How to switch between multiple vim configurations with a command or local vimrc files?

Question

I work in several groups, each of which has its own tab/indentation/spacing standards in C.

Is there a way to have separate selectable VIM configurations for each so

Answer 1

You can use stow for switching configuration (any dotfiles, not only .vimrc)

Install stow:

$ apt install stow

Create multiple directories for each configurations:

~$ ls -d ~/dotfiles/vim*
vim-all vim-webdev vim-go

Put different .vimrc's in them:

$ find ~/dotfiles -name .vimrc
/home/username/vim-golang/.vimrc
/home/username/vim-webdev/.vimrc
/home/username/vim-all/.vimrc

Now you can instantinate vim-golang config with this command (should be run inside dotfiles directory):

~$ cd ~/dotfiles

dotfiles$ stow -v vim-golang
LINK: .vimrc => dotfiles/vim-golang/.vimrc

Now it's linked:

$ cd ~ && ls -l .vimrc 
.vimrc -> dotfiles/vim-golang/.vimrc

If you need to switch config, just re-stow it:

~$ cd dotfiles

dotfiles$ stow -v -D vim-golang
UNLINK: .vimrc

dotfiles$ stow -v vim-webdev
LINK: .vimrc => dotfiles/vim-webdev/.vimrc

$ cd ~ && ls -l .vimrc 
.vimrc -> dotfiles/vim-webdev/.vimrc

More reading of it here: Managing dotfiles with GNU stow

Pros: pretty simple, no vim plugin dependencies, can be used for managing all dotfiles, not only .vimrc.

Cons: configs are independent of each other, you need to manage/update each of them separately (if you dont switch/update you configs too often - it'll not be the issue).