Use gvim as an external editor for Linux apps

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created October 24, 2004 · complexity advanced · author Ben Collerson · version 5.7

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The following script, external-edit, provides the Windows only functionality of VimTip805 to GNU/Linux systems with X Windows.

This script does not rely on clipbrd.vim script -- it uses a temporary file to pass the clipboard to gvim. This tip is actually not gvim specific but can be configured to use any external editor.

#!/bin/sh
##################################################
#
# external-edit: launches an external editor from within an X11 Application.
#
# Author: Ben Collerson
# Copyright: 2004 Ben Collerson
# Lastchange: 2004 Oct 24
# License: GPL version 2.0 or later (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html)
#
# Install:
# =======
# NOTE: These installation instructions are targeted towards a Debian
# system. To install on a non-Debian system you will need to reinterpret
# these instructions.
#
# First you will need to install the required packages some of which
# are part of Debian so become root and do the following:
#
#   apt-get install xbase-clients xautomation
#
# I have used a Window Manager command which has not yet made it into
# being a Debian package so you will need to install from source.
# get the source from here: http://sweb.cz/tripie/utils/wmctrl/
#
# This utility is a "command line tool to interact with an EWMH/NetWM
# compatible X Window Manager". This means that this tip will not work
# if you are using a particularly old window manager, however most of the
# main WMs are okay -- including the default Gnome and KDE Window Managers.
# More info is available at the wmctrl link provided above.
#
# Once you have the source tarball for wmctrl extract it and do a
#
#   ./configure && make && make install
#
# of course at this stage you will find some obscure library is missing
# you will have to resolve this yourself
#
# Once wmctrl is installed your system put this script somewhere handy like
# ~/bin/external-edit and chmod +x ~/bin/external-edit
#
# Usage:
# =====
# using your favourite keygrabber/window manager bind a
# key combination (eg: Ctrl-Alt-V) to a command like the
# following:
#
#   external-edit /usr/bin/gvim -f
#
# for my fluxbox/bbkeys configuration I have the following in my .bbkeysrc:
#
#   KeyToGrab(V), WithModifier(Mod1+Control), WithAction(ExecCommand), DoThis(/home/ben/bin/external-edit gvim -f)
#
# note than the editor you specify must not fork (gvim -f). When
# executed the editor must allow the script to wait until the editor
# has finished executing.
#
#

# editor plus arguments (except filename) passed on command line
editor=$*

# this gets the window id of the window with focus
winid=`xdpyinfo | sed -ne 's/^focus:.*\(0x[^,]\+\).*/\1/p'`
# and this gets window title
wintitle=`xwininfo -id $winid | sed -ne 's/xwininfo: .*"\([^"]\+\)"/\1/p'`

mytemp=`mktemp`

# copy text using application keyboard short-cuts
case $wintitle in
  *Mozilla*)
  xte << EOM
sleep 1
keydown Alt_L
key a
keyup Alt_L
keydown Control_L
key c
sleep 1
key Home
keyup Control_L
EOM
  ;;
  *)
  xte << EOM
sleep 1
keydown Control_L
key a
key c
sleep 1
key Home
keyup Control_L
EOM
esac

xsel -b -o > $mytemp
# xclip could also be used eg:
# xclip -selection clipboard -o > $mytemp

# invoke the editor, wait for it to finish
#/usr/bin/gvim -f $mytemp
$editor $mytemp

# applications should be using the clipboard to paste!
xsel -b -i < $mytemp

# some applications have incorrect behaviour and use the primary
# selection to paste
xsel -p -i < $mytemp

# activates the original window
wmctrl -ia $winid

# paste text using standard keyboard short-cuts
case $wintitle in
  *Mozilla*)
  xte << EOM
keydown Alt_L
key a
keyup Alt_L
keydown Control_L
key v
sleep 1
key Home
keyup Control_L
EOM
  ;;
  *)
  xte << EOM
keydown Control_L
key a
key v
sleep 1
key Home
keyup Control_L
EOM
esac

# cleanup temporary file
rm $mytemp

# vim:ft=sh:sw=2

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