Enable Vim Syntax Highlighting By Default
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? 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