tiny-vim

What is this?

tiny-vim provides a way to get a minimal, static vim binary in environments where a text editor is not installed and you don't have the permissions (e.g., root) to install one. This is common in restricted environments like minimal Docker containers or locked-down systems.

The goal is to provide a quick and easy way to get a functional vim for quick edits without needing system-wide installation.

The provided vim binaries are built with the tiny feature set and compressed with UPX to achieve a final size of under 1 MB. This ensures a fast download and minimal footprint.

How to use it

The script is designed to be sourced directly from this repository into your current shell session. It will download a pre-compiled, statically linked vim binary suitable for your system's architecture, make it executable, and create a temporary vim alias for you to use.

You can use either curl or wget to run the script.

Using curl

source <(curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/T3rm1/tiny-vim/master/vim.sh)

Using wget

source <(wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/T3rm1/tiny-vim/master/vim.sh)

After running one of the commands above, vim will be available in your current shell session.

Important Notes

• The vim alias is temporary and only exists in the shell session where you sourced the script.
• The script will download the vim binary to a temporary file that will be cleaned up when your system reboots.
• If you want to make the alias permanent, you can add it to your shell's startup file (e.g., ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc), but be aware of the temporary nature of the binary's location. The script will output an example command to do this.