Let gVim always run a single instance

Question

Is there a way to let gVim only run a single instance, so that when a new file is opened with it it\'s automatically opened in a new tab in the currently running instance?

Answer 1

The solutions above don't launch the gvim server on first execution, so I use:

ANS=`pgrep -fx "$VIM"`

# Launch server if needed
if [[ ! $ANS ]]; then
   $VIM
fi

# Now open the file
if [[ $1 ]]; then
    $VIM --remote-tab "$@"
fi

modified from https://stackoverflow.com/a/15335004/214686