Let's say the plugin is at a GitHub URL https://github.com/manasthakur/foo.
First get the plugin by either cloning it (git clone https://github.com/manasthakur.foo.git) or simply downloading it as a zip (from its GitHub page).
Adding a plugin in Vim is equivalent to adding the plugin's code properly into its runtimepath (includes the $HOME/.vim directory by default).
For example, if the layout of a plugin foo is as follows:
foo/autoload/foo.vim
foo/plugin/foo.vim
foo/doc/foo.txt
...
Then adding this plugin is as simple as copying the respective foo.* files into your .vim directory as:
.vim/autoload/foo.vim
.vim/plugin/foo.vim
.vim/doc/foo.vim
...
Adding a second plugin bar would make your .vim directory look as:
.vim/
autoload/
foo.vim
bar.vim
plugin/
foo.vim
bar.vim
...
In order to be able to access the documentation of foo, say using :help foo from inside Vim, you need to generate the helptags for foo as follows (inside Vim):
:helptags ~/.vim/doc
To remove foo, you need to delete all the foo.* files from the above directory hierarchy.
So far so good.
However, if you want to update foo, you again will have to download (or clone) its code and copy all the files accordingly.
This might not be a comfortable way if you update your plugins often.
So let us see some alternatives.
Managing the runtime path using pathogen
Pathogen makes adding and updating plugins easier.
In particular, it allows you to keep a plugin's hierarchy by adding a custom directory to Vim's runtimepath -- $HOME/.vim/bundle by default.
First, you need to install pathogen by downloading the pathogen.vim script from its repository and putting it inside .vim/autoload/.
Next, activate pathogen by adding the following line to your $HOME/.vimrc:
execute pathogen#infect()
syntax on
filetype plugin indent onThe last two lines (that enable syntax-recognition and filetype-detection) need not be present (though useful), but if they are, they must be present after execute pathogen#infect().
Now to install a plugin foo, you just need to go inside the bundle directory (create if doesn't exist) and clone the plugin using git:
cd ~/.vim/bundle
git clone https://github.com/manasthakur/foo.git
Then add the helptags of all the plugins at once by running the following command (needed whenever you install a new plugin) inside Vim:
:Helptags
That's it!
Pathogen takes care of adding all the foo.* files to Vim's runtimepath.
You can remove a plugin foo by deleting its directory from .vim/bundle/:
rm -r ~/.vim/bundle/foo
You can update a plugin foo by pulling from its repository:
cd ~/.vim/bundle/foo
git pull origin master
However, some people still find this too manual. The next option is to use a plugin-manager, such as Vundle, vim-plug, and so on.
Plugin managers wrap the git commands required to install, update and remove plugins, within Vim. If you choose to use one, I recommend using vim-plug; it's a popular one and runs tasks in parallel, thus speeding up the process.
Similar to pathogen, you first need to download the plug.vim script from vim-plug's repository and put it inside .vim/autoload/.
Next, you can install plugins foo and bar present at the repositories https://github.com/manasthakur/foo and https://github.com/manasthakur/bar, respectively, in two steps:
-
Add the following lines to your vimrc:
call plug#begin() Plug 'manasthakur/foo' Plug 'manasthakur/bar' call plug#end()
-
Run the following command inside Vim:
:PlugInstall
You don't even need to create the helptags separately; vim-plug takes care of that.
To remove a plugin, remove (or comment) its entry from the vimrc, and run :PlugClean.
To update foo, run :PlugUpdate foo; to update all, run just :PlugUpdate.
Vim-plug provides many other features, for example loading plugins lazily. See its website for details.
But what if you don't like the idea of installing a third-party script to manage plugins? Well, if you have Vim version8+, you have native plugin-management functionality (called packages) available at your discretion.
The package feature of Vim 8 (see :help packages) follows a pathogen-like model and adds the plugins found inside a custom-path ($HOME/.vim/pack/) to Vim's runtimepath.
Note: you can check the version of Vim installed on your system using vim --version.
First, create a directory structure representing a plugin-group, say plugins, as follows:
mkdir -p ~/.vim/pack/plugins/start/
Next, clone (or alternatively, download the zip, and unzip) the plugins you want to install inside the start directory:
cd ~/.vim/pack/plugins/start/
git clone https://github.com/manasthakur/foo.git
git clone https://github.com/manasthakur/bar.git
To generate the documentation helptags for a plugin, say foo, run the following inside Vim (required only once):
:helptags ~/.vim/pack/plugins/start/foo
Or to generate the helptags for everything in Vim's runtimepath, run :helptags ALL.
To remove a plugin foo, simply remove its directory:
rm -r ~/.vim/pack/plugins/start/foo
To update a plugin foo:
cd ~/.vim/pack/plugins/start/foo/
git pull origin master
Vim 8 also allows you to put any plugin code inside another special directory, the plugins inside which can be loaded on-demand. This feature is very useful when you don't want a heavy plugin to slow down your Vim's startup time, and load it only when you need.
Say, you don't want to always-load a plugin foo.
Install it as:
cd ~/.vim/pack/plugins/opt/
git clone https://manasthakur/github.com/foo.git
Now when you want to load foo, just run :packadd foo inside Vim.
Add helptags, remove and update plugins in the usual way.
Many people like to use a plugin-manager because it allows them to just transfer their vimrc to a new machine, download the plugin's script, and install all the plugins using a simple command (such as :PlugInstall).
However, if you use pathogen or the native package feature, you can use git submodules to achieve a similar configuration.
:help to read doc @pathogen