File managers in VIM

Most people who use Vim are so used to setting up their environment with plug-ins such as NERDTree and CtrlP to help them navigate their projects that they forget (or, more likely, they just don’t realize) that Vim actually has a pretty good built-in file system explorer, called netrw. To open it, you have to run the :Explore command.

netrw has support for editing files across remote machines using either scp or ftp protocols. I’d suggest reading the help files, :h netrw, to understadn capabilities of this plugin.

Some useful netrw commands

Title

Explanation

-

Traverse back up a directory

gh

Toggle visibility of dot files

i

Cycle explorer display modes (thin, long, wide, and tree)

<C-l>

Refresh the directory listing

o

Open file under the cursor in a horizontal split window

v

Open file under the cursor in a vertical split window

%

Create a new (unsaved) file

D or <Del>

Delete the directory/file under the cursor

d

Create a new directory

R

Rename the directory/file under the cursor. You can use this feature to move a file by changing the file’s directory path.

Vimcommander

For the guys who used to find it hart to live without Total Commander, Norton Commander, Dos Navigator, Midnight Commander etc. (like myself as you guessed), the vimcommander plugin is a good alternative. The last version is from 2013 (vimcommander):

created by
Leandro Penz
 
script type
utility
 
description
This is an adaptation of opsplorer (vimscript #362), intended to be more like the Total Comander (http://www.ghisler.com) file explorer.

This opens two panels of file explorers on the top half of the vim screen.
Targets for moving and copying defaults to the other panel, like totalcmd. TAB switches between panels.
Vimcommander keys are mostly totalcommander's:
F3 - view
F4 - edit
F5 - copy
F6 - move
F7 - create dir
F8 - del
Others: C-U, C-Left/C-Right, C-R, BS, DEL, C-H, etc.
Selection of files/dirs also works: INS, +, -. Then copy/move/del selected files.

Suggested binding is
noremap <silent> <F11> :cal VimCommanderToggle()<CR>

Tested on Linux. I have reports that it doesn't work on Windows.

If you want to contribute, note that vimcommander is hosted at github: http://github.com/lpenz/vimcommander/.
 
install details
Drop vimcommander.vim in ~/.vim/plugin
Put in you .vimrc a map to VimCommanderToggle():
noremap <silent> <F11> :cal VimCommanderToggle()<CR>

 

See

The fact of not needing to leave the editor while still working on some structured folder hierarchy is an important advantage of this plugin.

The editor still remains the app in charge (as opposed to using MC as main app and F4-ing your way to edit individual files); I like the nice toggle of the view, I also like the BS key (go up in the hierarchy) that I miss in MC, etc.


Top Visited
Switchboard
Latest
Past week
Past month

NEWS CONTENTS

Old News ;-)

The NERD tree - A tree explorer plugin for navigating the filesystem vim online

vi - File Manager tab in vim - Stack Overflow

very close to figuring this out, but can't seem to find the missing piece.

I have a pretty good vim set up for development. When doing MVC projects, I need multiple tabs open, and I've gotten pretty good at shifting between them and rearranging quickly.

I can even open a vertical tab with an interactive directory listing of my files.

What I really want and can't figure out:

  1. To be able to have this vertical tab persistent, that is, in the "foreground" of all tabs, and allow me open a file into a new tab. (Basically, I want vim to have a sidepane that is a file manager and when i press enter on a selected file in the directory, it will open a new tab, but the "file manager/directory tab" will stay open, and in front.
  2. To set the persistent "file manager/directory tab" to be a specific width - ie :vsplit 32(pixels?)

Does that make sense? Can anyone point me to the right part of the help section for this?

Thanks, Kevin

active oldest votes
up vote 7 down vote accepted Are you using NERDTree? If not, it might be the answer to your prayers.

You can set the width of the NERDTree window by putting this in your .vimrc:

let g:NERDTreeWinSize=32
share|improve this answer answered Jul 16 '11 at 16:55

Prince Goulash
4,820519

NERDTree definitely sounds like what he is looking for. – Matt Greer Jul 16 '11 at 16:58
yes, that's what i was looking for, thanks buddy – Kevin Jul 16 '11 at 18:11
1
NERDTree won't stay if you change tabs though. You'll need to to open a new NERDTree for each tab and each NERDTree is going to be independent (showing different files/directories). I don't want to be pedantic but Vim's tabs are not supposed to represent files, they are more like "perspectives": you use a tab to work on a project or on a specific part (like the models) of a larger project or maybe an idea you want to pursue without polluting the current project. For editing files you are supposed to use buffers and split windows. Trying to force Vim to work like another editor won't work well. – romainl Jul 18 '11 at 7:55

project.tar.gz - Organize-Navigate projects of files (like IDE-buffer explorer) vim online

script type
utility
description
You can use this plugin's basic functionality to set up a list of
frequently-accessed files for easy navigation. The list of files
will be displayed in a window on the left side of the Vim
window, and you can press <Return> or double-click on
filenames in the list to open the files. This is similar to how
some IDEs I've used work. I find this easier to use than
having to navigate a directory hierarchy with the file-explorer.
It also obviates the need for a buffer explorer because you
have your list of files on the left of the Vim Window.


But there's much, much more . . . .

You can also instruct the Plugin to change to a directory and
to run scripts when you select a file. These scripts can, for
example, modify the environment to include compilers in
$PATH. This makes it very easy to use quickfix with multiple
projects that use different environments. I give examples in
the documentation.

Other features include:
o Loading/Unloading all the files in a Project (\l, \L, \w, and \W)
o Grepping all the files in a Project (\g and \G)
o Running a user-specified script on a file (can be used
to launch an external program on the file) (\1 through \9)
o Running a user-specified script on all the files in a Project
(\f1-\f9 and \F1-\F9)
o Also works with the netrw plugin using directory
names like ftp://remotehost
(Good for webpage maintenance.)
o Support for custom mappings for version control
integration (example of perforce in the documentation).
o I also give an example in the documentation on how to
set up a custom launcher based on extension. The
example launches *.jpg files in a viewer. I have also set
up viewers for PDF (acroread) and HTML files (mozilla)
for my own use.

This plugin is known to work on Linux, Solaris, and Windows.
I cannot test it on Windows, though, so please let me know if
you run into any problems. If you use it on other platforms,
let me know.

(Let me know if you need a .zip file)

install details
Decompress and untar in your ~/.vim directory (or
equivalent). Inside Vim, enter this:
:helptags ~/.vim/doc
(or equivalent directory)
(Enter ":help add-global-plugin" to determine the directory to
untar it into.)

Then enter
:help project
for information

Recommended Links

Google matched content

Softpanorama Recommended

Top articles

Sites



Etc

Society

Groupthink : Two Party System as Polyarchy : Corruption of Regulators : Bureaucracies : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers :   Harvard Mafia : Diplomatic Communication : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience : Who Rules America : Neoliberalism  : The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Libertarian Philosophy

Quotes

War and Peace : Skeptical Finance : John Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand : Oscar Wilde : Otto Von Bismarck : Keynes : George Carlin : Skeptics : Propaganda  : SE quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes : Random IT-related quotesSomerset Maugham : Marcus Aurelius : Kurt Vonnegut : Eric Hoffer : Winston Churchill : Napoleon Bonaparte : Ambrose BierceBernard Shaw : Mark Twain Quotes

Bulletin:

Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :  Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method  : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law

History:

Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds  : Larry Wall  : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOSProgramming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC developmentScripting Languages : Perl history   : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history

Classic books:

The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-MonthHow to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite

Most popular humor pages:

Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor

The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D


Copyright © 1996-2021 by Softpanorama Society. www.softpanorama.org was initially created as a service to the (now defunct) UN Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) without any remuneration. This document is an industrial compilation designed and created exclusively for educational use and is distributed under the Softpanorama Content License. Original materials copyright belong to respective owners. Quotes are made for educational purposes only in compliance with the fair use doctrine.

FAIR USE NOTICE This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to advance understanding of computer science, IT technology, economic, scientific, and social issues. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided by section 107 of the US Copyright Law according to which such material can be distributed without profit exclusively for research and educational purposes.

This is a Spartan WHYFF (We Help You For Free) site written by people for whom English is not a native language. Grammar and spelling errors should be expected. The site contain some broken links as it develops like a living tree...

You can use PayPal to to buy a cup of coffee for authors of this site

Disclaimer:

The statements, views and opinions presented on this web page are those of the author (or referenced source) and are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily reflect, the opinions of the Softpanorama society. We do not warrant the correctness of the information provided or its fitness for any purpose. The site uses AdSense so you need to be aware of Google privacy policy. You you do not want to be tracked by Google please disable Javascript for this site. This site is perfectly usable without Javascript.

Last modified: March 12, 2019