How do I view the list of positions I have jumped to in Vim?

Explanation

How it works

Vim keeps a jump list that records your cursor position every time you make a jump. A jump is any motion that moves the cursor more than a line or to a different file, such as searching with /, jumping with G, or switching buffers. The :jumps command displays this list.

Each entry in the jump list shows:

• A number indicating its position relative to the current entry (negative numbers are older jumps, positive numbers are newer).
• The line number and column of the jump.
• The text at that line.

The entry marked with > is your current position in the jump list.

You navigate the jump list with Ctrl-O (jump backward to older positions) and Ctrl-I (jump forward to newer positions). The :jumps command helps you understand where those keystrokes will take you.

Example

After editing for a while, run :jumps and you might see:

 jump line  col file/text
   4   102    5 def process_data():
   3    45   12 import os
   2   200    0 return result
   1    78    8 for item in items:
 >  0   150    3     print(item)

This tells you:

• Your current position is line 150.
• Pressing Ctrl-O once will take you to line 78.
• Pressing Ctrl-O four times will take you back to line 102.

Tips

• The jump list can hold up to 100 entries per window.
• Each window has its own jump list.
• Use :clearjumps to reset the jump list for the current window.
• Combine with :changes to understand both navigation and edit history.