jessarcher / vim-heritage

Automatically create missing parent directories when saving a new file

heritage.vim

Heritage simply makes sure any parent directories exist when writing a new file.

This lets you do the following:

:e some/path/that/doesnt/exist.md

And when you write the buffer (i.e. :w) it will create the missing directories before writing the file.

This is helpful when combined with the following mapping (taken from :help gf):

" Allow gf to open non-existent files relative to cwd:
map gf :edit <cfile><cr>

This allows you to type a non-existing file path in a document like so:

file_get_contents('tests/fixtures/payload.json');

And then in normal mode with the cursor on the file path, press gf to open a new buffer for that path, and then be able to freely write to it without needing to manually create the path or directories.

Alternatively, you can use the following mapping to open files relative to the current file instead, similar to how the built-in gf works:

" Allow gf to open non-existent files relative to current file:
map gf :edit %:h/<cfile><cr>

Credits

• This Stack Overflow answer for the code.
• Tim MacDonald and Jaz MacDonald for the name.

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.