Question: I'd like to modify my `.vimrc` to read the value of a variable from an external file. How can I do this?

Specifically, a friend and I share a git repo with our `.vim` files, but there are a few small differences in what we want in our configs. So most of the file is common, but we use if statements to determine whether to load user-specific sections, like this:

```
let whoami = "user2"
if whoami == "user1"
...

```

After checking our common `.vimrc` out of source control, we each have to change the `let whoami` assignment so our own section will be loaded. Instead, I'd like to keep a separate file, which can be different for each of us, and from which vim will load that variable value.

Maybe another angle on this is: **Will vim automatically read all the files in my `.vim` directory?** If so, we could each put a symlink in there called username.vim, and link that to an external file that would be different for each of us.

Answer: 
in your main .vimrc file:

```
source otherVimScriptFilePath.vim

```

then just put your variable statement in that file:

```
" otherVimScriptFilePath.vim
let whoami = "user1"

```
To answer the last question, files in `~/.vim` are not automatically loaded, but all files in `~/.vim/plugin` are.