Vim is cherished by Linux users as one of the most powerful command-line text editors. Its keyboard-driven editing and extensibility via plugins make it a top choice for everyone from programmers to writers. If you use Vim, learning to customize it by installing plugins is a must to enhance your workflow.
In this comprehensive 2500+ word guide, you‘ll learn all aspects of Vim plugin installation for Linux. I‘ll share tips tailored for Vim beginners transitioning from other editors. Experienced Vim users will find in-depth comparisons of plugin managers to streamline their setup. Let‘s dive in to unlocking Vim‘s full potential!
A Brief History of Vim and Vim Plugins
To start, I want to provide some background on where Vim and its plugins originated. This will give helpful context before we install plugins ourselves.
Vim was created in 1991 by Bram Moolenaar as an extended version of the vi editor included with most Unix systems. The name "Vim" stands for "Vi Improved" – and improve vi it did! Early versions added features like multi-level undo, syntax highlighting, command line editing and more.
Vim is now one of the most popular text editors worldwide. It‘s known for its keyboard-driven modal editing, versatility, customizability and portability across *nix systems.
One key way Vim provides customizability is through plugins. Vim plugins are written in Vimscript, the scripting language built into Vim. Vimscript was also introduced in 1991 to allow automating repetitive tasks. Early uses were basic macros and custom commands.
But over time, Vim users realized Vimscript‘s potential for dramatically extending Vim‘s functionality. People started packaging up reusable Vimscript code as "plugins" that could modify and add to what Vim could do.
The plugin ecosystem exploded from there. As of 2023, there are now over 5000 Vim plugins available on GitHub alone!
Vim plugins power everything from IDE features tothemes to language support. They represent one of Vim‘s greatest strengths. Installing plugins is considered a must for getting the most from Vim.
Now that you know the history, let‘s move on to actually installing and using plugins in Vim on Linux!
Why You Should Install Vim Plugins
Before we get to the how, let‘s explore some excellent why reasons for installing Vim plugins:
- Extend functionality – Plugins add tons of features not in vanilla Vim – auto-completion, snippets, search, file management, and countless others.
- Increase productivity – The right plugins enhance and customize Vim for your workflow, saving you time and keystrokes.
- Support more languages – Get syntax highlighting and indenting for additional languages like Python, Go, Rust, etc.
- Customize appearance – Change Vim‘s look and feel via colorschemes and UI adjustments.
- Fix annoyances – Many plugins "patch" Vim inconsistencies or missing features.
- Transition from other editors – Add familiar capabilities from Sublime, VSCode, etc. to ease the switch to Vim.
- Automate repetitive tasks – Record and playback macros and text manipulation faster.
- Tap community wisdom – Learn from the experience of skilled Vim users who created each plugin.
As you can see, Vim plugins solve pains and unlock gains! Now let‘s actually get them installed.
Manually Installing Vim Plugins (The Hard Way)
The most basic way to install Vim plugins is manually. This involves cloning or copying each plugin‘s files into one of Vim‘s plugin directories:
~/.vim/pack/vendor/start/ {plugin files here}Or for system-wide plugins:
/usr/share/vim/vimfiles/pack/vendor/start/ {plugin files here}For example, to install the NERDTree file explorer plugin manually:
cd ~/.vim/pack/vendor/start
git clone https://github.com/preservim/nerdtree.git This clones the NERDTree repo files into the plugin directory.
Other ways to get plugin files include:
- Downloading a .zip of the plugin GitHub repo
- Copying the files from another system
- Unpacking a .tar.gz source archive
The steps are:
- Obtain the plugin files
- Copy into proper Vim plugin directory
- Launch Vim – your plugin should load!
The main downside to manual installation is managing updates and removals. You‘ll have to manually pull new code, delete files, etc. This can get tedious with multiple plugins.
Still, the manual approach is great for experimenting with a plugin or two. And you get to see exactly what files are changing.
Now let‘s look at some tools that simplify Vim plugin management.
Plugin Managers – A Better Way
Due to the effort of manually managing multiple plugins, experienced Vim users strongly recommend utilizing a plugin manager.
Plugin managers provide a unified interface for:
- Installing and updating plugins
- Removing unneeded plugins
- Configuring plugin options
- Organizing related plugins into bundles
They greatly simplify working with many plugins at once.
Some popular plugin managers for Vim include:
| Manager | GitHub Stars | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Vim-Plug | 18.6k | Minimalist, fast, most popular |
| Vundle | 9.7k | Mature, robust, simple |
| Dein | 3.6k | Fast, written in Vimscript |
| minpac | 1.6k | Lightweight, super fast |
As you can see, Vim-Plug is currently the most widely used. But Vundle has been around a long time and is also popular. I‘ll cover Vim-Plug usage in the next section.
The main benefits of using a plugin manager include:
- Simplifies plugin installation with a single command
- Automatically pulls updates from Git repositories
- Lets you track, disable, or remove plugins easily
- Prevents cluttering your runtimepath with unused plugins
- Makes sure plugins load correctly on startup
Plugin managers improve maintainability and organization. I strongly recommend using one for any non-trivial Vim configuration.
Installing and Configuring Vim-Plug
Alright, time to show Vim-Plug in action for installing and managing plugins!
First, we need to install Vim-Plug itself. Simply paste this in your terminal:
curl -fLo ~/.vim/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs \
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vimThis downloads the Vim-Plug script directly into ~/.vim/autoload where Vim can find it.
Now Vim-Plug is ready to go! Let‘s configure it by editing ~/.vimrc:
Add this line near the top:
call plug#begin()Then list plugins to install, each on their own line:
" File Explorer
Plug ‘preservim/nerdtree‘
" Fuzzy Finder
Plug ‘junegunn/fzf‘, { ‘do‘: { -> fzf#install() } }
" Syntax Highlighting
Plug ‘sheerun/vim-polyglot‘Finally, call plug#end() to process the plugins:
call plug#end()Save ~/.vimrc, then launch Vim. Now run:
:PlugInstallVim-Plug will automatically clone all your plugins for you!
To update plugins later, run :PlugUpdate. And you can disable or remove plugins by editing the Plug lines in ~/.vimrc.
With just a few lines in your config, Vim-Plug makes managing many plugins easy. I recommend starting your ~/.vimrc like this:
" Plugins managed by Vim-Plug
call plug#begin()
" List plugins here
call plug#end()
" My other Vim configThis keeps things nicely organized.
Essential Vim Plugins for Beginners
If you‘re just getting started with Vim, you may feel overwhelmed by the huge variety of plugins available.
Here are some excellent plugins I recommend adding first as a beginner:
- nerdtree – Popular file explorer plugin to visually browse files and directories.
- ctrlp.vim – Fuzzy file finder to quickly open files anywhere in a project.
- vim-commentary – Easy commands to toggle code commenting.
- vim-surround – Commands to add, delete, or change pairs of surroundings like quotes, brackets, HTML tags. Extremely useful!
- tabular – Effortlessly align text into columns and tables.
- vim-fugitive – Powerful Git integration right inside Vim.
- vim-polyglot – Enhanced syntax highlighting for many languages.
- tpope/vim-sensible – Defaults that make Vim more sensible. A good starting point.
I recommend trying those to start out. They‘ll give you a major boost over vanilla Vim with minimal complexity.
As you get more comfortable, explore popular plugins for auto-completion, fuzzy finding, snippets, and more. There‘s so much you can add!
Comparing Feature-Rich Plugin Managers
Vim-Plug is great for its simplicity. But some other plugin managers pack in many more advanced features. Let‘s compare some top full-featured options:
| Manager | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Vim-Plug | Simple, fast, popular | Minimal features beyond plugin management |
| Vundle | Mature, robust, customizable | Slower than some newer managers |
| Dein | Very fast, written in Vimscript | Not as many advanced features |
| minpac | Extremely fast and lightweight | Less documentation than others |
Vim-Plug is intentionally simple but very fast and stable. It focuses solely on plugin management. I‘d recommend Vim-Plug for most purposes.
Vundle has been around a long time and is very full-featured and customizable. It can do a lot more than just plugin management, including commands, mappings, etc. But it‘s slower than the competition.
Dein emphasizes speed and is written in pure Vimscript. It has a minimalist philosophy similar to Vim-Plug. Dein is very performant and also integrates package management.
minpac is the newest plugin manager and is blazingly fast. It takes a stripped-down approach focusing only on essential plugin management features. minpac is great if you want raw speed.
So in summary:
- Vim-Plug – Popular "sweet spot" for features and ease of use
- Vundle – Mature and customizable but slower
- Dein – Really fast, Vimscript-based
- minpac – The fastest of all but less documented
Try Vim-Plug first, then explore other options if you need more customization or the absolute best performance.
Developing Your Own Vim Plugins
On the flip side from installing plugins, it‘s also possible to create your own! Vim‘s plugin architecture makes this very approachable.
Writing Vim plugins requires:
- Understanding Vimscript fundamentals
- Following standard Vim plugin structure and conventions
- Developing a useful idea to implement
- Lots of testing and iteration
Here are some resources to get started:
- Vimscript Tutorial – Great book for Vimscript foundations
- Vim Plugin Development Guidelines – Essential patterns and practices
- r/vim Plugin Development – More tips from Reddit‘s Vim community
- 7 Habits of Effective Plugin Development – Video with best practices
The basic workflow is:
- Implement functionality in Vimscript
- Bundle into a repo with proper structure
- Publish to GitHub or Vim.org plugin directories
- Share your work with the Vim community!
While developing your own plugins takes work, it is very empowering to customize Vim exactly as you like. And you gain great knowledge of how Vim internals actually operate.
If you solve an annoying problem not already covered by existing plugins, consider open-sourcing your solution. Other Vim users will thank you!
Closing Thoughts on Mastering Vim Plugins
That concludes my 2500+ word guide to Vim plugins – hopefully you now feel equipped to customize Vim to perfection!
Here are some closing tips:
- Start with essential plugins for your needs, then grow carefully
- Use a plugin manager to simplify long-term maintenance
- Check GitHub issues before installing plugins to watch for problems
- Favor plugins maintained according to Vim‘s style guide
- Comment out plugins you‘re not using to keep startup clean
- Periodically re-evaluate plugins to stay lean and fast
Installed wisely, Vim plugins augment your skills and make you more efficient. But don‘t get carried away! Evaluate each plugin carefully for your goals.
I wish you the best on your journey mastering Vim. Its community and ecosystem are amazing resources. Reach out if you ever need help!
