How to change search result highlight in vi?

Question

The scenario: I log on a server using ssh, and search for keywords in a log file using vi.

The problem: at the moment, the results of a search is only highlighted by a cursor _ below the searched word, which is not very easy to find on a screen of log messages.

The question: how can I change the highlighting of the search results to something more noticeable? e.g. different background and foreground colors on the whole word.

Solution 1

Switch to vim, and use :set hlsearch

You can then use :highlight Search ctermfg=yellow to customize; where:

• cterm is for formating
• ctermfg is for foreground color
• ctermbg is for background color

^{see :help highlight link}

You can then use :noh to temporarily hide the last search highlight.

Solution 2

Also, FYI, in GUI version of Vim:

• gui is for formatting (as opposite of cterm)
• guifg is for foreground color (as opposite of ctermfg)
• guibg is for background color (as opposite of ctermbg)

Comments

[phuclv]

previously I used set cursorline to help finding the search result. But set hlsearch works better

[demure]

You can add the first two settings to your ~/.vimrc, without the leading :. You can also bind :noh to a key, for ease of use.