obtaining multiple changes at once using vimdiff

Question

I'm using vimdiff to merge a changes from another group's file into our file. Not all changes should be accepted, so I have to do it manually. However, I was wondering if there is a way to tell vimdiff to accept several changes at once. i.e. instead of accepting only the next change, I want to able to accept the next 10 changes at once. Right now I'm using "]c" to jump to the next change and "do" to accept that change. The file is 250000 lines and I'm only at line 5000 ...

Sincerely, Hagai

Answer 1

You can accomplish exactly what you want with macros, in a nutshell:

1. In normal mode, press 'q' and a random letter, lets say 'f': This will start recording a macro in the register 'f'.
2. Perform the actions you want to repeat: In this case ']c' and 'do'.
3. Stop recording the macro: Just press 'q' again.

Now you can use it by typing '@f' in normal mode and it will replay the actions recorded in the macro 'f'. From there you have several options:

• If you type '@@' vim will replay the last macro. Hint: if you just keep the combination pressed in the keyboard it will do it line by line very fast.
• If you type '1000@f' vim will replay the last macro 1000 times, which is pretty much what you are looking for.
• If you want to save some typing, you can record a new macro i.e. 'g' performing '1000@f', that way '@g' will call '1000@f', although if you use '@@' after '@g' it will do it line by line.

There is a nice tutorial here: http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2009/01/vi-and-vim-macro-tutorial-how-to-record-and-play/