How do I open just enough folds to see the current line without expanding everything?

Explanation

zv (view cursor) opens the minimum number of folds needed to make the current line visible — nothing more. This is especially useful after navigation commands that land inside a closed fold (like /search, G, a mark jump, or a tag jump) where the cursor ends up hidden inside a collapsed region.

How it works

• zv opens folds from the top level down until the cursor line is visible
• It leaves sibling folds closed and does not recursively open child folds
• Unlike zo (open one fold) or zO (open all nested folds), zv only opens exactly as many levels as needed to expose the cursor line

Example

You have a file with nested folds and search for a function body that is currently folded:

/calculateTotal

The cursor jumps to the match inside a two-level-deep fold, but the line is hidden. Running zv opens just those two levels, while leaving all other folds closed.

Compare the alternatives:

zv   → open minimum folds to reveal cursor (surgical)
zo   → open the fold directly under cursor (one level only)
zO   → open the fold and ALL nested folds recursively
zR   → open every fold in the entire file

Tips

• Many search-and-jump workflows (tags, marks, quickfix navigation) automatically call zv after landing — but when they don't, zv is your quick fix
• Pair with zz after zv to both reveal and center the line: zvzz
• zv is a no-op when the cursor is already in an open fold, so it is safe to add to mappings without checking fold state first