1*usr_43.txt* For Vim version 7.1. Last change: 2006 Apr 24 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 "maplocalleader". 61 62You can find examples for filetype plugins in this directory: > 63 64 $VIMRUNTIME/ftplugin/ 65 66More details about writing a filetype plugin can be found here: 67|write-plugin|. 68 69============================================================================== 70*43.2* Adding a filetype 71 72If you are using a type of file that is not recognized by Vim, this is how to 73get it recognized. You need a runtime directory of your own. See 74|your-runtime-dir| above. 75 76Create a file "filetype.vim" which contains an autocommand for your filetype. 77(Autocommands were explained in section |40.3|.) Example: > 78 79 augroup filetypedetect 80 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.xyz setf xyz 81 augroup END 82 83This will recognize all files that end in ".xyz" as the "xyz" filetype. The 84":augroup" commands put this autocommand in the "filetypedetect" group. This 85allows removing all autocommands for filetype detection when doing ":filetype 86off". The "setf" command will set the 'filetype' option to its argument, 87unless it was set already. This will make sure that 'filetype' isn't set 88twice. 89 90You can use many different patterns to match the name of your file. Directory 91names can also be included. See |autocmd-patterns|. For example, the files 92under "/usr/share/scripts/" are all "ruby" files, but don't have the expected 93file name extension. Adding this to the example above: > 94 95 augroup filetypedetect 96 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.xyz setf xyz 97 au BufNewFile,BufRead /usr/share/scripts/* setf ruby 98 augroup END 99 100However, if you now edit a file /usr/share/scripts/README.txt, this is not a 101ruby file. The danger of a pattern ending in "*" is that it quickly matches 102too many files. To avoid trouble with this, put the filetype.vim file in 103another directory, one that is at the end of 'runtimepath'. For Unix for 104example, you could use "~/.vim/after/filetype.vim". 105 You now put the detection of text files in ~/.vim/filetype.vim: > 106 107 augroup filetypedetect 108 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.txt setf text 109 augroup END 110 111That file is found in 'runtimepath' first. Then use this in 112~/.vim/after/filetype.vim, which is found last: > 113 114 augroup filetypedetect 115 au BufNewFile,BufRead /usr/share/scripts/* setf ruby 116 augroup END 117 118What will happen now is that Vim searches for "filetype.vim" files in each 119directory in 'runtimepath'. First ~/.vim/filetype.vim is found. The 120autocommand to catch *.txt files is defined there. Then Vim finds the 121filetype.vim file in $VIMRUNTIME, which is halfway 'runtimepath'. Finally 122~/.vim/after/filetype.vim is found and the autocommand for detecting ruby 123files in /usr/share/scripts is added. 124 When you now edit /usr/share/scripts/README.txt, the autocommands are 125checked in the order in which they were defined. The *.txt pattern matches, 126thus "setf text" is executed to set the filetype to "text". The pattern for 127ruby matches too, and the "setf ruby" is executed. But since 'filetype' was 128already set to "text", nothing happens here. 129 When you edit the file /usr/share/scripts/foobar the same autocommands are 130checked. Only the one for ruby matches and "setf ruby" sets 'filetype' to 131ruby. 132 133 134RECOGNIZING BY CONTENTS 135 136If your file cannot be recognized by its file name, you might be able to 137recognize it by its contents. For example, many script files start with a 138line like: 139 140 #!/bin/xyz ~ 141 142To recognize this script create a file "scripts.vim" in your runtime directory 143(same place where filetype.vim goes). It might look like this: > 144 145 if did_filetype() 146 finish 147 endif 148 if getline(1) =~ '^#!.*[/\\]xyz\>' 149 setf xyz 150 endif 151 152The first check with did_filetype() is to avoid that you will check the 153contents of files for which the filetype was already detected by the file 154name. That avoids wasting time on checking the file when the "setf" command 155won't do anything. 156 The scripts.vim file is sourced by an autocommand in the default 157filetype.vim file. Therefore, the order of checks is: 158 159 1. filetype.vim files before $VIMRUNTIME in 'runtimepath' 160 2. first part of $VIMRUNTIME/filetype.vim 161 3. all scripts.vim files in 'runtimepath' 162 4. remainder of $VIMRUNTIME/filetype.vim 163 5. filetype.vim files after $VIMRUNTIME in 'runtimepath' 164 165If this is not sufficient for you, add an autocommand that matches all files 166and sources a script or executes a function to check the contents of the file. 167 168============================================================================== 169 170Next chapter: |usr_44.txt| Your own syntax highlighted 171 172Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: 173