How to edit a file in a new tab?

Question

I want to map :e file.txt to :tabnew file.txt, or the equivalent setting for editing file in a new tab. What do I need to put into my vimrc?

Answer 1

You probably want to read :h user-commands and put the following in your vimrc:

command! -nargs=1 -complete=file E tabnew <args>

You can't override :e but you can create the command :E which will take one argument (-nargs=1), complete this argument as tabnew does (-complete=file) and executes tabnew with the argument it took.

However as @Hotschke said in comments you probably don't need such a command.

Answer 2

Like everyone else, I recommend pretty strongly against doing this, but if you're dead set on the idea (and for future readers who might be doing something slightly different) you could use something like:

:cabbrev <expr> e getcmdline() == 'e' && getcmdtype() == ':' ? 'tabnew' : 'e'

This will replace :e with :tabnew as soon as you type the space after the e. If you find the change too visually jarring, you could perhaps instead set up the the E command from statox's answer and convert :e into :E instead.

See :help :cabbrev for more details.