To set up:

clone recursively:

• git clone --recursive https://github.com/username/reponame.git

create symlnks:

ln -sf <absolute path>/dot_files/tmux.conf ~/.tmux.conf
ln -sf <absolute path>/dot_files/.vim ~/.vim
ln -sf <absolute path>/dot_files/vimrc ~/.vimrc

Removing plugins

To remove foo:

cd ~/.vim
git submodule deinit pack/plugins/start/foo
git rm -r pack/plugins/start/foo
rm -r .git/modules/pack/plugins/start/foo

Updating plugins

To update foo:

cd ~/.vim/pack/plugins/start/foo
git pull origin master

It is recommended to first git fetch origin master a plugin, review changes, and then git merge.

To update all the plugins:

cd ~/.vim
git submodule foreach git pull origin master

Note that new commits to plugins create uncommitted changes in the main repository. Thus, after any updates in the submodules, you need to commit the main repository as well:

cd ~/.vim
git commit -am "Updated plugins."

On another machine, if a git pull for the main repository leads to uncommitted changes in the submodules (as a few plugins got updated), perform git submodule update to change the recorded state of the submodules.

Even though slightly complicated, submodules are a necessary devil when you want to maintain an easily-cloneable .vim repository. The other option is to not version-control submodules at all by adding a line pack in ~/.vim/.gitignore, and manually add plugins on a new machine.