Neovim Config

Personal Neovim configuration.

Motivation

I have rewritten my Neovim configuration multiple times which has been a great learning exercise and I will likely continue to do so in the future. This iteration is not based on any specific distro but is a culmination of my learnings around how to manage the configuration / plugins.

This configuration is uses lazy.nvim as the package / plugin manager.

The leader key is defined as the spacebar.

Installation

If you don't have an existing Neovim configuration then the simplest way to install is:

brew install nvim
git clone https://github.com/tim-kuntz/config.nvim.git ~/.config/nvim
nvim

If you are like me and your ~/.config ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME) directory already has one or more Neovim configurations then I would suggest the following installation for trial purposes.

git clone https://github.com/tim-kuntz/config.nvim.git ~/.config/nvim-trial
NVIM_APPNAME=nvim-trial nvim

Managing Multiple Configurations

Because I like to experiment with different configurations and I don't want to mess with my stable / current configuration, I have taken the following approach based on this gist from Elijah Manor.

1. When adding new Neovim configurations, use the naming convention nvim-<name>; for example, nvim-trial or nvim-rails.

2. Add the following script to your shell startup. I use oh my zsh so have added it to ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/alias.zsh.

function nvims() {
  # add new nvim configuration under ~/.config/nvim-*
  items=("default")
  for dir in ~/.config/nvim-*/; do
    if [ -d "$dir" ]; then
      alias $(basename $dir)="NVIM_APPNAME=$(basename $dir) nvim"
      items+=("$(basename $dir)")
    fi
  done

  config=$(printf "%s\n" "${items[@]}" | fzf --prompt=" Neovim Config  " --height=~50% --layout=reverse --border --exit-0)
  if [[ -z $config ]]; then
    echo "Nothing selected"
    return 0
  elif [[ $config == "default" ]]; then
    config=""
  else
  fi
  NVIM_APPNAME=$config nvim $@
}

bindkey -s ^a "nvims\n"

Now when you run the command nvims or press Ctrl+a, you will get a list of your installed configurations to start Neovim from. Pretty nifty!

Getting Started

1. On first starting Neovim with the configuration, lazy.nvim will install if needed, then download required plugins.
2. (Optional) Open the Lazy plugin window by pressing <leader>l. You can press U to ensure all plugins are updated and run a check with C.
3. Use the which-key popup when pressing the leader key (space) to get an idea of all the custom options.

Requirements

TODO - review any dependencies on external programs; ripgrep, fzf, ...

Language Servers

For LSP support, mason.nvim is included. You can manage the installation of language servers by running the vim command :Mason.

Directory Layout

Understanding the directory / file layout will assist in making changes.

init.lua

Contains the lazy.nvim bootstrapping only.

plugin

Anything I want to run at boot; Vim settings, creation of global helper functions, autocmds, and key mappings.

after/ftplugin

Configuration specific to file types. It is in the after directory to allow for overriding default settings; see :help ftplugins.

lua/custom/plugins/*.lua

These Lua files should contain the lazy.nvim plugin spec only and configuration should be in a separate file (see next directory).

lua/custom/*.lua

Any Lua files in this directory should correspond to a plugin under lua/custom/plugins. This file should contain the setup / configuration for the plugin and would be required by the plugin; for example, require 'custom.plugin-name'. While this configuration could be kept with the plugin spec, breaking it out makes it easier to make changes and :source % the file, applying the changes without having to restart Neovim.

lua/utils

Groupings of helper functions required elsewhere and broken out for maintainability.