Fzf: Restore window layout when using Neovim's terminal mode

[blueyed]

I've noticed that using FZF commands in NeoVim will mess with the window layout after being closed, especially if there's a location list / quickfix window involved (at the bottom).

Given a window layout of:

|                       |                   |
|                       |                   |
|                       |                   |
|                       |                   |
+------------------------                   +
|                       |                   |
|                       |                   |
|                       |                   |
|                       |                   |
|-----------------------|                   |
|                       |                   |
| location list         |                   |
+-------------------------------------------+

After opening FZF:

|                       |                   |
|                       |                   |
|                       |                   |
+------------------------                   +
|                       |                   |
|                       |                   |
|-----------------------|                   |
| location list         |                   |
+-------------------------------------------+
|                                           |
| FZF                                       |
|                                           |
+-------------------------------------------+

After closing FZF:

|                       |                   |
|                       |                   |
|                       |                   |
+------------------------                   +
|                       |                   |
|                       |                   |
|-----------------------|                   |
| location list         |                   |
|                       |                   |
|                       |                   |
|                       |                   |
|                       |                   |
+-------------------------------------------+

I've tried this with just nvim -u vimrc.minimal.

It gets worse on a second invocation, probably because of the winfixheight setting of quickfix/location list windows.

It would be nice, if fzf would restore the window layout from before it was invoked.

[netei]

Very similar to https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.vim/issues/42

[justinmk]

There is an issue I'm Neovim repo for augmenting window API to support this. Though I guess mkview could be abused somehow...

[junegunn]

Yeah, this is an issue with vim plugins that create temporary splits.

• botright 10new
• botright new
• close

Unfortunately I can't think of a simple solution to this problem. Suggestions are welcome.

[justinmk]

Is there a reason exe (tabpagenr()-1).'tabedit|term ...' is not the default? That would preserve layout. It also wasn't obvious how to switch to this mode using g:fzf_layout. (Note that I suggest (tabpagenr()-1) so that closing the tabpage automatically returns to the previous tab without any hassle. vim-fugitive uses this approach for cvc.)

IMO https://github.com/neovim/neovim/issues/3933 is the general solution to this problem.

[blueyed]

@justinmk
What are you using for g:fzf_layout exactly? I've found let g:fzf_layout = {} in your vimrc?! (makes it really not obvious then)
It seems to be a good workaround for now - also providing more space.. ;)

[justinmk]

@blueyed let g:fzf_layout = {} makes fzf use a tab instead of a split (had to dig around the code; not documented). However, it opens in the next tab slot instead of the previous, so it doesn't return to the original tabpage on cancel.

[junegunn]

Note that g:fzf_layout is only used by the commands in fzf.vim project.

https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.vim/blob/master/plugin/fzf.vim#L27-L31

This map is eventually passed to fzf#run() function, and it is supposed to contain down/up/left/right or window attribute. window attribute, which only works in neovim unlike the others, holds the ex command to create the terminal window. So what @justinmk suggested above can be done like follows:

let g:fzf_layout = { 'window': 'execute (tabpagenr()-1)."tabnew"' }

(There was a bug though, see 3073ca3.)

[junegunn]

Related: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/commit/f704b94603f386c7b6458ba358816f52bbad2b36

[chopfitzroy]

Should the above solution load the searched for and selected file in the split you executed it from?

[blueyed]

@CrashyBang
You are probably hitting #559 there (wincmd p messes things up).
Would be great if you could try #559 and provide feedback there.

[edi9999]

As a workaround, we could tell users to use tmux instead of terminal mode even inside neovim. I would like to test that, but I don't think that there is an option to force fzf to use tmux inside neovim. Is they one ?

[jhrmnn]

@edi9999 I would just note that the terminal mode of neovim and freedom from tmux is one of the main reasons for me using neovim instead of vim.

[justinmk]

This commit to Vim (from today) may fix the window layout issue: https://github.com/vim/vim/commit/991dea3ab185fb35e577ab0bdfd443cd4b43ccc6

edit: oops, that's for status height. never mind...

[edi9999]

You can now prefer to use tmux with the following option :

let g:fzf_prefer_tmux = 1

[justinmk]

I recently discovered the VimL function winrestcmd() which gives an ex command that can be executed to restore window layout for the current tabpage.

let save_win_layout = winrestcmd()
" ... show fzf split window; user selects item
execute save_win_layout  " restore window layout

There are some limitations (e.g. it won't work if new splits are opened) but I think this would solve the common case. winrestcmd() works well for a "zoom" mapping I recently hacked up.

[justinmk]

Derp, I just noticed that https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/commit/f025602841384fb10cc80d37492ec44c2b872860 uses winrestcmd().

[junegunn]

@justinmk

Derp, I just noticed that f025602 uses winrestcmd().

It's a shame that we didn't know about it when the great ctrlp has been using it for like 5 years :)

Incidentally, I also have a zoom mapping. It uses :tab split, like Goyo.

" Zoom
function! s:zoom()
  if winnr('$') > 1
    tab split
  elseif len(filter(map(range(tabpagenr('$')), 'tabpagebuflist(v:val + 1)'),
                  \ 'index(v:val, '.bufnr('').') >= 0')) > 1
    tabclose
  endif
endfunction
nnoremap <silent> <leader>z :call <sid>zoom()<cr>