Chapter 10: Marks and Jumps

When writing code you often hit this scenario: you're editing near the top of a file, then suddenly want to jump to the bottom to check a function definition, and after reading it you realize "wait, where was I again?". Or you flip back and forth between several files and get more and more lost.

Vim provides a whole set of mechanisms for "remembering positions and jumping back quickly" — Marks and the Jumplist — letting you travel freely within large files and across multiple files.

Marks

A mark gives a position a name, so you can jump back to it anytime.

• m<X> set a mark named X at the current cursor position (X is a-z or A-Z)
• `<X> jump to the exact position of mark X (line + column)
• '<X> jump to the start of the line containing mark X
• :marks view all marks

Lowercase marks (a-z) are valid within the current file; uppercase marks (A-Z) are global and can jump across files.

Note: ` (backtick) jumps to the exact line and column, while ' (single quote) only jumps to the start of the line — don't mix them up. Uppercase global marks are great for marking a few places you visit often, e.g. marking your config file entry as C.

Press ma at the current position to set a mark, then G to jump to the bottom of the file and wander around, then press `a to see whether you land back exactly where you were.

Automatic marks

Vim maintains a few special marks automatically, without you setting them:

• `. jump to the position of the last change
• `" jump to the position where you last left the file (useful when reopening a file)
• ` ` jump to the position before the last jump (two backticks, i.e. "back to where I was before I jumped")
• `[ / `] the start/end of the last yanked or pasted text

Tips: `. is incredibly useful — no matter where you scroll, it takes you right back to the last place you edited so you can keep working.

The jumplist

"Big jump" operations like G, gg, /search, n, `<X>, and gf are all recorded by Vim into the jumplist, and you can move backward and forward through that history.

• Ctrl-o jump back to the previous position (older)
• Ctrl-i or Tab go forward to the next position (newer)
• :jumps view the jumplist

Note: Consecutive small movements like j and k are not recorded into the jumplist — only "leaping" movements are. This is exactly what you want: the jumplist records "the few key places I've been", not every tiny step.

In this file, /marks to jump up, then G to the bottom, then press Ctrl-o a few times to feel yourself walking back along your trail; then Ctrl-i to walk forward again.

The changelist

The jumplist records "places you've been"; the changelist specifically records "places you've changed".

• g; jump to the previous change position
• g, jump to the next change position
• :changes view the changelist

After making several edits in a large file, g; lets you retrace your changes one by one — much faster than scrolling around to find them.

Make a few edits at different spots in this file (remember to u undo them afterwards), then press g; to jump along the change history.

Marks and jumps let you "leave a trail" through your code. Next, let's expand our view from a single file to the whole project.

Next Chapter introduces multi-file search and replace.