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The Need, the Goal...

By "project-based config" I mean a project contained in a git repo that contains all the vim configuration -- vimrc and plugins and colorschemes -- right there in the repo. In my case this is in the repo's .config directory.

So: cd path/to/project && vi -u .config/vimrc some-script.py should... somehow ...load all the plugins/colorschemes contained in that .config directory, ignoring the standard ~/.vimrc and ~/.vim/* config files.

Possible Strategies

  1. Plugin manager:
    • vundle
    • pathogen
    • vim-plug
  2. a plugin made for this
  3. manual configuration
    • perhaps has multiple ways it could be achieved?
  4. magic:
    • vim considers ~/.vimrc and ~/.vim/ to always be siblings so if you do vi -u path/to/config/vimrc since vim is smart it will automatically look for plugins inside path/to/config/vim
  5. something else?

Problems

Well...

  • #4 doesn't seem to exist.
  • #2 doesn't match my criteria, as "an automatic way of sourcing vimrc from current directory" is a different use-case, I don't want automatic, it should require explicit intention by invoking -u or something comparable.
  • #1: I've used pathogen for years, but I'm not sure if it's even capable of this. I tried using vim-plug and could get that working in the same way pathogen works (with standard location of config files) but couldn't get it working for this use case.
  • #3 I've spent hours reading :h packages, :h packpath, :h runtimepath, and trying to derive a solution from them but nothing yet works. The trouble here is that :h packages is not clear about the distinction between foo and foobar in the context of a plugin that we find off Github (it describes unzipping individually zipped files). Not a single plugin has I've seen has a start or opt directory, but it says to manually create that, though it's not explicitly clear about "where"... so just guess, and try every option! I did this to no avail. Additionally, :h packpath is not helpful and :h packages has no mention of it... but these two things might need to be used in tandem(?).
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2 Answers 2

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There are two related options: packpath and runtimepath.

If you set packpath then all plugins sub-trees must reside under pack/<bundle>/{start,opt} to comply with :h packages.

If you set runtimepath directly then you must add every separate plugin subtree to runtimepath (and then also runtime! plugin/**/*.vim manually in case you have any). Also, you'll probably want to have --noplugin or set noloadplugins to disable auto expansion.

And last but not least, use valid VimScript only: only some commands accept arbitrary expressions. set is not one of them (consider that we write set xyz=foobar and NOT set xyz="foobar").

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  • What does start and opt mean? Do I need to manually create those directories and then move the plugin-name.vim file into it? I've read :h packages and that point is not explained. Commented Sep 2, 2021 at 20:49
  • Can you give an example of usage? From inside this project directory I'm doing vi -u .config/vimrc script.py and I'm trying to put the packages in that directory's .config/vim/packages but putting in that local vimrc this line set packpath=.config/vim/packages doesn't do anything. Plugins in that directory cannot be found when vim loads. Commented Sep 2, 2021 at 20:58
  • Plugins in the start directories load upon starting Vim. Plugins in the opt directories only load when call by the packadd command. See :help packages for all the details. Commented Sep 2, 2021 at 22:02
  • what's that have to do with <bundle>? Commented Sep 2, 2021 at 22:05
  • Everything is explained at :h packages. Read it from beginning to the very end as many times as it takes to understand. Commented Sep 3, 2021 at 19:18
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For a manual method, packpath can provide a solution (using only a single line of code in the vimrc file) with the following constraints:

set packpath=.config/vim will allow you to put plugins inside .config/vim/pack/*/start/ (as well as .config/vim/pack/*/opt/) and this will work when invoked like vi -u .config/vimrc scriptname.py.

But when in a subdirectory of the project that packpath value won't work; if you're doing vi -u ../.config/vimrc data.json then the plugins will not load. So you either need to:

  • know the full path and hardcode the location like set packpath=~/path/to/project/.config/vim
  • write some vimscript/etc to trace through parent directories to somehow identify the location (based on your project's unique structure) of the vim config, and then do executure ':set packpath=' . yourVariable since set can't take variables on its own.
  • or, if you can accept this limitation, just always invoke vim from that project root

Once you've done set packpath in your project-specific vimrc, then you can add as many plugins you'd like...

:h packages says

"When Vim starts up, after processing your .vimrc, it scans all directories in packpath for plugins under the "pack/*/start" directory."

So if packpath=~/path/to/project/.config/vim then you can:

  • place plugins inside one big ...pack/bundle/start directory like:
    • ~/path/to/project/.config/vim/pack/all-plugins/start/plugin-1-dir
    • ~/path/to/project/.config/vim/pack/all-plugins/start/plugin-2-dir
    • ~/path/to/project/.config/vim/pack/all-plugins/start/plugin-3-dir
  • or you can be more specific and do:
    • ~/path/to/project/.config/vim/pack/plugin1/start/plugin-1-dir
    • ~/path/to/project/.config/vim/pack/plugin2/start/plugin-2-dir
    • ~/path/to/project/.config/vim/pack/plugin3/start/plugin-3-dir
  • and if you don't want the plugin loaded right when Vim starts then you can use opt directory instead of start like ...pack/anything/opt/plugin-4-dir.

plugin-1-dir, plugin-2-dir etc is just the name of the plugin from when you git clone it (or however you get it), and the file/directory structure that the module comes with can be used as-is without modification.

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