Save file after each edit in vim

Question

I'm constantly doing this in vim: [do something in insert or normal mode], Esc, :ws

I do this hundreds of times a day. Instead, I'd like to lose the habit and have vim save to file immediately after any change to buffer.

Everything is running off an SSD so I don't expect performance to be an issue.

score 16 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 14 '12 at 20:30

16

Add this simple mapping to your ~/.vimrc:

inoremap <Esc> <Esc>:w<CR>

to write the current buffer automatically on each <Esc> in INSERT mode.

answered Mar 14 '12 at 20:30

romainl

5

Seems obvious, now that I think about it, but only solves half the problem. You can edit the buffer without ever entering insert mode. – Nick Zalutskiy Mar 14 '12 at 21:25
2

You might prefer "autocmd InsertLeave * update" to a mapping. – exic Dec 12 '18 at 16:43

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 08 '13 at 08:47

The CursorHold and CursorHoldI might help. According to docs:

|CursorHold|        the user doesn't press a key for a while
|CursorHoldI|       the user doesn't press a key for a while in Insert mode

Those events fire only once after inactivity and depend on updatetime variable (default: 4000ms). So you can:

:au CursorHold <buffer> :update

Which will update current buffer file (i.e. save only if modified) after default 4 seconds of inactivity in Normal mode.

Add autocommand for CursorHoldI if you want to get the same behavior in Insert mode.

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 14 '12 at 20:07

3

Not that I know of, other than coding it (check out the VIM Wiki for a starting point). VIMs swap file almost does what you are asking, for recovery purposes.

The swap file is updated after typing 200 characters or when you have not typed anything for four seconds

Seems like that would catch most quirks. Is there some specific problem you are trying to avoid?

answered Mar 14 '12 at 20:07

AlG

I'd like to run syntastic every time I change something (by default it runs when you save) and I'd like to lose the habit of constantly saving manually. I don't like swap files because they pollute my working dir. I guess I could save every 1 second or so, but that seems unnecessary. – Nick Zalutskiy Mar 14 '12 at 21:29

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 14 '12 at 20:33

2

answered Mar 14 '12 at 20:33

Gabriel Tudor

4 Answers4