8 ms·

Bcvi – run vi over a 'back-channel' (2010)

75 points by leonry 2y ago

pvg 2y ago
Discussion at the time https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1406145 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1406145
- WA9ACE 2y ago
  It's quite fitting as a vim using HAM (with a callsign username), that the top comment on that thread is also a HAM saying how you can also do this in emacs. The world changes all around us, and yet it's always the same.
  - quesera 2y ago
    Hams don't let hams upcase ham. :)
- nazgulsenpai 2y ago
  And the top comment is about Emacs. Yep, that's a vi post alright.
  - neilv 2y ago
    One of the reasons Emacs grew a fan base is that it had powerful features nothing else had. Sometimes decades before anyone else.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
t-3 2y ago
This is pretty cool. I probably don't have much real use case for it because this is basically how I already do things when I use nfs or sshfs to bring the work to my local machine while keeping the files remote, but with more work involved.
darrenf 2y ago
If I’m reading this right, it’s “open a local vi(m) on a remote file”, by invoking a remote command. Is that right? I’m wondering how it’s different in effect to just using vim sftp://host/path/to/file
- __MatrixMan__ 2y ago
  does sftp require configuration beyond what you've already got working if you're ssh'd in?
  - darrenf 2y ago
    I mean you run that command locally. You aren’t ssh’d in, vim copies the file to a tmp location and you edit it, `:w` writes it back to the remote.
    - throwaway314155 2y ago
      ngl didn't know vim supported that so conveniently
    - freedomben 2y ago
      Wow, I've been using Vim exclusively as my text editor now for 15 years and I did not know it could do this. Awesome!
      - stvltvs 2y ago
        Always learning something new with vim. For such a barebones looking editor, it's got a lot going on.
- akovaski 2y ago
  Almost, down the page it says: vi Invokes gvim on your workstation, passing it an scp://... URL of the file(s) you wish to edit So it's just a more convenient way to launch local vim, doing something you could do manually. suvi is neat, and bcp seems like something that I'd actually use.
cycomanic 2y ago
I was actually looking for something like this 2-3 months ago. Did not find anything and was considering writing my own, but got distracted. Quite cool, I encounter situations where I would like to do this all the time.
twiclo 2y ago
I prefer sshfs for something like this. Then I can create files the regular way and edit files with my local neovim config.
- kazinator 2y ago
  Sure, but that usually implies that you have a tighter organization. Like you have a specific remote directory that you're mounting. This bcvi thing just lets you visit any directory anywhere on the host and edit a random file, without any mounting discipline.
  - twiclo 2y ago
    I just mount root of the remote system.
zelcon 2y ago
Look at what they need to mimic a fraction of our power (TRAMP)
- meitham 2y ago
  As a vimmer I whole heartedly agree, there’re aspects of Emacs that’s very hard to argue against, another one is the client server model
kazinator 2y ago
This could use forwarding. Has anybody tried to get that working? I mean, you ssh from host A to B, and from B to C. Then from C you bcvi a file such that you're editing on A.
loskutak 2y ago
Nice! I do something like this with WezTerm. When I ssh into a server where I work, I can run e some/path/whatever which just prints a special string containing some control characters, the server hostname and the path. The local wezterm parses it and calls emacsclient with the appropriate TRAMP path. So ssh to server, work there, call `e ~/.bashrc` and the remote file immediately opens in my local emacs. This is really useful when I am in some deep directory structure. I use the same mechanism to play remote videos - running `mpv experiment/output_foobar.mp4` just prints the special string, which the WezTerm terminal emulator parses and plays the video using my laptop mpv video player. Really really useful for me every day. I run some experiments, can inspect the results immediately. I also have the "reverse scp" which I use from time to time. `rscp foobar.py /tmp/` causes my laptop to download the foobar.py from the current working directory on the remote server into local /tmp/. The mechanism is explained here [1] and here [2] The bash function `e` on the server just prints the special string to SetUserVar with name remotemacs and value hostname---path. In wezterm config I have: wezterm.on('user-var-changed', function(win, pane, name, value) if name == "remotemacs" then -- remotemacs:hostname---path local match_start, match_end, hostname, path = string.find(value, "^(.-)[-][-][-](.-)$") local tramp_path = "/ssh:" .. hostname .. ":" .. path wezterm.background_child_process {'sh', '/home/loskutak/scripts/remotemacs', tramp_path} [1] https://wezterm.org/config/lua/window-events/user-var-changed.html https://wezterm.org/config/lua/window-events/user-var-change... [2] https://wezterm.org/recipes/passing-data.html https://wezterm.org/recipes/passing-data.html
mgarciaisaia 2y ago
I'd expect the next generation of terminals to do this out of the box when using SSH. I never want to run the server's vi[m]/emacs/nano if I already have my own local one completely set up. I don't want to run the remote's bash - I have mine already customized! I want to open a new tab in my terminal - and have it connected to the remote, as if I opened a new tab on the server's terminal. It's the remote's files and process tree and resources what I want to interact with - but I'd rather leverage my local settings as much as possible.
hackburg 2y ago
[dead]

75 points by leonry 2y ago

pvg 2y ago

Discussion at the time https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1406145 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1406145

WA9ACE 2y ago
It's quite fitting as a vim using HAM (with a callsign username), that the top comment on that thread is also a HAM saying how you can also do this in emacs. The world changes all around us, and yet it's always the same.
- quesera 2y ago
  Hams don't let hams upcase ham. :)
nazgulsenpai 2y ago
And the top comment is about Emacs. Yep, that's a vi post alright.
- neilv 2y ago
  One of the reasons Emacs grew a fan base is that it had powerful features nothing else had. Sometimes decades before anyone else.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

t-3 2y ago

This is pretty cool. I probably don't have much real use case for it because this is basically how I already do things when I use nfs or sshfs to bring the work to my local machine while keeping the files remote, but with more work involved.

darrenf 2y ago

If I’m reading this right, it’s “open a local vi(m) on a remote file”, by invoking a remote command. Is that right? I’m wondering how it’s different in effect to just using vim sftp://host/path/to/file

__MatrixMan__ 2y ago
does sftp require configuration beyond what you've already got working if you're ssh'd in?
- darrenf 2y ago
  I mean you run that command locally. You aren’t ssh’d in, vim copies the file to a tmp location and you edit it, `:w` writes it back to the remote.
  - throwaway314155 2y ago
    ngl didn't know vim supported that so conveniently
  - freedomben 2y ago
    Wow, I've been using Vim exclusively as my text editor now for 15 years and I did not know it could do this. Awesome!
    - stvltvs 2y ago
      Always learning something new with vim. For such a barebones looking editor, it's got a lot going on.
akovaski 2y ago
Almost, down the page it says: vi Invokes gvim on your workstation, passing it an scp://... URL of the file(s) you wish to edit So it's just a more convenient way to launch local vim, doing something you could do manually. suvi is neat, and bcp seems like something that I'd actually use.

cycomanic 2y ago

I was actually looking for something like this 2-3 months ago. Did not find anything and was considering writing my own, but got distracted. Quite cool, I encounter situations where I would like to do this all the time.

twiclo 2y ago

I prefer sshfs for something like this. Then I can create files the regular way and edit files with my local neovim config.

kazinator 2y ago
Sure, but that usually implies that you have a tighter organization. Like you have a specific remote directory that you're mounting. This bcvi thing just lets you visit any directory anywhere on the host and edit a random file, without any mounting discipline.
- twiclo 2y ago
  I just mount root of the remote system.

zelcon 2y ago

Look at what they need to mimic a fraction of our power (TRAMP)

meitham 2y ago
As a vimmer I whole heartedly agree, there’re aspects of Emacs that’s very hard to argue against, another one is the client server model

kazinator 2y ago

This could use forwarding. Has anybody tried to get that working? I mean, you ssh from host A to B, and from B to C. Then from C you bcvi a file such that you're editing on A.

loskutak 2y ago

Nice! I do something like this with WezTerm. When I ssh into a server where I work, I can run e some/path/whatever which just prints a special string containing some control characters, the server hostname and the path. The local wezterm parses it and calls emacsclient with the appropriate TRAMP path. So ssh to server, work there, call `e ~/.bashrc` and the remote file immediately opens in my local emacs. This is really useful when I am in some deep directory structure. I use the same mechanism to play remote videos - running `mpv experiment/output_foobar.mp4` just prints the special string, which the WezTerm terminal emulator parses and plays the video using my laptop mpv video player. Really really useful for me every day. I run some experiments, can inspect the results immediately. I also have the "reverse scp" which I use from time to time. `rscp foobar.py /tmp/` causes my laptop to download the foobar.py from the current working directory on the remote server into local /tmp/. The mechanism is explained here [1] and here [2] The bash function `e` on the server just prints the special string to SetUserVar with name remotemacs and value hostname---path. In wezterm config I have: wezterm.on('user-var-changed', function(win, pane, name, value) if name == "remotemacs" then -- remotemacs:hostname---path local match_start, match_end, hostname, path = string.find(value, "^(.-)[-][-][-](.-)$") local tramp_path = "/ssh:" .. hostname .. ":" .. path wezterm.background_child_process {'sh', '/home/loskutak/scripts/remotemacs', tramp_path} [1] https://wezterm.org/config/lua/window-events/user-var-changed.html https://wezterm.org/config/lua/window-events/user-var-change... [2] https://wezterm.org/recipes/passing-data.html https://wezterm.org/recipes/passing-data.html

mgarciaisaia 2y ago

I'd expect the next generation of terminals to do this out of the box when using SSH. I never want to run the server's vi[m]/emacs/nano if I already have my own local one completely set up. I don't want to run the remote's bash - I have mine already customized! I want to open a new tab in my terminal - and have it connected to the remote, as if I opened a new tab on the server's terminal. It's the remote's files and process tree and resources what I want to interact with - but I'd rather leverage my local settings as much as possible.

hackburg 2y ago

[dead]