vim: Force specific syntax via command-line argument

Question

When I want to easily read my PostgreSQL schema, I dump it to stderr and redirect it to vim:

pg_dump -h localhost -U postgres dog_food --schema-only | vim -

This gives:

vim does not have a syntax highlight schema, because it has no filename extension when reading from stdin, so I use the following:

:set syntax=sql

Which gives:

Being the lazy developer I am, I would like to force vim to use the SQL syntax by passing a command line argument, saving me the choir of re-typing set syntax=<whatever> every time I open it with stdin data..

Is there a way to set vim syntax by passing a command line argument?

score 31 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 10 '16 at 12:59

31

You can use:

vim -c 'set syntax=sql' -

edited Mar 10 '16 at 12:59

Stéphane Chazelas

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answered Mar 10 '16 at 12:24

Lambert

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Note: Works for me even without the colon in the command. – Murphy Mar 10 '16 at 12:27
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Shorter variant: `vim '+set syn=sql' -` – Stéphane Chazelas Mar 10 '16 at 13:01
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Typically you're better off using `set filetype=sql` (or `ft=sql` for short); that will also load the indentation files and such and not just the syntax highlighting... – Martin Tournoij Mar 16 '16 at 07:11

anishpatel · Answer 2 · 2019-03-09T18:47:06.547

6

vim -R -c 'set ft=sql' -

-R opens Vim in read-only mode. Your system may have the alias view for vim -R, but Neovim does not support it.
set ft is short for set filetype. As Martin Tournoij mentioned in his comment, setting the file type sets the syntax and more.

edited Mar 09 '19 at 18:47

answered Mar 09 '19 at 18:33

anishpatel

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Murphy · Answer 3 · 2016-03-10T12:16:09.837

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You can even automate that by putting the command into your ~/.vimrc:

augroup filetype
  au! StdinReadPre * set filetype=sql
augroup END

edited Mar 10 '16 at 12:16

answered Mar 10 '16 at 12:07

Murphy

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What might an example of filetype be, e.g. if I had an extension of `.extension` that I wanted to set as html would I use `.extension` or `extension` I have tried both but neither worked, do you have any suggestions? – Max Carroll Mar 23 '21 at 13:16
@MaxCarroll Depends on what you want to achieve; this smells like a new question unrelated to the issue addressed here. But before you create one, try to search for it; chances are the answer is already somewhere in the web, and probably in the SE network, too. – Murphy Mar 23 '21 at 14:36

vim: Force specific syntax via command-line argument

3 Answers3