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.\" Man page for kakoune
.\"
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.TH KAKOUNE 1 "" "1.0" "editor"

.SH NAME
kakoune \- a vim inspired, selection oriented code editor

.SH SYNOPSIS

.B kak
.RB [\| \-q \|]
.RB [\| \-u \|]
.RB [\| \-n \|]
.RB [\| \-l \|]
.RB [\| \-e
.IR command \|]
.RB [\| \-f
.IR command \|]
.RB [\| \-p
.IR session_id \|]
.RB [\| \-c
.IR session_id \||\c
.RB [\| [\| \-d \|]\c
.RB \ \-s
.IR session_id \|]
.IR file \ .\|.\|.\|

.SH DESCRIPTION

Kakoune is a code editor heavily inspired by Vim, as such most of its commands are similar to vi’s ones, and it shares \
Vi’s "keystrokes as a text editing language" model.

Kakoune can operate in two modes, normal and insertion. In insertion mode, keys are directly inserted into the current \
buffer. In normal mode, keys are used to manipulate the current selection and to enter insertion mode.

Kakoune has a strong focus on interactivity, most commands provide immediate and incremental results, while still being \
competitive (as in keystroke count) with Vim.

Kakoune works on selections, which are oriented, inclusive range of characters, selections have an anchor and a cursor \
character. Most commands move both of them, except when extending selection where the anchor character stays fixed and \
the cursor one moves around.

.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.BR -q
in filter mode, be quiet about errors applying keys
.TP
.BR -u
use a dummy user interface, for testing purposes
.TP
.BR -n
do not source kakrc files on startup
.TP
.BR -l
list existing sessions
.TP
.BR -d
run as a headless session (requires -s)
.TP
.BR -e " <command>"
execute argument on initialisation
.TP
.BR -f " <command>"
act as a filter, executing given keys on given files
.TP
.BR -p " <session_id>"
just send stdin as commands to the given session
.TP
.BR -c " <session_id>"
connect to given session
.TP
.BR -s " <session_id>"
set session name
.TP
.BR file
one or more files to edit
.RE

At startup, if -n is not specified, Kakoune will try to source the file
.IB ../share/kak/kakrc
relative to the kak binary. \
This kak file will then try to recursively source any files in
.BR $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/kak/autoload
(with
.BR $XDG_CONFIG_HOME
defaulting to
.BR $HOME/.config ","
and falling back to
.IB ../share/kak/autoload
if that autoload directory does not exist), and finally
.BR $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/kak/kakrc "."

That leads to the following behaviour: by default, with no user autoload directory, the system wide autoload directory is used, once the user \
wants control on autoloading, they can create an autoload directory and eventually symlink individual scripts, or the whole system wide autoload \
directory. They can as well add any new scripts not provided with Kakoune.

.SH EXAMPLES

.TP
.BR kak " /path/to/file"
Edit a file
.RE

.TP
.BR kak " ./file1.txt /path/to/file2.c"
Edit multiple files (multiple buffers will be created)
.RE

.TP
.BR kak " -f 'ggO// kak: tabstop=8<esc>' *.c"
Insert a modeline that sets the
.IR tabstop
variable at the beginning of several source code files
.RE

.TP
.BR kak " -e 'man dup2'"
Use Kakoune as a man pager
.RE

.SH FILES

If not started with the
.BR -n
switch, Kakoune will source the
.BR ../share/kak/kakrc
file relative to the kak binary, which will source additional files:

\[bu] if the
.BR $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/kak/autoload
directory exists, load every
.IR *.kak
files in it, and load recursively any subdirectory

\[bu] if it does not exists, fall back to the system wide autoload directory in
.BR ../share/kak/autoload

After that, if it exists, source the
.BR $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/kak/kakrc
file which should be used for user configuration.

In order to continue autoloading site-wide files with a local autoload directory, just add a symbolic link to
.BR ../share/kak/autoload/
into your local autoload directory.