how to prevent vim from creating (and leaving) temporary files?

Question

Why does vim create <filename>~ files? Is there a way to disable that?

If it's for backup (or something), thanks but no thanks, I use git so I don't need your silly backup.

Also, these .<filename.with.path.hints>.swp files too.

How do I tell vim not to create those? or at the least to cleanup after itself?

EDIT

wops, duplicate:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/607435/why-does-vim-save-files-with-a-extension

I adopted rogeriopvl's answer from there

verbatim copy:

set nobackup       #no backup files
set nowritebackup  #only in case you don't want a backup file while editing
set noswapfile     #no swap files

Answer 1

:set nobackup

In your .vimrc file.

Answer 2

This doesn't look like it was covered in the duplicate. Sooner or later, a temporary backup will save your skin, even with source control, so try this:

set backupdir=~/tmp

Answer 3

I'd strongly recommend to keep working with swap files (in case Vim crashes).

You can set the directory where the swap files are stored, so they don't clutter your normal directories:

set swapfile
set dir=~/tmp

See also

:help swap-file