INSTALL

Installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~

On *nix you need:

    A working version of ncursesw-compatible library.

    Hints for building on Debian-based systems (Debian/Ubuntu/Linux Mint):
     * ncurses package you need to build vifm is called "libncursesw5-dev"
     * also install either perl interpreter or vim to generate tags (done
       during build)
     * additional (optional) tools used in sample vifmrc:
       - sudo aptitude install sshfs curlftpfs fuse fuse-zip fusefat fuseiso
       - for a support of .rar-archive files see:
         https://gist.github.com/enberg/84710b619bdb0b10e945

*nix Installation (Cygwin emulates *nix environment, so follow these steps
when building with Cygwin):

    If you checkout sources from git, run scripts/fix-timestamps script first
    to suppress any spurious build files regeneration.

    ./configure
    make
    ("su" if you don't have access to /usr/local/bin)
    make install

    ./configure has the following options (the value in square brackets is
    the default one):

      --disable/[enable]-extended-keys - controls whether to build vifm with
          support of extended keys (like arrows, home, end, etc.).
          If it's disabled, there absence of a delay after pressing escape is
          guaranteed for all curses implementations.

      --disable/[enable]-desktop-files - controls whether vifm will parse
          *.desktop files found on your system to get a list of programs
          associated with mimetype of a file.

      --disable/[enable]-remote-cmds - enable remote command sending.

      --[disable]/enable-developer - enables features of interest to
          developers:
           - debug information
           - debug-friendly optimizations
           - treating compilation warnings as errors

      --[disable]/enable-werror - pass -Werror flag to compiler.

      --[disable]/enable-coverage - enables code coverage generation.

      --disable/[enable]-build-timestamp - disables embedding compilation date
          into executable.

      --with-sanitize=basic|thread|leak - enables address and undefined, thread
          or leaks sanitizers respecitively.

      --without/[with]-glib - use GLib2/GIO to determine mimetypes if available.

      --without/[with]-gtk - old (incorrect) name of --without/[with]-glib.

      --without/[with]-libmagic - use libmagic to determine mimetypes if
          available.

      --without/[with]-X11 - use libX11 to get terminal window title before
          changing it to restore it on exit.

      --without/[with]-dyn-X11 - load libX11 dynamically

      --with-curses=[/usr] - path to installation root of curses library

      --with-curses-name=[ncursesw] - name of the curses library

    You can install vifm in your ~/ directory if you prefer.  To do this
    manually copy the vifm and vifm-pause executables from the src/ directory
    to where you want to run them.  Another possibility is to pass --prefix
    argument to the ./configure script, with path under the home directory,
    e.g. --prefix=$HOME/local.  You will also need to copy vifm-help.txt and
    vifmrc files from the data/ directory to ~/.vifm/.

    After you start vifm for the first time, you can edit the configuration
    file.  It will be at ~/.config/vifm/vifmrc unless ~/.vifm/ exists.  See
    help for description of other files in configuration directory.

On OS X you need:

    Some compatible curses implementation usually comes with the system.  If
    not, get and install libscursesw or libncursesw.

    Proceed like in *nix Installation section.

    You might also want to pass --with-glib=no argument to ./configure script
    to omit unwanted error message when vifm starts.

On Windows you need:

    Mingw

    The following libraries installed from dev-packages for Mingw (they
    should include DLL's):
     - Pdcurses for Mingw (with applied patches under patches/pdcurses*/)
     - Regex for Mingw
     - pthreads for Windows

Cross-compiling for Windows using MXE (http://mxe.cc/):

    Required MXE packages:
     - gcc
     - pdcurses (put patches from patches/pdcurses*/ to src/ directory of MXE)
     - libgnurx
     - pthreads

    To build vifm using i686-pc-mingw32 toolchain:
     - add usr/bin/ directory of MXE to the PATH environment variable, e.g.
         PATH="$MXE_ROOT/usr/bin/:$PATH"
     - cd src/
     - make -f Makefile.win CROSS=i686-pc-mingw32-

Windows Installation (using Windows native API, not Cygwin):

    cd src
    (uncomment some lines in Makefile.win below 'config:' if you want)
    make -f Makefile.win

    Copy vifm.exe and win_helper.exe to where you want to run them (but they
    all should be in the same directory).  You will also need to copy vifm help
    files and vifmrc file to %HOME%/.vifm/ or APPDATA%/Vifm/.

    In case you want to be able to create symbolic links, you should set a
    "Run as Administrator" attribute for the win_helper.exe.
    Note: symbolic links are supported on Windows starting from Windows Vista.

    If you use *nix shells copy vifm-pause to some directory that is
    included in the %PATH%.  The better solution is to put it into
    %HOME%/.vifm/scripts or %APPDATA%/Vifm/scripts.

    On Windows you can also use vifm in a portable way (e.g. keep it on a
    removable device).  To do that just put your vifmrc file where vifm.exe
    is and all configuration files will be stored there.

Vim Specific Options:

    vim/ directory referred to below is:
     - {install_prefix}/share/vifm/vim/ on *nix-like systems;
     - data/vim/ on Windows.

    Recommended way of installing Vifm-Vim integration is to point Vim's
    'runtimepath' option to the vim/ directory, like this

        set runtimepath+=/usr/share/vifm/vim/

    in your .vimrc file.  Such setup has an additional benefit of Vifm help
    being not visible unless Vim is started via :help command from Vifm.
    If it's not what you desire, just add vim-doc/ directory in a similar
    manner:

        set runtimepath+=/usr/share/vifm/vim-doc/

    Alternatively, you can install whole vim/ directory into Vim or only some
    parts of it as described below.

    vim/doc/vifm.txt file should go to your ~/.vim/doc directory or the system
    vim/doc directory.  Then launch Vim and give the command

        :helptags ~/.vim/doc

    or

        :helptags path/to/system/vim/doc

    depending on where you installed the vifm.txt file.  Note that you have to
    have write permission to corresponding directory.

    You will also need to set 'vimhelp' option in ~/.vifm/vifmrc as the default
    setting is to use the plain text file.

    If you want to use syntax highlighting and file type plugin for
    vifmrc file and on editing command line command externally, copy
    vim/syntax/vifm.vim, vim/ftdetect/vifm.vim and all files in vim/ftplugin/
    appropriately to either system wide or user syntax/ and ftplugin/
    directories of Vim.  One can also add to .vimrc file commands like, but
    using ftdetect/ directory is a cleaner way to achieve the same:

        autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead vifmrc :set filetype=vifm
        autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead ~/.vifm/colors/* :set filetype=vifm

    or when parsing of mode lines is enabled in Vim, add the following as the
    first or last line to configuration file and color schemes:

        " vim: set filetype=vifm :

    To use vifm.vim plugin install vim/plugin/vifm.vim script to Vim in the same
    way as described above.  The script allows you to use Vifm from Vim to
    select files and open them in different ways (e.g. in splits, tabs).
    Note: you need at least Vim 7.3 to use it.

Building with broken wide curses:

    OpenBSD used to have perverted ncursesw library, which had stubs with
    infinite loops instead of real wide functions.  Vifm had a workaround for
    it.  The situation on OpenBSD has improved since then and the workaround is
    now disabled by default.  If you still need it to build on older OpenBSD or
    for some other system, run ./configure with "CFLAGS=-DBROKEN_WIDE_CURSES"
    argument.  Mind that this is a workaround and it probably best works with
    Latin characters.