When there is a previous search pattern, highlight all its matches. The type of highlighting used can be set with the 'l' occasion in the 'highlight' option. This uses the "Search" highlight group by default. Note that only the matching text is highlighted, any offsets are not applied. If the "CurSearch" highlight group is set then the current match is highlighted with that. See also: 'incsearch' and :match. When you get bored looking at the highlighted matches, you can turn it off with :nohlsearch. This does not change the option value, as soon as you use a search command, the highlighting comes back. 'redrawtime' specifies the maximum time spent on finding matches. When the search pattern can match an end-of-line, Vim will try to highlight all of the matched text. However, this depends on where the search starts. This will be the first line in the window or the first line below a closed fold. A match in a previous line which is not drawn may not continue in a newly drawn line. You can specify whether the highlight status is restored on startup with the 'h' flag in 'viminfo' viminfo-h. NOTE: This option is reset when 'compatible' is set.

(default off)

not available when compiled without the +extra_search feature