Neovim
This page only deals with major differences between Neovim and Vim. See Vim page for general Vim-related information.
References
Install
See the guide Installing Neovim.
On Ubuntu, we install from Neovim repository, tracking HEAD:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:neovim-ppa/unstable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install neovim
Default ini files are located at ~/.config/nvim/init.vim. To import Vim settings (FAQ :help nvim-from-vim)
mkdir ~/.config
ln -s ~/.vim ~/.config/nvim
ln -s ~/.vimrc ~/.config/nvim/init.vim
Configure nvim as default vim alternative:
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/vi vi /usr/bin/nvim 60
sudo update-alternatives --config vi
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/vim vim /usr/bin/nvim 60
sudo update-alternatives --config vim
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/editor editor /usr/bin/nvim 60
sudo update-alternatives --config editor
Install Ruby gems for Ruby support:
sudo apt install ruby-dev
sudo gem install neovim
Install Python package for Python support:
sudo pip install neovim
NeoVim GUI
For now, there are no official GUI for Neovim (like gvim). Potential candidates are (see also Neovim related projects):
- neovim-qt
- NyaoVim (an advanced Electron UI based client)
- ONI (another Electron UI based client)
- Use a customized terminal (like Gnome-Terminal)
Criteria for a good GUI:
- Be fast (fast refresh, no jitter in scrolling).
- Drop-in compatible with gvim / vim.
- True color and italic support.
- Blinking cursor (mandatory) and block/caret mode (optional).
- Blinking cursor is necessary when using
incsearchplugin (or we miss some hightlights).
Terminator + neovim
The best and simplest solution. We use terminator as a gui.
Create the script ngvim:
#! /bin/bash
# Redirect stderr to silent error on keyboard binding failure
2> /dev/null exec /usr/bin/terminator -m --p nvim -i /usr/local/icons/neovim.png -u -x nvim "$@"
This script:
- Sets terminal icon to neovim's.
- Tell terminator to wait until application exits (equivalent to
gvim -f) - Tell terminator not to use Dbus (such that to always appear above current windows).
The advantage of this script is that we use the same back-end as the terminal, and hence we will have the same experience (same features, same bugs).
NyaoVim / ONI
For now I discard these clients. These clients introduce additional features that I don't necessarily want.
neovim-qt
Build from source. Bindings seem old, so we rebuild them:
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make bindings
cmake --build .
- Issues
- Cursor not blinking! Using QT API
app.setCursorFlashTime(1000);does not help. - Message Unknown Neovim function "Array vim_get_api_info()". Due to missing/additional bindings. If necessary, we can mute this message in src/function.cpp.
Custom terminal - Gnome-Terminal
The best I could do so far is to create a script gnvim that uses gnome-terminal as window, sets title to NeoVim, and sets icon using xseticon.
To install gnvim:
- Build and install xseticon.
- Copy neovim icon to /usr/local/icons/neovim.png. For instance, there is an icon in neovim-qt.git:
git clone https://github.com/equalsraf/neovim-qt.git
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/icons
sudo cp neovim-qt/third-party/neovim.png /usr/local/icons
- Create file gnvim, and make it executable:
#! /bin/bash
# We add a sleep 1 because of race condition between xseticon and echo
gnome-terminal --geometry 132x50 --hide-menubar -x bash -c "echo -ne '\033]0;NeoVim\007'; ((sleep 1; xseticon -name NeoVim /usr/local/icons/neovim.png)&); exec nvim $*"
- To add NeoVim GUI as a desktop application, create the file ~/.local/share/applications/neovim.desktop:
#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Exec=/home/peetersm/bin/ngvim
Name=NeoVim
Comment=The future of Vim
Icon=/usr/local/icons/neovim.png
Then
chmod a+x ~/.local/share/applications/neovim.desktop
Neovim Gnome-Terminal wrapper
Small wrapper in Python, but it only sets the icon in unity bar, not task switcher.
Tips
Use :term for Read–eval–print loop (REPL)
This can be easily done using a new buffer (C-w v) and a terminal (:term), and then
- Use
watch:
watch 'make this && less that'
- Use
entr:
echo myfile myotherfile | entr make this
Neovim features
Just a couple of things I should not forget exist.
- Powerful terminal emulation.
- Incremental substitution (
set inccommand=split) (see here).
Troubleshooting
LAST KNOWN GOOD version
The latest version with least problems:
- neovim_0.1.5ubuntu1+git201612110104+2963+22~ubuntu16.04.1_amd64.deb
True color and italic support
See xterm.
Meta/Alt-key mappings choke (when typed too fast)
See bug #2454.
The solution is too actually install the plugin vim-sensible, contrary to what says :CheckHealth.
This plugins set ttimeoutlen to 100, which is sufficient to have alt-key mappings to act correctly in TUI.
nvim-qt issues
- No blinking cursor in nvim-qt
Adding call to QApplication::setCursorFlashTime() in main.cpp does not help. See issue #208.
- No support for option 'S' and '-c'
See #224.
Cursor (sometimes) stops blinking
Neovim hard-codes cursor shape and mode. This is tracked in tickets #5740, #5556. See also [Cursor stops blinking #3257].
Undefined variable: self
See issue #5763.
Last known good version without this bug for me: neovim_0.1.5ubuntu1+git201612110104+2963+22~ubuntu16.04.1_amd64.deb.
Bug fixed, but must update all plugins (:PlugUpdate) and vim-plug itself (with :PlugUpgrade).
incsearch plugin broken
See issue #125.
Shift-enter not working in TUI
This requires a terminal that can configure CSI (like iTerm2). Maybe [pangoterm] is another option.
See also:
Neovim not resizing correctly in Terminator on split
See bug 6156.
"E724: unable to correctly dump variable with self-referencing container" when using incsearch
See bug 5902. My fork on GitHub contains a workaround.
To Do
- Find a good TUI or GUI
- Test advanced linters plugins like neomake and syntactics.