How do I get VIM to remember the line I was on when I reopen a file?

Question

I just moved from RH/Fedora to Ubuntu 12.04. In RedHat, when I reopen a file with VIM, it opens with the cursor on the line it was on when I closed the file. However, what I am seeing now is that when I reopen a file, the cursor is always at the top, every time. As some of the files I am working with are 20k lines long, this gets a bit old quickly.

I installed the full version of VIM via apt-get on my new Ubuntu so that I could use the arrow keys in insert mode. The version that is printed out is VIM - Vi IMproved 7.3.

Any help at all would be gratefully welcomed.

Answer 1

Add the following lines to your ~/.vimrc or global /etc/vim/vimrc

if has("autocmd")
  au BufReadPost * if line("'\"") > 1 && line("'\"") <= line("$") | exe "normal! g'\"" | endif
endif

I have no idea why this works, though.

Answer 2

This is a default configuration in /etc/vim/vimrc as mentioned vim is not remembering last position

Already contains necessary feature. Just need to uncomment it:

" Uncomment the following to have Vim jump to the last position when
" reopening a file
if has("autocmd")
  au BufReadPost * if line("'\"") > 1 && line("'\"") <= line("$") | exe "normal! g'\"" | endif

This is an auto command that looks for line numbers of the evaluated expressions. The g command jumps to the last position if it was recorded. Using :help commands for BufReadPost, line() and g` will explain the details of how this works.