core support for connecting to remote UI via --server

[xelra]

I want to be able to connect to a Neovim session on another computer.

On the remote server I ran the following:

NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS=/tmp/nvim.socket nvim --headless

Then on the local machine I ran:

ssh -L /tmp/nvim.socket:/tmp/nvim.socket user@1.2.3.4
NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS=/tmp/nvim.socket nvim

Unfortunately that doesn't work though. Connecting to the socket via NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS is not possible. I've also tried it with NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS=/tmp/nvim.socket nvim-qt and NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS=/tmp/nvim.socket nyaovim.

Neovim-Qt has a --server option. Using that on my local machine nvim-qt --server /tmp/nvim.socket does work. So for now I can only connect to my remote nvim session with Neovim-Qt.

It would be great to see a --server option for the nvim binary too, so it's possible to also connect to remote Neovim sessions from the terminal.

[DoomHammer]

Hi! What's the current status of this? I have a Tmux plugin in mind that could use this.

I would like to have a global headless Neovim running all the time and be able to quickly open a new pane with Neovim UI connected to the headless instance. Tried some trickery with reptyr, but couldn't get any good results. Using break-pane and join-pane from tmux didn't help as well as it created a visilbe new window (I'd love it to be really background/transparent).

[bfredl]

abduco http://www.brain-dump.org/projects/abduco/ might be a more robust alternative to reptyr.

[DoomHammer]

Thanks for suggestion @bfredl !

[geekodour]

@bfredl is this a duplicate of #7438 ?
quoting justinmk's comment from that

Do you mean one could start a headless nvim in the background (maybe even a systemd unit) and then connect a TUI to it from any xterm window?

[bfredl]

well, this issue is older, so technically that one is duplicate of this :P

[rjshrjndrn]

Any update on this feature? This will be a lifesaver, if you're working with remote machines(lots of them).

[shaform]

Check out https://github.com/cdr/code-server, which allows remote connection to VSCode. And VSCode has Vim mode, so maybe it would be useful.

[rjshrjndrn]

@shaform Thank you for the suggestion. I checked out code-server. But that need docker in the remote server, and which won't be the case with all servers. And I don't actively use vs-code, as the vim emulation which it has can't have all mappings, plugins from my init.vim.

Note: If you are a vs-code user, there is a new plugin for remote servers and even containers. Available only in insiders though.

[justinmk]

related

• remote TUI: refactor TUI from thread to separate process #18375
• [RFC] TUI (Terminal UI) remote attachment - GSOC 2019 #10071

[zeertzjq]

Closed by #18375