mirror of
https://github.com/neovim/neovim.git
synced 2026-07-31 12:49:11 +00:00
359459dec6
Problem:
POSIX-compatible Ex-mode requires special-cases all over the codebase to
match various quirks that don't actually matter to users.
- The main utility of *interactive* Ex-mode is its REPL behavior, and
that can be achieved with `cmdwin`, which also gains extra UX
benefits.
- The main utility of *non-interactive* `nvim -es` is for shell
scripting, where Ex-mode quirks are mostly unhelpful (e.g. the
"Entering Ex mode" message).
Solution:
- Reimplement *interactive* Ex-mode as a "persistent, insert-mode
cmdwin" in Lua.
- "nvim -e/-E" is simply an alias to "gQ".
- Reframe *non-interactive* Ex-mode (`nvim -es`) as "script mode".
- Drop POSIX Ex-mode quirks.
Improvements:
- "nvim -V1 -es" output ends with a final newline!
- "nvim -V1 -es" no longer shows the "Entering Ex mode" msg. (This was
pointless noise, unwanted for scripting purposes.)
- stdin is no longer typeahead. Scripts (":lua io.read()") can read
stdin as data.
- Empty line is a no-op: a stray blank line no longer moves the cursor
(deviates from POSIX ex "+1"), no longer exits 1 at EOF (E501).
Preserved behavior:
- cursor starts at "$"
- mode()=="cv" (for non-interactive)
- multiline commands (:append/:function/heredoc pull continuation lines)
- bare-range print
- :print=>stdout
- -V1=>stderr
- CRLF input
- continue-after-error and exit codes
Dropped (regressed) POSIX behavior (non-interactive):
- Event loop only ticks while/between commands, not while blocked
waiting for a stdin line.
- ":g/pat/visual...Q"
- input()/getchar()/":s/x/y/c" no longer consume stdin lines as
answers: Nvim stops at end-of-input, skipping the rest of the script,
exit 0. Use ":lua io.read()" instead.
- If users care about this they should use interactive Ex-mode (`gQ`).
- ":@r" stops at end of the register instead of continuing to read
cmdline input from stdin.
Neovim is a project that seeks to aggressively refactor Vim in order to:
- Simplify maintenance and encourage contributions
- Split the work between multiple developers
- Enable advanced UIs without modifications to the core
- Maximize extensibility
See the Introduction wiki page and Roadmap for more information.
Features
- Modern GUIs
- API access from any language including C/C++, C#, Clojure, D, Elixir, Go, Haskell, Java/Kotlin, JavaScript/Node.js, Julia, Lisp, Lua, Perl, Python, Racket, Ruby, Rust
- Embedded, scriptable terminal emulator
- Asynchronous job control
- Shared data (shada) among multiple editor instances
- XDG base directories support
- Compatible with most Vim plugins, including Ruby and Python plugins
See :help nvim-features for the full list, and :help news for noteworthy changes in the latest version!
Install from package
Pre-built packages for Windows, macOS, and Linux are found on the Releases page.
Managed packages are in Homebrew, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch Linux, Void Linux, Gentoo, and more!
Install from source
See BUILD.md and supported platforms for details.
The build is CMake-based, but a Makefile is provided as a convenience. After installing the dependencies, run the following command.
make CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
sudo make install
To install to a non-default location:
make CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/full/path/
make install
CMake hints for inspecting the build:
cmake --build build --target helplists all build targets.build/CMakeCache.txt(orcmake -LAH build/) contains the resolved values of all CMake variables.build/compile_commands.jsonshows the full compiler invocations for each translation unit.
Transitioning from Vim
See :help nvim-from-vim for instructions.
Project layout
├─ cmake/ CMake utils
├─ cmake.config/ CMake defines
├─ cmake.deps/ subproject to fetch and build dependencies (optional)
├─ runtime/ plugins and docs
├─ src/nvim/ application source code (see src/nvim/README.md)
│ ├─ api/ API subsystem
│ ├─ eval/ Vimscript subsystem
│ ├─ event/ event-loop subsystem
│ ├─ generators/ code generation (pre-compilation)
│ ├─ lib/ generic data structures
│ ├─ lua/ Lua subsystem
│ ├─ msgpack_rpc/ RPC subsystem
│ ├─ os/ low-level platform code
│ └─ tui/ built-in UI
└─ test/ tests (see test/README.md)
License
Neovim contributions since b17d96 are licensed under the
Apache 2.0 license, except for contributions copied from Vim (identified by the
vim-patch token). See LICENSE.txt for details.