Problem:
- `:restart <cmd>` prepends `-c <cmd>` before the original `-c` args (if
any). So the original `-c` args may "override" it, which is
surprising.
- Confusing logic: `v:argv` is partially prepared in `ex_docmd.c`, and
then later `ui.c` skips other parts of it.
Current behavior is nonsense, for example this sequence:
:restart echo "Hello"
:restart +qall echo "Hello" | echo "World"
results in this v:argv:
[
'nvim'
'-c'
'echo "Hello" | echo "World"'
'--embed'
'-c'
'echo "Hello"'
...
]
Whereas after this commit, v:argv is:
[
'nvim'
'--embed'
...
'-c'
'echo "Hello" | echo "World"'
]
Solution:
- Append `-c <cmd>` at the _end_ of `v:argv`, not the start.
- Use a dummy placeholder `+:::` to mark where the "restart command"
appears in `v:argv`.
- Do all `v:argv` preparation in `ex_docmd.c`. This simplifies `ui.c`.
- Drop `-- [files…]` from `v:argv` since it is probably more annoying
than useful. (Users can use sessions to restore files on restart.)
Problem: Terminal doesn't detect if the PTY process is suspended or
offer a convenient way for the user to resume the process.
Solution: Detect suspended PTY process on SIGCHLD and show virtual text
"[Process suspended]" at the bottom-left. Resume the process
when the user presses a key.
Problem:
restart hangs when nvim was started with stdin input, "-" marker stays
in v:argv, causing the restarted instance to block reading from stdin.
Solution:
filter out the "-" argument when rebuilding v:argv during restart.
Stdin content is ephemeral and shouldn't be re-read after restart.
Problem: TermResponse deferred due to blocked autocommands lacks "data" payload.
Also, it may not fire if a new v:termresponse reuses the same string address.
Solution: add it. Use the value of v:termresponse for "data.sequence". Replace
pointer comparisons with a flag.
The removal of "old_termresponse" comparisons is required to pass the test on
the CI, or locally for me when compiled in RelWithDebInfo.
Problem: 0x08 is treated as Backspace instead of Ctrl-H on Windows.
Solution: Treat 0x7f as Backspace if VT input is enabled, so that 0x08
is treated as Ctrl-H.
Ref: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/4949
Problem:
On Windows, writing to a pipe doesn't work if the pipe isn't connected
yet. This causes an RPC request to a session newly created by connect()
to hang, as it's waiting for a response to a request that never reaches
the server.
Solution:
Wait for uv.pipe_connect() callback to be called when using connect().
Problem:
Every CI log has a lot of noise at the end, which makes it harder to
find relevant test failures:
Running tests from test/functional/terminal/tui_spec.lua
...
T5831 TUI bg color queries the terminal for background color:
T5832 TUI bg color triggers OptionSet from automatic background processing:
T5833 TUI bg color sends theme update notifications when background changes #31652:
...
Running tests from test/functional/ui/output_spec.lua
...
WRN 2025-12-02T03:36:47.304 ui/c/T5831.28003.0 tui_handle_term_mode:223: TUI: terminal mode 2026 unavailable, state 0
WRN 2025-12-02T03:36:47.359 ui/c/T5832.28006.0 tui_handle_term_mode:223: TUI: terminal mode 2048 unavailable, state 0
WRN 2025-12-02T03:36:47.414 ui/c/T5833.28009.0 tui_handle_term_mode:223: TUI: terminal mode 2048 unavailable, state 0
Solution:
- Skip logging in test-mode.
- This can be reverted later, when these logs are changed to "INFO"
level, per this TODO comment:
```
// TODO(bfredl): This is really ILOG but we want it in all builds.
// add to show_verbose_terminfo() without being too racy ????
WLOG("TUI: terminal mode %d unavailable, state %d", mode, state);
```
compile time features are hot again.
Note: this changes the &term value for builtin definition from
'builtin_xterm' to just 'xterm'. It's an xterm regardless of we use an
external definition or an internal. Prior to this commit the vast
majority of POSIX users will have used external terminfo, so plugins and
scripts are only going to have checked for &term == 'xterm' or 'tmux' or
whatever.
The status of external loading is still available in "nvim -V3" output.
:restart changes the terminal under which the server process is run,
which can be confusing when combined with other testing.
Also, use COLORTERM=xterm-256color for tests with 'notermguicolors' to
avoid delay on server exit. Not all these delays are blocking, but they
increase the number of simultaneously existing Nvim processes.
The processing of terminfo can be separated into two steps:
1. The initialization of terminfo, which includes trying to find $TERM
in a terminfo database file. As a fallback, common terminfo
definitions are compiled in. After this, we apply a lot of ad-hoc
patching to cover over limitations of terminfo.
2. While processing updates from nvim, actually using terminfo strings
and formatting them with runtime values. for this part, terminfo
essentially is a hyper-enhanced version of snprintf(), including
a sm0l stack based virtual machine which can manipulate the runtime
parameters.
This PR completely replaces libuniblium for step 2, with code
vendored from NetBSD's libtermkey which has been adapted to use typesafe
input parameters and to write into an output buffer in place.
The most immedatiate effects is a performance enhancement of
update_attrs() which is a very hot function when profiling the
TUI-process part of screen updates. In a stupid microbenchmark
(essentially calling nvim__screenshot over and over in a loop) this
leads to a speedup of ca 1.5x for redrawing the screen on the TUI-side.
What this means in practise when using nvim as a text editor is probably
no noticible effect at all, and when reabusing nvim as idk a full screen
RGB ASCII art rendrer maybe an increase from 72 to 75 FPS LMAO.
As nice side-effect, reduce the usage of unibilium to initialization only..
which will make it easier to remove, replace or make unibilium optional,
adressing #31989. Specifically, the builtin fallback doesn't use
unibilium at all, so a unibilium-free build is in principle possible
if the builtin definitions are good enough.
As a caveat, this PR doesn't touch libtermkey at all, which still has a
conditional dependency on unibilium. This will be investigated in a
follow-up PR
Note: the check of $TERMCOLOR was moved from tui/tui.c to
_defaults.lua in d7651b27d5 as we want to
skip the logic in _defaults.lua if the env var was set, but there
is no harm in TUI getting the right value when the TUI is trying to
initialize its terminfo shenanigans. Also this check is needed when
a TUI connects to a `--headless` server later, which will observe
a different $TERMCOLOR value than the nvim core process itself.
Problem:
Not easy for a user to tell ":restart" to "run this command(s) after restarting".
Solution:
All ":restart" args following the optional +cmd arg are treated as a big cmdline that is passed as a "-c" CLI arg when restarting nvim.
Problem:
":restart" always executes ":qall" to exit the server.
Solution:
Support ":restart +cmd" so the user can control the command
used to exit the server.
Co-authored-by: Justin M. Keyes <justinkz@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: zeertzjq <zeertzjq@outlook.com>
Many terminals now include support for OSC 52 in their Primary Device
Attributes (DA1) response. This is preferable to using XTGETTCAP because
DA1 is _much_ more broadly supported.
Add '^' and '$' around the pattern. This makes it less likely to make
mistakes of when writing tests with {MATCH:}, as most such tests have
text before and after {MATCH:}.
Uses the undocumented "error_exit" UI event for a different purpose:
When :detach is used on the server, send an "error_exit" with 0 `status`
to indicate that the server shouldn't wait for client exit.
Problem: A 'winblend' window floating over uninitialized cells loses
its highlighting.
Solution: Return the front attribute for uninitialized background cells.
Problem:
Developing/troubleshooting plugins has friction because "restarting"
Nvim requires quitting and manually starting again. #32484
Solution:
- Implement a `:restart` command which emits `restart` UI event.
- Handle the `restart` UI event in the builtin TUI client: stop the
`nvim --embed` server, start a new one, and attach to it.
Problem: The TUI doesn't forward a key properly when it has unsupported
modifiers like NumLock.
Solution: Don't try to add modifiers when only unsupported modifiers are
present.
Related #33791
