vim-manpager

A plugin that makes it easier to use Vim is $MANPAGER.

It:

1. Removes the backspaces added by man, and marks the removals is with 0x01 and 0x02 characters.
2. It uses these markers to do syntax highlighting, and adds them to iskeyword so that *-searching for highlighted terms only match highlighted commands.
3. Syntax highlighting for a few more types than the default syntax/man.vim (options, environment variables, man-highlighted manpages, section headings, etc.).
4. Maps K and Enter to open referenced manpages.

After installing it, set MANPAGER=vim - in a suitable place for environment variables:

1. ~/.pam_environment:

   MANPAGER='vim -'

2. ~/.profile:

   MANPAGER='vim -'
   export MANPAGER

(And so on….)

Right now, it doesn't have any configurable settings.

Another possibility for MANPAGER is:

MANPAGER='env "MAN_PN=$MAN_PN" vim -'

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Notes

MANWIDTH

If you have set number or similar settings which might take part of the display width, you might want to set MANWIDTH to a value less than COLUMNS. I use a wide terminal almost always, so I keep a fixed MANWIDTH:

MANWIDTH=80

Because of concealed characters, side-scrolling can be ugly.

Vim's default manpage settings

Vim has configuration and some syntax highlighting. It adds mappings for <c-]> and <c-t>, approximating tag navigation for manpages. I've left those alone, for now.