How can I use marks to jump to locations in files I have recently opened, but not changed?

Question

Often times I edit a file - think my work is done - then close the file and move on to the next thing. But then I realise I need to go back to that code and tweak it a bit more.
If I open the file again, I can use the . mark and jump to the position of the last edit with '..
Now I'm trying to find a way to use vim's marks to jump to locations in files I have recently visited, but not changed.
I know I can set a mark manually, but most of the time, I don't expect to come back and so I don't set a mark and need to use a mark that vim generates automatically.
The " mark seems like this could be a way to achieve this, from :h motion.

" To the cursor position when last exiting the current buffer. Defaults to the first character of the first line. See |last-position-jump| for how to use this for each opened file. Only one position is remembered per buffer, not one for each window. As long as the buffer is visible in a window the position won't be changed. {not in Vi}.

However if I

• close all windows showing a buffer (but the buffer is still present in the buffer list). or:
• kill all instances of the buffer

the mark doesn't seem to update, how can I use a mark to jump to a location of the last cursor position in the buffer/file?

Answer 1

Here is a classic solution: use

`H

to jump to the last HTML file and so on…

augroup VIMRC
  autocmd!

  autocmd BufLeave *.css  normal! mC
  autocmd BufLeave *.html normal! mH
  autocmd BufLeave *.js   normal! mJ
  autocmd BufLeave *.php  normal! mP
augroup END

Answer 2

I wrote this vimscript statement which seems to work

autocmd BufLeave * :normal ml

Explanation

• BufLeave auto command: this seems to trigger when you
  • move to another window
  • when you close the last window displaying the buffer
  • when you close the buffer itself with bd
• :normal - it seems by default, the command part of autocmd is an ex command. So to tell vim to run a normal mode command , you need to add :normal
• ml - set a mark l (mnemonic: last)

Usage

to recall the cursor position from the last time you were in the buffer simply hit

'l

or

`l

Answer 3

If you'd like your cursor to restore the last position known to viminfo, you can use

autocmd BufReadPost * call setpos(".", getpos("'\""))

---

romainl's answer has been particularly useful to me, and I have been using this a lot (since I am a web dev):

augroup VIMRC
    autocmd!
    autocmd BufLeave,WinLeave *.html normal! mH
    autocmd BufLeave,WinLeave *.css normal! mC
    autocmd BufLeave,WinLeave *.js normal! mJ
augroup end

nnoremap <space>h `Hzz
nnoremap <space>c `Czz
nnoremap <space>j `Jzz

---

The final potentially useful thing is the option, :help 'nostartofline:

               *'startofline'* *'sol'* *'nostartofline'* *'nosol'*
'startofline' 'sol' boolean (default on)
            global
            {not in Vi}
    When "on" the commands listed below move the cursor to the first
    non-blank of the line.  When off the cursor is kept in the same column
    (if possible).  This applies to the commands: CTRL-D, CTRL-U, CTRL-B,
    CTRL-F, "G", "H", "M", "L", gg, and to the commands "d", "<<" and ">>"
    with a linewise operator, with "%" with a count and to buffer changing
    commands (CTRL-^, :bnext, :bNext, etc.).  Also for an Ex command that
    only has a line number, e.g., ":25" or ":+".
    In case of buffer changing commands the cursor is placed at the column
    where it was the last time the buffer was edited.
    NOTE: This option is set when 'compatible' is set.