Why might my Emacs use spaces instead of tabs?

Question

I am trying to diagnose this problem. TAB creates 4 spaces instead of a 4 col TAB like I want. But I don\'t think it should because C-h v indent-tabs-mode on th

Answer 1

Check of the file for Emacs "File Local Variables". These specially formatted lines can override your settings when that file is loaded.

Here is an example from the bottom of a bit of Ruby code, forcing indent to 2 spaces, and tabs converted to spaces:

# Local Variables:
# tab-width: 2
# ruby-indent-level: 2
# indent-tabs-mode: nil
# End: