Use Ctrl-W to close a pane unless there is a text editor inside

[eugenesvk]

If you're using a terminal-based text editor, you might have conflicting keybinds, e.g.

• Ctrlw to close a buffer in a text editor
• Ctrlw to close a pane in WezTerm

The current Nightly version allows you to map a keybind in a way that resolves this conflict: it would test whether the pane is running a text editor and pass the keybind through if so
So Ctrlw won't close your editor, but instead pass Ctrlw through to the editor

Below is a short example of how that would work

-- lib/mytable.lua, get the content from github.com/bew/dotfiles/blob/main/gui/wezterm/lib/mystdlib.lua

-- wezterm.lua
local wezterm	= require("wezterm")
local mytable	= require "lib/mytable".mytable
local std    	= require "lib/std".std

-- !!! add your list of editors here !!!
termEditors = {"hx","nvim","vim"}
winExt      = ".exe" -- extension to add to match Windows process names

local cfgBindKey	= require("wezKey")	-- Key bindings
local config    	= mytable.merge_all(cfgBindKey,{})
return config

-- std.lua
local wezterm	= require "wezterm"
local std = {} -- stdlib
function std.basename(path) -- get filename from path
  local isWin	= wezterm.target_triple=="x86_64-pc-windows-msvc"
  if type(path) ~= "string" then return nil end
  if isWin then return path:gsub("(.*[/\\])(.*)","%2")     -- replace (path/ or path\)(file) with (file)
  else          return path:gsub("(.*/)(.*)"    ,"%2") end -- replace (path/)(file)          with (file)
end
return { std = std}

-- wezKey.lua
local wezterm	= require "wezterm"
local std    	= require "lib/std".std

local act  	= wezterm.action
local actCB	= wezterm.action_callback

local mod  = {} -- modifiers, short order ↓→: Shift, Control, Super/Win, Alt
  mod.c    = "             CTRL"

local cfg = {}

local function keybind(mods, key, action) -- helper for keybind definition; actions↓
  return {mods=mods, key=key, action=action} -- wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/keyassignment
end
local function isEditor(name)
  if type(name) ~= "string" then return nil end
  -- wezterm.log_info("@isEditor,name=" .. name)
  for i, editor in pairs(termEditors) do
    if (name == editor          ) then return true end
    if (name == editor .. winExt) then return true end
  end
  return false
end
local function cbXPaneUnlessEditor(win,pane,mods,key) -- close unless in an Editor, see github.com/wez/wezterm/issues/1417
  local procName = std.basename(pane:get_foreground_process_name())
  if isEditor(procName) then
    win:perform_action(   {SendKey={mods=mods,key=key}}     , pane)
  else
    win:perform_action(act{CloseCurrentPane={confirm=true}}, pane)
  end
end

cfg.keys   = {
  keybind(mod.c , "w"	, actCB(function(win, pane) cbXPaneUnlessEditor(win,pane,mod.c,"w") end))
}
return cfg

[bew]

Note that Ctrl w is also very useful outside of an editor, to delete the last word..

[eugenesvk]

Nothing Ctrlh can't do :) (I also don't find these defaults very useful even in an editor since there is no value in the Word mnemonic (you use these often enough to not need it), so it's better to bind both delete char/word to the same key)