How to set working/current directory in Vim?

Question

So when I want to create a new file by using the :e command I don\'t want to specify the whole path, just the new filename. Can it be done?

Answer 1

As already suggested, you can use autochdir, which will change to the directory of the file you opened, the other option is

:cd mydirectory

which will change the directory. This can be an absolute or relative path, so :cd .. will move up one level. Or you can use :cd %:h which will also change to the directory the current file is in, but without setting autochdir.

:cd

will change directory to your home directory (or on windows, print the current directory).

:cd -

will change the directory to the previous directory you visited.