To open a file in vim, I usually type ":e " and then hit tab until the file I want appears.
However, I always get in a rhythm and inadvertently go ONE past the desired file. Without knowing how to move backwards, I end up tabbing all the way to the end and repeating the whole process.
Is there a way to perform the filename completion in reverse order?
Shift-Tab goes backwards.
You can also use set wildmenu to get a list of matching file names above the status bar when you do file name completition with Tab. Then you can select the file name with the arrow keys from this list.
Shift+Tab and Ctrl+P both go backward.
However Shift+Tab only works with the GUI [1]. Since I am using vim and not gvim, Shift+Tab would not work. Ctrl+P works perfectly.
[1] And on the Amiga and MS-DOS. See ":help cmdline-completion" for more info.
If you got here because your vim autocompletion starts with the last item when you use "Tab", cycles backward from there AND you're using the Supertab plugin, here is your solution: https://stackoverflow.com/a/17105393/332451
let g:SuperTabDefaultCompletionType = "<c-n>"
Related
TLDR. howto change vim path/file name search algorithm from cyclic autocompletion to incremental autocompletion. (like when autocompleting file paths in ubuntu terminal).
When opening a new file for editing in vim, for example using :vsp or :tabe the algorithm used when pressing the tab key to predict the next part of the path/file for the targeted file, has inconvenient behavior that I would like to change.
For example, i have a directory with three files:
/one.txt
/onetwo.txt
/onetwothree.txt
When attempting to open onetwothree.txt from a vim instance opened in the same directory, I would type :tabe o then press the tab key and vim will autocomplete the file name/path, to :tabe one.txt. I must then press tab again to change the autocomplete to :tabe onetwo.txt and then again a third time to get :tabe onetwothree.txt, before pressing enter to open the file. (algorithm 1) The tab algorithm has the behaviour of cycling through the complete path/file names one by one.
In the ubuntu terminal the search behaviour is much better and works that typing :tabe o the pressing tab will only partially autocomplete to give you :tabe one. Then typing t followed by tab again will autocomplete from :tabe onet to :tabe onetwo and then pressing t and tab again will autocomplete from :tabe onetwot to :tabe onetwothree.txt. (algorithm 2) The tab algorithm has the behaviour of partially completing the path/file name.
With the first algorithm the behaviour of pressing tab to cycle through the complete path/file names one by one can be inconvenient when working with lots of files. In the second algorithm shown used by the ubuntu terminal tab autocomplete has the behaviour of partially completing the path/file name and allows one to complete the path quickly and accurately.
I realise in this trivial example it takes two more key presses with the second algorithm, but in the non-trivial examples with many files cycling through every option is painful.
How can I change the filepath search algorithm? Is there a setting in the .vimrc that specifies it?
You will need to enable :help 'wildmenu':
set wildmenu
and adjust its behaviour with :help 'wildmode':
" just an example
set wildmode=longest,list
from :h cmdline-completion
If you like tcsh's autolist completion, you can use this mapping:
:cnoremap X (Where X is the command key to use, is
CTRL-L and is CTRL-D) This will find the longest match and then
list all matching files.
If you like tcsh's autolist completion, you can use the 'wildmode'
option to emulate it. For example, this mimics autolist=ambiguous:
:set wildmode=longest,list This will find the longest match with the
first 'wildchar', then list all matching files with the next.
so either map <c-l><c-d> in command mode, or adapt wildmode to longest,list
I’m trying to use vim’s compl-filename feature (Ctrl-XCtrl-F) to complete paths in INSERT mode, but I can’t work out how to traverse into directories without (temporarily) ending the completion mode:
Let’s say I want to complete the path /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup.
I would like to be able to do something like:
/eCtrl-XCtrl-F
/etc/
/etc/sysCtrl-F
/etc/sysconfig/
/etc/sysconfig/netCtrl-F
/etc/sysconfig/netconsoleCtrl-N
/etc/sysconfig/networkCtrl-N
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifupCtrl-Y
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup
The issue is, as soon as I start typing* after a path match (like /etc/), it ends file name completion. I would like it to stay in file name completion, so that I can still use Ctrl-F, Ctrl-N, etc. Since it ends completion, I have to type Ctrl-XCtrl-F again to restart it, and the helpful completion popup menu disappears in the meantime.
Is there an option I can set to change this?
* By ‘typing’ here, I am referring to characters in 'isfname' -- of course, typing other characters (like space or punctuation) should not continue file name completion.
I'm not sure exactly what you're saying, but you can just press Ctrl-XCtrl-F again on a directory while you're in the completion menu to expand it. You don't have to close out of the menu first. I just keep Ctrl held down and tap xf to traverse a directory, n and p to move up and down and w to go back up.
If you don't use :h i_CTRL-F then you could remap it. For example,
inoremap <C-f> <C-x><C-f>
Simple remap would be
inoremap / /<C-x><C-f>
So when you type slash(/) in insert mode you will get that auto completion popup :)
Place it in your .vimrc file (for vim) or in init.vim (for neovim)
Vim doesn't do auto-completion.
For that, you'll need a dedicated plugin like AutoComplPop or NeoComplCache
Please use insert "i" first before using cntr+x+f. I was in similar situation. :)
I'm a pretty new Vim user and I've found that its learning curve is quite steep (at least for me). I just installed this vim script for JavaScriptLint error checking, which shows errors in vim's quickfix window once I save a buffer.
However, I don't know what to do next.. How do I 'scroll' through all the errors? How do I close the quickfix 'window'? How do I get it to check for errors after I've made changes to my code?
I've looked at the vim quickfix docs but the amount of commands are overwhelming and I can't seem to find what I want. Any help would be appreciated.
A side question: is there any way to have javascriptlint check for js errors for code residing in a .html file?
There are a lot of commands for quickfix as you have said, but I tend to find I only use a small subset of them:
:copen " Open the quickfix window
:ccl " Close it
:cw " Open it if there are "errors", close it otherwise (some people prefer this)
:cn " Go to the next error in the window
:cp " Go to the previous error in the window
:cnf " Go to the first error in the next file
:.cc " Go to error under cursor (if cursor is in quickfix window)
I tend to use this with :make and :vimgrep, so I can't comment on the Javascript lint checker, but this should give you something to get started.
Regarding the general use of JavascriptLint, I'm not a javascript programmer, but it looks like the script exposes a function called "JavascriptLint", so if you want to call it manually, you can use :call JavascriptLint(). However, it works on the disk copy of the file, so it'll have to be saved first. If (and only if) the command line jsl works on html files, you should be able to use :call JavascriptLint() on an html file to check the internal javascript. You could also do:
autocmd BufWritePost,FileWritePost *.html call JavascriptLint()
to automate it. If jsl doesn't support html files, then (short of patching the application or asking the author to change it), it's probably a lost cause...
The easiest way to navigate the quickfix list (or the location list, for that matter) is the unimpaired plugin.
Once the quickfix window is populated, [q and ]q go forward and back (respectively) in the quickfix list. [Q and ]Q go to the beginning and end (which is especially handy if you only have one item in the list; this makes vim complain about [q and ]q). So the workflow is:
Run whatever command populates the quickfix list
Type [Q to go to the first item
Scroll through subsequent items (if any) with [q and ]q
If you're using Syntastic, you'll get the location list instead of the quickfix list. No problem; just use [L, ]L, [l, and ]l in the same way.
unimpaired has loads of other handy mappings too -- [e and ]e "bubble" lines up and down, [<Space> and ]<Space> insert blank lines above and below, etc. I was surprised nobody mentioned it here before; that's probably because it didn't exist until January 2010, though the question was asked in 2009.
Put the following two lines in your .vimrc file:
map <C-j> :cn<CR>
map <C-k> :cp<CR>
Now you can navigate through the errors using ctrl-j and ctrl-k, which mimics the standard down and up motion commands j and k.
You can also use :cc 2 (or any other number) to jump to, in this case, the second error in the quickfix window. Navigating with :cn, :cc 4, etc will put the cursor on the line in question.
In addition to #DrAl's great answer about how to open and close the quick window and navigate between entries, I made an image to show some of the other quick fix navigation commands.
Each group of 3 files below represents a set of quickfix results, e.g. from a vimgrep. cnewer and colder are for going through historic result sets.
Maybe this option didn't exist when this question was written (or maybe I'm embarrassing myself because there's something in my .vimrc that makes this happen) but when I get a Quickfix List, I just navigate it with j and k then hit <CR> (i.e. the Enter key) to jump to that place in the file.
Then, to get back to the Quickfix List I type Ctrl+W j for "move down a window" and I'm back.
Finally, when I'm done, I just type :q, like I would to close any normal window.
The best-practice way of integrating JavaScript syntax-checking is using the Syntastic Vim plugin, which is using Vim's location-list (which is parallel to the quickfix) window.
I've written answers for this question and this question explaining how to do it, plus also how to get source-code browsing / tag-list for Vim using the community-driven jshint.com (which is way better than JSLint IMO) and Mozilla's DoctorJS (formerly jsctags).
the quickfix window is operated mostly like any other vim window: j down a line, k up a line, :cn to jump to the next error/warning, etc.
experiment!
Although this requires > Vim 7.4.858, the cdo (or ldo for location lists) command allows updating a non-contiguous set of lines in a way you could once only do with sed:
:vimgrep /re/ %:p
:cdo! norm #a
# or
:cdo! s/re/repl/
The above shows running a recorded macro or a simple search and replace. Missing seems to a be a way to pipe through and external command as you can with :range! command
When I'm opening a new file in Vim and I use tab completion, it completes the whole file name instead of doing the partial match like Bash does. Is there an option to make this file name tab completion work more like Bash?
I personally use
set wildmode=longest,list,full
set wildmenu
When you type the first tab hit, it will complete as much as possible. The second tab hit will provide a list. The third and subsequent tabs will cycle through completion options so you can complete the file without further keys.
Bash-like would be just
set wildmode=longest,list
but the full is very handy.
The closest behavior to Bash's completion should be
set wildmode=longest:full,full
With a few character typed, pressing tab once will give all the matches available in wildmenu. This is different to the answer by Michael which opens a quickfix-like window beneath the command-line.
Then you can keep typing the rest of the characters or press tab again to auto-complete with first match and circle around it.
Apart from the suggested wildmode/wildmenu, Vim also offers the option to show all possible completions by using Ctrl + D. This might be helpful for some users that stumble across this question when searching for different autocompletion options in Vim like I did.
If you don't want to set the wildmenu, you can always press Ctrl + L when you want to open a file. Ctrl + L will complete the filename like Bash completion.
I'm assuming that you are using autocomplete in Vim via Ctrl + N to search through the current buffer. When you use this command, you get a list of solutions; simply repeat the command to go to the next item in the list. The same is true for all autocomplete commands. While they fill in the entire word, you can continue to move through the list until you arrive at the one you wish to use.
This may be a more useful command: Ctrl + P. The only difference is that Ctrl + P searches backwards in the buffer while Ctrl + N searches forwards... Realistically, they will both provide a list with the same elements, and they may just appear in a different order.
set wildmode=longest:full gives you a Bash-like completion with:
suggestions in a single line
Tab completing only what is certain
Right/Ctrl-n | Left/Ctrl-p to select suggestions.
From the help:
If you prefer the <Left> and <Right> keys to move the cursor instead
of selecting a different match, use this:
:cnoremap <Left> <Space><BS><Left>
:cnoremap <Right> <Space><BS><Right>
Try using :set wildmenu. Apart from that, I'm not sure what exactly you're trying.
Oh, yeah, and maybe try this link: link
Omnicompletion is working, but it automatically inserts the first result.
What I'd like to do is open the omnicomplete menu, then be able to type to narrow down the results, then hit enter or tab or space or something to insert the selected menu item.
Is this possible?
The command you are looking for is:
:set completeopt+=longest
It will insert the longest common prefix of all the suggestions, then you can type and delete to narrow down or expand results.
set wildmenu
set wildmode=list:longest,full
Found here.
There is also a great plugin for all of your completion needs called SuperTab continued.
This plugin might do what you are after: autocomplpop
Or you can try and make Vim completion popup menu work just like in an IDE.
This is the general Vim completion behaviour. For a complete overview, you can do
:he compl-current
But for your specific case (which you require the completion to be in state 2 or 3 (described in the document above). You can simply use Backspace, or Control-H to jump from state one to state two. In state 2 you can narrow the search by typing regular characters. So to complete completion with narrowing:
compl<C-X><C-P><BS>letion
It is totally backwards, I know, but that's how it works.
Edit: You can use the Down arrow key too isntead of Control-H or Backspace, and it has the benefit of not deleting a character.