feat: make 'preinsert' work with 'autocomplete' by girishji · Pull Request #18213 · vim/vim

girishji · 2025-09-05T20:48:30Z

This change extends Insert mode autocompletion so that "preinsert" behavior of 'completeopt' also
works when 'autocomplete' is enabled. The behavior is slightly different.

Try: :set autocomplete completeopt=preinsert. It's quite useful.

See :help 'cot' for more details.

Also, added example setup for autocomplete. See :h ins-autocompletion-example.

habamax · 2025-09-06T01:49:23Z

Looks like hl-ComplMatchIns is not defined in vim/colorschemes. Is it a new one or I completely overlooked its existence?

girishji · 2025-09-06T05:16:49Z

I think you overlooked. It was already there. I just noticed it was undefined, so I linked it to the Added highlight group.

chrisbra · 2025-09-06T17:59:15Z

Thanks, but this seems to break a few screen-dump tests

girishji · 2025-09-06T19:54:45Z

Thanks, but this seems to break a few screen-dump tests

Thanks, just noticed this. The failures are caused by the highlight group ComplMatchIns, which I had linked incorrectly to another group. ComplMatchIns isn’t limited to preinsert -- it also highlights the postfix part of the text when selecting from the popup menu.

I am not sure if it would make sense to have a separate highlight group for preinsert. For now, I reverted the changes.

@habamax I think hl-ComplMatchIns can’t really be used in any colorscheme, because it highlights a portion of every match you pick from the menu. That feels quite unusual.

This change extends Insert mode autocompletion so that 'preinsert' also works when 'autocomplete' is enabled. Try: `:set ac cot=preinsert` See `:help 'cot'` for more details.

Added a new highlight group since preinsert is a different function than what hl-ComplMatchIns serves.

girishji · 2025-09-07T08:59:15Z

Added a new highlight group hl-PreInsert. Using hl-ComplMatchIns for both purposes prevented setting distinct default colors for pre-inserted text. Currently applies only to 'autocomplete'.

M src/edit.c M src/insexpand.c

M runtime/doc/insert.txt

chrisbra · 2025-09-08T19:15:32Z

thanks

girishji · 2025-09-08T19:53:25Z

Thanks

habamax · 2025-09-08T23:52:16Z

@lifepillar, there is new PreInsert hl, you may want to add it to coloremplate.

…sert Problem: complete: preinsert does not work well with preinsert Solution: Make "preinsert" completeopt value work with autocompletion (Girish Palya) This change extends Insert mode autocompletion so that 'preinsert' also works when 'autocomplete' is enabled. Try: `:set ac cot=preinsert` See `:help 'cot'` for more details. closes: vim/vim#18213 vim/vim@fa6fd41 Co-authored-by: Girish Palya <girishji@gmail.com>

…complete' (#35692) Problem: complete: preinsert does not work well with preinsert Solution: Make "preinsert" completeopt value work with autocompletion (Girish Palya) This change extends Insert mode autocompletion so that 'preinsert' also works when 'autocomplete' is enabled. Try: `:set ac cot=preinsert` See `:help 'cot'` for more details. closes: vim/vim#18213 vim/vim@fa6fd41 Co-authored-by: Girish Palya <girishji@gmail.com>

justinmk · 2025-09-09T03:49:42Z

Added a new highlight group hl-PreInsert. Using hl-ComplMatchIns

Why is the new hl group named PreInsert, instead of something like ComplPreIns ? Can Vim please pick a convention and stick with it?

chrisbra · 2025-09-09T05:45:49Z

It should be ComplMatchPreIns no? We can rename it

girishji · 2025-09-09T05:59:54Z

I wasn’t aware there was a convention. I chose what felt the most intuitive and readable. When I first saw hl-ComplMatchIns, it looked like a jumble of letters I couldn’t immediately connect to anything. If a convention is already established, I don’t mind following it, but it feels odd to replace a meaningful tag with something that looks cryptic.

habamax · 2025-09-09T06:04:49Z

There seems to be no convention. I personally like PreInsert more.

habamax · 2025-09-09T06:13:52Z

@chrisbra do you go to neovim github questioning what neovim does?

The message could have been a tiny bit more polite.

Broken by vim#18213 Fixed now. M src/insexpand.c M src/testdir/test_ins_complete.vim

When `"preinsert"` is included in `'completeopt'`, only the `hl-PreInsert` highlight group should be applied, whether autocompletion is active or not. Previously, `hl-ComplMatchIns` was used when autocompletion was not enabled. Related to vim#18213.

chrisbra · 2025-09-09T19:09:03Z

The message could have been a tiny bit more polite.

agree.

if a convention is already established, I don’t mind following it, but it feels odd to replace a meaningful tag with something that looks cryptic.

Well, we only have a single highlight group for completion: ComplMatchIns so it seems we have a precedent for other related highlighting groups. So if there is a chance we will have more additional related highlighting groups related to completion feature, I think this would make sense to have a consistent naming.

girishji · 2025-09-09T20:23:13Z

The doc is incorrect:

ComplMatchIns   Matched text of the currently inserted completion.

This highlight group applies to the unmatched portion of the completion (the suffix). Consider renaming it to something like InsertedSuffix, CompletionSuffix, PostfixText, etc. Current name conveys the opposite meaning of what it is doing, if it conveys any meaning at all.

chrisbra · 2025-09-10T06:36:25Z

So this comes from patch 6a38aff (v9.1.0936). We could consider renaming it. But I think this is too late already

habamax · 2025-09-10T07:28:24Z

According to the document you have recently authored, it is not too late :)

FWIW, it is not in any of built-in colorschemes.

chrisbra · 2025-09-10T07:46:38Z

yep I know. in that case what would be a good naming convention? Something that would also apply for PreInsert?

habamax · 2025-09-10T08:01:48Z

in that case what would be a good naming convention? Something that would also apply for PreInsert?

Should we have a prefix for the group of 2 (as of now) highlight groups?

CompletePreInsert, CoPreInsert, CtePreInsert, ...
CompleteMatchInsert, CoMatchInsert, CteMatchInsert, ... or CompleteSuffix, CompleteMatchSuffix, CoMatchSuffix, CteMatchSuffix

…tchIns Problem: completion: preinserted text highlighed using ComplMatchIns Solution: Use highlighting group PreInsert and update the documentation (Girish Palya). When "preinsert" is included in 'completeopt', only the PreInsert highlight group should be applied, whether autocompletion is active or not. Previously, ComplMatchIns was used when autocompletion was not enabled. Related to #18213. closes: #18254 Signed-off-by: Girish Palya <girishji@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>

…plMatchIns Problem: completion: preinserted text highlighed using ComplMatchIns Solution: Use highlighting group PreInsert and update the documentation (Girish Palya). When "preinsert" is included in 'completeopt', only the PreInsert highlight group should be applied, whether autocompletion is active or not. Previously, ComplMatchIns was used when autocompletion was not enabled. Related to vim/vim#18213. closes: vim/vim#18254 vim/vim@2525c56 Co-authored-by: Girish Palya <girishji@gmail.com>

…complete' (neovim#35692) Problem: complete: preinsert does not work well with preinsert Solution: Make "preinsert" completeopt value work with autocompletion (Girish Palya) This change extends Insert mode autocompletion so that 'preinsert' also works when 'autocomplete' is enabled. Try: `:set ac cot=preinsert` See `:help 'cot'` for more details. closes: vim/vim#18213 vim/vim@fa6fd41 Co-authored-by: Girish Palya <girishji@gmail.com>

…plMatchIns Problem: completion: preinserted text highlighed using ComplMatchIns Solution: Use highlighting group PreInsert and update the documentation (Girish Palya). When "preinsert" is included in 'completeopt', only the PreInsert highlight group should be applied, whether autocompletion is active or not. Previously, ComplMatchIns was used when autocompletion was not enabled. Related to vim/vim#18213. closes: vim/vim#18254 vim/vim@2525c56 Co-authored-by: Girish Palya <girishji@gmail.com>

feat: make 'preinsert' work with 'autocomplete'

f7bd85d

This change extends Insert mode autocompletion so that 'preinsert' also works when 'autocomplete' is enabled. Try: `:set ac cot=preinsert` See `:help 'cot'` for more details.

girishji force-pushed the preinsert branch from 005c9bc to f7bd85d Compare September 7, 2025 08:39

Add hl-PreInsert

e6388d0

Added a new highlight group since preinsert is a different function than what hl-ComplMatchIns serves.

girishji added 2 commits September 7, 2025 17:03

Improve checks

b8cbe3f

M src/edit.c M src/insexpand.c

Improve doc

6d64b4b

M runtime/doc/insert.txt

chrisbra closed this in fa6fd41 Sep 8, 2025

girishji deleted the preinsert branch September 8, 2025 19:53

zeertzjq mentioned this pull request Sep 9, 2025

vim-patch:9.1.1742: complete: preinsert does not work well with 'autocomplete' neovim/neovim#35692

Merged

girishji added a commit to girishji/vim that referenced this pull request Sep 9, 2025

fix: redo (.) now works with preinsert and autocompletion

fed90dc

Broken by vim#18213 Fixed now. M src/insexpand.c M src/testdir/test_ins_complete.vim

girishji mentioned this pull request Sep 9, 2025

Fix: redo (.) now works with preinsert and autocompletion #18253

Closed

girishji mentioned this pull request Sep 9, 2025

Fix: remove hl-ComplMatchIns usage during "preinsert" #18254

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zeertzjq mentioned this pull request Sep 10, 2025

vim-patch:9.1.{1750,1752},b2c8848 neovim/neovim#35712

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Shane-XB-Qian mentioned this pull request Sep 23, 2025

doc: update patch commit and dev policy #18353

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