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====== VIM - Config - Indentation - Automatic Indentation Methods ======

There are a number of methods enabling automatic indentation in VIM, ranging from fairly "stupid" and unintrusive ones, like **autoindent** and **smartindent**, to complex ones such as **cindent** and custom indentation based on filetype using **indentexpr**.

  * The amount of indentation used for one level is controlled by the **shiftwidth** option. (See above.)

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===== autoindent =====

**autoindent** does nothing more than copy the indentation from the previous line, when starting a new line.

  * It can be useful for structured text files, or when you want to control most of the indentation manually, without VIM interfering.

  * **autoindent** does not interfere with other indentation settings, and some file type based indentation scripts even enable it automatically.

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===== smartindent and cindent =====

**smartindent** automatically inserts one extra level of indentation in some cases, and works for C-like files.

**cindent** is more customizable, but also more strict when it comes to syntax.

**WARNING:**  **smartindent** and **cindent** might interfere with file type based indentation, and should never be used in conjunction with it.

When it comes to C and C++, file type based indentations automatically sets **cindent**, and for that reason, there is no need to set **cindent** manually for such files.

  * In these cases, the **cinwords**, **cinkeys** and **cinoptions** options still apply.

Generally, **smartindent** or **cindent** should only be set manually if you're not satisfied with how file type based indentation works.