Can you edit your .vimrc
file and reload it without having to restart Vim?
5 Answers
If you're editing it, you can reload it with:
:so %
%
stands for current file name (see :h current-file
) and :so
is short for :source
, which reads the content of the specified file and treats it as Vim code.
In general, to re-load the currently active .vimrc, use the following (see Daily Vim):
:so $MYVIMRC
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2Have a look at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/803464/how-do-i-source-something-in-my-vimrc-file – mrucci Apr 17 '10 at 14:27
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47and `:so ~/.vimrc` should work too on unix – Yab May 08 '11 at 18:18
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3:so ~/_vimrc works on windows. Of course, I keep my _vimrc in my windows home directory, or else this won't work. To see what Vim considers your home directory, use `:echo expand("~")`. – Daniel Miladinov Nov 30 '12 at 14:10
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6Note that if keyboard mappings were already in place, then they will not erased even if they are deleted from the new vimrc – Phani Oct 02 '14 at 06:58
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Or `:so ~/.vim/gvimrc` or wherever you put it of course – NeilG Aug 20 '19 at 01:47
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Can we somehow fully flush the user config while running vim, THEN load the user config again? – jchook Feb 06 '20 at 02:21
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Is this supported on overleaf.com? Seems it ain't on repl.it – Nathan majicvr.com Nov 04 '21 at 00:26
Even better, you configure Vim to watch for changes in your .vimrc
and automatically reload the config.
augroup myvimrc
au!
au BufWritePost .vimrc,_vimrc,vimrc,.gvimrc,_gvimrc,gvimrc so $MYVIMRC | if has('gui_running') | so $MYGVIMRC | endif
augroup END
Source: this answer on SO
Note: this particular method watches for the many variations of Vim config filenames so that it's compatible with GUI Vim, Windows Vim, etc.
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I find that use this kind of command sometimes hangs my nvim for a few seconds or longer. – jdhao Sep 29 '18 at 08:29
Key mappings
" Quickly edit/reload this configuration file
nnoremap gev :e $MYVIMRC<CR>
nnoremap gsv :so $MYVIMRC<CR>
Completely automated solution
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.
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An alternative to remembering/typing :so $MYVIMRC
is these mappings. It lets you quickly edit vimrc (ev
) or source vimrc (sv
).
" Quickly open/reload vim
nnoremap <leader>ev :split $MYVIMRC<CR>
nnoremap <leader>sv :source $MYVIMRC<CR>
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I have a slightly different version of ReloadVimrcFunction
" Reloads vimrc after saving it but keep cursor position
if !exists('*ReloadVimrcFunction')
function! ReloadVimrcFunction()
let save_cursor = getcurpos()
source $MYVIMRC | windo redraw
call setpos('.', save_cursor)
echom "Reloaded $MYVIMRC"
endfunction
endif
noremap <silent> <Leader>v :drop $MYVIMRC<cr>
command! -nargs=0 ReloadVimrc :call ReloadVimrcFunction()
nnoremap <silent> <C-s> :call ReloadVimrcFunction()<CR>
In order to avoid loading the function twice we set:
if !exists('*ReloadVimrcFunction')
We also save the cursor position because it would be anoying to have our cursor positioning changing every time we reload $MYVIMRC
.
I also have an augroup to trigger this function each time I save $MYVIMRC
augroup Reload
autocmd!
autocmd BufWritePost $MYVIMRC call ReloadVimrcFunction()
augroup END
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