Insert mode for commit messages in Neovim

Want to save one keystroke and a few milliseconds? I’m trying something out, when I do my git commits, to start in insert mode, so I can start typing immediately.

You can do this by adding a new autocommand for git commit messages. In Neovim and Lua you create one like this:

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd("FileType", {
  pattern = "gitcommit",
  callback = function()
    vim.cmd("startinsert")
  end,
})

If for example you are using Lazyvim, add the above to your ~/.config/nvim/lua/config/autocmds.lua file.

Copy/Paste for Neovim in WSL

If you want a seamless copy/paste experience on Neovim in WSL there is a newly recommended method for doing so, without having to install extra software.

Paste the following Lua snippet in your configuration and "+y to yank the selected text into your global register. Similarly, use "+p to paste.

if vim.fn.has "wsl" == 1 then
  vim.g.clipboard = {
    name = "WslClipboard",
    copy = {
      ["+"] = "clip.exe",
      ["*"] = "clip.exe",
    },
    paste = {
      ["+"] = 'powershell.exe -c [Console]::Out.Write($(Get-Clipboard -Raw).tostring().replace("`r", ""))',
      ["*"] = 'powershell.exe -c [Console]::Out.Write($(Get-Clipboard -Raw).tostring().replace("`r", ""))',
    },
    cache_enabled = 0,
  }
end

Latest Neovim on Ubuntu

I’m using Ubuntu for my development environment, and Ubuntu does not have the latest Neovim in their repository.

That’s why I choose to install the last version by source. The steps I take are:

wget https://github.com/neovim/neovim/releases/download/v0.9.1/nvim-linux64.tar.gz
tar xfz nvim-linux64.tar.gz
sudo mv nvim-linux64 /opt/nvim

Now you have to make sure that /opt/nvim/bin is part of your path. If you are smart, and using the Fish shell, add this to your Fish config.

fish_add_path -aP /opt/nvim/bin

If you are on Bash:

export PATH=/opt/nvim/bin:$PATH

Enjoy your latest version of Neovim!

Patching Berkeley Mono with Nerd Fonts

I’m using Berkeley Mono as my font, which is beautiful, but doesn’t have all the glyphs I need for my terminal and editor.

The glyphs I need are part of Nerd Fonts. This is the command I run to patch Berkeley Mono with the use of Docker:

docker run --rm \
 -v /tmp/berkeley-mono/origin:/in \
 -v /tmp/berkeley-mono/patched:/out \
 nerdfonts/patcher \
 --progressbars \
 --mono \
 --adjust-line-height \
 --fontawesome \
 --fontawesomeextension \
 --fontlogos \
 --octicons \
 --codicons \
 --powersymbols \
 --pomicons \
 --powerline \
 --powerlineextra \
 --material \
 --weather

I found the above command in this blog post from Serhat Teker: Patching Fonts with Docker.