:help :cd
:help :chdir
:help :tcd
:help :lcd
:help :pwd
Change working directory.
This command works just like the shell cd command. It allows you to change the working directory to a given path or home directory on Unix
systems when no path is given.
:cd
:cd /my/other/project
:cd ./some/subfolder
:cd ../../some/parallel/subfolder
Sometimes you have already a file open of the folder you want to change into. This happens for example when you
opened a file using :browse oldfiles. And now let's assume you want to change into the directory of this file.
One way would be to have set autochdir in your vimrc, but I personally don't recommend that when working on projects
that have all sorts of important files in the project root folder. Instead you can create these 2 mappings to make your
life a bit easier.
nnoremap cd :cd %:p:h<CR>
nnoremap cu :cd ..<CR>
The cd mapping changes into the directory of the current file in focus. It basically does what autochdir does, but manually.
The cu mapping obviously just changes up to the parent directory.