ido mode filenames for vim?

Question

I strictly use vim, but I was playing with emacs and really like ido-mode when opening files. just start typing part of a filename and it narrows down the search and just press enter when the file you want is at the front of the list. is there anything similar for vim? i've been searching with no luck.

thanks

Answer 1

vim has tab completion of file names, but unfortunately it shows the entire first match instead of just stopping when it reaches an ambiguity like bash tab completion does.

Answer 2

Theres some good quick file finder plugins like fuzzyfinder http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1984 that could enhance your experience. (Fuzzy Finder seems to do ambiguous selection)

Also you might want to look at wildmode tweaks options ala :he wildmode

The method I explained here doesnt to the ambigous trick but it is tab friendly.

How do I make vim do normal (bash like) tab completion for file names?

Answer 3

I have the same problem and the solution is ":help wildmode". I personally use

set wildmenu
set wildmode=longest:full,full

Answer 4

Depending on what do you want to complete, you have the following options:

1. If you want to complete filenames starting from $HOME, /etc or other directories that contain many files, you can try fuzzyfinder (mentioned by @michael) or my zvim plugin (whole plugin is alpha, but :ZEdit and :ZView commands are stable enough). With my plugin you will get zsh-like completion that is not exactly what you asked, but it is good. Example:

   ZE ++e=u<Tab><Tab> ~/.v/d/z/p/v<Tab>
   

   will expand to (with &wildmode="longest,list:full")

   ZE ++enc=utf-8 ~/.vim/dev/zvim/plugin/z.vim
   

   Of course, it require you to know where z.vim (or whatever you want to find) is located.

   // To install zvim, install vim-addon-manager and mercurial and add call scriptmanager#Activate(["zvim"]) line to your vimrc.

2. If you want to find project files (files under current directory), try Command-T plugin. It requires ruby support and indexes files, so it cannot be used to find files starting from home directory.

Answer 5

I think the plugin 'command-t' might be what you're looking for: https://wincent.com/products/command-t http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3025

This plugin maps t to a function which opens a window with a filtered list of files. When you start typing, the files are filtered in realtime, and you can press enter to select the topmost file.