How to make autowrite apply to :make but not to :buffer?

Question

I have set autowrite so that :make automatically saved the file before running the build command. But now I'm increasingly using :buffer to switch between buffers, and have now noticed that it silently saves the file, unlike :edit, to which autowrite doesn't apply.

I'd like to have :make write the file out, while still having :buffer refuse to switch buffers if current file is unsaved (similarly to :edit).

Is there any way to achieve this?

Answer 1

Disable autowrite and add this to your vimrc, it will save your current modified buffer when you execute make:

augroup ag_make | au!
  autocmd QuickFixCmdPre make update
augroup end

Change update to wa if you want to save all changed buffers.

                                                   *:mak* *:make*
:mak[e][!] [arguments]  1. All relevant |QuickFixCmdPre| autocommands are
                       executed.
                        ...