Vim Plugin Manager

Installation

Download it from its GitHub repository or the risky but easy way using curl:

curl -fLo ~/.vim/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim

Adding Plugins

Add a plugin section to the .vimrc:

.vimrc
call plug#begin()
" The default plugin directory will be as follows:
"   - Vim (Linux/macOS): '~/.vim/plugged'
"   - Vim (Windows): '~/vimfiles/plugged'
"   - Neovim (Linux/macOS/Windows): stdpath('data') . '/plugged'
" You can specify a custom plugin directory by passing it as the argument
"   - e.g. `call plug#begin('~/.vim/plugged')`
"   - Avoid using standard Vim directory names like 'plugin'

" Make sure you use single quotes

" Gruvbox Theme
Plug 'sainnhe/gruvbox-material'

" Initialize plugin system
" - Automatically executes `filetype plugin indent on` and `syntax enable`.
call plug#end()
" You can revert the settings after the call like so:
"   filetype indent off   " Disable file-type-specific indentation
"   syntax off            " Disable syntax highlighting

Afterwards reload the .vimrc and run :PlugInstall in vim to install the plugins (e.g. gruvbox-material)

Display Whitespace Characters in Vim

Turn on:

:set listchars=eol:¬,tab:>·,trail:~,extends:>,precedes:<,space:␣
:set list

Turn off:

:set nolist

Highlight current Line and current Column

:set cursorline
:set cursorcolumn

Change Colorscheme

Type in vim …​
:colorscheme <TAB>

Search and replace

Global search and replace (g), ignoring case (i)

:%s/SEARCH/replace/gi

Copy and paste multiple lines

  • Shift + v to enter visual mode

  • select lines

  • y for copy or x to cut

  • p to paste at cursor position

Select from cursor

  • vim (enter the visual mode) and use cursor to select characters to copy/cut

Search for word at cursor position

*

Allow Editing

Needed e.g. for vimdiff in git

Setting in an active editor
:set noro
Global configuration in ~/.vimrc
" Default to not read-only in vimdiff
set noro

My vimrc

Sets ..

  • no read-only (e.g. for vimdiff)

  • display line numbers (global line numbers, not relative)

  • syntax highlight on

  • file type detection on

~/.vimrc
" Default to not read-only in vimdiff
set noro
set number
set cursorline " highlight current line
set cursorcolumn " highlight current column, must have for yaml
syntax on
filetype on
set et " expandtab (use space character when tab key used) *
set ts=2 " tabstop *
set sw=2 " shiftwidth *
set sts=2 " softtabstop (Let backspace delete indent **
set ai " autoindent (Indent at the same level of the previous line)
set si " smart indent
set hls " highlightsearch (Highlight search terms)
set ic " ignorecase when searching in vim
syntax on " syntax highlighting

call plug#begin()
" The default plugin directory will be as follows:
"   - Vim (Linux/macOS): '~/.vim/plugged'
"   - Vim (Windows): '~/vimfiles/plugged'
"   - Neovim (Linux/macOS/Windows): stdpath('data') . '/plugged'
" You can specify a custom plugin directory by passing it as the argument
"   - e.g. `call plug#begin('~/.vim/plugged')`
"   - Avoid using standard Vim directory names like 'plugin'

" Make sure you use single quotes

" Gruvbox Theme
Plug 'sainnhe/gruvbox-material'

" Initialize plugin system
" - Automatically executes `filetype plugin indent on` and `syntax enable`.
call plug#end()
" You can revert the settings after the call like so:
"   filetype indent off   " Disable file-type-specific indentation
"   syntax off            " Disable syntax highlighting

colorscheme gruvbox-material

Indent selected Text Blocks

Better set :set shiftwidth=2 in the .vimrc

  1. Select text block using Shift+V (virtual mode) and UP and DOWN to select multiple lines

  2. Press < or > for indenting the block in the left or right direction, to repeat the action, press .