Vim editor custom configuration through Ansible

This role aims to provide a custom configuration for the excellent Vim editor by using Ansible automation.

It's mainly based on a plugin manager for Vim and a set of plugins previously selected by people very proficient with that editor. Also, the target users are software developers and system administrators that know Vim and want to use it in a more efficient way and save a valuable time, by letting Ansible take care of the hard and repetitive job.

Features

Uses Vundle plugin manager. I think it can be changed to also work with other plugins managers, like NeoBundle
Assumes the operating system is Debian based and that APT packages are available. With some changes other operating systems can be supported too

Usage

From your Ansible playbook include this role (vimansible) and optionally set the appropriate values for mainly these variables:

vimansible_default_plugins: a default list of Vim plugins that I consider useful
vimansible_more_plugins: another list to add more plugins to the previous default list
vimansible_excluded_plugins: another list to exclude plugins from the lists defined by the vimansible_default_plugins and vimansible_more_plugins variables

The vimansible_default_plugins and vimansible_more_plugins list variables contain one or more dictionary entries and both variables follow this pattern:

    vimansible_more_plugins:
      - name: name_of_plugin
        source: source_of_plugin
        comment: A brief informative note about the plugin
        required_debs:
          - a_package
          - b_package
        initializations:
          - set x=y
          - 'set x="y"'
        shell_commands:
          - dir: /some_dir_path/
          - cmd: ./some_script.sh

The initializations key contains a list of lines with valid syntax for the Vim configuration files. The shell_commands key contains a list of possible Bash commands needed by the plugin (see, for example, the case of the useful YouCompleteMe plugin)

The role file defaults/main.yml contains also more variables to adapt this role to your needs, for example, to select the UI theme, background, user configuration files and directory paths, names of OS packages, whether to install OS packages or not, whether to install Vim plugins or not, whether to apply needed shell commands related to some plugins or not, etc

Tip: installing operating system packages often requires administrative privileges, but that could mean that the resulting Vim configuration directory would end under the root user directory (e.g. /root/.vim/). To avoid this, you could follow any of this options:

Set the proper values for the variables vimansible_vim_home_dir_full_path, vimansible_vim_personal_config_file_full_path and, optionally, vimansible_vim_home_dir_short_path
Run this role twice from a playbook:

The first time with sudo for installing the needed packages with a command like this:

   ansible-playbook -v --become --ask-become-pass --tags="packages" ~/my-vim-playbook/main.yml

And a second time with a command like this:

   ansible-playbook -v --skip-tags="packages" ~/my-vim-playbook/main.yml

Set to False the value of the variable vimansible_install_packages_for_plugins so the declared operating system packages needed by some Vim plugins are not installed by the Ansible task dealing with them in this role. You must find a proper way to install those needed packages.

An important point is the visual appearance of Vim and this role considers that through the vimansible_colorscheme variable; you can set it to any value that is a valid Vim color scheme. By default it's set to bubblegum, which, for me, looks fine with a light background; however you can use any other you want. It's worth mentioning some of the tested color schemes along with my subjective opinion:

256-grayvim: looks good without setting the Vim t_Co variable
256-grayvim: looks bad when setting the Vim t_Co variable to 256 and using a light background
256-jungle: looks good with light background and without setting the Vim t_Co variable
256-jungle: looks bad when setting the Vim t_Co variable to 256 and using a light background
mopkai: looks good with light background and with t_Co set to 256
mopkai: looks good with dark background (except trailing whitespaces) and with t_Co set to 256
obsidian: looks good with light background and with t_Co set to 256
gruvbox: looks good with dark background and t_Co set to 256
hybrid: looks good with light background and t_Co set to 256
badwolf: looks good with light background and t_Co set to 256
Tomorrow: looks so-so with light background and t_Co set to 256
Tomorrow-Night: looks so-so with light background and t_Co set to 256
Tomorrow-Night-Bright: looks so-so with light background and t_Co set to 256
Tomorrow-Night-Eighties: looks good with light background and t_Co set to 256
Tomorrow-Night-Eighties: looks good with dark background (except trailing whitespaces) and t_Co set to 256
seoul256: looks so-so with light background and t_Co set to 256
Chasing_Logic: looks good with light background (except highlighting of matching html tags) and with t_Co set to 256
radicalgoodspeed: looks so-so with light background and t_Co set to 256
railscasts: looks so-so with light background and t_Co set to 256
neverland: looks good with light background and t_Co set to 256
neverland: looks good with dark background and t_Co set to 256
bubblegum: looks pretty with light background and t_Co set to 256
mustang: looks good with light background and t_Co set to 256
mustang: looks good with dark background and t_Co set to 256
lilypink: looks pretty with light background and t_Co set to 256
xoria256: looks so-so with light background and t_Co set to 256

Take note that in this role, by default, the t_Co Vim variable is set to 256 in the template that creates the Vim's main configuration file, but you can change that by declaring the variable vimansible_t_Co and assigning it a convenient value for you.

Known bugs

Emmet plugin is not working due to an unknown reason

Acknowledgments

I'm reusing the excellent work of other people who has selected a very useful set of Vim plugins. The main references are:

Examples of Vundle
mutewinter's Vim Config of Champions
Vim configuration of Juan Pedro Fisanotti
Vim settings of axiaoxin
Many useful plugins and configurations for Vim freely available

Thanks to all of them!

Support and enhancements

Please let me know your suggestions about how to improve this Ansible role and I would try to review, analyze and possibly include them.

License

You can use this software for your own purposes, as long as you follow and accept all of the terms of any of these licenses: