Vim: Quickfix List

The quickfix list is a list of file locations along with a number of builtin commands to help navigate the list.

The canonical use case is compiler error messages. Using the quickfix list you can quickly navigate to the exact location in the affected file, correct the error, and then move on to the next error.

Quickfix is not restricted to compilers, a number of Vim tools (e.g. :vimgrep) also send output to the quickfix list.

The quickfix list acts like any other window and is usually opened automatically by the tools that are interacting with it. You can navigate the list using j and k and press enter to jump to the currently selected location. You can navigate the quickfix list even when the quickfix window is closed (this is surprisingly useful).

Commands:

• :copen open the quickfix list
• :cclose or :ccl close
• :cnext or :cn next item
• :cprev or :cp previous item
• :cfirst first item
• :clast last item
• :cc<n> nth item

The vim-unimpaired plugin adds useful convenience mappings:

• [q previous item
• ]q next item
• [Q first item
• ]Q last item

The quickfix list is global to the current vim session, but Vim remembers up to ten quickfix lists. When a new quickfix list is created, the previous ones are pushed down the stack. You can access previous quickfix lists using the following commands:

• :colder or :col previous quickfix list
• :cnewer of :cnew next quickfix list

Location Lists

While the quickfix list is global to the current vim session, location lists are window specific.

They have there own (similar) set of commands:

• :lopen open the location list
• :lclose or :lcl close
• :lnext next item
• :lprev previous item
• :lfirst first item
• :llast last item
• :ll<n> nth item
• :lolder or :lol previous quickfix list
• :lnewer of :lnew next quickfix list

The vim-unimpaired plugin also adds useful convenience mappings for location lists:

• [l previous item
• ]l next item
• [L first item
• ]L last item

Resources

:help quickfix.txt