Finding files with fuzzy path matching in vim

March 17, 2022

Since I will be using the package manager for installing packages, you would need vim version 8.0 beyond to follow along.
:h packages for more information on how the package manager works in vim.

fzf: a general purpose command line fuzzy finder

Install, Configuration

Clone the fzf project from github

cd $VIMCONFIG/pack/bundle/start
git clone $repo_url

Run the install script

$VIMCONFIG/pack/bundle/start/fzf/install --bin

Add bin to $PATH
optional)Normal mode mapping

Query files: filter and sort by filename

<C-{a~z}> means holding Ctrl and pressing the following alphabetical character at the same time
<CR> means carriage return, using the Enter button on keyboard

Many ways to query, so just relax and gradually get the hang of it
interface operation: <C-j>, <C-k>
Different ways to open queried files:

<CR>: open into current window

<C-x>: horizontal split the current tab

<C-v>: vertical split the current tab

<C-t>: open into new tab

Filter out files with git or ripgrep

By default, fzf builds a list of all the files under your current working directory using find. And that list could get messy if you are working with projects that has a few dependencies on other files, for example projects using npm or yarn. For most cases, it would be convenient to exclude those files under the node_modules directory from the fzf built list.
One way would be using the .gitignore file to ignore the whole node_modules directory and then change the FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND environment variable. By setting

export FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND='git ls-files'

fzf will exlcude all files under node_modules, making it easier to sort and filter files you need.

However, since git ls-files only works with files in the index and the file tree, new files that have been created cannot be found unless being added with git add.

Another way would be to use ripgrep and set the environment variable to

export FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND='rg --files'

which would automatic filter out gitignore globs while keeping track of files not yet added to the git index tree.