10.98. Vim-8.0

The Vim package contains a powerful text editor.

10.98.1. Installation of Vim

The following patch merges all updates from the 8.0 Branch from the Vim developers:

patch -Np1 -i ../vim-8.0-branch_update-1.patch

Change the default location of the vimrc configuration file to /etc:

echo '#define SYS_VIMRC_FILE "/etc/vimrc"' >> src/feature.h

Prepare Vim for compilation:

CC="gcc ${BUILD64}" CXX="g++ ${BUILD64}" \
./configure \
 --prefix=/usr

Compile the package:

make

To test the results, issue:

make test

However, this test suite outputs a lot of binary data to the screen, which can cause issues with the settings of the current terminal. This can be resolved by redirecting the output to a log file.

Install the package:

make -j1 install

Many users are accustomed to using vi instead of vim. Some programs, such as vigr and vipw, also use vi. Create a symlink to permit execution of vim when users habitually enter vi and allow programs that use vi to work:

ln -sv vim /usr/bin/vi

By default, Vim's documentation is installed in /usr/share/vim. The following symlink allows the documentation to be accessed via /usr/share/doc/vim-8.0, making it consistent with the location of documentation for other packages:

ln -sv ../vim/vim0597/doc /usr/share/doc/vim-8.0

If an X Window System is going to be installed on the CLFS system, you may want to recompile Vim after installing X. Vim comes with a GUI version of the editor that requires X and some additional libraries to be installed. For more information, refer to the Vim documentation and the Vim installation page in CBLFS at http://cblfs.clfs.org/index.php/Vim.

10.98.2. Configuring Vim

By default, vim runs in vi-incompatible mode. This may be new to users who have used other editors in the past. The “nocompatible” setting is included below to highlight the fact that a new behavior is being used. It also reminds those who would change to “compatible” mode that it should be the first setting in the configuration file. This is necessary because it changes other settings, and overrides must come after this setting. Create a default vim configuration file by running the following:

cat > /etc/vimrc << "EOF"
" Begin /etc/vimrc
set nocompatible
set backspace=2
set ruler
syntax on
if (&term == "iterm") || (&term == "putty")
 set background=dark
endif
" End /etc/vimrc
EOF

The set nocompatible makes vim behave in a more useful way (the default) than the vi-compatible manner. Remove the “no” to keep the old vi behavior. The set backspace=2 allows backspacing over line breaks, autoindents, and the start of insert. The syntax on enables vim's syntax highlighting. Finally, the if statement with the set background=dark corrects vim's guess about the background color of some terminal emulators. This gives the highlighting a better color scheme for use on the black background of these programs.

Documentation for other available options can be obtained by running the following command:

vim -c ':options'

10.98.3. Contents of Vim