zerongjiang/vim-ctrlspace

Vim Workspace Controller

Table of Contents

• Overview
  • The Idea
  • Demo
• Getting Started
  • Colors
  • Status Line
  • Tabline
  • Project Root
  • User Interface
  • Tab Management
• Lists
  • Buffer List
  • File List
  • Tab List
  • Workspace List
  • Bookmark List
• Common Modes
  • Search Mode
  • Nop Mode
  • Help Mode
• Configuration
• API
  • Commands
  • Functions
• Authors and License

Overview

Vim-CtrlSpace is a Vim plugin to control and organize your working space in Vim. Including managing buffers, files, tabs, sessions, and finally projects. Its approach is somewhat unique, but certainly you will feel at home, especially if you use already split windows, tabs, buffers, etc.

You can think of it as a buffer/file/tab explorer mixed with a fuzzy finder like CtrlP, and a session and project explorer. Pretty wide, isn't it? With Vim-CtrlSpace you gain a good view of what is open and where it is, together with good categorization through various lists.

This idea seems to work very well and the plugin may become your coolest companion. It can help you to manage your Vim workspace and increase your usage of core Vim features like multiple buffers, tabs, and windows in a great degree. The plugin can also provide you with some new concepts, like workspaces, named tabs, or separate buffer lists.

It is worth to say, for many users including myself, Vim-CtrlSpace became the most important tool in the Vim toolbox and a strong improvement of the existing workflow.

The Idea

Visually, Vim-CtrlSpace is a temporary window that sticks to the bottom of screen and contains a list (like a menu) from which you can select items.

However, to leverage the most of unique Vim-CtrlSpace approach you should understand well Vim's concepts of buffers, tab pages, and split windows as they are quite distinct from other editors.

Buffers, Windows, and Tabs

The files opened in Vim reside in memory slots called buffers. Buffers are also used for various special cases by Vim itself and by many plugins. Buffers can be visible in a list called buffer list. You can display them with :ls command. To see also those special unlisted buffers add a bang: :ls!. The listed buffers are usually normal text buffers you are working on whereas those unlisted ones are special purpose Vim and plugins internals (often automatically created).

Please also notice, that the buffer list is usually called a tab list in other editors. In those editors you can have many files opened in separate tabs. In Vim the buffer list serves in the same way.

A window in Vim is a frame that always displays a buffer. The buffers without any windows attached are called hidden (since they are invisible at the moment). A buffer can have many windows attached to it but a window can display only one buffer at a time. However, in the main application window (let's name it view or viewport) you can display many windows side by side. Those windows are then called split ones. This is in fact very handy feature of Vim.

The next important Vim feature are tab pages. In fact they are those viewports containing split windows. It's like instead of one main app window you can have a bunch of viewports. And you can switch them easily.

This feature led people to collect groups of split windows with concrete buffers in viewports. In that way each viewport - tabpage - is in fact a set of buffers related to some concrete topic.

Vim-CtrlSpace Concept

The ability of collecting buffers in tab pages is the root of Vim-CtrlSpace plugin. Split windows are not so good in that role. You can have a finite number of split windows. Each new window leads to harder navigation. Each new window is also smaller (thus they split larger windows, right?).

Given with those facts Vim-CtrlSpace provides a solution. In Vim-CtrlSpace, each tab page, besides being a viewport is also a separate list of buffers. Technically, each tab page has its own buffer list. In that way, you can easily split your buffers to number of sublists. You can create new ones, remove them, move, copy, add and remove items, finally give them meaningful names.

The whole set of lists - tab pages - can be saved permanently as a workspace. In one project directory you can have plenty of saved workspaces. And again, you can add new ones, remove, rename them or even merge. Workspaces behaves similar to Vim sessions.

The last but not least feature is that you can easily navigate between your favorite projects with bookmarks - a permanent list of your favorite locations (directory paths). Each project directory contains different workspaces.

Summarizing, in the plugin window you have access to 5 different lists: Buffer List, File List, Tab List, Workspace List, and Bookmark List. Each list displays items you can use and modify. Moreover, each list provides a fuzzy Search Mode to narrow displayed items. Some of lists provides also various modes depending on context.

Here's the short description of each list:

• Buffer List - displays buffers from current list - tab page. It has also a mode to display all available buffers. Buffer List allows you also to manipulate windows of the current tab page.
• File List - displays all files of the current project. You can easily find and open them, therefore it's shortcut is o - for Open.
• Tab List - displays tab pages - and since they are also separate buffer lists, the shortcut here is l - for Lists. You can operate on them as on other items. Managing tab pages has never been so easy!
• Workspace List - shows your stored workspaces - sessions for the current project (w).
• Bookmark List - shows your favorite projects (b). You can easily jump to given locations. This is extremely useful combined with other lists.

The plugin name follows the convention of naming similar plugins after their default mappings (like Command-T or CtrlP). Obviously, the plugin mapping is by default Ctrl + Space.

If you like the plugin please don't forget to add a star (:star:)! This will help me to estimate the plugin popularity and that way I will proceed better its further development :).

If you have starred this repo already, thank you! Thanks to you it's my pet project now :). If you have a question, a feature request, or a new idea, don't hesitate to post new issues or pull requests. The collaboration is the most exciting thing in the open source community.

Demo

If you are still a bit unsure whether is it something you should try, here's a small demonstration. Viewing in HD advised!

There is also an older version available, a bit more verbose.

The Demo has been recorded with:

• a console Vim 7.4 (Monaco font)
• a Vim-CtrlSpace plugin v. 4.0.0
• a bit modified Seoul256 color scheme
• following Vim-CtrlSpace settings in .vimrc:

hi CtrlSpaceSelected term=reverse ctermfg=187  ctermbg=23  cterm=bold
hi CtrlSpaceNormal   term=NONE    ctermfg=244  ctermbg=232 cterm=NONE
hi CtrlSpaceSearch   ctermfg=220  ctermbg=NONE cterm=bold
hi CtrlSpaceStatus   ctermfg=230  ctermbg=234  cterm=NONE

• music licensed under CC BY 3.0
  1. Kate Orange - Oops
  2. Alex F - Rain

Getting Started

The plugin installation is really simple. You can use Vundle or Pathogen, or just clone the repository to your .vim directory. In case of Vundle, add:

Plugin 'szw/vim-ctrlspace' 

to your .vimrc.

To improve your overall experience please enable the hidden option too:

set hidden

If you want to increase plugin speed (e.g. fuzzy search), make sure you have decent Ruby bindings enabled in (compiled into) your Vim. The plugin will try to use your Ruby by default.

Colors

Next you should spend some time on adjusting plugin colors to match your colorscheme. Please don't leave this step. It's very important to make sure, the plugin clearly displays the information, but there are so many colorshemes available for Vim so it's impossible to assure that with defaults. You will use the plugin window very very often. It's worth to make it eye-candy.

Similarly, the font glyphs used as various symbols might not look well in your setup. Their rendering depends on many settings, so they are configurable via g:ctrlspace_symbols variable. Don't hesitate to adjust them to meet your needs.

By default the plugin uses some default settings basing on your active colorscheme - just in order to display anything. But those default are very far from perfect. The best way to set the colors is to use :hi command (without anything) and see colors defined already in you colorsheme.

For example, I use Solarized Dark colorscheme both in MacVim and in the terminal Vim. For terminal (iTerm2) I had to load the Solarized preset first. Then Vim uses the terminal colors (16). Whereas the Mac Vim uses full HEX values.

In the console Vim and in the MacVim I issued :hi and got for example the following entries for TabLine:

MacVim:

TabLine xxx term=underline cterm=underline ctermfg=15 ctermbg=8 gui=underline guifg=#839496 guibg=#073642 guisp=#839496

Console Vim:

TabLine xxx term=underline cterm=underline ctermfg=12 ctermbg=0 gui=underline guibg=DarkGrey

Basing on that I used the cterm* parts from Console Vim and the gui* parts from MacVim to create the Vim-Ctrlspace color definition for Normal background:

hi CtrlSpaceNormal guifg=#839496 guibg=#073642 guisp=#839496 gui=NONE ctermfg=12 ctermbg=0 cterm=NONE

As you can see, I stripped off the underline directive.

In the following way you should define all four Vim-CtrlSpace highlight definitions: CtrlSpaceNormal, CtrlSpaceSelected, CtrlSpaceSearch, and CtrlSpaceStatus.

If you are curious, here is my full highlight definition set for Solarized Dark scheme:

" Colors of CtrlSpace for Solarized Dark
" (MacVim and Console Vim under iTerm2 with Solarized Dark theme)

" Based on Solarized TablineSel
hi CtrlSpaceSelected guifg=#586e75 guibg=#eee8d5 guisp=#839496 gui=reverse,bold ctermfg=10 ctermbg=7 cterm=reverse,bold

" Based on Solarized Tabline/TablineFill
" original Normal
" hi CtrlSpaceNormal   guifg=#839496 guibg=#073642 guisp=#839496 gui=NONE ctermfg=12 ctermbg=0 cterm=NONE
" tweaked Normal with darker background in Gui
hi CtrlSpaceNormal   guifg=#839496 guibg=#021B25 guisp=#839496 gui=NONE ctermfg=12 ctermbg=0 cterm=NONE

" Based on Title
hi CtrlSpaceSearch   guifg=#cb4b16 guibg=NONE gui=bold ctermfg=9 ctermbg=NONE term=bold cterm=bold

" Based on PmenuThumb
hi CtrlSpaceStatus   guifg=#839496 guibg=#002b36 gui=reverse term=reverse cterm=reverse ctermfg=12 ctermbg=8

If you use a popular colorscheme and you would like to share your settings, I'd love to add them here! Please post a pull request, an issue or just an email.

If you are a color scheme maker and you use and like Vim-CtrlSpace, perhaps you could consider to create highlight definitions for the plugin too?

Status Line

Vim-CtrlSpace requires a status bar. If you are using a plugin customizing the status bar this might be a bit tricky. For example vim-airline plugin might require you to set: let g:airline_exclude_preview = 1 option and LightLine will require to use custom status line segments, provided by Vim-CtrlSpace API.

Tabline

Vim-CtrlSpace can set a custom tabline. If the g:ctrlspace_use_tabline option is enabled, the plugin will set a custom tabline for you. The tabs in the tabline are displayed in the following way (similar format is used also in the Tab List):

Format	Tab number	Buffers	Modified	Buffer or tab name
Unicode	1	²	+	[README.md]
ASCII	1	:2	+	[README.md]

If GUI tabs are detected, this option will also set the proper function to guitablabel.

Notice, that if you intensify your tabs usage, the Vim tabline feature could become less usable, because of increasing tab number, especially with long names. And that's where you found the Tab List really usable. You can even turn off the tabline completely: set showtabline=0 and rely on the Tab List only. To see Tab List press l in the plugin window.

Project Root

Some plugin features require a project root to work properly. If you open the File List for the first time in given Vim's working directory it will try to find out the possible root directory. First, it starts in the Vim's current working directory and check if there are so called root markers. The root markers are characteristic directories that are available in an exemplary project root directory, like e.g. .git or .hg ones. You can define them yourself in the g:ctrlspace_project_root_markers variable. If no markers were found the plugin will check if perhaps this directory is a known root. The known roots are those directories you provided (accepted) yourself when no markers were found. If the current directory cannot be proven as a project root, the algorithm will repeat the whole procedure in the parent one.

After checking all predecessors it will ask you to provide the root folder explicitly. After your acceptance that root folder will be stored pemanently in the .cs_cache file as serve as a known root later.

If you add the directory to bookmarks, it will be considered as project root automatically.

User Interface

Vim-CtrlSpace contains 5 different lists: Buffer List, File List, Tab List, Workspace List, and Bookmark List. Some of those have additional modes. However, in a modal editor like Vim this should not fear you ;).

You can jump between lists easily by pressing one of the following keys:

Key	Action
o	Jump to File List (aka Open List)
O	Jump to File List (aka Open List) in Search Mode
l	Jump to Tab List
L	Jump to Tab List in Search Mode
w	Jump to Workspace List
W	Jump to Workspace List in Search Mode
b	Jump to Bookmark List
B	Jump to Bookmark List in Search Mode

Since the Buffer List is the default one, in order to jump to it press one of those keys again (except O, L, W, or B) or just hit Backspace.

User interface of the plugin is a window with a list. Its status line contains important symbolic information:

Unicode	ASCII	List	Description
⌗	#	All	Vim-CtrlSpace symbol
?	?	All	Help Mode indicator
›_‹	[_]	All	Search Mode indicator
⊙	TAB	Buffer	Single Mode indicator
★	VIS	Buffer	Visible Mode indicator
∷	ALL	Buffer	All Mode indicator
⊚	FILE	File	File List indicator
⁺²	+2	Buffer/File	Next Tab Mode indicator
⌕	*	Buffer	Zoom Mode indicator
○●○	-+-	Tab	Tab List indicator
⋮ → ∙	LOAD	Workspace	Workspace Load Mode
∙ → ⋮	SAVE	Workspace	Workspace Save Mode
♡	BM	Bookmark	Bookmark List indicator

Items listed in the plugin window can have additional indicators (following the item text):

Unicode	ASCII	Indicator
+	+	Item modified
★	*	Item active
☆	-	Item visible or previously active

Those indicators can be configured via g:ctrlspace_symbols variable.

Tab Management

Tabs in Vim-CtrlSpace are considered as lists of related buffers. But of course, they remain regular Vim tab pages. So they can display the buffers they carry in split windows, they can be moved, deleted, switched, etc. Moreover, the plugin lets you to perform many classic tab actions easily in the Buffer List view and of course in the Tab List (turned on with letter l).

You can also rename them - tabs (lists) in Vim-CtrlSpace can be named - or even copy them! The latter action is useful if you want to split your tab/list into smaller ones.

Lists

The most inner list is the Buffer List. It stores buffers for the given tab. The File List is a special case here containing buffers and not opened yet files. Similarly, the All Mode includes all listed buffers. The Tab List encloses many Buffer Lists. Workspace List encloses many Tab Lists, and finally the Bookmark List encloses many Workspace Lists (one per project root).

Here's the graphic illustration of those relations.

Buffer List

This is the basic list of the plugin. Depending of its mode it can collect buffers from the current tab or all available buffers.

Single Mode

Unicode	ASCII
⊙	TAB

The first mode of Buffer List is the Single one. In that mode, the plugin shows you only buffers related to the current tab (list). Here's the full listing of all available keys:

Help

Key	Action
?	Toogle the Help Mode

Window Operations

Key	Action
Return	Open selected buffer
Space	Open selected buffer and stay in the plugin window
Tab	Jump to the window containing selected buffer
S-Tab	Change the target window to one containing selected buffer
z	Toggle Zoom Mode
v	Open selected buffer in a new vertical split
V	Open selected buffer in a new vertical split but stay in the plugin window
s	Open selected buffer in a new horizontal split
S	Open selected buffer in a new horizontal split but stay in the plugin window
x	Close the split window containing selected buffer
X	Leave the window containing selected buffer - close all others
t	Open selected buffer in a new tab
T	Open selected buffer in a new (or next) tab but stay in the plugin window

Searching

Key	Action
/	Toggle Search Mode
Ctrl + p	Bring back the previous searched text
Ctrl + n	Bring the next searched text

Tabs Operations

Key	Action
Ctrl + t	Create a new tab and stay in the plugin window
Y	Copy (yank) the current tab into a new one
U	Create a new tab with all unsaved buffers
0..9	Jump to the n-th tab (0 is for the 10th one)
g	Jump to a next tab containing the selected buffer
G	Jump to a previous tab containing the selected buffer
-	Move the current tab to the left (decrease its number)
+	Move the current tab to the right (increase its number)
=	Change the tab name
_	Remove a custom tab name
[	Go to the previous (left) tab
]	Go to the next (right) tab
{	Move the selected buffer to to the previous (left) tab
}	Move the selected buffer to the next (right) tab
<	Copy the selected buffer to to the previous (left) tab
>	Copy the selected buffer to the next (right) tab

Exiting

Key	Action
Backspace	Go back
q	Close the list
Ctrl + c	Close the list
Esc	Close the list - depending on plugin settings
Ctrl + Space	Close the list - depending on plugin settings
Q	Quit Vim with a prompt if unsaved changes found

Moving

Key	Action
j	Move the selection bar down
k	Move the selection bar up
J	Move the selection bar to the bottom of the list
K	Move the selection bar to the top of the list
p	Move the selection bar to the previous buffer
P	Move the selection bar to the previous buffer and open it
n	Move the selection bar to the next opened buffer
Ctrl + f	Move the selection bar one screen down
Ctrl + b	Move the selection bar one screen up
Ctrl + d	Move the selection bar a half screen down
Ctrl + u	Move the selection bar a half screen up

Closing

Key	Action
d	Delete the selected buffer (close it)
D	Close all empty noname buffers
f	Forget the current buffer (make it a unrelated to the current tab)
F	Delete (close) all forgotten buffers (unrelated to any tab)
c	Try to close selected buffer (delete if possible, forget otherwise)
C	Close the current tab, then perform F, and then D

Disk Operations

Key	Action
i	Go into a directory having the selected buffer (changes its CWD)
I	Go back to the previous directory (reverse to i)
e	Edit a new file or a sibling of selected buffer
E	Explore a directory of selected buffer
R	Remove the selected buffer (file) entirely (from the disk too)
m	Move or rename the selected buffer (together with its file)
y	Copy selected file

Mode and List Changing

Key	Action
*	Toggle between Single and Visible modes
a	Toggle between Single and All modes
A	Enter the Search Mode combined with the All mode
o	Toggle the File List (Open List)
O	Enter the Search Mode in the File List
l	Toggle the Tab List view
L	Enter the Tab List view in Search Mode
w	Toggle the Workspace List view
W	Enter the Workspace List view in Search Mode
b	Toggle the Bookmark List view
B	Enter the Bookmark List view in Search Mode

Workspace shortcuts

Key	Action
Ctrl + l	Load the last active workspace (if present)
Ctrl + s	Save the current workspace
N	Make a new workspace (closes all buffers)

Visible Mode

Unicode	ASCII
★	VIS

This mode is a variant of the Single Mode narrow to visible buffers only. It is useful if you want e.g. to jump between windows in the current tab with Tab or S-Tab keys.

All Mode

Unicode	ASCII
∷	ALL

This mode is almost identical to the Single Mode, except it shows you all available buffers (from all tabs and unrelated ones too). Some of keys presented in the Single Mode are not available here. The missing ones are f, c, {, }, <, > - as they are connected with current tab.

Zoom Mode

Unicode	ASCII
⌕	*

This mode works in a conjunction with the Buffer List. You can invoke the Zoom Mode by hitting the z key. Hitting z does almost the same as Space - it shows you the selected buffer, but unlike Space, that change of the target window content is not permanent. However, once turned on - it alters the Space behavior temporarily too. Also, the target window gets maximized to show you more content of the zoomed buffer. When you quit the plugin window, the old (previous) content of the target window is restored as well as its original window size.

Jumps history remains unchanged and the selected buffer won't be added to the tab buffer list. In that way, you can just preview a buffer before actually opening it.

You can toggle the Zoom Mode on and off with the z key.

File List

Unicode	ASCII
⊚	FILE

This list shows you all files in the project and allows you to open a new file (as a buffer) in the current tab. Notice, only the project root directory is considered here in order to prevent you from accidental loading root of i.e. your home directory, as it would be really time consuming (file scanning) and rather pointless. If you bookmark a directory - it is taken as a project root too.

For the first time the file list is populated with data. Sometimes, for a very large project this could be quite time consuming (I've noticed a lag for a project with over 2200 files). Also, it depends on files stored for example in the SCM directory. In the end, the content of the project root directory is cached and available immediately. All time you can force plugin to refresh the list with the r key.

Help

Key	Action
?	Toogle the Help Mode

Opening

Key	Action
Return	Open selected file
Space	Open selected file but stays in the plugin window
v	Open selected file in a new vertical split
V	Open selected file in a new vertical split but stay in the plugin window
s	Open selected file in a new horizontal split
S	Open selected file in a new horizontal split but stay in the plugin window
t	Open selected file in a new tab
T	Open selected file in a new (or next) tab but stay in the plugin window

Exiting

Key	Action
Backspace	Go back to Buffer List
o	Go back to Buffer List
q	Close the list
Ctrl + c	Close the list
Esc	Close the list - depending on plugin settings
Ctrl + Space	Close the list - depending on plugin settings
Q	Quit Vim with a prompt if unsaved changes found

Tabs Operations

Key	Action
Ctrl + t	Create a new tab and stay in the plugin window
Y	Copy (yank) the current tab into a new one
U	Create a new tab with all unsaved buffers
0..9	Jump to the n-th tab (0 is for 10th one)
g	Jump to a next tab containing the selected file
G	Jump to a previous tab containing the selected file
-	Move the current tab to the left (decrease its number)
+	Move the current tab to the right (increase its number)
=	Change the tab name
_	Remove a custom tab name
[	Go to the previous (left) tab
]	Go to the next (right) tab

Searching

Key	Action
/	Enter the Search Mode
O	Enter the Search Mode
Ctrl + p	Bring back the previous searched text
Ctrl + n	Bring the next searched text

Moving

Key	Action
j	Move the selection bar down
k	Move the selection bar up
J	Move the selection bar to the bottom of the list
K	Move the selection bar to the top of the list
Ctrl + f	Move the selection bar one screen down
Ctrl + b	Move the selection bar one screen up
Ctrl + d	Move the selection bar a half screen down
Ctrl + u	Move the selection bar a half screen up

Closing

Key	Action
C	Close the current tab (with forgotten buffers and nonames)

Disk Operations

Key	Action
i	Go into a directory having the selected file (changes its CWD)
I	Go back to the previous directory (reverse to i)
e	Edit a new file or a sibling of selected file
E	Explore a directory of selected file
r	Refresh the file list (force reloading)
R	Remove the selected file entirely
m	Move or rename the selected file
y	Copy the selected file

List Changing

Key	Action
l	Toggle the Tab List view
L	Enter the Tab List view in Search Mode
w	Toggle the Workspace List view
W	Enter the Workspace List view in Search Mode
b	Toggle the Bookmark List view
B	Enter the Bookmark List view in Search Mode

Tab List

Unicode	ASCII
○●○	-+-

Tabs in Vim-CtrlSpace, due to this plugin nature, are used more extensively than their normal Vim usage. Vim author, Bram Moolenaar in his great talk 7 Habits of Effective Text Editing stated that if you needed more than 10 tabs then probably you were doing something wrong. In Vim-CtrlSpace tab pages are great, labelled containers for buffers, and therefore their usage increases. All it means that sometimes the default tabline feature used in Vim to organize tab pages is not sufficient. For example, you might have more tabs (and with wider labels) which don't fit the tabline width, causing rendering problems.

In the Tab List view you can list all tabs. You can even turn off your tabline entirely (via Vim's showtabline option) and stick to the Tab List only.

Help

Key	Action
?	Toogle the Help Mode

Opening and closing

Key	Action
Return	Open a selected tab and enter the Buffer List view
Tab	Open a selected tab and close the plugin window
Space	Open a selected tab but stay in the Tab List view
0..9	Jump to the n-th tab (0 is for the 10th one)
c	Close the selected tab, then forgotten buffers and nonames

Exiting

Key	Action
Backspace	Go back
l	Go back
w	Go to the Workspace List view
W	Enter the Workspace List view in Search Mode
b	Toggle the Bookmark List view
B	Enter the Bookmark List view in Search Mode
o	Go to the File List view
O	Go to the File List view in the Search Mode
q	Close the list
Ctrl + c	Close the list
Esc	Close the list - depending on plugin settings
Ctrl + Space	Close the list - depending on plugin settings
Q	Quit Vim with a prompt if unsaved changes found

Tabs Operations

Key	Action
-	Move the current tab backward (decrease its number)
+	Move the selected tab forward (increase its number)
{	Same as -
}	Same as +
=	Change the selected tab name
_	Remove the selected tab name
[	Go to the previous tab
]	Go to the next tab
t	Create a new tab
a	Create a new tab
y	Make a copy of the current tab
u	Create a new tab with all unsaved buffers

Searching

Key	Action
/	Toggle Search Mode
L	Enter Search Mode
Ctrl + p	Bring back the previous searched text
Ctrl + n	Bring the next searched text

Moving

Key	Action
j	Move the selection bar down
k	Move the selection bar up
J	Move the selection bar to the bottom of the list
K	Move the selection bar to the top of the list
p	Move the selection bar to the previously opened tab
P	Move the selection bar to the previously opened tab and open it
n	Move the selection bar to the next opened tab
Ctrl + f	Move the selection bar one screen down
Ctrl + b	Move the selection bar one screen up
Ctrl + d	Move the selection bar a half screen down
Ctrl + u	Move the selection bar a half screen up

Workspace List

Unicode	ASCII	Mode
⋮ → ∙	LOAD	Load Mode
∙ → ⋮	SAVE	Save mode

The plugin allows you to save and load so called workspaces. A workspace is a set of opened windows, tabs, their names, and buffers. In fact, the word workspace can be considered as a synonym of a session.

The ability of having so many sessions available at hand creates a lot of interesting use cases! For example, you can have a workspace for each task or feature you are working on. It's very easy to switch from one workspace to another, thus this could be helpful with reviewing completed tasks and continuing work on an item after some period of time. Moreover, you can have special workspaces that are prepared to be appended to others. Consider, e.g. a Config workspace. Imagine, you have a separate workspace with the only one tab named Config and some config files opened there. You can easily append that workspace to the current or next ones, depending on your needs. That way you are able to group the common and repetative sets of files in just one place and reuse that group in many contexts.

The Workspace List shows you available workspaces. By default this list is displayed in the Load Mode. The second available mode is the Save one.

Workspaces are saved in a file ([.]cs_workspaces) inside the project directory. Its extact name and path is determined by defined and found project root markers. By default, the project root marker is taken as the destination directory.

It's also possible to automatically load the last active workspace on Vim startup and save it active workspace on Vim exit. See g:ctrlspace_load_last_workspace_on_start and g:ctrlspace_save_workspace_on_exit for more details.

Help

Key	Action
?	Toogle the Help Mode

Accepting

Key	Action
Tab	Load (or save) selected workspace and close the plugin window
Return	Load (or save) selected workspace and enter the Buffer List
Space	Load (or save) selected workspace but stay in the Workspace List

Exiting

Key	Action
Backspace	Go back to the Buffer List
w	Go to the Buffer List
o	Go to the File List
O	Go to the File List in Search Mode
l	Go to the Tab List
L	Enter the Tab List in Search Mode
b	Go to the Bookmark List
B	Enter the Bookmark List view in Search Mode
q	Close the list
Ctrl + c	Close the list
Esc	Close the list - depending on plugin settings
Ctrl + Space	Close the list - depending on plugin settings
Q	Quit Vim with a prompt if unsaved changes found

Workspace Operations

Key	Action
a	Append a selected workspace to the current one
s	Toggle the mode from Load or Save (or backward)
n	Make a new workspace (closes all buffers)
N	Make a new workspace but stay in the list
d	Delete selected workspace
=	Rename selected workspace
Ctrl + s	Save the workspace immediately
Ctrl + l	Load the last active workspace (if present)

Searching

Key	Action
/	Toggle Search Mode
W	Enter Search Mode
Ctrl + p	Bring back the previous searched text
Ctrl + n	Bring the next searched text

Moving

Key	Action
j	Move the selection bar down
k	Move the selection bar up
J	Move the selection bar to the bottom of the list
K	Move the selection bar to the top of the list
Ctrl + f	Move the selection bar one screen down
Ctrl + b	Move the selection bar one screen up
Ctrl + d	Move the selection bar a half screen down
Ctrl + u	Move the selection bar a half screen up

Bookmark List

Bookmarks can be treated as a Project list populated with your favorite projects. With bookmarks you can easily jump between different directory locations in Vim. The plugin will follow those jumps with its all settings.

In that way inside different projects you will have different file lists, different workspace lists, etc. Nothing prevents you to mix buffers between various projects - you can for example, jump to previous project, open a configuration file, and return to your current stuff with that file open.

It's also worth to mention, that you can still navigate to different places manually, with the :cd command. The plugin will behave in the same way. In fact, jumping with Bookmark List is just a shortcut for the :cd command.

Help

Key	Action
?	Toogle the Help Mode

Changing CWD location

Key	Action
Return	Jump to selected bookmark and enter the Buffer List
Tab	Jump to selected bookmark and close the plugin window
Space	Jump to selected bookmark but stay in the Bookmark List

Exiting

Key	Action
Backspace	Go back
b	Go back
w	Go to the Workspace List view
W	Enter the Workspace List view in Search Mode
l	Go to the Tab List view
L	Enter the Tab List view in Search Mode
o	Go to the File List view
O	Go to the File List view in the Search Mode
q	Close the list
Ctrl + c	Close the list
Esc	Close the list - depending on plugin settings
Ctrl + Space	Close the list - depending on plugin settings
Q	Quit Vim with a prompt if unsaved changes found

Bookmark Operations

Key	Action
a	Add a new bookmark
A	Add a new bookmark for the current directory
d	Delete selected bookmark
=	Change selected bookmark name

Searching

Key	Action
/	Toggle Search Mode
B	Enter Search Mode
Ctrl + p	Bring back the previous searched text
Ctrl + n	Bring the next searched text

Moving

Key	Action
j	Move selection bar down
k	Move selection bar up
J	Move selection bar to the bottom of the list
K	Move selection bar to the top of the list
p	Move selection bar to the previously opened bookmark
P	Move selection bar to the previously opened tab and open it
n	Move selection bar to the next opened bookmark
Ctrl + f	Move selection bar one screen down
Ctrl + b	Move selection bar one screen up
Ctrl + d	Move selection bar a half screen down
Ctrl + u	Move selection bar a half screen up

Common Modes

Common modes are available in more than one list.

Search Mode

Unicode	ASCII
›_‹	[_]

This mode is composed of two states or two phases. The first one is the entering phase. Technically, this is the extact Search Mode. In the entering phase the following keys are available:

Key	Action
Return	Close the entering phase and accept the entered content
Backspace	Remove the previously entered character
Ctrl + h	Remove the previously entered character
Ctrl + w	Clear the search phrase
Ctrl + u	Clear the search phrase
/	Toggle the entering phase
a..z A..Z 0..9	Add the character to the search phrase
Ctrl + c	Close the list
Esc	Close the list - depending on settings
Ctrl + Space	Close the list - depending on settings

Besides the entering phase there is also a second state possible. That is the state of having a search query entered. The successfully entered query behaves just like a kind of sorting. In fact, it is just a kind of sorting and filtering function. So it doesn't impact on lists except it narrows the contents.

It's worth to mention that in that mode the Backspace key removes the search query entirely.

Nop Mode

Nop (Non-Operational) mode happens when i.e. there are no items to show (empty list), or you are trying to type a Search query, and there are no results at all. That means the Nop can happen during the entering phase of the Search Mode or in some other cases. Those cases can occur, for example, when you have only unlisted buffers available in the tab (like e.g. help window and some preview ones). As you will see, in such circumstances - outside the entering phase - there is a great number of resque options available.

Nop (entering phase)

Key	Action
Backspace	Remove the previously entered character or clear search
Ctrl + h	Remove the previously entered character or clear search
Ctrl + w	Clear the search phrase
Ctrl + u	Clear the search phrase
Ctrl + c	Close the list
Esc	Close the list - depending on settings
Ctrl + Space	Close the list - depending on settings

Nop (outside the entering phase)

Key	Action
Backspace	Delete the search query
q	Close the list
Ctrl + c	Close the list
Esc	Close the list - depending on settings
Ctrl + Space	Close the list - depending on settings
Q	Quit Vim with a prompt if unsaved changes found
a	Toggle between Single and All modes
A	Enter All mode and switch to Search Mode
o	Toggle the File List (Open List)
O	Enter the File List (Open List) in Search Mode
l	Toggle the Tab List view
L	Enter the Tab List view in Search Mode
w	Toggle the Workspace List view
W	Enter the Workspace List view in Search Mode
b	Toggle the Bookmark List view
B	Enter the Bookmark List view in Search Mode
Ctrl + p	Bring back the previous searched text
Ctrl + n	Bring the next searched text

Help Mode

Help Mode is a view showing available keys together with theirs description, depending on your current list and mode. You can also jump to more detailed Vim-help with h. The navigation works in a similar fashion like in list views.

Key	Action
?	Toggle the Help Mode
Backspace	Close the Help Mode
h	Open Vim help for current list/mode
j	Move down
k	Move up
J	Move to the bottom of the list
K	Move to the top of the list
Ctrl + f	Move one screen down
Ctrl + b	Move one screen up
Ctrl + d	Move a half screen down
Ctrl + u	Move a half screen up
q	Close the plugin window
Ctrl + c	Close the plugin window
Esc	Close the plugin window - depending on plugin settings
Ctrl + Space	Close the plugin window - depending on plugin settings
Q	Quit Vim with a prompt if unsaved changes found

Next Tab Mode

Unicode	ASCII
⁺²	+2

This mode occurs in File and Buffer Lists. It can be turned on with the uppercase T letter. If the mode is active, the T creates the new tab only once and opens all further files/buffers in that tab. This is opposite to t which opens in a new tab all the time.

The mode indicator shows you the number of buffers opened in the next tab. You can jump to that tab anytime with ] key.

Configuration

Vim-CtrlSpace has following configuration options. Almost all of them are declared as global variables and should be defined in your .vimrc file in the similar form:

let g:ctrlspace_foo_bar = 123

g:ctrlspace_height

Sets the minimal height of the plugin window.

Default value: 1

g:ctrlspace_max_height

Sets the maximum height of the plugin window. If 0 provided it uses 1/3 of the screen height.

Default value: 0

g:ctrlspace_set_default_mapping

Turns on the default mapping. If you turn this option off (0) you will have to provide your own mapping to the CtrlSpace yourself.

Default value: 1

g:ctrlspace_default_mapping_key

By default, Vim-CtrlSpace maps itself to Ctrl + Space. If you want to change the default mapping provide it here as a string with valid Vim keystroke notation.

Default value: "<C-Space>"

g:ctrlspace_use_ruby_bindings

If set to 1, the plugin will try to use your compiled in Ruby bindings to increase the speed of the plugin (e.g. while fuzzy search, since regex operations are much faster in Ruby than in VimScript).

To see if you have Ruby bindings enabled you can use the command :version and see if there is a +ruby entry. Or just try the following one: :ruby puts RUBY_VERSION - you should get the Ruby version or just an error.

Default value: 1

g:ctrlspace_glob_command

If not empty, the provided command will be used to list all files instead of Vim globpath() function. For example, if you have Ag installed that could be:

if executable("ag") 
  let g:ctrlspace_glob_command = 'ag -l --nocolor -g ""'
endif

Default value: ""

g:ctrlspace_use_tabline

Should Vim-CtrlSpace change your default tabline to its own?

Default value: 1

g:ctrlspace_use_mouse_and_arrows_in_term

Should the plugin use mouse, arrows and Home, End, PageUp, PageDown keys in a terminal Vim. Disables the Esc key if turned on.

Default value: 0

g:ctrlspace_save_workspace_on_exit

Saves the active workspace (if present) on Vim quit. If this option is set, the Vim quit (Q) action from the plugin modes does not check for workspace changes.

Default value: 0

g:ctrlspace_save_workspace_on_switch

Saves the active workspace (if present) upon switching to another workspace or clearing (closing) the current one. If this option is set, the plugin won't warn you about an unsaved workspace.

Default value: 0

g:ctrlspace_load_last_workspace_on_start

Loads the last active workspace (if found) on Vim startup.

Default value: 0

g:ctrlspace_cache_dir

A directory for the Vim-CtrlSpace cache file (.cs_cache). By default your $HOME directory will be used.

g:ctrlspace_project_root_markers

An array of directory names which presence indicates the project root. If no marker is found, you will be asked to confirm the project root basing on the current working directory. Make this array empty to disable this functionality.

These markes will be also used as a storage for cs_workspaces (workspaces of the current project) and cs_files (cached files of the current project).

Default value: [".git", ".hg", ".svn", ".bzr", "_darcs", "CVS"]

g:ctrlspace_unicode_font

Set to 1 if you want to use Unicode symbols, or 0 otherwise.

Default value: 1

g:ctrlspace_symbols

Enables you to provide your own symbols. It's useful if for example your font doesn't contain enough symbols or the glyphs are poorly rendered.

Default value:

if g:ctrlspace_unicode_font
  let g:ctrlspace_symbols = {
        \ "cs":      "⌗",
        \ "tab":     "⊙",
        \ "all":     "∷",
        \ "file":    "⊚",
        \ "tabs":    "○",
        \ "c_tab":   "●",
        \ "load":    "⋮ → ∙",
        \ "save":    "∙ → ⋮",
        \ "zoom":    "⌕",
        \ "s_left":  "›",
        \ "s_right": "‹",
        \ "bm":      "♡",
        \ "help":    "?",
        \ "iv":      "☆",
        \ "ia":      "★",
        \ "im":      "+",
        \ "dots":    "…"
        \ }
else
  let g:ctrlspace_symbols = {
        \ "cs":      "#",
        \ "tab":     "TAB",
        \ "all":     "ALL",
        \ "file":    "FILE",
        \ "tabs":    "-",
        \ "c_tab":   "+",
        \ "load":    "LOAD",
        \ "save":    "SAVE",
        \ "zoom":    "*",
        \ "s_left":  "[",
        \ "s_right": "]",
        \ "bm":      "BM",
        \ "help":    "?",
        \ "iv":      "-",
        \ "ia":      "*",
        \ "im":      "+",
        \ "dots":    "..."
        \ }
endif

g:ctrlspace_ignored_files

The expression used to ignore some files during file collecting. It is used in addition to the wildignore option in Vim (see :help wildignore). Notice, the wildignore option won't work with a custom glob command (g:ctrlspace_glob_command). And the glob command may ignore some files itself (for example: Ag command obeys .gitignore file).

Default value: '\v(tmp|temp)[\/]'

g:ctrlspace_statusline_function

Allows to provide custom statusline function used by the CtrlSpace window.

Default value: "ctrlspace#statusline()"

g:ctrlspace_max_files

This value specifies how many files will be shown in the plugin window. By default the limit is set to 500. Usually there is no reason to show more, since browsing such big list is rather unconvenient. However, if you want to disable this feature, set this variable to 0.

Default value: 500

g:ctrlspace_max_search_results

Limits the search results. Usually, and especially in large projects, showing all results is meaningless. It leads to higher time/memory consumption whereas the far distant results are rather less relevant. By default the results list is limited to 200 items. You can also limit results to the max plugin window height by providing value -1 or you can disable this feature completely by setting it to 0.

Default value: 200

g:ctrlspace_search_timing

Allows you to adjust search smoothness. Contains an array of two integer values. If the size of the list is lower than the first value, that value will be used for search delay. Similarly, if the size of the list is greater than the second value, then that value will be used for search delay. In all other cases the delay will equal the list size. That way the plugin ensures smooth search input behavior.

Default value: [50, 500]

g:ctrlspace_search_resonators

Allows you to set characters which will be used to increase search accurancy. If such resonator is found next to the searched sequence, it increases the search score. For example, consider following files: zzzabczzz.txt, zzzzzzabc.txt, and zzzzz.abc.txt. If you search for abc with default resonators, you will get the last file as the top relevant item, because there are two resonators (dots) next to the searched sequence. Next you would get the middle one (one dot around abc), and then the first one (no resonators at all). You can disable this behavior completely by providing an empty array.

Default value: ['.', '/', '\', '_', '-']

Colors

The plugin allows you to define its colors entirely. By default it comes with following highlight links:

hi def link CtrlSpaceNormal   Normal
hi def link CtrlSpaceSelected Visual
hi def link CtrlSpaceSearch   IncSearch
hi def link CtrlSpaceStatus   StatusLine

You are supposed to tweak its colors (especially CtrlSpaceSearch) on your own, (in the .vimrc file). This can be done as shown below:

hi CtrlSpaceSelected term=reverse ctermfg=187   guifg=#d7d7af ctermbg=23    guibg=#005f5f cterm=bold gui=bold
hi CtrlSpaceNormal   term=NONE    ctermfg=244   guifg=#808080 ctermbg=232   guibg=#080808 cterm=NONE gui=NONE
hi CtrlSpaceSearch   ctermfg=220  guifg=#ffd700 ctermbg=NONE  guibg=NONE    cterm=bold    gui=bold
hi CtrlSpaceStatus   ctermfg=230  guifg=#ffffd7 ctermbg=234   guibg=#1c1c1c cterm=NONE    gui=NONE

The colors defined above can be seen in the demo movie. They fit well the Seoul256 color scheme. If you use a console Vim that chart might be helpful.

API

Commands

At the moment Vim-CtrlSpace provides you 8 commands: :CtrlSpace, :CtrlSpaceGoNext, :CtrlSpaceGoPrevious, :CtrlSpaceTabLabel, :CtrlSpaceClearTabLabel, :CtrlSpaceSaveWorkspace, :CtrlSpaceLoadWorkspace, :CtrlSpaceNewWorkspace.

:CtrlSpace [keys]

Shows the plugin window. It is meant to be used in custom mappings or more sophisticated plugin integration. You can pass keys that will be "pressed" in the plugin window.

:CtrlSpaceGoNext

Opens the next buffer from the current Single Mode buffer list (without opening the plugin window).

:CtrlSpaceGoPrevious

Opens the previous buffer from the current Single Mode buffer list (without opening the plugin window).

:CtrlSpaceTabLabel

Allows you to define a custom mapping (outside Vim-CtrlSpace) to change (or add/remove) a custom tab name.

:CtrlSpaceClearTabLabel

Removes a custom tab label.

:CtrlSpaceSaveWorkspace [my workspace]

Saves the workspace with the given name. If no name is given then it saves the active workspace (if present).

:CtrlSpaceLoadWorkspace [my workspace]

Loads the workspace with the given name. It has also a banged version (:CtrlSpaceLoadWorkspace! my workspace) which performs appending instead of loading. If no name is give then it loads (or appends) the active workspace (if present).

:CtrlSpaceNewWorkspace

Closes all opened buffers and eventually opened workspace and leaves only one tab and one buffer, as in a fresh Vim instance. This is useful if you want to start creating a workspace from the very beginning.

Functions

Vim-CtrlSpace provides you a couple of functions defined in the common ctrlspace namespace. They can be used for custom status line integration, tabline integration, or just for more advanced interactions with other plugins.

ctrlspace#bufferlist(tabnr)

Returns a dictionary of buffer number and name pairs for given tab. This is the content of the internal buffer list belonging to the specified tab.

ctrlspace#statusline_mode_segment(...)

Returns the info about the mode of the plugin. It can take an optional separator. It can be useful for a custom status line integration (i.e. in plugins like LightLine)

ctrlspace#statusline_tab_segment(...)

Returns the info about the current tab (tab number, label, etc.). It is useful if you don't use the custom tabline string (or perhaps you have set showtabline to 0 (see :help showtabline for more info)).

ctrlspace#statusline()

Provides the custom statusline string.

ctrlspace#tabline()

Provides the custom tabline string.

ctrlspace#guitablabel()

Provides the custom label for GVim's tabs.

ctrlspace#tab_buffers_number(tabnr)

Returns formatted number of buffers belonging to given tab. Formats the output as small Unicode characters (upper indexes) or regular ASCII number characters (depending on Vim-CtrlSpace unicode settings). It is helper function useful if you provide your custom tabline function implementation.

ctrlspace#tab_title(tabnr, bufnr, bufname)

A helper function returning a consistent title for given tab. If the tab does not have a custom title, then the title based on passed buffer number and buffer name is returned instead.

ctrlspace#tab_modified(tabnr)

Returns 1 if given tab contains a modified buffer, 0 otherwise.

ctrlspace#bufnr()

Returns the current plugin buffer number if the plugin is visible or -1 otherwise.

Authors and License

Copyright © 2013-2014 Szymon Wrozynski and Contributors. Licensed under MIT License conditions. Vim-CtrlSpace is based on Robert Lillack plugin VIM bufferlist © 2005 Robert Lillack. Moreover some concepts and inspiration has been taken from Vim-Tabber by Jim Steward and Tabline by Matthew Kitt.