How am I supposed to edit files on a network with Vim

filesnetworkingvim

Currently I'm doing it by SSHing into a server, and executing Vim on the server. This has the benefit of not having to deal with cumbersome syntax of opening files from a remote server over SCP, and, more importantly, being able to really quickly navigate the server's filesystem. On the other hand, it has lag, which make editing kind of hard.

What's the canonical way of editing lots of remote files?

Best Answer

You can use SSHFS to mount a remote home in a local folder. Has the advantage of using the current infrastructure and low latency of local vim.

Related Solutions

Vim editing/switching between multiple files efficiently in large directory structures

It's possible to set up vim to edit multiple files without having to exit at all. You use multiple buffers and switch between them. Since you're using vim inside screen You can put the following in your ~/.vimrc to enable that.

   set hidden
   syntax enable
   source $VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim
   set wildmenu
   set cpo-=<
   set wcm=<C-Z>
   map <F4> :emenu <C-Z>
   nmap <Esc>[5D :bp<CR>
   nmap <Esc>Od  :bp<CR>
   nmap <Esc>OD  :bp<CR>
   nmap <Esc>[5C :bn<CR>
   nmap <Esc>Oc  :bn<CR>
   nmap <Esc>OC  :bn<CR>
   nmap <Esc>[3~ :bd<CR>
   nmap ZZ :bd<CR>

Those key mappings map to Ctrl-Left and Right arrow keys to switch between buffers. The F4 key invoke the same menu the GUI would show. Pressing tab also now displays a little menu for selecting the completion when your press tab.

Vim – How to Edit Multiple Files

First of all, in vim you can enter : (colon) and then help help, ala :help for a list of self help topics, including a short tutorial. Within the list of topics move your cursor over the topic of interest and then press ctrl] and that topic will be opened.

A good place for you to start would be the topic

|usr_07.txt|  Editing more than one file

Ok, on to your answer.

After starting vim with a list of files, you can move to the next file by entering :next or :n for short. :wnext is short for write current changes and then move to next file.

There's also an analogous :previous, :wprevious and :Next. (Note that :p is shorthand for :print. The shorthand for :previous is :prev or :N.)

To see where you are in the file list enter :args and the file currently being edited will appear in [] (brackets).

Example:

vim foo.txt bar.txt
:args

result:

[foo.txt] bar.txt

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Vim editing/switching between multiple files efficiently in large directory structures

Vim – How to Edit Multiple Files

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