I am not sure I understand correctly from the readme file how to install vim onto my mac. After installation, I still cannot seem to open files while typing gvim HelloWorld.c into terminal. How can I permanently fix the gvim command for terminal to recognize all the time?
Mac OS X already ships with a slightly underpowered but perfectly working vim build so you only have to issue that command in your terminal:
$ vim filename
MacVim is a more featureful version that comes with a GUI and a CLI executable. Is that what you installed?
The archive you downloaded contains MacVim.app and a shell script called mvim.
If you don't plan to use Vim in or from your terminal, you don't need that mvim script at all.
If you do, the simplest solution is to put that script somewhere in your $PATH. To do so, check the value of $PATH with the following command:
$ echo $PATH
and copy the script into one of the listed directories:
$ cp /path/to/mvim /some/directory/mvim
After that's done, you can call the MacVim GUI from your terminal with:
$ mvim filename
or the MacVim CLI with:
$ mvim -v filename
Related
How to open existing vim file from unix shell (bash) in new terminal (not in same/new tab of existing terminal) on local machine ?
Also is there any way to split file on new terminal (not in same/new tab of existing terminal) from inside vim ?
How to open a new terminal is platform dependent; This doesn't really have a whole lot to do with vim itself.
For example, if you're using GNOME you could do this by running gnome-terminal -e "vim $filename" & disown. Look up the documentation for the terminal emulator you're using to find out how to launch a new terminal and execute commands in it.
Another (IMHO much better) solution is to simply use GVim for situations like these, unless you have a very good reason to run vim in the terminal (if you're running this over ssh this won't work anyway, in that case you're better off using a terminal multiplexer like screen or tmux).
PS: bash isn't a terminal (emulator); bash is a shell. If you just run a new instance of bash it'll run in the same terminal, which is not what you want here.
Try this:
vim [your file]
If this isn't working for you, make sure you have it installed with:
sudo apt-get install vim
If you're already IN vim do
:edit [your file]
I got a new machine at work. The previous developer had macvim installed. When typing 'vim' in the terminal, the macvim program would open. I uninstalled macvim because I don't use it. Now when I type 'vim' in the terminal, it says, "Sorry, cannot find MacVim.app." I want to just run vim in the terminal. Is this an alias or something? How can I quickly fix!
you can enter this into the terminal:
which vim
alias
to see info about defined aliases and what happens when you try to run vim
The previous user installed the mvim script that comes with MacVim somewhere in the $PATH or elsewhere and probably symlinked it or created an alias.
To get rid of that behaviour, try the following:
look into your ~/.bashrc or whatever if there's an alias that point at mvim
look everywhere in your $PATH for a mvim script, maybe
$ which mvim
will do
make sure /usr/bin/vim is a real Vim executable and not a symlink with this command
$ file /usr/bin/vim
If it's symlinked then you have trouble, If it's only an alias simply remove it. If you don't want to mess around too much, you can add an alias to /usr/bin/vim in your ~/.profile or whatever.
Whatever you do, I'd recommend you to re-install MacVim as it is a lot better than the default Vim in almost every way.
Is there still a file here: /usr/bin/vim ?
If that got deleted, then you'll need to reinstall vim.
I suggest using Link as your package manager
I am not able to run gvim from cygwin. When I try to open a new file with :
gvim filename
gvim opens a file with 'No name' and displays error as :
Error detected while processing command line
E492: Not editor command: C:\cygwin\home\chandan\l
Press enter or type command to continue
More problematic is that I can't open existing file in the path
>which gvim shows /usr/bin/gvim
I have put alias gvim=/cygdrive/c/Program\Files\(x86\)/Vim/vim73/gvim.exe still
I wrote cyg-wrapper.sh for this sole purpose.
It supports:
symbolic links
options that must not be interpreted as pathnames (see -c with gvim, or any flags starting with a minus sign).
In other words, it enables us to type:
gvim /etc/profile -c /PS1 -c "echo 'correctly opened'"
# or even:
cd ~/tmp ; ln -s ~/bin/cyg-wrapper.sh
gvim -d http://hermitte.free.fr/cygwin/cyg-wrapper.sh cyg-wrapper.sh
explorer -e
explorer "$vim"
explorer http://hermitte.free.fr/
Note: I use the following function in my .profile to run gvim with cyg-wrapper.sh
gvim() {
opt=''
if [ `expr "$*" : '.*tex\>'` -gt 0 ] ; then
opt='--servername LATEX '
fi
cyg-wrapper.sh "C:/Progra~1/Edition/vim/vim73/gvim.exe" --binary-opt=-c,--cmd,-T,-t,--servername,--remote-send,--remote-expr --cyg-verbose --fork=2 $opt "$#"
}
EDIT: Currently (Sept 26 2014, using Vim 7.4), Windows gVim uses C:\Windows\gvim.bat to launch gVim from the command line. Replacing the gvim.exe path in the gvim() function with this script allows launching gvim without changing the path to match the current Vim version (which may actually be in Progra~2); however, it appears to also open a superfluous cmd.exe window.
Found this thread, I find the answer from jens unacceptable. We're not asking to be told not to do it. I didn't like the other answers either there was always some quirk, like settings not used or an extra command line window popping up. I Did some digging and this works for me. No extra command line box for nothing and it uses my proper gvim settings.
alias gvim='HOME=/cygdrive/p/ cygstart /cygdrive/c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Vim/vim74/gvim.exe'
You simply need to alter the HOME to your own. To find out what to put there run gvim from windows then put in ":echo $HOME" and hit enter in my case it shows P:\ so that translates to /cygdrive/p/
Also if your gvim.exe is in a different directory/version you'll need to adjust.
Now when I type 'gvim script.sh' at a cygwin command prompt it launches gvim with the file, all nice and neat!
UPDATE
I found a slightly better way to do this. Using the alias was tying up my session that I ran the gvim from, I wanted it to launch as a separate process, using "gvim &" is inelegant as it lists job number when launching and displays a "done" line when completed. I'm too fussy so I figured out how to get that all tidy by using a function.
Just add this to your .bash_functions file, it builds on the previous section regarding home directory and backslash use.
gvim() {
ORIGHOME=$HOME
HOME=/cygdrive/p/
/cygdrive/c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Vim/vim74/gvim.exe $1 & disown
HOME=$ORIGHOME
} 2>/dev/null
UPDATE 2 for babun users!
Ok since having wrestled with this originally I have ended up scrapping the original cygwin install in favor of babun which seems to be a less troublesome setup for those wanting linux functionality in windows without a full blown virtual. Of course my gvim launch script broke, and I had to do the following in my .zshrc file (babun uses zsh, at first I resisted and switched it to bash but then relented as I figured they must have reason, and they did, I like it)
gvim() {
OLD_HOME=$HOME
OLD_VIMRUNTIME=$VIMRUNTIME
export HOME=/cygdrive/c/Users/gmitchell/
export VIMRUNTIME="C:\Program Files (x86)\VIM\vim74"
TARGET=$(cygpath -w $1)
(/cygdrive/c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Vim/vim74/gvim.exe $TARGET &)
export HOME=$OLD_HOME
export VIMRUNTIME=$OLD_VIMRUNTIME
}
*Note: the surrounding curved braces ( ) stops the job id from messing up your clean shell, and you no longer need the "disown"
P.S. The only remaining annoyance with this now is that you cannot "exit" the babun shell until all gvim instances you've launched are closed. Maybe someone can figure that own out. I've tried. When you type exit it just hangs there until you've exited all gvims.
Do yourself a favor, don't attempt to run a windows gvim from cygwin. The set of environment variables is likely completely different, and the pain of backslash directory separators, blanks in filenames, inability to understand /cygwin paths makes this an exercise in futility.
Then, what? Install the cygwin version of gvim and forget about all these problems.
Here is all you need to do:
alias gvim="run.exe /cygdrive/c/Programming/Tools/Vim/vim74/gvim.exe"
Works also with Notepad++, like so:
alias np="run.exe /cygdrive/c/Programming/Tools/Notepad++/notepad++.exe"
I have the same problem
because of the $SHELL var
so, I simple do like this
alias gvim='cmd /c "set SHELL=cmd & start gvim"'
It works for me, may be this will be help you too.
and maybe you want use the same alias for vim.
I put the following function in my .bashrc:
function gvim
{
GVIM_CMD=/cygdrive/c/path/to/gVimPortable.exe
if [[ -z "$1" ]]
then
$GVIM_CMD
else
$GVIM_CMD `cygpath -w $1`
fi
}
This allows me to launch gVim from anywhere.
It works fine for files with spaces, too...
This is a take off on low351's answer. I was unhappy with leaving HOME changed in the cygwin terminal, since I use that locally for a cygwin HOME, not my windows home. But gvim is all setup using Windows HOME. I added this to my .zshrc:
# run windows gvim from command line
gvim() {
local OLD_HOME=$HOME
HOME=/cygdrive/c/Users/jason/
local TARGET=$(cygpath -w $1)
/cygdrive/c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Vim/vim74/gvim.exe $TARGET & disown
HOME=$OLD_HOME
} 2>/dev/null
really, just storing and restoring HOME. Being local, OLD_HOME goes away when the function returns, so it doesn't pollute the environment. If you're editing a cygwin file, running it through cygpath -w will make it a file path that windows gvim understands. It also lets you use window paths (e.g. C:/tmp/foo.txt) but w/ unix '/' separators, so you can dispense with /cygdrive/c. I believe this is all compatible w/ bash. This gives the following output:
> gvim
[2] 5060
>
It seems like the main problem is the HOME and VIM variables which are appropriate to the cygwin environment get exported when running Windows gvim, causing problems because Windows gvim knows nothing of cygwin. This fixes it:
alias gvim='env -u HOME -u VIM /cygdrive/c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Vim/vim74/gvim.exe'
I have Windows gvim set as the default application (in Windows) for many filetypes, so Windows gvim frequently gets opened via the open alias. This fixes that use case:
alias open='env -u HOME -u VIM cygstart'
I just renamed gvim.bat which comes with the standard Win32 vim installation to gvim and put it into /usr/bin.
I am also sharing settings beetween Win32 GVim and Cygwin VIM referring to this article:
http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Synchronize_configuration_to_many_computers
This way i can have both Vim and Win32 Gvim running with the same plugins and settings.
Since I've tried all of these and had issues I'll show what I'm using. I wrote it in ruby and it handles everything I throw at it (files, directories, or nothing) without any errors/popups/etc.
I saved it as gvim in ~/Dropbox/bin/cygwin/ (which is in my PATH)
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
args=''
filepath=''
arg=ARGV[0]
if arg
if File.exist? arg
if File.file? arg
args+="--remote-tab-silent "
end
filepath=`cygpath -w '#{arg}'`.strip
filepath="'#{filepath}'"
end
else
end
exe="'/c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/vim/vim73/gvim.exe' #{args} #{filepath}"
spawn exe
Here's the script I use for ~/bin/gvim. It runs it as if I called gvim FOO from the "Run" dialog (thanks to the batch file being invoked by explorer.exe). Can't play too nicely with the command line, but a self-deleting batch file comes to the rescue.
#!/bin/bash
TEMPFILE_NAME=gvim-`date +%s`-${RANDOM}.bat
TEMPFILE=$TMP/$TEMPFILE_NAME
TEMPFILE_W=`cygpath --windows --absolute --long-name "$TEMPFILE"`
TARGET=
if [ "$1" = "" ] ; then
TARGET=`cygpath --windows --absolute --long-name "."`
else
TARGET=`cygpath --windows --absolute --long-name "$#" | tr '\n' ' '`
fi
WIN_GVIM=`where gvim.exe | tr -d '\r\n'`
WIN_GVIM=`cygpath "$WIN_GVIM" --windows --absolute --long-name`
unix2dos > $TEMPFILE << EOF
start "gvim" "$WIN_GVIM" $TARGET
DEL %~f0
EOF
chmod +x $TEMPFILE
explorer.exe "$TEMPFILE_W"
Special thanks to this answer for the explorer.exe technique.
As you know that the ctags in OSX is a basic version, and I install a full version of ctags using homebrew, but when I wanna use it in Vim's command mode, it always ran the basic one. So I checked the $PATH var in Vim's command mode, like !echo $PATH, and it showed that /usr/local/bin followed the /usr/bin, which was different from the shell environment $PATH, so please kindly tell me how to fix this， many thanks!.
BTW, I changed the $PATH in vimrc file, but it only affected the $PATH if I type the command echo $PATH in Vim's command mode, not !echo $PATH.
Unfortunately, MacVim won't be affected by paths you set in .profile or .bashrc.
You can set paths affecting all programs on Mac OS X by using the /etc/paths and /etc/paths.d/ mechanisms. More detailed explanation here:
https://serverfault.com/questions/16355/how-to-set-global-path-on-os-x
I would like vim to point to macvim :)
Probably through an alias.
vim is here: whereis vim
/usr/bin/vim
macvim I can't find, e.g.
whereis macvim returns nothing
The MacVim distro comes with a script called mvim that takes exactly the same arguments as vim. Put mvim somewhere in your path. Then, just set the alias: alias vim='mvim'
If you want to completely override the system vim, an easy way is to use Homebrew. Just install MacVim with $brew install macvim --override-system-vim. The --override-system-vim flag will create mvim symlinks to vi, vim, etc. You may find it a cleaner way to achieve the same goal. Plus, I prefer to use Homebrew as a package manager.
EDIT: Since you say you don't know where MacVim is, you may just want to download the latest tarball for your system and start from scratch. There are three files: the MacVim application, the mvim script, and a README.
Put MacVim in your Applications folder. Put mvim somewhere in your path.
Going forward, you should look for mvim using which rather than whereis. E.g. $which mvim #=> /usr/local/bin/mvim
which returns the pathnames of the files which would be executed in the current environment. whereis checks the standard binary directories, and may miss files included in your personal path.
Alternately, use Homebrew, as I suggest above and it will manage the location of both files.
My answer is kind of the opposite of michaelmichael's and I've made it quite a few times:
MacVim comes with a CLI executable that you can use in place of Mac OS X's default Vim if you add a single alias to your ~/.bashrc/~/.profile. No need to compile anything, no need to put MacVim in a special place, no need to overwrite default programs with symlinks
This way, you can stay in CLI-land and enjoy the power of a powerful/recent/fast Vim.
EDIT
MacVim is a native Mac OS X GUI version of Vim. It doesn't come preinstalled with your OS so you have to download it from the Internet or install it through homebrew (see michaelmichael's answer). Once it's installed, MacVim is where you have put it, plain and simple.
Because it's a full fledged GUI app, MacVim can't really be used as a drop-in replacement for the default Vim in the terminal.
`$ MacVim file.txt` will not work. `$ open -a macvim file.txt` will not work either.
You basically have two options: use the mvim CLI wrapper to open MacVim from the terminal or use an alias to MacVim's bundled CLI executable.
The mvim wrapper
I think michaelmichael's answer could be a expanded a bit but the most important is said.
EDIT: well scratch that.
The bundled CLI executable
Just add this line (customized to reflect your system) to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile or whatever file is run by your shell at startup:
alias vim='/path/to/MacVim.app/Contents/MacOS/Vim'
Open a new terminal window, $ vim file.txt should launch vim in your terminal window, just like the default /usr/bin/vim but with a lot more bells and whistles.
After installing mvim, you can find where it is located with typing into terminal:
which mvim
On my system this gave me:
/usr/local/bin/mvim
Then you create an alias in .bash_profile by typing the following in your terminal, and hit enter:
echo alias vim='/usr/local/bin/mvim' >> .bash_profile
Restart your terminal and try typing:
vim .
This should launch mvim and not vim