How to expand variables in vim commands?

Question

I'm trying to get a variable expanded in a command call. Here's what I have in my .vimrc:

command! -nargs=1 -complete=dir TlAddPm call s:TlAddPm(<f-args>)
function! s:TlAddPm(dir)
    let flist = system("find " . shellescape(a:dir) . " -type f -name '*.pm' | sort")
    TlistAddFiles `=flist`
endfun

At the : prompt, the `=flist` syntax seems to work (or, at least it did with a w: variable), but in the .vimrc file it doesn't — TlistAddFiles is just passed the string `=flist`.

Thanks to Andrew Barnett's and Mykola Golubyev's answers, I've now got this, which appears to work. Is there no better way?

command! -nargs=1 -complete=dir TlAddPm call s:TlAddPm(<f-args>)
function! s:TlAddPm(dir)
    let findres = system("find " . shellescape(a:dir) . " -type f -name '*.pm' | sort")
    let flist = []
    for w in split(findres, '\n')
        let flist += [ fnameescape(w) ]
    endfor
    exe "TlistAddFiles " . join(flist)
endfun

It's from the taglist plugin http://vim-taglist.sourceforge.net/ — derobert, Mar 20 '09 at 16:17
yes, I call it from .vimrc ... see the command! line (the first line in the code example) — derobert, Mar 20 '09 at 16:35

Mykola Golubyev · Accepted Answer · 2009-03-20T16:43:19.147

7

Try just

let joined = join(split(flist))
exec 'TlistAddFiles '.joined

To your edit:

 let flist = split(findres, '\n')
 call map(flist, 'fnameescape(v:val)')

edited Mar 20 '09 at 16:43

answered Mar 20 '09 at 16:02

Mykola Golubyev

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TlistAddFiles flist just passes the string flist. – derobert Mar 20 '09 at 16:12
TlistAddFiles string(joined) .... passes string(joined). And the join() line complains that a list is required. – derobert Mar 20 '09 at 16:22
Yeah, the exec seems required. – derobert Mar 20 '09 at 16:34

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 20 '09 at 16:03

3

Something like

exe "TlistAddFiles `=".flist

might work.

answered Mar 20 '09 at 16:03

Andrew Barnett

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Thats closer. Passes a string like View/JSON.pm^@View/TT.pm^@ ... just need to figure out how to split on null and also pass each to filenameescape. – derobert Mar 20 '09 at 16:16
FYI: I used exe "TlistAddFilesRecursive " . flist ... the `= stuff is weird syntax that makes the expansion work at the : prompt. – derobert Mar 20 '09 at 16:17
In that case, how about an 'xargs' at the end of your system string? – Andrew Barnett Mar 20 '09 at 16:34
Well, that'd make problems for file names with spaces in them. But I've come up with something that (while ugly) works... See the question update. – derobert Mar 20 '09 at 16:38

How to expand variables in vim commands?

2 Answers2