How do I redirect command output to vim in bash?

I am trying to redirect the output of a bash command into a new file.

If I try the pipe as below :

ls -la | vim

Bash shows me the errors :

Vim: Error reading input, exiting...

Vim: preserving files...

Vim: Finished.

I know that I can open Vim and then use :

:r !ls -la

But is there a way to do this in bash itself, so that Vim is opened and the output is pasted there automatically?

edited Aug 26 '15 at 1:00

muru

asked Aug 13 '14 at 16:13

faizal

1,13261826

add a comment |

I am trying to redirect the output of a bash command into a new file.

If I try the pipe as below :

ls -la | vim

Bash shows me the errors :

Vim: Error reading input, exiting...

Vim: preserving files...

Vim: Finished.

I know that I can open Vim and then use :

:r !ls -la

But is there a way to do this in bash itself, so that Vim is opened and the output is pasted there automatically?

edited Aug 26 '15 at 1:00

muru

asked Aug 13 '14 at 16:13

faizal

1,13261826

add a comment |

I am trying to redirect the output of a bash command into a new file.

If I try the pipe as below :

ls -la | vim

Bash shows me the errors :

Vim: Error reading input, exiting...

Vim: preserving files...

Vim: Finished.

I know that I can open Vim and then use :

:r !ls -la

But is there a way to do this in bash itself, so that Vim is opened and the output is pasted there automatically?

edited Aug 26 '15 at 1:00

muru

asked Aug 13 '14 at 16:13

faizal

1,13261826

I am trying to redirect the output of a bash command into a new file.

If I try the pipe as below :

ls -la | vim

Bash shows me the errors :

Vim: Error reading input, exiting...

Vim: preserving files...

Vim: Finished.

I know that I can open Vim and then use :

:r !ls -la

But is there a way to do this in bash itself, so that Vim is opened and the output is pasted there automatically?

bash vim vi

edited Aug 26 '15 at 1:00

muru

asked Aug 13 '14 at 16:13

faizal

1,13261826

edited Aug 26 '15 at 1:00

muru

asked Aug 13 '14 at 16:13

faizal

1,13261826

edited Aug 26 '15 at 1:00

muru

edited Aug 26 '15 at 1:00

muru

edited Aug 26 '15 at 1:00

muru

asked Aug 13 '14 at 16:13

faizal

1,13261826

asked Aug 13 '14 at 16:13

faizal

1,13261826

asked Aug 13 '14 at 16:13

faizal

1,13261826

add a comment |

6 Answers
6

active

oldest

votes

126

You can use process substitution (this also works with applications that can't read from STDIN):

vim <(ls -la)

Or use vim's function to read from STDIN:

ls -la | vim -

edited Aug 26 '15 at 0:58

muru

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:58

chaos

19.7k85968

2

<(ls -la) is actually process substitution rather than command substitution.

– Eliah Kagan
Sep 2 '14 at 1:32

1

I really like vim's option, it allows me to search, find and save the output easily from data dumps.

– Josue Alexander Ibarra
May 11 '16 at 21:36

add a comment |

You're really close on your own. You were just missing one character.

ls -la | vim -

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:18

Cris Holdorph

524148

7

Well technically it's two characters. ;)

– Cory Klein
Oct 24 '17 at 22:14

add a comment |

Here's another approach, hopefully to teach someone something new.

If you know that the command :r !ls -la works inside vim, you can do the following to open vim and make it run the command as soon as it opens, straight from bash:

vim -c ':r! ls -la'

This is the equivalent of opening vim then executing the command :r! ls -la. This should work with any vim command, where the command comes after the -c option.

answered Aug 13 '14 at 17:11

Alaa Ali

22.5k96994

add a comment |

You can tell vim to open stdin:

ls -la | vim -

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:20

iffy

9521712

add a comment |

If your goal is simply to get the output into a text file then you don't need to invoke vim. Bash can do it alone with

ls -la > outputfile.txt

answered Mar 24 '17 at 15:44

Jake Stewart

111

add a comment |

setlocal buftype=nofile

This is a good option if you are going to create an alias to replace less:

seq 100 | vim +':setlocal buftype=nofile' -

Now you don't need to type the ! to quit.

Another option is:

seq 100 | vim +'nnoremap q :quit!' -

so you can exit with just q<enter>.

edited Jan 30 at 12:25

answered Jan 29 '17 at 14:43

Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心六四事件法轮功

10.2k44751

Good idea. Definitely shorter than typing this long ! :)

– kode
Jun 21 '17 at 15:04

add a comment |

Your Answer

StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "89"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});

function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: true,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: 10,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});

}
});

draft saved

draft discarded

Sign up or log in

StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});

Post as a guest

Name

Required, but never shown

StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2faskubuntu.com%2fquestions%2f510890%2fhow-do-i-redirect-command-output-to-vim-in-bash%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest

Name

Required, but never shown

6 Answers
6

active

oldest

votes

6 Answers
6

active

oldest

votes

126

You can use process substitution (this also works with applications that can't read from STDIN):

vim <(ls -la)

Or use vim's function to read from STDIN:

ls -la | vim -

edited Aug 26 '15 at 0:58

muru

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:58

chaos

19.7k85968

2

<(ls -la) is actually process substitution rather than command substitution.

– Eliah Kagan
Sep 2 '14 at 1:32

1

I really like vim's option, it allows me to search, find and save the output easily from data dumps.

– Josue Alexander Ibarra
May 11 '16 at 21:36

add a comment |

126

You can use process substitution (this also works with applications that can't read from STDIN):

vim <(ls -la)

Or use vim's function to read from STDIN:

ls -la | vim -

edited Aug 26 '15 at 0:58

muru

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:58

chaos

19.7k85968

2

<(ls -la) is actually process substitution rather than command substitution.

– Eliah Kagan
Sep 2 '14 at 1:32

1

I really like vim's option, it allows me to search, find and save the output easily from data dumps.

– Josue Alexander Ibarra
May 11 '16 at 21:36

add a comment |

126

You can use process substitution (this also works with applications that can't read from STDIN):

vim <(ls -la)

Or use vim's function to read from STDIN:

ls -la | vim -

edited Aug 26 '15 at 0:58

muru

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:58

chaos

19.7k85968

You can use process substitution (this also works with applications that can't read from STDIN):

vim <(ls -la)

Or use vim's function to read from STDIN:

ls -la | vim -

edited Aug 26 '15 at 0:58

muru

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:58

chaos

19.7k85968

edited Aug 26 '15 at 0:58

muru

edited Aug 26 '15 at 0:58

muru

edited Aug 26 '15 at 0:58

muru

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:58

chaos

19.7k85968

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:58

chaos

19.7k85968

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:58

chaos

19.7k85968

2

<(ls -la) is actually process substitution rather than command substitution.

– Eliah Kagan
Sep 2 '14 at 1:32

1

I really like vim's option, it allows me to search, find and save the output easily from data dumps.

– Josue Alexander Ibarra
May 11 '16 at 21:36

add a comment |

2

<(ls -la) is actually process substitution rather than command substitution.

– Eliah Kagan
Sep 2 '14 at 1:32

1

I really like vim's option, it allows me to search, find and save the output easily from data dumps.

– Josue Alexander Ibarra
May 11 '16 at 21:36

<(ls -la) is actually process substitution rather than command substitution.

– Eliah Kagan
Sep 2 '14 at 1:32

I really like vim's option, it allows me to search, find and save the output easily from data dumps.

– Josue Alexander Ibarra
May 11 '16 at 21:36

add a comment |

You're really close on your own. You were just missing one character.

ls -la | vim -

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:18

Cris Holdorph

524148

7

Well technically it's two characters. ;)

– Cory Klein
Oct 24 '17 at 22:14

add a comment |

You're really close on your own. You were just missing one character.

ls -la | vim -

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:18

Cris Holdorph

524148

7

Well technically it's two characters. ;)

– Cory Klein
Oct 24 '17 at 22:14

add a comment |

You're really close on your own. You were just missing one character.

ls -la | vim -

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:18

Cris Holdorph

524148

You're really close on your own. You were just missing one character.

ls -la | vim -

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:18

Cris Holdorph

524148

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:18

Cris Holdorph

524148

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:18

Cris Holdorph

524148

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:18

Cris Holdorph

524148

7

Well technically it's two characters. ;)

– Cory Klein
Oct 24 '17 at 22:14

add a comment |

7

Well technically it's two characters. ;)

– Cory Klein
Oct 24 '17 at 22:14

Well technically it's two characters. ;)

– Cory Klein
Oct 24 '17 at 22:14

add a comment |

Here's another approach, hopefully to teach someone something new.

If you know that the command :r !ls -la works inside vim, you can do the following to open vim and make it run the command as soon as it opens, straight from bash:

vim -c ':r! ls -la'

This is the equivalent of opening vim then executing the command :r! ls -la. This should work with any vim command, where the command comes after the -c option.

answered Aug 13 '14 at 17:11

Alaa Ali

22.5k96994

add a comment |

Here's another approach, hopefully to teach someone something new.

If you know that the command :r !ls -la works inside vim, you can do the following to open vim and make it run the command as soon as it opens, straight from bash:

vim -c ':r! ls -la'

This is the equivalent of opening vim then executing the command :r! ls -la. This should work with any vim command, where the command comes after the -c option.

answered Aug 13 '14 at 17:11

Alaa Ali

22.5k96994

add a comment |

Here's another approach, hopefully to teach someone something new.

If you know that the command :r !ls -la works inside vim, you can do the following to open vim and make it run the command as soon as it opens, straight from bash:

vim -c ':r! ls -la'

This is the equivalent of opening vim then executing the command :r! ls -la. This should work with any vim command, where the command comes after the -c option.

answered Aug 13 '14 at 17:11

Alaa Ali

22.5k96994

Here's another approach, hopefully to teach someone something new.

If you know that the command :r !ls -la works inside vim, you can do the following to open vim and make it run the command as soon as it opens, straight from bash:

vim -c ':r! ls -la'

This is the equivalent of opening vim then executing the command :r! ls -la. This should work with any vim command, where the command comes after the -c option.

answered Aug 13 '14 at 17:11

Alaa Ali

22.5k96994

answered Aug 13 '14 at 17:11

Alaa Ali

22.5k96994

answered Aug 13 '14 at 17:11

Alaa Ali

22.5k96994

answered Aug 13 '14 at 17:11

Alaa Ali

22.5k96994

add a comment |

You can tell vim to open stdin:

ls -la | vim -

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:20

iffy

9521712

add a comment |

You can tell vim to open stdin:

ls -la | vim -

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:20

iffy

9521712

add a comment |

You can tell vim to open stdin:

ls -la | vim -

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:20

iffy

9521712

You can tell vim to open stdin:

ls -la | vim -

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:20

iffy

9521712

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:20

iffy

9521712

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:20

iffy

9521712

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:20

iffy

9521712

add a comment |

If your goal is simply to get the output into a text file then you don't need to invoke vim. Bash can do it alone with

ls -la > outputfile.txt

answered Mar 24 '17 at 15:44

Jake Stewart

111

add a comment |

If your goal is simply to get the output into a text file then you don't need to invoke vim. Bash can do it alone with

ls -la > outputfile.txt

answered Mar 24 '17 at 15:44

Jake Stewart

111

add a comment |

If your goal is simply to get the output into a text file then you don't need to invoke vim. Bash can do it alone with

ls -la > outputfile.txt

answered Mar 24 '17 at 15:44

Jake Stewart

111

If your goal is simply to get the output into a text file then you don't need to invoke vim. Bash can do it alone with

ls -la > outputfile.txt

answered Mar 24 '17 at 15:44

Jake Stewart

111

answered Mar 24 '17 at 15:44

Jake Stewart

111

answered Mar 24 '17 at 15:44

Jake Stewart

111

answered Mar 24 '17 at 15:44

Jake Stewart

111

add a comment |

setlocal buftype=nofile

This is a good option if you are going to create an alias to replace less:

seq 100 | vim +':setlocal buftype=nofile' -

Now you don't need to type the ! to quit.

Another option is:

seq 100 | vim +'nnoremap q :quit!' -

so you can exit with just q<enter>.

edited Jan 30 at 12:25

answered Jan 29 '17 at 14:43

Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心六四事件法轮功

10.2k44751

Good idea. Definitely shorter than typing this long ! :)

– kode
Jun 21 '17 at 15:04

add a comment |

setlocal buftype=nofile

This is a good option if you are going to create an alias to replace less:

seq 100 | vim +':setlocal buftype=nofile' -

Now you don't need to type the ! to quit.

Another option is:

seq 100 | vim +'nnoremap q :quit!' -

so you can exit with just q<enter>.

edited Jan 30 at 12:25

answered Jan 29 '17 at 14:43

Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心六四事件法轮功

10.2k44751

Good idea. Definitely shorter than typing this long ! :)

– kode
Jun 21 '17 at 15:04

add a comment |

setlocal buftype=nofile

This is a good option if you are going to create an alias to replace less:

seq 100 | vim +':setlocal buftype=nofile' -

Now you don't need to type the ! to quit.

Another option is:

seq 100 | vim +'nnoremap q :quit!' -

so you can exit with just q<enter>.

edited Jan 30 at 12:25

answered Jan 29 '17 at 14:43

Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心六四事件法轮功

10.2k44751

setlocal buftype=nofile

This is a good option if you are going to create an alias to replace less:

seq 100 | vim +':setlocal buftype=nofile' -

Now you don't need to type the ! to quit.

Another option is:

seq 100 | vim +'nnoremap q :quit!' -

so you can exit with just q<enter>.

edited Jan 30 at 12:25

answered Jan 29 '17 at 14:43

Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心六四事件法轮功

10.2k44751

edited Jan 30 at 12:25

answered Jan 29 '17 at 14:43

Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心六四事件法轮功

10.2k44751

answered Jan 29 '17 at 14:43

Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心六四事件法轮功

10.2k44751

answered Jan 29 '17 at 14:43

Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心六四事件法轮功

10.2k44751

Good idea. Definitely shorter than typing this long ! :)

– kode
Jun 21 '17 at 15:04

add a comment |

Good idea. Definitely shorter than typing this long ! :)

– kode
Jun 21 '17 at 15:04

Good idea. Definitely shorter than typing this long ! :)

– kode
Jun 21 '17 at 15:04

add a comment |

draft saved

draft discarded

Thanks for contributing an answer to Ask Ubuntu!

Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

But avoid …

Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.

To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.

draft saved

draft discarded

Sign up or log in

StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});

Post as a guest

Name

Required, but never shown

Post as a guest

Name

Required, but never shown

Sign up or log in

StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});

Post as a guest

Name

Required, but never shown

Sign up or log in

StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});

Post as a guest

Name

Required, but never shown

Sign up or log in

StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});

Post as a guest

Name

Required, but never shown

Name

Required, but never shown

Name

Required, but never shown

This page is only for reference, If you need detailed information, please check here

搜尋此網誌

Cfrgtkky