'smarttab' affects how key presses are interpreted depending on where the cursor is.Otherwise, the amount of spaces inserted is minimized by using TAB characters. If 'expandtab' is set, pressing the key will always insert 'softtabstop' amount of space characters. 'shiftwidth' affects what happens when you press >, key.For instance, if 'tabstop' is 8, and the amount of consecutive space inserted is 20, two TAB characters and four spaces will be used.

If 'expandtab' is unset, and 'tabstop' is different from 'softtabstop', the key will minimize the amount of spaces inserted by using multiples of TAB characters. Its default value is the same as the value of 'tabstop', but when using indentation without hard tabs or mixed indentation, you want to set it to the same value as 'shiftwidth'. 'softtabstop' affects what happens when you press the or keys.'tabstop' changes the width of the TAB character, plain and simple.Let :help be your reference, and this page be your guide to Vim's indentation options. There are plenty of example vimrcs out there that will tell you how theirs is the proper setup. Vim's different indentation options are an endless source of grief and confusion for new users. If you want to distinguish between 'indentation' and 'alignment', i.e., the number of hard tabs equals the indentation level, use the Smart Tabs plug-in. These settings will cause as many hard tabs as possible being used for indentation, and spaces will be used to fill in the remains. Usually, 'tabstop' is left at its default value: Indentation with mixed tabs and spaces įor indentation with mixed tabs and spaces, the principle is to set 'shiftwidth' and 'softtabstop' to the same value, leave 'expandtab' at its default ( 'noexpandtab'). These settings will result in hard tabs being used for all indentation.

These settings will result in spaces being used for all indentation.įor indentation purely with hard tabs, the principle is to set 'tabstop' and 'shiftwidth' to the same value, and to leave 'expandtab' at its default value ( 'noexpandtab'), and leave 'softtabstop' unset: Setup Indentation without hard tabs įor indentation without tabs, the principle is to set 'expandtab', and set 'shiftwidth' and 'softtabstop' to the same value, while leaving 'tabstop' at its default value:

5.3 Select a block of lines having the same indent.

3 Different settings for different file types.

1.3 Indentation with mixed tabs and spaces.

Vim auto indent