How can I permanently display the path of the current file in Vim?
VimViVim Problem Overview
I know CTRLg displays the current file you're working on. Is there a way to modify my .vimrc such that the filename/path is always displayed?
Vim Solutions
Solution 1 - Vim
In your statusline, add a %F to display the full path:
:help statusline
" Add full file path to your existing statusline
set statusline+=%F
Note, %F will be the full path. To get a path relative to the working directory, use %f.
If your statusline is not already visible, you may first need to configure it to be always visible, via laststatus=2
set laststatus=2
See :help laststatus for what the options mean. Normally, the statusline may be hidden, or hidden unless multiple buffers are open, but I find it extremely useful to have on all the time with customizations like this, well worth giving up one screen line reserve for it.
Solution 2 - Vim
set ls=2
add this in vimrc, and you will see the file name at the bottom always.
Solution 3 - Vim
I found 2 ways to display the file path in the Title bar of the gnome-terminal while editing a file with Vim.
The simpler (and better) way: Add the following line to your ~/.vimrc:
set title
Which will show you at the top:
filename.ext (~/path_to_directory_where_your_file_is/) - VIM
The more complicated way will show you the absolute file path. It's documented in a bit more detail in this blog post I recently wrote.
Solution 4 - Vim
If you are using [vim-airline][1], put in .vimrc:
let g:airline_section_c = '%<%F%m %#__accent_red#%{airline#util#wrap(airline#parts#readonly(),0)}%#__restore__#'
This is a modification of the airline default, changing %f by %F.
[1]: https://github.com/bling/vim-airline/ "vim-airline"
Solution 5 - Vim
The only way I found to get the full path of the file I'm working in is: :echo expand('%:p'). You can re-map ctrl+g if you want, but I personally don't like shifting away from the standards too much. I've mapped F7 like so:
map <F7> <Esc>:echo expand('%:p')<Return>
Solution 6 - Vim
I've always used :f, but the answer and links from @MichaelBerkowski are amazing!
:f shows the path, line count, modified state, current cursor position, and more...
I didn't know about CTRLG but it appears to be about the same.
Solution 7 - Vim
The statusline is very powerful and handy I think. Strait out of the box it will display filename, cursor position and some flags. But you want to do the same as me and replace the filename-part with the full path to the file.
So while editing my .vimrc my statusline could look something like this as default:
.vimrc 26,16 7%
You could view your setting of the statusline with:
:set statusline?
But if you have not made any alterations and no module has changed it it would be empty. But by the examples in the help-section (:help statusline) you could find that the default is:
:set statusline=%<%f\ %h%m%r%=%-14.(%l,%c%V%)\ %P
So include this in your .vimrc and change %f to %F. I also added added the filetype flag (%y) to my statusline since I find it convenient. So my resulting configuration looks like this:
:set statusline=%<%F\ %h%m%r%y%=%-14.(%l,%c%V%)\ %P
And the result would look something like this:
~/.vimrc [vim] 26,16 7%
Good reading:
PS. I run vim 7.3
Solution 8 - Vim
If you want the path to include resolved symlinks, use the following:
set statusline +=%{resolve(expand('%:p'))}\ %*
To keep the '~' abbreviation for your home directory, include fnamemodify
set statusline +=%{fnamemodify(resolve(expand('%:p')),':~')}\ %*