11.2. Important Command-Line Arguments
vim looks at how it was invoked to decide how
it should behave.
If invoked as ex, it will
operate as a line editor. It also allows the
Q command from vi mode to switch
into ex mode.
If invoked as view, it will start in vi
mode, but mark each file initially as being read-only.
When invoked as gvim or gview,
vim will start the GUI version, under X Windows
or in whatever other graphical interface is appropriate.
If a leading r is prepended to any of the
names, vim enters "restricted"
mode, where certain actions are disabled.
vim has a large number of command-line options.
The most useful are described here:
- -c command
-
Execute command upon startup. This is the POSIX
version of the historical +command
syntax, but vim is not limited to positioning commands.
(The old syntax is also accepted.)
You can give up to ten -c commands.
- -R
- Start in read-only mode, setting the readonly
option.
- -r
- Recover specified files, or if no files are listed on the command
line, list all the files that can be recovered.
- -s
-
Enter batch (script) mode. This is only for ex, and
is intended for running editing scripts.
This is the POSIX version of the historic "-"
argument.
- -b
-
Start in binary mode. This sets a few options that make it
possible to edit a binary file.
- -f
-
For the GUI version, stay in the foreground. This should be used
by programs that invoke vim and wait for it
to finish, such as mail handling programs.
- -g
-
Start the GUI version of vim, if it has been
compiled in.
- -o [N]
-
Open N windows, if given, otherwise open one
window for each file argument.
- -i viminfo
-
Read the given viminfo file for initialization,
instead of the default viminfo file.
- -n
-
Do not create a swap file. Recovery will not be possible, but this is
useful for editing files on slow media, such as floppies.
- -q filename
-
Treat filename as the "quick fix" file.
This file should contain a list of error messages that vim
will use for navigating to the location of each error in your program.
Quick fix mode is discussed in Section 11.9.1.
- -u vimrc
-
Read the given vimrc file for initialization,
and skip all other normal initialization steps.
- -U gvimrc
-
Read the given gvimrc file for GUI initialization,
and skip all other normal GUI initialization steps.
- -Z
-
Enter restricted mode (same as having a leading r
in the name). You cannot start shell commands or suspend the editor
when this is in effect.
The -i, -n,
-u and -U options
are discussed in more detail below.
There are several more options; the interested reader is referred to
the online documentation for the full details.
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| 11. vim—vi Improved |  | 11.3. Online Help and Other Documentation |
Copyright © 2003 O'Reilly & Associates. All rights reserved.