Fresh Vim install, Vim permission errors, Vundle not functional

Question

I have the following vim packages installed on Linux Mint Debian Edition:

vim
vim-common
vim-tiny
vim-runtime
vim-doc

I had the above packages installed before, and after installing Vundle (it was functional via instructions on http://github.com/gmarik/vundle) decided, to avoid plugin conflicts, to completely remove and reinstall all of the above vim packages/.vim folder, in order to fully utilize Vundle as a means to manage my plugins. In my file explorer, I can see that the folder created from git cloning ~/.vim and all inherited folders/files belong to root. This causes the following problems with Vundle:

First of all when I executed :BundleSearch query:

To further diagnose my problem, I tried adding a bundle manually into my vimrc:

Bundle 'scrooloose/nerdtree'

Using the exact same vimrc setup in the Vundle GitHub, it worked on the previous installation. Now when I attempt to :BundleInstall I get the following permission-based errors:

[140112 13:48:10] 

[140112 13:48:10] Bundle scrooloose/nerdtree

[140112 13:48:10] $ git clone --recursive 'https://github.com/scrooloose/nerdtree.git' '/home/ahqiao/.vim/bundle/nerdtree'

[140112 13:48:10] > fatal: could not create work tree dir '/home/ahqiao/.vim/bundle/nerdtree'.: Permission denied\00

[140112 13:48:11] 

[140112 13:48:11] Helptags:

[140112 13:48:11] :helptags /home/ahqiao/.vim/bundle/vundle/doc/

[140112 13:48:11] > Error running :helptags /home/ahqiao/.vim/bundle/vundle/doc/

[140112 13:48:11] Helptags: 1 bundles processed

Furthermore, my vimrc also contains the standard two lines for plugins:

filetype plugin on

set nocp

In the past, I have also had problems with :helptags not being able to access ~/.vim/doc because of permission so I have had to manually copy the help files into a non-root folder and point to that with :helptags.

How can I overcome these root problems? Vundle is really essential for me to manage the amount of plugins I require to code and keep track of.

Answer 1

It's unclear to me how the owner of ~/.vim got set to root but Vundle will definitely have trouble updating packages if that is the case.

If I understand correctly, in that you now have Vim installed how you want it, I suggest redoing the customization process.

---

Move ~/.vim (for reference) and create the bundle directory where Vundle will be installed:

$ sudo mv ~/.vim ~/OLDvim
$ mkdir -p ~/.vim/bundle

This should now be an empty dir owned by your user.

Reinstall Vundle

$ git clone https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim.git ~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim

Make sure you have the required lines in your ~/.vimrc,

• open vim and
• run :BundleInstall

Once you got it working and you're happy with everything, you can rm -rf ~/OLDvim.

Answer 2

Changing the ownership of the .vim files to my username instead of root worked for me (did for all files recursively):

chown -R <username>:<username> .vim

Here's more info about chown.

Note: It seems like the reinstall answer would work too (though didn't end up trying it), but with the chown approach you don't have to do the reinstall steps.

Answer 3

It's very late to answer, but this problem still occuring. I run into this problem and Here is how I solved it. First run the ( get the error while installing the Plugin)

    :helptags /home/ahqiao/.vim/bundle/vundle/doc/

It will show the Exact Error. In my Case it was Duplicate Entries found in two ale doc file ale-cpp.txt and ale-cpp.txt.

    Error: Duplicate Entries Found g:ale_cpp_flawfinder_executable
    Error: Duplicate Entries Found g:ale_c_flawfinder_executable

Just remove these entries or comment out and Install agin. Now it works fine.

Answer 4

Also very late to answer, but in my case, changing the line:

call vundle#begin('$USERPROFILE/.vim/bundle') 

to

call vundle#begin('$HOME/.vim/bundle') 

corrected the problem. Apparently, $USERPROFILE was not defined, and so evaluated to root (/).

This may help someone....

Answer 5

Uninstalling/Installing the offending plugin (vim-fugitive) fixed the error for me.

I was getting this error:

> Error running :helptags /Users/gigo6000/.vim/bundle/vim-fugitive/doc 

So I deleted the line:

Plugin 'tpope/vim-fugitive'

Run

:so %
:PluginClean
:PluginInstall

And that did the work.