Vim Filename Modifiers: Details and Examples

not have an absolute path the result is unpredictable. On MS-Windows an 8.3 filename is expanded to the long name. :8 Converts the path to 8.3 short format (currently only on MS-Windows). Will act on as much of a path that is an existing path. :~ Reduce file name to be relative to the home directory, if possible. File name is unmodified if it is not below the home directory. :. Reduce file name to be relative to current directory, if possible. File name is unmodified if it is not below the current directory. For maximum shortness, use ":~:.". :h Head of the file name (the last component and any separators removed). Cannot be used with :e, :r or :t. Can be repeated to remove several components at the end. When the file name ends in a path separator, only the path separator is removed. Thus ":p:h" on a directory name results on the directory name itself (without trailing slash). When the file name is an absolute path (starts with "/" for Unix; "x:\" for Win32), that part is not removed. When there is no head (path is relative to current directory) the result is empty. :t Tail of the file name (last component of the name). Must precede any :r or :e. :r Root of the file name (the last extension removed). When there is only an extension (file name that starts with '.', e.g., ".nvimrc"), it is not removed. Can be repeated to remove several extensions (last one first). :e Extension of the file name. Only makes sense when used alone. When there is no extension the result is empty. When there is only an extension (file name that starts with '.'), the result is empty. Can be repeated to include more extensions. If there are not enough extensions (but at least one) as much as possible are included. :s?pat?sub? Substitute the first occurrence of "pat" with "sub". This works like the |:s| command. "pat" is a regular expression. Any character can be used for '?', but it must not occur in "pat" or "sub". After this, the previous modifiers can be used again. For example ":p", to make a full path after the substitution. :gs?pat?sub? Substitute all occurrences of "pat" with "sub". Otherwise this works like ":s". :S Escape special characters for use with a shell command (see |shellescape()|). Must be the last one. Examples: > :!dir <cfile>:S :call system('chmod +w -- ' . expand('%:S')) Examples, when the file name is "src/version.c", current dir "/home/mool/vim": > :p /home/mool/vim/src/version.c :p:. src/version.c :p:~ ~/vim/src/version.c :h src :p:h /home/mool/vim/src :p:h:h /home/mool/vim :t version.c :p:t version.c :r src/version :p:r /home/mool/vim/src/version :t:r version :e c :s?version?main? src/main.c :s?version?main?:p /home/mool/vim/src/main.c :p:gs?/?\\? \home\mool\vim\src\version.c Examples, when the file name is "src/version.c.gz": > :p /home/mool/vim/src/version.c.gz :e gz :e:e c.gz :e:e:e c.gz :e:e:r c :r src/version.c :r:e c :r:r src/version :r:r:r src/version < *extension-removal* *:_%<* If a "<" is appended to "%", "#", "#n" or "CTRL-V p" the extension of the file name is removed (everything after and including the last '.' in the file name). This is included for backwards compatibility with version 3.0, the ":r" form is preferred. Examples: > % current file name %< current file name without extension # alternate file name for current window #< idem, without extension #31 alternate file number 31 #31< idem, without extension <cword> word under the cursor <cWORD> WORD under the cursor (see |WORD|) <cfile> path name under the cursor <cfile>< idem, without extension Note: Where a file name is expected wildcards expansion is done. On Unix the shell is used for this, unless it can be done internally (for

This section provides detailed explanations of various filename modifiers in Vim, including :t (tail of the file name), :r (root of the file name, removing the last extension), :e (extension of the file name), :s (substitute the first occurrence of a pattern), :gs (substitute all occurrences of a pattern), and :S (escape special characters for shell command usage). It offers examples to illustrate how these modifiers work in different scenarios. It also discusses the use of '<' appended to '%', '#', or '#n' to remove the file extension, and briefly mentions wildcard expansion for file names.