Execute-keys and registers

[andreyorst]

Guys, I can’t get why when I do

execute-keys <a-i>w*

on someword I see the message register '/' set to '\bsomeword\b, however / register isn’t changed, and contains old value. I didn’t specified a -save-regs switch, so I expect my default search register to be changed to the current selection, but it’s not happening. Am I missing something?

[occivink]

In :doc execeval you can see the following:

execute-keys also save the following registers, who are then restored when the commands have been executed: /, ", |, ^, @. evaluate-commands does not save any registers by default. (See :doc registers)

So if you don’t want exec to restore registers, you have to do exec -save-regs '' <a-i>w*.
As a side-note, it used to be that both eval and exec restore the default registers, but this was changed somewhat recently.

[andreyorst]

Ah, I misreaded the docs. I thought that execute-keys will save those regs if I specify -save-regs switch. Thanks!