vim temporary files with native vim on windows

Question

When running a native compilation of gVim under Win7 I have the following in my vimrc:

if has ("win32")
  let $TMP="C:/tmp"
  setlocal equalprg=tidy\ --output-xhtml\ y\ -utf8\ --wrap-attributes\ 1\ --vertical-space\ 1\ --indent\ auto\ --wrap\ 0\ --show-body-only\ auto\ --preserve-entities\ 1\ -q\ -f\ shellpipe=2>
endif

This should create a temp file. However, after running the command, I see:

shell returned 1

E485: Can't read file C:\tmp\VIoC935.tmp

The common recommendation for native windows E485 errors is to set the tmp variable, which I have, as you can see from my vimrc snippet. If I remove the let statement, I get a similar result:

shell returned 1

E485: Can't read file C:\Users\ksk\AppData\Local\Temp\VIfFA01.tmp

In both cases; both directories exist and gVim can write a file to those locations, i.e.,

:w C:\Users\ksk\AppData\Local\Temp\VIfFA01.tmp

in the current buffer will write this file without error.

Interestingly, while writing this, I found that if I create a new buffer, and delete the original buffer, the equalprg function runs without error (with and without the "let" statement in vimrc)

dewtell · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-06 19:53:49Z

7

This doesn't apply to the original question, but I ran into the same symptoms because of the setting of my SHELL variable within gvim. I was launching gvim from a Cygwin window, and it picked up the SHELL setting from within cygwin: /bin/bash. I had to do a ":set SHELL=C:/cygwin/bin/bash" from within gvim, and then the temporary file problem went away. So check the setting of your SHELL variable within gVim (via ":set shell") when trying to troubleshoot this kind of problem.

answered Feb 6, 2013 at 19:53

dewtell

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1 Comment

dylnmc Over a year ago

thank you. I had set shell=bash in my $GVIMRC because I have mingw installed, and this should be ok, but I was getting an error using :read! command because it couldn't read the temp file (in :echo tempname(). After about 10 minutes of frustration and searching furiously, I finally ended up here and almost closed out of the tab, but I saw your SHELL in all caps, and you saved me a lot of typing. By the way I ****ing hate Windows so much. **** it. **** it. Also, thank you again. </rant>

xaizek · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-25 11:57:14Z

3

Interestingly, while writing this, I found that if I create a new buffer, and delete the original buffer, the equalprg function runs without error (with and without the "let" statement in vimrc)

That's probably because you use setlocal in your vimrc

E485: Can't read file C:\tmp\VIoC935.tmp

I know the reason, but I don't know how to fix it without changing indentation options. The issue is caused by the '>' symbol of your indent command, it should work after removing the last part of it or even only the '>' symbol. It's so because '>' has a special meaning in shell commands. In *nix one can probably just escape it, but this doesn't work for me in Windows.

P.S. I know this is not a full answer, but maybe it will help you solve the issue.

Update. Small discussion in the comments discovered that the correct way of escaping is to enclose the last argument in double quotes (the variant 2) below). So the working command is:

setlocal equalprg=tidy\ --output-xhtml\ y\ -utf8\ --wrap-attributes\ 1\ --vertical-space\ 1\ --indent\ auto\ --wrap\ 0\ --show-body-only\ auto\ --preserve-entities\ 1\ -q\ -f\ "shellpipe=2>"

edited Jul 25, 2012 at 11:57

answered Jul 24, 2012 at 12:13

xaizek

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6 Comments

Screenack Over a year ago

thanks. I understand what you're saying. The caret is the escape character for the dos-command line. Adding ^ to: if has ("win32") let $TMP="C:/tmp" setlocal equalprg=tidy\ --output-xhtml\ y\ -utf8\ --wrap-attributes\ 1\ --vertical-space\ 1\ --indent\ auto\ --wrap\ 0\ --show-body-only\ auto\ --preserve-entities\ 1\ -q\ -f\ shellpipe=^2> endif made no difference in results. Also, why would creating a second buffer "fix" the problem?

xaizek Over a year ago

It should be

setlocal equalprg=tidy\ --output-xhtml\ y\ -utf8\ --wrap-attributes\ 1\ --vertical-space\ 1\ --indent\ auto\ --wrap\ 0\ --show-body-only\ auto\ --preserve-entities\ 1\ -q\ -f\ shellpipe=2^>

(move the caret one character to the right) and I now can't check it at home with Linux. The setlocal command sets options for the current buffer only, so all newly created buffers won't be affected by the command ('equalprg' should become empty for them).

Screenack Over a year ago

That was my first attempt, but '2^>' will error, where as '^2>' will not, (though the original error remains) due to how dos-command globs these special char tokens, or so I've read. If you find differently, I'd love to know!

xaizek Over a year ago

OK. I have 3 more variants. They all seem to work in the console, but the first one doesn't work inside Vim for me. 1) ... shellpipe=^2^>; 2) ... "shellpipe=2>"; 3) ... \"shellpipe=2>\".

xaizek Over a year ago

Thank you too, now I know how to deal with escaping issues on Windows better (and I didn't know about ^ usage in Windows command line before).

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