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Sometimes, when I send a shell command from vim, I receive an error.

For example, when I type the following command :!chmod +x shellescape("%"), zsh complains with :

zsh:1: unknown sort specifier

shell returned 1

I know a way to fix this specific problem :

:execute "!chmod +x " . shellescape("%")

What I don't know is how to read the exact command that the shell tried to execute when I make a mistake.

The last commands are not sent directly to the shell, vim evaluates a few things before doing so. I would like to see the result of this evaluation.

I tried looking at the output of the history command in zsh but it seems that the commands typed in vim are not logged there.

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  • 5
    set the 'verbose' option to 5 before executing a shell command.
    – Christian Brabandt
    Commented Dec 1, 2015 at 8:05

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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A bigger problem here is that your command is wrong.

:!chmod +x shellescape("%")

What makes you think you can run Vim functions like this? Use %:S to escape special shell characters, eg:

:!chmod +x %:S

I realize this doesn't answer your question directly, but for all practical purposes all you need to know "If error, use %:S, if still error, read what you typed", as there aren't any other substitutions done in the :! command.

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  • Thank you for your answer. Yes I agree my example was poorly chosen. There's a very good reason why I used it though (for testing and understanding a few things). But in fact the errors I come across are given by other more complex shell commands that I still haven't understood. For example, I would like to populate a local arglist with the output of a shell command (a find command with a wildcard). It should be possible. There are even examples given in the help (:help backtick-expansion), but on my system they don't work. I've got the error E79.
    – saginaw
    Commented Dec 2, 2015 at 6:40
  • I need to see what it sends exactly to understand where the problem comes from. I hope the answer of Christian Brabandt will help me. I didn't want to use this more complex shell command as an example because this is a separate problem, I will open a new topic for it if I can't find an answer on my own. Thank you again for your answer, I didn't know the :S filename modifier, I'll use it from now on.
    – saginaw
    Commented Dec 2, 2015 at 6:40
  • Well, in fact, you are completely right, my problem doesn't come from the shell but from vim itself. E79 is not a shell error, sorry I made another mistake.
    – saginaw
    Commented Dec 2, 2015 at 6:46
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    @saginaw The :S modifier is a relatively recent addition to Vim, so depending on your portability requirements, it may be safer to stick with :exe and shellescape().
    – jamessan
    Commented Dec 4, 2015 at 13:38
  • @jamessan I didn't know that, thank you. Besides, shellescape() (for shell arguments) and fnamescape() (for vim commands arguments) stick together better in my memory than :S and fnameescape().
    – saginaw
    Commented Dec 4, 2015 at 13:51

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