Open File Lines
Put the cursor on a path reference in any text, press Alt+P, and the file opens with the
referenced lines selected.
episodes/e03.md -> opens the file, selects nothing
episodes/e03.md:300 -> opens the file, goes to line 300 and selects it
episodes/e03.md:494-586 -> opens the file, goes to line 494 and selects lines 494..586
Wrapping the reference in backticks or quotes changes nothing — `episodes/e03.md:494-586`
works exactly like the bare form, and so do markdown links, <angle brackets>, and references
followed by a comma or a full stop.
Commands and keys
| Key |
Command |
What it does |
Alt+P |
Open File Lines: Open File at Cursor |
opens in the active editor group |
Alt+Shift+P |
Open File Lines: Open File at Cursor to the Side |
opens in a group beside it |
Both are also in the editor context menu. If you have text selected, the selection is used as the
reference instead of the token under the cursor.
Reference syntax
| Form |
Result |
path |
open only |
path:300 |
line 300 selected |
path:494-586 |
lines 494..586 selected |
path#L494-L586, path#300 |
same, GitHub anchor style |
path:300:12 |
cursor at line 300, column 12, nothing selected |
https://… |
handed to the system browser |
A backwards range (path:586-494) is read as the same range. Line numbers past the end of the
file are clamped to the last line. path(300,12) is not supported: parentheses have to end a
reference so that [text](https://github.com/vkostyanetsky/vscode-open-file-lines/blob/HEAD/path:1-2) keeps working.
How a path is resolved
The first existing entry wins:
- absolute paths (including
C:\…, file://…, ~/…, ${workspaceFolder}/…, ${userHome}/…, %VAR%) as they are;
- relative to the folder of the file the reference lives in;
- relative to each workspace root, starting with the one that owns the current file;
- relative to every folder in
openFileLines.searchPaths.
If the reference has no extension, the ones from openFileLines.extensions are tried in order.
When nothing matches, a warning appears with a Show searched paths button that lists every
location that was probed in the Open File Lines output channel. A reference that points at a
folder reveals it in the explorer.
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Meaning |
openFileLines.searchPaths |
[] |
extra lookup folders; relative entries are resolved against the current file's folder and every workspace root |
openFileLines.extensions |
[".md", ".txt", ".ts", ".js", ".json"] |
extensions tried when the reference has none; [] disables guessing |
openFileLines.delimiters |
`'"<>|*?,;!=&^()[] plus space and tab |
characters that end a reference when it is picked up from the text around the cursor |
openFileLines.selectLines |
true |
select the range; when off, only the cursor is moved |
openFileLines.preview |
false |
open in preview mode (reused, italic tab) |
Development
npm install
npm test
npm test runs the parsing and path-resolution suites in plain node — no VSCode instance needed.
Press F5 to launch an Extension Development Host; samples/links.md has references to try
against samples/episodes/e03.md, which is 600 numbered lines long.
Install locally without packaging
Copy or symlink this folder into your extensions directory and restart VSCode:
cmd //c mklink //d "%USERPROFILE%\.vscode\extensions\open-file-lines" "D:\Me\Projects\vscode-open-file-lines"
Or build a .vsix:
npx @vscode/vsce package
Prior art
The token-under-cursor handling, the search-path and extension fallbacks, and the folder-reveal
behaviour follow the conventions of Fr43nk.seito-openfile.
The line-range selection is the part that extension does not do.
