Renaming the current file in Vim

The command is called :saveas, but unfortunately it will not delete your old file, you'll have to do that manually. see :help saveas for more info.

EDIT:

Most vim installations have an integrated file explorer, which you can use for such operations. Try :Explore in command mode (I would actually map that to a function key, it's very handy). You can rename files with R or delete them with D, for example. But pressing <F1> in the explorer will give you a better overview.

There's a little plugin that lets you do this.

• Write the file while editing - :w newname - to create a copy.
• Start editing the new copy - :e#.
• (Optionally) remove the old copy - :!rm oldname.

On Windows, the optional 3rd step changes a little:

• (Optionally) remove old Windows copy - :!del oldname.

For renaming existing file without using plugins you should use command

:Explore

This command allow you explore files in.directory, delete or rename them. than you should navigate to neccessary file in explorer than type R command which will allow you to rename file name

sav person.haml_spec.rb | call delete(expand('#'))

:!mv % %:h/new_name

Register % contains the name of the current file.'%:h'shows the directory 'head' containing the current file, e.g.: %:hreturns /abc/def when your file full path is abc/def/my.txt

I don't know if this is the "easiest" method, but assuming you've already saved your file (:w) I would invoke the shell (:sh) and do a simple cp foo foo.bak To go back to editor use Ctrl-D/Exit. Useful list of vi editor commands on this link

:h rename() is by far the easiest and cleanest method. Just call it :call rename("oldname", "newnane")