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?
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2Are you aware that vim tabs are not the same as tabs in other applications? see stackoverflow.com/questions/102384/using-vims-tabs-like-buffers and in particular the first answer which I can only agree with: "Trying to beat Vim into 1 tab == 1 buffer is an exercise in futility." – Hotschke Oct 29 '18 at 10:05
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.
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.
