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I've got some sections in my .vimrc that look like this:

autocmd Filetype ruby setlocal ts=2 autocmd Filetype ruby setlocal sts=2 autocmd Filetype ruby setlocal sw=2

now it seems I can convert them to this:

autocmd Filetype ruby setlocal ts=2 sts=2 sw=2

but here's my question: is there a vim way to have a structure like this?

<something mentioning Filetype ruby> setlocal ts=2 setlocal sts=2 ... <end>

ie, can the autocmd Filetype bit somehow be made to address a group of actions? (this is a simple example, I'm really asking for more complicated situations.)

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  • (completely off topic but in my vim obsessiveness I just realized you can navigate different stack overflow answers with j and k) Commented Dec 30, 2023 at 7:18

3 Answers 3

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96

You can call a function, if you like:

autocmd Filetype ruby call SetRubyOptions() function SetRubyOptions() setlocal ts=2 ... endfunction
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4 Comments

hmmm, this is pretty good - thanks - but any way to tighten it up a little more (ie, remove the need to name and refer to the function)?
As nice as it would be, vim script doesn't have lambdas :P
@Peter - Nope. This is as tight as it can get.
Cominatcha from the future: Vim 8.0 has lambdas.
82

You can chain most commands with |:

au Filetype ruby \ setlocal ts=2 | \ setlocal sts=2 | \ ...

Not sure if this syntax is better or worse than writing a function. Some commands can't be chained like this, but you can use execute to get around that; see :h :bar.

Also see :h line-continuation for an explanation of the weird syntax with the \ at the beginning of the lines.

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24

ftplugins are the neat answer to your question.

  1. Ensure your .vimrc has a line such as :filetype plugin on
  2. Define a file named {rtp}/ftplugin/{thefiletype}.vim or {rtp}/ftplugin/{thefiletype}/whatever.vim (see :h rtp for more details).
  3. Edit this new file and put your VIM commands in there. It is probably a good idea to use the :setlocal command to ensure filetype-specific settings are only for that file (e.g., don't turn all comments purple across all filetypes).

See examples in vim distribution if you plan to override default settings ; or among the many ftplugins I wrote otherwise), just write down your :setlocal, :*map <buffer>, etc. definitions.

It represents some more line to type, but at least, it does scale.

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The only bad thing about ftplugins is that your vimrc ends up being split into dozens of files, and it's less convenient to copy around between computers.
ftplugins can be distributed and shared more easily than a single monolithic .vimrc. When the configuration becomes rich and complex we can't maintain every thing into one file (see my C++ suite -- and I have similar and yet simpler configurations for other languages). BTW, I don't have a dozen of (non standard) ftplugins, but 78. And there is only 9 of them I'm not maintaining. I'm glad to not have their definition in my .vimrc. Moreover, copying one's configuration between various computers is as simple as a call to find + xarg + tar.
I have created my own plugin with a ftplugin directory containing a <FileType>.vim file for each file type-specific configuration I want and added this plugin as a bundle in my Vundle setup. That way, configurations for certain file types are kept in their own files and I will get these configurations automatically when activating my Vundle setup.

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