How to Access Functions from .bash_profile in Vim

The aim of this page📝 is to explain how to use functions defined in `.bash_profile` within Vim.

1 min readFeb 1, 2024

Functions defined in .bash_profile are not directly accessible in Vim by default.
To make the functions available in Vim, they need to be exported from the shell environment.
Open .bash_profile using vim ~/.bash_profile.
Define your functions in the file, e.g., myFunction() { echo "Hello from myFunction!"; }.
Add the following code at the end of the file to export all functions:

# Export all functions
for func in $(declare -F -p | awk '{print $3}'); do
    export -f "$func"
done

This code uses declare -F -p to list all function names defined in the current shell session. It then loops over each function name and exports it using export -f.
Save and close the file.
Source the file using source ~/.bash_profile to apply the changes to the current shell session.
Now, the functions defined in .bash_profile are accessible in Vim.
In Vim, execute the function using :!myFunction.
The function will be executed, and the output will be displayed in the Vim terminal.