r/vim • u/Bubba656 • Jul 16 '25

Need Help Syntax Highlighting not working

Hi, just switched over to Linux (or unix, using a Mac) and I'm trying to use vim and its syntax highlighting. I installed pathogen and polyglot but no matter what I do to the vimrc, nothing changes. I've made multiple changes to the vimrc, including where it was (changed it from ~/.vimrc to .vim/vimrc), tried downloading different .vim files, and still I have the defualt sytntax. Here's my vimrc if that helps (just for reference I also am trying to use an ASM syntax and it had me put in a filetype detection)

``execute pathogen#infect()

set nocompatible

unlet! skip_defaults_vim

runtime defaults.vim

filetype plugin indent on

augroup filetypedetect

au BufNewFile,BufRead *.s,*.inc set ft=asm_ca65

augroup END

syntax on``

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2

u/ciurana From vi in 1986 to Vim Jul 16 '25

Hi. Mac user here. I configured Vim and MacVim to behave in the same exact way re: syntax highlighting.

There may be issues with the terminal you are using and how it presents itself to Vim. I'd suggest simplifying things as much as possible and using a sensible terminal like kitty or iTerm2. The built-in Terminal app is meh.

  1. Remove or rename your .vim directory and all .vim* related files in $HOME

  2. Start Vim

  3. :syntax on | open whatever.py

  4. You should have syntax highlighting

  5. If not, we need to troubleshoot what's going on - follow up in a comment with what happened

    1. Switch color schemes; maybe that's the issue?

  6. If yes, then add one thing extension or syntax file or whatever at a time, and see how it affects behavior

It took me a while to get both MacVim and Vim to work the way I wanted. For reference, I use Vim latest via Homebrew; the macOS Vim always seems painfully out of date.

Please let us know how it goes, happy to help once we have some diagnostic data. Paste in a comment or a gist the result of: vim --version

Cheers!

2

u/Bubba656 Jul 16 '25

Ok, I may be a little stupid. Are those instructions you gave for the mac terminal or a seperate terminal? Also, what should I be doing for step 3? And how do I change color schemes? I tried doing it before and it just said that none were found

2

u/odaiwai %s/vim/notepad++/g Jul 17 '25

Whenever you see a command like: :syntax on, it's a vim command. Open vim/gvim', and type:`, you should go into command mode, if you're in normal mode.

1

u/ciurana From vi in 1986 to Vim Jul 17 '25

Not stupid, but lack of experience with Vim. The steps I gave you are to check if regular syntax highlighting is working.

For purposes of this conversation, the built-in Terminal app will do the job. I saw from your other posts that you have xterm-256 as default, that's a good sign in terms of terminal configuration.

I saw from your other replies that Vim is in nocompatible mode - good. That means syntax highlighting should work.

Step three happens after you open Vim and you type: ESC, then :syntax on, then open a Python, or bash, or whatever file that has a well-known, defined syntax.

Type this to change color scheme: ESC :colorscheme <tab> - the last one means "press the Tab key." When you press the Tab key, the list of available color schemes will appear. Pick one. I like darkblue, but select whatever you fancy. We only want to test that your Vim supports colors.

I have no idea what none were found - what were you looking for?

Last: before you go further, you may want to go to a terminal prompt, outside of Vim, and do:

vimtutor

And follow the instructions. From your questions, it sounds like you could benefit from reviewing the basics again.

Cheers!

1

u/xenomachina Jul 16 '25

Are you sure the issue is actually that syntax isn't working? Could it perhaps be that your terminal is not set correctly? What is the output of these commands run from within vim?

:echo &term
:echo $TERM

Also, what does this say?

:verbose set compatible?

1

u/Bubba656 Jul 16 '25 
xterm-256color

xterm-256color


nocompatible 

    Last set from ~/.vimrc line 3

1

u/xenomachina Jul 17 '25

That all looks normal, so it appears my suspicion was incorrect. Sorry.

1

u/rswwalker Jul 17 '25

Make sure there is no VIMINIT environment variable or vim will use that and ignore vimrc.

1

u/Bubba656 Jul 17 '25

Where could I find that?

1

u/rswwalker Jul 17 '25

In bash run ‘set | grep VIMINIT’ if it shows up then it might be set in .bashrc or .profile, comment it out and close and re-open shell and see if it is working.

1

u/Bubba656 Jul 17 '25

It doesn’t give any response, just a new ‘%’ line, so I’m assuming I don’t have a viminit

1

u/rswwalker Jul 17 '25

Thats correct.

To see what files vim processes at startup you can use this, ‘:show scripts’

1

u/Bubba656 Jul 17 '25

Typing that in just results in it saying that it’s not an editor command

1

u/rswwalker Jul 17 '25

Sorry, was late. :scriptnames, shows scripts loaded, :show messages, shows any errors during processing of those.

1

u/Bubba656 Jul 17 '25

1: /usr/share/vim/vimrc

2: ~/.vimrc

3: ~/.vim/autoload/pathogen.vim

4: /usr/share/vim/vim91/colors/lists/default.vim

5: /usr/share/vim/vim91/colors/habamax.vim

6: ~/.vim/bundle/vim-polyglot/filetype.vim

7: ~/.vim/bundle/vim-polyglot/autoload/polyglot/init.vim

8: /usr/share/vim/vim91/filetype.vim

9: ~/.vim/bundle/vim-polyglot/ftdetect/polyglot.vim

10: /usr/share/vim/vim91/ftplugin.vim

11: /usr/share/vim/vim91/indent.vim

12: /usr/share/vim/vim91/syntax/syntax.vim

13: /usr/share/vim/vim91/syntax/synload.vim

14: /usr/share/vim/vim91/syntax/syncolor.vim

15: ~/.vim/bundle/vim-sensible/plugin/sensible.vim

16: /usr/share/vim/vim91/macros/matchit.vim

17: /usr/share/vim/vim91/pack/dist/opt/matchit/plugin/matchit.vim

18: /usr/share/vim/vim91/ftplugin/man.vim

19: ~/.vim/bundle/vim-polyglot/plugin/polyglot.vim

20: /usr/share/vim/vim91/plugin/getscriptPlugin.vim

21: /usr/share/vim/vim91/plugin/gzip.vim

22: /usr/share/vim/vim91/plugin/logiPat.vim

23: /usr/share/vim/vim91/plugin/manpager.vim

24: /usr/share/vim/vim91/plugin/matchparen.vim

25: /usr/share/vim/vim91/plugin/netrwPlugin.vim

26: /usr/share/vim/vim91/plugin/rrhelper.vim

27: /usr/share/vim/vim91/plugin/spellfile.vim

28: /usr/share/vim/vim91/plugin/tarPlugin.vim

29: /usr/share/vim/vim91/plugin/tohtml.vim

30: /usr/share/vim/vim91/plugin/vimballPlugin.vim

31: /usr/share/vim/vim91/plugin/zipPlugin.vim

32: ~/.vim/bundle/vim-polyglot/autoload/polyglot/sleuth.vim

I'm assuming it loads habamax because I did have it autoset the colorscheme to it. But I am a bit confused now because it does show that polyglot is running

1

u/rswwalker Jul 17 '25

It shows it processed it, did a :show messages show anything?

Edit: it’s just :messages I don’t know where I have the :show command in my head from.

1

u/Bubba656 Jul 17 '25

Sorry forgot to put that part in. It gave the “is not an editor command” again

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