pathogen is not executed when I am starting vim on ubuntu 12.10

Question

I am new to VIM. I tried to install pathogen.vim plugin. I will describe the folder structure.

--- /etc/vim
            -vimrc
            -vimrc.tiny
            -autoload
              -pathogen.vim
            -bundle

I have not added anything in the bundle yet.

In the vimrc file I have added few lines

call pathogen#infect()
syntax on
filetype plugin indent on

But it was throwing the error whenever I was starting vim from my terminal.

ERROR -

Error detected while processing /usr/share/vim/vimrc:
line   57:
E117: Unknown function: pathogen#infect
Press ENTER or type command to continue

I then tried adding

runtime /etc/vim/autoload/pathogen.vim

on top of the calling the pathogen infect function, but nothing is happening. And in the error the path shown is /usr/share/vim/vimrc, may be because etc/vim/vimrc is the symlink. I am not sure, I am new to it.

Answer 1

No. Don't touch system files, ever.

Whatever you have done in /etc must be done in /home/username:

/home/username/.vim   <-- the directory where you put your plugins
                          and colorschemes and stuff

/home/username/.vimrc <-- the file where you put your settings

The pathogen plugin should be there:

/home/username/.vim/autoload/pathogen.vim

The bundle directory should be there:

/home/username/.vim/bundle

The three lines should be in this file:

/home/username/.vimrc