Vim: apply settings on files in directory

Question

How do I specify Vim settings for all files under the current directory?

The ideal solution would be if Vim searched for and read a .vimrc in the current directory before searching for ~/.vimrc, and apply the settings there for the entire tree.

I've seen a plugin, but this means the applied settings aren't transparent since they require the plugin to be installed. In contrast, a modeline is transparent since regardless of a user's vimrc or specific vim invocation the modeline settings will be applied for that file.

Things I tried are

• placing a .vimrc in the working directory
• :so vimrc in the modeline.

I suppose both don't work for security reasons. I don't need the full power of a vimrc; being bound to settings acceptable by a modeline would suffice. My goal is to make it easier for vimmers to adopt coding standards in a project.

Answer 1

You can put something like this in $VIM/vimrc

autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead /path/to/files/* set nowrap tabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 

Answer 2

I'd strongly suggest not using set exrc

Even with set secure, under *nix, vim will still run autocommands, shell, et al, if you own the file. So if you happend to edit a file in that tarball I sent you with a .vimrc containing:

autocmd BufEnter * :silent! !echo rm -rf ~/ 

you'll probably be less amused than I will.