How can I name/rename a terminal buffer?

Question

Is there a way to rename the terminal buffer? using :b to switch buffers, terminal buffers are often shown as !/usr/local/bin/fish and !/usr/local/bin/fish (1) which isn't very useful. Ideally It could auto rename itself, but I'm also okay with manually naming them (i.e. docker-compose up) after I start the job with in a terminal.

David M · Answer 1 · 2020-11-06T22:36:17.840

Here's a function I made for it. Disclaimer: I'm no Tim Pope

function! RenameTerminalBufferToCurrentCommand()

  " unable to access $HISTFILE from vim, so change this variable to your history file
  let l:historyFile = "~/.zsh_history"
  let l:mostRecentCommand = system("tail -1 " . l:historyFile . " | cut -f2- -d\\;")

  " i prepend "term" for easy buffer searching, but feel free to delete
  let l:newFileName = "term " . fnameescape(trim(l:mostRecentCommand))

  " the keepalt stops :file from creating an alternative file (alt files are
  " annoying when buffer switching)
  " :file renames the buffer
  silent! execute "keepalt file " . l:newFileName

endfunction


tnoremap <Enter> <Enter><C-\><C-n>:call RenameTerminalBufferToCurrentCommand()<Enter>a

How can I name/rename a terminal buffer?

1 Answers1