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Setup Neovim with Astrovim

astrovim preview

Image credit astrovim & github.

When I opened a Dockerfile in neovim, I noticed that the syntax highlighting was not working. Unsure of which plugin manager to select from the numerous available options? I came across AstroVim, which is a set of configuration files to unlock the full capabilities of nvim. However, it required nvim v0.6+, which I did not have on Impish. I don’t want to use the nvim appimage/snap/flatpak options, so I’ll build it from source. Also, I don’t want to install a bunch of junk on my system, so I’ll build the binary in Docker.

Local version info

Version Command Output
lsb_release —all No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 21.10
Release: 21.10
Codename: impish
git —version git version 2.32.0
docker —version Docker version 20.10.12, build e91ed57

Spin up a docker container

docker run --name=tmp-nvim-build-env -it ubuntu:21.10

Setup build env

# skipping sudo as this is in a disposable docker container
apt-get update

# Install prerequisites
DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -yq --no-install-recommends ninja-build gettext libtool libtool-bin autoconf automake cmake g++ pkg-config unzip curl doxygen make \
git ca-certificates

Clone latest stable nvim branch

git clone --single-branch --branch stable https://github.com/neovim/neovim ~/neovim-git \
&& cd ~/neovim-git

Build the binary

As per the docs, the uninstall script is missing(wonder why?). So, I will keep the installation files contained in a folder.

make CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release CMAKE_EXTRA_FLAGS="-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$HOME/neovim"
make install

Setup locally

Copy files over from docker container

docker cp tmp-nvim-build-env:/root/neovim "$HOME/neovim"

Add binary to path

# temporary
export PATH="$HOME/neovim/bin:$PATH"

# permanent
echo '\n# Neovim addition to PATH\nexport PATH="$HOME/neovim/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc && tail -n3 ~/.zshrc
nvim --version
Version Command Output
nvim —version NVIM v0.6.1
Build type: Release
LuaJIT 2.1.0-beta3
Compiled by root@7626c7f7a546
Features: +acl +iconv +tui
See “:help feature-compile”
system vimrc file: “$VIM/sysinit.vim”
fall-back for $VIM: “/root/neovim/share/nvim”
Run :checkhealth for more info

Wonder how to fix the fall-back path above or what it does?

Install pynvim (optional)

Install support for python plugins.

pip install pynvim

Finally, install astrovim

# just copy over git files to `~/.config/nvim/`
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/kabinspace/AstroVim ~/.config/nvim
# install/update plugins
nvim +PackerSync

In nvim,

:checkhealth

(important != true) {
Uh, unexpected, CTRL+SHFT+C or y yank stopped working in nvim. Had xclip, but had to install wl-clipboard sudo apt install wl-clipboard. Now at least y works.
}

Output from :checkhealth states that most things look fine.

nvim: health#nvim#check
========================================================================
## Configuration
  - OK: no issues found

## Performance
  - OK: Build type: Release

## Remote Plugins
  - OK: Up to date

## terminal
  - INFO: key_backspace (kbs) terminfo entry: key_backspace=\177
  - INFO: key_dc (kdch1) terminfo entry: key_dc=\E[3~
  - INFO: $COLORTERM='truecolor'

provider: health#provider#check
========================================================================
## Clipboard (optional)
  - OK: Clipboard tool found: wl-copy

## Python 2 provider (optional)
  - WARNING: No Python executable found that can `import neovim`. Using the first available executable for diagnostics.
  - ERROR: Python provider error:
    - ADVICE:
      - provider/pythonx: Could not load Python 2:
          python2 not found in search path or not executable.
          python2.7 not found in search path or not executable.
          python2.6 not found in search path or not executable.
          /usr/bin/python is Python 3.9 and cannot provide Python 2.
  - INFO: Executable: Not found

## Python 3 provider (optional)
  - INFO: `g:python3_host_prog` is not set.  Searching for python3 in the environment.
  - INFO: Multiple python3 executables found.  Set `g:python3_host_prog` to avoid surprises.
  - INFO: Executable: /usr/bin/python3
  - INFO: Other python executable: /bin/python3
  - INFO: Python version: 3.9.7
  - INFO: pynvim version: 0.4.3
  - OK: Latest pynvim is installed.

## Python virtualenv
  - OK: no $VIRTUAL_ENV

Opened a Dockerfile and syntax highlighting works. Was all of the above worth it? Doubt it. Was it fun? Yeah! Although, should have tried the PPA first.

Further,

  • Integration with system missing isin’t great. Check how the PPA package behaves. Make a deb package if it doesn’t pan out.

Clean up (optional)

Delete container

docker container rm tmp-nvim-build-env

Remove nvim files

rm -rf $HOME/neovim
rm -rf ~/.config/nvim

Remove last 3 lines from ~/.zshrc

tail -n3 ~/.zshrc
sed -i "$(( $(wc -l < ~/.zshrc)-3+1 )),$ d" ~/.zshrc

References.

Neovim

Astrovim

Published Feb 22, 2022