This option only has an effect in the GUI version of Vim. It is a sequence of letters which describes what components and options of the GUI should be used. To avoid problems with flags that are added in the future, use the "+=" and "-=" feature of ":set" add-option-flags.

Valid characters are as follows:

'!' External commands are executed in a terminal window. Without this flag the MS-Windows GUI will open a console window to execute the command. The Unix GUI will simulate a dumb terminal to list the command output. The terminal window will be positioned at the bottom, and grow upwards as needed.

'a' Autoselect: If present, then whenever VISUAL mode is started, or the Visual area extended, Vim tries to become the owner of the windowing system's global selection. This means that the Visually highlighted text is available for pasting into other applications as well as into Vim itself. When the Visual mode ends, possibly due to an operation on the text, or when an application wants to paste the selection, the highlighted text is automatically yanked into the "* selection register. Thus the selection is still available for pasting into other applications after the VISUAL mode has ended. If not present, then Vim won't become the owner of the windowing system's global selection unless explicitly told to by a yank or delete operation for the "* register. The same applies to the modeless selection.

'P' Like autoselect but using the "+ register instead of the "* register.

'A' Autoselect for the modeless selection. Like 'a', but only applies to the modeless selection.

        'guioptions'   autoselect Visual  autoselect modeless
             ""              -                       -
             "a"            yes                     yes
             "A"             -                      yes
             "aA"           yes                     yes

    When using a terminal see the 'clipboard' option.

'c' Use console dialogs instead of popup dialogs for simple choices.

'd' Use dark theme variant if available. Currently only works for GTK+ GUI.

'e' Add tab pages when indicated with 'showtabline'. 'guitablabel' can be used to change the text in the labels. When 'e' is missing a non-GUI tab pages line may be used. The GUI tabs are only supported on some systems, currently GTK, Motif, Mac OS/X, Haiku, and MS-Windows.

'f' Foreground: Don't use fork() to detach the GUI from the shell where it was started. Use this for programs that wait for the editor to finish (e.g., an e-mail program). Alternatively you can use "gvim -f" or ":gui -f" to start the GUI in the foreground. gui-fork Note: Set this option in the vimrc file. The forking may have happened already when the gvimrc file is read.

'i' Use a Vim icon. For GTK with KDE it is used in the left-upper corner of the window. It's black&white on non-GTK, because of limitations of X11. For a color icon, see X11-icon.

'm' Menu bar is present.

'M' The system menu "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim" is not sourced. Note that this flag must be added in the .vimrc file, before switching on syntax or filetype recognition (when the gvimrc file is sourced the system menu has already been loaded; the :syntax on and :filetype on commands load the menu too).

'g' Grey menu items: Make menu items that are not active grey. If 'g' is not included inactive menu items are not shown at all.

't' Include tearoff menu items. Currently only works for Win32, GTK+, and Motif 1.2 GUI.

'T' Include Toolbar. Currently only in Win32, GTK+, Motif and Photon GUIs.

'r' Right-hand scrollbar is always present.

'R' Right-hand scrollbar is present when there is a vertically split window.

'l' Left-hand scrollbar is always present.

'L' Left-hand scrollbar is present when there is a vertically split window.

'b' Bottom (horizontal) scrollbar is present. Its size depends on the longest visible line, or on the cursor line if the 'h' flag is included. gui-horiz-scroll

'h' Limit horizontal scrollbar size to the length of the cursor line. Reduces computations. gui-horiz-scroll

And yes, you may even have scrollbars on the left AND the right if you really want to :-). See gui-scrollbars for more information.

'v' Use a vertical button layout for dialogs. When not included, a horizontal layout is preferred, but when it doesn't fit a vertical layout is used anyway. Not supported in GTK 3.

'p' Use Pointer callbacks for X11 GUI. This is required for some window managers. If the cursor is not blinking or hollow at the right moment, try adding this flag. This must be done before starting the GUI. Set it in your gvimrc. Adding or removing it after the GUI has started has no effect.

'F' Add a footer. Only for Motif. See gui-footer.

'k' Keep the GUI window size when adding/removing a scrollbar, or toolbar, tabline, etc. Instead, the behavior is similar to when the window is maximized and will adjust 'lines' and 'columns' to fit to the window. Without the 'k' flag Vim will try to keep 'lines' and 'columns' the same when adding and removing GUI components.

(default "egmrLtT" (MS-Windows, "t" is removed in defaults.vim), "aegimrLtT" (GTK and Motif), )

only available when compiled with GUI enabled