Continuing a macro across buffers in vim

Question

I've got a large config file that i'm in the process of splitting out into individual ones based on section.

My workflow is like this:

• Visual select the block of text in the main file (v)
• Cut the text into the kill buffer (d)
• Open a new buffer (:sp newfile.pp)
• Paste the text (p)
• Save the file with a new name and close the buffer (:wq! somefile.pp)

I tried creating a macro to do this, basically taking the steps above, but add (q a) right before cutting the text, and q again right after pasting. My macro stops as soon as the new buffer is open and won't run the paste command. I have to do this by hand.

Ideally: those steps above would complete to the point where I'd be left with the :wq! entered into the command line just waiting for me to give a filename and hit enter to close and save the buffer.

Is this possible, and how would I accomplish it without writing a script?

Edit

Found another faster way to do the same thing:

• Visual select the text
• Start typing a (:) command.. vim helpfully prefixes the command line to indicate an operation on your selection
• :w filename.pp
• Delete the block with (g v d)

Still curious why my recorded macro stops when a new buffer is created, though.

Answer 1

I had the same issue as you. I found out that the q after the p was not stopping the macro recording. I hope this is what you were seeing. To populate register a with content you can run (the ^@ is entered by ctrl-v, ctrl-j):

let @a="d:sp! newfile.pp^@p"