vopen

Edit a file using a single instance of Vim/gVim/Neovim

Name	Link
Project Home:	https://github.com/davidosomething/vopen

About

This uses Vim's server capability to use a single instance of Vim. It also intelligently determines when to use that capability:

If on Linux with an X Server, will use gvim
If on Mac, it will use gvim (which is the same as MacVim.app if you use that)
If in an SSH session or linux with no X11 it will use terminal Vim with no server.

It takes of Vim's normal args if you provide any extra ones.

Installation

Add the vopen file somewhere in your path, e.g. /usr/local/bin/
Optionally add the vopen-nofork file somewhere in your global path (make sure the root user/sudo has this in its path), e.g. /usr/local/bin/. This is for $EDITOR / $SUDO_EDITOR, and is compatible with git commit, visudo, vipw, etc.

Usage

vopen (args) (filenames/directories)

Typically I alias "vopen" to "e".

alias e="vopen"

Use the nofork version vopen-nofork for $EDITOR and $VISUAL if you plan on modifying your env (.bashrc/.zshrc/etc.).

export EDITOR="vopen-nofork"
export SUDO_EDITOR="vopen-nofork"
export VISUAL="vopen-nofork"

Default command

You can start Vim with a default command using the VOPEN_DEFAULT_COMMAND global variable in your system. E.g. to start vimfiler:

export VOPEN_DEFAULT_COMMAND="+VimFilerCurrentDir"

The format is any Vim-compatible args (the plus sign means run this command).

For neovim-remote I recommend the following:

export VOPEN_SERVERNAME="$NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS"
export VOPEN_DEFAULT_COMMAND="--remote-silent +enew"
export VOPEN_REUSE_COMMAND="--remote-silent"
export VOPEN_EDITOR="nvr"
export VOPEN_VISUAL="nvr"

Reuse command

If there's an existing editor server as detected by $VOPEN_EDITOR --serverlist, and you run vopen without any arguments, it will try to use the VOPEN_REUSE_COMMAND by default.

For Vim with +clientserver, the default reuse command is --remote-send \":call foreground()<CR>\", which will bring the instance to the foreground. See :h foreground() in Vim for details.

For Neovim with neovim-remote I recommend the following:

export VOPEN_REUSE_COMMAND="--remote-silent +sleep"

which does a silent no-op and will suppress neovim-remote messages.

Use alternate vim/Neovim

vopen supports environment variables for specifying what command to run for the editor and gui editors.

VOPEN_EDITOR defaults to vim. I.e., for neovim-remote set to nvr.
VOPEN_VISUAL defaults to gvim. I.e., for neovim-remote set to nvr.
VOPEN_USE_GUI defaults to true if you have a gui-capable display (x11/osx).
VOPEN_USE_SERVER defaults to true, use to disable server altogether
VOPEN_SERVERNAME defaults to VOPEN to use a single instance called VOPEN. I.e., for neovim-remote set to $NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS.

Here is an example using Neovim as the terminal editor and coolwanglu/neovim-e as the gui editor:

export VOPEN_EDITOR="nvim"
export VOPEN_VISUAL="/Applications/Electron.app/Contents/MacOS/Electron ~/src/neovim-e"
export VOPEN_USE_GUI=false
export VOPEN_USE_SERVER=false

Here is an example using neovim-remote:

export NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS=/tmp/nvimsocket
export VOPEN_SERVERNAME="$NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS"
export VOPEN_EDITOR="nvr"
export VOPEN_VISUAL="nvr"
export VOPEN_DEFAULT_COMMAND="+enew"
export VOPEN_REUSE_COMMAND="--remote-silent +sleep"

Never use server

If you're using a version of Vim (e.g. neovim-e) that does not support servers but you still want to use vopen for some reason, you can disable servers:

export VOPEN_USE_SERVER=false

There is also a commandline flag:

vopen --noserver myfile.txt

Debugging

Run vopen with the environment variable VOPEN_DEBUG set to see what it will execute. I.e.

VOPEN_DEBUG=1 vopen

Changelog

2017-05-01

FIXED - neovim-remote 1.6.0 fixes for silent opening; cut 1.3.0

2016-11-11

CHANGED - check for --version flag and pass through directly to editor (directly to nvim if using nvr)

2016-10-31

ADDED - learned VOPEN_REUSE_COMMAND env option
ADDED - learned VOPEN_DEBUG env option

2016-10-28

ADDED - neovim-remote support, cut 1.0.2
ADDED - learned VOPEN_SERVERNAME env option

2016-01-29

ADDED - VOPEN_USE_GUI if you want to never use the gui
FIXED - better logic to determine what editor mode to use

2015-12-03

FIXED - quoting

2015-10-15

CHANGED - remove bash error modes (v0.1.0)
CHANGED - no --nofork mode for nvim either (v0.0.10)
CHANGED - detect nvim and default to serverless since there is no server mode (v0.0.9)

2015-10-02

CHANGED - default servername is now suffixed with -VOPEN to distinguish from --nofork runs

2015-10-01

ADDED - --noserver flag, cut v0.0.7

2015-09-22

FIXED - quote file paths, files w/escaped spaces work now

2015-05-13

ADDED - env vars for VOPEN_VISUAL, VOPEN_EDITOR, VOPEN_USE_SERVER

2015-05-09

FIXED - use $OSTYPE instead of my shell var

2015-05-08

ADDED - --servername flag will properly override servername.

2015-05-05

FIXED - Server is not used when --nofork arg is present.

2015-05-03

published

davidosomething/vopen