file command background process suppress errors

Question

When I use the :file command (which is pretty nice) I can background the process using &. However the program's output is not suppressed which is really needed for most programs. Is there any way to suppress the same?

If I directly do :!command 2> /dev/null & everything works fine but I don't get the flexibility :file gives me i.e to chose my program of choice from the options listed.

Answer 1

You can use %i macro, which is effectively the same as redirection to /dev/null.

If those :file entries come from your vifmrc file, you can just add %i there. If they are from some .desktop-file, you can press c on an entry and then edit the command by appending %i.

However the program's output is not suppressed which is really needed for most programs.

It depends on programs you use. If they are terminal-based, ignoring their output by default can break them and there is no way for vifm to know if particular application is running in terminal or has a GUI. So showing errors by default seems to be the safest and universal choice.

Comments

Thanks! Very helpful.