what function does vim call for completion with ctrl-n

Question

My vim is throwing nasty errors 50% of the time when I use ctrl-n for completion

E854: path too long for completion

I really want to remap this, and call it with the :silent option to suppress the error, but I have no idea what function provides completion, so I can't remap it.

So my question is where can I find exactly what C-N calls when it is invoked in insert mode

Solution:

As mentioned in the comment on my accepted answer I found a way round this. Based off the instructions on building your own vim here : brilliantcorners.org/2011/02/building-vim-on-osx-snow-leopard

I grepped the source directory for E854 and it only comes up in 1 file. If you open that file you see it is only referenced twice. I just removed those error calls and built vim

This doesn't solve whatever the actual problem is, but it's the same effect as doing ignore. It works great now and doesn't throw any errors, I hope anyone else with this problem is helped by this.

Answer 1

In insert mode, <C-n> usually completes words with the content of your buffers. I don't know how it works internally but it may complain about a buffer's associated file's path length.

But I can't find a reference to E854 in Vim's :help, which can be normal if it comes from a plugin I don't have.

You could:

• try :verbose imap <c-n> to locate its origin or
• search the help for the tag E854, :help E854 or
• search the help for the sting E854, :helpgrep E854 or
• grep for E854 in your ~/.vim folder, $ grep -r E854 ~/.vim.