Vim documentation: getscript

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*getscript.txt*      For Vim version 7.0.  Last change: 2006 Apr 30

                Get the Latest VimScripts

Authors:  Charles E. Campbell, Jr.  <NdrOchip@ScampbellPfamilyA.Mbiz>
          (remove NOSPAM from the email address)

                                                *GetLatestVimScripts-copyright*
Copyright: (c) 2004-2005 by Charles E. Campbell, Jr.
           The VIM LICENSE applies to GetLatestVimScripts.vim and
           GetLatestVimScripts.txt (see |copyright|) except use
           "GetLatestVimScripts" instead of "Vim".
           No warranty, express or implied.  Use At-Your-Own-Risk.


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1. Contents                                                *glvs-contents*

        1. Contents.......................................: |glvs-contents|
        2. GetLatestVimScripts Usage......................: |glvs|
        3. GetLatestVimScripts Data File..................: |glvs-data|
        4. GetLatestVimScripts Plugins....................: |glvs-plugins|
        5. GetLatestVimScripts AutoInstall................: |glvs-autoinstall|
        6. GetLatestVimScripts Algorithm..................: |glvs-alg|
        7. GetLatestVimScripts History....................: |glvs-hist|


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2. GetLatestVimScripts Usage          *getlatestvimscripts* *getscript* *glvs*

        While in vim, type

             :GetLatestVimScripts
 
        Unless its been defined elsewhere,

             :GLVS
 
        will also work.

        The script will attempt to update and, if so directed, automatically
 install scripts from   http://vim.sourceforge.net/. To do so it will
        peruse a file, [.vim|vimfiles]/GetLatest/GetLatestVimScripts.dat
        (see |glvs-data|), and examine plugins in your [.vim|vimfiles]/plugin
        directory (see |glvs-plugins|).

        Scripts which have been downloaded will appear in the .../GetLatest
        subdirectory.

        The <GetLatestVimScripts.dat> file will be automatically be updated to
        reflect the latest version of script(s) so downloaded.


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3. GetLatestVimScripts Data File        *getlatestvimscripts-data* *glvs-data*

        The Data file has a header which should appear as:

             ScriptID SourceID Filename
             --------------------------
 
        Below that are three columns; the first two are numeric followed by a
        text column.

        The first number on each line gives the script's ScriptID.  When
        you're about to use a web browser to look at scripts on
        http://vim.sf.net/, just before you click on the script's link, you'll
        see a line resembling

        http://vim.sourceforge.net/scripts/script.php?script_id=40

        The "40" happens to be a ScriptID that GetLatestVimScripts needs to
        download the associated page.

        The second number on each line gives the script's SourceID.  The
        SourceID records the count of uploaded scripts as determined by
        vim.sf.net; hence it serves to indicate "when" a script was uploaded.
        Setting the SourceID to 1 insures that GetLatestVimScripts will assume
        that the script it has is out-of-date.

        The SourceID is extracted by GetLatestVimScripts from the script's
        page on vim.sf.net; whenever its greater than the one stored in the
        GetLatestVimScripts.dat file, the script will be downloaded.

        If your script's author has included a special comment line in his/her
        plugin, the plugin itself will be used by GetLatestVimScripts to build
        your <GetLatestVimScripts.dat> file, including any dependencies on
        other scripts it may have.

        If your comment field begins with :AutoInstall:, GetLatestVimScripts
        will attempt to automatically install the script.  Thus,
        GetLatestVimScripts thus provides a comprehensive ability to keep your
        plugins up-to-date!

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4. GetLatestVimScripts Plugins  *getlatestvimscripts-plugins* *glvs-plugins*


        If a plugin author includes the following comment anywhere in their
        plugin, GetLatestVimScripts will find it and use it to build user's
        GetLatestVimScripts.dat files:

                                  src_id
                                         v
             " GetLatestVimScripts: ### ### yourscriptname
                                     ^
                                 scriptid
 
        As an author, you should include such a line in to refer to your own
        script plus any additional lines describing any plugin dependencies it
        may have.  Same format, of course!

        If your command is auto-installable (see |glvs-autoinstall|), and most
        scripts are, then you may include :AutoInstall: at the start of
        "yourscriptname".

        GetLatestVimScript commands for those scripts are then appended, if
        not already present, to the user's GetLatest/GetLatestVimScripts.dat
        file.  Its a relatively painless way to automate the acquisition of
        any scripts your plugins depend upon.

        Now, as an author, you probably don't want GetLatestVimScripts to
        download your own scripts for you yourself, thereby overwriting your
        not-yet-released hard work.  GetLatestVimScripts provides a solution
        for this:  put

             0 0 yourscriptname
 
        into your <GetLatestVimScripts.dat> file and GetLatestVimScripts will
        skip examining the "yourscriptname" scripts for those
        GetLatestVimScript comment lines.  As a result, those lines won't be
        inadvertently installed into your <GetLatestVimScripts.dat> file and
        subsequently used to download your own scripts.  This is especially
        important to do if you've included the :AutoInstall: option.

        Be certain to use the same "yourscriptname" in the "0 0
        yourscriptname" line as you've used in your GetLatestVimScript
        comment!


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5. GetLatestVimScripts AutoInstall      *getlatestvimscripts-autoinstall*

                                        *glvs-autoinstall*

        GetLatestVimScripts now supports "AutoInstall".  Not all scripts are
        supportive of auto-install, as they may have special things you need
        to do to install them (please refer to the script's "install"
        directions).  On the other hand, most scripts will be
        auto-installable.

        To let GetLatestVimScripts do an autoinstall, the data file's comment
        field should begin with (surrounding blanks are ignored):

                :AutoInstall:

        Both colons are needed, and it should begin the comment
        (yourscriptname) field.

        One may prevent any autoinstalling by putting the following line
        in your <.vimrc>:

             let g:GetLatestVimScripts_allowautoinstall= 0
 

        With :AutoInstall: enabled, as it is by default, files which end with

          ---.tar.bz2  : decompressed and untarred in [.vim|vimfiles] directory
          ---.tar.gz   : decompressed and untarred in [.vim|vimfiles] directory
          ---.vim.bz2  : decompressed and moved to the .vim/plugin directory
          ---.vim.gz   : decompressed and moved to the .vim/plugin directory
          ---.zip      : unzipped in [.vim|vimfiles] directory
          ---.vim      : moved to [.vim|vimfiles]/plugin directory

        and which merely need to have their components placed by the
        untar/gunzip or move-to-plugin-directory process should be
        auto-installable.

        When is a script not auto-installable?  Let me give an example:

             [.vim|vimfiles]/after/syntax/blockhl.vim
 
        The <blockhl.vim> script provides block highlighting for C/C++
        programs; it is available at:

             http://vim.sourceforge.net/scripts/script.php?script_id=104
 
        Currently, vim's after/syntax only supports by-filetype scripts (in
        blockhl.vim's case, that's after/syntax/c.vim).  Hence, auto-install
        would possibly overwrite the current user's after/syntax/c.vim file.

        In my own case, I use <aftersyntax.vim> (renamed to
        after/syntax/c.vim) to allow a after/syntax/c/ directory:

             http://vim.sourceforge.net/scripts/script.php?script_id=1023
 
        The script allows multiple syntax files to exist separately in the
        after/syntax/c subdirectory.  I can't bundle aftersyntax.vim in and
        build an appropriate tarball for auto-install because of the potential
        for the after/syntax/c.vim contained in it to overwrite a user's
        c.vim.


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6. GetLatestVimScripts Algorithm        *getlatestvimscripts-algorithm*

                                                                *glvs-alg*

        The Vim sourceforge page dynamically creates a page by keying off of
        the so-called script-id.  Within the webpage of

        http://vim.sourceforge.net/scripts/script.php?script_id=40

        is a line specifying the latest source-id (src_id).  The source
        identifier numbers are always increasing, hence if the src_id is
        greater than the one recorded for the script in GetLatestVimScripts
        then its time to download a newer copy of that script.

        GetLatestVimScripts will then download the script and update its
        internal database of script ids, source ids, and scriptnames.

        The AutoInstall process will:

                Move the file from GetLatest/ to the following directory
                        Unix   : $HOME/.vim
                        Windows: $HOME\vimfiles

                if the downloaded file ends with ".bz2"
                        bunzip2 it
                else if the downloaded file ends with ".gz"
                        gunzip it
                if the resulting file ends with ".zip"
                        unzip it
                else if the resulting file ends with ".tar"
                        tar -oxvf it
                else if the resulting file ends with ".vim"
                        move it to the plugin subdirectory


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7. GetLatestVimScripts History       *getlatestvimscripts-history* *glvs-hist*

        v20 Dec 23, 2005 : * Eric Haarbauer found&fixed a bug with unzip use;
                             unzip needs the -o flag to overwrite.
        v19 Nov 28, 2005 : * v18's GetLatestVimScript line accessed the wrong
                             script! Fixed.
        v18 Mar 21, 2005 : * bugfix to automatic database construction
                           * bugfix - nowrapscan caused an error
                             (tnx to David Green for the fix)
            Apr 01, 2005   * if shell is bash, "mv" instead of "ren" used in
                             :AutoInstall:s, even though its o/s is windows
            Apr 01, 2005   * when downloading errors occurred, GLVS was
                             terminating early.  It now just goes on to trying
                             the next script (after trying three times to
                             download a script description page)
            Apr 20, 2005   * bugfix - when a failure to download occurred,
                             GetLatestVimScripts would stop early and claim that
                             everything was current.  Fixed.
        v17 Aug 25, 2004 : * g:GetLatestVimScripts_allowautoinstall, which
                             defaults to 1, can be used to prevent all
                             :AutoInstall:
        v16 Aug 25, 2004 : * made execution of bunzip2/gunzip/tar/zip silent
                           * fixed bug with :AutoInstall: use of helptags
        v15 Aug 24, 2004 : * bugfix: the "0 0 comment" download prevention wasn't
                             always preventing downloads (just usually).  Fixed.
        v14 Aug 24, 2004 : * bugfix -- helptags was using dotvim, rather than
                             s:dotvim.  Fixed.
        v13 Aug 23, 2004 : * will skip downloading a file if its scriptid or srcid
                             is zero.  Useful for script authors; that way their
                             own GetLatestVimScripts activity won't overwrite
                             their scripts.
        v12 Aug 23, 2004 : * bugfix - a "return" got left in the distribution that
                             was intended only for testing.  Removed, now works.
                           * :AutoInstall: implemented
        v11 Aug 20, 2004 : * GetLatestVimScripts is now a plugin:
                           * :GetLatestVimScripts command
                           * (runtimepath)/GetLatest/GetLatestVimScripts.dat
                             now holds scripts that need updating
        v10 Apr 19, 2004 : * moved history from script to doc
        v9  Jan 23, 2004 :   windows (win32/win16/win95) will use
                             double quotes ("") whereas other systems will use
                             single quotes ('') around the urls in calls via wget
        v8  Dec 01, 2003 :   makes three tries at downloading
        v7  Sep 02, 2003 :   added error messages if "Click on..." or "src_id="
                             not found in downloaded webpage
                             Uses t_ti, t_te, and rs to make progress visible
        v6  Aug 06, 2003 :   final status messages now display summary of work
                             ( "Downloaded someqty scripts" or
                               "Everything was current")
                             Now GetLatestVimScripts is careful about downloading
                             GetLatestVimScripts.vim itself!
                             (goes to <NEW_GetLatestVimScripts.vim>)
        v5  Aug 04, 2003 :   missing an endif near bottom
        v4  Jun 17, 2003 :   redraw! just before each "considering" message
        v3  May 27, 2003 :   Protects downloaded files from errant shell
                             expansions with single quotes: '...'
        v2  May 14, 2003 :   extracts name of item to be obtained from the
                             script file.  Uses it instead of comment field
                             for output filename; comment is used in the
                             "considering..." line and is now just a comment!
                           * Fixed a bug: a string-of-numbers is not the
                             same as a number, so I added zero to them
                             and they became numbers.  Fixes comparison.

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