The Ultimate vimrc

Over the last 8 years I have used and tweaked Vim. This is my Ultimate vimrc.

There are two versions:

• Basic: If you want something small just copy basic.vim into your ~/.vimrc and you will have a great basic setup
• Awesome: This includes a ton of useful plugins, color schemes and configurations

I would of course recommend using the awesome version.

How to install the Basic version?

The basic version is basically just one file and no plugins. You can check out basic.vim.

This is useful to install on remote servers where you don't need many plugins and you don't do many edits.

git clone git://github.com/amix/vimrc.git ~/.vim
sh ~/.vim/install_basic_vimrc.sh

How to install the Awesome version?

The awesome version includes a lot of great plugins, configurations and color schemes that make Vim a lot better. To install it simply do following:

git clone git://github.com/amix/vimrc.git ~/.vim
sh ~/.vim/install_awesome_vimrc.sh

I also recommend using Source Code Pro font from Adobe (it's free and awesome font for writing and programming). The Awesome vimrc is already setup to try to use it

How to install on Windows?

Use msysgit to checkout the repository and run the installation instructions above. No special instructions needed ;-)

How to update to latest version?

Simply just do a git rebase!

cd ~/.vim
git pull --rebase

Some screenshots

Colors when editing a Python file:

Opening recently opened files mru.vim:

NERD Tree plugin in a terminal window:

This vimrc even works on Windows!

Distraction free mode (using goyo.vim and vim-zenroom2):

Included Plugins

I recommend reading the docs of these plugins to understand them better. Each of them provide a much better Vim experience!

• pathogen.vim: Manages the runtime path of the plugins
• YankRing: Maintains a history of previous yanks, changes and deletes
• snipMate.vim: snipMate.vim aims to be a concise vim script that implements some of TextMate's snippets features in Vim
• bufexplorer.zip: Buffer Explorer / Browser. This plugin can be opened with <leader+o>
• NERD Tree: A tree explorer plugin for vim
• ack.vim: Vim plugin for the Perl module / CLI script 'ack'
• ctrlp.vim: Fuzzy file, buffer, mru and tag finder. In my config it's mapped to <Ctrl+F>, because <Ctrl+P> is used by YankRing
• mru.vim: Plugin to manage Most Recently Used (MRU) files. Includes my own fork which adds syntax highlighting to MRU. This plugin can be opened with <leader+f>
• open_file_under_cursor.vim: Open file under cursor when pressing gf
• zencoding: Expanding abbreviation like zen-coding, very useful for editing XML, HTML.
• vim-indent-object: Defines a new text object representing lines of code at the same indent level. Useful for python/vim scripts
• taglist.vim: Source code browser (supports C/C++, java, perl, python, tcl, sql, php, etc)
• vim-multiple-cursors: Sublime Text style multiple selections for Vim, CTRL+N is remapped to CTRL+S (due to YankRing)
• vim-expand-region: Allows you to visually select increasingly larger regions of text using the same key combination.
• vim-airline: Lean & mean status/tabline for vim that's light as air (replacing powerline)
• vim-fugitive: A Git wrapper so awesome, it should be illegal
• goyo.vim and vim-zenroom2: Remove all clutter and focus only on the essential. Similar to iA Writer or Write Room Read more here
• vim-commentary: Comment stuff out. Use gcc to comment out a line (takes a count), gc to comment out the target of a motion. gcu uncomments a set of adjacent commented lines.
• syntastic: Syntax checking hacks for vim

Included color schemes

• peaksea: My favorite!
• vim-colors-solarized
• vim-irblack
• mayansmoke
• vim-pyte

Included modes

• vim-coffee-script
• vim-less
• vim-bundle-mako
• vim-markdown
• nginx.vim: Highlights configuration files for nginx
• vim-golang

How to include your own stuff?

After you have installed the setup you can create ~/.vim/my_configs.vim to fill in any configurations that are important for you. For instance, my my_configs.vim looks like this:

~/.vim (master)> cat my_configs.vim
map <leader>ct :cd ~/Desktop/Todoist/todoist<cr>
map <leader>cw :cd ~/Desktop/Wedoist/wedoist<cr> 

You can also install your own plugins, for instance, via pathogen we can install vim-rails:

cd ~/.vim
git clone git://github.com/tpope/vim-rails.git bundle/vim-rails

Now you have vim-rails installed ;-)

Key Mappings

Plugin related mappings

Open bufexplorer and see and manage the current buffers:

map <leader>o :BufExplorer<cr>

Open MRU.vim and see the recently open files:

map <leader>f :MRU<CR>

Open ctrlp.vim plugin:

let g:ctrlp_map = '<c-f>'

Open PeepOpen plugin:

map <leader>j :PeepOpen<cr>

Managing the NERD Tree plugin:

map <leader>nn :NERDTreeToggle<cr>
map <leader>nb :NERDTreeFromBookmark 
map <leader>nf :NERDTreeFind<cr>

goyo.vim and vim-zenroom2 lets you only focus on one thing at a time. It removes all the distractions and centers the content. It has a special look when editing Markdown, reStructuredText and textfiles. It only has one mapping.

map <leader>z :Goyo<cr>

Normal mode mappings

Fast saving of a buffer:

nmap <leader>w :w!<cr>

Treat long lines as break lines (useful when moving around in them):

map j gj
map k gk

Map <Space> to / (search) and <Ctrl>+<Space> to ? (backwards search):

map <space> /
map <c-space> ?
map <silent> <leader><cr> :noh<cr>

Disable highlight when <leader><cr> is pressed:

map <silent> <leader><cr> :noh<cr>

Smart way to move between windows:

map <C-j> <C-W>j
map <C-k> <C-W>k
map <C-h> <C-W>h
map <C-l> <C-W>l

Closing of current buffer(s):

" Close current buffer
map <leader>bd :Bclose<cr>

" Close all buffers
map <leader>ba :1,1000 bd!<cr>

Useful mappings for managing tabs:

map <leader>tn :tabnew<cr>
map <leader>to :tabonly<cr>
map <leader>tc :tabclose<cr>
map <leader>tm :tabmove 

" Opens a new tab with the current buffer's path
" Super useful when editing files in the same directory
map <leader>te :tabedit <c-r>=expand("%:p:h")<cr>/

Switch CWD to the directory of the open buffer:

map <leader>cd :cd %:p:h<cr>:pwd<cr>

Open vimgrep and put the cursor in the right position:

map <leader>g :vimgrep // **/*.<left><left><left><left><left><left><left>

Vimgreps in the current file:

map <leader><space> :vimgrep // <C-R>%<C-A><right><right><right><right><right><right><right><right><right>

Remove the Windows ^M - when the encodings gets messed up:

noremap <leader>m mmHmt:%s/<C-V><cr>//ge<cr>'tzt'm

Quickly open a buffer for scripbble:

map <leader>q :e ~/buffer<cr>

Toggle paste mode on and off:

map <leader>pp :setlocal paste!<cr>

Insert mode mappings

Quickly insert parenthesis/brackets/etc.:

inoremap $1 ()<esc>i
inoremap $2 []<esc>i
inoremap $3 {}<esc>i
inoremap $4 {<esc>o}<esc>O
inoremap $q ''<esc>i
inoremap $e ""<esc>i
inoremap $t <><esc>i

Insert the current date and time (useful for timestamps):

iab xdate <c-r>=strftime("%d/%m/%y %H:%M:%S")<cr>

Visual mode mappings

Visual mode pressing * or # searches for the current selection:

vnoremap <silent> * :call VisualSelection('f')<CR>
vnoremap <silent> # :call VisualSelection('b')<CR>

When you press gv you vimgrep after the selected text:

vnoremap <silent> gv :call VisualSelection('gv')<CR>

When you press <leader>r you can search and replace the selected text:

vnoremap <silent> <leader>r :call VisualSelection('replace')<CR>

Surround the visual selection in parenthesis/brackets/etc.:

vnoremap $1 <esc>`>a)<esc>`<i(<esc>
vnoremap $2 <esc>`>a]<esc>`<i[<esc>
vnoremap $3 <esc>`>a}<esc>`<i{<esc>
vnoremap $$ <esc>`>a"<esc>`<i"<esc>
vnoremap $q <esc>`>a'<esc>`<i'<esc>
vnoremap $e <esc>`>a"<esc>`<i"<esc>

Command line mappings

$q is super useful when browsing on the command line. It deletes everything until the last slash:

cno $q <C-\>eDeleteTillSlash()<cr>

Bash like keys for the command line:

cnoremap <C-A>		<Home>
cnoremap <C-E>		<End>
cnoremap <C-K>		<C-U>

cnoremap <C-P> <Up>
cnoremap <C-N> <Down>

Write the file as sudo (only on Unix). Super useful when you open a file and you don't have permissions to save your changes. Vim tip:

:W 

Spell checking

Pressing <leader>ss will toggle and untoggle spell checking

map <leader>ss :setlocal spell!<cr>

Shortcuts using <leader> instead of special chars

map <leader>sn ]s
map <leader>sp [s
map <leader>sa zg
map <leader>s? z=

Cope

Do :help cope if you are unsure what cope is. It's super useful!

When you search with vimgrep, display your results in cope by doing: <leader>cc

To go to the next search result do: <leader>n

To go to the previous search results do: <leader>p

Vimscript mappings:

map <leader>cc :botright cope<cr>
map <leader>co ggVGy:tabnew<cr>:set syntax=qf<cr>pgg
map <leader>n :cn<cr>
map <leader>p :cp<cr>

Useful blog tips regarding my Vim setup

• Vim: Annotate strings with gettext (the macro way)
• vimgrep: Searching through multiple file extensions
• Filtering through vimgrep results using regular expressions
• PeepOpen - File auto completion for Mac editors
• Vim 7.3: Persistent undo and encryption!
• Vim tips: Visual Search
• Folding in Vim
• Zen room for Vim: Focusing only on the essential