nvimd

For new-age neovim users with an antiquated dev style:

• Open a terminal
• From the terminal, open a file with vim
• Edit the file, do dah doo
• Close vim, go back to terminal
• Open the next file in vim
• Rinse repeat

nvimd helps you do this with a long-running neovim server, so you don't have to wait for the LSP to boot up each time.

This is easier than changing how I use vim, maybe one day I'll learn. 🤷

Install

nvimd and nvimd-server

Http

Manually download nvimd and nvimd-server into your preferred bin location (e.g. $HOME/.local/bin).

Git

git clone https://github.com/ahdinosaur/nvimd
cd nvimd
./install.sh

This will install nvimd and nvimd-server to $HOME/.local/bin as symlinks back to the ahdinosaur/nvimd git repo.

Neovim config

Since :q will close the remote server, we need a special way to exit the remote ui.

Add the following to your Lua neovim config

-- disconnect all sessions
vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>q", function()
  for _, ui in pairs(vim.api.nvim_list_uis()) do
    -- is remote ui
    if ui.chan then
      vim.fn.chanclose(ui.chan)
    end
    -- is normal ui
    if ui.stdout_tty then
      vim.api.nvim_command(":q")
    end
  end
end, { noremap = true })

• neovim/neovim#23093

Usage

When you start working on a project, in your project's root directory:

nvimd-server &

Then use nvimd as you would nvim:

nvimd path/to/file

When you want to close your editor, use your special keymap (<leader>q) instead of :q.

FAQ

Why?

Yes.

How does this work?

We use the output of tty and pwd to construct a socket path.

Because neovim's server is not multi-tenant, we need a separate server for each terminal (tty).

Also for the sake of plugins working as expected, we want a separate server for each working directory (pwd)

When you run nvimd-server:

• Start a nvim server with the given socket path.
• In case this nvim server is shut down, restart in an infinite loop.
• If we get a signal to close this program, clean up the socket before exiting.

We need to start nvimd-server & in the terminal separately, so the terminal is the parent, and when the terminal is closed, the server is closed.

When you run nvimd:

• Check if there is the socket exists
• If so, connect to the nvim server as a remote ui
• Otherwise, run nvim as usual

Why does nvimd-server need to be started separately?

I was hoping nvimd could be used as a drop-in replacement for nvim.

If nvimd-server wasn't yet running, then run it when you call nvimd the first time.

But I couldn't solve this issue:

• If nvimd starts nvimd-server, then nvimd-server's parent process is nvimd.
• When that nvimd process eventually stops (because you're done editing your file), then nvimd-server has no parent and is re-parented to PID 1 (init).
• When you later are done and close your terminal, nvimd-server keeps running.

I think a proper solution would be something like how screen works.

License

Copyright 2023 Michael Williams

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.