Sneak is a Vim plugin that enables you to move to any location specified by two characters.
It works across multiple lines; with operators (including repeat .
);
and in visual mode. Move to the next or previous match via ;
or ,
(or by pressing s
again immediately after a Sneak-search, similar to
clever-f).
Move to the nth match by prefixing ;
or ,
with a
[count]
.
The plugin chooses sane defaults, which are easily changed via <Plug>
mappings.
See :help sneak
for full options and details.
New (Experimental) Option: Use Sneak as an elegant, streamlined alternative to EasyMotion:
let g:sneak#streak = 1
Sneak is invoked with s
(sneak forward) or S
(sneak backwards), followed by exactly two
characters:
s{char}{char}
- Press
sab
to move the cursor immediately to the next instance of the text "ab".- Additional matches, if any, are highlighted until the cursor is moved.
- Press
s
or;
to go to the next match. - Press
3s
or3;
to skip to the third match from the current position. - Press
ctrl-o
or `` to go back to the starting point. - Later on, press
s<Enter>
to repeat the last Sneak-search.
Sneak can be scoped to a column of width 2×[number] by prefixing s
with a number.
- Press
5sxy
to go immediately to the next instance of "xy" within 5 columns of the cursor.- A highlight block indicates the vertical scope.
Sneak is invoked with operators
via z
(because s
is taken by surround.vim).
- Press
dzqt
to delete from the cursor up to the next instance of "qt".- Press
.
to repeat thedzqt
operation.
- Press
- Press
gUz\}
to upper-case the text from the cursor until the next instance of the literal text\}
- Press
.
to repeat thegUz\}
operation.
- Press
l f t % 'm } ]m ]] M L /
^
|
sneak
Vim's built-in motions cover many special cases, but it's not always easy to move across
several lines to an arbitrary position: the f
motion is restricted to
the current line, and the /
search is clunky for medium-distance
motion.
Here's how Sneak differs from Vim's built-in /
search and other plugins:
- minimum of 3 keystrokes (EasyMotion is at least 5)
- move anywhere, even offscreen (unlike EasyMotion)
- jump immediately to first match (unlike EasyMotion)
- jump back to the point of
s
invocation viactrl-o
or ``- only the initial invocation adds to the jumplist; repeat-motion
via
;
or,
does not add to the jumplist
- only the initial invocation adds to the jumplist; repeat-motion
via
- repeat the motion (unlike EasyMotion)
- does not break default behavior of
f t F T ; ,
- does not add noise to
/
history - vertical scope with
[count]s{char}{char}
restricts the search to 2×count
size - always literal:
s\*
jumps to the literal\*
To install Sneak manually, just place the files directly in your .vim
directory
(_vimfiles
on Windows).
Or, use a plugin manager:
- Pathogen
cd ~/.vim/bundle && git clone git://github.com/justinmk/vim-sneak.git
- Vundle
- Add
Bundle 'justinmk/vim-sneak'
to .vimrc - Run
:BundleInstall
- Add
- NeoBundle
- Add
NeoBundle 'justinmk/vim-sneak'
to .vimrc - Run
:NeoBundleInstall
- Add
- vim-plug
- Add
Plug 'justinmk/vim-sneak'
to .vimrc - Run
:PlugInstall
- Add
If you want to be able to repeat Sneak operations (like dzab
) with dot .
,
then repeat.vim is required. However, to repeat
Sneak motions via ;
and ,
you don't need to install anything except Sneak.
/ab<cr>
requires 33% more keystrokes thansab
f
andt
exist for a similar reason- common operations should use as few keystrokes as possible
- Sneak doesn't clutter your search history
- Sneak is always literal (no need to escape special characters)
- Sneak has smarter, subtler highlighting
This is why Vim has motions.
- Sneak is fifty times (50×) more precise than
f
ort
- Sneak moves vertically
- Sneak remembers the initial position in the Vim jumplist
- This allows you to explore a trail of matches via
;
, then return to the initial position viactrl-o
or ``
- This allows you to explore a trail of matches via
- Sneak highlights matches only in the direction of your search
You can specify any mapping for Sneak (see :help sneak
).
nmap f <Plug>Sneak_s
nmap F <Plug>Sneak_S
xmap f <Plug>Sneak_s
xmap F <Plug>Sneak_S
omap f <Plug>Sneak_s
omap F <Plug>Sneak_S
Sneak provides <Plug>
convenience-mappings for "inclusive" (f
)
and "exclusive" (t
) 1-character-sneak.
These mappings do not invoke streak-mode, even if you have it enabled.
"replace 'f' with inclusive 1-char Sneak
nmap f <Plug>Sneak_f
nmap F <Plug>Sneak_F
xmap f <Plug>Sneak_f
xmap F <Plug>Sneak_F
omap f <Plug>Sneak_f
omap F <Plug>Sneak_F
"replace 't' with exclusive 1-char Sneak
nmap t <Plug>Sneak_t
nmap T <Plug>Sneak_T
xmap t <Plug>Sneak_t
xmap T <Plug>Sneak_T
omap t <Plug>Sneak_t
omap T <Plug>Sneak_T
Sneak is intended to replace the so-called f-enhancement plugins.
You can use both, but Sneak won't be able to "hook" into f
, which means
;
and ,
will always repeat the last Sneak.
Sneak is built to be well-behaved and annoyance-free. If you find a bug, please report it, and perhaps include the output of:
:call sneak#debug#report()
Sneak is tested on a 10-MB, 400k-lines, syntax-highlighted file with Vim 7.2.330, 7.3, 7.4.
Copyright © Justin M. Keyes. Distributed under the MIT license.