Navigate arglist via filename?

Question

I like doing things like :b css to jump to the single css file I'm working on.

But of course this only works if I only have 1 css file in a buffer.

I'm under the impression that it is not possible to navigate the arglist via filename in this way, only to :next, :last, etc

Is this true? We really can't jump to specific files in the arg list?

I guess another option would be to get into the practice of putting marks in files I want to access more regularly :shrug:

Answer 1

You can definitely navigate the argument list by filename with :argedit name but there are two problems with that command:

• one is is that :help :argedit is a rather low-level command, primarily meant for "adding and editing files" to the argument list, so command-line completion only suggests directories/files and not argument list entries, which forces you to type the whole argument name without completion or wildcard, which is not exactly super smooth,
• the other is that every time you do :argedit foo, a new foo is added to the argument list, which will quickly turn it into a mess.

Since the built-ins don't cut it, it seems like there is room for a simple custom command:

command! -nargs=1 -complete=arglist Argedit argedit <args> | argdedupe

• our command is :Argedit, which can be shortened to :Arge or even :Ar, call it how you want,
• it takes one argument, see :help :command-nargs,
• it takes its suggestions from the argument list, see :help :command-complete,
• it uses :help :argdedupe under the hood, to keep the list tidy.

Usage:

:Ar <Tab>         " go through all items in the list
:Ar *name<Tab>    " go through all matching items in the list
:Ar filename      " provide a full name

NOTE: You should enable :help 'wildmenu' if it is not already done.

Answer 2

No need to shrug. You can jump to a buffer by its number.

The :ls command lists all buffers. The number to the left is the buffer number.

With :b <number> you jump to the respective buffer.

What's more, you can go to the next or previous buffer with :bn or :bp, respectively. There's even more, take a look at :h buffers (which you should have before asking the question).

If you prefer to jump to buffers by name, tab completion is also working, so :b css<TAB><TAB>... should get you to the other CSS files.