One of my files has an incorrect tabstop setting - vim

One of my files, whenever I open it, has a different (incorrect) value for the 'tabstop' option. In my .vimrc, I have the line:
set tabstop=4 softtabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 noexpandtab
and 'tab' is not mentioned in any subsequent lines. When I open a specific file I'm working on, the 'tabstop' option is set to 8, while all the other relevant options are correct; and all other files (so far) show their indentation correctly. I don't use modelines or smart tabs (yet). If I source my vimrc in the file, it corrects the indentation, so I'm assuming it isn't anything directly related to vimrc.
What is happening?

Basically there's two ways in which your .vimrc can be superseeded: plugins (including filetype-specific ones) might reset the option, or it might be changed by an autocommand. In any case, your first step is to check when the option was last modified (see :set-verbose):
:verbose set tabstop?
If that's not enough, look through the list of all the scripts and config files that Vim has read since it was started:
:scriptnames
(better do that in a newly started copy of Vim right after loading the offending fileā€”this way, there'll be less output from :scriptnames.)
After these steps, you should have a list of scripts that might be the culprits. There's no easy way to narrow it down: you'll have to grep, to temporarily remove plugins from your ~/.vim and so on.
Finally you'll find a line that changes the setting. If it's in a plugin, look through its documentation to find a way to override the setting. If it's somewhere in the indent file or ftplugin, override its effect by placing a file into ~/.vim/after/indent/ or ~/.vim/after/ftplugin. An autocommand might also work.

Related

Vim: How to permanently allow auto indent only on manual linebreak

Vim has a tendency to automagically mess with the indentations in the line I'm currently working on, as well as placing linebreaks. I want it to do an automatic indentation when I manually make a linebreak (i.e. physically hitting the Enter key), but not in any other case, I don't want it to make any linebreaks itself either, and I want these settings to be permanent.
The textwidth option controls the number of characters after which a line break will be inserted, see :h textwidth.
To turn off the insertion of line breaks while editing, the following lines should be added to .vimrc:
set textwidth=0
set wrapmargin=0
set formatexpr=
Information on the options can be obtained by the usual :h command.
Note that these options are set globally but may be overridden e.g. by a filetype plugin. If the problem persists, see :h ftplugin.
Another question is where :set textwidth=132 originates from. This may be due to an earlier misconfiguration or set from any plugin.

Apply changes to .vimrc to source file

Im currently making a lot of changes in my .vimrc. At the same time Im also coding away on a project. To fix the new indentation and tabstop rules, and so on, I have to go through every line and re-indent them. This seems a little bit tedious.
Is there any way to apply the newest changes in my .vimrc to the whole source file?
Your problem seems to be that existing buffers do not get the updated (global) values of e.g. 'tabstop', because these are buffer-local options. Therefore, a simple :so % after editing the ~/.vimrc isn't sufficient.
There are several possible approaches:
Use sessions
With the current Vim state persisted via :mksession, you can safely :quit Vim, restart it, :so session.vim, and have the identical editing state, but with the new settings applied (this requires that you :set sessionoptions-=options)
Manually apply
You can e.g. :yank the changed :set tabstop=... commands that you've edited and reapply them to all existing buffers, e.g. by moving there and :#", or (if there are many) with the help of :bufdo.
Note that especially the indent settings can also be set from ftplugins, so your global settings may not be effective. You can check that for a buffer with :verbose set tabstop?.

Vim ignores shiftwidth specified in .vimrc

I am using Vim 7.3.154 cli on Linux Mint 12 "Lisa"(x64).
I prefer using a tabstop and shiftwidth of 2 columns.
My .vimrc has
:set ts=2
:set sw=2
to accomplish the same.
Whenever I open a new instance of Vim, tabstop value is retained, so existing tabs are rendered according to .vimrc. But somehow the shiftwidth value gets changed to 3. This results in 3 column indention while auto-indenting.
Running :set sw=2 on the new instance of Vim fixes this issue.
Can anyone tell me why Vim is ignoring/changing shiftwidth value from .vimrc?
I tried disabling all plugins to no avail.
Vim compiled options | .vimrc
This answer just summarizes what we discussed in the comments. :)
This is most likely caused by the fact that you have file specific settings enabled. Check :h modeline for more info on that. Make sure that those files you have the problems with don't have this line in them.
Instead of only setting tabstop and shiftwidth you should also setup a couple more settings regarding whitespace and tabs.
set noexpandtab " Make sure that every file uses real tabs, not spaces
set shiftround " Round indent to multiple of 'shiftwidth'
set smartindent " Do smart indenting when starting a new line
set autoindent " Copy indent from current line, over to the new line
" Set the tab width
let s:tabwidth=4
exec 'set tabstop=' .s:tabwidth
exec 'set shiftwidth=' .s:tabwidth
exec 'set softtabstop='.s:tabwidth
Check this video for some extra info: http://vimcasts.org/episodes/tabs-and-spaces/
So this is the answer to the actual problem that you were able to solve. That php.php file was in the /plugin directory. That directory gets loaded once, each and every time Vim starts up. Check this: http://learnvimscriptthehardway.stevelosh.com/chapters/42.html#vimplugin
If what you want is that file to load only on PHP files then you should put it in the /ftplugin folder: http://learnvimscriptthehardway.stevelosh.com/chapters/42.html#vimftplugin
Read the documentation there, it should be a .vim file, in other words in this case it would be called php.vim.
What Pathogen or Vundle do is modify the runtimepath (:h runtimepath), nothing more, nothing less.
So you can now accept this answer, by clicking the little green arrow to the left of this answer. :)
You can run:
verbose set shiftwidth ?
to check what is setting the value of shiftwidth. It might coming from a plugin. You can also choose to modify the value there.

Quickest Way to Revert Spaces to TABs in VIM

I have always been one to replace TABs in VIM with x amount of spaces (usually 4).
Four lines I almost always use in my .vimrc config file are:
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab
syntax on
Basically, there are moments when I NEED to use a single TAB (such as Makefiles), and I don't know how else to work around that other than leaving the file, editing my .vimrc, and then reloading the file of interest.
That said, what is the quickest way (from within VIM) to revert it back to using TABS, and then reverting back to my original settings? I'm looking for the least-hassle, least-keystrokes solution.
VIM will automatically enable the TAB for a makefile, assuming you name it "makefile," as opposed to "Makefile." Not sure why VIM still doesn't detect the type with a lower-uppercase difference, but such is life. (#Sedrik)
That aside, other alternative solutions are:
Filetype Binding (#ThorstenS #tungd):
autocmd FileType make setlocal noexpandtab
RealTime Switch (#ThorstenS):
Assuming the .vimrc configuration mentioned in the question, do:
:set noet (to switch from spaces to TAB)
and :set et (to switch back)
Just use the magical escape key available in insert mode.
On the *NIX's it is ^V by default when you are in insert mode. On Windows, you need to find out what the magical escape character is - ^V is taken for something else; I think it may be ^Q or ^S?
So! In your makefile:
this: this.c
<C-V><Tab>cc this.c
where the usual meanings apply:
means hit ctrl-V (you should see a ^ hiding away under the cursor)
- hit the tab key. Bingo.
Works for me.
Note: if you use vim settings or startup code which smashes tabs as you read a file, this obviously is a short-term fix. I prefer to learn how to use the retab command to ensure a file is tab-clean, because I don't like a file to be touched unless I consciously choose to do so.
Just type set noexpandtab . Perhaps you bind this to a function key.
Only this configuration helped me solve this problem.
filetype plugin indent on
filetype detect
autocmd FileType make set noexpandtab
Vim defaults to tabstop=8 and noexpandtab, so the defaults are well suited to working with Makefiles. If your .vimrc uses custom options for tabstop, expandtab, etc., one simple solution is to bypass your .vimrc while working with Makefiles.
From the manpage (emphasis mine):
-u {vimrc} Use the commands in the file {vimrc} for initializations. All the other initializations are skipped. Use this to edit a special kind of files. It can also be used to skip all initializations by giving the name "NONE". See ":help initialization" within vim for more details.
Since I can never remember the necessary flag/value/formatting, I've created a Bash alias which remembers for me: alias vimnone='vim -u NONE'
You can create a custom configuration per file type.
mkdir -p ~/.vim/after/indent
echo 'set noexpandtab' >> ~/.vim/after/indent/make.vim
Basically, here we created a new indent configuration for makefiles that will be loaded after other scripts.
source

Disable all auto indentation in vim

In TeX vim usually screws up my indentation. Mainly when I'm in a displayed equation which I think should look like this:
\[
x=\frac{y}{z}
\]
where the whitespace infront of the x is one tab.
When I start type the equation I type the \[ and \] marks first and then go back between them, typing the tab and then the rest of the equation.
Vim doesn't do anything wrong until I have to use something that incorporates curly braces (\frac{} for example). When I type the closing } vim automatically shifts the indentation for the whole line to the left, which undoes my typed tab.
This is very anoying, how do I disable it?
my .vimrc contains:
"indentation
set smartindent
set autoindent
set tabstop=5
set shiftwidth=5
filetype indent on
I just spent a few hours working through indentation pains with javascript, and the conclusion I came to is don't remove filetype indent on from your vimrc!
This setting provides the best smart indentation for multiple file types. If you're getting bad results with this, there's likely a configuration issue at hand.
File Specific Indent Settings
So if you're like me, you probably had filetype indent on in your vimrc and had no idea what it was doing.
All this setting does is tell vim to look for files with filetype-specific indent rules. There are a few places it looks, but there are probably only two that you'd be interested in.
$VIMRUNTIME/indent/
~/.vimrc/after/indent/
The first place holds the default indent rules that come with vim. If you were to set filetype indent on on a fresh vim installation, this is where all the smart indenting would come from. For example, when you open a file called index.html in would get the rules from $VIMRUNTIME/indent/html.vim.
In my experience, these default rules are pretty darn good, but they can get messed up by other settings.
The second place (the after directory) allows you to add settings that will supercede those in the first place. This is nice because you don't have to edit the default files in order to customize them.
Flavors of Indentation
There are a few different indentation options as you've seen, and they don't all play nice together. From the Vim wiki:
autoindent
'autoindent' does nothing more than copy the indentation from the previous line, when starting a new line. It can be useful for structured text files, or when you want to control most of the indentation manually, without Vim interfering. 'autoindent' does not interfere with other indentation settings, and some file type based indentation scripts even enable it automatically.
I use filetype indent on and set autoindent in my vimrc, since they work well together. I don't have the others set.
smartindent & cindent
'smartindent' automatically inserts one extra level of indentation in some cases, and works for C-like files. 'cindent' is more customizable, but also more strict when it comes to syntax.
'smartindent' and 'cindent' might interfere with file type based indentation, and should never be used in conjunction with it.
When it comes to C and C++, file type based indentations automatically sets 'cindent', and for that reason, there is no need to set 'cindent' manually for such files. In these cases, the 'cinwords', 'cinkeys' and 'cinoptions' options still apply.
Generally, 'smartindent' or 'cindent' should only be set manually if you're not satisfied with how file type based indentation works.
indentexpr
Runs filetype indent scripts found in (vimfolder)\indent\\(indentscripts). It is mentioned in the vim documentation for filetype, alongside the others just mentioned (also, it was the cause of the problem I was having):
Reset 'autoindent', 'cindent', 'smartindent' and/or 'indentexpr' to disable indenting in an opened file.
Troubleshooting
There's a chance that some rogue plugin is changing your indent settings and that's why you're getting poor results. Luckily verbose will tell you which file was the last to change the option in question.
:verbose set autoindent?
:verbose set cindent?
:verbose set smartindent?
:verbose set indentexpr?
You may get a result such as
indentexpr=SomeMessedUpValue
Last set from ~/.vim/bundle/some_plugin/indent/plaintex.vim
If that happens, you can move that file, close and open vim, and see if it fixes your problem.
Turning Off Indent Settings for TeX
Maybe the defaults just aren't doing it for you, and you want to disable the indent settings for TeX, but leave all other file types alone. You can easily do so by setting these values to their defaults in a file in the after directory.
I don't know much about Tex or LaTex, but when I created a file with the .tex extension and ran :filetype it had the filetype as plaintex. Assuming that this is correct, you'd want to create a file, ~/.vim/after/indent/plaintex.vim. In that file:
set autoindent&
set cindent&
set smartindent&
set indentexpr&
This will set all these values to their defaults whenever you open a .tex file.
There seem to be a little mix of terms in your question. In vim the term autoindent points to a special kind of indentation that simply follows the indent level of the previous line (which is quite handy sometimes). To remove it set noautoindent by hand, or write it in your _vimrc.
There are two other automatic kinds of indentation, cindent and smartindent. Similarly, if you wish to disable them go with set nocindent and set nosmartindent
If you look in help (help autoindent, ...) they are all quite nicely explained. Which one you prefer (or don't) is mostly determined by your programming style and habits. So, try them out and see which you like most.
Unfortunatelly, I don't use LaTeX that much anymore, so I'm not familiar with its internal filetype indentation rules.
For anyone else having a similar problem, a solution that worked for me was:
Use :verbose set indentexpr? to find what file was causing the de-indentation
Find where indentexpr is changed (for me it was setlocal indentexpr=GetTeXIndent())
Change that line to setlocal indentexpr& to turn indentexpr off
This removed all de-indenting from brackets, parentheses, and braces.
Remove the lines set autoindent and set smartindent to remove all vim autoindentation.
The following command finally stopped VIM from pretending it knows how to indent files for me and only do what I explicitly tell it:
:setl noai nocin nosi inde=
Courtesy https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/How_to_stop_auto_indenting
If you are using the vim-latex plugin, set this option:
let g:tex_indent_brace=0
For other plugins, if you don't want to turn off indentexpr as in the above answers, you can find where indentkeys is set and comment out those lines. This should stop triggering re-indent when you type a closing brace.
:verbose set indentkeys?

Resources