How can I expand the full path of the current file to pass to a command in Vim?

Question

:!mycommand %:p

Related:

:!cd %:p:h

The other two answers didn’t work for me (for some reason). However, I found that this combo displays the full path when typed in Normal mode:

Press 1 then CtrlG

Source: “Get the name of the current file” on the Vim Tips Wiki. See also the {count}CTRL-G section of :help CTRL-G.

Append :p, e.g.

:!mycommand %:p

And %:p:h will give you the path of the directory that the file resides in.

To print out the current vim filename:

:help expand
:echo expand("%:p")    " absolute path
:echo expand("%:p:h")  " absolute path dirname
:echo expand("%:p:h:h")" absolute path dirname dirname
:echo expand("%:.")    " relative path
:echo expand("%:.:h")  " relative path dirname
:echo expand("%:.:h:h")" relative path dirname dirname

:echo expand("<sfile>:p")  " absolute path to [this] vimscript

:help filename-modifiers

For example (with a vim function), to resolve() and expand() any symlinks to the absolute path to the current script <sfile>:p (instead of %:p), and then exec to source the fnameescape-ed filename contained in a function-local vim variable l:vimrcfilename:

 "  g:__sfile__dirname     -- directory containing this vimrc script
 "                            after symlinks
 "                            ~dirname(abspath(realpath(__file__)))
 let g:__sfile__dirname=fnamemodify(resolve(expand("<sfile>:p")), ":h")

 "  Source_dotvim(filename)  -- source dirname(this_vimrc)/filename
 function Source_dotvim(filename)
     let l:vimrcfilename=g:__sfile__dirname . "/" . a:filename
     if filereadable(l:vimrcfilename) && !empty(l:vimrcfilename)
         "source s:vimrcfilename "this doesn't work, so exec:
         exec "source " . fnameescape(l:vimrcfilename)
     else
         echo l:vimrcfilename . " empty or not found."
     endif
 endfunction 

 call Source_dotvim("vimrc.local.01-env.vimrc")

Notes:

• :help fnamemodify
• "current file": %:p (buffer file) / <sfile>:p (script file)
• expand('<sfile>') does not work from within a function
• source l:varname does not work; so, exec - string concatenation - and fnameescape
• :messages prints the most-recent 200 vim [error,] messages

References

• annika-backstrom's answer
• umber-ferrule's answer
• tito-11's answer

Get the name of the current file http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Get_the_name_of_the_current_file

Set_working_directory_to_the_current_file http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Set_working_directory_to_the_current_file