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After running the list buffers command (:ls) in Vim, what do the symbols displayed before some buffers mean? I know the percent sign (%) indicates the currently visible buffer. However, I also see the hash sign (#), and I can't figure out what that means. Googling this has proved fruitless.

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    To whomever downvoted: could you please explain why? Thanks. Commented Aug 9, 2012 at 20:12
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    I didn't downvote but as a rule of thumb: if you have any question regarding a vim command, asking vim for help is often not the worst idea: as pb2q answers, a simple :he :ls gives you anything you need... Commented Aug 10, 2012 at 8:15
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    @eckes Thanks for the info. I'm very new to Vim and didn't realize I could do that. Commented Aug 10, 2012 at 16:52

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See :help :ls.

The hash sign marks the alternate buffer. This is useful for switching between two buffers: it's the buffer that you'll switch to when using e.g. :b#. This is the only thing resembling most recently used that you'll get with vim buffers, without plugins.

You also know from :ls which buffers have unsaved modifications: +.

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2 Comments

:help :ls is better, :help ls may pick some tag defined in some of the plugins.
@tnorthcutt If you're happy with the answer you should accept it.

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