Advanced Vim State Management: Old Files, Session Management, and Transferring Data

made '1. And '1 is made to '2, and so forth. Mark '9 is lost. The |:marks| command is useful to find out where '0 to '9 will take you. GETTING BACK TO SOME FILE If you want to go back to a file that you edited recently, but not when exiting Vim, there is a slightly more complicated way. You can see a list of files by typing the command: > :oldfiles < 1: ~/.config/nvim/init.vim ~ 2: ~/text/resume.txt ~ 3: /tmp/draft ~ Now you would like to edit the second file, which is in the list preceded by "2:". You type: > :e #<2 Instead of ":e" you can use any command that has a file name argument, the "#<2" item works in the same place as "%" (current file name) and "#" (alternate file name). So you can also split the window to edit the third file: > :split #<3 That #<123 thing is a bit complicated when you just want to edit a file. Fortunately there is a simpler way: > :browse oldfiles < 1: ~/.config/nvim/init.vim ~ 2: ~/text/resume.txt ~ 3: /tmp/draft ~ -- More -- You get the same list of files as with |:oldfiles|. If you want to edit "resume.txt" first press "q" to stop the listing. You will get a prompt: Type number and <Enter> (empty cancels): ~ Type "2" and press <Enter> to edit the second file. More info at |:oldfiles|, |v:oldfiles| and |c_#<|. MOVE INFO FROM ONE VIM TO ANOTHER You can use the ":wshada" and ":rshada" commands to save and restore the information while still running Vim. This is useful for exchanging register contents between two instances of Vim, for example. In the first Vim do: > :wshada! ~/tmp/shada And in the second Vim do: > :rshada! ~/tmp/shada Obviously, the "w" stands for "write" and the "r" for "read". The ! character is used by ":wshada" to forcefully overwrite an existing file. When it is omitted, and the file exists, the information is merged into the file. The ! character used for ":rshada" means that all the information in ShaDa file has priority over existing information, this may overwrite it. Without the ! only information that wasn't set is used. These commands can also be used to store info and use it again later. You could make a directory full of ShaDa files, each containing info for a different purpose. ============================================================================== *21.4* Sessions Suppose you are editing along, and it is the end of the day. You want to quit work and pick up where you left off the next day. You can do this by saving your editing session and restoring it the next day. A Vim session contains all the information about what you are editing. This includes things such as the file list, window layout, global variables, options and other information. (Exactly what is remembered is controlled by the 'sessionoptions' option, described below.) The following command creates a session file: > :mksession vimbook.vim Later if you want to restore this session, you can use this command: > :source vimbook.vim If you want to start Vim and restore a specific session, you can use the following command: > vim -S vimbook.vim This tells Vim to read a specific file on startup. The 'S' stands for session (actually, you can source any Vim script with -S, thus it might as well stand for "source"). The windows that were open are restored, with the same position and size as before. Mappings and option values are like before. What exactly is restored depends on the 'sessionoptions' option. The default value is: "blank,buffers,curdir,folds,help,options,tabpages,winsize,terminal". blank keep empty windows buffers all buffers, not only the ones in a window curdir the current directory folds folds, also manually created ones help the help window options all options and mappings tabpages all tab pages winsize window sizes terminal include terminal windows Change this to your liking. To also restore the size of the Vim window, for example, use: > :set sessionoptions+=resize SESSION HERE, SESSION

This section delves into advanced methods of managing Vim's state. It covers using `:oldfiles` and `:browse oldfiles` to navigate and reopen recently edited files. Furthermore, it explains how to transfer register contents between Vim instances using `:wshada` and `:rshada`. Finally, it introduces session management with `:mksession` and `:source`, detailing how to save and restore entire editing sessions, including window layouts, options, and more, controlled by the 'sessionoptions' setting.