Why does Pathogen "magically" solve Vim syntax highlighting problems?

Question

I have these 3 lines in my .vimrc.

" keeping pathogen only for its 'syntax on' bug workaround
Bundle "tpope/vim-pathogen"
execute pathogen#infect()

I must have removed and re-added these 3 lines about a dozen of times now. I'm on latest version of Vim, and yet, for some reasons, some syntax highlighting isn't working correctly.

On MacOS, Go syntax highlighting isn't working, while on Arch Linux is. But on Arch, coffeescript isn't highlighted. For some reason, executing pathogen#infect() solves all problems on both platforms.

Its kind of like black magic to me, so I'm wondering why is that. Is there any better way to fix this problem?

Answer: I have looked into my vimrc, and found the error. I had this line

filetype plugin indent on

before the Bundle's, where it should have been after the Bundles.

Where are the syntax files for these (under what directories)? — Ben Klein, Oct 11 '13 at 05:41
I use Vundler to install them. eg: Bundle "kchmck/vim-coffee-script". So files are then in ~/.vim/bundle/vim-coffee-script/ (ftplugin, syntax, etc...) — if __name__ is None, Oct 11 '13 at 05:45
Check the `:scriptnames` output when it is working and when it is not working. I suspect some syntax file isn't loaded, when it isn't working — Christian Brabandt, Oct 11 '13 at 05:45
Thanks. In both cases syntax file is loaded, but without pathogen#infect() the filetype isn't being recognized. There seems to be no load of /ftdetect folder of plugin, when pathogen isn't started. — if __name__ is None, Oct 11 '13 at 05:52
Those three lines are not a solution: the problem is either in your plugin manager ("Vundle", not "Vundler") or in your syntax script. Please show us the rest of your `~/.vimrc`. — romainl, Oct 11 '13 at 07:25

Xavier T. · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-11T12:44:00.087

3

By default, Vim does not look in .vim/bundle directories when starting. So it means that your "ftdetect" won't be loaded.

Pathogen looks into every bundle directory and load them.

If you want to see for yourself, start Vim twice, once with and once without pathogen:infect(), and type :scriptnames after boot. You'll see the list of loaded scripts.

You can even do a :redir to write the output into a file before invoking :scriptnames to get the exact diff of loaded scripts.

edited Oct 11 '13 at 12:44

answered Oct 11 '13 at 09:08

Xavier T.

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If he is using Vundle and it doesn't support ftdetect then he must either find another plugin manager or submit an issue to its author. – romainl Oct 11 '13 at 09:14

Why does Pathogen "magically" solve Vim syntax highlighting problems?

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