CODEWITHSUNDEEP
vim
Glen
Glen

Reputation: 692

How do I figure out what, if anything, a given command is doing in vim?

I was thinking of mapping ,u to uncomment a block of code in visual mode, but first I wanted to make sure that ,u wasn't already doing something else important.

I selected three lines visually and typed ,u and I got the message at the bottom of the screen (where : commands are entered): "3 lines changed".

The lines didn't change, but maybe they would have under some circumstances. Obviously, vim is claiming to have executed some command, but what?

I typed :map and ,u was not listed as having been remapped. So I typed, :help ,u and it told me "No help for ,u" (read: No help for you!).

There's no ,u or <leader>u in my .vimrc. I haven't redefined comma as my leader.

If it were the unix command line, I'd type which ,u, but I don't know any equivalent in vim.

How do I figure out what, if anything, a given command is doing in any particular running instance of vim?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 100

Answers (1)

romainl
romainl

Reputation: 196476

In visual mode, the comma does nothing but u lowercases the selected text.

This means that you can safely use ,u for a visual mode mapping: you will still be able to use u but , followed immediately by u will do what you want.

The :map command only lists mappings. Since built-in operators are not mappings you won't be able to see them there.

When a "shortcut" doesn't appear in :map, try vim's awesome documentation:

:help v_u " shows help for u in visual mode (note the v_)

If you get nothing, either from :map or from :help, using the those keys for your mapping may not be completely trouble-free. A bit of trial and error may be necessary.

Suggested reading:

Learn Vimscript the Hard Way: Chapter 3, 4 and 5.

Upvotes: 3

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