Executing Bash functions from within Vim - how can I do it?

Question

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Commands executed from vim are not recognizing bash command aliases

I have the following function in my ~/.bashrc file (on my Ubunut box)

# convert tex to pdf, no bib 
function t2p {
    latex $1 && latex $1 && dvips $1 -o $1.ps && ps2pdf $1.ps && rm -f $1.dvi }

# convert tex to pdf, with bib 
function tb2p {
    latex $1 && bibtex $1 && latex $1 && latex $1 && dvips $1 -o $1.ps && ps2pdf $1.ps && rm -f $1.dvi }

For example, to convert a tex file f.tex to a pdf file and bibtex it in the right order, I call tb2p f. This works very well if I'm in a Bash terminal. However, to get to the Bash prompt from within Vim I actually have to execute the command :sh first.

To simplify the above procedure I tried to execute the functions t2p and tb2p inside Vim by :!t2p f. Vim then tells me that it cannot find the function t2p. I did some Googling and read that I should put these functions into the file /etc/bash.bashrc to make them visible to Vim. Unfortunately, this didn't work in my case. Vim still doesn't know about the function.

At the end of the day I would like to be able to call my functions from within Vim by using a keyboard shortcut. My questions are therefore as follows:

How can I let Vim know about ~/.bashrc functions?
How do I setup a keyboard shortcut in ~/.vimrc for a function in ~/.bashrc?

Thank you very, very much.

That answer solved my problem! Will do some more Googling on my 2nd question. Thanks a bunch! — , May 28 '11 at 16:34
Considered installing `rubber` which is an automated compilation system? `rubber -d main` will compile to a PDF `main.tex` and all dependencies and autodetect needs for bibliography or other compilation steps… — Benoit, May 28 '11 at 18:42
It's funny this answer appear top of my Google search. Thanks! — giripp, Jan 08 '14 at 15:20
Nobody provided the obvious answer as in the following example. function the_function { echo "Some output" ; }; declare -x -f the_function; Now try run vim and use command ":r!the_function" to verify functionality. — Petr Matousu, Jul 16 '22 at 19:59

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered May 28 '11 at 16:26

5

Try using :!bash -c t2p in Vim. If your alias is limited to interactive shells also add the -i flag.

answered May 28 '11 at 16:26

Adam Byrtek

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DigitalRoss · Answer 2 · 2011-05-28T16:34:40.927

Vim runs bash commands with the -c argument, which makes the shell non-interactive and non-login, and that bypasses reading the startup files.

You can override this with an environment variable.

From man bash:

   When  bash is started non-interactively, to run a shell script, for example, it looks for the variable BASH_ENV
   in the environment, expands its value if it appears there, and uses the expanded value as the name of a file to
   read and execute.  Bash behaves as if the following command were executed:
          if [ -n "$BASH_ENV" ]; then . "$BASH_ENV"; fi
   but the value of the PATH variable is not used to search for the file name.

Alternatively, vim itself can be asked to run command shells as login shells. From vim :help shell we get the following:

                    On Unix the command normally runs in a non-interactive
                    shell.  If you want an interactive shell to be used
                    (to use aliases) set 'shellcmdflag' to "-ic".
                    For Win32 also see |:!start|.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered May 28 '11 at 16:27

Try adding set shell=bash\ --login to your .vimrc.

To convert the current file, type :!tb2p %, the % will be expanded by Vim for you when executing the script.

Once it's working, you can add a mapping to make the whole process even faster:

nnoremap <F12> :!tb2p %<CR>

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered May 28 '11 at 22:15

You can always define your functions in a separate file and put that file in a folder in your PATH environment variable. In my case my personal functions that I would use go to ~/bin

In your case for t2p:

create a file t2p in ~/bin with the contents:

#!/bin/bash

# convert tex to pdf, no bib 
latex $1 && latex $1 && dvips $1 -o $1.ps && ps2pdf $1.ps && rm -f $1.dvi

then make the file executable:

> chmod +x t2p

make sure ~/bin is in your path, by putting the following in your ~/.bashrc:

export PATH=${HOME}/bin:${PATH}

Executing Bash functions from within Vim - how can I do it?

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