How do I create a macro that runs itself repeatedly until it fails?

Explanation

A recursive macro calls itself at the end of its recording, creating a loop that repeats until a motion or command fails (like reaching the end of the file or finding no more matches). This eliminates the need to guess a repeat count — the macro simply runs until it can't anymore.

How it works

• qaq clears register a first (this is critical — without it, a previous recording in a would execute during the recursive call while recording)
• qa starts recording into register a
• ... is the sequence of commands you want to repeat
• @a calls the macro recursively — it replays register a from within itself
• q stops recording
• Run the macro with @a and it loops until a command in the sequence fails

The macro terminates automatically when any command in the sequence encounters an error, such as n finding no more search matches, j hitting the last line, or f{char} finding no match on the current line.

Example

Add quotes around the first word on every line from the current line to the end of the file:

qaqqa0ei"<Esc>bi"<Esc>j@aq

Breaking it down:

• qaq — clear register a
• qa — start recording
• 0 — go to beginning of line
• ei"<Esc> — go to end of first word, insert a closing quote
• bi"<Esc> — go to beginning of word, insert an opening quote
• j — move to next line (fails on the last line, stopping the recursion)
• @a — call self recursively
• q — stop recording

Given:

hello world
foo bar
baz qux

After running @a:

"hello" world
"foo" bar
"baz" qux

Tips

• Always clear the register first with qaq — skipping this step is the most common mistake and causes unpredictable behavior
• The macro is "self-terminating" — you don't need to count lines or matches
• Use u to undo the entire recursive run if the result isn't what you expected
• Recursive macros are ideal for processing every line in a file, every search match, or every occurrence of a pattern
• For extra safety, set a high but bounded count: 1000@a limits execution to 1000 iterations