Problem: cannot perform autocompletion
Solution: Add the 'autocomplete' option value
(Girish Palya)
This change introduces the 'autocomplete' ('ac') boolean option to
enable automatic popup menu completion during insert mode. When enabled,
Vim shows a completion menu as you type, similar to pressing |i\_CTRL-N|
manually. The items are collected from sources defined in the
'complete' option.
To ensure responsiveness, this feature uses a time-sliced strategy:
- Sources earlier in the 'complete' list are given more time.
- If a source exceeds its allocated timeout, it is interrupted.
- The next source is then started with a reduced timeout (exponentially
decayed).
- A small minimum ensures every source still gets a brief chance to
contribute.
The feature is fully compatible with other |i_CTRL-X| completion modes,
which can temporarily suspend automatic completion when triggered.
See :help 'autocomplete' and :help ins-autocompletion for more details.
To try it out, use :set ac
You should see a popup menu appear automatically with suggestions. This
works seamlessly across:
- Large files (multi-gigabyte size)
- Massive codebases (:argadd thousands of .c or .h files)
- Large dictionaries via the `k` option
- Slow or blocking LSP servers or user-defined 'completefunc'
Despite potential slowness in sources, the menu remains fast,
responsive, and useful.
Compatibility: This mode is fully compatible with existing completion
methods. You can still invoke any CTRL-X based completion (e.g.,
CTRL-X CTRL-F for filenames) at any time (CTRL-X temporarily
suspends 'autocomplete'). To specifically use i_CTRL-N, dismiss the
current popup by pressing CTRL-E first.
---
How it works
To keep completion snappy under all conditions, autocompletion uses a
decaying time-sliced algorithm:
- Starts with an initial timeout (80ms).
- If a source does not complete within the timeout, it's interrupted and
the timeout is halved for the next source.
- This continues recursively until a minimum timeout (5ms) is reached.
- All sources are given a chance, but slower ones are de-prioritized
quickly.
Most of the time, matches are computed well within the initial window.
---
Implementation details
- Completion logic is mostly triggered in `edit.c` and handled in
insexpand.c.
- Uses existing inc_compl_check_keys() mechanism, so no new polling
hooks are needed.
- The completion system already checks for user input periodically; it
now also checks for timer expiry.
---
Design notes
- The menu doesn't continuously update after it's shown to prevent
visual distraction (due to resizing) and ensure the internal list
stays synchronized with the displayed menu.
- The 'complete' option determines priority—sources listed earlier get
more time.
- The exponential time-decay mechanism prevents indefinite collection,
contributing to low CPU usage and a minimal memory footprint.
- Timeout values are intentionally not configurable—this system is
optimized to "just work" out of the box. If autocompletion feels slow,
it typically indicates a deeper performance bottleneck (e.g., a slow
custom function not using `complete_check()`) rather than a
configuration issue.
---
Performance
Based on testing, the total roundtrip time for completion is generally
under 200ms. For common usage, it often responds in under 50ms on an
average laptop, which falls within the "feels instantaneous" category
(sub-100ms) for perceived user experience.
| Upper Bound (ms) | Perceived UX
|----------------- |-------------
| <100 ms | Excellent; instantaneous
| <200 ms | Good; snappy
| >300 ms | Noticeable lag
| >500 ms | Sluggish/Broken
---
Why this belongs in core:
- Minimal and focused implementation, tightly integrated with existing
Insert-mode completion logic.
- Zero reliance on autocommands and external scripting.
- Makes full use of Vim’s highly composable 'complete' infrastructure
while avoiding the complexity of plugin-based solutions.
- Gives users C native autocompletion with excellent responsiveness and
no configuration overhead.
- Adds a key UX functionality in a simple, performant, and Vim-like way.
closes: #17812
Signed-off-by: Girish Palya <girishji@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: potential buffer underflow in insertchar()
Solution: verify that end_len is larger than zero
(jinyaoguo)
When parsing the end-comment leader, end_len can be zero if
copy_option_part() writes no characters. The existing check
unconditionally accessed lead_end[end_len-1], causing potential
underflow when end_len == 0.
This change adds an end_len > 0 guard to ensure we only index lead_end
if there is at least one character.
closes: #17476
Signed-off-by: jinyaoguo <guo846@purdue.edu>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: tabpanel: there are still some problems with the tabpanel with
column handling
Solution: fix the problems and refactor Tabpanel feature (Hirohito
Higashi).
fixes: #17423fixes: #17332closes: #17336
Signed-off-by: Hirohito Higashi <h.east.727@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: not easily possible to complete from register content
Solution: add register-completion submode using i_CTRL-X_CTRL-R
(glepnir)
closes: #17354
Signed-off-by: glepnir <glephunter@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: Vim does not have a tabpanel
Solution: include the tabpanel feature
(Naruhiko Nishino, thinca)
closes: #17263
Co-authored-by: thinca <thinca@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Naruhiko Nishino <naru123456789@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: When switching to another window or tab page while the
completion menu is active, the menu stays visible, although it
belongs to the previous window/tab page context (Evgeni
Chasnovski).
Solution: Track the window and tab page where completion started. Detect
changes in the main editing loop and cancel completion mode if
the current window or tab page differs from where completion
started.
fixes: #17090closes: #17101
Co-authored-by: zeertzjq <zeertzjq@outlook.com>
Signed-off-by: glepnir <glephunter@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: clientserver: When in insert mode, a :stopinsert command
is not correctly processed (user202729)
Solution: If the :stopinsert command is received while waiting for
input, stuff the NOP key into the type-ahead buffer and
detect that :stopinsert was used in edit() so that the
cursor position is decremented.
fixes: #17016closes: #17024
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: string length wrong in get_last_inserted_save()
(after v9.1.1222)
Solution: when removing trailing ESC, also decrease the string length
(Christ van Willegen)
closes: #16961
Signed-off-by: Christ van Willegen <cvwillegen@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: using wrong length for last inserted string
(Christ van Willegen, after v9.1.1212)
Solution: use the correct length in get_last_insert_save(), make
get_last_insert() return a string_T (John Marriott)
closes: #16921
Signed-off-by: John Marriott <basilisk@internode.on.net>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: Wrong cursor position and '^' mark when leaving Insert mode
just after 'autoindent' and cursor on last char of line.
Solution: Don't move cursor to NUL when it wasn't moved to the left
(zeertzjq).
fixes: #15581
related: neovim/neovim#30165neovim/neovim#32943closes: #16922
Signed-off-by: zeertzjq <zeertzjq@outlook.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: Pasting the '.' register multiple times may work incorrectly
when the last insert starts with Ctrl-D and ends with '0'.
(after 9.1.1212)
Solution: Restore the missing assignment (zeertzjq).
closes: #16908
Signed-off-by: zeertzjq <zeertzjq@outlook.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: too many strlen() calls in edit.c
Solution: refactor edit.c and remove strlen() calls
(John Marriott)
This commit attempts to make edit.c more efficient by:
- in truncate_spaces() pass in the length of the string.
- return a string_T from get_last_insert(), so that the length of the
string is available to the caller.
- refactor stuff_insert():
- replace calls to stuffReadbuff() (which calls STRLEN() on it's
string argument) with stuffReadbuffLen() (which gets the length of
it's string argument passed in).
- replace call to vim_strrchr() which searches from the start of the
string with a loop which searches from end of the string to find the
last ESC character.
- change get_last_insert_save() to call get_last_insert() to get the
last_insert string (the logic is in one place).
closes: #16863
Signed-off-by: John Marriott <basilisk@internode.on.net>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: using global variable for get_insert()/get_lambda_name()
(after v9.1.1151)
Solution: let the functions return a string_T object instead
(Yee Cheng Chin)
In #16720, `get_insert()` was modified to store a string length in a
global variable to be queried immediately by another `get_insert_len()`
function, which is somewhat fragile. Instead, just have the function
itself return a `string_T` object instead. Also do the same for
`get_lambda_name()` which has similar issues.
closes: #16775
Signed-off-by: Yee Cheng Chin <ychin.git@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: The 'preinsert' feature requires Ctrl-Y to confirm insertion,
but Ctrl-Y only works when the popup menu (pum) is displayed.
Without enforcing this dependency, it could lead to confusing
behavior or non-functional features.
Solution: Modify ins_compl_has_preinsert() to check for both 'menu' and
'menuone' flags when 'preinsert' is set. Update documentation
to clarify this requirement. This avoids adding complex
conditional behaviors. (glepnir)
fixes: #16728closes: #16753
Signed-off-by: glepnir <glephunter@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: too many strlen() calls in getchar.c
Solution: store last inserted and recorded lengths,
add functions to retrieve those and use those
functions (John Marriott)
closes: #16720
Signed-off-by: John Marriott <basilisk@internode.on.net>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: ins_str() is inefficient by calling STRLLEN()
Solution: refactor ins_str() to take a length argument
and let all callers provide the correct length
when calling ins_str() (John Marriott)
closes: #16711
Signed-off-by: John Marriott <basilisk@internode.on.net>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: when 'completeopt' is set to preinsert the preinserted text is
not cleared when adding new leader (Yee Cheng Chin)
Solution: add a condition to delete preinsert text in edit function
(glepnir)
closes: #16672
Signed-off-by: glepnir <glephunter@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: Vim doesn't highlight to be inserted text when completing
Solution: Add support for the "preinsert" 'completeopt' value
(glepnir)
Support automatically inserting the currently selected candidate word
that does not belong to the latter part of the leader.
fixes: #3433closes: #16403
Signed-off-by: glepnir <glephunter@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: inserting with a count is inefficient
Solution: Disable calculation of the cursor position and topline, if a
count has been used (Ken Takata)
Optimize insertion when using :normal 10000ix.
This patch optimizes the insertion with a large count (e.g. `:normal
10000ix`).
It seems that calculation of the cursor position for a long line is slow
and it takes O(n^2). Disable the calculation if not needed.
Before:
```
$ time ./vim --clean -c 'normal 10000ix' -cq!
real 0m1.879s
user 0m1.328s
sys 0m0.139s
$ time ./vim --clean -c 'normal 20000ix' -cq!
real 0m5.574s
user 0m5.421s
sys 0m0.093s
$ time ./vim --clean -c 'normal 40000ix' -cq!
real 0m23.588s
user 0m23.187s
sys 0m0.140s
```
After:
```
$ time ./vim --clean -c 'normal 10000ix' -cq!
real 0m0.187s
user 0m0.046s
sys 0m0.093s
$ time ./vim --clean -c 'normal 20000ix' -cq!
real 0m0.217s
user 0m0.046s
sys 0m0.108s
$ time ./vim --clean -c 'normal 40000ix' -cq!
real 0m0.278s
user 0m0.093s
sys 0m0.140s
$ time ./vim --clean -c 'normal 80000ix' -cq!
real 0m0.494s
user 0m0.311s
sys 0m0.140s
$ time ./vim --clean -c 'normal 160000ix' -cq!
real 0m1.302s
user 0m1.140s
sys 0m0.094s
```
closes: #15588
Signed-off-by: K.Takata <kentkt@csc.jp>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: Cursor moves beyond start of a folded range at the end of a buffer.
Solution: Move cursor to start of fold when going beyond end of buffer.
Check that cursor moved to detect FAIL in outer cursor function.
(Luuk van Baal)
closes: #15344
Signed-off-by: Luuk van Baal <luukvbaal@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: Left shift is incorrect with vartabstop and shiftwidth=0
Solution: make tabstop_at() function aware of shift direction
(Gary Johnson)
The problem was that with 'vartabstop' set and 'shiftwidth' equal 0,
left shifts using << were shifting the line to the wrong column. The
tabstop to the right of the first character in the line was being used
as the shift amount instead of the tabstop to the left of that first
character.
The reason was that the tabstop_at() function always returned the value
of the tabstop to the right of the given column and was not accounting
for the direction of the shift.
The solution was to make tabstop_at() aware of the direction of the
shift and to choose the tabtop accordingly.
A test was added to check this behavior and make sure it doesn't
regress.
While at it, also fix a few indentation/alignment issues.
fixes: #14864closes: #14887
Signed-off-by: Gary Johnson <garyjohn@spocom.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: Filetype test fails.
Solution: Move detection by name before detection by extension.
Improve TextChanged test and remove wrong test and fix
a typo in a comment (zeertzjq).
closes: #14373
Signed-off-by: zeertzjq <zeertzjq@outlook.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: TextChanged autocommand not triggered under some circumstances
(Sergey Vlasov)
Solution: Trigger TextChanged when TextChangedI has not been triggered
fixes: #14332closes: #14339
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: Unnecessary multiplications in backspace code, as
"col / ts * ts" is the same as "col - col % ts".
Solution: Change "col / ts * ts" to "col - col % ts". Adjust the loop
and the comments ins_bs() to be easier to understand. Update
tests to reset 'smarttab' properly.
(zeertzjq)
closes: #14308
Signed-off-by: zeertzjq <zeertzjq@outlook.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: Page-wise scrolling with Ctrl-D/Ctrl-U implements
it's own logic to change the topline and cursor.
More logic than necessary for scrolling with Ctrl-F/Ctrl-B
was removed in patch 9.1.0211.
Solution: Re-use the logic from Ctrl-E/Ctrl-Y/Ctrl-F/Ctrl-B while
staying backward compatible as much as possible.
Restore some of the logic that determined how many lines will
be scrolled (Luuk van Baal)
closes: #14316
Signed-off-by: Luuk van Baal <luukvbaal@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: Backspace inserts spaces with virtual text and 'smarttab'.
Solution: Ignore virtual text and wrapping when backspacing.
(zeertzjq)
related: neovim/neovim#28005
closes: #14296
Co-authored-by: VanaIgr <vanaigranov@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: zeertzjq <zeertzjq@outlook.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: More code can use ml_get_buf_len() instead of STRLEN().
Solution: Change more STRLEN() calls to ml_get_buf_len(). Also do not
set ml_line_textlen in ml_replace_len() if "has_props" is set,
because "len_arg" also includes the size of text properties in
that case. (zeertzjq)
closes: #14183
Signed-off-by: zeertzjq <zeertzjq@outlook.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: too many STRLEN() calls
Solution: Make use of ml_get_len() calls instead
(John Marriott)
closes: #14123
Signed-off-by: John Marriott <basilisk@internode.on.net>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: Calling STRLEN() to compute ml_line_textlen when not needed.
Solution: Use 0 when STRLEN() will be required and call STRLEN() later.
(zeertzjq)
closes: #14155
Signed-off-by: zeertzjq <zeertzjq@outlook.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: Text properties corrupted with fo+=aw and backspace
Solution: Allocate line and move text properties
(zeertzjq)
closes: #14147
Signed-off-by: zeertzjq <zeertzjq@outlook.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: ml_get_buf_len() does not consider text properties
(zeertzj)
Solution: Store text length excluding text properties length
in addition in the memline
related #14123closes: #14133
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: TextChanged not triggered for :norm! commands
(machakann, after v9.0.2031)
Solution: Only reset curbuf->b_last_changedtick if TextChangedI
was triggered in insert mode (and not blocked)
Note: for unknown reasons, the test fails on Windows (but seems to work
fine when running interactively)
fixes: #13967closes: #13984
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: Cannot map Super Keys in GTK UI
(Casey Tucker)
Solution: Enable Super Key mappings in GTK using <D-Key>
(Casey Tucker)
As a developer who works in both Mac and Linux using the same keyboard,
it can be frustrating having to remember different key combinations or
having to rely on system utilities to remap keys.
This change allows `<D-z>` `<D-x>` `<D-c>` `<D-v>` etc. to be recognized
by the `map` commands, along with the `<D-S-...>` shifted variants.
```vimrc
if has('gui_gtk')
nnoremap <D-z> u
nnoremap <D-S-Z> <C-r>
vnoremap <D-x> "+d
vnoremap <D-c> "+y
cnoremap <D-v> <C-R>+
inoremap <D-v> <C-o>"+gP
nnoremap <D-v> "+P
vnoremap <D-v> "-d"+P
nnoremap <D-s> :w<CR>
inoremap <D-s> <C-o>:w<CR>
nnoremap <D-w> :q<CR>
nnoremap <D-q> :qa<CR>
nnoremap <D-t> :tabe<CR>
nnoremap <D-S-T> :vs#<CR><C-w>T
nnoremap <D-a> ggVG
vnoremap <D-a> <ESC>ggVG
inoremap <D-a> <ESC>ggVG
nnoremap <D-f> /
nnoremap <D-g> n
nnoremap <D-S-G> N
vnoremap <D-x> "+x
endif
```
closes: #12698
Signed-off-by: Casey Tucker <dctucker@hotmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: i_CTRL-] triggers InsertCharPre
Solution: Return if CTRL-] is received. InsertCharPre
is supposed to be only used for chars to be inserted
but i_CTRL-] triggers expansion and is not inserted
into the buffer (altermo)
closes: #13853closes: #13864
Signed-off-by: altermo
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: incorrect use of W_WINROW in edit.c
Solution: compare against curwin->w_height instead
Remove incorrect use of W_WINROW
In structs.h it is mentioned that w_wrow is relative to w_winrow, so
using W_WINROW doesn't make sense when comparing with window height.
This change won't lead to any observable behavior change:
The condition intends to check if there are 'scrolloff' lines between
the current cursor when the bottom of the window. When W_WINROW(curwin)
is added to curwin->w_height - 1 - get_scrolloff_value(), the condition
is instead satisfied when the cursor is on some screen line below that
position. However,
- If 'scrolloff' is smaller than half the window height, this condition
can only be satisfied when W_WINROW(curwin) == 0. And if it is not
satisfied, update_topline() does the actual scrolling.
- If 'scrolloff' is larger than half the window height, update_topline()
will put the cursor at the center of the window soon afterwards
anyway, because set_topline() now unsets VALID_TOPLINE flag starting
from 7db7bb45b0.
To put it in another way, 7db7bb45b0
makes the update_topline() just below correct the mistakes made in this
block, so this incorrect use of W_WINROW() no longer affects observable
behavior.
closes: #12331
Signed-off-by: zeertzjq <zeertzjq@outlook.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: is*() and to*() function may be unsafe
Solution: Add SAFE_* macros and start using those instead
(Keith Thompson)
Use SAFE_() macros for is*() and to*() functions
The standard is*() and to*() functions declared in <ctype.h> have
undefined behavior for negative arguments other than EOF. If plain char
is signed, passing an unchecked value from argv for from user input
to one of these functions has undefined behavior.
Solution: Add SAFE_*() macros that cast the argument to unsigned char.
Most implementations behave sanely for negative arguments, and most
character values in practice are non-negative, but it's still best
to avoid undefined behavior.
The change from #13347 has been omitted, as this has already been
separately fixed in commit ac709e2fc0
(v9.0.2054)
fixes: #13332closes: #13347
Signed-off-by: Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: Wrong scrolling in Insert mode with 'smoothscroll' at the
bottom of the window.
Solution: Don't use set_topline() when 'smoothscroll' is set.
fixes: #13612closes: #13613
Signed-off-by: zeertzjq <zeertzjq@outlook.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: TextChangedI may not always trigger
Solution: trigger it in more cases: for insert/
append/change operations, and when
opening a new line,
fixes: #13367closes: #13375
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Signed-off-by: Evgeni Chasnovski <evgeni.chasnovski@gmail.com>
Problem: `TextChangedI` can trigger on entering Insert mode if there
was previously a change not in Insert mode.
Solution: Make it trigger only when text is actually changed in Insert
mode.
closes: #13265closes: #13338
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Co-authored-by: Evgeni Chasnovski <evgeni.chasnovski@gmail.com>
Problem: i_CTRL-O does not reset Select Mode
Solution: Reset select mode on CTRL-O in insert mode
closes: #13001closes: #12115
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Co-authored-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Problem: Wrong display with wrapping virtual text or unprintable chars,
'showbreak' and 'smoothscroll'.
Solution: Don't skip cells taken by 'showbreak' in screen lines before
"w_skipcol". Combined "n_skip" and "skip_cells".
closes: #12597
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>
Co-authored-by: zeertzjq <zeertzjq@outlook.com>
Problem: Cursor not adjusted when near top or bottom of window and
'splitkeep' is not "cursor".
Solution: Move boundary checks to outer cursor move functions, inner
functions should only return valid cursor positions. (Luuk van
Baal, closes#12480)
Problem: RedrawingDisabled not used consistently.
Solution: Avoid RedrawingDisabled going negative. Set RedrawingDisabled in
win_split_ins(). (closes#11961)
