How do I jump to a mark without adding my current position to the jumplist?

Explanation

Vim's standard mark-jump commands ('a, `a) always add the current position to the jumplist before leaping to the mark. This means a <C-o> afterward brings you back — but it also means repeated mark-jumping can flood your jumplist with intermediate positions. The g' and g` variants jump to marks without recording the current position in the jumplist, keeping it clean.

How it works

• '{mark} — jump to the first non-blank of the mark's line; adds current position to jumplist
• `{mark} — jump to the exact mark position (line and column); adds current position to jumplist
• g'{mark} — jump to first non-blank of the mark's line; does NOT modify the jumplist
• g`{mark} — jump to the exact mark position; does NOT modify the jumplist

Example

You have marks a and b set in two different locations. You want to peek at mark a and jump back without affecting your <C-o> / <C-i> history:

1. Use g'a  →  jumps to mark a (jumplist unchanged)
2. Use g'b  →  jumps to mark b (jumplist unchanged)
3. Press <C-o>  →  goes back to wherever you were before all of this

With plain 'a, step 3 would only take you back to mark b, not to the original position before you started jumping between marks.

Tips

• Especially useful in scripts and mappings where you want non-intrusive mark navigation
• Combine with :keepjumps {cmd} to prevent any jump command in a sequence from modifying the jumplist
• View the current jumplist with :jumps
• The special marks g'< and g`< / g'> and g`> jump to the boundaries of the last visual selection without polluting jumplist history