Install guide · Debian 12 (bookworm)printed 27 Oct 2026, 07:25 UTC
Install Neovim 0.12 on Debian 12
Debian 12 ships Neovim 0.7.2. The current release is 0.12.6. freshdeb builds it for bookworm from upstream's release with Debian's packaging, so it replaces the distribution's package in place and updates with apt upgrade like the rest of the system.
- Debian 12 ships
- 0.7.20.7.2-7
- main
- 0.12.6follows every upstream release, minors and majors included. Currently 0.12.6.
- Built for
- amd64 and arm64, natively
Not published yet. The first neovim release is being built. These commands work once it lands; the version shown is the one it will publish.
1Trust the signing key (once per machine)
sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings curl -fsSL https://deb.freshdeb.com/freshdeb-archive-keyring.gpg \ | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/freshdeb-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null
Fingerprint 3BBD F03A 9C0B F890 F8CA 9510 7595 CC55 468F 3161. How to verify.
2Add the source for bookworm
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/freshdeb-neovim.sources >/dev/null <<EOF Types: deb URIs: https://deb.freshdeb.com/neovim Suites: bookworm Components: main Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/freshdeb-archive-keyring.gpg EOF
3Install
sudo apt update && sudo apt install neovim
apt policy neovim # expect 0.12.6-1+freshdeb~deb12Already on Debian 12's Neovim? The same command upgrades it: the freshdeb version sorts higher. What's different from Debian's package.
Upgrading from Neovim 0.7.2
What changed between Debian 12's 0.7.2 and 0.12.6 that you may notice. Configuration and data stay where Debian put them.
- Since 0.10
- A new default color scheme (
:colorscheme vimbrings back the old one), andtermguicolorsis on when the terminal supports 24-bit color. - Since 0.11
- Diagnostics no longer show as virtual text by default (
vim.diagnostic.config({ virtual_text = true })turns it back on), and new default LSP mappings start withgr(grn,grr,gri,gra), next togO. - Since 0.12
<C-R>in Insert mode inserts a register literally, like a paste.<C-R>=@xgives the old behaviour.- Also
- Your configuration in
~/.config/nvimcarries over. Upstream's news lists every change.
Going back to 0.7.2
Delete /etc/apt/sources.list.d/freshdeb-neovim.sources, run sudo apt update, then sudo apt install neovim=0.7.2-7: apt asks before it downgrades. Name the other neovim packages you installed with their Debian 12 version too.
Why a package
Upstream's AppImage and tarball are the same bundled build, but they don't update with apt and don't put nvim in /usr/bin. This package does both, and keeps Debian's split into neovim and neovim-runtime.
