Turning on syntax highlighting in vim causes warning message

Question

I'm wanting to turn on syntax highlighting in vim using the .exrc file and using the following commands:

syntax on
syntax=html

Every time I open a file I get the following message now:

No Syntax items defined for this buffer

I'm using VIM version 7.3 on OS X 10.10.4

Answer 1

Use the following in your ~/.vimrc file:

filetype plugin indent on
syntax on

For more information see:

:h :filetype
:h :syntax
:h filetype