How to write buffer content to stdout?

user_388449 0
Viewed 21700

Is there any chance to write the content of the current vim buffer to stdout?

I'd like to use vim to edit content that was passed via stdin - without the need of a temporary file to retrieve the modified content (on Linux/Unix).

Is it possible that a plugin/script - that act on quit or save put the buffer content to stdout?

vi stdout shell vim
11 Answers

You can use the ex-mode (p)rint command to print any set of lines you want to stdout.

print all lines:

:1,$p

Also prints all lines (% is a shorthand for the range 1,$)

:%p

print lines 4-10:

:4,10p

print next line containing FOO

/FOO/ p

print all lines containing FOO

g/FOO/ p
user_51960930

This post gave me an idea: copying the buffer/or selection to clipboard:

  1. Install xclip (any linux distribuition package manager should have it.)

  2. Do this vim command:

:w !xclip

If you want to copy only some lines, select tem first with (normal mode) V, then issue the command above.

user_3711600

What helped resolve matters for me is adding

setenv SHELL /bin/bash
exec bash -l

to .bashrc, otherwise vim can launch the wrong shell. Also, a script called save, which encrypts stdin and saves the result to $1, so the command in vim becomes :w !save afilename.

user_176808090
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