lfs-book/chapter06/vim.xml

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<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>

    <segmentedlist>
      <segtitle>&buildtime;</segtitle>
      <segtitle>&diskspace;</segtitle>

      <seglistitem>
        <seg>&vim-ch6-sbu;</seg>
        <seg>&vim-ch6-du;</seg>
      </seglistitem>
    </segmentedlist>

    <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>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. Then, patch Vim with several fixes from upstream
    developers since the initial release of Vim-&vim-version;:</para>

<screen><userinput>patch -Np1 -i ../&vim-fixes-patch;</userinput></screen>

    <para>This version of Vim installs translated man pages and places
    them into directories that will not be searched by Man-DB. Patch Vim
    so that it installs its man pages into searchable directories and
    ultimately allows Man-DB to transcode the page into the desired format
    at run-time:</para>

<screen><userinput>patch -Np1 -i ../&vim-mandir-patch;</userinput></screen>

    <para>Finally, change the default location of the
    <filename>vimrc</filename> configuration file to <filename
    class="directory">/etc</filename>:</para>

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

    <para>Now prepare Vim for compilation:</para>

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

    <variablelist>
      <title>The meaning of the configure options:</title>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><parameter>--enable-multibyte</parameter></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>This 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>Compile the package:</para>

<screen><userinput>make</userinput></screen>

    <para>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>Install the package:</para>

<screen><userinput>make install</userinput></screen>

    <para>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 for both the binary and the man page in the provided
    languages:</para>

<screen><userinput>ln -sv vim /usr/bin/vi
for L in "" fr it pl ru; do
    ln -sv vim.1 /usr/share/man/$L/man1/vi.1
done</userinput></screen>

    <para>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><userinput>ln -sv ../vim/vim70/doc /usr/share/doc/vim-&vim-version;</userinput></screen>

    <para>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> setting 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> setting allows backspacing over line breaks,
    autoindents, and the start of insert. The <parameter>syntax
    on</parameter> parameter enables vim's syntax highlighting. Finally,
    the <emphasis>if</emphasis> statement with the <parameter>set
    background=dark</parameter> setting 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>

    <note>
      <para>By default, Vim only installs spell files for the English language.
      To install spell files for your preferred language, download the
      <filename>*.spl</filename> and optionally, the <filename>*.sug</filename>
      files for your language and character encoding from <ulink
      url="ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/runtime/spell/"/> and save them to
      <filename class='directory'>/usr/share/vim/vim70/spell/</filename>.</para>

      <para>To use these spell files, some configuration in
      <filename>/etc/vimrc</filename> is needed, e.g.:</para>

<screen><literal>set spelllang=en,ru
set spell</literal></screen>

      <para>For more information, see the appropriate README file located
      at the URL above.</para>
    </note>

  </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>