Edit 2: Also, vim has a built-in sort command: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Sort_lines http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Sort_lines , so for the sort example I gave, too

Edit 2: Also, vim has a built-in sort command: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Sort_lines http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Sort_lines , so for the sort example I gave, too, you may not need to shell out to the external sort command. On the other hand, you may want to, since it has more functionality. Plus, vim doesn't have every filter command that Unix does, so the ! command is still very useful.