Install VIM in Cygwin

Question

I have installed cygwin in my windows machine and I have also selected some additional packages as part of my installation (like gcc etc). Now I want to add vim also to my existing cygwin set up. What is the procedure to add VIM to my existing cygwin set up ? Or is there some seperate binay for VIM in cygwin which I can untar and install. What is the best option in my current scenario?

Answer 1

You need to run Cygwin's setup.exe again, and select the packages you want. Vim is not included in the default package.

I've blogged about this, with explicit instructions and a picture: Cygwin setup gotchas | Code and comments

After installing Vim you may find that things just don't seem to be what you are used to. That is because Linux systems usually have a default .vimrc file somewhere. It seems that Cygwin does not. In Vim, run :edit $MYVIMRC to see your .vimrc.

You should get a nice .vimrc from somewhere and place it in your home folder for a better experience. Currently I'm using this one.

Answer 2

Run the Cygwin setup.exe and pick additional packages (search for vim), that executable is used to add packages and update existing ones; you should run it once a month to update to latest packages.