diff --git a/repos/ports/recipes/src/vim-minimal/content.mk b/repos/ports/recipes/src/vim-minimal/content.mk
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a3b7ed709
--- /dev/null
+++ b/repos/ports/recipes/src/vim-minimal/content.mk
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+# keep 'vim/target.inc' but not 'vim/target.mk'
+VIM_SRC := src/noux-pkg/vim/target.inc
+
+include $(REP_DIR)/recipes/src/vim/content.mk
+
+content: src/noux-pkg/vim-minimal
+
+src/noux-pkg/vim-minimal:
+	$(mirror_from_rep_dir)
diff --git a/repos/ports/recipes/src/vim-minimal/hash b/repos/ports/recipes/src/vim-minimal/hash
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3e2fb0a8a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/repos/ports/recipes/src/vim-minimal/hash
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+2017-12-08 1ce6944a7b3c31e9c36e29f1dafa8ad34e74831d
diff --git a/repos/ports/recipes/src/vim-minimal/used_apis b/repos/ports/recipes/src/vim-minimal/used_apis
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..91c41d31a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/repos/ports/recipes/src/vim-minimal/used_apis
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+libc
+noux
+posix
+ncurses
diff --git a/repos/ports/recipes/src/vim/content.mk b/repos/ports/recipes/src/vim/content.mk
index ba1b7ec6f..9bffdf78f 100644
--- a/repos/ports/recipes/src/vim/content.mk
+++ b/repos/ports/recipes/src/vim/content.mk
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+# allow vim-minimal to exclude 'vim/target.mk'
+VIM_SRC ?= $(addprefix src/noux-pkg/vim/,target.inc target.mk)
+
 content: src/noux-pkg/vim LICENSE
 
 PORT_DIR := $(call port_dir,$(REP_DIR)/ports/vim)
@@ -5,7 +8,7 @@ PORT_DIR := $(call port_dir,$(REP_DIR)/ports/vim)
 src/noux-pkg/vim:
 	mkdir -p $@
 	cp -r $(PORT_DIR)/src/noux-pkg/vim/* $@
-	cp -r  $(REP_DIR)/src/noux-pkg/vim/* $@
+	cp -r $(addprefix $(REP_DIR)/,$(VIM_SRC)) $@
 
 LICENSE:
 	cp $(PORT_DIR)/src/noux-pkg/vim/runtime/doc/uganda.txt $@
diff --git a/repos/ports/src/noux-pkg/vim-minimal/target.mk b/repos/ports/src/noux-pkg/vim-minimal/target.mk
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bde63f028
--- /dev/null
+++ b/repos/ports/src/noux-pkg/vim-minimal/target.mk
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+INSTALL_TAR_CONTENT := bin/vim
+
+PKG_DIR = $(call select_from_ports,vim)/src/noux-pkg/vim
+
+include $(REP_DIR)/src/noux-pkg/vim/target.inc
diff --git a/repos/ports/src/noux-pkg/vim/target.inc b/repos/ports/src/noux-pkg/vim/target.inc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..497ba4831
--- /dev/null
+++ b/repos/ports/src/noux-pkg/vim/target.inc
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+CONFIGURE_ARGS = --disable-selinux --disable-xsmp --disable-xsmp-interact \
+                 --disable-netbeans --disable-gtktest --disable-largefile \
+                 --disable-acl --disable-gpm --disable-sysmouse \
+                 --disable-nls
+
+#
+# configure: error: cross-compiling: please set 'vim_cv_toupper_broken'
+#
+CONFIGURE_ARGS += vim_cv_toupper_broken=yes
+
+#
+# configure: error: NOT FOUND!
+#       You need to install a terminal library; for example ncurses.
+#       Or specify the name of the library with --with-tlib.
+#
+CONFIGURE_ARGS += --with-tlib=ncurses
+
+#
+# configure: error: cross-compiling: please set ...
+#
+CONFIGURE_ARGS += vim_cv_terminfo=linux
+CONFIGURE_ARGS += vim_cv_tty_group=world
+CONFIGURE_ARGS += vim_cv_tty_mode=0620
+CONFIGURE_ARGS += vim_cv_getcwd_broken=no
+CONFIGURE_ARGS += vim_cv_stat_ignores_slash=no
+CONFIGURE_ARGS += vim_cv_memmove_handles_overlap=yes
+
+INSTALL_TARGET = install
+
+LIBS += ncurses
+
+include $(call select_from_repositories,mk/noux.mk)
+
+env.sh: mirror_vim_src.tag flush_config_cache.tag
+
+mirror_vim_src.tag:
+	$(VERBOSE)cp -af $(PKG_DIR)/src $(PWD)
+	$(VERBOSE)cp -af $(PKG_DIR)/Makefile $(PWD)
+	$(VERBOSE)ln -sf $(PKG_DIR)/Filelist $(PWD)
+	$(VERBOSE)ln -sf $(PKG_DIR)/runtime $(PWD)
+	# let the configure script update the Makefile time stamp
+	$(VERBOSE)sed -i "/exit/s/^/touch ..\/Makefile\n/" src/configure
+	@touch $@
+
+flush_config_cache.tag:
+	$(VERBOSE)rm -f $(PWD)/src/auto/config.cache
+	@touch $@
+
+#
+# Make the ncurses linking test succeed
+#
+Makefile: dummy_libs
+
+LDFLAGS += -L$(PWD)
+
+.SECONDARY: dummy_libs
+dummy_libs: libncurses.a
+
+libncurses.a:
+	$(VERBOSE)$(AR) -rc $@
+
diff --git a/repos/ports/src/noux-pkg/vim/target.mk b/repos/ports/src/noux-pkg/vim/target.mk
index 497ba4831..a60b2ad0f 100644
--- a/repos/ports/src/noux-pkg/vim/target.mk
+++ b/repos/ports/src/noux-pkg/vim/target.mk
@@ -1,61 +1 @@
-CONFIGURE_ARGS = --disable-selinux --disable-xsmp --disable-xsmp-interact \
-                 --disable-netbeans --disable-gtktest --disable-largefile \
-                 --disable-acl --disable-gpm --disable-sysmouse \
-                 --disable-nls
-
-#
-# configure: error: cross-compiling: please set 'vim_cv_toupper_broken'
-#
-CONFIGURE_ARGS += vim_cv_toupper_broken=yes
-
-#
-# configure: error: NOT FOUND!
-#       You need to install a terminal library; for example ncurses.
-#       Or specify the name of the library with --with-tlib.
-#
-CONFIGURE_ARGS += --with-tlib=ncurses
-
-#
-# configure: error: cross-compiling: please set ...
-#
-CONFIGURE_ARGS += vim_cv_terminfo=linux
-CONFIGURE_ARGS += vim_cv_tty_group=world
-CONFIGURE_ARGS += vim_cv_tty_mode=0620
-CONFIGURE_ARGS += vim_cv_getcwd_broken=no
-CONFIGURE_ARGS += vim_cv_stat_ignores_slash=no
-CONFIGURE_ARGS += vim_cv_memmove_handles_overlap=yes
-
-INSTALL_TARGET = install
-
-LIBS += ncurses
-
-include $(call select_from_repositories,mk/noux.mk)
-
-env.sh: mirror_vim_src.tag flush_config_cache.tag
-
-mirror_vim_src.tag:
-	$(VERBOSE)cp -af $(PKG_DIR)/src $(PWD)
-	$(VERBOSE)cp -af $(PKG_DIR)/Makefile $(PWD)
-	$(VERBOSE)ln -sf $(PKG_DIR)/Filelist $(PWD)
-	$(VERBOSE)ln -sf $(PKG_DIR)/runtime $(PWD)
-	# let the configure script update the Makefile time stamp
-	$(VERBOSE)sed -i "/exit/s/^/touch ..\/Makefile\n/" src/configure
-	@touch $@
-
-flush_config_cache.tag:
-	$(VERBOSE)rm -f $(PWD)/src/auto/config.cache
-	@touch $@
-
-#
-# Make the ncurses linking test succeed
-#
-Makefile: dummy_libs
-
-LDFLAGS += -L$(PWD)
-
-.SECONDARY: dummy_libs
-dummy_libs: libncurses.a
-
-libncurses.a:
-	$(VERBOSE)$(AR) -rc $@
-
+include $(REP_DIR)/src/noux-pkg/vim/target.inc