Running :make from gVim in Background

Question

I use gVim in windows to edit my code (mostly C++). I use :make in gVim to compile the project, but this is a blocking operation, that prevents me from using gVim until the compilation is complete. How can I do :make asynchronously and still get the benefits of reading the errors back into Vim and jump to the errors in source code? Bonus points if I get to see the make process in real time. Right now the :make redirects the output into a file, hence I don't get to see the progress of make.

Answer 1

I would use your OS's inbuilt methods for running background tasks.

On windows, try typing

:!start make

On linux / mac os x, try

:!make > /dev/null 2>&1 &