Getting Started with Vim Plugins: A Beginner's Guide to vim-plug

So you’ve found an exciting Vim plugin—perhaps for journaling with Vimwiki—and you’re ready to supercharge your editor. This guide will walk you through setting up vim-plug, a fast, minimalist, and incredibly popular plugin manager. Once you’ve completed these steps, you’ll have a solid foundation to install any plugin you want, unlocking the true power of Vim.

What is a Plugin Manager and Why vim-plug?

A plugin manager automates the tedious process of:

• Downloading plugin files from sources like GitHub.
• Placing them in the correct directories.
• Loading them when Vim starts.
• Updating and removing them easily.

I recommend vim-plug because it is:

• Minimalist: It’s just a single file, making installation trivial.
• Fast: It can install and update plugins in parallel.
• Easy to Use: The commands are simple and memorable.

Step 1: Install vim-plug

vim-plug itself needs to be downloaded first. The official and easiest way is to run a single command in your terminal. This command downloads the plug.vim file and places it in Vim’s autoload directory, which ensures it’s loaded automatically when Vim starts.

Open your terminal and execute:

curl -fLo ~/.vim/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs \
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim

That’s it. The plugin manager is now “installed.”

Step 2: Structure Your .vimrc for Plugins

Next, you need to tell Vim which plugins you want to use. This is done in your ~/.vimrc file inside a special block.

1. Open your ~/.vimrc.
2. Add the following structure. All your plugin declarations must go between the call plug#begin() and call plug#end() lines.

" 1. VIM-PLUG SECTION
" This block must be at the top of your .vimrc
call plug#begin('~/.vim/plugged')

" List your plugins here
" Example:
Plug 'vimwiki/vimwiki'
Plug 'dracula/vim', { 'as': 'dracula' } " A popular theme

call plug#end()


" 2. YOUR CONFIGURATIONS
" All other settings go AFTER the vim-plug block
syntax enable
colorscheme dracula

let g:vimwiki_list = [{ 'path': '~/vimwiki/' }]
" ... and so on

• plug#begin(): Initializes the plugin manager. The argument ('~/.vim/plugged') is the directory where vim-plug will download and store all your plugins.
• Plug 'author/repository': This is the command to declare a plugin.
• plug#end(): Finalizes the list and loads the plugins.

Step 3: Install the Plugins with :PlugInstall

Now that your .vimrc is configured, you can tell vim-plug to fetch and install the plugins you’ve listed.

1. Save your ~/.vimrc file and restart Vim, or source the file with :so ~/.vimrc.
2. Run the vim-plug installation command inside Vim:

   :PlugInstall
   

3. A new window will open, showing the installation progress for each plugin. Once you see “Finished!”, you can close the status window (:q) and start using your new plugins.

Your Plugin Management Cheat Sheet

Managing plugins is now simple. Here are the essential commands you’ll use:

• :PlugInstall: Install any new plugins you’ve added to your .vimrc.
• :PlugUpdate: Update all installed plugins to their latest versions.
• :PlugClean: Remove any plugins that are in your plugged directory but no longer listed in your .vimrc.
• :PlugStatus: Show the status of all your plugins.

Summary: Your Foundation is Ready

Congratulations! You have successfully set up a robust system for managing Vim plugins. You now understand:

• How to install vim-plug.
• How to structure your .vimrc to declare plugins.
• How to install, update, and manage them with simple commands.

You are now fully equipped to customize Vim to your heart’s content and can confidently follow tutorials like our guides to setting up a Vimwiki journal or creating a dual-journaling system.