[vim/vim] Vim as a pipe editor and vipe (Discussion #17977)

avidseeker

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Aug 12, 2025, 4:38:09 PMAug 12

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Related to discussion: #17974

I was wondering if that Vim or Neovim API could be used for using a buffer to output to stdout.

Vim happily accepts stdin like this echo test | vim, but the problem with it outputting to stdout led to wrapper solutions such as vipe from moreutils:

NAME
       vipe - edit pipe

SYNOPSIS
       command1 | vipe | command2

DESCRIPTION
       vipe allows you to run your editor in the middle of a unix pipeline and edit
       the data that is being piped between programs. Your editor will have the full
       data being piped from command1 loaded into it, and when you close it, that
       data will be piped into command2.

So my questin is whether it's possible to make those wrapper scripts obsolete by supporting this natively on Vim/Neovim.

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Phạm Bình An

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Aug 13, 2025, 12:49:50 PMAug 13

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it's possible to make those wrapper scripts obsolete by supporting this natively on Vim/Neovim

I don't think so, vipe supports all editors, not just Vim/Neovim

Also what exactly do you want to Vim/Nvim to write to stdout by default? Note that it could breaks CI that already use stdout of Vim/Nvim instance.

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Phạm Bình An

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Aug 13, 2025, 1:00:04 PMAug 13

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whether it's possible to make those wrapper scripts obsolete by supporting this natively on Vim/Neovim

I don't think so, according to its document, vipe supports all editors, not just Vim/Neovim.