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2 <!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
4 <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
8 <sect1 id="ch-system-vim" role="wrap">
9 <?dbhtml filename="vim.html"?>
11 <title>Vim-&vim-version;</title>
13 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim">
14 <primary sortas="a-Vim">Vim</primary>
17 <sect2 role="package">
20 <para>The Vim package contains a powerful text editor.</para>
23 <segtitle>&buildtime;</segtitle>
24 <segtitle>&diskspace;</segtitle>
27 <seg>&vim-ch6-sbu;</seg>
28 <seg>&vim-ch6-du;</seg>
33 <title>Alternatives to Vim</title>
35 <para>If you prefer another editor—such as Emacs, Joe, or
36 Nano—please refer to <ulink
37 url="&blfs-book;postlfs/editors.html"/> for suggested
38 installation instructions.</para>
43 <sect2 role="installation">
44 <title>Installation of Vim</title>
46 <para>First, change the default location of the <filename>vimrc</filename>
47 configuration file to <filename class="directory">/etc</filename>:</para>
49 <screen><userinput remap="pre">echo '#define SYS_VIMRC_FILE "/etc/vimrc"' >> src/feature.h</userinput></screen>
51 <para>Prepare Vim for compilation:</para>
53 <screen><userinput remap="configure">./configure --prefix=/usr</userinput></screen>
55 <para>Compile the package:</para>
57 <screen><userinput remap="make">make</userinput></screen>
59 <para>To test the results, issue:</para>
61 <screen><userinput remap="test">make -j1 test</userinput></screen>
63 <para>However, this test suite outputs a lot of binary data to the screen,
64 which can cause issues with the settings of the current terminal. This can
65 be resolved by redirecting the output to a log file. A successful test
66 will result in the words "ALL DONE" at completion.</para>
68 <para>Install the package:</para>
70 <screen><userinput remap="install">make install</userinput></screen>
72 <para>Many users are used to using <command>vi</command> instead of
73 <command>vim</command>. To allow execution of <command>vim</command>
74 when users habitually enter <command>vi</command>, create a
75 symlink for both the binary and the man page in the provided
78 <screen><userinput remap="install">ln -sv vim /usr/bin/vi
79 for L in /usr/share/man/{,*/}man1/vim.1; do
80 ln -sv vim.1 $(dirname $L)/vi.1
81 done</userinput></screen>
83 <para>By default, Vim's documentation is installed in <filename
84 class="directory">/usr/share/vim</filename>. The following symlink
85 allows the documentation to be accessed via <filename
86 class="directory">/usr/share/doc/vim-&vim-version;</filename>, making
87 it consistent with the location of documentation for other packages:</para>
89 <screen><userinput remap="install">ln -sv ../&vim-docdir;/doc /usr/share/doc/vim-&vim-version;</userinput></screen>
91 <para>If an X Window System is going to be installed on the LFS
92 system, it may be necessary to recompile Vim after installing X. Vim
93 comes with a GUI version of the editor that requires X and some
94 additional libraries to be installed. For more information on this
95 process, refer to the Vim documentation and the Vim installation page
96 in the BLFS book at <ulink
97 url="&blfs-book;postlfs/vim.html"/>.</para>
101 <sect2 id="conf-vim" role="configuration">
102 <title>Configuring Vim</title>
104 <indexterm zone="conf-vim">
105 <primary sortas="e-/etc/vimrc">/etc/vimrc</primary>
108 <para>By default, <command>vim</command> runs in vi-incompatible mode.
109 This may be new to users who have used other editors in the past. The
110 <quote>nocompatible</quote> setting is included below to highlight the
111 fact that a new behavior is being used. It also reminds those who would
112 change to <quote>compatible</quote> mode that it should be the first
113 setting in the configuration file. This is necessary because it changes
114 other settings, and overrides must come after this setting. Create a default
115 <command>vim</command> configuration file by running the following:</para>
117 <screen><userinput>cat > /etc/vimrc << "EOF"
118 <literal>" Begin /etc/vimrc
124 if (&term == "iterm") || (&term == "putty")
129 " End /etc/vimrc</literal>
130 EOF</userinput></screen>
132 <para>The <parameter>set nocompatible</parameter> setting makes
133 <command>vim</command> behave in a more useful way (the default) than the
134 vi-compatible manner. Remove the <quote>no</quote> to keep the old
135 <command>vi</command> behavior. The <parameter>set backspace=2</parameter>
136 setting allows backspacing over line breaks, autoindents, and the start of
137 insert. The <parameter>syntax on</parameter> parameter enables vim's syntax
138 highlighting. The <parameter>set mouse=r</parameter> setting enables
139 proper pasting of text with the mouse when working in chroot or over a
140 remote connection. Finally, the <emphasis>if</emphasis> statement with the
141 <parameter>set background=dark</parameter> setting corrects
142 <command>vim</command>'s guess about the background color of some terminal
143 emulators. This gives the highlighting a better color scheme for use on the
144 black background of these programs.</para>
146 <para>Documentation for other available options can be obtained by
147 running the following command:</para>
149 <screen role="nodump"><userinput>vim -c ':options'</userinput></screen>
152 <para>By default, Vim only installs spell files for the English language.
153 To install spell files for your preferred language, download the
154 <filename>*.spl</filename> and optionally, the <filename>*.sug</filename>
155 files for your language and character encoding from <ulink
156 url="ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/runtime/spell/"/> and save them to
157 <filename class='directory'>/usr/share/&vim-docdir;/spell/</filename>.</para>
159 <para>To use these spell files, some configuration in
160 <filename>/etc/vimrc</filename> is needed, e.g.:</para>
162 <screen><literal>set spelllang=en,ru
163 set spell</literal></screen>
165 <para>For more information, see the appropriate README file located
166 at the URL above.</para>
171 <sect2 id="contents-vim" role="content">
172 <title>Contents of Vim</title>
175 <segtitle>Installed programs</segtitle>
176 <segtitle>Installed directory</segtitle>
179 <seg> ex (link to vim), rview (link to vim), rvim (link to vim), vi
180 (link to vim), view (link to vim), vim, vimdiff (link to vim), vimtutor,
182 <seg>/usr/share/vim</seg>
187 <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Short Descriptions</bridgehead>
188 <?dbfo list-presentation="list"?>
189 <?dbhtml list-presentation="table"?>
191 <varlistentry id="ex">
192 <term><command>ex</command></term>
194 <para>Starts <command>vim</command> in ex mode</para>
195 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim ex">
196 <primary sortas="b-ex">ex</primary>
201 <varlistentry id="rview">
202 <term><command>rview</command></term>
204 <para>Is a restricted version of <command>view</command>; no shell
205 commands can be started and <command>view</command> cannot be
207 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim rview">
208 <primary sortas="b-rview">rview</primary>
213 <varlistentry id="rvim">
214 <term><command>rvim</command></term>
216 <para>Is a restricted version of <command>vim</command>; no shell
217 commands can be started and <command>vim</command> cannot be
219 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim rvim">
220 <primary sortas="b-rvim">rvim</primary>
225 <varlistentry id="vi">
226 <term><command>vi</command></term>
228 <para>Link to <command>vim</command></para>
229 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vi">
230 <primary sortas="b-vi">vi</primary>
235 <varlistentry id="view">
236 <term><command>view</command></term>
238 <para>Starts <command>vim</command> in read-only mode</para>
239 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim view">
240 <primary sortas="b-view">view</primary>
245 <varlistentry id="vim">
246 <term><command>vim</command></term>
248 <para>Is the editor</para>
249 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vim">
250 <primary sortas="b-vim">vim</primary>
255 <varlistentry id="vimdiff">
256 <term><command>vimdiff</command></term>
258 <para>Edits two or three versions of a file with <command>vim</command>
259 and show differences</para>
260 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vimdiff">
261 <primary sortas="b-vimdiff">vimdiff</primary>
266 <varlistentry id="vimtutor">
267 <term><command>vimtutor</command></term>
269 <para>Teaches the basic keys and commands of
270 <command>vim</command></para>
271 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vimtutor">
272 <primary sortas="b-vimtutor">vimtutor</primary>
277 <varlistentry id="xxd">
278 <term><command>xxd</command></term>
280 <para>Creates a hex dump of the given file; it can
281 also do the reverse, so it can be used for binary patching</para>
282 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim xxd">
283 <primary sortas="b-xxd">xxd</primary>