Running vim's ':make' using ':term'

Question

Is there a way that I can have the :make command output itself to a terminal window in vim? In the 8.1 release, they added the :term command, which allows you to run an external program in a vim window. I was wondering if there's some way to combine the two.

I want this because i use vim-latex for compiling my .tex files (which compiles using :make), and it would actually be helpful for me to be able to deal with errors and stuff while still in vim.

Answer 1

On windows gvim only, you can use set guioptions+=! to run make in a terminal. This isn't yet supported on other platforms so you will have to find an alternative.

If you want to create a new terminal each time,

command -nargs=* Make execute 'terminal' &makeprg.(empty(<q-args>)?'':' '.<q-args>)

Answer 2

Not exactly what you asked for (using the terminal new vim 8.1 feature) but you should check asyncrun plugin which let you execute whatever you want asynchronously and get the output in quick fix (using errorformat to parse the output...). asyncrun.vim

Answer 3

Assuming you have a bash-like shell, you can put this in your .vimrc:

command! -nargs=? MakeInTerminal silent call s:MakeInTerminal(<q-args>)

function s:MakeInTerminal(args)
  const l:cmd = expandcmd(&makeprg) .. (a:args == '' ? '' : ' ' .. a:args)
  const l:options = {'term_name': '!' .. l:cmd}
  call term_start([&g:shell, &g:shellcmdflag, l:cmd], l:options)
endfunction

Then you can run make in a terminal with :MakeInTerminal. See also a more complete solution.