*comment.txt*   For Vim version 9.1.  Last change:  2024 Oct 01


		  VIM REFERENCE MANUAL

Commenting and un-commenting text.

==============================================================================

See |comment-install| on how to activate this package.

The comment.vim package, allows to toggle comments for a single line, a range
of lines or a selected text object.  It defines the following mappings:

							*o_gc*
gc{motion}	to toggle comments for the selected motion
							*v_gc*
{Visual}gc	to comment/uncomment the highlighted lines.

Since gc operates on a motion, it can be used with any motion, for example _
to comment the current line, or ip to comment the current paragraph.
A default mapping `gcc` to `gc_` is defined:
							*gcc*
gcc		to comment/uncomment current line

To comment the rest of the line by  `gC`  whenever the filetype plugin
supports it (that is, whenever the comment marker precedes the code) and fall
back to `gcc` otherwise, add the following mapping to your vimrc: >

	nnoremap <silent> <expr> gC comment#Toggle() .. '$'
<
Note: using `gC` may not always result in valid comment markers depending on
the language used.

This plugin uses the buffer-local 'commentstring' option value to add or remove
comment markers to the selected lines.  Whether it will comment or un-comment
depends on the first line of the range of lines to act upon.  When it matches
a comment marker, the line will be un-commented, if it doesn't, the line will
be commented out.  Blank and empty lines are ignored.

The value of 'commentstring' is the same for the entire buffer and determined
by its filetype (|filetypes|). To adapt it within the buffer for embedded
languages, you can use a plug-in such as
https://github.com/suy/vim-context-commentstring.

The comment marker will always be padded with blanks whether or not the
'commentstring' value contains whitespace around "%s".

If the mapping does not seem to work (or uses wrong comment markers), it might
be because of several reasons:
- the filetype is not detected by Vim, see |new-filetype|,
- filetype plugins are not enabled, see |:filetype-plugin-on| or
- the filetype plugin does not set the (correct) 'commentstring' option.

You can simply configure this using the following autocommand (e.g. for legacy
Vim script): >

	autocmd Filetype vim :setlocal commentstring="%s

This example sets the " as start of a comment for legacy Vim Script.  For Vim9
script, you would instead use the "#" char: >

	autocmd Filetype vim :setlocal commentstring=#\ %s

==============================================================================
Options:

*g:comment_first_col*
*b:comment_first_col*
    By default comment chars are added in front of the line, i.e. if the line
    was indented, commented line would stay indented as well.

    However some filetypes require a comment char on the first column, use this option
    to change default behaviour.

    Use g:comment_first_col to change it globally or b:comment_first_col to
    target specific filetype(s).

==============================================================================
vim:tw=78:ts=8:fo=tcq2:ft=help:
