After running the list buffers command (:ls) in Vim, what do the symbols displayed before some buffers mean? I know the percent sign (%) indicates the currently visible buffer. However, I also see the hash sign (#), and I can't figure out what that means. Googling this has proved fruitless.
:ls is a Vim built-in command, which shows content of buffer list == list of your open files.
1 Answer. Show activity on this post. "Changed outside of Vim" means that the file that you're editing has been written to by another program. :e will load the latest version, and :e! will do that even if you have unsaved changes.
Ctrl+f will search within the file ctrl+shift+f will search in all the files in the folder tree.
See :help :ls.
The hash sign marks the alternate buffer. This is useful for switching between two buffers: it's the buffer that you'll switch to when using e.g. :b#. This is the only thing resembling most recently used that you'll get with vim buffers, without plugins.
You also know from :ls which buffers have unsaved modifications: +.
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