Quickly format a file opened in vim with `npx` and `prettier` with 0 install

2 up and 1 down, posted by alvaropinot 2414 days ago 2 comments

alvaropinot 2414 days ago.

Quickly format a file opened in vim with `npx` and `prettier` with 0 install.

:%! npx -q prettier

Here is how it works 👇

`%` ➡️ use the actual file
`!` ➡️ execute any command
`npx -q prettier` ➡️ `-q` makes npx run is silent mode avoiding extra output

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/6654199/40277068-e26ef38e-5be6-11e8-9b45-92f9bcc57142.gif

chris-l 2414 days ago. link 2 points ▲ ▼

> with 0 install

Well, that is somewhat incorrect; unless you already have it installed, npx will download prettier and do a temporal installation.

So, if you DON'T have prettier installed locally on your project or globally, and then you try to execute it with the --no-install flag (so it actually doesn't install anything), like this:

:%! npx -q --no-install prettier

It will fail.

Installing it globally perhaps would be better. Otherwise you are downloading prettier over and over each time you try to format your code (and by not having to download it, the command will be executed faster).

alvaropinot 2413 days ago. link 1 point ▲ ▼

Totally true, but the whole point of using `npx` is to stop thinking about if it's installed or not. As you pointed out it will be installed temporally, the huge benefit is that it's abstracted for you and from you, you might always run the latest this way but if you want to have it actually installed it's a easy as running:

:%! prettier

😀