Re: Search first character in a file

Cristian,

The "n", or "/ + Enter", are simply built-in substitutes for repeating 
the original search instruction, namely

   *  "/a"

I am sure that "alias" definition is somewhere in VIM's software tree.  
The design of the search function is such that it ignores the match 
starting at the current position. *Otherwise*, the search would never 
advance to the next instance.

Another way to look at it is

  * You are *already at* the "first match" for what you are searching, "a".

  * If that *is* the case, *why* are you attempting *any* search ... if
    not for the *next* match???

Honestly, this is simply basic logic ... *and* ... *very* intuitive.

Hope that helps!


On 2026-01-22 07:03, Doug Kearns wrote:
> On Thu, 22 Jan 2026 at 02:21, Cristian<[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> Thank you for the explanation — that makes sense for the behavior of the n key.
>>
>> That said, I was wondering whether, for the initial search (the one
>> NOT triggered by n), it might also be reasonable for vi to start
>> searching from the character currently under the cursor.
> As others have pointed out, the behaviour is fundamental[1].
>
>> This could make the behavior a bit more intuitive when the cursor
>> is already on a match.
> I think your intuition is incorrect.  You wouldn't expect 'w', for
> example, not to move to the next word because the cursor was already
> at the start of a word.
>
> You can think of '/' as executing something like :let @/ = 'pattern' | normal! n
>
> The best solution, if you don't want to adjust to how it works, is
> probably to remap '/' to a user function that calls search('pattern',
> 'c') and sets the '@/' register.  Anything else, like :-;/pattern,
> won't work well for multiple matches per line.
>
> Regards,
> Doug
>
> 1.https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/utilities/vi.html#tag_20_146_13_36
>

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