I have got a .vimrc file from one of my friends, however, vim ignores it. How can I make vim use .vimrc? Thank you for the answer.
Open vim and type ":version" and hit Enter. You will get paths to your vimrc files. Make sure that your vimrc file is not overwritten by another one (with a higher priority). Please refer to Open vimrc file.
EDIT: To see a home directory, type in vim :echo $HOME
I have mismatched plugin files floating around ~/.vim; I am experiencing a corrupted behavior within vim itself, and both my .vimrc and .gvimrc are filled with things I don't understand.
Examples: NERDTree plugin displays two identical file drawers on start, settings in .vimrc and .gvimrc aren't manifesting themselves.
Is there any way that I can completely "re-install" vim? Or, is there a way that I can get a new .vim folder, and start over form scratch? I want to learn vim, but it's hard with all these plugins installed. I just want to start with a plain vanilla installation.
Thanks for any help in advance.
cd
mv .vimrc .vimrc-old
mv .vim .vim-old
touch .vimrc
mkdir .vim
To remove everything from your vim configuration remove the entire .vim folder as well as everything from your .vimrc file. Keep the empty file in place though because without it vim will start in compatible mode by default and you almost certainly don't want that.
Note that there are system-wide files that are not stored in your home directory but if you haven't tweaked any of those then the above steps are all you need to do.
I know this is a bit old question but there is another useful command you can use mv ~/.viminfo ~/.oldviminfo
As mentioned in this answer, I moved .vim and .vimrc. which resulted in the error below
bash: /usr/bin/vim: No such file or directory
I'm not sure why I was facing the error above. When I moved only the .vimrc to .vimrc-bkp and created a new empty .vimrc, vim started working like a fresh install.
I want vim to save folded code after I've closed the file. I've added the following code to both /etc/vimrc and ~/.vimrc:
au BufWinLeave ?* mkview
au BufWinEnter ?* silent loadview
When I open a file as a regular user (vim file) it works as expected. If I instead open with sudo vim file it doesn't save folded code.
I know /etc/vimrc is being read. My theme is set at the bottom of that file and is working fine. I ran into a similar problem last week installing the vim surround plugin. When that was installed in ~/.vim it only applied to vim file. To get it working with sudo I had to install it separately in /usr/share/vim/current. What could be causing this?
Prolog
In fact you answered your question, so this is indeed the same issue you had before. It is caused by the algorithm Vim uses to find its configuration (see :help initialization). But I wouldn't call your solution a correct one. See :help $VIM for information how you can use your configuration in sudo environment (e.g. being root).
As for your current issue.
See the following quotes from the documentation. :help :mkview:
:mkvie[w][!] [file] ...
When [file] is omitted or is a number from 1 to 9, a
name is generated and 'viewdir' prepended.
...
And :help 'viewdir':
'viewdir' 'vdir' string (default for ... for Unix: "~/.vim/view", ...
So after doing sudo all views are stored by Vim at /root/.vim.
Solution
Make viewdir point to your ~/.vim/view directory, with something like the following in /root/.vimrc:
:set viewdir=/home/user/.vim/view
Though, this approach has some issues itself:
Updating views saved by root will cause permission errors.
You wont be able to pass stored views for files under /root or /home/user, because Vim generates file names with tilde instead of full paths.
The first issue can be solved by running chown or chmod on new view file right after executing :mkview command. It should be something like:
execute '!chown user:group' eval('&viewdir').'/'.substitute(expand('%:p:~'), '/', '+=', 'g').'='
But I don't know good solution for the second issue, can only suggest writing a script to convert file names to full paths.
I have been using Vim, and I would really like to save my settings. The problem I am having is that I cannot find my .vimrc file, and it is not in the standard /home/user/.vimrc location. How might I find this file?
You need to create it. In most installations I've used it hasn't been created by default.
You usually create it as ~/.vimrc.
These methods work, if you already have a .vimrc file:
:scriptnames list all the .vim files that Vim loaded for you, including your .vimrc file.
:e $MYVIMRC open & edit the current .vimrc that you are using, then use Ctrl + G to view the path in status bar.
Short answer:
To create your vimrc, start up Vim and do one of the following:
:e $HOME/.vimrc " on Unix, Mac or OS/2
:e $HOME/_vimrc " on Windows
:e s:.vimrc " on Amiga
Insert the settings you want, and save the file.
Note that exisitence of this file will disable the compatible option. See below for details.
Long answer:
There are two kinds of vimrc:
the user vimrc in $HOME
the system vimrc in $VIM (on Amiga systems, s:.vimrc is considered a user vimrc)
The user vimrc file often does not exist until created by the user. If you cannot find $HOME/.vimrc (or $HOME/_vimrc on Windows) then you can, and probably should, just create it.
The system vimrc should normally be left unmodified and is located in the $VIM* directory. The system vimrc is not a good place you keep your personal settings. If you modify this file your changes may be overwritten if you ever upgrade Vim. Also, changes here will affect other users on a multi-user system. In most cases, settings in the user vimrc will override settings in the system vimrc.
From :help vimrc:
A file that contains initialization commands is called a "vimrc" file.
Each line in a vimrc file is executed as an Ex command line. It is
sometimes also referred to as "exrc" file. They are the same type of
file, but "exrc" is what Vi always used, "vimrc" is a Vim specific
name. Also see |vimrc-intro|.
Places for your personal initializations:
Unix $HOME/.vimrc or $HOME/.vim/vimrc
OS/2 $HOME/.vimrc, $HOME/vimfiles/vimrc
or $VIM/.vimrc (or _vimrc)
MS-Windows $HOME/_vimrc, $HOME/vimfiles/vimrc
or $VIM/_vimrc
Amiga s:.vimrc, home:.vimrc, home:vimfiles:vimrc
or $VIM/.vimrc
The files are searched in the order specified above and only the first
one that is found is read.
(MacOS counts as Unix for the above.)
Note that the mere existence of a user vimrc will change Vim's behavior by turning off the compatible option. From :help compatible-default:
When Vim starts, the 'compatible' option is on. This will be used when Vim
starts its initializations. But as soon as a user vimrc file is found, or a
vimrc file in the current directory, or the "VIMINIT" environment variable is
set, it will be set to 'nocompatible'. This has the side effect of setting or
resetting other options (see 'compatible'). But only the options that have
not been set or reset will be changed.
* $VIM may not be set in your shell, but is always set inside Vim. If you want to see what it's set to, start up Vim and use the command :echo $VIM
As additional information, mostly in macOS, the .vimrc file is located at directory:
/usr/share/vim/.vimrc
:echo($MYVIMRC)
will give you the location of your .vimrc file.
:e $MYVIMRC
will open it.
For whatever reason, these answers didn't quite work for me. This is what worked for me instead:
In Vim, the :version command gives you the paths of system and user vimrc and gvimrc files (among other things), and the output looks something like this:
system vimrc file: "$VIM/vimrc"
user vimrc file: "$HOME/.vimrc"
user exrc file: "$HOME/.exrc"
system gvimrc file: "$VIM/gvimrc"
user gvimrc file: "$HOME/.gvimrc"
The one you want is user vimrc file: "$HOME/.vimrc"
So to edit the file: vim $HOME/.vimrc
Source: Open vimrc file
on unix vim --version tells you the various locations of the vim config files :
system vimrc file: "$VIM/vimrc"
user vimrc file: "$HOME/.vimrc"
2nd user vimrc file: "~/.vim/vimrc"
user exrc file: "$HOME/.exrc"
defaults file: "$VIMRUNTIME/defaults.vim"
fall-back for $VIM: "/usr/share/vim"
Open Vim, and in normal mode type:
:echo $VIM
Useful Information can be obtained using the find command
find / -iname "*vimrc*" -type f 2>/dev/null
There are many answers already, but it can sometimes be useful to simply run a "find" for anything containing the name "vimrc".
The reason is that this will show you what files you actualy have available on the system currently, rather than what you might put on your system. (The information for which you would obtain from :version as explained in other answers.)
Example result on my system
On my system this produces
/usr/share/vim/vim82/vimrc_example.vim
/usr/share/vim/vim82/gvimrc_example.vim
/etc/vim/gvimrc
/etc/vim/vimrc
/etc/vim/vimrc.tiny
Which is quite useful because it tells us that there are 2 example files installed in the share directorys for both gvim and vim, and that there are also some system-wide config files below /etc/.
On my system, I also have a file at ~/.vimrc but this does not appear in this list because it is a link to another file, stored under ~/Linux-Config. But you won't have this directory, it's specific to machines I use on my own network.
Detailed Explanation of find syntax used
Explanation:
find starting at the root directory / (find works recursively)
anything containing the case insensitive regex *vimrc* which means any name with vimrc (case insensitive) in it somewhere, can be preceeded or followed by anything or nothing (*)
type = files (not directory/symlink etc)
throw all errors to /dev/null otherwise the output is spammed with unreadable errors from /proc
Here are a few more tips:
In Arch Linux the global one is at /etc/vimrc. There are some comments in there with helpful details.
Since the filename starts with a ., it's hidden unless you use ls -a to show ALL files.
Typing :version while in Vim will show you a bunch of interesting information including the file location.
If you're not sure what ~/.vimrc means look at this question.
Where is the .vimrc file? It depends on the OS. As you can see, you were looking for /home/$user/.vimrc, which probably means you are using BSD / Linux. Here are the locations for each OS...
BSD / Linux : /home/$user/.vimrc
SunOS / Solaris : /export/home/$user/.vimrc
MacOS : /Users/$user/.vimrc
Android : /data/media/$userid/.vimrc
Unix : $root/home/$user/.vimrc
AT&T Unix : $root/usr/$user/.vimrc
Unix-Derived :
/var/users/$user/.vimrc
/u01/$user/.vimrc
/usr/$user/.vimrc
/user/$user/.vimrc
/users/$user/.vimrc (Source: Wikipedia: Default home directory per operating system.)
If it doesn't exist, create it with ~/.vimrc.
In addition, the root user has their own special .vimrc file, which can be found in /root/.vimrc on BSD / Linux (and in equivalent locations for the other OS's).
The location is set in the $HOME variable, which is always set in Linux environments. (Source: StackExchange->Unix & Linux.)
I'd like to share how I set showing the line number as the default on Mac.
In a terminal, type cd. This will help you go to the home folder.
In the terminal, type vi .vimrc. This will create an empty vimrc system file which you want to use.
In the file, type set number, and then hit Esc on the keyboard and type in :wq. This will set the line number shown in the default setting file vimrc and save it.
vi something to see if this works. If not, try to restart the terminal completely.
If in a terminal, type in cd /usr/share/vim/, go to that folder, and type in ls. You can directly see a file named vimrc. But it's a system file that says read only. I feel it's not a good idea to try modify it. So following the above steps to create a vimrc by yourself is better. It worked for me.
actually you have one vimrc in
/etc/vimrc
when you edit something in there the changes will effect all users
if you don't want that you can create a local vimrc in
~/.vimrc
the changes here will only effect the one user
I tried everything in the previous answer and couldn't find a .vimrc file, so I had to make one.
I copied the example file, cp vimrc_example.vim ~/.vimrc.
I had to create the file, copying from /usr/share/vim/vim74/vimrc_example.vim to ~/.vimrc. Those were the instructions in the vimrc_example file.
My solution is for Unix for other operating systems. According to the Vim documentation, your destination path should be as follows:
For Unix and OS/2 : ~/.vimrc
For Amiga : s:.vimrc
For MS-DOS and Win32: $VIM\_vimrc
For OpenVMS : sys$login:.vimrc
The vimrc file in Ubuntu (12.04 (Precise Pangolin)): I tried :scriptnames in Vim, and it shows both /usr/share/vim/vimrc and ~/.vimrc.
But I had manually created ~/.vimrc.
In SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and openSUSE the global one is located at /etc/vimrc.
To edit it, simply do vi /etc/vimrc.
From cmd (Windows):
C\Users\You> `vim foo.txt`
Now in Vim, enter command mode by typing: ":" (i.e. Shift + ;)
:tabedit $HOME/.vimrc
Unfortunately, there are so many answers and none of them helped me.
Until I ran
:checkhealth
in vim and found out that in my case, the vim config file should be named init.vim (under ~/.config/nvim/init.vim).
the name of the file in my system, installed with Garuda Linux is file:///etc/xdg/nvim/sysinit.vim, so try to find this file and add your custom changes.
I was attempting to edit my .vimrc file and this worked for me (macOS Ventura 13.0.1 December 2022).
touch ~/.vimrc
vim ~/.vimrc
I was then able to edit the file to my heart's content, and the next time I ran vim it picked up my changes.
if in Windows, it could be in your C directory under Program Files(x86) in the folder "vim"
I have a very simple and easy question, but I do not know how to do it. I am on a ubuntu machine, logged in via ssh. I want to edit my vim so that I dont have to keep typing :set number or :colorscheme elflord. I would like it to remember that information. When browsing around I found out that I need to change a .vimrc file, and that is supposedly located in my home directory, however it is not, and furthermore #locate .vimrc does not locate anything. Can any help me with finding where this file is and editing the above commands?
Create ~/.vimrc with the lines you want in it:
set number
colorscheme elflord
See :help vimrc and :help vimrc-intro for more information.
Your global vimrc is located in /etc/vim you can just create a .vimrc in your home directory. This question however should be asked on http://unix.stackexchange.com or http://askubuntu.com.
You may edit it from anywhere with this command:
:e $MYVIMRC
If the file doesn't exist, just create it in ~/.vimrc