Configure your Vim

Using Vim 8’s built-in package manager

Many users have got used to package managers like vim-plug. Unfortunately, vim-plug has many problems with a-Shell. It’s recommended to turn to Vim 8’s native package managers, instead. You can run :help packages inside Vim for more information.

Installing, updating and removing packages manually

For Vim 8 of a-Shell, packages can be stored at ~/Documents/.vim/pack/*/start or ~/Documents/.vim/pack/*/opt, where * means any name you like. Each package has its own dictionary, making it easier to upgrade or remove them. All packages located in ~/Documents/.vim/pack/*/start will be loaded automatically when Vim starts, while all those at ~/Documents/.vim/pack/*/opt won’t. Themes should be stored at the opt dictionaries to avoid unpredictable problems. For example, let’s try to install NERDTree:

# It’s supposed you’ve already created the dictionary.
$ cd ~/Documents/.vim/pack/mypackages/start/nerdtree
$ lg2 clone https://github.com/preservim/nerdtree.git

When you want to update the package, you just need to run lg2 pull at its dictionary, and when you want to remove it, just delete it’s dictionary completely would be okay.

Importing packages

For packages not to be loaded automatically, we just need to run a command inside Vim to load it:

:packadd <package>

You can also write the command to .vimrc to load it automatically and suitably for complex needs.

Edit .vimrc file

.vimrc stores at ~/Documents dictionary. Just add anything you want to it to configure your Vim!

Manage packages automatically

This part is planned in the future.