How do I use the Vim code for Google's python style?

Question

I found interesting code on GitHub at https://github.com/google/styleguide/blob/gh-pages/google_python_style.vim

I would like to use it, but when I just dropped it in my .vimrc, it interfered with editing of other kinds of code such as C. How do I associate it with Python code only?

Answer 1

That file is an "indent script", its content has nothing to do in your vimrc.

You are supposed to save it as:

• ~/.vim/after/indent/python.vim (Unix-like systems)
• %userprofile%\vimfiles\after\indent\python.vim (Windows)

Concretely, Vim already comes with an indent script for Python and the indent script you are trying to install depends on it. By saving it under after/, you ensure that it is sourced, automatically, after the built-in one.