The :! command is useful for running shell commands from Vim. It has one possible drawback: the command output is not displayed in a Vim window, so it can't be accessed with Vim's powerful editing tools. This is easy to fix with :read !command which inserts the output to the current window. A possibly more sophisticated solution is to make a new Vim command which opens a scratch buffer for the output of shell command. Here's an example:
command! -complete=shellcmd -nargs=+ Shell call s:RunShellCommand(<q-args>)
function! s:RunShellCommand(cmdline)
echo a:cmdline
let expanded_cmdline = a:cmdline
for part in split(a:cmdline, ' ')
if part[0] =~ '\v[%#<]'
let expanded_part = fnameescape(expand(part))
let expanded_cmdline = substitute(expanded_cmdline, part, expanded_part, '')
endif
endfor
botright new
setlocal buftype=nofile bufhidden=wipe nobuflisted noswapfile nowrap
call setline(1, 'You entered: ' . a:cmdline)
call setline(2, 'Expanded Form: ' .expanded_cmdline)
call setline(3,substitute(getline(2),'.','=','g'))
execute '$read !'. expanded_cmdline
setlocal nomodifiable
1
endfunction
The new :Shell command works just like :! except that it opens a Vim scratch buffer and prints the command output there. The scratch buffer will be wiped out completely when it's closed. An example of usage:
:Shell ls -la
The idea can be extended by adding shortcut commands for commonly used shell commands. This example adds some common version control tools:
command! -complete=file -nargs=* Git call s:RunShellCommand('git '.<q-args>)
command! -complete=file -nargs=* Svn call s:RunShellCommand('svn '.<q-args>)
command! -complete=file -nargs=* Bzr call s:RunShellCommand('bzr '.<q-args>)
command! -complete=file -nargs=* Hg call s:RunShellCommand('hg '.<q-args>)
Now the version control tools can be used like this from Vim:
:Git add % (The "%" expands to the current filename) :Svn diff -c 1234 :Bzr log -l 10 :Hg annotate %
Enhanced script
TO DO
- I think the original script (above) has some problems:
fnameescape()should beshellescape().- Using
fnameescape()may insert a backslash which interferes with thesubstitute(). - On Windows, using
%:pfor fileC:\path\fileresults inC:pathfile. - Won't work with spaces in filename? Even if quoted?
- Check if following enhanced script fixes problems.
- Does it work?
- Perhaps replace above script with the following.
command! -complete=shellcmd -nargs=+ Shell call s:RunShellCommand(<q-args>)
function! s:RunShellCommand(cmdline)
let isfirst = 1
let words = []
for word in split(a:cmdline)
if isfirst
let isfirst = 0 " don't change first word (shell command)
else
if word[0] =~ '\v[%#<]'
let word = expand(word)
endif
let word = shellescape(word, 1)
endif
call add(words, word)
endfor
let expanded_cmdline = join(words)
botright new
setlocal buftype=nofile bufhidden=wipe nobuflisted noswapfile nowrap
call setline(1, 'You entered: ' . a:cmdline)
call setline(2, 'Expanded to: ' . expanded_cmdline)
call append(line('$'), substitute(getline(2), '.', '=', 'g'))
silent execute '$read !'. expanded_cmdline
1
endfunction
See also
Comments
- Following is refactored text that was posted on talk page.
Thanks, the part I took away from this tip was the shortcut command (command!), and passing all the arguments as the first argument. This will make for some clean helper functions when used with abbreviations (in your .vimrc):
ca shell Shell
so you can do this:
:shell ls -al
Jearsh 06:28, February 13, 2010 (UTC)
- More on this concept is at Replace a builtin command using cabbrev. JohnBeckett 02:41, February 18, 2010 (UTC)
Another enhanced script
function! s:ExecuteInShell(command)
let command = join(map(split(a:command), 'expand(v:val)'))
let winnr = bufwinnr('^' . command . '$')
silent! execute winnr < 0 ? 'botright new ' . fnameescape(command) : winnr . 'wincmd w'
setlocal buftype=nowrite bufhidden=wipe nobuflisted noswapfile nowrap number
echo 'Execute ' . command . '...'
silent! execute 'silent %!'. command
silent! execute 'resize ' . line('$')
silent! redraw
silent! execute 'au BufUnload <buffer> execute bufwinnr(' . bufnr('#') . ') . ''wincmd w'''
silent! execute 'nnoremap <silent> <buffer> <LocalLeader>r :call <SID>ExecuteInShell(''' . command . ''')<CR>'
echo 'Shell command ' . command . ' executed.'
endfunction
command! -complete=shellcmd -nargs=+ Shell call s:ExecuteInShell(<q-args>)
Usage: :Shell ls -al
Only one window by command, if a window already exists for a command, it will be reused.
Possible to reexecute the command by typing <localleader>r in normal mode in a window opened by :Shell.
<localleader>g go to the previous window.
The command :Shell! reexecute the last command.
Last version available at https://svn.mageekbox.net/repositories/vim/trunk/.vimrc.