Sure, why not :)
This goes in your zshrc:
vman() { if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then /usr/bin/man else if man -w $* >/dev/null 2>/dev/null then /usr/bin/man $* | col -b | vim -c 'set ft=man nomod' - else echo No man page for $* fi fi } alias man='vman'
And this goes in your vimrc (in a suitable augroup):
autocmd FileType man setlocal ro nonumber nolist fdm=indent fdn=2 sw=4 foldlevel=2 | nmap q :quit
Now you’ll get nicely highlighted man pages with folded sections, and you can hit q to quit just like less.
This is sick, perverted, and … I like it :) Although I’m too lazy to actually use it :D
Very cool!
Two comments: A. You might want to use “nmap ” instead of “nmap”. B. This breaks man page autocompletion – instead of being offered man pages, you’re offered files in the current directory (as you would be for vim). Any ideas how to fix this?
A solution to the above problem, and also a different approach:
(a) Inside a directory in your $PATH (say, ~/bin), create a file called ‘_man2vim’, containing the following:
#!/bin/sh col -b | vim -c ‘set ft=man nomod’ -
Make this file executable.
(b) Wherever it is you like to add aliases (be it .bashrc, .bash_alises, .zshrc or anything else), add the following alias:
alias man=’man –pager=_man2vim’
(c) Voilà.