Move File within Vim

Question

Is there a way to move a file within Vim? E.g. I opened a file foo/bar.txt in Vim. I know 2 ways to move this file:

First solution:

1. Delete the buffer with :bd bar.txt
2. Perform the move on the shell with mv foo/bar.txt foo/bar2.txt
3. Load the file in vim with :e foo/bar2.txt

Second solution:

1. Close Vim, so all buffer where closed.
2. Perform the move on the shell...
3. Start Vim and load the file.

But these two solutions are embarrassing. I know, there is a plugin for renaming files vim-enuch, but isn't there a Vim way for performing such basic functionality?

Answer 1

You could also use netrw (the default file explorer) rename functionality.

1. Open netrw with :E
2. Move your cursor to the line with the file you intend to rename, in this case bar.txt . You move to the file in question using h,j,k,l or you can search for it with / (e.g. /bar.txt)
3. Hit R. You will then be prompted for a new filepath. When done entering the filepath hit <CR>
4. Move your cursor to the new file and open it with <CR>

While this solution may not be as quick as using vim-eunch, it does allow you to see the project's structure as you rename the file. This will also allow you to move multiple files at once.

For further reading run :help netrw-move

Answer 2

There is no atomic way to move a file like that, but this should be close:

function! MoveFile(newspec)      let old = expand('%')      " could be improved:      if (old == a:newspec)          return 0      endif      exe 'sav' fnameescape(a:newspec)      call delete(old) endfunction  command! -nargs=1 -complete=file -bar MoveFile call MoveFile('<args>') 

Now you could say:

:MoveFile file2.txt 

To rename to file2.txt

:MoveFile %.0 

to move file2.txt to file2.txt.0