Question

When I do vim ftp://[user@]machine/path in Vim I get this error: E683: File name missing or invalid pattern. Why id Vim treating this command as a search pattern?

I’m getting the same error in MacVim and Terminal Vim.

Answer 1

Usually you want to start Vim and then edit a file over ftp. Calling vim with a url may not work. You’re supposed give a file path as argument to vim and that’s what’s causing the error.

Also, the error says:

File name missing or invalid pattern

Vim is not treating it as a search pattern. Notice the “or”. It happens that no file name is given.

Try starting vim and then:

:e ftp://[user@]machine/path