vi, filename extension and indentation

berndbausch · 08-10-2020, 11:58 PM

How can I prevent vi/vim from adding unwanted indentations? The following happens on Ubuntu 16.04 with vim 7.4, and Ubuntu 20.04 with vim 8.1.
gvim on Windows and vim on Fedora 28 work as expected (both are vim 8.1). My conclusion: It has something to do with the vim configuration on Ubuntu.

I have the following YAML file:

Code:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: myconfig
data:
  customer: myself
  type: database

I then use vi to open a file named bla.yaml and copy the above text into it. I get unintended indents:

Code:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
          name: myconfig
          data:
                    customer: myself
                              type: database

I tried the following settings in vi:

Code:

:set noai
:syntax off
:filetype off 
:filetype indent off

No change.

However, when I edit a file that does not have the yaml extension, the text is pasted as I intend it, i.e. without any additional indentations.

Which vi or vim setting controls this behaviour?

dedec0 · 08-11-2020, 12:40 AM

First, there is autoindent, smartindent and cindent. Check your setting for all of them. Put only the one most use in your ~/.vimrc file.

For the indentation issue, turning off syntax highlight is totally unrelated to the problem! Forget about it. Also forget ':filetype' command, it will change things for files opened AFTER it is set on/off. And the command ':filetype indent off' does not exist, i think. Where did you find it?

You want to use the "paste" feature of vim, when you want to paste things. Have some code to paste, and it is already indented? Great! These are the steps:

1. Press ESC to exit anything not ended yet (insert mode, prompt, ...)

2. Type ':set paste' and press ENTER

3. Enter insert mode and paste the code

4. Turn "paste" off again with ':set nopaste'. Set it again, when you need, and so on.

5. Be happy! (:

dedec0 · 08-11-2020, 12:43 AM

IMPORTANT NOTICE: all i said in #2 is about vim! Now, i noticed you talk about using vi, and these things are, sometimes, different to do in it. The vi editor (or vim's vi compatible mode) is old and full of limits we do not need today. Use vim! It is much better. (:

pan64 · 08-11-2020, 05:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by berndbausch

I then use vi to open a file named bla.yaml and copy the above text into it. I get unintended indents:

This is not strictly indentation, but the copy (I think).
I did not really check it, but probably it depends on the things at the end of lines (if that was a cr, a lf or cr/lf or lf/cr or something else).
And probably it is configurable in vi/vim and probably the default behavior depends on your os.

I would try to switch dos/unix type in vi, probably that helps.
https://til.hashrocket.com/posts/hu3...-format-in-vim

dedec0 · 08-11-2020, 05:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

This is not strictly indentation, but the copy (I think).
I did not really check it, but probably it depends on the things at the end of lines (if that was a cr, a lf or cr/lf or lf/cr or something else).
And probably it is configurable in vi/vim and probably the default behavior depends on your os.

I would try to switch dos/unix type in vi, probably that helps.
https://til.hashrocket.com/posts/hu3...-format-in-vim

The behaviour will not depend on the OS, if using vim in Windows and *nixes. It is an editor that will recognize and use correctly the newline for the files it opens, or use the one we choose, for the files we create. So, manually switching the newline is a bad path, in this problem. I am pretty sure of this, for years using vim, both in linuxes and windozes.

Geist · 08-11-2020, 06:19 AM

Paste mode ( :set paste) should fix you right up.

pan64 · 08-11-2020, 06:45 AM

yes, something new again: https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Toggle_a...for_code_paste