What you're looking for is :Vexplore
.
From your question, it sounds like you started off knowing only about :Sexplore
and understandably thought that that was the basic command for bringing up the vim
file explorer (which is called netrw
). However, the basic command is just :Explore
, and :SExplore
is actually just a variant of that.
The basic :Explore
version doesn't open netrw
in a split window, it just replaces the current window with netrw
.
There are several variants. Here's the full list from the vim
help documentation, which you can see here, or in vim
by typing
:help explore
:[N]Explore[!] [dir]... Explore directory of current file *:Explore*
:[N]Hexplore[!] [dir]... Horizontal Split & Explore *:Hexplore*
:[N]Lexplore[!] [dir]... Left Explorer Toggle *:Lexplore*
:[N]Sexplore[!] [dir]... Split&Explore current file's directory *:Sexplore*
:[N]Vexplore[!] [dir]... Vertical Split & Explore *:Vexplore*
:Texplore [dir]... Tab & Explore *:Texplore*
:Rexplore ... Return to/from Explorer *:Rexplore*
Used with :Explore **/pattern : (also see |netrw-starstar|)
:Nexplore............. go to next matching file *:Nexplore*
:Pexplore............. go to previous matching file *:Pexplore*
For more detailed information about each variant, see the help docs.