ctrlp.vim/readme.md

ctrlp.vim

Full path fuzzy file, buffer, mru and tag finder for Vim.

• Written in pure Vimscript for MacVim and Vim 7.0+.
• Full support for Vim’s regexp as search pattern.
• Built-in Most Recently Used (MRU) files monitoring.
• Built-in project’s root finder.
• Open Multiple Files.
• Extensible.

Basic Usage

• Press <c-p> or run :CtrlP to invoke CtrlP in find file mode.
• Or run :CtrlPBuffer or :CtrlPMRU to invoke CtrlP in buffer or MRU mode.

Once CtrlP is open:

• Press <c-f> and <c-b> to switch between find file, buffer, and MRU file modes.
• Press <c-d> to switch to filename only search instead of full path.
• Press <F5> to purge the cache for the current directory and get new files.
• Use * or | in the prompt to submit the string as a Vim’s regexp pattern.
• Or press <c-r> to switch to regexp mode.
• End the input string with a colon : followed by a command to execute after opening the file.
  e.g. abc:45 will open the file matched the pattern and jump to line 45.
• Submit two dots .. as the input string to go backward the directory tree by 1 level.
• Use <c-y> to create a new file and its parent dirs.
• Use <c-z> to mark/unmark files and <c-o> to open them.

Basic Options

• Change the mapping to invoke CtrlP:

  let g:ctrlp_map = '<c-p>'
  

• When CtrlP is invoked, it automatically sets the working directory according to this variable:

  let g:ctrlp_working_path_mode = 2
  

  0 - don’t manage working directory.
  1 - the parent directory of the current file.
  2 - the nearest ancestor that contains one of these directories or files:

    .git/
    .hg/
    .bzr/
    _darcs/
    root.dir
  

• If you want to exclude directories or files from the search, you can use the Vim’s option wildignore and/or the option g:ctrlp_custom_ignore.
  Examples:

  set wildignore+=*/.git/*,*/.hg/*,*/.svn/*   " for Linux/MacOSX
  set wildignore+=.git\*,.hg\*,.svn\*         " for Windows
  
  let g:ctrlp_custom_ignore = '\.git$\|\.hg$\|\.svn$'
  let g:ctrlp_custom_ignore = {
    \ 'dir':  '\.git$\|\.hg$\|\.svn$',
    \ 'file': '\.exe$\|\.so$\|\.dll$',
    \ 'link': 'some_bad_symbolic_links',
    \ }
  

• Use a custom file listing command with:

  let g:ctrlp_user_command = 'find %s -type f'       " MacOSX/Linux
  let g:ctrlp_user_command = 'dir %s /-n /b /s /a-d' " Windows
  

Check the docs for more mappings, commands and options.