There are times when I change something in a file and I've no need for the file's "last modified" time to be changed. For example, I might be updating a comment in a source file, and I don't need my build system to re-compile the file.

If your build of Vim has +python you can define the following function and call it instead of using the write command.

function! WritePreserveMtime()
python << EEOOFF
import vim
import os.path
import os
fpath = vim.current.buffer.name
atime = os.path.getatime(fpath)
mtime = os.path.getmtime(fpath)
vim.command("w")
os.utime(fpath, (atime, mtime))
EEOOFF
endfunction

See :help python for information on calling Python from inside Vim.

Since I

:map <F3> :w<CR><C-G>

I also

:map <S-F3> :call WritePreserveMtime()<CR><C-G>

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