kakoune/doc/kak.1

.TH KAK 1

.SH NAME

kak \- a vim inspired, selection oriented code editor

.SH SYNOPSIS

.PP
.B kak \-help

.PP
.B kak \-version

.PP
.B kak \-l

.PP
.B kak \-clear

.PP
.B kak \-f
.I keys
[\fB\-q\fR] [\fB\-i\fR]
.IR file ...

.PP
.B kak \-p
.I session_id

.PP
.B kak \-s
.I session_id
.B \-d
[\fB\-n\fR] [\fB\-ro\fR]
[\fB\-E\fR \fIcommand\fR]
[\fB+line\fR[\fB:column\fR]|\fB+:\fR]
.IR file ...

.PP
.B kak
[\fB\-c\fR \fIsession_id\fR|\fB\-s\fR \fIsession_id\fR]
[\fB\-n\fR] [\fB\-ro\fR]
[\fB\-ui\fR \fIui_type\fR] [\fB\-e\fR \fIcommand\fR]
[\fB\-E\fR \fIcommand\fR]
[\fB+line\fR[\fB:column\fR]|\fB+:\fR]
.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.

For more information, use the \fB:doc\fR command after starting Kakoune,
the Kakoune wiki at https://github.com/mawww/kakoune/wiki
or the main Kakoune web site: https://kakoune.org/

.SH OPTIONS

.TP
.BR \-help
display a help message and quit

.TP
.BR \-version
display kakoune version and quit

.TP
.BR \-n
do not load resource files on startup (\fIkakrc\fR, \fIautoload\fR, \fIrc\fR etc)

.TP
.BR \-l
list existing sessions

.TP
.BR \-d
run as a headless session (requires \fB\-s\fR)

.TP
.BR \-e " " \fIcommand\fR
execute \fIcommand\fR after the client initialization phase

.TP
.BR \-E " " \fIcommand\fR
execute \fIcommand\fR after the server initialization phase

.TP
.BR \-f " " \fIkeys\fR
enter in \fIfilter mode\fR: select the whole file, then execute \fIkeys\fR

.TP
.BR \-i " " \fIsuffix\fR
backup the files on which a filter is applied using the given suffix

.TP
.BR \-q
when in \fIfilter mode\fR, don't print any errors

.TP
.BR \-p " " \fIsession_id\fR
send the commands written on the standard input to session \fIsession_id\fR

.TP
.BR \-c " " \fIsession_id\fR
connect to the given session

.TP
.BR \-s " " \fIsession_id\fR
set the current session name to \fIsession_id\fR

.TP
.BR \-ui " " \fItype\fR
select the user interface, can be one of \fIncurses\fR, \fIdummy\fR or \fIjson\fR

.TP
.BR \-clear
remove sessions that terminated in an incorrect state (e.g. after a crash)

.TP
.BR \-ro
enter in \fIreadonly mode\fR, all the buffers opened will not be written to disk

.TP
.BR +line "[:" column "]"
specify a target \fIline\fR and \fIcolumn\fR for the first file; when the
plus sign is followed by only a colon, then the cursor is sent to the last
line of the file

.TP
.BR file
one or more \fIfile\fRs to edit

.SH ENVIRONMENT

.TP
.BR KAKOUNE_POSIX_SHELL
Overrides the posix shell binary path to use for \fI%sh{...}\fR expansion.

.TP
.BR KAKOUNE_CONFIG_DIR
Overrides the location of the directory containing kakoune user configuration,
defaults to \fI$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/kak\fR if unset.

.TP
.BR XDG_CONFIG_HOME
Path to the user configuration directory, defaults to \fI$HOME/.config\fR if unset.

.TP
.BR XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
Path to the user session sockets, defaults to \fI$TMPDIR/kakoune\fR if unset.

.SH FILES

In the paths documented below, \fI<rtdir>\fR refers to the runtime directory,
whose value is determined in relation to the path to the \fBkak\fR binary:
\fI<rtdir>\fR = \fI<path_to_kak_binary>/../share/kak\fR.

If not started with the \fB\-n\fR switch, Kakoune will first load
\fI<rtdir>/kakrc\fR, which will in turn load the following additional files:

.nf
.RS
if the \fI$KAKOUNE_CONFIG_DIR/autoload\fR directory exists, recursively load every
\fI*.kak\fR files in it and its sub-directories
.RE
.fi

.nf
.RS
if it does not exist, fall back to the system\-wide autoload directory
in \fI<rtdir>/autoload\fR, and recursively load all files in a similar way
.RE
.fi

.nf
.RS
\fI<rtdir>/kakrc.local\fR, if it exists; this is a user\-defined system\-wide
configuration
.RE
.fi

.nf
.RS
\fI$KAKOUNE_CONFIG_DIR/kakrc\fR, if it exists; this is the user configuration
.RE
.fi

Consequently, if the \fI$KAKOUNE_CONFIG_DIR/autoload\fR directory exists,
only scripts stored within that directory will be loaded \- the built-in
\fI*.kak\fR files \fBwill not be\fR.

Users who still want to have the built\-in scripts loaded along their own
can create a symbolic link to \fI<rtdir>/autoload\fR (or to individual
scripts in it) in their user\-configuration directory:

.nf
.RS
ln -s \fI<rtdir>\fR/autoload "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}"/kak/autoload
.RE
.fi

.SH EXAMPLES

.PP
Edit a file:

.nf
.RS
kak /path/to/file
.RE
.fi

.PP
Edit multiple files (multiple buffers will be created):

.nf
.RS
kak ./file1.txt /path/to/file2.c
.RE
.fi

.PP
Insert a modeline that sets the tabstop variable at the beginning of several
source code files:

.nf
.RS
kak \-f "ggO// kak: tabstop=8<esc>" *.c
.RE
.fi

.SH SEE ALSO

.BR vi (1),
.BR vim (1),
.BR sam (1plan9)