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I want to change tab key spacing to 4 spaces in VIM editor on CVS server.

I know the :set tabstop=4 command is used for that but it does not have a permanent effect. After restarting VIM it changes to 8 spaces by default. I want to change it permanently.

Thanks in advance.

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2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

you just need to add it to your .vimrc file.

set tabstop=2
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where '.vimrc' file is located? – Hit's Dec 12 '11 at 6:42
~/.vimrc in your home directory – Nikhil Mulley Dec 12 '11 at 7:43
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You can use vim -u path_to_vimrc too if you want to have it elsewhere. By default, vim reads the file from your home directory. – Luc M Dec 22 '11 at 18:56
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Extend the answer:

  1. If you want to set it global, add set ts=2 to your ~/.vimrc - if it doesn't exist, just create new one.

  2. If you want to set tabstop for a specific file, use magic mode line in vim. Let's take C++ file as an example, add the line below in the beginning or the end of file: // vim: set ts=2

Read more about modeline in vim.

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