John Robinette

Getting Vim

Home > HowTo & Tutorials > Getting Vim

Packages

The Vim Download Page provides the sources and some binary distributions. If you're using Windows, the easiest way to get Vim will be to use the self-installing executable from that page. For Mac OS X, you can get a distribution from MacVim or use a package manager such as MacPorts. For various Linux, BSD, and other UNIX like systems, you should be able to install Vim through your respective package manager.

Manual Installation of a Binary

Assuming you didn't use an package manager or self-installing package, you'll need to do a little bit of grunt work yourself.

1. Grab the runtime and executable files for your platform from the Vim download page.
2. Extract the files from the runtime archive, preferably with a tool that will preserve the directory structure present inside the archive. If you extract to $INSTALLDIR, you should get directories like the following:

   $INSTALLDIR/vim
   $INSTALLDIR/vim/vim71
   ...
   

   There will be multiple file and folders under the vim71 directory, but you shouldn't need to bother with those for the time being, so long as they are present.
3. Now extract the executables from their archive and move them into the vim71 directory. Congratulations! You've installed Vim.

Post Installaion

On some systems you may find a program called install.exe in your executables package. Assuming you've copied it over to your vim71 directory, you can use it to do some final setup, such as:

• Register the OLE features in the Windows registry
• Create shortcuts and menu entries
• Create default Vim configuration files in your home directory

Running this program will give you a list of tasks that can be performed. Enable or disable tasks as you desire by entering their menu numbers in the prompt. After you have the settings as you want them, type "d" at the prompt to do the setup.

Build Your Own

If you either can't find a binary package for your systemor the packages you find weren't compiled with the features you need, you can always try building Vim from source. I've written a short guide for building Vim with Perl, Python, Ruby, and TCL support on Windows. I'm assuming that most Vim users on UNIX-like systems will be able to compile their own copy without much help, but I'll consider writing a HowTo for that as well if the need is present.