Utilites around neovim's :terminal.

One of the coolest feature of neovim is its xterm-like terminal emulator. See :help nvim-terminal-emulator.

One feature that distinguishes Nvim from Vim is that it implements a mostly complete VT220/xterm-like terminal emulator. The terminal is presented to the user as a special buffer type, one that is asynchronously updated to mirror the virtual terminal display as data is received from the program connected to it. For most purposes, terminal buffers behave a lot like normal buffers with 'nomodifiable' set.

This help page also comes with a bunch of tips and recommandation. Indeed, the initial user experience within a terminal Buffer is not perfect:

• No easy way to switch back to normal mode. Hitting a, i or any key that would enter insert mode allows sending input to the command, but there's no easy way to switch back (for instance to close the buffer with :q). The <C-\><C-n> key combo is the defaults.

• :term will open a terminal buffer, in the current buffer, which is often not wanted. It uses :enew by default whereas :new or :vnew might be more appropriate.

• Navigating to nearby buffer / windows is not easy / handy. Maps like <C-w>w are inactive in favor of the terminal implementation (which is in this case delete previous word)

• Pasting content in terminal can be troublesome. This plugin makes it a little bit easier to paste content in terminal mode using <C-v>.

This plugin aims to alleviate some of these issues, for a better terminal buffer experience.

Install

Install this plugin using your favorite plugin manager, or manually by extracting the files in your ~/.vim or ~/.config/nvim directory.

Plug 'vimlab/split-term.vim'

Commands

• :Term Opens a new terminal buffer using :new (splits horizontally)
• :VTerm Opens a new terminal buffer using :vnew (splits vertically)
• :TTerm Opens a new terminal buffer using :tabnew (new tab)

Both :Term and :VTerm commands accept a <count> like their :new/:vnew counterparts. You can prefix both commands with a number to specifiy the buffer height / width.

Similar to the original :terminal, both commands accepts any number of arguments. It can be used to spawn a cmd and see the result, or even start a REPL.

Examples

• :10Term would open an horizontal buffer with 10 lines displayed, on top of the current buffer.

• :100VTerm would open a vertical buffer with 10 lines displayed, right of the current buffer.

• :Term npm search something would open a new terminal buffer and launch a search on npm registry. This is a good candidate to appreciate the async nature of neovim (no more frozen UI!)

• :2Term npm install express would open a minimal buffer with only two lines, immediatly invoking npm install express with npm output displayed within the terminal buffer. Hit <Enter> when done to close the buffer.

• :VTerm node would open a vertical buffer with a node REPL started.

Configuration

splitright/splitbelow options can be used to configure the split buffer orientation.

• set splitright will put the new window right of the current one when using :VTerm
• set splitbelow will put the new window below the current one when using :Term

g:split_term_default_shell - enables shell configuration specific to split-term. It lets vim's shell configuration free to let other plugins that might need it (such as ale or neomake) and works nicely with Windows Subsystem for Linux. Example:

let g:split_term_default_shell = "bash"

g:split_term_vertical - force the :Term command to always use a vertical buffer (using :vnew)

g:disable_key_mappings - disable key mappings of the plugin

Mappings

The plugin remaps specifically a few keys for a better terminal buffer experience. This behaviour can be disabled using g:disable_key_mappings.

• <Esc> - Switch to normal mode (instead of <C-\><C-n>)
• Bind Alt+hjkl, Ctrl+arrows to navigate through windows (eg. switching to buffer/windows left, right etc.)
  • Alt+h - does a <C-w>h
  • Alt+j - does a <C-w>j
  • Alt+k - does a <C-w>k
  • Alt+l - does a <C-w>l
  • Ctrl+Left - does a <C-w>h
  • Ctrl+Down - does a <C-w>j
  • Ctrl+Up - does a <C-w>k
  • Ctrl+Right - does a <C-w>l
  • Ctrl+v - copy-pasting, does a <C-\><C-N>pi

Changelog

Unreleased

Commits

• readme: add changelog and Ctrl+v mapping to readme 6cea1a3

v1.0.3 - 2018-09-28

Commits

• npm: add auto-changelog to generate, well a changelog e6c4179

v1.0.2 - 2018-09-28

Commits

• feat: add TTerm command to open terminal in a new tab 836f514
• Add MIT license eb1dc3b
• .gitignore 28d1899

v1.0.1 - 2018-09-27

Merged

• make key mappings optional #3

Commits

• mappings: easier time pasing content using bb20d81
• feat: add split_term_default_shell option 148f571
• Fix a few typos ab0f21a
• Init 1e19ce3

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License MIT