Split pane mode with shell and nav in sync?

[Urist-McUristurister]

Is it possible to run nnn in a kind of a split mode, where the shell is in left pane, and nnn is in the right, and they're synchronised? I.e. when changing directory with cd (or otherwise) in left pane, this change is reflected in nnn in the right pane. Correspondingly, if I navigate through directories in nnn in the right pane, and then switch to the left ("shell") pane, the pwd in the left pane is changed to the current directory of nnn in the right pane.

Now that I re-read it, it sounds intricate, so I'll try to explain it in pseudo-code...

shell_pane.on_event("pwd_change") do
  nnn_pane.cd(shell_pane.pwd)
done

shell_pane.on_event("became_active") do
  if shell_pane.pwd != nnn_pane.pwd then
    shell_pane.cd(nnn_pane.pwd)
  endif
done

Hope that's more clear...

Is it possible to achieve such behaviour? I'm using iTerm2 if that matters.

[jarun]

Sorry, nnn doesn't support split pane natively.

[jarun]

Dual-pane is a massive work. In my experience I haven't found too many people who have such time to invest in nnn.

[jarun]

If anyone from the team is interested they would respond back anyway.

[N-R-K]

Maybe there is a way to perform the same in opposite direction (ask nnn for it's current folder) that I've missed.

There are some X11 related code (which are enabled with flag -x) that uses OSC-7 to signal CWD changes to the terminal. Also, when -x is enabled, nnn sets the terminal window's title to the CWD.

nnn/src/nnn.c

Lines 1358 to 1366 in 26d5b5c

	/* Signal CWD change to terminal */
	printf("\033]7;file://%s%s\033\\", hostname, path);
	/* Set terminal window title */
	bool r = set_tilde_in_path(path);
	printf("\033]2;%s\007", r ? &path[homelen - 1] : path);
	fflush(stdout);

Maybe you can make use of this as a hacky workaround to get what you want.

[Urist-McUristurister]

Dual-pane is a massive work. In my experience I haven't found too many people who have such time to invest in nnn.

I would like to bring your attention to the fact that nowhere in my post I've mentioned a request to implement such a feature.

This is not a feature request.

Not a complaint.

Not a bug.

Not an issue.

This is a request for a discussion.

And I must admit, I'm fairly surprised by the fact that discussions are considered to be something that is limited to the post's author and the team exclusively.

[Urist-McUristurister]

Maybe there is a way to perform the same in opposite direction (ask nnn for it's current folder) that I've missed.

There are some X11 related code (which are enabled with flag -x) that uses OSC-7 to signal CWD changes to the terminal. Also, when -x is enabled, nnn sets the terminal window's title to the CWD.

nnn/src/nnn.c

Lines 1358 to 1366 in 26d5b5c

	/* Signal CWD change to terminal */
	printf("\033]7;file://%s%s\033\\", hostname, path);
	/* Set terminal window title */
	bool r = set_tilde_in_path(path);
	printf("\033]2;%s\007", r ? &path[homelen - 1] : path);
	fflush(stdout);

Maybe you can make use of this as a hacky workaround to get what you want.

Thanks! That indeed helps, at least I now have a direction to dig. ;)

[pvx-]

If you use tmux, you can use send-keys as a simple but possibly dangerous solution. Start with tmux split window opening nnn in one pane and shell in another, then use custom plugin in nnn to send cd {current dir} into shell-pane and some command to set it in nnn. Not seamless but may be enough for what you need.

I personally only use a simple plugin to open split pane with shell from nnn (so I can keep browsing the filesystem while running commands and see both), never had the need to send directory from shell "back" ;). But I use send-keys in specific work case where I get URLs in text-file, that I have to run semi-interactive scripts on, it is more convenient than to copy-paste all the time ;).