Bcvi - run vi over a 'back-channel'

http://sshmenu.sourceforge.net/articles/bcvi/

by kree10 • 16 years ago

82 34 16 years ago

sshmenu.sourceforge.net

KC8ZKF• 16 years ago

GNU Emacs users have tramp-mode for this. http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/TrampMode

jrockway3• 16 years ago

And it works with EShell:

     /home/jon
     $ hostname
     snowball2

     /home/jon
     $ cd /stonepath:~

     /scp:stonepath:/home/jon
     $ hostname
     stonepath

Pretty cool!

astine• 16 years ago

My experience using tramp with eshell is that it is painfully slow. However, most of what I would accomplish doing that can be accomplished using tramp with dired instead.

wwortiz• 16 years ago

I never run gvim, are there any real advantages that I am missing?

On the server I just install vim and scp -r .vim* to the server on the desktop I spend most of the time using emacs and only vim when I don't have emacs open and need to do a quick edit.

Tramp mode as stated is painfully slow and emacs doesn't really work for me in terminals as well as vim.

dhimes2• 16 years ago

I never run gvim, are there any real advantages that I am missing?

Probably only if you have a mouse connected to your computer. It is much easier for cutting/pasting between documents in different windows in a gui. I understand there are plugins for vi that work (I use vi most of the time), but it's easier for me to just use vim. Seems like to a first-order approximation gvim = vi + gui plugin

pyre5• 16 years ago

The X11 clipboard support in vim works in the terminal, but it only works when X11 support is built in. You just have to use the keyboard shortcuts ("+y = copy / "+gP = paste).

vim has to be built with X11 (gvim) support though b/c vim and gvim are really the same binary, IIRC (gvim = vim -g).

grantm4• 16 years ago

"I never run gvim, are there any real advantages that I am missing?"

If you're an Emacs user, probably no particular advantage. I use GVim because as a GUI app it allows me to use my mouse for stuff like selecting areas and copy/pasting. I also like the workflow of having my file open for editing in a separate window and getting my shell prompt back straight away.

JoshCole• 16 years ago

There are some terminals which support tabbed windows, and copy and paste. If you have access to those terminals, the reasons you gave for using gVim don't apply. Though I'm not really sure that being able to use the mouse for copy and paste in vim is an advantage. I thought that one of the big productivity boosts when using vim was being able to ditch the mouse. Aren't you suppose to use v[movement]"+y to get something to your clipboard?

pyre5• 16 years ago

If you are running vim in a terminal, then try ":set mouse=a" and it will use the XTerm mouse extensions. Most terminals support this (gnome-terminal, xfce4-terminal, rxvt-unicode, xterm). I don't know about the level of support in Putty, Terminal.app or iTerm.app though.

surki2• 16 years ago

... "and emacs doesn't really work for me in terminals as well as vim."

What kind of problems are you facing running emacs in terminal? I always run emacs in terminal (wrapped inside a screen session) and I have found no problem so far.

I run emacs-trunk/rxvt with 256 colors/bash. But have also used gnome-terminal.

pyre5• 16 years ago

> I run emacs-trunk/rxvt with 256 colors/bash.

I suggest trying zsh.

phreeza• 16 years ago

Maybe if the server admin is an emacs fanatic and has deleted vim. And prohibits you from building it locally. err... nevermind

jrockway3• 16 years ago

(make-frame-on-display ":0")

andrew_k• 16 years ago

Does it work on Mac?

grantm4• 16 years ago

If you use GVim on your mac then it should work fine.

If you use a different editor then it should be pretty easy to hack up a plugin that launches your preferred editor instead. The plugin API docs give an example of launching GNOME gedit: http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?App::BCVI::Plugins

newman314• 16 years ago

Would be interesting to see a setup with textmate editing on the local workstation using this.

stevelosh• 16 years ago

Symlinking gvim to mvim seems to make everything work perfectly.

TimothyFitz• 16 years ago

I've been doing this with sshfs (Linux/Mac) or ExpanDrive (Windows) for years, with whatever my editor of choice is for the file in question.

grantm4• 16 years ago

bcvi will also let you use your editor of choice - it just happens to use gvim "out of the box".

If you're already logged into the box with SSH then being able to type 'vi file' on the server and have the editor window pop up on your workstation actually turns out to be really handy. IMHO it's easier to set up than sshfs too.

icode• 16 years ago

"easier to set up than sshfs"

sshfs yourname@server /some/where

How can the setup of bcvi be easier then this oneliner?

tmsh• 16 years ago

:set paste

mct• 16 years ago

...but then you need to ":set nopaste", afterwards.

I frequently do this, instead: ":r !cat"

vog2• 16 years ago

...but then you need to ":set nopaste", afterwards.

For me, it's just <F8>, then pasting, then pressing <F8> again. This works because of the following line in my .vimrc which I highly recommend:

    set pastetoggle=<F8>

ertug• 16 years ago

Vim has a scp handler to allow you to work locally.

Here is how you do it: vim scp://server//path/to/document

jcw2• 16 years ago

Is it just me, or is SCP very slow in vim?

jcw2• 16 years ago

This is really cool. However, one of the advantages of using vi is that you use it on any machine without really needing your configuration files, the defaults are comfortable enough.

Bcvi - run vi over a 'back-channel'

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