Vim-latex not starting automatically for .tex files

Question

I have Vim on Ubuntu 18.04 and I am trying to use the vim-latex package. By typing :set rtp? on Vim I get the following output:

runtimepath=~/.vim,~/.vim/pack/bundle/start/vim-latex-1.10.0,/var/lib/vim/addons,/usr/share/vim/vimfiles,/usr/share/vim/vim80,/usr/share/vim/vimfiles/after,/var/lib/vim/addons/after,~/.vim/after

From that, it seems to me that the vim-latex package is indeed installed. However, I haven't been able to make the package start automatically once I open a latex file on vim. I am assuming (maybe incorrectly, so I would thank any corrections to my thinking) that this is happening because I haven't completed step 2 of the vim-latex installation as in their Installation Instructions page, which includes adding filetype plugin on to my ~/.vimrc.

By typing :version on Vim, I get the following output:

system vimrc file: "$VIM/vimrc"
user vimrc file: "$HOME/.vimrc"
2nd user vimrc file: "~/.vim/vimrc"

Inspecting my system, I couldn't find $HOME/.vimrc, so I created one. I could find ~/.vim/vimrc, but my system did not let me make changes to it. Nevertheless, when I start a .tex file on Vim I believe it still does not start the package as I don't see anything similar to what is describe in this tutorial.

Some further details: By running :filetype I get filetype detection:ON plugin:ON indent:ON. I was getting indent:OFF before adding the line for indetation in my $HOME/.vimrc, so I believe it is getting the right file.

By running :verbose set ft? I get:

filetype=plaintex
Defined last time in /usr/share/vim/vim80/autoload/dist/ft.vim

By running scriptnames I get:

1: /usr/share/vim/vimrc
2: /usr/share/vim/vim80/debian.vim
3: /usr/share/vim/vim80/syntax/syntax.vim
4: /usr/share/vim/vim80/syntax/synload.vim
5: /usr/share/vim/vim80/syntax/syncolor.vim
6: /usr/share/vim/vim80/filetype.vim
7: ~/.vimrc
8: /usr/share/vim/vim80/ftplugin.vim
9: /usr/share/vim/vim80/indent.vim
10: /usr/share/vim/vim80/plugin/getscriptPlugin.vim
11: /usr/share/vim/vim80/plugin/gzip.vim
12: /usr/share/vim/vim80/plugin/logiPat.vim
13: /usr/share/vim/vim80/plugin/manpager.vim
14: /usr/share/vim/vim80/plugin/matchparen.vim
15: /usr/share/vim/vim80/plugin/netrwPlugin.vim
16: /usr/share/vim/vim80/plugin/rrhelper.vim
17: /usr/share/vim/vim80/plugin/spellfile.vim
18: /usr/share/vim/vim80/plugin/tarPlugin.vim
19: /usr/share/vim/vim80/plugin/tohtml.vim
20: /usr/share/vim/vim80/plugin/vimballPlugin.vim
21: /usr/share/vim/vim80/plugin/zipPlugin.vim
22: ~/.vim/pack/bundle/start/vim-latex-1.10.0/plugin/SyntaxFolds.vim
23: ~/.vim/pack/bundle/start/vim-latex-1.10.0/plugin/filebrowser.vim
24: ~/.vim/pack/bundle/start/vim-latex-1.10.0/plugin/imaps.vim
25: ~/.vim/pack/bundle/start/vim-latex-1.10.0/plugin/remoteOpen.vim
26: /usr/share/vim/vim80/autoload/dist/ft.vim
27: /usr/share/vim/vim80/syntax/plaintex.vim
28: /usr/share/vim/vim80/syntax/initex.vim
29: /usr/share/vim/vim80/ftplugin/plaintex.vim
30: /usr/share/vim/vim80/ftplugin/initex.vim

I will be very grateful to anyone that can help me figure out what's happening. I would like to apologize in advance if I did not provide all the details needed (I am new to Vim). Let me know if you need more information. Thanks!

OBS: Following this I have added the tree path of my vim-latex installation if it helps:

~/.vim$ tree -L 5
.  
├── pack  
│   └── bundle  
│       └── start  
│           └── vim-latex-1.10.0  
│               ├── compiler  
│               ├── doc  
│               ├── ftplugin  
│               ├── indent  
│               ├── latextags  
│               ├── ltags  
│               ├── Makefile  
│               ├── Makefile.in  
│               ├── plugin  
│               ├── README.md  
│               └── vim-latex.metainfo.xml  
├── tags  
└── tags-te  

Answer 1

The problem you're having is that your file is being recognized as filetype=plaintex, which means TeX (or '"plain" TeX) and not LaTeX, and the latex-suite plug-ins only enable most of their commands on LaTeX files. LaTeX files are identified by filetype=tex (which can indeed seem quite confusing.)

Since files with the extension *.tex can be TeX or LaTeX (or even the perhaps lesser known ConTeXt), Vim will try to "guess" which is right for a specific file, usually based on the file's contents.

The code implementing this auto-detection can be found in dist#ft#FTtex and it will detect a *.tex file as LaTeX if:

• Its first line is a comment of the form %&LaTeX.
• It can find one of \documentclass, \usepackage, \begin{, \newcommand or `\renewcommand' in the first 1000 lines of the file.
• Otherwise, if the global variable g:tex_flavor is set to 'latex'.

My recommendation is that, if you plan to use LaTeX exclusively or almost exclusively, then setting the g:tex_flavor variable in your vimrc is the best approach. That will also help ensure that new *.tex files you create will already be recognized as LaTeX files, before they have any content that triggers the auto-detection.

Add the following line to your vimrc:

let g:tex_flavor = 'latex'

See also :help ft-latex-plugin.

Answer 2

I had the same problem. I solved it by using a (different) plugin to get that functionality, https://github.com/andymass/vim-matchup.