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Using Netrw as a File Tree

A lot of people like to have file trees inside their text editors.

Netrw is capable of doing this.

Table of Contents

List Styles

The variable g:netrw_liststyle is responsible for determining how netrw displays files. You can change this on the fly inside netrw by pressing i, which cycles through the different file list styles.
The tree view is g:netrw_liststyle = 3. 

" vimscript
let g:netrw_liststyle=3
This shows the files in a tree view.
You can also hide the banner using the g:netrw_banner variable.

let g:netrw_banner=0

Now it looks exactly like file trees that are shown in a lot of other text editors.

Toggling Netrw as a File Tree on the Side

Many people like having their file trees open in their buffers while editing text.
You can simply use the Ex command :Lex to open it up.

:Lex

Netrw ships with a NetrwShrink function.
This is a function that will toggle a :Lex instance, either minimizing or maximizing it.

You can map this to a keybinding: 

" Minimize/Maximize a :Lex netrw instance
nnoremap  <leader>ns <Plug>NetrwShrink
* Note the <Plug> - this is needed because netrw is technically a plugin.