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Multiple File Operations
Being able to update in multiple files is another useful editing tool to have. Earlier you learned how to update multiple texts with cfdo. In this chapter, you will learn the different ways you can edit multiple files in Vim.
Different Ways to Execute a Command in Multiple Files
Vim has eight ways to execute commands across multiple files:
- arg list (
argdo) - buffer list (
bufdo) - window list (
windo) - tab list (
tabdo) - quickfix list (
cdo) - quickfix list filewise (
cfdo) - location list (
ldo) - location list filewise (
lfdo)
Practically speaking, you will probably only use one or two most of the time (I personally use cdo and argdo more than others), but it's good to learn about all the available options and use the ones that match your editing style.
Learning eight commands might sound daunting. But in reality, these commands work similarly. After learning one, learning the rest will get easier. They all share the same big idea: make a list of their respective categories then pass them the command that you want to run.
Argument List
The argument list is the most basic list. It creates a list of files. To create a list of file1, file2, and file3, you can run:
:args file1 file2 file3
You can also pass it a wildcard (*), so if you want to make a list of all .js files in the current directory, run:
:args *.js
If you want to make a list of all Javascript files that start with "a" in the current directory, run:
:args a*.js
The wildcard matches one or more of any character in the current directory, but what if you need to search recursively in any directory? You can use the double wildcard (**). To get all Javascript files inside the directories within your current location, run:
:args **/*.js
Once you run the args command, your current buffer will be switched to the first item on the list. To view the list of files you just created, run :args. Once you've created your list, you can traverse them. :first will put you on the first item on the list. :last will put you on the last list. To move the list forward one file at a time, run :next. To move the list backward one file at a time, run :prev. To move forward / backward one file at a time and save the changes, run :wnext and :wprev. There are plenty more navigation commands. Check out :h arglist for more.
The arg list is useful if you need to target a specific type of file or a few files. Maybe you need to update all the "donut" into "pancake" inside all yml files, you can do:
:args **/*.yml
:argdo %s/donut/pancake/g | update
If you run the args aggregate command again, it will replace the previous list. For example, if you previously ran:
:args file1 file2 file3
Assuming these files exist, you now have a list of file1, file2, and file3. Then you run this:
:args file4 file5
Your initial list of file1, file2, and file3 is replaced with file4 and file5. If you have file1, file2, and file3 in your arg list and you want to add file4 and file5 into your initial files list, use the :arga argument. Run:
:arga file4 file5
Now you have file1, file2, file3, file4, and file5 in your arg list.
If you run :arga without any argument, Vim will add your current buffer into the current arg list. If you already have file1, file2, and file3 in your arg list and your current buffer is on file5, running :arga adds file5 into the list.
Once you have the list, you can pass it with any command-line commands of your choosing. You've seen it being done with substitution (:argdo %s/donut/pancake/g). Some other examples:
- To delete all lines that contain "dessert" across the arg list, run
:argdo g/dessert/d. - To execute macro a (assuming you have recorded something in macro a) across the arg list, run
:argdo norm @a. - To write "hello " followed by the filename on the first line, run
:argdo 0put='hello ' .. @:.
Once you're done, don't forget to save them with :update.
Sometimes you need to run the commands only on the first n items of the argument list. If that's the case, just pass to the argdo command an address. For example, to run the substitute command only on the first 3 items from the list, run :1,3argdo %s/donut/pancake/g.
Buffer List
The buffer list will be organically created when you edit new files because each time you create a new file / open a file, Vim saves it in a buffer (unless you explicitly delete it). So if you already opened 3 files: file1.rb file2.rb file3.rb, you already have 3 items in your buffer list. To display the buffer list, run :buffers (alternatively: :ls or :files). To traverse forward and backward, use :bnext and :bprev. To go to the first and last buffer from the list, use :bfirst and :blast (having a blast yet? :D).
By the way, here's a cool buffer trick unrelated to this chapter: if you have a number of items in your buffer list, you can show all of them with :ball (buffer all). The ball command displays all buffers horizontally. To display them vertically, run :vertical ball.
Back to the topic, the mechanics to run operation across all buffers is similar to the arg list. Once you have created your buffer list, you just need to prepend the command(s) that you want to run with :bufdo instead of :argdo. So if you want to substitute all "donut" with "pancake" across all buffers then save the changes, run :bufdo %s/donut/pancake/g | update.
Window and Tab List
The windows and tabs list are also similar to the arg and buffer list. The only differences are their context and syntax.
Window operations are performed on each open window and performed with :windo. Tab operations are performed on each tab you have opened and performed with :tabdo. For more, check out :h list-repeat, :h :windo, and :h :tabdo.
For example, if you have three windows opened (you can open new windows with Ctrl-W v for a vertical window and Ctrl-W s for a horizontal window) and you run :windo 0put ='hello' . @%, Vim will output "hello" + filename to all open windows.
Quickfix List
In the previous chapters (Ch3 and Ch19), I have spoken about quickfixes. Quickfix has many uses. Many popular plugins use quickfixes, so it's good to spend more time to understand them.
If you're new to Vim, quickfix might be a new concept. Back in the old days when you actually have to explicitly compile your code, during the compilation phase you would encounter errors. To display these errors, you need a special window. That's where quickfix comes in. When you compile your code, Vim displays error messages in the quickfix window so you can fix them later. Many modern languages don't require an explicit compile anymore, but that doesn't make quickfix obsolete. Nowadays, people use quickfix for all sorts of things, like displaying a virtual terminal output and storing search results. Let's focus on the latter one, storing search results.
In addition to the compile commands, certain Vim commands rely on quickfix interfaces. One type of command that use quickfixes heavily are the search commands. Both :vimgrep and :grep use quickfixes by default.
For example, if you need to search for "donut" in all Javascript files recursively, you can run:
:vimgrep /donut/ **/*.js
The result for the "donut" search is stored in the quickfix window. To see these match results' quickfix window, run:
:copen
To close it, run:
:cclose
To traverse the quickfix list forward and backward, run:
:cnext
:cprev
To go to the first and the last item in the match, run:
:cfirst
:clast
Earlier I mentioned that there were two quickfix commands: cdo and cfdo. How do they differ? cdo executes command for each item in the quickfix list while cfdo executes command for each file in the quickfix list.
Let me clarify. Suppose that after running the vimgrep command above, you found:
- 1 result in
file1.js - 10 results in
file2.js
If you run :cfdo %s/donut/pancake/g, this will effectively run %s/donut/pancake/g once in file1.js and once in file2.js. It runs as many times as there are files in the match. Since there are two files in the results, Vim executes the substitute command once on file1.js and once more on file2.js, despite the fact that there are 10 matches in the second file. cfdo only cares about how many total files are in the quickfix list.
If you run :cdo %s/donut/pancake/g, this will effectively run %s/donut/pancake/g once in file1.js and ten times in file2.js. It runs as many times as there are actual items in the quickfix list. Since there is only one match found in file1.js and 10 matches found in file2.js, it will run a total of 11 times.
Since you ran %s/donut/pancake/g, it would make sense to use cfdo. It did not make sense to use cdo because it would run %s/donut/pancake/g ten times in file2.js (%s is a file-wide substitution). Running %s once per file is enough. If you used cdo, it would make more sense to pass it with s/donut/pancake/g instead.
When deciding whether to use cfdo or cdo, think of the command scope that you are passing it to. Is this a file-wide command (like :%s or :g) or is this a line-wise command (like :s or :!)?
Location List
Location list is similar to quickfix list in a sense that Vim also uses a special window to display messages. The difference between a quickfix list and a location list is that at any time, you may only have one quickfix list, whereas you can have as many location list as windows.
Suppose that you have two windows opened, one window displaying food.txt and another displaying drinks.txt. From inside food.txt, you run a location-list search command :lvimgrep (the location variant for the :vimgrep command):
:lvim /bagel/ **/*.md
Vim will create a location list of all the bagel search matches for that food.txt window. You can see the location list with :lopen. Now go to the other window drinks.txt and run:
:lvimgrep /milk/ **/*.md
Vim will create a separate location list with all the milk search results for that drinks.txt window.
For each location-command you run in each window, Vim creates a distinct location list. If you have 10 different windows, you can have up to 10 different location lists. Contrast this with the quickfix list where you can only have one at any time. If you have 10 different windows, you still get only one quickfix list.
Most of the location list commands are similar to quickfix commands except that they are prefixed with l- instead. For example: :lvimgrep, :lgrep, and :lmake vs :vimgrep, :grep, and :make. To manipulate the location list window, again, the commands look similar to the quickfix commands :lopen, :lclose, :lfirst, :llast, :lnext, and :lprev vs :copen, :cclose, :cfirst, :clast, :cnext, and :cprev.
The two location list multi-file commands are also similar to quickfix multi-file commands: :ldo and :lfdo. :ldo executes the location command in each location list while :lfdo executes the location list command for each file in the location list. For more, check out :h location-list.
Running Multiple-File Operations in Vim
Knowing how to do a multiple file operation is a useful skill to have in editing. Whenever you need to change a variable name across multiple files, you want to execute them in one swoop. Vim has eight different ways you can do this.
Practically speaking, you probably won't use all eight equally. You will gravitate towards one or two. When you are starting out, pick one (I personally suggest starting with the arg list :argdo) and master it. Once you are comfortable with one, then learn the next one. You will find that learning the second, third, fourth gets easier. Be creative. Use it with different combinations. Keep practicing until you can do this effortlessly and without much thinking. Make it part of your muscle memory.
With that being said, you've mastered Vim editing. Congratulations!