Capturing echo to stdout from Vim

Question

I have a vim script that I am sourcing with --cmd "source path/to/file.vim". The full command is a bit longer and the final command is to quit vim like so.

vim --cmd 'source path/to/file1.vim' [... source other files] --cmd ':q'

In these files I am doing some processing that outputs messages to vim with echomsg. I want to capture these messages to stdout.

The problem is some of this processing requires sleeping for a bit with sleep. However doing a sleep causes vim to redraw the screen. As a result messages that were echoed initially are partially cleared in this screen redraw.

Once I quit Vim I can see that the messages were output in sequence correctly in the shell, but the intermittent redrawing messed up the display.

One workaround I came up with is to use writefile to write the messages to a file instead of using stdout, but then I loose the ability to show progress.

Is there a better way to capture echo'ed messages to stdout from a vimscript? I would like to display the messages as they occur, as these are progress messages.

Thanks.

Also see Vim execute a command and send out buffer over stdout. — glts
– glts, Commented Aug 5, 2013 at 19:04
Both these are good answers, but don't solve the issue. For 1. I can't use -s, because of the vimrc suppression. 2. Piping won't work as it runs after vim exits. I want the screen to update as the messages are sent, to show progress. The main issue is sleep triggers redraws which clears out the echo messages sent before. — Darshan Sawardekar
– Darshan Sawardekar, Commented Aug 5, 2013 at 19:27
So you want to run Vim automated inside a batch job, but still show output while it's running? That half-interactive mode is quite far from the usual use cases, no wonder it works poorly... — Ingo Karkat
– Ingo Karkat, Commented Aug 5, 2013 at 19:34

kenorb · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-17 19:23:08Z

A later redraw may make the message disappear, so to avoid that you may force a redraw, e.g.:

:new | redraw | echo "there is a new window"

Or check lazyredraw instead as per comments.

To capture echo (or other messages) to the standard output, you can use redir command, e.g.:

$ ex +"redir>>/dev/stdout | echomsg 'foo' | redir END" -scq! foo

If you're interested in messages about which files are sourced, use -V parameter, so your message (echomsg) would be displayed as well without any need for redirect, e.g.:

$ ex -V +"echomsg 'foo'" -scq! ... Searching for "vimfiles/after/plugin/**/*.vim" Searching for ".vim/after/plugin/**/*.vim" foo

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