Using VIM command on all open files

Question

I have a list of files i've opened in VIM using this command:

vim `cat list.txt`

I'm looking to run this command on all open files:

:99,104 norm i#

(from lines 99 to 104, insert a comment "#") <--simple, works

When I run the above command to insert it works as expected on the current file. How do I get VIM to run the exact same command on all open files? I tried :argdo, :windo, :bufdo but didn't have any luck.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

I guess bufdo would work, if you have set hidden (to allow bufdo to change buffers without saving) before:

:set hidden
:bufdo 99,104 norm i#

Then save all files with :bufdo! w or :wa.

(Note: set hidden could be replaced with set autowrite as well.)

Answer 2

I think sed would be a better option if you can use it. sed is a command line editor rather than an interactive editor like vim.

sed -i '99,104s/^/#/' list of files 

Answer 3

Because you've supplied all files as arguments, :argdo is the correct command. (Unless you open other files, :bufdo would work, too.) If you don't want to :set hidden (as indicated in the other answer), you have to immediately persist the buffer via :update. Because you're using a :normal command, you have to enclose it in :execute to be able to concatenate another Ex command:

:argdo 99,104 execute 'norm i#' | update