arjunkc/vim-synctex

My vim and synctex setup using gvim

vim-synctex

Description

Python wrapper for gvim and vim plugin that allows you to sync back and forth between a latex file open in gvim and a pdf open in zathura or okular.

The main feature of the gvim-open script is the following: when you Ctrl-click on a line in zathura or okular, it will call gvim-open with the corresponding line number and tex file name. gvim-open will check all running gvim servers for the appropriate tex file, and go to the correct line. This makes pdf > tex file sync work. Otherwise, if you have many gvim windows open, and your pdfviewer calls:

gvim --remote +%{line} %{input}

it will result in a new gvim window opening each time you try to jump from the pdf to the tex file (reverse sync). The gvim-open script fixes this behavior, and looks first for a tex file that is already open in a gvim window.

Package

The package contains a ftplugin/tex.vim that has tex forward search. Essentially, it calls a viewer like zathura with the right pdf file and line number. This requires LaTeX-Box to figure out the correct pdf file name.

This uses the default LaTeX-Box and latexsuite mapping sync mappings

<Leader>ls

which usually corresponds to \ls to do tex forward search in a pdf. It also contains a gvim wrapper script called bin/gvim-open. The wrapper script does tex reverse search. It opens the tex file, if already open, in the correct gvim instance. This is useful if you run many gvim instances.

To do reverse search you simply Ctrl-Click or Shift-Click on your pdf reader. I've tested it with zathura and okular. Evince should also work with small configuration changes.

Requires

1. LaTeX-Box. This is used to figure out the correct pdf file for the tex file you are editing, if it exists.
2. gvim
3. python 2 or 3
4. zathura or okular
5. latex with synctex

I've tested a reasonable amount on a linux system with zathura. Zathura is not exactly fully featured, but it has vim keybindings, so it is my preferred pdf viewer when using latex.

Installation

vim plugin installation

Pathogen

If using pathogen, simply make a directory under the 'bundle' directory as follows

cd ~/.vim/bundle
git clone <this url>

Vundle

Reverse sync (pdf to gvim)

Copy gvim-open to your global path. $HOME/bin/ should be in your path in most linux distributions. Then it should find the gvim executable automatically, but if it fails, simply edit the file and change the GVIM environment variable like so

GVIM=/usr/bin/gvim

ln -s vim-synctex/bin/gvim-open -t /usr/local/bin/

viewer setup for reverse sync

Zathura

To configure zathura to use the gvim-open script, you copy the zathurarc script to your ~/.config/zathura directory.

cp vim-synctex/zathurarc ~/.config/zathura/zathurarc

For zathura, edit ~/.config/zathura/zathurarc and add the following line

set synctex-editor-command 'gvim-open --remote +%{line} %{input}'

if your $PATH is setup correctly, and gvim-open can be found in it, then this should work.

Okular

In okular, go to Settings > Editor > Custom Editor and add the line

gvim-open --remote +%l %f

Weird bugs to fix

gvim-open queries running gvim or vim processes using

gvim-open --remote-expr 'returnbufferlist#Buffers()' --servername <servername>

If the running gvim process has been suspended by linux, then this command will never return. One way to fix this is to check if the process is suspended using ps or some other linux mechanism. But I do not think I am going to do it. Another way to fix this is to have some sort of timeout mechanism for these commands.