*command-t.txt* Command-T plug-in for Vim *command-t* CONTENTS *command-t-contents* 1. Introduction |command-t-intro| 2. Requirements |command-t-requirements| 3. Installation |command-t-installation| 3. Managing using Pathogen |command-t-pathogen| 4. Trouble-shooting |command-t-trouble-shooting| 5. Usage |command-t-usage| 6. Commands |command-t-commands| 7. Mappings |command-t-mappings| 8. Options |command-t-options| 9. Authors |command-t-authors| 10. Website |command-t-website| 11. Donations |command-t-donations| 12. License |command-t-license| 13. History |command-t-history| INTRODUCTION *command-t-intro* The Command-T plug-in provides an extremely fast, intuitive mechanism for opening files and buffers with a minimal number of keystrokes. It's named "Command-T" because it is inspired by the "Go to File" window bound to Command-T in TextMate. Files are selected by typing characters that appear in their paths, and are ordered by an algorithm which knows that characters that appear in certain locations (for example, immediately after a path separator) should be given more weight. To search efficiently, especially in large projects, you should adopt a "path-centric" rather than a "filename-centric" mentality. That is you should think more about where the desired file is found rather than what it is called. This means narrowing your search down by including some characters from the upper path components rather than just entering characters from the filename itself. Screencasts demonstrating the plug-in can be viewed at: https://wincent.com/products/command-t REQUIREMENTS *command-t-requirements* The plug-in requires Vim compiled with Ruby support, a compatible Ruby installation at the operating system level, and a C compiler to build the Ruby extension. 1. Vim compiled with Ruby support You can check for Ruby support by launching Vim with the --version switch: vim --version If "+ruby" appears in the version information then your version of Vim has Ruby support. Another way to check is to simply try using the :ruby command from within Vim itself: :ruby 1 If your Vim lacks support you'll see an error message like this: E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version The version of Vim distributed with Mac OS X does not include Ruby support, while MacVim does; it is available from: http://github.com/b4winckler/macvim/downloads For Windows users, the Vim 7.2 executable available from www.vim.org does include Ruby support, and is recommended over version 7.3 (which links against Ruby 1.9, but apparently has some bugs that need to be resolved). 2. Ruby In addition to having Ruby support in Vim, your system itself must have a compatible Ruby install. "Compatible" means the same version as Vim itself links against. If you use a different version then Command-T is unlikely to work (see TROUBLE-SHOOTING below). On Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the system comes with Ruby 1.8.7 and all recent versions of MacVim (the 7.2 snapshots and 7.3) are linked against it. On Linux and similar platforms, the linked version of Ruby will depend on your distribution. You can usually find this out by examining the compilation and linking flags displayed by the |:version| command in Vim, and by looking at the output of: :ruby puts RUBY_VERSION A suitable Ruby environment for Windows can be installed using the Ruby 1.8.7-p299 RubyInstaller available at: http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/archives If using RubyInstaller be sure to download the installer executable, not the 7-zip archive. When installing mark the checkbox "Add Ruby executables to your PATH" so that Vim can find them. 3. C compiler Part of Command-T is implemented in C as a Ruby extension for speed, allowing it to work responsively even on directory hierarchies containing enormous numbers of files. As such, a C compiler is required in order to build the extension and complete the installation. On Mac OS X, this can be obtained by installing the Xcode Tools that come on the Mac OS X install disc. On Windows, the RubyInstaller Development Kit can be used to conveniently install the necessary tool chain: http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/archives At the time of writing, the appropriate development kit for use with Ruby 1.8.7 is DevKit-3.4.5r3-20091110. To use the Development Kit extract the archive contents to your C:\Ruby folder. INSTALLATION *command-t-installation* Command-T is distributed as a "vimball" which means that it can be installed by opening it in Vim and then sourcing it: :e command-t.vba :so % The files will be installed in your |'runtimepath'|. To check where this is you can issue: :echo &rtp The C extension must then be built, which can be done from the shell. If you use a typical |'runtimepath'| then the files were installed inside ~/.vim and you can build the extension with: cd ~/.vim/ruby/command-t ruby extconf.rb make Note: If you are an RVM user, you must perform the build using the same version of Ruby that Vim itself is linked against. This will often be the system Ruby, which can be selected before issuing the "make" command with: rvm use system MANAGING USING PATHOGEN *command-t-pathogen* Pathogen is a plugin that allows you to maintain plugin installations in separate, isolated subdirectories under the "bundle" directory in your |'runtimepath'|. The following examples assume that you already have Pathogen installed and configured, and that you are installing into ~/.vim/bundle. For more information about Pathogen, see: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2332 If you manage your entire ~/.vim folder using Git then you can add the Command-T repository as a submodule: cd ~/.vim git submodule add git://git.wincent.com/command-t.git bundle/command-t git submodule init Or if you just wish to do a simple clone instead of using submodules: cd ~/.vim git clone git://git.wincent.com/command-t.git bundle/command-t Once you have a local copy of the repository you can update it at any time with: cd ~/.vim/bundle/command-t git pull Or you can switch to a specific release with: cd ~/.vim/bundle/command-t git checkout 0.8b After installing or updating you must build the extension: cd ~/.vim/bundle/command-t rake make While the Vimball installation automatically generates the help tags, under Pathogen it is necessary to do so explicitly from inside Vim: :call pathogen#helptags() TROUBLE-SHOOTING *command-t-trouble-shooting* Most installation problems are caused by a mismatch between the version of Ruby on the host operating system, and the version of Ruby that Vim itself linked against at compile time. For example, if one is 32-bit and the other is 64-bit, or one is from the Ruby 1.9 series and the other is from the 1.8 series, then the plug-in is not likely to work. As such, on Mac OS X, I recommend using the standard Ruby that comes with the system (currently 1.8.7) along with the latest version of MacVim (currently version 7.3). If you wish to use custom builds of Ruby or of MacVim (not recommmended) then you will have to take extra care to ensure that the exact same Ruby environment is in effect when building Ruby, Vim and the Command-T extension. For Windows, the following combination is known to work: - Vim 7.2 from http://www.vim.org/download.php: ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/pc/gvim72.exe - Ruby 1.8.7-p299 from http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/archives: http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/71492/rubyinstaller-1.8.7-p299.exe - DevKit 3.4.5r3-20091110 from http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/archives: http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/66888/devkit-3.4.5r3-20091110.7z If a problem occurs the first thing you should do is inspect the output of: ruby extconf.rb make During the installation, and: vim --version And compare the compilation and linker flags that were passed to the extension and to Vim itself when they were built. If the Ruby-related flags or architecture flags are different then it is likely that something has changed in your Ruby environment and the extension may not work until you eliminate the discrepancy. USAGE *command-t-usage* Bring up the Command-T file window by typing: t This mapping is set up automatically for you, provided you do not already have a mapping for t or |:CommandT|. You can also bring up the file window by issuing the command: :CommandT A prompt will appear at the bottom of the screen along with a file window showing all of the files in the current directory (as returned by the |:pwd| command). For the most efficient file navigation within a project it's recommended that you |:cd| into the root directory of your project when starting to work on it. If you wish to open a file from outside of the project folder you can pass in an optional path argument (relative or absolute) to |:CommandT|: :CommandT ../path/to/other/files Type letters in the prompt to narrow down the selection, showing only the files whose paths contain those letters in the specified order. Letters do not need to appear consecutively in a path in order for it to be classified as a match. Once the desired file has been selected it can be opened by pressing . (By default files are opened in the current window, but there are other mappings that you can use to open in a vertical or horizontal split, or in a new tab.) Note that if you have |'nohidden'| set and there are unsaved changes in the current window when you press then opening in the current window would fail; in this case Command-T will open the file in a new split. The following mappings are active when the prompt has focus: delete the character to the left of the cursor delete the character at the cursor move the cursor one character to the left move the cursor one character to the left move the cursor one character to the right move the cursor one character to the right move the cursor to the start (left) move the cursor to the end (right) clear the contents of the prompt change focus to the file listing The following mappings are active when the file listing has focus: change focus to the prompt The following mappings are active when either the prompt or the file listing has focus: open the selected file open the selected file in a new split window open the selected file in a new split window open the selected file in a new vertical split window open the selected file in a new tab select next file in the file listing select next file in the file listing select next file in the file listing select previous file in the file listing select previous file in the file listing select previous file in the file listing cancel (dismisses file listing) The following is also available on terminals which support it: cancel (dismisses file listing) Note that the default mappings can be overriden by setting options in your ~/.vimrc file (see the OPTIONS section for a full list of available options). In addition, when the file listing has focus, typing a character will cause the selection to jump to the first path which begins with that character. Typing multiple characters consecutively can be used to distinguish between paths which begin with the same prefix. COMMANDS *command-t-commands* *:CommandT* |:CommandT| Brings up the Command-T file window, starting in the current working directory as returned by the|:pwd| command. *:CommandTBuffer* |:CommandTBuffer|Brings up the Command-T buffer window. This works exactly like the standard file window, except that the selection is limited to files that you already have open in buffers. *:CommandTJumps* |:CommandTJump| Brings up the Command-T jumplist window. This works exactly like the standard file window, except that the selection is limited to files that you already have in the jumplist. Note that jumps can persist across Vim sessions (see Vim's |jumplist| documentation for more info). *:CommandTFlush* |:CommandTFlush|Instructs the plug-in to flush its path cache, causing the directory to be rescanned for new or deleted paths the next time the file window is shown. In addition, all configuration settings are re-evaluated, causing any changes made to settings via the |:let| command to be picked up. MAPPINGS *command-t-mappings* By default Command-T comes with only two mappings: t bring up the Command-T file window b bring up the Command-T buffer window However, Command-T won't overwrite a pre-existing mapping so if you prefer to define different mappings use lines like these in your ~/.vimrc: nnoremap t :CommandT nnoremap b :CommandTBuffer Replacing "t" or "b" with your mapping of choice. Note that in the case of MacVim you actually can map to Command-T (written as in Vim) in your ~/.gvimrc file if you first unmap the existing menu binding of Command-T to "New Tab": if has("gui_macvim") macmenu &File.New\ Tab key= map :CommandT endif When the Command-T window is active a number of other additional mappings become available for doing things like moving between and selecting matches. These are fully described above in the USAGE section, and settings for overriding the mappings are listed below under OPTIONS. OPTIONS *command-t-options* A number of options may be set in your ~/.vimrc to influence the behaviour of the plug-in. To set an option, you include a line like this in your ~/.vimrc: let g:CommandTMaxFiles=20000 To have Command-T pick up new settings immediately (that is, without having to restart Vim) you can issue the |:CommandTFlush| command after making changes via |:let|. Following is a list of all available options: *g:CommandTMaxFiles* |g:CommandTMaxFiles| number (default 10000) The maximum number of files that will be considered when scanning the current directory. Upon reaching this number scanning stops. This limit applies only to file listings and is ignored for buffer listings. *g:CommandTMaxDepth* |g:CommandTMaxDepth| number (default 15) The maximum depth (levels of recursion) to be explored when scanning the current directory. Any directories at levels beyond this depth will be skipped. *g:CommandTMaxCachedDirectories* |g:CommandTMaxCachedDirectories| number (default 1) The maximum number of directories whose contents should be cached when recursively scanning. With the default value of 1, each time you change directories the cache will be emptied and Command-T will have to rescan. Higher values will make Command-T hold more directories in the cache, bringing performance at the cost of memory usage. If set to 0, there is no limit on the number of cached directories. *g:CommandTMaxHeight* |g:CommandTMaxHeight| number (default: 0) The maximum height in lines the match window is allowed to expand to. If set to 0, the window will occupy as much of the available space as needed to show matching entries. *g:CommandTAlwaysShowDotFiles* |g:CommandTAlwaysShowDotFiles| boolean (default: 0) When showing the file listing Command-T will by default show dot-files only if the entered search string contains a dot that could cause a dot-file to match. When set to a non-zero value, this setting instructs Command-T to always include matching dot-files in the match list regardless of whether the search string contains a dot. See also |g:CommandTNeverShowDotFiles|. Note that this setting only influences the file listing; the buffer listing treats dot-files like any other file. *g:CommandTNeverShowDotFiles* |g:CommandTNeverShowDotFiles| boolean (default: 0) In the file listing, Command-T will by default show dot-files if the entered search string contains a dot that could cause a dot-file to match. When set to a non-zero value, this setting instructs Command-T to never show dot-files under any circumstances. Note that it is contradictory to set both this setting and |g:CommandTAlwaysShowDotFiles| to true, and if you do so Vim will suffer from headaches, nervous twitches, and sudden mood swings. This setting has no effect in buffer listings, where dot files are treated like any other file. *g:CommandTScanDotDirectories* |g:CommandTScanDotDirectories| boolean (default: 0) Normally Command-T will not recurse into "dot-directories" (directories whose names begin with a dot) while performing its initial scan. Set this setting to a non-zero value to override this behavior and recurse. Note that this setting is completely independent of the |g:CommandTAlwaysShowDotFiles| and |g:CommandTNeverShowDotFiles| settings; those apply only to the selection and display of matches (after scanning has been performed), whereas |g:CommandTScanDotDirectories| affects the behaviour at scan-time. Note also that even with this setting off you can still use Command-T to open files inside a "dot-directory" such as ~/.vim, but you have to use the |:cd| command to change into that directory first. For example: :cd ~/.vim :CommandT *g:CommandTMatchWindowAtTop* |g:CommandTMatchWindowAtTop| boolean (default: 0) When this setting is off (the default) the match window will appear at the bottom so as to keep it near to the prompt. Turning it on causes the match window to appear at the top instead. This may be preferable if you want the best match (usually the first one) to appear in a fixed location on the screen rather than moving as the number of matches changes during typing. *g:CommandTMatchWindowReverse* |g:CommandTMatchWindowReverse| boolean (default: 0) When this setting is off (the default) the matches will appear from top to bottom with the topmost being selected. Turning it on causes the matches to be reversed so the best match is at the bottom and the initially selected match is the bottom most. This may be preferable if you want the best match to appear in a fixed location on the screen but still be near the prompt at the bottom. As well as the basic options listed above, there are a number of settings that can be used to override the default key mappings used by Command-T. For example, to set as the mapping for cancelling (dismissing) the Command-T window, you would add the following to your ~/.vimrc: let g:CommandTCancelMap='' Multiple, alternative mappings may be specified using list syntax: let g:CommandTCancelMap=['', ''] Following is a list of all map settings and their defaults: Setting Default mapping(s) *g:CommandTBackspaceMap* |g:CommandTBackspaceMap| *g:CommandTDeleteMap* |g:CommandTDeleteMap| *g:CommandTAcceptSelectionMap* |g:CommandTAcceptSelectionMap| *g:CommandTAcceptSelectionSplitMap* |g:CommandTAcceptSelectionSplitMap| *g:CommandTAcceptSelectionTabMap* |g:CommandTAcceptSelectionTabMap| *g:CommandTAcceptSelectionVSplitMap* |g:CommandTAcceptSelectionVSplitMap| *g:CommandTToggleFocusMap* |g:CommandTToggleFocusMap| *g:CommandTCancelMap* |g:CommandTCancelMap| (not on all terminals) *g:CommandTSelectNextMap* |g:CommandTSelectNextMap| *g:CommandTSelectPrevMap* |g:CommandTSelectPrevMap| *g:CommandTClearMap* |g:CommandTClearMap| *g:CommandTCursorLeftMap* |g:CommandTCursorLeftMap| *g:CommandTCursorRightMap* |g:CommandTCursorRightMap| *g:CommandTCursorEndMap* |g:CommandTCursorEndMap| *g:CommandTCursorStartMap* |g:CommandTCursorStartMap| In addition to the options provided by Command-T itself, some of Vim's own settings can be used to control behavior: *command-t-wildignore* |'wildignore'| string (default: '') Vim's |'wildignore'| setting is used to determine which files should be excluded from listings. This is a comma-separated list of glob patterns. It defaults to the empty string, but common settings include "*.o,*.obj" (to exclude object files) or ".git,.svn" (to exclude SCM metadata directories). For example: :set wildignore+=*.o,*.obj,.git A pattern such as "vendor/rails/**" would exclude all files and subdirectories inside the "vendor/rails" directory (relative to directory Command-T starts in). See the |'wildignore'| documentation for more information. AUTHORS *command-t-authors* Command-T is written and maintained by Wincent Colaiuta . Other contributors that have submitted patches include (in alphabetical order): Anthony Panozzo Daniel Hahler Lucas de Vries Marian Schubert Matthew Todd Mike Lundy Scott Bronson Steven Moazami Sung Pae Victor Hugo Borja Woody Peterson Zak Johnson As this was the first Vim plug-in I had ever written I was heavily influenced by the design of the LustyExplorer plug-in by Stephen Bach, which I understand is one of the largest Ruby-based Vim plug-ins to date. While the Command-T codebase doesn't contain any code directly copied from LustyExplorer, I did use it as a reference for answers to basic questions (like "How do you do 'X' in a Ruby-based Vim plug-in?"), and also copied some basic architectural decisions (like the division of the code into Prompt, Settings and MatchWindow classes). LustyExplorer is available from: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1890 WEBSITE *command-t-website* The official website for Command-T is: https://wincent.com/products/command-t The latest release will always be available from there. Development in progress can be inspected via the project's Git repository browser at: https://wincent.com/repos/command-t A copy of each release is also available from the official Vim scripts site at: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3025 Bug reports should be submitted to the issue tracker at: https://wincent.com/issues DONATIONS *command-t-donations* Command-T itself is free software released under the terms of the BSD license. If you would like to support further development you can make a donation via PayPal to win@wincent.com: https://wincent.com/products/command-t/donations LICENSE *command-t-license* Copyright 2010-2011 Wincent Colaiuta. All rights reserved. Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. HISTORY *command-t-history* 1.3.1 (18 December 2011) - fix jumplist navigation under Ruby 1.9.x (patch from Woody Peterson) 1.3 (27 November 2011) - added the option to maintain multiple caches when changing among directories; see the accompanying |g:CommandTMaxCachedDirectories| setting - added the ability to navigate using the Vim jumplist (patch from Marian Schubert) 1.2.1 (30 April 2011) - Remove duplicate copy of the documentation that was causing "Duplicate tag" errors - Mitigate issue with distracting blinking cursor in non-GUI versions of Vim (patch from Steven Moazami) 1.2 (30 April 2011) - added |g:CommandTMatchWindowReverse| option, to reverse the order of items in the match listing (patch from Steven Moazami) 1.1b2 (26 March 2011) - fix a glitch in the release process; the plugin itself is unchanged since 1.1b 1.1b (26 March 2011) - add |:CommandTBuffer| command for quickly selecting among open buffers 1.0.1 (5 January 2011) - work around bug when mapping |:CommandTFlush|, wherein the default mapping for |:CommandT| would not be set up - clean up when leaving the Command-T buffer via unexpected means (such as with or similar) 1.0 (26 November 2010) - make relative path simplification work on Windows 1.0b (5 November 2010) - work around platform-specific Vim 7.3 bug seen by some users (wherein Vim always falsely reports to Ruby that the buffer numbers is 0) - re-use the buffer that is used to show the match listing, rather than throwing it away and recreating it each time Command-T is shown; this stops the buffer numbers from creeping up needlessly 0.9 (8 October 2010) - use relative paths when opening files inside the current working directory in order to keep buffer listings as brief as possible (patch from Matthew Todd) 0.8.1 (14 September 2010) - fix mapping issues for users who have set |'notimeout'| (patch from Sung Pae) 0.8 (19 August 2010) - overrides for the default mappings can now be lists of strings, allowing multiple mappings to be defined for any given action - t mapping only set up if no other map for |:CommandT| exists (patch from Scott Bronson) - prevent folds from appearing in the match listing - tweaks to avoid the likelihood of "Not enough room" errors when trying to open files - watch out for "nil" windows when restoring window dimensions - optimizations (avoid some repeated downcasing) - move all Ruby files under the "command-t" subdirectory and avoid polluting the "Vim" module namespace 0.8b (11 July 2010) - large overhaul of the scoring algorithm to make the ordering of returned results more intuitive; given the scope of the changes and room for optimization of the new algorithm, this release is labelled as "beta" 0.7 (10 June 2010) - handle more |'wildignore'| patterns by delegating to Vim's own |expand()| function; with this change it is now viable to exclude patterns such as 'vendor/rails/**' in addition to filename-only patterns like '*.o' and '.git' (patch from Mike Lundy) - always sort results alphabetically for empty search strings; this eliminates filesystem-specific variations (patch from Mike Lundy) 0.6 (28 April 2010) - |:CommandT| now accepts an optional parameter to specify the starting directory, temporarily overriding the usual default of Vim's |:pwd| - fix truncated paths when operating from root directory 0.5.1 (11 April 2010) - fix for Ruby 1.9 compatibility regression introduced in 0.5 - documentation enhancements, specifically targetted at Windows users 0.5 (3 April 2010) - |:CommandTFlush| now re-evaluates settings, allowing changes made via |let| to be picked up without having to restart Vim - fix premature abort when scanning very deep directory hierarchies - remove broken || key mapping on vt100 and xterm terminals - provide settings for overriding default mappings - minor performance optimization 0.4 (27 March 2010) - add |g:CommandTMatchWindowAtTop| setting (patch from Zak Johnson) - documentation fixes and enhancements - internal refactoring and simplification 0.3 (24 March 2010) - add |g:CommandTMaxHeight| setting for controlling the maximum height of the match window (patch from Lucas de Vries) - fix bug where |'list'| setting might be inappropriately set after dismissing Command-T - compatibility fix for different behaviour of "autoload" under Ruby 1.9.1 - avoid "highlight group not found" warning when run under a version of Vim that does not have syntax highlighting support - open in split when opening normally would fail due to |'hidden'| and |'modified'| values 0.2 (23 March 2010) - compatibility fixes for compilation under Ruby 1.9 series - compatibility fixes for compilation under Ruby 1.8.5 - compatibility fixes for Windows and other non-UNIX platforms - suppress "mapping already exists" message if t mapping is already defined when plug-in is loaded - exclude paths based on |'wildignore'| setting rather than a hardcoded regular expression 0.1 (22 March 2010) - initial public release ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ vim:tw=78:ft=help: