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From: john@basser.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: vi tips- summary number one
Message-ID: <1034@basser.oz>
Date: Wed, 30-Sep-87 11:50:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: basser.1034
Posted: Wed Sep 30 11:50:24 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 3-Oct-87 09:25:16 EDT
References: <601@augusta.UUCP> <8524@mimsy.UUCP> <2280@sphinx.uchicago.edu> <86@physiol.su.oz>
Reply-To: john@basser.oz (John Mackin)
Distribution: world
Organization: Dept of Comp Sci, Uni of Sydney, Australia
Lines: 23
Summary: :r !command

In article <86@physiol.su.oz> daved@physiol.su.oz (Dave Davey) writes:

> In article <2280@sphinx.uchicago.edu>, d757@sphinx.uchicago.edu (Lawrence Lerner) writes:
> > !!    place results of command into file i.e. !!cat it.p will place
> >            the list of it.p in your file.
> This isn't quite right.  '!' is a command which, in common with 'd', 'c' and
> 'y' can be followed by a cursor motion command.  [...] It's not an effective
> alternative to ":r file" unless you are purposely trying to clobber
> some text at the same time.

Dave's comments are entirely correct.  I would just like to add one
more point: in the ":r" command, the filename can start with a ! character,
in which case it is taken as a command to be executed and the standard
output of the command is read into the buffer.  This is how you can
accomplish the effect the original poster wanted.  You can also use
the ":w !command" construct, which writes the addressed lines (the
whole file by default) down the given command's standard input.

John Mackin, Basser Department of Computer Science,
	     University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

john@basser.oz.AU (john%basser.oz.AU@UUNET.UU.NET)
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