How can I delete from the disk the current open file from within vim? Would be nice to also close the buffer.
I see you can use NERDTree for that, but I don't use this plugin.
Using an external tool such as rm(1) is fine, but Vim also has its own delete() function for deleting files. This has the advantage of being portable.
:call delete(expand('%'))
An alternative way of expressing this is :call delete(#%), which uses the % (current file) register (tip by #accolade).
To completely purge the current buffer, both the file representation on disk and the Vim buffer, append :bdelete:
:call delete(expand('%')) | bdelete!
You'll probably want to map this according to your preferences.
Take a look at Delete files with a Vim command. The Comments section should have what you're looking for:
Basically, Rm will delete the current file; RM will delete the current file and quit the buffer (without saving) in one go.
Alternatively, you could just issue a shell command to remove the current file:
:!rm %
Sometimes a plugin can be an attractive solution even for a simple problem. In this case we're lucky as there is eunuch.vim by the almighty Tim Pope.
In its own words eunuch.vim provides
Vim sugar for the UNIX shell commands that need it the most. Delete or rename a buffer and the underlying file at the same time. Load a find or a locate into the quickfix list. And so on.
Perfect. It has what we need, plus some additional tools if we're on a UNIX system.
The command you are looking for is
:Remove!
Again, remap it if you need it a lot, e.g. :nnoremap <Leader>rm :Remove!<CR>.
I like being able to delete files from within vim, but I am also paranoid about accidentally deleting important work that, for one reason or another, is not yet under version control. I find it useful to combine the previous information from #glts and #accolade with this answer on how to use the confirm command to prompt before quitting vim.
Putting these together, I added a function to my ~/.vimrc, which prompts before deleting the file and closing the buffer, and mapped it to a key combination:
nnoremap <Leader>d. :call DeleteFileAndCloseBuffer()
fun! DeleteFileAndCloseBuffer()
let choice = confirm("Delete file and close buffer?", "&Do it!\n&Nonono", 1)
if choice == 1 | call delete(expand('%:p')) | q! | endif
endfun
If you are one keystroke less paranoid than I am, you can append <CR> to the first line
nnoremap <Leader>d. :call DeleteFileAndCloseBuffer()<CR>
and only have to press return once.
You can do it with two steps:
save as a new file
:w newfilename
delete the old file
! rm oldfilename
This may be an unpopular opinion but your file tree explorer (Netrw/NerdTree) is going to be the simplest and safest way to delete a file. Even if OP is not using NerdTree, the in-built plugin Netrw will work just as well.
Related
I've opened a file and modified it - now I want to do :Explore without splitting.
It splits - because I have an unsaved buffer. By default this is nice, becasuse Vim generally doesn't allow to switch files, until you do something with the modified buffer (save or discard changes).
But I have set hidden option, so I can jump from buffer to buffer, switch files and everything - and save or not when I feel I want to. It seems Netrw doesn't follow this policy. How could I help it?
One way I know of is to map netrw explore to save & explore, but I'm not sure if autowriting is a good way of doing things... I am actually using other autowriting settings now, but I was just rethinking to maybe get rid of them.
So here is the function, that does just that:
function! ExploreWithHidden()
let s:cw = getcwd()
lcd %:p:h
enew
Explore
cd `=s:cw`
endfunction
Seems to work like expected.
You could use :Texplore instead. This is the same as explore except in a new tab (and will have no splits).
:h Texplore
Another thing you could do is use :lcd %:p:h to change the current working directory to the directory of the file. Then use :enew to create another buffer then open explore. (Make sure hidden is on if the buffer is modified)
:command! BExplore :lcd %:p:h | enew | Explore
To run the command use :BExplore.
The old buffer will be sitting in the background and the explore window is pointing at the directory the file was in.
You could just upgrade your netrw -- its up to v153s at http://www.drchip.org/astronaut/vim/index.html#NETRW, and it does avoid the split if the modified buffer is hidden.
tpope's vim-vinegar operates like this. It maps - to Explore the current file's directory. (That's the same key netrw uses to go up one directory.) It uses the current window instead of splitting.
When the current file is modified:
If you have 'hidden' set, it will not split and Explore from the current window.
If you do not have 'hidden' set, it will issue an error and do nothing.
I would like to access recent files that I had opened and then closed in GVim. I open and close GVim frequently. I would like to access recent files from previous sessions as well.
Does GVim store recent files somewhere as Word and many other desktop apps store? How to access them?
At least terminal vim stores the previous ten files into ~/.viminfo in the filemarks section. You can use '0, '1, '2, ... '9 to jump among them.
(Probably only useful for '0 to get back to the last file you were editing, unless your memory is stronger than mine.)
You can also use the :browse oldfiles command to get a menu with numbers.
The best way that I use is
:browse oldfiles
Easiest way on vim.
There is mru.vim, which adds the :MRU command.
Very late answer here ... expounding on #sarnolds answer - You can view the file history with the oldfiles command #see :h oldfiles or :h viminfo
:oldfiles
Furthermore, you can have fine-grained file management with views and sessions ... #see :h mkview and :h mksession for specifics ...
Use :bro ol then press the number that corresponds to the file you want to open.
There is an Swiss knife of file switching CtrlP plugin, which is also part of janus distributive. It has :CtrlPMRU command with smart lookup among recently used files.
Note:
CtrlP maintains its own list of most recent used files in g:ctrlp_cache_dir."mru/cache.txt". It is not reusing viminfo (set viminfo?) which contains a list of file marks. This is useful if you want to clear this list.
Adding my 2 cents here because fzf was was not mentioned in earlier answers, which is such a wonderful tool:
fzf.vim has a :History command that lets you search the most recent used files in a fuzzy and search while you type manner.
I customize the (default) behavior of this command by not letting fzf reorder the search results list to the best match: I want the order of all matching filenames to keep being the order in which these files were last used.
To accomplish this customization, I added the following in my .vimrc to override the default History command defined by the fzf.vim plugin:
command! -bang -nargs=* History
\ call fzf#vim#history({'options': '--no-sort'})
EDIT:
Currently I'm using a neovim only plugin telescope.nvim which is very similar to fzf.vim, it has the command :Telescope old_files. And it can use the fzf algorithm as a sorting algorithm in the backend (which is currently recommended over the default sorter).
It looks a bit nicer, but can be a bit slower depending on the context. It is not as mature as fzf, but to me easier to customize, it is all lua script.
If you are a neovim only user, definitely worth checking out imho.
MRU has lot of features as explained here: http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2009/08/vim-editor-how-to-setup-most-recently-used-documents-features-using-mru-plugin/
The CtrlP plugin lets you search through your recently used files as well as files in the current directory with this command:
nnoremap <c-p> :CtrlPMixed<cr>
This saves you the hassle of having to deal with built in Vim commands and the MRU plugin, neither of which let you do fuzzy file searching, which is critical when working on larger projects.
You might be able to access the list from the command line with:
grep '^>' ~/.viminfo|cut -c3-|sed 's,~,'"$HOME"','
Explanation:
grep '^>' ~/.viminfo #find the list of recent files
cut -c3- #remove the first 2 characters
sed 's,~,'"$HOME"',' #replace ~ with absolute path
You could have a bash alias if you use this regularly
alias vim_mru="grep '^>' ~/.viminfo|cut -c3-|sed 's,~,'\"$HOME\"','"
As seen in the comments here (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/571955/undo-close-tab-in-vim), your file is probably still open in a buffer:
:ls " get the buffer number
:tabnew +Nbuf " where N is the buffer number
For example you can reopen the third buffer in a new tab (use :e instead if you don't use tabs):
:tabnew +3buf
:ls to list recent files with buffer number on left-hand column.
Then do :b{buffer-number} to jump there.
Example:
:ls shows list of files. I want to jump to third-last file I visited.
:b3 will take me there.
For faster searching, map :ls to something, e.g. <Leader>. in your .vimrc file.
One more plugin that let's you choose file from the list of last modified ones is staritfy. It replaces your start screen with a list of most recently modified files. You can always open this page later using :Startify command.
Also you can go back with ctrl+O.
I'm trying really hard to learn vim after using TextMate for the last few years.
I've started to commit some of the in-file navigation to memory but I'm struggling with navigating between multiple files.
In my workflow it is pretty common that I'm flipping between a handful of files pretty regularly (enough files such that split-pane windows become too small).
I'm currently using NERDTree but find drilling down into directories cumbersome as well as constantly using CTRL+W h/CTRL+W l to hop back and forth.
I think I would do better with tabs I can easily toggle between but maybe I need to use a different workflow.
I'd also like a "Go to File..." shortcut like CMD+T in TextMate. I've found fuzzy_file_finder but it requires vim to be built with Ruby bindings which isn't the case the native installs I've worked on.
While I could rebuild the main reason I want to switch to vim is so I can have one editor environment that I know will easily work across any platform.
An easy way to browse the file system is the command:
:Sex
I'm not making this up :)
I don't find drilling down into subdirectories via plain old :e to be that cumbersome given a decent configuration for tab-completion.
Look into the 'wildmenu' option to have Vim show a list of completions (filenames) in the modeline above the commandline. You can change the 'wildmode' option to further configure the kind of tab-completion Vim will do.
Personally I use :set wildmode=full.
My workflow is like this:
:cd into the toplevel directory of my project.
To open file foo/bar/baz:
Simplest scenario: type :e f<tab>b<tab>b<tab><enter>.
If there are more than one file starting with b in one of those directories you might have to do a <left> or <right> or another <tab> on the keyboard to jump between them (or type a few more letters to disambiguate).
Worst-case scenario there are files and directories that share a name and you need to drill down into the directory. In this case tab-complete the directory name and then type *<tab> to drill down.
Open 2 or 3 windows and open files in all of them as needed.
Once a file is open in a buffer, don't kill the buffer. Leave it open in the background when you open new files. Just :e a new file in the same window.
Then, use :b <tab> to cycle through buffers that are already open in the background. If you type :b foo<tab> it will match only against currently-open files that match foo.
I also use these mappings to make it easier to open new windows and to jump between them because it's something I do so often.
" Window movements; I do this often enough to warrant using up M-arrows on this"
nnoremap <M-Right> <C-W><Right>
nnoremap <M-Left> <C-W><Left>
nnoremap <M-Up> <C-W><Up>
nnoremap <M-Down> <C-W><Down>
" Open window below instead of above"
nnoremap <C-W>N :let sb=&sb<BAR>set sb<BAR>new<BAR>let &sb=sb<CR>
" Vertical equivalent of C-w-n and C-w-N"
nnoremap <C-w>v :vnew<CR>
nnoremap <C-w>V :let spr=&spr<BAR>set nospr<BAR>vnew<BAR>let &spr=spr<CR>
" I open new windows to warrant using up C-M-arrows on this"
nmap <C-M-Up> <C-w>n
nmap <C-M-Down> <C-w>N
nmap <C-M-Right> <C-w>v
nmap <C-M-Left> <C-w>V
It takes me a matter of seconds to open Vim, set up some windows and open a few files in them. Personally I have never found any of the third-party file-browsing scripts to be very useful.
:Sex,:Vex, :Tex and :Ex are all useful commands for ex(ploring) the files on your system if you want to use something different from :e
(where S/V/T are short for Split/Vertical/Tab)
By far the best and fastest plugin I found for file navigation is fzf.vim. You can very quickly fuzzy search all your files, the open buffers and even the files contents.
Since we have a very large codebase at work I specified a couple of directories I use most as the directories fzf searches. Fzf even has a rich git integration. So you can search only tracked files.
This is how the file search looks:
and his is how the content search looks:
If you haven't found them already, you might want to check out:
the original fuzzy finder plugin -- which IIRC doesn't have the Ruby binding issues
the Project plugin -- similar to NERDTree
the buffer explorer plugin -- shows a list of open buffers
Also bear in mind that you can remap key shortcuts in your .vimrc to make them less cumbersome. I do use split windows a lot; I've found the following make dealing with them much easier:
" set your own personal modifier key to something handy
let mapleader = ","
" use ,v to make a new vertical split, ,s for horiz, ,x to close a split
noremap <leader>v <c-w>v<c-w>l
noremap <leader>s <c-w>s<c-w>j
noremap <leader>x <c-w>c
" use ctrl-h/j/k/l to switch between splits
map <c-j> <c-w>j
map <c-k> <c-w>k
map <c-l> <c-w>l
map <c-h> <c-w>h
It is surprising to see that :find command has not been mentioned in any of the answers. I usually work with rails projects where I need to drill down deep into the directory hierarchy. So for a file application.css, located in app/assets/stylesheets/ all I have to type is :find applica and then press tab to autocomplete and enter to open.
I think I would do better with tabs I
can easily toggle between, but maybe I
need to use a different workflow.
Are you aware of Vim's tabs? Not sure if you were referring to Vim's own tabs there, or pining for TextMate's. It's unclear what Vim version you're using but it's had tabs since at least 7.0 (which seems to be installed everywhere I look lately), and they're awesome.
:tabe opens a new one (short for "tab edit", so e.g. :tabe for empty or :tabe path/to/file for opening a file in a new tab,) you can move between adjacent tabs with gt/gT, and there's a bunch of other tab-related nav commands too, as you might expect from Vim (:help tabs)
My workflow for large projects tends to involve a bunch of tabs, each with between 1 and 3 windows depending on what sort of context I need. This works even better if I have a doublewide terminal window since I can vertically split with :vs, so then a single tab can easily show me 4 files at once with plenty of room for each.
Final tip: I sometimes use the "switch buffer" command (:sb <partial_buf_name>) which is sorta-kinda like TM's fuzzy finding, in that it works pretty well but only for already-open buffers. Still great for when I have a dozen or more files open at once. (N.B. I needed to :set switchbuf=usetab in my vimrc for this to work across tabs, but once that's set it's great.)
I find LustyExplorer the best so far.
You can open a file by typing only a part of its name.
You can open a file from the directory of the current file, or the current pwd, or from the buffer list.
If you open a file from the buffer list, you don't have to navigate through the directory tree, though unfortunately for the other two modes, you still have to navigate through the tree. The good thing is you don't have to start from the first character.
If you have:
dir_a/
...
dir_b/
file.js
file.html
and you want to open dir_b/file.html you can generally find it by typing b<Tab>h
Check out the plugin ctrlp as an alternative to the plugin Command-T. It's better than this in that it is a 'native' Vim script and doesnt need Vim to be compiled with ruby (or other support) while it runs very fast and unobtrusive.
If the file that you want is already loaded into a buffer (which is likely if you are flipping between a handful of files regularly) then you can quickly switch to the buffer with the :b[uffer] command.
:b can either take a buffer number as a parameter, or (more usefully) a string that matches part of the path/filename. If there are multiple matches you can use tab to cycle through them.
If you want to split the window and open the buffer in the new window then use :sb name
If you want to open the buffer in a new tab then use :tab b name
You can also use the :ls command to see a list of currently loaded buffers.
I use this function for finding files in subdirectories, I didn't write it though. It's from the vim wiki:
function! Find(name)
let l:list=system("find . -name '".a:name."' | grep -v \".svn/\" | perl -ne 'print \"$.\\t$_\"'")
let l:num=strlen(substitute(l:list, "[^\n]", "", "g"))
if l:num 0
echo "Not a number"
return
endif
if l:inputl:num
echo "Out of range"
return
endif
let l:line=matchstr("\n".l:list, "\n".l:input."\t[^\n]*")
else
let l:line=l:list
endif
let l:line=substitute(l:line, "^[^\t]*\t./", "", "")
execute ":e ".l:line
endfunction
command! -nargs=1 Find :call Find("")
One thing I like is it has support for wildcards (*). It's also well behaved for multiple matches.
In addition to the wildmenu answers, I use BufExplorer plugin, and the following mappings to quickly jump buffers:
nmap <A-1> :b 1<CR>
nmap <A-2> :b 2<CR>
nmap <A-3> :b 3<CR>
...
nmap <A-0> :b 10<CR>
nmap <A-=> \bs
Or you can just replace the buffer explorer with the :ls command, which basically display the same thing.
The last one maps the Alt-= to show the buffer explorer.
I don't use Windows that much, as I generally have one or two windows only.
I also modified the statusline to include the buffer number %2n, so that the I always know which buffer is being edited. See :h statusline
do you know MacVim application? It is VIM polished for OS X, and one of its feature is support for tabs (CMD+T to open new tab), it have drawer, etc... (read this: http://zerokspot.com/weblog/2008/08/03/macvim-as-textmate-replacement/)
Try it!
Regards
Michal
NerdTree is best for file navigation in vim.
The link below is a good introduction to nerdtree.
http://www.catonmat.net/blog/vim-plugins-nerdtree-vim/
I often do:
:e ./
in NORMAL MODE to see the content of the current folder and then navigate to any other folder or file.
Here's something fairly trivial that I stick in my .vimrc. It will load a file from any subdirectory.
" load from an unspecified subdirectory
function! LoadFromSubdirectory(filespec)
let filename = glob("`find . -name '" . a:filespec . "' -print`")
exe ':e '.filename
endfunction
:command -nargs=1 Er :call LoadFromSubdirectory(<f-args>)
So I can just say:
:Er Main.java
and it will search subdirectories, find Main.java and load it. It's not well behaved for multiple files of the same name, but it's quick and simple.
The other tool I use is VTreeExplorer, which provides a tree-based window of files/directories, and doesn't require any special build options from VIM (i.e. it's a vanilla plugin).
My workflow for finding files is the wildmenu, autocwd and :e.
Relevant parts in the .vimrc:
set wildmenu
set wildignore=*.dll,*.o,*.pyc,*.bak,*.exe,*.jpg,*.jpeg,*.png,*.gif
set wildmode=list:full
set autochdir
let g:netrw_list_hide='^\.,.\(pyc\|pyo\|o\)$'
And how to use it:
:e myf^D
That gives all the files in the current directory that start with myf. You can also <Tab> through them. Use return to open :)
^D will always give you all the matches. Because autocmd always goes to the folder of the current file it's easy to work with. If you are in foo/bar.py and you want to go to foo/baz.py you only do :e baz.py and you're there. That also works with buffers (:b foo^D lists all buffers starting with foo)
I open several files in Vim by, for example, running
vim a/*.php
which opens 23 files.
I then make my edit and run the following twice
:q
which closes all my buffers.
How can you close only one buffer in Vim?
A word of caution: “the w in bw does not stand for write but for wipeout!”
More from manuals:
:bd
Unload buffer [N] (default: current
buffer) and delete it from
the buffer list. If the buffer was changed, this fails,
unless when [!] is specified, in which case changes are
lost.
The file remains unaffected.
If you know what you’re doing, you can also use :bw
:bw
Like |:bdelete|, but really delete the
buffer.
If this isn't made obvious by the the previous answers:
:bd will close the current buffer. If you don't want to grab the buffer list.
Check your buffer id using
:buffers
you will see list of buffers there like
1 a.php
2 b.php
3 c.php
if you want to remove b.php from buffer
:2bw
if you want to remove/close all from buffers
:1,3bw
Rather than browse the ouput of the :ls command and delete (unload, wipe..) a buffer by specifying its number, I find that using file names is often more effective.
For instance, after I opened a couple of .txt file to refresh my memories of some fine point.. copy and paste a few lines of text to use as a template of sorts.. etc. I would type the following:
:bd txt <Tab>
Note that the matching string does not have to be at the start of the file name.
The above displays the list of file names that match 'txt' at the bottom of the screen and keeps the :bd command I initially typed untouched, ready to be completed.
Here's an example:
doc1.txt doc2.txt
:bd txt
I could backspace over the 'txt' bit and type in the file name I wish to delete, but where this becomes really convenient is that I don't have to: if I hit the Tab key a second time, Vim automatically completes my command with the first match:
:bd doc1.txt
If I want to get rid of this particular buffer I just need to hit Enter.
And if the buffer I want to delete happens to be the second (third.. etc.) match, I only need to keep hitting the Tab key to make my :bd command cycle through the list of matches.
Naturally, this method can also be used to switch to a given buffer via such commands as :b.. :sb.. etc.
This approach is particularly useful when the 'hidden' Vim option is set, because the buffer list can quickly become quite large, covering several screens, and making it difficult to spot the particular buffer I am looking for.
To make the most of this feature, it's probably best to read the following Vim help file and tweak the behavior of Tab command-line completion accordingly so that it best suits your workflow:
:help wildmode
The behavior I described above results from the following setting, which I chose for consistency's sake in order to emulate bash completion:
:set wildmode=list:longest,full
As opposed to using buffer numbers, the merit of this approach is that I usually remember at least part of a given file name letting me target the buffer directly rather than having to first look up its number via the :ls command.
Use:
:ls - to list buffers
:bd#n - to close buffer where #n is the buffer number (use ls to get it)
Examples:
to delete buffer 2:
:bd2
You can map next and previous to function keys too, making cycling through buffers a breeze
map <F2> :bprevious<CR>
map <F3> :bnext<CR>
from my vimrc
Close buffer without closing the window
If you want to close a buffer without destroying your window layout (current layout based on splits), you can use a Plugin like bbye. Based on this, you can just use
:Bdelete (instead of :bdelete)
:Bwipeout (instead of :bwipeout)
Or just create a mapping in your .vimrc for easier access like
:nnoremap <Leader>q :Bdelete<CR>
Advantage over vim's :bdelete and :bwipeout
From the plugin's documentation:
Close and remove the buffer.
Show another file in that window.
Show an empty file if you've got no other files open.
Do not leave useless [no file] buffers if you decide to edit another file in that window.
Work even if a file's open in multiple windows.
Work a-okay with various buffer explorers and tabbars.
:bdelete vs :bwipeout
From the plugin's documentation:
Vim has two commands for closing a buffer: :bdelete and :bwipeout. The former removes the file from the buffer list, clears its options, variables and mappings. However, it remains in the jumplist, so Ctrl-o takes you back and reopens the file. If that's not what you want, use :bwipeout or Bbye's equivalent :Bwipeout where you would've used :bdelete.
How about
vim -O a a
That way you can edit a single file on your left and navigate the whole dir on your right...
Just a thought, not the solution...
[EDIT: this was a stupid suggestion from a time I did not know Vim well enough. Please don't use tabs instead of buffers; tabs are Vim's "window layouts"]
Maybe switch to using tabs?
vim -p a/*.php opens the same files in tabs
gt and gT switch tabs back and forth
:q closes only the current tab
:qa closes everything and exits
:tabo closes everything but the current tab
Those using a buffer or tree navigation plugin, like Buffergator or NERDTree, will need to toggle these splits before destroying the current buffer - else you'll send your splits into wonkyville
I use:
"" Buffer Navigation
" Toggle left sidebar: NERDTree and BufferGator
fu! UiToggle()
let b = bufnr("%")
execute "NERDTreeToggle | BuffergatorToggle"
execute ( bufwinnr(b) . "wincmd w" )
execute ":set number!"
endf
map <silent> <Leader>w <esc>:call UiToggle()<cr>
Where "NERDTreeToggle" in that list is the same as typing :NERDTreeToggle. You can modify this function to integrate with your own configuration.
Is there a way to view the list of recent documents you've opened in Vim?
I realize I could view the cursor jump list, :ju, and then go to a cursor position in the list but this is not ideal because there will be multiple listings of the same document in the list.
Is there another command which would do what I'm looking for?
Don't use a plugin, unless you want a nice menu. From Vim Documentation: Starting (or :help old):
:ol[dfiles]
Then to open one of the listed files, use: '0, '1, '2, ... '9
List the files that have marks stored in the viminfo file.
:bro[wse] ol[dfiles][!]
List file names as with :oldfiles, and then prompt for a number. When the number is valid that file from the list is edited. Use ! to abandon a modified buffer.
The Most Recently Used (MRU) plugin provides an easy access to a list of
recently opened/edited files in Vim. This plugin automatically stores the
file names as you open/edit them in Vim.
http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=521
Besides :oldfiles, fzf.vim has :History.
Start Vim and hit Ctrl-o-o to open previously edited file. Keep hitting o (while still pressing the Ctrl key) to cycle back through earlier files. See https://dev.to/jovica/3-little-known-but-useful-vim-tips-1pbg
vim plugin: minibufexpl may help you.
the opened file list is displayed on the top or bottom of the screen:
in vim normal mode, type :b${bufid} to jump to the ${bufid}_th buffer, for example: type :b13 to jump to the 13th buffer, ie. ngx_mail_ssl_module.c.
besidies, you can map some convenient bindings in your vimrc, such as:
" ------------------------------- minibufexpl mappings -----------------------------------
"let g:miniBufExplSplitBelow=1
nnoremap <silent> <leader>bn :bn<cr>
nnoremap <silent> <leader>bp :bp<cr>
nnoremap <silent> <leader>bf :bf<cr>
nnoremap <silent> <leader>bl :bl<cr>
nnoremap <silent> <leader>bt :TMiniBufExplorer<cr>
Get the plugin from here: https://github.com/fholgado/minibufexpl.vim
In addition to oldfiles there's a nice thing called tinyMRU.
Vim-tinyMRU's only purpose is to provide an intuitive alternative to the built-in :oldfile command. Nothing more, nothing less.
It's very simple:
https://github.com/romainl/vim-tinyMRU/blob/master/plugin/tinymru.vim
A good plugin is https://github.com/Shougo/denite.nvim
You can call :Denite file_old in order to have fuzzy search on the list of old files. In particular, just hitting Enter will re-open the last opened file. Assigning a shortcut to this is useful:
nnoremap <leader>o :Denite<space>file_old<CR>
This saves few keystrokes compared to :browse oldfiles, q, 1, Enter
The easiest way for me to access recent files is to add the following to one's .gvimrc file:
let g:netrw_sort_by = 'time'
let g:netrw_sort_direction = 'r'
These lines get netrw to sort files by those most recently modified. Then one simply calls :e. and selects the file one wants.
This solution presupposes files are saved in one main directory so specified in .gvimrc. E.g.
cd ~/vim
No directly the answer but related.
you can define aliases to open the last opened file(s) by vim:
alias vil='vim -c "normal! '\''0"' # open the last file
alias vil1='vim -c "normal! '\''1"' # open the second last file ...
alias vil2='vim -c "normal! '\''2"'
:ol works, but why not use fuzzy search to get the exact match quickly from a long list of file?
There's a very handy plugin, ctrlp which allows you to use :CtrlPMRU, and you can quickly get what you looking for.
For many many years, ctrlp is one of the first thing I would install for vim!
https://github.com/ctrlpvim/ctrlp.vim