Hi all,

I am learning vi and like it so far. I am writing Python code with it and would like to change my tabs from 8 spaces to 4. I saw somewhere that I should edit my .vimrc file and add :set tabstop=4, but I cannot find it (even when I run :version in vi, it tells me where my user and system .vimrc files are, but I cannot find them there).

Any advice please?

Thanks,
Lloyd

Hi,

There are a few places you can set preferences:

/etc/vimrc -> This sets the preferences for all user
~/.vimrc -> This set preferences for a specific user (/home/druuna/.vimrc -> for druuna only). This is a . (dot) file, and might not be visible with the normal commands/tools you use. In a terminal use ls -la, the a tells ls to show hidden (dot) files as well.

The .vimrc file is not always present by default, if so you can create it yourself.

BTW: You should use this: set tabstop=4 (or set ts=4). The : is not used/wanted in the vimrc files.

Hope this helps.

Hello and merry Christmas,

the default vimrc file resides in the /usr/share/vim/vim73/ directory and is named vimrc_example.vim. You can copy this file to your /home directorythen you may follow druuna's advice and add "set ts=4" to the file.

Markus

Hello druuna and markush,

Thank you so much for the accurate and helpful responses. Season's greetings to you both!

Lloyd

You're welcome