---
title: Vim vs Neovim on FreeBSD
description: >
  Spoilers: for some reason, vim has 103 dependencies and neovim has 7.
---

I have a [FreeBSD server](/freebsd.html) which primarily serves as a jail host.
As such, I'd like to keep its installed packages to a minimum. FreeBSD's
default install comes with `vi`, but not `vim`. Using `vi` feels familiar
enough, but it becomes annoying not to have things like `gg` available. So I
decided to install vim to make my life a little nicer:

<!--more-->

    $ sudo pkg install vim
    Updating FreeBSD repository catalogue...
    FreeBSD repository is up to date.
    All repositories are up to date.
    The following 103 package(s) will be affected (of 0 checked):

    New packages to be INSTALLED:
            vim: 8.1.1439
            libXpm: 3.5.12_2
            libXext: 1.3.4,1
            libXau: 1.0.9
            libX11: 1.6.8,1
            libxcb: 1.13.1
            libXdmcp: 1.1.3
            xorgproto: 2019.1
            libxml2: 2.9.9
            libpthread-stubs: 0.4
            libXt: 1.2.0,1
            libSM: 1.2.3,1
            libICE: 1.0.9_3,1
            pango: 1.42.4_2
            libXrender: 0.9.10_2
            xorg-fonts-truetype: 7.7_1
            font-misc-meltho: 1.0.3_4
            mkfontscale: 1.2.1
            libfontenc: 1.1.4
            freetype2: 2.10.0
            fontconfig: 2.12.6,1
            font-misc-ethiopic: 1.0.3_4
            font-bh-ttf: 1.0.3_4
            encodings: 1.0.5,1
            font-util: 1.3.1
            dejavu: 2.37_1
            libXft: 2.3.2_3
            harfbuzz: 2.5.3
            graphite2: 1.3.13
            cairo: 1.16.0,2
            pixman: 0.34.0_1
            png: 1.6.37
            mesa-libs: 18.3.2_1
            libxshmfence: 1.3
            libXxf86vm: 1.1.4_3
            libXfixes: 5.0.3_2
            libXdamage: 1.1.5
            wayland: 1.16.0_1
            libepoll-shim: 0.0.20190311
            libdrm: 2.4.98_1,1
            libpciaccess: 0.14
            pciids: 20190620
            libunwind: 20170615
            glib: 2.56.3_5,1
            xkeyboard-config: 2.27
            libXrandr: 1.5.2
            libedit: 3.1.20190324,1
            libepoxy: 1.5.2
            fribidi: 0.19.7
            gtk3: 3.24.9
            libxkbcommon: 0.8.4
            libXinerama: 1.1.4_2,1
            libXi: 1.7.10,1
            libXcursor: 1.2.0
            libXcomposite: 0.4.5,1
            adwaita-icon-theme: 3.28.0
            gtk-update-icon-cache: 2.24.32
            shared-mime-info: 1.10_1
            hicolor-icon-theme: 0.17
            gdk-pixbuf2: 2.36.12
            tiff: 4.0.10_1
            jpeg-turbo: 2.0.2
            jbigkit: 2.1_1
            atk: 2.28.1
            cups: 2.2.11
            gnutls: 3.6.8
            trousers: 0.3.14_2
            tpm-emulator: 0.7.4_2
            gmp: 6.1.2_1
            p11-kit: 0.23.16.1
            libtasn1: 4.13_1
            nettle: 3.4.1_1
            libidn2: 2.2.0
            libunistring: 0.9.10_1
            libpaper: 1.1.24.4
            avahi-app: 0.7_2
            gnome_subr: 1.0
            libdaemon: 0.14_1
            gobject-introspection: 1.56.1,1
            dbus-glib: 0.110
            dbus: 1.12.12
            gdbm: 1.18.1_1
            wayland-protocols: 1.17
            librsvg2: 2.40.20
            libcroco: 0.6.12
            libgsf: 1.14.44
            colord: 1.3.5
            polkit: 0.114_2
            spidermonkey52: 52.9.0_3
            nspr: 4.21
            icu: 64.2,1
            sqlite3: 3.28.0
            desktop-file-utils: 0.23
            lcms2: 2.9
            argyllcms: 1.9.2_4
            libXScrnSaver: 1.2.3_2
            at-spi2-atk: 2.26.2
            at-spi2-core: 2.28.0
            libXtst: 1.2.3_2
            ruby: 2.5.5_2,1
            libyaml: 0.2.2
            ctags: 5.8
            cscope: 15.8b_1

    Number of packages to be installed: 103

    The process will require 517 MiB more space.
    96 MiB to be downloaded.

Whoa, what?! Why do I need wayland and gtk for _vim_? `^C^C^C`

    $ sudo pkg install neovim
    ]Updating FreeBSD repository catalogue...
    FreeBSD repository is up to date.
    All repositories are up to date.
    The following 7 package(s) will be affected (of 0 checked):

    New packages to be INSTALLED:
            neovim: 0.3.8
            luajit: 2.0.5_3
            unibilium: 2.0.0
            msgpack: 3.2.0
            libvterm: git20161218
            libuv: 1.30.1
            libtermkey: 0.22

    Number of packages to be installed: 7

    The process will require 28 MiB more space.
    5 MiB to be downloaded.

Much more palatable.