External commands

% and !
% resolves to the current filename. ! calls an external function. Together, %! executes a command over the file, and replaces the current buffer with the output.
Mapping over files with :w
You can generate derived JSON from an existing file with jq, which I sometimes use to generate and manipulate test vectors:
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:w !jq '.key-to-filter-by' > filtered.json
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You can easily pass Markdown (or any other text format) files straight through pandoc. This is useful for exporting documentation for sharing with non-engineers.
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:w !pandoc -o FILENAME.pdf
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Buffer processing with :%:
Processing can be achieved by calling %! !external_fn to replace buffer contents in-place.
In this example, we pipe a JSON file through jq to prettify:
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:%: !jq '.'
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In this example, we convert the current file from Markdown to HTML using pandoc:
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:%: !pandoc -f markdown -t html
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Last modified 7mo ago

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Contents

% and !

Mapping over files with :w

Buffer processing with :%:

`%` and `!`

Mapping over files with `:w`

Buffer processing with `:%:`