currently there are a few paths where .vimrc files are being searched. (as can be seen in :scriptnames command).
How do I add another path?
You're mistaken. :scriptnames tells you which scripts were loaded. It will be:
.vimrc,
possibly .gvimrc,
plus all plugins in 'runtimepath',
plus all ftplugins, syntax files and indent files in runtimepath that apply for all the buffers you have edited,
plus the autoload plugins loaded by the previous files,
plus the files you've sourced manually.
If you want to change the places where to search for your .vimrc, it will be more complex as vim has a very specific heuristic to search for a .vimrc. See :h startup.
Any way. If you really want to add a path where the .vimrc file will be searched, it's not possible unless you define an alias to vim that use the -u flags.
If you want to add other paths where to look for plugins, you'll have to set the 'runtimepath' option in your .vimrc. For instance, :set rtp+=~/.vim/addon/foobar will have all plugins named $HOME/.vim/addon/foo/plugin/*.vim and $HOME/.vim/addon/foo/after/plugin/*.vim loaded automatically, plus the ftplugin/syntax file/indent files loaded automatically as well if you enable them, and when you enter a buffer related to them.
The 'runtimepath' option specifies the locations of the Vim configuration subdirectories (i.e. directories containing autoload/, plugin/, syntax/, etc.) The Pathogen plugin made it popular to extend this so that each plugin is installed into a separate such subdirectory, and other plugin managers (like Vundle) do that as well.
Now, there's only one .vimrc (and you can change its location via the -u command-line argument), but nothing prevents you from using :source path/to/another/script.vim to load other Vim scripts during startup.
TL;DR
To execute a separate Vimscript file during startup, just :source it from your ~/.vimrc. If you have a plugin(s) that you want to install in a separate location, use :set runtimepath+=path/to/pluginroot in your ~/.vimrc, or just use Pathogen or another plugin manager.
I was trying to generate the ctags from vim. I use Exuberant ctags.
So the problem is that when I do :!ctags or :call system('ctags') from vim it does not work because it uses my default ctags and not the exuberant ctags.
I had similar problem in my shell which I overcame by specifying the path of exuberant first
like export PATH=/usr/bin/local/:$PATH
So here is the really weird part
When I do echo $PATH in vim it shows the correct path. But When I do :call system('which ctags')
it shows me /usr/bin/ctags and not /usr/bin/local/ctags.
I can't understand what is going on??
Though I can overcome this problem by call system('/usr/bin/local/ctags') but I was just wondering if there is something better out there.
EDIT:
I use OSX 10.9.3
:set shell? -> shell=/bin/zsh
set shellcmdflag -> shellcmdflag=-c
and I set my path in zshrc file as export PATH="/usr/local/bin:usr/local:$PATH
When you do :!command or :call system('command') Vim starts a new subshell according to the values of 'shell' and a bunch of other options listed under :help 'shell'. The 'shellcmdflag' option is important because it usually tells your shell how to start (interactive or not, login or not) which usually has an impact on what *rc files are sourced and thus if your environment variables are seen or not.
Please, update your question with these informations:
your OS
:set shell?
:set shellcmdflag?
in what *rc file did you change your PATH?
I'm on a system (linux) that always recognizes cpp files (*.cc) as tcl files. I don't know what file type that is, but I wanted to override it. The correct syntax highlighting is chosen if I manually do :set ft=cpp. However, I'm having troubles setting that automatically and I don't want to use the modeline option. My own .vimrc doesn't interfere (same result if I rename it).
From the vim help (:help ftplugin-override)
*ftplugin-overrule*
If a global filetype plugin does not do exactly what you want, there are three
ways to change this:
1. Add a few settings.
You must create a new filetype plugin in a directory early in
'runtimepath'. For Unix, for example you could use this file:
vim ~/.vim/ftplugin/fortran.vim
You can set those settings and mappings that you would like to add. Note
that the global plugin will be loaded after this, it may overrule the
settings that you do here. If this is the case, you need to use one of the
following two methods.
I have used this option before on another machine and that worked. I've tried
<file> .vim/ftplugin/tcl.vim
set filetype=cpp
"au BufRead,BufNewFile * set filetype=cpp
The first line correctly sets the filetype (:set ft? returns cpp), but syntax highlighting is not the same as if I said :set ft=cpp. It's still the tcl syntax highlighting. The second line does nothing.
2. Make a copy of the plugin and change it.
You must put the copy in a directory early in 'runtimepath'. For Unix, for
example, you could do this:
cp $VIMRUNTIME/ftplugin/fortran.vim ~/.vim/ftplugin/fortran.vim
Then you can edit the copied file to your liking. Since the b:did_ftplugin
variable will be set, the global plugin will not be loaded.
A disadvantage of this method is that when the distributed plugin gets
improved, you will have to copy and modify it again.
There seems to be no file in my $VIMRUNTIME directory /usr/share/vim/vim72/ftplugin/ called tcl.vim.
3. Overrule the settings after loading the global plugin.
You must create a new filetype plugin in a directory from the end of
'runtimepath'. For Unix, for example, you could use this file:
vim ~/.vim/after/ftplugin/fortran.vim
In this file you can change just those settings that you want to change.
Has the same effect as 1. Is there anything else I can try? Thanks a lot in advance.
cpp is the default filetype for *.cc and *.cpp files.
The tcl filetype is only set for *.tcl, *.tk, *.itcl, *.itk and *.jacl.
I see no reason why Vim would default to tcl when loading a *.cc file but you could check if theses files are installed:
/usr/share/vim/vim7x/ftplugin/cpp.vim
/usr/share/vim/vim7x/indent/cpp.vim
/usr/share/vim/vim7x/syntax/cpp.vim
and if the correct checks are done in:
/usr/shhare/vim/vim7x/filetype.vim
Are you the only person working on this machine? Do you use modelines?
My Vim editor auto highlights PHP files (vim file.php), HTML files (vim file.html) and so on.
But when I type: vim file and inside it write a Bash script, it doesn't highlight it.
How can I tell Vim to highlight it as a Bash script?
I start typing #!/bin/bash at the top of the file, but it doesn't make it work.
Are you correctly giving the shell script a .sh extension? Vim's automatic syntax selection is almost completely based on file name (extension) detection. If a file doesn't have a syntax set (or is the wrong syntax), Vim won't automatically change to the correct syntax just because you started typing a script in a given language.
As a temporary workaround, the command :set syn=sh will turn on shell-script syntax highlighting.
The answers so far are correct that you can use the extension (like .sh) or a shebang line (like #!/bin/bash) to identify the file type. If you don't have one of those, you can still specify the file type manually by using a modeline comment at the top or bottom of your file.
For instance, if you want to identify a script without an extension as a shell script, you could add this comment to the top of your file:
# vim: set filetype=sh :
or
# vim: filetype=sh
That will tell vim to treat the file as a shell script. (You can set other things in the modeline, too. In vim type :help modeline for more info.)
Actually syntax highlighting is a feature of vim not vi.
Try using vim command and then do
:syntax on.
I came to this answer looking for specifically how to highlight bash syntax, not POSIX shell. Simply doing a set ft=sh (or equivalent) will result in the file being highlighted for POSIX shell, which leaves a lot of syntax that's valid in bash highlighted in red. To get bash highlighting:
" Set a variable on the buffer that tells the sh syntax highlighter
" that this is bash:
let b:is_bash = 1
" Set the filetype to sh
set ft=sh
Note that if your ft is already sh, you still need the set command; otherwise the let doesn't take effect immediately.
You can make this a global default by making the variable global, i.e., let g:is_bash = 1.
:help ft-sh-syntax is the manual page I had to find; it explains this, and how to trigger highlighting of other flavors of shell.
Vim can also detect file types by inspecting their contents (like for example if the first line contains a bash shebang), here is a quote from filetype.txt help file:
If your filetype can only be detected by inspecting the contents of the file
Create your user runtime directory. You would normally use the first item of the 'runtimepath' option. Example for Unix:
:!mkdir ~/.vim
Create a vim script file for doing this. Example:
if did_filetype() " filetype already set..
finish " ..don't do these checks
endif
if getline(1) =~ '^#!.*\<mine\>'
setfiletype mine
elseif getline(1) =~? '\<drawing\>'
setfiletype drawing
endif
See $VIMRUNTIME/scripts.vim for more examples.
Write this file as "scripts.vim" in your user runtime directory. For
example, for Unix:
:w ~/.vim/scripts.vim
The detection will work right away, no need to restart Vim.
Your scripts.vim is loaded before the default checks for file types, which
means that your rules override the default rules in
$VIMRUNTIME/scripts.vim.
Vim can detect the file type reading the first line. Add the following line as first line.
#!/bin/sh
For those who have a variant of this question i.e. how to enable syntax highlighting on bash files without .sh extension automatically when opened...
Add filetype on in your .vimrc. This enables file type detection by also considering the file's contents. For example, bash scripts will be set to sh file-type. However, typing the #! won't trigger file type detection on a new file created with vim and you will need to use set ft=sh in that case. For more info, type :h filetype in vim.
As mentioned in the comments, you will need to use this in conjuction with syntax enable to turn on highlighting.
Or you could use :filetype detect.
From the doc:
Use this if you started with an empty file and typed text that makes
it possible to detect the file type. For example, when you entered
this in a shell script: "#!/bin/csh".
Once you add the shebang at the top of the file, save it and reload it (e.g. :w|e) and syntax coloring can kick in.
See also Vim inconsistently syntax highlighting bash files, the accepted answer may help as well.
vim already recognizes many file types by default. Most of them work by file extensions, but in a case like this, vim will also analyze the content of the file to guess the correct type.
vim sets the filetype for specific file names like .bashrc, .tcshrc, etc. automatically. But a file with a .sh extension will be recognized as either csh, ksh or bash script. To determine what kind of script this is exactly, vim reads the first line of the file to look at the #! line.
If the first line contains the word bash, the file is identified as a bash script. Usually you see #!/bin/bash if the script is meant to be executed directly, but for a shell configuration file using a simple # bash would work as well.
If you want to look at the details, this is implemented in $VIMRUNTIME/filetype.vim.
Probably the easiest way to get syntax highlighting on a new file, is to just reload it after writing the shebang line. A simple :w :e will write out the file, reload it, and interprete the shebang line you have just written to provide you with the appropriate syntax highlighting.
If you already know the file-type before opening the script or if you're creating a new script without an extension which is common, you can pass it to vim on the command-line like so:
vim -c 'setfiletype sh' path/to/script
vim -c 'setfiletype python' path/to/script
To toggle syntax highlight on/off while you're inside the editor.
Turn on
:syntax on
Turn off
:syntax off
Run this to always have syntax highlighting on when opening vim.
echo ":syntax on" >> ~/.vimrc
When you create a new file, only the filename detection comes into play; content detection (#!/bin/bash) doesn't apply if you type it after creating a new buffer.
The sensible thing is to just do :set ft=bash the first time around, and the next time you edit it, the #!/bin/bash will set the right filetype automatically.
I have multiple plugins in Vim and some of them modify the default behavior of Vim. For example I use Vimacs plugin, which makes Vim behave like emacs in the insert mode alone. Sometime I want to turn off the Vimacs plugin without moving the vimacs.vim out of the plugins directory. Is there a way to do it?
You can do this if you use a plugin manager like Vundle or Pathogen, which will keep the plugin in its own directory underneath the ~/.vim/bundle/ directory.
In that case, just find out the runtimepath of the vimacs plugin with the following command:
set runtimepath?
Let's say it's ~/.vim/bundle/vimacs.
Then, put this command in your .vimrc:
set runtimepath-=~/.vim/bundle/vimacs
To load vimacs, just comment that line out and relaunch Vim (or source your .vimrc).
See which variable vimacs check on start. On the begin of the script file find something Like if exists('g:vimacs_is_loaded").... Then set this variable in your .vimrc or while start vim with vim --cmd "let g:vimacs_is_loaded = 1".
In case you are using pathogen, this post gives a better answer, in my opinion. Since I have frequent need to disable snippets when using latex, also added this in my ~/.config/ranger/rc.conf:
map bs shell vim --cmd "let g:pathogen_blacklist = [ 'ultisnips', 'vim-snipmate' ]" %f
This way, whenever I want to open a file with snippets disabled, it is easy.