README
1vim is configured with the following arguments:
2--prefix="/usr"
3--mandir="/usr/share/man"
4--infodir="/usr/share/info"
5--disable-dependency-tracking
6--enable-cscope
7--enable-gui=no
8--without-x
9--enable-multibyte
10--disable-darwin
11
README.txt
1README.txt for version 7.3 of Vim: Vi IMproved.
2
3
4WHAT IS VIM
5
6Vim is an almost compatible version of the UNIX editor Vi. Many new features
7have been added: multi-level undo, syntax highlighting, command line history,
8on-line help, spell checking, filename completion, block operations, etc.
9There is also a Graphical User Interface (GUI) available. See
10"runtime/doc/vi_diff.txt" for differences with Vi.
11
12This editor is very useful for editing programs and other plain text files.
13All commands are given with normal keyboard characters, so those who can type
14with ten fingers can work very fast. Additionally, function keys can be
15defined by the user, and the mouse can be used.
16
17Vim runs under Amiga DOS, MS-DOS, MS-Windows (95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, Vista,
187), Atari MiNT, Macintosh, BeOS, VMS, RISC OS, OS/2 and almost all flavours of
19UNIX. Porting to other systems should not be very difficult.
20
21
22DISTRIBUTION
23
24There are separate distributions for Unix, PC, Amiga and some other systems.
25This README.txt file comes with the runtime archive. It includes the
26documentation, syntax files and other files that are used at runtime. To run
27Vim you must get either one of the binary archives or a source archive.
28Which one you need depends on the system you want to run it on and whether you
29want or must compile it yourself. Check "http://www.vim.org/download.php" for
30an overview of currently available distributions.
31
32
33DOCUMENTATION
34
35The vim tutor is a one hour training course for beginners. Mostly it can be
36started as "vimtutor". See ":help tutor" for more information.
37
38The best is to use ":help" in Vim. If you don't have an executable yet, read
39"runtime/doc/help.txt". It contains pointers to the other documentation
40files. The User Manual reads like a book and is recommended to learn to use
41Vim. See ":help user-manual".
42
43
44COPYING
45
46Vim is Charityware. You can use and copy it as much as you like, but you are
47encouraged to make a donation to help orphans in Uganda. Please read the file
48"runtime/doc/uganda.txt" for details (do ":help uganda" inside Vim).
49
50Summary of the license: There are no restrictions on using or distributing an
51unmodified copy of Vim. Parts of Vim may also be distributed, but the license
52text must always be included. For modified versions a few restrictions apply.
53The license is GPL compatible, you may compile Vim with GPL libraries and
54distribute it.
55
56
57SPONSORING
58
59Fixing bugs and adding new features takes a lot of time and effort. To show
60your appreciation for the work and motivate Bram and others to continue
61working on Vim please send a donation.
62
63Since Bram is back to a paid job the money will now be used to help children
64in Uganda. See runtime/doc/uganda.txt. But at the same time donations
65increase Bram's motivation to keep working on Vim!
66
67For the most recent information about sponsoring look on the Vim web site:
68
69 http://www.vim.org/sponsor/
70
71
72COMPILING
73
74If you obtained a binary distribution you don't need to compile Vim. If you
75obtained a source distribution, all the stuff for compiling Vim is in the
76"src" directory. See src/INSTALL for instructions.
77
78
79INSTALLATION
80
81See one of these files for system-specific instructions:
82README_ami.txt Amiga
83README_unix.txt Unix
84README_dos.txt MS-DOS and MS-Windows
85README_os2.txt OS/2
86README_mac.txt Macintosh
87README_vms.txt VMS
88
89There are more README_*.txt files, depending on the distribution you used.
90
91
92INFORMATION
93
94The latest news about Vim can be found on the Vim home page:
95 http://www.vim.org/
96
97If you have problems, have a look at the Vim FAQ:
98 http://vimdoc.sf.net/vimfaq.html
99
100Send bug reports to:
101 Bram Moolenaar <Bram@vim.org>
102
103There are several mailing lists for Vim, see http://www.vim.org/maillist.php.
104
105
106MAIN AUTHOR
107
108Send any other comments, patches, flowers and suggestions to:
109
110 Bram Moolenaar E-mail: Bram@vim.org
111 Finsterruetihof 1
112 8134 Adliswil
113 Switzerland
114
README_ami.txt
1README_ami.txt for version 7.3 of Vim: Vi IMproved.
2
3This file explains the installation of Vim on Amiga systems.
4See README.txt for general information about Vim.
5
6
7Unpack the distributed files in the place where you want to keep them. It is
8wise to have a "vim" directory to keep your vimrc file and any other files you
9change. The distributed files go into a subdirectory. This way you can
10easily upgrade to a new version. For example:
11
12 dh0:editors/vim contains your vimrc and modified files
13 dh0:editors/vim/vim54 contains the Vim version 5.4 distributed files
14 dh0:editors/vim/vim55 contains the Vim version 5.5 distributed files
15
16You would then unpack the archives like this:
17
18 cd dh0:editors
19 tar xf t:vim60bin.tar
20 tar xf t:vim60rt.tar
21
22Set the $VIM environment variable to point to the top directory of your Vim
23files. For the above example:
24
25 set VIM=dh0:editors/vim
26
27Vim version 5.4 will look for your vimrc file in $VIM, and for the runtime
28files in $VIM/vim54. See ":help $VIM" for more information.
29
30Make sure the Vim executable is in your search path. Either copy the Vim
31executable to a directory that is in your search path, or (preferred) modify
32the search path to include the directory where the Vim executable is.
33
README_amibin.txt
1README_amibin.txt for version 7.3 of Vim: Vi IMproved.
2
3See "README.txt" for general information about Vim.
4See "README_ami.txt" for installation instructions for the Amiga.
5These files are in the runtime archive (vim60rt.tgz).
6
7
8The Amiga "bin" archive contains the Vim executable for the Amiga. It was
9compiled with "big" features.
10
11Postscript printing is not included to avoid requiring floating point
12computations.
13
README_amisrc.txt
README_bindos.txt
README_dos.txt
1README_dos.txt for version 7.3 of Vim: Vi IMproved.
2
3This file explains the installation of Vim on MS-DOS and MS-Windows systems.
4See "README.txt" for general information about Vim.
5
6There are two ways to install Vim:
7A. Use the self-installing .exe file.
8B. Unpack .zip files and run the install.exe program.
9
10
11A. Using the self-installing .exe
12---------------------------------
13
14This is mostly self-explaining. Just follow the prompts and make the
15selections. A few things to watch out for:
16
17- When an existing installation is detected, you are offered to first remove
18 this. The uninstall program is then started while the install program waits
19 for it to complete. Sometimes the windows overlap each other, which can be
20 confusing. Be sure the complete the uninstalling before continuing the
21 installation. Watch the taskbar for uninstall windows.
22
23- When selecting a directory to install Vim, use the same place where other
24 versions are located. This makes it easier to find your _vimrc file. For
25 example "C:\Program Files\vim" or "D:\vim". A name ending in "vim" is
26 preferred.
27
28- After selecting the directory where to install Vim, clicking on "Next" will
29 start the installation.
30
31
32B. Using .zip files
33-------------------
34
35These are the normal steps to install Vim from the .zip archives:
36
371. Go to the directory where you want to put the Vim files. Examples:
38 cd C:\
39 cd D:\editors
40 If you already have a "vim" directory, go to the directory in which it is
41 located. Check the $VIM setting to see where it points to:
42 set VIM
43 For example, if you have
44 C:\vim\vim54
45 do
46 cd C:\
47 Binary and runtime Vim archives are normally unpacked in the same location,
48 on top of each other.
49
502. Unpack the zip archives. This will create a new directory "vim\vim73",
51 in which all the distributed Vim files are placed. Since the directory
52 name includes the version number, it is unlikely that you overwrite
53 existing files.
54 Examples:
55 pkunzip -d gvim73.zip
56 unzip vim73w32.zip
57
58 You need to unpack the runtime archive and at least one of the binary
59 archives. When using more than one binary version, be careful not to
60 overwrite one version with the other, the names of the executables
61 "vim.exe" and "gvim.exe" are the same.
62
63 After you unpacked the files, you can still move the whole directory tree
64 to another location. That is where they will stay, the install program
65 won't move or copy the runtime files.
66
67 Only for the 32 bit DOS version on MS-DOS without DPMI support (trying to
68 run install.exe will produce an error message): Unpack the CSDPMI4B.ZIP
69 archive and follow the instructions in the documentation.
70
713. Change to the new directory:
72 cd vim\vim73
73 Run the "install.exe" program. It will ask you a number of questions about
74 how you would like to have your Vim setup. Among these are:
75 - You can tell it to write a "_vimrc" file with your preferences in the
76 parent directory.
77 - It can also install an "Edit with Vim" entry in the Windows Explorer
78 popup menu.
79 - You can have it create batch files, so that you can run Vim from the
80 console or in a shell. You can select one of the directories in your
81 $PATH. If you skip this, you can add Vim to the search path manually:
82 The simplest is to add a line to your autoexec.bat. Examples:
83 set path=%path%;C:\vim\vim73
84 set path=%path%;D:\editors\vim\vim73
85 - Create entries for Vim on the desktop and in the Start menu.
86
87That's it!
88
89
90Remarks:
91
92- If Vim can't find the runtime files, ":help" won't work and the GUI version
93 won't show a menubar. Then you need to set the $VIM environment variable to
94 point to the top directory of your Vim files. Example:
95 set VIM=C:\editors\vim
96 Vim version 7.3 will look for your vimrc file in $VIM, and for the runtime
97 files in $VIM/vim73. See ":help $VIM" for more information.
98
99- To avoid confusion between distributed files of different versions and your
100 own modified vim scripts, it is recommended to use this directory layout:
101 ("C:\vim" is used here as the root, replace it with the path you use)
102 Your own files:
103 C:\vim\_vimrc Your personal vimrc.
104 C:\vim\_viminfo Dynamic info for 'viminfo'.
105 C:\vim\vimfiles\ftplugin\*.vim Filetype plugins
106 C:\vim\... Other files you made.
107 Distributed files:
108 C:\vim\vim73\vim.exe The Vim version 7.3 executable.
109 C:\vim\vim73\doc\*.txt The version 7.3 documentation files.
110 C:\vim\vim73\bugreport.vim A Vim version 7.3 script.
111 C:\vim\vim73\... Other version 7.3 distributed files.
112 In this case the $VIM environment variable would be set like this:
113 set VIM=C:\vim
114 Then $VIMRUNTIME will automatically be set to "$VIM\vim73". Don't add
115 "vim73" to $VIM, that won't work.
116
117- You can put your Vim executable anywhere else. If the executable is not
118 with the other Vim files, you should set $VIM. The simplest is to add a line
119 to your autoexec.bat. Examples:
120 set VIM=c:\vim
121 set VIM=d:\editors\vim
122
123- If you have told the "install.exe" program to add the "Edit with Vim" menu
124 entry, you can remove it by running the "uninstal.exe". See
125 ":help win32-popup-menu".
126
127- In Windows 95/98/NT you can create a shortcut to Vim. This works for all
128 DOS and Win32 console versions. For the console version this gives you the
129 opportunity to set defaults for the Console where Vim runs in.
130
131 1. On the desktop, click right to get a menu. Select New/Shortcut.
132 2. In the dialog, enter Command line: "C:\command.com". Click "Next".
133 3. Enter any name. Click "Finish".
134 The new shortcut will appear on the desktop.
135 4. With the mouse pointer on the new shortcut, click right to get a menu.
136 Select Properties.
137 5. In the Program tab, change the "Cmdline" to add "/c" and the name of the
138 Vim executable. Examples:
139 C:\command.com /c C:\vim\vim73\vim.exe
140 C:\command.com /c D:\editors\vim\vim73\vim.exe
141 6. Select the font, window size, etc. that you like. If this isn't
142 possible, select "Advanced" in the Program tab, and deselect "MS-DOS
143 mode".
144 7. Click OK.
145
146 For gvim, you can use a normal shortcut on the desktop, and set the size of
147 the Window in your $VIM/_gvimrc:
148 set lines=30 columns=90
149
150
151For further information, type one of these inside Vim:
152 :help dos
153 :help msdos
154 :help win32
155
README_extra.txt
README_lang.txt
1README_lang.txt for version 7.2 of Vim: Vi IMproved.
2
3This file contains files for non-English languages:
4- Translated messages.
5- Translated menus.
6
README_mac.txt
1README_mac.txt for version 7.3 of Vim: Vi IMproved.
2
3This file explains the installation of Vim on Macintosh systems.
4See "README.txt" for general information about Vim.
5
6
7Sorry, this text still needs to be written!
8
9
README_ole.txt
1README_ole.txt for version 7.3 of Vim: Vi IMproved.
2
3This archive contains gvim.exe with OLE interface and VisVim.
4This version of gvim.exe can also load a number of interface dynamically (you
5can optionally install the .dll files for each interface).
6It is only for MS-Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.
7
8Also see the README_bindos.txt, README_dos.txt and README.txt files.
9
10Be careful not to overwrite the OLE gvim.exe with the non-OLE gvim.exe when
11unpacking another binary archive! Check the output of ":version":
12 Win32s - "MS-Windows 16/32 bit GUI version"
13 Win32 - "MS-Windows 32 bit GUI version"
14Win32 with OLE - "MS-Windows 32 bit GUI version with OLE support"
15
16For further information, type this inside Vim:
17 :help if_ole
18
19Furthermore, this archive contains VISVIM.DLL. It can be used to integrate
20the OLE gvim with Microsoft Visual Developer Studio. See VisVim/README.txt.
21
README_os2.txt
1README_os2.txt for version 7.3 of Vim: Vi IMproved.
2
3This file explains the installation of Vim on OS/2 systems.
4See "README.txt" for general information about Vim.
5
6
7NOTE: You will need two archives:
8 vim73rt.zip contains the runtime files (same as for the PC version)
9 vim73os2.zip contains the OS/2 executables
10
111. Go to the directory where you want to put the Vim files. Examples:
12 cd C:\
13 cd D:\editors
14
152. Unpack the zip archives. This will create a new directory "vim/vim73",
16 in which all the distributed Vim files are placed. Since the directory
17 name includes the version number, it is unlikely that you overwrite
18 existing files.
19 Examples:
20 pkunzip -d vim73os2.zip
21 unzip vim73os2.zip
22
23 After you unpacked the files, you can still move the whole directory tree
24 to another location.
25
263. Add the directory where vim.exe is to your path. The simplest is to add a
27 line to your autoexec.bat. Examples:
28 set path=%path%;C:\vim\vim73
29 set path=%path%;D:\editors\vim\vim73
30
31That's it!
32
33
34Extra remarks:
35
36- To avoid confusion between distributed files of different versions and your
37 own modified vim scripts, it is recommended to use this directory layout:
38 ("C:\vim" is used here as the root, replace with the path you use)
39 Your own files:
40 C:\vim\_vimrc Your personal vimrc.
41 C:\vim\_viminfo Dynamic info for 'viminfo'.
42 C:\vim\... Other files you made.
43 Distributed files:
44 C:\vim\vim73\vim.exe The Vim version 7.3 executable.
45 C:\vim\vim73\doc\*.txt The version 7.3 documentation files.
46 C:\vim\vim73\bugreport.vim A Vim version 7.3 script.
47 C:\vim\vim73\... Other version 7.3 distributed files.
48 In this case the $VIM environment variable would be set like this:
49 set VIM=C:\vim
50
51- You can put your Vim executable anywhere else. If the executable is not
52 with the other distributed Vim files, you should set $VIM. The simplest is
53 to add a line to your autoexec.bat. Examples:
54 set VIM=c:\vim
55 set VIM=d:\editors\vim
56
57For further information, type this inside Vim:
58 :help os2
59
README_os390.txt
1README_zOS.txt for version 7.3 of Vim: Vi IMproved.
2
3This readme explains how to build Vim on z/OS. Formerly called OS/390.
4See "README.txt" for general information about Vim.
5
6Most likely there are not many users out there using Vim on z/OS. So chances
7are good, that some bugs are still undiscovered.
8
9Getting the source to z/OS:
10==========================
11
12First get the source code in one big tar file and ftp it a binary to z/OS. If
13the tar file is initially compressed with gzip (tar.gz) or bzip2 (tar.bz2)
14uncompress it on your PC, as this tools are (most likely) not available on the
15mainframe.
16
17To reduce the size of the tar file you might compress it into a zip file. On
18z/OS Unix you might have the command "jar" from java to uncompress a zip. Use:
19 jar xvf <zip file name>
20
21Unpack the tar file on z/OS with
22 pax -o from=ISO8859-1,to=IBM-1047 -rf vim.tar
23
24Note: The Vim source contains a few bitmaps etc which will be destroyed by
25this command, but these files are not needed on zOS (at least not for the
26console version).
27
28
29Compiling:
30==========
31
32Vim can be compiled with or without GUI support. For 7.3 only the compilation
33without GUI was tested. Below is a section about compiling with X11 but this
34is from an earlier version of Vim.
35
36Console only:
37-------------
38
39If you build VIM without X11 support, compiling and building is nearly
40straightforward.
41
42Change to the vim directory and do:
43
44 # Don't use c89!
45 # Allow intermixing of compiler options and files.
46
47 $ export CC=cc
48 $ export _CC_CCMODE=1
49 $./configure --with-features=big --without-x --enable-gui=no
50 $ cd src
51 $ make
52
53 There may be warnings:
54 - include files not found (libc, sys/param.h, ...)
55 - Redeclaration of ... differs from ...
56 -- just ignore them.
57
58 $ make test
59
60 This will produce lots of garbage on your screen (including error
61 messages). Don't worry.
62
63 If the test stops at one point in vim (might happen in test 11), just
64 press :q!
65
66 Expected test failures:
67 11: If you don't have gzip installed
68 24: test of backslash sequences in regexp are ASCII dependent
69 42: Multibyte is not supported on z/OS
70 55: ASCII<->EBCDIC sorting
71 57: ASCII<->EBCDIC sorting
72 58: Spell checking is not supported with EBCDIC
73 71: Blowfish encryption doesn't work
74
75 $ make install
76
77
78With X11:
79---------
80
81WARNING: This instruction was not tested with Vim 7.3.
82
83There are two ways for building VIM with X11 support. The first way is simple
84and results in a big executable (~13 Mb), the second needs a few additional
85steps and results in a much smaller executable (~4.5 Mb). This examples assume
86you want Motif.
87
88 The easy way:
89 $ export CC=cc
90 $ export _CC_CCMODE=1
91 $ ./configure --enable-max-features --enable-gui=motif
92 $ cd src
93 $ make
94
95 With this VIM is linked statically with the X11 libraries.
96
97 The smarter way:
98 Make VIM as described above. Then create a file named 'link.sed' with the
99 following content (see src/link.390):
100
101 s/-lXext *//g
102 s/-lXmu *//g
103 s/-lXm */\/usr\/lib\/Xm.x /g
104 s/-lX11 */\/usr\/lib\/X11.x /g
105 s/-lXt *//g
106 s/-lSM */\/usr\/lib\/SM.x /g
107 s/-lICE */\/usr\/lib\/ICE.x /g
108
109 Then do:
110 $ rm vim
111 $ make
112
113 Now Vim is linked with the X11-DLLs.
114
115 See the Makefile and the file link.sh on how link.sed is used.
116
117
118
README_src.txt
1README_src.txt for version 7.3 of Vim: Vi IMproved.
2
3The source archive contains the files needed to compile Vim on Unix systems.
4It is packed for Unix systems (NL line separator). It is also used for other
5systems in combination with the extra archive (vim-7.3-extra.tar.gz, in the
6"extra" directory of ftp.vim.org).
7
8For more information, see the README.txt file that comes with the runtime
9archive (vim-7.3-rt.tar.gz). To be able to run Vim you MUST get the runtime
10archive too!
11
README_srcdos.txt
1README_srcdos.txt for version 7.3 of Vim: Vi IMproved.
2
3See "README.txt" for general information about Vim.
4See "README_dos.txt" for installation instructions for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
5These files are in the runtime archive (vim73rt.zip).
6
7
8The DOS source archive contains the files needed to compile Vim on MS-DOS or
9MS-Windows. It is packed for DOS systems, with CR-LF. It also includes the
10VisVim sources.
11
12See "src/INSTALLpc.txt" for instructions on how to compile Vim on the PC.
13
README_unix.txt
1README_unix.txt for version 7.3 of Vim: Vi IMproved.
2
3This file explains the installation of Vim on Unix systems.
4See "README.txt" for general information about Vim.
5
6
7When you use the source distribution, "make install" is used to install Vim.
8See the "INSTALL" file in the "src" directory.
9
10If you use a compiled package, follow the instructions for the package.
11
README_vms.txt
README_w32s.txt
1README_w32s.txt for version 7.3 of Vim: Vi IMproved.
2
3This archive contains the gvim.exe that was specifically compiled for use in
4the Win32s subsystem in MS-Windows 3.1 and 3.11.
5
6Also see the README_bindos.txt, README_dos.txt and README.txt files.
7
8Be careful not to overwrite the Win32s gvim.exe with the another gvim.exe when
9unpacking another binary archive! Check the output of ":version":
10 Win32s - "MS-Windows 16/32 bit GUI version"
11 Win32 - "MS-Windows 32 bit GUI version"
12Win32 with OLE - "MS-Windows 32 bit GUI version with OLE support"
13
14For further information, type this inside Vim:
15 :help win32s
16