vpm

This is a tiny script I use to manage vim plugins installed from GitHub to be managed by pathogen.

You can use it like this:

• vpm ls prints a list of installed plugins.
• vpm install url installs one or more plugins from the given urls. You can also a pass GitHub user/repos as a shorthand (e.g. vpm install tpope/vim-fugitive).
• vpm update plugin downloads any updates to the specified plugins, without applying them, and outputs the names of any outdated plugins. The incoming changes can then be inspected with vpm incoming plugin, or applied with vpm upgrade plugin. If no plugin is specified, all installed plugins are updated.
• vpm incoming plugin provides a summary of any incoming (downloaded but unapplied) changes to the specified plugins. In particular, if the plugin originates from a GitHub repo, a link to the relevant compare view is provided. If no plugin is specified, incoming changes for all outdated plugins are summarized.
• vpm upgrade plugin applies any incoming changes to the specified plugins. If no plugin is specified, all outdated plugins are upgraded.
• vpm uninstall plugin uninstalls one or more plugins.
• vpm export writes a shell script to stdout with vpm commands to install the currently installed plugins.

Some example sessions:

$ vpm install tpope/vim-fugitive
Installing vim-fugitive...

$ vpm update
vim-fugitive
$ vpm incoming
Can upgrade vim-fugitive from 5d1c219 to 90ee6fb:
5aaa657 Browse handler API
24d4098 Change arity of browse API
7423d72 Ensure clipboard support before using * register
04fe4bf Set nobuflisted in blame buffers
90ee6fb Pass line1 and line2 as 0 for :Gbrowse without range
View changes on GitHub: https://github.com/tpope/vim-fugitive/compare/5d1c219...90ee6fb
$ vpm upgrade
Upgraded vim-fugitive to 90ee6fb.

Installation

The vpm script is relatively standalone (the only dependency is git), so just stick it somewhere on your $PATH. You can download it from this URL, or clone this repo and create a symlink.

Why use this as opposed to Vundle?

Vundle has more features, is integrated with vim, has been around longer, is actively maintained, etc. By contrast, this is a small shell script I largely threw together in an afternoon, and I am the only user so far (let me know when this isn't true anymore!).

My initial motivation for writing this was that I didn't want to have to declare anything in my .vimrc like Vundle makes you do. I don't really have a good argument against this practice though. I just don't like the aesthetic.

Dealing with non-git plugins

This script assumes all the plugins under $HOME/.vim/bundle are git repos. For plugins that aren't, I use a separate bundle directory that I manage manually. pathogen supports multiple bundle directories; my .vimrc starts with:

execute pathogen#infect('bundle/{}', 'bundle-manual/{}')

License

MIT