[vim] How to save as a new file and keep working on the original one in Vim?

Whenever I use the :sav command, it saves the file with a new name and opens the new file open in Vim.

Is it possible to save the file with a new name but keep the original one open for editing?

This question is related to vim save save-as

The answer is


Use the :w command with a filename:

:w other_filename

The following command will create a copy in a new window. So you can continue see both original file and the new file.

:w {newfilename} | sp #

Thanks for the answers. Now I know that there are two ways of "SAVE AS" in Vim.

Assumed that I'm editing hello.txt.

  • :w world.txt will write hello.txt's content to the file world.txt while keeping hello.txt as the opened buffer in vim.
  • :sav world.txt will first write hello.txt's content to the file world.txt, then close buffer hello.txt, finally open world.txt as the current buffer.

After save new file press

Ctrl-6

This is shortcut to alternate file