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Vim is syntax highlighting my file in a funny way, and I want to know what syntax file is responsible for this behaviour. How do I find out what syntax files vim has loaded?

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4 Answers 4

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67

To find out which files Vim has actually loaded, execute

:scriptnames
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  • That's useful. Now, here is something I'm not sure about: if a syntax file shows up in this list, is it guaranteed that the syntax file is "active"? I can see quite a few syntax files here.
    – Edward Z. Yang
    Dec 10, 2013 at 10:04
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    Generally, only the last one listed is "active", and even it may not be if you've turned syntax highlighting off. To see the syntax currently in effect, execute :echo b:current_syntax. To see the syntax items currently in effect, do as Ingo suggested and execute :syntax list. The latter may help if syntax items from more than one syntax file are in effect, as Ingo noted.
    – garyjohn
    Dec 10, 2013 at 15:07
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    On Mac OS X I modified the /usr/share/vim/vim73/filetype.vim. After using the above command I realized it was using MacVim's version at ~/Applications/MacVim.app/Contents/Resources/vim/runtime/filetype.vim. If you have MacVim installed, make sure you modify the correct file.
    – echamber
    Jan 18, 2015 at 19:26
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    You may have two syntax files loaded that have the same name. For example, vim ships with syntax highlighting for ColdFusion, (/usr/share/vim/vim81/syntax/cf.vim for me). I installed a custom cf.vim because the standard one is dated. :scriptnames shows both files. The default is lower on the script list; however, the former is being used. If you look at /usr/share/vim/vim81/syntax/cf.vim, there's a guard if exists("b:current_syntax") finish endif. So, in my case, the scriptnames was helpful, but I had to dig a bit deeper.
    – benbotto
    Jun 5, 2018 at 16:38
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The syntax for the current buffer can be queried via

:setlocal syntax?

It usually (but not necessarily) corresponds to the buffer's filetype (:setlocal filetype?).

For a deeper look,

:syntax list

shows all syntax definitions (some syntaxes (can) include other language's syntaxes, e.g. java has html for the JavaDoc comment markup).

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    This is what I came looking for based on the title of OP's question. OP of course clarifies in the description he's looking for the actual syntax file, but I appreciate you leaving this here since it's one of the first answers in search engines.
    – verboze
    May 6, 2019 at 15:44
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You can view what filetype(s) are currently used and by

:verbose set ft ?

The plugin handling the filetype is most likely located at 

:e $VIMRUNTIME\ftplugin
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I guess you would like to know exactly which highlighting color scheme(syntax) is currently being used for the file opened, here is what I do:

as @garyjohn mentioned

:scriptnames

But this will show you a complete list of settings currently loaded.

  1: /usr/share/vim/vimrc
  2: ~/.vimrc
  3: /usr/share/vim/vim81/syntax/syntax.vim
  4: /usr/share/vim/vim81/syntax/synload.vim
  5: /usr/share/vim/vim81/syntax/syncolor.vim
  6: /usr/share/vim/vim81/filetype.vim
  7: /usr/share/vim/vim81/plugin/getscriptPlugin.vim
  8: /usr/share/vim/vim81/plugin/gzip.vim
  9: /usr/share/vim/vim81/plugin/logiPat.vim
 10: /usr/share/vim/vim81/plugin/manpager.vim
 11: /usr/share/vim/vim81/plugin/matchparen.vim
 12: /usr/share/vim/vim81/plugin/netrwPlugin.vim
 13: /usr/share/vim/vim81/plugin/rrhelper.vim
 14: /usr/share/vim/vim81/plugin/spellfile.vim
 15: /usr/share/vim/vim81/plugin/tarPlugin.vim
 16: /usr/share/vim/vim81/plugin/tohtml.vim
 17: /usr/share/vim/vim81/plugin/vimballPlugin.vim
 18: /usr/share/vim/vim81/plugin/zipPlugin.vim
 19: ~/.vim/syntax/applescript.vim

Then which exactly is the one doing coloring? => the last one always the decision maker(e.g.):

~/.vim/syntax/applescript.vim

In my case, I want to test last downloaded syntax of applescript.vim if working.

On the other side, please be reminded that vim syntax is filetype/extension-based, so check exactly the file definition at /usr/share/vim/vim81/filetype.vim, there you can easily find out AppleScript has its unique extension defined as .scpt (as standard) .

Hope this helps also.

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