I have just upgraded to Ubuntu 16.04, the new long-term-stable distribution of Ubuntu. This means I will be installing all of my trusted computing tools on this new distribution as well as reconsidering some of my approaches. In this post I'll go over a new approach to my vim setup for Ubuntu 16.04, changing from pathogen to vundle plugin management.

overview

In a previous post, Install and setup vim on Ubuntu 14.04 I described installing vim and using pathogen to manage vim plugins on Ubuntu 14.04. Over the past two years I have used pathogen without trouble and expect the same would be true on Ubuntu 16.04 -- so, checkout the previous post if you'd like to use pathogen .

In this post I'll cover using vundle to manage my plugins-- this is mainly out of curiosity to try out a new tool. However, there is one advantage that I like: the vim plugins I'm using are recorded in my ~/.vimrc file, making it easy to reinstall plugins on a new machine. This is a nice benefit of the vundle approach.

vim

So let's get started with installing vim

$ sudo apt-get install vim

That's it, now to the plugins.

vundle

First up is vundle , of course, because this has to do all the managing. The file ~/.vimrc and the directory ~/.vim are where all the action happens. If you have them, it's good to backup. For example, following this nice Digital Ocean Tutorial on vundle , one can use:

$ if [ -e .vimrc ]; then mv .vimrc .vimrc_bak; fi
$ if [ -e .vim ]; then mv .vim .vim_bak; fi

Once you are backed up, the vundle git repository can be cloned using:

$ git clone https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim.git ~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim

Next, create a minimal ~/.vimrc file to get things started:

$ vim ~/.vimrc

This file should contain the following (also checkout the examples at the vundle repository):

" ~/.vimrc
"

" no vi compat
set nocompatible

" filetype func off
filetype off

" initialize vundle
set rtp+=~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim

call vundle#begin()
" start- all plugins below

Plugin 'VundleVim/Vundle.vim'

" stop - all plugins above
call vundle#end()

" filetype func on
filetype plugin indent on

This loads the vundle plugin itself and establishes the basic layout of the ~/.vimrc file. After the file is saved, relaunch vim and run

:PluginInstall

This process is the same for adding any new plugin using vundle :

1. Add the repository for the plugin to your ~/.vimrc. Be sure that this addition is in the designated area: lines 15-17 in the example above. The addition of the vundle repository is an example of the correct format:

   Plugin 'VundleVim/Vundle.vim'

2. Add configuration information (if there is any) for the plugin at the end of the ~/.vimrc
3. Relaunch vim and run :PluginInstall, as described above. This will run through all the plugins listed and install any that are not setup-- in the process, a new tab is opened to describe the process. When completed, you should get a Done!* in the lower-left corner. Close the tab and you are done-- :q.

I'll add the gruvbox plugin very explicitly as the next example and then move to a more abbreviated description of the process.

gruvbox

First, let's get some color-- I like the gruvbox dark color scheme. There are a bunch of other choices out there so don't feel obligated to use my favorite! More to point, I'll use the installation of gruvbox as a detailed example of adding a plugin using vundle.

As discussed above, to install the plugin we modify our ~/.vimrc. We add the gruvbox repository information and add some plugin-specific details at the end of the file. After the changes, the ~/.vimrc file looks like:

" ~/.vimrc
"

" no vi compat
set nocompatible

" filetype func off
filetype off

" initialize vundle
set rtp+=~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim

call vundle#begin()
" start- all plugins below

Plugin 'VundleVim/Vundle.vim'
Plugin 'morhetz/gruvbox'

" stop - all plugins above
call vundle#end()

" filetype func on
filetype plugin indent on

" set color
colorscheme gruvbox
set background=dark
set colorcolumn=80

In summary, the changes/actions are:

1. The gruvbox plugin is added, under the vundle plugin, using Plugin 'morhetz/gruvbox'
2. I've set gruvbox as the colorscheme, chosen the dark background, and set column 80 as the color column (this makes the column a lighter gray by default) at the end of the code above
3. Relaunch vim and run :PluginInstall. After a relaunch of vim you should have the nice gruvbox dark theme working.

lightline

Next, I will install lightline , a nice status line for vim. I use the default settings, but there are a bunch of customizations that can be done--checkout the lightline repository for more information. The changes are:

1. Add the lightline plugin

   Plugin 'itchyny/lightline.vim'

2. On both Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 I've had to add the `laststatus=2 fix to get the status line to show properly. At the end of the ~/.vimrc file, add:

   " lightline fix
   set laststatus=2

3. Finally, relaunch vim and run :PluginInstall.

NERDTree

NERDTree is another essential vim plugin, providing a nice file browser to find and open files as well as bookmark directories. The install goes as follows:

1. Add the NERDTree plugin

   Plugin 'scrooloose/nerdtree.git'

2. If you'd like to assign control-n to open and close the file browser, add the following to the end of your ~/.vimrc:

   " NERDTree shortcut
   map <C-n> :NERDTreeToggle<CR>

3. Finally, relaunch vim and run :PluginInstall.

The bookmark feature in NERDTree still works as I described previously, so check that post out if you'd like to use that feature-- Install and setup vim on Ubuntu 14.04 .

vim-template

If you'd like to have file templates with vim a useful plugin is {% sbUrl refs["vim-template"] %} vim-template . Using this tool, starting up vim like so:

$ vim test.py

will produce a file that looks like (after some config):

#! /usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
# vim:fenc=utf-8
#
# Copyright © 2016 Your Name <Your Email>
#
# Distributed under terms of the Your-License license.

"""

"""

Using the usual vundle install process, do the following:

1. Add the vim-template plugin

   Plugin 'aperezdc/vim-template'

2. Set the template fills for name, email, etc. by adding the following to the end of your ~/.vimrc (of course change to relevant information):

   " Customize the settings for vim-template plugin
   let g:email = "Your Email"
   let g:user = "Your Name"
   let g:license = "Your-License"

3. Finally, relaunch vim and run :PluginInstall.

jedi-vim

If you are a Python coder, jedi-vim is a great plugin, allowing for autocompletion and pulling up documentation inside of vim. However, this plugin depends on installing the Python package jedi . This can be done a variety of ways, I use pip:

$ pip install --user jedi

This installs the most recent version of jedi. Once this is installed the vundle install of the vim plugin goes as usual:

1. Add the jedi-vim plugin:

   Plugin 'davidhalter/jedi-vim'

2. No configuration lines in ~/.vimrc are needed.
3. Finally, relaunch vim and run :PluginInstall.

Once this is installed, the two commands I use all the time are:

1. control-space: attempts to autocomplete
2. shift-k: attempts to load documentation into a new vim window. This must be done in command-mode with the cursor on the function or class of interest.

editorconfig

A relatively new addition in my vim workflow is editorconfig , which lets the user store editor configurations like the size of indent, whether to use tab or space, etc. These configurations files can be set globally and per-project-- also, the settings can be used by a bunch of editors, not just vim. You should checkout the editorconfig site to learn more and choose your settings.

The vim install is:

1. Add the editorconfig plugin

   Plugin 'editorconfig/editorconfig-vim'

2. The are no settings in ~/.vimrc, but my global configuration is contained in a file, ~/.editorconfig (at time of this post):

   # EditorConfig is awesome
   # http://EditorConfig.org
   root = true
   
   # defaults
   [*]
   indent_style = space
   indent_size = 2
   end_of_line = lf
   charset = utf-8
   insert_final_newline = true
   trim_trailing_whitespace = true
   
   # md
   trim_trailing_whitespace = false
   
   # py
   [*.py]
   indent_size = 4
   
   # Tab indentation (no size specified)
   [Makefile]
   indent_style = tab

3. Relaunch vim and run :PluginInstall.

That's it

So, that's it for my (self-) documentation of getting started with vundle_ on Ubuntu 16.04. Hopefully those who find this post will find it helpfull-- I know I'll look back at it when I have to upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04 in a couple of years.

If you find typos or have a question please leave comments below. I'll do my best to respond in a timely manner. I would also love to read about other useful plugins or different approaches to what I've done-- again, leave a note below.