ptdewey/yankbank-nvim

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CREATED

2024-03-14

UPDATED

last month


YankBank

A Neovim plugin for keeping track of more recent yanks and deletions and exposing them in a quick access menu.

What it Does

YankBank stores the N recent yanks into the unnamed register ("), then populates a popup window with these recent yanks, allowing for quick access to recent yank history. Upon opening the popup menu, the current contents of the unnamedplus (+) register are also added to the menu (if they are different from the current contents of the unnamed register).

Choosing an entry from the menu (by hitting enter) will paste it into the currently open buffer at the cursor position.

Screenshots

YankBank popup window zoomed

The menu is specific to the current session, and will only contain the contents of the current unnamedplus register upon opening in a completely new session. It will be populated further for each yank or deletion in that session.

Installation and Setup

Lazy:

{
    "ptdewey/yankbank-nvim",
    config = function()
        require('yankbank').setup()
    end,
}

Packer:

use {
    'ptdewey/yankbank-nvim',
    config = function()
        require('yankbank').setup()
    end,
}

Setup Options

The setup function also supports taking in a table of options:

Option Type Default
max_entries integer number of entries to show in popup 10
sep string separator to show between table entries "-----"
keymaps table containing keymap overrides {}
keymaps.navigation_next string "j"
keymaps.navigation_prev string "k"
keymaps.paste string "<CR>"
keymaps.yank string "yy"
keymaps.close table of strings { "<Esc>", "<C-c>", "q" }
num_behavior string defining jump behavior "prefix" or "jump" "prefix"
focus_gain_poll boolean nil
registers table container for register overrides { }
registers.yank_register default register to yank from popup to "+"

Example Configuration

    config = function()
        require('yankbank').setup({
            max_entries = 9,
            sep = "",
            num_behavior = "prefix",
            focus_gain_poll = true,
            keymaps = {
                navigation_next = "j",
                navigation_prev = "k",
            },
            registers = {
                yank_register = "+",
            },
        })
    end,

If no separator is desired, pass in an empty string for sep

The 'num_behavior' option defines in-popup navigation behavior when hitting number keys.

  • num_behavior = "prefix" works similar to traditional vim navigation with '3j' moving down 3 entries in the bank.
  • num_behavior = "jump" jumps to entry matching the pressed number key (i.e. '3' jumps to entry 3)
    • Note: If 'max_entries' is a two-digit number, there will be a delay upon pressing numbers that prefix a valid entry.

The 'focus_gain_poll' option allows for enabling an additional autocommand that watches for focus gains (refocusing Neovim window), and checks for changes in the unnamedplus ('+') register, adding to yankbank when new contents are found. This allows for automatically adding text copied from other sources (like a browser) to the yankbank without the bank opening trigger. Off by default, but I highly recommend enabling it (focus_gain_poll = true)

Usage

The popup menu can be opened with the command::YankBank, an entry is pasted at the current cursor position by hitting enter, and the menu can be closed by hitting escape, ctrl-c, or q. An entry from the menu can also be yanked into the unnamedplus register by hitting yy.

I would personally also recommend setting a keybind to open the menu.

-- map to '<leader>y'
vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>y", "<cmd>YankBank<CR>", { noremap = true })

Potential Improvements

  • Persistence between sessions (through either sqlite database or just a file)
  • nvim-cmp integration
  • fzf integration

Alternatives