Changing Vim editor settings?

How do I change default settings of Vim editor such as setting auto indent, setting Tab space to 4 and changing text colors? Also how to set vim as the default code editor?

Edit ~/.vimrc and put these in it:

set autoindent
set tabstop=4
colorscheme default

Note: type :colorscheme and hit Tab in order to find available colorsschemes installed for your Vim .

To use vim as default editor, use this

export EDITOR=/path/to/vim or simply export EDITOR=vim

or you can save this in your rc file

Edit your ~/.vimrc file. If you don't have vimrc file then create new file add following content into it.

1. touch ~/.vimrc

2. Paste this :

   " COPY THIS FILE AS .vimrc in home folder.
   " cp vimrc ~/.vimrc
   "
   " .vimrc
   "
   " Smylers's .vimrc
   " http://www.stripey.com/vim/
   " 
   " 2000 Jun  1: for `Vim' 5.6
   " 
   " This vimrc is divided into these sections:
   " 
   " * Terminal Settings
   " * User Interface
   " * Text Formatting -- General
   " * Text Formatting -- Specific File Formats
   " * Search & Replace
   " * Spelling
   " * Keystrokes -- Moving Around
   " * Keystrokes -- Formatting
   " * Keystrokes -- Toggles
   " * Keystrokes -- Insert Mode
   " * Keystrokes -- For HTML Files
   " * `SLRN' Behaviour
   " * Functions Referred to Above
   " 
   " This file contains no control codes and no `top bit set' characters above the
   " normal Ascii range, and all lines contain a maximum of 79 characters.  With a
   " bit of luck, this should make it resilient to being uploaded, downloaded,
   " e-mailed, posted, encoded, decoded, transmitted by morse code, or whatever.
   
   
   " first clear any existing autocommands:
   autocmd!
   
   
   "---" * Terminal Settings
   "---
   "---" `XTerm', `RXVT', `Gnome Terminal', and `Konsole' all claim to be "xterm";
   "---" `KVT' claims to be "xterm-color":
   "---if &term =~ 'xterm'
   "---
   "---  " `Gnome Terminal' fortunately sets $COLORTERM; it needs <BkSpc> and <Del>
   "---  " fixing, and it has a bug which causes spurious "c"s to appear, which can be
   "---  " fixed by unsetting t_RV:
   "---  if $COLORTERM == 'gnome-terminal'
   "---    execute 'set t_kb=' . nr2char(8)
   "---    " [Char 8 is <Ctrl>+H.]
   "---    fixdel
   "---    set t_RV=
   "---
   "---  " `XTerm', `Konsole', and `KVT' all also need <BkSpc> and <Del> fixing;
   "---  " there's no easy way of distinguishing these terminals from other things
   "---  " that claim to be "xterm", but `RXVT' sets $COLORTERM to "rxvt" and these
   "---  " don't:
   "---  elseif $COLORTERM == ''
   "---    execute 'set t_kb=' . nr2char(8)
   "---    fixdel
   "---
   "---  " The above won't work if an `XTerm' or `KVT' is started from within a `Gnome
   "---  " Terminal' or an `RXVT': the $COLORTERM setting will propagate; it's always
   "---  " OK with `Konsole' which explicitly sets $COLORTERM to "".
   "---
   "---  endif
   "---endif
   
   
   " * User Interface
   
   " have syntax highlighting in terminals which can display colours:
   "if has('syntax') && (&t_Co > 2)
   "  syntax on
   "endif
   
   " have fifty lines of command-line (etc) history:
   set history=50
   " remember all of these between sessions, but only 10 search terms; also
   " remember info for 10 files, but never any on removable disks, don't remember
   " marks in files, don't rehighlight old search patterns, and only save up to
   " 100 lines of registers; including @10 in there should restrict input buffer
   " but it causes an error for me:
   set viminfo=/10,'10,r/mnt/zip,r/mnt/floppy,f0,h,\"100
   
   " have command-line completion <Tab> (for filenames, help topics, option names)
   " first list the available options and complete the longest common part, then
   " have further <Tab>s cycle through the possibilities:
   set wildmode=list:longest,full
   
   " use "[RO]" for "[readonly]" to save space in the message line:
   set shortmess+=r
   
   " display the current mode and partially-typed commands in the status line:
   set showmode
   set showcmd
   
   " when using list, keep tabs at their full width and display `arrows':
   execute 'set listchars+=tab:' . nr2char(187) . nr2char(183)
   " (Character 187 is a right double-chevron, and 183 a mid-dot.)
   
   " have the mouse enabled all the time:
   " set mouse=a
   
   " don't have files trying to override this .vimrc:
   set nomodeline
   
   
   " * Text Formatting -- General
   
   " don't make it look like there are line breaks where there aren't:
   set nowrap
   
   " use indents of 2 spaces, and have them copied down lines:
   set shiftwidth=2
   set shiftround
   set expandtab
   set autoindent
   
   " normally don't automatically format `text' as it is typed, IE only do this
   " with comments, at 79 characters:
   set formatoptions-=t
   set textwidth=79
   
   " get rid of the default style of C comments, and define a style with two stars
   " at the start of `middle' rows which (looks nicer and) avoids asterisks used
   " for bullet lists being treated like C comments; then define a bullet list
   " style for single stars (like already is for hyphens):
   set comments-=s1:/*,mb:*,ex:*/
   set comments+=s:/*,mb:**,ex:*/
   set comments+=fb:*
   
   " treat lines starting with a quote mark as comments (for `Vim' files, such as
   " this very one!), and colons as well so that reformatting usenet messages from
   " `Tin' users works OK:
   set comments+=b:\"
   set comments+=n::
   
   
   " * Text Formatting -- Specific File Formats
   
   " enable filetype detection:
   filetype on
   
   " recognize anything in my .Postponed directory as a news article, and anything
   " at all with a .txt extension as being human-language text [this clobbers the
   " `help' filetype, but that doesn't seem to prevent help from working
   " properly]:
   augroup filetype
     autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead */.Postponed/* set filetype=mail
     autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead *.txt set filetype=human
   augroup END
   
   " in human-language files, automatically format everything at 72 chars:
   autocmd FileType mail,human set formatoptions+=t textwidth=72
   
   " for C-like programming, have automatic indentation:
   autocmd FileType c,cpp,slang set cindent
   
   " for actual C (not C++) programming where comments have explicit end
   " characters, if starting a new line in the middle of a comment automatically
   " insert the comment leader characters:
   autocmd FileType c set formatoptions+=ro
   
   " for Perl programming, have things in braces indenting themselves:
   autocmd FileType perl set smartindent
   
   " for CSS, also have things in braces indented:
   autocmd FileType css set smartindent
   
   " for HTML, generally format text, but if a long line has been created leave it
   " alone when editing:
   autocmd FileType html set formatoptions+=tl
   
   " for both CSS and HTML, use genuine tab characters for indentation, to make
   " files a few bytes smaller:
   autocmd FileType html,css set noexpandtab tabstop=2
   
   " in makefiles, don't expand tabs to spaces, since actual tab characters are
   " needed, and have indentation at 8 chars to be sure that all indents are tabs
   " (despite the mappings later):
   autocmd FileType make set noexpandtab shiftwidth=8
   
   
   " * Search & Replace
   
   " make searches case-insensitive, unless they contain upper-case letters:
   set ignorecase
   set smartcase
   
   " show the `best match so far' as search strings are typed:
   set incsearch
   
   " assume the /g flag on :s substitutions to replace all matches in a line:
   set gdefault
   
   
   " * Keystrokes -- Moving Around
   
   " have the h and l cursor keys wrap between lines (like <Space> and <BkSpc> do
   " by default), and ~ covert case over line breaks; also have the cursor keys
   " wrap in insert mode:
   set whichwrap=h,l,~,[,]
   
   " page down with <Space> (like in `Lynx', `Mutt', `Pine', `Netscape Navigator',
   " `SLRN', `Less', and `More'); page up with - (like in `Lynx', `Mutt', `Pine'),
   " or <BkSpc> (like in `Netscape Navigator'):
   noremap <Space> <PageDown>
   noremap <BS> <PageUp>
   noremap - <PageUp>
   " [<Space> by default is like l, <BkSpc> like h, and - like k.]
   
   " scroll the window (but leaving the cursor in the same place) by a couple of
   " lines up/down with <Ins>/<Del> (like in `Lynx'):
   noremap <Ins> 2<C-Y>
   noremap <Del> 2<C-E>
   " [<Ins> by default is like i, and <Del> like x.]
   
   " use <F6> to cycle through split windows (and <Shift>+<F6> to cycle backwards,
   " where possible):
   nnoremap <F6> <C-W>w
   nnoremap <S-F6> <C-W>W
   
   " use <Ctrl>+N/<Ctrl>+P to cycle through files:
   nnoremap <C-N> :next<CR>
   nnoremap <C-P> :prev<CR>
   " [<Ctrl>+N by default is like j, and <Ctrl>+P like k.]
   
   " have % bounce between angled brackets, as well as t'other kinds:
   set matchpairs+=<:>
   
   " have <F1> prompt for a help topic, rather than displaying the introduction
   " page, and have it do this from any mode:
   nnoremap <F1> :help<Space>
   vmap <F1> <C-C><F1>
   omap <F1> <C-C><F1>
   map! <F1> <C-C><F1>
   
   
   " * Keystrokes -- Formatting
   
   " have Q reformat the current paragraph (or selected text if there is any):
   nnoremap Q gqap
   vnoremap Q gq
   
   " have the usual indentation keystrokes still work in visual mode:
   vnoremap <C-T> >
   vnoremap <C-D> <LT>
   vmap <Tab> <C-T>
   vmap <S-Tab> <C-D>
   
   " have Y behave analogously to D and C rather than to dd and cc (which is
   " already done by yy):
   noremap Y y$
   
   
   " * Keystrokes -- Toggles
   
   " Keystrokes to toggle options are defined here.  They are all set to normal
   " mode keystrokes beginning \t but some function keys (which won't work in all
   " terminals) are also mapped.
   
   " have \tp ("toggle paste") toggle paste on/off and report the change, and
   " where possible also have <F4> do this both in normal and insert mode:
   nnoremap \tp :set invpaste paste?<CR>
   nmap <F4> \tp
   imap <F4> <C-O>\tp
   set pastetoggle=<F4>
   
   "" have \tf ("toggle format") toggle the automatic insertion of line breaks
   "" during typing and report the change:
   "nnoremap \tf :if &fo =~ 't' <Bar> set fo-=t <Bar> else <Bar> set fo+=t <Bar>
   "  \ endif <Bar> set fo?<CR>
   "nmap <F3> \tf
   "imap <F3> <C-O>\tf
   "
   " have \tl ("toggle list") toggle list on/off and report the change:
   nnoremap \tl :set invlist list?<CR>
   nmap <F2> \tl
   
   " have \th ("toggle highlight") toggle highlighting of search matches, and
   " report the change:
   nnoremap \th :set invhls hls?<CR>
   
   
   " * Keystrokes -- Insert Mode
   
   " allow <BkSpc> to delete line breaks, beyond the start of the current
   " insertion, and over indentations:
   set backspace=eol,start,indent
   
   " have <Tab> (and <Shift>+<Tab> where it works) change the level of
   " indentation:
   inoremap <Tab> <C-T>
   inoremap <S-Tab> <C-D>
   " [<Ctrl>+V <Tab> still inserts an actual tab character.]
   
   syntax on
   

3. Press Esc
4. type :wq That's it!