How to effectively work with multiple files in vim?

Question

I've started using vim to develop Perl scripts and am starting to find it very powerful.

One thing I like is to be able to open multiple files at once with e.g. "vi main.pl maintenance.pl" and then hop between them with:

:n :prev

and see which file are open with

:args

And to add a file, I can say:

:n test.pl

which I expect would then be ADDED to my list of files, but instead it wipes out my current file list and when I type ":args" I only have "test.pl" open.

So how can I ADD and REMOVE files to my args list?

Answer 1

vim (but not vi!) has tabs which I find far superior to buffers. You can say :tabe [filename] to open a file in a new tab. Cycling between tabs is done by klicking on the tab or by the key combinatons [n]gt and gT. Graphical vim even has graphical tabs.

Answer 2

Why not use tabs (introduced in Vim 7)? You can switch between tabs with :tabn and :tabp, With :tabe <filepath> you can add a new tab; and with a regular :(w)q you close a tab. If you map :tabn and :tabp to your F7/F8 keys you can easily switch between files.

If it are not that many files and you don't have Vim 7 you can also split your screen in multiple files: :sp <filepath>. Then you can switch between splitscreens with <CTRL> + W and then a arrow key in the direction you want to move.

Answer 3

To add to the args list: :argadd

To delete from the args list: :argdelete

In your example you could use :argedit test.pl to add test.pl to the args list and edit the file in one step.

:help args gives much more detail and advanced usage

Answer 4

I think you may be using the wrong command for looking at the list of files that you have open.

Try doing an :ls to see the list of files that you have open and you'll see:

   1 %a   "./checkin.pl"            line 1
  2 #    "./grabakamailogs.pl"     line 1
  3      "./grabwmlogs.pl"         line 0
  etc.

You can then bounce through the files by referring to them by the numbers listed, e.g. :3b

or you can split your screen by entering the number but using sb instead of just b.

As an aside % refers to the file currently visible and # refers to the alternate file.

You can easily toggle between these two files by pressing

<cntl>-shift-6

Edit: like :ls you can use :reg to see the current contents of your registers including the 0-9 registers that contain what you've deleted. This is especially useful if you want to reuse some text that you've previously deleted.

HTH

cheers,

Rob

Answer 5

I use buffer commands - :bn (next buffer), :bp (previous buffer) :buffers (list open buffers) :b<n> (open buffer n) :bd (delete buffer). :e <filename> will just open into a new buffer.

Answer 6

Listing

To see a list of current buffers, I use:

:ls

---

Opening

To open a new file, I use

:e ../myFile.pl

with enhanced tab completion (put set wildmenu in your .vimrc).

Note: you can also use :find which will search a set of paths for you, but you need to customize those paths first.

---

Switching

To switch between all open files, I use

:b myfile

with enhanced tab completion (still set wildmenu).

Note: :b choses the last visited file by default, so you can use it to switch quickly between two files. I use it a lot.

---

Using windows

Ctrl-W s and Ctrl-W v to split the current window horizontally and vertically.

Ctrl-W c to close the current window, and Ctrl-W o to close all windows except the current one.

---

With all these I don't need tabs in Vim, and my fingers find my buffers, not my eyes.

Note: if you want all files to go to the same instance of Vim, start Vim with the --remote-silent option.

Cheers!

Answer 7

If you are going to use multiple buffers, I think the most important thing is to set hidden so that it will let you switch buffers even if you have unsaved changes in the one you are leaving.

Answer 8

When using multiple files in vim, I use these commands mostly (with ~350 files open):

• :b (jump to a buffer)
• :bw (buffer wipe, remove a buffer)
• :e (edit, open a new buffer>
• pltags - enable jumping to subroutine/method definitions

Answer 9

:ls

for list of open buffers

• :bp previous buffer
• :bn next buffer
• :bn move to nth buffer
• :b with tab-key providing auto-completion (awesome !!)

or when u are in normal mode ^ to switch to the last file u were working on

plus, you can save sessions of vim

:mksession! ~/today.ses

saves the current open files buffers and settings to ~/today.ses. u can load that session by using

vim -S ~/today.ses

no hassle of remembering where u left of the yesterday ;)

Answer 10

I use multiple buffers

set hidden in my vimrc

The mini-buffer explorer script is nice too to get a nice compact listing of your buffers. Then :b1 or :b2... to go to the appropriate buffer or use the mini-buffer explorer and tab through the buffers.

Answer 11

I use the same .vimrc file for GVim and the command line vim. I tend to use tabs in GVim and buffers in the command line vim, so I have my .vimrc set up to make working with both of them easier:

" Movement between tabs OR buffers
nnoremap L :call MyNext()<CR>
nnoremap H :call MyPrev()<CR>

" MyNext() and MyPrev(): Movement between tabs OR buffers
function! MyNext()
    if exists( '*tabpagenr' ) && tabpagenr('$') != 1
        " Tab support && tabs open
        normal gt
    else
        " No tab support, or no tabs open
        execute ":bnext"
    endif
endfunction
function! MyPrev()
    if exists( '*tabpagenr' ) && tabpagenr('$') != '1'
        " Tab support && tabs open
        normal gT
    else
        " No tab support, or no tabs open
        execute ":bprev"
    endif
endfunction

This clobbers the existing mappings for H and L, but it makes switching between files extremely fast and easy. Just hit "H" for next and "L" for previous; whether you're using tabs or buffers, you'll get the intended results.