How do I fix the indentation of an entire file in Vi?

=, the indent command can take motions. So, gg to get the start of the file, = to indent, G to the end of the file, gg=G.

Before pasting into the terminal, try :set paste and then :set nopaste after you're done. This will turn off the auto-indent, line-wrap and other features that are messing up your paste.

edit: Also, I should point out that a much better result than = indenting can usually be obtained by using an external program. For example, I run :%!perltidy all the time. astyle, cindent, etc. can also be used. And, of course, you can map those to a key stroke, and map different ones to the same keystroke depending on file type.

The master of all commands is

gg=G

This indents the entire file!

And below are some of the simple and elegant commands used to indent lines quickly in Vim or gVim.

To indent the all the lines below the current line

=G

To indent the current line

==

To indent n lines below the current line

n==

For example, to indent 4 lines below the current line

4==

To indent a block of code, go to one of the braces and use command

=%

If you want to reindent the block you're in without having to type any chords, you can do:

[[=]]

press escape and then type below combinations fast:

gg=G