Run PlugInstall non-interactively from command line

[rightaway]

I'd like to run PlugInstall non-interactively from the command line to provision a new system (using Ansible in this case). If I do vim -c 'PlugInstall' it works, but it is interactive, opening up a terminal window where you can see the progress of the installation. If I try to run it non-interactively I get an error, e.g. "Vim: Warning: Output is not to a terminal", "Vim: Warning: Input is not from a terminal".

NeoBundle provides a script to install ~/.vim/bundle/neobundle.vim/bin/neoinstall non-interactively, could vim-plug offer something similar?

[junegunn]

Vim: Warning: Output is not to a terminal

It's a warning not an error. As far as I know, vim will proceed to install the plugins even in that case. Since the installer on Vim 8 is asynchronous, you might want to pass --sync flag as follows

vim +'PlugInstall --sync' +qa

Let me know if it doesn't work as expected.

[rightaway]

That worked, thank you!

What does the +qa do btw?

And the + near the beginning? I noticed you used that instead of -c.

[junegunn]

• :help :qa (quit all)
• + is just a shorthand notation of -c, see man vim.

[dgdosen]

Thanks! - I wish I would have looked this up sooner. It's great to be able interact with vim in a shell script.

[mosheavni]

Thanks to this:
#225 (comment)
This is the only thing working for nvim:

nvim --headless +PlugInstall +qall

[heinosasshallik]

Note that you need a newer NeoVim version for this. NeoVim 0.2.2 (which is the current version you might get using apt install on older distros) won't work.

What worked for me was the Automatic Installation section of this github wiki page:
https://github-wiki-see.page/m/junegunn/vim-plug/wiki/tips

Place the following code in your .vimrc before plug#begin() call

let data_dir = has('nvim') ? stdpath('data') . '/site' : '~/.vim'
if empty(glob(data_dir . '/autoload/plug.vim'))
  silent execute '!curl -fLo '.data_dir.'/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim'
  autocmd VimEnter * PlugInstall --sync | source $MYVIMRC
endif

Make sure you change the $MYVIMRC variable and that your data directory is correct.

[FlorianWanders]

If you are using deoplete on nvim, adding this line worked for me:

nvim --headless +PlugInstall +qa
nvim +UpdateRemotePlugins +qa

First line installs plugins (see comments above), 2nd line updates remote plugins (required for deoplete).