Updated on March 9th, 2021 in #vim

Using Vim's autocmd to Set a Custom File Type for Specific Files

This comes in handy if you want a specific type of syntax highlighting or snippets for files like requirements.txt or an aliases file.

Quick Jump: Demo Video

In this video we’ll go over 2 examples. One where we make sure an ~/.aliases file gets shell script syntax highlighting and snippet support and another where a requirements.txt file gets set as a Python file to easier read comments and version numbers.

We’ll also go over how the file command can give us hints on what a file type is.

Demo Video

The autocmd configuration in Vim to make this work

" Make sure all types of requirements.txt files get syntax highlighting.
autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead requirements*.txt set ft=python

" Make sure .aliases, .bash_aliases and similar files get syntax highlighting.
autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead .*aliases set ft=sh

Timestamps

• 0:09 – Making sure an .aliases file gets set as a shell script according to Vim
• 0:38 – Setting a requirements.txt file as type Python
• 1:19 – Maybe not doing this for certain files like .env vs .env.example
• 2:30 – Using the file command to gain insights about a specific file
• 3:38 – Taking a look at 2 autocmd config lines in my vimrc file
• 4:27 – You can also set just the syntax highlighting instead of the full file type

Reference Links

• The autocmd lines in my vimrc file

Which file types do you have special autocmd rules for? Let me know below.