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Suppose I have two files with the following filepaths:

~/another/project/file1.txt
~/this/is/some/very/deep/project/file2.txt

As you could see, file1.txt and file2.txt are located "far way" from each other in the filesystem.

Now suppose I'm editing file1.txt, and I want to open up file2.txt in a vsplit window. The fastest method I'd chose to open up file2.txt is

:vsplit ~/this/is/some/very/deep/project/file2.txt

which is obviously not efficient, even with fuzzy completion.

Is there a way to quickly "bookmark" or "jump to a directory" to reach file2.txt quickly?

My initial thoughts would be to execute a command from the shell (within command mode, using !) to somehow facilitate the jumping. Using something like jump might help, but I wouldn't know how.

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3 Answers 3

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You could try using a global mark, as described in the answer to this question:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1581505/vim-create-marks-across-files

If you make a mark with a capital letter like mA, you can return to that file by going to that mark with 'A.

This'll work across sessions if your .viminfo is saving things properly.

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  • You learn a new vim trick everyday. This seems more preferable than symlinking files. Thanks.
    – hlin117
    Jan 8, 2015 at 2:32
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If you are using the same files regularly you can use a symbolic link.

Make a folder to keep your links in. 

mkdir ~/links/

link your files.

ln ~/another/project/file1.txt ~/links/file1.txt
ln ~/this/is/some/very/deep/project/file2.txt ~/links/file2.txt

You can also name your link differently. If your file is somereallylongname.txt you can link it to shname.txt

ln ~/this/is/some/very/deep/project/somereallylongname.txt ~/links/shname.txt
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  • I suppose a symbolic link would be a solution. But like you mentioned, I'd make a link if I used the same files regularly; for my use case, I'm hoping to only open up file2.txt once or twice.
    – hlin117
    Jan 8, 2015 at 1:34
  • Fair enough. Do these files usually exist in the same deep directory. you could link the whole directory as well.
    – JpaytonWPD
    Jan 8, 2015 at 13:33
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Another answer presented to me by a friend was to use the ctrlp plugin. The ctrlp plugin makes it easy to search for a file though multiple directories at the same time.

EDIT: The default settings for ctrlp would actually start searching from the root of the project; technically, one would have to set the root node differently to get it to work properly.

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