VTR [Vim Tmux Runner]

A simple, vimscript only, command runner for sending commands from vim to tmux.

Usage

VTR provides a handful of commands for managing and interacting with tmux, the terminal multiplexer. The main command is:

VtrSendCommandToRunner

This command will prompt for a command to run, then send it to the runner pane for execution. Subsequent calls to VtrSendCommandToRunner will reuse the provided command.

If you would like VTR to create a runner pane if one doesn't exist while issuing a command, a bang version can be used: VtrSendCommandToRunner!.

VTR provides configuration options that allow for control over the size and location of the VTR runner pane. In addition, VTR provides commands to resize, reorient, and even detach the runner pane making the interaction as painless as possible.

For a complete summary of the available commands and configuration options in VTR, check the included doc file.

You can watch a short demo by Jack Franklin recorded at Vim London.

Installation

If you don't have a preferred installation method, I recommend using vim-plug:

Plug 'christoomey/vim-tmux-runner'

Note - you'll need to have a relatively recent (2.0+) version of Tmux to use this plugin.

Python Notes

If you are using python, or any other language with syntactic whitespace, you will likely want to change the following settings to better support the required whitespace:

let g:VtrStripLeadingWhitespace = 0
let g:VtrClearEmptyLines = 0
let g:VtrAppendNewline = 1

Additionally, if you are using ipython, you will need to ensure it is installed with proper readline support. Ref this Stack Overflow thread and answer for more detail.

You will also need to start ipython with auto-indentation disabled, which can be done with the following ipython --no-autoindent.

Inspiration

This plugin is heavily inspired by the functionality in the Vimux plugin. This plugin aims to implement a similar feature set while not requiring Vim with ruby requirement. In addition a few new commands not found in Vimux have been added to provide additional control over the tmux runner pane.