Vim is not reading gzipped files automatically

Question

I want to see some zipped log files .gz in unix through putty. When I open them in vim the contents are not readable. I think vim is not able to unzip them.

Solution 1

Vim is perfectly able to open gzipped files by default, see :help gzip.

If it's not possible in your case, you should see:

• if the machine has the gzip program,
• if you have the right permissions to use it,
• if your Vim comes with the the gzip standard plugin which should be located at /usr/share/vim/vim*/plugin/gzip.vim and its companion in /usr/share/vim/vim*/autoload/gzip.vim.

Solution 2

Reading compressed files transparently is handled by the gzip vim plugin. This plugin is only enabled when vim is not in "compatible" mode (see :help compatible for more details). An easy way to ensure "compatible" is not set, is to create an empty .vimrc file in your home directory.

Comments

[jahroy]

Vim is for text files. It does not unzip files or view compressed files.

[Benoit]

@jahroy: some vim distributions have autocmds for unzipping those files

[Shiplu Mokaddim]

vim is a text editor. Not zip viewer.

[Benoit]

Ahmad, can you tell us what vim says when you type :autocmd? Is there anything about .gz files? I for example have :autocmd BufRead *.gz call gzip#read("gzip -dn"). Do you have gzip executable, and this autocmd?

[Admin]

@[email protected] colleagues are able to see it..how ever they too are facing this problem sometime..

[Admin]

@Benoit..I just need to type ":autocmd?"...right?

[Benoit]

@Ahmad: type :autocmd BufRead *.gz and tell me whether you see what I saw (call gzip#read...)

[Admin]

@Benoit..."ksh: :autocmd: not found"..I typed ":autocmd BufRead .log.gz".... being my file name

[Shiplu Mokaddim]

@Ahmad you need to type that inside vim after pressing Esc. Not in ksh console.

[Admin]

@Benoit...it said "3 files to edit"...but it didn't show the content

[Benoit]

don't type .log.gz but *.gz

[Benoit]

-1. vim with some autocmds, in some distributions, automatically gunzips the file at loading time and gzips them back before saving.

[fer.marino]

+1. your suggestion are quite a help.. I want to see why its not working on my machine but works for others

[Shiplu Mokaddim]

@Ahmad do you have read permission to read that file?

[Shiplu Mokaddim]

@Benoit OP said I want to see some zipped log files .gz in unix through putty. And this is the answer. Besides, to only read something using vim is bad idea.

[Benoit]

@shiplu.mokadd.im: good remark. removing my -1.

[Benoit]

also needs autoload/gzip.vim

[romainl]

You are right. I'll add it to my answer if you don't mind.

[Ôrel]

Can be a conflict between several plugins, for example file-line github.com/bogado/file-line/issues/56

[Todd Walton]

Also, I just figured out... you can't view gzipped files with 'view', presumably because 'view' puts vim into compatible mode.