Is it possible to rename the file I'm editing from within Vim? Currently what I do is exit Vim, rename the file and open from Vim again.
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2Related: stackoverflow.com/questions/1205286/…– muruFeb 4, 2015 at 14:45
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I am interested to do this in neovim– gypaetusNov 27, 2015 at 22:36
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@MigueldeVal-Borro Just use vim-eunuch. It also works for Neovim.– jdhaoDec 11, 2019 at 9:27
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6 Answers
You could save the file under a different name using :w newname. But this operation won't remove the old file and the 'old' file stays in your buffer, so any changes will be applied to your 'old' file.
:saveas saves your new file and opens it in a new buffer. But it doesn't delete the old file.
I use tpope/vim-eunuch to :Move files.
:Move: Rename a buffer and the file on disk simultaneously.
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1One downside of
:wor:saveasis that it will lose the execute permission if you were editing a script.netrwRename will keep the permissions.– wisbuckySep 12, 2019 at 23:01 -
Is
:Moveeffetively the same as:!mv {src} {dest}, and then running:e {src}, where {src} is the name of the old buffer which consequently is destroyed seeing as you will get `E211: File {src} no longer available, and where {dest} is the name of the new buffer? Aug 29, 2020 at 16:38
You could drop to Netrw and rename the file there.
If the file you're editing is in the current directory, then do:
:edit .
Navigate to the file, press R, and change the name. Press Enter to edit the file.
There's a caveat though: the original buffer remains in the list of buffers. If you switch to it, it's empty.
If the file you're editing is in a different directory, you can change to the file's directory with:
:cd %:p:h
If you don't want to change the directory for the entire Vim session but only for the current buffer, then you can do instead:
:lcd %:p:h
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I've been using the Rename2 plugin for this for years. It renames both the current buffer, and the file on disk:
:Rename {newname}
EDIT: I found this a .vimrc file on github:
function! RenameFile()
let old_name = expand('%')
let new_name = input('New file name: ', expand('%'), 'file')
if new_name != '' && new_name != old_name
exec ':saveas ' . new_name
exec ':silent !rm ' . old_name
redraw!
endif
endfunction
map <leader>n :call RenameFile()<cr>
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1If those who use this snippet need to delete the buffer with the old file, you can add
exec ':bd ' . old_fileafter thesilent !rm …line Jul 6, 2020 at 0:19
The best way is to use :Move, as OrangTux said. For completeness, you can also perform terminal commands in vi editors using a bang (!) in command mode.
:!mv {current_file} {new_name}
:e {new_name}
However, this method doesn't remove the old buffer from your buffer list.
An easy way to rename file in Vim is :Explore command. Navigate to file which you want to rename type R command than rename file
You can just shell command from vim. A bit dirty since the old buffer is still in place but with NerdTree plugin it's good enough for me:
!mv <current path> <new path>
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