1*usr_43.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2008 Dec 28 2 3 VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar 4 5 Using filetypes 6 7 8When you are editing a file of a certain type, for example a C program or a 9shell script, you often use the same option settings and mappings. You 10quickly get tired of manually setting these each time. This chapter explains 11how to do it automatically. 12 13|43.1| Plugins for a filetype 14|43.2| Adding a filetype 15 16 Next chapter: |usr_44.txt| Your own syntax highlighted 17 Previous chapter: |usr_42.txt| Add new menus 18Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt| 19 20============================================================================== 21*43.1* Plugins for a filetype *filetype-plugin* 22 23How to start using filetype plugins has already been discussed here: 24|add-filetype-plugin|. But you probably are not satisfied with the default 25settings, because they have been kept minimal. Suppose that for C files you 26want to set the 'softtabstop' option to 4 and define a mapping to insert a 27three-line comment. You do this with only two steps: 28 29 *your-runtime-dir* 301. Create your own runtime directory. On Unix this usually is "~/.vim". In 31 this directory create the "ftplugin" directory: > 32 33 mkdir ~/.vim 34 mkdir ~/.vim/ftplugin 35< 36 When you are not on Unix, check the value of the 'runtimepath' option to 37 see where Vim will look for the "ftplugin" directory: > 38 39 set runtimepath 40 41< You would normally use the first directory name (before the first comma). 42 You might want to prepend a directory name to the 'runtimepath' option in 43 your |vimrc| file if you don't like the default value. 44 452. Create the file "~/.vim/ftplugin/c.vim", with the contents: > 46 47 setlocal softtabstop=4 48 noremap <buffer> <LocalLeader>c o/**************<CR><CR>/<Esc> 49 50Try editing a C file. You should notice that the 'softtabstop' option is set 51to 4. But when you edit another file it's reset to the default zero. That is 52because the ":setlocal" command was used. This sets the 'softtabstop' option 53only locally to the buffer. As soon as you edit another buffer, it will be 54set to the value set for that buffer. For a new buffer it will get the 55default value or the value from the last ":set" command. 56 57Likewise, the mapping for "\c" will disappear when editing another buffer. 58The ":map <buffer>" command creates a mapping that is local to the current 59buffer. This works with any mapping command: ":map!", ":vmap", etc. The 60|<LocalLeader>| in the mapping is replaced with the value of the 61"maplocalleader" variable. 62 63You can find examples for filetype plugins in this directory: > 64 65 $VIMRUNTIME/ftplugin/ 66 67More details about writing a filetype plugin can be found here: 68|write-plugin|. 69 70============================================================================== 71*43.2* Adding a filetype 72 73If you are using a type of file that is not recognized by Vim, this is how to 74get it recognized. You need a runtime directory of your own. See 75|your-runtime-dir| above. 76 77Create a file "filetype.vim" which contains an autocommand for your filetype. 78(Autocommands were explained in section |40.3|.) Example: > 79 80 augroup filetypedetect 81 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.xyz setf xyz 82 augroup END 83 84This will recognize all files that end in ".xyz" as the "xyz" filetype. The 85":augroup" commands put this autocommand in the "filetypedetect" group. This 86allows removing all autocommands for filetype detection when doing ":filetype 87off". The "setf" command will set the 'filetype' option to its argument, 88unless it was set already. This will make sure that 'filetype' isn't set 89twice. 90 91You can use many different patterns to match the name of your file. Directory 92names can also be included. See |autocmd-patterns|. For example, the files 93under "/usr/share/scripts/" are all "ruby" files, but don't have the expected 94file name extension. Adding this to the example above: > 95 96 augroup filetypedetect 97 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.xyz setf xyz 98 au BufNewFile,BufRead /usr/share/scripts/* setf ruby 99 augroup END 100 101However, if you now edit a file /usr/share/scripts/README.txt, this is not a 102ruby file. The danger of a pattern ending in "*" is that it quickly matches 103too many files. To avoid trouble with this, put the filetype.vim file in 104another directory, one that is at the end of 'runtimepath'. For Unix for 105example, you could use "~/.vim/after/filetype.vim". 106 You now put the detection of text files in ~/.vim/filetype.vim: > 107 108 augroup filetypedetect 109 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.txt setf text 110 augroup END 111 112That file is found in 'runtimepath' first. Then use this in 113~/.vim/after/filetype.vim, which is found last: > 114 115 augroup filetypedetect 116 au BufNewFile,BufRead /usr/share/scripts/* setf ruby 117 augroup END 118 119What will happen now is that Vim searches for "filetype.vim" files in each 120directory in 'runtimepath'. First ~/.vim/filetype.vim is found. The 121autocommand to catch *.txt files is defined there. Then Vim finds the 122filetype.vim file in $VIMRUNTIME, which is halfway 'runtimepath'. Finally 123~/.vim/after/filetype.vim is found and the autocommand for detecting ruby 124files in /usr/share/scripts is added. 125 When you now edit /usr/share/scripts/README.txt, the autocommands are 126checked in the order in which they were defined. The *.txt pattern matches, 127thus "setf text" is executed to set the filetype to "text". The pattern for 128ruby matches too, and the "setf ruby" is executed. But since 'filetype' was 129already set to "text", nothing happens here. 130 When you edit the file /usr/share/scripts/foobar the same autocommands are 131checked. Only the one for ruby matches and "setf ruby" sets 'filetype' to 132ruby. 133 134 135RECOGNIZING BY CONTENTS 136 137If your file cannot be recognized by its file name, you might be able to 138recognize it by its contents. For example, many script files start with a 139line like: 140 141 #!/bin/xyz ~ 142 143To recognize this script create a file "scripts.vim" in your runtime directory 144(same place where filetype.vim goes). It might look like this: > 145 146 if did_filetype() 147 finish 148 endif 149 if getline(1) =~ '^#!.*[/\\]xyz\>' 150 setf xyz 151 endif 152 153The first check with did_filetype() is to avoid that you will check the 154contents of files for which the filetype was already detected by the file 155name. That avoids wasting time on checking the file when the "setf" command 156won't do anything. 157 The scripts.vim file is sourced by an autocommand in the default 158filetype.vim file. Therefore, the order of checks is: 159 160 1. filetype.vim files before $VIMRUNTIME in 'runtimepath' 161 2. first part of $VIMRUNTIME/filetype.vim 162 3. all scripts.vim files in 'runtimepath' 163 4. remainder of $VIMRUNTIME/filetype.vim 164 5. filetype.vim files after $VIMRUNTIME in 'runtimepath' 165 166If this is not sufficient for you, add an autocommand that matches all files 167and sources a script or executes a function to check the contents of the file. 168 169============================================================================== 170 171Next chapter: |usr_44.txt| Your own syntax highlighted 172 173Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: 174