**UPDATE** I have created a [[page|tips/follow_wikilinks_from_inside_vim]] in
the tips section about the plugin, how to get it, install it and use it. Check
that out. --[[jerojasro]]

I wrote a vim function to help me navigate the wiki when I'm editing it. It extends the 'gf' (goto file) functionality. Once installed, you place the cursor on a wiki page name and press 'gf' (without the quotes); if the file exists, it gets loaded.

This function takes into account the ikiwiki linking rules when deciding which file to go to.

> 'gf' gets in the way when there are directories with the same name of a wiki page. The 
> function below doesn't implement the linking rules properly (test the link (ignoring case),
> if there is no match ascend the dir. hierarchy and start over, until we reach the root of
> the wiki). I'm rewriting it to follow these rules properly
> 
> I think the page for [[LinkingRules|ikiwiki/subpage/linkingrules]] should say that ikiwiki **ascends**
> the dir. hierarchy when looking for a wikilink, not that it **descends** it. Am I correct? --[[jerojasro]]

>> Conventionally, the root directory is considered to be lower than other
>> directories, so I think the current wording is correct. --[[Joey]]

let me know what you think

>         " NOTE: the root of the wiki is considered the first directory that contains a
>         " .ikiwiki folder, except $HOME/.ikiwiki (the usual ikiwiki libdir)
> 
> That's not going to work in all situations; for example, with an ikiwiki which uses git as the backend, the normal setup is that one has
> 
> * a bare git repository
> * a git repository which ikiwiki builds the wiki from (which has a .ikiwiki directory in it)
> * an *additional* git repository cloned from the bare repository, which is used for making changes from the command-line rather than the web.  It is this repository in which one would be editing files with vim, and *this* repository does not have a .ikiwiki directory in it.  It does have a .git directory in the root, however, so I suppose you could use that as a method of detection of a root directory, but of course that would only work for git repositories.
> 
> -- [[KathrynAndersen]]
> 
>> You are completely right; all of my wikis are compiled both locally and
>> remotely, and so the local repo also has a `.ikiwiki` folder. And that's not the
>> "usual" setup.
>> 
>> checking for a `.git` dir would not work when the wiki's source files aren't
>> located at the root of the repo.
>> 
>> So, besides of doing a `touch .ikiwiki` at the root of the wiki in your local
>> repo, do you see any alternative?
>> 
>> -- [[jerojasro]]

well. I've rewritten the whole thing, to take into account:
  
  * file matching ignoring case (MyPage matches mypage.mdwn)
  * checking all the way down (up) to the root of the wiki (if there is a link `\[[foo]]` on `a/b/page`),
  try `a/b/page/foo`, then `a/b/foo`, and so on, up to `foo`
  * the alternate name for a page: when looking for the file for `\[[foo]]`, try both `foo.mdwn` and `foo/index.mdwn`

you can find the file [here](http://git.devnull.li/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=vim-jerojasro.git;a=blob;f=.vim/ftplugin/ikiwiki_nav.vim;hb=HEAD). To use it, place it in `$HOME/.vim/ftplugin`. After that, hitting `<CR>` (Enter) in normal mode over a wikilink will take you to that page, if it exists.

the plugin has, as of now, two problems:
 
  * doesn't work with wikilinks that take more than one line (though this isn't really that bad)
  * it assumes that the root of the wiki is the first directory down the filesystem hierarchy that 
  has a `.ikiwiki` folder on it. If your copy of the wiki doesn't have it, you must create it for 
  the plugin to work

-- [[jerojasro]]

> Interesting. I was at one point looking at "potwiki.vim", which implements a local wiki and follows CamelCase links, creating new files where necessary etc., to see if it could be adapted for ikiwiki (See [[tips/vim syntax highlighting/discussion]]). I didn't get anywhere. -- [[Jon]]

>> when I wrote the plugin I also considered the possibility of creating files (and their dirs, if necessary) 
>> from new wikilinks; the changes needed to get that working are fairly small -- [[jerojasro]]

> Seems about ready for me to think about pulling it into ikiwiki
> alongside [[tips/vim_syntax_highlighting/ikiwiki.vim]]. If you'll
> please slap a license on it. :) --[[Joey]] 
>
>> GPL version 2 or later (if that doesn't cause any problems here). I'll add it
>> to the file --[[jerojasro]]
>>
>>> I see you've put the plugin on vim.org. Do you think it makes sense to
>>> also include a copy in ikiwiki? --[[Joey]] 
>>> 
>>>> mmm, no. There would be two copies of it, and the git repo. I'd rather have 
>>>> a unique place for the "official" version (vim.org), and another for the dev 
>>>> version (its git repo).
>>>> 
>>>> actually, I would also suggest to upload the [[`ikiwiki.vim`|tips/vim_syntax_highlighting]] file to vim.org --[[jerojasro]]
>>>>>
>>>>> If you have any interest in maintaining the syntax highlighting
>>>>> plugin and putting it there, I'd be fine with that. I think it needs
>>>>> some slight work to catch up with changes to ikiwiki's directives
>>>>> (!-prefixed now), and wikilinks (able to have spaces now). --[[Joey]]

<a id='syn-maintenance'>

>>>>> 
>>>>>> I don't really know too much about syntax definitions in vim. But I'll give it a stab. I know it fails when there are 2 \[[my text|link]] wikilinks in the same page.
>>>>>> I'm not promising anything, though ;) --[[jerojasro]]
>
> Also, I have a possible other approach for finding ikiwiki's root. One
> could consider that any subdirectory of an ikiwiki wiki is itself
> a standalone wiki, though probably one missing a toplevel index page.
> The relative wikilinks work such that this assumption makes sense;
> you can build any subdirectory with ikiwiki and probably get something
> reasonable with links that work, etc.
> 
> So, if that's the case, then one could say that the directory that the
> user considers to be the toplevel of their wiki is really also a subwiki,
> enclosed in a succession of parents that go all the way down to the root
> directory (or alternatively, to the user's home directory). I think that
> logically makes some sense.
> 
> And if that's the case, you can resolve an absolute link by looking for
> the page closest to the root that matches the link.
>
>> I like your idea; it doesn't alter the matching of the relative links, and
>> should work fine with absolute links too. I'll implement it, though I see
>> some potential (but small) issues with it --[[jerojasro]]
> 
> It may even make sense to change ikiwiki's own handling of "absolute"
> links to work that way. But even without changing ikiwiki, I think it
> would be a reasonable thing for vim to do. It would only fail in two
> unusual circumstances:
> 
> 1. There is a file further down, outside what the user considers
>    the wiki, that matches. Say a `$HOME/index.mdwn`
> 2. An absolute link is broken in that the page linked to does
>    not exist in the root of the wiki. But it does exist in a subdir, 
>    and vim would go to that file.
> 
> --[[Joey]] 
>
>> your approach will add more noise when the plugin grows the page-creation
>> feature, since there will be no real root to limit the possible locations for
>> the new page. But it is far better than demanding for a `.ikiwiki` dir --[[jerojasro]]