So far, we've stuck to tasks that were repeated in the same file, but we can play back a macro across a collection of files. Once again, we'll consider how to execute the macro in parallel and in series.

Preparation Build a List of Target Files

Record a Unit of Work

gg/class<CR>

gg places the cursor at the start of the file. /class<CR> jumps forwards to the first occurrence of the word "class".

Execute the Macro in Parallel

:argdo

allow us to execute an Ex command once for each buffer in the argument list.

:edit!

revert all of the changes we just made to the first buffer in the argument list.

:argdo normal @a

execute the macro in all of the buffers in the argument list.

Execute the Macro in Series Our macro performs a single unit of work on a single buffer. If we want to make it act upon multiple buffers, we could append a final step that advances to the next buffer in the list. Then we can run 3@a to execute the macro on each of the remaining files in the buffer list. When we reach the last buffer in the argument list, the :next command fails and the macro aborts.

Save Changes to All Files We've changed four files, but we haven't saved any of them.

:argdo write

save all files in the argument list.

:wall

save all files in the buffer list, quicker to save all files.

:wnext

:write followed by :next

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