Re: vim -N not working with vim-tiny

On 19/08/14 13:34, Ludovic Tolhurst-Cleaver wrote:
> Hi there everyone,
>
> I was running *vim-tiny* on a colleague's server, realised that there
> was no help installed, and so installed *vim-runtime* as the 'fake help
> page' recommended. (He gave me root access and won't mind).
>
> vim -N doesn't seem to work with vim-tiny, and still doesn't with
> vim-runtime installed alongside it. (Help is now working though - good).

I cannot reproduce this on Vim 7.4.410, tiny build without GUI, compiled
on Linux from Bram's sources and installed as "vi" to avoid clash with
"vim" which is the Huge build: Either "vi -N" (with my usual vimrc) or
"vi -u NONE -N" (with no vimrc and no plugins) followed by ":set cp?"
give "nocompatible" as the answer.

Caveat: When asking the value of a Boolean option, the question mark is
necessary; without it you're setting it to TRUE instead.

>
> Is vim-tiny too small to offer much beyond vi compatibility? If so,
> would it not be appropriate to mention this in the documentation?
>
> Basically, is vim -N not supposed to work with vim-tiny?

It ought to; but Debian is known for making unsupported changes to the
packages they distribute. As the saying (usually applied to paper book
publishers) goes, "they like it better after they piss on it". Try
compiling yourself, it isn't hard. See:
http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Getting_the_Vim_source_with_Mercurial
http://users.skynet.be/antoine.mechelynck/vim/compunix.htm
The last phase, "make install", of the above, also installs the full
runtime files, including the help and all kinds of plugins, plus various
other stuff; usually as a tree starting at /usr/local/share/vim/vim74
for release 7.4.

Normally you would compile and install only a Huge GUI-enabled build: on
Linux that can serve also in a console. But it's quite possible to
compile two or more versions with different featuresets and install them
side-by-side if their objdir (for compiling) and names (after
installing) don't clash. I compile a Huge build with GTK2/GNOME2 GUI and
a Tiny build without GUI using shadow directories (see the target
"shadow" in the Makefile) and I install them as /usr/local/bin/vim (with
symlinks from most other names) and /usr/local/bin/vi respectively. I
don't even need to uninstall the Vim from my distro (openSUSE) which is
at /bin/vim (without GUI) and at /usr/bin/gvim (with GTK2 GUI) i.e.
after my own in the $PATH but still available if I use a full path or a
specially crafted symlink; but only at patchlevel 7.4.52 so far.

>
> BTW: I have now uninstalled vim-tiny, and installed the 'vim' package
> (using APT - it's a Debian server). Vim now seems to be working in
> nocompatible mode by default. Which I also don't understand, as there is
> no .vimrc file in /root that I can see...

Check for a system vimrc. It usualy has no leading dot and its location
is shown near the middle of the output of the :version command.

>
> Thanks...
>
> LTC
>
> --
>
> Ludovic Tolhurst-Cleaver [...]

Best regards,
Tony.
--
Q: What do you have when you have a lawyer buried up to his neck in sand?
A: Not enough sand.

--
--
You received this message from the "vim_use" maillist.
Do not top-post! Type your reply below the text you are replying to.
For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "vim_use" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to vim_use+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.