Tell me more ×
Ask Different is a question and answer site for power users of Apple hardware and software. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 12 down vote favorite
4

whenever I work on multiple files in different vim buffers/tabs and do a :w to save, vim crashes with a segmentation fault.

I'm using vim 7.3 that came long with Lion (Actually with SnowLeopard which later I upgraded to Lion).

Is this issue Lion specific or is this only affecting upgrade users? Any one seen similar issues.

I've been a linux user for most of the time but just bought a mac recently and also upgraded to Lion recently.

It's quite aggravating to spend so much money and now can't use vim :(

share|improve this question
I upgraded my iMac from Snow Leopard to Lion and I am unable to reproduce the error that you are seeing. I was able to launch vim in three tabs with three different documents, make changes and write each one out without any errors. – glorifiedHacker Aug 22 '11 at 20:08
I am experiencing the same issue with vim getting his with a SEGV when a shell escape is used. I am running 10.7.1. The SEGV occurs about 80% of the time (I am reluctant to do it enough to get reliable statistical averages, but the point is that it is not completely deterministic). – user10291 Aug 24 '11 at 21:20
The Vim bundled with Lion seems to be 7.3.0 (based on included_patches in src/version.c). Vim 7.3 is currently at 7.3.285 (285 patches); some of those are fixes for crashes. Have you tried a non-Apple build of Vim (e.g. MacVim (snapshot 61 is based on 7.3.260) or MacPorts (can build MacVim, or (currently) 7.3.237-based tty-only vim and/or Vim.app). – Chris Johnsen Aug 25 '11 at 6:17
A recent answer on a possibly related question on SO (MacVim caught deadly signal) suggests that plugins with native extensions might the be culprit. Try disabling all your plugins and bringing them back one by one. – Chris Johnsen Aug 31 '11 at 9:01
I have the same problem. However, I am not using any plugins and have completely blanked my vimrc file. Is there a fix? Makes me regret moving to Mac. – carl Sep 17 '11 at 21:45
show 2 more comments

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

There are two avenues when you have located a repeatable crash (and from the comments and discussions it sure looks like the shipping version is more crash than ideal for the latest shipping OS).

  1. File a bug at bugreporter.apple.com - it's free if you sign up for a free developer account.
  2. Use something like homebrew to get a newer (or older) version of vim that isn't crashing.
share|improve this answer
up vote 1 down vote

You could give MacVim a go. I switched over a few months ago and haven't looked back. The package comes with an executable that you can drop in your $PATH (e.g., /usr/bin/) to launch it from BASH/Terminal by typing mvim. Obviously this is not the solution you were looking for, but MacVim works exactly like VIM and with the polish of a GUI.

share|improve this answer

protected by Community♦ Oct 15 '11 at 21:44

This question is protected to prevent "thanks!", "me too!", or spam answers by new users. To answer it, you must have earned at least 10 reputation on this site.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.