How to prevent accidentally piping text to Vim?

Question

I use Vim to edit the output of shell commands all the time. Appending the dash in this line is second nature:

$ ./some-command | vim -

But every once in a while I get distracted and forget:

$ ./some-command | vim

This typically causes Vim to hang, pegs one core at 100% CPU, and may disrupt the terminal. Is there a way to fool-proof Vim for me?

Answer 1

As @chicks pointed out, you can place this script in your PATH:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

if [[ "$#" -ne 0 ]] || [[ -t 0 ]]; then
    exec vim "$@"
else
    exec vim -
fi

I am using a variant of this script in ~/bin/e to open the current directory (vim .) when no argument is provided.

I guess you could also use a shell function:

v() { if [[ "$#" -ne 0 ]] || [[ -t 0 ]]; then vim "$@"; else vim -; fi; }