How to auto-save a file every 1 second in vim?

Question

I don't want to know about why you should not auto-save or there is swap file etc or whatever reason to not auto-save.

I simply want to auto-save the current working file to save in every 1 second in vim.

How can I achieve this?

Answer 1

The vim-workspace plugin has a fairly customizable auto-save feature that may suit your needs (with autoread so you get last writer wins behaviour). You can set it to always autosave (by default, it only autosaves while in a workspace session) and set your updatetime accordingly.

let g:workspace_autosave_always = 1
updatetime=1000

Answer 2

This saves the buffer whenever text is changed. (Vim 7.4)

autocmd TextChanged,TextChangedI <buffer> silent write

Answer 3

When you start reading a file, set a buffer variable to the current time:

au BufRead,BufNewFile * let b:save_time = localtime()

Set an event to check if enough time has elapsed since the last save and update if not:

au CursorHold * call UpdateFile()

Set the auto-save period, in seconds:

let g:autosave_time = 1

Define a function to save the file if needed:

" save if needed / update the save_time after the save
function! UpdateFile()
  if((localtime() - b:save_time) >= g:autosave_time)
      update
      let b:save_time = localtime()
  else
      " just debugging info
      echo "[+] ". (localtime() - b:save_time) ." seconds have elapsed so far."
  endif
endfunction

Then, to reset the save time explicitly:

au BufWritePre * let b:save_time = localtime()

I have not tested the above on vim 7.0 and later. Also, the CursorHold event is unlikely to be enough for such a small auto-save period (it also doesn't trigger when recording) - maybe you should also call UpdateFile() on CursorMoved as well.

Also, consider using swap files. By default a swap file is writen to after either 200 characters typed or 4 seconds of inactivity. Recovery from swap is quite simple and maybe more reliable, in case something goes wrong.