94

From my .vimrc, getting:

line   16:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: filetype on
line   17:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: filetype plugin on
line   18:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: filetype indent on
line   21:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: syntax on
line   45:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: match ExtraWhitespace /\s\+$/
line   46:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: autocmd BufWinEnter * match ExtraWhitespace /\s\+$/
line   47:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: autocmd InsertEnter * match ExtraWhitespace /\s\+\%#\@<!$/
line   48:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: autocmd InsertLeave * match ExtraWhitespace /\s\+$/
line   49:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: autocmd BufWinLeave * call clearmatches()

I can remove the lines, but I would rather know what I am really missing or need upgrading that is causing this as this file worked for me before.

Michael Durrant
  • 11,076

7 Answers7

130

Try from within vim ...

:version

and if your get ...

Small version without GUI.

You are missing package vim-gui-common. It is probably also advisable to install vim-runtime. Commands to install:

sudo apt-get install vim-gui-common
sudo apt-get install vim-runtime

Another cause might be that alternatives is pointing to the wrong one:

update-alternatives --display vim

to show what is used and ...

update-alternatives --config vim

to change to another vim. It could be that /usr/bin/vim.gnome is used and you need /usr/bin/vim

edit: Michael Durrant fixed it with #1 in case anyone wonders.

isomorphismes
  • 1,846
Rinzwind
  • 309,379
29

You probably don't have the full version of VIM installed. To check, try executing vim or:

readlink -f `which vi`

For example, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS only came with /usr/bin/vim.tiny

Install the full VIM:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install vim

Now you should have /usr/bin/vim.basic, and the .vimrc commands should succeed.

wisbucky
  • 2,762
  • 32
  • 17
8

If this started after you've updated to 16.04, it might be b/c of the change to python 3 as the default interpreter as @luka5z pointed out.

To resolve, I updated to the latest clang-format.py file from https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/cfe/trunk/tools/clang-format/clang-format.py

and edited .vimrc lines from:

" Add hook for clang-format
map <C-K> ggVG :pyf /usr/local/bin/clang-format.py<cr>
imap <C-K> <c-o>:pyf /usr/local/bin/clang-format.py<cr>

to:

" Add hook for clang-format
map <C-K> ggVG :py3f /usr/local/bin/clang-format.py<cr>
imap <C-K> <c-o>:py3f /usr/local/bin/clang-format.py<cr>
Daniel
  • 201
6

If you got the error by running other command like crontab -e, the reason is you need to select vim as your editor. Default nano will be used. So just run select-editor, and select vim, then the problem will be solved.

Darling Wang
  • 61
3

In my case the problem was that I had a file ~/.selected_editor with content:

# Generated by /usr/bin/select-editor
SELECTED_EDITOR="/usr/bin/vim.basic"

I rerun select-editor command and selected /usr/bin/vim.basic option - this changed the editor used by external programs.

gawi
  • 173
2

For me I had to install vim.nox-py2:

aptitude install vim-nox-py2

and use update-alternatives to activate it:

update-alternatives --config vim

select the number corresponding to vim.nox-py2.

Davim
  • 61
0

Check if you have the normal VIM version using vim --version as described in more detail here. I happened to open the files using vi which was the cause in my case. Opening with vim instead fixed the issue.

silent_monk
  • 31