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I am trying to write a Vim function which should make the window go to the previous open buffer.

How can I do it from the command line? My first idea was to find out some CTRL-O command line alternative.

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    "which should go backwards at some point": What exactly should go backwards to where? Do you mean the cursor in the text buffer (e.g. as if you typed b in normal mode)?
    – Martin Tournoij
    Dec 4 '17 at 9:14
  • @Carpetsmoker, I have editet the qwestion to make subject more clear
    – ephemerr
    Dec 4 '17 at 9:23
  • Your question title does not really make sense together with the text. Please update the question and/or title to make this more useful for future visitors.
    – Karl Yngve Lervåg
    Dec 4 '17 at 13:42
  • Related post: How do I use the jumplist to jump once per file?
    – Peter Rincker
    Dec 4 '17 at 15:13
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The jumplist is not the best way to do buffer navigation. Vim has a great number of buffer navigation tools which are probably better used for this task.

  • <c-^>/<c-6> - jump to the alternative file or if providing a count to a certain buffer number. See :h CTRL-6
  • :b - jump to a specific buffer. Takes buffer number or partial filename. See :h :b
  • :sb - split variant of :b
  • :ls/:buffers - list opened buffers. See :h :ls
  • # used to represent the alternative file which is often the previous buffer. e.g. :b#. See :h c_#
  • Common mapping nnoremap <leader>b :ls<cr>:b<space>

If you really do want to use the jump list you may want to look at Ingo Karkat's EnhancedJumps plugin or see vim-buffer-history plugin which is sort of similar.

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    Thank you for expanded answer. So b# command is the best solution of my problem.
    – ephemerr
    Dec 5 '17 at 7:21
  • Whoa, reading this answer has greatly improved my nvim buffer management! :D Thank you very much!
    – Isti115
    Nov 28 '20 at 15:54
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You can also use Ctrl + o to go to the previous buffer, going backwards. You can keep pressing the same command to go to the previous, previous buffer.

You can also use Ctrl + i to go to the next buffer, going forward. I.e, if you had pressed Ctrl + o to go to the previous buffer, you can use Ctrl + i to go to the first/original buffer.

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    Note that Ctrl+o and Ctrl+i do not strictly move between buffers. They move between locations on the jump list (see :help jump), which may or may not point to buffers other than the one currently being edited.
    – James Wright
    Apr 8 at 17:13
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This works for me, it takes me back to the alternate buffer. For me that is always the previous buffer:

function! MoveBack()
     edit #
endfunction
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  • This is the right answer!
    – Punit Soni
    Sep 1 '20 at 5:06
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I found the solution in use of normal command. There would be such a line in my function:

exe "normal \<C-O>"
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    That doesn't go to previous open buffer. It goes to the last position in your jump list which could be in the same buffer. What about Ctrl-^?
    – B Layer
    Dec 4 '17 at 10:06
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    Also you shouldn't need exe. Try normal! ^O where ^O is inserted by hitting Ctrl-V followed by Ctrl-O.
    – B Layer
    Dec 4 '17 at 10:10
  • good point. If i_Ctrl-v occupied, see :h i^v for alternative (usually Ctrl-q). Another approach is use digraph, in this case, in insert mode, first type Ctrl-k, then type Ctrl-o twice will insert Ctrl-o.
    – qeatzy
    Dec 5 '17 at 2:52
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Recently someone asked a similar question on Reddit and I wrote a piece of code to answer it. Today I've found this question in a review queue so that is the opportunity to share my code in a late answer.

The idea is to create two new mappings <leader><c-o> and <leader><c-i> which will execute respectively <c-o> and <c-i> until the buffer has changed or until there is no more jumps available in the jumplist. It seems to be working fine but there might be some edge cases that are not handled well.

" In ~/.vim/autoload/jumps.vim

" Repeat <C-o> or <C-i> jump commands until the current buffer changes
" or no other jumps are available
function jumps#fileCO(up)
    let current_buffer = bufnr()

    " Get the jump list and parse the position of the first jump in the list
    " if the number is zero then we reached the top
    redir => jumps_output
    silent jumps
    redir END
    let lastjump = split(jumps_output, '\n')[1]
    let lastjumppos = str2nr(matchstr(lastjump, '\d\+'))

    " Execute the jump command until the buffer changes or there are no more jumps
    while bufnr() == current_buffer && lastjumppos > 0
        if a:up == v:true
            execute "normal! \<c-o>"
        else 
            " \<CR> is an ugly hack to do nothing but let the normal command
            " see that it has an argument
            execute "normal! \<CR>\<c-i>"
        endif
        let lastjumppos = lastjumppos - 1
    endwhile
endfunction

" In ~/.vimrc

nnoremap <silent> <leader><C-o> :call jumps#fileCO(v:true)<CR>
nnoremap <silent> <leader><C-i> :call jumps#fileCO(v:false)<CR>
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Plug https://github.com/inkarkat/vim-EnhancedJumps defines <leader><c-o> as a jump to the previous position in previous buffer. Similarly <leader><c-i>. It works.

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  • I didn't see that peter wrote about this plugin too, with less details.
    – eyal karni
    May 6 at 12:09

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