How could I create a terminal at the bottom

Question

I could create a terminal with vim by running :term in the vim normal mode. However, this terminal is opened at the top of the window and I would like to open it in the bottom. How could I open it at the bottom? By the way, how could I change the height of this window?

Answer 1

This question is a couple of years old now but I found it when I was looking for a way to open a terminal inside vim below a bunch of vertical splits. What I want looks something like this:

+----+----+----+
¦    ¦    ¦    ¦
¦ f1 ¦ f2 ¦ f3 ¦
+----+----+----+
¦   terminal   ¦
+--------------+

What you get with :below terminal or with :set splitbelow and then :terminal is:

+----+----+----+
¦ f1 ¦    ¦    ¦
¦    ¦    ¦    ¦
+----+ f2 ¦ f3 ¦
¦term¦    ¦    ¦
+----+----+----+

After a bunch of googling, I pieced this together. To get what I want above is actually pretty simple. Type :botright terminal or :bo term. (See :help :botright for more details.)

You can save a few keystrokes by putting this in your vimrc:

" open terminal below all splits
cabbrev bterm bo term

Then just type :bterm to open a terminal at the bottom.

I hope someone finds this useful.

Answer 2

In your ~/.vimrc add the line

set splitbelow

This will cause all splits to happen below (including terminal).

To change the height of the terminal (row x col)

set termwinsize=10x0 " 'termsize' didn't work - this did for me (GVIM 8.2)

Answer 3

I wanted a way to easily toggle a single terminal that would keep the same size and content.

My solution lies in two functions: the main one controls whether a terminal should be opened, the second opens a terminal split where we want on the screen.

If one or more terminal splits exist, they are hidden. Else, a terminal split is opened, either a new one or the first hidden terminal.

function! PutTermPanel(buf, side, size) abort
  " new term if no buffer
  if a:buf == 0
    term
  else
    execute "sp" bufname(a:buf)
  endif
  " default side if wrong argument
  if stridx("hjklHJKL", a:side) == -1
    execute "wincmd" "J"
  else
    execute "wincmd" a:side
  endif
  " horizontal split resize
  if stridx("jkJK", a:side) >= 0
    if ! a:size > 0
      resize 6
    else
      execute "resize" a:size
    endif
    return
  endif
  " vertical split resize
  if stridx("hlHL", a:side) >= 0
    if ! a:size > 0
      vertical resize 6
    else
      execute "vertical resize" a:size
    endif
  endif
endfunction

function! s:ToggleTerminal(side, size) abort
  let tpbl=[]
  let closed = 0
  let tpbl = tabpagebuflist()
  " hide visible terminals
  for buf in filter(range(1, bufnr('$')), 'bufexists(bufname(v:val)) && index(tpbl, v:val)>=0')
    if getbufvar(buf, '&buftype') ==? 'terminal'
      silent execute bufwinnr(buf) . "hide"
      let closed += 1
    endif
  endfor
  if closed > 0
    return
  endif
  " open first hidden terminal
  for buf in filter(range(1, bufnr('$')), 'bufexists(v:val) && index(tpbl, v:val)<0')
    if getbufvar(buf, '&buftype') ==? 'terminal'
      call PutTermPanel(buf, a:side, a:size)
      return
    endif
  endfor
  " open new terminal
  call PutTermPanel(0, a:side, a:size)
endfunction

" Toggle terminal - bottom
nnoremap <silent> yot :call <SID>ToggleTerminal('J', 6)<CR>

" Toggle terminal - right
nnoremap <silent> yo<c-t> :call <SID>ToggleTerminal('L', 60)<CR>