To replicate
$ yes hello | head -50 | fmt -100 > wide_lines.txt
$ vi wide_lines.txt
:.!fmt
correctly formats the first line as expected. However attempting
to reformat each individual line with:
:g/^/.!fmt
errors with """
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Illegal address: only 6 lines in the file.
Error: unable to retrieve line 7; 4 lines added; 2 lines deleted
Press any key to continue:
"""
(the "4 lines added; 2 lines deleted" and possibly the "Press any
key to continue" might be a screen artifact from prior to the error
message since it's not in reverse video like the rest of the error)
Expected behavior: each individual line gets passed through fmt(1)
to reformat it.
Observed behavior: an error about the number of lines in the file
and only a portion of the lines are properly reformatted.
It sounds like something isn't re-calculating the number of lines
in the file before/after a "!{cmd}" invocation within the context
of a :g// command. Or perhaps the lines marked by the g:// don't
get updated after reading data output of an external "!{cmd}"
FWIW, this manifests in FreeBSD's nvi(1), too.
-tkc
