bufterm.nvim

Treat terminals as buffers, not windows.

A neovim plugin to manage terminal buffers

Thoughts

• No need to open terminal buffer in new specific window every time.
• User should able to enter terminal buffers in any window.

Other terminal plugins are great but it is hard to manually set terminal buffer to window layout user wants.

BufTerm NEVER create terminal window on it's own. It only gives you enter() function to enter terminal buffer. User can always manually close buffer with :bdelete! and window with :close

Features

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/60088301/214899478-956b4223-c25a-47d7-99db-376d4fa94fd1.mov

Enter & Switch Terminal buffers

You can enter terminal buffer in any windows. Just enter the window you want, and run :BufTermEnter

You can also cycle through terminal buffers with :BufTermNext and :BufTermPrev commads.

Vim8-like Window navigation

Automatically restore the last mode when leaving the terminal buffer.

Window navigation using <C-w> key directly in terminal mode just like vim8.

Warning Don't use keymap <C-\><C-n><C-w>... or <C-\><C-o><C-w>... for window navigation. This will break remember_mode feature. Instead, use :wincmd or enable_ctrl_w option below.

Compatible with native commands

Although BufTerm provides various useful commands, you can still use Neovim's native commands like :terminal, :buffer, :bprev, :wincmd

Installation

Using packer.nvim

use {
  'boltlessengineer/bufterm.nvim',
  config = function()
    require('bufterm').setup()
  end,
}

Setup

Below is default configuration

require('bufterm').setup({
  save_native_terms = true, -- integrate native terminals from `:terminal` command
  start_in_insert   = true, -- start terminal in insert mode
  remember_mode     = true, -- remember vi_mode of terminal buffer
  enable_ctrl_w     = true, -- use <C-w> for window navigating in terminal mode (like vim8)
  terminal = {              -- default terminal settings
    buflisted         = false, -- whether to set 'buflisted' option
    termlisted        = true,  -- list terminal in termlist (similar to buflisted)
    fallback_on_exit  = true,  -- prevent auto-closing window on terminal exit
    auto_close        = true,  -- auto close buffer on terminal job ends
  }
})

Note: fallback_on_exit option won't work with :bdelete! command

Usage

• Enter terminal buffers in current window with :BufTermEnter
• Open new terminal buffer with :terminal or :BufTermEnter
• Switch between terminal buffers with :BufTermNext and :BufTermPrev

:BufTermEnter

Enter terminal buffer in current window. Create new terminal buffer if there is no terminal buffer running

:BufTermPrev, :BufTermNext

Cycle through list of terminal buffers

Terminal:new(term)

Create new Terminal object. See the examples below.

Terminal:spawn()

Spawn the terminal buffer. This will spawn new terminal job and create the buffer for it. But not showing the actual buffer in window yet.

Terminal:enter(window)

Open terminal buffer in specific window.

Examples

Open Lazygit in floating window

-- this will add Terminal to the list (not starting job yet)
local Terminal = require('bufterm.terminal').Terminal
local ui       = require('bufterm.ui')

local lazygit = Terminal:new({
  cmd = 'lazygit',
  buflisted = false,
  termlisted = false, -- set this option to false if you treat this terminal as single independent terminal
})
vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>g', function()
  -- spawn terminal (terminal won't be spawned if self.jobid is valid)
  lazygit:spawn()
  -- open floating window
  ui.toggle_float(lazygit.bufnr)
end, {
  desc = 'Open lazygit in floating window',
})

Toggle Floating terminal

local term = require('bufterm.terminal')
local ui   = require('bufterm.ui')

vim.keymap.set({ 'n', 't' }, '<C-t>', function()
  local recent_term = term.get_recent_term()
  ui.toggle_float(recent_term.bufnr)
end, {
  desc = 'Toggle floating window with terminal buffers',
})

Run & update processes

local Terminal = require('bufterm.terminal').Terminal
local ui       = require('bufterm.ui')

local runner = Terminal:new({
  cmd = function()
    local runner = {
      python = 'python3 %',
      go     = 'go run %',
      sh     = 'sh %',
      bash   = 'bash %',
      fish   = 'fish %',
    }
    local cmd = runner[vim.bo.filetype]
    if not cmd then
      -- fallback to default shell if can't run current filetype
      return vim.o.shell
    end
    cmd = cmd:gsub('%%', vim.fn.expand('%'))
    return cmd
  end,
  termlisted = true,
  fallback_on_exit = false,
  auto_close = false,
})
local runner_win = ui.Window:new()
vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>r', function()
  -- re-run process if buffer is visible
  if runner.bufnr and vim.fn.bufwinid(runner.bufnr) > 0 then
    runner:run()
    return
  end
  -- open new window (or get existing window-id)
  local winid = runner_win:open(runner.bufnr)
  -- enter job
  runner:enter(winid)
end, {
  desc = 'Run current file in bottom-end window'
})

Inspirations

• toggleterm.nvim
• hydra.nvim