Neovim 101 - File Management
We explored the basics of the file explorer in the beginner series. This article explores lesser-known Neovim's built-in file management features. We will also check out plugins that help us manage files and folders more efficiently.
This article is part of the Neovim 101 series.
The Neovim configuration files are available in this repository.
Getting Started
In the previous article, we went through the basics of Netrw
(:h netrw
), configured sensible defaults for Netrw
and installed the vinegar.vim
plugin that enhances Netrw
. We also installed and configured the nvim-tree
Lua-based file explorer plugin for Neovim.
This article explores the lesser know features of Neovim for file handling.
File Editing
Automated Save
To automatically save the changes without asking, we can switch on theautowriteall
(:h awa
) option. The default for this option is off.
With this option turned on, Neovim writes the contents of the file, if it has been modified,
- on
:next, :rewind, :last, :first, :previous, :stop, :suspend, :tag,:!, :make, CTRL-]
andCTRL-^
command, and when a:buffer, CTRL-O, CTRL-I, ‘{A-Z0–9},
or`{A-Z0–9}
command takes one to another file. - commands
:edit
,:enew
,:quit
,:qall
,:exit
,:xit
,:recover
and closing the Neovim window.
In the screenshot below, we cannot quit Neovim if the current buffer is not saved (without using !
). Once we set the autowriteall
option, the changes are saved automatically when we quit Neovim.