I've recently installed vim text editor on my Windows. I've looked for any explanation about the location of vimrc file on Google, but I couldn't find any meaningful explanation. Where can I find vimrc file ?
3 Answers
From :h vimrc:
Places for your personal initializations:
Unix $HOME/.vimrc or $HOME/.vim/vimrc
MS-Windows $HOME/_vimrc, $HOME/vimfiles/vimrc
or $VIM/_vimrc
Amiga s:.vimrc, home:.vimrc, home:vimfiles:vimrc
or $VIM/.vimrc
The files are searched in the order specified above and only the first
one that is found is read.
RECOMMENDATION: Put all your Vim configuration stuff in the
$HOME/.vim/ directory ($HOME/vimfiles/ for MS-Windows). That makes it
easy to copy it to another system.
However, Vim will not create a vimrc file for you automatically, you will need to create it yourself. Example:
:!mkdir $HOME/vimfiles
:e $HOME/vimfiles/vimrc
I gather, from your interactions, that you can run vim. But want to create a vimrc file on Windows.
The easiest way is to follow the steps -
- run vim from any directory .. doesn't matter which directory.
- Then just do a save as ~\_vimrc. This is done by typing the character ":" and then :s ~\_vimrc <enter key> 3 This will save the current empty file in your HOME. Though the variable HOME is used in UNIX and even the ~ is a short for HOME.
- Note that a vimrc file is .vmrc in UNIX and _vimrc in windows.
- The equivalent vi file in UNIX is .exrc, and .vimrc for vim.
I had great trouble writing this out, and had to fix it 3 times. The colon brings up the command line on both vi and vim. Read about using vi and vim somewhere. The \ character needs escaping by typing the \ character twice. This is my first answer in 40 years on stack overflow. I am writing this on my windows laptop, sitting on my bed.
It depends on how you got vim on your computer.
I have a generic answer instead - create a vimrc file in your user's home directory, it's probably the "correct" answer as well.
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