How do I scroll through a terminal using Vim 8.1's new terminal/termpack support?

Question

I love the new terminal support that Vim 8.1 offers and I like that up/down are mapped to the terminal, so that you can select prior commands. How can I scroll up and down the t

Answer 1

If you are using neovim, press Ctrl + \ followed by Ctrl + n to enter normal mode in a terminal.

The help (:help terminal-input) says the following:

In this mode all keys except <C-\><C-N> are sent to the underlying program. Use <C-\><C-N> to return to normal-mode. CTRL-\_CTRL-N

Also, if you do this often, I recommend mapping it to something more convenient, like a double tap of Escape:

tnoremap <Esc><Esc> <C-\><C-n>

(That way you can still use programs in the command line, that require escape to retain it's original functionality, since if you don't press anything else, it will just send a regular escape event after your defined timeout length.)

Answer 2

You have to switch to 'Terminal-Normal mode' with 'Ctrl-w N', (that's Ctrl-w, capital N). Then you can use the usual Vim commands to move around, cut, copy and paste.

Once finished, just hit either 'i' or 'a' to resume using the terminal as before.

Answer 3

I do this:

tnoremap <c-b> <c-\><c-n>

And then <C-b> whenever I need to scroll back up, using gg to go all the way up, then G to come back down, (or <C-F> for page by page). I press 'i' or 'a' from any page to enter commands in the shell. Simplicity itself.