Usage

By Ronald Record 15 min read

Lazyman Neovim Configuration Manager Usage

The lazyman.sh script is located in ~/.config/nvim-Lazyman. It installs itself as $HOME/.local/bin/lazyman. If $HOME/.local/bin is in your execution PATH then lazyman can be executed from the command line as simply lazyman. The manual page can be viewed with man lazyman. Within Neovim the Lazyman help doc can be viewed with :h Lazyman.

The lazyman command can be used to install and initialize multiple Neovim configurations. For example, to install and initialize the LazyVim starter configuration execute the command lazyman -l. To install and initialize all supported Lazyman Neovim configurations execute lazyman -A -y, to install just the “Base” Neovim configurations run lazyman -B -y, the “Personal” configs with lazyman -W -y, and the “Starter” configs with lazyman -X -y.

All of these actions and more are available in the Lazyman Menu displayed when executing the lazyman command with no arguments.

After installing and initializing Neovim configurations with lazyman, easily explore various configurations with the lazyman -E <config> … command.

To remove a Lazyman Neovim configuration execute lazyman -r -N <nvimdir>. To remove the configuration and all its backups, lazyman -R -N <nvimdir>. To remove all installed Lazyman Neovim configurations and their backups without being prompted to proceed, execute lazyman -A -R -y.

The lazyman command, when invoked without arguments or with the -F menu argument, presents an interactive menu. The Lazyman menu system can be used to perform almost all of the functions available from the command line. Submenus are available to configure the Lazyman Neovim configuration as well as the Webdev and LazyIde Neovim configurations. These submenus use the get_conf.lua script to get and set Neovim configuration values from the command line.

The lazyman_config.sh script displays the Neovim configuration management menus. Usage of this script is as follows:

Usage: lazyman_config [-a] [-d] [-i] [-m menu] [-s name value] [-u]
Where:
    -a lists all configuration names and exits
    -d specifies debug mode
    -i indicates initialize conditional plugin configurations and exit
    -m 'menu' specifies the menu to display (conf, form, lsp, plugins)
    -s 'name value' indicates set the value of configuration 'name' to 'value'
      if 'name' is 'get' then 'value' is the configuration name to get
      if 'name' is a table then 'value' is the table entry to set
      follow 'value' with 'enable' or 'disable'
    -u displays this usage message and exits
Examples:
  Display the 'Formatters' menu
    lazyman_config -m form
  Set the theme to 'kanagawa'
    lazyman_config -s theme kanagawa
  Get the theme setting
    lazyman_config -s get theme
  Disable 'gopls' language server
    lazyman_config -s lsp_servers gopls disable

Use the Lazyman menu system to select and install/open/remove Neovim configurations managed by Lazyman. Enter a menu option number or keywords to select an option.

Keywords include: help, info, install, open, remove, search, update, quit

All shortcuts have single key support:

  'h' = help, 'I' = info, 'i' = install, 'o' = open, 'q' = quit
  'r' = remove, 's' = search, 'u' = update, 'c' = Lazyman Config menu

In the fuzzy selection dialogs, enter a few letters to fuzzy select from the options or use the <Up-Arrow> and <Down-Arrow> keys to move through the options. Press <Enter> to select the highlighted option.

Lazyman Neovim configurations are organized into categories. Configurations can be individually installed/removed or all configurations in a category can be acted on.

The main menu also provides options to install additional tools, enable debug mode, install the Bob Neovim version manager, select the Neovim version to use, toggle the user interface between Neovim and Neovide, perform a Neovim health check, bring up the Lazyman Neovim Configuration menu, or generate a status report. In addition, an option exists to view the Lazyman manual.

The Lazyman Neovim configuration manager can also be used from the command line.

Lazyman usage message

Usage: lazyman [-A] [-a] [-B] [-b branch] [-c] [-d] [-E config] [-e]
   [-f path] [-F menu] [-g] [-i group] [-j] [-k] [-l] [-m] [-M] [-s]
   [-S] [-v] [-n] [-o] [-O name] [-p] [-P] [-q] [-Q] [-h] [-H] [-I] [-J]
   [-L lang] [-rR] [-C url] [-D subdir] [-N nvimdir] [-G] [-tT] [-U]
   [-V url] [-w conf] [-W] [-x conf] [-X] [-y] [-Y] [-z] [-Z] [-K conf] [-u]
   [health] [info] [init] [install [bob]] [open] [remove] [search] [status] [usage]
Where:
    -A indicates install all supported Neovim configurations
    -a indicates install and initialize AstroNvimPlus Neovim configuration
    -B indicates install and initialize all 'Base' Neovim configurations
    -b 'branch' specifies an nvim-Lazyman git branch to checkout
    -c indicates install and initialize NvChad Neovim configuration
    -d indicates debug mode
    -D 'subdir' specifies the subdirectory of the repository to retrieve
    -e indicates install and initialize Ecovim Neovim configuration
    -E 'config' execute 'nvim' with 'config' Neovim configuration
       'config' can be one of:
           'lazyman', 'astronvim', 'kickstart', 'magicvim',
           'ecovim', 'nvchad', 'lazyvim', 'lunarvim', 'spacevim'
       or any Neovim configuration directory in '~/.config'
           (e.g. 'lazyman -E lazyvim foo.lua')
    -f 'path' fix treesitter 'help' parser in config file 'path'
    -F 'menu' indicates present the specified Lazyman menu
       'menu' can be one of:
           'main', 'conf', 'lsp', 'format', 'plugin', 'lazyide', 'webdev'
    -G indicates no plugin manager, initialize with :TSUpdate
    -g indicates install and initialize Abstract Neovim configuration
    -j indicates install and initialize BasicIde Neovim configuration
    -k indicates install and initialize Kickstart Neovim configuration
    -l indicates install and initialize LazyVim Neovim configuration
    -m indicates install and initialize MagicVim Neovim configuration
    -M indicates install and initialize Mini Neovim configuration
    -o indicates input required during initialization
    -O 'name' indicates set Lazyman configuration to namespace 'name'
       'name' can be one of: free onno ecovim
    -s indicates install and initialize SpaceVim Neovim configuration
    -v indicates install and initialize LunarVim Neovim configuration
    -S indicates show Neovim configuration fuzzy selector menu
    -n indicates dry run, don't actually do anything, just printf's
    -p indicates use vim-plug rather than Lazy to initialize
    -P indicates use Packer rather than Lazy to initialize
    -q indicates quiet install
    -Q indicates exit after performing specified action(s)
    -h indicates use Homebrew to install rather than native pkg mgr
        (Pacman is always used on Arch Linux, Homebrew on macOS)
    -H indicates compile and install the nightly Neovim build
    -i 'group' specifies a group to install/remove/update
       'group' can be one of:
           astronvim kickstart lazyvim lunarvim nvchad packer plug
    -I indicates install all language servers and tools for coding diagnostics
    -J indicates install indicated repo as an AstroNvim custom configuration
    -L 'lang' indicates install the 'lang' Language configuration
       'lang' can be one of:
           All AlanVim Allaman CatNvim Cpp Go Go2one Insis Knvim LaTeX LazyIde LunarIde LvimIde Magidc Nv NV-IDE Orange Python Rust SaleVim Shuvro Webdev
    -r indicates remove the previously installed configuration
    -R indicates remove previously installed configuration and backups
    -C 'url' specifies a URL to a Neovim configuration git repository
    -N 'nvimdir' specifies the folder name to use for the config given by -C
    -t indicates list all installed Lazyman Neovim configurations
    -T indicates list all uninstalled Lazyman Neovim configurations
    -U indicates update an existing configuration
    -V 'url' specifies an NvChad user configuration git repository
    -w 'conf' indicates install and initialize Personal 'conf' config
       'conf' can be one of:
           All Adib Ahsan Artur Beethoven Brain Charles Chokerman Craftzdog Daniel Dillon Elianiva Elijah Enrique Kristijan Heiker J4de Josean JustinLvim JustinNvim Kodo LamarVim Lukas LvimAdib Maddison Metis Mini ONNO OnMyWay Optixal Orhun Primeagen Rafi RNvim Roiz SeniorMars Simple Slydragonn Spider Traap Wuelner xero Xiao
    -W indicates install and initialize all 'Personal' Neovim configurations
    -x 'conf' indicates install and initialize nvim-starter 'conf' config
       'conf' can be one of:
           All 2k AstroNvimStart Barebones Basic CodeArt Cosmic Ember Fennel HardHacker JustinOhMy Kabin Kickstart Micah Normal NvPak Modern pde Rohit Scratch SingleFile BasicLsp BasicMason Extralight LspCmp Minimal StartBase Opinion StartLsp StartMason Modular
    -X indicates install and initialize all 'Starter' configs
    -y indicates do not prompt, answer 'yes' to any prompt
    -Y indicates use the following arguments as 'name'/'value' to set Lazyman config
       For example: lazyman -Y theme kanagawa
       If the 'name' argument is 'get' then the current value is returned
    -z indicates do not run nvim after initialization
    -Z indicates do not install Homebrew, Neovim, or any other tools
    -K 'conf' indicates install 'conf' in development unsupported config
    -u displays this usage message and exits
    'health' generate and display a health check for a configuration
    'info' open an information page for a configuration in the default browser
    'init' initialize specified Neovim configuration and exit
    'install' fuzzy search and select configuration to install
    'install bob' install the Bob Neovim version manager
    'open' fuzzy search and select configuration to open
    'remove' fuzzy search and select configuration to remove
    'search' fuzzy search and select configurations for a plugin
    'status' displays a brief status report and exits
    'usage' displays this usage message and exits
Commands act on NVIM_APPNAME, override with '-N nvimdir' or '-A'
Without arguments lazyman installs and initializes nvim-Lazyman
or, if initialized, an interactive menu system is displayed.

Supported plugin managers

Lazyman currently supports the following Neovim plugin managers:

Lazy (lazy.nvim)
Packer (packer.nvim)
Plug (vim-plug)

The SpaceVim bundled plugin manager, dein, is supported only for the SpaceVim install and initialization but Neovim configurations preconfigured to use the dein plugin manager may install and initialize successfully.

Neovim configurations using other plugin managers will likely fail to cleanly install and initialize using lazyman. Support for additional plugin managers is not currently planned but if you have a need for this feature open an issue.

To install and initialize a Neovim configuration that uses the Packer plugin manager invoke lazyman with the -P flag.

To install and initialize a Neovim configuration that uses the Plug plugin manager invoke lazyman with the -p flag.

Updates

To update a previously installed Lazyman Neovim configuration execute lazyman -U -N <nvimdir> to update the Neovim configuration in ~/.config/<nvimdir>, lazyman -U -A to update all configurations, or lazyman -U to update the Lazyman configuration. Updates retrieve any newly modified files from the respective Github repository while preserving local modifications. Note, if a file has been modified both locally and in the repository then it will not be updated and retain only local modifications.

Lazyman manual

The lazyman bootstrap process installs a lazyman manual page in ~/.local/share/man/man1/lazyman.1. This man page includes a synopsis of the lazyman command line options, a brief description of its use, a description of each command line option, and several example invocations.

The lazyman manual page can be viewed with man lazyman.

Lazyman Neovim help can be viewed inside Neovim with :h Lazyman.

Lazyman configuration

The Lazyman Neovim configuration includes a top-level configuration file, ~/.config/nvim-Lazyman/lua/configuration.lua. This file can be use to enable, disable, and configure Lazyman components. For example, here is where you would configure whether neo-tree or nvim-tree is enabled as a file explorer. Or, disable the tabline, disable the statusline, set the colorscheme, theme, and theme style. The configuration.lua file is intended to serve as a quick and easy way to re-configure the Lazyman Neovim configuration but you can still dig down into the options.lua, keymaps.lua, autocmds.lua and more.

Configuration sections

The lua/configuration.lua configuration file contains the following sections with settings briefly described here:

Namespace selection

The Lazyman Neovim configuration contains three separate and distinct configurations. The setting conf.namespace in lua/configuration.lua controls which configuration is active. The supported values for conf.namespace are ecovim free and onno. The free namespace is the same configuration used in previous releases of Lazyman. The onno namespace is based on the ONNO configuration with modifications and enhancements to integrate this config with lazyman. The ecovim namespace is based on the Ecovim configuration with modifications and enhancements to integrate this config with lazyman along with some fun eye candy and games.

Set the namespace property in ~/.config/nvim-Lazyman/lua/configuration.lua with the command lazyman -O <namespace> where <namespace> can be one of ecovim, free, or onno.

For example, to use the ecovim namespace, use the lazyman command to set this configuration property:

lazyman -O ecovim

This setting is configurable via the lazyman menu system, as are most of the Lazyman configuration settings (lazyman -F).

Theme configuration

The Lazyman Neovim configuration includes pre-configured support for several themes including support for statusline and tabline theme coordination. The active theme and colorscheme is selected in configuration.lua by setting conf.theme. For themes that support different styles, the theme style is selected by setting conf.theme_style. Theme transparency can be enabled with conf.enable_transparent. For example, to use the kanagawa theme with dragon style and transparency disabled, set:

conf.theme = "kanagawa"
conf.theme_style = "dragon"
conf.enable_transparent = false

Supported themes

A configuration file for each theme is in lua/themes/ and lualine theme configuration for each theme and its styles in lua/themes/lualine.

Use <F8> to step through themes.

Available styles are:

kanagawa
- wave
- dragon
- lotus
tokyonight
- night
- storm
- day
- moon
onedarkpro
- onedark
- onelight
- onedark_vivid
- onedark_dark
catppuccin
- latte
- frappe
- macchiato
- mocha
- custom
dracula
- blood
- magic
- soft
- default
nightfox
- carbonfox
- dawnfox
- dayfox
- duskfox
- nightfox
- nordfox
- terafox
monokai-pro
- classic
- octagon
- pro
- machine
- ristretto
- spectrum

Plugin configuration

Several Neovim plugins in the Lazyman configuration can be optionally installed or replaced by another plugin with similar functionality. The plugins that are configurable in this way in configuration.lua are briefly described below along with their default settings:

Neovim session manager to use, either persistence or possession
- conf.session_manager = "possession"
Enable display of ascii art
- conf.enable_asciiart = false
Delete buffers and close files without closing your windows
- conf.enable_bbye = true
Enable display of custom cheatsheets
- conf.enable_cheatsheet = true
Enable coding plugins for diagnostics, debugging, and language sservers
- conf.enable_coding = true
Enable compile plugin to compile and run current file
- conf.enable_compile = false
If coding is enabled, enable Github Copilot
- conf.enable_copilot = false
If coding is enabled, enable Neoai, https://github.com/Bryley/neoai.nvim
- conf.enable_neoai = false
Enable dressing plugin for improved default vim.ui interfaces
- conf.enable_dressing = true
Enable easy motions, can be one of “hop”, “leap”, or “none”
- conf.enable_motion = "leap"
Enable note making using Markdown preview and Obsidian plugins
- conf.enable_notes = true
Enable renamer plugin for VS Code-like renaming UI
- conf.enable_renamer = true
Enable ranger in a floating window
- conf.enable_ranger_float = true
Enable multiple cursors
- conf.enable_multi_cursor = true
Neo-tree or nvim-tree, false will enable nvim-tree
- conf.enable_neotree = true
Replace the UI for messages, cmdline and the popup menu
- conf.enable_noice = true
Enable ChatGPT (set OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable)
- conf.enable_chatgpt = false
Enable the wilder plugin
- conf.enable_wilder = false
The statusline (lualine) can be enabled or disabled
- conf.enable_statusline = true
The winbar with navic location can be one of barbecue, standard, or none
- conf.enable_winbar = "standard"
Enable LSP progress in winbar
- conf.enable_lualine_lsp_progress = true
Enable the rebelot/terminal.nvim terminal plugin
- conf.enable_terminal = true
Enable playing games inside Neovim!
- conf.enable_games = true
Enable the Alpha dashboard
- conf.dashboard = "alpha"
Enable the Neovim bookmarks plugin
- conf.enable_bookmarks = false
Enable the Neovim IDE plugin
- conf.enable_ide = false
Enable Navigator
- conf.enable_navigator = true
Enable Project manager
- conf.enable_project = true
Enable smooth scrolling with the neoscroll plugin
- conf.enable_smooth_scrolling = true
Enable window picker
- conf.enable_picker = true
Show diagnostics, can be one of “none”, “icons”, “popup”. Default is “popup”
- conf.show_diagnostics = "icons"
Enable semantic highlighting
- conf.enable_semantic_highlighting = true
Convert semantic highlights to treesitter highlights
- conf.convert_semantic_highlighting = true

Additional plugin configuration and options are available in configuration.lua.

Lazyman Neovim Terminal

The Lazyman Neovim configuration includes Neovim Terminal management via terminal.nvim. This Neovim terminal is preconfigured for execution of the lazyman command. Shortcut key bindings to execute lazyman in a Neovim terminal have been provided: <leader>lm to bring up the main Lazyman menu, and <leader>lc to bring up the Lazyman configuration menu. While in Neovim with the default Lazyman configuration, pressing ,lm will execute the lazyman command in a Neovim floating terminal window and pressing ,lc will execute lazyman -F in a terminal window. Alternately, executing the Neovim command :Lazyman will also bring up the lazyman command in a Neovim terminal.

The Lazyman Neovim configuration includes an autocmd to automatically enter insert mode when opening the Neovim Terminal. This allows immediate input to the lazyman prompt. While in the Neovim Terminal the normal Neovim mode, motion, and command key bindings are in effect. For example, to leave insert mode press <ESC>, to re-enter insert mode press i or a.

If Asciiville is installed, pressing ,A or executing the :Asciiville Neovim command will execute the asciiville command in a Neovim floating terminal window.

If the htop command is available, :Htop will execute the htop system monitor in a floating Neovim terminal window.

This preconfigured Neovim terminal capability is only available in the Lazyman Neovim configuration and not in the other configs.