[vim/vim] E488: Trailing characters in vim help buffer (Issue #14121)

lijh8

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Mar 1, 2024, 12:42:31 AM3/1/24

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Steps to reproduce

i have this in vimrc to highlight occurrences of word under cursor:

    autocmd CursorMoved * execute 'match IncSearch' (getline('.')[col('.')-1] =~# '\w' ? '/\<' . expand('<cword>') . '\>/' : '//')

when i encounter these lines in :help command:

    https://github.com/vim/colorschemes/blob/master/legacy_colors/

	:edit $VIMRUNTIME/colors/README.txt

it reports error:

    Error detected while processing CursorMoved Autocommands for "*":
    E488: Trailing characters: /colors/README.txt\>/: match IncSearch /\<$VIMRUNTIME/colors/README.txt\>/

but when i open the help doc file directly in the vim editor and go to the lines, it's ok:

$ vi /usr/share/vim/vim90/doc/syntax.txt

	:edit $VIMRUNTIME/colors/README.txt

or when i open a new file and edit text line these, it's also ok:


    https://github.com/vim/colorschemes/blob/master/legacy_colors/

	:edit $VIMRUNTIME/colors/README.txt

	:edit /usr/share/vim/vim90/colors/README.txt

Expected behaviour

should be no error

Version of Vim

9.0 (2022 Jun 28, compiled Oct 27 2023 01:00:56)

Environment

macOS 12.7.3 (21H1015)

Screen.Shot.2024-03-01.at.13.40.38.png (view on web)

Logs and stack traces

No response

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Christian Brabandt

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Mar 1, 2024, 2:16:16 AM3/1/24

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That is not a Vim bug, but your function does not handle the possibilities that the text could contain / . The / basically terminates your :match command, so you need to escape it.

Something like this:

autocmd CursorMoved * execute 'match IncSearch' (getline('.')[col('.')-1] =~# '\w' ? '/\<' . escape(expand('<cword>'), '//') . '\>/' : '//')

Also, please note, it's probably better to use the matchadd() function family instead of using :match comand.

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lijh8

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Mar 1, 2024, 3:17:24 AM3/1/24

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autocmd CursorMoved * execute 'match IncSearch' (getline('.')[col('.')-1] =~# '\w' ? '/\<' . escape(expand('<cword>'), '//') . '\>/' : '//')

This works for me.
Thanks, Chris!

Also, please note, it's probably better to use the matchadd() function family instead of using :match comand.

autocmd CursorMoved * call matchadd('Visual', getline('.')[col('.')-1] =~# '\w' ? '/\<' . escape(expand('<cword>'), '//') . '\>/' : '//')

Do I write this in matched function correctly? It has problems. I want to highlight occurrences of the word only when cursor in inside the word and clear highlight when cursor is outside the word.

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lijh8

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Mar 1, 2024, 1:47:21 PM3/1/24

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That is not a Vim bug, but your function does not handle the possibilities that the text could contain / . The / basically terminates your :match command, so you need to escape it.

Something like this:

autocmd CursorMoved * execute 'match IncSearch' (getline('.')[col('.')-1] =~# '\w' ? '/\<' . escape(expand('<cword>'), '//') . '\>/' : '//')

Also, please note, it's probably better to use the matchadd() function family instead of using :match comand.

Hi Chris,

It also reports error for ~ .
How do I escaple multiple special characters ~, /
in one escape function ?

  :!cp $VIMRUNTIME/colors/pablo.vim ~/.vim/colors
  :edit ~/.vim/colors/pablo.vim
  https://github.com/vim/colorschemes/blob/master/legacy_colors/
  :edit $VIMRUNTIME/colors/README.txt

I also have another line for highlight occurrences of selected text.
How can i avoid those errors too?

  autocmd CursorMoved * execute 'match IncSearch' (getline('.')[col('.')-1] =~# '\w' ? '/\<' . expand('<cword>') . '\>/' : '//')
  vnoremap <expr> <CR> 'y:let @/ = "\\V" . substitute(escape(@", "/\\"), "\n", "\\n", "g") <bar> set hls<CR>'

Thanks!

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Christian Brabandt

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Mar 1, 2024, 5:14:52 PM3/1/24

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you can add additional characters to the second argument of the escape(). You also most likely want to use single-quotation marks instead of double quotes.

Also please ask user questions on vi.stackexchange.com or on the vim-use mailinglist.

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Christian Brabandt

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Mar 4, 2024, 1:57:54 PM3/4/24

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let's close it here then.

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Christian Brabandt

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Mar 4, 2024, 1:58:02 PM3/4/24

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Closed #14121 as not planned.

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