File-Changed Prompt with "Load File" as Default 🗯

This plugin adjusts the default file-changed prompt.

• You probably don't need this plugin it you're happy with autoread.
  • If you're running Vim, autoread is not enabled by default.
    • Run set autoread and be happy.
  • If you're running Neovim, you're all set.

But if you want a few quality of life improvements, sure, maybe check out this plugin!

• For vim-gtk and MacVim, it makes the prompt a little less wordy.

  • For MacVim specifically, it hints at how to use the somewhat confusing UX (there are two buttons highlighted in blue — so what does pressing <Enter> do??)

• It adds additional alerts where (Neo)Vim is otherwise silent.

  • For example, when autoread is enabled, if a buffer is unchanged but its external file changes, Vim loads the changes and prints a message.

    But in Neovim, nothing is printed.

    This plugin restores that message.

Prompt Differences

By default, Vim prompts you if a buffer you're working on was changed by an external program.

Here's a look at the default prompt on macOS in MacVim:

If you're not familiar with macOS dialog wiring:

• The button with the blue background is picked when you press <Enter>.
• The button with the blue border is picked when you press <Space>.
• You can move the selected button with <Tab>.
  • Regardless of the selected button, <Enter> will always pick the "OK" button.
• There are no accelerators defined (e.g., nothing like an <Alt-L> accelerator you might find on Linux).

This plugin changes the prompt thusly:

You'll see that the prompt text is a little less wordy than the default, and there's a helpful little hint added to remind you how <Enter> and <Tab>/<Space> work on macOS.

• And if you've read :help W11 once, you probably don't need to be reminded of it every time.

In the other Vims — Linux GVim, terminal vim, and terminal nvim — you'll see similar changes to the prompt.

The different types of Vim file changes

Vim identifies at least six different types of changes:

• The file on disk was deleted while a buffer is open.
• The file timestamp was changed.
• The file permissions were changed.
• The file contents were changed, but the buffer has not been modified (:help modified).
• The file contents were changed and the buffer has local modifications.
• The file on disk was created after a buffer with that path was opened.
  • This is actually a different prompt altogether that is not scriptable (:help W13).

How this plugin handles each of those file changes

If Vim notices that a file is deleted while a buffer is open, it alerts, E211: File "{filepath}" no longer available, but it doesn't prompt.

• If the file is created again, Vim doesn't announce it, unless the local buffer has changes.
  • So this plugin emits a message when the deleted file has since been undeleted.

If Vim notices that only the timestamp has changed, it won't alert you. It will ignore the event and move on.

• This plugin will instead print a short message to bleep you, because what the hay (but it won't prompt you).
• For you rebasers out there, this event occurs frequently when you rebase history.

If Vim notices that the permissions have changed, the Vim default is to always prompt you.

• This plugin will not prompt you when permissions change. [Although maybe it should, or at least if the file is no longer writable or readable by the user. But that's a rare use case we're not gonna worry about. But please open an Issue if this impacts you negatively.]

If Vim notices external changes and the local buffer has not been modified, it'll print a message like you'd normally see when you edit a file, e.g.,:

"file" 3L, 9B

• Interestingly, in Neovim, nothing is messaged. Neovim silently loads changes.

• This plugin prints an alert like Vim does, but telling you explicitly what happened (unlike, e.g., "file" 3L, 9B), and colorfully, too (imagine the following with a yellow background, for example), e.g.,:

  File changed! 📠 /path/to/file

Finally, when conflicts are detected, this plugin will prompt you, just like Vim or Neovim does, regardless of autoread, albeit with the dialog changes described earlier.

Reference

Relevant Vim documentation for the endlessly curious:

• :h FileChangedShell

• :h v:fcs_choice

• :h v:fcs_reason

• :h timestamp

• :h autoread

• Vim Tip: File no longer available - mark buffer modified, by Ewfalor, 2008:

  https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/File_no_longer_available_-_mark_buffer_modified

  • This tip provides a simple FileChangedShell hander that was the basis for this project's file-changed handler.

So, like, Why?

I originally made this plugin because I wanted to be prompted when external changes happened, even if there was no conflict, so that I could choose what to do. But I wanted the default choices to be opposite Vim's — e.g., if set noautoread and Vim shows the conflict prompt, the default is to Keep Changes, but I wanted the default to be Load File.

• So when no conflicts, I wanted to be able to hit <Enter> to load changes.
• But when there were conflicts, I wanted to be able to hit <Enter> to ignore changes.

Nowadays, I prefer autoload behavior — not to be prompted when there are external changes but not conflicts, but to just load changes — but I also like the additional messages provided by this plugin.

Related Projects

• interuptless.vim — Makes vim interrupt you less

  https://github.com/vim-utils/vim-interruptless

• vim-autoread — Have Vim automatically reload a file that has changed externally

  https://github.com/djoshea/vim-autoread

Installation

Take advantage of Vim's packages feature (:h packages) and install under ~/.vim/pack, e.g.,:

mkdir -p ~/.vim/pack/embrace-vim/start
cd ~/.vim/pack/embrace-vim/start
git clone https://github.com/embrace-vim/vim-better-file-changed-prompt.git

" Build help tags
vim -u NONE -c "helptags vim-better-file-changed-prompt/doc" -c q

• Alternatively, install under ~/.vim/pack/emrace-vim/opt and call :packadd vim-better-file-changed-prompt to load the plugin on-demand.

For more installation tips — including how to easily keep the plugin up-to-date — please see INSTALL.md.

Attribution

The embrace-vim logo by @landonb contains coffee cup with straw by farra nugraha from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0).