How to run mvim MacVim from Terminal

Question

I have MacVim installed and I am trying to set it up as the editor for Git  version control    but I can t run  mvim  from the command line as it isn t recognised  How do I setup mvim so I can run it from Terminal

User · Answer

I don t think I d to add anything to the path  did  brew install macvim  mvim -v   should then open macvim in the terminal  you can also go ahead and alias that  alias vim  mvim -v

User · Answer

Assume MacVim is installed in the Application folder   Instead of adding MacVim path to your environment  create a link by typing this in terminal   sudo ln -s  Applications MacVim app Contents bin mvim  usr local bin mvim  Then  open a new terminal window tab and type mvim

User · Answer

Here s what I did   After building Macvim I copied mvim to one of my  PATH destinations  In this case I chose  usr local bin   cp -v  MacVim source folder  src MacVim mvim  usr local bin   Then when you invoke mvim it is now recognised but there is an annoying thing  It opens the visual MacVim window  not the one in terminal  To do that  you have to invoke   mvim -v   To make sure every time you call mvim you don t have to remember to add the  -v  you can create an alias   alias mvim  mvim -v   However  this alias will only persist for this session of the Terminal  To have this alias executed every time you open a Terminal window  you have to include it in your  profile The  profile should be in your home directory  If it s not  create it   cd   mvim -v  profile   include the alias command in there and save it     That s it

User · Answer

I m adding Bard Park s comment here for that was the real answer for me      Since mvim is simply a shell script  you can download it directly from the MacVim source at GitHub here  http   raw github com b4winckler macvim master src MacVim mvim

User · Answer

For Mac  app bundles  you should install them via cask  if available  as using symlinks can cause issues  You may even get the following warning if you brew linkapps      Unfortunately brew linkapps cannot behave nicely with e g  Spotlight using   either aliases or symlinks and Homebrew formulae do not build  proper   app   bundles that can be relocated  Instead  please consider using brew cask and   migrate formulae using  apps to casks    For MacVim  you can install with   brew cask install macvim   You should then be able to launch MacVim like you do any other macOS app  including mvim or open -a MacVim from a terminal session   UPDATE  A bit of clarification about brew and brew cask  In a nutshell  brew handles software at the unix level  whereas brew cask extends the functionality of brew into the macOS domain for additional functionality such as handling the location of macOS app bundles  Remember that brew is also implemented on Linux so it makes sense to have this division  There are other resources that explain the difference in more detail  such as What is the difference between brew and brew cask   so I won t say much more here

User · Answer

There should be a script named mvim in the root of the  bz2 file  Copy this somewhere into your  PATH    usr local bin would be good   and you should be sorted

User · Answer

If you go the brew route  the best way to install would be   brew install macvim --with-override-system-vim   That will provide mvim  vim  vi  view  etc  in  usr local bin  all symlinked to the copy in the Cellar   This also removes the need to create any aliases and also changes your vi  vim  etc  to all use the same Vim distribution as your MacVim

User · Answer

If you have homeBrew installed  this is all you have to do   brew install macvim brew linkapps   Then type mvim in your terminal to run MacVim

User · Answer

In addition  if you want to use MacVim  or GVim  as  VISUAL or  EDITOR  you should be aware that by default MacVim will fork a new process from the parent  resulting in the MacVim return value not reaching the parent process  This may confuse other applications  but Git seems to check the status of a temporary commit message file  which bypasses this limitation  In general  it is a good practice to export VISUAL  mvim -f  to ensure MacVim will not fork a new process when called  which should give you what you want when using it with your shell environment

User · Answer

I d seriously recommend installing MacVim via MacPorts  sudo port install MacVim    When installed  MacPorts automatically updates your profile to include  opt local bin in your path  and so when mvim is installed as  opt local bin mvim during the install of MacVim you ll find it ready to use straight away   When you install the MacVim port the MacVim app bundle is installed in  Applications MacPorts for you too   A good thing about going the MacPorts route is that you ll also be able to install git too  sudo port install git-core  and many many other ports  Highly recommended

User · Answer

If you already have macVim installed   Applications MacVim app Contents MacOS Vim -g will give you macVim GUI   just add an alias   i use gvim because that is what i use on linux for gnome-vim   alias gvim   Applications MacVim app Contents MacOS Vim -g

User · Answer

This works for me     brew link --overwrite macvim Linking  usr local Cellar macvim 8 0-146 1    12 symlinks created

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