docs: add FAQ entry for redirecting markdown output to /tmp (#56 )

Problem: the `markdown` and `github` presets write `.html` output to the
working directory, which clutters the project.

Solution: add a FAQ entry to both `README.md` and `doc/preview.txt`
showing how to override the `output` field to redirect to `/tmp`.

2026-03-11 15:43:13 -04:00

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preview.nvim

Universal previewer for Neovim

An extensible framework for compiling and previewing any documents (LaTeX, Typst, Markdown, etc.)—diagnostics included.

Features

Async compilation via vim.system()
Built-in presets for Typst, LaTeX (latexmk, pdflatex, tectonic), Markdown, GitHub-flavored Markdown, AsciiDoc, PlantUML, Mermaid, and Quarto
Compiler errors via vim.diagnostic or quickfix
Previewer auto-close on buffer deletion

Requirements

Neovim 0.11+

Installation

With lazy.nvim:

{
  'barrettruth/preview.nvim',
  init = function()
    vim.g.preview = { typst = true, latex = true }
  end,
}

Or via luarocks:

luarocks install preview.nvim

Documentation

:help preview.nvim

FAQ

Q: How do I define a custom provider?

vim.g.preview = {
  rst = {
    cmd = { 'rst2html' },
    args = function(ctx)
      return { ctx.file, ctx.output }
    end,
    output = function(ctx)
      return ctx.file:gsub('%.rst$', '.html')
    end,
  },
}

Q: How do I override a preset?

vim.g.preview = {
  typst = { env = { TYPST_FONT_PATHS = '/usr/share/fonts' } },
}

Q: How do I automatically open the output file?

Set open = true on your provider (all built-in presets have this enabled) to open the output with vim.ui.open() after the first successful compilation in toggle/watch mode. For a specific application, pass a command table:

vim.g.preview = {
  typst = { open = { 'sioyek', '--new-instance' } },
}

Q: Markdown compilation drops .html files in my working directory. How do I send output to /tmp instead?

Override the output field. The args function references ctx.output, so the compiled file lands wherever output points:

vim.g.preview = {
  github = {
    output = function(ctx)
      return '/tmp/' .. vim.fn.fnamemodify(ctx.file, ':t:r') .. '.html'
    end,
  },
}

Q: How do I set up SyncTeX (forward/inverse search)?

See :help preview-synctex for full recipes covering Zathura, Sioyek, and Okular.

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