source: BOOK/final-system/common/vim.xml@ c5136b5

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" [
  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../../general.ent">
  %general-entities;
]>

<sect1 id="ch-system-vim" role="wrap">
  <?dbhtml filename="vim.html"?>

  <title>Vim-&vim-version;</title>

  <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim">
    <primary sortas="a-Vim">Vim</primary>
  </indexterm>

  <sect2 role="package">
    <title/>

    <para>The Vim package contains a powerful text editor.</para>

    <tip>
      <title>Alternatives to Vim</title>

      <para>If you prefer another editor&mdash;such as Emacs, Joe, or
      Nano&mdash;please refer to <ulink
      url="&blfs-root;view/svn/postlfs/editors.html"/>
      for suggested installation instructions.</para>
    </tip>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="installation">
    <title>Installation of Vim</title>

    <para os="a">First, unpack both <filename>vim-&vim-version;.tar.bz2</filename>
    and (optionally) <filename>vim-&vim-version;-lang.tar.gz</filename>
    archives into the same directory.</para>

    <para os="p1">The following patch contains updates from the maintainer. The
    maintainer of Vim only releases these patches to fix serious issues.</para>

<screen os="p2"><userinput>patch -Np1 -i ../&vim-fixes-patch;</userinput></screen>

    <para os="b">Change the default location of
    the <filename>vimrc</filename> configuration file to <filename
    class="directory">/etc</filename>:</para>

<screen os="c"><userinput>echo '#define SYS_VIMRC_FILE "/etc/vimrc"' &gt;&gt; src/feature.h</userinput></screen>

    <para os="d">Prepare Vim for compilation:</para>

<screen os="e"><userinput>./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-multibyte</userinput></screen>

    <variablelist os="f">
      <title>The meaning of the configure options:</title>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><parameter>--enable-multibyte</parameter></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>This optional but highly recommended switch enables support
          for editing files in multibyte character encodings. This is needed
          if using a locale with a multibyte character set. This switch is
          also helpful to be able to edit text files initially created in
          Linux distributions like Fedora Core that use UTF-8 as a default
          character set.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

    </variablelist>

    <para os="g">Compile the package:</para>

<screen os="h"><userinput>make</userinput></screen>

    <para os="i">To test the results, issue: <userinput>make test</userinput>.
    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.</para>

    <para os="j">Install the package:</para>

<screen os="k"><userinput>make install</userinput></screen>

    <para os="l">Many users are used to using <command>vi</command> instead of
    <command>vim</command>. To allow execution of <command>vim</command>
    when users habitually enter <command>vi</command>, create a
    symlink:</para>

<screen os="m"><userinput>ln -sv vim /usr/bin/vi</userinput></screen>

<para os="n">By default, Vim's documentation is installed in
<filename class="directory">/usr/share/vim</filename>.  The following symlink
allows the documentation to be accessed via
<filename class="directory">/usr/share/doc/vim-&vim-version;</filename>, making
it consistent with the location of documentation for other packages:</para>

<screen os="o"><userinput>ln -sv ../vim/vim&vim-version2;/doc /usr/share/doc/vim-&vim-version;</userinput></screen>

    <para os="p">If an X Window System is going to be installed on the LFS
    system, it may be necessary 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 on this
    process, refer to the Vim documentation and the Vim installation page
    in the BLFS book at <ulink
    url="&blfs-root;view/svn/postlfs/editors.html#postlfs-editors-vim"/>.</para>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 id="conf-vim" role="configuration">
    <title>Configuring Vim</title>

    <indexterm zone="conf-vim">
      <primary sortas="e-/etc/vimrc">/etc/vimrc</primary>
    </indexterm>

    <para>By default, <command>vim</command> runs in vi-incompatible mode.
    This may be new to users who have used other editors in the past. The
    <quote>nocompatible</quote> setting is included below to highlight the
    fact that a new behavior is being used. It also reminds those who would
    change to <quote>compatible</quote> 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 <command>vim</command> configuration file by running the
    following:</para>

<screen><userinput>cat &gt; /etc/vimrc &lt;&lt; "EOF"
<literal>" Begin /etc/vimrc

set nocompatible
set backspace=2
syntax on
if (&amp;term == "iterm") || (&amp;term == "putty")
  set background=dark
endif

" End /etc/vimrc</literal>
EOF</userinput></screen>


    <para>The <parameter>set nocompatible</parameter> makes
    <command>vim</command> behave in a more useful way (the default) than
    the vi-compatible manner. Remove the <quote>no</quote> to keep the
    old <command>vi</command> behavior. The <parameter>set
    backspace=2</parameter> allows backspacing over line breaks,
    autoindents, and the start of insert. The <parameter>syntax
    on</parameter> enables vim's syntax highlighting. Finally, the
    <emphasis>if</emphasis> statement with the <parameter>set
    background=dark</parameter> corrects <command>vim</command>'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.</para>

    <para>Documentation for other available options can be obtained by
    running the following command:</para>

<screen role="nodump"><userinput>vim -c ':options'</userinput></screen>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 id="contents-vim" role="content">
    <title>Contents of Vim</title>

    <segmentedlist>
      <segtitle>Installed programs</segtitle>

      <seglistitem>
        <seg>efm_filter.pl, efm_perl.pl, ex (link to vim), less.sh, mve.awk,
        pltags.pl, ref, rview (link to vim), rvim (link to vim), shtags.pl,
        tcltags, vi (link to vim), view (link to vim), vim, vim132, vim2html.pl,
        vimdiff (link to vim), vimm, vimspell.sh, vimtutor, and xxd</seg>
      </seglistitem>
    </segmentedlist>

    <variablelist>
      <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Short Descriptions</bridgehead>
      <?dbfo list-presentation="list"?>
      <?dbhtml list-presentation="table"?>

      <varlistentry id="efm_filter.pl">
        <term><command>efm_filter.pl</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>A filter for creating an error file that can be read
          by <command>vim</command></para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim efm_filter.pl">
            <primary sortas="b-efm_filter.pl">efm_filter.pl</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="efm_perl.pl">
        <term><command>efm_perl.pl</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Reformats the error messages of the Perl interpreter for use
          with the <quote>quickfix</quote> mode of <command>vim</command></para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim efm_perl.pl">
            <primary sortas="b-efm_perl.pl">efm_perl.pl</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="ex">
        <term><command>ex</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Starts <command>vim</command> in ex mode</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim ex">
            <primary sortas="b-ex">ex</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="less.sh">
        <term><command>less.sh</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>A script that starts <command>vim</command> with less.vim</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim less.sh">
            <primary sortas="b-less.sh">less.sh</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="mve.awk">
        <term><command>mve.awk</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Processes <command>vim</command> errors</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim mve.awk">
            <primary sortas="b-mve.awk">mve.awk</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="pltags.pl">
        <term><command>pltags.pl</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Creates a tags file for Perl code for use by
          <command>vim</command></para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim pltags.pl">
            <primary sortas="b-pltags.pl">pltags.pl</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="ref">
        <term><command>ref</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Checks the spelling of arguments</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim ref">
            <primary sortas="b-ref">ref</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="rview">
        <term><command>rview</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Is a restricted version of <command>view</command>; no shell
          commands can be started and <command>view</command> cannot be
          suspended</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim rview">
            <primary sortas="b-rview">rview</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="rvim">
        <term><command>rvim</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Is a restricted version of <command>vim</command>; no shell
          commands can be started and <command>vim</command> cannot be
          suspended</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim rvim">
            <primary sortas="b-rvim">rvim</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="shtags.pl">
        <term><command>shtags.pl</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Generates a tags file for Perl scripts</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim shtags.pl">
            <primary sortas="b-shtags.pl">shtags.pl</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="tcltags">
        <term><command>tcltags</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Generates a tags file for TCL code</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim tcltags">
            <primary sortas="b-tcltags">tcltags</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="view">
        <term><command>view</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Starts <command>vim</command> in read-only mode</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim view">
            <primary sortas="b-view">view</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="vi">
        <term><command>vi</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Link to <command>vim</command></para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vi">
            <primary sortas="b-vi">vi</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="vim">
        <term><command>vim</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Is the editor</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vim">
            <primary sortas="b-vim">vim</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="vim132">
        <term><command>vim132</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Starts <command>vim</command> with the terminal in 132-column
          mode</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vim132">
            <primary sortas="b-vim132">vim132</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="vim2html.pl">
        <term><command>vim2html.pl</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Converts Vim documentation to HypterText Markup Language
          (HTML)</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vim2html.pl">
            <primary sortas="b-vim2html.pl">vim2html.pl</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="vimdiff">
        <term><command>vimdiff</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Edits two or three versions of a file with <command>vim</command>
          and show differences</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vimdiff">
            <primary sortas="b-vimdiff">vimdiff</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="vimm">
        <term><command>vimm</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Enables the DEC locator input model on a remote terminal</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vimm">
            <primary sortas="b-vimm">vimm</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="vimspell.sh">
        <term><command>vimspell.sh</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Spell checks a file and generates the syntax statements
          necessary to highlight in <command>vim</command>. This script
          requires the old Unix <command>spell</command> command, which
          is provided neither in LFS nor in BLFS</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vimspell.sh">
            <primary sortas="b-vimspell.sh">vimspell.sh</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="vimtutor">
        <term><command>vimtutor</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Teaches the basic keys and commands of
          <command>vim</command></para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim vimtutor">
            <primary sortas="b-vimtutor">vimtutor</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="xxd">
        <term><command>xxd</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Creates a hex dump of the given file; it can
          also do the reverse, so it can be used for binary patching</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-vim xxd">
            <primary sortas="b-xxd">xxd</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

    </variablelist>

  </sect2>

</sect1>