File browsers won't open in floaterm if the file in the currently focused buffer is owned by root

floaterm health check


health#floaterm#check
========================================================================
## common
  - INFO: Platform: linux
  - INFO: Nvim: NVIM v0.4.4
  - INFO: Plugin: 1c63ac0

## terminal
  - OK: Terminal emulator is available

## floating
  - OK: Floating window is available

My Configurations related to vim-floaterm

let g:floaterm_gitcommit='floaterm'
let g:floaterm_autoinsert=1
let g:floaterm_width=0.8
let g:floaterm_height=0.8
let g:floaterm_wintitle=0
let g:floaterm_autoclose=1
let g:floaterm_opener='edit'

Description of the bug:

File browsers like vifm, nnn, lf, etc. won't open in floaterm if the file in the currently focused buffer is owned by root. If I run FloatermNew vifm, i get the following error messages:

Error detected while processing function floaterm#run[7]..floaterm#new[19]..floaterm#wrapper#vifm#: line 3: E472: Command failed Error detected while processing function floaterm#run: line 7: E171: Missing :endif

Steps to reproduce

Open for example /etc/resolve.conf or any other file owned by root.
Run FloatermNew vifm or FloatermNew nnn, etc.

A solution

I skimmed through the code and found the line which causes the problem. In the autoload/floaterm/wrapper/vifm.vim file this line

lcd %:p:h

fails if the owner is root. This is the case with the other file manager wrappers as well.

Fortunately I also found a solution. Instead of lcd %:p:h we can use this:

let path_to_open = expand('%:p:h')
exec "lcd " . path_to_open

The functionality is the same, but now file managers will correctly work with any file.

I use a plugin called suda.vim which makes it easier to edit files owned by root. This plugin renames readonly buffers if let g:suda_smart_edit = 1 is set and this will make my solution above not to work. To provide compatibility with the suda plugin I extended my solution above like this:

let path_to_open = expand('%:p:h')

" This check provides compatibility with the suda.vim plugin
if !isdirectory(path_to_open) && !filereadable(path_to_open)
  let path_to_open = path_to_open[6:-1]
endif

exec "lcd " . path_to_open

Just thought I leave this here if anyone else uses suda.vim

voldikss / vim-floaterm