Я использую это на своем MacBook:
" configure expanding of tabs for various file types
au BufRead,BufNewFile *.py set expandtab
au BufRead,BufNewFile *.c set expandtab
au BufRead,BufNewFile *.h set expandtab
au BufRead,BufNewFile Makefile* set noexpandtab
" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
" configure editor with tabs and nice stuff...
" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
set expandtab " enter spaces when tab is pressed
set textwidth=120 " break lines when line length increases
set tabstop=4 " use 4 spaces to represent tab
set softtabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4 " number of spaces to use for auto indent
set autoindent " copy indent from current line when starting a new line
" make backspaces more powerfull
set backspace=indent,eol,start
set ruler " show line and column number
syntax on " syntax highlighting
set showcmd " show (partial) command in status line
(отредактировано, чтобы показывать только то, что связано с отступом / вкладками)