84

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
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    I'm using debian, not ubuntu, so this may not apply. On debian jessie, the skinny `vim-tiny` package is installed by default, which does not include the `vim-runtime` package. I fixed my E319's by installing the more bloated `vim` package, which has `vim-runtime` as a dependency. – NovaDenizen Jun 07 '16 at 15:16
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    I got here because of the same problem. Based on the correct answer, I found out `vim` wasn't installed, but `vi` was. After installing `vim` everything worked. – Jelmer Nov 02 '16 at 22:19
  • In my case `:version` doesn't say anything about GUI and installing -gui-commmon or -runtime doesn't fix the problem, [it was on `~/.vimrc`](https://vi.stackexchange.com/a/2004/11998). – Pablo Bianchi Feb 05 '18 at 15:59

7 Answers7

120

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
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Rinzwind
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  • +1 on the answer, thanks, fixed for me too (on a puphpet.com-provisioned VM running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64bit): the commands mentioned in the answer above: 1) `sudo apt-get install vim-gui-common` then 2) `sudo apt-get install vim-runtime` fixed it for me - i.e. no more `E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version:` errors. In fact, 1) was the fix, really when issuing command 2) I got messages saying things were already up to date: ...`vim-runtime is already the newest version. vim-runtime set to manually installed. 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 59 not upgraded.` – therobyouknow Jul 07 '14 at 12:52
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    If you don't want the GUI, you can just `sudo apt-get install vim-nox` (and then :version will report `Huge version without GUI.`) – ysth Mar 30 '16 at 16:04
  • vim-gui-common worked for me and fixed the up/down arrow issue when editing. – user217019 Aug 16 '20 at 19:53
25

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
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    This worked for me on Linux Mint while the top answer did not. – adrianmcli Sep 06 '17 at 01:47
  • Thank you for this. `vim-gui-common` wants to install a bunch of useless cruft that would eat another 143MB of disk space -- which is important when I'm trying to build a <1GB live image. – Doktor J Jun 08 '20 at 23:31
  • This worked for me on a headless raspberry pi. I think this is a simpler solution than the accepted answer and the original question does not reference a GUI installation. – Dave C May 13 '21 at 16:55
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
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5

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
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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
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  • To be noted that this is for 16.04. Vim on Ubuntu used to have only python2 enabled, now it's python3-enabled and python2 ones in a separate package. – muru Mar 27 '16 at 16:00
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    Python3 is default interpreter for Ubuntu 16.04. If this message appears as a result of using `py` command, replace it by Python 3 equivalent `py3`. – luka5z Sep 01 '16 at 12:46
  • @luka5z your comment is the most usefull thing I found o this page! – e4c5 Dec 12 '16 at 05:55
1

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
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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
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