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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 <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 prepare the tests, ensure that the
70 <systemitem class="username">nobody</systemitem> user can write
71 to the sources tree:</para>
73 <screen><userinput remap="test">chown -Rv nobody .</userinput></screen>
75 <para>Now run the tests as the <systemitem
76 class="username">nobody</systemitem> user:</para>
78 <screen><userinput remap="test">su nobody -s /bin/bash -c "LANG=en_US.UTF-8 make -j1 test" &> vim-test.log</userinput></screen>
80 <!--<screen><userinput remap="test">LANG=en_US.UTF-8 make -j1 test &> vim-test.log</userinput></screen>-->
82 <para>The test suite outputs a lot of binary data to the screen. This can
83 cause issues with the settings of the current terminal. The problem can be
84 avoided by redirecting the output to a log file as shown above. A
85 successful test will result in the words "ALL DONE" in the log file
88 <para>Install the package:</para>
90 <screen><userinput remap="install">make install</userinput></screen>
92 <para>Many users are used to using <command>vi</command> instead of
93 <command>vim</command>. To allow execution of <command>vim</command>
94 when users habitually enter <command>vi</command>, create a
95 symlink for both the binary and the man page in the provided
98 <screen><userinput remap="install">ln -sv vim /usr/bin/vi
99 for L in /usr/share/man/{,*/}man1/vim.1; do
100 ln -sv vim.1 $(dirname $L)/vi.1
101 done</userinput></screen>
103 <para>By default, Vim's documentation is installed in <filename
104 class="directory">/usr/share/vim</filename>. The following symlink
105 allows the documentation to be accessed via <filename
106 class="directory">/usr/share/doc/vim-&vim-version;</filename>, making
107 it consistent with the location of documentation for other packages:</para>
109 <screen><userinput remap="install">ln -sv ../&vim-docdir;/doc /usr/share/doc/vim-&vim-version;</userinput></screen>
111 <para>If an X Window System is going to be installed on the LFS
112 system, it may be necessary to recompile Vim after installing X. Vim
113 comes with a GUI version of the editor that requires X and some
114 additional libraries to be installed. For more information on this
115 process, refer to the Vim documentation and the Vim installation page
116 in the BLFS book at <ulink
117 url="&blfs-book;postlfs/vim.html"/>.</para>
121 <sect2 id="conf-vim" role="configuration">
122 <title>Configuring Vim</title>
124 <indexterm zone="conf-vim">
125 <primary sortas="e-/etc/vimrc">/etc/vimrc</primary>
128 <para>By default, <command>vim</command> runs in vi-incompatible mode.
129 This may be new to users who have used other editors in the past. The
130 <quote>nocompatible</quote> setting is included below to highlight the
131 fact that a new behavior is being used. It also reminds those who would
132 change to <quote>compatible</quote> mode that it should be the first
133 setting in the configuration file. This is necessary because it changes
134 other settings, and overrides must come after this setting. Create a default
135 <command>vim</command> configuration file by running the following:</para>
137 <screen><userinput>cat > /etc/vimrc << "EOF"
138 <literal>" Begin /etc/vimrc
140 " Ensure defaults are set before customizing settings, not after
141 source $VIMRUNTIME/defaults.vim
142 let skip_defaults_vim=1
148 if (&term == "xterm") || (&term == "putty")
152 " End /etc/vimrc</literal>
153 EOF</userinput></screen>
155 <para>The <parameter>set nocompatible</parameter> setting makes
156 <command>vim</command> behave in a more useful way (the default) than the
157 vi-compatible manner. Remove the <quote>no</quote> to keep the old
158 <command>vi</command> behavior. The <parameter>set backspace=2</parameter>
159 setting allows backspacing over line breaks, autoindents, and the start of
160 insert. The <parameter>syntax on</parameter> parameter enables vim's syntax
161 highlighting. The <parameter>set mouse=</parameter> setting enables
162 proper pasting of text with the mouse when working in chroot or over a
163 remote connection. Finally, the <emphasis>if</emphasis> statement with the
164 <parameter>set background=dark</parameter> setting corrects
165 <command>vim</command>'s guess about the background color of some terminal
166 emulators. This gives the highlighting a better color scheme for use on the
167 black background of these programs.</para>
169 <para>Creating an empty <filename>~/.vimrc</filename> prevents vim from
170 overriding settings in <filename>/etc/vimrc</filename> by using
171 <filename>/usr/share/vim/vim80/defaults.vim</filename>.</para>
173 <para>Documentation for other available options can be obtained by
174 running the following command:</para>
176 <screen role="nodump"><userinput>vim -c ':options'</userinput></screen>
179 <para>By default, Vim only installs spell files for the English language.
180 To install spell files for your preferred language, download the
181 <filename>*.spl</filename> and optionally, the <filename>*.sug</filename>
182 files for your language and character encoding from <ulink
183 url="ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/runtime/spell/"/> and save them to
184 <filename class='directory'>/usr/share/&vim-docdir;/spell/</filename>.</para>
186 <para>To use these spell files, some configuration in
187 <filename>/etc/vimrc</filename> is needed, e.g.:</para>
189 <screen><literal>set spelllang=en,ru
190 set spell</literal></screen>
192 <para>For more information, see the appropriate README file located
193 at the URL above.</para>
198 <sect2 id="contents-vim" role="content">
199 <title>Contents of Vim</title>
202 <segtitle>Installed programs</segtitle>
203 <segtitle>Installed directory</segtitle>
206 <seg> ex (link to vim), rview (link to vim), rvim (link to vim), vi
207 (link to vim), view (link to vim), vim, vimdiff (link to vim), vimtutor,
209 <seg>/usr/share/vim</seg>
214 <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Short Descriptions</bridgehead>
215 <?dbfo list-presentation="list"?>
216 <?dbhtml list-presentation="table"?>
218 <varlistentry id="ex">
219 <term><command>ex</command></term>
221 <para>Starts <command>vim</command> in ex mode</para>
222 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim ex">
223 <primary sortas="b-ex">ex</primary>
228 <varlistentry id="rview">
229 <term><command>rview</command></term>
231 <para>Is a restricted version of <command>view</command>; no shell
232 commands can be started and <command>view</command> cannot be
234 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim rview">
235 <primary sortas="b-rview">rview</primary>
240 <varlistentry id="rvim">
241 <term><command>rvim</command></term>
243 <para>Is a restricted version of <command>vim</command>; no shell
244 commands can be started and <command>vim</command> cannot be
246 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim rvim">
247 <primary sortas="b-rvim">rvim</primary>
252 <varlistentry id="vi">
253 <term><command>vi</command></term>
255 <para>Link to <command>vim</command></para>
256 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vi">
257 <primary sortas="b-vi">vi</primary>
262 <varlistentry id="view">
263 <term><command>view</command></term>
265 <para>Starts <command>vim</command> in read-only mode</para>
266 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim view">
267 <primary sortas="b-view">view</primary>
272 <varlistentry id="vim">
273 <term><command>vim</command></term>
275 <para>Is the editor</para>
276 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vim">
277 <primary sortas="b-vim">vim</primary>
282 <varlistentry id="vimdiff">
283 <term><command>vimdiff</command></term>
285 <para>Edits two or three versions of a file with <command>vim</command>
286 and shows differences</para>
287 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vimdiff">
288 <primary sortas="b-vimdiff">vimdiff</primary>
293 <varlistentry id="vimtutor">
294 <term><command>vimtutor</command></term>
296 <para>Teaches the basic keys and commands of
297 <command>vim</command></para>
298 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vimtutor">
299 <primary sortas="b-vimtutor">vimtutor</primary>
304 <varlistentry id="xxd">
305 <term><command>xxd</command></term>
307 <para>Creates a hex dump of the given file; it can
308 also do the reverse, so it can be used for binary patching</para>
309 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim xxd">
310 <primary sortas="b-xxd">xxd</primary>