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I want to see the value of a variable, so I run the command 

:let

Vim displays the results of this command using the --more-- pager.
How can I search this for a phrase, e.g. html?
I've looked the man page for the more pager which says +/ is used for search but it doesn't seem to work, neither does / as per the less pager.

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  • 1
    AFAIK, it's a Vim internal command - it looks like 'more', but the program is not called by Vim (proof: it works in Windows, too). You can still write the beginning of a variable name, than ask Vim to complete it (e.g. with Ctrl-d).
    – VanLaser
    Dec 5, 2015 at 8:30
  • thanks, when I type the variable name - or in fact pretty much anything - vim wont accept it - it just prompts with -- More -- SPACE/d/j: screen/page/line down, b/u/k: up, q: quit in the commandline.
    – the_velour_fog
    Dec 5, 2015 at 8:34
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    Write :let then don't hit Enter, but Tab or Ctrl-d - you'll have a list of existing variables, displayed in "more" style - now hit Esc, write a few letters, hit Tab or Ctrl-d again ... and so on until you find the variable you want. Actually, to see the value of a variable, perhaps you should use echo instead? (Or set variable-name? for options)
    – VanLaser
    Dec 5, 2015 at 8:43
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    very cool, both the Ctrl-d and the echo trick worked nicely, thanks!
    – the_velour_fog
    Dec 5, 2015 at 9:03

2 Answers 2

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This is not the more pager, this is Vim's internal and minimalistic pager which doesn't have search capabilities.

But you can use the :redir command:

:redir @a    redirect output of following commands to register a
:let         list every current option and its value
G<CR>        go straight to the end of the listing and make it disappear
:redir END   stop redirection
:tabnew      open a new buffer in a new window in a new tab page
"ap          put from register a

… then use regular Vim commands.

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  • oh very cool, thats a great command to know! thanks
    – the_velour_fog
    Dec 5, 2015 at 9:09
  • 9
    slightly simpler: :redir @b|sil let|redir end
    – Christian Brabandt
    Dec 5, 2015 at 12:38
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    Even though it is not the more pager, I feel like there is room for a plugin to replace Vim's more pager with less
    – Max Coplan
    Mar 16, 2020 at 19:05
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    @MaxCoplan you could try this: gist.github.com/romainl/eae0a260ab9c135390c30cd370c20cd7 It's not exactly a pager but I've found it to be pretty useful.
    – romainl
    Mar 18, 2020 at 9:49
  • @romainl thanks
    – Max Coplan
    Mar 18, 2020 at 17:03
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Vim 8 has a execute() command the allows you to get the output of a command. To see it to the current buffer do:

:put =execute('let')

For Vim 7 you can use capture.vim. It is a plugin that wraps the commands from @romainl's answer and lets you use it as

:Capture let
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  • thats good to know, thanks. I'll check it out when I upgrade. On vim 7 Im using steve losh's clam plugin to capture large amounts of output into a new buffer. it works well too
    – the_velour_fog
    Dec 1, 2016 at 20:21
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    Both this answer and @romainl's are great for different uses. This one (:put =execute(…)) is what I will use when I want to run a command and get the output in the same buffer. If I want the output in a different buffer, I'll use :redir @a; :let; redir END. This is going to help me finally get my highlighting and syntax annoyances figured out after 20 years!
    – Bruno Bronosky
    Feb 2, 2020 at 2:59

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