When I press gx over a link in vim, it opens it in an external application, when it does this it also suspends Vim.
How do I prevent it from suspending Vim, so that I can use Vim while browsing whatever it opened externally.
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1Can you specify your OS, Vim version? It does not suspend here (OSX, MacVim 8.0)– nobe4Commented Jul 17, 2017 at 16:13
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Using GVim on Windows, I do not have this problem. However, at the bottom, vim says, "Press <cr> to continue," which is just Enter. Using terminal vim in MinGW (I know, all bets are off), it doesn't open a web page, but still doesn't freeze.– jpaughCommented Jul 17, 2017 at 19:58
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Debian Jessie 8.4.0, Vim 7.4. Hm... mine seems to be a bit iffy, if it opens it will suspend vim, if it doesn't it will not suspend.– Electronic MailCommented Jul 20, 2017 at 2:48
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Vim 8 with Fedora 25 here, works by default without suspending.– Neaţu Ovidiu GabrielCommented Oct 16, 2017 at 9:26
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3 Answers
Use vim-shell plugin instead with this config:
let g:netrw_nogx = 1 " disable netrw's gx mapping.
nnoremap gx :Open<CR>
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1
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This doesn't work for me, :Open is still blocking vim. I use NVIM v0.2.2 on lubuntu 17.10– chriadCommented Jun 21, 2018 at 20:31
What works for me with neovim v0.2.2 on lubuntu 17.10 is the open-browser.vim plugin (https://github.com/tyru/open-browser.vim) with the following settings in my init.vim.
let g:netrw_nogx = 1 " disable netrw's gx mapping.
nmap gx <Plug>(openbrowser-smart-search)
vmap gx <Plug>(openbrowser-smart-search)
I had the same problem, so I wrote my own function for it. (Thanks to the guy below who had a way to do it without having to use the registry. I modified my own with this.)
The strategy is to store the url under the Vim-cursor to a variable
let url = expand('<cWORD>')
and then use bash to open firefox with the url as argument:
call feedkeys(':!bash firefox ' . url . ' &' . "\<CR>\<ESC>" )
The & is used to open firefox in the background, and the \<CR>\<ESC> is to enter the command and escape the message box that it prompts.
We put this into a function that we call OpenURL() and then remap gx to run that function.
nnoremap gx :call OpenURL()<CR>
The <CR> is again to actually execute the command.
In total it looks like this:
function! OpenURL()
let url = expand('<cWORD>')
call feedkeys(':!bash firefox ' . url . ' &' . "\<CR>\<ESC>" )
endfunction
nnoremap gx :call OpenURL()<CR>
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1Welcome to Vi and Vim! This answer would benefit greatly from an edit describing how the code works. (PS you can save/restore registers; combined with a try/catch, you could make sure not to lose whatever is already saved in
@a, if you were interested. But you can skip registers entirely:let url = expand('<cWORD>').)– D. Ben Knoble ♦Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 20:33