How to install vim on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8

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The command line vim text editor utility is an invaluable tool for any system administrator. The vim editor can be installed with a single dnf command in case it is currently unavailable on your RHEL 8 / CentOS 8 Linux system.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to install vim text editor on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8.
  • How to set vim as the system wide default text editor.
  • How to set vim as the user default text editor.

VIM text editor on RHEL 8 Linux Server/Workstation.

VIM text editor on RHEL 8 Linux Server/Workstation.

Software Requirements and Conventions Used

Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Category Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Software Vim 8.0
Other Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

How to install vim on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8 step by step instructions

  1. To install the vim text editor on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 execute the following dnf command to install package vim: 
    # dnf install vim
  2. To set the VIM editor as the default system wide editor copy, paste and execute the following lines in you terminal: 
    # cat <<EOF >>/etc/profile.d/vim.sh
export VISUAL="vim"
export EDITOR="vim"
EOF
  3. To set the VIM editor as the default user editor copy, paste and execute the following lines in you terminal: 
    $ cat <<EOF >>~/.bash_profile
export VISUAL="vim"
export EDITOR="vim"
EOF

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