vim8: redirect stdout in job

Question

why does this not work:

:call job_start('echo hello > /tmp/file.txt')

I would expect that this creates a file called file.txt in /tmp with the content hello.

How can I make it work?

Answer 1

The reason that happens is because the command is executed directly and not through a shell.

To have your intended behaviour, use the way the help pages (:help job_start) tell us to:

:call job_start(["/bin/sh", "-c", "echo hello > /tmp/file.txt"])