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Accepted
Jeremy Kerr
Asked: 2010-07-30 00:23:13 +0800 CST

How do I get vim to keep its undo history?

  • 772

If I'm editing two files with vim, changing to the other file ( :bnext, :bprev ) seems to drop the undo history from the open file - hitting the 'u' key reports "Already at oldest change".

For example:

  1. vim testfile1 testfile2
  2. add some stuff to testfile1
  3. :w
  4. :bn
  5. :bp
  6. u
  7. eep! can't undo!

Is there any way to keep this history for non-visible buffers?

vim

3 Answers

  1. The newest version of vim (7.3) has persistent undo, so that you can make a change, close vim completely (even shutdown and restart), restart vim, and undo. In your .vimrc:

    " tell it to use an undo file
set undofile
" set a directory to store the undo history
set undodir=/home/yourname/.vimundo/
    • 48
  2. Best Answer

    Looks like this will do it:

    :set hidden

    (in .vimrc)

    • 22

  3. You can use Viewports.
    "vim -o testfile1 testfile2" - open files in splitted window.
    ":sp filename" - split and open "filename".
    ":vsp filename" - vertical split and open "filename".
    "Ctrl+w+arrow" - Change viewport.

    • 1