vi - How can I permanently display the path of the current file in Vim?

Question

I know CTRLg displays the current file you're working on. Is there a way to modify my .vimrc such that the filename/path is always displayed?

Answer 1

In your statusline, add a %F to display the full path:

:help statusline

" Add full file path to your existing statusline
set statusline+=%F

Note, %F will be the full path. To get a path relative to the working directory, use %f.

If your statusline is not already visible, you may first need to configure it to be always visible, via laststatus=2

set laststatus=2

See :help laststatus for what the options mean. Normally, the statusline may be hidden, or hidden unless multiple buffers are open, but I find it extremely useful to have on all the time with customizations like this, well worth giving up one screen line reserve for it.