Vim install...can't get off the drawing board

[Lowell T.]

I've recently installed Vim 7.1 on my Mandrake 10.1 OS), and can get no further to using it. I cannot find an executable anywhere in the successful install of 'vim-7.1.tar.bz2 to link to. (The install was done in a sub-directory to '/home'.)

This is what I know of the current installation (Vim version 6.3.20):

$ which vim
/bin/vim

$ file /bin/vim
/bin/vim: symbolic link to `/etc/alternatives/vim'

$ file /etc/alternatives/vim
/etc/alternatives/vim: symbolic link to `/usr/bin/vim-enhanced'

$ file `/usr/bin/vim-enhanced'
/usr/bin/vim-enhanced: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux
2.2.5, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), stripped

So...what do I do now?

[Lazydog]

Not sure about all these links.
How did you install this file?

[Lowell T.]

Not sure about all these links.
How did you install this file?

This was the default installation (version 6.3.20) that was part of the original installation of my Mandrake 10.1 OS.

It does not reflect the new installation of [version] 7.1, which I installed in a sub-directory of ~/.

[Lazydog]

OK, but how did you install it?

Just decompress in that dir or what did you do?

[cayalee]

you should simply be able to open up a terminal and type vim or alternatively give it a file to open ie vim /home/examplefile

if you've already tried this then please post any error messages here so we can help diagnose the issue