How to Install Neovim 0.12 (Nightly) on Termux

Neovim is evolving at a breakneck pace, and some of the most anticipated features often land in the nightly builds long before a stable release. If you’re like me and want to stay on the absolute bleeding edge (currently v0.12.0-dev), this guide will show you how to get it running on your Android device via Termux.

There are two main ways to go about this: the easy way (using the unstable-repo) and the manual way (building from source).

The Easy Way: Using the Unstable Repository #

The Termux community maintains a nightly package that is updated frequently. This is the fastest way to get version 0.12 without having to wait for a build on your device.

1. Enable the Unstable Repository #

First, you need to tell pkg to look into the community’s unstable repository:

pkg install unstable-repo
pkg update

2. Install Neovim Nightly #

Now, you can install the neovim-nightly package. Note that this package conflicts with the standard neovim package, so it will automatically replace it:

pkg install neovim-nightly

3. Verify the Installation #

Check that everything is working as expected:

nvim --version

You should see something like NVIM v0.12.0-dev.

The Bleeding Edge: Building from Source #

If you want to track the master branch precisely or the package isn’t updated as quickly as you’d like, you can build Neovim directly on your device.

1. Install Build Dependencies #

You’ll need a full build environment and some libraries:

pkg install -y build-essential cmake git gettext libtool-bin \
  libuv libmsgpack libunibilium libiconv \
  lua51-lpeg luajit tree-sitter tree-sitter-parsers utf8proc

2. Clone the Repository #

git clone https://github.com/neovim/neovim.git
cd neovim

3. Build and Install #

To ensure a clean build, it’s best to run make distclean first. Then, we build for Release:

make distclean
make CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
make CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PREFIX install

Note: The CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PREFIX part is important in Termux to ensure it installs into the correct userland directory.

Conclusion #

Whether you choose the quick package install or the manual build, you’re now equipped with the latest and greatest Neovim has to offer.

Happy editing in the future!