How do I open the directory of the current open file?

Question

If I open a file with vim dir/to/my/file.c how can I easily open the directory dir/to/my in vim's filebrowser?

Answer 1

What's wrong with :Ex[plore]? From :help Ex:

:Explore will open the local-directory browser on the current file's directory (or on directory [dir] if specified). The window will be split only if the file has been modified, otherwise the browsing window will take over that window. Normally the splitting is taken horizontally.

Answer 2

As already mentioned, you can just do ":Explore" and it will open the file explorer for the directory of the current file.

However, if you need to explicitly specify the directory, you can use ctrl+r on the :-command line to read the contents of any register in, and the % register is the current filename, including a path if necessary. So, just do :e ctrl+r% then backspace over the filename, and press enter.

There are other ways to do it, but this is the method I usually use.

Answer 3

I personally prefer the:

:Sex

command. It does the split window for you, and drops you into the current directory.

:Sex dir/to/my

works too.

Answer 4

If you edit with the pwd command on unix it will open the current directory you are in.

:e `pwd`

This will not work like you want it if you did a cd while in vim.

Answer 5

:e dir/to/my/

:e . opens the directory you initially launched vim from.

Vim browser 'c' sets the working directory.

I'm not sure if there is a way to automatically jump to the directory of the file you are editing.

Answer 6

:e `dirname %`

dirname expands to the directory in which current file is.