I find it odd that you would use the short version of a command in a config file. Brevity is important when you are doing repetitive tasks. In a config file (or code), clarity is more important that brevity. I know you could argue that you know VI so well that you know these commands off the top of your head.. even so, it's particularly pointless to list them this way in a blog where you have to turn around and explain them anyhow.
Yes, I definitely am much descriptive for the config file on my personal computer. The configs I'm recommending here is more for ephemeral machines that you are using just to look at files (such as sshing into a VM that was created to run integration tests). For those cases, being able to quickly type something into the .vimrc and improve your experience is nice.
I once had to connect to machines regularly where I did not have a home directory. This happened so often that I wrote a wrapper to log in:
It would log into the remote machine using Expect, then it would send a command to the remote end that tested whether a home directory already existed. If so, it spawned a new shell in it. Otherwise it created a "home directory" in /tmp, pulled a tarball from a server, and extracted it into the "home directory". Then it spawned a new shell there.
Depending on how often it happens, you could also have a separate command that does the initial setup, and then call that as required.
I guess I don't see a lot of situations where I use systems so casually that I don't have config options set. Even when I was managing a bunch of systems I would push out the same config on them all.
One scenario I could see this fitting is when having to connect to some docker container and test a change on the fly.
That's a bit naughty but sometimes needed to prove something useful.
In that case you've got an effemeral file system, and probably had to install Vim in the first place, knowing that that when you close the container all will be forgotten.
Ofcourse in that situation you probably don't need to disable the Vim swap files, so that's one less thing to changet the defaults on.
I often use Busybox for that kind of thing as you're usually missing other useful OS stuff and its little Vi clone is usually enough.
As discussed in the article, the point is to quickly set up vim on fresh linux installations (e.g. virtual machines). For the vim on your own pc, you would likely use the full version, in addition to whatever extra config you prefer.
On a new machine with a blank vimrc you’d probably just be piping in these commands in from the command line so it’s more convenient if they are short.
