vim-addon-manager-getting-started.txt

*vim-addon-manager-getting-started.txt* Declarative package manager for Vim
==============================================================================
CONTENTS                                        *VAM-contents-getting-started*

    0. GETTING STARTED & LOOKING FOR HELP <<

    1. Intro                                  |VAM-intro|
    2. Installation & installing plugins      |VAM-installation|
        2.2 Names of addons and addon soucres |VAM-addon-names|
        2.3 Example: configurable setup       |VAM-complex-setup-sample|
        2.4 unattended installation           |VAM-unattended-installation|
In |vim-addon-manager-additional-documentation.txt|:
    3. Functionality provided                 |VAM-functionality|
        3.1. Commands                         |VAM-commands|
        3.2. Functions                        |VAM-functions|
    4. Options                                |VAM-options|
    6. Uninstalling plugins                   |VAM-uninstall-plugins|
    7. Addon-info file                        |VAM-addon-info|
    8. Author, credits, some notes            |VAM-related|
    9. Testing this plugin                    |VAM-testing|
   10. Some notes for windows users           |VAM-windows|
   11. Some notes for Gentoo users            |VAM-gentoo|
   12. Troubleshooting and known bugs         |VAM-trouble-shooting|
   13. TODO notes                             |VAM-TODO|
   14. VAM vs ...                             |VAM-comparison|
   15. Tracking down errors                   |VAM-tracking-down-erros|
   16. Making plugins work with VAM           |VAM-adjusting-plugins|

==============================================================================

0. GETTING STARTED & LOOKING FOR HELP - something doesn't work

Getting started fast: ~
Read: |VAM-installation| and |VAM-addon-names|


NEED HELP: ~
Join irc.freenode.net, /join #vim. Ask there. VAM has many users
MarcWeber is hanging around often so ping him or create a github ticket [1] and
people will try to help you. You should skim the docs before asking for
help though. Also see |VAM-author|
[1] https://github.com/MarcWeber/vim-addon-manager/issues

WHY VAM?: ~
  - two maintainers (ZyX and Marc Weber)
  - friendly to users (install addons by name)
  - propagates collaborative coding by providing simple dependency managament
    improving code sharing
  - supports many sources (git, hg, bzr, svn, darcs, www.vim.org)
  - provides a way to deprecate plugins which are superseded by others
  - most plugins can also be loaded at runtime (some problems may [BUG 10])
  - some Windows support
  - is not too shy telling you that alternatives exist (and which one)
  - copes with "subdirectories contain vim runtimepath" cases

==============================================================================
1. Intro                                                           *VAM-intro*

VAM is a shortcut for vim-addon-manager. Its vision is: Make it easiest to
install plugin somewhat following the 20% of efforts yields 80% of value rule.

Difference names addon plugin: Almost none. 
>
 :h plugin
tells you about the old manual manual way of installing plugins. VAM helps 
keeping ~/.vim clean by separating plugins from each other.

Features:

    - Separate directories for each plugins
    - Dependency resolution
    - Popular VCS support: plugin supports fetching from Git, Mercurial,
      Subversion, Bazaar and Darcs repositories
    - maintained pool of addons (vim-addon-manager-known-repositories)
      which warns you if you try to install an outdated plugin
    - replicate your Vim setup by copying your .vimrc (See SetupVAM)
    - load plugins lazily when Vim is already running. Some plugins require
      additional tweaks for this to work

Dependencies:
    - Curl, wget or other program that can output URL contents to stdout (in
      order to get http protocol support)
    - Git, Mercurial, Subversion, Bazaar and Darcs (if you want to install 
      plugins from appropriate repositories)
    - Either tar, gzip and zip or 7-zip (required for unpacking some addons)

What does "Declarative package manager" mean? The final behaviour of Vim
should be declared once. Your ~/.vimrc and |:UpdateAddons| should be enough
to cause same Vim behaviour everywhere.


==============================================================================
2. Installation                                             *VAM-installation*

Windows users: skim |VAM-windows|.
Gentoo users : skim |VAM-gentoo| which explains how to install VAM system-wide 
               from the layman overlay.

Rest (linux and everything able to run POSIX shell) users should keep reading 
here.

Minimal setup ~
  This is the minimal setup which makes VAM work.
  However you may want to use the longer commented version below because it 
  also fetches VAM so that copying your .vimrc is enough to replicate your 
  setup.

  Add to your .vimrc >
    set runtimepath+=PATH-TO-VAM
    call vam#ActivateAddons([.. list of plugin names ..], {'auto_install' : 0})

recommended setup ~
1) Paste the following to your .vimrc.
2) Read the comments carefully. They help you getting started. Then you can 
   remove them.
3) Add addon names to the ActivateAddons call, start Vim. That’s all.
>
        fun! EnsureVamIsOnDisk(vam_install_path)
          " windows users may want to use http://mawercer.de/~marc/vam/index.php
          " to fetch VAM, VAM-known-repositories and the listed plugins
          " without having to install curl, 7-zip and git tools first
          " -> BUG [4] (git-less installation)
          let is_installed_c = "isdirectory(a:vam_install_path.'/vim-addon-manager/autoload')"
          if eval(is_installed_c)
            return 1
          else
            if 1 == confirm("Clone VAM into ".a:vam_install_path."?","&Y\n&N")
              " I'm sorry having to add this reminder. Eventually it'll pay off.
              call confirm("Remind yourself that most plugins ship with ".
                          \"documentation (README*, doc/*.txt). It is your ".
                          \"first source of knowledge. If you can't find ".
                          \"the info you're looking for in reasonable ".
                          \"time ask maintainers to improve documentation")
              call mkdir(a:vam_install_path, 'p')
              execute '!git clone --depth=1 git://github.com/MarcWeber/vim-addon-manager '.shellescape(a:vam_install_path, 1).'/vim-addon-manager'
              " VAM runs helptags automatically when you install or update 
              " plugins
              exec 'helptags '.fnameescape(a:vam_install_path.'/vim-addon-manager/doc')
            endif
            return eval(is_installed_c)
          endif
        endf

        fun! SetupVAM()
          " Set advanced options like this:
          " let g:vim_addon_manager = {}
          " let g:vim_addon_manager['key'] = value

          " Example: drop git sources unless git is in PATH. Same plugins can
          " be installed from www.vim.org. Lookup MergeSources to get more control
          " let g:vim_addon_manager['drop_git_sources'] = !executable('git')
          " let g:vim_addon_manager.debug_activation = 1

          " VAM install location:
          let vam_install_path = expand('$HOME') . '/.vim/vim-addons'
          if !EnsureVamIsOnDisk(vam_install_path)
            echohl ErrorMsg
            echomsg "No VAM found!"
            echohl NONE
            return
          endif
          exec 'set runtimepath+='.vam_install_path.'/vim-addon-manager'

          " Tell VAM which plugins to fetch & load:
          call vam#ActivateAddons([], {'auto_install' : 0})
          " sample: call vam#ActivateAddons(['pluginA','pluginB', ...], {'auto_install' : 0})

          " Addons are put into vam_install_path/plugin-name directory
          " unless those directories exist. Then they are activated.
          " Activating means adding addon dirs to rtp and do some additional
          " magic

          " How to find addon names?
          " - look up source from pool
          " - (<c-x><c-p> complete plugin names):
          " You can use name rewritings to point to sources:
          "    ..ActivateAddons(["github:foo", .. => github://foo/vim-addon-foo
          "    ..ActivateAddons(["github:user/repo", .. => github://user/repo
          " Also see section "2.2. names of addons and addon sources" in VAM's documentation
        endfun
        call SetupVAM()
        " experimental [E1]: load plugins lazily depending on filetype, See
        " NOTES
        " experimental [E2]: run after gui has been started (gvim) [3]
        " option1:  au VimEnter * call SetupVAM()
        " option2:  au GUIEnter * call SetupVAM()
        " See BUGS sections below [*]
        " Vim 7.0 users see BUGS section [3]



NOTES: ~
   experimental: load plugins lazily depending on filetype [E1]~
>
    let ft_addons = {
      \ '^\%(c\|cpp\)$': [ 'plugin-for-c-development' ],
      \ 'javascript': [ 'plugin-for-javascript' ]
    \ }
    au FileType * for l in values(filter(copy(ft_addons), string(expand('<amatch>')).' =~ v:key')) | call vam#ActivateAddons(l, {'force_loading_plugins_now':1}) | endfor
<  Provide feedback about this. If it works we may add it as builtin

   experimental: setup VAM when GUI has started [E2] ~
   Depending on the option you choose to run ActivateAddons Vim may not be
   able to show the questions correctly asking you to install a plugin.
   If that's the case (for whatever reason) I recommend installing the plugin
   using |:InstallAddons| or |:ActivateAddons| before adding it to the list in 
   .vimrc

   If you're annoyed by the message: >
   "Press enter to continue"
<  There are at least two solutions you can try:

   - press q once and Vim should stop asking
   - set |VAM-auto_install| to 1 (to make VAM stop asking you questions before 
     installing anything)
     , set |VAM-shell_commands_run_method| to "system" (to make VAM use 
     |system()| for running installation commands and thus avoid |hit-enter| 
     prompts)
     and set 'nomore' before ActivateAddons call (to avoid |more-prompt|).


   Example how to patch vcs checkout functions (eg if you're behind a proxy 
   and need to checkout github urls by http://): >
     let g:vim_addon_manager = {'scms': {'git': {}}}
     fun! MyGitCheckout(repository, targetDir)
         let a:repository.url = substitute(a:repository.url, '^git://github', 'http://github', '')
         return vam#utils#RunShell('git clone --depth=1 $.url $p', a:repository, a:targetDir)
     endfun
     let g:vim_addon_manager.scms.git.clone=['MyGitCheckout']
<

   Another example: replace git_update and show changelog >
     let g:vim_addon_manager = {'scms': {'git': {}}}
     fun! MyGitUpdate(targetDir)
         let cd = shellescape
         let oldHash = vam#utils#System('git --git-dir=$p/.git rev-list HEAD -1', a:targetDir)
         call vam#utils#RunShell('cd $p && git pull', a:targetDir)
         let newHash = vam#utils#System('git --git-dir=$p/.git rev-list HEAD -1', a:targetDir)
         if oldHash isnot# newHash
           silent enew
           setlocal buftype=nofile bufhidden=wipe
           call setline(1, a:targetDir)
           call append(1, split(system(vam#utils#ShellDSL('cd $; git log $[]..$[]', a:targetDir, oldHash, newHash)), "\n"))
         endif
         return 0
     endfun
     let g:vim_addon_manager.scms.git.update=['MyGitUpdate']
<

   Startup benchmarking ~
   Some non-precise benchmarking can be done by >
        vim --startuptime startup.log -c q
<  . Timings will be printed to startup.log file. You can do it more precisely 
   by using >
        vim --cmd 'profile start profile.log' \
            --cmd 'profile func *' \
            --cmd 'profile file *' \
            -c 'profile pause' \
            -c 'qa!'
<  Then it will output full profile information where time consumed by each 
   line is shown, with a summary of function call times at the end. You can 
   also get a summary of script file times if you open profile.log and do >
        let timings=[]
        g/^SCRIPT/call add(timings, [getline('.')[len('SCRIPT  '):], matchstr(getline(line('.')+1), '^Sourced \zs\d\+')]+map(getline(line('.')+2, line('.')+3), 'matchstr(v:val, ''\d\+\.\d\+$'')'))
        call setline('.', ['count total (s)   self (s)  script']+map(copy(timings), 'printf("%5u %9s   %8s  %s", v:val[1], v:val[2], v:val[3], v:val[0])'))
<  . You can also get times of scripts activation if you run >
        tlib#cmd#Time('call vam#ActivateAddons(["A"])')
<  for plugins which were not already activated after vim has started. 
   Requires tlib. Adds time which takes VAM to do activation to actual 
   activation. For filetype, indent, syntax, compiler, colorscheme and 
   autoload plugins time spend in VAM is likely to exceed time used to load 
   plugin (because actual loading will take place later if required), so it is 
   better to read |profiling| instead.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.2 Names of addons and addon sources                        *VAM-addon-names*

Because we are human VAM uses readable names as unique identifier for plugins.
Those identifieres (= plugin names) are passed to |vam#ActivateAddons()|, |:InstallAddons|,
|:ActivateAddons| . The name is automatically derived from plugin titles at
www.vim.org.

types of names:
  1) Plugin name looked up in pool. Try |:AddonsInfo| NAME

    Determining addon names ~
    - From ID: |:AddonsInfo| SCRIPT_ID, pick the word right after string "Plugin: ".
    - use |:InstallAddons|' name completion by typing some chars then pressing
      <c-d> then <tab>.
    - Use <c-x><c-p> completion while editing your vimrc.

  2) Name which gets rewritten internally (see |vam#install#RewriteName()|) >
       github:{Name}      =>  {"type": "git", "url": "git://github.com/{Name}/vim-addon-{Name}}
       github:{N}/{Repo}  =>  {"type": "git", "url": "git://github.com/{N}/{Repo}"}
       git:{GIT_URL}      =>  {"type": "git", "url": "GIT_URL"}
<   Don't use if you expect others to create plugins depending on yours. Add
    your plugin to |VAM-kr| instead.


Instead of telling us to add your plugin to |VAM-kr| you can also patch the
pool easily: |VAM-kr-patching| - however if you contribute to |VAM-kr| the
community will benefit much more.

*VAM-kr*  is the default pool. VAM checks it out by default. Its long name is 
*vim-addon-manager-known-repositories*  (stored in |VAM-known| option).

*VAM-kr-patching*
VAM-kr merges both sources (scm and www.vim.org ones), see |VAM-MergeSources|.
The result is provided by vam_known_repositories#Pool() which is the only pool
used by default. See example and default implementation vam#install#Pool().

If you want to add your own soucres consider submitting them to
VAM-kr as patch. If you don't there are two ways:

WAY 1: (still supported) add to your .vimrc before activating VAM (BUG/TODO [5]): >
  let g:vim_addon_manager = {}
  let g:vim_addon_manager.plugin_sources = {}
  let g:vim_addon_manager.plugin_sources['your_plugin_name'] = { plugin dictionary }
<
WAY 2: define your own Pool function: >
  let g:vim_addon_manager = {}
  let g:vim_addon_manager.pool_fun = function('MyPoolFun')
  fun MyPoolFun()
    let d = vam#install#Pool()
    let d['my_plugin'] = { 'type' : 'git', 'url' : ' ... ' }
    return d
  endf

Plugin dictionaries are described in |addon-info-repository|.

Example: overwriting the MergeSources function (VAM-kr pool implementation): >
Yes, you can do this in MyPoolFun shown above as well >

    fun! vam_known_repositories#MergeSources(plugin_sources, www_vim_org, scm_plugin_sources, patch_function, snr_to_name)

      " run default:
      call vam_known_repositories#MergeSources(a:plugin_sources, a:www_vim_org, a:scm_plugin_sources, a:patch_function, a:snr_to_name)

      " patch sources the way you like. This example adds username and password
      " for SVN repositories. As alternative you could overwrite git urls etc ..
      for your_plugin in ['svn-driven-key1', ...]
        let a:plugin_sources[your_plugin]['username'] = 'svn user'
        let a:plugin_sources[your_plugin]['password'] = 'svn user'
       endfor

      let a:plugin_sources['your_plugin_name'] = { plugin dictionary }
    endf
    " tell VAM to use your MergeSources function:
    let g:vim_addon_manager = {}
    let g:vim_addon_manager['MergeSources'] = function('MyMergeSources')
<


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.3 Example: configurable setup                     *VAM-complex-setup-sample*
>
  call vam#ActivateAddons(["github:YOURNAME"],{'auto_install' : 0})
  " this initializes Vim the way *you* want also loading more plugins:
  call vim_addon_YOURNAME#Activate(['c-dev','ruby-dev'])
<
  My implementation looks like this:
  https://github.com/MarcWeber/vim-addon-MarcWeber/blob/master/autoload/vim_addon_MarcWeber.vim

  You can then load plugins depending on env vars:
  Example: >
  call vim_addon_YOURNAME#Activate(['always']+split($V,','))
< Then you can run vim like this from shell >
  V=c-dev,ruby-dev vim
<
  This section was written to inspire you only.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.4 Unattended installation                      *VAM-unattended-installation*

Note: You should always review foreign code before running it. That said this
is how you can update or install unattended (without confirmations ..):

    redir! > /tmp/log-vim.txt
    silent! ACTION
    messages

where ACTION is either UpdateActivatedAddons or vam#InstallAddons()

This works for http://mawercer.de/~marc/vam/index.php.

There is also the undocumented g:vim_addon_manager.dont_source option which 
should be used if you want to checkout eventually untrusted code! If you're 
going to use the plugins anyway its of no use.

You may also want to set auto_install.

Also see https://github.com/MarcWeber/vim-addon-manager/issues/77:
>
  let g:vim_addon_manager = {
    \'shell_commands_run_method': 'system',
    \'auto_install': 1,
    \}
<

and possibly log_to_buf which will prevent you from having to deal with most
of those "hit enter to continue" prompts while VAM downloads plugins

Also see https://github.com/MarcWeber/vim-addon-manager/issues/79:
>
  let g:vim_addon_manager = {
    \'shell_commands_run_method': 'system',
    \'auto_install': 1,
    \'log_to_buf': 1,
    \}
<

and if you wish, you may customize the default buffer name for the VAM log, 
just use the log_buffer_name option which defaults to a value of 
|VAM-plugin_root_dir|/VAM_LOG.txt e.g. 
~/.vim/vim-addons/vim-addon-manager/VAM_LOG.txt
>
  let g:vim_addon_manager = {
    \'shell_commands_run_method': 'system',
    \'auto_install': 1,
    \'log_to_buf': 1,
    \'log_buffer_name': '/tmp/vam_install.log',
    \}
<

vim: tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl