Bbye (Buffer Bye) for Vim

Bbye allows you to do delete buffers (close files) without closing your windows or messing up your layout.

Vim by default closes all windows that have the buffer (file) open when you do :bdelete. If you've just got your splits and columns perfectly tuned, having them messed up equals a punch in the face and that's no way to tango.

Bbye gives you :Bdelete and :Bwipeout commands that behave like well designed citizens:

• Close and remove the buffer.
• Show another file in that window.
• Show an empty file if you've got no other files open.
• Do not leave useless [no file] buffers if you decide to edit another file in that window.
• Work even if a file's open in multiple windows.
• Work a-okay with various buffer explorers and tabbars.

Regain your throne as king of buffers!

Installing

The easiest and most modular way is to download Bbye to ~/.vim/bundle:

mkdir -p ~/.vim/bundle/bbye

Using Git:

git clone https://github.com/moll/vim-bbye.git ~/.vim/bundle/bbye

Using Wget:

wget https://github.com/moll/vim-bbye/archive/master.tar.gz -O- | tar -xf- --strip-components 1 -C ~/.vim/bundle/bbye

Then prepend that directory to Vim's &runtimepath (or use Pathogen):

set runtimepath^=~/.vim/bundle/bbye

Using

Instead of :bdelete and :bwipeout, use :Bdelete and :Bwipeout respectively. Fortunately autocomplete helps by sorting :Bdelete before its lowercase brother.

As it's likely you'll be using :Bdelete often, make a shortcut to \q, for example, to save time. Throw this to your vimrc:

:nnoremap <Leader>q :Bdelete<CR>

Buffer delete vs wipeout

Vim has two commands for closing a buffer: :bdelete and :bwipeout. The former removes the file from the buffer list, clears its options, variables and mappings. However, it remains in the jumplist, so Ctrl-o takes you back and reopens the file. If that's not what you want, use :bwipeout or Bbye's equivalent :Bwipeout where you would've used :bdelete.

Closing all open buffers and files

Occasionally you'll want to close all open buffers and files while leaving your pristine window setup as is. That's easy. Just do:

:bufdo :Bdelete

For some variations, like closing all-but-one buffer, see @qiushihe's script in #4.

Aliasing to :Bclose

If you've used any Bclose.vim scripts before and for some reason need the :Bclose command to exist, you may make an alias:

command! -bang -complete=buffer -nargs=? Bclose Bdelete<bang> <args>

License

Bbye is released under a Lesser GNU Affero General Public License, which in summary means:

• You can use this program for no cost.
• You can use this program for both personal and commercial reasons.
• You do not have to share your own program's code which uses this program.
• You have to share modifications (e.g bug-fixes) you've made to this program.

For more convoluted language, see the LICENSE file.

About

Andri Möll authored this in SublemacslipseMate++.
Monday Calendar supported the engineering work.
Inspired by Bclose.vim, but rewritten to be perfect.

If you find Bbye needs improving or you've got a question, please don't hesitate to email me anytime at andri@dot.ee or create an issue online.