Yank the Entire Buffer
When editing a document one often needs to yank the entire buffer content. As with most
operations, Neovim provides several different ways to accomplish this task.
For each of the examples below, we will start with the following buffer content and
cursor position:
Initial Conditions red,#f00 green,#0f0 blue,#00f y ellow,#ff0 cyan,#0ff magenta,#f0f NORMAL 57% 4:1 Common Method Perhaps the most common method to achieve this task is the following sequence:
gg to move the cursor to the top of the buffer.
v to enter visual mode .
G to move the cursor to the bottom of the buffer.
y to yank the selected content.
Common Method gg V G y r ed,#f00 green,#0f0 blue,#00f y ellow,#ff0 cyan,#0ff magenta,#f0f NORMAL Top 1:1 6 lines yanked Let's check the unnamed register to confirm that the full buffer content was yanked:
Common Method r ed,#f00 green,#0f0 blue,#00f yellow,#ff0 cyan,#0ff magenta,#f0f COMMAND Top 1:1 :reg " :reg " Type Name Content l "" red,#f00green,#0f0blue,#00fyellow,#ff0cyan,#0ffmagenta,#f0f This method works well, and is probably so common because it is consistent with yanking smaller
portions of the buffer. Besides requiring the most keystrokes, this method also has the
disadvantage of moving the cursor to the top of the screen.
Shorter Method A slightly shorter method leverages motions a bit more directly to save a keystroke:
gg to move the cursor to the top of the buffer.
y to yank the selected content.
G to move the cursor to the bottom of the buffer.
Shorter Method gg y G r ed,#f00 green,#0f0 blue,#00f y ellow,#ff0 cyan,#0ff magenta,#f0f NORMAL Top 1:1 6 lines yanked Let's check the unnamed register to confirm it worked:
Shorter Method r ed,#f00 green,#0f0 blue,#00f yellow,#ff0 cyan,#0ff magenta,#f0f NORMAL Top 1:1 :reg " Type Name Content l "" red,#f00green,#0f0blue,#00fyellow,#ff0cyan,#0ffmagenta,#f0f This method is slightly better than than the previous method, but also moves the cursor to the top
of the screen.
Shortest Method The third, and shortest, method of yanking all buffer content leverages the % range to yank the
entire buffer with only 3 keystrokes:
Upon hitting <CR> the entire buffer is yanked:
Shortest Method red,#f00 green,#0f0 blue,#00f y ellow,#ff0 cyan,#0ff magenta,#f0f COMMAND 57% 4:1 :%y Not only is this the shortest method, it has the additional advantage of keeping the cursor in the
same position.
Shortest Method red,#f00 green,#0f0 blue,#00f y ellow,#ff0 cyan,#0ff magenta,#f0f NORMAL 57% 4:1 :reg " Type Name Content l "" red,#f00green,#0f0blue,#00fyellow,#ff0cyan,#0ffmagenta,#f0f