Is it possible to have vim run a command every time save `:w` is invoked?

Question

I am editting typescript now, and I'd like to be able to have it so, whenever :w is invoked, the shell runs tsc compiling my new save.

This beats having to !tsc every time.

Does something like this exist? A build or toolchain command is also an acceptable answer, as long as it can be done in one short command.

Matt · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-12 12:18:13Z

6

Does something like this exist?

In Vim this is called an autocommand. The relevant help topic can be found by typing :h autocommand (sic!)

An example code to put into vimrc:

augroup typescript_save | au!
    autocmd BufWritePost *.ts !tsc <afile>:p:S
augroup end

answered Oct 13, 2019 at 6:40

Matt

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:S does not escape characters which are special on Vim's command-line such as % or #. You probably want shellescape() and pass it a second non-zero argument: exe '!tsc '..shellescape(expand('<afile>:p'), 1). Or better yet, use system() instead of :!: call system('tsc '..expand('<afile>:p:S')). In that case, :S is reliable.
– user938271
Commented Dec 12, 2019 at 11:38
@user938271 In fact, the whole problem was due to execute which does superfluous cmdline-special substitution. But execute is totally unnecessary here.
– Matt
Commented Dec 12, 2019 at 12:22
1

It was not :exe which performed these substitutions, but :!. But indeed, the new command is reliable because Vim doesn't process special characters after expanding <afile>. In the original command, expand() could cause an issue because it expanded <afile> before :! is processed, and the latter expands special characters such as %, #, !, <cword>, ...
– user938271
Commented Dec 12, 2019 at 12:47

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