Neovim setup and install (Ubuntu 24.04)

This is a very brief guide on how I setup neovim on new machines.

Installing neovim

I use Vimtex for writing in Latex, which often complains when I’m using older versions of neovim found on the standard system repositories. To get around this, I have to install the latest pre-built release from github.

# Download release
curl -LO https://github.com/neovim/neovim/releases/latest/download/nvim-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
# Unpack
sudo rm -rf /opt/nvim-linux-x86_64
sudo tar -C /opt -xzf nvim-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

I add the following to my ~/.profile so this install location gets added to the path variable.

# Add neovim path
export PATH="$PATH:/opt/nvim-linux-x86_64/bin"

Next, I install VimPlug, following the instructions in the github readme.

sh -c 'curl -fLo "${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}"/nvim/site/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs \
       https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim'

Setting up init.vim and installing plugins

I have my init.vim stored in a repository. Whenever I run a fresh install, I just symylink that to the appropriate location. I also symlink my ftplugin folder. In my repository that holds my vim config files, I keep the following bash script to automate these symlinks.:

#!/bin/bash
# Create nvim config directory if its missing
if ! [ -d ~/.config/nvim/ ]; then
    mkdir ~/.config/nvim/
fi
# Link init.vim
ln -s ./init.vim ~/.config/nvim/init.vim
# Init and link ftplugin 
ln -s ./ftplugin ~/.config/nvim/ftplugin

Custom help file

After you have a number of packages installed, it can be rough to keep track of all the docs and shortcuts for each one. My solution is having a custom helpfile that I can quickly edit and reference for the relevant keyboard shortcuts of each package I use.

In my init.vim, I have the following command to open my custom help file.

" View keyboard shortcuts
command KeyboardShortcuts tabe ~/nvim-config/keyboard_shortcuts.txt

Below is an example of what me helpfile looks like.

*keyboard_shortcuts.txt*  Keyboard shortcuts for this init.vim

Help files ~
  `Ctrl-]`  Jump to tag
  `Ctrl-t`  Back

Jump list ~
  `Ctrl-i`  Jump to next location
  `Ctrl-o`  Jump to previous location

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

IDE FEATURES

YouCompleteMe ~
  `; d`   Get documentation
  `; t`   Get type 
  `; f`   Go to definition
  `; c`   Go to declaration
  `Ctrl-l`  Toggle signature help
  `Ctrl-Space`  Manually launch auto-completion.

Tagbar ~
  `F8`    Toggle tag sidebar

Commentary ~
  `g c c`   Comment out line
  `g c`     Comment out a motion or visual selection
===============================================================================

PASS CODE TO TERMINAL

  `F5`    Run code in current window.  R, julia, or python3 will interpreter will
        automatically be selected from the filetype.

Launch an interactive terminal session.
  `OpenConsole [cmd]`
  `OpenConsoleBelow [cmd]`
    Open a new terminal session in beside or below the current window.
    `[cmd]` option specifies the command to run when launching.  For example
    `OpenConsole tmux`.
  `jl`    Exit terminal mode, go back to previous window.  
  `jk`    Exit terminal mode, stay in window.  

slime ~
Pass code to an interactive terminal session.
  `Ctrl-c Ctrl-c` Send current line or selection
  `; w`   Send word
  `; j`   Send motion
  `; s`   Send current cell

" modline
vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help

The bottom modline makes sure this gets opened as a help filetype, so it gets formatted for easy reading.