vpm

vpm - Vim Package Manager

vpm is a CLI tool for managing packages with the default Vim package manager. Check out :help packages in Vim to learn more before using vpm.

Overview

You can install vpm with:

go install github.com/aarongodin/vpm@latest

TODO: provide install through other sources (homebrew for example)

Once you have vpm installed, try listing packages with:

vpm list

To learn more commands, check vpm -h. Otherwise, continue below for details on the most common commands.

Adding and removing packages

As of yet, there is no central registry for vim packages. You can have vpm install them for you by providing a URL to clone from:

vpm add git@github.com:tpope/vim-fugitive.git

If you don't specify a group, the package is added to the default group. You can set a group and also a loading type (either start or opt) with options:

vpm add --group colors --load opt git@github.com:altercation/vim-colors-solarized.git

Removing a package is as simple as:

vpm remove vim-fugitive

Once a package is added, it's name is the remote repository name, including the username (e.g. tpope/vim-fugitive). However, when you refer to any added package in another command such as remove or update, you can use a partial string (such as vim-fugitive) as this is how we tend to the think of package names.

Groups

Packages in the Vim default package manager are organized in groups. You can list groups with:

vpm groups

Groups can be specified when adding packages, otherwise the group default is used.

Changing a package

Change a package's group or loading type with:

vpm change --load opt --group git vim-fugitive

Managing updates

Updating a Vim package is as simple as performing a git pull on the directory where the package is installed. vpm makes this a bit easier by automating the operation across all packages.

vpm update

The update command pulls the latest from the origin remote in the git repository for all packages. You can specify one or many packages after, for example: vpm update vim-fugitive nerdtree.

If you want to check for updates first, you can run:

vpm outdated

A list is displayed showing the packages that are not on the latest git SHA from the remote.

Sourcing a list of packages

You can add several packages at once using:

vpm source <filename>

The file is expected to be a YAML file including an array of packages to add. You can see what this file looks like for your currently installed packages with:

vpm ls -f yaml

Saving the output of the above to a file means you can transfer a list of packages to another machine using the file, or maintain the list in another location like a dotfiles repo.