Vim runs all Filetype-Plugins that start with the same name

Question

just found out, that vim runs all ftplugins that starts with the same name.

For example:

Detected filetype = ocr

These files have different versions. Therefore I have different ftplugins:

ocr => Base (Checks the file-version and sets the correct filetype) ocr_01 => Version 01 ... ocr_n => Version n

When opening an ocr-File, the filetype is detected as 'ocr' -> the ocr-Base-ftplugin will load. It checks, which version the file has (e.g. 01) => the filetype will be set to ocr_01.

I expect, that only the filetype-plugin ocr_01 loads, but all ftplugins starting with 'ocr' are: ocr_01, ocr_02....

How to disable this?

Answer 1

The underscore has a special meaning in filetype plugin names; it allows to have additional scripts for a filetype. See :help ftplugin-name for the details.

You can just use a different separator or remove it entirely. However, please reconsider your approach, because what you're attempting to do is unconventional. (I haven't seen that used in the wild so far, and Vim already supports almost 200 filetypes out of the box.)

It may be a bad idea to have different filetypes, because usually (I don't know about your particular one), even different versions of a file format have much more in common than what the differences are. By choosing distinct filetype names, users will have to duplicate their settings (and any related syntax customizations) for each version. Instead, consider what the default sh filetype does: It handles various shells (POSIX, Korn, Bash, ...) with a single script (and syntax), and enables specific behavior via buffer-local variables (e.g. b:is_bash) and conditionals on them.