I find vim’s :lcd command to be quite useful. For a long time I didn’t use it, mainly because I didn’t understand how it works.
First, using it is simple. It works just like :cd. You type :lcd path/to/directory in command mode. The path is relative to the current directory, so :lcd .., :lcd ~/Desktop, and :lcd /etc/apache2 all work.
The :lcd command changes the path of the current window. The current window is the current frame within the current tab. Now, what’s really neat, is that a new window (created from commands such as :sp and :tabedit) gets the local directory of the window it’s created from.
Most plugins respect it. Both Command-T and ack.vim search within the local current directory. Another plugin, fugitive, bases its commands on the git repository of the current file so it works smoothly with different local directories as well.
Bang commands (like :!cp README.md ~/Desktop) also use the local current directory.
Finally, after using it for a while it gets easy to tell which directory I’m in. The status line displays the path of the current file based on the local current directory, so if I know where the current file is I can quickly figure out where the local current directory is.
I used it the other day with bundle show to dig through the source of two dependencies of my Rails project to better understand them.
If you use vim and haven’t got in the habit of using :lcd I highly recommend it. If you use another editor and wish it handled working in multiple directories gracefully, consider giving vim a shot!