📜 shellpad.nvim

Adds the :Shell command for running shell commands without a pty in a scratch buffer.

Usage

:Shell COMMAND
:Shell --no-follow COMMAND
:Shell --stop
:Shell --edit
:Shell --last
:Shell --lua {command='COMMAND', on_exit=function() end}
:lua vim.cmd('bo sp'); vim.cmd('Shell echo left'); vim.cmd.vsplit(); vim.cmd('Shell echo right')

• Press Ctrl-C to stop the process in the current buffer.

Examples

Search for files using rg:

:Shell rg -n pattern .

View git status

:Shell git status

Run a long running command:

:Shell strace ping -c 3 localhost
:set number

Tail a log file:

:Shell tail --lines=0 -F ~/.local/state/nvim/log

Run a NeoVim Lua function after the command is completed:

:Shell --lua {command="ping -c3 localhost", on_exit=function() vim.cmd.normal("ggn") end}

Hint: In the rg example, you can press gF to jump to the file under the cursor. See :help gF.

Installation

Simple:

require('lazy').setup({
  { "shellpad/shellpad.nvim", opts = {} },
})

With Telescope integration and some suggested key mappings:

require('lazy').setup({
  {
    "shellpad/shellpad.nvim",
    dependencies = { "nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim" },
    config = function(opts)
      require('shellpad').setup(opts)

      -- If you use Telescope, you can search all your :Shell commands using the following function and mapping:
      vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>sc', require('shellpad').telescope_history_search(), { desc = 'shellpad: [S]earch [C]ommands' })

      -- If typing `:Shell ` is too much for you, you can use the following mapping:
      vim.keymap.set('n', ';s', function() vim.api.nvim_feedkeys(':Shell ', 'n', false) end, { noremap = true, desc = 'shellpad: prepare shell command' })
    end,
  },
})

Comparisons

This plugin aims to compliment Tmux, :term and :r!, not to replace them. Each of them is useful in different situations.

Differences with the Tmux:

I love Tmux, I have been using it for many years (I made a few contribution in 2015). In fact, I run everything inside Tmux sessions. But there are situations when running a command inside NeoVim is more convenient for me and helps me stay in flow while programming.

• There is no builtin communication between a Tmux pane and NeoVim. It can be quite complicated to copy a string (eg filename) from a command stdout in a Tmux pane to NeoVim.
• There is no way to further process the output of a command in a Tmux pane. You will have to either copy-paste or save the buffer and open it in NeoVim. With :Shell, you have access to all NeoVim features for further processing the output.
• In Tmux, the output of each command is appended to the previous one. This makes it hard to figure out if a search match belongs to a previous command or the last command. So, in effect you will have to either clear history of the Tmux pane, or exit the pane and create a new one. With :Shell, each command output has its own buffer.

Differences with the :term command:

• Screencast comparing :term and :Shell
• :term has colors and gets user input. :Shell has no pty hence no colors and is only useful for non-interactive commands. (Pty is disabled to make sure lines are not wrapped as mentioned in the next item)
• :term output is wrapped and difficult to work with (see neovim/neovim#2514). :Shell does not wrap lines in its output.
• :Shell uses a normal buffer, with no special terminal mode. The :term buffers have a special terminal mode. With :term, if you enter the Insert mode on a completed process, and press any key, the whole buffer is closed and deleted. In :Shell, you can enter and leave the Insert mode like any other buffer.
• By default, leaving insert mode from a :term buffer is done via thr special key sequence ctrl-\ ctrl-n. In :Shell, you just press the escape key, like any other buffer.
• :Shell process is stopped when the buffer window is closed. :term processes keep running even when the window is closed, because the buffer still exists.
• :term and jobstart have a bug where the process output is truncated (see neovim/neovim#26543). :Shell provides a workaround by simply sleeping for 0.5s. This is good enough for most usecases until the bug is resolved unpstream.
• :term buffers are not modifiable by default. You can process :Shell buffers with other commands like :%!sort | uniq -c | sort. If you want to do that with :term, you will need to make the buffer modifiable, and remove the empty lines. Furthermore, the :term output is wrapped to the current window width, so the output is just unreliable.

The most important thing I need from :term to use it more is to allow setting the width of the pty, instead of getting the width from the current window.

Differences with the :r! command:

• :r! blocks until the process is completed, but :Shell is async and appends the output to the buffer as it is happening
• :Shell creates a new scratch buffer, instead of using the current buffer

Differences with the :! command:

• :! opens a special buffer, you cannot move the cursor around inside it or do anything that you can do in normal buffers like yanking a line or gf or gF. The :! window is closed when you press any key. But :Shell buffers let you do those things.