Kickstart

If you are a VS Code user, I won’t say anything. However, if you are a Vim user, you must use Neovim. The reason is that Neovim provides better plugins, better UI, and most importantly LSP support. It’s not a stretch to say that Neovim is the future.

That being said, Neovim has a steep learning curve even for Vim experts. This is where Kickstart comes in. Kickstart will help you understand how to set up Neovim, providing a starting point to foster your own setting. What's more, on top of the original kickstart, I added my own setting.

Features

• LSP support that provides:

  • Jump-to-definition, find-references and more powered by Telescope.
  • Static analysis
  • Auto completion
  • Formatting

• Better highlighting

  

  Treesitter-based highlighting (left) vs Traditional highlighting (right)

• Git Integration

  

• Highlight marker

  

• Yank to the system clipboard and vice versa

  

• Markview that enriches markdown previews

• Which-key that helps you use key mappings

Prerequisites

You should set up a good environment to make your neovim life easier. Neovim is running in the following environments:

• Ubuntu 20.04 or above

• Windows Terminal

• Set CaskaydiaCoveNerdFont-Regular.ttf by default to your terminal.

Setting up the Environment

1. Install the following packages. It could be a overkill to install all packages. Some of them might not be necessary depending on your environment. However, note that if you encounter any unexpected symptom throughout this guide, come back here and see what is missing.

   sudo apt install ssh keychain make cmake python3-cryptography \
   clang-format automake autoconf pkg-config python3-pip clang \ 
   libtool-bin npm curl build-essential unzip gettext ninja-build \
   clang-tidy yacc libevent-dev bison libncurses-dev

2. Install universal-ctags

   sudo apt-get install libjansson-dev
   mkdir ~/.local/src; cd ~/.local/src
   git clone https://github.com/universal-ctags/ctags.git --depth=1
   cd ctags
   ./autogen.sh
   ./configure --prefix=$HOME/.local/
   make
   make install

3. Install tmux

   I strongly recommend using tmux if you haven't already. If you have a root privilege, sudo apt install tmux will do. If the version is lower than 3.2a in your Ubuntu or if you don't have a root privilege, you may as well build tmux >= 3.2a to enjoy true color. libevent and ncurses are prerequisites. See this page. I describe the tmux build command as an example as follows:

   cd ~/.local/src
   git clone https://github.com/tmux/tmux.git
   cd tmux
   ./autogen.sh
   ./configure --prefix=${HOME}/.local \ 
   CFLAGS="-I${HOME}/.local/include \
   -I${HOME}/.local/include/ncurses" \
   LDFLAGS="-L${HOME}/.local/include \
   -L${HOME}/.local/include/ncurses -L${HOME}/.local/lib"
   make && make install

   Install tpm (Tmux Plugin Manager)

   cd
   wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/guru245/dotfiles/refs/heads/main/.tmux.conf
   wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/guru245/dotfiles/refs/heads/main/truecolor-test
   cd ~/.local/src
   git clone https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tpm ~/.tmux/plugins/tpm
   tmux

   Press <leader>, i.e., Ctrl+a in this setting and then press I (capital) to install tmux plugins. You may want to run truecolor-test to check if true color is working correctly.

4. Install misc packages for Neovim

   sudo apt install ripgrep fzf fd-find bear
   ln -s $(which fdfind) ~/.local/bin/fd
   

Installing Neovim

sudo apt install ninja-build gettext cmake unzip curl build-essential
cd ~/.local/src
git clone https://github.com/neovim/neovim
cd neovim
git checkout tags/v0.11.1
make distclean <- if necessary
make deps <- if necessary
make CMAKE_EXTRA_FLAGS="-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${HOME}/.local" CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
rm -rf $VIMRUNTIME <- Mostly ~/.local/share/nvim/runtime
make install
pip3 install pynvim

Installing Kickstart

cd ~/.local/src
git clone https://github.com/guru245/kickstart.nvim.git
cd
mkdir .config
ln -s ~/.local/src/kickstart.nvim ~/.config/nvim
nvim

Setting up LSP

To enable LSP, you must install a language server that fits your language. Run :Mason in the nvim commandline. Just then, you will see the following screen.

You can select a LSP that you want to install by pressing i. If you encounter an error, read the error message. You might need to install some dependent packages such as python3.10-venv, etc.

After installing the LSP, you need to specify the LSP name in init.lua as follows:

local servers = {
  clangd = {
    'clangd',
    '--clang-tidy',
  },
  pylsp = { },
  lua_ls = { }',
}

Note

As for C or C++, you need to create compile_commands.json. compile_commands.json can be created by bear. You can see how to use bear. When you succeed in creating the json file, you are ready to move on.

Basic Usage

• F1: Which key that shows key mappings

• F2: Save the current file

• F3: Toggle tagbar, source code browser on the left side

• Esc: Clear all marks

• alt+,, alt+.: Go to the tab on the left/right

• alt+h, alt+l, alt+k, alt+j: Move between nvim panes

• alt+c: Save and close the current buffer.

• <leader>m: Mark the keyword under the cursor. See more mappings here

• K: Shows a function prototype in a pop up.

  

• [d and ]d: Prev/Next diagnostic message.

Tmux Usage

You can find the intuitive mappings here.

Gitsigns Usage

This plugin is convenient to stage, reset and navigate hunks. Check out the keymaps

Diffview Usage

Diffview allows you to cycle through diffs for all modified files for any git rev, not to mention super convenient to resolve all conflicts. You can start Diffview by pressing the following commands. Once you get in, you can press g? to see all mappings.

• <leader>do: Open diffview that shows differences against the current index

• <leader>df: Open a file history that allows you to list all the commits.

• <leader>dF: Open all files history view that allows you to list all the commits.

• <leader>dc: Close diffview

Comment Usage

This helps you write comments. See all mappings here.

Snacks.picker Usage

Snacks.picker helps you navigate the code. To perform picker searching, refer to the following keymaps:

keymap	desc
<leader>sh	Search Help
<leader>sm	Search Man pages
<leader>ss	Search Select Picker
<leader>sf	Lists files in your current working directory, respects .gitignore
<leader>fb	Open file browser
<leader>sg	Search for a string in your current working directory and get results live as you type
<leader>sw	Searches for the string under your cursor or selection in your current working directory
grn	Rename the variable under your cursor
gra	Excute a code action
grr	Find references for the word under your cursor
gri	Jump to the implementation of the word under your cursor
grd	Goto the definition of the type of the word under the cursor
grD	Goto the declaration, e.g., in C this would take you to the header
gO	Find all the symbols in your current document
grt	Jump to the type of the word under your cursor
grc	Lists LSP incoming calls for word under the cursor

FYI, the keymaps starting with g are default mappings introduced starting neovim v0.11.0.

For the file browser mappings, see here. Note that goto_parent_dir is mapped to u due to the conflict between Telescope and file browser. The bug report has been submitted.

For the other picker mappings, see here.