1*usr_90.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2008 Sep 10 2 3 VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar 4 5 Installing Vim 6 7 *install* 8Before you can use Vim you have to install it. Depending on your system it's 9simple or easy. This chapter gives a few hints and also explains how 10upgrading to a new version is done. 11 12|90.1| Unix 13|90.2| MS-Windows 14|90.3| Upgrading 15|90.4| Common installation issues 16|90.5| Uninstalling Vim 17 18 Previous chapter: |usr_45.txt| Select your language 19Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt| 20 21============================================================================== 22*90.1* Unix 23 24First you have to decide if you are going to install Vim system-wide or for a 25single user. The installation is almost the same, but the directory where Vim 26is installed in differs. 27 For a system-wide installation the base directory "/usr/local" is often 28used. But this may be different for your system. Try finding out where other 29packages are installed. 30 When installing for a single user, you can use your home directory as the 31base. The files will be placed in subdirectories like "bin" and "shared/vim". 32 33 34FROM A PACKAGE 35 36You can get precompiled binaries for many different UNIX systems. There is a 37long list with links on this page: 38 39 http://www.vim.org/binaries.html ~ 40 41Volunteers maintain the binaries, so they are often out of date. It is a 42good idea to compile your own UNIX version from the source. Also, creating 43the editor from the source allows you to control which features are compiled. 44This does require a compiler though. 45 46If you have a Linux distribution, the "vi" program is probably a minimal 47version of Vim. It doesn't do syntax highlighting, for example. Try finding 48another Vim package in your distribution, or search on the web site. 49 50 51FROM SOURCES 52 53To compile and install Vim, you will need the following: 54 55 - A C compiler (GCC preferred) 56 - The GZIP program (you can get it from www.gnu.org) 57 - The Vim source and runtime archives 58 59To get the Vim archives, look in this file for a mirror near you, this should 60provide the fastest download: 61 62 ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/MIRRORS ~ 63 64Or use the home site ftp.vim.org, if you think it's fast enough. Go to the 65"unix" directory and you'll find a list of files there. The version number is 66embedded in the file name. You will want to get the most recent version. 67 You can get the files for Unix in two ways: One big archive that contains 68everything, or four smaller ones that each fit on a floppy disk. For version 696.1 the single big one is called: 70 71 vim-6.1.tar.bz2 ~ 72 73You need the bzip2 program to uncompress it. If you don't have it, get the 74four smaller files, which can be uncompressed with gzip. For Vim 6.1 they are 75called: 76 77 vim-6.1-src1.tar.gz ~ 78 vim-6.1-src2.tar.gz ~ 79 vim-6.1-rt1.tar.gz ~ 80 vim-6.1-rt2.tar.gz ~ 81 82 83COMPILING 84 85First create a top directory to work in, for example: > 86 87 mkdir ~/vim 88 cd ~/vim 89 90Then unpack the archives there. If you have the one big archive, you unpack 91it like this: > 92 93 bzip2 -d -c path/vim-6.1.tar.bz2 | tar xf - 94 95Change "path" to where you have downloaded the file. > 96 97 gzip -d -c path/vim-6.1-src1.tar.gz | tar xf - 98 gzip -d -c path/vim-6.1-src2.tar.gz | tar xf - 99 gzip -d -c path/vim-6.1-rt1.tar.gz | tar xf - 100 gzip -d -c path/vim-6.1-rt2.tar.gz | tar xf - 101 102If you are satisfied with getting the default features, and your environment 103is setup properly, you should be able to compile Vim with just this: > 104 105 cd vim61/src 106 make 107 108The make program will run configure and compile everything. Further on we 109will explain how to compile with different features. 110 If there are errors while compiling, carefully look at the error messages. 111There should be a hint about what went wrong. Hopefully you will be able to 112correct it. You might have to disable some features to make Vim compile. 113Look in the Makefile for specific hints for your system. 114 115 116TESTING 117 118Now you can check if compiling worked OK: > 119 120 make test 121 122This will run a sequence of test scripts to verify that Vim works as expected. 123Vim will be started many times and all kinds of text and messages flash by. 124If it is alright you will finally see: 125 126 test results: ~ 127 ALL DONE ~ 128 129If you get "TEST FAILURE" some test failed. If there are one or two messages 130about failed tests, Vim might still work, but not perfectly. If you see a lot 131of error messages or Vim doesn't finish until the end, there must be something 132wrong. Either try to find out yourself, or find someone who can solve it. 133You could look in the |maillist-archive| for a solution. If everything else 134fails, you could ask in the vim |maillist| if someone can help you. 135 136 137INSTALLING 138 *install-home* 139If you want to install in your home directory, edit the Makefile and search 140for a line: 141 142 #prefix = $(HOME) ~ 143 144Remove the # at the start of the line. 145 When installing for the whole system, Vim has most likely already selected 146a good installation directory for you. You can also specify one, see below. 147You need to become root for the following. 148 149To install Vim do: > 150 151 make install 152 153That should move all the relevant files to the right place. Now you can try 154running vim to verify that it works. Use two simple tests to check if Vim can 155find its runtime files: > 156 157 :help 158 :syntax enable 159 160If this doesn't work, use this command to check where Vim is looking for the 161runtime files: > 162 163 :echo $VIMRUNTIME 164 165You can also start Vim with the "-V" argument to see what happens during 166startup: > 167 168 vim -V 169 170Don't forget that the user manual assumes you Vim in a certain way. After 171installing Vim, follow the instructions at |not-compatible| to make Vim work 172as assumed in this manual. 173 174 175SELECTING FEATURES 176 177Vim has many ways to select features. One of the simple ways is to edit the 178Makefile. There are many directions and examples. Often you can enable or 179disable a feature by uncommenting a line. 180 An alternative is to run "configure" separately. This allows you to 181specify configuration options manually. The disadvantage is that you have to 182figure out what exactly to type. 183 Some of the most interesting configure arguments follow. These can also be 184enabled from the Makefile. 185 186 --prefix={directory} Top directory where to install Vim. 187 188 --with-features=tiny Compile with many features disabled. 189 --with-features=small Compile with some features disabled. 190 --with-features=big Compile with more features enabled. 191 --with-features=huge Compile with most features enabled. 192 See |+feature-list| for which feature 193 is enabled in which case. 194 195 --enable-perlinterp Enable the Perl interface. There are 196 similar arguments for ruby, python and 197 tcl. 198 199 --disable-gui Do not compile the GUI interface. 200 --without-x Do not compile X-windows features. 201 When both of these are used, Vim will 202 not connect to the X server, which 203 makes startup faster. 204 205To see the whole list use: > 206 207 ./configure --help 208 209You can find a bit of explanation for each feature, and links for more 210information here: |feature-list|. 211 For the adventurous, edit the file "feature.h". You can also change the 212source code yourself! 213 214============================================================================== 215*90.2* MS-Windows 216 217There are two ways to install the Vim program for Microsoft Windows. You can 218uncompress several archives, or use a self-installing big archive. Most users 219with fairly recent computers will prefer the second method. For the first 220one, you will need: 221 222 - An archive with binaries for Vim. 223 - The Vim runtime archive. 224 - A program to unpack the zip files. 225 226To get the Vim archives, look in this file for a mirror near you, this should 227provide the fastest download: 228 229 ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/MIRRORS ~ 230 231Or use the home site ftp.vim.org, if you think it's fast enough. Go to the 232"pc" directory and you'll find a list of files there. The version number is 233embedded in the file name. You will want to get the most recent version. 234We will use "61" here, which is version 6.1. 235 236 gvim61.exe The self-installing archive. 237 238This is all you need for the second method. Just launch the executable, and 239follow the prompts. 240 241For the first method you must chose one of the binary archives. These are 242available: 243 244 gvim61.zip The normal MS-Windows GUI version. 245 gvim61ole.zip The MS-Windows GUI version with OLE support. 246 Uses more memory, supports interfacing with 247 other OLE applications. 248 vim61w32.zip 32 bit MS-Windows console version. For use in 249 a Win NT/2000/XP console. Does not work well 250 on Win 95/98. 251 vim61d32.zip 32 bit MS-DOS version. For use in the 252 Win 95/98 console window. 253 vim61d16.zip 16 bit MS-DOS version. Only for old systems. 254 Does not support long filenames. 255 256You only need one of them. Although you could install both a GUI and a 257console version. You always need to get the archive with runtime files. 258 259 vim61rt.zip The runtime files. 260 261Use your un-zip program to unpack the files. For example, using the "unzip" 262program: > 263 264 cd c:\ 265 unzip path\gvim61.zip 266 unzip path\vim61rt.zip 267 268This will unpack the files in the directory "c:\vim\vim61". If you already 269have a "vim" directory somewhere, you will want to move to the directory just 270above it. 271 Now change to the "vim\vim61" directory and run the install program: > 272 273 install 274 275Carefully look through the messages and select the options you want to use. 276If you finally select "do it" the install program will carry out the actions 277you selected. 278 The install program doesn't move the runtime files. They remain where you 279unpacked them. 280 281In case you are not satisfied with the features included in the supplied 282binaries, you could try compiling Vim yourself. Get the source archive from 283the same location as where the binaries are. You need a compiler for which a 284makefile exists. Microsoft Visual C works, but is expensive. The Free 285Borland command-line compiler 5.5 can be used, as well as the free MingW and 286Cygwin compilers. Check the file src/INSTALLpc.txt for hints. 287 288============================================================================== 289*90.3* Upgrading 290 291If you are running one version of Vim and want to install another, here is 292what to do. 293 294 295UNIX 296 297When you type "make install" the runtime files will be copied to a directory 298which is specific for this version. Thus they will not overwrite a previous 299version. This makes it possible to use two or more versions next to 300each other. 301 The executable "vim" will overwrite an older version. If you don't care 302about keeping the old version, running "make install" will work fine. You can 303delete the old runtime files manually. Just delete the directory with the 304version number in it and all files below it. Example: > 305 306 rm -rf /usr/local/share/vim/vim58 307 308There are normally no changed files below this directory. If you did change 309the "filetype.vim" file, for example, you better merge the changes into the 310new version before deleting it. 311 312If you are careful and want to try out the new version for a while before 313switching to it, install the new version under another name. You need to 314specify a configure argument. For example: > 315 316 ./configure --with-vim-name=vim6 317 318Before running "make install", you could use "make -n install" to check that 319no valuable existing files are overwritten. 320 When you finally decide to switch to the new version, all you need to do is 321to rename the binary to "vim". For example: > 322 323 mv /usr/local/bin/vim6 /usr/local/bin/vim 324 325 326MS-WINDOWS 327 328Upgrading is mostly equal to installing a new version. Just unpack the files 329in the same place as the previous version. A new directory will be created, 330e.g., "vim61", for the files of the new version. Your runtime files, vimrc 331file, viminfo, etc. will be left alone. 332 If you want to run the new version next to the old one, you will have to do 333some handwork. Don't run the install program, it will overwrite a few files 334of the old version. Execute the new binaries by specifying the full path. 335The program should be able to automatically find the runtime files for the 336right version. However, this won't work if you set the $VIMRUNTIME variable 337somewhere. 338 If you are satisfied with the upgrade, you can delete the files of the 339previous version. See |90.5|. 340 341============================================================================== 342*90.4* Common installation issues 343 344This section describes some of the common problems that occur when installing 345Vim and suggests some solutions. It also contains answers to many 346installation questions. 347 348 349Q: I Do Not Have Root Privileges. How Do I Install Vim? (Unix) 350 351Use the following configuration command to install Vim in a directory called 352$HOME/vim: > 353 354 ./configure --prefix=$HOME 355 356This gives you a personal copy of Vim. You need to put $HOME/bin in your 357path to execute the editor. Also see |install-home|. 358 359 360Q: The Colors Are Not Right on My Screen. (Unix) 361 362Check your terminal settings by using the following command in a shell: > 363 364 echo $TERM 365 366If the terminal type listed is not correct, fix it. For more hints, see 367|06.2|. Another solution is to always use the GUI version of Vim, called 368gvim. This avoids the need for a correct terminal setup. 369 370 371Q: My Backspace And Delete Keys Don't Work Right 372 373The definition of what key sends what code is very unclear for backspace <BS> 374and Delete <Del> keys. First of all, check your $TERM setting. If there is 375nothing wrong with it, try this: > 376 377 :set t_kb=^V<BS> 378 :set t_kD=^V<Del> 379 380In the first line you need to press CTRL-V and then hit the backspace key. 381In the second line you need to press CTRL-V and then hit the Delete key. 382You can put these lines in your vimrc file, see |05.1|. A disadvantage is 383that it won't work when you use another terminal some day. Look here for 384alternate solutions: |:fixdel|. 385 386 387Q: I Am Using RedHat Linux. Can I Use the Vim That Comes with the System? 388 389By default RedHat installs a minimal version of Vim. Check your RPM packages 390for something named "Vim-enhanced-version.rpm" and install that. 391 392 393Q: How Do I Turn Syntax Coloring On? How do I make plugins work? 394 395Use the example vimrc script. You can find an explanation on how to use it 396here: |not-compatible|. 397 398See chapter 6 for information about syntax highlighting: |usr_06.txt|. 399 400 401Q: What Is a Good vimrc File to Use? 402 403See the www.vim.org Web site for several good examples. 404 405 406Q: Where Do I Find a Good Vim Plugin? 407 408See the Vim-online site: http://vim.sf.net. Many users have uploaded useful 409Vim scripts and plugins there. 410 411 412Q: Where Do I Find More Tips? 413 414See the Vim-online site: http://vim.sf.net. There is an archive with hints 415from Vim users. You might also want to search in the |maillist-archive|. 416 417============================================================================== 418*90.5* Uninstalling Vim 419 420In the unlikely event you want to uninstall Vim completely, this is how you do 421it. 422 423 424UNIX 425 426When you installed Vim as a package, check your package manager to find out 427how to remove the package again. 428 If you installed Vim from sources you can use this command: > 429 430 make uninstall 431 432However, if you have deleted the original files or you used an archive that 433someone supplied, you can't do this. Do delete the files manually, here is an 434example for when "/usr/local" was used as the root: > 435 436 rm -rf /usr/local/share/vim/vim61 437 rm /usr/local/bin/eview 438 rm /usr/local/bin/evim 439 rm /usr/local/bin/ex 440 rm /usr/local/bin/gview 441 rm /usr/local/bin/gvim 442 rm /usr/local/bin/gvim 443 rm /usr/local/bin/gvimdiff 444 rm /usr/local/bin/rgview 445 rm /usr/local/bin/rgvim 446 rm /usr/local/bin/rview 447 rm /usr/local/bin/rvim 448 rm /usr/local/bin/rvim 449 rm /usr/local/bin/view 450 rm /usr/local/bin/vim 451 rm /usr/local/bin/vimdiff 452 rm /usr/local/bin/vimtutor 453 rm /usr/local/bin/xxd 454 rm /usr/local/man/man1/eview.1 455 rm /usr/local/man/man1/evim.1 456 rm /usr/local/man/man1/ex.1 457 rm /usr/local/man/man1/gview.1 458 rm /usr/local/man/man1/gvim.1 459 rm /usr/local/man/man1/gvimdiff.1 460 rm /usr/local/man/man1/rgview.1 461 rm /usr/local/man/man1/rgvim.1 462 rm /usr/local/man/man1/rview.1 463 rm /usr/local/man/man1/rvim.1 464 rm /usr/local/man/man1/view.1 465 rm /usr/local/man/man1/vim.1 466 rm /usr/local/man/man1/vimdiff.1 467 rm /usr/local/man/man1/vimtutor.1 468 rm /usr/local/man/man1/xxd.1 469 470 471MS-WINDOWS 472 473If you installed Vim with the self-installing archive you can run 474the "uninstall-gui" program located in the same directory as the other Vim 475programs, e.g. "c:\vim\vim61". You can also launch it from the Start menu if 476installed the Vim entries there. This will remove most of the files, menu 477entries and desktop shortcuts. Some files may remain however, as they need a 478Windows restart before being deleted. 479 You will be given the option to remove the whole "vim" directory. It 480probably contains your vimrc file and other runtime files that you created, so 481be careful. 482 483Else, if you installed Vim with the zip archives, the preferred way is to use 484the "uninstal" program (note the missing l at the end). You can find it in 485the same directory as the "install" program, e.g., "c:\vim\vim61". This 486should also work from the usual "install/remove software" page. 487 However, this only removes the registry entries for Vim. You have to 488delete the files yourself. Simply select the directory "vim\vim61" and delete 489it recursively. There should be no files there that you changed, but you 490might want to check that first. 491 The "vim" directory probably contains your vimrc file and other runtime 492files that you created. You might want to keep that. 493 494============================================================================== 495 496Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt| 497 498Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: 499