Question

I have a file with mac format, I know I can use :e! ++ff=mac to change to the correct fileformat. What I’d like to know is if there is a command line option I can pass when I open the file to open it directly with the correct fileformat.

Answer 1

You can do this using the command line, try:

$ vim -c "set fileformat=mac"

-c <command> executes before loading the first file. As jammessan has noted, this will only affect the first file that is loaded, subsequent files will require that you change fileformat for each buffer.

If that doesn’t work, you can also try:

$ vim -c "e ++ff=mac"

But it’s better to set this up in your .vimrc on that machine:

set fileformats=mac,unix,dos

specifies which formats to try when starting a new buffer. This also can influence what fileformat is chosen for existing files.

See help file-formats, :help 'fileformat' and :help 'fileformats' for more details.