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I have gVim 7.4.608 installed on Windows 7 at work.

I've looked in C:\ , C:\Users\<username>\AppData , C:\Program Files\vim , C:\Temp but there's no sign of it. It must exist somewhere, command history is working OK. I just want to read the file, I don't care where it actually is.

From :help viminfo

The default name of the viminfo file is "$HOME/.viminfo" for Unix and OS/2,
"s:.viminfo" for Amiga, "$HOME\_viminfo" for MS-DOS and Win32.  For the last
two, when $HOME is not set, "$VIM\_viminfo" is used.  When $VIM is also not
set, "c:\_viminfo" is used.  For OS/2 "$VIM/.viminfo" is used when $HOME is
not set and $VIM is set.

The variables %HOME% and %VIM% were not set in my Windows environment.

I couldn't look in directory C:\Users\<username>\Application Data.

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3
  • 1
    Why are you looking for that file?
    – romainl
    Apr 8, 2015 at 7:08
  • Wanted to grab some stuff out of the command history
    – roblogic
    Apr 8, 2015 at 15:15
  • 2
    @ropata q: is very helpful for this, it gives you a Vim buffer allowing you to search, edit, etc your command history.
    – akshay
    Apr 9, 2015 at 1:41

3 Answers 3

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For Windows, the home directory is set in %USERPROFILE%. I believe vim will use this as $HOME.

In my case, the _viminfo is located in the C:\Users\<username>, which is the home directory, while the %HOME% is not set as well.

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3
  • 1
    It was indeed in C:\Users\<username>\_viminfo. The command :echo $HOME works a charm as well.
    – roblogic
    Apr 8, 2015 at 15:18
  • 1
    @ropata The command echo $HOME only works in the PowerShell, not in the cmd. But maybe no one is using cmd anymore? :D
    – Tony LIU
    Apr 9, 2015 at 1:45
  • thanks for the Powershell tip, I called echo $HOME from the vim command line with the same result.
    – roblogic
    Apr 9, 2015 at 20:35
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Are you sure the HOME variable isn't set? I have encountered cases where ENV was not set, but HOME always seems to be assigned a value in my (G)Vim instances.

If you type echo $HOME in command mode, Vim should display what value is set for HOME. Alternatively, you can try e $HOME\.viminfo and see if this opens the contents of the .viminfo file. If this is the case, you have found it!

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  • 1
    Except it will be _viminfo, not .viminfo, in WIndows.
    – jamessan
    Apr 8, 2015 at 13:45
  • This answer clarifies why I can't find or $HOME or %HOME% in Windows.. it's a Vim-only variable! So it is accessible from vim command line.
    – roblogic
    Apr 9, 2015 at 0:04
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For corporative environments usually is set the %HOMEDRIVE and %HOMEPATH% and the GVIM use it (version 8.1 at least) .

option.txt help file : 

                            *$HOME-windows*
On MS-Windows, if $HOME is not defined as an environment variable, then
at runtime Vim will set it to the expansion of $HOMEDRIVE$HOMEPATH.
If $HOMEDRIVE is not set then $USERPROFILE is used.

This expanded value is not exported to the environment, this matters when
running an external command: >
    :echo system('set | findstr ^HOME=')
and >
    :echo luaeval('os.getenv("HOME")')
should echo nothing (an empty string) despite exists('$HOME') being true.
When setting $HOME to a non-empty string it will be exported to the
subprocesses.
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