How do I open a file that starts with an exclamation mark using filename completion?

Question

In gVim, I want to open a file that starts with an exclamationmark, say, for example, !this_is_my_file_whose_name_is_rather_long.txt.

So, I type :e !this followed by pressing the tabulator.

gVim expands the filename, but also prepends it with a backslash, so that the command line reads

:e \!this_is_my_file_whose_name_is_rather_long.txt

When I now press enter, thinking this will open my desired file, gVim will instead create a new buffer whose name also has the backslash.

This is of course not what I want. So after pressing the tabulator, I move the cursor to the backslash and delete it. Then, gVim will open the file that I want.

I assume that behaviour is ms-Windows related. Currently, I cannot go to a Unix machine to verify if I'd encounter this problem on Unix as well.

So, is there a way to turn this behaviour off?

Answer 1

Since this issue was found to be a bug in the combination of your Windows version and version 7.4 of gvim (the latest as of 08/2015), the only answers are:

• Wait until a newer version of vim for your Windows version. (7.3 came out 2010, 7.4 in 2013, so perhaps even this year)
• Don't use the Windows version of gvim on your Windows version. You did not mention , if you tried different variants (vim native/cygwin, a "portable version"). So you could try those, or the recent vim fork neovim.
• Use a different Windows Version. User mguiffrida found 8.1 to be unaffected. Perhaps the "fix" carried over into Windows 10 as well.

I realize, this is not the answer you wanted to hear, but -for now- this seems like the only answer.