Enabling vim file type plugin

Question

In my .vimrc file I have this line..

filetype plugin indent on

and then in ~/.vim/ftplugin/py.vimrc (I've also tried saving it as a .vim file) I've copied and pasted a vimrc file for python standards and have enabled all of the suggested settings in it (uncommented them). When I create and open a test.py file and do something like a tab, it goes 8 spaces instead of 4.

Not sure what's going wrong.

Solution

I'd replace

au BufRead,BufNewFile *.py,*pyw set shiftwidth=4
au BufRead,BufNewFile *.py,*.pyw set expandtab
fu Select_c_style()
    if search('^\t', 'n', 150)
        set shiftwidth=8
        set noexpandtab
    el 
        set shiftwidth=4
        set expandtab
    en
endf

with

" indenting
set cindent
set autoindent
set shiftwidth=4
set softtabstop=4
set tabstop=4
set expandtab
set backspace=indent,eol,start

because it is not clear that either the Select_c_style() function is getting called or that the quoted code is enough.

Yes, my second .vimrc extract pretty much prevents you from using tabs anywhere without an explicit Ctrl-V Tab, but literal tabs in most Unixy situations are just an irritant anyway. (and Pythonistas who post .vimrc files with vim abbreviations should be forced to use notepad, but that's a different issue ;)

Comments

[person]

Doesn't work, and I'm not sure if this is the problem. I don't know if vim is is reading the plugin at all.

[msw]

try script debugging: troubleshootingwiki.org/Debugging_Vim_Scripts

[Luc Hermitte]

filetype plugin indent on implies filetype plugin on

[Luc Hermitte]

You're right about ftplugin naming policies and about global changes (the OP is using :set instead of :setlocal). However, as these settings are meant for python editing, they shall be inside a ftplugin.

[intuited]

ah, here it is, :help :filetype-overview

[garyjohn]

If he uses that file unchanged, it can't be an ftplugin. As an example, assume he does use that file as an ftplugin, then edits some file foo.py. Vim will generate a BufRead event which will trigger the autocommand in $VIMRUNTIME/filetype.vim matching *.py which will then generate a FileType event for "python" and source his file. The second command of that file is "au BufRead,BufNewFile *.py,*pyw set shiftwidth=4". That will enable the autocommand but not execute the "set shiftwidth". The "set shiftwidth" will not be executed until he loads a second python file.