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Working with buffers

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Introducing the buffer list, and commands for switching between buffers. This episode also covers the concept of ‘hidden’ buffers, and shows how to deal with them.

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Working with buffers

These commands show and navigate through the buffer list:

###Dealing with hidden buffers A buffer is marked as 'hidden' if it has unsaved changes, and it is not currently loaded in a window. If you try and quit Vim while there are hidden buffers, you will raise an error: *E162: No write since last change for buffer "a.txt"*. In this scenario, you can do any of the following:
command action
:ls show the buffer list
:bn open the next buffer in the current window (cycles from the end of the list to the beginning).
:bp open the previous buffer in the current window (cycles from the start of the list to the end).
CTRL-^ switch to the alternate file
By default, Vim makes it difficult to create hidden buffers. To make Vim more liberal about hidden buffers, put the following in your .vimrc: set hidden
command action
:w save the changes to a file
:e! restore the original file
:bd! forcibly remove the buffer from the buffer list, discarding any changes
:q! force Vim to quit, discarding changes to all modified buffers

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