highlight-search-matches-in-vim.md

Highlight Search Pattern Matches in Vim

So, my machine at work is less Vim-ified than my lean, mean, Ubuntu machine at home. When I tried searching for a variable (like /$applications), I couldn't immediately see the matched strings, meaning I have to skip to each match with n.

I knew there was a way to do this, but couldn't remember how. A quick Google search brought me to vim.wikia.com's super-useful "Highlight all search pattern matches" article.

In summary:

1. Open your .vimrc located in your home folder. vim ~/.vimrc
2. Add set h1search anywhere in the file.
3. Save and close the file. :wq
4. Open vim, and wallah! It works!

Pro tip: If you like pausing Vim with ^Z so you can Vim while you Vim, then you'll have to reload your configuration to see the change. Run :so ~/.vimrc in Vim to reload config. This is roughly equivalent to Bash's source ~/.bashrc.

See it in my dotfiles repo.