vimnetrw

Autoload netrw when starting vim

I want netrw to autoload when I launch vim using the terminal. Completely new to linux/ubuntu. Is there any way of doing that?

Solution

  • Adding the following to your .vimrc (Vim's configuration file, located in the root of your home directory) will cause Vim to automatically load Netrw after starting up.

    " Open Netrw after Vim starts up
augroup InitNetrw
  autocmd!
  autocmd VimEnter * :silent! Explore
augroup END

    A problem with the preceding approach, as implemented, is that Netrw will also load when you use Vim with an argument to open a specific file. A workaround is to use the following modification, based on the suggested approach in Netrw's documentation (:help netrw-activate).

    " Checks if there is a file open after Vim starts up,
" and if not, open the current working directory in Netrw.
augroup InitNetrw
  autocmd!
  autocmd VimEnter * if expand("%") == "" | edit . | endif
augroup END

    The following pages have more details on autocommands and the .vimrc configuration file.