vim-qf-history

Quickly navigate Vim's quickfix and location-list history using a popup menu.

Background

Vim remembers the ten last used quickfix lists, and the ten last used location-lists for each window. The entire quickfix and location-list stack can be displayed with :chistory and :lhistory, respectively. Older quickfix lists are accessed through :colder and :cnewer, or directly with :[count]chistory (and similar for location-lists). See :help quickfix-error-lists for more details.

This plugin will display the quickfix and location-list stack in a popup menu allowing the user to easily switch to an earlier error list. If one of the lists contains different error types, the total number of each error type (E, W, I, N) is shown along with the total number of entries. Unknown error types are displayed in column "?", and empty lists are greyed out.

Usage

Commands

• :Chistory - Display the quickfix history in a popup window and make the selected list the current list, similar to :[count]chistory.
• :Lhistory - Same as above, but display the location-list history of the current window, similar to :[count]lhistory.

When switching the quickfix or location list through the popup menu, the plugin will execute the QuickFixCmdPost event with the pattern chistory and lhistory, respectively.

Popup mappings

Key	Description
j, Down, Tab	Move cursorline down one line.
k, up, S-Tab	Move cursorline up one line.
g	Move cursorline to top.
G	Move cursorline to bottom.
q	Close the popup menu.
0 - 9	Make the respective error list the current list.
Enter	Accept current selection. Makes the selected list the current list.

Note: Pressing 0 to 9 will select and automatically close the popup window. 0 will select the 10th error list, or the last one in the stack (most recent one) if there are less than ten lists.

Examples

1. Open quickfix and location-list history with Leader+c+h and Leader+l+h, respectively:

   nnoremap <Leader>ch <Cmd>Chistory<Cr>
   nnoremap <Leader>lh <Cmd>Lhistory<Cr>

2. Alternatively, if you're not using the default Select-mode mappings (mnemonic: go history):

   nnoremap gh <Cmd>Chistory<Cr>
   nnoremap gH <Cmd>Lhistory<Cr>

3. Print a short info of the selected list in the command-line after switching lists:

   augroup qf-history
       autocmd!
       autocmd QuickFixCmdPost chistory echo printf('Quickfix %d of %d (%d items): %s',
           \ getqflist({nr: 0}).nr,
           \ getqflist({nr: '$'}).nr,
           \ getqflist({size: 0}).size,
           \ getqflist({title: 0}).title
           \ )
       autocmd QuickFixCmdPost lhistory echo printf('Location-list %d of %d (%d items): %s',
           \ getloclist(0, {nr: 0}).nr,
           \ getloclist(0, {nr: '$'}).nr,
           \ getloclist(0, {size: 0}).size,
           \ getloclist(0, {title: 0}).title
           \ )
   augroup END

4. Automatically open the quickfix or location-list window after selecting a list in the popup menu:

   augroup qf-history
       autocmd!
       autocmd QuickFixCmdPost chistory cwindow
       autocmd QuickFixCmdPost lhistory lwindow
   augroup END

Configuration

g:qfhistory

The appearance of the popup window can be configured through the dictionary g:qfhistory. The following entries are supported:

Entry	Description	Default
title	Whether to show a popup window title (0 or 1).	true
padding	List with numbers defining the padding inside the popup window.	[1, 1, 1, 1]
border	List with numbers (0 or 1) specifying whether to draw a border.	[1, 1, 1, 1]
borderchars	List with characters used for drawing the window border.	['─', '│', '─', '│', '┌', '┐', '┘', '└']
borderhighlight	List with highlight group names used for drawing the border.	['QfHistory']

Note: when only one borderchars or borderhighlight item is specified, it is used on all sides.

Highlighting

The highlighting of the popup window can be changed through the following highlight groups:

Highlight group	Description	Default
QfHistory	Popup window background and normal text.	Pmenu
QfHistoryHeader	Top line of the quickfix-history list.	Title
QfHistoryCurrent	Character marking the current error list.	Title
QfHistoryEmpty	Empty error list.	Comment

Examples

Left: no window border and no window title:

g:qfhistory = {border: [0, 0, 0, 0], title: false}

Center: border with round corners, padding on left and right side:

g:qfhistory = {
    padding: [0, 1, 0, 1],
    borderchars: ['─', '│', '─', '│', '╭', '╮', '╯', '╰'],
    borderhighlight: ['MyBoldPopupBorder']
}

Right: same as middle image but without a window title

g:qfhistory = {
    title: false,
    padding: [0, 1, 0, 1],
    borderchars: ['─', '│', '─', '│', '╭', '╮', '╯', '╰'],
    borderhighlight: ['MyBoldPopupBorder']
}

Installation

Run the following commands in your terminal:

$ cd ~/.vim/pack/git-plugins/start
$ git clone https://github.com/bfrg/vim-qf-history
$ vim -u NONE -c 'helptags vim-qf-history/doc | quit'

Note: The directory name git-plugins is arbitrary, you can pick any other name. For more details see :help packages. Alternatively, use your favorite plugin manager.

Credits

This plugin was inspired by the Vimways article Colder quickfix lists written by Nick Jensen.

License

Distributed under the same terms as Vim itself. See :help license.