What is wrong with this mapping? Vim starts in -- REPLACE -- mode

Question

I am having a weird bug in my .vimrc since I last updated it.

Every time I start vim it starts in -- REPLACE -- mode which is really annoying.

I managed to find out that it is this line in my .vimrc that is causing the problem.

" Disable search highlighting temporally
nnoremap <esc> :nohl<cr>

The problem goes away when I comment this line out.

I am really confused about what is wrong with the mapping. It works as it should but causes vim to enter -- REPLACE -- mode on startup.

I currently have no plugins enabled at all.

@wefwef: also check out [vi.SE](https://vi.stackexchange.com/) — 0xC0000022L, Aug 01 '15 at 15:03

score 12 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 31 '19 at 16:19

12

I had this same problem, though it was inside of tmux, when I started vi (aka vim), it would launch in REPLACE mode. The culprit seems to be the TERMCAP definitions for the TERM I have been using: xterm-256color.

Once I set TERM to something different, vi (vim) worked correctly. Even a TERM setting of "ansi" behaved better.

I settled on a TERM setting of "screen-256color-s" which works as I need.

Fun with TERMCAP definitions.

answered Jan 31 '19 at 16:19

John Bolding

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1
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I had this issue with using Ubuntu on WSL. This worked for me. Thanks. – NanoNi Jan 23 '21 at 12:04

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

7

It is better to avoid mapping the Esc key, as it is known to cause strange behavior:

I have been using <leader><space> for disabling the highlighting, as suggested by "Coming Home to Vim", maybe you could get used to it too.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

Community

1
1

answered Jul 27 '15 at 11:43

mMontu

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 31 '19 at 00:12

I've been able to get around the same problem by appending the following to my vimrc file:

" Terminal fixes
"
" These originate from some linux distribution's system vimrc. I can't say
" that I understand the details what's going on here, but without these
" settings, I've had problems like vim starting in REPLACE mode for
" TERM=xterm-256color (neovim is fine)

if &term =~? 'xterm'
    let s:myterm = 'xterm'
else
    let s:myterm =  &term
endif
let s:myterm = substitute(s:myterm, 'cons[0-9][0-9].*$',  'linux', '')
let s:myterm = substitute(s:myterm, 'vt1[0-9][0-9].*$',   'vt100', '')
let s:myterm = substitute(s:myterm, 'vt2[0-9][0-9].*$',   'vt220', '')
let s:myterm = substitute(s:myterm, '\\([^-]*\\)[_-].*$', '\\1',   '')

" Here we define the keys of the NumLock in keyboard transmit mode of xterm
" which misses or hasn't activated Alt/NumLock Modifiers.  Often not defined
" within termcap/terminfo and we should map the character printed on the keys.
if s:myterm ==? 'xterm' || s:myterm ==? 'kvt' || s:myterm ==? 'gnome'
    " keys in insert/command mode.
    map! <ESC>Oo  :
    map! <ESC>Oj  *
    map! <ESC>Om  -
    map! <ESC>Ok  +
    map! <ESC>Ol  ,
    map! <ESC>OM  
    map! <ESC>Ow  7
    map! <ESC>Ox  8
    map! <ESC>Oy  9
    map! <ESC>Ot  4
    map! <ESC>Ou  5
    map! <ESC>Ov  6
    map! <ESC>Oq  1
    map! <ESC>Or  2
    map! <ESC>Os  3
    map! <ESC>Op  0
    map! <ESC>On  .
    " keys in normal mode
    map <ESC>Oo  :
    map <ESC>Oj  *
    map <ESC>Om  -
    map <ESC>Ok  +
    map <ESC>Ol  ,
    map <ESC>OM  
    map <ESC>Ow  7
    map <ESC>Ox  8
    map <ESC>Oy  9
    map <ESC>Ot  4
    map <ESC>Ou  5
    map <ESC>Ov  6
    map <ESC>Oq  1
    map <ESC>Or  2
    map <ESC>Os  3
    map <ESC>Op  0
    map <ESC>On  .
endif

There's more settings like that in https://gist.github.com/goerz/36015f27c2a5423c64a5f9dc03865f2c which might also help. The root cause is something not being right in the termcap/terminfo

What is wrong with this mapping? Vim starts in -- REPLACE -- mode

3 Answers3