how to stay in the Custom view

Question

Say the source directory of vifm-0.14 is open in the panel and I enter
the following command in Vifm’s command-line:

:find . -iname "*data*"

This search recursively for all files and directories containing the
word "data" -case-insensitive- in their names.

The results appear in a MENU VIEW:

data/vifm.appdata.xml
src/utils/.deps/fsdata.Po
src/utils/.deps/fsddata.Po
src/utils/fsdata.c
src/utils/fsdata.h
src/utils/fsdata.o
src/utils/fsddata.c
src/utils/fsddata.h
src/utils/fsddata.o
src/utils/private/fsdata.h
src/utils/utf8proc_data.inc
tests/test-data/read/binary-data
tests/utils/fsdata.c
tests/utils/fsddata.c

then I press **b** to export in the CUSTON VIEW:

 [Find . -iname "*data*"] @ ~/BUILD_VIFM/BUILD_VIFM_0_14/vifm-0.14
1    ../
1 data/                               <--Directory
2 tests/test-data/                    <--Directory
3 data/vifm.appdata.xml
4 src/utils/.deps/fsdata.Po
5 src/utils/.deps/fsddata.Po
6 src/utils/fsdata.c
7 src/utils/fsdata.h
8 src/utils/fsdata.o
9 src/utils/fsddata.c
10 src/utils/fsddata.h
11 src/utils/fsddata.o
12 src/utils/private/fsdata.h
13 src/utils/utf8proc_data.inc
14 tests/test-data/read/binary-data
15 tests/utils/fsdata.c
16 tests/utils/fsddata.c

There are two directories and 14 files in the Custom view.

How can I explore the first or second directory and then return
using the left arrow or key "h" without losing the Custom
view's contents?"

thx

Answer 1

Custom views disappear once you leave them. So currently there are two options:
- don't leave the view
- restore the view

For the first option you can open directory under the cursor in a separate tab (:tabnew %c) and close it later or just use preview (:view or e).

For the second option there is :copen from which you can again press b to end up with the same custom view.

Comments

Hi, thank you for your very detailed response. For searching family photos, among other things, it works perfectly. Both methods work well. The most intuitive approach might be :copen—though I then have to maximize the window with ctrl-w o because after pressing b, everything goes back to how it was before, except that the paths are now displayed in full (absolute), unlike in the initial menu (relative). That said, it’s not a big issue.

:tabnew %c is working good as well and I use :tabn to navigate to the next tab oder :tabc to close.

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just for info: Svenn question looks the same with :locate

How to return to the buffer showing result of a :locate command

https://q2a.vifm.info/766/how-to-return-to-the-buffer-showing-result-of-locate-command?show=772