14
4
If I'm in Vim and want to get some output from the command-line and tack it onto my current file, I can run this:
:! echo "foo" >> %
That will append "foo" to my current file, and I'll have to reload.
Is there a more elegant way to do this - have that output go into a buffer that I can paste, for example?
Nathan Long
Posted 2011-03-01T20:41:21.730
Reputation: 20 371
24
Yes:
:r !echo "foo"
See
:help :r!
That will insert the output of the command after the current line. If you want to capture the command output into a register that you can paste, you can do this:
:let @a = system('echo "foo"')
Now the output of the command (including the trailing newline) is in register a. See
:help let-@
:help system()
garyjohn
Posted 2011-03-01T20:41:21.730
Reputation: 29 085
After looking at the help and experimenting, I see that 1)
:ris short for "read" (so you can type out 'read' or just 'r' and it's the same command), and 2) doing:r path/to/foo.txtwill insert the contents of that file after the cursor. – Nathan Long – 2011-03-02T11:50:26.147Also - I didn't know about the
systemcall. That's awesome! – Nathan Long – 2011-03-02T11:51:20.8401I also didn't know you could manually set registers like
let @a = 'foo'. One cool idea would be, after doing a search and replace, you could save the search term to a register for pasting elsewhere by doinglet @a = @/- "make the a register contain what the / register contains, namely, my last search." – Nathan Long – 2011-03-02T11:53:34.0071@Nathan Long: You're welcome. Other ways to paste from the / register are 1) to execute
:put /to put the register contents on the next line and 2) while in insert mode, to type Ctrl-R followed by/to insert the register contents at the cursor position. For more on those, see:help :putand:help i_CTRL-R. – garyjohn – 2011-03-02T15:25:30.853