Questions tagged [invocation]
Questions about the different options that vim can take from the shell and the different commands to start the editor.
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Terminal borked after invoking Vim with xargs
I've sometimes tried invoking Vim using xargs, like this:
find . -name '*.java' | xargs vim
… which kind of works:
As Vim launches, I see the following warning flash briefly:
Vim: Warning: Input ...
- 9,049
40
votes
1
answer
13k
views
Setting a vim option from the command line?
How does one set a vim option when launching from bash or another shell?
- 3,273
28
votes
3
answers
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Can I open a file in an existing Vim instance from an external command?
Some applications have the notion of a "session", where you can run a command to load a file in an existing instance of an application.
For example, when I type:
$ firefox http://vi.stackexchange....
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27
votes
1
answer
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How to edit files non-interactively (e.g. in pipeline)?
I would like to edit files passed in pipeline input using vim in non-interactive way or edit files in-place (similar to sed).
Few examples using sed:
$ sed -i'.bak' s/foo/test/g file # Edit file ...
- 17.4k
26
votes
3
answers
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Automatically load Vi into insert mode
I use Vi as my preferred (and, in fact, only) text editor on Linux Systems. I know how to change modes from normal to insert, and vice-versa.
Is it possible to have Vi automatically load into Insert ...
user254
26
votes
4
answers
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How to edit content from the standard input?
I would like to edit content in vim which was dynamically generated from the command-line without having the file yet.
In example:
$ echo This is example. | vim /dev/stdin
$ cat /etc/hosts | vim /dev/...
- 17.4k
23
votes
5
answers
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Is it possible to pipe vim commands to vim?
I want to run the following shell.
wea-this is the end of the second word | vim j
exit 0
Which I had hoped would pipe the key strokes w (move forward a word) then e (end of the word) then a (append) ...
- 919
14
votes
3
answers
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How do I tell if Vi or Vim is installed on my Linux distribution?
I use Kubuntu 14.04 with its default installation (bash, Konsole). I want to learn a powerful, all-keyboard, text editor, and settled on one of these: Vi, Vim, Emacs, (and I'll learn Nano since it's ...
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11
votes
1
answer
342
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Experimenting with vim/gvim in "virgin" mode
Sometimes, I would like to try a trick I find in the internet. It is often helpful to try this in vim (gvim if it is a gui trick), in virgin mode, i.e., without loading all my ~/.vimrc stuff.
Do you ...
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3
answers
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How can I start vim and then execute a particular command that includes a \, from the command line?
In my ~/.vimrc, I have a command defined approximately like this:
nnoremap <expr> <Leader>n ':new ~/Notes/' . strftime('%F') . '-'
It is designed for creating notes files that contain ...
- 6,385
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2
answers
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How to write whole buffer to standard output from the command line?
I would like to write whole buffer into standard output (/dev/stdout) instead of the file and the following command works as expected while editing the file:
:w >> /dev/stdout
Hint: Press ...
- 17.4k
9
votes
2
answers
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Why won't vim source my .vimrc file
Today, I found my .vimrc didn't take effect. It was ok just hours ago.
When I launched vim with $vim --plugin, :scriptnames echoed nothing: .vimrc file was not sourced. (Note: /etc/vimrc was removed ...
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4
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Can :Explore be started from the terminal?
When using Vim you can use :Explore to browser through files and folders.
Is there a simple way to start Vim in "Explore mode" from the terminal? Can I do this by just giving Vim some argument?
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8
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3
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How do I introduce a "light mode", in which not all plugins are loaded?
My Vim config includes plugins that try to handle current project, build tags, etc. This is quite useful for my daily programming in Vim, but it's just annoying when I use Vim for some quick edits, ...
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Is there a vim command line option to edit last edited file?
Is there a way to run vim from command line to edit the last edited file?
Let say I first edit file giorgio.sh:
$ vi giorgio.sh
Afterwards, I exit back to terminal
$ do something...
$ do something ...
- 1,813
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votes
3
answers
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views
How to specify the content of a new buffer from command line?
Is there a way to call Vim in such a way that it opens a buffer with some content specified on the terminal, i.e. not saved in a file?
For example, I would like to run vim and have it open a buffer ...
- 1,921
7
votes
1
answer
125
views
How to search the help docs from a command prompt?
I find my self often, especially after this site was created, opening Vim just to type :h ... or :helpgrep ....
What I would like to do is to run Vim and immediately open the help topic that I want. ...
- 2,409
6
votes
3
answers
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Switching to the local directory after loading a file?
When running gvim by double clicking with a file in a graphical file manager, like nautilus, the vim instance is called with a strange current directory (seems root sometime, but I am not sure). This ...
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1
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How can I make sure all buffers end up as tab or force remaining buffers into tabs?
I am using Vim 7.3 for no particularly compelling reason on an old system I am forced to work on. It's an internal system and it will eventually be replaced by a more modern version of the same distro....
- 237
6
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1
answer
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How to use a specific vimrc file and still load the usual files?
I'd like to automatically set my Vim preferences on the root account, when I use it (throught a sudo bash or sudo su-like command), without changing the default configuration of the root account (...
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6
votes
1
answer
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How to redirect the output of a command as the quickfix list to a vim server / function?
When I click on a link in thunderbird and firefox is already running, it doesn't open a new window, just a new tab.
I want the same thing for vim: no matter where I am and how I send a bunch of files ...
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5
votes
2
answers
692
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How to detect whether Vim has been invoked by another shell command?
I would like to modify the behavior of one of my mapping but only when Vim is reading data which were piped to it by $ vipe.
The mapping closes/quits the current window/session depending on certain ...
- 6,028
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1
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Using the ex mode command line (-c), how would I insert text?
I am interested in mastering the art of using ex from the command line (vi -esc <commands> / ex -sc <commands>). I got the basics worked out, but one thing eludes me:
How do I add text ...
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5
votes
1
answer
194
views
Cannot open an url (empty buffer)
I have some strange troubles with opening an url in vim. Judging from this answer, this should be pretty easy, but when I'm doing this:
$ vim http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc7386.txt
I getting a message
...
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5
votes
1
answer
188
views
Start vim with ex-command and append it to vim's command history
When I start vim with an ex-command as command line parameter, it won't show up in vim's command history. Why? Can I tell vim to do so?
Minimal example:
vim -c 'execute "help -c"'
Why I'm ...
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4
votes
3
answers
3k
views
How can I read a command-line argument in vimrc?
Here is a situation: I want to manage my working environment on multiple projects separately, and all of them should have its own session (Session.vim) to save and restore.
So I would like to launch ...
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4
votes
1
answer
46
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Speedier indentation of many files
I recently needed to re-indent a large number of files. I used variations of:
find . -type f -exec vim -c "normal gg=GZZ" {} \;
Which worked well, but incredibly slowly (across several ...
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3
votes
2
answers
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Vim not sourcing files on startup
I am root on the machine, and have my .vimrc at /root/.vimrc. Vim ignores this, even though
# echo $HOME
/root
If I do
# vim -u /root/.vimrc some-file-to-edit
vim still ignores it. Setting ...
- 199
3
votes
2
answers
843
views
How can I automatically execute normal mode keystrokes with a terminal command when opening Vim?
How do I run vim with file.txt and screen center at line 100?
Basically I would like to use zz mapping when starting Vim.
This does not work: vim -c "zz" file.txt +100
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1
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Call vim command from shell, and suppress output while it operates
I'm setting up a vim environment install script. I'm using vim-plug for plugin management.
What I'd like to do is, from the install.sh, run vim and call PlugInstall to
trigger plugin download and ...
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3
votes
1
answer
307
views
How to comment a line directly from bash using vim?
What I usually do from bash/vim ... is
open file with vim
go to line to comment
comment a line
save and quit
My file is /usr/local/etc/php/7.0/conf.d/ext-xdebug.ini and the initial content is
[...
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3
votes
1
answer
594
views
Read from standard input and close if empty
I'm not sure it's even possible, but I'd like to force vim to quit if reading from stdin gave empty data (0 bytes).
The reason is when I'm running commands that may output something containing ...
3
votes
1
answer
160
views
How can I select a syntax highlighting at the (shell-) command line?
Usually, vim will get the highlighting right from the file extension, but this obviously doesn't work when I'm displaying content read from standard input.
cat File.hs | some | processing | pipeline |...
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votes
2
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432
views
How do I open multiple files from find each in a separate tab in vim?
I would like to find multiple files and open them all in tabs within the same vim instance.
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votes
1
answer
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views
Open or create a specific Vimwiki page from a command prompt
For opening the index page of my Vimwiki instance, I have the following alias in my ~/.bashrc:
alias vimwiki='vim -c VimwikiIndex'
But how to open a specific Vimwiki page right from a command prompt?
2
votes
2
answers
145
views
How to add a string to cursor point of gvim through a shell script
When gvim is opened it saves the cursor position whether it is minimized or not. So I'm curious whether it is possible to add a string starting from the cursor blinking position by running a shell ...
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1
vote
2
answers
109
views
Open file, make changes, save it as a new one. In one step, using the Windows command prompt
I have a file foo.txt with just a one line ab. I want to launch Vim in such a way that it will open this file, swap characters using xp, and then save it as bar.txt.
Something like this:
gvim foo.txt ...
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1
vote
1
answer
60
views
How can I suppress feedback when calling vim with certain commands?
I'm trying to automatically delete useless headers when calling vim from mutt. I've tried running vim with the following command.
vim +'0,/^$/g/^\(Cc\|Bcc\|Reply-To\): $/d' /tmp/test
However, I get ...
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1
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1
answer
55
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How do I open vim from the command-line at a particular tag?
I have set up ctags to generate a tags file for my code base. I can now jump to definitions of functions by running :tag FUNCTIONNAME or by pressing ctrl-] when my cursor is on the invocation of a ...
- 1,912
1
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2
answers
54
views
how to load multiple files into separate buffers from zsh command line?
I have a list of files like step-1.py, step-2.py etc and if I try to open them with vim files-*.py then I get a list of buffers like:
:ls
1 %a "step-10.py"
2 "step-11.py"...
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1
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57
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Launching Vim with a file as argument does not work, if my .vimrc contains a `:cd` command
UPDATE:
after playing around with my vimrc file I discovered this
this won't work
cd c:\myUsualFolder
set encoding=utf-8
but this will:
set encoding=utf-8
cd c:\myUsualFolder
If I launch Vim ...
- 11
1
vote
1
answer
295
views
How to open multiple files except some files?
Suppose we have several files f11.txt f21.txt f31.txt f01.txt f02.txt f03.txt
Is there any Vim option such that I can open all files except for f0*.txt?
Something like gvim -O * --exclude=*0*? (-O ...
- 1,341
1
vote
1
answer
508
views
Load plugins in vim started with --noplugin
I have my $EDITOR set to vim --noplugin -n -i NONE +star, which is what I usually want when committing with git etc.
However, sometimes I decide I need those plugins (the builtin ~/.vim/pack kind, ...
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1
vote
2
answers
618
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How to combine reading from stdin (- invocation argument) with ++opt
I'm trying to combine two features of vim, but it doesn't seem to be possible.
1: vim -
The first feature is invoking vim with a single-dash argument, which causes vim to read stdin and use the ...
- 163
1
vote
0
answers
57
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indenting with ':g' command not working from the command line
When I need to work with some scrambled javascript/json code, one of my first steps is to introduce proper line breaks, followed by proper brace based indentation. For the later, I found the following ...
0
votes
2
answers
61
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Open some files in split and some other in tab at the vim invocation
I have four files file1, file2, file3, & file4. So I want to open them with vim directly from command line and get the following structure:
Tabulation 1: file1 taking whole tab
Tabulation 2: ...
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0
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1
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170
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How to escape a single quote when passing an ex-mode command from the command line, back to the command line?
Here is the command I'm trying to escape a ' from bash, to vis' to ex-mode, and then back to bash so it can be read into the buffer again:
vi -c 'sp | enew | read ! echo "Use to jump between ...
- 3,273
0
votes
1
answer
66
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Command line argument for lengthy command
I keep a sys.md file where I record a dated entry of every modification I make to my system (mostly installations of software, sometimes configuration changes) and based on an old Hacker News link ...
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0
votes
2
answers
117
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project-based config: how to load plugins/colors from custom subdir of $PWD when doing `vim -u local/vimrc ...`?
The Need, the Goal...
By "project-based config" I mean a project contained in a git repo that contains all the vim configuration -- vimrc and plugins and colorschemes -- right there in the ...
- 745
0
votes
1
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224
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bash script to open file and translate text
I have followed your post and used :%s/\\u\(\x\{4\}\)/\=nr2char('0x'.submatch(1),1)/g to translate unicode escape sequences.
However I have to open the file and need to press escape and paste your ...
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