CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windowsvimcygwinmintty
nowox
nowox

Reputation: 29066

Opening files into an existing vim session (Cygwin/mintty)

I am looking for ideas to open files into an existing vim session.

I am working on Windows + Cygwin + Mintty. I usually have 3 to 4 opened terminals (2-3 vim sessions + 1 shell, build environment). I don't use tmux/screen because it's easier to use the native Windows's window manager to switch in between my terminal windows. Because I have 2 wide-screen monitors I can use the 2 half of both screens for my terminals which gives me an awesome working environment. With the help of an AHK script, I can use shortcuts to switch/rotate or even to reposition my terminals in the desired position.

I rather prefer vim over gvim for many reasons. I can achieve almost all the gvim features (scroll, mouse selection, copy, paste, etc. I am one of those who think that using the respectable y/P commands is a bit crippling when you need to use plenty of other softwares that use /. I always get confused to use different shortcuts for each software I am using.

Now the core issue. I would like to open a file from the Windows explorer into an existing vim session. I found a horrible solution using a Perl script with the Win32::API in order to look for an existing mintty terminal with Vim in the title. Then I activate the window and send <esc>:e path/file<cr> to it.

It works pretty well but I am looking for a better solution like gvim --remote that works with my console vim. Unfortunately I don't have such options with my vim even though if I built it with the -with-x configure option.

So, I am looking for some suggestions to achieve a more honorable solution (socket/adding the feature directly to vim/using a smarter ahk script/etc.)

Upvotes: 2

Views: 599

Answers (1)

OhleC
OhleC

Reputation: 2890

gvim --remote should work with console vim if you start vim with vim --servername GVIM. Alternatively, choose another servername and use vim --servername foo --remote.

Upvotes: 2

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