I know one can use vim scp://host/path/to/file to edit locally remote files then update the remote machine when saving (:w).
However I would like to know if it's possible to navigate through directories using ssh (or if there's a plugin to do that)
NERDTree doesn't support it, and when viming into a folder, although netrw allow me to navigate into directories, opening a file doesn't work.
Instead of pointing Vim/Netrw to a file:
scp://host/path/file
point it to a directory:
scp://host/path/
This gives you the same listing and the same shortcuts as if you were browsing your machine.
Unix machine to access folders on a Windows machine.. I just tried vim scp://[email protected]//C:/Users/user/Desktop/tmp/, and it just gave me a blank screen, with the error 'ls' is not recognized as an internal or external command when I try: vim scp://[email protected]//C:/Users/user/Desktop/tmp/filename.. it works fine.
Commented
Jul 18, 2018 at 18:41
vim is issuing a command ls, when it logs into the remote computer.. and because its a windows computer.. there is no ls.. and the command fails. Is it possible for vim to traverse windows directories over ssh using netrw plugin or something else ? I using VIM 8.1
Commented
Jul 18, 2018 at 18:46
scp://host//path/ is necessary for this to work; otherwise, vim will try to open the path as a regular file, which will load blank.
Oops forgot I had this question opened !
So the problem was that, with the netrw version I had (packaged with vim-gnome on Debian Jessie), modifying a file from the explorer (through ssh) would not use the correct URI (from memory, the '@' in the 'user@host' was missing). It opened an empty file (because it didn't find anything) but it still saved the new file using the good URI (effectively overwriting the original file).
@user21497's answer also helped me though because I never found that 'new file' shortcut, which is quite handy because using ':e' creates the file locally.
Finally, this question helped me navigate better using netrw (getting back to the explorer after opening a file using :Ex)
Thanks for your help guys !
I'm not sure what you mean by "notify new file"; if you want to create a new file, when browsing via scp://hostname/directory, just press "%" like you would when in a local directory to create a new file. See :help netrw-%. You may create a directory using d (:help netrw-d). If you want to modify an already existing file, select it with your cursor atop the filename in the netrw display and press <cr> (there are other selection methods, too, including v, o, t, etc). See :help netrw-quickmap for an overview on this. I've just tried this and did not get an empty file (when pre-existing). A new file, of course, will be empty.
