CODEWITHSUNDEEP
vim
Ryan Haining
Ryan Haining

Reputation: 36882

Specify vim filetype on command line

I've been working with a lot of C++ files that have no extensions and it's too annoying to have to type :set ft=cpp every time I open them, so I'm mostly just working without syntax highlighting. Is there a way to tell vim the file type in the command line? Something like:

$ vim --ft=cpp file_name

Upvotes: 7

Views: 3231

Answers (1)

Lix
Lix

Reputation: 48006

You can use the -c option when launching vim to execute commands after the first file has been read.

For your situation, you can simply use the standard set filetype command - 

vim -c 'set filetype=javascript'

You could also use --cmd to execute the command after the first file is loaded.

Lifted from the vim man pages:

   -c {command}
               {command} will be executed after the first file has been read.  {command} is interpreted as an Ex command.  If the {command} contains spaces it must be enclosed in double quotes (this depends on  the  shell  that  is  used).
               Example: Vim "+set si" main.c
               Note: You can use up to 10 "+" or "-c" commands.

   --cmd {command}
               Like using "-c", but the command is executed just before processing any vimrc file.  You can use up to 10 of these commands, independently from "-c" commands.

Upvotes: 14

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