Issuing :tabnew somefile will open somefile in a new tab to the right of the current tab. Can I somehow get Vim to open a tab to the left of the current tab?
Update: The suggested answers do allow me to open a new tab left, but they break file name auto completion, which is a no-go.
Since Vim 7.4.530 (2014), you can use negative values for [count] in :[count]tabnew to open tabs. To open a tab directly to the left of the current tab, use:
:-1tabnew
Documentation: https://vimhelp.appspot.com/tabpage.txt.html#:tabnew
:[count]tabe[dit] :tabe :tabedit :tabnew
:[count]tabnew
Open a new tab page with an empty window, after the current
tab page. If [count] is given the new tab page appears after
the tab page [count] otherwise the new tab page will appear
after the current one.
:tabnew " opens tabpage after the current one
:.tabnew " as above
:+tabnew " opens tabpage after the next tab page
" note: it is one further than :tabnew
:-tabnew " opens tabpage before the current one
:0tabnew " opens tabpage before the first one
:$tabnew " opens tabpage after the last one
Similar functionality is also available for :tabclose, :tabonly, :tabmove, see the commit linked above. If this does not work, use :version to check if your Vim is up-to-date and/or use :help tabnew to check whether the documentation looks like the one cited here.
To utilize the behavior #romainl described without having to resort to knowing current tab page number use the following command:
command -nargs=* -bar Tabnew :execute (tabpagenr()-1).'tabnew '.<q-args>
. Note: it is perfectly save to use 0tabnew: this does what intended and makes new tab the first one, even though there is no tab page that has number below 1.
If you are sure you never use this command with ++opt or +cmd you can use -complete=file just after -bar. Note: besides its name it is not a completion option because it as well does filename expansion (and shows errors in case -nargs=1 and globs expanded in too many filenames). Unfortunately this behavior is not even mentioned in documentation.
You can use a [count]. Supposing you are at tab #4, :3tabnew creates a new tab on the left of the current tab.
Keep in mind, though, that tabs are always created to the right of the current tab or tab #[count]. :3tabnew effectively means "create a new tab after tab #3".
You can write your own command to do this
:command -nargs=1 TabnewBefore exec "tabnew <args>" | exec "tabmove -1"
Then to use it
:TabnewBefore somefile
If you want it to be the default 'tabnew' bahaviour you can do
:ca tabne TabnewBefore
Now if you type tabne and press space on the command line it does what you want, if you want the original behaviour type the full command tabnew
You can put these definitions into your .vimrc file for future use
Related
Recently I've been using netrw. I've put these four lines on my .vimrc:
let g:netrw_banner = 0
let g:netrw_liststyle = 3
let g:netrw_winsize = 25
map <C-n> :Lexplore <CR>
And I can easily toggle Lexplore and browse through the files to edit them. In this mode when I press Enter on any file on left hand side Netrw, it replaces the file in the right hand side window with new file; exactly what I want.
Problems start when I want to preview a file with "p" command on netrw or create a new file with "%" command. In former case (Preview) it split to the new window but I want it again to replace the file in right hand side window just like when I press Enter to to edit the file. And in latter case (creating a new file) it replaces the Lexplore (Netrw in the left hand side) instead of replacing the file on the right hand side window.
Is there any way that I can fix these issues? I've tried a lot of Netrw commands but nothing gives me what I want.
The "p" netrw command is mostly just pedit. So, assuming you don't already have a preview window, just press <cr> atop the file you want to preview and then :set pvw. That will make the window holding the file the preview window.
The second issue concerns "%" to create a new file. I'll think this over, but I think perhaps the better behavior is as you suggest -- keep the Lexplore window but open the new file in the editing window.
Please try version 171e of netrw which you can find at my website.
I believe this is related to a bug in vim. Once you use :Lexplore it apparently changes the g:netrw_chgwin option permanently, so whenever you try to pres <CR> in any netrw window, it will always open in a new window.
How can you tell vim to use an existing tab page for a file if it's already open?
I thought this option is supposed to do that
set switchbuf=usetab
As a minimal example I had only the above line in my .vimrc and moved all plugins (no .vim directory) but when I do for example vim .vimrc and then :tabe .vimrc I get two tab pages with the same file. Is there a way to prevent that?
You should read :help 'switchbuf' more carefully:
This option controls the behavior when switching between buffers.
So… that option has no effect on non-buffer-switching commands like :tabedit.
Also, :help :tabedit says:
Open a new tab page with an empty window, after the current tab page.
So… you can't really expect that command to not open a new tab page, do you?
If you want to edit a new file in place, use :e filename.
If you want to edit a file in a horizontal window, use :sp filename.
If you want to edit a file in a vertical window, use :vs filename.
If you want to edit a file in a new tab page, use :tabe filename.
If you want to switch to another buffer, use :b.
If you want to switch to another buffer and benefit from the switchbuf option, use :sb.
Vim is so awesome. For example, you have a file, called 'test0.html', stored in a folder.
In the same folder, you store the folder 'test' with the files test1.html, and test2.html.
Then you put in test0.html the following content:
include('test/test1.html');
include('test/test2.html');
In vim, you put the cursor on the filenames. You open the files under the corsor with the keys gf. Thats why Vim is so awesome.
I would like to open in a new tab. That's possible with the keys gF.
But what if you want to stay in the same file, but open the file in a background tab, like Chrome does?
So I'm mapping the key.
noremap gf <c-w>gF<c-PageDown>
So, when my cursor is on test1.html, it open with the key gf in a background tab. Wonderful, now I'm a satisfied man.
Then I want to open test2.html under cursor.
Vim jumps to the tab of test1.html, instead stay on test0.html
When I tried to debug this weird behaviour, by only mapping gf to gF, and then do manual CTRL+pagedown, I get the expected behaviour.
My guess is that Vim is much faster with executing the command before he opens the new tab (gF), and so I get to the last tab from the first tab.
Am I correct in my guess explaination?
<c-PageDown> or more commonly used gT will got to the previous tab. <c-w>gF on the other hand will open the file under the cursor in a new tab. That tab will be last tab. So doing a gT will not always make you go back to the previous tab.
You can change your mapping to go back to the previous tab like so:
nnoremap gf :execute "normal! \<lt>c-w>gF" . tabpagenr() . "gt"<cr>
However I would personally suggest you avoid using tabs in such a manner and use buffers instead.
noremap gf :tabe<cfile><CR><c-PageUp>
This is even better. When the file doesn't exist, Vim will create a new one.
The opposite question seems to be asked a lot: how to move a window into a new tab in an existing window. What I'm hoping is that a tab that I have open in gvim can be moved out into its own window or into another existing window.
Is this possible?
Thanks!
Same Vim instance
If that tab shows just a single window, you just have to note its buffer number (e.g. via :ls or :echo bufnr(''), or by including it in the statusline), and then close the tab via :close (:set hidden helps with modified buffers), then going to the target tab / window, and re-opening the buffer there via :buf N or :sbuf N.
If you need to support multiple windows in a tab page, you'd have to write a custom command / mapping that first remembers the buffers, and then applies the above steps for all of them.
Different Vim instances
Edit: The above is for movement within a single Vim instance. If you want to move a buffer to another GVIM instance, you first have to :bdelete it in the current Vim, to avoid swap file messages. Launching in new instances is easy:
:execute 'bdelete | !start gvim' shellescape(expand('%:p'), 1)
This passes the (full absolute) path of the current file to a fresh GVIM.
To move a file to an existing GVIM (you need to know its v:servername), you need to use the remote client-server communication (:help remote.txt), e.g. by sending a similar :drop command via remote_send(), like this:
:execute 'bdelete | call remote_send("GVIM1", ":drop " . ' . string(fnameescape(expand('%:p'))) . '. "\<CR>")'
Here is how you can "move" the current buffer to a second GVim instance:
:!gvim --remote %
:bw
Note that Vim must be built with the +clientserver option.
No, it is not possible.
You cannot move a vim tab into a window, no matter new or existing. Because a vim tab page is a collection of windows. You cannot move a collection of windows into one single window.
I often edit long files in vim that have blocks of code in multiple disparate places in the file that I need to be constantly going back and forth between. Obviously, one way of solving this is to split the window with :split and edit each portion in a different split window, and a :w in either window will save the whole file. This is well and good if you have a large enough screen but sometimes I have to use vim on a low-resolution laptop and I don't want to reduce my screen space further by splitting the window.
In this case, what I'd really like to do is edit the file in multiple tabs, and treat each separate tab exactly like a separate view split. I can sort of mimic this by using :tabopen <the same filename> once I have one copy of the file open, but this is sort of hacky — it doesn't work if I've already made changes to the file because vim thinks I'm just opening the file a second time.
Is there a good way to get the behavior I want with tabs in vim?
The :tab command takes a command as argument.
So you can do this:
:tab split
This will work even if the buffer is modified, and a save in either tab saves the file, updating the saved state in both.
You can use the :tab command:
:[count]tab {cmd}`
Execute {cmd} and when it opens a new window open a new tab page instead. [...] When [count] is omitted the tab page appears after the current one. When [count] is specified the new tab page comes after tab page [count]. Use :0tab cmd to get the new tab page as the first one.
Examples:
:tab split " opens the current buffer in new tab page
:tab help gt " opens tab page with help for "gt"