How do I enable matchit so % jumps between if/else/end style pairs?

Explanation

The default % motion is great for simple delimiters, but many code structures use semantic pairs like if/else/endif, try/catch, or HTML tags. Vim ships with the matchit plugin, which extends % to understand these richer pairs. Loading it on demand is an efficient intermediate trick when you want smarter structural navigation without committing to a full plugin manager setup.

How it works

• :packadd loads an optional package from Vim's runtime packages
• matchit is the built-in package name
• after loading, % can jump across language-aware match groups instead of only single-character delimiters

This keeps your movement commands native and fast while dramatically improving navigation in template-heavy or block-heavy files.

Example

Given:

if condition
  echo 'a'
else
  echo 'b'
endif

With cursor on if, press % after :packadd matchit and Vim can jump to else or endif depending on context.

Another common case is HTML/XML, where % can jump between opening and closing tags once matchit is active.

Tips

• Put packadd matchit in your config if you want this behavior always enabled.
• If % behavior seems unchanged, confirm filetype detection is active because many match rules are filetype-aware.