how does vim's autoread work

Question

Hi,

i'm not sure how vim's set autoread works.

The help says "When a file has been detected to have been changed outside of Vim and it has not been changed inside of Vim, automatically read it again."

So after :set autoread I open a file with vim, I switch to an other editor, change the file, and wait to see the changes in vim as well, nothing happens, I have to say :e to reload the file with the new content.

what did i miss?

I'm on mac, osx 10.5.8, VIM - Vi IMproved 7.2

thx, best Viktor

Answer 1

autoread does not realod file unless you do something like run external command (like !ls or !sh etc) vim does not do checks periodically you can reload file manually using :e

more details in this thread: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg05900.html

Answer 2

for me it works when i use the command

:set autoread

Of course you have to save the file in the other editor before anything happens.