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vim
Omar Abid
Omar Abid

Reputation: 15976

Auto-save in VIM as you type

As the question title mentions. I'm looking to automatically get the file saved as I type in VIM (insert mode).

Is this possible? How to achieve it?

Upvotes: 23

Views: 24740

Answers (7)

unrealapex
unrealapex

Reputation: 630

Using a function with logic to handle read only buffers and empty buffers in tandem with a autocommand works pretty well:

" auto save file when it is modified
augroup auto_save
  autocmd!
  " call save function
  autocmd BufModifiedSet * call AutoSave()
augroup end

" save function that is called when buffer is modified
function AutoSave()
  if (bufname() != "" && &buftype == "" && &filetype != "" && &readonly == 0)
    silent write
  " prevent empty, readonly, etc... buffers from being saved
  else
  endif
endfunction

The autogroup auto_save contains an autocommand that calls AutoSave(). It is executed whenever the current buffer is modified(see :help BufModifiedSet). The AutoSave() function writes the buffer only if it is writeable, it is not blank, and it(the buffer) has a file type.

Upvotes: 0

simhumileco
simhumileco

Reputation: 34565

I recommend to save the buffer whenever text is changed:

autocmd TextChanged,TextChangedI <buffer> silent write

I found it here. It works for me.

Note (thanks to @Kevin): Unfortunately, it will result in errors if you open vim without opening a file because vim will try to save the text you type but won't have where.

Upvotes: 46

mlongval
mlongval

Reputation: 41

Don't know if someone mentioned this. Autosave Per File Type

( in this case it is for a Markdown *.md file)

autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead *.md :autocmd TextChanged,TextChangedI <buffer> silent write

This will write the contents of the file the moment they are modified but only for Markdown (*.md) files.

Upvotes: 2

kgflying
kgflying

Reputation: 244

907th/vim-auto-save auto saves file. But if your .vimrc depends on write event, then it could have issue.

Recently, I notice https://github.com/chrisbra/vim-autosave, which saves files to a backup dir, which sounds promising if your .vimrc depends on write event.

Upvotes: 0

Eric
Eric

Reputation: 81

This will handle read-only buffers (like netrw) and undetected filetypes. Using TextChangedI instead of InsertLeave seems to cause a write for every character typed in insert mode, which may or may not be what you want.

augroup autosave
    autocmd!
    autocmd BufRead * if &filetype == "" | setlocal ft=text | endif
    autocmd FileType * autocmd TextChanged,InsertLeave <buffer> if &readonly == 0 | silent write | endif
augroup END

Upvotes: 6

Jayram
Jayram

Reputation: 19578

You can use AutoSave plugin to perform that:

https://github.com/907th/vim-auto-save

Please notice that AutoSave is disabled by default, run :AutoSaveToggle to enable/disable it.

Upvotes: 13

Aleksei Chernenkov
Aleksei Chernenkov

Reputation: 1051

There is no native support for auto-saving in Vim. But you can use vim-auto-save plugin to perform that.

This plugin auto-saves in normal mode only by default, but there is a section in it's README which describes how to configure the plugin to save in insert mode too. Hint: you should configure the plugin to auto-save on CursorHoldI and/or TextChangedI Vim events.

Please, refer to the plugin documentation on how to install and use it.

Upvotes: 2

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