How do I reload my vimrc without leaving Vim?

Question

When I do a change in my .vimrc, I usually exit Vim and open it again. Is there an easier way to reload the new .vimrc changes?

score 58 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:51

58

Run:

:source $MYVIMRC

inside Vim to reload the vimrc file. Or, a shorter version:

:so $MYVIMRC

as mentioned in a comment by kenorb.

You may also find it useful to map either of these forms to a key. For example:

nnoremap <Leader>r :source $MYVIMRC<CR>

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:51

Community

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answered Feb 03 '15 at 17:18

Paul Gessler

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Shortcut: :so $MYVIMRC. – kenorb Feb 20 '15 at 22:43
@kenorb: I've added this possibility; thanks for mentioning it! – Paul Gessler Feb 21 '15 at 04:34
:so $m ← extra-short-cut – Aaron Thoma May 31 '15 at 21:46
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Save two more keystrokes with :so %. % is set to the current file name of the buffer you edit, in this case $MYVIMRC – cbaumhardt Aug 24 '15 at 21:30
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By far the easiest way to do this is to automatically reload the vimrc upon save - check the other answers. – Tom Hale Aug 06 '16 at 08:25

score 22 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 20 '15 at 22:35

22

If you just want to reload the file once in a while

:source $MYVIMRC

as Paul wrote is correct. If you end up changing your vimrc often, you could add something like this to your vimrc file:

autocmd BufWritePost .vimrc,_vimrc source $MYVIMRC

This will reload the file when you write it (from within that vim session)

edited Feb 20 '15 at 22:35

Martin Tournoij

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answered Feb 03 '15 at 17:32

johannes

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johannes: Do we need to edit the .vimrc through vim for this command to automatically source the file? – Sai Manoj Kumar Yadlapati Feb 03 '15 at 18:25
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note a vimrc file can also be called other things: for example vimrc (if it's in ~/.vim). – user50136 Feb 04 '15 at 06:09
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@SaiManojKumarYadlapati Yes, AS said this has to be the same vom session. Bufwritepost is triggered when vom does the write – johannes Feb 04 '15 at 11:01
Problems with this: (1) doesn't work with .vim/vimrc, (2) will create duplicate autocmds so each subsequent save will be slower as file will be reloaded multiple times, (3) doesn't behave with vim-tiny which doesn't have autocmd and is still the default on some linux distributions. See my answer to address these issues. – Tom Hale Aug 06 '16 at 04:14

Tom Hale · Answer 3 · 2016-09-02T14:26:07.110

" Quickly edit/reload this configuration file
nnoremap gev :e $MYVIMRC<CR>
nnoremap gsv :so $MYVIMRC<CR>

To automatically reload upon save, add the following to your $MYVIMRC:

if has ('autocmd') " Remain compatible with earlier versions
 augroup vimrc     " Source vim configuration upon save
    autocmd! BufWritePost $MYVIMRC source % | echom "Reloaded " . $MYVIMRC | redraw
    autocmd! BufWritePost $MYGVIMRC if has('gui_running') | so % | echom "Reloaded " . $MYGVIMRC | endif | redraw
  augroup END
endif " has autocmd

and then for the last time, type:

:so %

The next time you save your vimrc, it will be automatically reloaded.

Features:

Tells the user what has happened (also logging to :messages)
Handles various names for the configuration files
Ensures that it wil only match the actual configuration file (ignores copies in other directories, or a fugitive:// diff)
Won't generate an error if using vim-tiny

Of course, the automatic reload will only happen if you edit your vimrc in vim.

How do I reload my vimrc without leaving Vim?

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