Why is my vimtutor blank?

The vimtutor command requires a Vim that has Vim scripting support compiled in. For those familiar with building Vim from source, this requires at least the normal feature set or higher.

The default Ubuntu desktop installation only includes the vim-tiny Install vim-tiny package, which is Vim compiled with almost all optional features disabled. This variant of Vim provides enough to run vi with all of the basic functionality of a vi-compatible editor, but none of the power of Vim. Since it does not have Vim scripting support enabled, it cannot work with the vimtutor command. You should install one of the more capable Vim variant packages instead:

  • vim Install vim
  • vim-athena Install vim-athena
  • vim-gnome Install vim-gnome
  • vim-gtk Install vim-gtk
  • vim-nox Install vim-nox

Any one of these packages provide a Vim that is capable of running vimtutor. For more about the differences between these Vim variants, see the following questions:

  • What is the difference between the different vim packages available in Ubuntu
  • What features does vim-tiny have?
  • Difference between vim-gtk and vim-gnome
  • Which vim version can I use?

You need to install vim before using vimtutor!

Run the following command in the Terminal prompt!

sudo apt install vim

Now use vimtutor for learning. Happy Learning!

Tags:

Vim

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