Disable Highlight Matched Parentheses in ViM : "let loaded_matchparen = 1" not working

Question

How to disable auto highlighting of Matched Parentheses (cursor briefly jumping to the matched bracket, when a new bracket is inserted) in ViM?

When I faced this issue in my earlier company, then I was able to resolve it by adding below line to my .vimrc

let loaded_matchparen = 1

Now in my new company I am facing the same problem. But now the issue doesn't go even with above line in my .vimrc.

I tried adding, NoMatchParen to my .vimrc, I am getting following error when opening ViM:

Error detected while processing <...>/.vimrc:
E492: Not an editor command: NoMatchParen

Pl. let me know a work around for this annoying issue.

FYR, Output of my $ vim --version:

VIM - Vi IMproved 7.3 (2010 Aug 15, compiled Feb 11 2012 21:05:37)
Compiled by rvictor@depbldrh61
Huge version with GTK2 GUI.  Features included (+) or not (-):
+arabic +autocmd +balloon_eval +browse ++builtin_terms +byte_offset +cindent 
+clientserver +clipboard +cmdline_compl +cmdline_hist +cmdline_info +comments 
+conceal +cryptv +cscope +cursorbind +cursorshape +dialog_con_gui +diff 
+digraphs +dnd -ebcdic +emacs_tags +eval +ex_extra +extra_search +farsi 
+file_in_path +find_in_path +float +folding -footer +fork() +gettext 
-hangul_input +iconv +insert_expand +jumplist +keymap +langmap +libcall 
+linebreak +lispindent +listcmds +localmap -lua +menu +mksession +modify_fname 
+mouse +mouseshape +mouse_dec -mouse_gpm -mouse_jsbterm +mouse_netterm 
-mouse_sysmouse +mouse_xterm +multi_byte +multi_lang -mzscheme +netbeans_intg 
-osfiletype +path_extra -perl +persistent_undo +postscript +printer +profile 
-python -python3 +quickfix +reltime +rightleft -ruby +scrollbind +signs 
+smartindent -sniff +startuptime +statusline -sun_workshop +syntax +tag_binary 
+tag_old_static -tag_any_white -tcl +terminfo +termresponse +textobjects +title
 +toolbar +user_commands +vertsplit +virtualedit +visual +visualextra +viminfo 
+vreplace +wildignore +wildmenu +windows +writebackup +X11 -xfontset +xim 
+xsmp_interact +xterm_clipboard -xterm_save 
   system vimrc file: "$VIM/vimrc"
     user vimrc file: "$HOME/.vimrc"
      user exrc file: "$HOME/.exrc"
  system gvimrc file: "$VIM/gvimrc"
    user gvimrc file: "$HOME/.gvimrc"
    system menu file: "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim"
  fall-back for $VIM: "/depot/vim-7.3/share/vim"
Compilation: gcc -c -I. -Iproto -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -DFEAT_GUI_GTK  -I/usr/include/gtk-2.0 -I/usr/lib64/gtk-2.0/include -I/usr/include/atk-1.0 -I/usr/include/cairo -I/usr/include/pango-1.0 -I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib64/glib-2.0/include -I/usr/include/pixman-1 -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/include/libpng12     -g -O2 -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=1      
Linking: gcc   -L/usr/local/lib -o vim   -lgtk-x11-2.0 -lgdk-x11-2.0 -latk-1.0 -lgio-2.0 -lpangoft2-1.0 -lgdk_pixbuf-2.0 -lpangocairo-1.0 -lcairo -lpango-1.0 -lfreetype -lfontconfig -lgobject-2.0 -lgmodule-2.0 -lglib-2.0   -lXt -lm -lncurses -lselinux -lacl

Please add the full output of `$ vim --version` to your question. — romainl, Jan 08 '16 at 12:34

MASL · Answer 1 · 2019-07-01T16:39:49.533

As none of the above answers worked for me (OSX Sierra), I will provide what I think should work in any (of the usual?) configuration of vim.

As the OP, in OSX vim relies on the plugin MatchParen for highlighting the matching parentheses. Thus, :set noshowmatch will not work. However, :NoMatchParen works.

The question is now to configure our ~/.vimrc so that this plugin is disabled by default when opening a file.

As it's common to import our ~/.vimrc from old system to any new accounts, and in the new system highlighting might be toggled by show match, the following will address the issue automatically in both instances:

In your ~/.vimrc add the following lines:

" Disable parentheses matching depends on system. This way we should address all cases (?)
set noshowmatch
" NoMatchParen " This doesnt work as it belongs to a plugin, which is only loaded _after_ all files are.
" Trying disable MatchParen after loading all plugins
"
function! g:FckThatMatchParen ()
    if exists(":NoMatchParen")
        :NoMatchParen
    endif
endfunction

augroup plugin_initialize
    autocmd!
    autocmd VimEnter * call FckThatMatchParen()
augroup END

Note: the END in the last augroup line is important. Without it you get a pesky notification when calling vim before your file gets open:

$ vi my file.txt  
plugin_initialize  
Press ENTER or type command to continue

:set noshowmatch also didn't work on my machine (Arch) - this answer worked for me though. — Joel, Nov 22 '17 at 23:15
this worked for me. please select this as the answer. thanks!! — weima, May 25 '18 at 00:19
This should be the accepted answer, nothing else in this thread worked. — Pierre, May 27 '20 at 11:50
What's up with that function name prefix? Is that some kind of a technical acronym? — John, Mar 30 '21 at 13:05

score 30 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 18 '19 at 14:32

30

let g:loaded_matchparen=1

worked for me!

It sets a flag that tells code under /vim/vim81/plugin/matchparen.vim to not assert itself.

edited Jun 18 '19 at 14:32

Eric Leschinski

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answered Dec 14 '17 at 10:48

user3204934

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3

Don't know why this works in vimrc, but it does. Thanks. – emagdne Jan 21 '19 at 16:47
3

Running vim on Ubuntu, I can temporarily disable matching parens by typing: `:NoMatchParen`, but then I can't seem to access that key from .vimrc. The above answer was the only one that worked for me. – Luke Bayes Mar 01 '20 at 17:32
Works in nvim as well. – aimorris Apr 23 '20 at 10:05
worked on my vimrc using nvim! – sugarcane Nov 08 '21 at 02:50

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 15 '19 at 16:57

7

Check your vimrc for showmatch or sm.

:set noshowmatch or :set nosm disables the brief jumping.

edited Nov 15 '19 at 16:57

Alan W. Smith

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answered Jan 11 '16 at 07:31

cshu

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Yeah this doesn't work for me. Tried with both vim and nvim, on Linux. – Victor Zamanian Oct 23 '19 at 10:58
did not work with ubuntu gvim with vim 8.0, but restarting did work for me – John Mar 30 '21 at 13:02

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 11 '16 at 08:48

3

If you have disabled the MatchParen plugin, then there will be no command NoMatchParen available (since loading the plugin is skipped). What exactly do you want to achieve? Perhaps you are looking for the :set noshowmatch command (which you can put into your .vimrc)?

answered Jan 11 '16 at 08:48

Christian Brabandt

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For future readers: using the command `NoMatchParen` for checking is still useful now. And If you're Neovim macOS user, you still need to set `vim.g.loaded_matchparen = 1` to disable the plugin. – NeoZoom.lua Jan 31 '23 at 13:48

Disable Highlight Matched Parentheses in ViM : "let loaded_matchparen = 1" not working

4 Answers4