How do you make Vim take you back where you were when you last edited a file?

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In vim, how do I get a file to open at the same line number I closed it at last time?

My work computer has this feature, but not my home computer! How do you set Vim to remember in which part of a file you were when you last edited it?

EDIT: just to be more precise, I want this behavior when opening a new file, or on startup.

You can set marks at various points in a file using m and return to that mark using `, but those won't persist across, say restarts of the app or closing/opening the file (I don't think). — brettkelly, Nov 05 '09 at 18:22
There is a plugin (I am the author) called [vim-lastplace](http://github.com/dietsche/vim-lastplace) that will intelligently return you to the last edit that you made. — Greg Dietsche, Nov 13 '15 at 19:40

the_karel · Answer 1 · 2009-11-06T07:00:44.720

12

I have this in my .vimrc and it works:

" go to the position I was when last editing the file
au BufReadPost * if line("'\"") > 0 && line("'\"") <= line("$") | exe "normal g'\"" | endif

edited Nov 06 '09 at 07:00

answered Nov 05 '09 at 22:17

the_karel

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Only this solution worked for me, and believe me I tried most other popular solutions! Thanks. – quanta May 04 '20 at 19:29
All the plugins to do this, will all their bugs (like intermittently storing and restoring wrong cwd) replacable by this one line? Looks like that... Wow! I love it, many thanks! – Red Pill Sep 08 '21 at 10:56
Nope: `E576: viminfo: Missing '>' in line: au BufReadPost * if line("'\"") > 0 && line("'\"") <= line("$") | exe "normal g'\"" | endif` – Henrique de Sousa Jan 23 '22 at 22:16

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 05 '09 at 18:38

4

This is done with the viminfo file. It should be sufficient simply to enable this feature (and ensure that the file is writable). I use:

set viminfo='25,\"50,n~/.viminfo

...which stores viminfo data into ~/.viminfo. You can read about the other customization options here.

answered Nov 05 '09 at 18:38

Ether

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I do have a viminfo file, filled with all kinds of stuff. It just doesn't seem to work. – static_rtti Nov 05 '09 at 18:40

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 05 '09 at 20:11

3

First, check that your .vimrc file is writable.

If that isn't sufficient, add this to your .vimrc:

if has("autocmd")
    autocmd BufReadPost *
    \ if line("\'") > 0 && line("\'") <= line("$") |
        \ exe "normal g`" |
    \ endif
endif

edited Nov 05 '09 at 20:11

Peter Mortensen

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answered Nov 05 '09 at 18:26

TinaMarie

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could you please post in "code"? Stack overflow seems to be doing weird character substitutions... – static_rtti Nov 05 '09 at 18:33
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This solution won't work anyway. See my response. – Ether Nov 05 '09 at 18:40
How to use this? Should I press g`" or it works on file open? – VladSavitsky Feb 20 '21 at 10:59

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 05 '09 at 18:22

2

'0 // (single quote followed by zero) take you to place you last edited

answered Nov 05 '09 at 18:22

JT.

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If you can tell me how to execute this automatically each time a buffer is open, you get the best answer :) – static_rtti Nov 05 '09 at 19:40
put it as the last line in your .vimrc file – evan Oct 25 '11 at 19:03

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 05 '09 at 19:27

This is a dirty solution.

Whenever you are done editing a file and you are going to quit, just mark that place using m<letter>. Now you create a session file for this using mks!. Next time you open this file, just do ``` to reach that place.

You can have different letters to reach different places in the file. e.g. e for the place you were last editing or f function definition you were last working on etcetera. It depends upon your taste.

One thing bad about this solution is that mks! will create a Session.vim file in the current directory.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 05 '09 at 22:26

See also the Vim Wikia article on Restore Cursor to File Position in Previous Editing Session. It looks like it lists a couple of the solutions already listed here, in addition to one larger script that specifically stores the last position for the last 10 files you've edited; you can change that value to suit your needs.

How do you make Vim take you back where you were when you last edited a file?

6 Answers6

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