How can I stop vim automatically inserting a tab in CSS files?

Question

When I am in a CSS file with a blank line, like this:

and I want to simply make a new line and move down to it, by hitting Enter , vim is auto inserting a tab character, e.g.

Running :set fo? inside the CSS file => formatoptions=croql.
If I disable all formatoptions with :set fo= - it still happens.
however if format options are disabled using :set paste vim does stop inserting the tab - but I dont want to have to work in paste mode all the time!

settings:

• noautoindent
• nosmartindent
• nocindent

If I turn off filetype specific indenting with

filetype indent off

It still happens, what am I missing - do I need to restart vim or something for the settings to take effect?

How can I stop vim autoinserting these tab characters?

Answer 1

I found a couple of ways to solve the problem.

1. reload the buffer after running :filetype indent off

Vim's docs (:help :filetype-indent-off) provided an explanation:

You can disable :filetype indent on with:

:filetype indent off

This actually loads the file "indoff.vim" in 'runtimepath'. This disables auto-indenting for files you will open. It will keep working in already opened files. Reset 'autoindent', 'cindent', 'smartindent' and/or 'indentexpr' to disable indenting in an opened file.

• "It will keep working in already opened files." - explained that I simply had to kill and reload the buffer after I ran the command :filetype indent off

2. Reset indentexpr

per docs

Reset 'autoindent', 'cindent', 'smartindent' and/or 'indentexpr' to disable indenting in an opened file.

it turned out the issue was caused by indentexpr which had the value of

indentexpr=GetCSSIndent()
Last set from /usr/share/vim/vim74/indent/css.vim

I was able to reset it with: :set indentexpr=""

which also fixed the problem.

Answer 2

This issue has already been answered, but I though I could also add my solution:

As suggested by filbranden, it's better to not modified vim's system files. Instead, he suggested to use skip_defaults_vim=1 or create a .vimrc file in my home directory to disable the default features. If I want any of the default features, I can add them to my .vimrc file.

In my case (vim 8.1), disabling the defaults does the trick. I like vim highlight feature, but that feature is defined elsewhere so disabling the defaults do not disable highlighting.

I added the following line at the beginning of /etc/vim/vimrc:

let skip_defaults_vim=1

----------- Old answer (not recommended) -----------

If you simply want to disable auto-indent system wise, for every file type (basically, disable the auto-indent feature completely), you can do the following:

1. Backup the indent.vim file:
   sudo mv /usr/share/vim/vim81/indent.vim /usr/share/vim/vim81/indent.vim.orig
2. Create a new empty indent.vim file:
   sudo touch /usr/share/vim/vim81/indent.vim

IMPORTANT NOTE: Modifying system files is not recommended. It can have unexpected side effect. Also, the modification is likely to be overwritten on the next vim update. Avoid this solution if possible.

Answer 3

Here is one option, first find your file type by typing :set filetype? within your Vim opened file. Suppose it spits out css, then in your .vimrc file, add the line

autocmd FileType css setlocal indentexpr=

Answer 4

Yes this solved for me also this unkind effect:

I opened, and edited my ~/.vimrc

:filetype indent off

If you do not like the higlight scheme, you just search the selected colorscheme here:

/usr/share/vim/vim74/colors

i use generaly "colorscheme desert", in the 77-th row you find:

  hi Search cterm=NONE ctermfg=grey ctermbg=lightblue
  hi Search cterm=bold ctermfg=black ctermbg=green

that was for me better than the lightbue