+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #173974 +++ Description of problem: Because vim help files are compressed, and because minimal vim cannot understand advance settings in /etc/vimrc which might otherwise help (eg autocmd), when viewing help with /bin/vi all you get is compressed garbage on the screen. This kind of error (garbaged display, no reasonable error message) should not appear in an Enterprise level product. If vim-minimal doesn't support online help, a reasonable error message should be displayed if the user went there. Since now RHEL5 supports VM in Xen, we often do minimal installation of RHEL5 for VMs which uses vim-minimal, so this bugs can often be observed. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): vim-minimal-7.0.109-3 How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1./bin/vi 2.:help index Actual Results: 1. normal vi startup 2. indigestible garbage on screen Expected Results: Should see a help screen Additional info: And I believe that this bug exists on all platforms. To manually fix: cd /usr/share/vim/vim63/doc gunzip *.txt.gz vim :helptags /usr/share/vim/vim63/doc :q -- Additional comment from redhat on 2007-04-10 20:20 EST -- Applicable to Fedora Core 6. Sorry about that.
This is exactly the issue reported for Fedora Core 6 in bug #173974. I also see this on x86 with vim-{minimal,common,enhanced} installed, so I believe this is not confined to powerpc. Reported by training students in class. The ':help index' command breaks when vim is called as /bin/vi, but works when wim is called as /bin/vim. In addition, the /etc/profile.d/vim.sh file in RHEL5 aliases vi to vim for users with UID greater than 100, but not for root! So this problem becomes obvious for anyone who runs vi as root instead of vim. The ':help version7' function, along with a rotating collection of others, is also advertised by /bin/vi when started without a file; they should work as the program specifies at startup.
This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux release. Since this bugzilla is in a component that is not approved for the current release, it has been closed with resolution deferred. You may reopen this bugzilla for consideration in the next release.