FocusGained and FocusLost autocommand events are not working in terminal vim. This plugin restores them when using vim inside Tmux.

Here's where that matters:

• vim-fugitive plugin uses FocusGained for refreshing git branch in status line
• vim-gitgutter uses FocusGained for refreshing ... (wait for it) git gutter
• (get in touch if you know other popular plugins that get improved)

Also, vim-tmux-focus-events makes the autoread option work properly for terminal vim. So far, this was only working in a GUI version.

The autoread feature comes handy when files are changed outside vim, for example when resolving merge conflicts. When you come back to vim and try saving a changed file you'll likely be interrupted with E813:

Improved autoread prevents this by automatically reading a file from disk if it was changed. Works only if autoread option is set (enable it with set autoread in .vimrc).

• Vundle
  Plugin 'tmux-plugins/vim-tmux-focus-events'

• vim-plug
  Plug 'tmux-plugins/vim-tmux-focus-events'

• Pathogen
  git clone git://github.com/tmux-plugins/vim-tmux-focus-events.git ~/.vim/bundle/vim-tmux-focus-events

In order for Tmux to do its magic focus-events option has to be set to on.

Enable that by installing tmux-sensible plugin, or by setting this line in tmux.conf:

set -g focus-events on

Tested and working on:

• OS X

  • Terminal.app
  • iTerm2

• Linux

  • GNOME Terminal
  • Terminator
  • XTerm
  • Konsole

Not working with NeoVim.

Once installed, the plugin should "just work".

It will have no effect when running GUI vim or inside plain terminal (without Tmux).

• vim-tmux - vim plugin for tmux.conf
• tmux-resurrect - restore tmux environment after system restart

You might want to follow @brunosutic on twitter if you want to hear about new tmux plugins or feature updates.

Big chunk of code was taken and adapted from vitality.vim.

In April 2013 a patch was submitted to vim_dev mailing list that enables this functionality natively in vim. Once merged, the functionality from the patch will make this plugin obsolete. I hope that day comes soon.

MIT