*ConqueTerm* Plugin to run a shell inside a Vim buffer The ConqueTerm plugin will turn a Vim buffer into a terminal emulator, allowing you to run and interact with a shell or shell application inside the buffer. 1. Installation |conque-term-installation| 2. Usage |conque-term-usage| 3. Config Options |conque-term-options| 4. VimScript API |conque-term-api| 5. Misc |conque-term-misc| ============================================================================== 1. Installation *conque-term-installation* Conque is designed for both Unix and Windows operating systems, however the requirements are slightly different. Please check section below corresponding to your installed OS. 1.1 Requirements for Unix *conque-term-requirements* * [G]Vim 7.0+ with +python and/or +python3 * Python 2.3+ and/or 3.x * Unix-like OS: Linux, OS X, Solaris, Cygwin, etc The most common stumbling block is getting a version of Vim which has the python interface enabled. Most all software package managers will have a copy of Vim with Python support, so that is often the easiest way to get it. If you're compiling Vim from source, be sure to use the --enable-pythoninterp option, or --enable-python3interp for Python 3. On OS X the best option is MacVim, which installs with Python support by default. 1.2 Requirements for Windows *conque-term-windows* * [G]Vim 7.3 with +python and/or +python3 * Python 2.7 and/or 3.1 * Modern Windows OS (XP or later) Conque only officially supports the latest GVim 7.3 Windows installer available at www.vim.org. If you are currently using Vim 7.2 or earlier you will need to upgrade to 7.3 for Windows support. The Windows installer already has the +python/+python3 interface built in. The official 7.3 release of Vim for Windows only works with Python versions 2.7 and/or 3.1. You can download and install Python from their website http://www.python.org/download If you are compiling Vim + Python from source on Windows, the requirements become only Vim 7.3+ and Python 2.7+. 1.3 Installation *conque-term-installation-instructions* Download the latest vimball from http://conque.googlecode.com Open the .vba file with Vim and run the following commands: > :so % :q < That's it! The :ConqueTerm command will be available the next time you start Vim. You can delete the .vba file when you've verified Conque was successfully installed. ============================================================================== 2. Usage *conque-term-usage* Type :ConqueTerm to launch an application in the current buffer. Eg: > :ConqueTerm bash :ConqueTerm mysql -h localhost -u joe_lunchbox Menu :ConqueTerm Powershell.exe < Use :ConqueTermSplit or :ConqueTermVSplit to open Conque in a new horizontal or vertical buffer. Use :ConqueTermTab to open Conque in a new tab. In insert mode you can interact with the shell as you would expect in a normal terminal. All key presses will be sent to the terminal, including control characters. See |conque-term-special-keys| for more information, particularly regarding the key. In normal mode you can use Vim commands to browse your terminal output and scroll back through the history. Most all Vim functionality will work, such as searching, yanking or highlighting text. 2.1 Special keys *conque-term-special-keys* There are several keys which can be configured to have special behavior with Conque. Send text to Conque *conque-term-F9* If you want to send some text from a file you are editing in another buffer to be run in Conque, select the desired text visually then press the key. If you have multiple Conque buffers, the text will be sent to the most recently created buffer. Alternatively you can yank the text, switch to your terminal, then paste it with the normal 'p' key. This feature can be configured to use a different key with the |ConqueTerm_SendVisKey| option. Toggle terminal input mode *conque-term-F8* If you want to use insert mode to edit the terminal screen, press . You will now be able to edit the terminal output freely without your cursor jumping the the active prompt line. This may be useful if you want to reformat terminal output for readability. While the terminal is paused new output will not be displayed on the screen until you press again to resume. You can configure Conque to use a different key with the |ConqueTerm_ToggleKey| option. Sending the key press *conque-term-Esc* By default if you press the key in a Conque buffer you will leave insert mode. But what if you want the key press to be sent to your terminal? There are two options. By default, pressing twice will send one key press to the terminal, while pressing it once will leave insert mode. Alternatively you can use the |ConqueTerm_EscKey| option to choose a different key for leaving insert mode. If a custom key is set, then all key presses will be sent to the terminal. ============================================================================== 3. Options *conque-term-options* You can set the following options in your .vimrc (default values shown) 3.1 Insert mode when entering buffer *ConqueTerm_InsertOnEnter* If set to 1 then you will automatically go into insert mode when you enter the buffer. This diverges from normal Vim behavior. If 0 you will still be in normal mode. > let g:ConqueTerm_InsertOnEnter = 0 < 3.2 Enable in insert mode *ConqueTerm_CWInsert* If set to 1 then you can leave the Conque buffer using the commands while you're still in insert mode. If set to 0 then the character will be sent to the terminal. If both this option and ConqueTerm_InsertOnEnter are set you can go in and out of the terminal buffer while never leaving insert mode. > let g:ConqueTerm_CWInsert = 0 < 3.3 Use a custom key for leaving insert mode *ConqueTerm_EscKey* If a custom key is set, then all key presses will be sent to the terminal and you must use this custom key to leave insert mode. If left to the default value of '' then you must press it twice to send the escape character to the terminal, while pressing it once will leave insert mode. Note: You cannot use a key which is internally coded with the escape character. This includes the keys and often the and keys. Picking a control key, such as will be your best bet. > let g:ConqueTerm_EscKey = '' < 3.4 Send selected text to Conque *ConqueTerm_SendVisKey* Use this key to send the currently selected text to the most recently created Conque buffer. > let g:ConqueTerm_SendVisKey = '' < 3.5 Toggle terminal input mode *ConqueTerm_ToggleKey* Press this key to pause terminal input and output display. You will then be able to edit the terminal screen as if it were a normal text buffer. Press this key again to resume terminal mode. > let g:ConqueTerm_ToggleKey = '' < 3.6 Enable or disable colors *ConqueTerm_Color* Set to 1 to enable colors, 0 to disable. Syntax highlighting in Vim can be slow if your terminal is color intensive. Disabling color can make the terminal render significantly faster. > let g:ConqueTerm_Color = 1 < 3.7 Choose your terminal type, Unix ONLY *ConqueTerm_TERM* Use this option to tell Conque what type of terminal it should identify itself as. Conque officially uses the more limited VT100 terminal type for developement and testing, although it supports some more advanced features such as colors and title strings. You can change this setting to a more advanced type, namely 'xterm', but your results may vary depending on which programs you're running. > let g:ConqueTerm_TERM = 'vt100' < 3.8 Choose Vim syntax type *ConqueTerm_Syntax* Set the buffer syntax. The default 'conque' has highlighting for MySQL, but not much else. > let g:ConqueTerm_Syntax = 'conque' < 3.9 Keep updating terminal buffer *ConqueTerm_ReadUnfocused* If set to 1 then your Conque buffers will continue to update after you've switched to another buffer. Note: Conque buffers may continue to update, but they will not scroll down as new lines are added beyond the bottom of the visible buffer area. This is a limitation of the Vim scripting language for which I haven't found a workaround. > let g:ConqueTerm_ReadUnfocused = 1 < 3.10 Regex for highlighting your prompt *ConqueTerm_PromptRegex* Use this regular expression for sytax highlighting your terminal prompt. Your terminal will generally run faster if you use Vim highlighting instead of terminal colors for your prompt. You can also use it to do more advanced syntax highlighting for the prompt line. > let g:ConqueTerm_PromptRegex = '^\w\+@[0-9A-Za-z_.-]\+:[0-9A-Za-z_./\~,:-]\+\$' < 3.11 Close buffer when program exits *ConqueTerm_CloseOnEnd* If you want your terminal buffer to be closed and permanently deleted when the program running inside of it exits, set this option to 1. Otherwise the buffer will become a simple text buffer after the program exits, and you can edit the program output in insert mode. > let g:ConqueTerm_CloseOnEnd = 0 < 3.12 Python version *ConqueTerm_PyVersion* Conque will work with either Python 2.x or 3.x, assuming the interfaces have been installed. By default it will try to use Python 2 first, then will try Python 3. If you want Conque to use Python 3, set this variable to 3. Note: even if you set this to 3, if you don't have the python3 interface Conque will fall back to using Python 2. > let g:ConqueTerm_PyVersion = 2 < 3.13 Python executable, Windows ONLY *ConqueTerm_PyExe* The Windows version of Conque needs to know the path to the python.exe executable for the version of Python Conque is using. If you installed Python in the default location, or added the Python directory to your system path, Conque should be able to find python.exe without you changing this variable. For example, you might set this to 'C:\Program Files\Python27\python.exe' > let g:ConqueTerm_PyExe = '' < 3.14 Function Keys *ConqueTerm_SendFunctionKeys* By default, function keys (the F1-F12 row at the top of your keyboard) are not passed to the terminal. Set this option to 1 to send these key events. Note: Unless you configured |ConqueTerm_SendVisKey| and |ConqueTerm_ToggleKey| to use different keys, and will not be sent to the terminal even if you set this option to 1. > let g:ConqueTerm_SendFunctionKeys = 0 < ============================================================================== 4. VimScript API (Beta) *conque-term-api* The Conque scripting API allows you to create and interact with Conque terminals with the VimScript language. This API is still in beta stage. 4.1 conque_term#open({command}, [buf_opts], [remain]) *conque-term-open* The open() function will create a new terminal buffer and start your command. The {command} must be an executable, either an absolute path or relative to your system path. You can pass in a list of vim commands [buf_opts] which will be executed after the new buffer is created but before the command is started. These are typically commands to alter the size, position or configuration of the buffer window. Note: If you don't pass in a command such as 'split', the terminal will open in the current buffer. If you don't want the new terminal buffer to become the new active buffer, set [remain] to 1. Only works if you create a split screen using [options]. Returns a Conque terminal object. Examples: > let my_terminal = conque_term#open('/bin/bash') let my_terminal = conque_term#open('ipython', ['split', 'resize 20'], 1) < 4.2 conque_term#subprocess({command}) *conque-term-subprocess* Starts a new subprocess with your {command}, but no terminal buffer is ever created. This may be useful if you need asynchronous interaction with a subprocess, but want to handle the output on your own. Returns a Conque terminal object. Example: > let my_subprocess = conque_term#subprocess('tail -f /var/log/foo.log') < 4.3 conque_term#get_instance( [terminal_number] ) *conque-term-get-instance* Use the get_instance() function to retrieve an existing terminal object. The terminal could have been created either with the user command :ConqueTerm or with an API call to conque_term#open() or subprocess(). Use the optional [terminal_number] to retrieve a specific terminal instance. Otherwise if the current buffer is a Conque terminal, it will be returned, else the most recently created terminal. The terminal number is what you see at the end of a terminal buffer name, e.g. "bash - 2". Returns a Conque terminal object. Example: > nnoremap :call conque_term#get_instance().writeln('clear') < 4.4 CONQUE_OBJECT.write(text) *conque-term-write* Once you have a terminal object from open(), subprocess() or get_instance() you can send text input to it with the write() method. No return value. Examples: > call my_terminal.write("whoami\n") call my_terminal.write("\") < 4.5 CONQUE_OBJECT.writeln(text) *conque-term-writeln* The same as write() except adds a \n character to the end if your input. Examples: > call my_subprocess.writeln('make') < 4.6 CONQUE_OBJECT.read( [timeout], [update_buffer] ) *conque-term-read* Read new output from a Conque terminal subprocess. New output will be returned as a string, and the terminal buffer will also be updated by default. If you are reading immediately after calling the write() method, you may want to wait [timeout] milliseconds for output to be ready. If you want to prevent the output from being displayed in the terminal buffer, set [update_buffer] to 0. This option has no effect if the terminal was created with the subprocess() function, since there never is a buffer to update. Returns output string. Note: The terminal buffer will not automatically scroll down if the new output extends beyond the bottom of the visible buffer. Vim doesn't allow "unfocused" buffers to be scrolled at the current version, although hopefully this will change. Examples: > call my_terminal.writeln('whoami') let output = my_terminal.read(500) call my_terminal.writeln('ls -lha') let output = my_terminal.read(1000, 1) < 4.7 CONQUE_OBJECT.set_callback( {funcname} ) *conque-term-set-callback* Register a callback function for this subprocess instance. This function will automatically be called whenever new output is available. Only practical with subprocess() objects. Conque checkes for new subprocess output once a second when Vim is idle. If new output is found your function will be called. Pass in the callback function name {funcname} as a string. No return value. Note: this method requires the g:ConqueTerm_ReadUnfocused option to be set. Note: this method is experimental, results may vary. Example: > let sp = conque_term#subprocess('tail -f /home/joe/log/error_log') function! MyErrorAlert(output) echo a:output endfunction call sp.set_callback('MyErrorAlert') < 4.8 CONQUE_OBJECT.close() *conque-term-close* Kill your terminal subprocess. Sends the ABORT signal. You probably want to close your subprocess in a more graceful manner with the write() method, but this can be used when needed. Does not close the terminal buffer, if it exists. This method will be called on all existing Conque subprocesses when Vim exits. Example: > let term = conque_term#open('ping google.com', ['belowright split']) call term.read(5000) call term.close() < ============================================================================== 5. Misc *conque-term-misc* 5.1 Known bugs *conque-term-bugs* The following are known limitations: - Font/color highlighting is imperfect and slow. If you don't care about color in your shell, set g:ConqueTerm_Color = 0 in your .vimrc - Conque only supports the extended ASCII character set for input, not utf-8. - VT100 escape sequence support is not complete. - Alt/Meta key support in Vim isn't great in general, and conque is no exception. Pressing x or

instead of works in most cases. 5.2 Contribute *conque-term-contribute* The two contributions most in need are improvements to Vim itself. I currently use hacks to capture key press input from the user, and to poll the terminal for more output. The Vim todo.txt document lists proposed improvements to give users this behavior without hacks. Having a key press event should allow Conque to work with multi- byte input. If you are a Vim developer, please consider prioritizing these two items: - todo.txt (Autocommands, line ~3137) 8 Add an event like CursorHold that is triggered repeatedly, not just once after typing something. 5.3 Feedback *conque-term-feedback* Bugs, suggestions and patches are all welcome. For more information visit http://conque.googlecode.com Check out the latest from svn at http://conque.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: