Error when using vim-plug from git-bash

Question

I just installed vim-plug to use the doxygen plugin. Added

call plug#begin()
    Plug 'vim-scripts/DoxygenToolkit.vim'
call plug#end()

to the .vimrc (_vimrc because Win10..). Using the doxygen plugin from gVim works just fine, no problem there.

Now if open vim from the git-bash shell (either from calling vim or from git commit) I get an error:

$ vim                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
Fehler beim Ausführen von "/c/Users/my.name/_vimrc":                                                                                                                                                                                      
Zeile   37:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
E117: Unbekannte Funktion: plug#begin                                                                                                                                                                                                         
Zeile   39:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
E492: Kein Editorbefehl: Plug 'vim-scripts/DoxygenToolkit.vim'                                                                                                                                                                               
Zeile   41:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
E117: Unbekannte Funktion: plug#end                                                                                                                                                                                                          
Betätigen Sie die EINGABETASTE oder geben Sie einen Befehl ein

Sorry for the German, it basically doesn't recognize plug#begin as a function and Plug 'vim-scripts/DoxygenToolkit.vim' as an editor command. Vim still works after pressing enter, just the :Dox command doesn't work in any Vim started from the git-bash.

I'm using the shell mostly for git and use the gVim for most file editing and I don't need :Dox in the git commit message editor. So this is just mildly annoying. Is there a way to fix this or at least turn of the message and extra key press?

Edit: :version outputs

From git-bash vim

:version                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
VIM - Vi IMproved 8.2 (2019 Dec 12 kompiliert am Sep 21 2021 16:13:20)                                                                                                                                                                       
Inklusive der Patches: 1-3441                                                                                                                                                                                                              
Übersetzt von <https://www.msys2.org/>                                                                                                                                                                                                      
Riesige Version ohne GUI. Ein- (+) oder ausschließlich (-) der 
Eigenschaften:                                                                                                                                                                
+acl               +cindent           +cursorshape       
+file_in_path      +job               +menu              
+mouse_urxvt       +popupwin          +signs             
-tag_any_white     +user_commands     +writebackup                
+arabic            -clientserver      +dialog_con        
+find_in_path      +jumplist          +mksession         
+mouse_xterm       +postscript        +smartindent       -tcl               
+vartabs           -X11                        +autocmd           
+clipboard         +diff              +float             +keymap            
+modify_fname      +multi_byte        +printer           -sodium            
+termguicolors     +vertsplit         -xfontset                   
+autochdir         +cmdline_compl     +digraphs          +folding           
+lambda            +mouse             +multi_lang        +profile           
-sound             +terminal          +virtualedit       -xim                        
-autoservername    +cmdline_hist      -dnd               -footer            
+langmap           -mouseshape        -mzscheme          -python            
+spell             +terminfo          +visual            -xpm                        
-balloon_eval      +cmdline_info      -ebcdic            +fork()            
+libcall           +mouse_dec         +netbeans_intg     
+python3/dyn       +startuptime       +termresponse      
+visualextra       -xsmp                       +balloon_eval_term 
+comments          +emacs_tags        +gettext           +linebreak         
-mouse_gpm         +num64             +quickfix          
+statusline        +textobjects       +viminfo           - 
xterm_clipboard            -browse            +conceal           
+eval              -hangul_input      +lispindent          
-mouse_jsbterm     +packages          +reltime            
-sun_workshop      +textprop          +vreplace          
-xterm_save                 ++builtin_terms    +cryptv            
+ex_extra          +iconv             +listcmds          
+mouse_netterm     +path_extra        +rightleft         +syntax            
+timers            +wildignore                                    
+byte_offset       +cscope            +extra_search      
+insert_expand     +localmap          +mouse_sgr         +perl/dyn          
+ruby/dyn          +tag_binary        +title             +wildmenu                                      
+channel           +cursorbind        -farsi             +ipv6              
-lua               -mouse_sysmouse    +persistent_undo   
+scrollbind        -tag_old_static    -toolbar           +windows                                                 
System-vimrc-Datei: "/etc/vimrc"                                                                                                                                                                                                
Benutzer-vimrc-Datei: "$HOME/.vimrc"                                                                                                                                                                                                  
zweite Benutzer-vimrc-Datei: "~/.vim/vimrc"                                                                                                                                                                                                          
Benutzer-exrc-Datei: "$HOME/.exrc"                                                                                                                                                                                                        
defaults Datei: "$VIMRUNTIME/defaults.vim"                                                                                                                                                                                                  
Voreinstellung für $VIM: "/etc"                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
und für $VIMRUNTIME: "/usr/share/vim/vim82"                                                                                                                                                                                         
Übersetzt: gcc -c -I. -Iproto -DHAVE_CONFIG_H - I/usr/include/ncursesw -march=x86-64 -mtune=generic -O2 -pipe -D_REENTRANT -U_FORTIFY_SOURCE -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=1                                                                              Linken: gcc -L. -pipe -fstack-protector-strong -pipe -Wl,--as-needed -o vim.exe -lm -lncursesw -liconv -lacl -lintl -Wl,--enable-auto-import -Wl,--export-all-symbols -Wl,--enable-auto-image-base -fstack-protector-strong -L/usr/lib/perl5/core_perl/CORE -lperl -lpthread -ldl -lcrypt  

                                                                                

gvim output:

VIM - Vi IMproved 9.0 (2022 Jun 28 kompiliert am Jun 28 2022 13:09:53)
MS-Windows 32 Bit GUI Version mit OLE-Unterstützung
Übersetzt von appveyor@APPVYR-WIN
Riesige Version mit GUI. Ein- (+) oder ausschließlich (-) der Eigenschaften:
+acl                +channel            +cscope             +eval               -hangul_input       +linebreak          +multi_byte_ime/dyn +popupwin           +scrollbind         +tag_binary         +timers             +visualextra        -xterm_save
+arabic             +cindent            +cursorbind         +ex_extra           +iconv/dyn          +lispindent         +multi_lang         -postscript         +signs              -tag_old_static     +title              +vreplace           
+autocmd            +clientserver       +cursorshape        +extra_search       +insert_expand      +listcmds           +mzscheme/dyn       +printer            +smartindent        -tag_any_white      +toolbar            -vtp                
+autochdir          +clipboard          +dialog_con_gui     -farsi              +ipv6               +localmap           +netbeans_intg      +profile            +sodium/dyn         -tcl                +user_commands      +wildignore         
+autoservername     +cmdline_compl      +diff               +file_in_path       +job                +lua/dyn            +num64              +python/dyn         +sound              -termguicolors      +vartabs            +wildmenu           
+balloon_eval       +cmdline_hist       +digraphs           +find_in_path       +jumplist           +menu               +ole                +python3/dyn        +spell              +terminal           +vertsplit          +windows            
-balloon_eval_term  +cmdline_info       +directx            +float              +keymap             +mksession          +packages           +quickfix           +startuptime        -termresponse       +vim9script         +writebackup        
+browse             +comments           -dnd                +folding            +lambda             +modify_fname       +path_extra         +reltime            +statusline         +textobjects        +viminfo            -xfontset           
++builtin_terms     +conceal            -ebcdic             -footer             +langmap            +mouse              +perl/dyn           +rightleft          -sun_workshop       +textprop           +virtualedit        -xim                
+byte_offset        +cryptv             +emacs_tags         +gettext/dyn        +libcall            +mouseshape         +persistent_undo    +ruby/dyn           +syntax             -tgetent            +visual             +xpm_w32            
          System-vimrc-Datei: "$VIM\vimrc"
        Benutzer-vimrc-Datei: "$HOME\_vimrc"
 zweite Benutzer-vimrc-Datei: "$HOME\vimfiles\vimrc"
 dritte Benutzer-vimrc-Datei: "$VIM\_vimrc"
         Benutzer-exrc-Datei: "$HOME\_exrc"
 zweite Benutzer-exrc-Datei: "$VIM\_exrc"
         System-gvimrc-Datei: "$VIM\gvimrc"
       Benutzer-gvimrc-Datei: "$HOME\_gvimrc"
zweite Benutzer-gvimrc-Datei: "$HOME\vimfiles\gvimrc"
dritte Benutzer-gvimrc-Datei: "$VIM\_gvimrc"
      defaults Datei: "$VIMRUNTIME\defaults.vim"
           System-Menü-Datei: "$VIMRUNTIME\menu.vim"
Übersetzt: cl -c /W3 /GF /nologo -I. -Iproto -DHAVE_PATHDEF -DWIN32  -DFEAT_CSCOPE -DFEAT_TERMINAL -DFEAT_SOUND -DFEAT_NETBEANS_INTG -DFEAT_JOB_CHANNEL -DFEAT_IPV6   -DFEAT_XPM_W32 -DHAVE_SODIUM -DDYNAMIC_SODIUM -DDYNAMIC_SODIUM_DLL=\"libsodium.dll\" /I "C:\libsodium\include" -DWINVER=0x0501 -D_WIN32_WINNT=0x0501 /source-charset:utf-8 /MP -DHAVE_STDINT_H /Ox /GL -DNDEBUG /arch:IA32 /Zl /MT /D_CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE /D_CRT_NONSTDC_NO_DEPRECATE -DFEAT_OLE -DFEAT_MBYTE_IME -DDYNAMIC_IME -DFEAT_GUI_MSWIN -DFEAT_DIRECTX -DDYNAMIC_DIRECTX -DFEAT_DIRECTX_COLOR_EMOJI -DDYNAMIC_ICONV -DDYNAMIC_GETTEXT -DFEAT_LUA -DDYNAMIC_LUA -DDYNAMIC_LUA_DLL=\"lua54.dll\" -DFEAT_PYTHON -DDYNAMIC_PYTHON -DDYNAMIC_PYTHON_DLL=\"python27.dll\" -DFEAT_PYTHON3 -DDYNAMIC_PYTHON3 -DDYNAMIC_PYTHON3_DLL=\"python310.dll\" -DFEAT_MZSCHEME -I "C:\racket\include" -DMZ_PRECISE_GC -DDYNAMIC_MZSCHEME -DDYNAMIC_MZSCH_DLL=\"libracket3m_da32rk.dll\" -DDYNAMIC_MZGC_DLL=\"libracket3m_da32rk.dll\" -DFEAT_PERL -DPERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT -DPERL_IMPLICIT_SYS -DDYNAMIC_PERL -DDYNAMIC_PERL_DLL=\"perl532.dll\" -DFEAT_RUBY -DDYNAMIC_RUBY -DDYNAMIC_RUBY_DLL=\"msvcrt-ruby300.dll\" -DRUBY_VERSION=30 -DFEAT_HUGE /Fd.\ObjGXOULYHRZi386/ /Zi
Linken: link /nologo /opt:ref /LTCG oldnames.lib kernel32.lib advapi32.lib shell32.lib gdi32.lib  comdlg32.lib ole32.lib netapi32.lib uuid.lib user32.lib  /machine:i386 version.lib  winspool.lib comctl32.lib  libcmt.lib oleaut32.lib  /nodefaultlib:lua54.lib  /STACK:8388608  /nodefaultlib:python27.lib /nodefaultlib:python310.lib    winmm.lib WSock32.lib Ws2_32.lib xpm\x86\lib-vc14\libXpm.lib  /PDB:gvim.pdb -debug

Answer 1

As pointed out by romainl in the comments, you have two versions of Vim installed:

• Vim 9.0 with GUI for Windows you probably installed yourself
• Vim 8.2 without GUI that came on top of git-bash (on a side note, Git for Windows 2.40 comes with Vim 9.0 so consider upgrading)

Git-bash lives in it's own happy Unix-y world. Its version of Vim will source ~/.vimrc or ~/.vim/vimrc and not care about ~/vimfiles etc.

The whole process is explained in :help vimrc. Read a little down and you will find this note:

Note: For Unix and Amiga, when ".vimrc" does not exist, "_vimrc" is also tried, in case an MS-DOS compatible file system is used. For MS-Windows ".vimrc" is checked after "_vimrc", in case long file names are used.

So git-bash's Vim will fall back to reading ~/_vimrc in which it will find commands like call plug#begin() which it cannot process. It is blissfully unaware of your installation of vim-plug in ~/vimfiles. Hence the error message.

You should be able to diagnose the problem when you issue the :scriptnames and :set rtp? commands and see how the output differs between your Vim versions.

You have a couple of options to remedy the situation. I would recommend to first move your ~/_vimrc to ~/vimfiles/vimrc. This will prevent the fallback from kicking in and make your Vim configuration self-contained. As an added benefit - you can easily version the whole directory tree using Git.

To use the same configuration in git-bash, you need to keep the two directories ~/vimfiles and ~/.vim in sync. As long as you don't have any OS-specific stuff in them, you can simply symlink or copy one configuration to the other one.

If you have OS-specific information in them (like C:\ paths), you can either take care of them in your vimrc (if has('win32')etc.) or only merge the OS-independent parts using standard diff/merge tools.

Depends largely on how much work you're willing to invest versus how much change you anticipate in your Vim configuration directory.

To be brutally honest, I haven't found a solution myself that I am 100% happy with. For now, I mostly use two Git repos on different branches and pull changes as I see fit. While I dislike the duplication on general principle, it's been working reasonably well so far so I continue to put up with it.