dntw - [D]edicated [N]eovim per [T]mux [W]indow 🤯

What

dntw is a small shell script that allows you to have a dedicated Neovim instance per tmux window. It accomplishes this by acting as simple wrapper around the excellent tool neovim-remote.

Once Neovim is running inside a dntw-enabled tmux session, the first instance of Neovim that is running in a given tmux window will become the dedicated Neovim instance for that window. Subsequent invocations of Neovim from other panes in the same window will reuse the dedicated instance.

Why

Any time I used tmux and Neovim together for software development, new panes I created in tmux inevitably became filled with redundant instances of Neovim.

I made dntw with the hope that it would automatically save me from myself.

How

Install

If you're comfortable in Neovim/tmux/editing your shell configuration, dntw is for you!

Here's how to install it:

1. tmux and nvim are required for dntw to work. If you're not already using them, dntw may not be for you.

2. Install neovim-remote, which is required for dntw to work.

   pip3 install neovim-remote

   If you have issues with this step, refer to neovim-remote's installation documentation for assistance.

3. Clone the dntw git repository somewhere.

   $ git clone git://github.com/joshdick/dntw.git ~/.dntw

4. Add the following line somewhere in your shell configuration (.zshrc/.bashrc/etc) to source dntw.sh, adjusting the path accordingly for whatever you chose in the previous step.

   . ~/.dntw/dntw.sh

   This configuration adds the dntw and dntw_edit functions to your shell.

5. Create a function in your shell configuration that you will use to invoke dntw_edit as if it were Neovim.

   If you want to name the function nvim, or instruct dntw to use a specific nvim binary, you can set the environment variable $DNTW_NVIM_CMD to the location of your nvim binary.

   Here's an example:

   # If you need to bypass this function and run the real `nvim`
   # for some reason, just run `command nvim` instead.
   function nvim () {
     if [[ "$TERM_PROGRAM" == "vscode" ]]; then
       # If we typed "nvim" while inside the integrated Visual Studio Code terminal,
       # open the file in Code instead.
       code "$@"
     else
       # Invoke `dntw_edit` with an explicit `$DNTW_NVIM_CMD` since this function's
       # name conflicts with the real `nvim`.
       DNTW_NVIM_CMD=/usr/local/bin/nvim dntw_edit "$@"
     fi
   }
   
   # These convenience aliases simply invoke the function above.
   alias vi='nvim'
   alias vim='nvim'

6. Re-source your shell configuriation/restart your shell, or open a new shell. You're now ready to use dntw.

Use

Start a new dntw-enabled tmux session by running dntw.

Once tmux is running, start Neovim inside tmux by invoking the function you added during install.

Neovim will behave as described in the what section.

That's it!

FAQ

Click on a question to see the answer.

Does this work with standard Vim?

Nope. dntw requires neovim-remote, which itself only works with Neovim.

Although neovim-remote emulates standard Vim's --servername feature in Neovim, the standard Vim feature has a bunch of caveats including a dependency on X11, even for CLI Vim.

I made dntw for my own use, and because I don't personally plan to use Vim this way, I have no plans to add support for standard Vim.

That said, pull requests are welcome.

Does this work on Windows?

Nope. I tried it in Ubuntu on Windows but neovim-remote is currently not compatible with it.

Why do I see an error that starts with 'dntw error: "neovim-remote" is required, but does not appear to be installed.'?

This error happens when neovim-remote is either not installed or is installed incorrectly.

Bugs filed against dntw that mention this error are very likely to be closed, since the issue is likely with your environment and not with dntw.

Refer to neovim-remote's installation documentation for assistance.

License

MIT.

Miscellany

The demo recording was created with asciinema and svg-term-cli.