Add keymap for closing buffer of file under cursor

[GCrispino]

Is this a question?
No

Can this functionality be implemented utilising API?
If I understood correctly, no.

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
No.

Describe the solution you'd like
I believe it might be useful to add a keymap to close the buffer associated with the tree cursor, if such buffer exists.

If this cannot be done, might be useful to have this implemented in the API so a custom keymap can be added.

Describe alternatives you've considered
As mentioned, adding a custom keymap using an API method that can achieve this, if possible.

Additional context
I've done a draft implementation of this in a PR in my own fork of nvim-tree: GCrispino#1

It adds an API method at Api.node.close.close_file_buffer and a keymap to <C-c> that calls this method.

If the maintainers believe this is worth adding, I'd be happy to create a PR here for this

[gegoune]

Can this functionality be implemented utilising API?
If I understood correctly, no.

Is that doing what you are after?

vim.keymap.set('n', '<C-c>', function()
  local filename = require('nvim-tree.api').tree.get_node_under_cursor().absolute_path
  vim.cmd({ cmd = 'bdelete', args = { filename } })
end, opts('duffer delete'))

You will probably want to check filename for nil though.

[GCrispino]

Can this functionality be implemented utilising API?
If I understood correctly, no.

Is that doing what you are after?

vim.keymap.set('n', '<C-c>', function()
  local filename = require('nvim-tree.api').tree.get_node_under_cursor().absolute_path
  vim.cmd({ cmd = 'bdelete', args = { filename } })
end, opts('duffer delete'))

Yeah I think so!

You will probably want to check filename for nil though.

About this, would you know how errors are generally reported to the user on nvim-tree? I'm thinking about this case where filename would be nil, in which some message like "no buffer found for file " would have to be printed to the user.

EDIT:
@gegoune based on your code, I came up with the following:

  vim.keymap.set("n", "<C-c>", function()
    local filename = require("nvim-tree.api").tree.get_node_under_cursor().absolute_path
    local buffer_at_filename = vim.fn.bufnr(filename)
    if buffer_at_filename == -1 then
      notify.error(string.format("No buffer coincides with %s", filename))
      return
    end

    vim.cmd({ cmd = "bdelete", args = { filename } })
  end, opts("Close file buffer (if any exist)"))

Do you think this would be a worthy addition to nvim-tree key maps?

[alex-courtis]

That's a great idea; I think I'd be using that. Let's add it to API.

Can we please keep vim nomenclature and add an extra call for wipe:
Api.node.buffer.delete
Api.node.buffer.wipe

RE error messages, yes please, via notify e.g.

nvim-tree.lua/lua/nvim-tree/actions/fs/remove-file.lua

Line 91 in 610a1c1

--- Remove a node, notify errors, dispatch events

There will be times when vim won't delete the buffer, and will report a message like E89: No write since last change for buffer 1 (add ! to override)

[alex-courtis]

vim.cmd({ cmd = "bdelete", args = { filename } })

Calling the command as a function is a little more robust:

vim.cmd.bwipe({ filename, bang = false })

It might also be useful to add an option to the api, something like { force = true }

[GCrispino]

Hey @alex-courtis , sounds good, thanks for the feedback! I have some questions about your comments:

Can we please keep vim nomenclature and add an extra call for wipe:
Api.node.buffer.delete
Api.node.buffer.wipe

Here do you mean doing something like the code excerpt I added in this comment, but wrapping that into a new API method in Api.node.buffer.delete, and then add another method called Api.node.buffer.wipe, which would do pretty much the same thing, except that it calls bwipe instead of bdelete? Did I get this correctly?

There will be times when vim won't delete the buffer, and will report a message like E89: No write since last change for buffer 1 (add ! to override)

Oh that's true, I hadn't thought of that. Do you have any thoughts on how to handle this? For example, should this not be handled at all (i.e. just call bdelete/bwipe if a buffer exists for the given file and let it error if it has pending changes), or should we add a notify.error call in case the given file has pending changes (i.e. if the buffer is modified)?

---

vim.cmd({ cmd = "bdelete", args = { filename } })

Calling the command as a function is a little more robust:

vim.cmd.bwipe({ filename, bang = false })

It might also be useful to add an option to the api, something like { force = true }

Sounds good 👍🏼

[alex-courtis]

Did I get this correctly?

Yup, that would be great. Someone will ask for wipe when they see delete.

For example, should this not be handled at all (i.e. just call bdelete/bwipe if a buffer exists for the given file and let it error if it has pending changes)

If that works we should be fine; vim will effectively notify.error.

If that doesn't work e.g. vim throws an exception, we'll need to wrap it in a pcall and report the error, something like

nvim-tree.lua/lua/nvim-tree/events.lua

Line 42 in 1ae1c33

local success, error = pcall(handler, payload)

[GCrispino]

@alex-courtis @gegoune FYI I've just created a PR for implementing the mentioned API methods: #3040

It's still set as WIP because I haven't run the make commands yet, but the code is pretty much ready.