Compiling code from vim

Question

New to vim and and I want to be able to compile code from within vim without running a new terminal and calling the compiler.

How do I go about doing this? Note that this requirement is not restricted to gcc only, I sometimes need to call python also on the current script I am working on, so you get the idea...

Solution 1

Write a Makefile, then you can simply:

:make

from inside vim. And if compilation fails:

:copen

will show you warning and errors. Selecting them will take you to the appropriate file and line.

Solution 2

In vim, the current file can be referred to as %, so

:!python %

See :he cmdline-special (or here)

Solution 3

If you don't like makefiles for some reason you can call any command with :!

For example you can use ":!javac *.java && java Foo" to compile and run a simple java program. You can also call other build systems (scons, cmake, ...) this way.

Solution 4

Vim can be used to compile using gnu make on the current file - even if there's no Makefile for the file (for more details see here):

:make %:r

This way vim provides you with access to the quickfix error feedback from the compiler (:help quickfix) list - :cn Next error, :cp Previous error, :cw New window listing errors.

If you've not got gnu make then you can set the makeprg variable (change to g++ if you're compile C++):

:se makeprg=gcc\ -o\ %<\ %

and then use the vim make command to compile the current file and get a quickfix list of errors in vim:

:make

EDIT: If you also want to run the compiled executable from within vim you can do ('!' executes, '%:r' is the filename without its suffix):

:!./%:r

Solution 5

I use a vim that has Python interpreter compiled in.

I source a python file that has this function:

def pyterm(filename="", interactive=1):
    cmd = "%s %s %s " % (PYTHON, "-i" if interactive else "", filename)
    if "DISPLAY" in os.environ:
        return run_config(os.environ.get("XTERM"), cmd)
    else:
        return os.system(cmd)

And map it to a keyboard shortcut:

nmap ;ru :update<CR>:python pyterm(vim.current.buffer.name, 0)<CR>
nmap ;ri :update<CR>:python pyterm(vim.current.buffer.name, 1)<CR>

I had previous set some environment variables to determine the exact terminal to run in if using gvim, or in the same terminal if not in a X.

Then I usually just type ';ri' in a Python buffer to run it (usually to test it).

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Comments

[elig]

Check out github.com/tpope/vim-dispatch it allows you to set different compiler commands per file type and invoke them easily

[Pierz]

A more complete answer would include the ':', and to make it more versatile you could change 'file.c' for the current file operator '%' : :!gcc % && ./a.out

[user15269806]

I'm doing something similar in my .vimrc, I map Command + Shift + R to: map <D-R> :exe '!gcc %:p' <bar> exe '!'.getcwd().'/a.out'<cr>