How to ensure a syntax file gets run on startup?

Question

I'm using Vim 7.4. I have the following code in my ~/.vim/after/php.vim file:

" Just a hello message.
echomsg "Hello world!"

" Add heredoc syntax to CSS code in a php file.
syn region  phpHereDoc  matchgroup=Delimiter
  \ start="\(<<<\)\@<=\(\"\=\)\z(\(\I\i*\)\=\(css\)\c\(\i*\)\)\2$"
  \ end="^\z1\(;\=$\)\@="
  \ contained
  \ contains=@htmlCss, phpIdentifierSimply, phpIdentifier, phpIdentifierComplex, phpBackslashSequences, phpMethodsVar, @Spell
  \ keepend extend

If I create a file vim hello.php, how do I make sure that Vim will run this code? I've confirmed that ~/.vim/after is in my runtimepath, but I still am not getting the extra syntax highlighting or the "Hello world" echo message. And if I run the :scriptnames command, the file does not show up on the list. What am I missing?

Answer 1

Placing files in a after/ directory is not enough because Vim won't even try to source a syntax script there on its own. It will only try to source files under after/ftplugin/, after/syntax/, etc.

Since the file in question is a syntax script, it must be placed in a syntax/ or after/syntax/ directory. In this case:

~/.vim/after/syntax/php.vim

Note that syntax scripts won't and shouldn't be "sourced at startup" willy-nilly: they are only sourced when :help 'syntax' is set for a given buffer and thus can only show up in :scriptnames after a number of things happened, like you have started editing a file with the corresponding filetype.

Example:

• $ vim → ~/.vim/after/syntax/php.vim not visible in :scriptnames.
• $ vim a/b/foo.php → ~/.vim/after/syntax/php.vim visible in :scriptnames.
• :e a/b/foo.php → ~/.vim/after/syntax/php.vim visible in :scriptnames.