Editing the .vimrc file

bkelly · 04-12-2018, 05:32 PM

Linux and vim novice. I have learned the file .vimrc can be used to control the behavior of vim. Several hours of searching has not revealed a site that describes things that this file can do and how to do them.

My first goal is to change the highlighting for text found with a search. On my computer the found text has yellow highlight with white text. To my eyes it is impossible to read.

First: Please advise as to where I can find a tutorial on editing .vimrc.

Second: What would I put in that file so that the highlight is yellow but the text is black?

frankbell · 04-12-2018, 08:09 PM

This looks like a good place to start: https://dougblack.io/words/a-good-vimrc.htm

dugan · 04-13-2018, 01:44 AM

Just change the whole color scheme.

Try

Code:

:color desert

for one that's popular and included.

More specifically how to change the color of the text in the highlight? Well, almost the exact same question was asked here:

https://stackoverflow.com/q/7103173

Michael Uplawski · 04-13-2018, 04:16 AM

As the OP asked for the /home/user/.vimrc file, I suggest, that the color scheme and syntax-highlighting be set in the configuration file. I found these settings a hundred years ago and do not remember where they come from.

Code:

" Switch syntax highlighting on, when the terminal has colors
" Also switch on highlighting the last used search pattern.
if &t_Co > 2 || has("gui_running")
  syntax on
  set hlsearch
endif

colorscheme koehler
" alternative color scheme
" colorscheme pablo
:hi SpellBad guibg=#ff2929 ctermbg=lightgreen ctermfg=black

My self-compiled vim does currently not have a help-file. But normally, a command like :help color or :help highlight, should show some usefull information.
Edit: I just recompiled vim, the help-files are there alright, and yes... try :help with anything, even :help vimrc ! It is always better than you thought, at first.

Michael Uplawski · 04-13-2018, 04:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankbell

This looks like a good place to start: https://dougblack.io/words/a-good-vimrc.htm

Check URL. 404 File not Found.

bkelly · 04-13-2018, 10:55 AM

Command :version produces this first line:

Quote:

VIM - Vi IMproved 7.4 (2013 Aug 10, compiles Aug 2 2017 00:45:39)

Please try to forgive typos as I cannot copy/paste from the Linux machine to here. (But do not ignore typos, it may be accurate here but wrong in my vimrc file.) The .vimrc looks like this:

Quote:

set expandtab
set shiftwidth=4
set softtabstop=4
#
# Set highlight and background for search results
hi Search cterm=NONE ctermfg=desert ctermbg=darkblue
# below for GUI
# guibg=desert guifg=darkblue

When vim starts it complains about lines 4, 5, 7, 8 with comments such as:

Quote:

Line 4:
E749: empty buffer
Line 5:
Trailing characters: #Set highlight and background for search results.

I did look that up and found that the # (hash or pound character) is the comment character. Evidently, as implemented on this computer, VIM does not like it.

The phrase:

Quote:

ctermbk=darkblue

looks ok but:

Quote:

ctermfg=desert

has the text desert highlighted in red with white text. I suspect it does not like desert. However, I found directory:

Quote:

/usr/share/vim/vim74/colors

In there are 18 color files named *.vim and both desert and darkblue are present.

Sometimes I miss the obvious but I do note that the colors are found as noted above and that this directory:
/usr/share/vim/vimfiles/colors
is empty. Might that be important? It is write protected from the user. So, ..., how can I discover all the places VIM looks for files that I can configure/edit?

Edit: color list:
I cannot find a list of all the colors than vim recognizes. And such a list really should have a sample of each color. Does anyone know where to find such a list?

Myk267 · 04-13-2018, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankbell

This looks like a good place to start: https://dougblack.io/words/a-good-vimrc.htm

https://dougblack.io/words/a-good-vimrc.html

Link fixed.

Habitual · 04-20-2018, 11:04 AM

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Vim#Configuration

dugan · 04-20-2018, 11:14 AM

Start every .vimrc with these lines:

Code:

scriptencoding utf-8
if filereadable(expand('$VIMRUNTIME/defaults.vim'))
	unlet! g:skip_defaults_vim
	source $VIMRUNTIME/defaults.vim
endif

On Vim 8, that will give you the new, saner defaults.

pan64 · 04-20-2018, 12:42 PM

just one comment:
# is not the comment sign in vimrc. That's why you got those errors.
If I know well that is "