Neovim setup

This is a setup for Neovim>=0.8. Current structure (might be a bit outdated):

after/                # Everything that will be sourced last (`:h after-directory`)
│ ftplugin/           # Configurations for filetypes
│ queries/            # Queries for treesitter
└ snippets/           # Local snippets (override installed collection)
colors/               # Personal color schemes
lua/                  # Lua code used in configuration
└ mini-dev/           # Development code for 'mini.nvim'
misc/                 # Everything not directly related to Neovim startup
│ dict/               # Dictionary files
│ mini_vimscript/     # Vimscript (re)implementation of some 'mini' modules
└ scripts/            # Scripts for miscellaneous usage
plugin/               # Modularized config files sourced during startup
│ 10_options.lua      # Built-in options/settings
│ 11_mappings.lua     # Personal mappings
│ 12_functions.lua    # Personal functions
│ 13_vscode.lua       # VSCode related configuration
│ 20_mini.lua         # Configuration of 'mini.nvim'
└ 21_plugins.lua      # Configuration of other plugins
snippets/             # Global snippets
spell/                # Spelling files

NOTEs:

• Code is modularized with parts put into 'plugin/' directory which is sourced automatically during Neovim startup. Files have numeric prefix to ensure that they are loaded in particular order (matters as some files depend on previous ones; like some plugin setup can depend on set options, etc.).

  Currently general approach is to use 'lua/', but it has some downsides:

  • All modules inside of it are shared across installed plugins. This might lead to naming conflicts. It can be avoided by creating "personalized" directory module (like 'lua/ec/'), but with plugin/ it is not necessary.
  • Using require() to source those modules is not easily reloadable, as require() caches its outputs (stored inside package.loaded table). Having config in 'plugin' doesn't solve this directly, but files are more suited to be called with :source.

Installation

Basically, this should (after installing system dependencies) work just by cloning this repository and waiting until all plugins/dependencies are installed (when there is no visible progress):

git clone --filter=blob:none https://github.com/echasnovski/nvim.git

System dependencies

Important system dependencies:

• Nerd fonts (information source):

  • Download a Nerd Font (good choice is "UbuntuMono Nerd Font").
  • Unzip and copy to '~/.local/share/fonts'.
  • Run the command fc-cache -fv to manually rebuild the font cache.

• Tools for finding stuff:

  • ripgrep

• Spelling dictionaries:

  • Create '~/.nvim/spell' directory.
  • Put there English,Russian dictionaries (download from ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/runtime/spell/).

• Clipboard support. One of 'xsel' (preferred) or 'xclip'.

• Language Servers. These should be handled manually. For a list of needed LSP providers look at settings for 'nvim-lspconfig'.

• Pre-commit hooks (not strictly necessary but "good to have"). This repository uses pre-commit hooks to verify integrity of code. Preferred way of setting this up:

  • Install pre-commit. Preferred way is to use pipx with pipx install pre-commit. There also other options.
  • From the root of this repository run pre-commit install. This enables pre-commit checks. Now they will be run before any commit. In case they did something, you need to git add those changes before commiting will become allowed.

Plugin management

Plugin management is done with 'mini.deps'. See :h mini.deps. In short:

• To add plugin, add call to add() with plugin source. Restart Neovim.
• To update plugins, run :DepsUpdate, review changes, :write. Don't forget to :DepsSnapSave and commit mini-deps-snap. See :h DepsUpdate and :h DepsSnapSave.
• To delete plugin, remove its add() line from config, restart Neovim, run :DepsClean.

NOTEs:

• Loading of most non-essential to startup plugins is deferred until after it with later() from 'mini.deps'. This mostly doesn't affect general usability: it decreases time before showing fully functional start screen (or asked file) from ~240ms to ~105ms (on a not so quick i3-6100) to ~65ms (on Ryzen 5600u).

Notes

• 'Pyright' language server currently by default uses python interpreter that is active when Neovim is opened. However, if using virtual environment, it is a good idea to create 'pyrightconfig.json' file with at least the following content:

  {
      "include": ["<package_name>"], // Directory of package source
      "venvPath": ".", // Path to folder where virtual environment can be found
      "venv": ".venv" // Folder name of virtual environment
  }
  

Tips and tricks

• When testing with 'vim-test', use -strategy=make argument to :Test* commands in order to populate quickfix list. Note that this will not display testing process as it is running and won't open quickfix list by default.