Overruling File Formats, Conversion, and Editing Files on the Internet and Binary Files

THE FORMAT If you use the good old Vi and try to edit an MS-DOS format file, you will find that each line ends with a ^M character. (^M is <CR>). The automatic detection avoids this. Suppose you do want to edit the file that way? Then you need to overrule the format: > :edit ++ff=unix file.txt The "++" string is an item that tells Vim that an option name follows, which overrules the default for this single command. "++ff" is used for 'fileformat'. You could also use "++ff=mac" or "++ff=dos". This doesn't work for any option, only "++ff" and "++enc" are currently implemented. The full names "++fileformat" and "++encoding" also work. CONVERSION You can use the 'fileformat' option to convert from one file format to another. Suppose, for example, that you have an MS-DOS file named README.TXT that you want to convert to Unix format. Start by editing the MS-DOS format file: > vim README.TXT Vim will recognize this as a dos format file. Now change the file format to Unix: > :set fileformat=unix :write The file is written in Unix format. ============================================================================== *23.2* Files on the internet Someone sends you an e-mail message, which refers to a file by its URL. For example: You can find the information here: ~ ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/README ~ You could start a program to download the file, save it on your local disk and then start Vim to edit it. There is a much simpler way. Move the cursor to any character of the URL. Then use this command: > gf With a bit of luck, Vim will figure out which program to use for downloading the file, download it and edit the copy. To open the file in a new window use CTRL-W f. If something goes wrong you will get an error message. It's possible that the URL is wrong, you don't have permission to read it, the network connection is down, etc. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell the cause of the error. You might want to try the manual way of downloading the file. Accessing files over the internet works with the netrw plugin. Currently URLs with these formats are recognized: ftp:// uses ftp rcp:// uses rcp scp:// uses scp http:// uses wget (reading only) Vim doesn't do the communication itself, it relies on the mentioned programs to be available on your computer. On most Unix systems "ftp" and "rcp" will be present. "scp" and "wget" might need to be installed. Vim detects these URLs for each command that starts editing a new file, also with ":edit" and ":split", for example. Write commands also work, except for http://. For more information, also about passwords, see |netrw|. ============================================================================== *23.3* Binary files You can edit binary files with Vim. Vim wasn't really made for this, thus there are a few restrictions. But you can read a file, change a character and write it back, with the result that only that one character was changed and the file is identical otherwise. To make sure that Vim does not

This section covers how to override Vim's automatic file format detection and convert files between formats. It explains how to use the 'fileformat' option with the ':edit' command to specify a format. It also describes how to access files over the internet directly within Vim using URLs and the 'gf' command. Finally, it touches on the possibility of editing binary files with Vim, noting the limitations and precautions necessary to ensure only intended changes are made.