[![Stories in Ready](https://badge.waffle.io/mhinz/vim-startify.png?label=ready&title=Ready)](https://waffle.io/mhinz/vim-startify) ![Example:startify in action](https://github.com/mhinz/vim-startify/raw/master/startify.png) This is it. A start screen for Vim. _( all features enabled - freely customizable )_ What does it provide? --------------------- It does 3 things that will be explained in detail further below: * it shows lists of files and directories * eased session handling * powerful menu entry handling #### 1) It shows things on start! If you start Vim without giving any filenames or piping text to it, Startify will show a pretty start screen that shows a configurable list of files or directories: --- __Custom header__ ( _empty by default_ ): How about some ASCII art action? --- __Files from directory__ ( _enabled by default_ ): This lists all files from the current directory sorted by modification time. --- __Recently used files__ ( _enabled by default_ ): This uses the viminfo file to get a list of most recently used files. The list can also be filtered. --- __Sessions__ ( _enabled by default_ ): This will list all your sessions from a certain directory. --- __Bookmarks__ ( _empty by default_ ): Additionally, you can define bookmarks, thus entries for files that always should be available on the start screen. --- __Custom footer__ ( _empty by default_ ): Same as the custom header.. but at the bottom. --- See `:h startify-options` for more information. #### 2) Easy session handling _Please read and understand `:help 'sessionoptions'` if you work with sessions._ Essentially there are two kinds of supported workflows for handling sessions that will be shown here. --- __a)__ The Startify way. The handling of loading, saving and deleting sessions is eased by always working with one and the same directory. These commands are used for convenience: :SLoad load a session :SSave save a session :SDelete delete a session _See `:h startify-commands` for more information._ The advantage of always using the same directory is that Startify can show you a list of all your sessions that are scattered around the system. --- __b)__ The old way. The old way means using `:mksession` to save a `Session.vim` file to the current directory. Imagine a project folder with a Session.vim at its root directory. This way makes it very portable. When Vim gets started and the file Session.vim is found in the current directory, it will be shown at the top of all lists as entry `[0]` as a shortcut. If you bookmark a directory (project folder, anyone?) that contains a Session.vim, and you access that directory via Startify, that session will be loaded automatically. --- Optionally, there is even support for persistent sessions. Thus you load a session via Startify, add some buffers, remove some buffers, change the window layout, .. and when you finish and exit Vim, the session will be saved automatically. This works for both ways of handling sessions. _Read `:help startify-options` to learn more about how to configure session handling to your liking._ #### 3) Powerful menu handling You can either navigate the menu by using the usual suspects (`j`, `G`, `}` etc.) and hit `` or just key in whatever is written between the square brackets on that line. You can even double-click anywhere on the line. Moreover, you can open several files at one go! Navigate to an entry and hit either `b` (open in same window), `s` (open in split), `v` (open in vertical split) or `t` (open in tab) for marking it. You can mark several entries and also mix different markers. Afterwards execute all the markers in the order they were given via ``. In case you don't want to open a file, there is also `e` for creating an empty buffer, `i` for creating an empty buffer and jumping into insert mode and `q` for quitting. When one or more files were opened by Startify, it will close automatically. You can always reopen the screen via `:Startify`. Author & Feedback ----------------- If you like any of my plugins, please star it on github. That is a great way of getting feedback. Same for issues reports or feature requests. --- Marco Hinz _aka_ mhinz _aka_ mhi^ _aka_ mhi Mail: `` Twitter: [@_mhinz_](https://twitter.com/_mhinz_) Stackoverflow: [mhinz](http://stackoverflow.com/users/1606959/mhinz) --- Thank you for flying mhi airlines. Get your Vim on! Installation & Documentation ---------------------------- If you have no preferred installation method, I suggest using tpope's [pathogen](https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen). Afterwards installing vim-startify is as easy as pie: $ git clone https://github.com/mhinz/vim-startify ~/.vim/bundle/vim-startify $ vim It works without any configuration, but you might want to look into the documentation for further customization: :Helptags " rebuilding tags files :h startify :h startify-faq License ------- MIT license. Copyright (c) 2013 Marco Hinz.