How to change undo granularity in Vim?

Question

At some point my Vim would undo an entire word when I hit u.

[i]typing some words[C-c][u]

Would result in

typing some

However, the undo granularity seems to have changed to deleting one letter at a time.

[i]typing some words[C-c][u]

Results in

typing some word

I remember reading something about customising undo granularity in Practical Vim, but I can't remember how to control it. Any help appreciated!

Answer 1

Manually breaking the undo sequence

You can manually break the undo sequence in Insert mode with <C-G>u. From the help:

CTRL-G u        break undo sequence, start new change

Example

iHello<C-G>u world!<Esc>u

This will leave you with the text

Hello

Breakdown of commands

i                           " Enter Insert mode
 Hello                      " Type 'Hello'
      <C-G>u                " Break the undo sequence
             world!         " Type ' world!'
                   <Esc>    " Return to Normal mode
                        u   " Undo

Automatic solution

Finer-grained undo-level control

Here's a small snippet of VimScript that uses <C-G>u to create undo breaks when you start deleting text, and also when you start entering text again after a deletion.

function! s:start_delete(key)
    let l:result = a:key
    if !s:deleting
        let l:result = "\<C-G>u".l:result
    endif
    let s:deleting = 1
    return l:result
endfunction

function! s:check_undo_break(char)
    if s:deleting
        let s:deleting = 0
        call feedkeys("\<BS>\<C-G>u".a:char, 'n')
    endif
endfunction

augroup smartundo
    autocmd!
    autocmd InsertEnter * let s:deleting = 0
    autocmd InsertCharPre * call s:check_undo_break(v:char)
augroup END

inoremap <expr> <BS> <SID>start_delete("\<BS>")
inoremap <expr> <C-W> <SID>start_delete("\<C-W>")
inoremap <expr> <C-U> <SID>start_delete("\<C-U>")

Notes

This will work for <BS>, <C-W> (delete a word), and <C-U> (delete to beginning of line). If there are more ways to delete in Insert mode, they can be supported by adding additional inoremap calls at the end.