vim-plug

A single-file Vim plugin manager.

Somewhere between Pathogen and Vundle, but with faster parallel installer.

Pros.

• Easier to setup
• Parallel installation/update (requires +ruby)
• Smallest possible feature set
• Branch/tag support
• On-demand loading
• Dependency resolution using Plugfile (experimental)

Cons.

• Everything else

Usage

Download plug.vim and put it in ~/.vim/autoload

mkdir -p ~/.vim/autoload
curl -fLo ~/.vim/autoload/plug.vim https://raw.github.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim

Edit your .vimrc

call plug#begin('~/.vim/plugged')

Plug 'junegunn/seoul256.vim'
Plug 'junegunn/vim-easy-align'
Plug 'scrooloose/nerdtree', { 'on':  'NERDTreeToggle' }
Plug 'tpope/vim-fireplace', { 'for': 'clojure' }
" Plug 'user/repo1', 'branch_or_tag'
" Plug 'user/repo2', { 'rtp': 'vim/plugin/dir', 'branch': 'devel' }
" Plug 'git@github.com:junegunn/vim-github-dashboard.git'
" ...

call plug#end()

Reload .vimrc and :PlugInstall to install plugins.

Plugin directory

If you omit the path argument to plug#begin(), plugins are installed in plugged directory under the first path in runtimepath at the point when plug#begin() is called. This is usually ~/.vim/plugged (or $HOME/vimfiles/plugged on Windows) given that you didn't touch runtimepath before the call.

Commands

Command	Description
PlugInstall [name ...] [#threads]	Install plugins
PlugUpdate [name ...] [#threads]	Install or update plugins
PlugClean[!]	Remove unused directories (bang version will clean without prompt)
PlugUpgrade	Upgrade vim-plug itself
PlugStatus	Check the status of plugins
PlugDiff	See the updated changes from the previous PlugUpdate

Options for parallel installer

Flag	Default	Description
g:plug_threads	16	Default number of threads to use
g:plug_timeout	60	Time limit of each task in seconds

Keybindings

• D - PlugDiff
• S - PlugStatus
• q - Close the window

Example: A small sensible Vim configuration

call plug#begin()
Plug 'tpope/vim-sensible'
call plug#end()

On-demand loading of plugins

" NERD tree will be loaded on the first invocation of NERDTreeToggle command
Plug 'scrooloose/nerdtree', { 'on': 'NERDTreeToggle' }

" Multiple commands
Plug 'junegunn/vim-github-dashboard', { 'on': ['GHDashboard', 'GHActivity'] }

" Loaded when clojure file is opened
Plug 'tpope/vim-fireplace', { 'for': 'clojure' }

" On-demand loading on both conditions
Plug 'junegunn/vader.vim',  { 'on': 'Vader', 'for': 'vader' }

Dependency resolution

See Dependency Resolution.

Articles

• Writing my own Vim plugin manager
• Thoughts on Vim plugin dependency

FAQ/Troubleshooting

Plugins are not installed/updated in parallel

Your Vim does not support Ruby interface. :echo has('ruby') should print 1. In order to setup Vim with Ruby support, you may refer to this article.

Vim: Caught deadly signal SEGV

If your Vim crashes with the above message, first check if its Ruby interface is working correctly with the following command:

:ruby puts RUBY_VERSION

If Vim crashes even with this command, it is likely that Ruby interface is broken, and you have to rebuild Vim with a working version of Ruby. (brew remove vim && brew install vim or ./configure && make ...)

If you're on OS X, one possibility is that you had installed Vim with Homebrew while using a Ruby installed with RVM or rbenv and later removed that version of Ruby.

Please let me know if you can't resolve the problem. In the meantime, you can set g:plug_threads to 1, so that Ruby installer is not used at all.

Errors on fish shell

If vim-plug doesn't work correctly on fish shell, you might need to add set shell=/bin/sh to your .vimrc.

Refer to the following links for the details:

• http://badsimplicity.com/vim-fish-e484-cant-open-file-tmpvrdnvqe0-error/
• https://github.com/junegunn/vim-plug/issues/12

Freezing plugin version with commit hash

vim-plug does not allow you to freeze the version of a plugin with its commit hash. This is by design. I don't believe a user of a plugin should be looking at its individual commits. Instead, one should be choosing the right version using release tags or versioned branches (e.g. 1.2.3, stable, devel, etc.)

Plug 'junegunn/vim-easy-align', '2.9.2'

If the repository doesn't come with such tags or branches, you should think of it as "unstable" or "in development", and always use its latest revision.

If you really must choose a certain untagged revision, consider forking the repository.

Regarding feature request

You may submit a request for a new feature by creating an issue. However, please be minded that this is an opinionated software and I want to keep the feature set as small as possible. So I may not agree with you on the necessity of the suggested feature. If that happens, I suggest the following options.

1. Check out Vundle or NeoBundle. They offer broader feature sets.
2. Create a fork of this project and let it be your own plugin manager. There's no need for us to have a single canonical branch.