Proposal: improving the default value of path

[arecarn]

I propose addition of ** to the default value of path, so commands like gf and :find search downward (relative to present working directory) for the file you are looking for. I personally use this setting in my configuration, and to me it always feels like it should be a default.

To read more about ** you can look at :h file-searching

[justinmk]

I thought about it , but @tpope is against it, so I wonder how much other opposition there would be. I do think the current default is really unpleasant for the vast majority of users, they probably give up on :find and friends, then seek out plugins like ctrlp, with a bad impression of Vim's built-in capabilities.

[arecarn]

I would be interested in hearing some dissenting opinions.

I know from my experience starting out with Vim both the gf and :find just felt broken. I just didn't know about the path variable, and like you alluded I ended up installing ctrlp to find files.

[tpope]

Specifically I am against it because 'path' is designed to as a companion to 'include', 'includeexpr', and 'suffixesadd', enabling dozens of different features ranging from ]d to i_CTRL-X_CTRL-I. gf and :find fit into this as a way to jump to a C include, a Ruby require, a Java import, or any of dozens of equivalents in other languages.

Breaking large swaths of Vim in support of something as asinine as a janky fuzzy finder is nothing short of unconscionable. Make a different feature if you must, but for the love of Bram don't fix what isn't broken.

[tpope]

I would be okay with flattening to a simple .,, on all platforms, as the C based defaults would be better suited to a file type plugin.

[justinmk]

@tpope Thanks for clarifying. Does it "break" 'include', ]d, etc. by increasing false positives/noise? Or how?

[rseymour]

This could result in a security exploit with a little imagination, bad luck and root user firing up neovim in an unknown dir. I realize that's a bit of hyperbole but changing something as basic and dependable as path as a default is begging for all sorts of surprise behavior 2 and 3 degrees away from the change.

[tpope]

@justinmk yes, plus potentially make things unusably slow, and perhaps more importantly raises the question of what file type plugins should do. Attempt to accommodate 2 vastly divergent use cases? Clobber with the traditional interpretation? Give up?

[justinmk]

Thanks. It's not a clear win so this is a no-go. Also for Bram's love.

What could be potentially discussed in another issue is a default mapping to something like :edit **/. Or somehow educate the user about this opt-in approach (add **/ to the command line when you want sloppy-search). Opt-in is another reason the current default is nice: it's easier to opt-in than opt-out. In fact, that's also the reasoning behind the default 'magic' behavior.