What causes a substitution in Vim for only one item per line?

Question

Recently, I have made a big contribution to my .vimrc , and somewhere along the line I introduced an unwanted function. When executing a substitution command, where the search token appears more than once in a row, only the first token changes (although the remaining tokens are highlighted as a result of the replacement). I have seen several posts here on how to enable this behavior in each case, but I have yet to see something about what might lead to this being the default behavior or how to disable it. If anyone has any ideas, they will be appreciated.

For reference my .vimrc ( https://github.com/chpatton013/dotfiles/blob/master/vim/.vimrc ):

 """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" " Autocommands """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" " Reread configuration of Vim if .vimrc is saved augroup VimConfig au! au BufWritePost ~/.vimrc so ~/.vimrc au BufWritePost _vimrc so ~/_vimrc au BufWritePost vimrc so ~/.vimrc augroup END " Set colorcolumn to 80 chars, or (if not supported) highlight lines > 80 chars augroup ColorColumnConfig au! if exists('+colorcolumn') au BufWinEnter * set colorcolumn=80 au BufWinEnter * hi ColorColumn ctermbg=lightgrey guibg=lightgrey else au BufWinEnter * let w:m2=matchadd('ErrorMsg', '\%>80v.\+', -1) endif augroup END " Highlight over-length characters and trailing whitespace augroup ExtraCharacters au! au ColorScheme * highlight ExtraWhitespace ctermbg=Red guibg=Red au ColorScheme * highlight OverLength ctermbg=red ctermfg=white guibg=red guifg=white au BufWinEnter * let w:whitespace_match_number = \ matchadd('ExtraWhitespace', '\s\+$') au BufWinEnter * call matchadd('OverLength', \ '\(^\(\s\)\{-}\(*\|//\|/\*\)\{1}\(.\)*\(\%81v\)\)\@<=\(.\)\{1,}$') au InsertEnter * call s:ToggleWhitespaceMatch('i') au InsertLeave * call s:ToggleWhitespaceMatch('n') augroup END " Resize splits on window resize au VimResized * exe "normal! \<cw>=" " Restore the cursor when we can. au BufWinEnter * call RestoreCursor() " Change the statusline color based on current mode augroup StatuslineColor au! au InsertEnter * call InsertStatuslineColor(v:insertmode) au InsertLeave * hi statusline ctermfg=cyan ctermbg=black guifg=cyan guibg=black augroup END """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" " Plugins """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" " Pathogen - https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen runtime bundle/vim-pathogen/autoload/pathogen.vim call pathogen#infect() call pathogen#helptags() " Easymotion - https://github.com/Lokaltog/vim-easymotion/ " This is so much more convenient let g:EasyMotion_leader_key=',m' " Neocomplcache - https://github.com/Shougo/neocomplcache " Enable at startup. let g:neocomplcache_enable_at_startup=1 " Only display 'n' items in the list. let g:neocomplcache_max_list=5 " Do not auto-select the first candidate. let g:neocomplcache_enable_auto_select=1 " Do not try to match until 'n' characters have been typed let g:neocomplcache_auto_completion_start_length=3 " Do not try to match to anything less than 'n' characters let g:neocomplcache_min_keyword_length=6 let g:neocomplcache_min_syntax_length=6 " Only consider case if an uppercase character has been typed let g:neocomplcache_enable_smart_case=1 " Syntastic - https://github.com/scrooloose/syntastic/ " Commands: " :Errors // pop up location list and display errors " :SyntasticToggleMode // toggles between active and passive mode " :SyntasticCheck // forces a syntax check in passive mode " check for syntax errors on file open let g:syntastic_check_on_open=1 " echo errors to the command window let g:syntastic_echo_current_error=1 " mark lines with errors and warnings let g:syntastic_enable_signs=1 " set sign symbols let g:syntastic_error_symbol='E>' let g:syntastic_warning_symbol='W>' let g:syntastic_style_error_symbol='S>' let g:syntastic_style_warning_symbol='s>' " open error balloons when moused over erroneous lines let g:syntastic_enable_balloons=1 " customize Syntastic statusline let g:syntastic_stl_format = '[%E{E: %fe #%e}%B{, }%W{W: %fw #%w}]' """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" " Functions """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" " Strip trailing whitespace function! <SID>StripTrailingWhitespaces() let _s=@ / let l = line(".") let c = col(".") %s/\s\+$//e let @/=_s call cursor(l, c) endfunction " Toggle match of trailing whitespace function! s:ToggleWhitespaceMatch(mode) let pattern = (a:mode == 'i') ? '\s\+\%#\@<!$' : '\s\+$' if exists('w:whitespace_match_number') call matchdelete(w:whitespace_match_number) call matchadd('ExtraWhitespace', pattern, 10, w:whitespace_match_number) else " Something went wrong, try to be graceful. let w:whitespace_match_number = matchadd('ExtraWhitespace', pattern) endif endfunction " Restore the cursor when we can function! RestoreCursor() if line("'\"") <= line("$") normal! g`" normal! zz endif endfunction " Change the statusline color based on current mode function! InsertStatuslineColor(mode) if a:mode == 'i' hi statusline ctermfg=darkmagenta ctermbg=black guifg=darkmagenta guibg=black elseif a:mode == 'r' hi statusline ctermfg=darkgreen ctermbg=black guifg=darkgreen guibg=black else hi statusline ctermfg=darkred ctermbg=black guifg=darkred guibg=black endif endfunction """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" " Configuration customization """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" " gui configuration (do not move from top of configurations) set guioptions=am set guifont=Consolas:h9 set encoding=utf-8 set fileencoding=utf-8 set nocompatible " No compatibility with vi. filetype on " Recognize syntax by file extension. filetype indent on " Check for indent file. filetype plugin on " Allow plugins to be loaded by file type. behave xterm " Maintain keybindings across enviornments set autowrite " Write before executing the 'make' command. set background=dark " Background light, so foreground not bold. set backspace=indent,eol,start " Allow <BS> to go over indents, eol, and start of insert set expandtab " Expand tabs with spaces. set nofoldenable " Disable folds; toggle with zi. set gdefault " Assume :s uses /g. set hidden " Use hidden buffers so unsaved buffers can go to the background set history=500 " Set number of lines for vim to remember set hlsearch " Highlight all search matches set ignorecase " Ignore case in regular expressions set incsearch " Immediately highlight search matches. set laststatus=2 " Show status line even where there is only one window set lazyredraw " Redraw faster set linespace=-1 " Bring lines closer together vertically set modeline " Check for a modeline. set noerrorbells " No beeps on errors. set nohls " Don't highlight all regex matches. set nowrap " Don't soft wrap. set number " Display line numbers. set path=~/Code/** " Set default path set scrolloff=5 " Keep min of 'n' lines above/below cursor. set shellslash " Use forward slashes regardless of OS set shiftwidth=3 " >> and << shift 3 spaces. set showcmd " Show partial commands in the status line. set showmatch " Show matching () {} etc.. set showmode " Show current mode. set sidescrolloff=10 " Keep min of 'n' columns right/left cursor. set smartcase " Searches are case-sensitive if caps used. set smarttab " Tabs and backspaces at the start of a line indent the line one level set smartindent " Maintains most indentation and adds extra level when nesting set softtabstop=3 " See spaces as tabs. set splitright splitbelow " Open splits below and to the right set synmaxcol=160 " Only matches syntax on first 'n' columns of each line ( faster) set tabstop=3 " <Tab> move three characters set textwidth=79 " Hard wrap at 79 characters set title " Set the console title set viminfo='20,\"500,% " Adjust viminfo contents set virtualedit=block " Allow the cursor to go where it should not set wildmenu " Tab completion opens a Tab- and arrow-navigable menu set wildmode=longest,full " Tab completion works like bash. set wrapscan " Searching wraps to start of file when end is reached " Define statusline set statusline=%f " Relative file path set statusline+=%(\ [%M%R%H%W]%) " File flags (mod, RO, help, preview) set statusline+=%(\ %<%) " Start truncation set statusline+=%(\ %{fugitive#statusline()}%) " Git branch name (if applicable) set statusline+=%= " Begin right justification set statusline+=%#warningmsg# " Start warning highlighting set statusline+=%(\ %{SyntasticStatuslineFlag()}%) " Show Syntastic errors and warnings set statusline+=%* " End warning highlighting set statusline+=\ [line\ %l\/%L,\ col\ %c%V,\ %p%%] " Line and column numbers and percentage through file " Text formatting settings " t: Auto-wrap text using textwidth. (default) " c: Auto-wrap comments; insert comment leader. (default) " q: Allow formatting of comments with "gq". (default) " r: Insert comment leader after hitting <Enter>. " o: Insert comment leader after hitting 'o' or 'O' in command mode. " n: Auto-format lists, wrapping to text *after* the list bullet char. " l: Don't auto-wrap if a line is already longer than textwidth. set formatoptions+=ronl " Enable mouse scrolling in selected modes " a: All " c: Command " i: Insert " n: Normal " v: Visual set mouse=a " Set scrolling to be single-line "map <MouseDown> <CY> "map <S-MouseDown> <CU> "map <MouseUp> <CE> "map <S-MouseUp> <CD> " Highlighting syntax enable set t_Co=16 colorscheme solarized " Configuration variables let loaded_matchparen=0 " do automatic bracket highlighting. let mapleader="," " Use , instead of \ for the map leader. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" " Command mode customization """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" " Make y behave like all other capitals map Y y$ " Make Q reformat text. noremap Q gq " Toggle paste mode. noremap <Leader>p :set paste!<CR> " Open the file under the cursor in a new tab. noremap <Leader>ot <CW>gf " Toggle highlighting of the last search. noremap <Leader>h :set hlsearch! hlsearch?<CR> " Open a scratch buffer. noremap <Leader>s :Scratch<CR> " Improve movement on wrapped lines nnoremap j gj nnoremap k gk " Keep search pattern at the center of the screen nnoremap <silent> n nzz nnoremap <silent> N Nzz nnoremap <silent> * *zz nnoremap <silent> # #zz nnoremap <silent> g* g*zz nnoremap <silent> g# g#zz " Use C-hjkl in to change windows nnoremap <Ch> <Cw><Left> nnoremap <Cj> <Cw><Down> nnoremap <Ck> <Cw><Up> nnoremap <Cl> <Cw><Right> " Strip trailing whitespace nnoremap <silent> <leader>W :call <SID>StripTrailingWhitespaces()<CR> " Allow easy toggling of spaces / tabs mode nnoremap <Ct><Ct> :set invexpandtab<CR> " Create simple toggles for line numbers, paste mode, and word wrap. nnoremap <CN><CN> :set invnumber<CR> nnoremap <Cp><Cp> :set invpaste<CR> nnoremap <Cw><Cw> :set invwrap<CR> " Folding stuff nnoremap <Co> zo nnoremap <Cc> zc nnoremap <CO> zO nnoremap <CO><CO> zR set foldmethod=indent " Open file for class name under cursor nnoremap <Ci> yiw:find <CR>".php<CR> """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" " Insert mode customization """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" " Set up dictionary completion. set dictionary+=~/.vim/dictionary/english-freq set complete+=k " Smash Esc inoremap jk <Esc> inoremap kj <Esc> " Use hjkl in insert mode imap <Ch> <Left> imap <Cj> <Down> imap <Ck> <Up> imap <Cl> <Right> " Make Cs write the buffer and return to insert mode when applicable inoremap <Cs> <CO>:w<CR> nnoremap <Cs> :w<CR> " auto-insert second braces and parynthesis inoremap {<CR> {<CR>}<Esc>O inoremap ({<CR> ({<CR>});<Esc>O inoremap <<<<CR> <<<EOT<CR>EOT;<Esc>O<C-TAB><C-TAB><C-TAB> set cpoptions+=$ "show dollar sign at end of text to be changed """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" " Visual mode customization """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" " reselect visual block after indent/outdent xnoremap < <gv xnoremap > >gvo """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 

And the following plugins make up the contents of my bundle directory ( https://github.com/chpatton013/dotfiles/tree/master/vim/.vim/bundle ):

 neocomplcache/ syntastic/ vim-abolish/ vim-colors-solarized/ vim-commentary/ vim-easymotion/ vim-fugitive/ vim-pathogen/ vim-repeat/ vim-surround/ 

Finally, I disabled all plugins, but the problem was not resolved. I deleted my .vimrc and the problem was resolved (so this is not some kind of global setting out of my control). I disabled some individual settings in .vimrc , but I could not fix the problem. In the end, I got tired of playing beat-moth and decided to appeal to the community. Any ideas?

EDIT: As an example,

I use the command :%s/foo/foobar/g

Text foo bar foo converted to foobar bar foo

EDIT: Solved by pb2q. set gdefault inverts the behavior of /g .

Answer 1

The substitute command accepts the switch g , for global, which leads to the fact that the replacement is performed in all matches on the line:

 :s/regex/replacement/g 

By default, only the first match of the match is used, but there is an option to switch the default to global: gdefault . So set gdefault in your vimrc if you want this to be the default. Try first in the current vim session with :set gdefault .

Note that when you install gdefault this not only makes the default behavior of g , but changes the use of the g flag, so using /g at the end of the replacement will result in the replacement being done only once.

See:: :help gdefault .