Question

I have Vim 7 (enhanced) on CentOS 5, and it comes with all the usual Vim plugins/scripts ready to go.

$ find /usr/share/vim/vim70/ -name \*python\*
/usr/share/vim/vim70/syntax/python.vim
/usr/share/vim/vim70/ftplugin/python.vim
/usr/share/vim/vim70/indent/python.vim
/usr/share/vim/vim70/autoload/pythoncomplete.vim

I would think that when opening a file ending in .py (vim file.py) it would automatically load these plugins, but I am not sure that is the case. What I want is:

Press TAB and receive four spaces. Auto indent next line for suites, conditionals, etc.

I have this working by explicitly setting tabstop, shiftwidth, etc. in my .vimrc file. Isn’t this what the above Python files are for? Why do I have to set these things in my .vimrc? How do I get these features from the Vim plugins instead?

Current .vimrc:

syntax on
set hls
set expandtab
set textwidth=0
set tabstop=4
set softtabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set autoindent
set backspace=indent,eol,start
set incsearch
set ignorecase
set ruler
set wildmenu
set smarttab
filetype indent on
filetype on
filetype plugin on

Answer 1

Setting tabstop, shiftwidth, etc… in your vimrc is correct. These set your global settings, as well as serve as parameters to the filetype-specific indentation support.

The language indentation plugins use these settings, but typically also set an indent expression (:he inde) appropriate for the language. Thus the Python indenter should be automatically indenting after a block opening statement (def, class, for…), and dedenting after a closing one (return, pass, continue…) and doing so according to the ts,sw,… you have set.

If you’re still unsure if the plugin is loading for a buffer, simply do :filetype to show the detection, plugin, and indent settings, and :set ft? to see the detected type.