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I'm using Latex a lot lately and I find myself having to leave vim so I can execute the command pdflatex *filename* too often (compile the code and create a pdf file).

I'd like to make a command command! Latex execute "pdflatex %" something like that to be able to compile the code directly from vim but I don't know how to expand the filename since "pdflatex %" is a string and the terminal understands it as so.

How could I have the filename expand to what I want?

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  • So you want pdflatex *filename* to run on your shell, right?
    – Tumbler41
    Dec 19 '16 at 22:57
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expand() is what you need.

command! Latex execute "!pdflatex " . expand('%')
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  • Works fine, thanks. If I wanted though, every time I executed the command, to save the file first how could I do it?
    – Wylex
    Dec 19 '16 at 23:03
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    That would be: command! Latex execute ":w | !pdflatex " . expand('%')
    – grodzik
    Dec 19 '16 at 23:07
  • I just found out it doesn't work if the file name contains a black space. The compiler interprets it as two different files. Any idea how to fix it?
    – Wylex
    Dec 19 '16 at 23:13
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    Try wrapping expand('%') inside shellescape(expand('%'))
    – grodzik
    Dec 19 '16 at 23:16
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    @Wylex command! Latex execute "!pdflatex % should work, you don't need the expand() here since :! already does that. The command in your question is missing a ! though.
    – Martin Tournoij
    Dec 19 '16 at 23:47

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