[HN Gopher] Bcvi - run vi over a 'back-channel' (2010)
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       Bcvi - run vi over a 'back-channel' (2010)
        
       Author : leonry
       Score  : 39 points
       Date   : 2025-03-06 18:55 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (sshmenu.sourceforge.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (sshmenu.sourceforge.net)
        
       | pvg wrote:
       | Discussion at the time
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1406145
        
         | WA9ACE wrote:
         | It's quite fitting as a vim using HAM (with a callsign
         | username), that the top comment on that thread is also a HAM
         | saying how you can also do this in emacs. The world changes all
         | around us, and yet it's always the same.
        
           | quesera wrote:
           | Hams should not capitalize ham. :)
        
         | nazgulsenpai wrote:
         | And the top comment is about Emacs. Yep, that's a vi post
         | alright.
        
       | t-3 wrote:
       | This is pretty cool. I probably don't have much real use case for
       | it because this is basically how I already do things when I use
       | nfs or sshfs to bring the work to my local machine while keeping
       | the files remote, but with more work involved.
        
       | darrenf wrote:
       | If I'm reading this right, it's "open a local vi(m) on a remote
       | file", by invoking a remote command. Is that right?
       | 
       | I'm wondering how it's different in effect to just using
       | vim sftp://host/path/to/file
        
         | __MatrixMan__ wrote:
         | does sftp require configuration beyond what you've already got
         | working if you're ssh'd in?
        
           | darrenf wrote:
           | I mean you run that command locally. You aren't ssh'd in, vim
           | copies the file to a tmp location and you edit it, `:w`
           | writes it back to the remote.
        
             | throwaway314155 wrote:
             | ngl didn't know vim supported that so conveniently
        
             | freedomben wrote:
             | Wow, I've been using Vim exclusively as my text editor now
             | for 15 years and I did not know it could do this. Awesome!
        
               | stvltvs wrote:
               | Always learning something new with vim. For such a
               | barebones looking editor, it's got a lot going on.
        
         | akovaski wrote:
         | Almost, down the page it says:                 vi       Invokes
         | gvim on your workstation,       passing it an scp://... URL of
         | the file(s) you wish to edit
         | 
         | So it's just a more convenient way to launch local vim, doing
         | something you could do manually.
         | 
         | suvi is neat, and bcp seems like something that I'd actually
         | use.
        
         | cycomanic wrote:
         | Sure, but that makes all the difference. I often work on an
         | embedded remote machine with quite restricted vim (can't use a
         | custom config, particularly no language packages). When I am on
         | the remote machine (typically I have to run local commands), I
         | often discover I have to edit a python file (typically just
         | minor edits). So to use vim sftp://host/path/to/file I have to
         | open a new terminal copy the path and then open using sftp. For
         | me that interrupts enough of the workflow, that I just don't
         | bother and instead just edit the file on the remote machine
         | using the restricted vim.
        
       | cycomanic wrote:
       | I was actually looking for something like this 2-3 months ago.
       | Did not find anything and was considering writing my own, but got
       | distracted. Quite cool, I encounter situations where I would like
       | to do this all the time.
        
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       (page generated 2025-03-06 23:00 UTC)