I had used Cygwin before, and Git Bash too. But neither of them works well with Vim, so I finally settled on MSYS2 as my console.

1. Comparing Cygwin, MinGW, and MSYS2

On Windows, the key to using Vim is finding a suitable console. When installing Vim plugins, a suitable console helps you avoid most of the pitfalls and lets you focus on using Vim.

The choice here is MSYS2 without hesitation, because there is a pitfall (the msys-python27.dll issue) that cannot be worked around.

MSYS2 bundles pacman. pacman is the package manager of Arch Linux, and its common commands are as follows:

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pacman -S package_name  #安装软件包
pacman -R package_name  #删除软件包
pacman -Rs package_name #顺便删除软件包相关依赖
pacman -Syu             #升级系统中的所有包
pacman -Ss package      #查询软件包
pacman -Qs package      #查询已安装的包
pacman -Qi package      #显示查找的包的信息
pacman -Ql package      #显示你要找的包的文件都安装的位置
pacman -Sw package      #下载但不安装包
pacman -U  /path/package.pkg.tar.gz #安装本地包
pacman -Scc             #清理包缓存，下载的包会在/var/cache 这个目录
pacman -Sf pacman       #重新安装包

Visit the MSYS2 website to download and install MSYS2.

2. Updating the Mirrors

The mirror configuration files for MSYS2 live in /etc/pacman.d.

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 ls /etc/pacman.d/
gnupg  mirrorlist.mingw32  mirrorlist.mingw64  mirrorlist.msys

Add the USTC mirror to each of the three files beginning with mirrorlist.

Edit /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.mingw32 and add the following at the beginning of the file:

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Server = http://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/msys2/mingw/i686

Edit /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.mingw64 and add the following at the beginning of the file:

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Server = http://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/msys2/mingw/x86_64

Edit /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.msys and add the following at the beginning of the file:

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Server = http://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/msys2/msys/$arch

Refresh the cache data by running:

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pacman -Sy

3. Installing and Configuring Vim

• Install Git (Vim will be installed along with it)

Run the command:

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pacman -S git

• Install Python 2

Run the command:

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pacman -S python2

• Configure Vim

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git clone https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim.git ~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim
vim ~/.vimrc
# 编辑 vimrc 内容
# ...

After entering Vim, run :PluginInstall to install the relevant Vim plugins.

4. Dealing with Garbled Characters

• MSYS2 displays garbled characters

Create the file /usr/bin/win:

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#!/bin/bash
$@ |iconv -f gbk -t utf-8

Create the file /etc/profile.d/alias.sh:

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alias ls="/bin/ls --color=tty --show-control-chars"
alias grep="/bin/grep --color"
alias ll="/bin/ls --color=tty --show-control-chars -l"

alias ping="/bin/win ping"
alias netstat="/bin/win netstat"
alias nslookup="/bin/win nslookup"
alias ipconfig="/bin/win ipconfig"

Besides the method above, you can also right-click the window and choose Options to set up Chinese display:

• Vim displays garbled Chinese characters

Add the following to the .vimrc file:

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" 默认编码
if has('vim_starting')
    if &encoding !=? 'utf-8'
        let &termencoding = &encoding
    endif
    set encoding=utf-8
    set fileencoding=utf-8
    set fileencodings=ucs-bom,utf-8,default,cp936
endif

5. Configuring ConEmu or Cmder

In Settings, add a new entry under Startup -> Tasks.

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set  MSYS2_PATH_TYPE=inherit & set CHERE_INVOKING=1 & %ConEmuDrive%\interpreter\msys2_32\usr\bin\bash.exe --login -i -new_console:C:"%ConEmuDrive%\interpreter\msys2_32\msys2.ico"

6. References

• https://github.com/ets-labs/python-vimrc
• https://vimawesome.com/
• https://wizardforcel.gitbooks.io/use-vim-as-ide/content/0.html
• https://vim-adventures.com/
• https://blog.zengrong.net/post/1557.html