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 Bu         


        

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

just put this in .vimrc

set updatetime=1000
autocmd CursorHoldI * silent w