Configuration model
There are several commands that can be used to configure Vifm (e.g.
:set
, :colorscheme
), but, if you restart it, all
settings are reset to their previous values. To make changes permanent one
needs to put them into configuration file or ask Vifm to store them
automatically. Intent of this section is to describe things related to configuration.
Configuration files
Vifm follows the same configuration scheme as Vim and many other Unix applications use:
- main configuration file should be edited manually as it is only read by the application and is never modified by it;
- state of the application that is preserved across session is stored in separate file(s) and is not meant to be modified by a user.
For Vifm the first file is called vifmrc
(located at
~/.vifm/vifmrc
by default) and the second one is
vifminfo
(located at ~/.vifm/vifminfo
).
vifmrc
consists of regular commands that can be entered on the
command line.
vifminfo
is usually written
automatically. Which settings are written and applied on startup depends on
'vifminfo'
option. Instead of just overwriting all settings, Vifm
tries to merge previously stored state with the new one. Such strategy helps a
lot in managing multiple instances running at the same time. New settings have
higher priority than older ones, still Vifm tries to preserve as much of old
state as it can to do not forget history items or other settings that user might
want to reuse later.
Writing vifminfo
manually
Sometimes (e.g. before running external application that might affect
configuration of Vifm) it's useful to write vifminfo
file without
closing Vifm. :write
command is exactly for that.
Omitting writing of vifminfo
By default vifminfo
is written on exit, i.e. :q[uit]
is equal to :wq
, this means that requested changes are saved
automatically. Although it's quite convenient, sometimes one might want to drop
current runtime state in favor of previously stored one or state of another
instance. In such rare cases :quit!
command-line command or
ZQ
normal mode shortcut can be used.
Moving and finding configuration files
There are two environment variables that can be used in both cases:
$VIFM
points to main configuration directory (usually~/.vifm/
);$MYVIFMRC
points to main configuration file (usually~/.vifm/vifmrc
).
These environment variables are valid inside Vifm and also can be used to configure it by setting some of them before running Vifm.
When $MYVIFMRC
isn't set, it's made as
$VIFM/vifmrc
(exception for Windows: vifmrc in the same directory
as vifm.exe
has higher priority than $VIFM/vifmrc
).
Skipping load of configuration files
To ease diagnosing issues caused by configuration and provide a way to start
Vifm with sane defaults --no-configs
command-line option is
supported.
Passing it to Vifm blocks reading of both vifmrc
and
vifminfo
files. They can be read later via :restart
command. You probably do not want to save vifminfo
file
after running Vifm in this mode, so consider reading
related section of this page.
Reloading configuration
Here are several scenarios when one might want to reload configuration:
- one of configuration files is changed;
- something made in current session is better to be undone, but restarting Vifm in inconvenient;
- testing of something (e.g. new command) that is better to repeat in same environment multiple times.
:restart
command is there to make these usage scenarios possible.
It tries to repeat the same process that happens on startup, e.g.:
- Pretend it doesn't have much context (forget the one it has almost completely).
- Reread
vifmrc
andvifminfo
files. - Parse command-line arguments again to execute startup commands (
+cmd
or-c cmd
).
For convenience reasons some parts of runtime state is not erased:
- Current directories of panes.
- Cursor positions and top items of file lists.
These are minor things which are better to leave as they are to preserve current context from user's point of view.
:restart
usage example
Here is definition of ,c shortcut to edit configuration file:
nnoremap ,c :write | execute ':!%n${EDITOR:-vim} $MYVIFMRC' | restart<cr>
It does the following:
- Saves current state to
vifminfo
. - Spawns editor (we don't want it to be detached from current console when inside terminal multiplexer, hence
%n
macro is used). - Reloads all configuration.
Alternatively one could use :source
command instead:
nnoremap ,c :execute ':!%n${EDITOR:-vim} $MYVIFMRC' | source $MYVIFMRC<cr>
It's fine too, but is somewhat less predictable because previous state is
combined with the new one. Using :restart
ensures that new
settings are applied to much more sane environment that saves one from possible
unexpected side effects of combining previous configuration with the new one.