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View different branch file inside VIM

View different branch file inside VIM

Over the past few months, VIM has become my goto text editor at both the workplace and at home. I still use Visual Studio Code when I want to inspect the project from a bird's eye view. There will come a time when you will want to view the contents of the same file or a different file from another branch. This could be for comparing the changes or just for checking the contents of another file. Note that I am not an advanced Git user.

In VIM, there is a plugin named vim-fugitive for performing Git operations from within the editor. Refer to its docs for its usage and commands.

Commands

To inspect the contents of a file for a supplied path.

:Gvsplit branch_name:path_of_file

To view the contents of the same file as the working file.

:Gvsplit branch_name:%

To compare files.

:Gvdiffsplit branch_name:%

Explanation

  • :Gvsplit : Opens file in a vertical split window
  • :Gvdiffsplit : Opens a file in a vertical split window and compares the file
  • branch_name : Name of the branch
  • % : This 'percentage' symbol holds the path of the file from the root of the project

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