Save buffer without changing Last Modified attribute

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Tip: #1001 - Save buffer without changing Last Modified attribute

Created: September 23, 2005 2:42 Complexity: basic Author: Craig Emery Version: 5.7 Karma: 1/5 Imported from: Tip#1001

There are times when I change something in a file and I've no need for the file's "last modified" time to be changed.

This is often because I'm simply changing a comment in a source file and I don't need my build system to re-compile the file.

If your build of vim has +python you can define the following function and call it instead of using the write command

function! WritePreserveMtime()

python << EEOOFF

import vim

import os.path

import os

fpath = vim.current.buffer.name

atime = os.path.getatime(fpath)

mtime = os.path.getmtime(fpath)

vim.command("w")

os.utime(fpath, (atime, mtime))

EEOOFF

endfunction

See :help python for more help on calling Python from inside vim.

Since I

map <F3> :w<CR><C-G>

I also

map <S-F3> :call WritePreserveMtime()<CR><C-G>