Find a file (via recursive directory search) in Vim

Question

Is there any way to search a directory recursively for a file (using wildcards when needed) in Vim? If not natively, is there a plugin that can handle this?

Answer 1

You can use wildcards with the :edit command. So,

:e **/test/Suite.java 

will open test/Suite.java no matter where it is in the current directory hierarchy. This works with tab-completion so you can use [tab] to expand the wildcards before opening the file. See also the wildmode option for a way to browse through all possible extensions instead.

Another trick is to use

:r! find . -type f 

to load a list of all files in the current directory into a buffer. Then you can use all the usual vim text manipulation tools to navigate/sort/trim the list, and CTRL+W gf to open the file under the cursor in a new pane.

Answer 2

There is a find command. If you add ** (see :help starstar) to your 'path' then you can search recursively:

:set path 

will show you your current path, add ** by doing something like

:set path+=** 

then you can just type

:find myfile.txt 

and it opens magically!

If you add the set command to your .vimrc it'll make sure you can do recursive search in future. It doesn't seem to search dot directories (.ssh for example)