Extract the result of a shell command to a variable in a .vimrc file?

Question

In my .vimrc file, I would like to store in a variable the result of an external command, in my case:

$ echo $LANG

So that my .vimrc file would have :

let language = output(!echo $LANG)
if language == 'en'
   nnoremap <somekey> <ohanotherkey!>
end if

So far I couldn't find how to do it. I've found that in command mode, :read !echo $LANG would insert in my current file the content I am looking for. But I don't know how to write it down in a .vimrc file.

score 45 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 18 '16 at 16:38

45

You can do this with the system function:

let language = system('echo $LANG')

Bonus point: if your output is a list, you can use the systemlist instead to get back a list. e.g.

let files = systemlist('ls')
" ['bin', 'dev', ... ]

ref: :h system

edited Apr 18 '16 at 16:38

muru

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answered Apr 18 '16 at 16:07

nobe4

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score 17 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 01 '19 at 14:37

17

If LANG is an environment variable you can just do:

let language = $LANG

Or, even simpler:

if $LANG == 'en'
…
endif

edited Oct 01 '19 at 14:37

adelarsq

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answered Apr 18 '16 at 16:36

muru

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This does not exactly answer my too general question... but is even better ! Thanks. – Feffe Apr 19 '16 at 10:35

Extract the result of a shell command to a variable in a .vimrc file?

2 Answers2

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