Clear certain criteria from .viminfo file

Question

How can I clear certain criteria from my .viminfo file?

I want to clear the command line history, file marks, jumplist, etc.

However, I want to keep the search string history.

Is there any way to do this?

Answer 1

I can think of 3 ways to do this.

1. Automatically

1. Run Vim,

2. Type: :set viminfo='0,:0,<0,@0,f0

   • '0 means that marks will not be saved
   • :0 means that command-line history will not be saved
   • <0 means that registers will not be saved
   • @0 means that input-line history will not be saved
   • f0 means that marks will not be saved
   • no % means that the buffer list will not be saved
   • no / means that the search history will be saved

   These options are correct in Vim 7.2, but might be different in other versions. For more details on the format of the viminfo string, run :h 'viminfo'

3. Quit Vim. It will save a new version of the .viminfo file, containing only the information you want to keep.

2. Manually

1. Open the .viminfo file in vim,

2. :set viminfo= to turn off the auto-saving of info to the .viminfo file. If you don't do this, Vim will overwrite all your changes when you quit,

3. Remove everything you don't want (perhaps by using Johnsyweb's answer, or just by deleting the lines with manual edit commands), save the file, and quit vim,

3. In a different editor

Edit the .viminfo file in a different text editor and simply delete everything you don't want,

Answer 2

Open the .viminfo file.

The following command will remove all lines that are neither blank, comment nor search history:

:v/^\([#/?]\|$\)/d 

@Rich's answer will help you prevent these lines being repopulated.