vim + NERDTree red filenames?

Question

I started using vim (MacVim) + NERDTree recently, and I'm getting some strange behavior editing my notes (simple text files).

Can anyone explain why the filenames are red, and why they have an asterix next to them? They are saved, they are most certainly present - so I'm not sure why exactly they're colored differently.

Answer 1

The coloration and asterisk marker indicates that those files are executable. From the NERDTree script homepage:

• Different highlighting is provided for the following types of nodes:

  • files
  • directories
  • sym-links
  • windows .lnk files
  • read-only files
  • executable files

  If you have enabled (enabled by default) NERDTree's exec_menuitem.vim plugin, and press m to bring up the menu on those executable files (though in your case I suspect those were not supposed to be executable), you will get a menu item to execute them from within Vim.