Hiding swp, ~ files in the default Vim file browser

Question

I'm using the default file browser in Vim a lot. But the annoyance is that it's showing swap files, .orig, .php~ etc. Can I hide these files somehow?

On a related note, why doesn't Vim always return to the file browser when pushing Ctrl-6?

Answer 1

Unless you want to move the swap and backup files to another (single) directory (as outlined in the answer of the Tin Man), you have to configure the built-in netrw plugin (which provides the file browser), as described in :help g:netrw_list_hide:

:let g:netrw_list_hide= '.*\.swp$,\~$,\.orig$'

Put this into your ~/.vimrc to make it permanent.

Answer 2

Most probably this files appears because Vim was closed before the buffer was written to its original file/location. Always enter :write or :update before quitting Vim.

Answer 3

Vim lets you define where your backup and swap files reside. It's pretty common to tell Vim to use either a local tmp directory (~/tmp), or a somewhere else semi-out-of-the-way.

You can define the location using the following commands in your $MYVIMRC file (typically ~/.vimrc). I use:

set backup                    " keep a backup file
set backupdir=~/.vim/_backups " store backups here
set directory=~/.vim/_swaps   " store swap files here

I've created _backups and _swaps in my ~/.vim directory.

Use h directory and h backupdir in Vim to read the documentation about the two settings.

Answer 4

Instead of using Ctrl-^, try :Rex.

With netrw v151, :Rex can also return from the netrw browser to the last file being edited in that window, too.