As I am using YCM as text auto completion plugin for my VIM and I don't like to have a ".ycm_extra_conf.py" for every project I am working on, I decided to write a global configuration which is loaded for every project.
The main purpose of this file is to be able to serve as many projects as possible. Therefore multiple formats to specify compiler flags are supported.
- Clang Compile Commands
A very powerful format is the clang compile commands database saved in the "compile_commands.json" file. This is a file which can be generated for your project using cmake. The file then contains for each source file in your projects the exact flags to compile them.
- Clang Complete
Clang Complete is another text auto completion plugin for VIM which I used before YouCompleteMe. This plugin comes with its own configuration file saved for each of your projects. These files (named ".clang_complete") are easy to parse because they simply contain a newline separated list of flags used to compile the project.
This configuration file will try to find any of the in the supported formats section specified files. The search will start in the folder where the currently edited file is located. If none of the configuration files are found, the parent directory is checked next. This continues until the root directory of the file system. The routine will look for the file formats in the order they are listed above. If none of them are found, a default list of flags is used.
If you want to use this configuration file with your YCM plugin, copy the "ycm_extra_conf.py" file to your preferred location and add the following option to your ".vimrc".
let g:ycm_global_ycm_extra_conf = path_to_your_conf_hereAnd that's it. Now you can use the listed flag formats in your projects without any hassle.
Alternatively you can simply add the following line to your vimrc file if you are using like me Vundle and let the plugin arrange everything.
Plugin 'l3nkz/ycmconf'