How to open a new file in vim in a new window

Is there a way to open vim in a new shell window or tab? I'm used to doing $ mate file, which opens the file in a new window.

I prefer having one 'central shell' where I issue commands and edit files in other windows or tabs, as necessary. How do people normally open vim files locally?

from inside vim, use one of the following

open a new window below the current one:

:new filename.ext

open a new window beside the current one:

:vert new filename.ext

You can do so from within vim, using its own windows or tabs.

One way to go is to utilize the built-in file explorer; activate it via :Explore, or :Texplore for a tabbed interface (which I find most comfortable).

:Texplore (and :Sexplore) will also guard you from accidentally exiting the current buffer (editor) on :q once you're inside the explorer.

To toggle between open tabs, use gt or gT (next tab and previous tab, respectively).

See also Using tab pages on the vim wiki.

I use this subtle alias:

alias vim='gnome-terminal -- vim'

-x is deprecated now. We need to use -- instead

If you don't mind using gVim, you can launch a single instance, so that when a new file is opened with it it's automatically opened in a new tab in the currently running instance.

to do this you can write: gVim --remote-tab-silent file

You could always make an alias to this command so that you don't have to type so many words. For example I use linux and bash and in my ~/.bashrc file I have:

alias g='gvim --remote-tab-silent'

so instead of doing $ mate file I do: $ g file

I'm using the following, though it's hardcoded for gnome-terminal. It also changes the CWD and buffer for vim to be the same as your current buffer and it's directory.

:silent execute '!gnome-terminal -- zsh -i -c "cd ' shellescape(expand("%:h")) '; vim' shellescape(expand("%:p")) '; zsh -i"' <cr>

Check out gVim. You can launch that in its own window.

gVim makes it really easy to manage multiple open buffers graphically.

You can also do the usual :e to open a new file, CTRL+^ to toggle between buffers, etc...

Another cool feature lets you open a popup window that lists all the buffers you've worked on.

This allows you to switch between open buffers with a single click.

To do this, click on the Buffers menu at the top and click the dotted line with the scissors.

Otherwise you can just open a new tab from your terminal session and launch vi from there.

You can usually open a new tab from terminal with CTRL+T or CTRL+ALT+T

Once vi is launched, it's easy to open new files and switch between them.