Current VimL script path from inside a function

Question

How do I get the path to the currently executing VimL script from inside a function? I know from outside a function, you can use expand('<sfile>'), but if you call that inside a function, you just get the function name. I know I asked this somewhere else before and got an answer, but now I forget how and can't find it anywhere.

Answer 1

Edit If need to get the filename of your script I haven't found a good way to do that in the doc, so here is the solution I would suggested:

At the beginning of your script define a script-variable (see :h script-variable) like this:

let s:filename="MyFileName.vim"

The variable will be locale to the script so it is accessible and modifiable only from within the script. You can then access it with echo s:filename for example, and concatenate it with the expand('<sfile>') if you need the complete path.

EDit 2 As @still_dreaming mentioned it in the comments it is possible to make this solution more robust:

expand('<sfile>') returns function only when it is called from inside a function, but when it is called from a script but outside a function it expands to the complete filename. Thus as long as the variable s:filename is set at the beginning of the script outside of any function it is possible to set it like this:

let s:filename=expand('<sfile>:p')

This way it is not necessary to update the line if the file is renamed (but it will be necessary to source it again if its name is changed while it is in use).

A script would then be of this form:

let s:filename=expand('<sfile>:p')

function! Foo()
    " Do magical Vim stuff

    echo "Path of this script: " . s:filename
endfunction

---

You have to use the :p filename modifier like this:

echom expand('<sfile>:p')

See: :h filename-modifiers for more modifiers like :~ for example which reduce the path to a relative path to the home directory.