You may want to open the source code of a system Perl module that's installed. Here's one way to do that: :e `perldoc -l Module::Name` The following function will allow you to set your cursor over a Perl module name in the file that you are currently editing and type \pm to open the corresponding source file in a new buffer: nnoremap pm :call LoadPerlModule() function! LoadPerlModule() execute 'e `perldoc -l ' . expand("") . '`' endfunction