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AutoSave

Extremely simple auto save plugin.

All we're doing is creating an autocmd that runs on either InsertLeave and TextChanged, or config.events if defined.

It checks if the buffer is able to be modified, isn't readonly, has a buftype of <empty>, meaning it's not a terminal, and it's not a Telescope prompt for example. Finally, it checks if the buffer has been modified.

If all conditions are met, we run vim.cmd("w") - if you've configured it to run silently, it'll be silent. If you'd like to run your own command, you can configure save_cmd or save_fn. If save_cmd is defined, this is preferred and save_fn is discarded.

This plugin allows for some configuration, such as explicitly excluding some filetypes, or defering the save function to allow for other things to run beforehand.

Installing

lazy

{
  "https://git.sr.ht/~nedia/auto-save.nvim",
  event = { "BufReadPre" },
  opts = {
    events = { 'InsertLeave', 'BufLeave' },
    silent = false,
    exclude_ft = { 'neo-tree' },
  },
}

packer

{
  "https://git.sr.ht/~nedia/auto-save.nvim",
  config = function()
    require("auto-save").setup()
  end
}

vim-plug

Plug 'https://git.sr.ht/~nedia/auto-save.nvim'
lua require("auto-save").setup()

Configuring

Only a few config options can be provided - these are displayed below, as well as their default values.

require("auto-save").setup({
  -- The name of the augroup.
  augroup_name = "AutoSavePlug",

  -- The events in which to trigger an auto save.
  events = { "InsertLeave", "TextChanged" },

  -- If you'd prefer to silence the output of `save_fn`.
  silent = true,

  -- If you'd prefer to write a vim command.
  save_cmd = nil,

  -- What to do after checking if auto save conditions have been met.
  save_fn = function()
    local config = require("auto-save.config")
    if config.save_cmd ~= nil then
      vim.cmd(config.save_cmd)
    elseif config.silent then
      vim.cmd("silent! w")
    else
      vim.cmd("w")
    end
  end,

  -- May define a timeout, or a duration to defer the save for - this allows
  -- for formatters to run, for example if they're configured via an autocmd
  -- that listens for `BufWritePre` event.
  timeout = nil,

  -- Define some filetypes to explicitly not save, in case our existing conditions
  -- don't quite catch all the buffers we'd prefer not to write to.
  exclude_ft = {},
})

Since I tend to use the mouse a fair bit (a habit I'm trying to break), my config is as follows - it includes the BufLeave event (sometimes you move to a buffer without leaving insert mode), and excludes my file explorer (just seems to break it! Must be trying to write to it and messing up some sequential operation):

require("auto-save").setup({
  events = { "InsertLeave", "BufLeave" },
  exclude_ft = { "neo-tree" },
})