Dec 23, 2020 • 3 min read

Compiling Vim

“Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to make creating and changing any kind of text very efficient. It is included as “vi” with most UNIX systems and with Apple OS X.”

This tutorial covers the steps required to compile Vim from source with Python support (i.e. python3.x). If you use ChromeOS or a Linux distribution, it may not necessarily have access to the latest build of the application. To get past this issue, compiling from source provides the best approach. Learn how to build Vim, so understand how to enable example packages needed for plugins based on Python.

Vim Configuration

This is a really quick guide to configuring Vim

Check the Vim version
Remove unnecessary packages
Install the require packages
Get the Vim source code
Build the source code
Test the generated package

Which version of Vim

In this blog post I am using Vim. In most instances you should not have to update the version of Vim on your host. If you use certain plugins e.g. YouCompleteMe, they will complain if you do not have a current version of Vim.

Build from Source

Building from source is well documented.

Reference:

Check the Vim version
NODE_TYPE // text
```
vim --version
```
Install Packages

Get rid of the existing Vim
NODE_TYPE // text
```
sudo apt autoremove vim vim-runtime gvim
```
Get rid of the deprecated python 2.x
NODE_TYPE // text
```
sudo apt autoremove python2*
```
Add build packages
- git
- libatk1.0-dev
- libcairo2-dev
- libgtk2.0-dev
- liblua5.1-0-dev
- libncurses5-dev
- libperl-dev
- libx11-dev
- libxpm-dev
- libxt-dev
- lua5.1
- python3-dev
NOTE: Expand the code below if you get an error!
NODE_TYPE // text
```
sudo apt install -y git \
                 libatk1.0-dev \
                 libcairo2-dev \
                 libgtk2.0-dev \
                 liblua5.1-0-dev \
                 libncurses5-dev \
                 libperl-dev \
                 libx11-dev \
                 libxpm-dev \
                 libxt-dev \
                 lua5.1 \
                 python3-dev \
                 ruby-dev 
```
Move to the home folder
NODE_TYPE // text
```
cd ~
```
Ref: VIM
Get VIM from github
NODE_TYPE // text
```
git clone https://github.com/vim/vim.git
```
Enter the archive directory
NODE_TYPE // text
```
cd ~/vim
```
Set the Python configuration e.g.
NODE_TYPE // text
```
PYTHON_VER=$("echo $(python3-config --configdir) | awk -F '/' '{print$4}'")
```
NOTE: Python Dev comes with a utility to indicate the correct path e.g.
NODE_TYPE // bash
```
python3-config --configdir
```
Will output the Python path
NODE_TYPE // output
```
/usr/lib/python3.11/config-3.11-x86_64-linux-gnu
```
Add configuration
NODE_TYPE // text
```
./configure --with-features=huge \
--enable-multibyte \
--enable-rubyinterp=yes \
--enable-python3interp=yes \
--with-python3-command=$PYTHON_VER \
--with-python3-config-dir=$(python3-config --configdir) \
--enable-perlinterp=yes \
--enable-gui=gtk2 \
--enable-cscope \
--prefix=/usr/local
```
Compile the source and install
NODE_TYPE // text
```
make && sudo make install
```
Confirm the Vim configuration and grep on Python3 support (i.e. +Python3)
NODE_TYPE // text
```
vim --version | grep +python3
```
Add the vim command as an Alias to ~/.bashrc

NODE_TYPE // text

alias vi="/usr/local/bin/vim"

Congrats! You have a custom build of Vim.