Silent mapping that automatically redraws — no messages or blank screen

Question

I would like to open a url in vim. Using gx from netrw has been problematic, so I created the following simple mapping:

nnoremap <leader>k !open <C-R><C-F><CR>

This gets the filepath under the cursor and then executes it, with the command looking like:

:!open http://google.com

However, I hate that whenever I open a file (or url) it prompts me with:

Press ENTER or type command to continue

So then I enter in silent at the start:

:silent !open http://google.com

And it opens without that message, but when I go back to it the screen is blank, which is equally annoying.

Is there a way to just "open the link normally"? I.e., not the prompt me with a message, make the screen go blank, or anything other than opening the file/url on its own? How can I do this?

Answer 1

To achieve this you can prepend silent to the command. For example, the following will work:

nnoremap <leader>k :execute 'silent !open <C-R><C-F>' \| redraw!<CR>

Note also the need to escape the | in the mapping to force redraw at the end as well.