vimrc not accepting mouse-=a command

Question

I have strange problem with my /etc/vim/vimrc file.

I was trying to get rid of VISUAL mode in VIM, so I have tried to add the set mouse-=a command in my vimrc file.

However my vim does not take those changes into account.

When I do :set mouse-=a in openend vim, it does what I want (selecting text with mouse without entering VISUAL mode), but the command does not work in the vimrc file.

I have also enabled the "jump to the last position when reopening a file" in vimrc and it is working, that makes me even more confused. I have been trying every possible command:

• set mouse=a
• set mouse=r
• set mouse-=a
• :set mouse-=a

None of them is working when added to /etc/vim/vimrc.

My system is:

rRr-kali:~# uname -a
Linux rRr-kali 4.8.0-kali2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.8.15-1kali1 (2016-12-23) x86_64 GNU/Linux
rRr-kali:~#

Answer 1

If you are using Debian 9 (Strecth), edit the file /usr/share/vim/vim80/defaults.vim and change the line 70 to put

set mouse-=a

Best Regards

Thibault

Answer 2

I know, that this question is a bit old, but I just want to clarify, why both answers above are correct and why it's working that way.

On Debian systems the way the config files for vim are loaded is like this:

1. Load settings in /etc/vim/vimrc
2. If exists, load settings from /etc/vim/vimrc.local
3. If ~/.vimrc does not exist and there is no "let g:skip_defaults_vim = 1" in /etc/vim/vimrc or /etc/vim/vimrc.local, load settings from /usr/share/vim/vim80/defaults.vim otherwise load settings from ~/.vimrc (if it exists).

Details for that can be found in the config files itself, as well as in a discussion on bugs.debian.org

So to solve your issue you have two ways to go:

1. Insert "let g:skip_defaults_vim = 1" at the beginning of /etc/vim/vimrc.local.
2. Create an empty ~/.vimrc by issuing touch ~/.vimrc.

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=864074