• Quickfix Mode Integration Like other great editors, vim has a built in mechanism to speed up the compile-debug-edit cycle. Here's the least you need to know to get running with this.
  1. Tweak your .vimrc file Add these lines to your .vimrc to get started. The first command tells vim to compile the current buffer when you type ":make", the second command tells vim to recognize the error format that Perl returns.

        set makeprg=$VIMRUNTIME/tools/efm_perl.pl\ -c\ %\ $*
           set errorformat=%f:%l:%m
        

     To make this cycle even faster, also add this line:

        set autowrite
        

     That will cause the file to automatically be saved in some cases, such as when you type ":make".

  2. Set your Perl Path If you are using some of your own modules, you need to give vim a hint about where to find them. There are two straightforward ways to handle this. One is to set the path in one of the environment variables that Perl will look in, such as PERL5LIB. The other method is to simply use vim command ":lcd" to set the Local Current Directory for the perl file you want to compile to be relevant libary path.
  3. Compile your Perl from within vim You are now ready to compile a script from within vim. Simply use ":make" for this. Vim will run "perl -c yourscript.cgi" and process the results. It will show you a list of the resulting errors, if any, and jump to the first error.
  4. Navigate your errors You are now in quickfix mode and have some commands available to quickly address the remaining errors. Here are the essential commands for this: ":cl" lists all the errors for you again, ":ccN" jumps to error number 'N', ":cn" jumps to the next error. You can read the details with ":help quickfix"

-mark