Linux – How to insert the date into vim

bashcommand linedatelinuxvim

In vim you can execute comands with "!". You can combine that with "r" to insert the output into your current buffer.

:r!date
Fri Jul 20 09:39:26 SAST 2012

will insert the date into a file.

Now when I try to do some more interesting stuff like date with different format +%F.
On the command line

$ date +%F
2012-07-20

In vim

:r!date "+%F"
message.to.followup.lstF

Which out puts the name of the file and puts F after it. some how the r!date "+%F" is being expanded in vim and not run on the command line. What do I need to do to run that so it puts the contents in vim.

Maybe vim has a better way to insert dates into files.

Best Answer

Vim has an internal strftime() function. Try this (in insert mode):

<C-r>=strftime('%F')<CR>

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How to pass vim buffer contents through shell command and capture the output to a split window

I would put something like this in my ~/.vimrc or a file with the .vim extension in ~/.vim/plugin/:

command! FW call FilterToNewWindow('myscript')

function! FilterToNewWindow(script)
    let TempFile = tempname()
    let SaveModified = &modified
    exe 'w ' . TempFile
    let &modified = SaveModified
    exe 'split ' . TempFile
    exe '%! ' . a:script
endfunction

Then you can just do ":FW".

It might be a good idea to change the command definition to require a filter script name argument to pass to the function instead of "hard coding" it.

Linux – How to run Vim command from the shell

From the vim(1) man page:

+{command}

-c {command}

{command} will be executed after the first file has been read. {command} is interpreted as an Ex command. If the {command} contains spaces it must be enclosed in double quotes (this depends on the shell that is used). Example: Vim "+set si" main.c

Note: You can use up to 10 "+" or "-c" commands.

Best Answer

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How to pass vim buffer contents through shell command and capture the output to a split window

Linux – How to run Vim command from the shell

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