How do I disable vim from producing backup files?

Question

How do I disable vim from producing backup files? Like file~ do not generate. Should I do that by modifying /etc/vimrc?

I added set nobackup to /etc/vimrc, but when I looked at the distributed file system log, the backup file was still generated but it was then deleted.

Answer 1

Try adding:

set nobackup nowritebackup

to your vimrc.

UPDATE with regards to Jason Lefler's answer

If you want to prevent your backup/undo/swap files to be created next to your edited file consider setting directories for them:

let &directory = expand('~/.vimdata/swap//')

set backup
let &backupdir = expand('~/.vimdata/backup//')

set undofile
let &undodir = expand('~/.vimdata/undo//')

if !isdirectory(&undodir) | call mkdir(&undodir, "p") | endif
if !isdirectory(&backupdir) | call mkdir(&backupdir, "p") | endif
if !isdirectory(&directory) | call mkdir(&directory, "p") | endif

You set :h directory, :h backupdir, :h undodir to whatever you prefer. Note, there is double slash // at the end (~/.vimdata/swap//) needed to prevent collisions when you edit the same file names in different paths, e.g., there will be files like C%%Users%%username%%docs%%test.adoc~ and C%%Users%%username%%docs%%awesome%%test.adoc~ created in backupdir.

Then you create those directories if they don't exist. .vimdata dir is what I use to have all of them in one place, you can change it of course.

Answer 2

Maxim's answer works for disabling backups entirely, but you can also relocate the backup directory, if you just want to stop cluttering your working directory but want the backup functionality.

set backupdir=~/.vim/backup

I also do this for temporary files, as well.

set directory=~/.vim/tmp

(These directories may need to already exist.)