Permanently convert tabs to spaces in vi / vim

Question

If I wanted to have traditional indentation in vi / vim, I would enter these commands:

:set tabstop=4
:set shiftwidth=4
:set expandtab

It is tedious to type those commands every time I open a file. How do I permanently store those settings?

Answer 1

Create a file in your home directory called .vimrc, and put your commands in there:

set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab

Ubuntu's Vim Howto has a few pointers to basic customisation, if you want to dig deeper there's the Vim Book and the FAQ as well.

vi-improved.org also has a nice, big example of one person's .vimrc for you to rummage around in.

Answer 2

Store

set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab

or

set ts=4 sw=4 
set expandtab

In your ~/.vimrc file. E.G. /home/user/.vimrc or /home/$(whoami)/.vimrc. You can use your other settings in .vimrc as well, the ones you regularly use, for example syntax on if you use the full version of VIM.