So, you want to open two files in vim?

I'm preparing some shellscripts to avoid repetition of some usual tasks. Some of them involve opening a file and then using the :split command in vim.
Is it possible open two files like this from the command line?

Indeed, it is, you can use the vim -o file1 file2 command. In this way vim will show the two files in split view, the first one in the upper section and the second one in the bottom section.

Comments

[Ben Sinclair]

You can also use -O for vertical splits, and if you omit either flag (and presumably have hidden set), you will open them in hidden buffers, so you can navigate with :ls, :b <n> and :next and so on.

You can open all your buffers in splits at any time with the best command in Vim: :vertical ball.

[Fernando Tricas García]

Nice, thanks. For thist matter I prefer using horizontal split but sometimes vertical is useful also.