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I like the terminal in neovim. I am accustomed to tmux and tmux's copy-mode, and type q to exit copy-mode to return back to regular-interactive-mode. Now, in neovim, when in NORMAL mode (which is akin to copy-mode in tmux), I end up typing q hoping to get back to INSERT mode, only to realize nothing happening (as neovim dutifully prepares to start recording). I also use macro recording in vim.

So, is there a way to normal-mode-map q to a only when its a terminal-buffer? And retain q for its existing record-macro use in other buffers?

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I imagine you can use a buffer-local mapping.

nnoremap <buffer> q a

All you need now is a way to apply it to only terminal buffers. Put the following in your vimrc file:

augroup MyTermMappings
  autocmd!
  autocmd TermOpen * nnoremap <buffer> q a
augroup END

Note: I do not use NeoVim so this is all guesswork.

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  • I am using Neovim and verified that the above works. However, anyone who can answer why tnoremap does not work?
    – Sunny Pun
    Commented Nov 30, 2017 at 17:14
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    According to :h terminal-input, tmap's only affect terminal-mode which is when keys are pass to the underlying terminal. Think of terminal mode as a variant insert-mode for terminal buffers.
    – Peter Rincker
    Commented Nov 30, 2017 at 17:19
  • Thanks Peter! How did you find the help tag that describes this behaviour? (By the way, I am on Nvim 0.2.0 and the tag is :h terminal-emulator-input, for whoever interested to read that part of the manual)
    – Sunny Pun
    Commented Nov 30, 2017 at 17:31
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    I only have access to NeoVim's online docs. You should of course use your local help files. I found the doc by searching for equivalent of :h :term which lead me to :h terminal where I read the terminal_emulator.txt help page. Which has the information you are looking for and the tag. However if I had neovim I would probably do :h term<c-d> to list out terminal topics or searched via :helpgrep terminal. How to use :help
    – Peter Rincker
    Commented Dec 1, 2017 at 15:45
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I can't comment, only post an answer, but I'd like to say that the 

augroup MyTermMappings
  autocmd!
  autocmd TermOpen * nnoremap <buffer> q a
augroup END

works but it must go in your init.vim file and not your standard .vimrc if you use vi/m at all. Putting it into the .vimrc file causes a No such group or event: TermOpen * nnoremap <buffer> ... error.

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