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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