Using Vim from Shell Scripts, Reading from Stdin, and Normal Mode Scripts

buffer list than you think. Check this with the ":buffers" command (or ":ls"). ============================================================================== *26.4* Using Vim from a shell script Suppose you have a lot of files in which you need to change the string "-person-" to "Jones" and then print it. How do you do that? One way is to do a lot of typing. The other is to write a shell script to do the work. The Vim editor does a superb job as a screen-oriented editor when using Normal mode commands. For batch processing, however, Normal mode commands do not result in clear, commented command files; so here you will use Ex mode instead. This mode gives you a nice command-line interface that makes it easy to put into a batch file. ("Ex command" is just another name for a command-line (:) command.) The Ex mode commands you need are as follows: > %s/-person-/Jones/g write tempfile quit You put these commands in the file "change.vim". Now to run the editor in batch mode, use this shell script: > for file in *.txt; do vim -e -s $file < change.vim lpr -r tempfile done The for-done loop is a shell construct to repeat the two lines in between, while the $file variable is set to a different file name each time. The second line runs the Vim editor in Ex mode (-e argument) on the file $file and reads commands from the file "change.vim". The -s argument tells Vim to operate in silent mode. In other words, do not keep outputting the :prompt, or any other prompt for that matter. The "lpr -r tempfile" command prints the resulting "tempfile" and deletes it (that's what the -r argument does). READING FROM STDIN Vim can read text on standard input. Since the normal way is to read commands there, you must tell Vim to read text instead. This is done by passing the "-" argument in place of a file. Example: > ls | vim - This allows you to edit the output of the "ls" command, without first saving the text in a file. If you use the standard input to read text from, you can use the "-S" argument to read a script: > producer | vim -S change.vim - NORMAL MODE SCRIPTS If you really want to use Normal mode commands in a script, you can use it like this: > vim -s script file.txt ... < Note: "-s" has a different meaning when it is used without "-e". Here it means to source the "script" as Normal mode commands. When used with "-e" it means to be silent, and doesn't use the next argument as a file name. The commands in "script" are executed like you typed them. Don't forget that a line break is interpreted as pressing <Enter>. In Normal mode that moves the cursor to the next line. To create the script you can edit the script file and type the commands. You need to imagine what the result would be, which can be a bit difficult. Another way is to record the commands while you perform them manually. This is how you do that: > vim -w script file.txt ... All typed keys will be written to "script". If you make a small mistake you can just continue and remember to edit the script later. The "-w" argument appends to an existing script. That is good when you want to record the script bit by bit. If you want to start from scratch and start all over, use the "-W" argument. It overwrites any existing file. ============================================================================== Next chapter: |usr_27.txt| Search commands and patterns Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl:

This section provides instructions on using Vim from shell scripts, focusing on batch processing with Ex mode commands. It covers creating a script file with Ex commands, running Vim in batch mode with the -e and -s arguments, and using 'lpr' to print the output. It also explains how to read text from standard input using the '-' argument, and how to execute Normal mode commands from a script using the -s argument, including recording commands using the -w and -W arguments.