Since I have :set list in Vim, I often see strange ^I characters in the beginning of some C-files. Are these the listchars for tabs or what do they mean? How can I transfer that back to normal? I just want to see end-of-line characters.
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2 Answers
They're tabs. By default, VIM shows all control characers other than EOL as ^n where n is the character of the alphabet corresponding to the character being shown (tab = char #9, I = 9th char in alphabet). To stop showing them, use :set nolist, but that will turn off EOL display as well.
If you want to see end-of-line chars but not tabs, you can use listchars for that. Use :help listchars for details, but roughly:
:set listchars=tab:\ \ ,eol:$
That says, when showing tabs, show a space for the first virtual space it occupies and a space for the subsequent ones; when showing EOLs, use a $. (Since tabs can span multiple virtual columns, you get to use two different chars, one for the first column, and one for the others.)
Comments
In addition to T.J. Crowder's answer, another option would be to make the tabs more pleasing to the eye:
set listchars=tab:▸\ ,eol:¬ 
2 Comments
erikbstack
You are hereby declared as god, that was what I was looking for for a long time. But it's hard to google for
¬ if you don't know how to write that char.
Prashant
This is really easy on the eyes. Excellent suggestion.