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vimnerdtree

Automatically open two panes

I open nerdtree by doing:

$ mvim .

If I then do:

:NERDTree

I get two vertical panes showing a tree view. In the left pane, if I navigate to a file and hit o, the file opens in the right pane. On the other hand, if I navigate to a file in the right pane and hit o, the file opens in the right pane. That is the setup I want, but I don't want to have to type :NERDTree to get there.

I am trying to setup nerdtree so that when I do:

$ mvim .

two vertical panes open up automatically. I found this vimscript:

"Nerdtree--open two windows on startup
autocmd vimenter * call s:CheckToSplitTwoTrees()
function! s:CheckToSplitTwoTrees()
    if argc() != 1 || !isdirectory(argv(0))
        return
    endif

    vsplit

    "there should really be a better way to do this... e.g. :NERDTreeSecondary
    call nerdtree#checkForBrowse(argv(0))
endfunction

which does what I want, however o in the left pane opens files in the left pane--not the right pane. What controls what pane o opens a file in?

Solution

  • If you simply want - on startup - to execute :NERDTree on the first argument if it is a directory, your function is ok, but just execute the desired command.

    "Nerdtree--open two windows on startup
autocmd vimenter * call s:CheckToSplitTwoTrees()
function! s:CheckToSplitTwoTrees()
    if argc() != 1 || !isdirectory(argv(0))
        return
    endif
    exe 'NERDTree '.argv(0)
endfunction

    When NERDTree plugin is installed, opening vim with a directory automatically shows a NerdTree browser (primary, where o opens the file replacing the browser) instead of the regular netrw browser. So, executing ':NERDTree '.argv(0) opens up the usual (secondary) NERDTree where o opens on the right pane.

    Check also this related question.