Enable Vim Syntax Highlighting By Default

vim vim-syntax-highlighting
lilroo picture lilroo · Jun 30, 2012 · Viewed 73.6k times · Source

I know how to turn syntax highlighting on and off in vim by running this in the editor:

:syntax on/off

But I want syntax highlighting to be enabled by default, so I don't have to turn it on every time I run vim.

How do I do this?

Answer

Ilmo Euro picture Ilmo Euro · Jun 30, 2012

Edit your $HOME/.vimrc (Unix/Linux/OSX) or $HOME/_vimrc (Windows) to include the following line:

syntax on

EDIT

If your syntax highlighting doesn't work when you start Vim, you probably don't have a $HOME/.vimrc or $HOME/_vimrc (known collectively as vimrc from now on). In that case, you have two options:

  • Create an empty vimrc.
  • Copy vimrc_example.vim as your vimrc (recommended, thanks @oyenamit). You can find vimrc_example.vim in the runtime directory.

The location of the runtime directory varies between operating systems:

  • On my system (Arch Linux, and Mac, thanks @totophe), it's in /usr/share/vim/vim73.
  • On Windows, it's in \Program Files\Vim\vim73.

Related questions

Syntax highlighting in vim for python

How do I do I set the syntax highlighting in Vim 7 for python? I would like to set my own colorschemes, and syntax highlighting for a type of code file.

Read More
Add GoLang syntax highlighting for VIM

I'm trying to add Go language syntax highlighting to VIM on ubuntu with resources and direction supplied here http://go-lang.cat-v.org/text-editors/vim/. Go comes with a go.vim file that contains syntax settings for VIM and the above …

Read More
Vim Syntax Highlighting does not work

I've installed a fresh Arch Linux system on my laptop and downloaded the vim package. I haven't altered the .vimrc file, but the syntax highlighting doesn't seem to work with any of the languages I tried (Python, Ruby, CSharp, C...). …

Read More