tmpl.vim

tmpl.vim provides autoloading new file templates for vim and Neovim. Templates are kept in any templates directory on the runtimepath, allowing you to easily add your own templates separately from this plugin. By setting g:tmplvim_default_environment, different templates for the same file type may be loaded in different environments (e.g. work versus personal).

Template names are constructed as environment.type. The environment may be set using g:tmplvim_default_environment, which defaults to default. For file names with an extension the file extension is taken as the template type, or for files with no extension the lower-case name of the file is used as the template type.

Installation

It is recommended to use a plugin manager to install tmpl.vim.

With vim-plug

Plug 'jgoguen/tmpl.vim'

With dein.vim

call dein#add('jgoguen/tmpl.vim')

With minpac

call minpac#add('jgoguen/tmpl.vim')

With vim 8 plugins

Clone the repository to pack/plugins/start:

For vim 8:

mkdir -p ~/.vim/pack/plugins/start
git clone https:/github.com/jgoguen/tmpl.vim.git ~/.vim/pack/plugins/start/tmpl.vim

For Neovim:

mkdir -p "${XDG_DATA_HOME:-${HOME}/.local/share}/nvim/site/pack/plugins/start"
git clone https://github.com/jgoguen/tmpl.vim.git "${XDG_DATA_HOME:-${HOME}/.local/share}/nvim/site/pack/plugins/start"

Configuration

To set the template environment, set g:tmplvim_default_environment. To override the template environment on a per-buffer basis, set b:tmplvim_default_environment for the specific buffers. If this is not given, the default value is default.

To set the replacement value for the <# AUTHOR #> tag, set g:tmplvim_author. If this is not given, the default value is the ${USER} environment variable.

To set the replacement value for arbitrary template tags, use the dictionary g:tmplvim_template_vars. Set the tag name as the dictionary key and the value as the tag replacement value.

Template tags

Templates may contain tags which will be automatically expanded when the template is loaded into the buffer. There are two types of tags:

1. Template variables
2. Template includes

Template includes are processed first, then variables once includes have been inserted into the buffer. Nested includes are not currently supported.

Template variables

Template variable tags are upper-case letters surrounded by <# and #>. The value of a template variable comes from g:tmplvim_template_vars, except for some specific reserved tag names:

1. DATE: Always replaced with the value of strftime('%Y-%m-%d') (e.g. 2020-03-04)
2. YEAR: Always replaced with the value of strftime('%Y') (e.g. 2020)
3. TIME: Always replaced with the value of strftime('%H:%M:%S') (e.g. 13:03:34)
4. AUTHOR: Always replaced with the value of g:tmplvim_author, or the value of $USER if that is not set.
5. DIRNAME: Always replaced with the name of the directory the file is in.
6. BASENAME: Always replaced with the name of the file without extensions.
7. UPPERBASENAME: Always replaced with the name of the file without extensions in upper-case.

Template includes

Template include tags are letters, numbers, or periods surrounded by <$ and $>. The tag name is expected to be the name of another template, which may include template variables but may not include other template includes. For example, the include tag <$ LICENSE.MIT $> will be replaced with the contents of the template file named LICENSE.MIT.

To accommodate including files in source code templates, an include with the same extension as the current buffer will be searched for and preferred if found. For example, the include tag <$ LICENSE.MIT $> in setup.py would use the template named LICENSE.MIT.py if it exists, or LICENSE.MIT if not.

Usage

When a new file is opened, the corresponding template is automatically loaded.