pathogen.vim

Manage your 'runtimepath' with ease. In practical terms, pathogen.vim makes it super easy to install plugins and runtime files in their own private directories.

Installation

Install to ~/.vim/autoload/pathogen.vim. Or copy and paste:

mkdir -p ~/.vim/autoload ~/.vim/bundle
curl https://raw.github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen/master/autoload/pathogen.vim\
  > ~/.vim/autoload/pathogen.vim

By the way, if you're using Windows, change all occurrences of ~/.vim to ~\vimfiles.

Usage

Add this to your vimrc:

call pathogen#infect()

Now any plugins you wish to install can be extracted to a subdirectory under ~/.vim/bundle, and they will be added to the 'runtimepath'. Observe:

cd ~/.vim/bundle
git clone git://github.com/tpope/vim-fugitive.git

Now fugitive.vim is installed. If you really want to get crazy, you could set it up as a submodule in whatever repository you keep your dot files in. I don't like to get crazy.

Normally to generate documentation, Vim expects you to run :helptags on each directory with documentation (e.g., :helptags ~/.vim/doc). Provided with pathogen.vim is a :Helptags command that does this on every directory in your 'runtimepath'. If you really want to get crazy, you could even invoke Helptags in your vimrc. I don't like to get crazy.

If you're one of those OCD types that insists pathogen.vim live in ~/.vim/bundle like every other plugin, you can do that if you add an extra line to your vimrc:

source ~/.vim/bundle/vim-pathogen/autoload/pathogen.vim

Finally, pathogen.vim has a rich API that can manipulate 'runtimepath' and other comma-delimited path options in ways most people will never need to do. If you're one of those edge cases, look at the source. It's well documented.

Contributing

If your commit message sucks, I'm not going to accept your pull request. I've explained very politely dozens of times that my general guidelines are absolute rules on on my own repositories, so I may lack the energy to explain it to you yet another time. And please, if I ask you to change something, git commit --amend.

Beyond that, don't be shy about asking before patching. What takes you hours might take me minutes simply because I have both domain knowledge and a perverse knowledge of VimScript so vast that many would consider it a symptom of mental illness. On the flip side, some ideas I'll reject no matter how good the implementation is. "Send a patch" is an edge case answer in my book.

Self-Promotion

Like pathogen.vim? Follow the repository on GitHub and vote for it on vim.org. And if you're feeling especially charitable, follow tpope on Twitter and GitHub.

License

Distributable under the same terms as Vim itself. See :help license.