Pipe file list to vim and browser them like a folder

Question

Is it possible to pipe list of files e.g. from grep and have this file list opened in vim file manager in similar fashion like when you open a folder with vim?

Note that I do not want to just write the file names into vim buffer like a text. I want vim to treat them as if these files were in a folder and I would be able to choose which one to open.

EDIT: Thanks to your great advice I could add these two functions in my .bashrc, they do almost exactly what I want:

# Find files by name in the notes and open them as subset in vim, opens first file in the search in the buffer:
function notefv {
    vim --cmd 'set efm=%f' -c copen -q <(find ~/Notes -name "*$1*")
}

# Grep notes for a keyword, open the result in vim quickfix list, opens first file in the search in the buffer
function noteg {
    vim --cmd 'set efm=%f' -c copen -q <(grep -irl --color $1 ~/Notes/*)
}

This uses native vim functionality. if I'll have nothing to do, I'll try to rewrite it so that the subset of files is opened in dervish or NerdTree.

Answer 1

Here are three options depending on what you are trying to achieve:

1. If you specifically want the output of grep, then you can just use :grep/:vimgrep from within vim. This will populate the quickfix window with a list of files which you can browse and press Enter to open.

2. If you have a different command that generates your list of files, but it is relatively static (or perhaps just takes a single argument) then the native way to do this is to write your own function making use of setqflist() to populate the quickfix window. I use this in my own configuration as shown here.

3. Finally, if the command to generate the files changes a lot, then as Matt notes, a plugin like vim-dirvish can achieve this. Using this plugin, any buffer with filetype=dirvish will be treated as a list of paths to then manipulate (including open). This essentally provides some niceities around gf. You can then make use of :redir and system().

I have assumed that you meant to open in vim itself and not vifm when you said "vim file manager".

Answer 2

Unlike netrw, there are Vim file managers who follow a different paradigm: simply fill in some lines and present'em "as if it's a file list".

The most well-known "buffer-like file manager" is probably vim-dirvish. As a shameless plug, I also wrote one of my own called vim-drvo.

So you can create a buffer containing random file names, type :setf drvo and :setl bufhidden=hide (to keep contents if buffer becomes hidden) and it just works out-of-the-box.