[vim/vim] GUI: preserve blink cycle on CursorHold (PR #21115)

dezza

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Aug 21, 2026, 1:45:51 PM (7 days ago) Aug 21

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:set guicursor=a:blinkwait100-blinkon300-blinkoff300
:autocmd CursorHold * echo ''
:set updatetime=1000

press any key like "pgup" or "pgdn" after setting you will see the blinking stops, then resumes - right after it resumes the hiccup happens; exactly 1s (updatetime=1000) later.

The underlying problem seems that gui.c /^gui_wait_for_chars( stops and restarts blinking whenever the input loop returns, assuming that means actual user input occurred.

CursorHold is thus cause of the hiccup as it wakes the input loop. So the existing guards were not proper, the blink timer was still cancelled and restarted even though the user remained idle.

I looked briefly into if there was accidental "workarounds" in other gui's, these are my findings:

GTK4: Issue exists - verified.
Win32: uses native win32 API (SetTimer(), KillTimer()) , most likely unaffected
Motif/X11,Photon/Haiku: seems identical in function. Not verified.

Mailing-list: https://groups.google.com/g/vim_dev/c/lmGzT9gftvs/m/kzeEG77fDgAJ

Leaving so someone else can test potentially X11, Haiku, X11

You can view, comment on, or merge this pull request online at:

https://github.com/vim/vim/pull/21115

Commit Summary

3cb4b5b GUI: preserve blink cycle on CursorHold

File Changes

(1 file)

M src/gui.c (14)

Patch Links:

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dezza

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Aug 26, 2026, 3:31:33 PM (2 days ago) Aug 26

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dezza left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

@habamax can you test win32 gvim if the cursor hiccup also happend exactly 1000ms after a key or on initial start of gvim.

This makes it simple:

:set guicursor=a:blinkwait100-blinkon300-blinkoff300
:autocmd CursorHold * echo ''
:set updatetime=1000

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Maxim Kim

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Aug 27, 2026, 7:11:25 AM (yesterday) Aug 27

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habamax left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

@habamax can you test win32 gvim if the cursor hiccup also happens exactly 1000ms after a key or on initial start of gvim.

:set guicursor=a:blinkwait100-blinkon300-blinkoff300
:autocmd CursorHold * echo ''
:set updatetime=1000

I'll have a look tomorrow.

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dezza

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Aug 27, 2026, 11:03:36 AM (yesterday) Aug 27

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dezza left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

@habamax can you test win32 gvim if the cursor hiccup also happens exactly 1000ms after a key or on initial start of gvim.

:set guicursor=a:blinkwait100-blinkon300-blinkoff300

:autocmd CursorHold * echo ''

:set updatetime=1000

I'll have a look tomorrow.

Thanks a lot dude, I'm building the other GUIs to test, only problem is win32!

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Maxim Kim

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Aug 27, 2026, 9:27:18 PM (19 hours ago) Aug 27

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habamax left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

I can't find the build artifact for the windows in this PR

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dezza

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Aug 27, 2026, 10:36:51 PM (18 hours ago) Aug 27

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dezza left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

@habamax https://github.com/dezza/vim/actions/runs/33135477112 verifying the issue on master was fine but now I managed to build the artifacts it seems!

Thanks a lot!

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Maxim Kim

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Aug 27, 2026, 10:57:49 PM (17 hours ago) Aug 27

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habamax left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

@habamax https://github.com/dezza/vim/actions/runs/33135477112 verifying the issue on master was fine but now I managed to build the artifacts it seems!

Thanks a lot!

There is no gvim though, I can only find vim.exe in the zip archives.

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dezza

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Aug 27, 2026, 11:12:29 PM (17 hours ago) Aug 27

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dezza left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

can vim.exe -g for gui work? Or is win32 unique like that.. I will have to figure it out, the artifacts workflow was uncommented and not functional- I think chris does the release manually let me look into it.

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Maxim Kim

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Aug 27, 2026, 11:33:20 PM (17 hours ago) Aug 27

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habamax left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

can vim.exe -g for gui work? Or is win32 unique like that.. I will have to figure it out, the artifacts workflow was uncommented and not functional- I think chris does the release manually let me look into it.

Image: image (view on web)

let me try another download

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dezza

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Aug 27, 2026, 11:45:49 PM (17 hours ago) Aug 27

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dezza left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

Image: image (view on web)

The largest vim-mingw 4.32MB has one.

https://github.com/dezza/vim/actions/runs/33135477112/artifacts/9672206353

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Maxim Kim

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12:01 AM (16 hours ago) 12:01 AM

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habamax left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

doesn't work for me, can't find libgcc....dll

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dezza

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12:04 AM (16 hours ago) 12:04 AM

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dezza left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

Probably the mingw runtime.

But hey! If you can just confirm whether the hiccup happens exactly 1000ms after a keypress with snippet above thats fine for me!

If not affected; It stays stable after releasing key and no blip/hiccup.

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Maxim Kim

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12:12 AM (16 hours ago) 12:12 AM

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habamax left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

found it in normal x86 build.

I can't see too much of the difference though.

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dezza

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12:14 AM (16 hours ago) 12:14 AM

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dezza left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

If it blinks consistently without any "blip", "restart" cycle then safe to assume not affected like motif.

Thanks!

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Maxim Kim

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12:15 AM (16 hours ago) 12:15 AM

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habamax left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

If not affected; It stays stable after releasing key and no blip/hiccup.

Image: gvim-blink-dezza (view on web)

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dezza

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12:24 AM (16 hours ago) 12:24 AM

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dezza left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

I'm marking this ready, because I am positive this has no measurable side-effects to other gui's.

I will add another comment explaining it, I simply believe the gtk3,4 frameclock redraw is so precise that it reveals the reset cycle;

Other gui's don't have enough time to show this it seems.

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Maxim Kim

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12:38 AM (16 hours ago) 12:38 AM

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habamax left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

you probably need to rebase and remove non related changes (CI)

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dezza

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12:39 AM (16 hours ago) 12:39 AM

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dezza left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

yes you're right! Thanks @habamax

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Christian Brabandt

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1:19 PM (3 hours ago) 1:19 PM

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chrisbra left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

Thanks for fixing this. I imagine it wasn't easy to track this down.

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dezza

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1:52 PM (2 hours ago) 1:52 PM

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dezza left a comment (vim/vim#21115)

@chrisbra definetily not straight-forward! As I know this brings assumptions and tests a bit on production given indie-nature of Haiku/QNX rest assured I will take responsibility, if anything happens.

However, I think the guard adds only consistency across all GUIs, I hope you agree if it passes..

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