c335712e4e
So far they have only been talked about in source code (HistoryRegister), not in documentation. Let's give them an official name so users can find them better; "prompt history register" seems better than "history register" since the former gives more context. OTOH, in future other registers (like @) could grow into history registers, so I'm not sure. State that the history registers are only changed by _interactive_ prompts; that's not quite true yet for user modes but I'll push a separate fix for that.
115 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
115 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
= Registers
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== Description
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Registers are named lists of text -instead of simply text- in order to interact
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well with multiselection. They are used for various purposes, like storing
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yanked text, the locations of selections in a buffer, or groups captured by a
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regular expression.
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== Interacting
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*<c-r><c>*::
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when in insert mode or in a prompt, insert the value stored in the
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*c* register (single character)
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*"<c>*::
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in normal mode, select the *<c>* register (single character)
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== Alternate names
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Non alphanumeric registers have an alternative name that can be used
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in contexts where only alphanumeric identifiers are possible.
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== Default registers
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All normal-mode commands using a register default to a specific one if not specified:
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*"* (dquote)::
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default delete / copy / paste / replace register, used by:
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*c*, *d*, *y*, *p*, *<a-p>*, *<P>*, *<a-P>*, *R* and *<a-R>*
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(see <<keys#changes, `:doc keys changes`>>)
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*/* (slash)::
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default search / regex register, used by:
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*/*, *<a-/>*, *?*, *<a-?>*, *n*, *<a-n>*, *N*, *<a-N>*, ***, *<a-*>*,
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*s*, *S*, *<a-k>* and *<a-K>*
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(see <<keys#searching, `:doc keys searching`>>).
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This is a prompt history register, holding the last 100 commands entered
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at an interactive regex prompt.
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*@* (arobase)::
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default macro register, used by:
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*q* and *Q*
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(see <<keys#macros, `:doc keys macros`>>)
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*^* (caret)::
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default mark register, used by:
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*z*, *<a-z>*, *Z* and *<a-Z>*
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(see <<keys#marks, `:doc keys marks`>>
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and <<registers#marks, `:doc registers marks`>>)
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*|* (pipe)::
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default shell command register, used by commands that spawn a subshell:
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*|*, *<a-|>*, *!* and *<a-!>*
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(see <<keys#changes-through-external-programs, `:doc keys changes-through-external-programs`>>).
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This is a prompt history register, holding the last 100 commands entered
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at interactive shell command prompts, except for commands starting with
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a space.
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== Special registers
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Some registers are not general purposes, they cannot be written to, but they
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contain some special data
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*%* (percent)::
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current buffer name
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*.* (dot)::
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current selection contents
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*#* (hash)::
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selection indices (first selection has 1, second has 2, ...)
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*_* (underscore)::
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null register, always empty
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*:* (colon)::
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prompt history register holding the last 100 commands entered at the
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interactive prompt, except for commands starting with a space.
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== Integer registers
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Registers *1* to *9* hold the grouped sub-matches of the regular
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expression used to make the last selection. Example: applying the
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following regular expression to the date of the day would put the day of
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the week in register *1*, the month in register *2*, and the day of the
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month in register *3*, but select the entire date:
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--------------------
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(\w+) (\w+) (\d+) .+
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--------------------
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== Marks
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When a register is used to store a set of selections with the *Z* key (see
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<<keys#marks, `:doc keys marks`>>), the selections are stored as a list of
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spans, in a format similar to `%val{selections_desc}` (see
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<<expansions#value-expansions, `:doc expansions value-expansions`>>). However,
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the very first item of the list is of the form:
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------------------------------------------
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<buffer name>@<timestamp>@<main sel index>
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------------------------------------------
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with:
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*buffer name*::
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`%val{buffile}` of the buffer selections relate to
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*timestamp*::
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`%val{timestamp}` at which the selection applies to
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*main sel index*::
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0-based index of the main selection
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