nvclient

README

nvclient

open a file for editing in an already running nvim

How it works

nvclient connect to the existing nvim instance by looking for the environment variables NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS, if the NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS is not found when nvclient start, it will start a new nvim instance.

If NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS is already set when nvim start, nvim will use its vaule to create the socket, otherwise NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS is only can be found in the nvim terminal. In this case, you can check the value by :echo $NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS

you can do the trick by setting the NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS in your shell's .dotfile, so everytime you open a file with nvcllient, it will be sent to the same nvim instance, but beware any new nvim instance will overwrite the socket file.

For tmux user, nvclient read the tmux environment for NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS if it is running in tmux, but you have to set the tmux update-environment correctly in .tmux.conf to make it work.

Example:

 set -g update-environment "SSH_ASKPASS WINDOWID XAUTHORITY NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS"

Installation

Download the binary at https://github.com/dustinliu/nvclient/releases and copy the nvclient to the $PATH

for go user

go install github.com/dustinliu/nvclient@latest