In this guide we are going to learn how to install vim text editor on fedora 35.
Vim text editor is a free and open source screen based text editor program for Unix. It is highly configurable that make it easy to use and adapt to different programming languages. It also integrates well with other tools. It supports extensive plugin systems.
Vim supports extensive community, that is why vim keep evolving. The recent updates for vim includes:
- Introduction of vimcrypt2 extension which will encrypt/decrypt files when written and read by vim. You enter password once for the same buffer and you can restore cursor on writing.
- Introduction of GitBlame plugin which provides minimal command set for working with git
- Introduction of todo list, it provides syntax coloring for simple todo files.
- Introduction of tabpages which can load multiple files in tabs upon startup.
Prerequisites
- Fedora 35 workstation
- Access to internet
- Basic familiarity to command line
Installing Vim (vi) on Fedora
First we need to run sudo dnf update -y to update our repository.
$ sudo dnf update -yOn fedora vi-minimal come preinstalled, this vi comes without syntax highlighting. For us to get enhanced features such as syntax highlighting, interpreters for all languages, we need to use vim-enhanced. To check the information about vim-enhanced we can run the following command on our terminal.
$ sudo dnf info vim-enhanced Sample Output.
# sudo dnf info vim-enhanced
DigitalOcean Droplet Agent 65 kB/s | 3.3 kB 00:00
Available Packages
Name : vim-enhanced
Epoch : 2
Version : 8.2.3512
Release : 1.fc34
Architecture : x86_64
Size : 1.8 M
Source : vim-8.2.3512-1.fc34.src.rpm
Repository : updates
Summary : A version of the VIM editor which includes recent enhancements
URL : http://www.vim.org/
License : Vim and MIT
Description : VIM (VIsual editor iMproved) is an updated and improved version of the
: vi editor. Vi was the first real screen-based editor for UNIX, and is
: still very popular. VIM improves on vi by adding new features:
: multiple windows, multi-level undo, block highlighting and more. The
: vim-enhanced package contains a version of VIM with extra, recently
: introduced features like Python and Perl interpreters.
:
: Install the vim-enhanced package if you'd like to use a version of the
: VIM editor which includes recently added enhancements like
: interpreters for the Python and Perl scripting languages. You'll also
: need to install the vim-common package.
Now we need to run the installer for vim-enhanced in our terminal. We install vim improved with the following command which will also install all the vim improve dependencies.
$ sudo dnf install vim-enhanced Press yes and hit enter to allow the installation to continue.
Sample output
# sudo dnf install vim-enhanced
DigitalOcean Droplet Agent 73 kB/s | 3.3 kB 00:00
Dependencies resolved.
=================================================================================================================
Package Architecture Version Repository Size
=================================================================================================================
Installing:
vim-enhanced x86_64 2:8.2.3512-1.fc34 updates 1.8 M
Installing dependencies:
gpm-libs x86_64 1.20.7-26.fc34 fedora 20 k
libsodium x86_64 1.0.18-7.fc34 fedora 165 k
vim-common x86_64 2:8.2.3512-1.fc34 updates 6.7 M
vim-filesystem noarch 2:8.2.3512-1.fc34 updates 22 k
Transaction Summary
=================================================================================================================
Install 5 Packages
Total download size: 8.7 M
Installed size: 35 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/5): vim-common-8.2.3512-1.fc34.x86_64.rpm 23 MB/s | 6.7 MB 00:00
(2/5): vim-enhanced-8.2.3512-1.fc34.x86_64.rpm 54 MB/s | 1.8 MB 00:00
(3/5): vim-filesystem-8.2.3512-1.fc34.noarch.rpm 3.5 MB/s | 22 kB 00:00
(4/5): libsodium-1.0.18-7.fc34.x86_64.rpm 406 kB/s | 165 kB 00:00
(5/5): gpm-libs-1.20.7-26.fc34.x86_64.rpm 48 kB/s | 20 kB 00:00
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 6.5 MB/s | 8.7 MB 00:01
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
Preparing : 1/1
Installing : vim-filesystem-2:8.2.3512-1.fc34.noarch 1/5
Installing : vim-common-2:8.2.3512-1.fc34.x86_64 2/5
Installing : libsodium-1.0.18-7.fc34.x86_64 3/5
Installing : gpm-libs-1.20.7-26.fc34.x86_64 4/5
Installing : vim-enhanced-2:8.2.3512-1.fc34.x86_64 5/5
Running scriptlet: vim-enhanced-2:8.2.3512-1.fc34.x86_64 5/5
Verifying : gpm-libs-1.20.7-26.fc34.x86_64 1/5
Verifying : libsodium-1.0.18-7.fc34.x86_64 2/5
Verifying : vim-common-2:8.2.3512-1.fc34.x86_64 3/5
Verifying : vim-enhanced-2:8.2.3512-1.fc34.x86_64 4/5
Verifying : vim-filesystem-2:8.2.3512-1.fc34.noarch 5/5
Installed:
gpm-libs-1.20.7-26.fc34.x86_64 libsodium-1.0.18-7.fc34.x86_64
vim-common-2:8.2.3512-1.fc34.x86_64 vim-enhanced-2:8.2.3512-1.fc34.x86_64
vim-filesystem-2:8.2.3512-1.fc34.noarch
Complete!The above installation will install command line vim only. To install gui-based vim we can use the following command:
$ sudo dnf install vim-X11This will install gVim which has gui features like +clipboard. To start gVim we need to run vimx on our terminal.
If you are starting out on vim it is best you try vimtutor first to give you tutorial guide on how to proceed with vim. Launch tutorial with the following command.
$ vimtutor
In order to exit from the vim terminal type <shift:q and enter>
Conclusion
We have learnt how to install vim on our Fedora 35 workstation. Learn more using vimtutor to guide you all through. Incase of a problem please comment below we will get back to you in no time.
