Vimtip: Open path

Post by Nico Brailovsky @ 2020-05-08 | Permalink | Leave a comment

If you are editing a file which references another file (like, say, a cpp file #including a header file) then you can use Vim to open the referenced file in a new tab like this:

#include "foo/bar.h"

Place your cursor anywhere in "foo/bar.h" and press gf to open the referenced path. More interestingly, you can also do C-w, release and then gf to open in a new tab.

Today I learned you can also do this for arbitrary URLs. If you have a file like this:

#include "foo/bar.h"
// https://github.com/nicolasbrailo/Nico.rc/blob/master/README.md
...

Then you can do C-w gf on either of the first two lines! If needed, Vim will automatically fetch the referenced url for you and store it in a temp location. Magic!