Usually, when I want to open a file encrypted by ansible-vault for editing, I just run ansible-vault edit <filename> – this decrypts the file to a temporary file and opens it for editing.
However, what I want to know is how to achieve this from within vim, e.g. by running a shell command using the :! ...command... syntax. For instance, I know that I can decrypt the file by open the encrypted file in vim, then running this:
:! ansible-vault edit %
But that opens the file with ansible-vault in a different window, and then you have to press a key to return to vim.
What I want to do is to be able to open this file with vim such that I can edit it alongside other regular files or files that are encrypted with ansible-vault. Currently I'm doing this by opening several tmux panes, but that's kind of a PITA.
Best Answer
I've been doing this from inside vim when editing an encrypted vault file:
:!ansible-vault --vault-password-file=~/.vault_pass decrypt %Make a change and then re-encrypt the file:
:!ansible-vault --vault-password-file=~/.vault_pass encrypt %The vault password goes in ~/.vault_pass as plaintext
To just view the contents and then go back to the original encrypted file (using git as the SCM and fugitive.vim plugin), first decrypt and when done:
:Git checkout %I might create a function or aliases for those commands to make it quicker in the future. For now I do a command history search so I don't have to type the whole thing every time:
q: /decrypt N enter