Question

[using MacVim 7.3 on OS X Lion]

I have a vimscript function which runs an external command. It’s executing correctly, but the output displays (unwanted) control characters, such as [0m, [33m, [36m, and -1H. The relevant line in the vimscript function is:

exec ":!bundle exec rspec --color " . a:filename

Which produces:

:!bundle exec rspec --color spec/acceptance/user_logs_in.feature
[33m*[0m

Pending:
[33m  User logs in [0m
[36m    # the step 'the user "[e-mail]" exists' is not implemented[0m
[36m    # [0m

Finished in 0.07121 seconds
[33m1 example, 0 failures, 1 pending[0m

Here’s what the same command and output look like from the terminal, which is how I want it to display in vim:

$ bundle exec rspec --color spec/acceptance/user_logs_in.feature
*

Pending:
  User logs in
    # the step 'the user "[e-mail]" exists' is not implemented
    #

Finished in 0.1161 seconds
1 example, 0 failures, 1 pending

Also, any time I execute and external command, vim displays -1H immediately after it. For example, if I type:

:ls<return>

I see:

:ls-1H
<rest of the output is as expected>

Any ideas on hiding those control characters and -1H.

(disclaimer: I’m very new to vim so please don’t assume too much background knowledge on my part.)

Thanks.

Update 3/31/2012 @ 17:32 PM

Sam Goldman‘s correct: MacVim doesn’t know how to display colors, so it outputs the color codes.

I’ve switched to terminal vim (which supports colors, at least with iTerm), but using the version of vim that comes with MacVim, which is more up-to-date and is compiled with ruby support (among other things). The easiest way to do that is:

brew install macvim --override-system-vim 

Answer 1

MacVim doesn’t know how to display colors. Terminal vim will display the colors correctly, or you can add –no-color to your rspec command (or a .rspec file). I’m not sure about the -1H thing. Maybe some customization you have for your terminal?