How do I run an external shell command from Vim without the press-enter prompt afterward?

Explanation

Running :!cmd in Vim shows the command's output and then pauses with a "Press ENTER or type command to continue" prompt. Prefixing with :silent suppresses both the output and the prompt, letting you fire off shell commands without breaking your editing flow.

How it works

• :silent is a command modifier that suppresses all displayed output and prompts from the following Ex command
• :!{cmd} runs {cmd} in the shell
• Combined, :silent !{cmd} executes the shell command invisibly
• If the screen is left dirty after the command, add a | redraw! call or press <C-l>

Example

Stage the current file in Git without interruption:

:silent !git add %

Open the current file in the system default application:

:silent !xdg-open %

Map a key to copy the whole file to the clipboard on macOS and auto-redraw:

nnoremap <leader>y :silent !pbcopy < % \| redraw!<CR>

Tips

• % expands to the current filename, so :silent !git add % stages exactly the open file
• To also suppress stderr, append shell redirection: :silent !cmd 2>/dev/null
• :silent! (with a bang after silent) additionally ignores error messages from the command
• For commands whose output you do want, drop silent and just use :!cmd