Vim
Vim is a terminal text editor. It is an extended version of vi with additional features, including syntax highlighting, a comprehensive help system, native scripting (vimscript), a visual mode for text selection, comparison of files (vimdiff), and tools with restricted capabilities such as rview and rvim.
Contents
Installation
Install one of the following packages:
- vim — with Python 2/3, Lua, Ruby and Perl interpreters support but without GTK/X support.
-
gvim — which also provides the same as the above
vimpackage with GTK/X support.
- The vim package is built without Xorg support; specifically the
+clipboardfeature is missing, so Vim will not be able to operate with the primary and clipboard selection buffers. The gvim package provides also the CLI version of Vim with the+clipboardfeature. - The unofficial repository herecura also provides a number of Vim/gVim variants:
vim-cli,vim-gvim-common,vim-gvim-gtk,vim-gvim-qt,vim-rtandvim-tiny.
Usage
For a basic overview on how to use Vim, follow the vim tutorial by running either vimtutor (for the terminal version) or gvimtutor (for the graphical version).
Vim includes a broad help system that can be accessed with the :h subject command. Subjects include commands, configuration options, key bindings, plugins etc. Use the :h command (without any subject) for information about the help system and jumping between subjects.
Configuration
Vim's user-specific configuration file is located in the home directory: ~/.vimrc, and Vim files of current user are located inside ~/.vim/. The global configuration file is located at /etc/vimrc. Global Vim files such as defaults.vim and archlinux.vim are located inside /usr/share/vim/.
defaults.vim, which is loaded when no ~/.vimrc is present. Add let skip_defaults_vim=1 to /etc/vimrc to disable loading of defaults.vim completely. [1]
Alternatively, to enable defaults.vim even when ~/.vimrc is present, see :h defaults in vim. Clipboard
Vim commands such as :yank or :paste operate with the unnamed register, which by default corresponds to the "* register. If the +clipboard feature is available, the "* register is reflected to the PRIMARY buffer in X.
To change the default register, you can :set clipboard=unnamedplus to use the "+ register instead. The "+ register corresponds to the CLIPBOARD buffer in X.
For more information, see :help 'clipboard'.
Ctrl+c, Ctrl+v and Ctrl+x.Syntax highlighting
To enable syntax highlighting for many programming languages:
:filetype plugin on :syntax on
Indentation
The indent file for specific file types can be loaded with:
:filetype indent on
Visual wrapping
The wrap option is on by default, which instructs Vim to wrap lines longer than the width of the window, so that the rest of the line is displayed on the next line. The wrap option only affects how text is displayed, the text itself is not modified.
The wrapping normally occurs after the last character that fits the window, even when it is in the middle of a word. More intelligent wrapping can be controlled with the linebreak option. When it is enabled with set linebreak, the wrapping occurs after characters listed in the breakat string option, which by default contains a space and some punctuation marks (see :help breakat).
Wrapped lines are normally displayed at the beginning of the next line, regardless of any indentation. The breakindent option instructs Vim to take indentation into account when wrapping long lines, so that the wrapped lines keep the same indentation of the previously displayed line. The behaviour of breakindent can be fine-tuned with the breakindentopt option, for example to shift the wrapped line another four spaces to the right for Python files (see :help breakindentopt for details):
autocmd FileType python set breakindentopt=shift:4
Using the mouse
Vim has the ability to make use of the mouse, but it only works for certain terminals:
- xterm/urxvt-based terminal emulators
- Linux console with gpm (see Console mouse support for details)
- PuTTY
To enable this feature, add this line into ~/.vimrc:
set mouse=a
The mouse=a option is set in defaults.vim.
"* register if there is access to an X server, see the #Clipboard section. The xterm handling of the mouse buttons can still be used by keeping the shift key pressed.Traverse line breaks with arrow keys
By default, pressing ← at the beginning of a line, or pressing → at the end of a line, will not let the cursor traverse to the previous, or following, line.
The default behavior can be changed by adding set whichwrap=b,s,<,>,[,] to your ~/.vimrc file.
Merging files
Vim includes a diff editor (a program that shows differences between two or more files and aids to conveniently merge them). Use vimdiff to run the diff editor — just specify some couple of files to it: vimdiff file1 file2. Here is the list of vimdiff-specific commands.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| next change |
]c
|
| previous change |
[c
|
| diff obtain |
do
|
| diff put |
dp
|
| fold open |
zo
|
| fold close |
zc
|
| rescan files |
:diffupdate
|
Tips and tricks
Line numbers
To show the line number column, use :set number. By default absolute line numbers are shown, relative numbers can be enabled with :set relativenumber.
Jumping to a specific line is possible with :line number or line numbergg. Jumps are remembered in a jump list, see :h jump-motions for details.
Spell checking
Vim has the ability to do spell checking, enable by entering:
set spell
By default, only English language dictionaries are installed. More dictionaries can be found in the official repositories by searching for vim-spell. Additional dictionaries can be found in the Vim's FTP archive. Additional dictionaries can be put in the folder ~/.vim/spell/ and enabled with the command: :setlocal spell spelllang=en_us (replacing the en_us with the name of the needed dictionary).
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| next spelling |
]s
|
| previous spelling |
[s
|
| spelling suggestions |
z=
|
| spelling good, add |
zg
|
| spelling good, session |
zG
|
| spelling wrong, add |
zw
|
| spelling wrong, session |
zW
|
| spelling repeat all in file |
:spellr
|
- To enable spelling in two languages (for instance English and German), add
set spelllang=en,deinto your~/.vimrcor/etc/vimrc, and then restart Vim. - You can enable spell checking for arbitrary file types (e.g. .txt) by using the FileType plugin and a custom rule for file type detection. To enable spell checking for any file ending with .txt, create the file
/usr/share/vim/vimfiles/ftdetect/plaintext.vim, and insert the lineautocmd BufRead,BufNewFile *.txt setfiletype plaintextinto that file. Next, insert the lineautocmd FileType plaintext setlocal spell spelllang=en_usinto your~/.vimrcor/etc/vimrc, and then restart Vim. Alternatively, one can simply insert the lineautocmd BufRead,BufNewFile *.txt setlocal spellinto their~/.vimrcor/etc/vimrc, and then restart Vim. Be sure to edit this line (specifically*.txt) to include the filetype(s) intended for spell checking. - To enable spell checking for LaTeX (or TeX) documents only, add
autocmd FileType tex setlocal spell spelllang=en_usinto your~/.vimrcor/etc/vimrc, and then restart Vim.
Saving runtime state
Normally, exiting vim discards all unessential information such as opened files, command line history, yanked text etc. Preserving this information can be configured in the following ways.
viminfo files
The viminfo file may also be used to store command line history, search string history, input-line history, registers' content, marks for files, location marks within files, last search/substitute pattern (to be used in search mode with n and & within the session), buffer list, and any global variables you may have defined. For the viminfo modality to be available, the version of vim you installed must have been compiled with the +viminfo feature.
Configure what is kept in your viminfo file, by adding (for example) the following to your ~/.vimrc file:
set viminfo='10,<100,:100,%,n~/.vim/.viminfo
where each parameter is preceded by an identifier:
'q : q, number of edited file remembered <m : m, number of lines saved for each register :p : p, number of history cmd lines remembered % : saves and restore the buffer list n...: fully qualified path to the viminfo files (note that this is a literal "n")
See the official viminfo documentation for particulars on how a pre-existing viminfo file is modified as it is updated with current session information, say from several buffers in the current session you are in the process of exiting.
Session files
Session files can be used to save the state of any number of particular sessions over time. One distinct session file may be used for each session or project of your interest. For that modality to be available, the version of vim you installed must have been compiled with the +mksession feature.
Within a session, :mksession[!] [my_session_name.vim] will write a vim-script to my_session_name.vim in the current directory, or Session.vim by default if you choose not to provide a file name. The optional ! will clobber a pre-existing session file with the same name and path.
A vim session can be resumed either when starting vim from terminal:
$ vim -S [my_session_name.vim]
Or in an already opened session buffer by running the vim command:
:source my_session_name.vim
Exactly what is saved and additional details on session files options are extensively covered in the vim documentation. Commented examples are found here.
Saving cursor position
See Restore cursor to file position in previous editing session on the Vim wiki.
Replace vi command with Vim
Create an alias for vi to vim.
Alternatively, if you want to be able to type sudo vi and get vim, install vi-vim-symlinkAUR which will remove vi and replace it with a symlink to vim.
DOS/Windows carriage returns
If there is a ^M at the end of each line then this means you are editing a text file which was created in MS-DOS or Windows. This is because in Linux only a single line feed character (LF) used for line break, but in Windows/MS DOS systems they are using a sequence of a carriage return (CR) and a line feed (LF) for the same. And this carriage returns are displayed as ^M.
To remove all carriage returns from a file do:
:%s/^M//g
Note that there ^ is a control letter. To enter the control sequence ^M press Ctrl+v,Ctrl+m.
Alternatively install the package dos2unix and run dos2unix file to fix the file.
fileformat setting. set ff=unix to convert files with DOS/Windows line ending to Unix line ending. To do the reverse, just issue set ff=dos to convert files with Unix line ending to DOS/Windows line ending. Empty space at the bottom of gVim windows
When using a window manager configured to ignore window size hints, gVim will fill the non-functional area with the GTK theme background color.
The solution is to adjust how much space gVim reserves at the bottom of the window. Put the following line in ~/.vimrc:
set guiheadroom=0
Vim as a pager
Using scripts Vim can be used as a terminal pager, so that you get various vim features such as color schemes.
Vim comes with the /usr/share/vim/vim81/macros/less.sh script, for which you can create an alias.
Alternatively there is also the vimpager Vim script. To change the default pager, export the PAGER environment variable.
Plugins
Adding plugins to Vim can increase your productivity. Plugins can alter Vim's UI, add new commands, code completion support, integrate other programs and utilities with Vim, add support for additional languages and more.
Installation
Using the built-in package manager
Vim 8 added the possibility to load third-party plugins natively. It is possible to use this functionality by storing third-party packages in ~/.vim/pack/foo.
Using a plugin manager
A plugin manager installs and manages Vim plugins in a similar way independent of which platform on you are running Vim. It is a plugin that acts as a package manager for other Vim plugins.
- Vundle is currently the most popular plugin manager for Vim, available as vundleAUR or vundle-gitAUR.
- Vim-plug is a minimalist Vim plugin manager with many features like on-demand plugin loading and parallel updating, available as vim-plugAUR or vim-plug-gitAUR.
- pathogen.vim is a simple plugin for managing Vim's runtimepath, available as vim-pathogenAUR or vim-pathogen-gitAUR.
- Dein.vim is a plugin manager replacing NeoBundle, available as vim-deinAUR or vim-dein-gitAUR.
From Arch repositories
The vim-plugins group provides many various plugins. Use pacman -Sg vim-plugins command to list available packages which you can then install with pacman.
cscope
Cscope is a tool for browsing a project. By navigating to a word/symbol/function and calling cscope (usually with shortcut keys) it can find: functions calling the function, the function definition, and more.
Copy the cscope default file where it will be automatically read by Vim:
mkdir -p ~/.vim/plugin wget -P ~/.vim/plugin http://cscope.sourceforge.net/cscope_maps.vim
~/.vim/plugin/cscope_maps.vim in order to enable cscope shortcuts in Vim 7.x:
set timeoutlen=4000 set ttimeout
Create a file which contains the list of files you wish cscope to index (cscope can handle many languages but this example finds .c, .cpp and .h files, specific for C/C++ project):
cd /path/to/project/dir find . -type f -print | grep -E '\.(c(pp)?|h)$' > cscope.files
Create database files that cscope will read:
cscope -bq
$CSCOPE_DB variable, pointing it to the cscope.out file.Default keyboard shortcuts:
Ctrl-\ and
c: Find functions calling this function
d: Find functions called by this function
e: Find this egrep pattern
f: Find this file
g: Find this definition
i: Find files #including this file
s: Find this C symbol
t: Find assignments to
Feel free to change the shortcuts.
#Maps ctrl-c to find functions calling the function
nnoremap <C-c> :cs find c <C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR><CR>
Taglist
Taglist provides an overview of the structure of source code files and allows you to efficiently browse through source code files in different programming languages.
Install the vim-taglist package.
Useful options to be put in ~/.vimrc:
let Tlist_Compact_Format = 1 let Tlist_GainFocus_On_ToggleOpen = 1 let Tlist_Close_On_Select = 1 nnoremap <C-l> :TlistToggle<CR>
See also
Official
Tutorials
- vim Tutorial and Primer
- vi Tutorial and Reference Guide
- Graphical vi-Vim Cheat Sheet and Tutorial
- Vim Introduction and Tutorial
- Open Vim — collection of Vim learning tools
- Learn Vim Progressively
- Learning Vim in 2014
- Seven habits of effective text editing
- Basic Vim Tips
Videos
- Vimcasts — screencasts in .ogg format.
- Vim Tutorial Videos — covering the basics up to advanced topics.
Cheat sheets
- https://devhints.io/vim
- https://vim.rtorr.com/ - A mobile friendly Vim cheat sheet - Sources
Games
Configuration
- nion's
- A detailed configuration from Amir Salihefendic
- Bart Trojanowski
- Steve Francia's Vim Distribution
- Vim Awesome - Vim Plugins
- W4RH4WK's Vim configuration
- Fast vimrc/colorscheme from askapache
- Basic vimrc
- Usevim