While editing code, I frequently cycle between changing the code and running some commands: running unit tests, linting tools, style checker, restarting services, etc.

I generaly do that directly from inside vim with :!command and then repeating it with :!(up arrow)

While this is good, I learned a trick a while ago that still ranks as one of my favorites.

The trick

Add this to your .vimrc

1

map \] :wa<bar><UP><CR>

Then run your command as :wa|!command and repeat it with just \] directly on normal mode.

If \ and ] are not next to each other on your keyboard layout, just change the mapping to something that is very easy and convenient to type :)

The advantage

This is quicker to type, it saves all the files before running the command and it still allows you to run that one-off :!command in between your cycle without it getting in the way of your repetition.

That’s it. Happy Vimming!