options.asciidoc

Options

Description

Kakoune can store named and typed values that can be used both to customize the core editor behaviour, and to store data used by extension scripts.

Options can be modified using the set-option command:

set-option [-add|-remove] <scope> <name> <values>...

<scope> can be global, buffer, window or current (See :doc scopes). current relates to the narrowest scope in which the option is already set.

When the option is a list or a map, multiple <values> can be given as separate arguments, or can be omitted altogether in order to empty the option.

If -add or -remove is specified, the new value is respectively added to or removed from the current one instead of replacing it (the exact outcome depends on the type, see below).

Option values can be unset in a specific scope with the unset-option command:

unset-option <scope> <name>

Unsetting an option will make it fallback to the value of its parent scope, hence options cannot be unset from the global scope.

New options can be declared using the declare-option command:

declare-option [-hidden] <type> <name> [<value>...]

If -hidden is specified, the option will not be displayed in completion suggestions.

Certain option type can be updated, usually to match potential changes in the buffer they relate to. This can be triggered by the update-option command:

update-option <scope> <name>

Types

All options have a type, which defines how they are translated to/from text and their set of valid values.

Some types are usable for user defined options while some other types are exclusively available to built-in options.

int

an integer number.

`set -add` performs a math addition. +
`set -remove` performs a math substraction. +

bool

a boolean value, yes/true or no/false

str

a string, some freeform text

regex

as a string but the set commands will complain if the entered text is not a valid regex

coord

a line, column pair (separated by a comma) Cannot be used with declare-option

<type>-list

a list, elements are specified as separate arguments to the command.

`set -add` appends the new element to the list. +
`set -remove` removes each given element from the list. +

Only `int-list` and `str-list` options can be created with
`declare-option`.

range-specs

a timestamp (like %val{timestamp}, see :doc expansions value-expansions) followed by a list of range descriptors.

Each range descriptor must use the syntax `a.b,c.d|string` or
`a.b+length|string`, with:

• a is the line containing the first character

• b is the number of bytes from the start of the line to the first byte of the first character

• c is the line containing the last character

• d is the number of bytes from the start of the line to the first byte of the last character

• length is the length of the range in bytes, if 0 the range is empty, but still valid.

• string is an arbitrary string which is associated with the range. Any | or \ characters must be escaped as \| or \\.

  All numeric fields are 1-based.

  When the command `update-option` is used on an option of this type,
  its ranges get updated according to all the buffer modifications
  that happened since its timestamp.

  `set -add` appends the new pairs to the list. +
  `set -remove` removes the given pairs from the list. +

  See <<highlighters#specs-highlighters,`:doc highlighters specs-highlighters`>>)

line-specs

a list of a line number and a corresponding flag (<line>|<flag text>), except for the first element which is just the timestamp of the buffer. When update-option is used on an option of this type, its lines get updated according to all the buffer modifications that happened since its timestamp. See :doc highlighters specs-highlighters)

`set -add` appends the new specs to the list. +
`set -remove` removes the given specs from the list. +

Any `|` or `\` characters that occur within `<flag text>` must be
escaped as `\|` or `\\`.

completions

a list of <text>|<select cmd>|<menu text> candidates, except for the first element which follows the <line>.<column>[+<length>]@<timestamp> format to define where the completion apply in the buffer. Any | or \ characters that occur within the <text>, <select cmd>, or <menu text> fields should be escaped as \| or \\.

Options of this type are are meant to be added to the `completers`
option to provide insert mode completion. Candidates are shown if the
text typed by the user (between `<line>.<column>` and the cursor) is a
subsequence of `<text>`.

For each remaining candidate, the completion menu displays
`<text>`, followed by `<menu text>`, which is a Markup string (see
<<faces#markup-strings,`:doc faces markup-strings`>>).

As the user selects items from the completion menu, the text they typed
will be replaced with `<text>`, and the Kakoune command in
`<select cmd>` is executed. The common use case is to display element
specific documentation.

`set -add` adds given completions to the list. +
`set -remove` removes given completions from the list. +

enum(value1|value2|…​)

an enum, taking one of the given values Cannot be used with declare-option

flags(value1|value2|…​)

a set of flags, taking a combination of the given values joined by a '|' character.

`set -add` adds the given flags to the combination. +
`set -remove` removes the given flags to the combination. +

Cannot be used with `declare-option`

<type>-to-<type>-map

a list of key=value pairs.

`set -add` adds the given pair to the hashmap or replace an already
existing key. +
`set -remove` removes the given pair from the hashmap, if only the
key is provided it removes that entry regardless of the associated
value. +

Only `str-to-str-map` options can be created with `declare-option`.

Builtin options

tabstop int

default 8
width of a tab character

indentwidth int

default 4
width (in spaces) used for indentation, 0 means a tab character

scrolloff coord

default 0,0
number of lines, columns to keep visible around the cursor when scrolling

eolformat enum(lf|crlf)

default lf
the format of end of lines when writing a buffer, this is autodetected on load; values of this option assigned to the window scope are ignored

BOM enum(none|utf8)

default none
define if the file should be written with a unicode byte order mark; values of this option assigned to the window scope are ignored

readonly bool

default false
prevent modifications from being saved to disk, all buffers if set to true in the global scope, or current buffer if set in the buffer scope; values of this option assigned to the window scope are ignored

incsearch bool

default true
execute search as it is typed

aligntab bool

default false
use tabs for alignment command

autoinfo flags(command|onkey|normal)

default command|onkey
display automatic information box in the enabled contexts

autocomplete flags(insert|prompt)

default insert|prompt
automatically display possible completions in the enabled modes.

ignored_files regex

filenames matching this regex won’t be considered as candidates on filename completion (except if the text being completed already matches it)

disabled_hooks regex

hooks whose group matches this regex won’t be executed. For example indentation hooks can be disabled with .*-indent. (See :doc hooks)

filetype str

arbitrary string defining the type of the file. Filetype dependent actions should hook on this option changing for activation/deactivation

path str-list

default ./ %/ /usr/include
directories to search for gf command and filenames completion %/ represents the current buffer directory

completers completer-list

default filename word=all
completion engines to use for insert mode completion (they are tried in order until one generates candidates). Existing completers are:

word=all, word=buffer

which complete using words in all buffers (word=all) or only the current one (word=buffer)

filename

which tries to detect when a filename is being entered and provides completion based on local filesystem

line=all, line=buffer

which complete using lines in all buffers (line=all) or only the current one (line=buffer)

option=<opt-name>

where opt-name is an option of type 'completions' whose contents will be used

static_words str-list

list of words that are always added to completion candidates when completing words in insert mode

extra_word_chars codepoint-list

a list of all additional codepoints that should be considered part of a word, for the purposes of the w, b, and e commands (See :doc keys movement). If this option is empty, Kakoune pretends it contains an underscore, otherwise the value is used as-is. This must be set on the buffer, not the window, for word completion to offer words containing these codepoints.

matching_pairs codepoint-list

default ( ) { } [ ] < >
a list of codepoints that are to be treated as matching pairs for the m command.

autoreload enum(yes|no|ask)

default ask
auto reload the buffers when an external modification is detected

writemethod enum(overwrite|replace)

default overwrite
method used to write buffers to file, overwrite will open the existing file and write on top of the previous data, replace will open a temporary file next to the target file, write it and then rename it to the target file.

debug flags(hooks|shell|profile|keys|commands)

dump various debug information in the *debug* buffer

idle_timeout int

default 50
timeout, in milliseconds, with no user input that will trigger the PromptIdle, InsertIdle and NormalIdle hooks, and autocompletion.

fs_check_timeout int

default 500
timeout, in milliseconds, between checks in normal mode of modifications of the file associated with the current buffer on the filesystem.

modelinefmt string

A format string used to generate the mode line, that string is first expanded as a command line would be (expanding '%…​{…​}' strings), then markup tags are applied (see :doc faces markup-strings) Two special atoms are available as markup:

{{mode_info}}

Information about the current mode, such as insert 3 sel or prompt. The faces used are StatusLineMode, StatusLineInfo, and StatusLineValue.

{{context_info}}

Information such as [+][recording (@)][no-hooks][new file][fifo], in face Information.

The default value is '%val{bufname} %val{cursor_line}:%val{cursor_char_column} {{context_info}} {{mode_info}} - %val{client}@[%val{session}]'

ui_options str-to-str-map

a list of key=value pairs that are forwarded to the user interface implementation. The NCurses UI supports the following options:

terminal_set_title

if yes or true, the terminal emulator title will be changed

terminal_status_on_top

if yes, or true the status line will be placed at the top of the terminal rather than at the bottom

terminal_assistant

specify the nice assistant displayed in info boxes, can be clippy (the default), cat, dilbert or none

terminal_enable_mouse

boolean option that enables mouse support

terminal_shift_function_key

Function key from which shifted function key start, if the terminal sends F13 for <s-F1>, this should be set to 12.

terminal_padding_char

character used to indicate the area out of the displayed buffer (defaults to '~')

terminal_padding_fill

if yes or true, fill the padding area with the padding character instead of displaying a single character at the beginning of the padding line (defaults to false)

terminal_synchronized

if yes or true, emit synchronized output escape sequences and reduce terminal output with sequences that could trigger flickering if unsynchronized (defaults to false)

terminal_info_max_width

set the maximum allowable width of an info box. set to zero for no limit.

startup_info_version int

default 0
Controls which messages will be displayed in the startup info box, only messages relating to a Kakoune version greater than this value will be displayed. Versions are written as a single number: Like 20180413 for version 2018.04.13

Current values

The current value for an option can be viewed using :doc expansions option-expansions.

For example, the current value of the BOM option can be displayed in the status line using the echo command:

echo %opt{BOM}

The current values for all options can be dumped to the *debug* buffer using the following command:

debug options