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Vimperator has a very convenient function — using an external editor for filling text fields. By default it uses GVim but I would like to use Gedit or Vim. I tried to add to ~/.vimperatorrc the following lines but without result (the editors is opened but the typed text isn't added to text fields):

:set editor=gedit
:set editor="gnome-terminal -e vim"

How can I set an external editor for filling text fields in Vimperator?


Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.6;

Firefox 3.6.9;

Vimperator 2.3.1.


To configure the Vim external editor the configuration option in ~/.vimperatorrc should be the following:

autocmd LocationChange .* :set editor="gnome-terminal -x vim"
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3 Answers

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It's completely a mystery to me why the things you tried don't work when placed in .vimperatorrc (though they don't work for me either). It's very strange. But this seems to work:

autocmd LocationChange .* :set editor="gedit"

It takes effect even with the first page that loads.

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It doesn't work either. I start the browser, go to page with a web-form, focus a text field, press Ctrl+i, Gedit starts with the vimperator-<base_url>-<number>.tmp page opened, I start to type text, save it, close the editor and that's all, nothing happens, the text feild is empty. –  Shamaoke Sep 10 '10 at 3:42
Sorry, this seems like an unrelated bug. It works for me just fine. (Vimperator 2.3.1 on Firefox 3.6.8 on Arch Linux.) –  frabjous Sep 10 '10 at 3:45
It starts working. It seems, it has to restart X-es. Thanks for help, frabjous. –  Shamaoke Sep 10 '10 at 4:23
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To use vim through gnome-terminal v3.4.1.1, I had to tell gnome-terminal to not fork a process but block:

In ~/.vimperatorrc:

:set editor="gnome-terminal --disable-factory -x vim"

or better yet, to have your ~/.bashrc loaded (e.g. in case it conditionally sets TERM or other environment) before launching vim, and to pass some setup commands to vim (e.g. a command ExtEditor defined in ~/.vimrc that e.g. adjusts the linbreak setting):

:set editor="gnome-terminal --maximize --disable-factory -x bash -ic 'vim -c ExtEditor $0'"
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I discovered this feature recently. This option allowed me to stop using GVim completely. –  Shamaoke Nov 15 '12 at 19:29
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What I did was

:set editor="urxvt -e vim"

Works like a charm. Of course you have to be using vim from the urxvt terminal.

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