Where to put the .vimrc file for sudo in OS X Lion?

Question

I always put a .vimrc in my home folder for turning :syntax on. But in OS X Lion it seems that sudo vi foo.txt ignore or can't find this vim configuration anymore.

Has anyone experiences the same thing?

Answer 1

Try doing sudo visudo and making sure that this lines appears somewhere in there:

Defaults  env_keep += "HOME"

This should maintain the HOME directory and ~ should would as it did in Snow Leopard.

Answer 2

I usually have use the same .vimrc and .vim folders as my main users and link them to a safe backupped place on Dropbox - wich btw is awesome for this kind of task.

The location of the home folder for your su is /var/root. Therefore .vimrc and the .vim folder belong there.

Answer 3

Try using vim instead of vi. Sometimes the default for "vi" is compatibility mode. Not sure if this is the case with Lion, however.