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Install multiple neovim distros

Sometimes you may want to try a neovim version or distribution you may see on a video or somewhere, how can you install them?

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By Christian Arzu
10 min read
Install multiple neovim distros

Contents

YouTube video

Disclaimer

  • I use macOS, so keep that in mind

Introduction

  • This comes from my video:
  • It’s a shorter version that focuses only in showing you to to install multiple Neovim distributions or versions
  • If you want to understand which distro to use, go and watch that video
  • In this video we will use the $NVIM_APPNAME environment variable which controls the sub-directory that neovim will read from
  • So you can copy all the commands
  • So you can also find all the links I share

If you like this, and want to support me

Help me reach more people

Installation requirements

Download multiple configs

You can download directly to your ~/.config directory

  • I won’t download here, as I have a lot of stuff in that dir, and will make it a bit confusing, I’ll use a completely separate directory for testing stuff out
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cd ~/.config
ll

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linkarzu.@.[24/12/12]
~/.config
kubernetes
❯❯❯❯ ll
Permissions Size User     Group Date Modified Name
drwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 30 Jan 11:23  alacritty
lrwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 13 Nov 16:36  btop -> /Users/linkarzu/github/dotfiles-latest/btop
drwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 13 Nov 07:14  btop_backup_20241113163601
drwx------     - linkarzu staff 11 Oct 13:32  configstore
drwxr-x--x     - linkarzu staff  5 Mar 11:54  gh
lrwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 28 Oct 14:36  ghostty -> /Users/linkarzu/github/dotfiles-latest/ghostty
drwx------     - linkarzu staff  8 Oct 15:32  github-copilot
drwx------     - linkarzu staff  8 Dec 06:23  gtk-3.0
drwx------     - linkarzu staff 28 Oct 08:11  htop
drwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff  9 Dec 06:54  iterm2
lrwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 10 Jul 19:01  karabiner -> /Users/linkarzu/github/dotfiles-latest/karabiner/mxstbr
lrwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 10 Jul 19:01  kickstart.nvim -> /Users/linkarzu/github/dotfiles-latest/neovim/kickstart.nvim
drwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 20 Aug 16:04  kitty
drwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff  2 Nov 20:16  lazygit
lrwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 10 Jul 19:01  lazyvim -> /Users/linkarzu/github/dotfiles-latest/neovim/lazyvim
drwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff  8 Dec 06:16  libvirt
drwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 24 Nov 05:39  linearmouse
lrwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 10 Jul 20:07  neobean -> /Users/linkarzu/github/dotfiles-latest/neovim/neobean
lrwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 30 Oct 17:41  neobean-sticky -> /Users/linkarzu/github/dotfiles-latest/neovim/neobean-sticky
drwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 24 Jan 17:09  neofetch
lrwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 25 Jul 10:42  neovide -> /Users/linkarzu/github/dotfiles-latest/neovide
drwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 25 Jul 10:43  neovide_backup_20240725104258
lrwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 13 Jul 18:14  nvim -> /Users/linkarzu/github/dotfiles-latest/neovim/neobean
lrwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 10 Jul 19:01  quarto-nvim-kickstarter -> /Users/linkarzu/github/dotfiles-latest/neovim/quarto-nvim-kickstarter
drwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 20 Jan 07:46  raycast
lrwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff  4 Nov 10:24  rio -> /Users/linkarzu/github/dotfiles-latest/rio
drwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff  4 Nov 10:13  rio_backup_20241104102449
lrwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 10 Jul 19:01  sketchybar -> /Users/linkarzu/github/dotfiles-latest/sketchybar/felixkratz-linkarzu
drwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff  8 Nov 15:47  ueberzugpp
drwx------     - linkarzu staff  9 Dec 17:58  virt-viewer
drwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 30 Sep 16:58  wezterm
drwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff 17 Aug 04:11  wireshark
lrwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff  8 Nov 07:00  yazi -> /Users/linkarzu/github/dotfiles-latest/yazi
drwxr-xr-x     - linkarzu staff  8 Nov 07:00  yazi_backup_20241108070029
  • If you decide to use the ~/.config directory, you run each config like this
  • We’re not setting the XDG_CONFIG_HOME var, you’ll understand this later
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NVIM_APPNAME=neobean nvim

Set variables needed

  • I’ll declare the download_dir variable and create the directory
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# Directory to store the neovim configs
download_dir="$HOME/Downloads/test-configs"

mkdir -p $download_dir
cd $download_dir
  • Before continuing, I’ll make sure I don’t have my nvim command aliased (because I did have it aliased in the past)
  • If not aliased, notice that nvim points directly to the neovim executable
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which nvim

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❯❯❯❯ which nvim
/opt/homebrew/bin/nvim
  • If alias you would get something like this:
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❯❯❯❯ which nvim
nvim: aliased to export NVIM_APPNAME="nvim" && /opt/homebrew/bin/nvim
  • If you have your command aliased, every time you see nvim below in the guide, you will probably have to run nvim using the full path as seen below
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# instead of this:
NVIM_APPNAME=neobean nvim

# You would run this:
NVIM_APPNAME=neobean /opt/homebrew/bin/nvim

Adding my neobean config

Do the following in Google Chrome

  • I tried safari and the download does not work
  • You will need to follow these steps for any config you want to download from github
  • Sign in to your github account
  • Go to my dotfiles-latest repo
    • Star it 😉
  • Once there, press . (dot)
    • Or instead you can switch the github.com to github.dev on the top to go to the
  • Right click on the neovim directory and download it
  • In this example, I’ll download it to ~/Downloads/test-configs
  • Then run the downloaded config
    • XDG_CONFIG_HOME is the dir where the neovim config is stored
    • NVIM_APPNAME is the name of the config in the dir above
    • nvim is just the neovim executable/app
      • I’m using the full path, because I have a symlink for nvim
      • I can see the symlink if I run which nvim
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distro=neobean

# Command to run the config
XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$download_dir NVIM_APPNAME=$distro nvim

# Print the config command
echo -e "\nCommand to run config:"
echo "XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$download_dir NVIM_APPNAME=$distro nvim"
  • The last echo command will output the command needed to run this config
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XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/Users/linkarzu/Downloads/test-configs NVIM_APPNAME=neobean nvim
  • If you don’t want to use the full path but instead a home-relative path just replace /Users/linkarzu with ~
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XDG_CONFIG_HOME=~/Downloads/test-configs NVIM_APPNAME=neobean nvim

How to create an alias?

  • Typing this may not be the sexiest thing to do every time you want to run a different config
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XDG_CONFIG_HOME=~/Downloads/test-configs NVIM_APPNAME=neobean nvim
  • So create an alias for each config in your .bashrc or .zshrc file, just add this
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alias neobeaner='XDG_CONFIG_HOME=~/Downloads/test-configs NVIM_APPNAME=neobean nvim'
  • Then to run this config, just run neobeaner

Adding NvChad

  • Where do I get the download link from?
  • Go to the NvChad website for the installation instructions
  • It will instruct you to install with the command below
  • I don’t want to do that, as it will replace my ~/.config/nvim configuration
  • Instead I want to download NvChad to a different dir and run it with NVIM_APPNAME as we did before
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gggit clone https://github.com/NvChad/starter ~/.config/nvim && nvim

Run the command below instead

  • Clone the repo
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repo="https://github.com/NvChad/starter"
# Extract the word after github.com
distro=$(echo "$repo" | awk -F'/' '{print $4}')
git clone $repo $download_dir/$distro

# Command to run the config
XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$download_dir NVIM_APPNAME=$distro nvim

# Print the config command
echo -e "\nCommand to run config:"
echo "XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$download_dir NVIM_APPNAME=$distro nvim"
  • Some NvChad recommendations found in their website
    • Run :MasonInstallAll command after lazy.nvim finishes downloading plugins.
    • Delete the .git folder from the NvChad folder

LazyVim or Kickstart?

  • If you want to learn the difference between lazyvim and kickstart
  • In this video I also go over how I manage different distros in my .zshrc file and upload all of them to my dotfiles

Adding LazyVim

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repo="https://github.com/LazyVim/starter"
# Extract the word after github.com
distro=$(echo "$repo" | awk -F'/' '{print $4}')
git clone $repo $download_dir/$distro

# Command to run the config
XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$download_dir NVIM_APPNAME=$distro nvim

# Print the config command
echo -e "\nCommand to run config:"
echo "XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$download_dir NVIM_APPNAME=$distro nvim"

Adding kickstart.nvim

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repo="https://github.com/nvim-lua/kickstart.nvim.git"
# Extract the word after github.com
distro=$(echo "$repo" | awk -F'/' '{print $4}')
git clone $repo $download_dir/$distro

# Command to run the config
XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$download_dir NVIM_APPNAME=$distro nvim

# Print the config command
echo -e "\nCommand to run config:"
echo "XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$download_dir NVIM_APPNAME=$distro nvim"
  • To open the init.lua file
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XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$download_dir NVIM_APPNAME=$distro nvim $download_dir/$distro/init.lua

Try mini.files

  • Most (if not all) of these distros come with the neo-tree file explorer, if you want to take your file explorer to the next level, try mini.files
  • I have some advanced keymaps that allow you for example to zip an entire directory, copy it to your clipboard, so then you can share it over slack, or another app

Adding LunarVim

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repo="https://github.com/LunarVim/LunarVim.git"
# Extract the word after github.com
distro=$(echo "$repo" | awk -F'/' '{print $4}')
git clone $repo $download_dir/$distro

# Command to run the config
XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$download_dir NVIM_APPNAME=$distro nvim

# Print the config command
echo -e "\nCommand to run config:"
echo "XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$download_dir NVIM_APPNAME=$distro nvim"

Adding AstroNvim

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repo="https://github.com/AstroNvim/template"
# Extract the word after github.com
distro=$(echo "$repo" | awk -F'/' '{print $4}')
git clone $repo $download_dir/$distro

# Command to run the config
XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$download_dir NVIM_APPNAME=$distro nvim

# Print the config command
echo -e "\nCommand to run config:"
echo "XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$download_dir NVIM_APPNAME=$distro nvim"

Delete .git directories

  • Most of the downloaded repos will have a .git dir, delete that in case you’re planning to track this in your own repo later
  • For example:
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cd $download_dir
rm -rf LunarVim/.git
  • You may have noticed in the video I navigate in my browser, but I can also navigate any other macOS app without the mouse
  • This is done by the homerow app, check out this video below

Clean up

  • Once you’re done testing delete the directories in ~/.local/share as its where plugin data is stored
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cd ~/.local/share

How to get your feet wet?

  • Start by taking notes in neovim, I mean editing markdown files
  • This file I’m editing right now for my blog post is markdown
  • If you use Obsidian, try switching the editing of your notes to Neovim
  • I have a video in which I go over my markdown workflow, so I highly recommend you check it out:
  • If you experience any errors or have any issues, let me know down in the comments and me or others can try to help

What do you want to see next?

  • Let me know down in the comments:
    • You want to go over kickstart.nvim?
    • Explain something about my configuration?
neovim
macos tutorial youtube video neovim
This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.