vim: ":source %" command results in error: E499: Empty file name for '%' or '#', only works with ":p:h"

Question

How do I resolve this error:

E499: Empty file name for '%' or '#', only works with ":p:h"

This error happens anytime I use % in a vim command. I've never seen this before. Here is my .vimrc:

set nocompatible
filetype off

set rtp+=~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim
call vundle#begin()

Plugin 'VundleVim/Vundle.vim'
"Plugin 'scrooloose/nerdtree'
"Plugin 'bling/vim-airline'
"Plugin 'altercation/vim-colors-solarized'

call vundle#end()
filetype plugin indent on

I've commented out those last few plugins to see if they had any correlation with the error, but that didn't seem to help. I used Git to install vim as usual:

git clone https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim.git ~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim

All I did after that was run :PluginInstall to install the plugins, and then ran :source % which gave the error.

OS: Ubuntu 15.04

Rob Bednark · Accepted Answer · 2024-01-09 23:32:24Z

5

This seems to be related to an empty %. You can do two things: pass the filename when invoking vim: vim myscript.vim and then calling :source %, or passing the filename to :source (:source myscript.vim).

Per the docs, :help registers lists % as a read-only register containing the current filename. So, if you are editing a buffer that doesn't have a filename (not saved), this % register is empty, resulting in the error message that you are getting.

edited Jan 9, 2024 at 23:32

Rob Bednark

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answered Feb 1, 2016 at 17:07

Niloct

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1 Comment

John Dacey Over a year ago

Thanks for the response, however I am having another issue that I will try to resolve on my own, and update here if I can't figure it out. Also running into quite a few unrelated problems on this install of Ubuntu, many file permission and configuration errors.

Adarsh Chandrasekharan · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-31 03:58:54Z

1

This error is displayed when :source % is used after opening vim without any files. What you could do is open vim with a file name e.g. vim file1.js , and then try :source %

answered Mar 31, 2023 at 3:58

Adarsh Chandrasekharan

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