How can I install MacVim on OS X?

129
votes

I am using OS X 10.9.1 (Mavericks).

What are the systematic steps to install to Gvim or MacVim in Mac OS? If you write the steps using 1, 2, 3, ..., it would be easy to follow.

I must confess that I failed to understand all the instructions provided on MacVim page. Other google-searched webpages do not clarify. E.g.

What is $VIMRUNTIME ? What version of vim should I install for my OS?

Now somehow I have installed MacVim in my system (Not systematically I believe). I can see that I have a folder /Applications/gvim.app/MacVim.app/.

Now when I open a text file from MacVim, which was already written using vi-editor, MacVim does not recognize it. Also vi does not recognize whatever is written in MacVim!

How can I resolve this?

4
macosvimmacvim

4 Answers

266
votes
  • Step 1. Install homebrew from here: http://brew.sh
  • Step 1.1. Run export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH
  • Step 2. Run brew update
  • Step 3. Run brew install vim && brew install macvim
  • Step 4. Run brew link macvim

You now have the latest versions of vim and macvim managed by brew. Run brew update && brew upgrade every once in a while to upgrade them.

This includes the installation of the CLI mvim and the mac application (which both point to the same thing).

I use this setup and it works like a charm. Brew even takes care of installing vim with the preferable options.

31
votes

There is also a new option now in http://vimr.org/, which looks quite promising.

16
votes

  1. Download the latest build from https://github.com/macvim-dev/macvim/releases

  2. Expand the archive.

  3. Put MacVim.app into /Applications/.

Done.

8
votes

That Macvim is obsolete. Use https://github.com/macvim-dev/macvim instead

See the FAQ (https://github.com/b4winckler/macvim/wiki/FAQ#how-can-i-open-files-from-terminal) for how to install the mvim script for launching from the command line