A minimalist Vim plugin manager.

Pros.

• Easier to setup: Single file. No boilerplate code required.
• Easier to use: Concise, intuitive syntax
• Super-fast parallel installation/update
  (with any of +job, +python, +python3, +ruby, or Neovim)
• Creates shallow clones to minimize disk space usage and download time
• On-demand loading for faster startup time
• Can review and rollback updates
• Branch/tag/commit support
• Post-update hooks
• Support for externally managed plugins

Installation

Download plug.vim
and put it in the "autoload" directory.

Vim

Unix

curl -fLo ~/.vim/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs \
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim

You can automate the process by putting the command in your Vim configuration
file as suggested here.

Windows (PowerShell)

md ~\vimfiles\autoload
$uri = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim'
(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile(
  $uri,
  $ExecutionContext.SessionState.Path.GetUnresolvedProviderPathFromPSPath(
    "~\vimfiles\autoload\plug.vim"
  )
)

Neovim

Unix

curl -fLo ~/.local/share/nvim/site/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs \
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim

Windows (PowerShell)

md ~\AppData\Local\nvim\autoload
$uri = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim'
(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile(
  $uri,
  $ExecutionContext.SessionState.Path.GetUnresolvedProviderPathFromPSPath(
    "~\AppData\Local\nvim\autoload\plug.vim"
  )
)

Getting Help

• See tutorial page to learn the basics of vim-plug
• See tips and FAQ pages for common problems and questions
• See requirements page for debugging information & tested configurations
• Create an issue

Usage

Add a vim-plug section to your ~/.vimrc (or stdpath('config') . '/init.vim' for Neovim)

1. Begin the section with call plug#begin()
2. List the plugins with Plug commands
3. call plug#end() to update &runtimepath and initialize plugin system
   • Automatically executes filetype plugin indent on and syntax enable.
     You can revert the settings after the call. e.g. filetype indent off, syntax off, etc.

Example

" Specify a directory for plugins
" - For Neovim: stdpath('data') . '/plugged'
" - Avoid using standard Vim directory names like 'plugin'
call plug#begin('~/.vim/plugged')

" Make sure you use single quotes

" Shorthand notation; fetches https://github.com/junegunn/vim-easy-align
Plug 'junegunn/vim-easy-align'

" Any valid git URL is allowed
Plug 'https://github.com/junegunn/vim-github-dashboard.git'

" Multiple Plug commands can be written in a single line using, separators
Plug 'SirVer/ultisnips', Plug 'honza/vim-snippets'

" On-demand loading
Plug 'scrooloose/nerdtree', { 'on':  'NERDTreeToggle' }
Plug 'tpope/vim-fireplace', { 'for': 'clojure' }

" Using a non-master branch
Plug 'rdnetto/YCM-Generator', { 'branch': 'stable' }

" Using a tagged release; wildcard allowed (requires git 1.9.2 or above)
Plug 'fatih/vim-go', { 'tag': '*' }

" Plugin options
Plug 'nsf/gocode', { 'tag': 'v.20150303', 'rtp': 'vim' }

" Plugin outside ~/.vim/plugged with post-update hook
Plug 'junegunn/fzf', { 'dir': '~/.fzf', 'do': './install --all' }

" Unmanaged plugin (manually installed and updated)
Plug '~/my-prototype-plugin'

" Initialize plugin system
call plug#end()

Reload .vimrc and :PlugInstall to install plugins.

Commands, Command, Description, -----------------------------------, ------------------------------------------------------------------, PlugInstall [name ...] [#threads], Install plugins, PlugUpdate [name ...] [#threads], Install or update plugins, PlugClean[!], Remove unlisted plugins (bang version will clean without prompt), PlugUpgrade, Upgrade vim-plug itself, PlugStatus, Check the status of plugins, PlugDiff, Examine changes from the previous update and the pending changes, PlugSnapshot[!] [output path], Generate script for restoring the current snapshot of the plugins, ### Plug options, Option, Description, -----------------------, ------------------------------------------------, branch/tag/commit, Branch/tag/commit of the repository to use, rtp, Subdirectory that contains Vim plugin, dir, Custom directory for the plugin, as, Use different name for the plugin, do, Post-update hook (string or funcref), on, On-demand loading: Commands or <Plug>-mappings, for, On-demand loading: File types, frozen, Do not update unless explicitly specified, ### Global options, Flag, Default, Description, -------------------, ---------------------------------, ------------------------------------------------------, g:plug_threads, 16, Default number of threads to use, g:plug_timeout, 60, Time limit of each task in seconds (Ruby & Python), g:plug_retries, 2, Number of retries in case of timeout (Ruby & Python), g:plug_shallow, 1, Use shallow clone, g:plug_window, vertical topleft new, Command to open plug window, g:plug_pwindow, above 12new, Command to open preview window in PlugDiff, g:plug_url_format, https://git::@github.com/%s.git, printf format to build repo URL (Only applies to the subsequent Plug commands), ### Keybindings

• D - PlugDiff
• S - PlugStatus
• R - Retry failed update or installation tasks
• U - Update plugins in the selected range
• q - Close the window
• :PlugStatus
  • L - Load plugin
• :PlugDiff
  • X - Revert the update

Example: A small sensible Vim configuration

call plug#begin()
Plug 'tpope/vim-sensible'
call plug#end()

On-demand loading of plugins

" NERD tree will be loaded on the first invocation of NERDTreeToggle command
Plug 'scrooloose/nerdtree', { 'on': 'NERDTreeToggle' }

" Multiple commands
Plug 'junegunn/vim-github-dashboard', { 'on': ['GHDashboard', 'GHActivity'] }

" Loaded when clojure file is opened
Plug 'tpope/vim-fireplace', { 'for': 'clojure' }

" Multiple file types
Plug 'kovisoft/paredit', { 'for': ['clojure', 'scheme'] }

" On-demand loading on both conditions
Plug 'junegunn/vader.vim',  { 'on': 'Vader', 'for': 'vader' }

" Code to execute when the plugin is lazily loaded on demand
Plug 'junegunn/goyo.vim', { 'for': 'markdown' }
autocmd! User goyo.vim echom 'Goyo is now loaded!'

for option is generally not needed as most plugins for specific file types
usually don't have too much code in plugin directory. You might want to
examine the output of vim --startuptime before applying the option.

Post-update hooks

There are some plugins that require extra steps after installation or update.
In that case, use do option to describe the task to be performed.

Plug 'Shougo/vimproc.vim', { 'do': 'make' }
Plug 'ycm-core/YouCompleteMe', { 'do': './install.py' }

If the value starts with :, it will be recognized as a Vim command.

Plug 'fatih/vim-go', { 'do': ':GoInstallBinaries' }

If you need more control, you can pass a reference to a Vim function that
takes a single argument.

function! BuildYCM(info)
  " info is a dictionary with 3 fields
  " - name:   name of the plugin
  " - status: 'installed', 'updated', or 'unchanged'
  " - force:  set on PlugInstall! or PlugUpdate!
  if a:info.status == 'installed', a:info.force
    !./install.py
  endif
endfunction

Plug 'ycm-core/YouCompleteMe', { 'do': function('BuildYCM') }

Both forms of post-update hook are executed inside the directory of the plugin
and only run when the repository has changed, but you can force it to run
unconditionally with the bang-versions of the commands: PlugInstall! and
PlugUpdate!.

Make sure to escape BARs and double-quotes when you write do option inline
as they are mistakenly recognized as command separator or the start of the
trailing comment.

Plug 'junegunn/fzf', { 'do': 'yes \, ./install' }

But you can avoid the escaping if you extract the inline specification using a
variable (or any Vimscript expression) as follows:

let g:fzf_install = 'yes, ./install'
Plug 'junegunn/fzf', { 'do': g:fzf_install }

PlugInstall! and PlugUpdate!

The installer takes the following steps when installing/updating a plugin:

1. git clone or git fetch from its origin
2. Check out branch, tag, or commit and optionally git merge remote branch
3. If the plugin was updated (or installed for the first time)
   1. Update submodules
   2. Execute post-update hooks

The commands with ! suffix ensure that all steps are run unconditionally.

Articles

• Writing my own Vim plugin manager
• Vim plugins and startup time
• Thoughts on Vim plugin dependency
  • Support for Plugfile has been removed since 0.5.0

Collaborators

• Jan Edmund Lazo - Windows support
• Jeremy Pallats - Python installer

License

MIT