[vim/vim] feat: add 'winhighlight' option (PR #19493)

Foxe Chen

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Feb 23, 2026, 9:32:27 PM (yesterday) Feb 23

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Same as Neovim's winhighlight option, as said here:

'winhighlight' 'winhl'	string	(default "")
			local to window
	Window-local highlights.  Comma-delimited list of highlight
	|group-name| pairs "{hl-from}:{hl-to},..." where each {hl-from} is
	a |highlight-groups| item to be overridden by {hl-to} group in
	the window.

	Note: highlight namespaces take precedence over 'winhighlight'.
	See |nvim_win_set_hl_ns()| and |nvim_set_hl()|.

	Highlights of vertical separators are determined by the window to the
	left of the separator.  The 'tabline' highlight of a tabpage is
	decided by the last-focused window of the tabpage.  Highlights of
	the popupmenu are determined by the current window.  Highlights in the
	message area cannot be overridden.

	Example: show a different color for non-current windows: >vim
		set winhighlight=Normal:MyNormal,NormalNC:MyNormalNC

Fixes #3576

Demo:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/18e2f771-63d8-442a-83ff-70d469de87bf

I will add docs and tests later (also need to add cmdline completion)

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

https://github.com/vim/vim/pull/19493

Commit Summary

fb999d3 add 'winhighlight' option

File Changes

(12 files)

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Foxe Chen

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Feb 23, 2026, 9:33:50 PM (yesterday) Feb 23

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ddcec1c add 'winhighlight' option

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Foxe Chen

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Feb 23, 2026, 9:34:47 PM (yesterday) Feb 23

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649e527 add 'winhighlight' option

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Foxe Chen

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Feb 23, 2026, 9:35:41 PM (yesterday) Feb 23

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Foxe Chen

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Feb 23, 2026, 9:40:02 PM (yesterday) Feb 23

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Foxe Chen

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Feb 23, 2026, 9:42:49 PM (yesterday) Feb 23

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Foxe Chen

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Feb 23, 2026, 9:48:17 PM (yesterday) Feb 23

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Foxe Chen

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Feb 23, 2026, 10:33:18 PM (yesterday) Feb 23

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Foxe Chen

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Feb 23, 2026, 11:00:09 PM (24 hours ago) Feb 23

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mityu

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Feb 23, 2026, 11:27:01 PM (23 hours ago) Feb 23

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mityu left a comment (vim/vim#19493)

I'm wondering that this option conflicts with the 'wincolor' option. Is this OK?

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Foxe Chen

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Feb 23, 2026, 11:40:24 PM (23 hours ago) Feb 23

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64-bitman left a comment (vim/vim#19493)

I'm wondering that this option conflicts with the 'wincolor' option. Is this OK?

I suppose we can just make wincolor use winhighlight internally

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Foxe Chen

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7:23 AM (15 hours ago) 7:23 AM

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Foxe Chen

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7:23 AM (15 hours ago) 7:23 AM

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64-bitman left a comment (vim/vim#19493)

My use case for this was to have hlsearch only for the current window:

vim9script

var save: list<dict<any>>

autocmd CmdlineEnter [\/\?] {
    set hlsearch

    save = hlget("Search")

    var id: number = save[0].id

    save[0].name = "SearchTemp"
    save[0].id = 0

    hlset(save)

    save[0].name = "Search"
    save[0].id = id

    hi clear Search

    setlocal whl=Search:SearchTemp
}
autocmd CmdlineLeave [\/\?] {
    set nohlsearch

    hi clear SearchTemp

    hlset(save)
    setlocal whl=
}

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Foxe Chen

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7:29 AM (15 hours ago) 7:29 AM

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Foxe Chen

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7:36 AM (15 hours ago) 7:36 AM

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Foxe Chen

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8:15 AM (15 hours ago) 8:15 AM

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f582e21 initial tests

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Foxe Chen

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8:21 AM (14 hours ago) 8:21 AM

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24c48da move hl overriding to update_screen()

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Foxe Chen

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1:57 PM (9 hours ago) 1:57 PM

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87c14d5 move hl overriding to update_screen()

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Foxe Chen

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3:34 PM (7 hours ago) 3:34 PM

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@64-bitman pushed 2 commits.

72c0a17 stop window local highlights from another window affecting currently rendering window
8c28f79 update tests