Executing shell commands within Vim

• Vim allows executing commands within itself.

  • :! echo test

    • test

• % refers to the current file

  • :!wc -w % gives the word count of the current file

• Use %!{command} to take the file as input and overwrite it.

Formatting json files

• Using jq to format json files.
  • jq '.' is the identity filter .. It takes the entire input and formats it.
  • :%!jq '.'
• Can be done anywhere in the file as % indicates the whole file.