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