Re-use or close vim terminal buffer on next command run

Question

I'm opening a terminal buffer for my XML validation with the following command:

let term_buff_no = term_start(validate_cmd, {'term_rows': 10})

However, when running the same command again, a new terminal buffer is opened.

1. How can i re-use the same buffer for displaying another round of results?
2. When the job's exit status is OK, can i detect that and close the terminal buffer?

Answer 1

Re-using is quite easy - name your terminal buffer when starting it, but before you actually start it, check if a term buffer with such name already exists and delete it if yes. For example:

function s:RunCmdTerm(cmd, name)
  let cmd = a:cmd
  let name = a:name
  " close existing terminal buffer with the same name
  let ex_term_buf_no = bufnr(name)
  if ex_term_buf_no > -1
    execute 'bwipeout! ' . ex_term_buf_no
  endif
  " start the command itself
  let term_buf_no = term_start(cmd, {'term_name': name, 'term_rows': 10})
  " return to the editing buffer
  wincmd p
  return term_buf_no
endfunction