Installation

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Installers

These packages are the easiest way to install Cream: just double-click on the installer.

Distribution Packages

Cream can currently be found packaged for various GNU/Linux distributions:

  • Debian Linux, by Christoph Haas and Ben Armstrong.
  • Gentoo Linux, by Ciaran McCreesh, Thomas de Grenier de Latour, et. al.
  • FreeBSD, by Janos Mohacsi, FreshPorts.
  • (RPMS not yet available) -- RPM-based Linux distributions.

Manual Installation Packages

These packages assume you already have gVim installed.

Instructions

1. Install GVim

Make sure GVim (GUI Vim) is installed (version 6.1 is acceptable, but 6.2+ is preferred). You can download the latest updated (non-official) version on our Vim page or from the official Vim downloads page.

If you're new to Vim, you may initially think it's broken because it is so hard to use. (I did!) But just make sure that you can run the program and it starts without any errors. Exit by typing :q! .

If you compile your own Vim from source, please make sure to use the --with-features=big configure option. This will enable the GUI, signs, dialogs and many other useful Vim features that Cream depends on. (See Vim's online help for "version and "install".) Note that this is the typical configuration for most larger distributions.

Some Linux distributions of Vim install a global vimrc (found in the path indicated with the :version command) which may conflict with certain Cream settings. Known problems exist with Debian and Red Hat. (Debian interferes with Cream's mapping of Shift+Insert, Red Hat adds some normal mode mappings.)

2. Install Cream

Existing Cream users should remove or rename the existing Cream "addons" subdirectory prior to installation to avoid conflicts with renamed addons. (Applies only to upgrades from version 0.20 or prior.)

Then, using the downloaded package above appropriate to your system:

Linux

As root, execute the INSTALL.sh bash script. In GNOME 2, you should find an icon added to the Applications menu and a "cream" command added to /usr/bin/. If you need to create any other starter for Cream, the correct syntax is:

gvim -U NONE -u "\$VIMRUNTIME/cream/creamrc" "$@"
Windows

As system administrator, run the INSTALL.bat in the command prompt.

Then manually create a Desktop icon:

  • Right-click on your desktop and pick New...Shortcut (or similar).
  • Point it at your gvim.exe.
  • Change the command of the shortcut from

        "[PATH]\gvim.exe"

    to

        "[PATH]\gvim.exe" "-U" "NONE" "-u" "[PATH]\cream\creamrc"

  • Set the Start In location to [PATH] (where gvim.exe is).
  • Set the icon to [PATH]\cream\cream.ico.

Nightly CVS Package

The [currently disabled by SourceForge] nightly tarball of the CVS repository export suitable for use as long as you consider it only a snap shot of the project, in whatever state it may happen to be in at the time.

Our SourceForge host also generates a nightly direct export of our CVS repository, suitable for CVS backup and restoration. (This second link is provided only as an act of record keeping, we don't recommend you use this package.)

Archives

Older versions of the various packages may be found on our SourceForge Project Files page.)