Put this into your vimrc and press \ba while in normal mode, and the current file will be backed up. "A mapping to make a backup of the current file. function! WriteBackup() let l:fname = expand('%:p') . '__' . strftime('%Y_%m_%d_%H.%M.%S') silent execute 'write' l:fname echomsg 'Wrote' l:fname endfunction nnoremap ba :call WriteBackup()