Related
I'm currently learning to program in Vim, and I decided to make a macro to compile and run a C code quickly, so I made it like this:
save quickrun.c
!gcc quickrun.c -o quickrun
!quickrun
It worked as expected, no problems there, but then I tried to save the macro in the _vimrc file, and I had no problems with saving other macros with only one command using "let", like
let #a = '!gcc file.c'
But I want to save all the 3 commands in order to compile and run in the macro, how can I do it?
That's a very strange idea to put a sequence of commands into a register permanently. Typically, one uses a register to build commands on-the-fly by yanking portions of code from some script, or by recording a key sequence with q. The problem is that you have only 26 slots with fixed names, and that's quite inconvenient for storing general command sequences.
More frequent solution is to setup user commands or mappings (or both). You can define a command (it must start with a capital letter!) in your vimrc like this:
command! QRun save quickrun.c | !gcc quickrun.c -o quickrun | !quickrun
The bar symbol (|) is a command separator in Vim script, i.e. it's allowed in an interactive mode too. After that you can execute your command just like everything else: :QRun. If you feel "QRun" is too hard to type, you can additionally define a key mapping to spare a couple of keystrokes.
Also, you probably should revise your script to use arguments, and to get rid of "save[as]" in favour of plain "update", and so on.
Macros are like replayable keystrokes: they are as if you typed them. So if you want to use the ex command :!, you need to start with a colon. Then you can use the |:
let #a = ":save ... | !gcc ... \<CR> !quickrun\<CR>"
A better solution is a mapping:
nnoremap keys execute ":save ... <bar> !gcc ... <bar> !quickrun\<CR>"
But for C code you can usually just use :make
Is it possible to reuse the range of ex commands in VIM?
As an example, I can write (copy) lines 4 to 10 from my current file to a new file using the following command:
:4,10w foo/bar.txt
But what I really want to do is move the lines to a new file. I can do this like so:
:4,10w foo/bar.txt
:4,10d
But it's a bit annoying to have to type 4,10 both times.
So I have two questions:
Generally, Is there a way to reference the previously used range in ex commands?
Specifically, if there is not a way to do (1), is there any easier way to cut and paste a number of lines from one file into a new one.
I usually use cat to do this:
:4,10!cat > foo/bar.txt
This works because you're piping the lines through cat and replacing them with the resulting output, which is nothing. And of course you can append to the end of an existing file by doing >> instead of >.
I am unaware of an answer to (1), but to answer (2), there are a number of different ways of doing it that don't require reselecting the lines by hand. In visual mode this will work:
4GV10G
:w foo/bar.txt
gvd
because gv reselects the previous selection, which is almost what you want, without using an ex range.
But you could just turn the problem on its head, and try:
:4,10d
:sp foo/bar.txt
pZZ
to cut, then paste into a new file, then close it.
Other than using the Vim history (:Cursor Up, q:) and removing the previous command so that just the range is kept, there's no way to re-use the last range, no magic variable.
If I used this move lines combination more often, I would write a custom command for it:
command! -bang -range -nargs=1 -complete=file MoveWrite <line1>,<line2>write<bang> <args> | <line1>,<line2>delete _
You need to specify the range only once and save typing.
You can write something like this for other combinations, too. The main challenge is specifying all the command attributes (bang, range, completion), and, later, remembering the custom command name.
Generally, what I do is delete the lines from the one file, switch to the other file, and paste.
Also, I generally use marks. Instead of typing the actual numbers, I hit mb to mark the beginning line, then go to the end line and hit d'b to delete back to the line marked as b. But you can use mb to mark a begin line, and me to mark an end line, then run an ex command:
:'b,'e w somefile.txt<Enter>
Of course you can use any letters from a through z for your marks; I usually use b and e but you can use what you like.
How I would move the lines:
m'b
<navigate to end line>
d'b
:n somefile.txt<Enter>
p
Ctrl+^
Ctrl+^ switches from the current open file to the previous open file. (You could also just open a pane and switch panes, if you prefer. Panes don't work in plain vi but do work in vim.)
The above assumes that you have set the autowrite option on. With autowrite, the :n command and Ctrl+^ both just write the current file and then switch files, instead of complaining that the file has been changed without you saving it. You can also do the above and just explicitly write the file before using :n or Ctrl+^.
By the way, I use Ctrl+^ so much that I mapped it onto K. Easier to type, but I got in that habit long ago when I used to have to sometimes use a dumb terminal that couldn't type Ctrl+^.
By the way, when you delete lines, they go into the "unnamed buffer". In vim, the unnamed buffer is preserved when you switch files. In original vi, the unnamed buffer is cleared. So the above won't work with old vi. You can make it work by deleting into a named buffer, then pasting from the named buffer; that works in any version of vi.
m'b
<navigate to end line>
"ad'b
:n somefile.txt<Enter>
"ap
Ctrl+^
The above deletes into the buffer named a, then pastes from a in the other file. This does work in vim of course; it's just that you don't need it.
Here's a command-line mapping that achieves this. I've bound it to CTRL-G CTRL-U, since it performs a similar action as CTRL-U. (But you can change that, of course!)
" c_CTRL-G_CTRL-U Remove all characters between the cursor position and
" the closest previous |:range| given to a command. When
" directly after a range, remove it.
" Useful to repeat a recalled command line with the same
" range, but a different command.
let s:singleRangeExpr = '\%(\d\+\|[.$%]\|''\S\|\\[/?&]\|/[^/]*/\|?[^?]*?\)\%([+-]\d*\)\?'
let s:rangeExpr = s:singleRangeExpr.'\%([,;]'.s:singleRangeExpr.'\)\?'
let s:upToRangeExpr = '^\%(.*\\\#<!|\)\?\s*' . s:rangeExpr . '\ze\s*\h'
" Note: I didn't take over the handling of command prefixes (:verbose, :silent,
" etc.) to avoid making this overly complex.
function! s:RemoveAllButRange()
let l:cmdlineBeforeCursor = strpart(getcmdline(), 0, getcmdpos() - 1)
let l:cmdlineAfterCursor = strpart(getcmdline(), getcmdpos() - 1)
let l:upToRange = matchstr(l:cmdlineBeforeCursor, s:upToRangeExpr)
if empty(l:upToRange)
return getcmdline()
else
call setcmdpos(strlen(l:upToRange) + 1)
return l:upToRange . l:cmdlineAfterCursor
endif
endfunction
cnoremap <C-g><C-u> <C-\>e(<SID>RemoveAllButRange())<CR>
as a plugin
My CmdlineSpecialEdits plugin has (among many others) this mapping as well.
You can also do something like this to write the contents of the anonymous register to file2.txt
:4,10d | :call writefile(split(##, "\n", 1), 'file2.txt')
You can do the deleting first, and then open a new tab and paste the contents - so :4,10d, then :tabe foo/bar.txt, followed by p... does that sound better?
In Vim 8 and NVIM 0.3.7 as of writing, you can actually edit your command list and hit enter to execute.
:4,10w foo/bar.txt
q:
q: is to enter interactive ex command
Once you open the interactive command list, you can then edit it and press enter to execute.
I love moopet's answer though, it's efficient.
I am looking at files that may have several consecutive identical lines.
Is there a easy way of jumping to the next non-identical line?
Alternatively I would like to be able to fold all the lines that are equal to the initial one showing just the number of linees that are folded.
You could define your own fold-expr:
first set fdm:
:set fdm=expr
then
:set foldexpr=getline(v:lnum)==#getline(v:lnum-1)?1:0
now you can test by typing zM, to close all fold, if you are lucky ^_^ all duplicated lines are folded.
you could type zR to open all folds.
if it works and you open those kind of file very often, you could put the above lines in your .vimrc.(au with ft) if only one time job, you can write mode line into that file.
Try this:
:nmap <F2> "1y$<CR>/^\(<C-R>1$\)\#!<CR>
It maps F2 to:
copy the current line into register 1
search for (and move to) the first line that does not match the contents of register 1
This seems to work well, unless the text of your copied line has escaped characters that will confuse the search regexp. This is because register 1 is just dropped into the search expression without escaping. This would be tricky to fix reliably, but for normal log files, it shouldn't be much of a problem.
Also: if you're not married to vim and just need to read the non-consecutively-duplicated lines of a file, the canonical UNIX way is:
uniq filename
If you want to be in vim but won't need to make changes to the file, try:
:%!uniq
(If you try the latter, be sure to exit without saving)
Is it possible to reuse the range of ex commands in VIM?
As an example, I can write (copy) lines 4 to 10 from my current file to a new file using the following command:
:4,10w foo/bar.txt
But what I really want to do is move the lines to a new file. I can do this like so:
:4,10w foo/bar.txt
:4,10d
But it's a bit annoying to have to type 4,10 both times.
So I have two questions:
Generally, Is there a way to reference the previously used range in ex commands?
Specifically, if there is not a way to do (1), is there any easier way to cut and paste a number of lines from one file into a new one.
I usually use cat to do this:
:4,10!cat > foo/bar.txt
This works because you're piping the lines through cat and replacing them with the resulting output, which is nothing. And of course you can append to the end of an existing file by doing >> instead of >.
I am unaware of an answer to (1), but to answer (2), there are a number of different ways of doing it that don't require reselecting the lines by hand. In visual mode this will work:
4GV10G
:w foo/bar.txt
gvd
because gv reselects the previous selection, which is almost what you want, without using an ex range.
But you could just turn the problem on its head, and try:
:4,10d
:sp foo/bar.txt
pZZ
to cut, then paste into a new file, then close it.
Other than using the Vim history (:Cursor Up, q:) and removing the previous command so that just the range is kept, there's no way to re-use the last range, no magic variable.
If I used this move lines combination more often, I would write a custom command for it:
command! -bang -range -nargs=1 -complete=file MoveWrite <line1>,<line2>write<bang> <args> | <line1>,<line2>delete _
You need to specify the range only once and save typing.
You can write something like this for other combinations, too. The main challenge is specifying all the command attributes (bang, range, completion), and, later, remembering the custom command name.
Generally, what I do is delete the lines from the one file, switch to the other file, and paste.
Also, I generally use marks. Instead of typing the actual numbers, I hit mb to mark the beginning line, then go to the end line and hit d'b to delete back to the line marked as b. But you can use mb to mark a begin line, and me to mark an end line, then run an ex command:
:'b,'e w somefile.txt<Enter>
Of course you can use any letters from a through z for your marks; I usually use b and e but you can use what you like.
How I would move the lines:
m'b
<navigate to end line>
d'b
:n somefile.txt<Enter>
p
Ctrl+^
Ctrl+^ switches from the current open file to the previous open file. (You could also just open a pane and switch panes, if you prefer. Panes don't work in plain vi but do work in vim.)
The above assumes that you have set the autowrite option on. With autowrite, the :n command and Ctrl+^ both just write the current file and then switch files, instead of complaining that the file has been changed without you saving it. You can also do the above and just explicitly write the file before using :n or Ctrl+^.
By the way, I use Ctrl+^ so much that I mapped it onto K. Easier to type, but I got in that habit long ago when I used to have to sometimes use a dumb terminal that couldn't type Ctrl+^.
By the way, when you delete lines, they go into the "unnamed buffer". In vim, the unnamed buffer is preserved when you switch files. In original vi, the unnamed buffer is cleared. So the above won't work with old vi. You can make it work by deleting into a named buffer, then pasting from the named buffer; that works in any version of vi.
m'b
<navigate to end line>
"ad'b
:n somefile.txt<Enter>
"ap
Ctrl+^
The above deletes into the buffer named a, then pastes from a in the other file. This does work in vim of course; it's just that you don't need it.
Here's a command-line mapping that achieves this. I've bound it to CTRL-G CTRL-U, since it performs a similar action as CTRL-U. (But you can change that, of course!)
" c_CTRL-G_CTRL-U Remove all characters between the cursor position and
" the closest previous |:range| given to a command. When
" directly after a range, remove it.
" Useful to repeat a recalled command line with the same
" range, but a different command.
let s:singleRangeExpr = '\%(\d\+\|[.$%]\|''\S\|\\[/?&]\|/[^/]*/\|?[^?]*?\)\%([+-]\d*\)\?'
let s:rangeExpr = s:singleRangeExpr.'\%([,;]'.s:singleRangeExpr.'\)\?'
let s:upToRangeExpr = '^\%(.*\\\#<!|\)\?\s*' . s:rangeExpr . '\ze\s*\h'
" Note: I didn't take over the handling of command prefixes (:verbose, :silent,
" etc.) to avoid making this overly complex.
function! s:RemoveAllButRange()
let l:cmdlineBeforeCursor = strpart(getcmdline(), 0, getcmdpos() - 1)
let l:cmdlineAfterCursor = strpart(getcmdline(), getcmdpos() - 1)
let l:upToRange = matchstr(l:cmdlineBeforeCursor, s:upToRangeExpr)
if empty(l:upToRange)
return getcmdline()
else
call setcmdpos(strlen(l:upToRange) + 1)
return l:upToRange . l:cmdlineAfterCursor
endif
endfunction
cnoremap <C-g><C-u> <C-\>e(<SID>RemoveAllButRange())<CR>
as a plugin
My CmdlineSpecialEdits plugin has (among many others) this mapping as well.
You can also do something like this to write the contents of the anonymous register to file2.txt
:4,10d | :call writefile(split(##, "\n", 1), 'file2.txt')
You can do the deleting first, and then open a new tab and paste the contents - so :4,10d, then :tabe foo/bar.txt, followed by p... does that sound better?
In Vim 8 and NVIM 0.3.7 as of writing, you can actually edit your command list and hit enter to execute.
:4,10w foo/bar.txt
q:
q: is to enter interactive ex command
Once you open the interactive command list, you can then edit it and press enter to execute.
I love moopet's answer though, it's efficient.
I want to debug a process, hence I attached strace to the process and redirected the output to a file and then performed the operation. During the process it has created a lot of processes. So here is what I want to do, I want to select all the system calls executed by a process. To do that I used grep command with pattern as pid:
:grep pid %
It shows the result but I am not able to traverse through the result, it promts
Press ENTER or type command to continue
and returns to the file. What I would like to do is store the result in a buffer and then have a look into it and if required save it into a file or else discard it and return to the original file. Is there a way to do this with out exiting from the vim editor? Thanks in advance.
I would like to search with the result and store that in a buffer.
Over the years of reading all kind of logs, I learned this little trick:
:%!grep pattern
It simply replaces the current buffer contents with grep output (so to go back to the original logs you have to simply press u).
You can also use it with other tools:
:%!ack pattern
:%!ag pattern
:%!rg pattern
Note that you can also run these commands on other files then the current one. The following 2 commands would replace the current buffer with results of grepping over the current file (second % character, which would be redundant for grep in this case) and otherfile.txt respectively:
:%!grep pattern %
:%!grep pattern otherfile.txt
For me it's the simplest and the best solution for fast grepping of big files in Vim and I'm pretty surprised no one ever mentioned it.
You can go to older searches, and back easily:
:copen
:colder " goes to older
:cnewer " newer
You can have another search using lvimgrep (uses location window):
:lopen
:lnext
etc...
It also has history:
:lolder
:lnewer
You can read into any buffer:
:r!grep bla **/*.cs
Finally, any command that gives output, can be redirected with the redir command:
:redir >> file
:grep bla **/*.cs
:redir END
See :he redir for the many ways to use it (redirect into registers or variables).
I thought that :grep results were stored by default in the quickfix window.
Try to use :copen after running a grep command. I expect that you'll find your results there.
( :cclose to close the quickfix window)
It is not really a buffer, but as long as you are not starting another search your result list will stay intact.
You can "yank" the content of the quickfix window to a new buffer.
Go into quickfix with :copen
Yank its content with yG
open a new buffer with :new
Paste the content with p
Save it with :w Process1.txt
Repeat and rinse for multiple search/process.
#romainl 's answer on how grep results into separate buffer or split window gives a much cleaner answer than quickfix/location lists.
:vnew | 0r!grep foo #
:tabe | 0r!grep foo #
but Quickfix lists are sort of intended for what you are doing but not the way you are doing it; however, it's tedious to set up unless it's a recurrent task.