Vim Installation Guide

Vim is a highly configurable text editor built for efficient text editing, an improved version of the classic vi editor.

Installation

Ubuntu/Debian

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y vim

Fedora

sudo dnf install -y vim

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S vim

From Source (Latest Version)

git clone https://github.com/vim/vim.git
cd vim
./configure --enable-python3interp --enable-clipboard
make
sudo make install

Verification

vim --version

Basic Configuration

Create ~/.vimrc:

" Enable syntax highlighting
syntax on

" Enable line numbers
set number

" Enable relative line numbers
set relativenumber

" Enable mouse support
set mouse+=a

" Enable incremental search
set incsearch

" Highlight search results
set hlsearch

" Enable case-insensitive search
set ignorecase
set smartcase

" Enable indent guides
set autoindent
set smartindent
set shiftwidth=2

" Enable clipboard
set clipboard=unnamedplus

" Enable theme
colorscheme default

Basic Commands

Command Action
i Insert mode
Esc Normal mode
:w Save
:q Quit
:wq Save and quit
dd Delete line
yy Yank line
p Paste
u Undo
Ctrl+r Redo
/pattern Search
n Next match
N Previous match