How to recursively open all files except ones in hidden directories from within vim?

Question

In my python project root folder, there are multiple directories, some of which contain hidden sub-directories specifying python virtual environments. I want to open all my python files recursively from the root directory except the ones that lie along any path containing a hidden folder. This is because I don't want to load any virtual environment specific python files as there are thousands of them - I only want to load my project's python files.

I tried running :n [^.]**/*.py but it doesn't work, it still opens all python files.

I also tried reading about the ** wildcard in the docs, but I couldn't find how to make it match folders whose name matches a specific pattern (namely not starting with a .).

Answer 1

Vim paths in that context are more like shell-globs than regular-expressions.

A simple solution in a *nix shell would be

$ vim **/*.py

(This needs extglob in bash, I think, but should work out of the box in zsh.)

Inside of vim, I'm surprised it would match hidden files in the first place, though :help wildcard is clear that it matches "anything."

If you can narrow down the patter, that might help (e.g., src/**/*.py).

Otherwise, you could use a more complex command:

:next `find . -not -path .env -name '*.py'`
:next `git ls-files '*.py'`

etc.

You could create a mapping, if you like:

nnoremap <keys> :next `find . -not -path '*/.*' -type f -name '*.'`<Left><Left>

etc.

These commands can become quite complex, depending on what you're doing, so I won't show all the variations here.

---

I'll just note as an addendum that I don't generally open all my project files at once; I focus on one or two, and sometimes over a long session (or over a persistent session) lots of files accumulate.

It can be handy to add lots of things to the arglist, however, to allow :argdo or :vimgrep /.../ ##. Depending on the case, using the quickfix (combined with :grep or similar) and :cdo/:Cfilter, etc., can be more useful/less invasive/easier to setup.

---

@filbranden points out wildignore, which you could probably set to include .* to avoid matching hidden things.

---

In all honesty, though, I can't really reproduce the issue. In a directory like this:

.
├── .env
│   ├── a.py
│   ├── b.py
│   └── c.py
├── a.py
├── b.py
└── c.py

1 directory, 6 files

Running vim -u NONE --noplugin --clean, I have

:next **/*.py
:args
[a.py] b.py c.py