How to find last matching line with ex?

Question

The ex command $ navigates to the first character of the last line. Therefore, when doing a backwards search it skips the line it's currently on. How do I navigate to the last character with ex, or alternatively search for the last occurrence of a regular expression?

Example:

$ cd -- "$(mktemp --directory)"
$ printf '%s\n' foo bar foo bar > test.txt
$ ex -c '$' -c '?bar' -c 'visual' test.txt

At this point the cursor is on line 2 instead of line 4, as expected. Using ex -c '?bar' -c 'visual' test.txt produces the same result, even though I'd expect it to find the last line when wrapping around (vim does).

Using Vim 7.3.

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 07 '13 at 11:53

2

Looks like ex starts at the last line - ex -c '1' -c '?bar' -c 'visual' test.txt moves the cursor to the last line.

answered Jun 07 '13 at 11:53

l0b0

51,350

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 07 '13 at 15:14

2

With my version of ex, $+1?... appears to start searching backward after the last line:

sh$ ex -version
VIM - Vi IMproved 7.2 (2008 Aug 9, compiled Jul 12 2010 12:49:33)

sh$ ex -c '$+1?bar' -c visual test.txt

answered Jun 07 '13 at 15:14

Sylvain Leroux

648
4
14

I first thought this would just wrap, but ex -c '$+1' -c visual test.txt shows that it's at the bottom of the file. Nice! – l0b0 Jun 07 '13 at 15:19

cuonglm · Answer 3 · 2013-06-07T13:52:07.403

0

Another solution:

ex -c '?bar' -c '/bar' -c 'visual' test.txt

By default, '?bar' will search for string bar from the last line of file but not search for string in last line. so when hit the first bar from last line, /bar make it correct, back to the bar in last line.

This will fail when the last line not contain string bar.

edited Jun 07 '13 at 13:52

answered Jun 07 '13 at 12:03

cuonglm

153,898

I get E464: Ambiguous use of user-defined command: G and the cursor on line 2 when using your command. Which ex version are you using? – l0b0 Jun 07 '13 at 12:29
Just type enter, and the result will be right. – cuonglm Jun 07 '13 at 12:34
No, as I said the cursor is on line 2. – l0b0 Jun 07 '13 at 12:49
Still the same result. – l0b0 Jun 07 '13 at 13:07
Fix bug. My mistake in test.txt. It contains a blank line at the end. So my first solution is failed, because it doesn't search for current line. – cuonglm Jun 07 '13 at 13:16
Now it works, but it also works if I remove the -c 'G'. – l0b0 Jun 07 '13 at 13:44
Final edited and explained. – cuonglm Jun 07 '13 at 13:47

How to find last matching line with ex?

3 Answers3