The vim-client command-line tools vim-client-edit, vim-client-diff and the Python module vim_client will allow you to connect to a Vim server and make it:

• Edit files or directories in new tabs,
• Compare files (similar to vimdiff),
• Evaluate expressions and return their result,
• Send commands to Vim.

It will allow you, for example, to make Vim edit or diff files from outside of Vim (e.g. from a shell like Bash, Zsh, etc.).

License

Copyright (C) 2022-2026 James Cherti.

Distributed under terms of the MIT license.

Requirements

• Python >= 3.0
• The Vim editor (‘vim’ or ‘gvim’ in $PATH. Vim must be compiled with |+clientserver|, which is the case of most Vim distributions, because the Python module vim_client uses command-line arguments vim --remote-*)

Installation

sudo pip install vim-client

The ‘vim-client-*’ command-line tools

Edit a file in the current window/tab:

vim-client-edit file1

Edit multiple files/directories in separate tabs:

vim-client-edit --tab file1 file2 file3

Edit multiple files/directories in stacked horizontal splits:

vim-client-edit --split file1 file2

Edit multiple files/directories in side-by-side vertical splits (To open vertical splits on the right of the current window, use the Vim option set splitright):

vim-client-edit --vsplit file1 file2

Edit and compare up to eight files in a new tab:

vim-client-diff --tab file1 file2

Recommendations

Add aliases to ~/.bashrc

It is recommended to add the following aliases to your ~/.bashrc:

alias gvim='vim-client-edit --tab'
alias vim='vim-client-edit --tab'
alias vi='vim-client-edit --tab'
alias vimdiff='vim-client-diff --tab'

Start diff mode with vertical splits (vim-client-diff)

Add the following line to your ~/.vimrc:

set diffopt+=vertical

Create desktop launchers

File: /usr/local/share/applications/vim-client-edit.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Name=vim-client-edit
GenericName=Vim Client Edit
Comment=Vim Client Edit
Exec=vim-client-edit --tab %F
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Keywords=Text;editor;
Icon=gvim
Categories=Utility;TextEditor;
StartupNotify=false
MimeType=text/english;text/plain;text/x-makefile;text/x-c++hdr;text/x-c++src;text/x-chdr;text/x-csrc;text/x-java;text/x-moc;text/x-pascal;text/x-tcl;text/x-tex;application/x-shellscript;text/x-c;text/x-c++;

File: /usr/local/share/applications/vim-client-diff.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Name=vim-client-diff
GenericName=Vim Client Diff
Comment=Vim Client Diff
Exec=vim-client-diff --tab %F
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Keywords=Text;editor;
Icon=gvim
Categories=Utility;TextEditor;
StartupNotify=false
MimeType=text/english;text/plain;text/x-makefile;text/x-c++hdr;text/x-c++src;text/x-chdr;text/x-csrc;text/x-java;text/x-moc;text/x-pascal;text/x-tcl;text/x-tex;application/x-shellscript;text/x-c;text/x-c++;

Links

• vim-client @PyPI
• vim-client @GitHub
• Vim documentation about +clientserver and ‘vim –remote’ (:help remote.txt)