vim how to open files in vertically/horizontal split windows

Question

there must be vim -[option] file-list to open files in FROM COMMAND PROMPT and NOT from within VIM

• split widows vertically or/and harizontally
• in separate tabs

assume I am using vim 7.2

Answer 1

While running vim:

1. :sp filename (horizontal)
2. :vsp filename (vertical)

Answer 2

I'm assuming you mean from the command line. From vim --help:

-o[N]                Open N windows (default: one for each file)
-O[N]                Like -o but split vertically

So type this to open files split horizontally, for example:

vim -o3 file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

Answer 3

Ctrl-W s for horizontal splitting

Ctrl-W v for vertical splitting

Ctrl-w q to close one

Answer 4

another interested trick is the CLI -p argument - which opens them in separate tabs for recent versions of vim and gvim.

gvim -p file1.txt file2.txt

Answer 5

This question is also asked on SuperUser, and shows how to do it and split horizontally and vertically at the same time!

http://superuser.com/questions/113411/using-the-vim-split-command-from-the-command-line-to-get-4-quater-splits