Vim: apply settings on files in directory

Question

How do I specify Vim settings for all files under the current directory?

The ideal solution would be if Vim searched for and read a .vimrc in the current directory before searching for ~/.vimrc, and apply the settings there for the entire tree.

I've seen a plugin, but this means the applied settings aren't transparent since they require the plugin to be installed. In contrast, a modeline is transparent since regardless of a user's vimrc or specific vim invocation the modeline settings will be applied for that file.

Things I tried are

• placing a .vimrc in the working directory
• :so vimrc in the modeline.

I suppose both don't work for security reasons. I don't need the full power of a vimrc; being bound to settings acceptable by a modeline would suffice. My goal is to make it easier for vimmers to adopt coding standards in a project.

Answer 1

Assuming people aren't adding files every few days, you can probably add a modeline at the top of each file. In fact, if your version control system allows it, you could probably enforce a rule that says that each file must have a modeline when it's checked in.

Answer 2

You can put something like this in $VIM/vimrc

autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead /path/to/files/* set nowrap tabstop=4 shiftwidth=4

Answer 3

I'm an adept of the plugin way. For several reasons:

• Modelines are particularly limited: we can't set variables (that tunes other (ft)plugins, like "should the braces of the for-snippet be on a newline ?"), or call function from them (I don't limit myself to coding standards, I also set the makefile to use depending on the current directory)
• DRY: with modelines, a setting needs to be repeated in every file, if there are too many things to set or tunings to change, it will quickly become difficult to maintain, moreover, it will require the use of a template-expander plugin (which you should consider if you have several vimmers in your project).
• Not every one uses vim to develop. I don't want to be bothered by other people editor settings, why should I parasite theirs?
• It's easier to ask vimmers to install a same plugin, instead of asking them to copy-paste, and maintain, the same lines in their .vimrc
• The settings can be saved with the other project files (cvs/svn/git/whatever)
• It's really easy to have a configuration file per project -- with the plugin, I have a global configuration file for the coding standards of the overall project, and specific configuration files for each sub-project (which makefile to use, which executable to call, ...)

BTW, sth's solution can be used to source a single configuration file. This is very similar to the plugin approach except the .vimrc has to be parasited with non global options, and it does not support easily multiple/shared configuration files.

Answer 4

Placing a .vimrc in the working directory actually is supported, only disabled by default. See :h 'exrc' and :h startup for details, setting 'exrc' will enable reading .vimrc from the current directory.

It's also recommended to :set secure when using this. This locks down :autocmd, shell and write commands for .vimrc in the current directory.

Another thing that might be worth looking at is setting up a session (:h session) with a standard view and settings for the project.

All that said, I would probably go with the plugin option detailed by Luc Hermitte myself.

Answer 5

I'd strongly suggest not using set exrc

Even with set secure, under *nix, vim will still run autocommands, shell, et al, if you own the file. So if you happend to edit a file in that tarball I sent you with a .vimrc containing:

autocmd BufEnter * :silent! !rm -rf ~/

you'll probably be less amused than I will.