How to configure .vimrc for Python code without .py filename extension?

Question

So, I'm pretty happy with my .vimrc config for Python - except I started leaving off the .py suffix for scripts and now vim has no idea that the file I'm editing is a Python file.

Clarification: I've confirmed that vim knows I'm editing a python file using :echo &filetype which reports back 'python'.

So, the real question is how to assign python-specific behavior when I'm currently using file extensions for this purpose (see below). Can that be driven with filetype? Does one need both?

Regarding the lack of suffixes - my code is only intended for unix hosts, where this is commonplace, and I like hiding the implementation details so I could hypothetically change the implementation later.

Here's a fraction of my .vimrc:

au BufRead,BufNewFile *py,*pyw   set tabstop=4
au BufRead,BufNewFile *.py,*pyw  set shiftwidth=4
au BufRead,BufNewFile *.py,*.pyw set expandtab
au BufRead,BufNewFile *.py,*pyw  set softtabstop=4
au BufRead,BufNewFile *.py,*.pyw set textwidth=79

kamituel · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-09 10:33:42Z

1

The key to enable python-specific settings for files with no extension whatsoever, is to enable filetype plugin and, optionally, to teach Vim how Python file looks like.

Modify those files:

$HOME/.vimrc

Enable filetype plugin in Vim. This alllows to put language-specific settings into $HOME/.vim/ftplugin/ directory. Those settings are based on file type, not file extension.

filetype plugin on
syntax on

$HOME/.vim/scripts.vim

Teach Vim how Python file looks like. In this example Vim treats file as a python script if it contains python string somewhere in its first line. You can easily adapt regular expression here to incorporate more advanced checks.

Please note that did_filetype() ensures, that files with .py extensions without python in the first line are still considered to be python scripts.

if did_filetype()
    finish
endif
if getline(1) =~ '.*python.*'
    setfiletype python
endif

$HOME/.vim/ftplugin/python.vim

Finally, put all the python-specific settings here:

setlocal tabstop=4
setlocal shiftwidth=4
setlocal expandtab
setlocal softtabstop=4
setlocal textwidth=79

More info:

Modyfing of scripts.vim is not necessary if file has some standard python header, on example #!/usr/bin/python or #!/usr/bin/env python.

This heuristic is being performed in /usr/share/vim/vim73/scripts.vim (your path may be different, depending on Vim version and install location).

edited Mar 9, 2013 at 10:33

answered Mar 8, 2013 at 23:05

kamituel

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7 Comments

KenFar Over a year ago

Thank you - it doesn't address the problem at hand, but looks interesting.

kamituel Over a year ago

No problem. I've expanded my answer with additional options - hope those help.

KenFar Over a year ago

Thanks - it looks like I need option #1. Can you show how that would look in a .vimrc file. I think I've got to turn that detection on and then set various feature on using both filetype & file extension(?)

kamituel Over a year ago

I'm surprised it isn't working for you by default. What's your Vim version? Is it compiled with python support? (see :version). If all else fails, you can always use option #2 with 'if getline(1) =~ '^#!/usr/bin/python$'' or similar.

kamituel Over a year ago

BTW, for option #1 Vim's implementation of file type detection is in 'scripts.vim' located under /usr/share/vim (path may differ). My Vim installation detects file language by matching the first line of a file, so it's in fact option #2 we discussed.

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