How can I make Vim autosave files when it loses focus?

Question

I'm used to my editors autosaving files when they lose focus. I recently switched to MacVim, and I can't recreate that behavior. I tried this:

autocmd BufLeave,FocusLost * wall

but if a buffer is unnamed when the window or MacVim loses focus, I get an error like the following:

Error detected while processing BufLeave Auto commands for "*":
E141: No file name for buffer 1

I'm confused, because :wall's documentation says:

Write all changed buffers.  Buffers without a file
name or which are readonly are not written.

so I'd expect it to skip unnamed buffers. Is there a better way to do this?

Edit:

I'm pretty sure that the better way to do what I intended by using BufLeave -- saving buffers when I switch between them, so I don't get "No write since last change" -- is to set 'autowriteall'. The question still stands for when MacVim loses focus to other applications (FocusLost).

Just throwing this out there in regards to autosaving in VIM: aren't swap files enough? — skippr, Mar 27 '12 at 20:51
I'm not trying to back up my work; I need the file to be on disk for whatever tool I've switched focus to, such as a test suite. — Peeja, Mar 28 '12 at 13:10

Aristotle Pagaltzis · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-29T08:22:39.237

44

You don’t care about errors in those circumstances since there is nothing you can reasonably do about them anyway – especially when losing focus. So just swallow them:

autocmd BufLeave,FocusLost * silent! wall

Much simpler than an elaborate dance to figure out where there would be an error in order to avoid it.

edited Aug 29 '12 at 08:22

answered Jan 09 '11 at 12:21

Aristotle Pagaltzis

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It needs a *, like `autocmd BufLeave,FocusLost * silent! wall` , at least for me, it does. – pvinis May 14 '11 at 12:49
vim noob here.. where does this line go? inside .vimrc? – thefonso Nov 26 '11 at 20:39
Does it matter where in .vimrc it's added? This line does not make the warning go away for me. :( – Alisso Apr 11 '14 at 12:22
Uhm, hard to answer. It can matter, though in most cases won’t. What warning do you get? Is your vimrc posted anywhere? – Aristotle Pagaltzis May 12 '14 at 21:59

Herbert Sitz · Answer 2 · 2011-01-09T04:58:13.797

3

I suspect when docs for wall say "without a file name" they may be referring to buffers with buftype=nofile . One way to get what you want would be to have the autocmd have bufdo call a simple function. E.g., some untested code to give the idea:

autocmd BufLeave,FocusLost * bufdo! call WriteFile()

function WriteFile()
   if (&buftype=="") && (expand("%:r") > "") && (&readonly==0)
      write
   endif
endfunction

I think the standard way of getting something like this automatic saving of buffers would be to set the autosave option in Vim.

edited Jan 09 '11 at 04:58

answered Jan 09 '11 at 04:39

Herbert Sitz

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`bufdo` will switch buffers in the current window. You should probably write `let s:curbuf=bufnr('%') | try | execute 'bufdo! call WriteFile()' | finally | execute "buffer ".s:curbuf | endtry`. It still has problems: for some reason after this code `list` option in help buffer was reset and cursor got positioned in the center. Adding `wincmd v` before `try` and `wincmd q` after `endtry` works better. – ZyX Jan 09 '11 at 10:07
Plain `wincmd v | execute 'bufdo! call WriteFile()' | wincmd q` is probably the best option. – ZyX Jan 09 '11 at 10:09
@ZyX -- Thanks for the correction; I wasn't thinking when I suggested bufdo. Sounds like your second solution would work fine, opening new window, cycling through buffers, then closing window. I still think just going with `autosave` is best solution, or possibly writing a more complex function to be called by the autocmd that uses a `windo` command within a `tabdo` so that buffer switching within a window is never required. – Herbert Sitz Jan 09 '11 at 17:16

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 06 '12 at 15:30

0

autocmd BufLeave,FocusLost * bufdo! call WriteFile()

function WriteFile()
   if (&buftype=="") && (expand("%:r") > "") && (&readonly==0)
      write
   endif
endfunction

This method has a side-effect that, you can only open one unamed buffer. If you open the second one, it would automatically be synced to the content of the first unamed buffer.

answered Nov 06 '12 at 15:30

r ne

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This is a copy of Herbert Sitz's answer above with different commentary. Was this intended as a comment on his answer? – Peeja Nov 06 '12 at 19:20

IvanM · Answer 4 · 2013-09-20T11:11:26.320

0

just put this in .vimrc

set updatetime=1000
autocmd CursorHoldI * silent w

edited Sep 20 '13 at 11:11

answered Sep 20 '13 at 10:10

IvanM

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That has several issues: first, it takes a full second to save, by which time I'd want to have the file on disk already; second, it only works if you stay in insert mode; third, `:write` doesn't cut it. @Aristotle Pagaltzis answer covers it for me. – Peeja Sep 20 '13 at 21:30

How can I make Vim autosave files when it loses focus?

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