diff --git a/editors/vim/files/vimrc b/editors/vim/files/vimrc
index 6faf60ca412d..cc200a086c9d 100644
--- a/editors/vim/files/vimrc
+++ b/editors/vim/files/vimrc
@@ -1,39 +1,45 @@
+" FreeBSD provides this file for three reasons:
+"   1. Some of the default settings are not great (e.g. backspace)
+"   2. FreeBSD requires some special handling (e.g. g:is_posix)
+"   3. vim-tiny doesn't ship with $VIMRUNTIME/defaults.vim, so any
+"      settings that vim-tiny gets must appear in this file
+
 " defaults.vim will override this file. Sourcing it here and
 " setting the skip flag prevents clobbering settings
 source $VIMRUNTIME/defaults.vim
 let skip_defaults_vim = 1
 
 set nocompatible      " Enable Vim mode (instead of vi emulation)
 
 let g:is_posix = 1    " Our /bin/sh is POSIX, not bash
 set autoindent        " Intelligent indentation matching
 set autoread          " Update the file if it's changed externally
 set backspace=indent,eol,start  " Allow backspacing over anything
 set belloff=all       " Turn off bells
 set display=truncate  " Show '@@@' when the last screen line overflows
 set formatoptions+=j  " Delete comment char when joining lines
 set history=100       " Undo up to this many commands
 set hlsearch          " Highlight search results
 set incsearch         " Highlight search matches as you type them
 set ruler             " Show cursor position
 set ttyfast           " Redraw faster for smoother scrolling
 set wildmenu          " Show menu for tab completion in command mode
 
-try                   
+try
     syntax on         " Enable syntax highlighting
 catch | endtry        " vim-tiny is installed without the syntax files
 
 if v:lang =~ "utf8$" || v:lang =~ "UTF-8$"
     set fileencodings=ucs-bom,utf-8,latin1
 endif
 
 " CTRL-L will mute highlighted search results
 nnoremap <silent> <C-l> :<C-u>nohlsearch<CR><C-l>
 
 augroup FreeBSD
     autocmd!
     autocmd BufNewFile /usr/ports/*/*/Makefile 0r /usr/ports/Templates/Makefile
     if !empty($PORTSDIR)
         autocmd BufNewFile $PORTSDIR/*/*/Makefile 0r $PORTSDIR/Templates/Makefile
     endif
 augroup END