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When doing :marks, there are a few marks that show up that I'm not quite sure what they do, even after reading the entry in the help section. For example, the following marks seem a bit obscure (at least in my understanding) to me:
'0-9 (shows a bunch of files for me)'" (almost always shows the same thing as doing gg, is this always L1?)'^ (how is this different than '. ?)The marks 0-9 are the last 10 files you were editing. See :h viminfo-file-marks (took me a while to find the correct help subject).
'" : the cursor position when last exiting the current buffer (:h '"). Exiting here means closing the buffer (:bd) or exiting Vim while you edit a file. It does not mean leaving the buffer (like switching to another buffer). This mark is stored in the viminfo file (see :h viminfo). It can be used to restore the cursor position when you edit the file again (see :h restore-cursor).
'^ : the position where the cursor was the last time when Insert mode was
stopped (:h '^)
'. : the position where the last change was made (:h '.).
If you insert some text, '^ and '. will point to the same location (nearly - '. is on the last inserted char, '^ after the last inserted char except for end-of-line).
If you do some change without inserting (e.g. delete a line) '. will reflect that position, while '^ is unchanged.
the cursor position when last exiting the current buffer a bit more ?
:bd a buffer and then :e that same file again, '" will take you to the line you were before you deleted it. If you have a viminfo file and save that mark there, that is typically used to restore the cursor to the last location whenever you open a file, so you're on the same context as when you last quit Vim on that file.