How do you save the file that you're working on as a new file?

Question

There are times when I want to test changes to a file before I overwrite the original. Is there any way I can save a file being edited to a new file?

Answer 1

You can give a parameter to the :w or :write command to save to a different file. For example to save the current buffer to /tmp/data.txt:

:w /tmp/data.txt

However, keep in mind that this does not switch your buffer to that other file. So if you keep editing and do just :w, that will save to the current file, not to the other one. To switch to the other file, use the :edit command:

:e /tmp/data.txt

To do this one step, save to another file and switch to it, use the :saveas command:

:sav /tmp/data.txt

Answer 2

Vim has a "backup mode" that can be enabled by :set backup or :set patchmode. In that mode, Vim automatically keeps a backup copy of files that you write.

For example, if you issue :set patchmode=.orig, and you edit an existing file somefile.txt, then when you issue :w normally, Vim will keep a copy of the old file as somefile.txt.orig and save the new contents as somefile.txt.

Answer 3

Yes, there is a way. :w new_file_name

Answer 4

Simply specify a newfilepath at the :w command - :w newfile.foo