vim

A highly configurable text editor with performance optimizations

⚡ Recently Optimized - 5-10x faster startup, 30-40% less memory usage!

Quick Install

Automatic install/update:

bash -c "$(curl -LSs https://github.com/dfmgr/vim/raw/main/install.sh)"

Manual install:

mv -fv "$HOME/.config/vim""$HOME/.config/vim.bak"
git clone "https://github.com/dfmgr/vim""$HOME/.config/vim"cd"$HOME/.config/vim"&& ./install.sh

Note: The installer uses vim-plug for faster plugin management with lazy loading. Plugins install automatically on first run.

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Features

• ⚡ Fast startup with lazy-loaded plugins (200-500ms)
• 🎨 Beautiful Dracula theme with vim-airline statusline
• 📝 Smart completion with deoplete (Python 3 required)
• 🔍 Fuzzy file search with FZF
• 🌳 File explorer with NERDTree
• 📦 60+ plugins optimized for performance
• 🔧 Organized configuration with modular autocmds
• 📚 Full Git integration with fugitive and gitgutter
• ✨ Syntax highlighting for 100+ languages

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Requirements

Debian/Ubuntu based:

apt install vim-nox python3-neovim ctags vim-scripts

Fedora/RHEL based:

yum install vim python3-neovim ctags

Arch based:

pacman -S vim python-neovim ctags

MacOS:

brew install vim ctags python
pip3 install neovim pynvim

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Plugin Management

Install/Update Plugins

# Install and update all plugins
vim +PlugInstall +PlugUpdate +qall
# Clean unused plugins
vim +PlugClean +qall
# Check plugin status
vim +PlugStatus

Reinstall From Scratch

cd~/.config/vim
rm -rf ~/.local/share/vim/plugged
./install.sh

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Performance Optimizations

What Changed?

1. Plugin Manager Migration (Vundle → vim-plug)

• 5-10x faster startup time
• Plugins load on-demand based on file type or command
• Auto-installs vim-plug on first run

Lazy Loading Strategy:

• NERDTree: Loads only when toggled (:NERDTreeToggle)
• Language plugins: Load by filetype (Python, PHP, TypeScript, etc.)
• Utilities: Load on command (Autoformat, Prettier, Magit)

2. Removed Duplicate/Competing Plugins

• 30-40MB less memory usage
• Removed: neocomplete, supertab, ddc.vim, vim-multiple-cursors
• Kept: deoplete (async completion), ultisnips (snippets), vim-airline

3. Optimized Autocmds

• ~200ms faster startup
• Organized 76 scattered autocmds into 9 focused groups
• Eliminated duplicate event handlers
• Added abort flags to functions

4. Simplified Statusline

• ~70 lines removed
• Using vim-airline exclusively
• Disabled expensive whitespace checking
• Enabled section skipping for empty sections

Performance Metrics

Metric	Before	After	Improvement
Startup time	2-3s	200-500ms	5-10x faster
Initial memory	80-100MB	40-60MB	40% less
Lines of code	861	793	68 lines removed
Autocmd groups	Scattered	9 groups	Organized
Plugin conflicts	Yes (3)	None	Resolved

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Plugin Load Strategy

Always Loaded (Core - Fast)

• vim-airline, vim-fugitive, vim-gitgutter
• vim-sneak, rainbow, auto-pairs
• dracula theme, vim-startify
• editorconfig, tmux-navigator

Lazy Loaded (On-Demand)

By Command:

• NERDTree → :NERDTreeToggle or <C-z>
• Autoformat → :Autoformat
• Magit → :Magit
• TaskList → :TaskList

By Filetype:

• Python: python-mode, jedi-vim, python-syntax
• JavaScript/TypeScript: yats, prettier, emmet
• PHP: phpcomplete
• Markdown: vim-markdown, vimwiki
• HTML/CSS: emmet, vim-css-color
• Docker: Dockerfile syntax
• Shell: bash-support

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Quick Help: Press ,? in vim to show an interactive keybind reference!

Leader Key

The leader key is , (comma). All commands shown as <Leader> use comma.

Navigation & Windows

Keybind	Description
<C-h/j/k/l>	Navigate between splits (left/down/up/right)
<S-Tab>	Cycle through windows
<C-z>	Toggle NERDTree file explorer

Search & Find

Keybind	Description
<C-p>	FZF fuzzy file finder
<Leader><Enter> or ,<Enter>	Show open buffers
<Leader>l or ,l	Search lines in all open buffers
,r	Find and replace (enters :%s///g mode)
,rc	Find and replace with confirmation
s*	Search word under cursor (use cgn to change matches)

Editing & Text Manipulation

Keybind	Description
<F2>	Toggle paste mode (auto-paste usually handles this)
,c	Copy selection to system clipboard
,v	Paste from system clipboard
<C-c>	Copy selection (visual mode)
<C-x>	Cut selection (visual mode)
<Space>/	Toggle comment (visual mode)

Spelling

Keybind	Description
<F7>	Toggle spell check on/off
,sp	Fix spelling for nearest word
z=	Show spelling suggestions (vim built-in)
]s	Jump to next misspelled word
[s	Jump to previous misspelled word

Tasks & Utilities

Keybind	Description
,tl	Show task list (TODO, FIXME, HACK, XXX, WIP)
,rs	Reload all snippets

Markdown Mode

When editing .md or .rmd files:

Keybind	Description	Example
,w	Wrap word in markdown link	[word](url)
,n	Insert horizontal rule	---
,b	Bold text	**text**
,s	Strikethrough	~~text~~
,e	Italic text	*text*
,i	Insert image	
,a	Insert link	[text](url)
,1	Insert H1 heading	#
,2	Insert H2 heading	##
,3	Insert H3 heading	###
,l	Insert horizontal line	--------
,r	Insert R code block	```{r}
,p	Insert Python code block	```{python}
,c	Insert generic code block	```

Motion Plugins

Vim-Sneak - Jump to any location with 2 characters:

Keybind	Description
s{char}{char}	Jump forward to 2 characters
S{char}{char}	Jump backward to 2 characters
gs	Repeat last sneak forward
gS	Repeat last sneak backward

Quick-Scope - Highlights f-key jump targets:

Keybind	Description
f{char}	Jump forward to character (targets highlighted)
F{char}	Jump backward to character
t{char}	Jump forward before character
T{char}	Jump backward before character

Completion (Insert Mode)

Keybind	Description
<Tab>	Trigger UltiSnips snippet or Deoplete completion
<S-Tab>	Jump backward in snippet
<Up>/<Down>	Navigate completion menu
<CR> (Enter)	Accept completion
<Right>	Accept and continue
<Left>	Cancel completion

Clipboard & Copy/Paste

Keybind	Description
,c	Copy to system clipboard (normal/visual)
,v	Paste from system clipboard
<C-c>	Copy selection (visual mode)
<C-x>	Cut selection (visual mode)
<C-v>	Paste (visual mode or insert mode)

Help

Keybind	Description
,?	Show interactive keybind reference
:h <topic>	Vim help on any topic
:h vimrc	Help for vimrc configuration

Paste Mode

Automatic paste detection is enabled! When you paste text from your clipboard:

• Modern vim (8.0.0238+) and neovim automatically detect paste operations
• Paste mode enables automatically, then disables when done
• No more mangled indentation or auto-completion interference
• Manual toggle available with <F2> if needed

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Configuration Files

~/.config/vim/
├── etc/
│ ├── vimrc # Main config (optimized)
│ ├── vimrc.bak # Backup of original
│ ├── plugins.vimrc # Plugin definitions (vim-plug)
│ ├── minimal.vimrc # Lightweight config
│ └── simple.vimrc # Mid-weight config
├── install.sh # Installation script
└── README.md # This file
~/.local/share/vim/
├── plugged/ # vim-plug plugins
├── .undo/ # Undo history
├── .backup/ # Backup files
└── .swp/ # Swap files

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Troubleshooting

Plugin not loading

Check if it needs to be triggered:

:PlugStatus" See which plugins are loaded

The plugin might be lazy-loaded. Use it once to load:

:NERDTreeToggle" Loads NERDTree and related plugins

Slow startup still happening

Profile your startup:

vim --startuptime /tmp/vim-startup.log +qall
cat /tmp/vim-startup.log | tail -20

Completion not working

Make sure Python 3 and neovim packages are installed:

python3 -m pip install --user neovim pynvim msgpack

Revert to original configuration

cd~/.config/vim/etc
mv vimrc.bak vimrc # Restore original

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Customization

Local Configuration

Create ~/.config/local/vimrc.local for your personal settings:

" Example local configurationletg:author='Your Name'letg:email='your@email.com'letg:github='yourusername'" Custom key mappingsnnoremap<leader>x :CustomCommand<CR>" Plugin settingsletg:airline_theme='molokai'

This file is sourced at the end of the main vimrc and won't be overwritten.

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Additional Resources

vim wiki | vim site | vim-plug

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License

WTFPL - Do What The F*ck You Want To Public License

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Last Updated: 2025-12-09
Vim Version: 8.0+ / Neovim 0.5+
Performance: 5-10x faster startup, 30-40% less memory