Run a vim command from a python script

Question

I have configured a keyboard shortcut using xbindkeys to run a python script.

Now, while editing any vim file if that user press that keyboard shortcut-

I want my python script to run this command to paste the path and line no to the system clipboard-

:let @+=expand("%") . ':' . line(".")
Then I want my script to copy that path from the system clipboard and process it further

Can you please suggest me a good solution for this. Thanks In advance

If you want copy to the system clipboard then you could use this command os.system("echo 'hello world' | pbcopy") — kyle k
– kyle k, Commented Jul 6, 2013 at 5:08
@kylek Thanks for replying, any idea about the first part, that is more important to me. — Hardik Juneja
– Hardik Juneja, Commented Jul 6, 2013 at 5:29

qzr · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-06 11:27:29Z

1

This works on my machine (OSX):

function! CopyToClipboard()
    py << EOF
import vim, os
# evaluate a vim expression and save its value to a variable
path_line = vim.eval('expand("%") . ":" . line(".")')
# copy the string to the clipboard
os.system("echo '%s' | pbcopy" % path_line)

# do additional stuff with path_line here

EOF
endfunction

An example keybinding:

nnoremap ,c :call CopyToClipboard()<CR>

Have a look at this link for further information on the python/vim interface: http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/if_pyth.html and, of course, :h python.

If your script is quite long, I would recommend putting everything in separate python-only files.

:h pyfile

Should help in this case.

edited Jul 6, 2013 at 11:27

answered Jul 6, 2013 at 10:55

qzr

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2 Comments

Hardik Juneja Over a year ago

Can I invoke this script using a keyboard shortcut say using ctrl + shift + e or i can invoke it from vim only. And where did you place this file and what extension did you used .py ?

qzr Over a year ago

You can invoke it with a keybinding from within vim. You could place the function (and the keybinding) in your .vimrc. If you place it in a file with file extension .vim, you just have to make sure vim reads (sources) the file on startup. See :h source. As I said, you can put the python only code inside a .py file and load it with pyfile.

ormaaj · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-06 10:37:05Z

1

You should be using Vim's Python API, not an external Python script. see :h python. You can access all that info directly through its functions. You can evaluate a vim command with vim.command() to interface with the clipboard.

There are other ways to get at the clipboard using e.g. PyGTK, or perhaps more directly through python-xlib, but would probably be more difficult.

answered Jul 6, 2013 at 10:37

ormaaj

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