I have a file foo.txt with just a one line ab. I want to launch Vim in such a way that it will open this file, swap characters using xp, and then save it as bar.txt.
Something like this:
gvim foo.txt xp :wq > bar.txt I'm not sure it is possible. Any suggestions?
You can use Ex commands (linux version using pipes):
printf '%s\n' 'normal! xp' 'saveas bar.txt' 'q!' | ex foo.txt vim -e and vim -E can usually be used as a substitute for ex.
Or use a custom script:
gvim -S mycmds.vim foo.txt Where the file contains arbitrary Ex commands:
normal! xp saveas bar.txt quit! 
'ex' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.. The second version doesn't really swap characters; bar.txt contains only a. 1 then normal! 0xp or some other sequence to position the cursor appropriately. -u and other options to force the default vimrc, none, or some other combination. @johnc.j. ex by vim -e. In GNU/Linux systems, Ex is just Vim in Ex mode. Also, there are other tools to do this job, for example, Sed. sed really is right (i.e., we're not trying to edit in place with a stream editor 🙄—excuse the rant) Here's a couple more techniques you can use.
-c or +You can pass ex commands into Vim by using the -c command line option or its shortened version, +:
vim foo.txt +'normal! xp' +':wq! bar.txt' (Note that the :wq! command can take a filename argument: it's slightly more concise to use this rather than :saveas and :q! separately.)
-sSimilar to the -S option described by @D. Ben Knoble, you can use the -s option to run a script interpreting its contents as keystrokes.
Create a file named e.g. my_script with the following contents, being sure to press Return at the end of the line so that the file contains two lines in total (the second being a blank line):
xp:wq! bar.txt Then run this script:
vim foo.txt -s my_script See also the -w option, which you can use to record a script that can be executed with the -s option.
