There are times when I want to test changes to a file before I overwrite the original. Is there any way I can save a file being edited to a new file?
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The off-topic answer would be to suggest a VCS. For instance git's index might be useful – johannes Feb 04 '15 at 00:52
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You can give a parameter to the :w or :write command to save to a different file.
For example to save the current buffer to /tmp/data.txt:
:w /tmp/data.txt
However, keep in mind that this does not switch your buffer to that other file.
So if you keep editing and do just :w, that will save to the current file, not to the other one. To switch to the other file, use the :edit command:
:e /tmp/data.txt
To do this one step, save to another file and switch to it, use the :saveas command:
:sav /tmp/data.txt
janos
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It's also good to keep in mind that vim will complain if you make any changes to the current buffer without saving/writing them to the current file before running
e: /tmp/data.txt– Display name Aug 29 '20 at 17:21 -
But, I suppose
:savoverrides writing changes to the original file so it essentially combines:wand:e!. – Display name Aug 29 '20 at 17:29
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Vim has a "backup mode" that can be enabled by :set backup or :set patchmode. In that mode, Vim automatically keeps a backup copy of files that you write.
For example, if you issue :set patchmode=.orig, and you edit an existing file somefile.txt, then when you issue :w normally, Vim will keep a copy of the old file as somefile.txt.orig and save the new contents as somefile.txt.
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