Setting Up Vim with vim-plug on Ubuntu

This walkthrough will guide you through setting up Vim with vim-plug, a minimalist Vim plugin manager, on your Ubuntu system. This setup will enhance your Vim experience with useful plugins and configurations.

Step 1:  Create Necessary Directories

First, we'll create the necessary directories for backups, swap files, and undo history.

  $ mkdir -p ~/.vim/backup ~/.vim/swap ~/.vim/undo

Step 2: Install vim-plug

download the plug.vim script from the vim-plug GitHub repository and save it to the ~/.vim/autoload/ directory.

  $ curl -fLo ~/.vim/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs \

    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim

Step 3: Configure .vimrc

Copy the following settings into the ~/.vimrc file in your Linux (Ubuntu) user account

  " Basic settings

 

  set hlsearch " Highlight search results

  set nu " Show line numbers

  set autoindent " Enable automatic indentation

  set scrolloff=2

  set wildmode=longest,list

  set tabstop=4 " Set tab width

  set shiftwidth=4 " Set indentation width

  set expandtab " Use spaces instead of tabs

  set smartindent " Enable smart indentation

  set cindent " Enable C-style indentation

  set smartcase " Case-insensitive search unless uppercase is used

  set incsearch " Show matching results while typing search query

  set backspace=eol,start,indent " Enable backspace in insert mode

  set history=256 " Set command history length

  set laststatus=2 " Always display the status line

  set showmatch " Highlight matching parentheses

 

  " File encoding settings

 

  set encoding=utf-8

  set fileencoding=utf-8

  set fileencodings=ucs-bom,utf-8,cp949,latin1

 

  " UI settings

 

  set ruler " Show the cursor position

  set statusline=%<%l:%v\ [%P]%=%a\ %h%m%r\ %F\

  colorscheme codeschool " Set color scheme

 

  " Backup and undo settings

 

  set backup " Enable backup file creation

  set undofile " Save undo history to file

  set backupdir=~/.vim/backup// " Set backup file directory

  set directory=~/.vim/swap// " Set swap file directory

  set undodir=~/.vim/undo// " Set undo file directory

 

  " Enable syntax highlighting

 

  if has("syntax")

    syntax on

  endif

 

  " Locale settings

 

  let $LANG = 'ko_KR.UTF-8'

Step 4: Install Plugins

Open Vim and install the plugins by running the following command

  $ vim +PlugInstall +qall

The command "vim +PlugInstall +qall" is used to open Vim and automatically install the plugins specified in the .vimrc file using vim-plug.

+PlugInstall

• This is an Ex command passed to Vim when it starts up.
• PlugInstall is a command provided by vim-plug that installs all plugins listed in the .vimrc file.

+qall

• This is another Ex command that tells Vim to quit all open windows.
• After installing the plugins with PlugInstall, +qall will close Vim.