How to load files as a quickfix window at start-up

Question

I have a command-line tool that can print search results in a format that works with vimgrep. The example output looks like this:

foo/path/lib/usdviewq/appController.py:3795:22:        index = prim.GetPrimIndex()
foo/bar/lib/testenv/testUsdSpecializes.py:104:28:            refNode = prim.GetPrimIndex().rootNode.children[0]
foo/bar/lib/testenv/testUsdInherits.py:108:28:            refNode = prim.GetPrimIndex().rootNode.children[0]
foo/bar/lib/testenv/testUsdPrims.py:720:14:    def test_GetPrimIndex(self):
foo/bar/lib/testenv/testUsdPrims.py:722:43:            s = Usd.Stage.CreateInMemory('GetPrimIndex.'+fmt)
foo/bar/lib/testenv/testUsdPrims.py:739:34:            self.assertTrue(prim.GetPrimIndex().IsValid())
foo/bar/lib/testenv/testUsdPrims.py:740:34:            self.assertTrue(prim.GetPrimIndex().DumpToString())
foo/bar/lib/testenv/testUsdPrims.py:745:35:            self.assertFalse(prim.GetPrimIndex().IsValid())
foo/bar/lib/testenv/testUsdPrims.py:746:35:            self.assertFalse(prim.GetPrimIndex().DumpToString())
foo/bar/lib/testenv/testUsdInstancing.py:101:18:        s = prim.GetPrimIndex().DumpToString()
foo/bar/lib/testenv/testUsdEditTarget.py:40:26:        primIndex = prim.GetPrimIndex()
foo/bar/lib/testenv/testUsdReferences.py:275:28:            refNode = prim.GetPrimIndex().rootNode.children[0]
foo/bar/lib/testenv/testUsdTimeOffsets.py:288:27:            refNode = foo.GetPrimIndex().rootNode.children[0]
foo/bar/lib/testenv/testUsdTimeOffsets.py:306:31:            payloadNode = foo.GetPrimIndex().rootNode.children[1]

Is there any way to feed that as input into Vim as a quickfix window?

I tried doing

command_that_makes_these_lines | vim -

But that only adds that given text to a Vim buffer.

Answer 1

Vim has a startup option -q to read a quickfix file. So we have options (depending on your shell):

cmd > results
vim -q results

Or my favorite

vim -q <(cmd)

Answer 2

If you'd like to invoke the command from inside Vim and populate the quickfix window with its output, you can use :cexpr together with system() or systemlist().

:cexpr system('command_that_makes_these_lines')

See also :cgetexpr for a version that doesn't jump to the first result (you might want to combine that with |copen to show the quickfix window with the results.)

Also, :lexpr and :lgetexpr can be used, to use the location window instead.