Configure shortcut on Vim to save file

vivimvimrc

I was wondering is it possible to create a custom shortcut in vim or vi to save open file?

For example, CtrlS instead of typing each time :w?

Thanks!

Best Answer

Vim comes with a file providing some mappings intended to match Windows files. This is usually in $VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim (run :echo $VIMRUNTIME to see what it is for you). You can just do:

:source $VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim

And get a bunch of shortcuts, including CtrlS. See :h mswin.vim for more.

Note that your terminal emulator might use CtrlS for other purposes, but that's outside Vim.

To just create a mapping to test, do:

nnoremap <c-s> :w<cr>

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You could use :confirm quit, e.g.

map <C-w> :confirm quit<CR>

By the way: C-w is a bad choice for a shortcut, because it is used as the start of other shortcuts, e.g. C-w v for splitting vertically. That's why you experience a short delay before the dialog pops open: after you press C-w, vim waits a short time for other keypresses, before it decides that you really just wanted to press C-w.

Vim – Store a backup before each write

This vim wikia article titled: Keep incremental backups of edited files, sounds like what you're looking for. There's this method which attaches a save routine so that it's mapped to the Esc key.

With the following mapping:
   fun! InitBex()
     let myvar = strftime("(%y%m%d)[%Hh%M]")
     let myvar = "set backupext=_". myvar
     execute myvar
     echo myvar
    endfun
    map <Esc> :call InitBex()<CR>
You can easily refresh the backupextension time everytime you hit the Esc key. So you can get backups every minute, every hour, every day and so on.

There are several other methods discussed in the Wiki topic.

Best Answer

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