File name completion relative to currently edited file

Question

If I open a file that isn't in the current directly, when I used Vim to autocomplete a filename, Vim provides files relative to the location where I launched Vim, not the currently edited file.

Example

$ find .
  nice-file.xml
  xml/
      messy-file.xml
      ok-file.xml
$ vim xml/messy-file.xml

Now if I type Ctrl+x,Ctrl+f, Vim provides "nice-file.xml" as a complete option. It doesn't offer ok-file.xml, even though it's in the same directory as the file I'm currently editing.

I'd like Vim to complete filenames relative to whatever file I'm editing. Is that possible?

Answer 1

You can :cd in Vim to change the current directory:

:cd xml

Or more generally, if you want to set it sometimes:

nnoremap gp :cd %:p:h<CR>

Or if you want to always be in the current file's directory:

set autochdir

Please note that this may break some plugins, because they may rely on the current directory, you can use in place:

autocmd BufEnter * silent! lcd %:p:h

---

If you don't want to change the current directory, you can also add the current folder to your completion path:

autocmd BufRead *
  \ let s:tempPath=escape(escape(expand("%:p:h"), ' '), '\ ') |
  \ exec "set path+=".s:tempPath