Current dir does not change when opening a file

[alextrastero]

Description

Steps:
cd ~/Downloads
vim ../Documents/how-to-close-vim.docx
:NvimTreeOpen

Result:
nvim tree opens in Downloads folder

Expected:
nvim tree opens in Documents folder

my config:

-- disable netrw at the very start of your init.lua (strongly advised)
vim.g.loaded_netrw = 1
vim.g.loaded_netrwPlugin = 1

nvim_tree.setup {
  respect_buf_cwd = true,
  sync_root_with_cwd = true,
}

Neovim version

NVIM v0.9.0-dev-1092+gbc15b075d

Operating system and version

Linux fedora 6.1.14-200.fc37.x86_64

nvim-tree version

Updated nvim-tree/nvim-tree.lua: bbb6d48..1d79a64

Minimal config

-- disable netrw at the very start of your init.lua (strongly advised)
vim.g.loaded_netrw = 1
vim.g.loaded_netrwPlugin = 1

nvim_tree.setup {
  respect_buf_cwd = true,
  sync_root_with_cwd = true,
}

Steps to reproduce

cd ~/Downloads
vim ../Documents/how-to-close-vim.docx
:NvimTreeOpen

Expected behavior

nvim tree opens in Documents folder

Actual behavior

nvim tree opens in Downloads folder

[Elias-Gill]

I was trying to solve this but is so annoying.

As far as my limited knowledge about lua, nvimtree and programming itself allows me; the main problem is that the autocmd is running change_dir.fn() on every bufEnter, so when you focus nvimtree again, it switches to the first root directory of that instance.

It has to have a simple solution.

[alex-courtis]

respect_buf_cwd will cause nvim-tree to open at the root of the buffer/window's cwd. In this case, ~/Downloads.

You can have it open the tree in ~/Documents by first changing the local directory of the window / buffer via :lcd ../Documents.

sync_root_with_cwd will cause nvim-tree to change it's root to match the global cwd. In this case it is still ~/Downloads

[alex-courtis]

I don't mean to be rude @alextrastero ; are you new to vim? The title of the document suggests so...

It appears we have a misunderstanding of expectations here.

In any case, you can handle startup directories etc. yourself: see wiki: Open At Startup for recipes to achieve this.