write to a separate file via an external filter

Vim 7.4.446 Windows 7 32 bit

In an autocmd (BufWritePost) I would like to create a new file and pass the contents of the current file through some OS program (like sort for example).

So consider I have this file:

:e dave.txt

3

2

1

Now, when I press :w

My BufWritePost event fires.

In that event I want to create:

dave.txt.post

And I want to send the contents of dave.txt through some external program (I will sort in this example since it exists on all platforms, I do not actually want to sort the output or I would use sort() ).

From a terminal I would do something like this to give you the idea I want:

sort < dave.txt >dave.txt.post

I don't really want to open this file in a Vim buffer, I just want to write the contents of the file (currently open in Vim) through some external program and into a new filename.

This is allows me to send the contents of the current buffer through an external filter, but then I have modified my current buffer (which I do not want).

%!sort

I thought this would be closer:

%!sort>dave.txt.post

But it does not create dave.txt.post

I assume there is a way to do this, just can't get the syntax correct.

Thanks,

David

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