Asking to confirm this bug: VIM 7.4 Included patches: 1-712 (32-bit)
Warning: this, if it “works”, will halt your VIM. * Step #1, (Normal mode) Contents of file; Cursor on "c": clean: c: * Step #2 (Enter insert mode by capital I) Cursor at column 0: clean: c: * Step #3 (Enter Backspace) Cursor At col 6: clean:c: * Step #4 (Enter Space) clean:c: Result: Complete freeze. ---------------- Vim is in an eternal loop in the function check_abbr():getchar.c clen = 1; while (p > ptr + mincol) { p = mb_prevptr(ptr, p); if (vim_isspace(*p) || (!vim_abbr && is_id != vim_iswordp(p))) { p += (*mb_ptr2len)(p); break; } ++clen; } Where: p = (char_u *) 0xb9affc5a "clean:c:" ptr = (char_u *) 0xb9affc5a "clean:c:" mincol = 0x7fffffff clen = NNN (+/-) Using GDB I am able to escape the freeze by modifying "p". VIM - Vi IMproved 7.4 (2013 Aug 10, compiled Oct 21 2015 12:29:55) Included patches: 1-712 Modified by pkg-vim-maintain...@lists.alioth.debian.org Compiled by buildd@ Huge version with GTK2-GNOME GUI.