Q. Quick question – How do I install VIM text editor for my FreeBSD server? Currently it has old version of vi. I like vim as it is a highly configurable text editor and efficient one.
A. VIM (Vi IMproved ) is not installed by default under FreeBSD. Vim is a text editor that is upwards compatible to Vi. It can be used to edit all kinds of plain text. It is especially useful for editing programs. You can install vim binary package or use FreeBSD's ports system.
Task: Install vim binary package
Type the following command to install vim lite version:
# pkg_add -r -v vim-lite
You can also use FreeBSD ports system to install vim:
# cd /usr/ports/editors/vim-lite/
# make install clean
To start vim type command:
$ vim
You can also create a alias using alias command:
$ alias vi='vim'
Add above alias to your shell start up file such as ~/.bashrc / ~/.cshrc
Task: Setup global vimrc file
You need to copy default vimrc file from /usr/local/share/vim/vim71/vimrc_example.vim to /usr/local/share/vim:
# cp /usr/local/share/vim/vim71/vimrc_example.vim /usr/local/share/vimrc
Task: Personal ~/.vimrc file
You can customize ~/.vimrc as per your requirements. Here is my own file:
$ cat ~/.vimrc
Sample output:
set nocompatible " must be the first line filetype on filetype indent on filetype plugin on set laststatus=2 set statusline=%<%f\%h%m%r%=%-20.(line=%l\ \ col=%c%V\ \ totlin=%L%)\ \ \%h%m%r%=%-40(bytval=0x%B,%n%Y%)\%P
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
create a softlink between vim and vi would easy.
# whereis vim
vim: /usr/local/bin/vim /usr/local/man/man1/vim.1.gz /usr/ports/editors/vim
# whereis vi
vi: /usr/bin/vi /usr/share/man/man1/vi.1.gz
# mv /usr/bin/vi /usr/bin/vi.bak
# ln -s /usr/local/bin/vim /usr/bin/vi
In ‘Task: Setup global vimrc file’ it should be
# cp /usr/local/share/vim/vim71/vimrc_example.vim /usr/local/share/vim/vimrc
instead of
# cp /usr/local/share/vim/vim71/vimrc_example.vim /usr/local/share/vimrc