Vim Close All Buffers Except the Current One

Vim has a built-in command to close all windows except the current one (:only), which is nice for focusing on a single buffer. Sometimes I want to cleanup my buffers by closing all of the buffers except for the current one.

This can be done with the command:

:%bdelete|edit #|normal `"

How it Works

By separating with a bar (|) we can put multiple commands on one line (see :help :bar). So our command is actually three separate commands run one after another.

• %bdelete
• edit #
• normal `"

%bdelete

The %bdelete command deletes (closes) all buffers.

Using bdelete (without the % prefix) deletes a buffer. (see :help bdelete)

The % represents from 1 up to the highest value. (see :help :%)

Since we can prefix a command with a range (e.g. :3,5bdelete will delete buffers 3 through 5), it is as if we are running :1,999bdelete except instead of 999 Vim automatically uses the largest buffer number.

edit #

The :edit {file} command opens a file for editing when that file is given as a parameter. (e.g. :edit ~/.vimrc will open my .vimrc file for editing). (see :help edit_f)

The # in this context represents the alternate filename (see :help _# and :help alternate-file). You can see the value of # with

:echo expand('#')

normal `”

The normal command allows us to execute a normal mode command from the command line. (see :help :normal).

When we run `" in normal mode we jump to the cursor position where we last exited the current buffer. (see :help `")

Summary

So when you run :%bdelete all buffers are deleted including the current buffer leaving you in a new empty buffer.

The alternate file is the last buffer you were viewing before they all closed so :edit # opens that file.

Then normal `" is the same as pressing `" in normal mode, which jumps us to our last cursor position in that buffer.

Mapping

By adding the following to our .vimrc we can use :BufOnly to close all buffers except the current buffer.

command! BufOnly execute '%bdelete|edit #|normal `"'

Related

There is a Vim plugin called BufOnly, which does the same thing with some added functionality.

This StackOverflow answer for Vim: Close All Buffers But This One was helpful in writing this.

Sal Ferrarello (@salcode)

Sal is a PHP developer with a focus on the WordPress platform. He is a conference speaker with a background including Piano Player, Radio DJ, Magician/Juggler, Beach Photographer, and High School Math Teacher. Sal can be found professionally at WebDevStudios, where he works as a senior backend engineer.