vi format command

[Bill Petro]

sct at alpha.lanl.gov (Stephen Tenbrink) writes:

>Is there a technique for reformatting a paragraph when using vi?  Sometimes
>when one has deleted and added text to a paragraph the lines no longer end
>near the right side of the screen.  Some editors such as EDT have a
>technique of selecting the whole paragraph and then entering a command to
>reformat the whole paragraph.  The word wrap margin is used to set the
>right hand margin.

>I'm sure there is a way to do this easier than inserting 'returns' and
>using the 'J' command.  Does anyone have an answer?

" at top of paragraph, format this paragraph
!} fmt -c

" for the whole file, format all paragraphs
!G fmt -c

"from here to the end of the file, format all paragraphs
!$ fmt -c

" from anwhere in the paragraph, format this paragraph
{!}fmt -c


Here's how I map them in my .exrc file:
map @f !} fmt -c^M
map @F !G fmt -c^M
map ^Xf !$ fmt -c^M
map ^XF {!}fmt -c^M}^M

P.S. the -c option to fmt is for "crown" formatting, preserving the
indention of the first 2 lines within a paragraph.  You can leave it
off.


     Bill Petro  {decwrl,hplabs,ucbvax}!sun!Eng!rock
"UNIX for the sake of the kingdom of heaven"  Matthew 19:12