Neovim does not cd to directory passed in as argument

Question

When I start up neovim with a directory as argument, :pwd is still set to the directory from where I ran neovim. I would expect it to have cded to the argument's directory. I wouldn't expect that to happen for file arguments, but for directories, yes. NERDTree does open with the provided directory argument.

I've tried nvim --clean some/project/path too, it gives the same result.

This question is closely related Set current working directory when opening vim

However, running :cd $PWD on VimEnter does not seem to work for me. I've put in init.lua:

local aug_cd_working_dir = vim.api.nvim_create_augroup("__cd_working_dir__", { clear = true })
vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd("VimEnter", {
    group = aug_cd_working_dir,
    command = ":cd $PWD",
})

It does not change the working directory, though. That makes sense, because if neovim cd's to the current directory of the shell on startup, $PWD should be exactly the same and not produce a different result.

Can anyone solve this?

I'm running neovim v0.9.5

Answer 1

I would add the following line to init.vim

let s:hasfolder=1
let g:foldertogo = '.'

function s:parse_arguments()
  let i = 1
  while i < len(v:argv)
    if v:argv[i][0] == '-'
      let i = i + 2
    else
      let path = v:argv[i]
      if path[len(path)-1] == '\' || path[len(path)-1] == '/'
        let path = path[:-2]
      endif
      if finddir(escape(fnamemodify(path, ':t'), ' '), escape(fnamemodify(path, ':h'), ' ')) != ''
        let s:hasfolder = 1
        let g:foldertogo = v:argv[i]
        break
      else
        let s:hasfolder = 0
      endif
      let i = i + 1
    endif
  endwhile
endfunction

call s:parse_arguments()

if s:hasfolder
  augroup FolderToGo
    autocmd!
    autocmd VimEnter * :execute "cd " . g:foldertogo
  augroup END
endif

Here are my observation about the behavior of Vim and Neovim concerning that aspect:

• Vim 9.1 on Windows change to directory
• gVim 9.1 on Windows change to directory
• Vim 9.1 on Linux don-t change to directory
• gVim 9.1 on Linux don't change to directory
• Vim 8.2 on Windows change to directory
• gVim 8.2 on Windows change to directory
• Neovim 0.95 on Windows don't change to directory
• Neovim 0.95 on Linux don't change to directory

Summary:

• It seems it change to folder only for Vim under Windows

Answer 2

Some options based on comments:

• use 'autochdir' (I don't like it, but you might)
• (cd the-dir && vim …) to set the directory when launching vim, but keep your shell's directory
• :cd the-dir as needed