Find path of an executable in vim

Question

On some machines I'm using an external executable to format text (it's named 'par'). Therefore I'd like to detect if the executable is installed.

Edit: I just want to detect if the executable is available in my .vimrc itself. So I prefer internal functions over external utils like 'which'. Prince Goulash's solution is already very helpful and I'm going with it, despite I'd prefer finding the exact path. Thanks.

score 17 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 15 '11 at 12:35

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You can use the vimscript function executable(), which returns 1 if its argument exists and is executable, and 0 otherwise. It doesn't return the path of the file, though. See help executable for more info.

answered Sep 15 '11 at 12:35

Prince Goulash

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You can also use `exepath()` if you need the _full path_ to the executable, analogous to the `which` utility. – shadowtalker Sep 22 '21 at 01:32

score 4 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:29

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In linux, I'd use which:

:!which par

If you want to put it into the file, try this:

:r !which par

Edit: Actually, hash might be the better tool to use.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:29

Community

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answered Sep 15 '11 at 12:26

gpojd

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 15 '11 at 12:22

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in unix...

whereis par

should return a path, if it is executable by the current user

answered Sep 15 '11 at 12:22

diagonalbatman

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Find path of an executable in vim

3 Answers3