NERD Tree Harvest

This is a Vim plugin that adds several ways to “harvest” file paths from the NERD Tree directory browser.

🌴🥥 🌳🌰 🌲🌿 🎋💌

Harvest creates four mappings in the NERD Tree window: y, Y, ;, and !. Each mapping reads one or more additional characters to pick a path modifier and then performs an operation with the modified path. For example, yh yanks the path to the file's parent directory, much as :cd %:h changes the current directory to the parent of the file in the current buffer. See :help filename-modifiers for details on how these transform a file path.

NERD Tree only shows these four mappings in the help list; you can hit ? after starting a mapping to see a summary of available modifiers, or consult the tables below. If the vim window is wide enough, ? will print names after each modifier key, otherwise just keys shown. Pressing ? a second time will show the full explanation, wrapping the echo line.

Modifier	Name	Path Modification
.	relative	:. File path from current working directory
~	home	:~ File path from home directory, or absolute
p	absolute	:p Absolute path from filesystem root
h	head	:h Path without the last component (parent directory)
H	rel+head	:.:h Relative path to parent directory
t	tail	:t Final path component (file name)
r	root	:r Path with last extension removed (/a/b.c → /a/b)
R	tail+root	:t:r Tail with last extension removed (/a/b.c → b)
e	extension	:e Last extension of the file name (/a/b.c → c)
:	modifier	: Arbitrary modifier, type enter to end e.g. :~:h<CR>
?	help	Echo a list of modifiers, continue reading next one

A doubled mapping (yy, YY, ;;, or !!) reuses the previous modifier for the given type (yank, Ex, shell).

The : modifier type reads additional keys until you press enter (<CR>). The full input is used as a modifier of arbitrary length. Example uses of : are shown in the following table, read :help filename-modifiers for a full list.

Command	Effect
y:~:h	Yank the parent directory of a file, relative to your home directory
y:h:h	Yank the path to the parent’s parent
y:t:S	Yank the shell-quoted/escaped file name, without leading path
y:8	(Windows-only) Yanks the “8.3” DOS form of a path
y:.:gs#/#.#:r	Yank the relative path with / replaced by . and file extension removed

The final example could be useful to reference a fully-qualified Java class.

Yank Mappings

When NERD Tree is active, use one of this plugin's mappings to yank a modified form of the selected path from the directory tree.

Key	Name	Path Modification
y.	yank relative	File path from $PWD
y~	yank from homedir	File path from $HOME
yp	yank absolute	Absolute path from filestystem root
yh	yank head	Parent directory path
yH	yank relative head	Parent directory relative path
yt	yank tail	Final path component (file name)
yr	yank root	Path with last extension removed
yR	yank tail+root	File name with last extension removed
ye	yank extension	Last extension of file name
y:	yank with modifier	Type arbitrary modifier, enter to end
yy	yank previous	Previous yank modifier
y?	help	Echo a list of modifiers, continue reading next one

The yank register can be selected in the usual way, e.g. "ryt will yank the file name into the r register. If no register is given, the yank mappings harvest paths into the default register (") and can thus be inserted into another buffer with the p command with no specified register or CTRL-R = ". Lowercase y yank mappings operate characterwise and overwrite the existing register contents.

As with normal vim yanks, specifying an uppercase register name ("Ryp) will append the path to the register rather than replacing it. However, this does not include any delimiters or space, so the paths will all run together. To accommodate harvesting several files from a directory tree, uppercase Y mappings are provided which append to the existing register. The uppercase Y mappings all operate linewise (even if the register starts empty), so p putting the yanked text will do so on a new line rather than on the same line as the cursor. Using Y makes it easy to collect several file paths from the directory tree and later put them into a buffer.

Key	Name	Path Modification
Y.	append relative	File path from $PWD
Y~	append from homedir	File path from $HOME
Yp	append absolute	Absolute path from filestystem root
Yh	append head	Parent directory path
YH	append relative head	Parent directory relative path
Yt	append tail	Final path component (file name)
Yr	append root	Path with last extension removed
YR	append tail+root	File name with last extension removed
Ye	append extension	Last extension of file name
Y:	append with modifier	Type arbitrary modifier, enter to end
YY	append previous	Previous yank modifier
Y?	help	Echo a list of modifiers, continue reading next one

Command Mappings

There are also mappings which harvest a tree path to the end of a command, inspired by the vinegar plugin. These start a command with : (Ex) or :! (shell), append the path, then move the cursor to the beginning of the command, making it easy to operate on the selected file or directory. The ; mapping starts an Ex command, ! starts a shell command.

Ex

: path/to/file
 ↑ cursor is here

Key	Name	Path Modification
;.	Ex command relative	File path from $PWD
;~	Ex command from homedir	File path from $HOME
;p	Ex command absolute	Absolute path from filestystem root
;h	Ex command head	Parent directory path
;H	Ex command relative head	Parent directory relative path
;t	Ex command tail	Final path component (file name)
;r	Ex command root	Path with last extension removed
;R	Ex command tail+root	File name with last extension removed
;e	Ex command extension	Last extension of file name
;:	Ex command with modifier	Type arbitrary modifier, enter to end
;;	Ex command previous	Previous Ex modifier
;?	help	Echo a list of modifiers, continue reading next one

Shell

:! path/to/file
  ↑ cursor is here

Key	Name	Path Modification
!.	shell relative	File path from $PWD
!~	shell from homedir	File path from $HOME
!p	shell absolute	Absolute path from filestystem root
!h	shell head	Parent directory path
!H	shell relative head	Parent directory relative path
!t	shell tail	Final path component (file name)
!r	shell root	Path with last extension removed
!R	shell tail+root	File name with last extension removed
!e	shell extension	Last extension of file name
!:	shell with modifier	Type arbitrary modifier, enter to end
!!	shell previous	Previous shell modifier
!?	help	Echo a list of modifiers, continue reading next one

Limitations

NERD Tree accepts a count for mappings, but just runs each mapping in sequence for the next N directory nodes. If you use a count with y or Y you will be need to enter that many modifiers (they can be different or all the same). Since y overwrites the register, you will end up with the final path after a counted mapping. A count with Y will append each referenced file. Mappings for ; and ! currently print an error message N times if a count is given. A future update to this plugin may improve the behavior with counts.

These mappings are not available in visual mode. A visual yank will result in a register that looks like ▸ ^Gdoc/

Installation

NERD Tree Harvest requires (naturally enough) the NERDTree plugin and Vim 7.3+. I have only tested on Vim 7.4+ and have not tested on Windows; please file an issue or send a pull request if you find compatibility issues.

Use your favorite plugin manager, e.g.

" vim-plug:
Plug 'perservim/nerdtree'
Plug 'flwyd/nerdtree-harvest'
" Vundle:
Plugin 'perservim/nerdtree'
Plugin 'flwyd/nerdtree-harvest'
" vim-addon-manager:
VAMActivate github:perservim/nerdtree
VAMActivate github:flwyd/nerdtree-harvest

or git clone https://github.com/flwyd/nerdtree-harvest and set runtimepath+=/path/to/nerdtree-harvest in your .vimrc

or as a vim8 package:

dir="~/vim/pack/nerdtree-harvest/start"
mkdir -p "$dir"
git clone https://github.com/flwyd/nerdtree-harvest "$dir"

License and Contributing

The code in this project is made available under an Apache 2.0 open source license. Copyright 2021 Google LLC. This is not an official Google project.

Contributions are welcome, but please read the contributing document first. Feel free to send a pull request for bug fixes, but open an issue for feature requests. Features which don’t “harvest” paths from NERD Tree in some way are probably more suited for some other plugin.