that some plugin is messing with these settings?
It's possible that a plugin is undoing it by setting its own match. It's also possible that you're creating a new window. match is per-window (not per-buffer, and not global) so it only applies to the window that was active when the match command was executed.
You can try creating an autocmd to set up the match on new windows:
au! WinEnter match OverLength /\%81v.*/
Note that this is not executed on the first window.
Well I had the same problem when using new Tabs in MacVim 7.3 (Snapshot 56). When opening a new window the highlighting worked, but when I opened a new Tab it did not work anymore. So I added the following autocommand to my .vimrc file:
autocmd BufWinEnter,BufRead * match OverLength /\%81v.\+/
Now it works for me, in any new window or tab and buffer.
I hope this will help!