VI adding # moves cursor to beginning of the line

Question

Why does vim move me to the begining of a line when I press # for a comment or remark say in a perl file?

Why would I not want my comment to be indented at the same level of the current code?

Answer 1

Ensure that the following are set in your .vimrc:

filetype plugin indent on
syntax enable

If you are using the "smartindent" indenting option, a fix for your problem is explained in the :help smartindent VIM documentation:

When typing '#' as the first character in a new line, the indent for that line is removed, the '#' is put in the first column. The indent is restored for the next line. If you don't want this, use this mapping: ":inoremap # X^H#", where ^H is entered with CTRL-V CTRL-H. When using the ">>" command, lines starting with '#' are not shifted right.

Answer 2

I think it is confused and thinks you are editting a C file, where preprocessor directives must be against the left margin.

Answer 3

:inoremap # X^H#

did not work for me, here is what did:

inoremap # ^T#^D

• ^T (Ctrl-T) indents
• ^D unindents.

The drawback to this solution is that if you are not on an indent column it will snap you to one. If your code is indented properly it should not be a problem.