HOWTO: have vim create backup and tmp directories
This may only apply to those of us geeks that use vim to admin servers daily, but today I needed a way to backup, and automate the creation of backup and tmp directories to house those ever annoying ~ and .swp files from showing up in my working directory ($PWD). I didn’t want to lose them, just move them somewhere so they don’t clutter up the directory I’m working in. The solution was a function I found on the vim forums. Basically it uses directories it creates in your home directory, so you’ll have something like ~/.vim/backup and ~/.vim/tmp which is perfect; files are moved out of the way, but still backed up in a place you can rely on. I slightly reworked this, you can try it out by opening your ~/.vimrc file, and find the line:
set backup " keep a backup fileThen after that cut/paste the following (if you don’t have the set backup line, add it first):
function InitBackupDir()
let separator = "."
let parent = $HOME .'/' . separator . 'vim/'
let backup = parent . 'backup/'
let tmp = parent . 'tmp/'
if exists("*mkdir")
if !isdirectory(parent)
call mkdir(parent)
endif
if !isdirectory(backup)
call mkdir(backup)
endif
if !isdirectory(tmp)
call mkdir(tmp)
endifendif
let missing_dir = 0
if isdirectory(tmp)
execute 'set backupdir=' . escape(backup, " ") . "/,."
else
let missing_dir = 1
endif
if isdirectory(backup)
execute 'set directory=' . escape(tmp, " ") . "/,."
else
let missing_dir = 1
endif
if missing_dir
echo "Warning: Unable to create backup directories: " . backup ." and " . tmp
echo "Try: mkdir -p " . backupecho "and: mkdir -p " . tmp
set backupdir=. set directory=.
endifendfunction call InitBackupDir()
