Vim Tips Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Tip 2 Printable Monobook Previous Next

created 2001 · complexity intermediate · author scott · version 6.0


While editing a file, you may want to open another file in the same directory. However, navigating to the file can be frustrating if it is not in the current directory.

Using one of the following snippets in your vimrc will help open files while deep in the directory tree. An alternative would be to set the working directory to the current file.

Using a command line abbreviation[]

This method uses a command line abbreviation so %% expands to the full path of the directory that contains the current file.

cabbr <expr> %% expand('%:p:h')

For example, while editing file /some/path/myfile.txt, typing :e %%/ on the command line will expand to :e /some/path/. Then you can use completion (press Tab after typing the first few letters of a file name), or press Enter to browse the directory listing. Of course, this abbreviation works anywhere on the command line, so you can use it with :cd, :grep etc.

If your Vim does not support <expr> mappings, try using the expression register to extract the path instead:

cabbr %% <C-R>=expand('%:p:h')<CR>

Note that you have to type a non-keyword character after %% in order to expand the abbreviation. For example, after typing :e %%, you could expand the abbreviation by typing / or by pressing Enter or Ctrl-].

Using a mapping[]

While editing file /some/path/myfile.txt, this method allows you to type \e (assuming the default backslash leader) to enter :e /some/path/ on the command line. Again, you can use completion to enter a file name, or press Enter to browse the directory.

nnoremap <Leader>e :e <C-R>=expand('%:p:h') . '/'<CR>

This method is less versatile than the command line abbreviation above.

References[]

Comments[]

Advertisement