Going to vim from less produces a swag of errors

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1

When I open a file with vim it opens with no errors, but if I open it with less and then type ‘v’ to switch to vim I get a swag of errors such as:

Error detected while processing /usr/share/vim/vim82/filetype.vim:

line 10:

E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: let did_load_filetypes = 1

line 13:

E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: let s:cpo_save = &cpo

line 47:

…

Error detected while processing /usr/share/vim/vim82/ftplugin.vim:

line 9:

E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: let did_load_ftplugin = 1

…

I note that redhat have a web-page Upgrading from RHEL 9.7 to 9.8 causes issues with vi/vim - Red Hat Customer Portal

But I cannot see the rest of the details on this page.

Is there any fix for this?

Sorry I should also have said I am running AlmaLinux 9.8 with kernel 5.14.0-687.17.1.el9_8.x86_64; vim-* 8.2.2637.26.el9_8.6; less 590.6.el9 and using xterm-256color

2

Up to 9.7 the vim-minimal did provide /usr/bin/vi that was a script.
That script did execute vim – if that was installed – or the real vi

In 9.8 the /usr/bin/vi is the real vi
This change related to some security issue.

If less calls “vi” but actually expects “vim”, then that would explain a bit

man less mentions both vi and vim, so it probably should be able to use either.
There is also mention that EDITOR or VISUAL could set the desired editor.

3

To expand on what jlehtone wrote above.
Assuming you have made sure you have vim installed, If you open a terminal and run export EDITOR=vim and then (in the same terminal) does the less > press v operation, does it still present the errors?
If not, you can set the environment variable EDITOR and optionally VISUAL to vim,

4

Thanks jlehtone and Bedna, setting EDITOR to vim has done the trick and vim recognises the filetype when opened via less. I have had ‘vi’ as an alias to ‘vim’ for many, many years.

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