Saving vim macros

Question

Does anyone know how to properly save/reuse macros recorded inside of a vim editor?

Answer 1

Use q followed by a letter to record a macro. This just goes into one of the copy/paste registers so you can paste it as normal with the "xp or "xP commands in normal mode.

To save it you open up .vimrc and paste the contents, then the register will be around the next time you start vim.
The format is something like:

let @q = 'macro contents'

Be careful of quotes, though. They would have to be escaped properly.

So to save a macro you can do:

• From normal mode: qq
• enter whatever commands
• From normal mode: q
• open .vimrc
• "qp to insert the macro into your let @q = '...' line

Answer 2

For a more robust solution you can checkout Marvim.

It let's you save a macro in a specific namespace (or use the filetype as a default namespace) and you can later search for your saved macros and load them in a register ready for use.

If you reuse a lot of macros, this is pretty helpful.

Answer 3

Write your macros inside your ~/.vimrc, to define a macro launched by CTRL+O by example, add the following line to your ~/.vimrc :

map <C-O> MACROTEXT

when you record a macro by typing qa you can retrieve your macro text by typing "ap

Answer 4

Vim 8.0 on MacOS Mojave (10.14.6) actually persists macros and named buffers automatically (by default, although I haven't looked for a way of turning this behavior off). Closing a Vim session will update the ~/.viminfo file with any named buffers / macros.

Answer 5

The :mkexrc (or :mkvimrc) command can be used to save all the current :map and :set settings to a file. See :help mkexrc for details.

Answer 6

You can do like this on your ~/.vimrc

:let @a="iHello World!\<CR>bye\<Esc>"

NOTE: You must use double quotes to be able to use special keys like in \<this silly example>.