How do I enable automatic file type detection and plugins?

Explanation

The filetype plugin indent on command enables three key features: file type detection, filetype plugins, and filetype-based indentation. This is essential for proper language support.

How it works

• filetype enables detection of file types
• plugin loads filetype-specific plugin files
• indent loads filetype-specific indentation rules

Example

filetype plugin indent on

Now opening a .py file automatically sets Python syntax, indentation rules, and any Python-specific settings.

Tips

• Put this near the top of your vimrc
• :filetype shows the current filetype detection status
• :set filetype? shows the detected type for the current file
• :set filetype=python manually overrides detection
• Filetype plugins live in ~/.vim/ftplugin/