Neovim - ArchWiki

# Neovim

Neovim is a fork of Vim aiming to improve user experience, plugins, and GUIs.

## Installation

Install the neovim package.

## Configuration

### Transition from vim

Neovim uses `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nvim` instead of `~/.vim` as its main configuration directory and `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nvim/init.vim` instead of `~/.vimrc` as its main configuration file.

See nvim-from-vim or the `:help nvim-from-vim` neovim command to use your vim configuration in neovim.

#### Loading vim addons

If you would like to use plugins, syntax definitions, or other addons that are installed for vim, you can add the default vim runtime path to neovim by adding it to the `rtp`. For example, you could run the following within nvim or add it to your neovim config:

    set rtp^=/usr/share/vim/vimfiles/

## Tips and tricks

### Replacing vi and vim with neovim

Setting `$VISUAL` and `$EDITOR` environment variables should be sufficient in most cases.

Some applications may hardcode vi or vim as default editor, to use neovim in their place, install neovim-drop-inAUR.

### Symlinking init.vim to .vimrc

As neovim is mostly compatible with standard vim, you can symlink `nvim/init.vim` to your old `.vimrc` to keep old configuration options:

    $ ln -s ~/.vimrc ~/.config/nvim/init.vim

If you want some lines to specific to each version, you can use an `if` block in your `.vimrc` file:

    if has('nvim')
        " Neovim specific commands
    else
        " Standard vim specific commands
    endif

## See also

- Homepage
- Github repository
- Github wiki

Categories:

- Development
- Text editors