vim-signify

Or just: Sy.

Sy shows all added, deleted and modified lines since the last commit via Vim its sign column. It supports several version control systems.

It's fast, highly configurable and well documented.

Features:

• supports git, mercurial, darcs, bazaar, subversion, cvs, rcs, fossil, accurev, perforce

• quick jumping between blocks of changed lines

• apart from signs there is also optional line highlighting

• fully configurable through global variables (options and mappings)

• optional preserving of signs from other plugins

• you can toggle the plugin per buffer

• skip certain filetypes and filenames

• good documentation

• quick developer response! :-)

Limits exist only in your mind!

Feedback, please!

If you use any of my plugins, star it on github. This is a great way of getting feedback! Same for issues or feature requests.

Thank you for flying mhi airlines. Get the Vim on!

You can also follow me on Twitter: @mhinz

What about vim-gitgutter?

To be honest, I don't understand why people always compare plugins like Sy to vim-gitgutter. I understand that it is by far the most known one, but primarily because it was featured on the Hacker News frontpage.

Don't get me wrong, I don't intend to badmouth gitgutter, I even contributed to it once. (Granted, it was only a small fix.) And I'm glad about everyone contributing to the Vim community, but there are two important facts one should consider:

1. There were other plugins providing the same functionality as gitgutter years before its creation.

2. Sy provides a superset of gitgutter.

So here is the short answer: The main difference is Sy its support for version control systems other than git. Moreover, two of its design goals are speed and high configurability.

Sign explanation

+

This indicates a new line.

_1

This indicates the number of deleted lines. If the number is larger than 9, a > will be shown instead.

!

This indicates a changed line.

!1

This indicates a changed line and a number of lines below that were deleted. It is a combination of ! and _. If the number is larger than 9, a > will be shown instead.

‾

This is used instead of _ in the special case of the first line being removed.

Longer introduction

supports several version control systems

This plugin is based on the diffing features of the supported version control systems. Since not all VCS support the same options, sometimes we have to fall back to the 'diff' executable.

Currently the following VCS are supported:

• git
• mercurial (hg)
• bazaar (bzr)
• darcs
• subversion (svn)
• cvs
• rcs
• fossil
• accurev
• perforce

quick jumping between changed lines

There are mappings for jumping forth and back between blocks of changes (so-called hunks). The following example shows the default mappings and how to change them:

let g:signify_mapping_next_hunk = '<leader>gj'
let g:signify_mapping_prev_hunk = '<leader>gk'

Note: In case you don't know about the mapleader, have a look at :h mapleader. The default is the '' button.

Following Vim conventions you can also use ]c and [c.

apart from signs there is also optional line highlighting

Sy shows you signs for changed lines. Moveover, you can enable highlighting of the concerned lines:

let g:signify_mapping_toggle_highlight = '<leader>gh'

you can toggle the plugin per buffer

In case you want to disable the plugin for the current buffer, you can toggle it:

let g:signify_mapping_toggle = '<leader>gt'

skip certain filetypes and filenames

If you want to disable Sy for certain kinds of filename or file types, you explicitely have to create "skip dicts":

Example:

let g:signify_skip_filetype = { 'vim': 1, 'c': 1 }
let g:signify_skip_filename = { '/home/user/.vimrc': 1 }

NOTE: Filenames have to be absolute paths!

good documentation

You should know by now!

Installation

If you have no preferred installation method, I suggest using tpope's pathogen:

1. git clone https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen ~/.vim/bundle/vim-pathogen
2. mkdir -p ~/.vim/autoload && cd ~/.vim/autoload
3. ln -s ../bundle/vim-pathogen/autoload/pathogen.vim

Afterwards installing Sy is as easy as pie:

2. git clone https://github.com/mhinz/vim-signify ~/.vim/bundle/vim-signify
3. start Vim
4. :Helptags
5. :h signify

Documentation

:h signify

Configuration

NOTE: The shown assignments are only examples. You can find the default values in the help.

For more info: :h signify-options

let g:signify_vcs_list = [ 'git', 'hg' ]

let g:signify_difftool = 'gnudiff'

let g:signify_mapping_next_hunk = '<leader>gj'
let g:signify_mapping_prev_hunk = '<leader>gk'

let g:signify_mapping_toggle_highlight = '<leader>gh'
let g:signify_mapping_toggle           = '<leader>gt'

let g:signify_skip_filetype = { 'vim': 1, 'c': 1 }
let g:signify_skip_filename = { '/home/user/.vimrc': 1 }

let g:signify_sign_overwrite = 1

let g:signify_update_on_bufenter = 1
let g:signify_update_on_focusgained = 0

let g:signify_line_highlight = 1

let g:signify_sign_add               = '+'
let g:signify_sign_change            = '!'
let g:signify_sign_delete            = '_'
let g:signify_sign_delete_first_line = '‾'

let g:signify_cursorhold_normal = 1
let g:signify_cursorhold_insert = 1

Author

Marco Hinz <mh.codebro@gmail.com>

License

MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 Marco Hinz.