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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-fin-sbu;</seg>
34 <seg>&vim-fin-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>Prepare vim for compilation:</para>
59 <screen><userinput remap="configure">./configure --prefix=/usr</userinput></screen>
61 <para>Compile the package:</para>
63 <screen><userinput remap="make">make</userinput></screen>
65 <para>To prepare the tests, ensure that user
66 <systemitem class="username">tester</systemitem> can write
67 to the source tree:</para>
69 <screen><userinput remap="test">chown -Rv tester .</userinput></screen>
71 <para>Now run the tests as user <systemitem
72 class="username">tester</systemitem>:</para>
74 <screen><userinput remap="test">su tester -c "LANG=en_US.UTF-8 make -j1 test" &> vim-test.log</userinput></screen>
76 <para>The test suite outputs a lot of binary data to the screen. This can
77 cause issues with the settings of the current terminal. The problem can be
78 avoided by redirecting the output to a log file as shown above. A
79 successful test will result in the words "ALL DONE" in the log file
82 <para>Install the package:</para>
84 <screen><userinput remap="install">make install</userinput></screen>
86 <para>Many users are used to using <command>vi</command> instead of
87 <command>vim</command>. To allow execution of <command>vim</command>
88 when users habitually enter <command>vi</command>, create a
89 symlink for both the binary and the man page in the provided
92 <screen><userinput remap="install">ln -sv vim /usr/bin/vi
93 for L in /usr/share/man/{,*/}man1/vim.1; do
94 ln -sv vim.1 $(dirname $L)/vi.1
95 done</userinput></screen>
97 <para>By default, vim's documentation is installed in <filename
98 class="directory">/usr/share/vim</filename>. The following symlink
99 allows the documentation to be accessed via <filename
100 class="directory">/usr/share/doc/vim-&vim-version;</filename>, making
101 it consistent with the location of documentation for other packages:</para>
103 <screen><userinput remap="install">ln -sv ../&vim-docdir;/doc /usr/share/doc/vim-&vim-version;</userinput></screen>
105 <para>If an X Window System is going to be installed on the LFS
106 system, it may be necessary to recompile vim after installing X. Vim
107 comes with a GUI version of the editor that requires X and some
108 additional libraries to be installed. For more information on this
109 process, refer to the vim documentation and the vim installation page
110 in the BLFS book at <ulink
111 url="&blfs-book;postlfs/vim.html"/>.</para>
115 <sect2 id="conf-vim" role="configuration">
116 <title>Configuring Vim</title>
118 <indexterm zone="conf-vim">
119 <primary sortas="e-/etc/vimrc">/etc/vimrc</primary>
122 <para>By default, <command>vim</command> runs in vi-incompatible mode.
123 This may be new to users who have used other editors in the past. The
124 <quote>nocompatible</quote> setting is included below to highlight the
125 fact that a new behavior is being used. It also reminds those who would
126 change to <quote>compatible</quote> mode that it should be the first
127 setting in the configuration file. This is necessary because it changes
128 other settings, and overrides must come after this setting. Create a default
129 <command>vim</command> configuration file by running the following:</para>
131 <screen><userinput>cat > /etc/vimrc << "EOF"
132 <literal>" Begin /etc/vimrc
134 " Ensure defaults are set before customizing settings, not after
135 source $VIMRUNTIME/defaults.vim
136 let skip_defaults_vim=1
142 if (&term == "xterm") || (&term == "putty")
146 " End /etc/vimrc</literal>
147 EOF</userinput></screen>
149 <para>The <parameter>set nocompatible</parameter> setting makes
150 <command>vim</command> behave in a more useful way (the default) than the
151 vi-compatible manner. Remove the <quote>no</quote> to keep the old
152 <command>vi</command> behavior. The <parameter>set backspace=2</parameter>
153 setting allows backspacing over line breaks, autoindents, and the start of
154 an insert. The <parameter>syntax on</parameter> parameter enables vim's syntax
155 highlighting. The <parameter>set mouse=</parameter> setting enables
156 proper pasting of text with the mouse when working in chroot or over a
157 remote connection. Finally, the <emphasis>if</emphasis> statement with the
158 <parameter>set background=dark</parameter> setting corrects
159 <command>vim</command>'s guess about the background color of some terminal
160 emulators. This gives the highlighting a better color scheme for use on the
161 black background of these programs.</para>
163 <para>Documentation for other available options can be obtained by
164 running the following command:</para>
166 <screen role="nodump"><userinput>vim -c ':options'</userinput></screen>
169 <para>By default, vim only installs spell files for the English language.
170 To install spell files for your preferred language, download the
171 <filename>*.spl</filename> and optionally, the <filename>*.sug</filename>
172 files for your language and character encoding from <ulink
173 url="ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/runtime/spell/"/> and save them to
174 <filename class='directory'>/usr/share/&vim-docdir;/spell/</filename>.</para>
176 <para>To use these spell files, some configuration in
177 <filename>/etc/vimrc</filename> is needed, e.g.:</para>
179 <screen><literal>set spelllang=en,ru
180 set spell</literal></screen>
182 <para>For more information, see the appropriate README file located
183 at the URL above.</para>
188 <sect2 id="contents-vim" role="content">
189 <title>Contents of Vim</title>
192 <segtitle>Installed programs</segtitle>
193 <segtitle>Installed directory</segtitle>
196 <seg> ex (link to vim), rview (link to vim), rvim (link to vim), vi
197 (link to vim), view (link to vim), vim, vimdiff (link to vim), vimtutor,
199 <seg>/usr/share/vim</seg>
204 <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Short Descriptions</bridgehead>
205 <?dbfo list-presentation="list"?>
206 <?dbhtml list-presentation="table"?>
208 <varlistentry id="ex">
209 <term><command>ex</command></term>
211 <para>Starts <command>vim</command> in ex mode</para>
212 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim ex">
213 <primary sortas="b-ex">ex</primary>
218 <varlistentry id="rview">
219 <term><command>rview</command></term>
221 <para>Is a restricted version of <command>view</command>; no shell
222 commands can be started and <command>view</command> cannot be
224 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim rview">
225 <primary sortas="b-rview">rview</primary>
230 <varlistentry id="rvim">
231 <term><command>rvim</command></term>
233 <para>Is a restricted version of <command>vim</command>; no shell
234 commands can be started and <command>vim</command> cannot be
236 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim rvim">
237 <primary sortas="b-rvim">rvim</primary>
242 <varlistentry id="vi">
243 <term><command>vi</command></term>
245 <para>Link to <command>vim</command></para>
246 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vi">
247 <primary sortas="b-vi">vi</primary>
252 <varlistentry id="view">
253 <term><command>view</command></term>
255 <para>Starts <command>vim</command> in read-only mode</para>
256 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim view">
257 <primary sortas="b-view">view</primary>
262 <varlistentry id="vim">
263 <term><command>vim</command></term>
265 <para>Is the editor</para>
266 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vim">
267 <primary sortas="b-vim">vim</primary>
272 <varlistentry id="vimdiff">
273 <term><command>vimdiff</command></term>
275 <para>Edits two or three versions of a file with <command>vim</command>
276 and shows differences</para>
277 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vimdiff">
278 <primary sortas="b-vimdiff">vimdiff</primary>
283 <varlistentry id="vimtutor">
284 <term><command>vimtutor</command></term>
286 <para>Teaches the basic keys and commands of
287 <command>vim</command></para>
288 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vimtutor">
289 <primary sortas="b-vimtutor">vimtutor</primary>
294 <varlistentry id="xxd">
295 <term><command>xxd</command></term>
297 <para>Creates a hex dump of the given file; it can
298 also do the reverse, so it can be used for binary patching</para>
299 <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim xxd">
300 <primary sortas="b-xxd">xxd</primary>