Posted onSep 16, 2021 • Edited onJun 19, 2022

Little Vim distro using Vim8+ packages

#vundle #pathoden #vim #vim8

Vim8+ packages

Starting from Vim8 plugins can be installed in~/.vim/pack folder. In this folder there could be also repositories. For example Git repositories.

Install NERDTree plugin

The following is the NERDTree installation using Vim8+ packages. As you can see a plugin can be installed in~./bim/pack folder. This folder can contain a git repository. In the first line the plugin is installed. In the second line its documentation is installed too.

git clone https://github.com/preservim/nerdtree.git ~/.vim/pack/vendor/start/nerdtreevim -u NONE -c "helptags ~/.vim/pack/vendor/start/nerdtree/doc" -c q

A bash version

In the following four lines the job is the same of the previous chapter. The difference is that destination folder and plugin urls now are variables. So, ... what plugin become a list of items?

folder="~/.vim/pack/vendor/start/nerdtree"url="https://github.com/preservim/nerdtree.git"git clone $url $foldervim -u NONE -c "helptags $golder/doc" -c q

Bash array

I created this simple bash array. Odd items are repository path. Even numbers are folders.

plugins=(    "$HOME/.vim/pack/vendor/start/vim-airline"    "https://github.com/vim-airline/vim-airline.git"    "$HOME/.vim/pack/vendor/start/nerdtree"    "https://github.com/preservim/nerdtree.git"    "$HOME/.vim/pack/vendor/start/nerdtree-git-plugin"    "https://github.com/Xuyuanp/nerdtree-git-plugin.git"    "$HOME/.vim/pack/packages/start/fzf"    "https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.git"    "$HOME/.vim/pack/packages/start/fzf.vim"    "https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.vim.git"    "$HOME/.vim/pack/tpope/start/fugitive"    "https://github.com/tpope/vim-fugitive.git/"    "$HOME/.vim/pack/vendor/start/vim-gitgutter"    "https://github.com/airblade/vim-gitgutter.git/")

Array iteration

The following is a script that iterate the array listed in the previous chapter. As you can see only even item are considered. Even items are the folders (folder="${plugins[$i]}"). Odd items are urls (url="${plugins[$i+1]}"). In this script I'll check if folder already exists. If the folder exists the repository is pulled down. If the folder does not exists the repository is just cloned.

for i in ${!plugins[@]};do    if (( i % 2 == 0 ))    then        # echo $i        folder="${plugins[$i]}"        url="${plugins[$i+1]}"        if [ ! -d "$folder" ] ; then            git clone "$url" "$folder"        else            git -C $folder pull         fi    fidone

Final result

In the final result code I've added just a new line to add the documentation of the plugin.

plugins=(    "$HOME/.vim/pack/vendor/start/vim-airline"    "https://github.com/vim-airline/vim-airline.git"    "$HOME/.vim/pack/vendor/start/nerdtree"    "https://github.com/preservim/nerdtree.git"    "$HOME/.vim/pack/vendor/start/nerdtree-git-plugin"    "https://github.com/Xuyuanp/nerdtree-git-plugin.git"    "$HOME/.vim/pack/packages/start/fzf"    "https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.git"    "$HOME/.vim/pack/packages/start/fzf.vim"    "https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.vim.git"    "$HOME/.vim/pack/tpope/start/fugitive"    "https://github.com/tpope/vim-fugitive.git/"    "$HOME/.vim/pack/vendor/start/vim-gitgutter"    "https://github.com/airblade/vim-gitgutter.git/")echo "\n >>> START plugins installation "for i in ${!plugins[@]};do    if (( i % 2 == 0 ))    then        # echo $i        folder="${plugins[$i]}"        url="${plugins[$i+1]}"        if [ ! -d "$folder" ] ; then            git clone "$url" "$folder"        else            git -C $folder pull         fi    fi    vim -u NONE -c "helptags $folder/doc" -c qdoneecho " >>> END plugins installation "