Indenting entire file in Vim without leaving current cursor location

Question

I already know that gg=G can indent the entire file on Vim. But this will make me go to the beginning of the file after indent. How can I indent the entire file and maintain the cursor at the same position?

See also https://stackoverflow.com/q/1646850/ – user90726 Sep 02 '22 at 13:36 — user90726, Sep 02 '22 at 13:36

score 18 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 17 '11 at 01:58

18

See :h ''

This will get you back to the first char on the line you start on:

gg=G''

and this will get you back to the starting line and the starting column:

gg=G``

I assume the second version, with the backtick, is the one you want. In practice I usually just use the double apostrophe version, since the backtick is hard to access on my keyboard.

answered Aug 17 '11 at 01:58

Herbert Sitz

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1

Awesome. The second version is what I was looking for. The only negative point is that the current line will be at the end of the screen then. – Fábio Perez Aug 17 '11 at 02:07
1

Great. Try adding a `zz` if you want to reposition line at middle of screen: `gg=G``zz` – Herbert Sitz Aug 17 '11 at 02:19
5

That keeps the screen unchanged: `mqHmwgg=G\`wzt\`q`. Note it uses `q` and `w` marks. – Fábio Perez Aug 18 '11 at 01:57
@FábioPerez "The only negative point is that the current line will be at the end of the screen then." - This seems to be the middle line in Vim 9. Hello from 2022, ha ha – user90726 Sep 02 '22 at 14:18
btw, what is the advantage of using two backticks instead of ``? – user90726 Sep 02 '22 at 14:27

Alex · Answer 2 · 2011-08-17T00:49:43.870

3

Add this to your .vimrc

function! Preserve(command)
  " Preparation: save last search, and cursor position.
  let _s=@/
  let l = line(".")
  let c = col(".")
  " Do the business:
  execute a:command
  " Clean up: restore previous search history, and cursor position
  let @/=_s
  call cursor(l, c)
endfunction
nmap <leader>> :call Preserve("normal gg>G")<CR>

You can also use this on any other command you want, just change the argument to the preserve function. Idea taken from here: http://vimcasts.org/episodes/tidying-whitespace/

edited Aug 17 '11 at 00:49

answered Aug 17 '11 at 00:27

Alex

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Replace all of the lets at the beginning with `let w = winsaveview()` and the let and call at the end with `call winrestview(w)` and you restore even the scroll position. – dash-tom-bang Aug 18 '11 at 00:47

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 21 '13 at 00:27

In a similar spirit to Alex's answer I use the following mapping in vimrc.

nnoremap g= :let b:PlugView=winsaveview()<CR>gg=G:call winrestview(b:PlugView) <CR>:echo "file indented"<CR>

by pressing g= in normal mode the whole buffer is indented, and the scroll/cursor position is retained.

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 07 '21 at 06:45

1

Following on top of Herbert's solution, the reader can also use <C-o>

In vim script

exe "norm! gg=G\<C-o>"

Or mapping

:nnoremap <F10> gg=G\<C-o>

answered Jan 07 '21 at 06:45

Bhupesh Varshney

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 16 '11 at 23:54

1

You can set a bookmark for the current position with the m command followed by a letter. Then after you run the indent command, you can go back to that bookmark with the ` (backtick) command followed by the same letter.

answered Aug 16 '11 at 23:54

James O'Doherty

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Indenting entire file in Vim without leaving current cursor location

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