Mastering Vim

File-related commands

Since Vim is a text editor, much of what you do operates on files. Vim provides a number of file-related functions.

You can manipulate file path information using expand:

echom 'Current file extension is ' . expand('%:e')

When passed a filename (through %, #, or shortcuts such as <cfile>), expand lets you parse the path using these modifiers:

• :p expand to full path
• :h head (last path component removed)
• :t tail (last path component only)
• :r root (one extension removed)
• :e extension only

See :help expand() for more information about these.

You can check the file exists (aka can be read) by using filereadable:

if filereadable(expand('%'))  echom 'Current file (' . expand('%:t') . ') is readable!'endif

When executed from ...