Is the ~/.vim directory used for anything other than plugins?

Question

What is the ~/.vim file used for, if anything, other than plugins? Is it part of Vim, or was it "invented" by plugin managers like Vundle?

Answer 1

I don't have conclusive evidence, but:

• .vim is one of the default values of 'runtimepath':

                                  'runtimepath' 'rtp' vimfiles
  'runtimepath' 'rtp'     string  (default:
                                          Unix: "$HOME/.vim,
                                                  $VIM/vimfiles,
                                                  $VIMRUNTIME,
                                                  $VIM/vimfiles/after,
                                                  $HOME/.vim/after"
  ...
      This is a list of directories which will be searched for runtime
      files:
        filetype.vim  filetypes by file name new-filetype
        scripts.vim   filetypes by file contents new-filetype-scripts
        autoload/     automatically loaded scripts autoload-functions
        colors/       color scheme files :colorscheme
        compiler/     compiler files :compiler
        doc/          documentation write-local-help
        ftplugin/     filetype plugins write-filetype-plugin
        indent/       indent scripts indent-expression
        keymap/       key mapping files mbyte-keymap
        lang/         menu translations :menutrans
        menu.vim      GUI menus menu.vim
        plugin/       plugin scripts write-plugin
        print/        files for printing postscript-print-encoding
        spell/        spell checking files spell
        syntax/       syntax files mysyntaxfile
        tutor/        files for vimtutor tutor
  

• I think Pathogen was one of the first plugins to allow you to easily install plugins in other directories

• Even its first release used ~/.vim:

  " pathogen.vim - path option manipulation
  " Maintainer:   Tim Pope
  " Last Change:  Apr 26, 2008
  
  " Install in ~/.vim/autoload (or ~\vimfiles\autoload).
  "
  " API is documented below.
  
  if exists("g:loaded_pathogen") || &cp
    finish
  

• runtimepath support was introduced in, or before, 2008. From version6.txt:

  *version6.txt*  For Vim version 7.3.  Last change: 2008 Aug 06
  
  ...
  
  Plugin support                  *new-plugins*
  
  To make it really easy to load a Vim script when starting Vim, the "plugin"
  runtime directory can be used.  All "*.vim" files in it will be automatically
  loaded.  For Unix, the directory "~/.vim/plugin" is used by default.  The
  'runtimepath' option can be set to look in other directories for plugins.
  |load-plugins| |add-plugin|
  
  The |:runtime| command has been added to load one or more files in
  'runtimepath'.
  

• Vim 6.2 makes use of runtimepath, adding support for the ftplugin directory. See patch 6.2.073:

  *** ../vim-6.2.072/runtime/doc/filetype.txt Sun Jun  1 12:20:32 2003
  --- runtime/doc/filetype.txt    Thu Aug 14 11:22:30 2003
  ***************
  *** 1,4 ****
  ! *filetype.txt*  For Vim version 6.2.  Last change: 2003 Apr 25
  
  
            VIM REFERENCE MANUAL    by Bram Moolenaar
  --- 1,4 ----
  ! *filetype.txt*  For Vim version 6.2.  Last change: 2003 Aug 14
  
  
            VIM REFERENCE MANUAL    by Bram Moolenaar
  ***************
  *** 147,157 ****
    This means that the contents of compressed files are not inspected.
  
                              *new-filetype*
  ! If a file type that you want to use is not detected yet, there are two ways to
  ! add it.  In any way, it's better not modify the $VIMRUNTIME/filetype.vim file.
  ! It will be overwritten when installing a new version of Vim.
  
  ! A. If your file type can be detected by the file name.
       1. Create your user runtime directory.  You would normally use the first
          item of the 'runtimepath' option.  Example for Unix: >
      :!mkdir ~/.vim
  

So, runtimepath has been in use since at least 2003, well before Pathogen was released. We can safely conclude its invention predated Vundle and similar plugins. (Though it could have been invented by someone who wanted to make using plugins easier.) And its use was definitely making user-level extensions to functionality easier, by allowing one to drop files in various directories to easily affect Vim behaviour.

Answer 2

It's an optional part of Vim proper and predated the plugin managers. It can be used for plugins you write yourself, for plugins you get from others, and to augment or replace Vim's standard plugins. I didn't find a primary place in the documentation where its use is discussed, but you can find a number of examples by executing

:helpgrep /\.vim\>

It can also be used for your own filetype.vim file to add the recognition of filetypes or filename suffixes not recognized by Vim's $VIMRUNTIME/filetype.vim. Recent versions of Vim also look there for a file named vimrc if ~/.vimrc does not exist, allowing you to keep all your Vim configuration files in that directory.