Open files in different split windows in VIM

Question

I have some $somePaths array of 4 folders. I want to open some files from this folders in VIM. The following opens them in tabs.

vim -p `for i in ${somePaths[@];}; do echo $i/src/main.cpp; done`

Actually I'd like to have those files in split windows (cross-like). How it can be done?

Answer 1

Apart from -p, Vim also offers the -o and -O command-line arguments for horizontal / vertical splits. Unfortunately, they cannot be mixed. To build you own custom window layout, you have to pass the explicit window placement commands via -c. This example

 $ vim 1 -c 'bel vsplit 2' -c '1wincmd w' -c 'bel split 3' -c '3wincmd w' -c 'bel split 4'

creates a layout that looks like this:

+-----------+-----------+
|           |           |
|           |           |
|           |           |
|1          |2          |
+-----------+-----------+
|           |           |
|           |           |
|           |           |
|3          |4          |
+-----------+-----------+

To keep passing the list of files as one block, you can use the fact that the buffer numbers increase monotonically, and refer to buffer numbers in the command:

$ vim -c 'bel vert sbuf 2' -c '1wincmd w' -c 'bel sbuf 3' -c '3wincmd w' -c 'bel sbuf 4' a b c d

Answer 2

vim has :vertical command, which could be useful in your case. give this a try:

vim +'vertical all' [your file list]

Answer 3

You can try using -O4 instead of -p.