Is there a way to reliably go back and forth in file history

Question

I would like to go to the file I just edited last and next kind of like MRU plugins do.

:bnext and :bprev works sometimes, but more often than not I just end up in some obscure file I don't remember editing and forced to fall back to MRU plugin.

Is there a way to fix it?

Ctrl-^ swaps between two last files. What is the best way to navigate between more?

I understand it might be tricky but I would agree to anything that can improve current :bn :bp behavior. The buffers I often see are totally out of place. Maybe there is a plugin that can keep track of the recent files and provide hooks so I can create mappings?

Replying to comments cleared up my thoughts a bit. I believe what I want is to be able to move through files in order of latest saves. That way if I go back in history the order won't change until I save the file which then becomes last and make one step "back" to the file saved right before that, i.e. the one I've started from.

Something like Ctrl-O Ctrl-I pair that switches files immediately without jumping around the current buffer. Sort of like u and U in netrw:

u   Change to recently-visited directory                 |netrw-u|
U   Change to subsequently-visited directory             |netrw-U|

Answer 1

I wrote a little function to repeatedly hit CTRL-O for me, until the buffer changes.

You can find it here. I mapped it to CTRL-U but you could override CTRL-O if you wanted to.

function! GoBackToRecentBuffer()
  let startName = bufname('%')
  while 1
    exe "normal! \<c-o>"
    let nowName = bufname('%')
    if nowName != startName
      break
    endif
  endwhile
endfunction

nnoremap <silent> <C-U> :call GoBackToRecentBuffer()<Enter>

You could probably write something similar for <C-I>.

Issues:

• If there is no previous buffer, it will continue silently looping until you hit CTRL-C!

Related:

• :jumps lists the historical locations that CTRL-O will step back through.
• Vim's default CTRL-T is a good alternative to mashing CTRL-O, because it is coarser grained: it moves back through tag jumps only.

Answer 2

You can use :ls to show all buffers. For example:

:ls
  1      "vim.markdown"                 line 160
  2      "ext.markdown"                 line 0
  3 #    "~/to"                         line 1
  4 %a   "~/TODO"                       line 68

To go back to buffer ext.markdown, use :e +Nbuf, where N is the buffer number from the first column. For example: :e +2buf.

You can create a simple function for a more interactive experience:

fun! ChooseBuf()
    redir => buffers
        silent ls
    redir end

    echo l:buffers
    let l:choice = input('Which one: ')
    execute ':edit +' . l:choice . 'buf'
endfun
command! ChooseBuf call ChooseBuf()
nnoremap <Leader>b :call ChooseBuf()<CR>

After using :ChooseBuf or <Leader>b you can just type the number of the buffer you want to edit.

This is not quite "most recently used", since the order is "most recently opened" (this is probably also why :bnext/:bprev don't work as you expect).

Answer 3

<C-6> is what you need, that takes you back to the previous buffer you had open before the current one. There are also :bprev& :bnext which you could use for the same.

Answer 4

You can also use :oldfiles to get a list of files you edited.

The list will have numbers associated with filenames. Pick a file, note the number (say 14) and open it with :edit #<14

You can also run other commands on that file or pass multiple files to a command at once. More about this HERE