Mastering Vim Part 2: Vimrc and Plugins

In the last post I showed you basic key bindings and commands to get you started with Vim. In this one, I am going to show you how can you make Vim look like the way you want. This is what my configuration looks like at the time of writing.

Modified Vim

Vim uses a file named .vimrc (or _vimrc on Windows) which is used for customizing your experience. It is also used to load any plugins and themes which enhance your workflow.

The vimrc file #

To configure Vim, you put some commands in a special file named .vimrc. It is located in the home directory. For windows, you can find your home directory by executing :echo $HOME.

Here is a snippet of my vimrc file:

set path+=**
set nocompatible
set encoding=utf-8
set number relativenumber
set linebreak
set showmatch
set novisualbell
set hlsearch
set smartcase
set ignorecase
set incsearch
set autoindent
set cindent
set shiftwidth=4
set tabstop=4
set smartindent
set expandtab
set ruler
set undolevels=1000
set backspace=indent,eol,start
set nohlsearch
set colorcolumn=80

I am not going to explain what all of these commands do but here are a few:

set number relativenumber - It enables line numbering in files that you edit with vim. relativenumber just numbers the line relative to current cursor position. It helps with dd and yy commands when you have to cut/copy a few lines, or move around in file.
set colorcolumn=80 - It highlights the eightieth column.

You can find all the possible options using :options command. Also, you can search for other people's vimrc files on GitHub. Most of them won't have any problem with you copying (ask them first though). You can find mine here. I encourage you to modify this as per your own needs.

Plugins #

Plugins are a great way to extend the functionality of vim and make it more IDE-like. Keep in mind that Vim is not an IDE and you should not think of it in that way. It is just a simple text editor similar to your good ol' notepad but way better.

There are many ways to install plugins in vim, but the easiest way is to use a package manager. If you have worked with JavaScript or Ruby then you might be familiar with npm and gem. Vim has similar package managers like Vundle and pathogen, but I personally use vim-plug.

Installing vim-plug and plugins #

To install plugins and store its files you have to create a directory named .vim in your vim home (along with .vimrc file). This is where vim-plug resides too. Here is how you can install vim-plug:

Create a directory named autoload in .vim folder
Go to this link and copy all the code.
Make a file named plug.vim in autoload directory and paste all the code that you copied.
Put this code into your .vimrc

call plug#begin()
Plug 'junegunn/fzf', { 'dir': '~/.fzf', 'do': './install --all' }
Plug 'itchyny/lightline.vim'
Plug 'scrooloose/nerdtree', { 'on': 'NERDTreeToggle' }
Plug 'morhetz/gruvbox'
call plug#end()

Open vim and execute :PlugInstall command

You will notice that vim-plug begins installing the plugins. You can install any plugin that supports vim-plug by only adding Plug <plugin> into your .vimrc and calling :PlugInstall. A good website to find plugins is Vim Awesome. If you have any problems or you do not like vim-plug, you can use some other package manager instead.

Here is the breakdown of the plugins I use:

Fzf - It is a fuzzy-finder used to quickly open files in Vim
Lightline - It is the fancy status bar for vim with is very customizable
Nerdtree - It is a file explorer similar to what you have in other IDEs
Gruvbox - It is the awesome theme that makes Vim look pretty

To run Nerdtree you have to run :NERDTreeToggle every time. To make it easier to access it I have bounded my Ctrl-o to this command. Similarly I have bounded :FZF to ; key.

If you just want the same binding I have, copy my .vimrc file.

Sidenote #

To install Fzf you need to install some dependencies. Just execute :FZF command and it will tell you what is missing. To enable Gruvbox theme, you have to have colorscheme gruvbox in your .vimrc.