Notes - doctorfree/nvim-lazyman GitHub Wiki

The first time nvim is executed Mason will install several packages required by the new Neovim configuration. Please be patient. If you exit Neovim prior to completion of the Mason installs, it will resume the next session.

After installing and initializing the Neovim configuration, perform a health check while in Neovim with :checkhealth. Examine any warnings or errors and perform any necessary remedial actions such as installing missing packages or resolving keymap conflicts.

The NVIM_APPNAME procedure described above allows you to keep any existing ~/.config/nvim and install multiple Neovim configurations, each in its own separate ~/.config/$NVIM_APPNAME folder. Note, however, that if you create a symbolic link from ~/.config/$NVIM_APPNAME to ~/.config/nvim with the intention of using the nvim-lazyman configuration without need of NVIM_APPNAME then you will also need to symlink ~/.local/share/$NVIM_APPNAME and ~/.local/state/$NVIM_APPNAME.

[Important Note:] If nvim-lazyman is installed and initialized using the NVIM_APPNAME environment variable as described above then it is important to add the setting and export of this variable to your shell's initialization file (e.g. .bashrc for Bash users, .zshrc for Zsh users). Add the line export NVIM_APPNAME="nvim-lazyman" to your shell initialization and re-login or source the initialization file. If this is not done then subsequent invocations of nvim will attempt to use ~/.config/nvim rather than ~/.config/nvim-lazyman.

In addition to exporting NVIM_APPNAME in your shell initialization file, you may wish to create aliases to execute with the various Neovim configurations you have installed. For example, aliases could be created to use Neovim configurations installed in ~/.config/nvim-python and ~/.config/nvim-work as follows:

alias vip='function _vip(){ export NVIM_APPNAME="nvim-python"; nvim $* };_vip'
alias viw='function _viw(){ export NVIM_APPNAME="nvim-work"; nvim $* };_viw'

After sourcing these aliases in your shell, to invoke Neovim with the Python configuration run vip filename.py and to invoke Neovim with your Work config run viw proposal.md.

An example ~/.aliases file might include:

command -v nvim > /dev/null && {
  alias vi='nvim'
  [ -d $HOME/.config/nvim-lazyman ] && {
    alias lmvim='function _lmvim(){ export NVIM_APPNAME="nvim-lazyman"; nvim $* };_lmvim'
  }
  [ -d $HOME/.config/nvim-AstroNvim ] && {
    alias avim='function _avim(){ export NVIM_APPNAME="nvim-AstroNvim"; nvim $* };_avim'
  }
  [ -d $HOME/.config/nvim-LazyVim ] && {
    alias lvim='function _lvim(){ export NVIM_APPNAME="nvim-LazyVim"; nvim $* };_lvim'
  }
  [ -d $HOME/.config/nvim-Kickstart ] && {
    alias kvim='function _kvim(){ export NVIM_APPNAME="nvim-Kickstart"; nvim $* };_kvim'
  }
}

Another alternative to setting NVIM_APPNAME in the environment or with an alias is to use the lazyman command to specify which Neovim configuration to use with this invocation. This is done using the -e config option to lazyman. When invoking lazyman with the -e config argument, the Neovim configuration can be specified by setting config to one of allaman, astronvim, kickstart, lazyman, lazyvim, lunarvim, nvchad, or any Neovim configuration directory in ~/.config. For example, to edit the file foo.lua using the LazyVim Neovim configuration:

lazyman -e lazyvim foo.lua

Now you're using the LazyVim Neovim configuration to edit foo.lua, all of the LazyVim key bindings, plugins, options, and configuration will be used.

To instead use the LunarVim Neovim configuration to edit foo.lua:

lazyman -e lunarvim foo.lua

Before using lazyman -e <config> ... to explore a Neovim configuration, first install and initialize the <config> configuration with lazyman.

When invoked with the -e config option, lazyman sets the NVIM_APPNAME environment variable to the specified config and executes nvim with all following arguments. This is a pretty easy way to explore all the lazyman installed and initialized Neovim configurations.