JSHint not working with Vim

Question

Using Ubuntu 12.

I installed jshint with

sudo npm install jshint -g

which jshint

shows /usr/local/bin/jshint, which is also in the PATH variable

Then, I downloaded https://github.com/walm/jshint.vim/blob/master/plugin/jshint.vim and put it in ~/.vim/bundle/jshint.vim (I am using Pathogen)

Now, when opening a js-File, such as

vim test.js

errors are not detected.

:JSHint 

results in "Not an editor command: JSHint"

:Helptags 

results in, well, nothing.. I don't really see what that command is for, anyway..

I am a vim noob, but other pathogen bundles seem to work, so I do not really know what is not working here..

Answer 1

The default way to install plugins is to put their individual pieces in some subdirectories of your ~/.vim/ directory. Taking this plugin as example:

~/.vim/plugin/jshint.vim
~/.vim/doc/jshint.txt

The :Helptags command is used to generate the index (tags) used by Vim to navigate through the documentation of third party plugins. You are supposed to use it like that:

:Helptags ~/.vim/doc

The idea behind Pathogen and other plugin managers is that each plugin should be in its own directory rather than be scattered through your ~/.vim/ directory. In Pathogen's case (and others followed, but there's no standard), that's the bundle directory: ~/.vim/bundle/.

Therefore, the correct location for your plugin should be:

~/.vim/bundle/jshint/plugin/jshint.vim
~/.vim/bundle/jshint/doc/jshint.txt
~/.vim/bundle/jshint/README.md
~/.vim/bundle/jshint/LICENSE

In order for pathogen to work its magic, you are supposed to add these two lines to your ~/.vimrc:

silent! call pathogen#infect()
silent! call pathogen#helptags()

The first line takes care of "registering" and loading each plugin found in ~/.vim/bundle/. The second line indexes their documentation, the equivalent of :Helptags … that you don't need to run, then.

So…

1. Make sure Pathogen is installed and configured correctly.

2. Install the JSHint plugin where it should be.

3. ?

4. Enjoy writing JavaScript in Vim!

---

To run :JSHint on the current buffer every time you write it, add this line to your ~/.vimrc:

autocmd! BufWritePost *.js JSHint