Set a Pathvariable in vimrc with whitespace

Question

I try to set up my Vim to use omnicppcomplete.

I followed the constructions c++ code completion to install it step by step. First I always get the error "Omni-completion (^0^N^P) Pattern not found". It was hard to figure out but now i know why it doesn't work. Its because the following line in my vimrc

"set tags+=C:\\Program\\ Files\\ (x86)\\Vim\\vim74\\tags\\cpp"

Vim can't handle the whitespaces in the path but i don't know how to get it work except to copy the tag-files into another directory (which i try and it worked). I tried these options but nothing worked:

• C:\\Program\\\\ Files\\\\ (x86)\\Vim\\vim74\\tags\\cpp
• C:/Program\\ Files\\ (x86)/Vim/vim74/tags/cpp
• C:\\Program\\< Space >Files< Space >(x86)\\Vim\\vim74\\tags\\cpp
• C:\\Program\\sFiles\\s(x86)\\Vim\\vim74\\tags\\cpp
• C:\\Program\\\\sFiles\\\\s(x86)\\Vim\\vim74\\tags\\cpp
• C:\\Program/\\sFiles/\\s(x86)\\Vim\\vim74\\tags\\cpp

How do I have to write the path so omnicppcomplete can use the tags?

Answer 1

See :help option-backslash . When using the :set command, you need to escape every backslash, and every space character, so you will need three backslashes to set paths with spaces! Ie set tags+=C:\\\\Program\\\\\\ Files\\\\\\ (x86)\\\\Vim\\\\vim74\\\\tags\\\\cpp

Sometimes a nicer way, is to use a :let command, so that you can use single-quoted strings and don't need to escape as much. For example, :let &tags.=',C:\\Program\\ Files\\ (x86)\\Vim\\vim74\\tags\\cpp'

Answer 2

Try this:

let &tags .= ',C:\Program\ Files\ (x86)\Vim\vim74\tags\cpp'

An option opt can also be accessed as a variable &opt , which can be manipulated with let , can be used in expressions, and so on. Unlike set , let has an almost sane syntax.

Also, paths in tags have to be separated by commas.

Answer 3

I had the same problem. Try just to use / in paths, and escape whitespace like this '\\ '. For example I add this line in my vimrc:

set rtp=C:/Program\ Files\ (x86)/Vim/vim74/vim.exe

Than if you will command :echo &rtp you can see:

C:/Program Files (x86)/Vim/vim74/vim.exe

Note that here is no \\ before whitespace.