How to Enable Pasting Vim Sessions in iTerm2 on MacOS

Enabling Pasting Vim Sessions in iTerm2 on MacOS

If you're a Vim user working on a MacOS machine, you might have encountered issues when trying to paste a Vim session into iTerm2 on a new Mac Mini running Sequoia, compared to an older MacBook running Ventura where pasting Vim sessions works seamlessly.

Context

Vim is a popular text editor used by many developers for its speed, efficiency, and flexibility. iTerm2 is a terminal emulator for MacOS that provides advanced features and customization options.

When working with Vim, it's common to have sessions that contain multiple files, buffers, and window layouts. The ability to paste these sessions into a new terminal window can save time and improve productivity.

Key Concepts

• Vim: A popular text editor used for programming and content creation
• iTerm2: A terminal emulator for MacOS that provides advanced features and customization options
• Session: A set of files, buffers, and window layouts in Vim
• Pasting: Transferring the contents of a clipboard into a terminal window

Enabling Pasting in iTerm2

To enable pasting Vim sessions in iTerm2 on MacOS, follow these steps:

1. Open iTerm2 and navigate to Preferences > Profiles > your profile > Terminal
2. Under Report Terminal Type: select xterm-256color
3. Under Default Character Encoding: select Unicode (UTF-8)
4. Under Line Disposition: select Allows Literal Backspaces and other 8-bit Control Characters

Pasting Vim Sessions

Once you've enabled pasting in iTerm2, you can paste Vim sessions using the following steps:

1. Enter Vim in the source terminal window
2. Execute the :mksession command to save the current session
3. Copy the session file path using the clipboard
4. Switch to the destination terminal window (iTerm2)
5. Execute the vim -S command, followed by the session file path

Code Block

• Enabled pasting in iTerm2 by configuring terminal settings
• Saved the current Vim session using the :mksession command
• Copied the session file path using the clipboard
• Pasted the Vim session into a new iTerm2 window using the vim -S command and the session file path

References

• Vim Sessions - Vim Wiki
• iTerm2 Preferences Documentation