Evil

2015-11-07T00:32:24Z

128.199.91.69: Evil is on bitbucket.org now

'''Evil''' is an '''e'''xtensible '''vi''' '''l'''ayer for Emacs. It provides Vim features like Visual selection and text objects, and is the successor to the now defunct vimpulse and vim-mode.

= Installation =

Evil can be downloaded and installed using [[el-get]] with: {{Command|el-get-install RET evil RET}}, or using [[Melpa]] with {{Command|package-install RET evil RET}}.

== Manual install ==

Alternatively, Evil lives in a Mercurial repository. To download Evil, do:

hg clone https://bitbucket.org/lyro/evil

If you don't have Mercurial, you can download Evil here: https://bitbucket.org/lyro/evil/get/default.zip

If you installed it manually, move Evil to {{Filename|~/.emacs.d/evil}} (or somewhere else in your load-path).
In any case, add the following lines to ~/.emacs:

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/evil") ;;no need with 24
(require 'evil)
(evil-mode 1)

Evil requires [[UndoTree]] in the load-path for linear undo and undo branches. Otherwise, Evil uses regular Emacs undo.

= Documentation =

A brief [https://bytebucket.org/lyro/evil/raw/default/doc/evil.pdf PDF manual] is available in the /doc subdirectory.

= Usage =

For those not familiar with vim, here's a quick summary of useful commands.

'''Tip:''': to see a full list of commands available in the current mode, install ''help-fns+'' with [[ELPA]], require it (see its doc). Now you can type '''C-h M-k'''.

To enter '''insert''' state: try out '''i a o''' and the upper-case ones;

To delete chars, words and lines use '''x''', the usual '''d''' followed by a word or a movement ('''$''' is end of line, '''^''' the beginning), '''dd''' and '''D''', or replace an object with '''c''' ;

Copy and paste: '''y Y p P''' ;

To navigate around the buffer, in normal mode, use '''e E w W b B t T f F ( ) { }''' and '''j k h l - + <RET> <backspace> <space>''';
Go to beginning and end of buffer with '''gg''' and '''G''';

Cycle between cursor position: double backquotes, '''C-i''' and '''C-o''';

To navigate around the screen, use '''H L M''' to go to the Highest/Lowest/Middle line of the screen;

Search forward and backward with '''/''' and '''?''', use '''n''' and '''N''' to go to the next and previous occurence;

Go to the next or previous occurence of token under point with '''*''' or '''#''' ;

Select a region with '''v''' or '''V''', use '''vi''' and '''"''', '''(''' or '''[''' to select what's inside them and re-select the last region selected with '''gv'''. Again with text objects, type '''ci(''' when you are inside brackets to replace all that is inside them.

Go to the '''definition of the symbol''' under point with '''gd''' ;

Indent the line or region with '''<''' and '''>''' ;

Some more:

Join lines with '''J'''

Set a mark with '''m<char>''', go to a mark with backquote + <char>

'''Code folding''' with '''za''' (toggle), '''zc''' (close), '''zm''' and '''zr''' (close and open all)

Move the current line at the center, bottom and top of screen: '''zz''', '''zb''' and '''zt''' (C-l with emacs)

= Configuration =

One thing I would recommend to any ex vimmer is to make escape to quit actually pretty much anything (like pending prompts in the minibuffer):

;;; esc quits
(define-key evil-normal-state-map [escape] 'keyboard-quit)
(define-key evil-visual-state-map [escape] 'keyboard-quit)
(define-key minibuffer-local-map [escape] 'minibuffer-keyboard-quit)
(define-key minibuffer-local-ns-map [escape] 'minibuffer-keyboard-quit)
(define-key minibuffer-local-completion-map [escape] 'minibuffer-keyboard-quit)
(define-key minibuffer-local-must-match-map [escape] 'minibuffer-keyboard-quit)
(define-key minibuffer-local-isearch-map [escape] 'minibuffer-keyboard-quit)

The following makes you lose vim commands, but gives you back basic emacs commands, like C-y to paste in insert mode or C-r to search backward:

(define-key evil-normal-state-map "\C-y" 'yank)
(define-key evil-insert-state-map "\C-y" 'yank)
(define-key evil-visual-state-map "\C-y" 'yank)
(define-key evil-insert-state-map "\C-e" 'end-of-line)
(define-key evil-normal-state-map "\C-w" 'evil-delete)
(define-key evil-insert-state-map "\C-w" 'evil-delete)
(define-key evil-insert-state-map "\C-r" 'search-backward)
(define-key evil-visual-state-map "\C-w" 'evil-delete)

== Use fine grain undo ==

In insert mode, Evil uses linear undo. If you want fine grain undo:

(setq evil-want-fine-undo t)

but remember, we shouldn't stay long in insert mode.

== Use keychords to go back to normal mode ==

If you'd like to type jj or jk in insert mode to go back to normal mode, you may use [[key-chord]]:

(key-chord-define evil-insert-state-map "jj" 'evil-normal-state)

== Load config only when we call evil-mode ==

I still load evil with M-x, I didn't set (evil-mode 1), so in order to tweak keybindings I had to enclose them in a hook, so that my config is called when evil is called and not at startup:

(add-hook 'evil-after-load-hook
(lambda ()
;; config
))

== Hooks ==

There are some hooks that allow to do things when we enter or exit a mode (see the pdf manual).

For example, to save the buffer when we exit the insert mode:

(defun my-save-if-bufferfilename ()
(if (buffer-file-name)
(progn
(save-buffer)
)
(message "no file is associated to this buffer: do nothing")
)
)

(add-hook 'evil-insert-state-exit-hook 'my-save-if-bufferfilename)

== Enter an emacs mode in a given state ==

There are some situations where you don't want to be in normal mode by default. For example, it's more useful to be in insert mode when we enter a magit commit buffer, or maybe you prefer to be in emacs mode in a dired buffer.

For that purpose, evil provides the '''evil-set-initial-state''' command (see part 2.2 of the pdf documentation) that we can use like that:

<source lang="lisp">
(evil-set-initial-state 'git-commit-mode 'insert) ;; enter insert mode to edit a commit message
</source>

Here is a handy loop to define more at once:

<source lang="lisp">
(loop for (mode . state) in '((inferior-emacs-lisp-mode . emacs)
(nrepl-mode . insert)
(pylookup-mode . emacs)
(comint-mode . normal)
(shell-mode . insert)
(git-commit-mode . insert)
(git-rebase-mode . emacs)
(term-mode . emacs)
(help-mode . emacs)
(helm-grep-mode . emacs)
(grep-mode . emacs)
(bc-menu-mode . emacs)
(magit-branch-manager-mode . emacs)
(rdictcc-buffer-mode . emacs)
(dired-mode . emacs)
(wdired-mode . normal))
do (evil-set-initial-state mode state))
</source>

= See also =

== Articles ==

* [http://dnquark.com/blog/2012/02/emacs-evil-ecumenicalism/ Emacs Evil Ecumenicalism]

== Plug-ins ==

* [[ace-jump]]: Port of Vim's Easy-motion: jump to any character in the buffer with 3 keystrokes.

* [https://github.com/timcharper/evil-surround evil-surround]: Port of Vim's surround script.

* [https://github.com/cofi/evil-numbers evil-numbers]: Vim-like increment and decrement.

* [https://github.com/cofi/evil-leader evil-leader]: Port of Vim's mapleader.

* [https://github.com/edwtjo/evil-org-mode evil-org-mode]: Supplemental evil-mode key-bindings to Emacs org-mode.

* [https://github.com/krisajenkins/evil-tabs evil-tabs]: for when you type <code>:tabnew</code> and nothing happens.

* [https://github.com/raugturi/powerline-evil powerline-evil]: Utilities for better Evil support for Powerline.

* [https://github.com/Dewdrops/evil-exchange evil-exchange]: a port of vim-exchange

* [https://github.com/gridaphobe/evil-god-state evil-god-state]: an evil-mode state for using god-mode.

* [https://github.com/cofi/evil-leader evil-leader]: <leader> key for evil

* [https://github.com/roman/evil-paredit evil-paredit]: integration to paredit

* [http://melpa.milkbox.net/#/evil-visualstar evil-visualstar]: make a visual selection and search it.

* [https://github.com/gabesoft/evil-mc evil-mc]: easy multiple cursors

* [http://melpa.org/#/evil-jumper evil-jumper]: jump accross buffer boundaries

* [https://github.com/hlissner/evil-snipe evil-snipe]: a port of [https://github.com/justinmk/vim-sneak vim-sneak]/[https://github.com/goldfeld/vim-seek vim-seek]; 2-char searching

search for all plugins in [http://melpa.milkbox.net/#/ the melpa page].

== Bug tracker ==

The bugtrucker can be found on [https://bitbucket.org/lyro/evil/issues?status=new&status=open Bitbucket].
[[Category:Vi User]] [[Category:Vim User]]

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Evil