How to run a series of vim commands from command prompt

Try the following syntax:

ex foo.txt <<-EOF
  g/^\s*$/d
  %s/^/[/
  %s/\(.*\)\(\s\+\)\(.*\)/\3\2\1
  %s/$/]/
  %s/design/test/
  wq " Update changes and quit.
EOF

The ex command is equivalent to vim -E. Add -V1 for verbose output.

Alternative one-liner syntax is for example:

ex +"g/^\s*$/d" +"%s/^/[/" +"%s/design/test/" -cwq foo.txt

To load commands from the file, use -s cmds.vim.

You can also use shebang for Vim to parse the file from the argument.

For more examples, see:

  • How to edit files non-interactively (e.g. in pipeline)?
  • BashFAQ/021

With all the commands you want to run on each file saved in a script, say "script.vim", you can execute that script on one file like this (as others have mentioned):

vim -c "source script.vim" A.txt

Taking this one step further, you can save your file at the end of the script, either by putting a :w command inside the script itself, or passing it from the command-line:

vim -c "source script.vim | w" A.txt

Now, you can run any command in Vim on multiple files, by using the argdo command. So your command turns into:

vim -c "argdo source script.vim | w" A.txt B.txt C.txt D.txt

Finally, if you want to quit Vim after running your script on every file, just add another command to quit:

vim -c "argdo source script.vim | w" -c "qa" A.txt B.txt C.txt D.txt

The amount of -c commands directly passed to Vim on the command-line is limited to 10, and this is not very readable. Alternatively, you can put the commands into a separate script and pass that to Vim. Here's how:

Silent Batch Mode

For very simple text processing (i.e. using Vim like an enhanced 'sed' or 'awk', maybe just benefitting from the enhanced regular expressions in a :substitute command), use Ex-mode.

REM Windows
call vim -N -u NONE -n -es -S "commands.ex" "filespec"

Note: silent batch mode (:help -s-ex) messes up the Windows console, so you may have to do a cls to clean up after the Vim run.

# Unix
vim -T dumb --noplugin -n -es -S "commands.ex" "filespec"

Attention: Vim will hang waiting for input if the "commands.ex" file doesn't exist; better check beforehand for its existence! Alternatively, Vim can read the commands from stdin. You can also fill a new buffer with text read from stdin, and read commands from stderr if you use the - argument.

Full Automation

For more advanced processing involving multiple windows, and real automation of Vim (where you might interact with the user or leave Vim running to let the user take over), use:

vim -N -u NONE -n -c "set nomore" -S "commands.vim" "filespec"

Here's a summary of the used arguments:

-T dumb           Avoids errors in case the terminal detection goes wrong.
-N -u NONE        Do not load vimrc and plugins, alternatively:
--noplugin        Do not load plugins.
-n                No swapfile.
-es               Ex mode + silent batch mode -s-ex
                Attention: Must be given in that order!
-S ...            Source script.
-c 'set nomore'   Suppress the more-prompt when the screen is filled
                with messages or output to avoid blocking.


vim -c <command> Execute <command> after loading the first file

Does what you describe, but you'll have to do it one file at a time.

So, in a windows shell...

for %a in (A,B,C,D) do vim -c ":g/^\s*$/d" -c "<another command>" %a.txt

POSIX shells are similar, but I don't have a machine in front of me at the moment.

I imagine you could load all the files at once and do it, but it would require repeating the commands on the vim command line for each file, similar to

vim -c "<command>" -c "<command>" -c ":n" (repeat the previous -c commands for each file.)  <filenames go here>

EDIT: June 08 2014: Just an FYI, I discovered this a few minutes ago.

vim has the command bufdo to do things to each buffer (file) loaded in the editor. Look at the docs for the bufdo command. In vim, :help bufdo

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Vim

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Command Prompt

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