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Connor Bode
Connor Bode

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Browsing files in VIM

I've once again decided to try to switch 100% to VIM as my day-to-day editor. I do a lot of work on Linux servers so it's a long-term investment.

I'm trying to share tips & tricks that might make life in VIM easier.

Browsing the file tree in VIM

This is one of those things that takes a while to get used to. Here are some things I've learned:

You can open up the file browser in the current directory using:

  • vim .

To browse the files, you can use the standard j/k to go up/down.

You can also use other standard techniques to jump around, like doing 12G to jump to line 12 in the list of files, or typing /index.html then Enter to search & jump to the index.html file.

To open a file, press Enter on the selected file.

Once you're editing a file, you can type :b# to exit back to the file tree.

That's all for now. I'll try to post more VIM tips as I learn more.

Top comments (2)

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jingxue profile image
Jing Xue

Recommend the nerdtree plugin if you are going to use vim full time.

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connorbode profile image
Connor Bode

I'm hoping not to use any plugins as I want to be efficient without needing to install a bunch of things on remote machines!

But this looks great and I've heard it's very popular!