1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
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 <sect1info condition="script">
12 <productname>vim</productname>
13 <productnumber>&vim-version;</productnumber>
14 <address>&vim-url;</address>
17 <title>Vim-&vim-version;</title>
19 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim">
20 <primary sortas="a-Vim">Vim</primary>
23 <sect2 role="package">
26 <para>The Vim package contains a powerful text editor.</para>
29 <segtitle>&buildtime;</segtitle>
30 <segtitle>&diskspace;</segtitle>
33 <seg>&vim-ch6-sbu;</seg>
34 <seg>&vim-ch6-du;</seg>
39 <title>Alternatives to Vim</title>
41 <para>If you prefer another editor—such as Emacs, Joe, or
42 Nano—please refer to <ulink
43 url="&blfs-book;postlfs/editors.html"/> for suggested
44 installation instructions.</para>
49 <sect2 role="installation">
50 <title>Installation of Vim</title>
52 <para>First, change the default location of the <filename>vimrc</filename>
53 configuration file to <filename class="directory">/etc</filename>:</para>
55 <screen><userinput remap="pre">echo '#define SYS_VIMRC_FILE "/etc/vimrc"' >> src/feature.h</userinput></screen>
57 <para>Disable a test that fails:</para>
59 <screen><userinput remap="pre">sed -i '/call/{s/split/xsplit/;s/303/492/}' src/testdir/test_recover.vim</userinput></screen>
61 <para>Prepare Vim for compilation:</para>
63 <screen><userinput remap="configure">./configure --prefix=/usr</userinput></screen>
65 <para>Compile the package:</para>
67 <screen><userinput remap="make">make</userinput></screen>
69 <para>To test the results, issue:</para>
71 <screen><userinput remap="test">make -j1 test &> vim-test.log</userinput></screen>
73 <para>However, this test suite outputs a lot of binary data to the screen,
74 which can cause issues with the settings of the current terminal. This can
75 be resolved by redirecting the output to a log file. A successful test
76 will result in the words "ALL DONE" at completion.</para>
78 <para>Install the package:</para>
80 <screen><userinput remap="install">make install</userinput></screen>
82 <para>Many users are used to using <command>vi</command> instead of
83 <command>vim</command>. To allow execution of <command>vim</command>
84 when users habitually enter <command>vi</command>, create a
85 symlink for both the binary and the man page in the provided
88 <screen><userinput remap="install">ln -sv vim /usr/bin/vi
89 for L in /usr/share/man/{,*/}man1/vim.1; do
90 ln -sv vim.1 $(dirname $L)/vi.1
91 done</userinput></screen>
93 <para>By default, Vim's documentation is installed in <filename
94 class="directory">/usr/share/vim</filename>. The following symlink
95 allows the documentation to be accessed via <filename
96 class="directory">/usr/share/doc/vim-&vim-version;</filename>, making
97 it consistent with the location of documentation for other packages:</para>
99 <screen><userinput remap="install">ln -sv ../&vim-docdir;/doc /usr/share/doc/vim-&vim-version;</userinput></screen>
101 <para>If an X Window System is going to be installed on the LFS
102 system, it may be necessary to recompile Vim after installing X. Vim
103 comes with a GUI version of the editor that requires X and some
104 additional libraries to be installed. For more information on this
105 process, refer to the Vim documentation and the Vim installation page
106 in the BLFS book at <ulink
107 url="&blfs-book;postlfs/vim.html"/>.</para>
111 <sect2 id="conf-vim" role="configuration">
112 <title>Configuring Vim</title>
114 <indexterm zone="conf-vim">
115 <primary sortas="e-/etc/vimrc">/etc/vimrc</primary>
118 <para>By default, <command>vim</command> runs in vi-incompatible mode.
119 This may be new to users who have used other editors in the past. The
120 <quote>nocompatible</quote> setting is included below to highlight the
121 fact that a new behavior is being used. It also reminds those who would
122 change to <quote>compatible</quote> mode that it should be the first
123 setting in the configuration file. This is necessary because it changes
124 other settings, and overrides must come after this setting. Create a default
125 <command>vim</command> configuration file by running the following:</para>
127 <screen><userinput>cat > /etc/vimrc << "EOF"
128 <literal>" Begin /etc/vimrc
134 if (&term == "xterm") || (&term == "putty")
139 " End /etc/vimrc</literal>
142 touch ~/.vimrc</userinput></screen>
144 <para>The <parameter>set nocompatible</parameter> setting makes
145 <command>vim</command> behave in a more useful way (the default) than the
146 vi-compatible manner. Remove the <quote>no</quote> to keep the old
147 <command>vi</command> behavior. The <parameter>set backspace=2</parameter>
148 setting allows backspacing over line breaks, autoindents, and the start of
149 insert. The <parameter>syntax on</parameter> parameter enables vim's syntax
150 highlighting. The <parameter>set mouse=r</parameter> setting enables
151 proper pasting of text with the mouse when working in chroot or over a
152 remote connection. Finally, the <emphasis>if</emphasis> statement with the
153 <parameter>set background=dark</parameter> setting corrects
154 <command>vim</command>'s guess about the background color of some terminal
155 emulators. This gives the highlighting a better color scheme for use on the
156 black background of these programs.</para>
158 <para>Creating an empty <filename>~/.vimrc</filename> prevents vim from
159 overriding settings in <filename>/etc/vimrc</filename> by using
160 <filename>/usr/share/vim/vim80/defaults.vim</filename>.</para>
162 <para>Documentation for other available options can be obtained by
163 running the following command:</para>
165 <screen role="nodump"><userinput>vim -c ':options'</userinput></screen>
168 <para>By default, Vim only installs spell files for the English language.
169 To install spell files for your preferred language, download the
170 <filename>*.spl</filename> and optionally, the <filename>*.sug</filename>
171 files for your language and character encoding from <ulink
172 url="ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/runtime/spell/"/> and save them to
173 <filename class='directory'>/usr/share/&vim-docdir;/spell/</filename>.</para>
175 <para>To use these spell files, some configuration in
176 <filename>/etc/vimrc</filename> is needed, e.g.:</para>
178 <screen><literal>set spelllang=en,ru
179 set spell</literal></screen>
181 <para>For more information, see the appropriate README file located
182 at the URL above.</para>
187 <sect2 id="contents-vim" role="content">
188 <title>Contents of Vim</title>
191 <segtitle>Installed programs</segtitle>
192 <segtitle>Installed directory</segtitle>
195 <seg> ex (link to vim), rview (link to vim), rvim (link to vim), vi
196 (link to vim), view (link to vim), vim, vimdiff (link to vim), vimtutor,
198 <seg>/usr/share/vim</seg>
203 <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Short Descriptions</bridgehead>
204 <?dbfo list-presentation="list"?>
205 <?dbhtml list-presentation="table"?>
207 <varlistentry id="ex">
208 <term><command>ex</command></term>
210 <para>Starts <command>vim</command> in ex mode</para>
211 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim ex">
212 <primary sortas="b-ex">ex</primary>
217 <varlistentry id="rview">
218 <term><command>rview</command></term>
220 <para>Is a restricted version of <command>view</command>; no shell
221 commands can be started and <command>view</command> cannot be
223 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim rview">
224 <primary sortas="b-rview">rview</primary>
229 <varlistentry id="rvim">
230 <term><command>rvim</command></term>
232 <para>Is a restricted version of <command>vim</command>; no shell
233 commands can be started and <command>vim</command> cannot be
235 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim rvim">
236 <primary sortas="b-rvim">rvim</primary>
241 <varlistentry id="vi">
242 <term><command>vi</command></term>
244 <para>Link to <command>vim</command></para>
245 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vi">
246 <primary sortas="b-vi">vi</primary>
251 <varlistentry id="view">
252 <term><command>view</command></term>
254 <para>Starts <command>vim</command> in read-only mode</para>
255 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim view">
256 <primary sortas="b-view">view</primary>
261 <varlistentry id="vim">
262 <term><command>vim</command></term>
264 <para>Is the editor</para>
265 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vim">
266 <primary sortas="b-vim">vim</primary>
271 <varlistentry id="vimdiff">
272 <term><command>vimdiff</command></term>
274 <para>Edits two or three versions of a file with <command>vim</command>
275 and show differences</para>
276 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vimdiff">
277 <primary sortas="b-vimdiff">vimdiff</primary>
282 <varlistentry id="vimtutor">
283 <term><command>vimtutor</command></term>
285 <para>Teaches the basic keys and commands of
286 <command>vim</command></para>
287 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vimtutor">
288 <primary sortas="b-vimtutor">vimtutor</primary>
293 <varlistentry id="xxd">
294 <term><command>xxd</command></term>
296 <para>Creates a hex dump of the given file; it can
297 also do the reverse, so it can be used for binary patching</para>
298 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim xxd">
299 <primary sortas="b-xxd">xxd</primary>