Neovim
Neovim is a fork of Vim aiming to improve user experience, plugins, and GUIs.
Contents
Installation
Configuration
Nvim's user-specific configuration file is located at $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nvim/init.vim, by default ~/.config/nvim/init.vim. The global configuration file is loaded from $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/nvim/sysinit.vim (by default /etc/xdg/nvim/sysinit.vim) if it exists, or if it does not, from /usr/share/nvim/sysinit.vim which should not be user-edited. [1] By default, the former global configuration file does not exist. If you create the former file, you may wish to have it source the latter if you still want the functionality it provides, which is allowing pacman-installed vim packages to work with Nvim.
Nvim is compatible with most of Vim's options, however there are options specific to Nvim. For a complete list of Nvim options, see Neovim's help file.
Nvim's data directory is located in ~/.local/share/nvim/ and contains swap for open files, the ShaDa (Shared Data) file, and the site directory for plugins.
Migrating from Vim
If you wish to migrate your existing Vim configuration to Nvim, simply copy your ~/.vimrc to ~/.config/nvim/init.vim. If applicable, copy the contents of ~/.vim/autoload/ to ~/.local/share/nvim/site/autoload/.
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.
If you wish to continue using Vim and wish to source your existing Vim configuration in Nvim, see nvim-from-vim or the :help nvim-from-vim neovim command.
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
Troubleshooting
Cursor is not restored to previous state after exit
If after exiting neovim cursor is still blinking see solution on neovim FAQ.