TESTING INDENT SCRIPTS We'll use FILETYPE for the filetype name here. FORMAT OF THE FILETYPE.IN FILE First of all, create a FILETYPE.in file. It should contain: - A modeline setting the 'filetype' and any other option values. This must work like a comment for FILETYPE. E.g. for vim: " vim: set ft=vim sw=4 : - At least one block of lines to indent, prefixed with START_INDENT and followed by END_INDENT. These lines must also look like a comment for your FILETYPE. You would normally leave out all indent, so that the effect of the indent command results in adding indent. Example: " START_INDENT func Some() let x = 1 endfunc " END_INDENT If you just want to test normal indenting with default options, you can make this a large number of lines. Just add all kinds of language constructs, nested statements, etc. with valid syntax. - Optionally, add lines with INDENT_EXE after START_INDENT, followed by a Vim command. This will be executed before indenting the lines. Example: " START_INDENT " INDENT_EXE let g:vim_indent_cont = 6 let cmd = \ 'some ' \ 'string' " END_INDENT Note that the command is not undone, you may need to reverse the effect for the next block of lines. - Alternatively to indenting all the lines between START_INDENT and END_INDENT, use an INDENT_AT line, which specifies a pattern to find the line to indent. Example: " START_INDENT " INDENT_AT this-line func Some() let f = x " this-line endfunc " END_INDENT Alternatively you can use INDENT_NEXT to indent the line below the matching pattern. Keep in mind that quite often it will indent relative to the matching line: " START_INDENT " INDENT_NEXT next-line func Some() " next-line let f = x endfunc " END_INDENT Or use INDENT_PREV to indent the line above the matching pattern: " START_INDENT " INDENT_PREV prev-line func Some() let f = x " prev-line endfunc " END_INDENT It's best to keep the whole file valid for FILETYPE, so that syntax highlighting works normally, and any indenting that depends on the syntax highlighting also works. RUNNING THE TEST Before running the test, create a FILETYPE.ok file. You can leave it empty at first. Now run "make test" from the parent directory. After Vim has done the indenting you will see a FILETYPE.fail file. This contains the actual result of indenting, and it's different from the FILETYPE.ok file. Check the contents of the FILETYPE.fail file. If it is perfectly OK, then rename it to overwrite the FILETYPE.ok file. If you now run "make test" again, the test will pass and create a FILETYPE.out file, which is identical to the FILETYPE.ok file. The FILETYPE.fail file will be deleted. If you try to run "make test" again you will notice that nothing happens, because the FILETYPE.out file already exists. Delete it, or do "make clean", so that the text runs again. If you edit the FILETYPE.in file, so that it's newer than the FILETYPE.out file, the test will also run.