Building Vim from source

Compiling Vim from the source is actually isn't that difficult. Here's what's should do:

1. First, install all the prerequisite libraries, including Git. For a debian-like Linux distribution like Ubuntu, which would be the the following:

   sudo apt-get install Libncurses5-dev libgnome2-dev libgnomeui-dev     libgtk2.0-dev libatk1.0-dev Libbonoboui2-dev     libcairo2-dev libx11-dev libxpm-dev libxt-dev python-dev     python3-dev ruby-dev lua5.1 lua5.1-dev Libperl-dev Git

   On Ubuntu 16.04, are the liblua5.1-dev Lua Dev package name not lua5.1-dev .

   (If you know-languages you'll be using, feel-leave out packages you won ' t need, e.g. Python2 python-dev or Ruby . This principle heavily applies to the whole page.)

   For Fedora, which would be the following:

   sudo yum install-y Ruby ruby-devel lua lua-devel luajit     luajit-devel ctags git python python-devel     python3 python 3-devel tcl-devel     perl perl-devel perl-extutils-parsexs     perl-extutils-xspp perl-extutils-cbuilder     Perl-extutils-embed

   This step was needed to rectify a issue with how Fedora installs XSUBPP:

3. Remove VIM If you have it already.

   sudo apt-get remove vim vim-runtime gvim

   On Ubuntu 12.04.2 you probably has to remove these packages as well:

   sudo apt-get remove vim-tiny vim-common vim-gui-common Vim-nox

4. Once everything is installed, getting the source was easy.

   Note:if you is using Python, your config directory might has a machine-specific name (e.g. config-3.5m-x86_64-linux-gnu ). Check in/usr/lib/python[2/3/3.5] to find yours, and change the python-config-dir and/or python3-config-dir arguments accordingly.

   Note for Ubuntu 14.04 (trusty) users:you can only use Python 2 or Python 3. If you try the compile vim with both python-config-dir python3-config-dir and, it'll give you an error YouCompleteMe unavailable: requires Vim compiled with Python (2.6+ or 3.3+) support .

   Add/remove the flags below to fit your setup. For example, you can leave out enable-luainterp if you don ' t plan on writing any Lua.

   Also, if you ' re not using VIM 8.0, make sure to set the Vimruntimedir variable correctly below (for instance, with VIM 8.0 A, use/usr/share/vim/vim80a). Keep in mind that some VIM installations is located directly Inside/usr/share/vim; Adjust to fit your system:

   ~git Clone https://github.com/vim/vim.gitcd vim./configure--with-features=huge             --enable-multibyte             -- Enable-rubyinterp=yes             --enable-pythoninterp=yes             --with-python-config-dir=/usr/lib/python2.7/config             --enable-python3interp=yes             --with-python3-config-dir=/usr/lib/python3.5/config             -- Enable-perlinterp=yes             --enable-luainterp=yes             --enable-gui=gtk2             --enable-cscope             --prefix=/ Usr/localmake Vimruntimedir=/usr/local/share/vim/vim80

   On Ubuntu 16.04, Python support is not working due to enabling both Python2 and Python3. Read answer by Chirinosky for workaround.

   In practice, Python2 and Python3 is not working at the same time on Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS. Choosing one of them is OK.

   If you want to is able to easily uninstall vim use checkinstall .

   sudo apt-get install checkinstall~/vimsudo checkinstall

   Otherwise, you can use the to make install.

   ~/vimsudo make Install

   Set Vim as your default editor with update-alternatives .

   sudo update-alternatives--install/usr/bin/editor editor/usr/bin/vim 1sudo update-alternatives--set editor/usr/bin/ Vimsudo update-alternatives--install/usr/bin/vi vi/usr/bin/vim 1sudo update-alternatives--set Vi/usr/bin/vim

5. Double Check that is in fact running the new Vim binary by looking at the output of vim --version .

   If you don ' t get gvim working (on Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS), try changing to --enable-gui=gtk2--enable-gui=gnome2

   If you have a problems, double check that you configure d using the correct Python config directory, as noted at the beginning of Step 3.

   These configure make and calls assume a debian-like distro where Vim ' s Runtime files directory /usr/share/vim/vim80/ is placed in, which is n OT Vim ' s default. Same thing goes for on the call --prefix=/usr configure . Those values may need to being different with a Linux distro that's not based on Debian. In such a case, try-to-remove --prefix the variable configure in the "call" VIMRUNTIMEDIR make and the "the" in the "the" and the "the" in the words, go wit h the defaults).

   If you get the stuck, here's some other useful information on building Vim.

Building Vim from Source (RPM)