select-undo.nvim

Overview

select-undo is a Neovim plugin that enhances undo functionality by allowing users to undo changes selectively. Unlike the default undo command, which reverts changes sequentially across the whole buffer, select-undo enables users to undo specific lines or partial selections without affecting the rest of the file.

For example: if you edit line 10 and then line 50, native undo forces you to revert line 50 first. With select-undo you can select line 10, press gu, and revert only that change - the edit on line 50 stays.

Features

• Selective Line Undo (gu): revert the newest change within the selected lines; press again to step further back, one change at a time. Safe for sloppy selections - lines whose changes are older stay untouched.
• Selective Sweep (gU): revert the last change of every selected line in one press, even when the lines were edited at different times.
• Partial Undo (gC): revert only the selected characters within a line.
• Undo-friendly: A selective undo is a single regular edit, so native u reverts it in one step.
• Persistent Undo: Enables undofile so undo history survives closing Neovim.
• Customizable Keybindings: Default mappings are provided, but users can configure their own.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ce45d5af-971d-4fef-8a31-4d9fbf458019

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9075f616-cd54-4760-b563-df258534c0cf

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e216aa62-75e9-44b1-897a-32173d8e2407

Installation

Using lazy.nvim

{
  "SunnyTamang/select-undo.nvim",
  opts = {},
}

Using packer.nvim

use {
  "SunnyTamang/select-undo.nvim",
  config = function()
    require("select-undo").setup()
  end
}

Using vim-plug

Plug 'SunnyTamang/select-undo.nvim'
lua require("select-undo").setup()

Usage

Undo entire lines, one change at a time

1. Select one or more lines in Visual Mode (v or V).
2. Press gu to revert the newest change that touched those lines.
3. Press gu again to step the same selection one change further back.

Undo every selected line's last change at once

1. Select the lines you edited in Visual Mode.
2. Press gU to revert the last change of each selected line in one press. Use this when you deliberately want everything in the selection undone - it will also revert selected lines you edited earlier and consider "done".

Undo a partial selection

1. Select part of a line in Visual Mode (v).
2. Press gC to revert only the selected characters; changes elsewhere on the line are kept.

Customizing mappings

The defaults gu/gU shadow Neovim's built-in visual-mode lowercase/uppercase operators. If you use those, remap the plugin to any keys you like - the built-ins come back automatically:

require("select-undo").setup({
  line_mapping = "zu",     -- Step undo mapping (frees gu for lowercasing)
  sweep_mapping = "zU",    -- Sweep undo mapping (frees gU for uppercasing)
  partial_mapping = "zcu", -- Partial undo mapping
})

Or disable all default mappings and bind the commands yourself:

require("select-undo").setup({ mapping = false })
vim.keymap.set("x", "<leader>u", ":SelectUndoLine<CR>", { silent = true })

Configuration

Default settings

require("select-undo").setup({
  persistent_undo = true,  -- Enables persistent undo history (undofile)
  mapping = true,          -- Enables default keybindings
  line_mapping = "gu",     -- Step: undo the newest change in the selection
  sweep_mapping = "gU",    -- Sweep: undo every selected line's last change
  partial_mapping = "gC",  -- Undo for selected characters
  max_history = 100,       -- Undo states searched backward per press
})

Limitations

• Partial (character-wise) undo works within a single line; multi-line character selections fall back to line-level undo.
• If the only change touching a character selection rewrote the whole line, gC refuses and suggests gu instead.
• Stepping back past a line's creation deletes the line (its oldest recorded state is "not there yet"); native u restores it in one step.
• Restoring deleted content may expand to the whole change so the result stays coherent, but a revert never deletes lines outside your selection.

Development

Run the test suite from the repository root:

nvim --headless -u tests/minimal_init.lua -l tests/run.lua

Contributing

Feel free to open issues or pull requests to improve the plugin.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.